Ask to Join The Dark Tournament

[Astralkitsune]

Ecarte’s Nightmare​

Ecarte watched everyone else fall asleep. She meditated and opened her senses peering into the threads of the future to see if there was any immediate danger. When she felt nothing direct in the immediate future she opened up her senses to the aura of her surroundings. After she determined that nothing was in the vicinity. Ecarte let her mind and body relax and she drifted off to sleep.



Her dreams shifted back through tangled but intertwined memoires to a time in the past. A twelve year old Selena smiled as she was handed a pokeball. The pokeball was a gift from her ballet instructor Sergei Bootcav. Selena was his favorite pupil, so talented, hard working, and she always had a smile or her face and a laugh to go with it. Selena looked at her ballet instructor, a man she had spent as much time with as any family since she was six. “Go ahead Selena open it.” Selena’s smile grew all the wider as she hit the button on the ball and when the red light cleared a small Ralts was in its place. She laughed and hugged the Ralts, “I am going to call you Ecarte and we are going to be the best of friends.”



The scene flashes forward and an orchestra plays the Rose Adagio. A sixteen year old Selena dances on stage flawlessly in front of a large audience. Adjacent to her, mimicking the girls movements perfectly is a Kirlia with ribbons on her arms. The two pull off the performance in perfect sync and the audience applauds. Selena and Ecarte both bow to the audience and turn and smile at each other.



The dream or memory jumps forward yet again. This time there is a large stadium, again a huge crowd is gathered. An eighteen year old Selena is battling against a Male Trainer and his Blazekin. A Gardevoir young and strong dodges the Blazekin’s fiery kick and retaliates with a psychic attack. The trainer and pokemon never say a word to each other, but yet the battle plays out like a masterfully conducted ballet. Selena and Ecarte defeat the Blazekin making it look easy and the crowd roars in approval.



A different memory now of Ecarte standing defiantly in front of an Alakazam. “You should not use telepathy with your trainer young one. She is not a born psychic and her mind is not built for it.” Ecarte folds her arms, “Selena and I have a special bond and we have been talking now for a couple of years with no problem. She can handle it and your fears are misbegotten and foolish.”

The Alakazam just sighs and shakes its head. “Mark my words child, you will bring great suffering upon your trainer.” Ecarte rolled her eyes, “don’t call me a child you old goat.”


Once again a shift in landscape. Selena is in bed weary, but she is smiling. Ecarte is on the left side of the bed holding her hand. A handsome young mustached gentleman is on the right side of her bed looking down. He is smiling but also hiding some pain as he rubs his hand. A doctor walks in carrying an infant that he proudly hands to Selena. “Your name is Wilamina.” The baby coos and both her and Ecarte look toward the proud father. Selena turns back to her new daughter, “I will always take care of you.”


One more time the threads of memory twine together spinning into a new scene. The dancing duo is facing off against, a blonde haired man wearing dark clothing concealing his features. In front of the man floats a nasty looking Gengar. A fight take place and the Genagar hits Ecarte with a powerful Hex. Both pokemon and trainer collapse at the same time. The man arriveson the scene and picks up Selena. He cries and talks to her trying desperately to wake her, but to no avail. Ecarte slowly comes around and becomes confused rushing over to Selena and the man, “Garde, Garde, Garde!!” The man carries Selena back to the mansion in the background with Ecarte at his heels fretting about the body. An older servant looks to one of the maids, “Will someone contain her she is upsetting ze master.” The maid runs and grabs a pokeball with an engraved rose on it from Selena’s belt, a red light shines and the dream scene fades out.


A red light shines once again and Ecarte is out standing in a field. She looks around panicking and finally sees, Mina. She feels great joy that at least Mina is ok, and then a Blonde headed shadowed man appears behind Mina. Ecarte cries out and runs forward but the air itself thickens around her holding her back. For each step she takes Mina and the man get farther away. She watches in horror as the man lifts a kunai and stabs it into Mina’s back. Blood soaks the girls formal dress as she collapses in the mans arms. A Gengar steps in front of the pair and laughs.


“Gardeee!” Ecarte flails and wakes up. Several small rocks levitate off the ground as she does and dance around before falling back to the floor with a clatter. The pokemon looks toward Mina to make sure she is safe.

 

[Astralkitsune]

Megan’s Nightmare​

Megan had a very exhausting day. With nearly getting eaten several times, and then cleaning cooking and helping set up camp the poor girl fell almost instantly asleep when she laid down.


Megan was in high-school again sitting in a classroom. It was Shogn High-school in Cerulean city and it was her 17th birthday today. All of her friends were around and it was her Kalosian language class. Next period she had math, although her friends had said that Mr. Heartnet was out sick. The substitute was a Mr. Saotome, or was it Mrs. She had heard different rumors. Either way she hated math and didn’t really care.


As Megan was idly day dreaming about how nice the day was outside and how she would rather be anywhere but here. She looked up and caught the eyes of the most popular boy in school staring at her. He had platinum blonde almost white hair and green eyes, along with bronze skin that gave him a surfer look. Mamoru Chiba was every girls dream date and he was looking right at her. Megan felt her face get flushed and her heart beat faster. Then Mamoru stood up and began walking her way. Megan felt like she was going to have a heart attack, with the main dance of the year just a few weeks away was she really about to be asked out by the ultimate hottie. Then Mamoru walked right past her as if she wasn’t there and went straight up to Yui Kotegawa.


Megan’s head almost hit the desk and she burned with shame. Of course he was going over to Yui what guy wouldn’t. With a head full of long luxurious red hair, breast larger than most of the girls at the school and a top academic performance, Yui was the most sought after girl in school. Even some of the other girls wanted Yui. Megan couldn’t believe she let her hopes get raised like that. Just then Principal Okajima came over the intercom. Attention all students there has been a minor emergency please evac… oh my god what is…….. ahhhhhhh” Silence followed the abrupt silencing of the mic. There was a five second delay where no one moved the ultimate clam before a swirling hurricane. Then everyone in the school panicked at once. Teenagers were stomping on each other trying to get out the door. Some had even broken windows and were leaping outside. Megan rushed over to a window to see what was going on. Monstrous creatures that looked like nightmarish pokemon were swarming the city and killing people all around. The streets where a giant blood bath as panicked civilians were mowed down and eaten in mass. Megan turned around slowly as the room descended into silence. A monstrous venosaur stood on the mutilated bodies of Mamoru and Yui. It let out a mighty roar and razor sharp leaf blades shot towards her slicing her body to bloody ribbons.


Megan woke up screaming and thrashing about. As she finally calmed down, “oh it was just a nightmare.” Then she heard loud splashing coming from the river. Curious at not seeing anyone around and not wanting to be alone, the girl stood up and walked down to the river.

 

[PentheWonderful]

“You know, I have been looking for…” Her eyes observed the faint shifts he makes with his body. The way his muscles strained, flexing and relaxing from just the smallest of of movements. 'Dangerous,' she noted, 'yet ever so fascinating.' Until she shifted her gaze a bit lower, and quirked an eyebrow. 'And he's naked too.'

She almost had to suppress a chuckle.

Whoosh.

Cassie felt her body jerk backwards in time to observe an arrow shoot past before her very eyes. And then an additional two. Within the nanoseconds they were airborne, she managed to observe the crude knots securing the arrowhead to its length, the winding imperfection of the wood, and barely a sprout of feathers at its bottom-lining. Crude. Savage. Rough. She knew who it belonged to.

But before she could even consider turning her head to find her, another distraction had captured her attention. From beneath the water's surface erupted a Feraligatr. Absurdly enormous, perhaps even bigger than the average seven foot behemoth most Croconaw evolved into. And yet, her heart did not so much as stir in the face of such an adversary.

Her eyes watched the water recede from the creature’s scales with a screen of calm and tranquility. Her hand was already moving over to Lady’s pokeball, ready to grab and hurl the metallic object and execute the tens of plans and strategies already forming in her head when the Feraligatr opened his jaws wide.

But then she picked up on the person directly within the line of attack and her pupils dilated.

Her lips parted, as if to exclaim a warning, or perhaps his name. His name… What was his name? ‘Salem.’ Her mind reminded, but at what cost? She’d been flung from her focus back to just… Her. A powerless human in the face of a titan.

That was exactly what she saw when she witnessed Salem's fists uncurl, and the serene looked that graced his face when the jaws came slamming down...

And she could feel his acceptance. But in return, denial filled her chest.

However, just as soon as it’d appeared, another Pokemon was onto it. A green flash, riding speeds rivaling that of the arrows before it. Lin’s Sceptile, holding the deadly water type’s jaws apart to keep them from clamping down. And Salem was safe. And he was still mobile, not a finger missing.

She felt strangely weak in the knees.

Her eyes noticed the new pokeball in his hands, but before she could even attempt to question him, its contents had been released. In response, her hand clamped down on her own pokeball, ready to pull it free from her belt, when the bright beam of light burst to unveil what it’d previously hidden.

Heat. The subtle smell of char and smoke. Her eyes locked onto the blazing colors of autumn burning atop a primate’s head.

Her eyes were wide open, and yet, it felt as if she were falling asleep. Her limbs were heavy, and she swayed, barely able to hold herself up. Colors draining from her face, a ringing taking over her ears, and yet somehow she could hear Salem’s voice saying, “I found your fedora by the way. I kept it safe, don’t worry!”

The smell of the ocean emanating from him did little to hide the aroma of smoke and fire, but it was enough to allow her eyes to find him. And yet they were simply looking through him, at a distant sight. Nothing but terror was reflected in her silver irises, reflecting the warmth of the morning into rays of cold winter fear. Her chest tight, Cassie stumbled backwards. Scrambling. Barely able to remain upright and yet she was still somehow moving.

But not for long.

June's Will-O-Wisp shot over her head, inciting a startled exclaim from Cassie, and slammed violently into the Feraligatr's soaked form and boiled the water clinging to his scales in an instant, effectively burning the behemoth. But also successfully bringing Cassie to her knees. "Arceus!" She gasped, hands pressing against her ears while her body curled into a fetal position. The world disappeared around her, and with it, oxygen.

'I can't breathe... Nine... Nine, where are you?' Her breath hitched when she desperately searched for cadence. Her heart trembled when it needed to beat strong. Nothing was as it should be- why wasn't it as it should be? 'If you were here, I wouldn't be so afraid. If you were here, you could protect me, and I could be brave. How can I be brave for Lady if I can't even be brave for myself? Please... I need you here, but... You're not here...'

Cassie clenched her teeth. She clenched it so hard, she could feel her head trembling. Or was she just trembling in general? Her eyes wide open, and yet her vision was black. That feeling of mortal terror. She hated that she knew it so well. Fear. It was the only emotion she could never successfully sever, and it was times like these when she realized it'd been her fiery prison for a long time.

Times when she was just she.

A scared, defenseless little girl.

 

[Astralkitsune]

Amara’s Nightmare​

Amara faced the Scolipede and ran the numbers again. Ever time she liked the result worse than the last. Then something completely unexpected happened. The pecha berry landed in her lap and Floyd’s Starmie took the signal beam meant for them head on. Amara blinked in surprise but then she didn’t let the opportunity go to waste. “Crystal get behind cover.” She then slid off the back of the Lapras and run/climbed her way back up the ridge. She slid down next to Floyd on the other side and contemplated her situation. “He is not in a state to chew or swallow successfully on his own, only one option.” Amara popped the Pecha berry into her own mouth and began to chew. Then she leaned over and kissed Floyd deeply transferring all of the juice into his mouth and pushing it down his throat. After a moment she leaned back and wiped the juice from her mouth with a black sleeve.


She jumped back up, “the fight must still be going on Crystal may be able to get off a single hyper beam if I hurry. She dashed up to the top of the ridge and discovered that Swift had things well in hand. Amara looked toward Crystal who looked back and then she shrugged and they watched Swift rap up the battle. Amara then pulled Floyd over to the ridge edge and onto Crystal’s back again. She thought further, “We are exhausted and treading through the jungle in this state could be very dangerous. Are odds of not having another wild encounter are only about 33.89% taking the best route. Wiset option is to make camp here although we are to tired to forage for survival needs. If only Crystal could use Ice beam we tried earlier and it didn’t work this frozen area would be a perfect setup. Wait that Starmie knows Ice beam perhaps he will suffice.” Amara looked at Swift, “Can you use your ice beam to make an igloo around us in the center of the frozen area.


Swift nodded and began to create walls, with a carefully controlled use of Icebeam. Amara nodded to the Starmie, “Great job, ok now Crystal just a small hyper beam into the earth in the center of the walls. Crystal nodded and charged a small beam before boring a small pit into the earth almost immediately closing her mouth and cutting off the beam. “Now Swift could you please use scald and fill the pit for warmth. Swift twitched his arms and summoned burning hot water into the pit causing the makeshift room to heat with steam. “Thank you, he is a very lucky trainer to have you.” She leaned over and kissed Swift on the core. Then she slumped against Crystal completely worn out.


As Amara drifted into sleep, she kept looking over at Floyd why did I do such an impractical thing for him. She turned her head slightly and looked at Crystal, maybe he reminds me that they are not all like that. The exhaustion hit her like a hammer and she was out.


Amara opened her eyes, and saw that she was sitting in a room with several different toddler toys. Numbered blocks, a stuffed Articuno and a set of duplos made up the collection of items in the clinical looking room. Voices could be heard coming from the other room. “This memory again I see. I do enjoy being a lucid dreamer and not having to be a slave to my mind like everyone else. I think I will change the channel…” A man’s voice deep but professional was heard first, “I am sorry Ms. Corbin but your child has autism. We are not sure yet how well she will be able to function, but with proper training and constant care she may do quite well later on. She is incredibly advanced for her age with numbers.” “…. I don’t understand, I said I don’t want to watch this again.” Silence for a moment and then a woman’s voice light and airy young sounding. “Are you sure Dr. cause that sounds like a lot of work. I just turned nineteen and I don’t need a retarded kid dragging me down.”Why can’t I stop watching this farce?” Stunned silence for a moment, “Ms. Corbin did you not hear me, your child is not mentally retarded she may very well be a math genius someday. She will have the hardest time understanding facial expressions and emotions and she may need extra help in some areas.” “Yea whatever doc, I had a brother who was autistic and I watched my momma take care of him no thanks. This girl is going to do something with her life, I can’t have some special needs kid weight me down. I will just give her up for adoption.” “This must be the outside influence of a pokemon. No one controls my dreams but me.”



Once again Amara opens her eyes this time she sees a school play ground. There are several different children playing on the swings and the monkey bars. The lone purple haired girl sits to the side on a bench alone with a thick book in hand. Calculus 115 is the book’s title and the little girl sits with it in her lap already half way through. A new girl who just transferred in the other day walks over to one of the boys. “Who is that girl over there and why does no one play with her.” The boy shudders, “that’s icy Amara, she speaks weird and has the creepiest stare. Shes a freak and no one likes her.” The new girl frowns, “that doesn’t sound right she can’t be that bad. She looks lonely I am going to talk to her. “I really hated this day.”


The girl walks over to the bench and stands there a moment before smiling. “Hi my name is Linda, what are you reading.” The purple haired girl slowly looks up from her book and at the new girl. “Are you unable to read the title? That’s odd you should be able to from your angle. It is Calculus 115 a text book for first year students at Luwen college.” Linda blinks, “um wow a college book does it have pretty pictures you must be really smart.” Amara continues to stare unblinking at the new girl who starts shifting nervously from foot to foot. “You have thirty seven freckles on your face and upper shoulders. Linda shifts a little more nervously “umm.. okay.” Amara cocks her head quizzically, “just what is that strange gesture you are making with your mouth.” Linda backs away a bit from that intense stare and the uneasy questions, “It’s a smile silly um.. I am going to go play with the others bye now.” The girl turned and hurried away.” “Yes run away just like all the others from the ice queen. Ugh why does it have to be so hard to read people.”


An adult dark skinned woman walked over to Amara and smiled, “Amara sweetie are you ready to go home?” The little girl looked up and shut her book nodding, “Ok Dawn.” The woman just shook her head and smiled, “now Amara you know you are supposed to call me mom.” Amara frowned, “but you are not my mother. My mother gave me away approximately three years, two months, twenty three days, nine hours, and four minutes ago according to the records. You are the woman who convinced your husband Michal Landos to adopt me. So that makes you my legal guardian but not really my mother right.” Dawn just smiled faltered a bit. Yes Amara that is correct but….” She stopped and stuttered as the little girls eyes bored into her. “Umm let’s just go home.”


As Amara opened her eyes again, she was in a lunchroom. “The Cedar Lake middle school incident, approximately six year ten months and 22 days after the first memory. This was a good day I met crystal. I don’t want to skip this dream.” Once again the purple haired girl was sitting alone as she ate her meal in silence. She was reading a book on theoretical mathematics this time. Voices could be heard around her in the din of bunched conversation. “Does that girl ever smile.” “All she does is stare at you it’s creepy.” “With eyes like that no matter how beautiful she is, no one is ever going to get close to her.” “Hey dude I’ll bet you fifty dollars to ask out Landos over there.”” No way man keep your money I couldn’t handle those eyes of hers an hour much less a date night.” Aamara pulled the book a little closer and then she heard a noise that was different than the others, “Lapraa..”


The girl turned her head toward the window and looked out at Cedar lake. She saw a wild Lapras swimming out there. It was not uncommon to see water pokemon in the lake but Lapras were somewhat rare. She closed her book and walked outside the back door. “I have approximately fourteen minutes and 23 seconds to get to class.” She thought to herself as she walked over to the lake edge and watched. “I thought she was so beautiful that day and I have never changed my opinion.” As the girl stood there on shore and watched, the Lapras craned its neck and noticed her. With a smooth and swift gliding motion it crossed the lake and went right to the shoreline. The purple haired girl felt no fear as the Lapras moved its head down, to right in front of her face. She lifted and hand and ran it down the sleep neck in a caressing motion. Amara and the Lapras stared at each other for a moment before the girl swung up onto it’s back. Then the lapras smiled and swam her around the lake. “That was the day I figured out Pokemon were easier to read than people. I was late for class that day and for once I just didn’t care.”


Amara once again opened her eyes. She was in a large reception room surrounded by people. Crystal was beside her, and in her hands was the Sinnoh league champion title. Around her were all the other tournament contenders and finalist. A gathering of Ace trainers, and they were all talking to each other, socializing, and laughing. Amara once again sat alone with Crystal as her only companion. Even the Sinnoh elite four were there but they stayed at their own table. As Amara turned to look at Crystal the Lapras’s face faded away, leaving a blank slate. “What.. what is this a nightmare” Amara panicked and then turned around toward the room. All of the people were still talking but their language was gibberish to her ears. “No.. No.. I can handle this it is just a dream, a nightmare it is not real. The room spun and a blizzard roared in freezing everything in white. When the snow subsided and Amara looked around everyone human and pokemon was gone. It was just her standing in a field of ice and snow alone always alone. “No.. Stop this now.” She spun around and saw a mirror that reflected her face and then the face changed to all the people who ever talked about her. “You will always be alone Amara a queen of ice for a frozen solitude. “No I don’t have to be alone.” The mirror shifted to the image if Floyd. “You will die alone on this Island or worse yet. He smiled wickedly, “you will be the sole survivor.” Then the mirror shattered and the shards blew away in the wind. “Noooo!!”



Amara jerked awake and immediately hugged Crystal. “Please don’t leave me alone Crystal please.” Amara cried cold tears into Crystal’s neck. The Laparas craned its neck around her and rubbed against her gently cooing “Laaapppra”

 

[SUPERRNOVAA]

Swift followed Amaras orders to the letter, building an igloo and heating it up. Easy stuff, it was practically childs play.

“Thank you, he is a very lucky trainer to have you.”

These words were quickly followed by a peck on his core. The Starmie excitedly accepted the praise, his back legs turned around and then came to a halt as his core turned a bright pink. It was nice to have someone else acknowledge his hard work.

-----​

A young, nine year old Floyd happily skipped along the pavement on the way home from school. It was a nice day in Jubilife, the sun was setting, but it wasn't too dark. The various colors on billboards and buildings were as vibrant as ever. Flocks of Starly were chirping overhead, soaring the orange skies. Everything felt right, it was as if everything was pure and innocent. As Floyd approached the door to his parents apartment, he thought a little bit about what was to come.

'God help me. He's gonna kill me. Someone help. Please. For fuck sake. I beg you Arceus don't do this to me!'

Floyd rang the doorbell, the chime soothed his heart every time he heard it. It made him happy to hear the bell, after all, the only times he got to see his family were in the morning and in the afternoon. His Father was constantly out for work all the time, so it was only on Fridays like these that he got to see him.

'Don't do it. Don't open the door... THIS IS A MISTAKE.'

The wooden door slowly opened and revealed a pale, young-looking woman with beautiful blonde hair and stunning indigo eyes dressed in a formal suit with a loose red tie, she was a sight to behold. This was Floyds mother, Emma. Behind her however was a much more menacing, brawny man with tan skin and sleek brown hair also dressed in similar business-like attire. This was Floyds father, Gerald.

"Oh, Floyd! You're home early, come in." A warm voice emanated from Emmas lips as she spoke, it was just as soothing as the sound of the doorbell, if not, more. Floyd cracked an equally warm smile and made his way inside and over to his room, where he dumped his backpack onto the floor and proceeded to change from his school uniform into a plain black t-shirt and light brown cargo shorts.

'STOP THIS, NO, DON'T! PLEASE!'

The smell of freshly made caesar salad swarmed the dining room, not only did it look good, it tasted even better. An almost somber silence fell across the table, no one dared to make a noise. Gerald sat and stared at his wife and child the entire time he was eating, his gaze was like a set of knives pointed directly at their throats. It didn't matter though, Floyd was having fun, and that was all that mattered. Just being with family was enough to make him happy. It was enough. Gerald was the first to finish, he snatched his empty bowl from the small table and tossed it into the sink.

'There is no hope for me. I'd rather die.'

Floyd and his mother finished around the same time. They both gently placed their bowls next to each other on the kitchen bench. Silence was broken as Gerald spoke in his grizzly tone, "Floyd. Bed, Now."

The young boy simply nodded and headed off to his room, where he closed the door and flipped the light off as soon as he entered. Floyd wouldn't object any of his Fathers orders, no matter what they were. Most of what he said was just orders or questions, Floyd hadn't had an actual conversation with Gerald for years. This fact had been blissfully ignored however.

"U'uhm... Gerald, could you uhhh... erm..." The soft tone of Emmas voice rang once more.

"What did I say about talking to me? WHAT DID I SAY!?"

"Well, I-.. got a call from... uhh... so... what are you?... Hm?"

Floyd pressed his ear down to his closed door, was this going to be just like the other nights? Every night he could hear strange noises coming from the kitchen. He didn't know what went on, but he was sure everything was fine. Right?
'NO! NO NO NO NO NO! THIS IS IT! I CAN'T TAKE IT'

"SHUT YOUR GOD DAMN MOUTH YOU FUCKING BITCH, I CAN'T STAND YOU! YOU NEED TO GET THIS THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULL, I'M ONLY WITH YOU FOR THE MONEY. IF YOU KEEP DISOBEYING ME LIKE THIS, I'LL KILL YOU. DON'T YOU EVER FORGET THAT!!!"

Gerald went berserk in a fit of rage, hitting Emma repeatedly in the stomach with his two fists. Haunting screams of pain bounced through the apartment. Blood, leaking from the womans mouth.

Everything was fine. Everything was okay. Everything didn't matter.

Floyd kept his ear glued to the door for hours, until everything finally stopped with one final hit to finish things off. It was horrifying hearing the noises, but they were a family, surely everyone got along. There was absolutely no way in hell that Gerald and Emma were making those noises, it must have been the TV or something, right?

The young boy slowly backed away from the door and crawled into the covers of his bed. Silent weeping echoed through his room as his eyes welled up with tears. He was looking forward to next Friday, when he could see his dad again...

-----
​

Floyd shot up, tears running down his face and onto the grassy ground beneath him.
'A Nightmare... Odd' He thought as he wiped the droplets from his eyes.

Swifts back appendages spun in a clock like fashion, before finally stopping in place as his red core lit up once again. He was absolutely ecstatic to see his trainer alive and well. The Starmie nudged Floyds glasses and Pokedex towards him. Luckily, Swift had been keeping track of all of the gear that Floyd wasn't able to carry with him.

''What would I do without you." Floyd said as a heavy sigh escaped of his mouth. He proceeded to feel around the ground a little bit before finally finding his glasses and putting them on. Upon looking down, he found that all of his injuries had miraculously turned into scars. Floyd couldn't help but smile at the fact that he was alive.

The trainers gaze turned towards Amara, who had her face buried in Crystals neck. Floyd honestly couldn't tell if she was still asleep or just waiting for him to wake up. Either way, he looked towards the back of the small igloo he was in and found what remained of his Black shirt and Pokedex.

After slapping on his shirt and putting the Pokedex into his pocket Floyd felt an odd ache in his stomach.
"Of course, Food."
His stomach let out a small growl, he was extremely hungry, and thirsty. Floyd approached the small hole that served as an entrance to the Igloo and stared at Amara for a short while.

"Thanks, erm... I'll be back." He uttered before walking out into the blazing sunshine outside.

Swift rolled behind Floyd in his usual manner, he was practically waiting for an attack to happen. Floyd on the other hand paid absolutely no attention to wild Pokemon, instead he was looking up at the trees, searching for fruits or berries of some kind. Anything would suffice. After a couple of minutes of searching, Floyds eyes widened when a tree with ripe mangoes came into view.

"Yes!" He exclaimed while casually walking up to the tree. Upon inspection, the mangoes seemed alright to eat, although he still had to be weary. Floyd ripped a mango off of the tree and teared it in half, giving one of the halves to Swift. It looked amazing, the blend of colors and the smell of sweet fruit really tempted the hungry pair. Floyds teeth almost immediately clamped into the mango, sucking out all of it's delicious juices in the process. It tasted just as good as it looked. Swift had a different way of eating though. The Starfish Pokemon had crushed the insides of the mango using one of its legs until it pretty much turned into a mushy juice of some kind. After Swift was satisfied with his work, he laid down on the mango and absorbed the juices into his skin, he couldn't taste the fruit, but it gave him the nutrients to survive, that was all that mattered in this situation.

"You won't see me fall apart, because I have an elastic heart. Oh I've got an elastic heart,"

A faint voice in the distance grew louder with each passing moment, was it another person?
Floyd swallowed the last of his fruit and turned his head to where the noise was coming from.

​

 

[Nygenn]

Location: Riverside near Camp SAM
Time: 2nd Day, Pre-dawn
Tagging: Salem, Cassie, Lin, Arrow, Infernape

----------------
​

Salem’s smile faded slightly when he saw the terror in Cassie’s eyes. He had meant to make light of their dire situation, but it seemed that attempt had utterly failed.

Cassie looked an absolute wreck. She was trembling and shaking, and clutching herself as if it were the only thing holding her together. Her eyes were wide open but seemed unseeing and it shocked Salem to see her like this. It was such a sudden and severe reversal, of the strong and confident young woman he had been admiring not a moment before, that he could hardly believe he was looking at the same person.

A screech and a sudden warm glow next to him, drew his attention away from Cassie and onto the Pokemon he had just released. It was a relatively small monkey like creature, which stood no taller than three feet. It barely reached to his waist yet at the same time it felt much larger. The Pokemon was rather fierce looking and exuded an aura of raw, untamed power. The angry scowl on its face promised regret for any who would dare cross it, and the thick mane of fire that billowed down from its head, backed this up nicely. Altogether, Salem had no idea what this Pokemon was, he had never seen its kind before, however he could clearly see it was a strong combatant.

The feral little Infernape roared upon release. It was brimming with energy and had been craving action for some time now. He looked around, taking in his environment and company. Some humans, a grass type, a firefox a little ways behind, and a hulking Alligator that was towering over him, none of which looked familiar.

The blazing simian grinned, its target decided. The Feraligatr was far and wide the greatest challenge, the only challenge actually, from the look of things. He pointed at the giant water Pokemon when dragged his thumb slowly across his throat, making his intentions clear to all.

The Feraligator, whether from understanding the challenge or simply because it was drawn to the fiery monkeys shining presence, did not hesitate and spewed a thick torrent of water its way. The Infernape deftly leapt over it and faced the monster once more, ready to take it down.

With nothing in its path to block the raging current however, it continued towards the humans behind the monkey Pokemon.

Salem saw it happening, almost in slow motion. He realized that Cassie, in her current state would not be dodging the oncoming attack and he panicked. ‘Look out!’ he wanted to yell, but knew it would do no good. “Cassie!” he shouted instead, and more out of instinct than any real conscious concern, he dove towards the catatonic girl.

He managed to push her out of the attack’s direct line of fire, but caught the brunt of it himself because of that. A spray of water splashed over Cassie, as the torrent ripped into him and blew apart in a wet, watery explosion. Salem was flung backwards from the concussive force of the blast and hit the pebbled ground hard. Infernape's Pokeball slipped from his grasp as he rolled over a couple of times before coming to a stop some distance away.

Salem was still alive and conscious, but had certainly seen better days. He felt bruised and his body was covered in scrapes, but at first glance nothing seemed missing or broken. He had been lucky and softly groaned his appreciation.

‘There will come a day where your reckless impulsiveness will get you killed,’ he heard his mentors mocking voice echo in his mind and despite himself, Salem grinned weakly. “Not today old man,” he muttered. ‘Not yet anyway.’

 

[Mega Gallade X]

Damian awoke when a girl ran by the cave yelling. His first initial thought was 'another person! This is great!'. Looking toward the entrance he missed her figure by an instant as it crossed the opening, then he saw the beedrill pursuing and finally the lumbering Ursaring, the same enormous one from before.

Mina wasn't awake yet, neither was Orion, glancing over toward Ecarte he saw she was looking at her trainer. Ecarte seemed to watch Mina a lot, which Damian had no problem with. However he found it just a tad unnerving.

"Watch them!" Damian said as he bolted out of the entrance and saw all three figures taking off, he watched the Beedrill fire off pin missiles and tilted downward as one narrowly impaled his shoulder. Backing up carefully as the girl and her pokemon took down the Ursaring he hid behind a tree, not knowing whether or not the attack missed or the pokemon was also aiming for him.

He watched as the girl told her Beedrill to spare the Ursaring, and at first he thought she was literally insane. Then he remembered it was still a pokemon. The Ursaring didn't choose to become a savage, and it certainly wouldn't have been out for blood without the interference of that mad scientist and his berserker serum.

The pair made their way back toward Damian and he crept a little back from the tree. The girl sat down and ordered her Beedrill off.

'You only have one first impression' Damian thought to himself as he contemplated making sure she wasn't going to be a threat to him. 'You don't have any weapons... Alright, if anything goes wrong, just lead her away from the cave.' he continued.

"Um... Hi." he said as he came from around the tree and talked to the sitting girl, making sure to be a couple feet away from her in case she had a knee-jerk reaction and flailed out at him.

 

[Chrocey]

Delilah leaned her head back against the tree and closed her eyes. The rugged bark scratched and poked her scalp, but she didn’t care. Right now this tree and this dirt felt just as good as the bed she slept in at the resort.

The exhausted trainer kept taking her deep breaths and was finally able to slow her heart rate. It seemed like everything was finally calming down. Time slowed as she tried to recollect everything that’d happened to her so far in this crazy forest. Her mind went back to the Pinsir she first encountered, then her fist fight with Apollo, and finally the Ursaring.

A smile grew on her lips. Through each of those events, she’d managed to persevere and win. As of now, she started to feel unstoppable.

Suddenly, a voice came seemingly out of nowhere.

“Um...hi.”

Delilah’s eyes opened and she glanced over to whoever was talking. It appeared to be a boy with white hair and dark brown eyes, sporting the same clothes that she was wearing. She chuckled softly and waved her hand at him.

“Hey there,” she said breathily.

Delilah placed her hands on the ground and used the tree to balance herself as she stood up. She kept her focus on the stranger that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Her eyes searched him with intrigue as he appeared to be very cautious about approaching her. It didn’t look like he was armed, and she didn’t see a pokemon at his side. As it stood she came to the conclusion that he was totally defenseless...which meant that he likely wouldn’t be trying to attack her either.

There was a brief silence between the two before the bee trainer decided to speak up.

“Did you manage to catch the way Beedrill and I handled that Ursaring back there? Pretty cool, huh? That thing had been-”

The green-eyed trainer’s sentence was cut short as she squinted and leaned forward. She began stepping a little closer to the stranger, before her face lit up with the sort of giddiness you’d expect to see from a child opening presents on Christmas morning.

“No way! That’s an awesome scar!” she exclaimed. “I’ve seen scars before, but that one looks like it’s got some story behind it. Where’d you get it?”

Delilah took a step back and cleared her throat as she collected herself. Even though Beedrill was still in the forest carrying out his task, she could feel the smack on the back of her head at her inappropriate questioning. “Sorry, I suppose I should get your name before I start asking about your scars. What’s your name? I’ll remember it so that I can give you an autograph after this whole Dark Tournament shindig ends.”

 

[PentheWonderful]

Gasping, needing inhale, and yet her lungs had turned to stone. It refused to expand and accept any air. If there were any. 'Where am I?' She wondered. For miles around, all she could see was pitch black. A void. 'The void...' Her stomach churned at the thought she'd forgotten how to breathe. 'I'm in the void again...'

Utterly lost in her own mind.

Her arms only proceeded to tremble, her face deathly pale. Cassie felt cold. Her ears were cold, and her lips were cold, and so was the world around her. The ringing in her ears was omnipotent now, like a song inside a dream. Overpowering, shrill, drowning the sound of her own heartbeat. 'Get me out of here...!'

Her wish fulfilled, an unseen force knocked her away from where she'd been curled up, splaying her onto a ground that she now knew still existed. And the world came crashing in with a spray of cold, clear water. Light, warmth, the sky, the ground, trees, earth, water, and oxygen. Cassie took in as much oxygen as she could, like a corpse revived, and lay weakly on her back where she'd been thrown. Her eyes were barely open, yet they stared longingly into the sky where a new day was arriving. The ringing subsided, and color slowly returned to her face.

She listened to the steadying pace of her heart, moving her hand to clutch it gently. She was still alive. And yet... What happened?

A soft groan off to her left, as if answering her question, tickled her ear and she soon found herself turning her head to see who it was. Bronze colored skin and white hair, now stained with dirt and droplets of blood. There were more urgent occurrences at hand, such as the Infernape coming in to attack the Feraligatr with Close Combat, getting in a few hits only to be knocked back by an Aqua Tail, Lin and Arrow, undoubtedly aiding in the defeat of the behemoth, and Gerald and June, who'd awoken to find their friends under attack and rushing in to help, and yet she was more concerned for this man laying on his stomach, whom she barely knew, who had risked his life to save her's.

She remembered it, though she hadn't been there to watch. It was recorded by her eyes and she could still find it in her mind, like picking out a movie from a shelf to switch on. And she could watch over and over how he would've been giving up his life for garbage like her.

Lightheaded and wobbly, Cassie picked herself up and crawled quickly to him, narrowly avoiding getting blasted by a Water Gun that could've easily rivaled a Hydro Pump, and leaned over his head, pressing a gloved hand against his neck to check for a pulse, when she instead heard his faint mutter, "Not today..." The last part lost to the wind. And she wondered instead if he'd been doing her an act of kindness, or if he'd simply been desperate to end his own life.

In the face of the Feraligatr's jaws, he'd uncurled his fists, and accepted his death with open arms.

The memory flickered faintly in the farther reaches of her mind, but her eyes trailed the square of his back, following the long, wide scar that ran between his shoulder blades and across his spine. She found herself gently using the hand she had used to check his pulse with to instead trail her gloved finger along the battle mark with furrowed brows, as if its presence had switched on another memory in her mind.

A green, deathly quick bug type Pokemon. "S..cy...ther..." She breathed quietly, before the memory ended and she was back to watching reality.

Cassie moved her hand to grab his arm, while the other she placed behind his head for support, and turned him over onto his back. One hand still on the back oh his head, she subconsciously wondered what his hair felt like, and wished she had time to take off her glove to find out. But she knew there were bigger games to be played. Thus, before taking her leave, she locked her gaze with his lighthearted eyes and told him, "Don't die before I come back."

And with that, she gently laid his head against the riverside gravel, and got up to walk calmly towards the raging Feraligatr confined to the water. That was where it was most powerful, after all. The Infernape had gone back and forth with attacks. Close Combat, Flare Blitz, even his Thunder Punch barely left anything but a scorch mark. And he only succeeded in getting the Feraligatr, and himself more frustrated by the minute.

But the simian wasn't stupid to try another attack yet. With his defense and special defense critically low from his Close Combat attacks, he'd only have one more shot. Thus, the ape jumped back and charged itself with a fury of Swords Dance.

With a quick, precise flick of her wrist, she'd unlatched Lady's pokeball from her belt and sent her out in a beam of white light. The Liepard's flashy entrance had attracted the Feraligatr's attention enough to swing its massive arm at her, which she narrowly dodged, and hissed at Cassie in frustration for. The girl shrugged. The Feraligatr was gaining extra damage from his burn, at least.

"JUNE! Show em' your Shock Wave!" Cassie heard Gerald's voice from a flickering memory. One her ears had recorded during her descent into the void. "June? What's going on?" Shock Wave wasn't working... She wondered why. "Uh...Change of plans! Will-O-Wisp!" Yet Will-O-Wisp had. She can't help but wonder...

"Lady, can you use Torment?" She called with a calm, even voice while Arrow and June were undoubtedly assaulting the Feraligatr with their trainer's directions, and it, being focused on the moving targets, ignored her and Lady. The Liepard looked at her, almost confused. Almost as if unable to use the move she knew well. "Taunt?" Still nothing. Cassie placed her hand on her chin, despite the utter chaos and destruction occurring around them. "Do you remember Night Slash?"

In response to this, her claws began to glow, indicating a 'yes'. 'I guess we're stuck with the four moves we registered.' Cassie concluded, and hummed lightly, tapping her fingers lightly against her chin. "Okay, then Lady. Let's play our little game." She said in a contemplative tone. Feraligatr, the big jaw Pokemon. Notorious for their high attack and defense stat, but also a challenge for breeders, because there was only a 12% chance of it being female. "Attract."

The Liepard seemed to cackle through her chirp-like mewls, before leaping into action right before the Feraligatr's line of sight. She crouched down, her tail swishing back and forth in a mesmerizing manner while she chirped, brilliant emerald eyes locked to the beast's ruby red. It bared its fangs, letting out a monstrous growl, as it dropped onto its fore legs in a deadly staring contest with Lady. Where a mistake could result in death. Cassie prayed that probability was on her side.

Lady however, played her part to the tee, lowering herself to lay on the gravel while she continued to move her tail and chirp, though less frequently. Instead, she began to purr, sniffing the giant reptile cautiously while her ears pressed slightly against her head. And just like that, the Feraligatr seemed to give in to the charade, plopping its massive body down onto the gravel with an earth shaking 'THUMP'. It let out steams of hot breath from his nostrils, and its irises began to dilate.

Numbers hadn't failed yet, and the Feraligatr was male. And no matter how feral it was, it still couldn't resist the lure of amour.

"Good, Lady..." Cassie said, softly, barely above a whisper. By then, Lady was already rubbing herself against the Feraligatr's snout; an action he seemed to genuinely enjoy while he watched the violet feline.

However, having just completed his frenzy of Swords Dances, the Infernape let out a victorious roar, snapping the Feraligatr back to his feral nature, and he opened his jaws wide to devour the Liepard whole. Lady gave a soft hiss and Cassie found herself running to her, but everything froze when the Feraligatr froze just before his fangs could graze her. His eyes were locked to her sleek silhouette, and he instead moved back slightly to gaze upon her better.

Attract prevented the inflicted from harming the Pokemon it is infatuated with.

Despite her fur standing on end, Lady persevered in her spot, and resumed what she knew she should be doing; tempting him. She mewled softly and the alligator Pokemon let out a deep-throated growl in response. But then, a flash of lightning erupted and the Infernape slammed into the Feraligatr's cheek with incredible force. The lightning crackling from his fist electrocuted the goliath's massive form, even charging the river water as the alligator convulsed from the attack.

Lady took that as an opportunity to hightail it back to Cassie's general vicinity while they witnessed the Infernape landing adeptly on the shore, seeming utterly pleased with himself as to swipe his thumb across his nose, watching the Feraligatr's unmoving form. But then it opened its eyes, simply to gaze at Lady.

But the Liepard gazed back at him with an unfeeling stare, and she looked him in the eye when the Infernape screeched in anger and lit himself ablaze, propelling his body towards the already disarmed Feraligatr in a Blaze fuelled Flare Blitz, and burning a hole right through its throat, and put them both out of the game. One from overwhelming fatigue, and the other, in permanent rest. But Lady lifted her chin, and one would be able to see a smile that would send a chill up anyone's spine.

Before Cassie returned the Cruel Pokemon to her pokeball.

"Well played, Lady." She whispered to the ball, and clipped it to her belt, but then found herself bending over to breathe. She was surprised that she hadn't fainted from the Flare Blitz. That was a new accomplishment, she supposed. Letting out one long breath, the girl straightened her back and tilted her head back and groaned, hands on her hips.

"Arceus... I think I died a little."

 

[Mega Gallade X]

Damian dropped his defenses a little when she waved. The light skinned woman smiled and seemed to chuckle a little. She seemed to be exhausted. His eyes darted around a moment to see if her Beedrill was returning and then they shifted back on her.

“Hey there”

As she said it, the fatigue was evident. There was silence, Damian kept his eyes on her and was about to speak but the instant before he did she shattered the silence.

“Did you manage to catch the way Beedrill and I handled that Ursaring back there? Pretty cool, huh? That thing had been-”

She broke off and squinted at him, coming closer, he clenched his fists in case she tried to assault him. Damian was fairly confident he could take someone in a fight, training with his Lucario had taught him a few grapples and easy strikes. Then again he was never sure if Orion was going easy on him, and he had never actually fought someone, he wasn't sure if he could fight a girl. The girls excitement shone through the curiosity in her stare and she smiled wildly. "Had she gone mad? Some type of hysteria?" Damian thought to himself and prepared for anything.

“No way! That’s an awesome scar!” she exclaimed. “I’ve seen scars before, but that one looks like it’s got some story behind it. Where’d you get it?”

Damian sighed in relief as she went on about the scar, stifling a small chuckle which turned into a smile. Her features were definitely soft, her green eyes kept his attention and he almost didn't realize she started talking again.

"What’s your name? I’ll remember it so that I can give you an autograph after this whole Dark Tournament shindig ends.”

Damian felt as if he had missed part of the sentence but dismissed it. "Damian Salvatore." he said as he put out his hand for a shake. At the notion of her autograph quip he smirked, "I'd give you my autograph right now but, seeing as your attire is the same as mine i'd reckon you don't have a pen on you." he joked as he smiled and kept her gaze. In the back of his mind he shook himself, 'she probably isn't from Unova... how well known are champions of other regions in other regions?' he thought to himself.

"And i'm not too sure 'this whole dark tournament' ever started." he joked again. It was a bad habit, joking in serious situations, Orion would usually grunt or punch his arm in response. "Oh, right, the Ursaring, that was a good job, how'd you catch it's attention? I think there are a few signs around that say not to feed those." 'Damian, get to the point' he thought to himself.

"Anyone with you?" he said blatantly. "It's me and another, we were camped up in that cave just a while back." he said pointing over his shoulder.

Damian wasn't sure why he was being so forthcoming with the information, however he found it easy to talk to the woman. It might have been the fact that she appeared to be another survivor, maybe it was because she hadn't tried to kill him yet. It also didn't hurt that she was pretty.

 

[Astralkitsune]

Lin
​

Lin sprinted toward the river and watched as the events unfolded in full detail. She watched Salem snatch the pokeball as Arrow prevented his consumption. She idly noted to herself that his reflexes were quick and that he reacted before thought.

As Arrow landed back on shore she drew back her bow and then had a momentary pause to think. Pokemon were her friends and family and rangers were taught to always incapacitate rather than kill. However as she looked on the enraged Feraligatr as Junes will-o-wisp burst into its tough hide, she read it's eyes, scent, movement, and most of all it's cries. "Kill, Kill, Kill everything dies, eat it all, all threat, pain, always pain, MEAT!!" Lin had never seen a pokemon in that much suffering before. All of her instincts reared up and screamed at her that this was unnatural. At that moment she knew with clarity that all of the wild pokemon an this Island were, suffering horribly and beyond saving. They had been twisted into grotesque shells of the magnificent beings that they had once been. She knew what had to be done, in her heart and hated the thought, but yet realized the mercy.

She watched that horrid red light she reviled so much, and then fire and smoke as a burning monkey pokemon stood their. Lin studied the new arrival and his body language in seconds. "He wants a fight, and if the gatr had not been here it would have been Arrow. Young, but experienced and very sure of himself. He will fight with the trainers, for now." Out of the corner of her eye she watched Cassie break down completely, overwhelmed by her own inner demons. She caught the scent of overpowering fear from the young woman. "The fire, she ran away from the fire until that fox joined in. She fears fire greatly. This is not uncommon in nature although hers is a great fear indeed. Now she fights herself." Lin turned back toward the river and looked Arrow in the eyes for a moment. No words were said but both nodded, and Lin calmly notched an arrow, took aim and let out a breath as she released the string, and let it fly towards her target.

The Arrow struck the beast's right eye at the same time Arrow's arm blades slashed across it's stomach. The Beast just reared back and roared in anger and pain before unleashing a torrent of water at the fiery simian on the beach. The infernape deftly dodged the attack, and the water went straight toward the downed woman. Lin contemplated saving the woman for a brief moment but then she had to duck and roll out of the way of an attack sent in her direction. As she came to her feet she saw the naked man take the hit for the downed woman. "He is protecting a suitable mate. He must desire her offspring very much. Damn I need them alive, ah it seems he will live. At least he is a strong male specimen."

Lin fired off a few more arrows in between the creatures thick plates as Arrow dashed in and out leaving slashes, and the fire pokemon left burns. Lin noticed Cassie get up and check on Salem before deciding to bring out her pokemon and rejoin the fight. Lin arched an eyebrow as she read lady, "These pokemon with trainers are always so arrogant. Still she is quite a beautiful being and in good health." She watched as lady preened and pranced swaying her tails hypnotically. "It seems the beast will notice as well. Damnit Arrow keep your head on the hunt." Even Arrow stopped for a moment to stare at the feline in her grace. Lin fired a sound arrow whirling behind her partner's head. Arrow shook his head several times and then looked at Lin and caught her frown before ducking his shoulders sheepishly and turning back to the dazed Gatr. As Arrow prepared his blades to end the fight, the Infranape acted first doing a tremendous thunder punch and following it up with a nigh suicidal flare blitz.

Lin sheathed her bow in one smooth motion and lightly ran over to the downed pair of pokemon. She checked on the Infranape first, and noting he was just exhausted. She picked him up and carried him farther from the river before setting him down lightly. Then she moved over to the Gatr. The beast was still thrashing in throes of death and suffocation from lack of a windpipe. Lin quickly drew a very sharp looking flaying knife that looked to be some kind of tooth. She timed the thrashing and then darted in and slit the beast throat. Then she used her hands to close it eyes and whispered, "May your spirit swim in the eternal waters free. Thank you for the gift you bestow us today brother. Your sacrifice ensures the cycle continues." Then she nodded toward Arrow once more, and the two went to work. Arrow charged up his blades and then took the beast head off in one clean swipe. He then proceeded to slice apart the rest of the body neatly like a chef with a sharp cooking knife flaying dinner. Lin took each section and carried it away from the water. She began making piles for meat, bones, and hide. The hunter clearly intended to use absolutely everything from the dead creature.

 

[Loziana]

In the early hours of the morning, Aidinia began her day. She gathered mango, pineapple and coconut. She found root vegetables and greens. She mixed the meat into the salad and roasted the vegetables as before, making enough for Salem and Megan and the pokemon of the camp. She walked to the water’s edge and grabbed clean water in the coconut shells she had collected and brought back to camp for drinking but also to make soup later in the day. She walked over to the Hitmonlee. “So, Savior here’s breakfast, right after we train.” She sat next to him to enjoy her fruit and meat salad, But Savior was having none of it. He pushed the bowl from her hand. The brick wall of a pokemon forced the water in her hands and imitated drinking. Once he felt she had drunk enough, the hitmonlee kicked her squarely in the chest. For him, it was a light kick. For Aidinia it was like being hit by a moving van going 50 miles an hour. She toppled backward. Her breath rushed from her lungs and sputtered. She staggered to her feet and took what she thought was a fighting stance. The hitmonlee swept her legs from beneath her and she fell, ass first onto the hard jungle floor. “oof, I said train me not kill me..” The hitmonlee crossed his arms across his chest and sneered at Aidinia. He laughed in contempt as he disappeared into the jungle. Aidinia complained but stood again and tried to intuit from where the little bastard would come next. She actually saw his next move and managed to block some of it. From out of the trees, he swung all monkey man style. He was on a vine. The swiftness of the swing took Aidinia from her feet but she caught the Hitmonlee and rolled with him. She was pretty sure he seemed impressed. Then he belted her between the tits forcing the oxygen from her lungs again. The two went at this for the better part of an hour. Aidinia was slowing visibly and the Hitmonlee noticed. He pointed at the food and sat and ate himself, a smug look of triumph at the bruises covering the woman’s body on his face.

She ate quickly, the training leaving her voracious and sticky with sweat. The food was delicious. Aidinia fed Alex and savored every bite. Now she understood why people who worked out did it. The feeling afterwards of rewarding her body with food and comfort after was awesome. Aidinia looked to the Hitmonlee, “Thank you for teaching me something today.” She said almost as if talking to a sensei in a dojo. The hitmonlee just grumped at her and continued to eat his food. She drank down a coconut cup of water and headed to the river to clean away the salt and sweat from her work out.

The scene at the river frightened her. The new dawn had just awakened and she arrived in time to see the middle of a ferocious battle between a feralgatr, Salem, A young woman she hadn’t met, an Infernape, a Sceptile, a native girl, and a liepard. Just as she arrived Salem was hit with a huge blast of water from the feralgatr. Oh dear God, that wasn’t a water gun that was a damn water cannon! “Salem!” Aidinia screamed as she saw his body slam into the ground. Salem is naked. Act now, process later. Her mind screamed. “Alex return” Hooking the pokeball to her belt she dove into the water and swam, hard and fast straight for the shore across the way.

Just as she climbed from the water she felt the beginnings of the charge in the river from the electrical attack from the Infernap, DAMN! That was close! She thought as she ran to Salem. She immediately called Alex from her ball. “We have to heal him.” Alex looked at the bruises covering her trainer’s body and looked somewhat indignant. “Look, I am doing this, all these bruises, to gain Savior’s trust. Now, do as I ask and heal Salem.” The melee was coming to a close as Alex’s wish healed Salem’s wounds. Aidinia got a good look at herself in the water’s surface. “OOF I look like hell warmed over Alex, Why didn’t you say something?” The sylveon looked at his trainer with an incredulous look. He looked at her as if to say ‘Really, really all this and your worried about your appearance? The Slyveon shook his head.

 

[Nygenn]

Location: Riverside near Camp SAM
Time: 2nd Day, Early morning
Tagging: Salem, Cassie, Lin, Aidinia, Gerald, Infernape, Lady, Arrow, Alex, June

----------------
​

Salem felt gloved fingers gingerly trace the relatively new scar on his back. It didn’t hurt anymore after the kind doctor had seen to it, but it still tingled from time to time. He didn’t know what possessed the person to touch him in such a manner, but it felt strangely intimate and he sighed with content.

Gentle hands took hold of him and supported his head when he was turned onto his back. His eyes followed the hands up the arms where he found Cassie’s face. His first impulse was to smile and perhaps say something witty, but the look in her eyes kept his face neutral. There was a storm of emotions raging on in those silver orbs of her, and Salem was sure that she was probably not aware of it herself. He could pick up on hope, worry, and relief, and also recognized confusion and fear. There was something more, however he could not quite decipher what that could be. She ended his study session of her enchanting eyes by instructing him no to die before she came back, then left.

Salem tried to get up and probably could have, but lay back down when it was obvious it would require some effort. ‘Let’s just see how they do,’ he reasoned with himself. ‘Surely they are capable enough to deal with the crocodile.’

He turned his head to the side and followed Cassie with his eyes. He watched her study the field, then call forth her Pokemon. He watched her as she seemed to be testing strategies until finally putting one into action. He particularly kept a close watch on her eyes as she did all this, to see if he might catch a hint to what he’d detected earlier, but no such luck.

The battle went well, and the flaming monkey especially had been very impressive. ‘I wonder if it will lend its aid again in the future.’

Before the battle was over, a familiar, delicate face framed with red hair, wet and the color of blood more than its usual fire, came into view. Doctor Aidinia Moon's face was one of worry. She was panting from exertion, her heavy chest rising and falling noticeably beneath the wet t-shirt only inches from his face, and with water streaming down her nose and lips she looked incredibly erotic.

Salem noticed she had some bruising on her cheek, and her lip was split but somehow this only added to her wild allure rather than subtract from it, and when her hands roamed across his chest before cupping his chin, he felt the blood drain from his face and gather somewhere lower. He was silently thankful not to be laying on his front anymore, or things might have felt rather uncomfortable.

Aidinia must have noticed his complexion paling somewhat, because she turned on Alex and demanded he be healed immediately. He found her concern touching, if not a bit excessive. ‘Surely I am not in that pathetic a state,’ he thought, ‘am I?’

Any further thoughts Salem might have had on the matter, were quickly washed away when the euphoric feeling of the Sylveon’s healing flushed through him. ‘I should be more careful from now on,’ he thought with a wry smile, ‘A man could get addicted to this sensation.’

Salem sat upright, pulled his knee up and rested an arm on it in an attempt to hide his excited state. It’s not that he was embarrassed himself, but he understood that others were often embarrassed on his behalf.

“Thank you, miss Moon,’ he told the doctor with a smile. “That is twice now you had to save me, in as many days. You must be disappointed in your patient.”

Salem then scanned his surroundings and took notice of a couple of things.

First was that the fight had ended in their victory, but the monkey was apparently down as well. He frowned at that and hoped the feisty Pokemon wasn’t seriously harmed.

Second, he noticed the Sceptile on the shore, now accompanied by a girl he hadn’t seen before. Initially he thought it was Cassie, for she has the same height, build, complexion and air of confidence about her, but then he noticed the differences as well. Her hair was a lot longer, her clothes radically different, she was armed with bow and arrows, and when she looked up he could see dark eyes instead of silver ones. Their stares met for a brief moment and Salem send her a pleasant smile.

Third, he noticed there were two more individuals her did not recognize. These were a male trainer and presumably, his Pokemon.

The man stood about Salem’s height, perhaps a little taller, with a deep red hair. Salem’s eyes shifted to Aidinia briefly before continuing their observation. The creature besides the man was a gentle looking fox, but unlike the Ninetales he was familiar with, this one stood upright and carried a flaming torch. ‘The day has only just begun and I can already hardly keep up with all the new discoveries,’ he mused. ‘I think today might turn out to be a great day after all.’

The fox noticed him looking and took a small step in front of its trainer. Not threateningly, nor cautiously, but the message was clear. ‘We don’t know you, therefor we can’t trust you.’ Salem shrugged and gave then a small, disarming wave.

‘Come to think of it,’ he turned inwards, ‘The Sceptile and the archery girl give off a similar vibe. Could it be that we’re not quite safe yet?’

Finally, Salem let his eyes fall onto Cassie. She looked herself again, for as far as he knew what that meant anyway. She also did not appear harmed in any way, and that was something Salem found himself incredibly grateful for. She was looking at him, and he noticed her eyes were guarded again. Gone was the mysterious spark he thought he’d seen before, and she was back to being unreadable again.

Not sure what to do or say in his current situation, Salem did what he did best, and smiled warmly.

 

[PentheWonderful]

Life... Life is strange isn't it?

One moment you're living a normal life, doing weekly shopping runs to the supermarket, and the next, you've found yourself stranded on an island waiting to be killed one way or another. Instead of counting how many coins you had in your wallet for exact change, you're counting all the horrific ways there was to die.

One moment you've got the man haunting your mind at your fingertips and the next, there was a very wet and exhausted redheaded bombshell leaning over him, her hair glued to her back like a fresh blood flow while water trailed down her ivory skin. Oh, wait, that was her lip bleeding out. She must've subconsciously bitten down on it when Lady almost got devoured. Still, Cassie couldn't help but wonder if the woman had come straight out of a playboy magazine photoshoot. Utterly out of place in the nightmare of their reality.

Yet, at the same time it was becoming as much as normal as waking up in the morning and using the bathroom was. Absolutely nothing new there. She had a Sylveon out, and now that she refocused her gaze onto the tight bronze skin of Salem, she noted how his injuries had disappeared. 'Well. It's comforting to know we have a mobile Pokemon Center now, at least.'

Cassie proceeded to turn her head in order to observe the river, now stained red from the Feraligatr's blood. It would carry the pungent, scarlet liquid downstream, and she could only imagine that wild Pokemon would be following it upstream. Well, Lin and Arrow looked like they knew what they were doing, at least.

Her mind lost, she hadn't realized that her eyes had trailed back to the couple on the ground. The silver of her irises locking with shades of evergreen, yet her emotions were in check, and the door was locked. Yet, upon his smile, Cassie found her gaze softening slightly.

She could feel... Relief. Happiness. Utter gratitude from seeing the good well-beings of their allies. And yet, she knew they weren't possibly her own emotions. She was far too detached and gone to feel anything of the sort to total strangers. Gerald and June, most likely, but not everyone else. Although... Perhaps... She had already been concerned for Salem, in hindsight. But that was beside the point. If they weren't her emotions, then were they... His?

Before she could really decide, her feet were already walking towards Salem and the mysterious redhead who'd literally appeared out of nowhere. A look of inquisition in her eyes, followed with the slight tilt of her head when she stood before the green eyed man, just blocking the sun from his view. Her brows knitting together, pondering questions in her mind, yet unable to properly find one to ask. Millions of them buzzed in her busy head, and yet, none could escape her lips. 'Why do I see you everywhere? Why are you randomly showing up in my delusions? Why did you take that hit from the Water Gun? Why... Are you so open that I can so easily pick up what you're feeling?' No, none of them ever left the void.

Instead, she outstretched her hand, simply to take the hand of the arm he hand on his knee, and enveloping it gently within her own gloved one. Cassie found his hand was too big for her's to fully close around, and that its veins were easily visible beneath the skin. It was rough, she could tell that much from the faint friction of rubbing her gloved thumb across his palm, and she could see all the little callouses and cuts on his long, nimble fingers upon turning it over. And she simply couldn't help but wonder about the ribbons tied around his wrist. They were the only piece of cloth on him, whereas the others had been shed. They were special, somehow. Rustic, homemade, and yet carefully so. Her eyes could trail the faint patterns within black woven upon black.

From that one, small gesture, she'd possibly learned ten things about him.

And she memorized it, they way her eyes shifted upwards to memorize his face. A force of habit, and yet, this felt slightly different. A million things to say and ask, and yet, the statement that left her was, "I'm sorry. You shouldn't have dove in for me." Her hand slowly loosened its grip, and allowed his hand to slip away when she withdrew her arm. "I'll let you keep the fedora. As thanks."

Cassie took a step back, evidently gazing at the hand she'd used to hold his, and enclosed her fingers around her palm while her thumb ran across her knuckles. 'It's strangely empty now.' Was her thought when she retreated to meet with Gerald and June.

"Hey... Thanks for coming in to help." She told them with a soft voice, a slight smile in her eyes while her lips could barely move. The blood was beginning to clot, so, that might be partially why. She made eye contact with Gerald, looking into his warm brown eyes, and then to June's ruby ones. "I hope I didn't interrupt your beauty sleep." She said this as a joke to June, but she also backhandedly glanced at Gerald while saying, "You really need it."

And she chuckled.

A bitter, exhausted, pained chuckle, but a chuckle all the same.

"Oh, and by the way... Gerald, June, that's Salem." She turned slightly to look in the naked, tanned man's direction. "Salem." She said a bit louder, considering their distance. "This is Gerald and June. That woman," She pointed her thumb in the direction Lin was, "Is Lin. I think her Sceptile is named Arrow."

 

[Chrocey]

Delilah liked this guy. He seemed quite light-hearted despite the harrowing circumstances, which is a trait that she liked to see in people besides herself. One could only hope that the rest of his group were just as positive.

As he extended his hand for a handshake, the bee trainer reached out and shook Damian’s hand in a comically firm manner. “It’s nice to meet you Damian Salvatore. I think I’ll call you Sal, if you don’t have any problems with that.”

When the white-haired trainer asked how Delilah got the Ursaring’s attention, her lips immediately grew into an arrogant smirk. She’d love nothing more than to recount tales of victory, but at the moment there were more pressing matters. “Tell you what, I’ll tell you that story when you, me, and whoever else you’re with are all having breakfast.”

When Damian asked if Delilah was accompanied by anyone else, she looked out into the forest. Her eyes scanned the scattered trees as if to see whether or not her stalker was still trailing behind her.

“Well, I’m not sure if he’s with me right now, but there is one guy who’s been following me around. His name’s Apollo.” Her attention returned to Damian, “I don’t really trust him, though. If he ever catches up to me, we’ll need to keep a watchful eye on him and his Pyroar.”

Delilah smiled and gave the other trainer a thumbs up. “Other than them, it’s just me and Beedrill.”

At the mention of his name, the bee trainer’s expression turned to one of concern. “As a matter of fact, he’s been gone a bit longer than I expected him to.” She turned around and took a few steps in the direction that her Beedrill had ventured off. Part of her was worried that he might have run into another wild pokemon while trying to find another coconut.

The green-eyed girl’s heart was set at ease when she heard the buzzing of her Beedrill’s wings getting louder and louder. When he emerged from the bushes, Delilah ran up and gave him the biggest hug she could muster. He looked at her in slight confusion before offering her what she’d requested.

Beedrill’s task had taken a bit longer than expected, as once he found a coconut, he’d drilled a hole in it out and filled it with whatever water he could gather from some of the hanging lianas. On top of this, he’d even gathered a small amount of edible berries in the process. He’d slipped them through the hole in the coconut for easy storage and transportation. On top of that, perhaps some of their flavor would seep through and give the water a sweeter taste, like the energy drinks Delilah enjoyed back in the Hoenn region.

Not knowing of his extra credit, the bee trainer took the coconut from between his drills and immediately started to drink from it. She’d consumed about half of the water in the shell before stopping and looking up at her pokemon. “You rock, Beedrill.” He nodded his head and buzzed graciously.

Beedrill’s red compound eyes turned their attention to the new trainer. Even though Delilah didn’t recognize him, Beedrill did. Judging by Damian’s body language, and the fact that he was sporting the same clothes that other victims of this tournament were wearing, he assumed that this trainer was just as surprised by this twisted experiment than everyone else.

Holding out the coconut, Delilah smiled at Damian sincerely. “Want some?”

 

[Nygenn]

Location: Riverside near Camp SAM
Time: 2nd Day, Early morning
Tagging: Salem, Cassie, Lin, Aidinia, Gerald, Infernape, Lady, Arrow, Alex, June

----------------
​

“Salem,” Cassie called out to him. “This is Gerald and June,” she indicated the red haired, male trainer and his fox, next to her.

“That woman,” she continued, pointing at the huntress that looked somewhat similar to her, “is Lin. I think her Sceptile is named Arrow.” Salem followed her indications with his gaze, and nodded at each introduction.

He stood up and turned to face the crowd, no longer caring about embarrassing anyone else, and almost slapping the doctor seated next to him, across the face.

“It is a pleasure to meet to you all,” he told the collective. “My name is Salem Archon, a wanderer from the Acedia Tribe of Regalo Del’Mar. I beg you forgive my state of undress.” He bowed ever so slightly at the waist during the introduction, then waved his hand towards Aidinia to indicate her, as well as offer her a hand up.

“This is the doctor, Miss Aidinia Moon,” he introduced her. “There is another, Miss Megan from Kanto, back in our camp across the river.”

Salem pulled the dripping wet redhead to her feet, and absently noticed how different her hand felt in his’ compared to Cassie’s a moment earlier, despite being of roughly equal size. ‘It had felt incredibly intimate,’ he recalled, but then his attention was drawn to a discarded Pokeball on the ground.

He walked over and bend to pick it up, considered it for a moment, then used it to recall the unconscious Infernape. He immediately noticed the scowl on Lin’s face, in response to his action, and he raised an inquiring eyebrow in return. ‘Did I just offend her somehow?’ he thought, but decided not to ask.

Instead, he addressed the group once more. “I would like to welcome you all to our small camp across the river, for some breakfast and a chance to get better acquainted.” He pointed towards the opposite shore and added; “It’s not far and we have food available.”

Salem looked at each of their faces in turn, before finally setting his gaze on Cassie. “What do you say, allies?”

 

[Mega Gallade X]

Damian made a noticeable face of discomfort when the girl referred to him as Sal, it was something no one had done before, and he admitted it was unique but just an awful nickname.

"Damian works." He clarified as Delilah went on about the other trainer. A man with a Pyroar, those were fierce, fire types from Kalos if he remembered correctly.

Delilah took a few steps away as she searched a moment for her Beedrill, Damian put on foot forward and then stopped, he wasn't sure if he was overthinking about surpassing boundaries or not, however overthinking was something he was used to.

Suddenly the Beedrill emerged from the bushes, the buzzing noise of its wings a steady hum. The girl seemed ecstatic that her pokemon had returned and it seemed with... A coconut? The way it held the item in its drills was odd. An even more peculiar sight was the girl hugging the bug pokemon. Damian raised a curious eyebrow.

Delilah drank from the coconut and offered it to him. "No thanks, trying to watch my electrolytes." He said with a bright smile and a wink. Truth be told he hadn't had anything to drink for a while, and was thirsty. Damian trusted her, but not fully. Yet.

"We should start back toward the cave. Mina might be up by now, shes pretty... young." he said as he ran a hand through his white hair.

The two walked for a few minutes, they had gotten just a bit further in the running than Damian had realized, but all in all they weren't terribly far from the cave. There was nothing that stood out from their prior spot and the cave, trees mostly. In fact, the lack of anything was a tad unnerving. The noises had stopped, the constant growls and cries that could be heard in most directions from the wild pokemon seemed quieter in the morning.

Approaching the entrance he looked inside, all three of them were there, Ecarte, Orion, and Mina. Mina hadn't woken yet, however Orion and Ecarte were standing in the center of the cave, if he didn't know any better he would have assumed they were actually having a conversation. Both heads turned to look at him, then he saw them noticeably brace themselves as Delilah and the Beedrill followed into the cave.

"Hey now, this is Delilah and um... Beedrill?" he said not remembering if Delilah had named her pokemon. 'Great first impression.' he thought to himself. "Anyway, they're friends. This is my partner, Orion." he said gesturing toward the Lucario whom stared still at the two newcomers. "And this is Ecarte... she stares but, you get used to it. Kind of. And over there is her trainer Mina." he said pointing at the sleeping child on the ground.

"Yep. That's our happy little cave family." he said with a little smile. "Sooooo..." he dragged on as he looked around. "What's the plan exactly, do you and this other guy have a better set up or should we go back to your spot and move stuff to the cave or... I'm not entirely sure how this works, i've never done 'stranded survivor move-ins' before'." he continued, leaning with his back against the wall and crossing his arms.

 

[Chrocey]

As Delilah entered the cave that Damian and his group were set up in, she was admittedly shocked to see a girl as young as Mina. This whole tournament seemed very unfitting for a child to witness, let alone participate in. She was immediately grateful that her path crossed with theirs.

“No way…” Delilah murmured. She was excited to talk to Mina. Being as childish as she was, the bee trainer usually seemed to get along with children.

Beedrill kept his eyes on the pokemon in the room. A Gardevoir and a Lucario. Both pokemon that were renowned for being stoic and intellectual. Always aware, and trying to improve themselves. Perhaps they would all get along just fine, assuming their intentions weren’t malicious.

"What's the plan exactly, do you and this other guy have a better set up or should we go back to your spot and move stuff to the cave or... I'm not entirely sure how this works, i've never done 'stranded survivor move-ins' before'."

Moving stuff in? The enthusiastic girl wasn’t an expert on reading between the lines, but she assumed that meant she and Beedrill were already being accepted into their group. I mean, who wouldn’t accept me into their group. I’m un-bee-table! She thought.

Delilah rubbed the back of her head sheepishly and grinned after he mentioned her having a camp. “Yeah...about that. I don’t really have any formal campsite. I’ve just been dealing with things as they come along.” She pumped her fist confidently, “but that only shows my resiliency. I know how to move fast and think fast.”

The girl locked her green eyes onto Damian. There was a certain determination behind in her gaze. Behind that, however, was a hint of sadness, one that she’d never outwardly acknowledge. “I’m actually on my way to see if Alex Winston is okay. You might’ve seen him on the first day. It looked like he and his Pidgeot got hurt pretty badly.” She laughed softly, “he actually owes me a battle. I wanna get him healed up so I can kick his butt all over again.”

Delilah leaned against the rocky cave side. “As a matter of fact, I don’t really know how long I can stick around before I go searching for him again. I imagine I gotta get to him before any of those feral pokemon do…” Her words trailed off as she looked to Mina again.

As much as she wanted to find Alex, Delilah didn’t exactly want to leave this group. Not only did it seem like they would be good company, but without her around their chances of survival would surely drop a great deal. At least, that was the bee trainer’s thought process.

“On the other hand,” she said with a sigh, “maybe I can change my plan just a bit. I think the larger we make this group, the stronger it’ll be. I know a few trainers that might be lost out here too, one of them is a doctor, the other one’s this geeky kid who’s like a walking pokedex, and then Alex who’s just a total pain.” She cracked her knuckles habitually. Her eyes looked to the ground before looking at Damian once more. They seemed borderline pleading despite her tone. “Unless you guys planned on staying in this cave forever, I’d definitely like help finding my other friends. In return I’d be glad to help you guys out with whatever you need.”

 

[BurbleBurble]

Huh. That happened.

He kind of felt bad, he didn't really do much to help there. He got June to burn and distract the monstrous thing for a moment, so that meant he did something, right?

Right?

He had better things to dwell on.

Like that odd red headed woman who had walked in on the screen, Lin and her Sceptile working like clockwork to strip the fallen beast into piles of bones, hide, and meat. An exhausted Infernape, who spent all of it's power burning into the gator. The naked man who had valiantly taken a blast of water for Cassie, displaying brevity that Gerald simply watched as the new red haired woman assisted him with further assistance from a Sylveon. Speaking of, Cassie was approaching them. While June had been a bit defensive of Gerald, in the case this new person were anything like Lin, after all, he was completely undressed, and while this man did save Cassie from a high pressure Water Gun, Lin first appeared saving them from that Eevee swarm...Though the smile he emitted stated otherwise. But as a familiar face approached, her wand was stashed back in the sleeve it was stored in.

"Hey... Thanks for coming in to help. I hope I didn't interrupt your beauty sleep." Well, she wasn't guilty of that. Gerald had his own deep conscious to blame on that. He noted her bleeding lip, and how little they moved as she spoke...Maybe that Sylveon could help her out too. "You really need it." A smug grin broke out on June's face, however Gerald couldn't tell if Cassie was being sarcastic or not. She began to chuckle, so he assumed it must've been a joke, right? He began a slight chuckle as well, but a tad more reluctant, with a hint nervousness hidden behind it.

"Oh, by the way...Gerald, June, that's Salem." Salem? Interesting name. Well, if Cassie knew him, that made his move a lot more...Romantic?...He really shouldn't have went there. She called him over as well, introducing himself and his fox companion, and then Lin and her Sceptile, who was named Arrow. Apparently.

The islander approached them, still naked as ever.

"It is a pleasure to meet to you all, My name is Salem Archon, a wanderer from the Acedia Tribe of Regalo Del’Mar. I beg you forgive my state of undress." Nope! Definitely not a feral. Unless he was a very well spoken feral. Gerald nor June had ever heard of the Acedia or Regalo Del'Mar, though. Must've been one of those Regions. The niche ones that were off the beaten trail, sometimes peaked in popularity in the summer or winter, and quickly fell back into obscurity after the seasons passing.

"This is the doctor, Miss Aidinia Moon, There is another, Miss Megan from Kanto, back in our camp across the river." Well, it's always good to get names. Though Miss Moon was a little...over the top? Then again, his own hair wasn't much better, so might as well not call the kettle black, eh? Something about that second name though...had he heard of a Megan before? Hmm. Salem returned his (It was his, right?) Infernape, and got back to the conversation at hand.

"I would like to welcome you all to our small camp across the river, for some breakfast and a chance to get better acquainted. It’s not far and we have food available."

Salem's eyes swept over them all, sans the red haired doctor. Embarrassingly enough, Gerald struggled to keeps his eyes above a certain point. Curiosity was killing him, but as was his modesty. June could care less what a person looked like, and simply stared forward, only locking eyes with Salem when he looked at her.

"So what do you say, allies?"

"I'm all up for that, but first, and I mean no offence, but...could you possibly put pants on? I kind of find it hard to focus, y'know..." He let out that last part with a bit of another nervous chuckle. He didn't want to seem like that type of person...

 

[Mega Gallade X]

Damian contained a small yawn. Despite how it seemed, a lot of last night was him just laying there with his eyes shut, he awoke multiple times, and whenever he did fall asleep it was the same new nightmarish lie.

As the girl took in the very rocky scenery of the cave she went on about her own accommodations.

“but that only shows my resiliency. I know how to move fast and think fast.”

"Well, fast is good, but i'm thinking we're going to need something a little permanent for the next six days." Damian said as he pushed himself off of the wall and walked over toward the sleeping child.

“I’m actually on my way to see if Alex Winston is okay. You might’ve seen him on the first day. It looked like he and his Pidgeot got hurt pretty badly.” She laughed softly, “he actually owes me a battle. I wanna get him healed up so I can kick his butt all over again.”

The name didn't ring a bell to him at first, then she brought up the Pidgeot, his body froze beside Mina and Damian's mind flashed back to the kid that was shot out of the sky. He was sure that trainer and his pokemon were dead, but the girl seemed hopeful, and he didn't want to be a pessimist.

"Nope, I stayed in my room as soon as I got checked in. I didn't want anyone to get cold feet seeing a Champion walking around." he said gesturing in the air. It was cocky, and only half true. The other half was because Damian himself was the one that had been nervous.

Becoming Champion was so much more than 'Ooh! You're a good pokemon battler!'. Once you were the Champion of a region, a lot of it's responsibilities became yours. That mostly tended to the pokemon, territorial struggles between pokemon like Sawsbuck and Bouffalant were common, things spread out across the region. And then there was Team Plasma. They made Damian angry, which was extremely hard to do. Ever since Ghetsis stepped down as the main leader, one of the new Seven Sages took his place, arguably more hostile toward trainers than even Ghetsis had been, assaulting them and forcibly releasing their pokemon. If a pokemon chose to stay, they would kidnap it and brainwash it to serve their cause. The new leader even enlisted the aid of the Shadow Triad that was loyal to Ghetsis, Damian read the last part in the Champion's study, a room in the gym of the elite four.

Seemingly breaking from a trance he noticed Delilah was looking toward him and Mina, he wasn't sure if she had asked a question so he waited.

“Unless you guys planned on staying in this cave forever, I’d definitely like help finding my other friends. In return I’d be glad to help you guys out with whatever you need.”

Damian smiled at her, there was definitely safety in numbers. "Mina, wake up. We have to get going." he said gently pushing her shoulder. It relaxed him to think of how much Mina reminded him of Elise.

"Well, when she gets up, looks like you can lead the way." he said as he looked over toward Delilah in her contemplative stance, their eyes met and there was silence for a moment or two, he wasn't sure what to say. He smiled. It eased the tension, for him at least.

Damian looked to Orion, who had been watching the exchanges between trainers and the Lucario glared at Damian, whom had somewhat of a reputation of losing sight of a goal when females were around. His eyes continued nervously to Ecarte who was... Staring. Damian couldn't pinpoint how she felt about joining with others. He was sure she'd want to protect Mina first and foremost, this was one of the easiest ways to do it.

 

[PentheWonderful]

He had some moxy, Cassie had to give him that. Standing up with his nether regions open for all to see and yet, being completely unfazed by the eyes that graced his body. She felt a tinge of envy, fiddling subconsciously with the gash on her lip. How does one feel so comfortable in their own skin? It was then she truly learned the difference between confidence, and shamelessness. And Salem was confident.

Gerald was uncomfortable. A bit self-conscious perhaps? Cassie wanted to laugh at the thought. June didn't really give a damn. For all she knew, he was just another human. Though, 'I wonder if she's seen Gerald's?' she wondered. And Lin and Arrow were simply busying themselves.

“My name is Salem Archon, a wanderer from the Acedia Tribe of Regalo Del’Mar. I beg you forgive my state of undress.” The white haired man said in a regal, even tone, and then bowing in the same elegant, flourish manner he'd moved the night they sat quietly around the dinner table, exchanging silent conversation. The one she found strangely aristocratic.

Cassie watched the way he moved his hand to gesture to the gorgeous woman beside him, and fondly noted how it held a distinct air of exquisiteness that would place him perfectly amongst the beautiful, perfectly primped dolls sauntering about galas and balls thrown by the elite. And she has always been fond of eloquent, elegant, graceful beings. Was that why he remained in her thoughts? The wonder of his heritage?

Regalo Del'Mar... Such a foreign name in her ears. Yet it thrilled the traveler inside of her to visit it one day.

“This is the doctor, Miss Aidinia Moon. There is another, Miss Megan from Kanto, back in our camp across the river.” Cassie quirked an eyebrow, her attention now turned to the woman with the fiery mane. A doctor he says? So she'd been right about that too. Although... One would not expect that to be her profession upon first glance. Well, she supposed the term 'hot doctor' must've originated from somewhere. However, 'She seems love struck.' Cassie noted,

But then she said, "Bonjour." While tapping her fingers against her lip, and began to shift her stance slightly as to cock her hip to the side in a more relaxed position while she stood. Her brows knitting together in thought, her eyes wandered to the forest line, where their camp was. Her mind stalled for a moment, her feet ready for flight. And yet, before her muscles could react, Salem's voice stopped her.

"I would like to welcome you all to our small camp across the river, for some breakfast and a chance to get better acquainted. It’s not far and we have food available."

And yet, at the same time, another voice spoke in her head, "Lady Michaels, on behalf of Lord Kyandi, I would like to announce that you have been formally invited to the Kyandi mansion and residence to attend a farewell ball in order to celebrate the beginning of Marzipan Kyandi's Pokemon Journey."

The memory played faintly in the far reaches of her mind. Faded and corrupted. But it was still there. What was once a beautiful memory, now a distant mockery of her past mistakes. She loved to hate it. However, her lips were sealed, and a slight glance at Gerald and June showed they were politely waiting for Salem to finish. Whereas, she simply had no interest in speaking. No, she was much more interested in toying with her gashed lip.

But the feeling of eyes, certain, familiar ones quickly brought her attention back. Cassie found herself looking curiously in Salem's bright green eyes, and she lowered her hand from her lip. "So what do you say, allies?"

"I'm all up for that, but first, and I mean no offence, but...could you possibly put pants on? I kind of find it hard to focus, y'know..." Gerald finally spoke up. Cassie couldn't help the grin of amusement pulling at her lips. Mischievous, with a touch of dark humor.

"That is a very reasonable condition." She mused, and her hand was soon back on her lip, dabbing away the blood spewing from the gash using her gloved finger tips. Cassie found satisfaction from the stinging, and the faint smell of iron it produced. Her hair had mostly dried by then, thanks to the intense fire attacks it'd encountered, and they were beginning to wildly curl into her face and eyes.

Before, she had her fedora to keep it in control, but now, they were completely free to rebel. Thus, she slunk back several steps toward the tree line. One might expect her to step through and simply leave, but instead, she topped before a banyan tree and its hanging roots. They'd become quite a faithful companion in the short time she'd been trapped there, and cut three strands of its roots into a comfortable length using Maverik's rib, which she then used to tie her hair back.

The process was far from rushed. She savored every moment she was still alive and not fighting. It was times like these that you'd miss during a near death experience. At the moment, with mortal terror and death out of her head, she felt peaceful.

"It's decided then. If you dress yourself, we'll join you in your camp."

 

[Nygenn]

Location: Riverside near Camp SAM
Time: 2nd Day, Early morning
Tagging: Salem, Cassie, Lin, Aidinia, Gerald, Ajax, Lady, Arrow, Alex, June

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​

Both Cassie and the male trainer, Gerald he was called, voiced their acceptance of his invitation on the condition he dressed himself.

Salem smiled at that. He may be unfazed when it comes to his nakedness, but he certainly wasn’t planning on remaining that way, the rest of the day.

He briefly looked at the attractive huntress and her Sceptile. They hadn’t responded, and it looked like they weren’t going to either, busy as they were taking the remains of the Feraligatr apart. There was something about her, something raw, something primal. That, along with the fact she wasn’t wearing the same blacks as the rest of them, piqued his interested. ‘One of the things to inquire about over breakfast,’ he mused.

“Very well,” Salem said in response to the condition set, then jogged the few paces to the river, where he dove in with a fluency that barely disturbed the water’s surface. Mere moments later he resurfaced on the other side of the river, shooting out of the water and onto the shore like a Prinplup, or Golduck would have. He quickly found his shorts and pants, and put them on. He fastened the belt securely around his waist and clipped the new Pokeball to it, before taking the one already on it. Finally he reached down and picked up the Scyther blade which he held nonthreateningly at his side, in a reverse grip.

“I am sorry to disturb your rest buddy, but your assistance is required,” he spoke softly to the Pokeball before releasing Ajax from it.

The giant turtle yawned loudly and gave his trainer a lazy look. “We’re making new friends,” Salem explained to his Pokemon. “Could you ferry them across the river?”

The Blastoise looked incredulous for a moment, but then shrugged and slid into the water. When his trainer stepped onto his shell he pushed off and drifted across to the other shore.

The pair made sure to avoid the Feraligatr corpse when they landed. Salem half stepped off and offered a hand out to assist anyone on top of Ajax’s back.

“Ladies first?” he asked, smiling invitingly.

 

[Astralkitsune]

Lin
​

Lin watched the arrival of yet another trainer from the other camp across the river. It was the red head she had seen with the green eyed man earlier. The woman dove into the water while the battle still raged and swam headlong toward the downed male trainer headless of her surroundings. "She acts like his mate and yet he was dancing with the other one earlier. Perhaps he seeks to be like a Rhapadash stallion and desires a herd for himself."

As she was cleaning and harvesting the resources from the fallen, Lin noticed the girl heal Salem's wounds with her pokemon. "She heals the others, in the group. That one will both be targeted first and protected by all. She sniffed the air once more. "I think the green eyed male is in rutt, or perhaps he has not made a selection of mate yet. He certainly desires the two females. As Salem's eyes landed on her and he smiled at her, she narrowed her eyes and sniffed. "He desires me as well definitely a young stallion in rutt."

Lin looked down and focused back on her task ignoring all the introductions given including the ones on her behalf. She carefully cleaned the meat and cut it into hunks. Then she wrapped each hunk of meat in leaves and secured it with twined grass cord. When Lin was finally finished with all of her preparations she tossed several wrappings of meat at the trainers and then took some meat, bones, and the hide. She handed some of it to Arrow and wordlessly slipped back into the woods.

She looked at Arrow as they moved, "we shall head back to the lair to best make use of this, and then we shall return to see how the new pack fares." Arrow nodded, "two males not fight one weaker, two females may over male may not." Lin nodded in agreeance with Arrrow's observation. "Hmm four trainers not quite enough to handle the enemy. I must find more."

 

[Astralkitsune]

Mina
​

Mina yawned and opened her eyes stretching slowly. She blinked and slowly focused on Delilah, before placing her hands on the cave floor and standing up. She cocked her head to the side and giggled, "your the funny woman who ate the hot food the other day. That was really funny, your face was all read." She slowly waked over toward Damien, "where are we going now big brother."

She placed her hands behind her back and rubbed, "A stone floor is certainly not a feather bed right Ecarte." The Gardevoir nodded in response, and then locked her eyes on Delilah staring at her intently as if determining if she would be a threat or not. Her eyes glowed purple for a moment and then she relaxed. Mina shivered, "I didn't sleep well without teddy bad dreams were no fun." She then ran over and hugged Damien, "You, and Orion will protect Ecarte and I right big brother."

Ecarte turned her eyes toward, Orion. "Just remember do not talk to him." The Gardevoir shivered a little herself, as the nightmare's claws still rested on her soul after last night.

There was a loud growl that echoed in the cave. As everyone turned to stare at the source, Mina looked sheepish. "Big brother I'm hungry, when do we eat?"

 

[Chrocey]

Humility wasn’t a trait that Delilah possessed. Everything she did was on impulse, which made her come off as abrasive at times. In her world there was either good or evil, a result of one too many comic books and TV series. As long as someone was on the side of good, they were with her. Anyone else was seen as the evil she so desperately longed to fight. She’d yet to find out which side of the fence these people were on, but she believed they wound up here the same way she did, which meant they were likely with her.

“Nope, I stayed in my room as soon as I got checked in. I didn’t want anyone to get cold feet seeing a Champion walking around.”

“A champion…” the bee trainer murmured to herself. A champion named Damian Salvatore. Why did that sound so familiar? Damian Salvatore...Salvatore…

“Y-You’re the...the guy with the...and the Unova champion with news with Nate!” Delilah felt a surge of excitement course through her body so strongly that it ruined whatever coherent sentence she could muster. She now realized who was standing before her. The wide smile on her face put that excitement on a broad display. “I saw you on TV! I didn’t know that you were coming here.”

Delilah crossed her arms and let out a fake cough as she tried to contain the thrill in her chest. “I mean...I’m just surprised you decided to show up. I’m sure when you heard that I, the great Bumble Bee, was attending the tournament you were concerned that your reputation might be sullied.” Although the she was keeping her voice calm and collected now, her eyes showed an excitement that looked like her head was going to explode into fanfare and fireworks. “I may not be a champion like yourself, but I have a reputation among the people in the Hoenn region as the ‘Champion Defeater’...or the ‘Champion Stinger’..” she looked up in thought, trying to think of a better bee-themed title for herself before waving her hand dismissively. “One of those things. I don’t keep track of the names other people give me. Just know that I’m a force to be reckoned with!”

The confidence on Delilah’s expression and body language was palpable. It was as though she actually believed half of the things she boasted about. This whole tournament was twisted. Many in this situation would likely find that clinging onto such confidence was suicidal. Regardless, Delilah never stopped looking towards the positive outcomes of both her own skills and the skills of others...or so she thought. She wasn’t so much an optimist as she was blind to pessimism. A choice that she’d unconsciously made many years ago.

After Damian agreed that they would leave with her, she felt her heart skip a beat. A champion and her traveling in the same group? Team Rocket would never stand a chance against them.

“Great!” she exclaimed, “I can’t wait to-”

Her sentence was cut short as the loud sound of her growling stomach reverberated through the cave. Her blushing was made subtle by her dark skin, but even so her cheeks seemed to take on a more vibrant shade.

“Uh...first thing’s first, we need to get some fuel in our stomachs before we go buzzing off into the green beyond.” Her eyes moved across the cave as she tried to take vague inventory of their belongings. “By the looks of it, you guys don’t really have much in the way of food or water.” Delilah held up the coconut she’d almost forgotten she was holding. “Beedrill picked up a few berries, and there’s a little bit of water left. I’d be happy to share, but there isn’t really enough to go around. We’d have to pick some up along the way.”

Beedrill looked to his trainer for a split second before looking back at Orion and Ecarte. That small glimpse he’d given to her telegraphed a crack in his defenses. He worried for her health, both physically and mentally. While he wasn’t aware of the fate of her acquaintances from the resort, he simultaneously didn’t want Delilah to lead these people on an errand to chase ghosts.

No matter her decision, he would quietly follow along. Practicality could be debated until they were blue in the face, but loyalty was unconditional. Beedrill learned a long time ago not to question her goals when it wasn’t necessary.

All conversation was put on hold when Mina awoke. Even Delilah had shifted her gaze to the young girl. With a chuckle, she rubbed the back of her head nervously as the girl mentioned the spicey competition she had at the resort. “Yep! That was me alright. I’m glad you remembered.” Truth be told, it was the first time in a long time someone actually seemed to recall something about Delilah, even if it was just a day and a half ago. Though it wasn’t exactly a glorious memory, it was still flattering nonetheless. “It’s nice to make your acquaintance, Mina, you can call me Bumble Bee, or just Bee for short.”

Her dark green eyes returned to Damian. “The same offer applies to you, Damian. I know you prefer your regular name, but I think nicknames are just as cool! We should all come up with some on our journey.” There was that hint of anticipation in her eyes again.

“Let’s go get some grub! Mina can have the berries Beedrill picked out, since it just doesn’t feel right to eat in front of a child that hasn’t eaten yet.” She pushed the coconut against Damian’s chest for him to take hold of. “I’ll leave it up to you, though. I’m kinda new to this group, so feeding small children probably shouldn’t fall under the repertoire of my responsibilities. Beedrill knows his way around what’s edible in a forest, but you can ultimately decide for Mina whether or not you trust his judgement. I mean, you are her big brother, which means you know what’s best for her.” She smiled warmly as she thought about her own brother.

“I know that for a fact.”

 

[Curvykitten]

Name:Lily Matherson
Location: Woods,
Tagging: Dynami, Floyd?
Lily sang as she and Pangoro moved through the thick grouping of trees. In truth, she had real destination in mind. But simply hiding away from the world just wasn't an option. Even if part of her wanted to lie down and sleep for days, if only to heal up a bit. Sadly the situation the pair found themselves in left little room for must rest or peace of mind. Lily needed to find her friends, and if possible find a way to end the horrible experiment that was going on.

She had been debating the best possible course of action. And finding others still seemed like their strongest idea. Taking on however many team rocket members were on the island alone seemed like a bad idea in the making. Specially with the rest of her team locked up. Dynami and Lily were a hell of a team, but even they had limits.

The songs end slipped past her lips as the pair entered a small clearing. The sound of breaking twigs and rustling leaves caused Dynami to pause. The grass held firmly between his teeth twitched just before a Seviper's tail came swinging outward. Dynami's natural instinct for danger gave him enough time to jump out of the way, the Sharp blade skating over his chest and giving a bit of a trip.

Lily ground her teeth and tried to hang on, the pain of the sudden movement clear on her face. Still she took a deep breath and tapped Dynami's shoulder, "Set me down so you can fight.' she instructed Dynami as she moved her legs, already prepared to jump down his arm as it moved to grab her. The Seviper didn't give them much time before coming at the pair again. This time Dynami dodged and grabbed the base of the tail before beginning to drag the large snake like pokemon into the open.

The two began to battle as Lily stumbled back, but as she did the sound of movement caught her attention. The shadowed form was all she saw before a second Seviper suddenly leapt forward and tried to take a nice bit out of her. Lily screamed and fell back as her leg gave; she scrambled back and grabbed the closest object she could find to defend herself with. Lily had no intention of killing the creature but, she wasn't about to let it eat her either. "Don't do this...please." she spoke before swinging the branch upward and forcing the pokemon back. Dynami growled as he wrestled with Seviper that had first attacked them, his eyes distracted for only a moment as Lily screamed. But it was enough of a moment to allow the Seviper to land a strike against his arm.

Blood stained the large Pangoro's arm, but the protective pokemon ignored the pain. Lily on the other hand felt a rush of guilt and worry as she saw her friend hurt because of her reactions to the situation. Lily knew she needed to pull it together, even if she felt weaker than a baby ditto at the moment. "I don't want to hurt you, but I can't let you hurt me either." Lily tried to speak to the raging Seviper before her but was not surprised when her words were utterly useless. The pokemon's only response was to hiss and lunge its body towards the young trainer. Lily swung the branch in defense, the pokemon's teeth clamping down around the large branch. Lily struggled to push back against the beast, her nails digging into the wood hard enough to nearly break away. She fought for control, and her life. This wasn't the end; Lily had no intention of allowing it to be.

 

[BurbleBurble]

Well, that islander got his pants on. Not before swimming in the waters that weren't a murky crimson, though that could be attributed to the fact his clothes were on the other side. Perhaps Gerald could focus more without...wait, was that another Pokeball on his belt?

Did he have two Pokemon?

Odd. Even odder, he picked up what appeared to be a piece of what Gerald assumed to be a Scyther claw. What was left of one, crudely tied to a stick, at least. And then he let out what was in the second Pokeball, a drowsy looking Blastoise.

Not a common Pokemon, but definitely a powerful one. With some words from Salem that Gerald couldn't discern, set off across the water, kind of like a row boat, but one he could feel somewhat safe on. However, June could not share the same sentiment. Water types made her wary, as all Fire types were by nature, plus she wasn't completely trusting of Salem still.

As the tanned charmer landed his turtle water craft a shore, he dismounted a foot off the behemoth reptile, and offered a hand for someone to climb aboard.

"Ladies first?"

No one moved. Not Cassie, June, or Gerald. For a few moments, Salem's offer was not taken up. The red haired man let out a sigh as he became aware of what he needed to do. Gerald grabbed Salem's hand and was pulled aboard. His face was red, not to far off from his hair color. Whether he was embarrassed or flustered was hard to tell, he barely knew himself. He didn't even say anything once atop the Blastoise. Just offered a handout to June, who was much more happy to take his hand than Salem's. Her clawed feet made slight rapping noises as they fell on to the shell.

This left Cassie on the shore. He took a moment to glance at her and then to Salem. He cleared his throat, and ironically offered a hand out to her. "Uh...need a hand up?"

 

[PentheWonderful]

Cassie watched with a facade of amusement when Salem dove into the river to retrieve his clothes. Simply to hide her disgust at the thought of swimming through a pool of virus infected blood that was still lingering, not quite coaxed into the river's flow. If Ace, her dear Swanna, were here, he'd be absolutely mortified.

And so, she simply remained where she stood beneath the banyan tree with that hollow smile plastered across her lips when Salem crossed back atop Ajax. Although, she did step through the curtain of hanging roots in order to avoid the bag of Feraligatr meat Lin threw at her.

Salem offered his hand, but she had no intention of touching it after what he'd done. 'Even Lin left.' She thought conclusively, though she knew that was probably not the reason she'd decided to take off, and simply resorted to squinting at the hand still being offered to them.

Ladies first, he said. But there was no way she was taking his hand first. Actions were dangerous. She did not want to put herself somewhere her female mind would be vulnerable. Even though she was ever so tempted to board the Blastoise's back, the way she had been unable to do the previous day.

A slight sigh from Gerald snapped her back, however. Her silver irises watching in genuine amusement as the redhead took the islander's offer to be pulled aboard Ajax. His face was flushed. 'Salem Archon, what a fascinating power you possess.' Cassie thought in amusement. 'How dangerous, as well.'

And as someone who'd had her fair share of relationships, she knew this better than most would expect.

'All the more reason to wait.' Cassie told herself.

She watched Gerald pull June on board and she remained, lingering beneath the canopy to peer between the curtain of hanging roots. In a moment's notice, she could've turned around and simply... Left. And yet she stayed. She watched Aidinia climb aboard and soon became the only person left on shore.

Gerald offer his hand that time.

Well, she supposed lugging a meat bag alone through the jungle was a bad idea.

And so, she stepped out of the curtain of roots and strode silently down the river shore. Her steps were long, and her dainty feet barely made a sound each time they touched the gravel. She remembered that was how she used to move, and recalled just how much she missed it. The control, the poise.

The confidence.

Once by the river's edge, she placed her slender gloved hand in Gerald's and hoisted herself onto Ajax. She sat beside the redheaded man, and glanced over curiously to the other side. There was a prospect of crossing over that... Felt daunting on her, and she soon found her silver eyes glanced back to their side of the river, where their strangler fig camp sat.

Pulled her legs up to her chest, Cassie muttered silently, "It'd better still be there when we get back." And soon allowed her voice to fall into a whisper. "I don't want to have to start over again."

But the true meaning behind it would remain hidden, and lost to unwitting ears.

 

[Nygenn]

Name: Salem Archon
Location: Camp SAM, riverside
Tagging: Aidinia, Megan, Gerald, June, Cassie
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Salem’s smile widened when the red-haired Gerald was the first to take his offer and climb on board. If he was surprised by the turn of events, he did not show it.

After Aidinia and June stepped onto the Blastoise shell, all eyes turned towards Cassie. The huntress and her Sceptile had just upped and left without a word, leaving Cassie the last person on shore.

Salem watched her intently as she sauntered over to him, her eyes never leaving his, and then she walked right past him and deliberately reached for Gerald’s hand.

‘This woman,’ he thought, his smile widening. He tapped his foot twice and Ajax carefully turned around and crossed the river again. There, Salem jumped to shore and helped Aidinia down. He watched Gerald assist the others before thanking the tired Blastoise and recalling him to his Pokeball.

“The camp is just around this bend and then further up the hill towards the tree line,’ he said as he made his way to the front of group.

When he passed Cassie he made a point of it to not look at her, but she would not be able to miss his grin.

Salem led the entourage along the path towards the camp site, where they walked into Megan at the edge.

“Ah, Miss Megan,” her greeted her somewhat guarded, not wanting to spook the traumatized girl. “I am pleased to see you up and about. These are our new friends.”

He stepped aside and gestured towards the people behind him. “These are Sir Gerald, Miss June, and Cassie.” Salem motioned at each as he made the introductions, then turned and gestured at Megan.

“Everyone, this is Miss Megan. She worked the Kanto desk at the reception two days ago, before she got dragged into this ordeal.”

 

[Mega Gallade X]

“I saw you on TV! I didn’t know that you were coming here.”

The words caught his attention as he stood from Mina's side. He'd been on television a few times, overseeing tournaments in Unova, charity events, and once in Sinnoh for happening to be there at the right time when some nutcase named Saturn and his thugs had attempted to steal a relic from a museum. Damian stopped him and the battle was caught on the news. He wondered just how much news of other Champions traveled.

As Delilah went on about how vastly known her ventures were in her region Damian couldn't tell if she was being funny about the situation or believed these things actually happened. 'Champion stinger' she said at one point. Surely one of the Champions she supposedly defeated would have offered her their place if she was that strong. The more she spoke the more holes he was beginning to poke and additional questions he had but she seemed excited, he figured he'd humor her and not kill her vibe.

"Oh of course, actually I heard a few key people would be here, ones I had always been interested in meeting, and battling. The Awe-Inspiring Stinger was of course, on this list." he said, gesturing toward her with a bright smile. 'There, now if she was kidding, she'll think you were playing along and you're clever, and if she wasn't her feelings wont be hurt that you've never heard of her.' he thought to himself as he looked back toward Mina. Looking again toward Delilah however she seemed distraught, he couldn't tell if he'd said something wrong or hadn't expected him to be so kind about it.

Then her green eyes lit up as he mentioned that Mina and himself would accompany her back toward her setup. He couldn't tell if it was the thought of more people so she wouldn't be alone or if she had high expectations of him because he was a Champion. Being in the wilderness with his pokemon was easy, enough diversity among them to survive harsh conditions. However only being here with Orion didn't do much to help him other than the obvious fights with wild pokemon he would encounter. He was incredibly grateful but all in all he was hoping everyone would make it out okay. Suddenly the malfunctioned pokeball in his pocket seemed to weigh more. His knowledge that a trainer and his Raticate were dead somewhere in the wilderness cause him to go stern for a moment. He would make sure people knew what happened here.

“Great!” she exclaimed, “I can’t wait to-”

Her stomach growled. Damian looked over and had to concentrate on not laughing, instead he smirked, looking down so it wasn't obvious.

Mina was up now, the two getting acquainted. As Delilah called Damian Mina's brother he wasn't sure if she was doing it for the child or because that's what she thought they were. Regardless, the whole situation seemed lighthearted, definitely stress relieving from the environment of the island. At the moment, he wondered who else was out there. How many people had entered the tournament? Did everyone get dropped out here? He pushed the thought a little further into his mind. If all those people were out here struggling to survive, there was no sense in worrying about them until he found others.

As Mina hugged Damian asking when they were going to eat, he felt a little sheepish, he didn't know the first thing about gathering food or hunting for it, then again, finding meat probably wouldn't be incredibly difficult since a majority of the creatures on the island were looking for them.

“Let’s go get some grub! Mina can have the berries Beedrill picked out, since it just doesn’t feel right to eat in front of a child that hasn’t eaten yet.”

"Well, she's not exactly an infant, she knows how to eat. Here Mina, take these" he said handing the berries to her from the coconut. When he thought about it, he wasn't too hungry. Damian's eating habits were much like that of his sleeping habits. Bad.

As she explained how Beedrill knew which berries were good and which weren't, Damian made a follow motion toward Orion, and assumed Ecarte would pick up the signal. "I guess that means we play follow the Beedrill." he said with a smile, looking toward Delilah.

 

[SUPERRNOVAA]

The singing abruptly stopped. A few short moments of silence followed before a daunting scream took its place. Floyd glanced at the large supply of ripe mangoes in his arms before dropping them all on to the grass beneath him. If the scream was another person, then they were undoubtedly in trouble. Floyd paused for a moment and contemplated running. Was it really worth it? Risking his life again for a person who could very well be dead by now? Swift nudged his trainer in the leg, snapping him back into reality.

'Damn it all!'

Floyd took a large stride forward, but winced at the pain that jolted throughout his body, he was definitely in no condition to run. Despite this, he endured the pain and bolted directly through the forest, leaping over small ditches and stray branches on the ground, Swift rolling behind him. He was a fairly fast runner and he had learned from his mistake the previous day. Pay attention to the ground beneath him, the worst possible thing that could happen was another Spinarak incident. These rabid Pokemon showed absolutely no mercy.

A large, pointed tail blade obliterated a shrubbery Floyd was about to jump over, revealing a silver haired girl with oddly colored eyes fighting off a Seviper. A much more menacing Pangoro stood in a small clearing in front of the pair, also fending off the another Snake Pokemon. Floyd unintentionally slammed his head into the Seviper that was attacking Lily due to the momentum from his running, causing it to jerk sideways and on to the ground to her side. The young trainer fell to the ground and landed on Lily's legs. Swift acted of his own accord and didn't even bother waiting for Floyd directions, he had dealt with Seviper before.

'Immobilize the stingers and take it from there.'
The words of his trainer echoed in his mind. Swift shot out a beam of ice at the Seviper the Pangoro was holding, it barely missed the panda Pokemons head as it reached its target, the Seviper's sharp tail. The tail froze over and the Seviper turned its attention to Swift, who took a few steps back in response to its deathly gaze. Floyd struggled and tried to get up but ended up falling on his backside. It took him a moment to realize what was happening but his cheeks flushed red when he did.

"Sorry, Sorry, Sorry, Sorry!!! I was only trying to help!" Floyd rapidly apologized to the girl he had landed on, panting between each word he spoke. This was no time for apologies though, the Seviper next to Lily had regained its posture and its target was now the boy who violently headbutted it in the face. Swift turned his attention to Floyd, who was probably gonna be minced by the knife-like fangs if he didn't act swiftly. The Starmie fired off another Ice beam at the Seviper next to Lily. The beam smacked the Seviper in the middle part of its body, coating it in ice. This sheet of ice was quickly shattered however as the Seviper took a note from Floyd's book and used Headbutt on itself.

Swift was about to rush over and help his trainer, but instead he was hit with a Fury Cutter from behind, this sent him flying into a tree only a few yards away. The Seviper that the Pangoro was holding had broken loose of its grip and targeted the Starmie.

As the water type slid down and hit the dirt beneath him, the two Seviper's slowly approached, gearing up for the kill.

 

[AesgirFenrir]

"Well, doc," said Shade, "if you started this, do you have any ideas on how to reverse it? I assume you heard the mad scientist and how he plans to do this to a major city? There are a lot more lives at stake here than just the trainers here on this island."

Shade turned to Anubis and gently rubbed his dark coat. "Well, that's another one I owe you, partner. I'd be in the ground several times over if not for you."

"He looked back to the doctor. "Thanks again doc. I've been shot, stabbed, bitten, and clawed, but this is my first time being gored."

 

[PentheWonderful]

There was a strange calm.

Something almost solemn. Or rather, she was the only one to be. Cassie couldn't move her eyes away from the Feraligatr corpse. Now nothing but bone, lonely ivory upon the riverside. Her grip around her legs only ever tightened, her back hunching further to curl into the non-embrace. She closed her eyes as they drifted lazily across the lake, playing back the memory of Lady's successful Attract on the beast. He'd been enamored with her. He forgot all about the world around him and fought his savage instincts to tear into her, and yet, within his final moments, she barely bat an eyelash.

But perhaps all he really wanted was a chance. A do over. But he was consumed by the fire of his heart, and in the end, it killed him.

Was he truly a monster on the inside? No, she didn't think so. In a way, he had been more like her than anyone or anything she knew. And if he was a monster, then, what did that make her? Perhaps, she was simply fooling herself into seeing things that weren't really there again.

'I don't want to end like him.'

By that time, another hand had been offered to her. Once again Gerald's. Cassie wondered how long they'd arrived, but decided it didn't matter. Instead, she simply took his hand, slid off the smooth surface of Ajax's shell, and gazed into his eyes in gratitude before he was returned to his ball.

“The camp is just around this bend and then further up the hill towards the tree line," She could see the white haired man make his way to the front of the group, and she could simply see how wide his grin was, even with his face turned away. 'How?' She found herself, yet again wondering. 'How are you so happy?'

The group soon moved along, and Cassie trailed far behind them, simply to take in all the towering greens that made her feel smaller than an ant, the strands of sunlight, so fine and thin through the wild evergreens, and the smells; fresh soil and decomposing leaves. It was no different from the forest she'd traversed before, and yet, she still couldn't help the feeling that it was different. Somehow.

Her feet. She could feel them blistering from their bareness. The faint stinging of irritated cuts and sharp pains of stepping on yet another root or rock or crumbling leaf. And yet, she forced them on. The pain, made her remember she was still alive. So, she needed to live.

The untamed wild eventually shifted to man made settlement. Cassie could see shelters and a fire. Did Salem build all this by himself?

“Ah, Miss Megan,” Cassie hadn't even noticed the quiet girl standing quite closeby. She was getting slow. Although, she couldn't help but not the slight change of tone in Salem's voice. It had much more restraint, perhaps worry, and she did not like it one bit. It hid the warmth his deep voice held, and it was terribly missed. “I am pleased to see you up and about. These are our new friends.”

He turned slightly to gesture toward them. Ever as elegant. “These are Sir Gerald, Miss June, and Cassie.”

Her eyes widened slightly. There it was again. The slight change of tone in his voice. The warmth she missed had returned in tenfold, and she would be lying if she couldn't hear the odd... Amusement in it. Dare she say, fondness. Her eyes flicked upwards to watch his face. Observing closely how his lips quirked with confidence when he spoke, the sincerity in his eyes. But also the complete aloofness it held. And she questioned him, not just on the way he'd said their introductions, but what he'd said. 'Cassie.' Not Miss Cassie, nor Miss Cassandra. Just... 'Cassie.'

“Everyone, this is Miss Megan. She worked the Kanto desk... Two days ago... Dragged...”

His voice slowly faded away, her vision a blur when her thoughts took her deeper into her mind. For a moment, she wondered what was happening. But then she realized her feet had been moving, and she was moving further away from everyone.

Cassie stopped.

All she could see were the towering trees which bordered the clearing. Her hand reached up, and she pressed it against her temple. Turning, she could see where she'd stepped, somehow, with a map her eyes had recorded. She'd walked all the way to the other side of the clearing, or rather, circled. She'd walked past Salem, and Megan, and walked by the edge, remaining as far as she could from the bonfire burning close to the shelters. She realized it was a stranger's home.

But she had to stick around, or she wouldn't have a chance. A chance at survival, and a chance at living.

Compulsively fiddling with her glove, she murmured, "Lovely establishment." Though she felt completely out of place, and the isolation was clear in her eyes.

 

[Astralkitsune]

Nevashi’s Nightmare​

Dr. Nevashi looked at Shade and cupped his chin in thought. “Possibly, although I would need to see the current strand they are using and their gene recombination sequence. Also I would need access to a full medical research lab.” Erejast held up a hand to stifle a yawn, “goodness me it seems my age is showing.” He stood up and ran a hand through his long hair, “Well officer, it has been a horridly long day and I can certainly use some beauty sleep. So let us debate complex viral theory in the morning over a nice salad and some tea shall we.” The Dr. pulled out his pokeball, “come now Kiwi deary time to take a nap.” He recalled the Togepi into the ball and lay down some leaves on the cave floor. Satisfied with his makeshift bed, the Dr. lay down and was asleep in minutes. His eyes gently shut as he pined for hair conditioner and some eyeliner.



A dreamscape of myriad rainbow colors swirled around as Dr. Nevashi danced. Then the colors spun in a whirlwind and dropped the Dr. into a dark void. As a scene began to take shape around him. The scene of a five year old boy wearing his mama’s red velvet scarf, standing in her high heels (which were much too big for him), and crudely applying a tube of lipstick preening in front of a tall floor length mirror. “Looking good hot stuff just careful with the blush. Wait I remember this day….”



The scene all together was rather comical and the five year old looked adorable. The tranquility and light nature was shattered with the bedroom door being slammed open violently. Major Sudir Kumar stood in the door frame like a towering thundercloud. This was a man who had three purple hearts, two medals of valor, and six different commendations. He had fought in over thirteen off the book conflicts and been written off as dead twice. Right now he looked down on his son with the wrath of Moltres itself. “No not him.. not now.” The boy cringed and tried to shrink further into the clothes he wore. Sudhir spoke with a voice used to barking out orders to hardened men of battle. “Wipe that shit off your face right now boy and take that crap off. You looked like an Arceus damned fruit cake pansy. No son of mine is going to look like that! He stormed over and ripped the scarf off the young boys next. Now get dressed, we are going to teach you how to be a real man.

The rainbow of colors spun around once more and a seven year old boy stands in front of a playground. In front of him is a larger nine year old boy who seems to be trying to pick a fight. “No more spinning I would like to get off the memory merry go round please.” The older freckled boy let out a sneer, “Hey faggot we saw you putting hair bows in your hair and preening in front of the mirror in the bathroom.” A seven year old Nevashi just smiled, “Well if you like looking at my ass in the bathroom so much all you had to do was ask.” The older boy snarled and threw a punch at Nevashi. The boy easily sidestepped the awkward blow and swept the older boys legs out from under him while using both arms to guide him to the ground. “Oh, my you seem to have tripped.” The older boy grunted as he picked himself up off the ground looking around, “yea I tripped, you’re lucky faggot I don’t feel like wasting the effort today.” Then he ran off toward the school. Nevashi smiled and began walking toward the road when he stopped dead and his smile faded. Sudhir was standing their and he had a glower that could melt steel on his face. The boy ducked his head and hurried his steps. “When you put an enemy down boy.” Sudhir got in his face, “you finish the fucking job boy! Make sure he does not get back up again, and you damn sure don’t ever turn your back on him!”



Once more spinning colors and a reshaping of scene takes place. “Just how many stops does the rainbow train have today.” Thunderbolt High school home of the all star Raichu’s football team. An eighteen year old boy, with stunning features and an athletic build is celebrating a championship victory with his buddies. A round black and white ball sits beside him engraved with the Racihu’s names. They are all drinking down on a beach in front of a roaring bonfire fire, laughing and having a good time. (feels weird to call him by first name) Erejast wandered away from the rest of the group and walked along the beach whistling a tune under the full moon. He stopped and stared out into the ocean as if seeking answers to life itself. The boy’s solitary contemplation was interrupted by the sound of derisive laughter. “Well look what we have here a lost little girl wandering alone on the beach.”



Erejast sighed and his eyes narrowed in annoyance before he turned around to confront the source of the laughter. Even with his hair cut shorter the young man was occasionally mistaken for a woman due to his build, and the way he sometimes carried himself when he thought he was alone. As Erejast turned around he immediately noticed five young men dressed in black jackets with an Arbock engraved on the back. A weasely man with slicked black hair turned toward a nineteen year old with dyed red hair and an Arbock tattoo on his neck. Hey cobra, “I don’t think that’s a chick man.” The red haired leader blinked several times and rubbed his eyes also being somewhat drunk himself. “How dare you trick me pretty boy, this is going to be a bad night for you. Still it could be a girl fellas why don’t we make sure.” The whole group laughed menacingly.



Erejast narrowed his eyes once more and then moved like the tide itself crashing down. He kicked sand into the right boys eye while lunging forward and driving his elbow into the nose of the leader. Their was a bloody crunching sound as cartilage gave way to force and bone, the tell, tell signs of a broken nose. Before the other boys could even react he side stepped and thrust his palm into the weasly boys sternum with enough force to send him to the sand. Finally one of the gang a tall blonde haired twenty year old reacted. He swung for the back of Erejast’s head with a pair of brass knuckles on his fist. The blow whipped through empty air as his target had smoothly ducked under the blow. Erejast stood up quickly and trapped the other gang members arm between his shoulder and then he grabbed and twisted pulling downward suddenly. There was a sickening crack and broken bone pierced skin, followed by a loud scream of pain. Erejast let the young man’s arm go, as he slowly turned toward the last two with a sadistic look in his eye and a bloodthirsty smile on his face. He spoke slowly and sarcastically, “anyone else want to see if I am a girl.” The last two standing gang members turned white as sheets and ran as quickly as they could down the beach. Erejast slowly walked over toward the gang leader who was still lying on the ground with both hands over his shattered nose. The highschool boy grinned down wickedly at his fallen opponent before slowly placing one foot still in his cleets on the young man’s groin. Slowly he applied pressure, “Still think I look like a girl.” With each word he leaned in a little more accompanied by screams from the former gang leader. His father’s voice just kept echoing in his head “Make sure they don’t get back up, finish the fucking job boy!” With each mental word he leaned in a little father accompanied by the gang leaders screams.



Colors swirl and a void opens drawing in the Dr. to his next memory scene. “Please now, that’s quite enough seeing that guy. Lets not go any further he’s not welcome to the party anymore.” Still the dream was uncaring and images began to swim by in the void. First was an eighteen year old Erejast standing in front of a recruiter’s office, with his father proudly standing behind. Another scene of Erejast blazing through basic training and then special forces training. The swirling void finally picks a spot and drops into a full scene. The young man sitting in the briefing room with the rest of his elite unit is around twenty two years of age, and sharpening a combat knife. The voice of the officer starts to become clearer, “heavily armed insurgents, anti government radicals armed with captured ordinance, stealth operation, off the books, retrieve the hostage. The scene jumps forward again and the unit is sitting in the back of a plane laughing and joking. Suddenly the sound of an explosion and the plane rocks violently, then it begins a rapid descent. Erejast unhooks his harness rolls and leaps out the back free falling for a ways before opening a shoot quite close to the ground. Before completely making the ground he unhooks his shoot. Gunfire tears through the air and he hits the ground in a roll, coming to his feet and smoothly throwing a knife into the hand of the unlucky gunner. He calmly walks over to the man and plants another knife into his other hand and effectively pinning him to a tree. “Ok we are getting to the R rated part folks and I am too young to watch this.” Erejast begins to torture the man with more knives while extracting Intel about the camp.



The scene jumps again and an several armed individuals dressed in red and black walk around an encampment. Off to the side a teenage boy dressed in the same black and red and carrying an assault rifles lights up a cigarette at the jungles edge. The boy doesn’t even have a chance to scream as a hand snakes around his mouth and a razor sharp knife blade delivers death, spilling his life blood on the ground from a slit throat. Erejast stands over his corpse and motions to the other surviving men in his unit. A perfectly formed assault is carried out and soon bullets, blades and blood are flying through the air as the body count rises. Erejast carves through men like they were made of paper as his units cuts through the encampment. Finally he blows the lock on a security door and lights floods in on a bound and gagged, blonde headed preteen. The girl looks up at the blood soaked smiling young man before her and whimpers before she realizes that it is a rescue. After the final cries of death are heard as the unit waits for the chopper evac, Erejast looks at the scene before him. He had seen many like it although, when he pulls back the mask on some of the insurgents he notices the faces of women and boys looking back at him.



The scene jumps once more and Erejast and his unit are marching through a friendly base with the whispers of the other soldiers drifting through the air about them. “That’s the black scythe unit, they have the highest kill ratio of any unit in the last fifty years. I heard those guys are insane they take the most suicidal missions on purpose and leave no witnesses. I heard they have over twenty five successful black ops missions. Twenty five? I heard fifty. Whose that girly looking kid in the front. Shh dude are you insane that’s Erejast Nevashi, he is only twenty two and they say he has over two-hundred and fifty confirmed kills alone. I heard five-hundred and they say he always smiles when he is killing. He prefers those blades of his, they call him the Smiling Blade. The unit made their barracks and Erejast headed towards the bathroom calmy. As soon as he shut the doors, his body started shaking and he threw up in the bathroom toilet. Visions of the boys face just kept floating through his head. “I will never forget his face or what I have done. Can we end this now please and move on to a more peaceful future images.” The young man hangs his head in the sink shoulders heaving, and then a slow laughter is heard. “Well that’s not right, why is their laughter?” The laughter became louder and darker as the young Erejast slowly looked up into the mirror. He was laughing menacingly and his eyes were solid pools of black. “Whoa what the fuck, that’s not me.” “Oh but I am you Erejast.” The young man smiles and then the scene fades out.



Dr. Nevashi stands on a green field with his hair and makeup done looking around. “Well this is certainly a better change of scenery, now can we get to the happy music and the beautiful men please.” Cold laughter permeates the scene as the grass dies and the sky darkens. Footsteps are heard behind the doctor who turns slowly. The doctor sees himself only standing in his old military clothes and holding two combat knives, smiling coldly. “No.. you are long gone a distant memory, your not me anymore.” The figure laughs, “I will always be a part of you Erejast. You can’t run from your past forever. You will not survive this Island.” He continues to smile slowly, “but I will.” The smiling Erejast closes the gap quickly with the Dr. and puts a blade to his throat. He whispers, “I am coming back.” The blade slices deep.



Dr.Nevashi jerked awake and to his feet, “No, no, no!” The Dr. ran out of the cave running a hand through his hair. “That’s not me anymore, not anymore.” Distracted and upset as he was, Erejast missed the exposed root and tripped going over the side of a steep hill. “Oh this is really going to hurt.” The Dr. tumbled end over end down the hill picking up speed until he hit the bottom and there was a loud impact of his head hitting a tree. The Dr. lay there in the jungle unconscious.

 

[Loziana]

Before boarding the beautiful Ajax, Aidinia gathered the meat so carefully prepared by Lin. She understood that Lin for what ever reason was trying to ensure their survival and she wasn't about to snub good food. After gathering together all the packages that were left, she took Salem's hand.

Aidinia knew she needed to work on Cassie's lip and check for other wounds but it would have to wait until they were across the river at camp. The entire morning was swirling in her head. With the adrenaline finally wearing itself out of her system, the wounds from her training with Savior began to throb. Her ribs ached and it hurt to breath. Her face was swelling and she could tell soon she wouldn't be able to see out of the shiner on her right eye. It was worth it though if she could earn his loyalty.

The additions to their small camp were good, more people meant safety in numbers as well as less time spent gathering food and water and more time gathering the others together. Aidinia wasn't sure how many people there were left to find. She hated the thought that maybe they were all that were left. Her focus mostly served right now on keeping her mind off her dreams from the night before, and off the body of Salem Archon. Aidinia approached Cassie and looked at her lip closely, "If you'd like I can have Alex heal that for you, Cassie. It's very nice to meet you by the way." Aidinia looked up seeming hopeful that the girl would see her as a friend and not a rival.

Megan had gathered a bit more food and water to the camp. This made her soup for lunch all the easier to prepare. So while the others prepared to eat breakfast, with the aid of Megan, Aidinia began lunch/dinner. After getting the vegetable and gator soup on the boil, the smells of the camp took on a homey atmosphere. Aidinia made a sweetened berry mix over some thickened coconut milk. It was almost the consistency of pudding and tasted similar to a very sweet, tropical yogurt. She shared these with the camp and tried to strike up conversations about childhood camping trips and sleep overs.

"These parfaits remind me of a pudding cup we made at camp every year. Girls always argued over which fruits we should be allowed to bring. Strawberries and banana almost always won. I always wanted pineapple and banana with coconut and walnuts. I always had them in college as a breakfast in my dorm to make up for not getting them then. What were some of your favorite foods?" Aidinia asked as she tried to make small talk around the camp.

 

[Curvykitten]

Name:Lily Matherson
Location: Woods,
Tagging: Dynami, Floyd?
Lily struggled to hold back the incoming attack, venom glistening of the long dagger like fangs that threatened to tear into her chest. She could feel its warm breath washing over her skin as it pressed ever closer. The bark on the branch she was using to keep it at bay cracking as the snake's mouth attempted to clamp down on it.

Lily could feel her heart racing, fear seeping into every pore as the thought of how this could end flashed through her mind. She felt weak, her muscle screamed for rest as her arms shook from the effort she was exerted. But still she fought, as giving in simply wasn't an option.

Suddenly Lily felt the weight of the Seviper vanish as another person came to her defense. At least it seemed that way as they head butted the large creature. It seemed like an odd way to go after a pokemon like Seviper but it worked none the less. The stolen moment gave Lily a chance to breath, despite her legs momentarily becoming pinned beneath the boy. She winced in pain, blood trailing down her thigh as her cut once again opened. It was hard to move, but she pushed back with her hands, her breath catching as pain echoed through her lithe frame.

She tried to speak, but could hardly drag a breath inward past her clenched teeth. Flyod's apology would have to wait, as their current situation took precedence. Lily scrambled to her feet, adrenaline becoming the only thing that was keeping her going at that moment as she lifted the large branch struck the closest Seviper.

The branch connected with the back of its head, causing it to wobble a bit. The dazed pokemon turned as Lily let out a frustrated cry. The last burst of strength had her swinging the branch upward, once more connecting with the head of the pokemon. It wobbled before collapsing to the ground alive but unconscious.

As the other snake turned, the loud hiss eerily cutting through the air became the only warning as it lunged towards Lily. Dynami was already on the move though, the sight of his friend and trainer in her current state pushing his anger over the edge. The large bear pokemon gripped hold of the Seviper's tail. It's long body dragged back as Dynami preformed a Storm Throw with deadly precision and strength. The sound of the snake's body slamming back onto the ground was almost sickening. Lily's voice was cut short by her lack of breath, her protest missed as the Seviper fell limp against the ground.

"No....Dynami...why....this is..." she shook her head and fell to her knees beside the Seviper. Shaking hands gently reached out as the poor pokemon struggled to breath. Blood trailed down from its nose, "Sev....per...Se" it struggled as Lily felt tears burning her eyes. "This is wrong, this all so wrong.' she spoke between gasps breaths. Dynami shook with anger, but found himself becoming still as he saw the tears staining Lily's cheeks. 'Pang...oro." he spoke almost softly considering his size. "You should have held back." Lily spoke but didn't turn, "We aren't killers Dynami, this isn't their fault." she tried to sound firm but Lily knew Dynami had been simply trying to protect her. A large furry hand reached out and touched her shoulder. Lily leaned into, a soft sign of forgiveness as the Seviper claimed its last breath. "I'm so sorry.' Lily apologized before slowly turning to the boy that had burst into the clearing. "I..." she shook her head and fought against the dizziness that washed over her, "Are you two ok?" Lily asked as she tried to focus on those still around her. Not only because she worried about her would be hero's, but also to try and tear her mind away from what had just happened.

 

[Chrocey]

Delilah’s expression grew smug as Damian went along with what she was saying. While she’d never defeated a champion in her life, it was nice to see that her boasting didn’t go ignored. It was up to her to prove that her bark wasn’t worse than her bite, however, and she intended to show her strength and reliability in the journey to come.

The green-eyed girl turned to her Beedrill and nodded at him. “Well, Beedrill, let’s hit the road. Keep an eye out for anything edible, alright?” The bug pokemon nodded his head and the two made their way out of the cave.

Upon exiting the cave, Delilah couldn’t help but squint as her eyes tried to readjust to the brighter lighting. The giant burning orb made the air in the forest uncomfortably humid. Unfortunately, humidity raised the priority for finding drinking water.

After giving Damien, Mina, and their respective pokemon a chance to collect themselves, they exited the cave and followed Delilah’s confident stride. Since neither Delilah nor Beedrill knew exactly where they would find edible flora, they were in agreement that it probably wouldn’t hurt to look in a direction that would also bring them closer to where Alex and Maverick fell. ‘Might was well kill two birds with one stone’ as the saying went.

At long last, after what seemed like decades, Delilah felt that she was staring directly at her goal. As though Alex were in eyesight and she need only make it over to him. If it wasn’t angry Pinsirs, it was fire-obsessed stalkers. If it wasn’t fire-obsessed stalkers, it was blood-thirsty Ursarings. This whole tournament had been a circus of madness, and the forest was the funhouse; where the least expected was the most likely. Though the strategy of bee-lining straight to her objective hadn’t worked for her yet, it was the only one she knew. If she tried it enough times then just maybe it’d eventually work.

Delilah moved with purpose towards the direction she thought that Alex had fallen. Beedrill’s head swiveled left and right almost mechanically to try and find some sort of food that everyone could eat. At the same time, he used his Swarm ability to hear any nearby wild Pokemon and steer their group away from them. He didn’t alert anyone, just herded the bee trainer in the right direction while she unwittingly followed along.

“So, Damian and Mina, what kind of music do you guys listen to?” It was such a simple question. One that seemed very out of place in such a serious environment. That being said, Delilah herself seemed very removed from all that’d been going on. “Personally, I enjoy rock music. You gotta love the way some of those guys just shred on guitars!”

Delilah held her hands up and played the air guitar while trying to mimic a guitar riff with her mouth. She snapped excitedly back to reality. “Oh! There’s this band I gotta show you guys when we finally get off this island. They’ll ‘rock you like a cradle in a hurricane’!” She tried to contain her enthused laughter. “That’s actually a line from one of their songs. It’s pretty rad if I do say so myself.”

 

[Mega Gallade X]

As Damian kept pace with the the green eyed girl with Mina beside him, Ecarte and Orion behind them and the trainers Beedrill in front of them seemingly leading them effortlessly through the forest, he started thinking contingencies. They hadn't been together all too long, if she was leading them into a trap he had to be ready. Of course this was all speculation, but considering he'd come to an Island resort expecting running water and a good time only to be dumped out into a survival challenge he was gaining a few unprecedented trust issues. Damian looked over to Delilah, he would treat her as an ally until she gave him a reason not to, but by then he'd have a minimum of ten plans to either escape or take her out.

The heat alone was plenty reason to go back to the cave, it was somewhat cool because of the shade, and there was nowhere anything or anyone could sneak up on them. However they'd been walking for what seemed like a long time, so the cave probably wasn't just a quick walk backwards.

The Beedrill made a decisive left turn that shifted the group, it was almost as if the pokemon knew its way around this forest. It cut another right, straightening them out to go the same direction they were before.

Didn't she say she was going to look for the trainer that got shot out of the sky? He thought about what might happen if she found him. She may be in denial currently but if she found bodies he didn't know how bad a breakdown would be. Definitely not safe in this environment, to let ones guard down. He assumed if it happened he would attempt to comfort her, then suggest moving somewhere safer to grieve.

“Personally, I enjoy rock music. You gotta love the way some of those guys just shred on guitars!” Delilah continued, bringing up a question of everyones music taste. It felt out of place to have a normal conversation about interests here, but Damian welcomed it, anything to put his mind at ease.

"Rock is okay, a little loud. I mostly enjoy instrumental pieces, strings, piano, stuff of that nature." he said as he looked back toward Orion behind him. "If you enjoy rock that much then i'll have to introduce you to my friend from Unova, her name is Roxie. She has a band called Koffing and the Toxics, I could probably get you backstage passes or something." he said casually. "As soon as we get off this island, of course." he agreed.

 

[AesgirFenrir]

Shade's Nightmare

Lt. Akira ducked behind the squad car and checked his magazine. Only five rounds left in his pistol and the gang didn't seem to be running out of rounds in their assault rifles. Another spray of rounds shook the car.

His first assignment after promotion. A local gang slinging dope and stealing cars. Plenty of arrests, no convictions. He and his partner Lin had worked hard, put in huge amounts of overtime, to gather the evidence they needed to set up this sting at the gang's primary distribution center. A warehouse in a bad neighborhood.

It had gone well to begin with. He and Lin had even gone undercover to get more information and a foot in the door. They gathered a task force and prepared to storm the castle. But the castle was prepared for them. Akira himself had been shot in the leg as the approached the side door. And worse, in the confusion of combat, he'd lost track of Lin. He couldn't raise him on the radio either.

Finally, the call came over the comms, reinforcements. But then his heart skipped. Lin came stumbling into view, his chest riddled with bullet woun . . . wait, were those claw marks? And a large bite wound on the shoulder? But, Lin had been shot On this assignment. Hadn't he?

Then he heard a roar. Barreling into view came a large Nidoqueen. It trampled past Lin and flipped a van like it was a toy. He emptied his magazine into it, as did many other officers. It took what seemed an eternity, but they brought the beast down.

As the special tactics boys rushed into the warehouse to mop up, Akira ran to his partner, screaming for a medic. Through the coughed up blood, Lin wheezed, "Why didn't you save me, Akira?" Then his image morphed into that of torn and bloody Cassie, "Shade, why didn't you save me?" She coughed and lay still, her silvery eyes staring accusingly into his.

Shade woke up screaming, covered in a cold sweat.

 

[Nygenn]

Location: Camp SAM
Date: 2nd Day, Daybreak
Tagging: Salem, Cassie, Aidinia, Gerald, Megan
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With the introductions now all out of the way, they could set about taking care of that breakfast Salem had promised. Initially he had planned on sharing their rabbit jerky rations alongside some of the fruits and nuts that the doctor and Megan had gathered together on their foraging run the night before, but Aidinia wouldn’t hear of it. She insisted on cooking their band some proper meals, and having tasted her cooking before, it was incredibly tempting.

Nevertheless, Salem had wanted to argue. After all, cooking in their camp would go directly against the plan to keep them isolated, which he had explained to her just half a day prior. The Lure Station he’d set up worked off of the smell of food and pray, and would direct predators away from their campsite. If they were to start cooking here they’d essentially be setting up a second Lure Station right between the huts they slept in!

‘Although maybe there is a way,’ he quietly mused, stroking his chin thoughtfully as he scanned the cliff side shielding their camp. ‘The smoke and smell will cling to the stone, preventing it from wafting into the jungle at random. At the same time the vapor of water from the river so close by, and the winds blowing high up there, may delude the smells enough for them to hardly be noticeable.’

He nodded to himself and told Aidinia he would find a way to make ends meet. Already basic construction plans were forming in his mind and he couldn’t help but smile at his own ingenuity.

Before he ran off to put his new plans into action, he asked the doctor if she would have a look at the flaming monkey he now had clipped to his belt, sometime later. The Pokemon had fought valiantly and saved their hides, but not without sustaining injuries. It would need some looking after.

“And so do you Miss,” he finished, looking over her bruised form. Being no stranger to hand to hand combat he could vaguely read the story her injuries seemed to be telling him, but he decided not to comment on it for now. There was a lot of work to be done still.

With the help of Ajax, now slowly turning a bit grumpy for having his rest disturbed continuously, Salem hoisted a rather large stone slab from the riverside up to their camp area. It was a slow progression and nearing the end of it he felt as if his arms were about to fall off from the constant strain, however they managed to set it up on some support stones and leaning against the cliff side without dropping it. The stone had a long, smooth surface, courtesy of the river’s constant currents, and looked like a very low, crude coffee table set up against a rock wall. Salem had his Blastoise soak the ground directly underneath, before telling him he could continue his rest until food was ready, and proceeded to dig a new fire pit complete with ventilation trenches directly below the stone cooking plate. This enclosed, by the ground and stone on most sides would see any fire burn significantly hotter here and the flames would be almost completely hidden from sight. 'Thank you uncle Zaldin,' he thought not the first time since this tournament began.

While he was busy working on this, he’d asked Gerald if he would be so kind as to find them all something they could sit on and more firewood. There should be some logs or trunks around, near the jungle edge, but just in case he had offered the young man use of his Scyther blade.

Not for a single moment during all the morning’s events did it ever occur to Salem that any of these people might not to be trusted, or were out to cause him and his Pokemon harm. 'Although, there was that suspicious red R on Cassie's fedora,' he remembered briefly before dismissing the thought again. It just wasn’t in his nature to distrust people, and he openly smiled at them instead.

When he was done Salem stood back up and wiped the sweat from his brow, an incidentally streaking it with dirt instead. He was panting from the physical exertion and a thin sheen of sweat covered his body.

‘Perhaps another bath later, hopefully one less eventful this time,’ he thought recalling the events from earlier. ‘Although some parts had been quite pleasant.’

Only when Cassie’s silver eyes locked on his’ did he snap out of his reverie and realize his gaze had unconsciously wandered to the enigmatic young woman. He had been undressing her in his mind in a reverse playback of how she had slowly dressed herself in front of him. Never one to be ashamed of showing his desires, Salem did not look embarrassed at being caught staring, but smiled and waved at her instead. Then he walked away to check on his pottery.

'I am working way too hard, this early in the morning,' he thought, shaking his head a little in bemusement. 'I can hardly wait for that sunny afternoon nap.'

-

Early on in his guard shift the evening before, when dusk had had still provided him with enough light, Salem had set about using river clay to shape some primitive pots. If the clay turned out to be suitable for baking these pots could come in handy to store supplies in the camp, or perhaps for boiling water. It had been simple work, but the clay needed time to dry before he could try baking it in a fire. For that reason he had wanted to get shaping them out of the way as soon as possible.

Now he carefully collected the hardened pots and bowls and carried them over to the new fire pit. The greater heat intensity this pit would provide would be ideal for backing these things, so he got to work quickly.

He was about to get into the labor intensive process of starting a fire with friction heat when June came over and silently lit the prepared fuel stock with her wand. Salem blinked up at her, mildly surprised. In his busy efforts to set everything up he had completely overlooked the fact that this foxy lady was a fire type Pokemon.

“Thanks!” he said exuberantly and beamed his gratitude at her.

He quickly set about arranging his pottery into the flames and build more fire on top of it.

‘I want to make soup, she says,’ Salem thought to himself amused. ‘That’s great and all, my dear gorgeous doctor, but unless these pots hold out we have nothing to heat any soup in.’

With her now on the forefront of his mind he recalled the visage of her leaning over him not an hour earlier. She had been wet and dripping and looking all together delicious, and... He shook his head, looked up and called her over from where she was fussing over Cassie's lip, to inform her that the pots were in the making, and shouldn't be long if the clay proved right. The big stone plate serving as a fire lit would be heated at the same time, so she could begin her culinary miracles if she so pleased.

After all this Salem plopped himself down on one of the seats Gerald had been kind enough to arrange around the center of the camp. He let out a tired sigh and kneaded his overworked shoulder muscles and chinked his neck. He couldn’t quite reach properly and with a slightly annoyed huff he gave up after a while. He was looking very much forward to that afternoon nap in the sun he had promised himself that morning. But food would come first, and by the smells that Aidinia was producing in their makeshift kitchen, it would be very tasty.