Ask to Join Blackout Waltz

[Storybook]

Spoiler: Rules

Credit to Curtkid. I'm not sure if these are needed anymore, but I'm sure it won't hurt. Probably.

Pokémon Role-Play Rules(Please Read for the love of God)

Note: This is just a touch-up/ reminder of the standard Pokecharms role playing rules. Seeing as we’ve recently been getting a large influx of eager, new RP’ers who may have missed said rules, I will be posting this to serve as your reference sheet. If I see someone constantly breaking these rules over and over again, they WILL be asked to leave.

>Please write two paragraphs MINIMUM when making a post. Half the fun of an RP is interacting with other people and writing a story, the more detail you put in the better. Don’t JUST write about yourself or your Pokemon, describe the scenery, have you character make note of an observation between two other characters. It’s an RP, be creative!

>Please use proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation. A mistake here and there is fine, but no one wants to decipher a jumbled mess of words just to figure out what you said.

>Please pay attention to other RP’ers posts and be aware of the continuity. If someone attacked you in a previous post and you suddenly have a snack and act like the attack was just non-existent, you’re going to confuse and upset people.

> Legendary Pokémon are (usually) not allowed. Legendries are considered to be unbelievably rare and unfathomably powerful Pokemon, both in the games and in the Pokemon Lore. As such, usage of such Pokemon are forbidden from use in this RP (Please check the RP rules if you want a detailed list).

>Mega Evolutions are limited. Due to in most cases a Mega Evolved Pokemon is around the same power as a Legendary Pokemon, you must have earned a Stone and Bracelet from a previous, moderator approved RP (as per Pokecharms, rules). If you have, please message me with a link to the RP in which you earned your Mega Evolution so I can confirm it.

> This one is important! If you are battling another RP’er, it is up to the person being attacked to determine whether or not they got hit. I don’t care if you used Swift, it is still up to the person being attacked to determine if they got hit. I don’t want to see anything like “Then Squirtle hit Charmander with Water Gun and then he fainted”, this is godmoding, and most people (me included) have VERY LITTLE patience for that.

>That being said, please be reasonable people, don’t have your Pokemon make it through every single attack unscathed. We’re not working strictly on game logic here, a Pokémon can take a few hits before going down. If I see your Aggron avoid every attack like an Arceus damn ninja, it will be counted as godmoding and you will be dealt with accordingly.

> As a follow up to the previous rule, if you get continually hit and your Pokemon never faints, you're godmoding. Even a Snorlax can't take a Focus Punch, two Flare Blitzes, and a Close Combat.

>Also, be aware of who and what you’re up against. If you’re a new trainer sending out a recently caught Pidgey against an experienced trainer with a Garchomp, you’re going to lose, very quickly.

>Lastly, though not strictly a “rule”, it’s generally seen as common courtesy to let the better Role-Player win the battle. If you’re fighting someone who is posting detailed, well-written paragraphs that illustrate the battle perfectly while you’re barely putting together two paragraphs per post with several spelling and grammar mistakes, then please swallow your pride and take the loss. Everyone here will respect you more for it. If you and your opponent(s) can’t decide who the winner should be, I as the “RP Master” will choose a winner based on the Role Player’s Skill, how comparable the characters are in terms of strength, and a few other outlining factor’s.

>As far as Pokemon move set’s go, you are not restricted to just 4 moves. Instead a Pokemon 4 “Primary” moves serve as the ones they use most often and have the most skill using. Your Pokemon can use most moves that they’d learn normally by leveling up or TM (albeit a bit less powerful), but please be fair. Don’t have your recently hatched Eevee be capable of using Extremespeed, Shadow Ball, and Double-Edged.

Welcome to Blackout Waltz.

This is a story of a man- a twisted, rich, philosophic man who had one goal, and that was to reveal the nature of reality. The nature of reality as he saw it; the black, dark, villainous reality of society. So he created a social experiment- one of the largest and most tragic of the century. A game. This game, he planned, would test the limits of courage and find truth in the black, straining the bonds between trainer and pokemon and testing the power of society itself. And finally, finally, he planned, this game would tell the truth.

It was a simple plan. Gather a hundred people and pokemon from all walks of life into one massive room under the falsity of a grand dance. He offered massive prizes- huge sums of money, sets of evolution stones, big pearls, and a single pearl string for raffles and dance competitions, and he gathered a representation of society under just one roof. Last of all, he found the most passionate creature he could find; he found a girl and her team who reveled in their passion and made life but a story for it. And then, he turned off the lights. Turned off the lights in such a manner that they could never be restored, sucked the place barren of electricity, and watched.

He waited for the calamity. He waited for it all to go wrong, and it did. He waited for panic, and soon it ensued. He waited for passion to overwhelm the place and suck it into its own black hole. He waited for the truth.

Here is his story.

Please, join us, in the Blackout Waltz.

It was queer how darkness changed everything, the man thought. Turned confidence into fear and purity into corruption, made foul seem right and destroyed the sanctions of power in a mob of fright that appeared out of the civilized as soon as someone turned off the lights. He played with the light of the chandelier against the wall, casting shadow puppets against its surface that were almost as large as he was, twisting the darkness to fit his own curious whims. The man loved to make shadow puppets- to softly melt them together, to make monsters out of nothing and shapes out of the absence of light. When everything was shadow, the world suddenly became bendable- what was just a hand was now a knight, a dragon, a monster, a fiend. And it told to him an unstoppable, terrible, demon like story, the shadows did. They told him the nature of reality.

He was referring to the famous story called 'The Republic,' where prisoners had been chained since birth in a dark cave facing a black wall, and a fire cast shadows of the outside world against the wall. These shadow images were all the prisoners ever saw, so they came to understand these shadows as reality. This, the man learned, paralleled that of the real world; that we see the world's shadows, and we come to think of it as reality, not able to comprehend anything else, not able to understand the forces behind these shadows- what the world had come to know as reality, the man learned, was only a dim, obscure outline of what the world was actually like.

It was the close mindedness of humans that drew them to this conclusion, and it was this close mindedness that would bring them to their demise. To presume that the dark was the light was the world's final fatality. This, the man knew with all certainty.

He cast his hand against the light, playing with the shapes he could create by obscuring the truth. He made a Houndour by twisting his fingers, and the Houndour dashed across the wall to tackle a rock, and by doing so he melted into the rock and became it. And then the rock grew and spread outward and it was a terrible dragon, a god, and a knight appeared out of the light and was sucked, too, into the dragon, and the dragon grew and it became the world. The man chuckled eerily before a skeletal woman, around the age of twenty one, passed by his hands and blackened his image, fiddling with the strings of her viola, and he gave up his game and gazed around.

The sound of milling crowds pressed against the old building's graying walls, leaking through its open doors to drift, vapor-like, into the sighing town, one of two on a small island just south of Alola's Poni island. Despite its proximity to the wild and treacherous layout of Poni Island, Ambition, as the island had been named, had been urbanized to a greater degree, its two city turned towns, one latched onto the reef and another loitering in its rising hills, such that pure wildness had been tainted with the poison, he so called it, of mankind. Ambition once had been something vast and grand- a powerful place where eager people migrated to and set up home among the reef or the grasses, and it was said to be the home of dreams. If you were a dreamer of any dream, Ambition was the island to make all of that come true.

This message held powerfully true for thousands of eager inhabitants ready to pack up and leave just to make their dreams more than dreams, and many thrived for a hundred years on just that promise, fulfilling their dream with what appeared to simply be magic, although historians often chalked it up to blind ambition. Here, the greatest architects flocked and built massive cathedrals and ingenious homes among the reef, inventors created the most questionable of contraptions that ranged from flying to dusting the floor, scientists fell ill to the prey of their ambition, growing grey with expanding knowledge, and students gathered en masse in large libraries and some of the finest universities on earth. What were once two small settlements grew into towns, and then cities, and then massive city states with such crowded quarters that had expanded so much upon the small island that they had become the island, so many people living within that thousands of apartments lined up like popsicle sticks on narrow alleys that were the main streets. And yet everyone was happy on that urbanized island, with mechanized bikes flying across roofs, automatic trains running on electricity in massive tunnel systems, and the finest of art, invention, and science crowding the streets shouting "look, look, my dream came true.'' And all on Ambition, whether in the sea city of Blinth or the land state of Hearth, were euphoric in pure, blind, heartfelt ambition.

That is, until another island was discovered beyond it- Poni island.

Ambition, all soon learned, was a fickle thing, and the magical island they'd all called its home soon grew into obscurity as a massive surge of migration blindly crashed into the newly discovered land and met their demise, so blind in their ambition that they'd forgotten there existed a wild that hadn't been tamed, one that, some believed, could never be tamed, and the massive surge of human progress came to a halt on Ambition island as fleet after fleet of ships fell to ruin on their quest to find magic in the untamed. Soon, all that was left of Blinth and Hearth were small communities amidst a vast island of human ruin. Without the population to care for it, swathes of cities collapsed in upon themselves, the train tunnels grew to disuse, and a shadow was cast upon the once great island as a place of blight as Ambition fell far into the storm of obscurity.

It was old, now, this place of tragedy.

A ghost island.

And somehow, there still lay magic within it.

It would be the site of his greatest piece of work yet, the man thought as he stood in the shadows of the stage in an old hotel-turned-ball room, its massive interior hollowed out so that it was one huge room for musicians to play and hundreds of people and pokemon to all dance at once. It was perfect- perfect, just perfect. No other place could be able to display so purely the darkness of ambition, the shadow of human kind, so quick to turn wild when the lights went out.

The possessed philosopher loitered back stage, waiting to be called on.

It was perfect, just perfect.

Everyone would finally see, and his name would go down in history- the great Colby Curi, who predicted the demise of humanity in a single social experiment disguised as a grand dance.

He fiddled with his tie as a young girl on stage, perhaps around twenty one, he thought, called out ''-please welcome, Mr. Curi!'' and the man drifted, ghastly like, out of the shadows, finally ready to face the light.

The sound of a hushed crowd pressed against the old building's graying walls, leaking through its open doors to drift, vapor-like, into the sighing town. As Colby took one last breath, a dark excitement in his hollow eyes, he whispered,

''And let all prepare for my blackout waltz.''
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ambition's Blackrose Community Center is proud to host the first annual dance-and-learn competition in light of its new renovations. We're proud to welcome people from every region to have fun with their pokemon at the Blackrose Community Center located north of the Pokemon center in the town of Blinth. You may dance if you please, enter the competition or the raffle, or simply watch while enjoying the festivities. There will be a group dance lesson available just before the event, and we encourage you to come and learn how to dance for a night of fun for both people and Pokemon.

Here is the schedule for the following event:
9;30 pm - Introduction
10 pm - Group Dance Lesson
11 pm - Free Dance
12 pm - Competition and Raffle

For the winners of the competition, our sponsor has offered a set of evolution stones and 100,000 pokedollars. The competition is divided into three classes - beginner, intermediate, and master, and the winners of each will obtain the above reward. Those who enter the raffle will have a chance to win a set of big pearls and two pearl strings.

We are proud to have Karen Elise host the introduction ceremonies with a pokemon battle with our sponsor, Colby Curi, who will be running the rest of the event.

Please attend,
The Blackrose Community Center

''[Boy, these guys are really bad at making flyers]'' commented a small pokemon, finishing her inspection of the pale piece of folded paper before looking up at the fading sky and placing it on her nose like a tent. The comment wasn't made out loud, however- rather, in the curious form of thought. The electric pokemon had gained the physic type, and its abilities, through evolution, and this caused her telepathy to be beneath sub par, but the curious rodent seemed to be a natural in most forms of her physic abilities so it had happened that, not long after she'd evolved, she'd picked up the ability rather quickly.

Still, Thea wasn't exactly used to it. It was... strange, to say the least. There was no new voice in her head, like others often described it, but it was more as if a soft, childish inner voice had emerged from within her. Like she had just thought them, and yet she hadn't. But the voice had a certain distinction- it appeared out of the blue, and the ethereal trainer felt rather fuzzy when receiving them, as if the thoughts had been sparked with static electricity. She blinked, trying to clear the feeling away, and when she did so her ashen eyelids slid softly over her dark blue eyes, slipping away and revealing a new color within them- a sliver of green, a speck of purple, for her cobalt gaze was so deep that light reveled in tricking it until it was almost as if she had eyes like the galaxy.

''[I mean, they ended the thing with 'please attend.' Wow, really makes me want to come to your thi-iIINGY]'' The thought ended with a yelp and a sharp flutter of paper as the small pokemon tripped over her own, pale white foot, the flyer slipping off of her head as she fumbled with the air and fell to the ground. Thea recoiled, for the thought had exploded within her with its sharp rise in volume, and she shivered involuntarily, for it was as if, with the sharp rise in volume, so, too, had the electricity within it risen until the girl was burning with excess energy racing through her veins and down to the earth.

''Please... be more quiet... when you use telepathy,'' the trainer managed to stutter with a wince, quickly regaining her former composure. That said, her composure certainly wasn't a magnificent thing, for the trainer was small, ghostly, and ashen, with an aged form despite her age of twenty one and a grey undertone to her pale skin. Even the clothes she wore seemed shadow like, an old, charred brown sweatshirt threadbare from many years of use cautiously displayed the design of a stantler's antlers, while her long, black skirt drifted with minimal berth in its folds, tightly jerking to and fro as she crouched near her pokemon and lent it a helping hand. The hand stood in great contrast to the soft, fuzzy form of the pokemon's large white paws, for it appeared as if whittled to a skeleton's hand; long, ashen, and marred with countless callouses near her thinly cut fingernails. The skeleton girl smiled a thin smile, for she had that sort of smile that deepened countless wrinkles near the edges of her lips, as if she were as marred as the asteroid-beaten moon. The only thing that shined on the girl was her viola case, strung upon her back, and this shone with a delicate, frosty gleam.

''[Sorry... but isn't it cool that I can talk to you? It's like... a whole new era. You'll never be able to escape relentless chatter any longer!]'' cheered the young pokemon as she recovered herself and dusted off the flyer. She was a rather clumsy creature, but it was alright with the skeleton girl, and it seemed as if the pokemon didn't mind much either, even if she was supposed to be one of the more graceful species. After all, the Raichu of alola were just so fabulous surfing on those tails of theirs, but the only time that she could even hope to emulate them was simply sitting on it, and even then, she didn't have the balance nor control to do so while it was floating. Ah, well. It was quite fun to carry it in front of her- quite fun indeed.

''I'm absolutely thrilled,'' replied the skeletal trainer, a sarcastic tone in her thin voice. But she smiled nonetheless as the two continued on, deepening the wrinkles at the edges of her mouth into shadow. If there was anything to say about the alolan raichu, it was that she had this presence that was powerful in her limitless spirit, for it seemed as if uncaring of shame, cheery, kind hearted, and always willing to play along. She was the fool of the team, and the thread that connected such queer creatures together, almost into kindred, in her foolishness. And yet, she was not void of passion- quite the contrary, the flower-hearted mouse found power simply in being herself, and in such a manner that she came to be charismatic in her kindness and courage to do so. Be it to be a fool, then she would be, be it to be a flower, then she would be, be it to be courageous, then she would be. Meissa, as she had been called, was the best kind of support; one who held everything together, like a star connecting a constellation with just one, constant, foolish gleam.

''[We're he-ere]'' informed Meissa in a sing-songy tone as the two approached a large building, its walls aged and thin. Both of them stared up at it for a good minute or so, reading the large letters in a sign above the door carefully etching out ''Blackrose Community Center.'' She recalled the history of the place as the sun began to set behind it, casting a crimson shadow over its roof.

''So we are,'' the skeletal player murmured, voice thin as frost. They were early, as planned, and few people were within the large, hollowed out building, causing its dusty interior to gulp in air like a cavernous mouth.

''Thea! I see you have arrived,'' whisked a shallow voice through the center, its tone imposing and confident. She peered inside to see a tall man, with short, grey hair, wearing a suit that appeared too grand on the man's hollow form as he fiddled with his tie.

''Yes, mister... Curi, was it? I got the call last night that Karen couldn't make it.'' Her voice, so thin and skeletal before, became pricked with inflections when she spoke to the man, and although she was the smaller of the two by quite a few feet, the skeletal player fought for dominance in the conversation. ''It's really a shame- she was famous with combining dance with pokemon battling, I would have really loved to see it.''

''It was an unfortunate event. While we were discussing the event last night, Ms. Elise grew ashen white, as if she saw something terrible, and fell prey to a heart attack. She should be fine, though,'' the man informed, and as he passed out of the doorway's shadow, Thea fumbled with her words as she realized the whites of his eyes were actually black.

''A-am I to be battling you, then?'' The skeletal girl had lost some inflections in her tone, words melting into the wind as she hurriedly blinked her galaxy eyes.

''Why of course, Thea. It's a ritual, after all.''

''I hope you don't mind if I do it my way.''

The man grinned, revealing a golden tooth as he stepped back into the shadow of the doorway, beckoning her to follow. He held his hand out to hers and she shook it, finding his skin so pale and smooth it seemed but a shadow, and the two hands melted into one another, falling into obscurity beneath the doorway's looming touch.

''Why of course. That's exactly why I called you.''

''Right on,'' the girl responded without missing a beat, although she found herself unnerved at his tone. It was uncertainty speaking, the girl knew- although she had performed her battles across both the Johto and Alola regions, the girl had never been well known, and how he had specifically found her frightened the girl to a small degree. Her voice grew with powerful inflections, and her form grew more sharply outlined in the doorway's shade as she walked into the building, skirt tightly jerking back and forth. ''Just give me a second to tune, and we can begin.''
_____________________________________________________________________________

''Welcome everyone to the Blackrose Community Center. We're glad to have you here tonight,'' called Thea into the microphone. Her shadow like appearance belied the skeletal girl's confidence as she stood atop the stage and commanded the crowd in a thin voice, its sharp inflections the only betrayal that she wasn't in a world all of her own. Murmurs rose from the people below her, unsettled by the surprise of her appearance. ''Unfortunately, Ms. Elise could not be here tonight, and I am honored to stand before you in her stead.

I am Thea, and will be battling our sponsor here on this stage as we begin our evening. While we battle, please find a seat at the tables on the far side of the room, obtain some refreshments, or enter the raffle located below the stage. We'd also like to inform you that, due to the nature of the island and the town, it will be practically pitch black outside once night falls, and we caution you to be exceedingly careful when going to your place of rest tonight and to find an escort with a pokemon trainer who utilizes fire or electric types, pokemon that utilize the move flash, or someone who has a strong flashlight. Clouds often cover the moon and stars during the night, and oftentimes a thick fog rolls in around midnight that makes even flash only illuminate a very small area. For your ease, after our event is complete we are offering you the ability to camp in here until the fog rolls out and the sun rises. Thank you, and we hope you have a wonderful time here tonight.''

Goodness, she despised public speaking. Her throat was all chalky and sore and cue card speeches were no fun. She paused for a moment, and then began speaking again, her voice sporting sharp inflections that loomed over the room like a domineering shadow.

''After our battle, we hope you participate in the dance tutorials set up here, and, later on, in the free dance and dance competitions. All people and pokemon are welcome to join in- it can be a magnificent and exhilarating experience so please, everyone, participate. There is room on the stage for everyone.''

Truly, there was, and this, she believed, was a rather incredible feat, for where she stood was a raised, rectangular stage in the middle of a large circular one that could hold at least sixty people all dancing at once. It was an ancient area, and truly one people enjoyed even a hundred years ago. The stages themselves were made of smooth stone, such that one could have the most fiercest battles upon them and not scathe the high, wooden ceilings and supports. Large, magnificent chandeliers hung, four of them, from a support beam spread all across the hall- one, above the rectangular stage, two, in front of and behind said first one so that they hung just above the edges of the circle, and a fourth, illuminating the tables and the entrance such that all four were evenly spaced apart. Where the chandeliers could not illuminate, small, electric lamps were positioned so that no part lay in shadow. Truly, it was a large area, but not so much that her thin, skeletal voice could not be heard once supported by the microphone, even over the chatter of the crowd.

''And now, I would like to start this off by introducing our sponsor for the night who donated incredibly large funds to the Blackrose Community Center and allowed for them to refurnish it with new lighting, tables, and a speaker system so that this tradition could begin anew. Without further ado, please welcome Mr. Curi!''

The man stepped onto the rectangular stage to a wealth of applause, his black eyes gleaming with undeniable excitement, as if he were achieving some ultimate goal. Thea thought she heard him whisper and blinked, hissing, ''Did you say something?'' under her breath.

''I was just saying that I'd like to battle Prince,'' he whispered to her, shaking her hand. ''I've heard a lot about him.''

''T.E.? Sir, that's not going to spread the mood that's needed here. I thought we agreed to a double battle with Oscar and Meissa.''

''I want to battle Prince,'' the man responded with a final note to his tone. The skeletal girl uneasily shifted her weight to her other foot before nodding, retreating to the edge of the stage where lay a shining Viola case, her skeletal form receding once more into an obscure shadow.

Colby said a few choice words into the microphone about his donations and the center before setting it on its stand and retreating to his edge of the stage-turned battlefield. He fiddled with his tie, a pokeball in hand, ready to begin the greatest experiment of all.

The sound of a hushed crowd pressed against the old building's graying walls, leaking through its open doors to drift, vapor-like, into the sighing town. The old, sighing, ghost town that leaked darkness every night, the most pitch black of places you could ever find, and all he had to do was shut off the lights.

The sun set over the building, collapsing it's crimson cloak into darkness.

It was perfect, just perfect.

The greatest experiment of all.

 

[Curtkid]

"An 'ere it is, The Blackthorn Community Center, once again bein' rented out to make some rich asshole feel important about himself, this time by a mistah Colby Curi. That gent' is hostin' a big, fancy party with fabulous prizes and oodles of cash for tough battlers and who knows how to move their feet and spin around all fancy-like, now granted, mostly everyone's allowed in, which sounds great an' all, but dere's just one problem", said Iakopa, turning away from the large building to address his fellow Teammates, "APPARENTLY TEAM SKULL AIN'T INVITED, AND YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS WHAT WE GOTTA DO, RIGHT GUYS!?"

"CRASH THE PARTY! CRASH THE PARTY!!!!", came several, equally loud, cries from the other Team Skull members, all eager to spoil the evening of Poni's citizens.

"Hey uh, if it's alright with everyone, can we not trash the dancing studio, I kinda want to enter the dance off?", pipped up a slightly taller then normal Charmander with big, green eyes. He was also wearing a Team Skull Bandana around his face and a sash with the Team Skull logo on his right arm to signify his allegiance with the gang along with his trainer and bro, Curt. The two were more recent members, but had nestled in with the gang well enough.

"What the-? A TALKING CHARMANDER! Yo, why haven't we sold this guy to make a boat load of cash yet!?!", cried out Dan, another member of Team Skull. Most of the other members had gotten used to, and even rather enjoyed, having a talking Pokemon in their gang. But Dan was a very recent "transfer" from Melemele island (which meant he got in some moderate trouble there and had to settle down on Poni till the heat died down) and handn't gotten acquainted with most of Poni's Skull Grunts.

"Because stupid, Embertail over 'dere is one of us, a proud member of Team Skull, and ya don't sell one of your own dumbass!!!", replied Iakopa while throwing the a-typical amount of Team Skull gang signs at Dan, "'sides, those Team Rocket numbskulls also got them one of those fancy talkin' Pokemon, an we ain't gunna let those punks get a leg up on Team Skull!" Thankfully, Iakopa, the leader of their little band of misfits, made it a point to know every Team Skull member on the island, and was always ready to jump in defense of a brothers good (or not-so-good) name.

"Hey, don't call me a dumbass! Just because I'm new to Poni don't mean I don't know how to be a true Skull-head, if you say this Charmander's one of us, then I got no bones to pick with him!", Dan exclaimed, also throwing some gang signs at Johnny, "and screw Team Rocket! They think they can just waltz into Alola and try to take our turf!? Man, we'll show them no one is harder then us!!!"

"YEAH, SCREW TEAM ROCKET!!", shouted the rest of the gang in unison. Like Iakopa had implied, Team Rocket had recently tried to settle in on the Alola region, many rare and exclusive Pokemon could be found on these islands, which of course meant Team Rocket saw a profit. Team Rocket was certaintly more organized and well equipped then Team Skull, but Team Skull knew this island like the back of their hands (or better, in most cases). Plus, with Alola being so far away from Kanto, Team Rockets main base of operations, reinforcement were comparably few and slow going, so the dysfunctional Team Skull had been proving a greater thorn in Team Rockets side then they anticipated. In addition to that, Team Skulls more...sporadic and unpredictable methods kept catching the Rockets of guard, allowing the native Team to stay on top for the time being.

"You know Embertail, you we're right, sticking with these guys has been a total blast!", Curt whispered to his Charmander friend while the Grunts were cursing Team Rockets name. It all started when they tried to beat Barry at a drinking contest at that New Years Eve party, Curt didn't remember much after his sixth shot of Vodka, but they woke up the next day with a resolve to never drink again (except Barry) and as members of Team Skull. At first, the group (minus Raviel) agreed to try ditching them the moment the opportunity came up, but Team Skull was just so....sympathetically ineffectual that they wound up sticking with them just because they were so much fun. Besides, Team Skull seemed less like criminals and more like over the top hooligans to the people of Alola, no one, not even the local law enforcement, took them that seriously. Most of their crimes consisted of disturbing the peace, stealing a bus sign, and loitering. The worst Curt ever saw them do was steal some kids weird, brown, mustached Rattata, and even then they gave it back the moment the authorities got involved.

"Yeah, plus, their uniform makes me feel bad to the bone!", Embertail said with a wide grin. Oh yeah, and the puns, another huge plus was that Team Skull loved to throw out bone related puns at every possible opportunity, how could they say no to people like that?

"Anyhoo, we need Embertail, Curt, and his boy's to keep the guards occupied while the rest of us let ourselves into the party, they may not look like it, but those guy's are actually pretty tough!"Iakopa exclaimed, pointing to the two.

"YEAH, you should have seen them fight Plumeria, they were actually going toe to toe with her!", said Ailani, who was one of the grunts who had been present at Curt and his teams' "initiation". Granted, their were several other grunts and their Pokemon who were being "initiated" with him, which basically involved Plumeria just beating the crap out of your Pokemon to show you who was in charge, and honestly, Curt could see why. That girl was on par with some of the league trainers Curt had seen, easily demolishing most of the "new bloods" and then tossing them aside! In the end, it came down to the last Pokemon on both sides, and though Lockjaw put up a good fight, Plumeria's Salazzle (that's what she said the Pokemon was called if curt was remembering correctly, he still wasn't familiar with Alola Pokemon) ended up defeating the poor guy. Still, it was a great battle they had and the rest of the Team Skull members seemed impressed with how well they held out against their admin, to say the least.

"Awww, come on guy's we're not- I-I mean, Y-YEAH, WE'RE HARD, BONE HARD!", Curt exclaimed, the rest of his group mates had advised him and his team to try acting "rougher", and he didn't want to let them down. They were already getting a reputation of being "soft" and "nice", and they figured at least ACTING like they were bad would keep them in Team Skulls good graces. Besides, the group was surprisingly friendly with their own members, to the point where Curt and his team would call them a family.

"Yeah yeah, but enough standin' around and talkin up a storm, LET'S GO CRASH SOME RICH ASSHOLES PARTY!", cried Iakopa to the cheers of his fellow Skull-mates, "an to answer ya question Embertail, you can join the dance off, just remember yer representing Team Skull up there!"

And with that, they were off to crash a party, and probably end up getting chased of by local security! The cobblestone path seemed old, but well cared for and the building was cast in a majestic light from the setting sun and the building already seemed to be in a buzz from the party. It was funny, but Curt thought it looked a bit more like a hotel then a Community Center, but then again, he wasn't an expert on architecture. They moved together swaggering up to the community center, despite knowing how silly they looked, they still felt like they could take on the world. They were just a few yards from the entrance before a security guard and his Lycanroc came up to stop them. Lycanroc were one of the better known Pokemon from the Alola region, their pre-evolution Rockruff being extremely popular as partners for new and up and coming trainers, they were also know to have two different evolutionary forms. This Lycanroc appeared to be a quadruped which, if Curt heard correctly, was often held to be the slightly more powerful of the two evolution's. Apparently this, Mr. Curi, payed a little extra for security tonight.

"OH NO, not tonight you punks, Mr. Curi paid good money to have a pleasant evening with his guest and you're not going to run it!", roared the angry, mustached guard, his Lycanroc barking in agreement.

Awwww, come on mistah Kaiko, me and the guys and gals here are just trying to have a little fun tonight", protested Iakopa, "you ain't gonna kick us out when we haven't even done nothin' are ya?"

"Don't try me boy, just because this is an open event doesn't mean you Team Skull knuckleheads are allowed in, Mr. Curi doesn't want trouble makers like you!!", the guard Kaiko exclaimed, his voice half a decibel away from yelling, but still capable of being heard over the numerous complaints from the other Skull Grunts.

"Come on bro, please, I really want to join the dance off, I guarantee you my dance move will blow your mind! I mean, that's gotta be worth bending the rules just a little bit, right? Listen, how 'bout we promise not to make any trouble, whattya say!?", Embertail asked, his tone an odd mix of begging an assertiveness in his dancing capabilities. Kaiko's hard glare left the rest of the Team Skulll members and found its way to Embertail, his gaze unblinking.

"W-what the? D-did that Charmander just talk!?", stuttered the security guard in disbelief.

"NOW WHILE HE'S DISTRACTED!", yelled Iakopa as he and five other members of Team Skull bolted into the community center, practically tripping over themselves on their way.

"W-wait, no, DAMN IT", Kaiko screamed as he and his Lycanroc attempted to go after the Team Skull members, only to be intercepted by Curt and Embertail.

"Um, sorry sir, but we-wait, no, YO YO MAN, YOU WANNA MESS WITH OUR HOMEBOY'S THEN YOU'RE GUNNA HAVE TO GET BY US! RAVIEL, SHOW THESE PUNKS WHATS UP!!!", shouted Curt, throwing up a few gang signs (or what he thought was gang signs) before he popped a ball off his belt. The Pokeball snapped opened to reveal a lanky, one eared Jolteon with a Team Skull Head-band around his head. Raviel used to be in a Pokemon gang before he joined Curts little team, and though he was assertive that his old gang was rougher then the Skulls, he still happily and easily integrated into the Team Skull life-style, to him, it was like the good ol' days. As evident by the cocky smirk on the Jolteon, right now he was looking to mess some fools up. The security guard and his Lycanroc just glared at them, wondering if they were even worth Curts time, before they all heard the slams of a door and a loud "YOOOOO, WHAT'S UP FOOLS, TEAM SKULL IN THE HOOOUSSE, LETS GET THIS PARTY STARTED FO' REAL!" echoing through the night.

"H-hello, security? We've got a bit of a problem at the do-", came the crackly voice from Kaiko's walkie-talkie before the security guard clicked it off and looking to his Lycanroc.

"Welp, you did it, now I'm in a bad mood, and you know what that means, right Hah-Vee?" The Lycanroc, who was apparently named Hah-Vee, seemed to crack a canine like smile as it walked towards Raviel, its back-arced, ready to pounce. The Lycanroc was about the same size as Raviel, and even from a simple glance one could tell it was in good shape. Despite being a simple security guard, it was clear these two didn't just slouch-off when off duty, truly these two were worth the extra money this, Mr. Curi, payed them.

"That's right, it means these punks get to be our punching bags for tonight!", Kaiko said as he cracked his knuckles, "I gotta say though, Jolteon are pretty rare Pokemon, strong too, lets hope that means your a cut above the typical Skull Grunt I slap around!"

"Well, I like to that we- I mean, Yo! Why don't you come over here and find out!", Curt exclaimed as he and Embertail threw out a few more gang signs as Raviel began to cackle electricity around his spikes. To be honest, they got farther then they expected they'd get in their little "party crashing".

"With pleasure, Hah-Vee, Accelerock!", shouted Kaiko as Hah-Vee was surrounded with a brownish aura and rocketed towards them at high speeds.

"Do your worst! Double Kick use Raviel!", Curt said in response to the attack. Though Raviels Fighting-Type attack was super effective, the incredible speed coming from Hah-Vee's signature move completely negated the extra damage, causing both Pokemon to be thrown back in the clash, but were quickly back on their feat, ready for more. Curt and his friends had a feeling this night would end with them scrambling out of the Community Center with the authorities hot on their heals, but tonight was starting with a battle, and they wouldn't want it any other way!

 

[Storybook]

Child of a tired night
Void of heart and void of sight with

Coat of satin, seven tails
Spry for the devils of the hail,
trickster of unbridled power.

With her, something dark yet pure
Sweet laughter, filling voids of tears
Feeble words, unable to describe such power;

It took two to find the truth
of the soul of a lost youth
two to love and two to hate
two to run away from fate

two to cry and two to laugh
two to emerge from the past
pairs, changing over the years
courses of tributaries,
molded by tears

-Phi
________________________________________________________________________
The chandelier hung light upon the stage like a faded curtain.

Soft and yellow, almost shadow like, bending over the shapes on the stage like rainfall, slicking brightly fizzing hair and subtly bending the rough into the smooth. The truth, played like a shadow puppet, slicking the world as if it were water and its subjects, clay. The girl, in all her powerful inflections, pushed down and away into obscurity, forgotten by the light.

The light of the chandelier over the stage.

Skeletal and frail, the forgotten girl plucked softly her shining viola as it lay within the half open case, before cradling its neck and lifting the instrument from its abode. Three gleaming poke balls rolled in complaint within a compartment in the vibrant case as a long, withered hand removed one, a grey finger curling across the shining surface as if kissing it, before she closed the case and stood with a whip of her tight skirt.

Shadows shuddered within her tight black skirt as it jerked back and forth in the chandelier's light. Colby, fiddling with his tie, had already retreated to his side and sent out a Houndoom who stood with a powerful demeanor, sharp and yet elegant with a tall, straight poise, as if confident in every accomplishment, sure in every hair on his form. In a manner, the girl couldn't help to be unnerved by the sight, as if courage held a sort of evil, that such utmost confidence could string the sun dry without a second thought. And perhaps he could. When one was burnt by a Houndoom, it was said to hurt forever.

No matter- or all the matter, she could never decide. The girl shifted, her skirt tightly jerking, brashly carrying her form further into the light unto her place on the stage. And yet, she seemed, still, to stand in shadow, this hollow, skeletal girl, even though no darkness physically crowded the light. Perhaps it were the bags beneath her galaxy eyes, or the ashen tone of her Stantler sweatshirt, or maybe it was the sort of distantness about her, as if she were constantly overshadowed.

The skeletal girl cradled the pokeball, which appeared old and chipped, while holding her viola to her side, her finger sliding over the button as softly as drifting light. A flash of release invaded the air as a rebellious shout bellowed from the center's entrance and a group of infamous gang members informed the crowd of their prominent existence. Audible groans infected the mood from alola's long time residents, while newcomers looked perplexedly on. A few guests giggled in forced amusement, casting an eye around for law enforcement or reaching to their own pokeballs. Quite a few Pokémon had been released in preparations for the event, and the room's chatter was penetrated with growls of glee and disgust alike. But over them all twisted the domineering roar of Curi's Houndoom, facing his new opponent.

Attention shifted momentarily back to the stage to find the presence of a small Pokémon overpowering it. He had rusted ruby fur that seemed to glow an iridescent shadow and a long, narrow nose that his beady eyes were constantly looking down. Sharp, triangular ears twitched with a mind of their own, and his long, lean body complemented his small, round head, the only part of the angular creature that was as smooth and soft as light, or wilting rain. Despite being covered by velvet like fur, the creature seemed prickly to the touch, as if his condescending nature stiffened his coat. Seven tails curved up and into the small of his back, their tips glowing with a hot white light that betrayed their powerful nature, for when one touched them they were almost hot enough to burn.

When he moved, he moved with finality, curving one small paw around the other, and the girl's heart surged at his confidence in every step of his weaving gait. She predicted it might have been manufactured, but it stood overpowering, a representation of his cunning, movement screaming that he could be sure of himself even in the dark, and she adored that it could translate into such a powerful self image that eyes were drawn to every slip of his paws over the cool, grey floor. The skeletal girl wasn't quite sure what drew not just her eyes but her heart to that trait- only that it seemed to fill a hole within herself. He stood with such regality, such confidence, such grace.

He stood like a prince.

The crowd, taken by the Vulpix, drew his princely self confidence into themselves and turned to face the gang members once more. Something had changed in their expressions, in the mood itself- the gathering, consisting of elite, nobles, commoners, a few poor faces, trainers, travellers, enthusiasts young and old, for the age spectrum ranged from a single five year old to a man at eighty nine, although the greatest concentration, it appeared, bordered on those of middle age and younger- had something cast upon it. Some manner of magic or mob mentality, whispers crowding the air.

Unrest beset the ancient building as if a long dormant plague as the crowd pulled itself together, away from the enthusiastic rogues in a shy circle of scorn and distaste. Murmurs riddled the scene with nerves, domineering and prudent, speaking of disrespect and corrupted youth, while a few children pointed harassingly from behind their mother's skirts, whispering questions, fear, and complaints. Foreigners shied away from the drastic shadow over the excited mood, confused amidst the scornful chuckles pretending to be home to genuine amusement. Although select people and Pokémon pressed against the oppressive, demeaning wave these people cast into the crowd, there was some truth to the power of group psychology as the cautious, rebellious, and fair-minded all sweltered beneath the heat of disgust and the gathering fell prey to a deeply penetrating shadow. At the edge of her vision, a single, tan curtain flapped on its lonesome, stirred to action as if by the negative mood itself.

Only now did Thea find herself unsettled, for she hadn't the confidence to grow angered nor the vitality for such meek fear. A mix of emotions pushed shadows into her frowning features- recollection, perhaps. Admiration, and regret.

And only then did she feel the power of the situation- not of Skull, but of herself.

Alone in the crowd, up on a stage, the heat of society swirling around her, and yet she remained distant, cold, skeletal, a galaxy encased in a black hole, looming above it all. She wilted beneath a choking urge to step off the stage, recalling her mother, kissing her on her forehead, telling her that she was beautiful.

Oh, they never had been that close.

The crowd's murmurs swelled, feverous, over the silence of the stage, and Colby frowned at the commotion, at the darkness of society, that they always seemed to fail to see the light. He lifted himself, for a moment almost exhilerant, shifting his weight so that the chandelier shone directly upon his golden face. But then possesion cast a shadow over the man's grey features- this was his work, his stage, this was his, his, his-!

Victory.

The sullen man pulled at his suit in confusion, trapped between two forces inside- those that spoke of the torment of evil, and another of the torment of good. And then, in an instant, he was made up, smiling a golden toothed smile, as if there had been nothing to make up at all.

A shudder chilled the dispirited crowd as, before he could do anything, a note rang through the remodeled hotel and was cast against its walls to drift out the door. A striking, elegant, slightly out of tune A that was soon amended through quick turns of the fine tuner commanded by a bony wrist. Then the rest of the open strings were played and tuned, and together, like scythes, they chased away the sweltering shadow and the crowd soon scorned their distaste, spiked with a pleasent sort of curiosity as the girl, slung from her unease, began to play.

She established the key with a mourning b flat, pausing to blow away the rosin dust clouding above her bow in a fine, moon-like mist, and then penetrated the growing joviality deeply with a quick scatter of chilling notes leading up to a long, shivering high e flat riddled with dying vibratto. The phrase chilled the room, murmurs rising from the crowd as the girl leaned into the microphone and whispered in a deeply enamored, skeletal tone,

"Battle begin."

Meissa peered from behind her tail, held loosely on her lap as she sat upon the stage, just behind the viola case. Gnawing lightly on its edge, she flicked an ear, wondering if her telepathy could reach the door.

Oh, they did seem quite fun.
Didn't they?

Soft and yellow, almost shadow like, the light of the chandelier trickled down her satin coat, fitting the creature perfectly.

 

[Curtkid]

"Barrage him with Sludge Wave quick Glossen!"

"Watch it Embertail, and keep an eye on her hands! That'll be where she's aiming from!"

Oka-WOAH! Hehe, let's see if I can do that and avoid getting a face full of goop!", Embertail said, narrowly avoiding the barrage of sludge balls the Grimer was chucking at him. True to their suspicion, Kaiko and Hah-Vee proved to be difficult adversary's, Kaiko's years as a security guard had taught him focus and diligence in calm moments and caution about any deviation from the norm, while Hah-Vee's impressive speed and remarkable physical prows kept Raviel on his toes. It was only by keeping their opponent at a distance and barraging him with long range attack were they just narrowly able to secure a win. Of course, Kaiko wouldn't have only one Pokemon, but was still caught of guard by the oddly colored Grimer, if Curt had to guess, it was one of those region variant Pokemon that had different typing then their originators. As much as Curt wanted to ask questions about it, he doubted Kaiko would be up for a discussion about his Pokemon which would probably lead to hints about to beat him. Based on looks alone, Curt was guessing this pastel-looking Grimer might be a Poison-Grass type due to its vibrant colors, perhaps adapting to eating the massive amount of rotten fruit and cores thrown out by the natives of Alola? Either-way, Curt felt his best bet was to swap out the tiered and injured Raviel and go with his bro; Embertail. This Pokemon was completely foreign territory for them, so it was best to go with a partner who you could completely synchronize with, and hopefully Embertails quips would do a little damage to Kaiko's focus.

However, Curt may have played his hand a little too fast and too hard. He decided to follow his gut on the "Poison-Grass type" hunch and had them open with Flare Blitz, and though the attack did damage, it motivated Kaiko to have Glossen throw up an Acid Armor while Embertail was trying to bounce back from the recoil from Flare Blitz. Now it seemed like most of Embertails attacks barely phased the colorful sludge blob, and every time they risked getting close for an attack it gave the Grimer a good opportunity to return fire on Embertail. They were in a bind, normally they would default to a "hit and retreat" tactic in this situation to slowly whittle their opponent down, but even the slightest brush with that Grimer's attacks could leave Embertail poisoned, and then they'd REALLY be in trouble. The option of another Flare Blitz constantly popped into Curts head, but unless Embertail brought her down, or at least came really close, it would just lead Embertail open to being poisoned, and Curt wasn't ready to risk that just yet. They needed an opening, any possibility their opponent could give them to launch some sort of counter attack, Embertail could keep dodging for a while, but they'd need to go on the offensive sooner or later.

"Well, Mr.Curi is going to be pissed about the dead grass, but this looks like the best opening we're going to get, SMOG HIM GLOSSEN!", Kaiko yelled, which caused both Curt and Embertail to become refocused on the situation. At first, Curt thought the man had somehow boxed Embertail in, and that was...half true. In his haste to dodge, Embertail had gotten a tad close to some shrubbery, but wasn't exactly close to being trapped. However, retreating backwards to dodge a long reaching attack like smog would be impossible, limiting Embertail to only two directions to dodge: a heavy left, or a heavy right. Embertail could certainly avoid the attack with a bit of effort, but no doubt Kaiko and Glossen were already planning a follow up attack the moment Embertail moved, which would either hit the Charmander or take a heavy hit on his stamina. It was clear they were in it for the long game this time, they wanted to wear Embertail out. Curt could have had Embertail make the dodge, they wouldn't be at THAT much greater risk of losing the match even if Embertail got hit, but an old memory surfaced from deep within Curts mind, striking the trainer with a bit of inspiration.

"EMBERTAIL, JOHTO LEAGUE SKUNTANK STRATS!", Curt cried out to his partner, hoping he understood what he meant. To the trainers relief, his bro flashed him a quick smile before taking in a deep breath as the vile gas blanketed over him. Both trainers, even Glossen, paused for a moment to see what had become of the Charmander as the gas swam around the area of a moment before final dissipating, revealing no Embertail, but just a freshly dug hole. Kaiko's face dropped at the sight of the freshly turned dirt, it was the tell-tale signs of a very well known move, and unfortunately one that spelt trouble for him and Glossen.

"Ah damn, GLOSSEN GET MOVING!", Kaiko yelled. If they were still fighting Hah-Vee, then maybe the attack would have missed, but a sluggish Pokemon like Grimer had no chance to dodge what was coming. The ground shook underneath Glossen before being torn apart by the force of Embertails Dig attack. Seeing Flare Blitz not do quiet as much as he thought gave Curt the hint that this Alola Grimer wasn't a Poison-Grass type like he initially thought and decided to instead bank on whatever this Grimers other, mystery type not being resistant to Ground-type attacks. The attack was successful but they weren't through yet, Kaiko could have more Pokemon on him and he could be having back up coming any minute, they needed to get away! Embertail, still on the Grimer, turned his head just enough to catch Curt in his gaze and, responding to his friends nod, grabbed onto Glossen, his dirt covered claws keeping him from sticking to the Pokemon's gooey body, and chucked her right at her trainer.

Kaiko was a sharp man, but Embertails speed and reflexes were some of the best a member of the Char' line could posses, and the security guard found himself stuck underneath his unconscious sludge Pokemon. The man struggled and fought to get up, but underneath an dazed Grimer, he wouldn't be on his feat for a moment. Seeing the battle more or less won and a golden opportunity to flee the scene, Embertail, Curt, and Raviel bolted towards the Community Center to join their fellow Team Skull members.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Well, well, well, ain't this the a-freakin-typical Team Skull red carpet, we here to 'ave a good time, an BAM! disapproving glares and threats before we're even through tha door", Iakopa said, his head shaking a little almost as though he was disappointed in the crowds expected reaction of being upset at having the gathering crashed by the hooligans. His Grunts stood behind him, ready to back the party leader if he needed it, with one or two shouting out various affirmatives to back their boss up. Team Skull was made up of mostly troublemakers, people who had hit rock bottom, couldn't get a job with nowhere else to go, and other wash-ups. But a good chunk of the grunts were made up of the many former trail goer's who had been unable to complete Alola's greatest challenge. Most took their lost in strides and resolved to work harder and attempt it again in the future, or simply move on with their lives. Some however, were bitter in their failure and joined Team Skull in the pretense of rebelling against Alola's status-quo, Iakopa was one such trainer. He had made it past the first two islands and nearly completed the third, but could not over-come the islands Kahuna, even then, he was still a formidable trainer to deal with, as he planned to show the guests.

"Now then, why don't I show you-hey what are you?", Iakopa stuttered as the Vulpix took the stage, drawing the attention of every soul in the community center. The Vulpix was a bright, fiery red, a complete contrast to the normally moon-white Vulpix that inhabited the island and a rare sight for the natives of Alola. The entirety of the community center, even Team Skull, seemed to be put under the lava colored Vulpix's spell. However, one person in particular was able to break free of the foxes charms a bit earlier then the rest.

"Y-yo, whats goin' on, did everyone forget to take their pills this mornin', DID YA ALL FORGET WHO'S HERE!", Iakopa shouted, attempting to return his team to the events spotlight. Though a few people turned to cast a few bemused and dissenting glares, but the initial impact of Team Skulls grand entrance had faded away under the allure of the foreign Vulpix, and now they were little more then a few more rowdy party goers that would be forced to leave if they started causing too much of a ruckus. If they were talked about at all in the morning after, it would be little more then a minor footnote of them showing up before being thrown out in their typical fashion. Any hope of making their mark on this event was fading fast.

"Phew, shame we had to give the Security Guy and his buddies the slip like that, I was having fun battling them", Embertail stated as they marched through one of the Community Center's side entrances. It was a bit more out of the way, but the staff at the main entrance was probably on alert now and less likely to simply let anyone else in who was garbed in Team Skull attire.

"Yeah I know, but I don't know how much Security this place has, it could have proven to be a real hassle if we stuck around", Curt replied as they entered into the party room", huh, so this is it, it's not as...fancy as I expected, though I mean that in a good way". Curt, Embertail, and Raviel had been to a fancy do' before, they remembered the excessiveness and extravagance that the rich liked to boast to themselves, this party had none of that. There were a few fancy ornaments here and there, the tables holding the food and hors' de' oeuvres were covered with fairly nice cloth, there was a nice looking chandelier in the center of the ceiling, and even someone playing a violin! But the building itself seemed to have been built with a level of modesty that brought a casual atmosphere to the area, the walls were clean and decorated but made with common grey stone, and the floors were a simple polished wood. Even the food wasn't overly extravagant, though there were a few fancier items like crab rangoon and mini-steak fillets, there was also mini-burger sliders and even a pizza or two. Honestly Curt thought he would be feeling under-dressed at such an occasion, but if it wasn't for the bad rep associated with the Team Skull uniform, he would probably not be too short from meeting whatever established dress-code this place had.

"Hmmmm-uh, ow! Oh, w-what is it Raviel?", Curt said, feeling the Jolteon give his leg a light kick, before pointing over to a group of people a dressed in black uniforms that matched theirs.

"Oh hey, there's our guy's!", Embertail exclaimed as he and the rest of their group joined in with the rest of Team Skull( though they did stop for a moment for Curt to grab one of those mini-burgers), "hey-hey, guy's looks like we made it in no problem, don't tell me you guys had all the fun with out us!"

"HRMP, we barily had any fun at all, first that stinking, sunburned Vulpix stole our attention, then that stupid girl started playing that violin, and now no ones paying any attention to us!", exclaimed Iakopa.

"Yeah man, who just steals someone elses mojo like that!?"

"And they call us criminals, attention thieves are the worst kinda thieves there are!"

These and various other complaints from Team Skull met their ear's, though the only on of them that even seemed to be genuinely disheartened by hearing this was Raviel (big disrespect for a gang being brushed of like you didn't even exist). Embertail however was just happy that he still had a chance to enter the dance off, and Curt was content with not being kicked out before he had a chance to get some food. Looking over the rest of the room, it did seem that everyone else was trying to do their best to just ignore Team Skull, be it with socializing, eating, or watching the battle that had started on the stage, which looked to be between a Vulpix (surprisingly the kind that they were familiar with) and a equally well groomed Houndoom.

"Huh, a Houndoom, that's uncommon...", Curt muttered to himself. Taking a second look, the trainer of the Houndoom seemed just a tad familiar to Curt, like he's seen him somewhere before, but just couldn't put his finger on it. Though of all the people here tonight, this man seemed to the closest to being dressed for a formal occasion, however it appeared as though he skipped out on touching up his face. Their was a darkness underneath the mans eye's that made it look like he hadn't slept in years.

"What you say "C"?, Iakopa said, trying to zone in at what Curt was looking at, "you spacin' out on...wait a sec, the battle, that's it!" Iakopa's exclamation snapped the rest of the Skulls into attention, they knew that tone in Iakopa's voice, it was the tone he got whenever he got an idea.

"I got an idea so that everyone here remembers that Team Skulls OWNED this party, an' we won't have to break any rules or nothing!", Iakopa said, his mouth seemingly going a mile a minute, "we're gonna enter and win every competition these fools are hosting tonight, battle, dance, whatever! They're hostin' it, we're winnin it! Imagine the looks on their face when Team Skull wins the night, noway they'd ignore us then!"

"I dunno man, some of these trainers look pretty tough, it's one thing when we're runnin' around in a group causing chaos, but a head on, one on one battle, I dunno...", said Napo, a lanky grunt with a less then stellar battle record.

"Hump, did you forget who I am? Rememba. I'm one of the baddest Grunts on this island, I made it farther then most people did on that lousy island challenge, plus I'll have Curt and his boy's backing me up just incase, right guy's!?", Iakopa said, flashing a sign at Curt.

"Uh, yeah, sure sounds like-I mean, yeah you know I am, let's show these fools who really owns this island!", Curt replied, just remembering to switch back into his gang lingo.

"Hey, uh, Iakopa, bro, you said something about winning the dance off, does that mean...?", Embertail said, smiling and looking at Iakopa with hopeful eyes.

"Oh yeah, I know, I know, in fact, I'm counting on you to win it fo' Team Skull, ya hear, blow then away with yo sick moves Embers!", Iakopa said, much to Embertails delight, "in fact, I should get myself ready for the night, Skin-Fryer, Skull-Crusher, get out here!" Two balls snapped open, the first revealing a large Electabuzz, as tall as a man that seemed to have a permanent snarl on its face. Whatever could be said, Skin-Fryer earned her name, the Pokemon had a short fuse and reveled too much in battle, often going far over-board and severely injuring her opponents in the process. Rumor was that Skin-Fryer was half the reason why Iakopa constantly failed his third island challenge, the Kahuna wouldn't face a trainer who welling let a Pokemon indulge in such savagery, and the scars across the Electabuzz's body was testament to how much she indulged. A few members of the crowed turned around in response to the noise of the Pokeball's, and more then a few of them were put on guard at the sight of the tall, fierce looking Electabuzz, that looked ready to rip the arms off the first thing, man or Pokemon, that looked at it funny.

"ORK ORK ORK!", cried the blue, sea-lion Pokemon as it clapped its flippers together. Skull-Crusher...wasn't a Brionne the earned his name, and any tension that was created by the fierce Skin-Fryer was instantly evaporated by the ditzy, smiling, Pop-Star Pokemon. Skull-Crusher, for the most part, looked like your typical Brionne, however, it appeared the Pokemon never evolved out of the goofiness that was normally associated with the Popplio stage. At first, some thought that perhaps the Pokemons cute appearance was just a way to catch one of guard, the Skull-Crush caught the shiek on the wooden floor and began trying to slide on them, and everyone lost interest. That was the norm for Team Skull, even when they did something that made you think they were dangerous, ten seconds later they'd do something to completely demolish whatever threatening presence they build.

"Yeah yeah, that's right fools, take a look at these two, they're gonna send all' ya'lls Pokemons to an early grave!", Iakopa boasted, as thought he hadn't yet realized any intimidation factor Skin-Fryer had built up was destroyed by Skull-Crusher. In fact, it seemed like the current target of Skin-Fryers anger was Skull-Crusher himself, who intern was oblivious to his partners anger, who just "borked" and clapped along with his trainers threats.

"Alright then, what'ya say we go and teach these punks a lesson in respecting Team Skull!", Iakopa said, the rest of the grunts cheered and they headed to the stage. Curts team wasn't sure if Iakopa was entering Skull-Crusher in the battles, or the dance off, either way, it was shaping up to be a wild night. Curt, Embertail, and the rest of the gang were just glad they didn't have any sort of reputation in this region before coming to Alola, and any reputation they made here would (hopefully, probably) stay in Alola.

 

[BurbleBurble]

"Say Puff, not a bad day, yeah?" A red haired man asked a Lopunny beside him. The rabbit piped up a squeak and nodded. "And just to think. This is just day one in Alola! Stop one on the way to that fancy hotel on that Akela Island, or whatever it's called!" Puff piped up again with a happy squeak. "So what if we are completely drained for cash when we get back home? That’s a whole three weeks away!”

Gerald had to admit, he was pretty disappointed that at the end of his vacation he’d be returning to his slightly above minimum wage paying job as a Poke Mart employee. But that was three weeks away still! He had time to have one last hurrah, rather than waiting for his remaining funds to drain out slowly. Gerald was going to have a long overdue vacation. In fact, the last time he was even on a vacation was...well, arguably that time when he was entering the so called “dark tournament” may count...but considering he was almost killed several times by wild Pokemon, plus June nearly turned into a mindless beast as well, Gerald wouldn't really count that...like ever...So, that would be...he couldn’t even remember the last vacation he had! Well, he was certainly going to sit back and relax this vacation, starting in this town of Blinth.

But first, the question stood: How should he do such a thing in this little town of Blinth? Maybe there was a nice beach he, Puff, June, and the rest of the team could take a rest on. Or maybe a little restaurant they could get a bite to eat at! Perhaps this walk was relaxing enough?

Another squeak from Puff stopped Gerald’s train of thought. The little rabbit had found a flier of sorts, which was soaking in a puddle prior to the rabbit picking it up. “Here, lemme see it-” Puff’s paw lifted up in a way of saying wait. He was trying to read the little poster himself, tilting it to the side in his efforts. “Uh, now can I see it?” The Lopunny puffed out his chest in pride, as he handed it over, almost as if he deciphered some archaic code.

Gerald quickly skimmed the soggy, faded words. “Huh. Dancing and money...Free too.” The man recalled the last two times a free event with luxurious prizes ended. But, third time's the charm? As far Gerald could tell, there were no psychopathic groups or jungles filled with vicious Pokemon around, so what was the worst thing that could happen?

Then Gerald saw the time and date. He hadn’t thought of it before, but he seemingly lucked out, as it was happening right that night, the only night on this vacation Gerald had planned to be in the town of Blinth. Even luckier, it was still an hour or so off, meaning Gerald actually had something to do!

“Alright, this is perfect! Come on Puff, let’s go get ready!”

Puff, on the other hand, looked rather befuddled, obviously knowing nothing about the actual contents of the flier, but quickly hopped after Gerald. After all, the last thing the rabbit wanted to be was lost on an island he barely knew anything about.

-----

A little more formal than before, Gerald walked into the community center, Puff still at his side. And by formal, he just took off his sweatpants and replaced them with jeans, put on a jacket (A nice one, not his ratty “lucky” jacket), and tried to comb his hair. But it was formal enough.

“Y’know Puff, I was a bit worried we’d look like confused tourists. But it looks like we fit in pretty well-”

Gerald was pushed aside by a group of punk looking kids before he was able to finish his sentence. He saw the “thugs” strutting around town earlier, throwing out those ridiculous hand motions. Though, Gerald swore there was something familiar about the group he saw earlier, but whatever was familiar from before had seemingly dissipated. They were just a bunch of street punks.

“Well, I guess we fit in more than them, right Puff?...Puff?”

Just great. The Lopunny just wandered off. Correction, the three foot tall Lopunny wandered off.

This left Gerald scouring the Community Center, with hushed calls for Puff’s name.

Of course. The one time I walk around with Puff at one of these things, he gets lost. This is why I should've had June out in the first place...

Gerald had spent a good five minutes looking around in every corner, under every table, and trying to shout very quietly as to not interrupt the people on stage. But Puff was nowhere to be found.

The punks had once again come to spotlight, ranting on about how they were going to “Dominate” the competition or something, with a rather mean looking Electabuzz, some seal Pokemon, and a little rabbit-

Wait.

That Rabbit was a Lopunny, and not just any Lopunny, but Puff. Who was about to sucker punch the angered Electabuzz.

“Puff…!” Gerald loudly whispered, just as Puff was preparing his Dizzy Punch. Luckily, he caught the rabbit’s attention just in time, as Puff whipped his head around towards his trainer. “Puff, come on. Don’t start anything!” Puff’s response was a glare. “Come on. Can’t we just enjoy ourselves? For once? We’ll go get something to eat okay?”

Puff let out a defeated sigh, as he trudged towards Gerald. Gerald was genuinely surprised at how easy it was to get Puff back. Usually he was rather combative, but maybe he was getting better? Or maybe he was enticed by the mention of food? Either or it-

Nope. Puff took three steps before turning on a step and charging back towards the bloodthirsty electric type, smashing it in the back with a Dizzy Punch.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Was all Gerald had to say in response, beginning to fumble for Puff’s Pokeball.

 

[Shiny Blue Gardevoir]

From the sidelines, Rose watched the battle between the thugs and the lopunny disinterestedly, as she helped herself to yet another glass of punch. She didn't care very much about whether or not her hosts for the evening would mind her draining their punch supply single-handedly, and why should she? She was never going to see them again, when the night was over.

She pondered over the reason why she had even come tonight, as she held the glass to her lips, draining it of its scarlet beverage quickly. Rose had never been one for formal events such as this; she hated dressing up, and sharing mindless conversation with other people, all over a usually quite terrible string orchestra, and she was rather self-conscious about her dancing ability. But, having grown tired of the many battles she had participated in here, and having run out of things to do until her flight to Sinnoh, she had decided to come simply because she had nothing better to do with the evening.

And now, here she was, in a frilly dress which had cost her far too much, and only her lopunny and drifblim for company. Here, watching a gaggle of punks invade the dance before it had even truly begun.

She decided not to get involved, after all, she thought, they were only punks. Only angsty children with nothing better to do, just like her...

 

[Curtkid]

The looks they got when they went to sign up ranged from exasperated to demeaning to mildly enraged, not that Iakopa or his team payed them any mind, Curt and Embertail did noticed, but did their best to ignore them, while Raviel strutted past them like he owned the place. Of course, the lady taking the registrations did everything in her power to try to keep them from signing up, even directly contacting Mr. Curi. But to their surprise, not only did the man not throw them out, he also allowed them to sign up for the battle!

"Hey, Embertail, do you notice anything...strange going on?", Curt asked his talking fire-lizard partner.

"Yeah, no ones tried to kick us out yet, honestly, I think this is a new record for us!", Embertail exclaimed, the peppiness in his voice not throwing his long time human friend of to the actual concern he had for the going on's. Raviel was busy having a friendly stare down with Skin-Fryer while Iakopa was formally signing up (and boy, what he making a deal of gloating about how Mr. Curi let them sign up), normally Skin-Fryer would tear apart any Pokemon that glared at her like that, but the Electabuzz and Raviel had (to no ones surprise) formed a quick friendship and rivalry, so as long as Skin-Fryer was concerned, he got a pass. Thankfully, Curt often had Embertail to look to for a conversation partner, and the Charmander was happy to abide.

"Well, normally I'd say I'm being paranoid, but given our track record with "things that are mildly suspicious ending up turning into life or death scenarios", I'd say we stay...on...h-hey Embertail, is that?", Curt trailed off, his attention being stolen away by a figure that, in all likelihood, presented a much greater threat then anything else that was about to go down. Now, most people wouldn't consider a Lopunny matching right towards you intimidating, cute? Definitely. But not intimidating. Pokemon Trainers, however, knew better, Lopunny were extremely agile Pokemon who's natural kicking martial arts outstripped even the best human Kick Boxers on the planet, and those were the untrained ones. This particular Lopunny however, was most certainty not wild, upon coming closer to them they could see that definition on the Lopunny's arm and leg muscles, clearly signifying that it had a trainer (aside from the obvious fact that this Pokemon was at an event where trainers were letting their Pokemon out left and right). Those clues aside, there was one more thing that tipped the two off about this Lopunny, and that was that they met HIM a few times before, and judging by the expression on his face, he remembered them too.

"Puff, is, uh, that you?", Embertail asked for them. The look of tranquil fury gave them all the answer they needed, though Puffs fury seemed more directed at Curt, rather then Embertail. A few months ago, Curt and Embertail (along with Whips and Nine) were formally introduced to Gerald, Puffs trainer, his Braxien partner June, and Puff himself. However, despite a promising start, the meeting went sour when Curt accidentally called Puff a girl, which motivated Curt to end the conversation early and ditch for their seats. If it was any other of Geralds Pokemon, Curt and Embertail's thoughts would be occupied by concerns of where the trainer and the rest of his team was, if they should lay low for now or just get their current affiliation to Team Skull out in the open and get in over with, and so on. However, in this case all the two could think about was not doing anything to set Puff off. Mixing up Puffs gender must have been a common issue for the Lopunny, as the four foot tall rabbit never seemed to really forgive Curt, and probably still didn't judging by the unnervingly calm glare on his face.

"Hehe, h-hey Puff long time no see, i-is-er, a-are Gerald, June, and everyone else here too?", Curt asked, an admittedly foolish question, obviously Gerald, June, Million, and the rest were probably here if Puff was, "Yeah, uh, you're not still made about that whole, accidentally mistaking you for a girl thing a while back, are ya?"

Puff responded by cracking his knuckles.

"Yeah she's still mad, I-I MEAN HE!", Embertail said in an attempt to correct himself, but it was too little too late. Puff was already on edge, and Embertails little slip up finally set the rabbit off with a fury filled dizzy punch! Curt barely had time to blink before he heard the thud of flesh meeting flesh and his vision was covered in shadow, only he didn't feel as though his nose had been rammed inside his skull. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust before he realized that the "shadow" that covered his eyes had a tint of yellow to it..and was furry.

"Yo-yo, what up you two, this sissy little rabbit givin' ya trouble!?", Iakopa said. The man had finished signing his team up and was apparently heading to grab Curt and Embertail to rejoin the gang, only instead what happened was that Skin-Fryer had to save Curt from needing facial reconstruction surgery. Curt moved himself from behind the Electabuzz's hand to see her holding Puffs fist tightly in her hand, throwing the rabbit a glare that would make almost any man cower. Puff, however, was not easily shaken, matching Skin's glare with one of his own, clearly not intimidated in the slightest, only more enraged. Skin-Fryer may have had one of Puffs arms, but unlike Electabuzz, a Lopunny's legs were just as strong, if not stronger, then their fists, and judging be the faint shuttling in one of his legs, Puff was getting ready to give his newly arrived adversary a strong kick in the face. It looked like the battles were starting a bit early as the two Pokemon were getting ready to square off, no holds, barred, right in the middle of a auditorium! Curt, meanwhile, was desperately trying to think of what he should do, if anything at all! Letting this just play out would be a bad idea right? Should he have Raviel try to paralyze Puff with a Thunder Wave? The Jolteon had came over with Iakopa and his team to see what was going down, he could probably get it in while Skin-Fryer still had Puff in her grasps, but would Gerald resent them for that (their Team Skull uniforms didn't exactly give off an aura of reputable standing)? Embertail was still on guard from Puffs out-of-nowhere Dizzy Punch, maybe he could hold him back, providing that he wasn't to worn out from fighting the tie-dye Grimer. The options flew through his mind, and Curt knew he had to pick one fast or lose this window of opportunity! Thankfully, it seemed like a scuffle was quick to grab attention in here.

"HEY! YOU TWO, KEEP YOUR POKEMON UNDER CONTROL AND SAVE THE FIGHTS FOR THE RING! Just because Mr. Curi allowed you punks to say here for now doesn't mean I won't throw you out if you disturb the other guest, UNDERSTOOD!?", the sign in lady yelled, probably assuming that Puff was with Curt's team. In her defense, it wasn't an unfair assumption, he had been with Team Skull long enough to know these guys could start to squabble over the littlest thing. Still, even the shouts of the staff didn't get Skin's to release Puff, nor did it seem to get Puff to reconsider giving Skins a good kick in the jaw. Even the urgent and pleading "ORKS!" from Skull-Crusher wasn't enough to alleviate the tension.

"Eh, let 'er go Skin-Fryer, a puny little thing like that ain't worth your time!", Iakopa exclaimed, apparently the prospect of winning the tournament wasn't worth trying to stomp out some random Lopunny. Only at Iakopa's words did Skin-Fryer finally release Puff from her grasp, much to the new Team Skull Member's relief. Curt was almost certain that, despite Iakopa and Skin's skills, Puff was plenty strong enough to do some damage, even without Gerald to instruct him.

“Puff…!”

Speak of the devil....

“Puff, come on. Don’t start anything!”, said Gerald as he stumbled onto the scene. Embertail briefly opened his mouth to great Gerald, but thought better of it upon remembering the situation that they were in, greetings could wait for now. After what seemed like hours did Puff at last break his eye contact from Skins, only to address his trainer who was desperately trying to keep his cool. Curt had to wonder if Puff was the "loose cannon" of Geralds team, recent events not standing, the trainer was so engrossed in trying to keep the Lopunny from doing anything reckless that he didn't even notice Curt, Embertail, or Raviel. Then again, maybe that was for the best, things were tense enough as it was and they didn't need to make things awkward on top of all this. Really, it was rather lucky that Gerald didn't notice them, Curt could understand not immediately recognize him in his Team Skull garb, but he felt the big-eyed Charmander and one eared Jolteon should have stuck out a bit more. But then again, Curt could speak from experience that, when focusing on keeping a Pokemon from flipping out, it was hard to focus on much else.

“Come on. Can’t we just enjoy ourselves? For once? We’ll go get something to eat okay?”, Gerald pleaded, and this finally seemed to calm Puff down enough to leave, though not before throwing one last glare there way.

"Yeah that's right, word of advice: don't start whatchya can't finish!", Iakopa said, throwing a gang sign at Gerald and Puff turned back. Skin-Fryer just grunted at the departing duo, almost as though she was disappointed that Puff didn't try anything else, Skull-Crusher just orked happily. Curt let out a sigh of relief at seeing the situation being so easily resolved, him and Embertail shared a mutual smile with each other as Raviel barked out something which, according to Embertail, was to call him first before picking a fight. Curt was about to explain was happened before they heard the sound of foot-steps approaching from behind them.

"Yo yo, what's going down? 'Looked like someone was trying to start something so we came to back you up", Ailani said, for her and the rest of the Grunts behind her. Apparently their little "display" had attracted quiet a bit of attention, as it appeared half the people and Pokemon in the Community Center were staring at the squabble that had just went down. They saw more then a few heads hastily turn away when they looked around the room, attempting to catch eyes, but most people were already turning there heads away, well, except for this one punch-drinking girl with a Driftblem and (surprise, surprise) another Lopunny. She just stared at them disinterestedly, as though disappointed that the display she just watch didn't escalate to keep her amused for the evening. She reminded them of Cassie a bit, with her self-absorbed gaze, it seemed like everyone in the room could spontaneously combust and it wouldn't bother her in the slightest so long as it didn't end up inconveniencing her. One had to wonder if she had a story similar to Cassie, or maybe she was just like that, though maybe comparing her to Cassie was a little unfair. The punch girl seemed cold, Cassie could lack compassion to the point where it could be seen as being mentally unwell, though the girl certainly had her moments.

"Hehe, well, that's one way to get everyone's attention back on Team Skull!", Embertail exclaimed, as though all this was to their benefit, that was the typical optimism you could expect from the Fire-type.

"Eh, don't worry about it, just some fool trying to cause trouble, you know, the usual", Iakopa explained with a shrug, "we sent those two packing though, they ain't gonna try to mess with us aga-"

THUMP!
The sound reverberate off the walls as faint shockwaves pulsed though the room, making it so that everyone in the room could hear the sound of the Dizzy Punch meeting Skin-Fryer's back, launching her forward onto the floor. Puff was back, and was standing over the stunned Electabuzz, arms up and ready to go for another round. For a moment, everyone just stood in stunned silence, Skin-Fryer was a hulk-ie tank, a six-foot tall, electric charged piece of muscle, and they had just watcher her get knocked to the ground by a dainty little rabbit! Embertail, Raviel, and Curt, however, we're less surprised by this, or rather, by Puffs ability to take Skin's down with one cheap blow. Gerald was no push-over, and neither was a single Pokemon on his team, what shocked them was that one of Geralds Pokemon would do something so dirty (granted, Curt was one to talk, as Raviel was never one to turn away a cheap shot, but still...). From the corner of there eye they could see Gerald, half running toward them, half digging through his coat pocket for something and looking less then amused.

"Huh! What the-!? SKINS!!! That's it, YOU'RE A DEAD MAN AND YOUR LOPUNNY'S GONNA BE RABBIT SOUP!", Iakopa yelled, snapping his team back into focus. All at once the rest of the Team Skull grunts began to pull out their Pokeballs, glaring at Gerald and Puff with death in their eye's, Skin-Fryer was picking herself up, and she seemed pissed. Crashing the party be damned, no one pulled a fast one like that on one of their own and got away with it!...Unless you turned out to be super strong, but then you only got away with it for a little bit while they grabbed on of the bosses! Curts head darted back and forth between Gerald and Puff and his fellow Team Skull members. They were in a bind, Gerald and his team were their friends (O.K, more like Gerald, June, and Million were) and they weren't about to gang up on them, but if they tried to help Gerald and Co. they could kiss Team Skull good-bye, and they didn't have any money for a hotel! Once again everyone's eyes were on them, the women at the booth already seemed to be calling security, and backing down didn't even seem to be close to crossing the Grunts mind. Well, they hadn't spent a night in jail yet since joining Team Skull, they knew it was going to happen sooner or later...

"H-HEY HEY GERALD, PUFF BUDDY! I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO GREET TEAM SKULL WITH A HEAD BUTT! NOT A PUNCH YOU DINGUSES!", Embertail exclaimed loudly, popping in between the magic fighting rabbit and his trainer, "hehe, but that's O.K, you tried and that's what counts, right guys!?" Curt had to admit, Embertails wide smile seemed almost completely genuine, there was hardly any display's of the nervousness the Charmander had hidden, almost like he planned all this from the start. If nothing else, this seemed to disarm their fellow grunts, even Skin-Fryer was looking at Embertail, one of her brows cocked in confusion.

"W-what the? Are you saying you know these two fools!?", Iakopa exclaimed, the anger over his Electabuzz being cheap shotted not so easily simmered.

"Yeah, remember, from all the stories we told you!?", Embertail said casually, as though this was an everyday occurrence, "you know, from the last Kalos Festival that was attacked by Team Plasma and that cave we fell in where we had to fight Cthulu's illegitimate children (granted I was asleep for most of that one, but still...)!?

"...Yeah, yeah I remember these two mention you, yeah, ain't this the guy who had that giant Scolioped that ate that Team Rocket Admin and his toady when they tried to shoot you to make you monster bait!?", Goupa said, pointing at Gerald.

"The very same!", Embertail said, not missing a bit. Curt wasn't sure if that whole bit of Million eating Thomas and...that other guy (Curt couldn't remember his name) was an exaggeration on Embertails part, or something that came from hear-say. At worse, all Million did was maybe rough the two Rockets up a little, but he sure as hell wasn't going to correct that statement at the moment, and he hoped Gerald would have the sense not to too. Thankfully, it seemed like Embertail social graces pulled them out of the fire for the moment, the Skulls had put their Pokeballs back and where now asking Gerald about his Pokemon.

"Woah, is it true that your Scoliopede is twenty-feet long?"

"Did you really fight those Ultra Beast-like thing?"

"Did your Braxien really explode someones head?"

And just like that, Team Skull went from a street-tough gang ready to beat you into the dirt, to a group of gossips and story-tellers. Skull-Crusher was barking and clapping his fins together again, happy to see that people weren't about to hurt each other anymore, while Skin-Fryer was glaring at her trainer, as though asking if they were going to let this go or not? Iakopa caught his Electabuzz's eye, threw a quick glance at his grunts, before something caught his eye. Curt and Raviel peaked behind them to see that several security officers had just made their way onto the scene, and the receptionist women was calling them over. Seeing as the flare to scrap had pretty much gone up in smoke, that Curt, Embertail, and his team apparently knew this guy, and that he still wanted to smash some heads in the tournament....

"Hey guy's, securities here, let's spread out and act like nothing happened so they don't end up pinning us for something we haven't done yet, as for you!", Iakopa said, turning to Gerald immediately after he finished addressing the Grunts, "I'm gonna let you two off this time because Ember's and Curt know ya, but you try to pull some shit like that again and we'll beat you two so down into the dirt they'll need an entire excavation team to dig y'all out, Team Rocket eating Scoliopede be damned!" And with that, Iakopa dispersed along with the rest of the grunts, Skin-Fryer, however, felt it was necessary to point at Puff and then drag her finger across her neck before walking off with her trainer. All things considered, it was a disaster avoided.

"...I think she dig's ya Puff", Embertail whispered to the Lopunny while subtly pointing his thumb at the hulking Skin-Fryer.

"Yeah, so...fancy meeting you guy's here, uh, you're probably curious about...", Curt said, gesturing towards his Team Skull top, "yeah...it's a bit of a long story...one involving alcohol..."

"To make it short, we were board and these guy's looked fun!", Embertail added. Raviel just groaned, leave it to Embertail to make joining a gang sound un-cool, "we came here initially to try the Island Challenge, but apparently it's still exclusive to the natives of Alola, naturally, we decided the next logical course of action was to join a gang!"

"So, what are you guys doing here anyways? I mean Alola, not this ball-thing! Vacation? Pokemon excursion? Looking to join one of those Tapu-cult?", Embertail asked. Some people might have asked a bit more about the whole Lopunny attack, but they were just happy to avoid the chaos for now.

 

[Storybook]

Battle begin.

One, two, three
One, two, three
Strike, two, three
Strike, two three

Strike, two, strike
One, strike, three

And with each strike the girl, digging the bow into the string, leaned into the microphone and struck a note- softer, at first, then growing louder, like a Lycanrok's growl it hung threateningly before erupting into a bark that bashed the silence with the strength of a Rampardos' headbutt, again and again and again and again, strike, two, strike, one, strike, three, strike, strike, strike-

The noise hung for a fearful twinge of time, and the girl, curling her wrist and fingers upon the bow with the delicacy of a sugar rose, imagined an eighth rest upon an absent page, before the rose turned viper and ended the phrase with a harsh, longing chord. Such was the noise, with a throbbing vibrato, that it trapped the stage as if in a noose, the sound entombing its listeners in a heavy rope of notes. Shadows spit across the stage, dashing the chandelier's soft yellow light as they swarmed, curling, weaving a large black seal that hung over the stage and, indeed, the gathering itself, choking the turmoil of voices for a just a moment in surprise, for it was this peculiar incident that reminded the onlookers that this wasn't just a viola's performance (truthfully, it was the viola that performed, not the girl, who managed to escape most gazes beneath the bright cherry sheen of her instrument's woodwork) but also a battle.

T.E. was a princely fellow, his lava coat dusted by grey as if emerging from the smoke of a fire, looking down his muzzle as his seven tails, burning at their tips, curled up and into the small of his back, but it seemed as if at once that this stance was poisoned with a powerful lust as the music began, throat convulsing in apprehension, and when the notes struck the air from the hand of a rose turned viper, something flickered in those beady black eyes that soon would be learned as a form of recognition. His poise shifted, muscles smoothly pulling him forwards with such certainty that he owned the world itself, and as he curled his paws about one another he lowered himself into a crouch, lips lifted, ears back, heart steady, shoulders rising above his neck as his tails splayed themselves in the air. Lower, still, he managed to look down his nose at his opponent, even though the hound's head was so tautly raised that they could barely catch each other's eyes. How small, again, was a Vulpix? On the stage he seemed a thousand feet tall.

The notes continued, edged with vibrato that quivered in his heart and pushed him forwards, and the song was the Vulpix and the Vulpix, the song, filling each other with majesty as the notes growled with the fox. It seemed, then, curious that the skeletal player was creating these notes and not the fox itself- perhaps, then, it was the fox who turned the rose into a viper, who could change a delicately curled finger just by the action of striking the bow. But the girl knew that the style of his piece (it was his piece, after all; his song, the prince's waltz) required such a change, because by the simple action of bringing the bow across the string, whether in a somber march or a Lycanrok's bark, she had to change everything about the way she held the bow: what once had been curled grew straight, where once she had to hover upon the bow, now she had to lean into the string, such was the complicated nature of a single bowstroke. No wonder a song was a thousand moments of time stitched together by memory alone when change itself, though manipulated and precise, was the driving force behind its creation. How she wished to chase it forever, that moment of time in which the world was still but for a song.

As the notes continued (strike, two, strike, one), shadows began to form out of tears in the light about the fox, as if torn from the ash in his lava coat, and as the notes continued, they gathered about him, as black as his beady eyes. The crescendo reached its peak, and the world hung in an eight note rest. It was there that the girl had recalled an absent page, and the two's eyes met in silent affirmation. A single shadow stripped itself from the mass around the hunched fox as if it had a substance to its own.

Silence was choked by the entombing chord, and with it the fox leapt forwards, tail tips glowing a piercing white, and the shadows spit across the stage, dashing the chandelier's soft yellow light as they swarmed, curling, weaving a large black seal that hung over the stage and the gathering itself, choking the turmoil of voices for a just a moment, for it was this peculiar incident that reminded the onlookers that this wasn't just a prince's battle (truthfully, it was a battle of princes, for each was high with power and pride) but also a song.

The attack was called Imprison, Colby Curi recalled with a swell of excitement. Prince's signature move, it began most of every battle he fought. How incredible, how enticing, how beautiful.

"Feint Attack," he relented from his enthralling thoughts of beauty, watching the shadows mark the stage.

A roar, blooming from his Houndoom, called attention to a momentary fright in his stance as he lunged forward towards the nearing prince, but failed to enact his attack. The dark predator reared his neck, displaying his horns as he growled a throaty note of scorn- Colby fiddled with his tie. Although he had known the moves origin and use, it appeared he had not been prepared for the variety of Prince's moveset, and this upset the man, who had, in his own mind, so vainly imagined that he knew his opponent well. Society was simply so predictable, so viciously cycled, a shadow of something greater and grander such that people would rather drown themselves in their own ignorance than indulge in its power.

He narrowed his eyes, those black- whited eyes (of which the player had found so chilling that afternoon) until they were thick as a winter fog, and behind him, a small tan curtain drifted listlessly in the vapid air around it.

"Prince surprises me," he remarked to the girl, curiously void of strength to his tone, as if he wasn't sure why he had spoken at all. His voice stretched just far enough to reach the girl, and was barely picked up by the microphone in which she leaned as she prepared to continue.

"His name is T.E." was her only response, inflections empowering her voice as it traveled through the microphone and cast it's breath across the community center. Her viola shone cherry red, face sunken in shadow, wrinkles deepening into a frown around the thin lips of her skeletal mouth, somehow escaping the chandelier's light.

The music continued, and the battle as well, all four participants engaging themselves in the fray as it evolved, the song, eerie and princely waltz, cast into 3/4 time, unraveling as if a deteriorating serpent's shell, the prince facing his predator, each stepping on egg shells in a violent match to chase the future- the man, fiddling with his tie, so enthralled with the fray that he seemed not to notice the momentary chaos just beside his stage. At some point in time it became evident that, although no words were said between them, the player and her prince were communicating through the song: phrases would repeat, the notes woukd skitter and dash and swing and dance and the prince would move with them, drawn by strings that swelled his chest and caged his heart. Flames sprawled across the air, Snarls and dark moves littering it's light in stark juxtaposition that seemed as natural as the chandelier light, illuminating the crinkled edges of the stage as night began to fall. Above it all hung a seal composed of shadows, and about them the gathering swayed from joy to doubt to the thrill of the bout, some engaged while others chatted, eyeing each other with varying levels of approval and charm.

Meissa chewed on the edge of her tail, focused on one curiosity and one alone: the small group of Pokémon and their trainers who had caused such a commotion just moments before. Her eyesight was keen, and she picked the details from their faces, enticed by the familiarity within the chaos of the Lopunny's debut.

There are two types of worlds, she decided. One where one grew isolated, as if in a fog, a black hole between them and the world as they percepted all from behind their own glass walls of fire and flames and the height of a stage, and one where one grew lost in the mass of a crowd, looking at face to face with keen intent to become involved. She preferred the latter, and thus would her next clumsy actions become inevitable choices in the chase for the future.

Focusing intently (the stage burst with a howl as someone executed an attack), she stared into the back of a one eared Jolteon's head and took a deep breath in. A Pokémon just below the stage buzzed in a flurry of movement as she attempted to transmit a thought, and her nose tickled with the scent of pollen. Static arced over her soft fur, molded by the light of the chandelier.

"Hello. You-..-look..-/..-.dis..-ointed."

Static buzzed with the thought, crackling like a bad connection. She'd never transmitted something so far before, and it was an incredible strain- she'd chosen an electric type in hopes that it would somehow help, but her concentration was failing fast. Something kept tickling her nose.

"Want-.. /to. hear.-... a.. joke-.?"

The clumsy Alolan Raichu crawled to the edge of the stage, clutching her tail to her belly, in an attempt to get closer to her conversational target, spry hopes dwelling in her mind of lightening his mood. A buzz whittled into her ears, its creator rising from the crowd and landing on her forehead. She crossed her eyes, vaguely observing the form of a small Cutiefly. Losing sight of the jolteon, she stood up right, letting her tail fall between her paws, leaning forwards as she spotted him.

"Which pok-./mon... would/ make... a good pi-.-rate?"

Meissa could barely take it anymore. Pollen cascaded into her nose like it was some sort of gold mine. She blinked her eyes, vision growing blurry as she desperately tried to keep herself from sneezing, and stepped forwards.

"An Arrrr-aqu-niiIIID!!"

The pokemon's thought exploded as she stepped on to her tail, tipping herself over the edge and promptly tumbling off of the stage. Bouts of sneezing accompanied her fall, just as the music reached an unbearable crescendo, the two opponents colliding with a sharp spitting of fire. Prince sucked in huge breaths, searing his lungs with cold embers, throat convulsing and tails fanned over his back, beady eyes wild with power. Light dripped from his lava coat as if it were molten flame. The player tightly grinned, exhilarated, her red hair, normally stiff, weaving in and out of one another like a frozen breath, slackened, clinging to her hot skin. Muscles burned without relief, surging with every move she made, one arm curled over the strings and the other dashing up and down, clutching the bow in a loose, controlled grip, delicate as a viper's strike. Her chest felt cold with apphrehension, anticipating everything, eyes gleaming like the galaxy behind her instrument's cherry red sheen. Curi grinned, black-eyed, fiddling with his tie, the drape fluttering silently behind him.

Somewhere in the crowd, a child began to laugh.

 

[Rex]

First impression of Alola? It was damned hot. Of course, Ryan had only himself to blame, thinking he could waltz off the boat from Unova wearing his usual outfit and not be immediately affected by the tropical climate. The sheer fact that snow was practically an unknown condition outside the summit of the tallest mountain in the region ought to have been enough of a tip off in itself.

He’d taken off his blue, long sleeved coat in short order, tying it around his waist after he shouldered his backpack. His shirt was gray, sleeveless. Years of travel had given him a slim physique, certainly not toned, but healthy. His pants were baggy, and black, a color matched by his shoes, a pair of well worn sneakers. He had blond hair, white skin, and a single blue eye – the left one. His right eye was hidden underneath an eye patch, which descended over his brow from a headband, the two articles working together to mostly hide the three parallel scars that marred the right side of his face from his forehead down to the top of his cheek.


Second impression of Alola? Its cities seemed rather small. Of course, he thought that about most cities, having been born and raised in Castelia, but it seemed especially true here. Ryan had seen many different locations in the three years since his wanderlust had finally gotten the better of him. He’d gone to Nuvema Town to visit the regional professor, and left a newbie Trainer. Now, a young man of twenty with a set of eight badges and a League challenge under his belt – he managed to defeat one of the Elite Four, but it had taken everything he had – he had decided it was time to broaden his horizons.

Alola was, honestly, not his first idea. In fact, he only planned to be here for a short time before continuing on further east to Johto, or Hoenn, or perhaps even Sinnoh. Alola lacked a Gym League; it had something called the Island Challenge instead. Ryan was sure that this challenge, while probably a great experience for those looking to immerse themselves in the local culture, wasn’t really something for him. His reason for sticking around, rather than finding the first boat east immediately, was actually in his left hand: it was a flier announcing a gala to be held on the small island of Ambition.

He’d done some research on Ambition. An island city, or perhaps two cities that had taken over the entire island between them. It was practically a ghost town these days, regardless of the distinction, home to only a handful of stubborn locals who refused to give up while the rest of the city decayed around them. The flier pointed him to the Blackrose center in what had been Blinth, the coastal city. While Ryan had never been much of a party sort, he was a thrill seeker, and the thought of some free food followed by a night exploring the decaying cities of Ambition was certainly his idea of a good time.

He didn’t know who the sponsor, Colby Curi, was, and he’d certainly never heard of the hostess, Karen Elise, and thus had no idea who either was or why the Blackrose center was proud to have the latter attend. He supposed Curi, at least, was loaded, given the prizes the man was offering. It was too bad he didn’t dance; otherwise he might have been tempted to enter this competition. He supposed he really didn’t need a full set of evolutionary stones weighing him down, though. And the money would really just burn a hole in his pocket.

---

By the time he took a seat at the crowded community center, several hours had passed. He’d taken a ferry from Hau’oli City to the island, and had taken the short walk to the community center with only his Pokemon for company. One member of his team was sitting beside him in a chair the trainer had pulled over from across the table. This Pokemon, a Dewott named Dodger, had been the trainer’s starter, his first Pokemon and the longest serving member of his team. He was also practically a seeing eye Pokemon at this point, drawing his Trainer’s attention to things on Ryan’s right.

The Trainer had brought his backpack and all his usual supplies, he was expecting to spend the night exploring, after all. This included a small crank flashlight, his lighter, and a small bottle of lighter fluid. The lighter had been a gift from a certain gym trainer in Opelucid City, a gold colored flip lighter with an image of a Haxorus engraved on the side. He didn’t intend to start any fires here, doubted there’d be much wood to burn anyway, but he never left home without it. He also had some trail rations and a portable radio, also powered by crank.

Things had been slow so far, but once they finally got going, things began to happen seemingly all at once. First, a woman made her way to the stage. She had a ghastly appearance, looked like a light breeze would topple her. She was not Karen Elise, by her own admission, but would be the night’s hostess in her place. Her name was ‘Thea,’ and Ryan had never heard of her, either. Seemed like that would be the theme of the night, for him.

The skeletal looking woman – really, Ryan was surprised she was even alive looking like that - launched into an explanation of the night, followed by a series of warnings that peeked Ryan’s interest. It was going to be dark, possibly cloudy, and potentially foggy, tonight. It sounded very spooky, and thus very exciting to him. After that, she started talking about dancing, and the trainer tuned her out.

“What do you think, start out here or immediately head inland?” the Trainer asked his Pokemon, who immediately gave him ‘the look.’ Ryan could not understand his Pokemon’s vocalizations, like most people. Still, over the years he had mostly learned his individual team members’ cues. Dodger was an easy one, the Dewott’s half lidded look of exasperation told Ryan all he needed to know about the Pokemon’s opinion on his eagerness to rush out into the night.

“Aw, you’re no fun,” Ryan smiled, as the girl on stage announced the appearance of the sponsor, a hollow looking man who also looked practically dead on his feet. “I bet they’re related,” Ryan said to his Pokemon, “What are the odds we find not one, but two zombies in the same place at the same time?” His musing at their hostess and founder’s expense done, he went back to ignoring them.

This got much easier when a collection of punks practically threw the doors open, announcing themselves as “Team Skull.” Well, ‘punk’ was probably a bit harsh for this. Really, it was a collection of disaffected teens and young adults. Ryan would bet money on the fact that they had a charismatic ringleader somewhere that had promised them a purpose and the world. He’d seen it all before, he was from Unova after all. Still, they seemed intent on causing a scene, and it was a lot more interesting than the prissy little Vulpix on stage facing down a Houndoom.

Still it seemed that for most of the crowd nearer the stage, the beginning battle between the two undead demanded attention. Perhaps Ryan was just too far away to get what was so interesting about it, but one of the Skull members certainly seemed put out by the whole thing. Really, it was kind of sad. Ryan had been to one of Ghetsis’ speeches in the past, and it seemed like the current group of grunts couldn’t command that kind of attention. Ryan leaned back in his chair, watching them mutter among themselves.

They sent out some Pokemon, an Electabuzz and what appeared to be a cross between a Seel and a Samurott, if Ryan had to guess. Something local, he assumed. These new additions to the night’s events, however, were also quickly proving that they had nothing interesting to contribute, besides a handful of Pokemon running amok. The trainer looked back at his Dewott, shrugging.

“Locals, what can you do?” he smiled. The Pokemon grunted in response.

 

[Opharum]

“I uh…I know we haven’t been here long team, but it seems like we have reason to travel elsewhere again,” Verum spoke to the members of his team outside of the Anistar sun dial.

They hadn’t been in Kalos long, and most of it had been a hectic mess, what with the tournament and the events following. The team in front of him, though looking slightly surprised, understood what was happening. It was becoming more and more frequent, and they were all pretty adjusted to travel at this point. The 16 year-old and his team could definitely be considered globe trotters by now. From Sinnoh to Alola, then to Unova (Though that had been for a short time), and now they were in Kalos, though it seemed not for much longer.

‘Why are we leaving so suddenly Verum? We haven’t spent much time here at all. We still may find something,’ the voice of his Gallade, Galladus, popped into his head. His trainer and friend was normally far more persistent in his search for answers, no matter where they went. For him to be giving up so suddenly was a strange occurrence.

“Well…as it turns out, I’ve been doing more research. When we were last in Alola, we may not have found all that we could have. And being here, even for a short time, I don’t think Kalos has quite what we’re looking to find. I haven’t found anything significant in regards to my condition. No leads or anything,” Verum took a pause to breathe before continuing on his small speech, “So, now that I know there’s more to find in Alola, I think we might want to check things out there again. And besides,” Verum looked at his partner first, before his gaze went from Galladus to each member of his team, “I think we all deserve a little break from everything. We’ll head there, and take a break for at least a week or two before we start diving into things again.”

Galladus’s look of confusion died down, and was instead replaced with a small smile. Finally. Verum was ready to rest, if only for a little bit. The shadows and bags under his eyes were a true sign of the lengths he’d been going to in order to learn more. He nodded simply before asking, ‘Alright. When do we leave?’

“In exactly one week’s time.”

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

For his part, the Sinnoh native had made a relatively smart decision in what he was wearing, though maybe it wasn’t the best to show up to a formal event in such clothing. It probably wouldn’t matter much, right?

Alola was a tropical island after all, so he had decided to ditch his normal jacket and sweatpants in favor of a pair of tan capris and a grey polo shirt, as well as a pair of black tennis shoes. The only thing that someone might have chosen to question the teen about would have been his white scarf that trailed behind him. How he wasn’t overheating in it, no one would ever really know.

Still, the decision to show up to a ball in such a strange set of clothing, admittedly, was probably not his best decision.

Though, even more odd to the trainer, when he had walked into the building in front of him, a Gallade to his left, and a Lucario to his right, was the fact that he had never even heard of this Island the last time here. Or maybe he had and just didn’t remember it? It had been almost two years since he’d last been here. And the place was apparently a ghost island, one not worth mentioning, so he supposed it would make sense.

Nevertheless, he had shown up, entering a place known as Blackrose center on a deserted island known as Ambition, enticed, not by the notion of prizes or any semblance of a huge social gathering (oh Arceus no, how he hated large groups of people), but by the notion of the possibility for some friendly competition. After the tournament back in Kalos, he’d gotten back into battling frequently, and when not exploring, often found himself in the gyms of that region, but now he was here in Alola, and when he’d seen the flier that stated there would be a competition, he had been intrigued.

And so far, the event had not failed to keep intrigued. Though one could also say that team Skull and their constant shenanigans may have had something to do with the whole entertainment thing. He’d met some of their members a while back, when he was here the first time. They were pretty much harmless in a lot of cases, aside from just generally being loud, though they’d tried to steal his pokemon before. That was…interesting, and definitely didn’t end well for the grunts involved. Still, when they entered the building throwing their arms all about, causing a ruckus in their general fashion, Verum couldn’t help but chuckle, Alia and Galladus doing the same right along with him.

Verum put his arm on Galladus’s shoulder, and ruffled the top of Alia’s head, cheery in spirit, glad to be relaxing with his pokemon for the first time in what felt like forever (they were right, he had so needed a break), saying to them, “Well. It’s not quite Sinnoh, but hey. Alola is pretty close to what we can call home, and getting to see all of this…well, it’s a nice welcome back, huh guys?”

The Gallade and Lucario both nodded before their attention was diverted towards the stage where a battle had begun to take place between the hostess and the sponsor of the event. If he had caught their names correctly, the female went by Thea, while the male went by Culby Curi.

Verum had been captivated by the music when it had started. It was quite an interesting take on battles, one that seemed more fit for the contests of his home region than for a battle, but if they wanted to get people’s attention with an exhibition match, this was certainly one way to do it.

The two met in a clash of fire on fire, and that was when Verum’s attention finally diverted from the battle towards the surroundings of the building, looking around at some of the various guests. There were bound to be some interesting characters here after all, and he’d have to get over his social awkwardness eventually, though he’d admittedly gotten a bit better. He’d still stutter, sure, but he had mostly gotten down when to talk and when to shut up, and that was what mattered most.

He noticed a section of the building for refreshments and tapped the shoulders of both Alia and Galladus, directing their attention to the punch bowl, posing a simple question, “Do you guys want to get something to drink real quick? After all, it isn’t likely it’ll be easy to do so when everyone starts to disperse after the battle.”

The two pokemon looked between each other with a quick glance before they simply nodded and got ready to follow Verum.

As the three of them gathered their drinks, Verum’s gaze drifted over to a woman who’d been standing there, drinking a glass of the bright red liquid that they were serving. It didn’t seem like she was particularly interested in the events occurring around her.

Verum took a quick sip from his glass of punch, muttering in a quiet voice, “Ya know…There are probably more interesting things to see here than just drinking punch, though it is admittedly pretty decent.”

 

[Shiny Blue Gardevoir]

"Name one," Rose said coldly to the stranger, filling her glass back up. Rose's Drifblim, Mari, came floating back over to her mistress, grunting in agreement as she snatched a last vol-au-vent with her feelers. Like her mistress, the haunted balloon was terribly bored here, and had been forced to entertain herself by decimating the hors d'oevres supply.

The girl's lopunny, Mimi, meanwhile, simply stood by Rose, looking just as bored and unimpressed with the night as she was. The rabbit was itching for a battle, having not had one in such a long time. Mimi absolutely did not want a battle with a run-of-the-mill trainer, who'd just gotten their first pokemon from professor whoever, and had it their head that they were going to be the best trainer there ever was; she'd suffered through far too many of those, at Rose's request. They all been such easy battles. Rose had used Mimi to destroy countless pathetic pokemon, for no other reason than that she'd wanted to give their trainers a dose of reality, and to kill off some of their excess confidence. Rose had wanted to show them that it didn't matter how cute they thought that their stufful was, or how powerful they thought that their little bounsweet was; in the grand scheme of things, they simply weren't going to be the very best, as they'd always dreamed, and it was only a matter of time before they realised that, went home, and decided on a more realistic career to go into.

No, Mimi craved a battle with some bad guys. Some real, honest-to-goodness bad guys, like she had faced when Rose was a member of Team Terra. It was such fun, battling lunatics with flawed ideals and crushing their ridiculous dreams. The stronger they were in battle, the better. They'd faced people bent on world domination, under the guise of wanting to liberate pokemon, lunatics bent on expanding the land, for the progression of the human race, and a group of psychopaths bent on scrapping this rotten world, and starting anew in a new universe...

They were different to the petty thugs that seemed to have caught Rose's attention. Those children, who called themselves, 'Team Skull', seemed desperate to play with the other organisations around the globe with the Team prefix, but had yet to come across as dangerous, or even scary. Still, it seemed that Rose was enjoying watching their pitiful attempts at ruining their evening.

Rose was almost tempted to go over and lecture them about what real villains did, since they failed so miserably at doing what they hoped that they were doing. But, instead, she slammed her punch glass down on the table, having emptied it again, and scoffed, "Because I've yet to find anything interesting to do here. I wouldn't be here, if only I had something, anything else to do."

 

[Sky_]

Zailia was, at present, standing around the edges of the hall. Being a newcomer to Poni island, she knew nobody there, and her only company was her Oricorio. The dancer was the reason she decided to join the waltz, as she could never pass up an opportunity to join in with a widespread social meeting like the one they were currently at, as well as dance. And, above all that, she specialised in Sensual dancing, which is what the nectar at the nearby meadow allowed her to do.

Arceus above, this is boring. Is anything going to happen before the introduction in half an hour? Or are we expected to speak for thirty minutes. Zailia gave the clothes she was wearing another check, making sure the purple flowers adoring her head were fixed in place, before pulling out a small mirror to check her makeup. Satisfied, she allowed her eyes to wonder around the hall, marvelling at the sheer scale of it, noting as well the amount of preparation it must have needed.

The luxury ball strapped to her waist began to shudder, the yellow seam cracking apart to allow a beam of energy to escape. The red glow slowly shaped itself into an anthropomorphic bird-like creature, with feathers forming fans down her arms and where the hands would be, if she was a human.
"You as bored as me?" Zailia asked, motioning her head towards the Oricorio. She gave a nod in reply, before returning to her usual state as a Sensu, looking softly around, almost like she was attempting to calm, or seduce, anything she saw

 

[Opharum]

Alia noticed it immediately. She and Galladus had taken to watching Verum closely; his lack of social skills would get him into trouble on a frequent basis. He claimed that it was just another reason to stay out of them unless he absolutely had to confront other people. And usually, that was how it worked, the only time he’d associate with people was to learn, or to battle. Though he had improved, he usually had trouble speaking, often saying too much or too little, and in some cases, going about conversation in the completely wrong way.

It could be said, however, that his interactions usually didn’t fluctuate his aura in a negative direction like this, and that was what she had noticed. Usually, it took quite a bit to irk the young trainer, but there were some people that that state just didn’t seem to apply to. Some people just “rubbed him the wrong way,” as he’d told her on the few previous occasions that this had happened.

As soon as she’d noticed that negative fluctuation in his aura flow, she placed down her only half empty glass of punch before going to tap Galladus on the shoulder. If Verum started anything, whether it was on accident, or a purposeful invitation to battle or fight, they needed to be there to either contain the situation, or make sure that Verum would end up on top without potentially wrecking the entire building. Now that would just be disastrous for everyone involved.

Galladus turned to look at her, still sipping his punch as a voice shot into her head, ‘What’s up Alia? You look a little…distressed.’ Quickly though, he realized what that look was for, and placed his cup calmly on the table. ‘What’s the situation? Does it seem salvageable?’

For her part, Alia just shot him a look, ‘I can just sense aura. I don’t know every single thing that’s happening with him at every given moment,’ she paused for a brief second before pointing at him and continuing, ‘Isn’t that your job Mr. Psychic-Type?’ The conversation seemed extremely familiar, though, she reflected; they’d probably had similar, if not the exact same conversation and quips at various points in the past.

Galladus looked at her in a deadpan expression before shaking his head, ‘I’d love to bicker with you my friend, but sadly we don’t have the time,’ the Gallade glanced around the crowd that seemed to be everywhere before asking, ‘I assume you at least know where he is?’

‘You see, that’s a more realistic expectation from aura. Come on, follow me,’ she thought over to him before the Gallade and Lucario began to maneuver their way through the crowd. It was unlikely that they’d find their trainer before he started something, but they had to at least hope that the situation wouldn’t have escalated to any extremes.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Her response to his attempt at starting a conversation came back shockingly cold to him as she filled yet another glass with punch, “Name one.”

As she gulped down the liquid, Verum’s hand came up slowly, raising his scarf slowly above his mouth. It was an act that practically any sane person would find unbelievable to even be wearing such an article of clothing in the Alola region, let alone pulling it up to the point where it was actually covering anything. Yet, the scarf didn’t seem to bother the Sinnohan at all, as his eyes began to dart between the lady and her pokemon, pointedly making observations of each of them.

There was a Drifblim, also taking advantage of the refreshments, to a point where there seemed to be little left of certain foods that the host and sponsor had so graciously provided, as well as a Lopunny that stood behind her. They all looked equally bored, though he noticed the woman’s eyes flicker over towards the mess that was Team Skull once or twice.

It stirred something in him to see people like this. It wasn’t as though they were even making an attempt to respect the event, its host, or its attendees. They were just blatantly disrespectful, and to the Sinnohan, it didn’t make sense what they were doing here if this was their only intention. And that…well that just irked him.

His eyes shifted to the glass she was holding, and as she spoke, confirming the ideas that he’d already had in his head, he noticed a shift in her arm. She was going to slam the glass into the table.

His arm shot out, his left hand blocking the glass from slamming loudly into the table, and possibly disturbing the event goers around them. It may have been a minor disturbance, yes, one that the people of the night would have quickly forgotten and written off. But to Verum, that wasn’t the point. He winced ever so slightly as he felt his hand get crushed between the cup and the table, but his intentions had been fulfilled; the noise that would have emanated from the slam being mostly muffled because of his hand.

He looked back at her, eyes hard with shadows surrounding them as he spoke in response, a scarf still covering his mouth, “Something to note…just because you’re being a bitter person sitting in the corner of a fun event, doesn’t mean you have to be disrespectful.” His voice held none of its original timidity, instead being replaced by a harsh, yet quiet neutral tone while his free hand motioned to the severe lack of refreshments on the table near them. “Also, if you wanted something else to do, there are, quite literally, 4 other islands in this region, each with hundreds of trainers and tens of different facilities,” he paused for only a short moment, drawing in a breath, “So to me, it looks like you’ve just come here to take advantage of someone’s hospitality while contributing nothing to the event itself.”

It was directly after uttering that statement that a somewhat high-pitched growl could be heard behind him, and his head snapped back to see a Lucario and a Gallade running towards him and the lady that he had spoken so harshly to.

The two ran up, looking at the situation, but deciding not to immediately judge against the lady, as they knew that this quite easily could have been Verum’s doing, and not hers. They looked at Verum’s face, and they were mostly certain that that was indeed what had happened, but still. There was surely something that had caused this, right? There weren’t a large quantity of things that could aggravate their trainer so quickly.

Galladus stood up straight, and gave a polite bow towards the woman and her pokemon while Alia calmly reached over the table (Well. As calmly as the 3’9” pokemon could manage given her stature) and lifted the cup with one hand while removing her trainer’s hand with the other as Verum still harshly glared at the lady in front of him.

The Gallade looked towards the Lopunny and, hoping it had experienced some form of psychic communication before, attempted to ask, ‘Okay. So what exactly happened here?’

 

[Shiny Blue Gardevoir]

Rose pried the stranger's fingers away from the glass he seemed so intent on saving, and let it drop anyway, It wobbled a little as it landed on the tablecloth, before stilling, apparently unharmed.

The girl chuckled dryly at the display, flashing the stranger a self-satisfied smile. "See? No harm done!" she trilled, in an uncharacteristically sweet voice, "And even if I did end up breaking it, I'm sure that Mr Curi, or whoever it is that's hosting this thing wouldn't mind. It's only a glass, after all."

She'd seen Mr Curi's kind before. Or, more specifically, she used to be the daughter of one of his kind; a man who lived in the lap of luxury, surrounded by all of the world's riches, and all of the world's prettiest pure-bred pokemon. Yes...

Back when she was Rosalia Lunelini, the darling daughter of Lunelini Corp's CEO. Back when her only purpose was to be a pretty little doll, that her father could dress in beautiful clothes, and show to the men who shared his status. Back when she a useless, pathetic little thing, who relied on her father's many servants, just to dress her in the mornings. Back when she thought of pokemon as nothing more than toys, to be collected and put on display, like the many shiny luvdiscs that her father kept in a tank in the living room...

But when Rose had declared her wish to become a trainer, and the fact that she was a homosexual to him, it appeared that her purpose had been fulfilled. No longer the pretty doll whom his wife had birthed, Rose was kicked out, and left to fend for herself. The last that she had heard, her father had gotten himself a new doll, one who was ten years younger than she was, now.

Unlike the many teams she had fought against, in her never-ending quest for money to live on, Rose hated the fact that men like her father, and like Mr Curi didn't go around in gangs, wearing clothes displaying their ranks. Men like that were just as low as the many mobsters, and criminals that Rose had forced herself to fight against, and yet, unlike those criminals, she couldn't seek them out, or beat them down, and force them to pay for their misdeeds. Until tonight...

Boredom was not the only reason that Rose was here. She's smelt a rattata right from the start, with this event. Men like Mr Curi typically weren't generous, beyond their own ranks, which begged the question as to why he was hosting this event in the first place... She'd come to find out that reason, and, if she deemed it necessary, punish him for it.

"Mr Curi's got lots of money, just like my daddy," She continued, eyes flashing with a maniacal glint, "He'd replace that glass, just like my daddy replaced me!"

 

[BurbleBurble]

"Aha! Got it, back into the ball fo-"

"Huh! What the-!? That's it, YOU'RE A DEAD MAN AND YOUR LOPUNNY'S GONNA BE RABBIT SOUP!"

When Gerald looked back up, the punks did not look happy. And they somehow multiplied, each new member pulling out a Pokeball of their own. To make things worse, the Electabuzz was recovering fast, and looked even taller than him. Apparently, people did not take well to sucker punches. Well...No one anywhere did, but these people especially despised it. Possibly because they were a gang, and messing with one gang member usually led to the rest...well, Gerald just put together how the saying "Ganging up" worked.

And given his experiences with gangs (More of a private military under the guise of a gang, but gangs were still gangs), this was probably not going to end well.

"Now, now, I'm sure we are all reasonable, and I am sure that Puff here wasn't trying to be rude..." Puff, to the contrary, had his fists raised and ready to fight. "Em...Right Puff?" The Lopunny snorted in response, like he was in disgust of backing down. Honestly, these people looked like they were going to attack them even if they did apologize.

He had no back up other than his own Pokemon, and knew very little about the locals and their preferred Pokemon, other than seals, bloodthirsty Electabuzz, and...was that a Jolteon? With one ear? Ah, he could worry about familiar things later...Right now he needed a plan, and fast.

Puff was raring to go, but Gerald knew one hit and he'd be flying off, two at the max. With this many people, he'd need crowd control. June could hold off one or two big guys, but her only spread damage was Dazzling Gleam, and Million, while intimidating, could be quickly overrun. That left Screecher and Switchblades, and...just no to Screecher. That left the Switchblades. They were grounded and obdient enough, and had a lot of resistances...They would work!

But of course,, soon as he grabbed out the Doublade's Pokeball, a voice called out to him.

"H-HEY HEY GERALD, PUFF BUDDY! I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO GREET TEAM SKULL WITH A HEAD BUTT! NOT A PUNCH YOU DINGUSES!" He dropped the Pokeball in surprise. Everything just clicked for him. The familiar feeling the punks gave earlier, the one eared Jolteon, Puff chasing the punks...It was Curt, his cheery Charmander, and his Jolteon Raviel. But...why were they with these local punks?

"hehe, but that's O.K, you tried and that's what counts, right guys!?" Embertail continued, smiling like no tomorrow. For a fire lizard, Gerald had to say the guy had some charisma. He had never seen Charmander in a down mood, the closest he ever saw was in the halls after the battle during the Kalos Tournament, and that was awhile back.

"W-what the? Are you saying you know these two fools!? W-what the? Are you saying you know these two fools!?" The leader of the group asked the Charmander, obviously still upset that Puff pulled off a low blow on them. That was something that was likely never to be forgotten by the gang. Or maybe it was, who knew whatever blows some kid from Alola would pull off on them? He always heard stories about twelve year old kids shutting down horrible organizations.

Puff just tapped his foot, impatiently waiting for the battle to start up again. Unlike Gerald, he was sure he could take on all of these thick headed delinquents and whatever dopey Pokemon they threw out! He didn't care what Embertail had to say, regardless of whatever stories he told!...Though he was sharp eared to here if the stories concerned him. But the only one that was mentioned was a Scolipede eating a Rocket Admin and his buddy.

The red haired trainer seemed a bit taken back by the notion that Million ate the Rockets back in that place, about to counteract with a "Actually, I don't think-"

But it was too late. Embertail had established Gerald and his Pokemon as Grade-A badasses, and the Skulls wanted to know all about it. They asked him about "Ultra Beasts", June exploding heads, and how large his Scolipede was, among other things. While Gerald was originally going to correct these statements, he then recalled what they were going to do to him before. He quickly shifted to agreeing with every statement the punks said, with "Yes!", "Yup!" and "That did happen!"

And Gerald's bunny companion just gawked in disbelief. Who told these guys what happened? it was totally inaccurate! June didn't blow up any heads! She ripped off an arm with Switchblade's help! And none of them even mentioned when he made the monster slip on the ice! What absolute bogus! Who told them this stuff? It was probably Curt, if he had to bet. All the more reason to cave in his face!

Eventually the questions ceased when the leader spoke up again. "Hey guy's, securities here, let's spread out and act like nothing happened so they don't end up pinning us for something we haven't done yet, as for you!" The man pointed to Gerald, briefly worrying him he wasn't about to get off the hook, "I'm gonna let you two off this time because Ember's and Curt know ya, but you try to pull some shit like that again and we'll beat you two so down into the dirt they'll need an entire excavation team to dig y'all out, Team Rocket eating Scoliopede be damned!" Gerald simply nodded in response, his face plastered with a dumb smile until Iakopa turned around, which turned into a sigh of relief. Hasn't even been a whole day... He lamented in his mind.

As Skin-Fryer threatened Puff one last time, he let out a similar threat, consisting of shaking his fist and letting out several angry squeaks and the best glare he could muster. But Embertail being Embertail, he whispered to Puff "...I think she dig's ya Puff." His glare faded into a look of pure confusion as he turned to look at the Charmander. But that's when he noticed something else laying on the ground. It was a Pokeball, rather the one Gerald had dropped just a few minutes before. He walked over to investigate the device, and upon discovering it was Switchblade's ball, came up with a devious plot...If he could figure out how to get it open. Maybe he had to pry it apart? Hit it as hard as possible on the ground? He was sure he'd be able to figure it out though. Probably.

"Yeah, so...fancy meeting you guy's here, uh, you're probably curious about..." Curt spoke, and motioned to his tank top, which was just like all the other members of the gangs. "yeah...it's a bit of a long story...one involving alcohol..."

"Ah, I see..." While Gerald never actually drank before, he had heard enough stories about alcohol making people do some odd and irrational things. He’d probably want to avoid that stuff in the future, to avoid joining an astray gang of skeleton dressed kids. Among other things.

“To make it short, we were board and these guy's looked fun!” Embertail abridged for Gerald, avoiding what was likely a long winded story of drunken escapades. Much to the dismay of Raviel, who audibly groaned at the simplicity of the explanation. Perhaps he thought the story was worth the time to hear? Maybe too boring of an explanation? Raviel was never one to stick with a boring path, from what Gerald knew. “we came here initially to try the Island Challenge, but apparently it's still exclusive to the natives of Alola, naturally, we decided the next logical course of action was to join a gang!” The Island Challenge? Oh yes, that thing. They were gyms, but except they weren’t. There was captains and strong Pokemon from what Gerald heard, and that just sounded like gyms with a new coat of paint. Except that coat wasn’t new, because it was apparently an old Alolan tradition or something. He didn’t really know, because he really didn’t care. He was here for a whole other reason.

“So, what are you guys doing here anyways? I mean Alola, not this ball-thing! Vacation? Pokemon excursion? Looking to join one of those Tapu-cult?”

Cults? There were cults here?! He’d rather not get involved in a cult gig! Hopefully it was just a dramatization… “Uh, no no, no cults. I’m just here for a real deal vacation. I want to just sit back and relax. Though I suppose it is also a Pokemon Excursion. They all get to relax too, and I’m sure we are going to do some battling. Hopefully not with your buddies though, I don’t want to see what’ll happen after that.”

At this point, Puff was sure he had tried everything. But he just couldn’t do it! Pokeballs were too complicated! Humans and June were obviously the only ones who could open them. Just when he was about to submit, he threw the Pokeball to the ground in frustration...Which made it land on the button, and free the swords inside.

The Doublade came out in a much more extravegent way than was neccessary, dramatically lifting their cloths, as if they were some mastermind villain who just finished a doomsday device. Though they stopped rather quickly when Puff expressed some distaste at the Switchblades odd behavior. The informed them of his plan, which would benefit the both of them. He’d get the last laugh on the dumb Electabuzz that ruined his first revenge plot against Curt, and they’d get all of it’s life force! With Puff as the Brain and the Switchblades as the brawn, what could go wrong?

“Switchblades?” Gerald asked, showing exactly what could go wrong. ”Where’d you two come from? Did you let them out somehow Puff?” The Switchblades ‘shrugged’ with their pseudo arms, and Puff was silent. But then he came up with a backup way to shake their trainer. He nodded, but then pointed to the buffet table. “Oh. Well, I suppose you all could go eat a snack. Doesn’t look like there’s much left though…” He just assumed the Switchblades’ were there to help, so he just let that slide. Though it did occur to him that getting the Switchblades’ Pokeball back might be a good idea, considering the last time he let a Pokemon run free with it’s ball...Oh, it would be fine. What’s the worst that could happen? Gerald turned his back on them, and Puff slipped away towards where he believed Skin-Fryer went, the Switchblades in tow.

Getting back to Curt and Embertail, Gerald spoke up again. “So, yeah. Now that he’s gone, sorry about Puff going after you and that Electabuzz. I’m not sure why he has such a deep vendetta against you Curt.” He sighed before speaking up again. “But thanks for the help, Embertail. I did not like the way that was looking before you spoke up.” Then it occurred to him.

He just let Puff and the Switchblades go off alone. Puff, a ball of fur with more anger that something that size should ever have, paired with two sociopathic swords with a thirst for bloodshed.

“Uh...You don’t think they’ll get into any trouble, do you?”

Luckily for Gerald, the Switchblades were easily distracted. On their quest to destroy the savage Electric type, they were distracted by a odd bird. It was purple, looked like a dancer, and somehow drew the Switchblades toward it, for better or worse. But their behavior wasn’t exactly explementary. They were circling the poor thing like vultures, occasionally tapping, poking, and prodding (albeit with the cloth that made up their hands) at it with morbid curiosity, waiting to see it’s reactions.

All the while Puff waited impatiently, tapping his foot in annoyance once again. What were they doing? He didn’t make this plot just so he could be ignored by them! To make things worse, he didn’t really have any moves to hurt them, and he certainly didn’t know how to return a Pokemon (The fact he got them out in the first place was a miracle on it’s own.) Plus, they were on a time crunch. He had to get it done before Gerald caught on that weren’t just going to the buffet table.

He squeaked for the Switchblades to hurry up, but they really were intent on antagonizing this Oricorio. They wanted a reaction, and they weren’t leaving until they got it.

 

[Storybook]

Ms. Heather Marie Jade was an increasingly annoying person to be around. Though she had a great adoration for her beloved Blackrose Community Center (of which there once could be no finer!), she had grown prickly in her latest years. Begrudgingly, she'd lecture her daughter on the fine aspects of community, snap at her neighbors when they threatened her orchids, and frown at the community board during their monthly meetings that, in her opinion, amounted to nothing but a curse on the hope of the island and the center alike. She had cardboard features and bristle like hair. When Charles dropped off her mail at precisely 5:32 am one gloomy Tuesday, she snapped at him for being two minutes late. When the town children walked home from school every fall afternoon, she'd lecture them for every backbone that was out of place, thundering with an unrelenting stream of "your father- born in a barn?- shouldn't have- your mother knows better- now, tuck that hair in- disgraceful, lookin like that." When anyone addressed her, it was always "Ms. Jade,"- her cheeks were raw and her back was rod straight. When she walked she walked flat on her soles, her weight heavy in her calves, as if her feet were made of stones. She phased in and out of adult conversations, nothing left of the women but a dead stare and a frown that could spurn guilt in the most innocent of minds, but if anyone put a hand out of place she would snap back into place, rock hard and as unpredictable as electricity. Admittedly, it felt as if the rose the town had elected as chair of the committee was becoming a right fine cactus. Even Charles, the mailman, who had the face of a cherry and a taste for unripe fruit, admitted that they all had it coming; her childhood nickname had been Bounsweet.

But the town was persuasive when it came to the matter. There's not a drop of rot in our Jade- she was just a little confused. When she lectured the children, it was out of kindness: she wanted to see them grow up just like she had. When she snapped at Charles, the town understood- he could be too sweet sometimes: he needed a real job: he was getting too old to deliver newspapers on a bike. When she frowned at the committee, they let it pass- she was stressed: she was always ahead of herself: she could never really enjoy the day for what it was: she loved Blackrose too much. When her brother who, in the opinion of the town, was a much too successful trainer for a family who, other than himself, had never taken up a pokeball, was asked of her sour disposition, he always seemed astounded- "My Marie!" the man would cry, "Why, she's as gentle as a Bounsweet. Wouldn't harm a Cutiefly, on my honor as a trainer. I just don't know what could have happened to her." When the town inquired the same question of her young sister, who was as old as a thousand ringed tree, she'd sigh and admit, at length, for the women spoke with long, raspy words, "She just wanted to fix herself." Ms. Heather Marie Jade was closest to the answer, but she didn't tell a soul until long after her daughter had graduated into a flowering adult.

"I have nightmares," the cardboard women admitted to the empty night air, and that was the last time she ever spoke of it.

Regardless of her evolution into a Tsareena, as the town whispered when the night grew drunk and the truth grew rash, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that she loved her child- except, perhaps, her daughter's. Paige Jade was a peculiar child. Her feet were snared in high arches, and when she walked she seemed to bounce on tiptoes and bent knees. It seemed she'd taken after her mother's occasional blank stare, for her head never escaped the clouds. She had a small, round face- her nose was broken, her eyes grey, her cheeks a powdered sort of white, her dark brown hair sticking from her scalp like the down of a Rufflet. Her smile was small- she had crooked teeth. She could see less than an inch without her glasses- they perched upon the tip of her broken nose and magnified her eyes so that her blank stare drifted owlishly from behind the thick lenses. She had small, sharply curved hands that could never sit still, plucking lint from her clothes or scratching her downy scalp in the meticulous fashion of a preening bird. The young Jade hopped around her house and buried her nose in books, finding curiosity only in lands that weren't her own. Currently, she had found herself obsessed with "The Cider House Rules," and could be found proudly hooting out "Right" and repeating the end of her mother's lines, much to Ms. Jade's newfound annoyance. Her teacher was astounded the twelve year old could read at such a level. Her aunt, old as a thousand ringed tree, worried that she was too young for the subject matter. Ms. Heather Jade frowned and prickly remarked that her child could do anything.

Paige was convinced her mother didn't love her. Ms. Jade knew that wasn't true- every night she saw Paige terrorized, and there was nothing like fear to remind someone of love. The issue was simply that Jade had been loved too much. Paige had to find out what was powerful in her, not what everyone else thought she could be.

She could be anything, Jade lovingly repeated.

I could have a mother, Paige sulkily crowed in reply.

But at the current moment, the pressure of the night had ceased the warfare between the two. One night- one night-! Ms. Jade repeated in a haste as she paced beneath a skeleton tree. One night- the night- she could finally bring Blackrose back! Her Blackrose, where anything could happen, thanks to him, she had the chance she'd been waiting for, and even team skull buffoons couldn't ruin this for her. "Right," replied Paige blandly, her stare owlishly preening the ground, wondering that if she looked hard enough, she could find words written on it. Of course, they had already tried, contemplated Jade with a sigh. Oh, if she could be anything-! The wind stirred, pulling at her tight brown dress, and she shivered.

"Go inside, Paige."

"Go inside," Paige chirped.

''I'll meet you at the concessions in half an hour-''

''Half an hour!''

''- I have to talk to security.''

''To security,'' the daughter harped with a lopsided smile. Ms. Jade frowned bleakly. Wind rattled the bare tree above the two, and neither moved.

"Paige," Ms. Jade growled at length.

"Right."

The child made no attempt to move. When it was clear that she wouldn't further have a chance to imitate Homer Wells, the grey-eyed child obliged, shuffling awkwardly through her full skirt while plucking lint off of its edges. Jade sighed, alone in the black night air. Goodness, it had gotten late quickly. She supposed the winter months were closer than she had presumed, given how quickly, it seemed, that day had given in to night. For a moment, she mused on how spring seemed to so arduously climb into summer, flower by flower animating the landscape from the candid drought of winter, that it became such a pity that fall gave so quickly what had been achieved at such great length. And yet, the women could sympathize. To work so hard... for it all to fall in the split second, tumbling, rolling, crashing, time warped and the earth moved at such a speed that you were dead before you could learn to breath. Like a Pokemon battle, the cardboard women supposed. She would never understand why her brother was so captured by those moments.

Stifled night air rolled turbulently over her chest, crawling over her neck like a thousand minuscule Dewpiders, their dewy fingers probing her veins. She stared up through the naked boughs above her, obtaining her daughter's stone stare that had been so foolishly credited to her. The boughs, grayed by the ashen dusk, heaved up and down in heavy sighs, their fragile sticks clattering against each other in pained gestures. Above, the harsh yellow lamplight dominated the dead sky like an artificial sun.

''It cast a shade over the boughs, turning them into silhouettes, their struggle harshly deemed in terms of black and yellow. Yet they avoided the fate of many trees turned black by the horizon in that they failed to meld together, and with every weary heave the boughs unveiled bits of themselves that seemed unfinished- fine, minute details of brown and gray that failed to escape into the one perfection of a black, formless, corner-less being. Instead they lay sharp, inscribed with the visions of their past, rings and bark, cut by insects and gnarled with time.

Beneath the lamplight, they struggled to remain upright, strong and hardy as a tree is supposed to be, for with every cautious shift of the wind their sticks clattered together, and the boughs would move suddenly as if to flinch as bits of bark were rubbed off of their bare branches. The problem was that the boughs had all grown too close together- the tree, as if in a desperate search for connection, had ensnared itself in its own web. If it were a spider, it would be a foolish one, caught in the trap it had laid to ensure its own future.

When the wind picks up, as if in a fire of passion, the tree finds itself dreading the delight it brings. To be free, and move with such velocity that it can rake the air as if in life of its own-! But to rake the air means to rake itself, and with movement comes an incredible fear within its boughs, for they found the delicate sticks, so frail they could be sugar roses, had turned viper. The tree was no longer a passive shadow. It had detail, it had power, it moved, it escaped the silhouette, but it had become so entangled that to do so it would hurt itself.

At what a cost, to chase in the coat tails of passion. The tree wanted to move, but it had grounded itself. The tree wanted to fly- to leave, to escape, the tree didn't want to be anything, it wanted to be something-! But here, it had been foolish. It had been grounded. It had surrounded itself with dirt, and air. Ivy leached over its trunk, to the trees immense satisfaction, because it wanted to finally feel connected. And yet, no amount of tangling would merge the ivy with the tree, so the tree grew upon itself and ensnared its branches. As a seed, it flew. Why had it given that up?''

''Come back.''

A new voice, long and raspy, intervened, and Ms. Jade, trapped in such an image that her thoughts escaped into words, grew suddenly aware that she was no longer alone. Her gaze returned, and her feet grew flat and heavy. Weight surged into her calves.

She turned to face the newcomer, who walked up to the center with grounded feet and words as light as clouds. She looked as old as a thousand ringed tree.

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

Mr. Curi was confident.

In the nights to come, few people could figure out why, and even fewer, especially among those who had attended the event, wished to think about it at all. Perhaps it was because he had no way to be aware of the prophetic observations made by the woman who had given him this chance, lost in the black of her own mind. Perhaps it was because he knew his ghastly appearance wasn't quite as it seemed- that he could live just as much as anyone else in this room if he wanted to. Perhaps it was because he was in full knowledge that there was little hope for him to win the battle when he began it, that he felt so confident even as he neared his impending defeat. It was a massive struggle between the prince and the predator, but the prince was a tricky being. Like ivy, he reveled in ensnaring his opponents before he beat them- with moves such as will' o wisp, imprison, and confuse ray, all of which had been on display this battle, he would find pleasure in outranking even the most massive of opponents. His Houndoom lacked the correct ability to face a fellow firetype; the Vulpix's movepool was so extensive that, even though most moves were not especially refined, he could prevent so many of his Pokemon's attacks that the predator quickly found himself off balance; the Vulpix was so fleet of body and mind that it soon became clear to bystanders that he had some claim to his princely demeanor; Curi had welcomed the relinquishment of the upper hand because the lava fox was just so fascinating; T.E. was incredibly old to have never evolved. Perhaps these were the reasons that he was allowed to have confidence even when so many things could have pressured the man into backing down.

But the man knew, at that moment, that his confidence wasn't all a blind eye. He had found his key, and he had the utmost confidence that she would pull through. So shadow-like the woman seemed, shrunken beneath the fire and her cherry violin.

Regardless, as the battle neared its conclusion, and the stage heated up with the sweat of a song, Colby Curi was incredibly confident in his own success.

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

''Come back.''

Ms. Jade's sister stood, a flickering form, just entering into vision as the light from the doorway stretched to meet her. She seemed willowy in form, short and thin, with a soft silk scarf loosely hung about her neck. The wind caught it, and it hung for a moment like the branch of a tree, thin and feeble, bent, whispering in a soothing voice silent sussurations. She made up for her minuscule shape in pure presence. Her feet were grounded, yet they rose easily in high arches within her flats. Her weight was in her ankles- when she moved, she pressed the ground, like roots, she barely lifted her feet. Her hair was fine, bangs arranged into a cautious braid that swept over her scalp in a loose ring, while the rest curled across her shoulder, gleaming a soft red hue beneath the shade of its brown color. Her chest was light. Her eyes gleamed, their dark brown orbs hiding a gem in the depths of the earth. Her hands were small and still. While Ms. Jade was reaching her mid thirties, Elizabeth Jade, commonly referred to as Leise, hung behind her, trapped in the early twenties. Yet she had always been as old as a thousand ringed tree.

Both of them knew what the two words referred to- a long running argument between the lost and the found, the older and the younger siblings, separated only by the middle child, their over eager, battle-hungry, money-sucking brother. Leise had long insisted that Ms. Jade should return to school and study literature; according to her, Jade had wasted potential.

''Leise, I thought you were tired of these 'wasteful galas'.'' The cardboard woman had engaged a prickly tone, evading an answer except for in her tired frown.

The sibling nodded. Her words were seldom used, although not specifically reserved- when she spoke, she spoke with long, slow, strung out sentences that seemed to have no end- the only problem was getting her to begin. She was only curt with her conversation when something had amazed her, and Ms. Jade had long learned that to receive a sentence of few words was as profound a compliment as she would ever come close to giving.

Silence reassured the air.

''It's your night,'' Leise finally admitted, tugging at her scarf. Jade blinked. Her calves felt heavy.

''I think Colby believes it's his night, and so does the rest of town and the rest of the world. Blackrose needs more community. Ambition needs more publicity. More people. I hate that we have to rely on.... him to give us that.'' Ms. Jade was not only referred to almost explicitly in the formal case, but she rarely gave that same attention to others. It wasn't quite her fault, the town was quick to explain- she just had such a... presence, they'd decide on at length, that no one had felt any need to rival it.

Leise shrugged, and moved past her sister and through the door, feet never leaving the ground. Ms. Jade sighed, pressing her soles into the earth beside the roots of the tree, as if doing so would give her a more steady way to move around. She pulled out her radio, finally getting to the task that she had been meaning to do since those buffoons arrived. It wasn't Ms. Jade's fault, the town persisted- she could just get stone eyed sometimes, that was all.

''Security?'' she growled.

''Stop trying to contact that rich buffoon and listen to me. Under no circumstances should they impede with the general peace of the night- and by this I mean, don't let them burn the place down. That's all you need to do.''

The line clipped off as she turned off the radio, ignoring the confused exclamation of the head of their admittedly lackluster security, even though it had been buffed by 'the man with the money.' In her own opinion, they didn't need to have security at all- let buffoons be buffoons, and just make sure they didn't blow themselves up. Colby was mad to insist on having an actual force, and it certainly disgruntled the cardboard woman that she could do nothing about it. It wasn't as if they even reported to Ms. Jade anyways- that was the real issue, she supposed. Somehow it was always the man with the money.

Ms. Heather Marie Jade watched a dark blanket of fog begin to creep in from the horizon, kneading her nose between her thumb and forefinger.

From somewhere in the building, a child began to cry.

 

[Curtkid]

“Uh...You don’t think they’ll get into any trouble, do you?”, Gerald asked, worried that the cursed swords and magical rabbit who held grudges as often as choir's performed at churches would get in trouble.

"PROBABLY!", Embertail exclaimed happily as he bit into a Mango. After narrowly avoiding a disaster, the group was trying to enjoy the remaining food at the tables before jumping into the main festivities. There wasn't much, only a few pieces of fruit, a bit of salad, and various other items that got cold a bit to quick as to appear undesirable to the party-goers. Still, it was food, and more importantly, it was free, so they certainly weren't going to complain about the selection. It was funny, after managing to collect sixteen gym badges and managing to placing fairly-well in two Pokemon League Tournaments, one would assume that Curt and his team wouldn't be ones to rely so heavily on free food to get them through the night. While most successful Pokemon trainers and their Pokemon ended up using their incredible talents and abilities to help progress in everyday society (a Machoke was far more efficient and lifting then any fork-lift), half of Curts team weren't exactly bestowed with powers the one would consider extraordinary. His two most powerful Pokemon, Whips and Flare, were currently on leave, Whips helping his breather-en in the Dragons Den and Flare was helping run a library (from what they heard, she could re-shelve dozens of books in seconds). This left the team with : A Charmander that couldn't breathe fire, a Bidoof with an alcohol problem, a Cubone who preferred hitting enemies with her Club rather then throwing it, a Jolteon who liked to act like a hard as nails gang banger, though he could fool someone different right now, as his perked up ear's and head darting around the room made him look like a schizophrenic. Oh wait, something was probably up with him...

"Hey, uh, Raviel, something up buddy?", Curt asked the Jolteon, hoping he hadn't gotten hurt in his fight with the Lycanrock. I looked almost as though Raviel was looking for something, or heard a noise from somewhere that set him off edge (the Jolteons hearing was far better then a humans, hearing things they couldn't). Then Raviel, all of a sudden stopped and suddenly donned a look of mild confusion. It was odd, Curt felt like this should be reminding him of something, like this had happened to them before, he was just at the cusp of placing it before a loud crash broke his train of thought.

"*snert* Poor girls going to be replaying that moment in her head for the rest of the week, at least she looks alright!", Embertail said amidst suffocating his chuckles. It turned out the crash was caused by...some kind of weird Riachu, probably another regional variant. This one didn't look to radically different from the Riachu they knew, however, a bit of a tanner fur color, big blue eyes, a slightly bigger tail, and ears that reminded them of Cinnamon Buns. Raviel was a bit less modest about hiding his emotions, openingly laughing at the poor Pokemon's embarrassment.

Yeah, that Raviels issue, a bit to incompassionate, and a bit too hot blooded, he could have done wonders for electrical facilities if he didn't end up getting a reputation for swiping things, and a slightly cowardly Croconaw who was probably the most practical Pokemon in Curts team (even Curt sometimes couldn't believe the thinks Lockjaw could bite through). All that topped with a trainer who wasn't nearly as competent as he lead people to believe, oh, and there was...

"Hmmm!?", Curt muttered through the food in his mouth, his train of thought broken by several wigglings on his belt, "Oh yeah, you guy's probably want to eat too, dont'cha?" Giving another wiggle that even a fool would be able to interpret as a "yes" Curt reached down to his belt and began to pop open the four other Pokeballs. The first two to come out would definitely be familiar to Gerald; the first being a female Cubone with a star shaped crack on her skull helmet, with a mildly aggravated expression clearly translated though the eye-holes. Out of all his teammates, Jasper had taken to the "Team Skull life" the least, the Cubone had a strong sense of justice and a desire to help those in need and stand against those who would take advantage of the weak. The idea of joining a "criminal" gang, even one as incompetent as Team Skull, was appalling to her, she was so against it Embertail, Curt, and everyone else was almost afraid she was going to demand to be sent back to their house and refuse to rejoin them until they left Team Skull behind. Only after a little bit of begging and pointing out that Team Skull was helping keep the even more villainous Team Rocket out of Alola did she (extremely reluctantly) agree to stay by their side. The other Pokemon that materialized to the left of Jasper was a short, bashful looking Croconaw with a scar over his right eye and shorter and rounder looking "spikes". Despite being a shy and timid Pokemon, even Lockjaw was mostly un-intimidated by the majority of Team Skull, and though he was initially worried about the repercussions of joining them, he ended up enjoying their silliness and was releaved to see that no one in Alola took them THAT seriously.

"Anyways, Gerald, you remember Jasper and Lockjaw, right?", Curt said, Jasper giving a curt but friendly nod while Lockjaw gave the trainer a small, awkward, yet adorable wave, "but I don't believe I've gotten a chance to introduce you to...". Deciding to hold off on finishing his sentence at an attempt for dramatic effect, Curt snapped open the other two Pokeballs to unveil two creatures who's appearance could only be described in one word: ragged. Somehow finding a way to fall out of a Pokeball was a mangy furred Bidoof, and it was more then just his chipped front tooth that gave off the impression that this beavers facilities weren't all there. The creature barely seemed to be able to pick himself up and when he did it looked as though he would tip back over any minutes, his face bore a glazed expression of only being vaguely aware of his surrounding and even then not giving the slightest care as to what he took in. In short; he looked like a drunk.

The other Pokemon that appeared beside the Bidoof could have been mistaken for a Pikachu for all of half a second, this creature looked almost at musty as the Bidoof, though this Pokemon at least had the excuse that it's dusty appearance was due to it's patch-work costume. Indeed, this entire creature seemed to completely conceal its appearance in it's make-shift Pikachu costume, with the exception of two poorly cut eye holes right in the middle of it's "chest", and even then it was too dark to make out much of this creatures eyes. One would find it hard to pick up on this creatures mood, it's true face hidden behind its costume, but judging by the way it was lurching and shaking it's costumes "head" playfully around, one could gather that this creature was probably happy to be where it was. It was hard to tell if this creature was creepy looking or kind of cute, in a bizarre sort of way...probably both.

"Gerald, this is Barry and Cappy, Barry and Cappy, this is our buddy Gerald!", Embertail exclaimed, following up on Curts initial introduction. A shadowy claw protruded from underneath Cappys costume, but quickly began waving at Gerald, hopefully removing any sense of ire or weirdness that the admittedly slightly scary claw might have caused. Barry, on the other hand, just stood their for a second, then turned to look at Curt for a moment, then Embertail, as though he was having trouble processing their words and what was happening. This took an awkward ten or so second to pass, before the Bidoof finally looked at Gerald raised a paw in a half-hearted attempt at a greeting, before looking back over at Curt again.

"Rhena rneugh reno", the Bidoof...well, it was hard for the ears to distinguish whether what came out of Barry's mouth was a squeak or a slur. Surprisingly though, it seemed as though Curt either understood it, or knew Barry well enough to know what he was asking.

"Sorry Barry, there's no liquor here", Curt replied to the Bidoof with a shrug. This, it seemed, merited Barry's full attention, as he immediately perked up. The Bidoof broke from the group and began rotating his entire body in an attempt to do a full scan of the room, looking for some sort of bar, or liquor stand, or something that would sate his desires! Barry's heart break was spelled out clearly on the creatures drooping face as his search yielded no results. It just didn't make sense, they said they were going to a party, right? This looked like a party, there was food, loads of people they didn't know, one person they did know so things wouldn't get to awkward once they realized they had no one to talk to. There was even a fight going on between a Vulpix and a Houndoom in what he presumed to be a blood-sport to appease these islander's deities! No, this couldn't be true, he had heard rumors of dry parties, but he thought they were a myth, a horror story to scare children with! He turned his bushy head back towards Embertail, as though he would tell him different, hoping against hope that the Charmander, a fellow Pokemon would know something. Yes, that made sense to him, of course these no good selfish humans wanted to hog all the good refreshments for themselves, giving only a few table scraps to the Pokemon, presenting it as though it were some special treat! But Embertail, he was in close with the humans, he followed Curt everywhere, surely he would help him get something to drink, or at least share the humans secret location of where the put their alcohol so Barry could pillage it later!

"I'm sorry buddy, but this is a public event, you can't really serve liquor in a place that's also welcome to kids, but hey, look at the bright side", Embertail cheerily said to the distraught Bidoof as he reached up to grab something on the table, as though he wasn't stomping on Barry's every hope and dream, "they have donuts holes!" Of course Embertail wouldn't tell him, that walking fire-hazard may look like a Pokemon, but deep down inside the humans had infested him with their way of thinking, causing him to abandon his Pokemanity along time ago. He should have know better, just thinking about how Embertail always insisted on being outside his ball, how could speak the humans language and fit into their culture, that stinking lizard thought he was better then them!

"Wait, they have donuts holes? Are their any glazed? Can I have some?", Curt asked, his interest peaked by the promise of sweet, fluffy spheres.

"I do believe so my good man, help yoursel-buf-HEY!", Embertail exclaimed, his offer of sharing the donuts being interrupted due to Barry's swatting of the box in anger before springing off, let out a loud squeak that caught more then a few peoples attention. However, they immediately stopped caring once they realized it was a Bidoof. Barry didn't care, he had a mission, he knew there were drinks in this place, and he'd find them if it was the last thing he did...or until he got tired and decided it would be easier just to sneak into somebody's house and steal their alcohol, whichever came first.

"And there he goes...but did he really have to knock the donuts onto the floor", Curt said as he knelt down and began to pick up the donut holes, hoping that a few might be salvage able, "by the way, was he saying anything that we should be concerned about, I mean, knowing Barry, he'll either end do nothing, or end up doing everything, and we'll end up having to skip town or pay for property damage..."

"Eh, just something about there being liquor in here somewhere...and something about me being a, um. "a human..., well I won't say that part", Embertail said with a knowing smile as he also began picking up and inspect in the donuts.

"Asshole...we'll, we're on thin ice as it is, I'm not going to run around off-limit parts of this place for him, besides, he always turns up sooner or later", Curt said with a sigh, before remembering Gerald had watch that whole scene unfold," oh, uh, right, sorry about that Gerald, Barry's kinda...well...."

"GKKUUKUK GAKAURKKAAK", came what could only be described as a twisted chocking noise from under a sheet, causing both Lockjaw and Jasper to jump, with the latter taking a sizable step away from the Pikachu-costume wearing creature. They still hadn't gotten completely used their newest members...unique cries.

"Heh, yeah, he totally is Cappy!", Embertail exclaimed happily, somehow understand what sounded to humans as a mice or a young girl being chocked to death, but trying to form a sentence at the same time. Which was apparently somewhat similar to what she sounded like, according to Embertail.

"Yeah, I'm sure you probably guess this, but there is a story behind that guy, you see, after that whole incident in dead mans drop, we were looking to return home to Cherrygrove, but needed to make a stop at Sanaduel...where we found Barry feeling from a lynch mob that I swear was made up of half the town!", Curt described, as though part of him still couldn't believe what he saw.

"Haha, at least that much, those people had a list, a literal list, of things they wanted Barry's head for; stealing, destruction of property, sleeping with some rich gals prized Skitty, and somehow convincing the mayor that he was actually the second coming of Arceus(no ones sure how he did that)...the list, goes on!", Embertail said, listing all of Barrys acts with a certain cheerfulness that showed he found the shenanigans both humorous and mysterious.

"So, anyways, we were originally just going to leave this be, but I guess Barry somehow picked up that we we're new comers and spun us (well, spun Embertail mostly, but he translated) a sad story about never knowing his mom and his dad ditching him at a young age, and few other things that we realized we're probably fabricated after the fact...anyways, we felt bad for him and tried to smuggle him out of the town", Curt said, sometimes it was hard for him to believe that they were talked into that.

"Long story short, we tried to sneak him out on the boat to Johto, but we got caught, I mean we thought they'd be happy to be ride of Barry, but they convinced themselves that Barry was some sort of living curse that could only be purged from this world by sacrificing him to the death god on a blood stained alter!", Embertail described, as though not realizing how insane that sounded.

"T-the less you know about that, the better, anyways, after a lot, and I mean ALOT of negotiating we managed to convince them to let us take Barry back to his home in Route 4, but when we got there we found out that all the Pokemon there wanted him dead too...and for, like, the same reasons!", Curt said, with Jasper following up with a few growls.

"Yeah Jasper, in the same way too, though I think they wanted to offer him to the life god...anyways, knowing Barry would probably end up dead if we left him there...or anywhere else, we decided to take him along! And he's been.....not as bad as we thought he'd be!.....sometimes....", Embertail finished, trying to put a positive spin on the ending. He decided to leave out the part where Barry ended up getting himself captured in the invaluable Master Ball given to them by Cassie, mentioning that still bummed Curt out. The rest of the group just stood on in contemplative silence while Curt and Embertail told Barry's story, each of them with a slightly different opinion on Barry. Jasper was stuck between trying to help Barry piece his life together or giving him up as a lost cause, Lockjaw wasn't sure whether he found Barry more funny or terrifying, and Raviel thought they should just kill the beaver, dump him in a ditch somewhere, and deny every coming into contact with him. But like it or not (almost certainly not) the Bidoof had become the newest part of their team, at least until a certain sheet wearing ghost tagged up with them a month ago.

"GUUKAKAK GAH! GUUKAKAK GAH!", cried Cappy, eager for them to tell Gerald about how they met. Though it was adorable the way she was jumping up and down being, it was unfortunately off set by the unsettling gagging sounds she emitted. A few more heads turned to look to see what was causing that noise as Jasper took another step back while also beginning to looking just a bit pale, at least, from what one could see underneath her helmet.

"Don't worry, we didn't forget about you Cappy, anyways, as to how this little gal' got stuck with us, about a month ago Jacob invited us, Cassie, and her team to an arctic excursion, but our van got into a wreak on the way there, we ended up getting stuck in a storm, but somehow this guy called Salem, Cassie's boyfriend, managed to find us and get us to a cabin which turned out to have a hidden Rocket Base underneath it", Curt summarized, deciding to leave the part about seeing Lugia out of the storm, not sure if even Gerald would believe it. Hell, after all was said and done, Curt wasn't even sure if it really was Lugia and not just some artic bird Pokemon that they confused for Lugia because they were all delirious from the crash.

"Yeah, but that also turned out to be where the rest of Cassie's stolen teammates were being kept, and man did they get to have a touching reunion" Embertail paused briefly, reflecting on the sweetness of the memory before continuing, "anyways, all this time, Cappy here was tailing us and, after a while, decided to meet up face to face and help guide us around the place, turns out she spent her WHOLE LIFE in that place, she was their even before the Rockets, she didn't even have a name or know what she was! So, wanting to see the rest of the world, she asked to come with us!"

"And that's it in a nutshell, oh, and speaking of which, do you know what kind of Pokemon she is, because we sure freaking don't", Curt asked with a bit of a shrug, " I mean, I heard they were native to Alola, but apparently they're super rare, even here, the best description we got was from another Grunt who said she was "one''a dos d'hings dat' dress up liek otha Pokemons!", which tells us that dressing up is something the entire species does".

"Barorwnaro!"

"Oh right, thanks for pointing that out Jasper, uh Gerald, word of advice", Curt said, drawing close to Jacob, his voice lowering to a whisper and his tone suddenly becoming almost uncharacteristically serious, "do NOT look underneath her costume, just...trust me on this, O.K?". It was the oddity of it at first, off a Pokemon seemingly constantly wearing a costume, that made them want to see her without it. Then she mention that people (or Pokemon) "didn't want to be friends anymore" after they saw under her costume, and that made them want to look under it even more, but she refused. However, after a while of traveling together, getting to know each other, and nagging, Cappy wore down and allowed them to take just a quick peak.

They couldn't eat for three whole days after they looked.

Even now, they weren't exactly sure if what Cappy looked could be called "terrifying", more along the lines of "something that should not exist" seemed to fit. It was like something out of H.P Lovecrafts book, a being who's form just couldn't be properly comprehended by mortal minds, the only thing they could compare it to was some of the creature they fought in Dead Mans drop, except smaller...and more twisted. At first, Cappy was afraid they "weren't going to be friends anymore", but they assured her the opposite (despite the fact no one went near her for almost a week) and eventually they stopped flinching every time Cappy walked into view, well except Jasper, but Jasper wasn't exactly Cappy's biggest fan to begin with in the first place, so...

"So, anyways, the battles heating up, looks like the Vulpix and her trainer almost have this wrapped up", Embertail pipped up, trying to defuse the situation.

"Huh, oh really, the Vulpix is winning?", Curt said surprised, though equally eager to turn the conversation towards a different topic, "That's a shock, I mean, I was rooting for him, but I thought the odds were stacked against him and his trainer because, speaking from personal experience, Houndours are a pain in the ass for Pokemon like Vulpix and Ninetales to handle, guess that's just a testament to the skills of the trainer and the Pokemon..." Curt began explaining how Houndoom have the Flash-Fire ability, making a Vulpix's fire attacks completely useless, now, a well trained Vulpix often has a few Psychic, Ghost, or even Dark-type attacks to fall back on, but a Houndours Dark-type weakens or negates all those types of attacks, meaning there is precious little they can do to harm a Houndour. But it really looked as though the trainer and her Vulpix were going to beat the odds and come out the victor, guess the two just had more experience then Mr. Curi and his Houndour partner. At first glance, one would find it surprising to thing those so young could have more experience then their elders, but it wasn't that surprising if one gave it just a bit of thought. Like most people who have a Pokemon partner, Mr.Curi and his Houndour probably treated battling as an occasional hobby or extra-curricular activity while the girl and the Vulpix probably battle a bit more professionally, not an uncommon thing at all.

"So Gerald, did you registrar for the battles too, any idea who you're going to go with?", Curt asked offhandedly. To be honest, Curt wasn't entirely sure who he'd be going with, well, he could at least count Barry out, Heaven knows where that Bidoof was now. He supposed he could also count Embertail out, both for the fact that it would be difficult to perform well in the dance off if he got beat up, and because he was still a bit roughed up from fighting that tie-dye Grimer (nothing serious, but he wasn't in top form). Jasper's tank-ness could work as an opening, drag the battle out a bit to get a gauge of their opponent, and who knows, maybe if they performed well enough it might loosen some lips about that mystical, super-powerful, ghostly Marowak that people spoke of even back in Kanto in hushed tones. Lockjaw might work, as a "decent all-around stats" kinda guy he could keep their opponents on their toes, he just the party wasn't big enough to trigger Lockjaws stage fright. Cappy was...well, Curt still didn't know much about Cappy at all, she seemed to perform better at close combat though and was probably a Ghost-type, that's about it, still it seemed she was a fairly rare Pokemon, so maybe she'd make a good wild card? Lastly was Raviel, who was in a similar boat as Embertail in that he was a bit worn out from fighting the Lycanrock. Granted, he seemed to be full of energy earlier when laughing at that poor Riachu, so who could say?

 

[Opharum]

The Gallade frowned when no voice answered in response, but decided to keep his attention trained on Verum, still hoping to keep the problem from escalating any further, though looking at the current situation, it didn’t seem it could end that way at all. The woman had pried Verum’s hand from the glass, and simply let it drop to the table anyway, where it wobbled briefly.

She responded in a sickly sweet voice to his statements after flashing him a smile that was full of satisfaction at her own course of action, “See? No harm done! And even if I did end up breaking it, I'm sure that Mr Curi, or whoever it is that's hosting this thing wouldn't mind. It's only a glass, after all."

As she uttered those words, Alia turned her gaze towards Verum as well, and observed as his eyes remained hardened and set on her. She closed her eyes and allowed a blue light to flood over them, observing the world through aura rather than natural sight, and looked at her trainer, with things seemingly still at a high point until a flash of uncertainty, not unlike a spike in a wavelength shot through him as the woman continued.

"Mr Curi's got lots of money, just like my daddy," She continued, eyes flashing with a maniacal glint, "He'd replace that glass, just like my daddy replaced me!"

Her words immediately lashed out at Verum, driving a spike into the ice-like exterior he’d developed to deal with the woman as she revealed that piece of information. His eyes automatically began to soften before, in remembrance of what this person and her pokemon seemed to be like, and though they did not seem to be alive with rage, they froze up again into a glare. He gave her a laugh as hollow and fake as the smiles she had sent in his direction.

“I suppose everyone’s got a sob-story, huh?” He muttered as he looked into the ground before looking back with a look that was in between amusement and anguish, “I suppose it helps when you actually remember your childhood,” he continued as he brought a finger to his head and tapped it lightly, a hollow grin on his face, “Oh well. I guess I can’t argue with you there. Perhaps you’ve had a shitty life. Nonetheless, doesn’t exactly give you a right to just take advantage of someone else’s hospitality.”

Alia gave out a quiet sigh of relief, as she blinked out of what she and the rest of Verum’s team had collectively dubbed “Aura-Vision,” witnessing her trainer’s aura progressing into a far more neutral zone, now that his outburst and quick action was over with, and deciding it was no longer necessary to monitor him, although Galladus still kept a close eye on him.

Deciding that he had spoken enough, and knowing he’d be unable to change the opinion of the person before him, Verum quietly turned around and began to walk away, before stopping, seemingly about to utter one more statement, but quickly shaking his head and continuing on back into the crowds of the party, before finding a small area of the center off to the east side. Letting out a sigh of frustration, he pinched the bridge of his nose and tightly closed his eyes before opening them again and allowing his arms to fall to his sides as he slid down the wall slightly, only to see Galladus with his arms crossed and Alia shooting him a disappointed glance.

“Yeah, yeah. I know. I screwed up, and judging people I don’t even know should be out-of-bounds in social situations,” He began to his two partners before stopping briefly to take a breath. “I don’t know. Something about her just…irked me. She was just being blatantly disrespectful about things. It just didn’t seem right to let it slight.”

A sigh passed through Verum’s head, signaling the entrance of Galladus’s thoughts, before it went on, ‘Perhaps. But it wasn’t your business. We aren’t this place’s security. You do know that, right?’

Verum’s voice got quieter as he began to respond, “Of course I do but-“

He didn’t even get to finish his thoughts as Galladus’s voice popped back into his head, ‘Not to mention, we’re supposed to be relaxing and having fun. You of all people sorely need that, “he who never stops moving.”’ The Gallade then stopped talking, as he nodded towards his trainer, satisfied with the point he had made.

Verum looked back towards the Gallade and, after getting off the wall and beginning to progress slightly more towards the main party area, spoke up, “Hey! I take breaks sometimes you know!” He began indignantly, “But I mean, if you take too many breaks you’ll never make it anywhere!” This elicited an eye roll from the Gallade, who looked over to Alia as if to say “How do we even put up with this?” To which the Lucario only gave a shrug before looking back to Verum. “Ah, whatever. But hey, we’ve got something to look forward to tonight, right? That whole competition! It feels like it’s been forever since we-“

It was at that moment that a something raced by squeaking –A Bidoof? He didn’t really have time to see what it was- right in front of him, tripping him and sending him crashing to the floor. Verum let out a surprised shout, but his face never did connect with the ground, instead feeling his body being held up by something. He opened his eyes, only to see the form of Alia, who had darted in front of him in order to stop his descent, below him, holding him up. She helped him regain his balance and before long, he was back on his feet again, though people were gazing at him with odd looks, likely due to his shouting before he fell. Verum chuckled awkwardly before looking to Alia, who had a sympathetic gaze on her face, knowing he wasn’t overly fond of mass attention, especially not this kind.

‘Well this whole event has been just peachy so far for yourself, huh Verum,’ the trainer thought to himself. Maybe it would be better if someone tried to talk to him? Yeah. That would probably end a whole lot better for him than actively searching around for someone to talk to. He could work on that whole aspect of being social another time. Upon deciding this, he resigned himself to go back to watching the exhibition match between the Houndoom and Vulpix on stage, surprised to see the Vulpix in a winning position.

 

[Shiny Blue Gardevoir]

Rose shrugged at the man's departure, reaching for a yache berry. "Guess he can't stand to be around someone like me," she commented gruffly, biting it free from its stalk. She adored yache berries; they were every bit as cold and as bitter as she was, and on ice, they tasted even better.

She observed the scene in the ballroom quietly, as her lips closed over the berry with a powdery crunch, like she was eating fresh snow. Her eyes briefly rested on a rogue bidoof, which was darting around the room, but she didn't feel the need to intervene. It was only a bidoof, after all, just a common pest, either that, or the pokemon of some impatient child, who had caught it because they couldn't wait to receive a rarer, and most likely, better starter.

Mari, having finished with the vol-au-vents, snatched a liechi berry tartlet, as did Mimi, while Rose took out her other pokeballs. All of her team but Sayaka, she decided, were going to keep her company tonight. Being a Lapras, Sayaka would find it difficult to move around the ballroom without assistance.

Without much else to do until the arrival of the host, Rose released her pokemon, each of them materialising in a flash of light before her. Oktavia the glaceon came first, making a beedrill-line for the same pastries that Mari was feasting on. Next, came Kagura the skuntank, who sat quietly as Rose's feet. Unlike her companions, the poison type wasn't particularly greedy, when it came to food. Finally, Dee the minun appeared, standing at her mistress' side as she awaited her orders. Knowing Rose, the party hadn't all been called out for no reason...

"What do you say we go and sign up for the battles?" Rose snorted gruffly, pretending to fuss with her gloves, "It'd kill some time, until this, 'Mr Curi' scumbag appears."

To the trainer's--Not delight, but something that might have once resembled it, all of her pokemon agreed to battling. Like Rose, they too had been itching for a good, hard fight.

Rose 'hmpfed' affirmatively, and motioned for them to follow her, as she wobbled over to the sign-up table in her heels. Normally, when Rose battled, she was swift and agile, dishing out powerful punishments left, right, and centre as she commanded her pokemon. But normally, she wasn't wearing a floor-length ballgown, and four-inch heels, and so, today, she thought that she'd finally be given a rough time in battle...

And, oh, how she anticipated a rough battle. She wanted to go up against someone with true skill, an innate ability to work perfectly with pokemon, as she had seen in precious few battles in her life. But to wish for a rough battle against any of the attending guests here was asking for too much, not that she minded...

No, the rough battle she was seeking tonight had to be with the host himself. Then, and only then, could she leave Alola satisfied...

 

[Ry_Burst]

Ry Burst stood awkwardly in front of the full mirror wearing a three piece suit. The jacket was blanket, the collar was white and the tie was a brilliant red. The only problem with it, was the lack of mobility. Ry stole a glance downward towards the green bag, that lay slumped on the ground, just to his right. The bag held his street clothes, which, in Ry's option where a much better choice.

The 17 year old boy was currently in the Blackrose Community Center's bathroom. After arriving to the event, he listened to the introduction before scurring off towards the bathroom, to figure out what to do. The suit itself was a crisp, neat and very formal outfit, but it didn't really scream Ry. It not only was uncomfortable and awkward, but this suit complete restricted his movements, when he battled. Unlike most people who battled, they kept a more less active postition, he moved around with his Pokemon, and doing his best to feel what they feel. So if the focus of the night shifted to battling, he would be at a huge disadvantage. Sure he understood it was a chance to dance and have fun, but a kid could dream. And then of course he could move freely if he needed to dance.

After a few minutes of internally debating in his head, if he should change or not, the much more rational side of Ry took over. After five minutes the boy came out dressed in his signature grey jeans, black tee shirt, and open red and white button up. Over his shoulder was his backpack, and inside it was his three piece suit. His sudden change of clothes got the attention of a few trainers, but most never gave him an eye.

With the prospect of large prizes, Ry assumed that most trainers were here for the prizes. The money, the jewelry, the evolution stones. While winning a bundle of cash would be sweet, he was most likely not going to be winning any prizes. He was more here to enjoy the evening than anything. And besides he couldn't dance to save his life.

In a burst of white light, and a pop, Pax, one of Ry's friends jumped out of his Pokeball to land on his trainer's head.

"Pancham," Pax said dropping his jaw and looking around the room. There were tons of people all buzzing and doing their own independent things.

"Yeah, pretty cool, huh," Ry said grinning to his friend's reaction. Ry stuck his left hand into his jeans pocket, beginning to feel small in this large crowded room.

Pax, pointed eagerly towards the five pokeballs that were currently around his waist. Ry smiled, and one at a time released each Pokemon inside. They each deserved as chance to enjoy this evening. Fuego, an Infernape who happened to be Ry's partner and best friend, gave a large grin, that made Ry smile back. Grace the Togekiss, gave a light twirl, in the air, Splashy the Poliwrath, gazed around in awe, much like Pax, and Voltage the Luxray, and Jet the Sceptile looked around the room looking tough.

"Okay guys," Ry began, addressing his team, "well this is a big place so if you wanna explore, take a buddy." Jet gave a shrug, and him along with Voltage wandered around, only to get lost in the crowd. Meanwhile Grace and Splashy headed off in the opposite direction, leaving Ry with Fuego and Pax. The trio's stomachs gave a unified grumbled and they all exchanged laughs.

"Let's go get some grub," Ry said dashing into the crowd with Pax still on his head. Fuego ran after the boy. They again raced through the crowd, getting little attention from the other people there. By the time they had reached the refreshment table, they were famished. Fuego scooped up a pair of Tamato berries and shoved them in his mouth. He'd spent a good amount of time chowing down on hot food in the past, so to the fire monkey, it was like candy. Pax took a calmer approach and grabbed a Pecha Berry and began to nibble on it. Ry grabbed a banana, unpeeled it, and took a large bite.

In between bites of fruit, he heard a man mention something about registering for battles. He shot Fuego a glance who had heard it too, and they shared a slight nod. This raised the boy's intrest. The man seemed to be a member of Team Skull due to his attire, but from the little he dealt with the gang, they seemed harmless, and more mischievous than real villains. He walked over, with Fuego beside him, and Pax on his head, and asked, "I'd hate to interrupt, but did you say something about registering for battles?"

 

[Curtkid]

"And it took us, like, two months to convince everyone that Whips and I WEREN'T in a gay relationship...and that's why Whips doesn't drink anymore!", Embertail exclaimed, finishing his story.

"Huh, what, wait, I was paying attention to the battle, when'd you start telling Gerald that story?", Curt asked Embertail, but before he couold get an answer, they were approached by one of the many party goer's.

"I'd hate to interrupt, but did you say something about registering for battles?", came a new voice from behind them, prompting Lcokjaw, Cappy, Curt and Embertail to turn around and Raviel and JAsper to give the man a half-glance. Their new arrival was a well dressed young man, seeming a bit younger then them, roughly the same age as Gerald, with what looked like a mini-panda on his head and a Infernape by his side. Curt wasn't sure about the Panda with the leaf in it's mouth, but he knew a bit about Infernapes, they were very rare and very strong, still, this one seemed friendly enough, unlike the other one they knew. Still, the fact that this boy had a fully evolved "starter" Pokemon, a feat that very few trainers ever accomplished, marked him as an extremely skilled trainer with Pokemon to match despite his young age, perhaps even better then them!

"Oh yeah, the battles have already started, but the rules here are real lax man, I'm sure you they'd find a way to throw you guys in somehow", Embertail said cheerfully. There was a pause for a moment before the Charmander remembered that he was a talking Pokemon and how that wasn't ordinary.

"Oh right, uh, I suppose I should introduce myself! I'm Embertail, the magical talking Charmander!", Embertail exclaimed with a big smile, "the guy in the Skull-top is my bro Curt!"

"Yo", Curt replied, doing a half-wave.

"That badass and cute Cubone is Jasper!"

"Eh, rekrho", Jasper said, not exactly thrilled about being called "cute", but gave their new arrivals a wave all the same.

"That Croconaw with the wicked scar on his eye is Lockjaw!

"Rhrawrho", Lockjaw said, a bit quietly but still finding the courage for a wave.

"The Jolteon with the Skull-bandana is Raviel!"

"Reha Rhea!", Raviel barked.

"And the Pokemon in the Pikachu costume is Cappy!

"GEKEKE, GAKAKAK!", Cappy said, giving them a hop and a wave.

"So, anyways, who are you and you're friends, we're always happy to meet new people!", Embertail said, looking at the little Panda fighter with the leaf in it's mouth and the bad-ass looking fire monkey!

 

[Ry_Burst]

Was Ry surprised by the talking Charmader? Kinda. He'd seen Pokemon speak before, but mainly due to an ability or telepathic link, or something along those lines. But speaking by itself, it was something he hadn't seen before. Pax raised an eyebrow at the strange Charmander and his friends, while Fuego remained calm. Despite Fuego's normal goofy behavior, the Infernape could be respectful when meeting others. "Maybe it's his training with Maylene," Ry wondered silently, while Embertail made the team's introductions.

"It's nice to meetcha, my name is Ry, and this is Fuego and Pax," Ry said giving a grin.

"Cham," Pax said patting his chest, while balenceing himslef on Ry's head.

"Infernape," Fuego said giving a huge grin and a thumbs up.

"So, I'd hate to sound completely useless, but where exactly do we sign up?" Ry added sheepishly, "We more or less weren't paying much attention to what said, and now we're completely confused." The boy scratched his head nervously, with an awkward smile.

Pax rolled his eyes at his trainers ignorance. Surely he noticed the booth that said sign ups, just a bit off. The Pancham pulled on Ry's hair bringing up a cry from the trainer.

"Yowch!' Ry yelped, instinctively turning his head in the direction Pax was pulling. And then he saw the booth. "There it is," Ry shouted making a dash for it. Until once again, Pax pulled on Ry's reddish brown hair bringing it straight up. "Now what," Ry complained. The Pancham turned the boy's head back into Curt and Embertail's direction. "Oh yeah, I forgot," Ry mumbled walking back over and taking his place next to Fuego, who had stood there and watched that entire act.

"I'm gonna go sign up. Thanks for the help," Ry said happily walking away. Fuego glanced at Embertail, and gave the fellow Fire Type a shrug. Then he followed his trainer.

"Fill this out, here," the woman with the sheet said. Ry took the pen, filled out his name and all of this info that was required. As in his name and that was pretty much it.

"Embertail was right, this is pretty loose rulings," Ry mumbled to Fuego who gave a nod. Fuego glanced up to see Grace and Splashy, lumber over from the crowd to the food table. He walked over to them, and waved at them letting them know of the battles to come.

Ry turned to see Fuego with Splashy and Grace, after he finished his "signing in." He jogged over and looked at Splashy who was currently eating a Pecha berry and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it. "Grace have you seen Jet and Voltage? Can you find them and bring them over?" race gave a happy shriek and flew up above the crowd to look for the two remaining spots on Ry's team. Fuego tapped Splashy and Ry's shoulder and pointed to Curt, who they were again, standing close too.

"Oh yeah, and this is Splashy, and Grace just flew off to look for the others," Ry said pointing to the lumbering Poliwrath. Splashy awkwardly waved ad continued to eat his Pecha berry.

 

[Rex]

(OOC: Very sorry for the long wait and moaning from my part!)

From his seat near the door, Ryan shivered. Cold air had begun to seep in from the open door, much chillier than the trainer had originally assumed a place like Alola could get. He stood from his seat, and threw on his coat. He hadn’t actually bothered to find something formal to wear, and was still in his normal clothes. He did seem a little out of place amongst the dressed up party-goers, but he expected to spend the night exploring, and renting a suit would just have resulted in him paying what little money he had to replace it when it came back damaged.

The battle was still going on when he glanced up at the stage; the Vulpix seemed to be taking the lead. Ryan knew a thing or two about not underestimating a Pokemon just because it wasn’t evolved, Dodger was still a Dewott after all, and he had been with Ryan since the beginning, up to and including challenging the Unovan Elite Four. And while that endeavor had ultimately ended up in failure, it wasn’t from a lack of trying or a weakness of any member of his team. It wasn’t for nothing the Elite Four were considered amongst the greatest Trainers in the world.

It was also possible their host was a hobbyist battler, if that. Houndoom was a big and intimidating Pokemon, but it was also a fairly early evolver. It didn’t take much training to get it to evolve, compared to other Pokemon. Overestimating it was just as likely as underestimating the Vulpix. Ryan shrugged. It wasn’t like him to sit on sidelines and be a passive observer like this. The days of sneaking into Burgh’s Gym to watch him battle challengers were long behind him. Nor was it like him to be a wallflower at social events.

“Whelp, I’m cold and bored,” the Trainer announced to his Pokemon, “Let’s schmooze.”

The Dewott hopped off of his chair without a hint of protest, likely tired of waiting around as well. Not that he’d ever let Ryan see if he was excited or eager, Dodger had a reputation to uphold, cool and slick, something that smiling like an idiot would damage beyond repair. The Pokemon fell into step slightly ahead and to the right of his trainer, ready to alert Ryan of anything approaching from the half of the world the human could not see.

Still, walking into the crowd as he was, Ryan didn’t really have a destination in mind. He gave the Skull grunts a wide berth, not wanting to cause a scene. They seemed harmless enough, but Arceus forbid one or more of them decided Ryan had looked at them the wrong way and now they had something to prove.

This decision drove him to take something of a wide swing around the room; winding up near the signup area for what Ryan would guess was the dance competition. He was just in time to see a young woman approach the table – wearing a full length ball gown that probably cost more than everything Ryan had on him, taking unsure steps on wobbly heels. She seemed quite intent on singing up for whatever it was this table offered, presumably the dance. She had guts, he thought, though the way she walked on those heels made the trainer worried she’d twist her ankle on the first complicated move.

Five Pokemon hovered around her, three he recognized from travelling Unova, Lopunny, Drifblim, and Glaceon. The other two he had a harder time placing, but the research he had done on the regions he had originally intended on travelling to made him quite sure that they were Skuntank and Minun. Four of said five were Sinnoh native, of that he was also fairly certain. He wondered if such was true for the girl as well, though he had remind himself that just because he’d only travelled one region didn’t mean everyone else here had, he’d gotten his start as a trainer late and took his sweet time making his way through his home region. She could have easily hailed from a different region, and just happened to bring these Pokemon with her.

“All dressed up and nowhere to go, eh?” he smiled, deciding to make idle conversation while they were both here. He cocked his head to the right and down slightly, so he could see the girl clearly through his left eye. “I tell you, between all these stiffs in suits and our outfit coordinated friends over there, I feel pretty out of place.” He nodded first towards the battling pair on the stage, then towards the Skull grunts so she’d know who exactly he was referring to. Dodger, meanwhile, crossed his arms beside his trainer, watching the girl and her Pokemon.

“I’m Ryan, by the way,” he continued, offering a hand to shake.

 

[BurbleBurble]

"PROBABLY!" Embertail cheerily answered, not really raising Gerald's hopes. It was one of those things he just had to cross his fingers on and desperately pray they did nothing out of line. He absentmindedly grabbed an apple off a table, trying to take his mind off the twisted trio.

It didn't really help. He ended up just messing with the apple in his hands as he considered the hypothetical situations. Would he get kicked out? Incited a brawl? Accidentally or purposely kill something or someone? Any of the above involving the skull gang?! Oh, he shivered at all the ways those three would do something that would come and bite everyone in the ass. Well, mostly him and whoever they messed with, but getting the Skulls involved again would ruin everyone's night with the spectacle they'd cause.

It seemed Curt and his team were momentarily distracted by someone falling down. Gerald wondered if he should've sneaked off and found Puff and Switchblades...but that'd be rude, wouldn't it? Curt probably would get the wrong message, and if they met again in the night it'd make things awkward, and it...just wasn't a good idea, in retrospect! Why did he even think about that?! Puff and Switchblades would be fine! He didn't need to put himself out there and...

"...to eat too, dont'cha?" He overheard Curt say, realizing he had been blanking out and staring at his apple, not eating it, just playing with it in his hands. Gerald, you tool! He yelled at himself. Your lucky if he didn't see that! Apparently, he was lucky, because Curt was actually letting out his other Pokemon.

Out emerged a slightly grumpy looking Cubone with an odd skull, along with a timid looking crocodile creature. He knew them both- not terribly much, but he did know that he owed that Croconaw something after what he did back in that literal hell hole.

"Anyways, Gerald, you remember Jasper and Lockjaw, right?" Curt asked, to which Gerald answered as a nod. When they both gave him their own little greetings, a little nod and wave for each, which the red head responded to with two thumbs up and a smile. "but I don't believe I've gotten a chance to introduce you to..." He built up an intense dramatic pause for...

A ragged Bidoof and a doll?!

The beaver looked like it had been run over and rehabilitated, and had not recovered nearly enough. It's fur looked thin and ready to fall out, and had these glazed over unobservant eyes, and to top it off a chipped tooth. Where did Curt pick up that mess? He wondered to himself. The 'Doll', however, did not seem to be a doll at all. More akin to a puppet...and it looked like something was under it. If Gerald gave it a good squint, it somewhat resembled a Pikachu, oddly enough. But the lack of legs was a dead giveaway that whatever it was, it was certainly not a Pikachu. But Gerald had to admit- there was something oddly endearing about the strange creature.

"Gerald, this is Barry and Cappy, Barry and Cappy, this is our buddy Gerald!" Embertail said without missing a beat. Gerald was still a bit...in shock? Was that a correct term? These weren't the types of Pokemon that he'd think Curt would have. The guy had a Dragonite, Ninetales, and Jolteon! Those were all respectable Pokemon, and he had seen the other three do pretty big stunts too! He meant no offense to Curt, but...these guys weren't really what he expected.

Cappy made their move first, with a dark claw emerging from the cloth...before giving Gerald a cute wave. Barry struggled to even give a halfhearted wave, before grunting out a squeak or something to Curt...who somehow knew what he was saying, or at least the gist of it.

"Sorry Barry, there's no liquor here." He told the beaver, who suddenly was awakened out his hungover state. The red haired trainer swore he could see every hair on the thing's back stand stiff, as he began wildly shifting his head to find what Gerald could assume was alcohol. When his searches yielded nothing but disappointment, The Bidoof's face twisted into what could be described as pure despair.

"I'm sorry buddy, but this is a public event, you can't really serve liquor in a place that's also welcome to kids, but hey, look at the bright side, they have donuts holes!" The cheery Charmander told Barry, obviously trying to cheer him up, but even that didn't seem to help out the addicted little guy, as his face twisted from despair into rage.

Oblivious to this change, but very much interested in the donuts holes, was Curt. "Wait, they have donuts holes? Are their any glazed? Can I have some?" Embertail confirmed that the donuts holes were indeed glazed, but sadly neither he or Curt would get any- because Barry threw a tantrum and ran off, but not before shoving the box out of the lizard's hands, causing them to spill all over the floor.

"And there he goes...but did he really have to knock the donuts onto the floor?" The Bidoof's unfortunate trainer lamented, scouring the floor to recover any good fried dough remains, "By the way, was he saying anything that we should be concerned about, I mean, knowing Barry, he'll either end do nothing, or end up doing everything, and we'll end up having to skip town or pay for property damage..."

From what Gerald had heard and seen so far, Barry was Puff turned up to eleven- while Puff often stormed off to enact ridiculous revenge plots or simple plans, he also wasn't completely stupid. He loved to be a showboat and act all big and tough, but when push came to shove he was going to run away in fear before long. But Barry seemed to not even be reasonable. Maybe he just really wanted that alcohol...that no one had here.

"Oh, uh, right, sorry about that Gerald, Barry's kinda...well...." Curt began explaining, right before this dreadful, absolutely dreadful noise came from somewhere. At first, Gerald was about to drop to the floor, thinking it was gunshots or something equally deadly, before coming to his senses and realizing that was something unique, if horribly so.

"Heh, yeah, he totally is Cappy!" Embertail piped up, being probably the only one who wasn't surprised by the sudden noise. Cappy made that noise?! That...well, it just added on to the confusing nature of the bizarre puppet creature.

"Yeah, I'm sure you probably guess this, but there is a story behind that guy, you see..." What followed was a long winded tale of scandalous activities that had got a mob on Barry, and how Curt and friends had saved him from an all to certain death by sacrifice, and returned the Bidoof to his home...where those same activities earned a much less reasonable mob onto Curt and his team. It pretty much cemented, yes, he was Puff turned up to twelve. He also was wondering how desperate that Skitty had to be that'd she'd sleep with Barry...

"Dear Arceus in the heavens above..." Gerald mumbled, pretty much in complete shock they hadn't tied a rock to Barry and thrown him in the ocean by now. Gerald considered himself a reasonable man. But his team would've torn that thing to shreds by now, and he probably wouldn't have objected, which kind of said a lot about the patience of Curt and his own team...

Cappy...spoke? Would speaking describe that sound? Gerald would compare it more to twisted shrieking, or perhaps choking. Or maybe a mouse being killed by a trap...He was going to stop while he was ahead. Cappy was jumping up and down and making her noise in excitement, obviously quite excited for them to tell him her story.

"Don't worry, we didn't forget about you Cappy, anyways, as to how this little gal' got stuck with us..." The story wasn't nearly as painful as Barry's, if at all. It was actually somewhat sweet. According to Curt, they found puppet like creature in some Rocket Base in the middle of some distant icy wasteland. What piqued his curiosity more though, was the fact that Cassie had apparently reunited with her Pokemon that had been forcibly stolen by Team Rocket, and the fact that Salem of all people was there. It did ask the question "Why is Salem, a fairly new to the modern world man, in a frozen tundra that's way off anyone's map?" But somehow Gerald doubted that Curt would know. Either way, it must've been a small world for Curt to meet up with Salem, though.

"And that's it in a nutshell, oh, and speaking of which, do you know what kind of Pokemon she is, because we sure freaking don't, I mean, I heard they were native to Alola, but apparently they're super rare, even here, the best description we got was from another Grunt who said she was "one''a dos d'hings dat' dress up liek otha Pokemons!", which tells us that dressing up is something the entire species does."

Gerald thought long and hard about what it possibly could be. So it wore a Pikachu like disguise, had a shadowy underbelly, and was very friendly...

"I, uh, no. Don't have a clue on what she could be."

Gerald, however, did think the Switchblades might've been able to help him out...if they were there. The Switchblades were nigh-connoisseurs of ghostly and occult things, and no doubt they would have some inkling of knowledge about it. Though maybe if it took off the disguise...

His train of thoughts was interrupted by a somewhat urgent grunt from Jasper. "Oh right, thanks for pointing that out Jasper, uh Gerald, word of advice," Curt got quite close to him, and in a tone that lost any sense of compassion, and whispered "do NOT look underneath her costume, just...trust me on this, O.K?" Gerald nodded, trying to show that he had understood the importance of such a thing...but it honestly made him want to look under that cloth even more. But, if Curt was that serious- and Curt wasn't often a serious guy -it probably meant that looking under the cloth would be an absolutely terrible idea.

An awkward silence started to make it's home between the two trainers, but it was swiftly evicted by Embertail, who knew it was probably time to change the subject. "So, anyways, the battles heating up, looks like the Vulpix and her trainer almost have this wrapped up."

Vulpix versus a Houndoom would seem like an easy victory, and Gerald hadn't really been paying attention to the battle between the two, but the fact that it was turning things around seemed pretty darn impressive to Gerald. Vulpix and all just weren't built to reliably deal with the dark hounds, but this one was having little issue overcoming it's opponent. The little guy packed more of a punch than his looks would say.

The trainer then realized Curt had been going on for quite awhile about the fight- but it looked like he was wrapping up his analysis as well.

"So Gerald, did you register for the battles too, any idea who you're going to go with?" Curt asked, who was probably thinking about the battles himself. It took Gerald a moment, but then he realized that neither Puff or the Switchblades were here, and Screecher wasn't much of a listener. Violet wasn't going to fight, and he didn't have Empty with him...That left June and Million.

"Yeah, I'm all signed up and raring to go. But I really only can use June and Million, since all my others are either not fit for fighting or even present..." He sighed, "I'm fairly sure these are one on one matches. And I'd rather not disappoint those...um...friends of yours, and show them how big Million really is, so I'm probably running with June. Though, if they show back up, I'll probably use the Switchblades, they can cover a lot of bases...Speaking of, I wonder what Puff really wanted. He'd be around here if he was really getting food..."
-----
Puff had finally dragged the oh so curious Switchblades away from the dancing bird. Mostly because they lost interest. The Oricorio must've had incredible patience, because it hardly even flinched! The swords were almost appalled at this, and they pretty much gave up and sulked off, that was before Puff reassured them of the ultimate goal: Revenge and sacrifice!

It was going well and good on the renewed journey towards Skin-Fryer, until the Switchblades spotted something else. It was a deep violet, ghostly, and floated, and was almost overwhelmingly interesting. They wanted to antagonize it too, regardless of whoever was around them. They were some pretty potent looking Pokemon around the balloon ghoul, but did the two psychopathic blades care? Nooooo. Puff, however, did care, making sure to grab them before they could go provoke a fight.

What followed was a vicious sequence of squeaks and ranting, punching his own fists, and was mostly ignored by the Switchblades, until he ended his rant with 'Now come on, so I can get revenge and you can get your stupid death god or whatever a sacrifice!'

The Switchblades stopped. For a moment, they didn't move. Just went...dead. Blank. Puff thought he had finally gotten through to them, with a sly grin. A grin that faded when they glared right back, followed by metallic growls of sheer anger. "Stupid??" One repeated. "Death?" The other said. "God?!" They said in tandem. Whatever sly look Puff had before had completely faded, as he began backing away.

"HERETIC!!" They screeched, before bringing down themselves right in front of Puff. The Lopunny was truthfully terrified now, skittering off through the crowds to find Gerald. Gerald was the only one they'd listen to!...Okay, maybe they'd listen to June, but June wasn't here right now to save him!

He ran and ran, until he actually couldn't. He was blocked off by a stage- and he was much too short to climb it, nor did he have the time. He could almost feel the magenta eyes staring him down, ready to charge him down- and it filled him with absolute fear. There was only one attack he had that could even scratch them: Ice Beam, but ranged moves really weren't his thing, and the Switchblades had a resistance to Ice attacks too! Oh, why did he do that?! Why did he have to call the dumb god stupid?

Just when he was about to give up and pray for salvation, he noticed two chivalrous and tough looking Pokemon. He briefly weighed the options, but as he looked behind him, and saw that the Switchblades had found him, and were about to charge him down again, and quickly made up his mind. Putting spring into his step, he dashed towards the Lucario and Gallade. What he then realized was how was he supposed to get these Pokemon on his side?

He knew what had to be done, and it required sacrificing his pride...He tapped the Lucario timidly, and when he had caught her attention, got on his knees and began grovelling and begging to them. Lamenting that he had caught the ire of a pair of irate swords, and how they were coming to kill him as retribution. When it didn't seem to be working, he insisted that he'd do whatever they wanted if they helped. He pleaded until he heard another metallic growl. The Switchblades had reached him, and glaring him down. They might've been smaller, but were sturdy and sharp to make up for it.

Puff took shelter behind the Lucario, not ready to be chopped for some phony dark god. In retaliation, the Switchblade asked the Lucario to move, as they had to strike down an uncouth heretic.

Yeah, they had a habit of making things incredibly awkward.
-----
"And it took us, like, two months to convince everyone that Whips and I WEREN'T in a gay relationship...and that's why Whips doesn't drink anymore!"

"...Huh." That was certainly...a story, Gerald had to admit. Slowly but surely they were making him never want to touch a bottle.

Curt wanted to know where Embertail even began talking about the story (Honestly, Gerald didn't know either...), but someone interrupted the conversation.

"I'd hate to interrupt, but did you say something about registering for battles?" Asked a well dressed man, who had...a Pancham on his head? Quite the fashion statement, he had seen hats stylized like Pancham before, but never a live one! The other was an Infernape. Now, Gerald wasn't too familiar with Infernape, but was this one bigger or something? The one he saw before was Puff's size, which was pretty small. But, then again, maybe both Puff and the other Infernape (Salem called it "Furnace Ape" or something) were just dwarves of their species or something.

Embertail gleefully answered the question, but considered the fact that not many people run into a talking Charmander. He called himself a magical Charmander, and introduced his friends- and Cappy let out another unsettling shriek, to which not one of those other trainers Pokemon, or even the nicely dressed man himself, reacted to. Either they had nerves of steel, or maybe it was offset by the cute little hopping Cappy did while she introduced herself.

"It's nice to meetcha, my name is Ry, and this is Fuego and Pax," The man said, introducing himself. Ry? That was an interesting name. Gerald wasn't exactly a common name, but he had never even heard of a Ry before...Maybe it was short for something, like Riley. He assumed that 'Fuego' was the Infernape, as Fuego sounded sort of like furnace, or fire...That left the Pancham, who was likely named Pax. What Pax meant? Gerald didn't know. He wasn't a dictionary.

This Ry character wasn't proving to be incredibly bright. But he was self-aware, if anything, kindly asking for directions towards the booth...which they had to pass to even reach Curt and all. It was a pretty ditzy move, all things considered...And his Pokemon picked up on it, as Pax pulled his hair to make Ry see the booth, and then again to thank Embertail and Curt for their help. Fuego seemed a little in the middle of it all, sending a shrug towards the Charmander.

Soon the young man had returned, and followed by a...Poliwrath and Togetic...Or was it Togekiss? Gerald wasn't too familiar with those Pokemon...Either way, he identified them as Splashy and Grace, but then sent off Grace to find a "Jet and Voltage".

"Hey," Gerald said, "I don't believe I've introduced myself. I'm Gerald, nice to meet you. And if you've seen a little Lopunny and Doublade running around, their mine." He extended a hand, hoping for Ry to shake it, "And, um, weird question...Are Infernape always that big? I've seen one before, and it was a lot smaller."

Yeah, Gerald was just as bad at making things awkward as his Pokemon.

 

[Shiny Blue Gardevoir]

(I am SO SO sorry about the delay guys! I've had way too much on my plate recently)

Rose remained silent as she bent over the table, filling out her form for the battles quickly. No sooner had she filled it out, and handed it to one of the attending women, was she given it back.

"You have to write your name on the form."

"I have written my name on the form."

"Your full name."

Rose shook her head. "Fine," she spat, writing her name in messy combusken scratch, "Rosalia Lunelini," she said aloud. She hadn't actually gone by that name since she was eleven, but she hadn't found the time to change it to something less... Heavy. It usually didn't cause much of a stir, when she mentioned that she was, or rather, had been, a Lunelini, anyway...

Except for tonight.

The woman at the desk suddenly lit up at the mention of the name, 'Lunelini', eyes widening in an almost childlike glee, as she examined Rose. The Lunelinis were among the most powerful families in Sinnoh, nobles among nobles, and it astounded her that tonight, she was actually getting to meet one of them...

"Well, it's a pleasure to have you here tonight, Lady Rosalia"--

Rose shot a glare at her, as cold and as sharp as one of Oktavia's ice beams. "It's not Lady Rosalia," she snarled, baring her small, sharp teeth like a mad herdier, "It's Rose. I'm not a Lunelini, I'm an ex-Terra grunt wearing a dress leant to her by a better-off friend."

And within seconds, the woman at the desk was back to her usual, polite smile. "You're all signed up, and ready for battle," she said quickly, as Rose turned to face to the stranger who'd approached her.

"I haven't attended one of these things since I was eleven," she answered coldly, "I wish I could pretend that I miss being daddy's little doll, at events like these, but that's simply not true. I'm here out of pure boredom, and to use up one of the nights before my flight out of here."

 

[Rex]

Well, this girl certainly had an attitude problem. The attendant accepting applications was given hell for the simple crime of recognizing the girl's name, though it wasn't one that rang any bells to him. Presumably she was some rich young scion then, who never learned how to properly interact with her fellow human beings. Add in some daddy issues for good measure and you had a winner. He let his hand fall back to his side.

"Sorry, I thought I was talking to an adult," he said, raising an eyebrow. Once she'd actually bothered to look at him, she also tried to affect some kind of 'woe is me' persona. So not only was she some high and mighty rich girl, you needed to feel bad for her over it. Ryan certainly wasn't interested in playing that game. He turned away from the girl, hands shoved in his coat pockets, leaning back on his heels. It was probably getting close to time to head out into the ruined cities. He'd stick around until the exhibition match ended.

 

[Ry_Burst]

Ry raised an eyebrow at the other man, introducing himself. "Big," Ry mumbled to himself as his voice was trailing a bit, as he stole a glance towards Fuego. The Infernape, flexed his muscles, and pointed to a biscep. Ry gave him an annoyed look, before turning back to face Gerald.

"I honestly don't know. I haven't met many other Infernapes, besides Fuego, which I can recall. Maybe it's due to that training with Maylene, her Lucario was pretty tough." By this point, Ry was mumbling to himself, trying to figure out, the secret to Fuego's size. Pax, gave a sigh, and tugged Ry's hair lightly to get him out of thought.

"I've just kinda assuming he's a regular sized Infernape, but I'm not entirely sure," Ry said, a bit slow, as he was still pondering over this. Pax rolled his eyes, slid onto Ry's shoulder and started to rummage around in Ry's backpack, before pulling out a beaten up binder.

"Oh, yeah, Mom's Breeding Journal!" Ry exclaimed taking the binder from Pax and flipping though it's crumpled pages. "Mom, researched the Chimchar Evolutionary Line, when Fuego hatched and turned out to be a Chimchar instead of a Machop," he mumbled flipping through pages. "Here it is," he said reading though the section quickly.

He raised his head, and said, "Accoding to this, his is about average size, except to a extra bit of bulkiness he has," Ry said towards Gerald. He closed the binder and handed it back to Pax, who proceeded to return it to the bag. "So anyways, it's a pleasure," he said sticking his hand out for a handshake.

Fuego had given up on watching his trainer and focused on the battle eagerly. Under most circumstances he would goof off like his trainer, but the thought of battling got him fired up, figuratively and literally, as the flames atop his head, and begun to glow brighter.

 

[Opharum]

Alia had been calmly watching the battle before, earnest interest on her features, tapping Galladus from time to time, though it seemed as though he caught everything she noticed and more. She should have figured that would be the case anyway, after all, she knew that Galladus was essentially the team’s secondary strategist, and he had to be ready to take command at any point. That coupled with his actual strength in battle made him a figure for her to look up to. Not that she’d ever admit that to him. The two seemingly had an endless rivalry of sorts, even if it wasn’t in battle.

She was, however, ripped from her thoughts by a rather timid tap on her shoulder for once. Who on earth would be asking her anything? Galladus was right there, and Verum was also nearby, and he certainly hadn’t released any of his other pokemon. With that in mind, confusion had begun to set in, as she turned to the ‘Mon in question, and though she didn’t know it yet, that confusion was likely to be present throughout this whole encounter.

When she turned, there was seemingly nothing more, until she glanced downward. It was there that she saw a Loppuny…groveling on his knees before her. Her first question (And, subsequently, the start of many questions she might have later) was simply: Why? Though she found her initial question to be answered quickly, as the rabbit began to rave on and on about his troubles.

If she was hearing all of this correctly, she was to believe that “a pair of irate swords” were out to kill him as some form of retribution? Retribution for what? What could he have possibly done to have made anyone so upset that they’d want to kill him? And at a public event no less. He seemed to take her confused silence as her simply ignoring his pleas, and went into even more hysterics, saying he’d do anything if she helped him. She decided now that confusion was not a strong enough word to describe her feelings about this encounter.

At this point, she looked to Galladus, trying to see what he’d caught and made of all of this, only to see him with an incredulous look on his face. It seemed as though part of him wanted to laugh, taking this whole encounter as some kind of joke. It had to be a prank, he figured. There’s no way anyone would actually threaten death in a place like this, especially with so many people around, right?

It was at this point, however, that the sound of metallic growling could be heard by the two. They looked to each other, and then over to their trainer, who was slowly becoming more engrossed in the battle, and over the noise, didn’t seem to hear the growls of metal. The two pokemon then sighed, but looked back to the loppuny, where they then saw two swords emerge not far behind him. At this, the loppuny took shelter behind Alia, much to her surprise. Upon viewing the swords, a shiver went up Alia’s spine. They reminded her of another pokemon she and the rest of Verum’s team before, and one she was never particularly eager to meet again. A black blade and shield. The ‘Mon hadn’t even given its name any of the times it had appeared, only giving small pieces of advice, and on occasion, unsettling warnings. She had to wonder if this pair of swords might be related to it in any way, but those questions could wait for another time.

The blades asked her to move aside, as they had to strike down an “uncouth heretic.” Before doing anything else, she slipped her eyes closed, attempting to sense the aura of the pokemon before her, searching for any indication that this was, as Galladus thought it to be, just a joke, but upon viewing the swords’ aura, she let the blue light fade from her eyes before turning to Galladus, giving him the indication that the blades were entirely serious about their request and subsequent intentions. At this, she’d made her decision; whatever the rabbit behind her had done, surely he didn’t deserve to die for it, and so she remained firmly in place, telling the loppuny behind her that they would help him out.

Seeing her take a stand, Galladus sighed. Always. They always had to get in some sort of trouble no matter where they went, Arceus damn it. If it wasn’t Verum and his social ineptitude, it would be something entirely out of their control. He knew though that Alia was firm in her convictions, and besides, he didn’t exactly want to be partially responsible for someone’s death today. He stepped calmly past Alia, putting yet another body between the blades and their intended target, directing his full attention to the blades. Not knowing if they would be open to psychic communication, he decided to simply talk to them in the language of pokemon.

“I’m sure this isn’t necessary, right?” He tried to reason, his right arm outstretched, and palm open in a friendly gesture, “I mean, what ever…” he looked back to the loppuny, and immediately decided that Arceus was a cruel creator. Why did so many pokemon have to look so much like one gender? He finally continued, stretching out the pronoun in an attempt not to offend, “They…might have done can surely be forgiven? I’m sure they didn’t mean it.”

Alia shook her head slightly in disappointment at her partner’s momentary daftness about the gender of the pokemon they were currently helping, but decided it wasn’t worth commenting about before she took another step forward, now standing side by side with Galladus, making sure the dual swords couldn’t get to the loppuny behind her. "Exactly. There has to be another way to diffuse the situation."

 

[Curtkid]

"Good to meet ya", Curt said, giving the Poliwraith and Togakiss a nod. Now these two Pokemon they were more familiar with, their friend Jacob had his Togakiss partner, Shakespeare, that they had plenty of interaction with and they heard plenty about Poliwraith due to their journey's in Kanto, despite this only being the second time seeing one up close, the first time being when they fought Shugo, Chucks Poliwraith. Curt had to say, Splashy looked almost as bulky and impressive as Shugo, and Curt had to throw out Whips to handle that guy, and any opponent that can go toe to toe with a freaking Dragonite is worthy of respect! There were recordings of Poliwraiths swimming across entire oceans in one berth, and judging by this massive toads build, Curt was inclined to believe that was true. Jasper gave a cheery wave as well, Lockjaw too, though a bit more shyly, Raviel gave a half-hearted bark in greetings, and Cappy gave an enthusiastic wave,

"HA! Splashy, I like it, guess Ryan was channeling his inner child when naming ya huh... sounds like you were named along a similar thought pattern as Embetail!...unless, your parent named you that?", the Charmander exclaimed happily.

"Aw come on Embertail, don't be an ass, Splashy is a perfectly fine name!", Curt exclaimed, though slightly embarrassed at Embertail bringing up his naming origins. Curt gave Embertail his name when they were only four years old, so it stood to reason that the name wasn't very embellished. Curt thought Embertail should be happy that he didn't go with the first name he though of; "Peedaweeda", granted, Embertail, even to this day, though that Peedaweeda was a cool name, so...

"Anyways, did you say Mayleen? She's a Gym Leader in Sinnoh right? That's pretty impressive if you had a one-on-one training session with an actual Gym Leader, even from one so young", Curt followed up.

"Awww come'on Curt, you know I don't mean anything by it, Splashy's a great name, and so is Embertail, wouldn't trade it for any other name in the world!", Embertail replied with a chuckle, "either way, I'm sure we're all happy to meet ya, right guys!?! And yeah, training with a gym leader, super impressive, Mayleens a Fighting Gym Leader right? I wanted to train with Chuck a bit to perfect my Brick Break, though he said it was pretty good, I would have like to work with him a bit on it, but those Gym Leaders are pretty busy !" The Charmanders jolliness knew no limits. While they were talking, Gerald managed to introduce himself to their new arrival, despite the mans doubts, he was friendly enough, and even admitted a certain level of a powerful aura as a trainer, no matter how much he denied it. Introductions being out of the way, he relayed all the valuable information he had about Cappy to them.

"I, uh, no. Don't have a clue on what she could be."

"Huh, that's a bummer....", Curt replied flatly.

"Ah well, the mystery persists, I'm O.K with that, it's fun to have a mystery party member!", Embertail exclaimed happily.

"Yeah, anyways, I'm all signed up and raring to go. But I really only can use June and Million, since all my others are either not fit for fighting or even present..." Gerald sighed, a bit disheartened, "I'm fairly sure these are one on one matches. And I'd rather not disappoint those...um...friends of yours, and show them how big Million really is, so I'm probably running with June. Though, if they show back up, I'll probably use the Switchblades, they can cover a lot of bases...Speaking of, I wonder what Puff really wanted. He'd be around here if he was really getting food..."

"H-hey, that reminds me, we came across a Pokemon Breeder a while ago that gave us some Pokemon Food that Bug-Pokemon are supposed to find super tasty, I was hoping I could give it to Million later, cause, well, you know, I owe him for saving me from that giant mouth and from burning to death in that lava river...", Curt said, remembering all to well how the Scoliopede saved his life twice in the span of five minutes. The trainer figured some Pokemon food was the least he could give the guy in exchange for saving his life.

"Man, you mentioning all that stuff happening in dead mans drop makes me wish I didn't sleep through it all, I kinda wish I could have helped you guys out...", Embertail replied, his voice emitting a rare hint of somberness.

"Awww don't worry about it, buddy, you made up with it by fighting Darkrai", Curt replied to his brother, lightening his mood up a bit, "anyways, going with Switchblades for the fight? A solid choice, guess you haven't found a Dusk Stone yet, not that I blame you, those things are hard to find, and even then, it's not a guarantee that it'll evolve Switchblades, but if it did, man, a Aegislash...that's one of the most powerful Pokemon out there, even a Pseudo-Legendary like Whips would have more then a little trouble taking one of those guy's down!" Curt finished with his mind temporarily fantasizing about the legendary and mighty Aegislash!

"Gehh, Burough, babo bega?", Jasper said, poking Gerald lightly on his belt.

"Hehe, Jasper's asking how Junes doing, and I'm kinda curious too, how is our favorite Braxien?", Embertail said, translating for Jasper. The tomboish Cubone didn't often get along with those of her own gender, but June had been an exception. Maybe it was because the magical fox shared a love of fighting? Who knew, but it wasn't just Jasper, June had managed to leave a good impression on just about everyone in the party.

 

[BurbleBurble]

Gerald's peculiar question wasn't really answered. But he was given something that resembled an answer. While Ry wasn't exactly sure about Fuego's size, he put out his own theory from his training with a "Maylene" character. Who was that? Gerald really didn't know. He wasn't exactly well versed in high ranking trainers, but if they had a Lucario, they had to be good. When ever Gerald had gone up against one in the past, it was no easy fight. They had a ridiculous amount of moves available, were all around tough, and could Mega Evolve. But, it was also steel type. Easy for something like an Infernape to beat. Still one heck of a fight, though.

Ry, however, continued to ponder this detail. Gerald never meant for it to be that long of a question! Was he really putting this guy through that much grief? Maybe he was someone who just thought about things a lot? Gerald wasn't really sure, but Pax seemed to know something that neither of them did. Digging through Ry's backpack, the panda pulled out an old binder. Now it all came to the young man, as he paged through the "Journal".

"Mom, researched the Chimchar Evolutionary Line, when Fuego hatched and turned out to be a Chimchar instead of a Machop, According to this, his is about average size, except to a extra bit of bulkiness he has, So anyways, it's a pleasure." Ry answered, tucking away the Journal, and returning Gerald's hand shake. Well, he appreciated the dedication to the answer, and gave Ry a smile in response.

What really gave Gerald food for thought though was the fact the binder belonged to Ry’s mother. Considering he specifically referred to it as a breeding journal, it probably meant his mom was a breeder. That was interesting, he had to admit. That probably also meant he knew the Infernape from birth too. While Gerald had sort of known June since she was little, it really wasn’t like they grew up together, not like Ry and Fuego, apparently.

Oh, it was probably time to answer Curt’s questions, huh?
…
While Curt was a bit disappointed at the lack of information on the ever strange Cappy, Embertail was never one to look down, fully embracing the mystery surrounding their newest team mate. But after listening to Gerald’s spiel on how to use for the fight, it seemed to make him recall something.

“H-hey, that reminds me, we came across a Pokemon Breeder a while ago that gave us some Pokemon Food that Bug-Pokemon are supposed to find super tasty, I was hoping I could give it to Million later, cause, well, you know, I owe him for saving me from that giant mouth and from burning to death in that lava river…”

“Oh, I’m sure he’d love that! Here, I’ll…” He was about to say ‘take him out’, but then he remembered Fuego. More specifically, the giant flame on Fuego’s head. Little ones like Embertail’s the Megapede could handle, but that flaring blast of heat atop the brawler monkey? He’d flip. “...be sure to take him out later, yeah, later…”

“Man, you mentioning all that stuff happening in dead mans drop makes me wish I didn't sleep through it all, I kinda wish I could have helped you guys out…” Embertail spoke out, with a hint of sadness in his voice. Poor guy, Gerald lamented in his head. Does he really feel like he did nothing to help?

Curt was quick to help his buddy feel a bit better. ”Awww don't worry about it, buddy, you made up with it by fighting Darkrai,”

“Yeah! It’s not like it was your fault. And you did a lot more there than the Switchblades against that Darkrai too. I think they fainted when they realized who they were fighting…” Gerald chimed in. He hated to see the Charmander seem so down over something that was ultimately not really his doing.

That was when Gerald remembered why he wasn’t particularly fond of talking about Dead Man’s Drop, other than the bad memories attached to it. Because anyone else who heard it would think they were absolutely insane. Or were on an acid trip at the time. Just like the new trainer, sitting right next to them, would think.

“Uhh…” Gerald turned towards Ry, “It’s, err, a long story.”

Curt didn’t seem all too concerned about what the young man thought, finding it a good time to change the subject. Maybe he did find it awkward, and intentionally wanted to change the subject? With Curt, it was kind of hard to tell. “anyways, going with Switchblades for the fight? A solid choice, guess you haven't found a Dusk Stone yet, not that I blame you, those things are hard to find, and even then, it's not a guarantee that it'll evolve Switchblades, but if it did, man, a Aegislash...that's one of the most powerful Pokemon out there, even a Pseudo-Legendary like Whips would have more than a little trouble taking one of those guy's down!”

“Oh, yeah man! I’ve seen an Aegislash in action before- that thing is totally badass! It practically slashed a Bisharp in half!” Gerald said, in a quite excited tone, “But, um, this is kind of embarrassing...I did have a Dusk Stone. I got it from...let’s just say somewhere. Basically, it was pretty late at night when got it, so I decided to put down the darned thing on my bedstand and evolve them in the morning, right? Then I’d be better rested and all...Well, I wake up, and it’s just gone! Vanished! I looked everywhere for that stone, but it just never showed up. Someone had to have taken it, and of course that was the night I left all of my Pokemon out, so it literally could’ve been any of them, even the Switchblades themselves...” He gave out a sigh before continuing. “Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. After all, the Switchblades seem to be missing something that the other Doublade have. Their Sheaths or whatever...If it does show up though, I’ll jump on the opportunity to use it.”

There was a light poking at his belt, followed by a series of Cubone grunts. Gerald didn’t even have to look down to know it was Jasper, but the poking could mean a lot of things. “Hehe, Jasper's asking how Junes doing, and I'm kinda curious too, how is our favorite Braxien?” Embertail conveniently translated.

...So how would he break the news to them? Oh, they’d probably take it just fine regardless. He might as well just be casual about it. “Ah, well, it’s funny you should say that Embertail...Well, you can see for yourself.”

Off of his belt, Gerald pulled off a beat up looking Pokeball. It had certainly seen better days- The upper half was dented and had quite a few scratches, but it obviously worked. Still, it was a tad jarring for Gerald's "star" Pokemon to be in such a bad looking ball. He had a story for that too, but wasn't there always a story to be told?

"June, come on out."

What emerged from the ball was not a Braixen, that was obvious. Much taller. Though anyone could tell it was very similar to one. Probably because it was the evolution of the magical fox. The Delphox, realizing who she was looking at, smiled and waved towards Curt and his team.

"So, after what happened in the Dead Man's Drop, not too long after we kind of got tied up in something else in Terminus Cave. Cutting to the chase, she evolved down there. It's pretty cool, right?" That's when he remembered about Ry. She'd probably want to know about him and his Pokemon, after all. "And June, this is Ry and his Pokemon, Fuego, Pax, and...Splashy, was it?" Splashy was a bit of a simple name compared to Fuego and Pax, but then again, Gerald named a Buneary Puff. When he was seventeen. At least he made up for it with the names of Million and Switchblades, which he thought were awesome, but still...Puff.

However Gerald did not specifically refer to what Pokemon they were. So when June saw the Infernape, especially when it looked all roused up and battle ready, it reminded her of a far less rational one. She still gave a wave to Ry and his Pokemon, but she gave a bit of a stink eye to the turned monkey. This was only the second Infernape she had ever met, but it certainly wasn't helping her perspective of the rest...

-----

The Switchblades couldn't believe how rude people could be.

It wasn't hard! All that Lucario had to do was budge a couple inches, leave them a clear path, and let them go to town. But noooo, it always had to be complicated. And the oversized dog had to invite her knight like friend over too. The Switchblades did think it looked familiar though, as if they’d seen it somewhere before. Not that it mattered too much to them. They only wanted them out of the way, even if they had to fight their way through. But it didn't take a genius to realize going up against two much larger Pokemon could easily lead to a loss.

That left them with one option- convince these two that Puff was a horrible person and let them kill the heretic!

"Well, if truly if you must know..." One began.
"...He defiled our god." The other finished.
"More specifically, he waved our god off as stupid. I mean, stupid?! Who calls one's god that?!"
"He also erroneously referred to our god as a 'death' god. We prefer "dark". As in, Dark Lord. Or Dark God."

The Switchblades were obviously quite enamored with this 'dark god'. To the point of obsession and perfection. Anyone who thought less of that behavior? They deserved a punishment, a punishment of death...Or a stern talking to. Either worked.

"Are you kidding me?" Puff chimed in, poking his head out from behind the Lucario. "Listen, I get why you got upset at me for calling it stupid, but calling it a dea-"

"YOU SPEAK WHEN SPOKEN TO, WORTHLESS CUR!" The pair screeched in tandem, sudden anger over taking their previously "uppity" tone. It was enough to scare the Lopunny back into hiding. And with Puff's disappearance behind Alia once again, they regained their old tone of voice. "Ahem, anyways. As you've now seen, that heretic certainly deserves nothing less than death. So, you two just move on aside, and we can all settle this, put this behind us. Yes?"

Their ideologies were certainly something else.

 

[Ry_Burst]

Ry and Fuego gave a faint wave. "Honestly, I had no idea that he would grow up to be this big. When I met him, he was pretty passive and kinda splashed around, enough to make a Magikarp jealous." He said giving a faint laugh.

"Anyways, did you say Mayleen? She's a Gym Leader in Sinnoh right? That's pretty impressive if you had a one-on-one training session with an actual Gym Leader, even from one so young", Curt followed up.

"Maylene, is a family friend. Our fathers were good friends, and she thought it was the least she could do when I chose to get stronger." Ry said giving a shrug. "It wasn't much, but it was enough to learn a way to train and the basics. During that time, Team Galactic had pretty much fallen, and once people found that there was a criminal organization based in Veilstone, they didn't really want to challenge the city gym, because they thought there was crime or something." He gave another shrug, and looked at Fuego who returned the shrug.

And the then the conversation shifted into past events.

“Uhh…” Gerald turned towards Ry, “It’s, err, a long story.”

"Understandable, I've had some crazy adventures myself that would probably take a while to tell," he added giving a laugh. Pax gave an eager nod and Fuego grinned. Splashy continued to nibble on his Pecha berry.

Ry turned and looked at the water and fighting type, and thought to himself, "How long does it take to eat a Pecha berry," before giving a smile.