"This whole time Ein has been telling us that Flare is nothing but a bunch of useless meddlers. People who don't understand his methodology or respect his progress. But looking at the logs and the dates and the times... it's hard to come to any conclusion other than the one I have. Team Flare and Team Cipher are - no, maybe that's not correct." Kess amends, turning the device back around to face her as she scrolls through it. "Lysander and Ein have been working together. Since the beginning."
"......." Part of me had that thought in the dark reaches of my mind. Lysandre and Ein are too overly calculating in their methods. It makes sense either way; it'd make the perfect ploy too in making it look like a free for all instead of a concerted effort. That's why they couldn't really go out of their way and drive a stake into us all the sooner. It'd give them away. We've been spreading ourselves thin, trying to defend Unova from Flare and Cipher attack, leaving Lysandre uncontested in Kalos. And there's no telling what he was after; to this day, I still haven't been able to figure that out.
Wait...something doesn't make quite a whole lot of sense. "Wait...do I see contradiction there?" I asked, eyes narrowing. "Unless...well, let me go on ahead and bring it up...if there is some sort of an accord between those two, then if Ein has been keeping you all at arms length, then who is to say that he's not playing Lysandre like that as well? Or, for that matter, the other way around. As long as I've known Lysandre, he's got his own agenda, that much I can figure out and I don't think they intersect with Ein's wants."
Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 6:21 pm
Atlantis_Darts
"Heh." Kess snorts, arms not relaxing for an instant as she keeps them crossed. "I would love to see you guys try. If you're feeling lucky, we can handle this with less words. Forgive my skepticism, but my experience with 'teams' lately aren't exactly conducive to holding hands and singing Kumbaya."
"Dull always wanted to go, since the beginning." She continues, after a few moments of silence. "There were two choices as he described it to me in his more... lucid moments. Get back home, or die trying. Problem was, no one could kill him let alone harm him until he met that Ghost channeler of yours... Weird? Spooky? Whatever his name is. Dull felt he had finally met the person that could kill him, something Ein despite all of his promises and... horrendous attempts could never do. So Dull was tendering his resignation permanently and decided to let Ein know about it, face-to-face, or at least face-to-face as he was going to be able to get." She looks towards each of them in turn, her needle beak swiveling to each of them as she does.
"Now, keep in mind at this time, I was over in the Tower of Mastery alongside S-22 and XD002 taking care of that... particular piece of unscrupulous work destroying the entire thing. It was always fairly rare for all of us to be at the base at once, but Dull found something on the way to 'the Vault', Ein's main lab, that sent him into a rage. It was a fairly innocuous flash drive, apparently dropped and kicked into a corner by somebody. But the details on it... were more than a little elucidating. Answers to my questions of why Zera had been in Kalos in the first place, what she had been doing there. Zera was... the closest to what I would consider a friend in that place. She was unstable, but to join up with us at all you had to be a little unstable in the first place. But her actions at the end didn't make much sense to me... until I saw what Dull had found." She pulls out a crude-looking what could have passed for a SNAG if you had squinted a bit, typing a couple commands into it and turning the screen around so a single symbol was visible above a wall of text - a singular curving flame in the shape of an 'F'. Team Flare's symbol.
"This whole time Ein has been telling us that Flare is nothing but a bunch of useless meddlers. People who don't understand his methodology or respect his progress. But looking at the logs and the dates and the times... it's hard to come to any conclusion other than the one I have. Team Flare and Team Cipher are - no, maybe that's not correct." Kess amends, turning the device back around to face her as she scrolls through it. "Lysander and Ein have been working together. Since the beginning."
Amaranth would simply raise a hand. She most certainly did not feel lucky today and didn't feel like challenging herself to trying to withstand a hundred thousand volts and not be sliced, diced, or even julienne cut. "Maybe another time. I'd like to stay fully intact today, thanks." Her hand would lower as Kess explained Dull's unusual case, followed by her falling silent when her eyes layed upon Team Flare's symbol, let alone the collusion between Lysandre and Ein. She wasn't surprised at this point; after everything at Citadark Isle, it was pretty clear just how embroiled Snagem and Cipher were in all of this and for how long it'd been going on. But, it was still news she could've easily done without knowing.
"Suddenly, I'm also thinking there was more to Kalos' whole thing about wanting so-called legendary Pokemon turned in to the monarchy..." Amaranth remarked, unsure of how to add much else to what Blizzard had already asked.
Darksol88 Vice Captain
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Cecile Silverstone
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Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 6:28 pm
||Ulla and Leon||
"Well that's interesting. A partnership between two baddies, that can only mean double the trouble for us." He said as he yawned. "It looks like we are gonna have some more stuff to do around here. Fantastic." He said very unamused. He looked over to Ulla and Keiko, particularly looking at Ulla who seemed uncomfortable. He was about to go ask what was wrong but decided not to because it was with Keiko. He thought it would be about something girl related so he paid no mind and went back to listening with Ter.
Ulla felt super awkward just standing there, not really sure what to say after that. Togekiss and Riolu looked at both of them a little worried about what was going on. Riolu read Ulla's aura. She felt....sad? No, that wasn't it. Scared? Embarrassed? Riolu couldn't exactly understand what she was feeling. "I-I'm....." Ulla was looking at the ground as she was trying to find the words on what to say. She could merely just sigh. "....I'm sorry..." She said softly as she ran off to her room. Togekiss and Riolu looked at one another as Riolu stayed with Keiko while Togekiss followed Ulla to her room. ".....Are you ok? Like Master Ulla said, I'm sorry as well."
(Just Ulla being sad)
Ulla was about to close the door behind her from her room but saw Togekiss follow her. She left the door open so Togekiss could enter. When he entered, she closed the door and just leaned against the door till she slid down to the floor. She sat on the floor like that for awhile until she started playing with her necklace. "....Why did I think of you then....when I don't even have that many memories of you....Leon has all the memories of all of us....I can't even remember your guy's face....unless I'm looking at a picture....I didn't even recognize Leon after so many years....So why now....." She hugged her knees as Togekiss hugged her with his wings. "I only had grandma and grandpa left after Leon left on his Pokemon journey...I only saw photos of you. Anytime I asked what you guys were like. They always said next time. Next time we will tell you all about your parents...."
Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 6:29 pm
My temper flared visibly when I caught sight of the Team Flare symbol. I didn't care that Lysandre and Ein joined forces - Ein had to burn for his own sins. Just knowing that Lysander could very easily use Cipher to blind the world to his works infuriated me further.
"Wait-" Keiko started to say, but Ulla was already gone. Keiko sighed and looked down, thinking if she was right for wanting to take Ulla in at all. Sensing her turmoil, I turned from the resident Cipher and wrapped an arm around my girl, hoping in some small way to comfort her.
Reno would finally step into the room, followed along by the rest of his posse of Aria, Leslie, and Beau as they felt like they should join the conversation now instead of just eavesdropping. "So the red headed step child and the man of the bad coif are paired together. Figures our messes aren't unrelated." Leslie grumbled, staring at the data in front of her to begin her own processing and see if anything might jump out for her.
Aria was the next to speak up. "As remiss as I am to acknowledge the woman who wrecked one of my land's national landmarks, I cannot deny that this is pretty damning. Plus, a blow to the Tower of Mastery would be in Lysandre's favor. Knock off opposition while looking like an attack." Her words had turned to her internal thoughts without her noticing, the brown haired woman scratching at her chin. It was almost an ingenious act of subterfuge if this was entirely the reason for it instead of it being happenstance. She had to admire that in some capacity.
Reno would take this opportunity to voice his own thoughts. "I'm guessing this particular accord was reached once both of these idiots had a weapon of mass destruction at their hands, although Zygarde is the clear victor given what it could do to XD-002. I'm just waiting for the part where we hear one or the other is trying to take complete control." Nodding to himself with this knowledge, he decided to ask another question. "Given at this point Ein is reduced to only having S-22 for sure as an ally after Zera's accident in Lumiose, think you can help me find him? I have a...little thought I wanna try on him again."
Finally, Beau would just stand there eating his sandwich as he watched the proceedings. He didn't have any questions, he just wanted to watch the fireworks when someone said something stupid.
Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 6:48 pm
Blizzard120
"......." Part of me had that thought in the dark reaches of my mind. Lysandre and Ein are too overly calculating in their methods. It makes sense either way; it'd make the perfect ploy too in making it look like a free for all instead of a concerted effort. That's why they couldn't really go out of their way and drive a stake into us all the sooner. It'd give them away. We've been spreading ourselves thin, trying to defend Unova from Flare and Cipher attack, leaving Lysandre uncontested in Kalos. And there's no telling what he was after; to this day, I still haven't been able to figure that out.
Wait...something doesn't make quite a whole lot of sense. "Wait...do I see contradiction there?" I asked, eyes narrowing. "Unless...well, let me go on ahead and bring it up...if there is some sort of an accord between those two, then if Ein has been keeping you all at arms length, then who is to say that he's not playing Lysandre like that as well? Or, for that matter, the other way around. As long as I've known Lysandre, he's got his own agenda, that much I can figure out and I don't think they intersect with Ein's wants."
Darksol88
Amaranth would simply raise a hand. She most certainly did not feel lucky today and didn't feel like challenging herself to trying to withstand a hundred thousand volts and not be sliced, diced, or even julienne cut. "Maybe another time. I'd like to stay fully intact today, thanks." Her hand would lower as Kess explained Dull's unusual case, followed by her falling silent when her eyes layed upon Team Flare's symbol, let alone the collusion between Lysandre and Ein. She wasn't surprised at this point; after everything at Citadark Isle, it was pretty clear just how embroiled Snagem and Cipher were in all of this and for how long it'd been going on. But, it was still news she could've easily done without knowing.
"Suddenly, I'm also thinking there was more to Kalos' whole thing about wanting so-called legendary Pokemon turned in to the monarchy..." Amaranth remarked, unsure of how to add much else to what Blizzard had already asked.
"I'd be far more surprised if this was a partnership in good faith." Kess admits, nodding. "Ein doesn't seem the type to trust Lysandre and Lysandre seems too smart to just fall into a trap. This is more of a handshake in the front, knives behind the back type scenario. Based on the timeline I would guess myself and Zera were sent to try and figure out what Lysandre was up to in Alola vis a vis Zygarde Complete. Once Lysandre managed to get his mitts on that particular legend, XD-002 was in my estimation a direct response to keep Lysandre from dictating the terms of their agreement. This is an alliance of convenience, for both of them."
Reno Vantas
Reno would take this opportunity to voice his own thoughts. "I'm guessing this particular accord was reached once both of these idiots had a weapon of mass destruction at their hands, although Zygarde is the clear victor given what it could do to XD-002. I'm just waiting for the part where we hear one or the other is trying to take complete control." Nodding to himself with this knowledge, he decided to ask another question. "Given at this point Ein is reduced to only having S-22 for sure as an ally after Zera's accident in Lumiose, think you can help me find him? I have a...little thought I wanna try on him again."
"Sure, I can take you right to Cipher's main base if we can get into Orre." Kess says, with another half-snort. "But there's two things you're conveniently forgetting. Firstly, XD-002 is still in the picture. I don't care how strong of a psychic you are, you are NOT stronger than that... thing. Secondly, you guys happen to be in the middle of a world war right this second. I'm not going to tell you how to manage your time as a team but I feel like losing a whole continent to Flare might be a bit more pressing. Sure, you stopped Flare from taking Nimbasa, which is a huge win don't get me wrong, but have you ever stopped to think what was in the direction Flare came from?"
Bringing up a quick map of the Unova region, Reno would immediately highlight an area on the eastern side of Unova that zoomed in to show a relatively high tech looking cityscape. "I am well aware now that I'm not in the middle of a large scale battle that they have most likely claimed Black City at this point. Which leaves us surrounded in Castelia City and without reliable access to most of the resources required for the area. Hopefully though, given our new aides, we can organize a counter-offensive." Looking over towards where Kess was standing, Reno would sidle over before adding, "I would still like those coordinates for the base. Would be useful to scout out if we manage to pull off some insane gambit to allow us a little breathing room."
Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 7:02 pm
"Flare is going to end this war with Black City." Sub finally spoke up, having lingered in the shadows this whole while, listening. "Do remember that Evice turned Black City into a giant energy siphon to be used by Zekrom. Ein of course has to know about this and how to operate it. Providing they are working together why wouldn't Ein tell Lysandre about it? Let him use it to have Zygarde drain Unova dry and end the war in one devastating swoop." Sub pointed out the importance of Black City. "Or maybe Ein plans to use it himself once Flare secures it, either way that is a massively important thing to overlook."
Leon kept listening till he noticed Ter went over to Keiko. He looked around to see Ulla anywhere but only saw Riolu, he sighed as he scratched his head. "Looks like I'm gonna have to do some talking..." He grabbed his things and thought he could get the fill in once he returns. He walked over to Keiko and put his hand on her head only to ruffle it a little. "Sorry about that. I'll talk to her and we'll be right back. As much as I know, you guys know her better than I do. So you know she's not usually like this. She'll be back to her normal self in a bit." He said blankly as he started walking to their room.
Ulla was now resting her head on the door. She closed her eyes, and heard a soft whisper. She opened her eyes quickly and looked around. She looked at Togekiss who was also looking around. They couldn't hear the whisper anymore. "What was-" She then closed her eyes again for a second. For some reason. An image popped into her head, Lumiose City. And Team Cipher. Ulla opened her eyes again out of fear as she started breathing heavily. She then heard a knocking at her door. "Ulla." Ulla quickly stood up and opened the door for Leon. Leon looked down at Ulla who had tears flowing down her face as he looked concerned. Before he could ask what happened, she quickly hugged him and buried her face in his coat. "....You have some explaining to do. Also, how many times are you going to get snot on my jacket." He quickly picked her up as she started explaining what happened between her and Keiko but not about those images she saw.
Leon started heading back to the main group as he was listening to his sister. Togekiss followed right beside them. "I'm sorry Ulla. I'm sorry our grandparents couldn't tell you much about our parents. But you gotta understand, those were their children. And about having that memory, maybe. I'm not sure but just going by what I know. Maybe because, you don't have any memories that you can think of with mom and dad. You thought of Keiko like that huh?" He said softly as Ulla was quiet. When they got back with everyone, there was even more people than before. He joined back with Ter and Keiko. "Hey. Did I miss much?" He asked as he looked at Keiko now and nuzzled against Ulla's head to signal for Keiko to talk to Ulla. From what he could tell, they were planning to do much much more than he signed up for.
Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 7:13 pm
SubonicXP
"Flare is going to end this war with Black City." Sub finally spoke up, having lingered in the shadows this whole while, listening. "Do remember that Evice turned Black City into a giant energy siphon to be used by Zekrom. Ein of course has to know about this and how to operate it. Providing they are working together why wouldn't Ein tell Lysandre about it? Let him use it to have Zygarde drain Unova dry and end the war in one devastating swoop." Sub pointed out the importance of Black City. "Or maybe Ein plans to use it himself once Flare secures it, either way that is a massively important thing to overlook."
"Exactly." Kess agrees, nodding in deference to the Snagem leader as he enters the conversation. "Black City is now fully under Flare control. They never really cared about Nimbasa City, both of them just wanted you to think they did. Now they have a weapon capable of ending this in one shot. I knew about it, so I have every reason to believe Flare is well aware of what they are doing. More than likely Zygarde Complete will be there, along with whatever else Ein and Lysandre cooks up to help defend the place." She shoots a sidelong glance at Reno. "Give you the coordinates and what, hope you give me asylum out of the goodness of your heart? Win this war, I'll help you stop Ein and we can both go our separate ways. It's just that simple."
Atlantis_Darts Crew
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Arkelos
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Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 7:17 pm
Arkelos walks in upon hearing about the aftermath of the battle in Unova. "So me getting the tank for some leverage was not useful?" Arkelos smurked, "Not to sound rude or anything. I know i wasnt there while yall were getting clobbered."
Turning to Reno. "By the way brain boy, even though you knew it was me. Thank for not blowing my cover." He said pulling out a data pan. "Not sure if this will help with anything, but i was about to swipe some information." He continued handing it to the high ranks in the room.
Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 7:19 pm
Reno Vantas
Which leaves us surrounded in Castelia City-
The second I heard that, Rala was standing in front of me. The second after that, Rala, Keiko, and myself were gone.
Elsewhere
Rala teleported the two of us to the ground floor of the building my mother's condo was, in Castelia City. After sending a message u there to make sure she was home and we weren't interrupting anything, we rode the elevator up there. I didn't take any time to check how things were outside, nor did I care.
"We need to get you out of here," I told her before she could greet us. "The business in the eastern part of Unova isn't contained there. They plan to go at the city from two sides. Castelia isn't going to be safe for much longer."
I could tell from the look on my mother's face that she wanted to ask me how I knew all this. But, I had to assume the reason she didn't was due to the suddenness of all this. Besides, it wasn't like she was unaware that Flare, or Kalos as far as she knew, was having their way of the region despite the Indigo Plateau's efforts.
It took mother a little bit of time to get her effects together. We had to leave the furniture and appliances behind, unfortunately. When she was ready, we teleported to Saffron City's Pokemon Center - a location I had to teach Rala of myself as we couldn't rely on GRAY with my mother around. With her directions, we soon made it to the place my father stayed while he worked.
Father was expectably surprised, and it took a bit of explaining to calm him down. He also asked about Keiko, who he didn't recognized. He also asked if we were still a couple - how he found out about that, I couldn't know, but I didn't back down, looking him in the eyes when he confirmed. He agreed to letting Mom stay here until things blew over in Unova. He was about to address Keiko and I afterward, for what I couldn't know, but we were gone by the time he turned back to face us.
"Thank you, Rala," I said calmly as Keiko and I sat back down, letting her teleport to wherever she was before we left. "Not much," I added when Leon spoke up.
"What's wrong?" Keiko asked, wanting to hug Ulla since she looked like she'd been crying, though she controlled herself for the time being.
"Flare is going to end this war with Black City." Sub finally spoke up, having lingered in the shadows this whole while, listening. "Do remember that Evice turned Black City into a giant energy siphon to be used by Zekrom. Ein of course has to know about this and how to operate it. Providing they are working together why wouldn't Ein tell Lysandre about it? Let him use it to have Zygarde drain Unova dry and end the war in one devastating swoop." Sub pointed out the importance of Black City. "Or maybe Ein plans to use it himself once Flare secures it, either way that is a massively important thing to overlook."
"Exactly." Kess agrees, nodding in deference to the Snagem leader as he enters the conversation. "Black City is now fully under Flare control. They never really cared about Nimbasa City, both of them just wanted you to think they did. Now they have a weapon capable of ending this in one shot. I knew about it, so I have every reason to believe Flare is well aware of what they are doing. More than likely Zygarde Complete will be there, along with whatever else Ein and Lysandre cooks up to help defend the place." She shoots a sidelong glance at Reno. "Give you the coordinates and what, hope you give me asylum out of the goodness of your heart? Win this war, I'll help you stop Ein and we can both go our separate ways. It's just that simple."
"A word to the wise, just ignore him. I tend to. It's hard at first, I admit. You'll learn to tune him out." I made a hard sigh, rubbing my eyes. Of course, Black City. The only reason why Nimbasa looked all that promising was that it was a junction to virtually all places in the region. But no one really thought about that place, but more often than not that place is actually taken for granted. Hell, we did too. But something as a Zygarde being a living nuke? That's just a waste of what comes off as an invaluable constantly renewing resource. It still didn't make too much sense. One thing was right though; they needed to be routed out. I couldn't really comment any longer on that. Objective was clear enough; how to go about it was a whole other matter.
I perked up, looking back towards Arkelos. "Here, I'll take it." I said to look over the data, staring at it. It took over a few minutes to skim it over, but apparently it confirmed verbatim what Kess was saying all this time so far, not making my mood any better on the matter. "This is going to be a looooong skirmish."
Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 7:45 pm
Wren arrived in the main lounge at about the same time as Odd and Lykas, the trio looking around at the gathering of Snagems before Lykas and Odd spotted Kess. Neither felt she was a threat at the moment but Odd wasn't entirely convinced she could be trusted. Especially given the fact that he had taken to wearing Dull's old jacket lately. Something about it made him feel slightly better about flat out murdering the guy when he wore it.
Lykas, however, didn't care either way. "It sounds like Flare's setting themselves up for Ein to take them down and hog all the credit for himself." He spoke up, piecing together the story as everyone pitched in. "There's also a good chance that, in order to disguise their attack on Black City, they'll probably go after Castelia at the same time to distract their counters." Scratching at his chin a bit as he thought, he realized something. "The only way they'd be able to attack Castelia safely and still cause enough of a distraction would be to come at the city by air and bomb the city from above."
"That would cause widespread mayhem in the city..." Wren finally spoke up. "Burgh wouldn't be any good for stopping an attack on the whole city at once, either. He may be a Bug specialist but even he couldn't coordinate a swarm big enough to stop that kind of attack."
"He wouldn't need to." Odd contributed. "If this is Ein, we're talking about, he'll convinced Flare to focus their efforts on Black City. As big as Castelia City is, Black City and the surrounding White Forest have more useful resources to him and he wouldn't want to waste the energy on fighting for something he doesn't consider worthwhile."
"No, he absolutely would." Lykas countered. "Like Sub told me a few days ago. That's Ein's MO. He wants to completely destroy any hope there could ever be of stopping him or anything else. "
Kaya left the room in search of his old bedroom, hoping to find his stuff still there.
Leon was a bit alarmed when Keiko and Ter teleported. He looked around to see if he they teleported somewhere else in the room. He then heard someone sit down on the couch as he saw Ter and Keiko. "....Please don't tell me you do that often." He said as he let Ulla down so she could talk to Keiko properly. She tried hug him once more but he held out his hand and placed it on her head. "Ulla." He said sternly as he sat down next to Ter. Ulla glanced at Keiko but didn't make any eye contact.
"I uh...." Ulla was holding back tears as Riolu walked over and held her hand. Ulla calmed down a bit as she was able to talk. "When...you and Ter went to the resort for the mission. I was there for a different reason....My...My family stayed there. That day was when I lost my parents." She said in a very soft voice. "I lost them when I was only three. So, I don't really have any memories of them. I was too young to remember anything. So, when I saw you smile. An old memory popped in my head....of my mom smiling. That's why I said 'Mama' earlier......I didn't have parents to grow up with. Just my brother and grandparents. So, I'm sorry if I made things awkward...I just...Leon said...maybe I saw something like that in you?....I don't know...." She said as she looked over to everyone who was discussing their plans on how to attack Team Flare. She dried her tears and took in a deep breath and let it out. "....I don't have parents Keiko. All I have is Leon. That's it. But....maybe deep down. I do wish I had parents."
Ulla then walked over to where everyone was as she wanted to see what the plan was. As she was listening in, that same image of Lumiose City popped in her head. But this time, a very beautiful staff appeared as well alongside a very large deer. She held her head for a second not understanding what everything meant as she kept listening. She looked over to Sub as she tugged on his sleeve."Sub, can I talk to you when we have a moment?" She said as she went back to thinking of a plan on how this was all going to work.
