"Black Hole what!?" Someone apparently wasn't quite as knowledgeable on whatever Sub was about to do, and even with the warning, Sol wasn't quite so keen on leaving anyone behind like last time. Seeing the attack and feeling the energy as it grew to immense levels, he'd be forgiven for thinking that the attack came from a legendary Pokemon rather than a fairly powerful Hydreigon. While he had recalled Swampert before the worst of it began, he'd start sliding towards the black hole as it contracted. Taking notice of the queen, he remembered one thing about Ein's labs.
Stuff had a way of surviving the craziest things that'd kill anything else. Knowing he had only one shot at this, he rushed forward and jumped just in front of Sub and Valdemar, aiming to backflip into a kick that with any luck, might mean the queen being slowed down would be the least of her worries from the Black Hole Eclipse. He'd barely manage to get a hand onto Valdemar before the attack threatened to swallow him within, but something on him wouldn't be quite so lucky. A pair of sandals, of all things, with a bunch of lumpy nubs that'd look to make walking on spikes seem more tolerable. Had he been using them to suppress the noise of his talons?
Perhaps for the moment, such details weren't important. Barely managing to hold on, he'd try everything he could to pull himself down. "Sorry, making sure that queen doesn't get a third chance! You understand!" He yelled over the noise, hoping the rest still heeded the command to leave while they had the chance.
--
Recalling Woobat as she scrambled to her feet, Amaranth would be quick to swap her Togekiss into the fray once the door was open. Seeing the unusual attack from Sub to follow and the pull it threatened to do was all the warning she needed to follow the command without hesitation. "Extreme Speed, Breeze! Get us out of here!" She yelled as she practically dove onto the Togekiss' back, having her race out of the lab as fast as possible and holding on for dear life.
--
Those who did manage to get outside would see that the submersible had been given a friend in the form of a rusted, red heap of scrap metal. Parts of it were strewn around the entrance to the lab and the nearby jagged rocks, looking like they could have once been some sort of robot resembling Groudon put to a purpose that it was never designed for. Shards of glass could be seen alongside the mangled remains of a cockpit, doing nothing to keep it protected now. Miraculously, one part of the unusual contraption had remained intact and might still be usable. A vacuum cleaner with a second hole for exhaust and an engine that appeared to be outright overkill for busting a few dust bunnies. Unfortunately, being at the edge of the island meant it would soon fall into the water below, given the burial at sea it deserved.
For anyone else, it'd look like a death trap composed of some metal, duct tape, and a prayer. For Sol, it was proof that for today, a few odd and rickshaw inventions really were number one in the world.
Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 10:46 pm
Aria didn't even need to listen to Darts, already content to run screaming out of the building with her Pangoro in tow with a barrel of fuel on its shoulder. She didn't need or even want the majority of people here if she could swing it and she had the supplies necessary to do so. There was no need for her to contribute to any of the fighting currently. Just get things to other things and hope to god she wasn't a smear in a moment. Speaking of smears, where the hell had Beau gone after his effortsvm to generate a catastrophic detonation?
Splattered against the side of the submarine, busy pondering the question of how the heck he was alive and why Darts had considered this a good plan would be Beau. While he was currently in the euphorious throes of mild delirium die to a concussion and the sight of the explosion that had been generated, the Vivillon hybrid was alive. Sure as hell not well, but he was alive. And praying to all available deities to enact some divine retribution on Darts. It didn't seem likely but it was worth a try for certain.
Tristen and Freth rushed down the corridor, with the Articuno female recalling her Glalie on the way out. Now that the door was blown open, the two followed the rest of the crew and found their way back to the submersable...plus one other. ".......that thing looks worse than the one we came in on!"
"Not now, Freth! Over here! On the less rickety one!"
"Yea, yea..." Freth followed Tristen in and got into the submersible.
Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 11:34 pm
Once the explosion would go off, both of Aile’s Pokémon that were out and above ground would cover her and bring her down onto the ground. Once the blast wave subsided (which thankfully wasn't as bad as it could have been, all things considered), the two allowed their trainer to get up. They themselves weren’t in the greatest of shape, after all of the battling and attacking they’ve done. “Well, I suppose that’s a way of doing things. Oh, and it's about time, Eisley,” she commented as the mole popped up from the hole he made earlier, looking around at the results of the chaos.
“Dri…”
“Yeah. Okay, let’s go then. And also…” She’d bring out each of her Pokémon’s Pokéballs and recall them all, though Kayvaan would try to object. Aile would get to the door before she heard Sub, and she’d pause to listen before shooting something back at him. “Tch. Don’t die just yet. Martyrdom doesn’t sound like your style.” She’d then finish heading outside and was about halfway to the dock when she saw both heaping piles of rusting scrap that were somehow called submersibles. “I… I’ve never felt the need to actually pray before, despite all years I went to church,” Aile mumbled, a look of disbelief on her face. She’d make a small cross across her chest as she finished the walk down, still staring at the rust bucket.
Entr'Acte - Male Ability: No Guard Shadow Claw Sacred Sword Swords Dance Flash Cannon
Despite their best efforts at fending them off, Lykas ended up jabbed by one of the Beedrill right there are the end, if only barely. And when the explosions went off, it didn't help either. The blast wave and the sound wave combined were enough to cause him to momentarily lose control of his form, triggering an involuntary use of Acid Armor and causing him to melt into a formless puddle that failed to respond when Odd, who was unharmed by the concussive force thanks to his reactive intangibility but was otherwise almost completely deafened for the moment, tried to coax one out of it. "Lykas?! Lykas, get up! We have to leave!"
The Channeler was starting to lose his cool when, finally, Lykas began to reform, holding his head already. "Can we not do that again? EVER?!" He shouted at the collective Snagems before they had all bolted away. "It feels like my brain's been scrambled, my liver's in my lungs and my pancreas is sitting inside my bladder right now." He told Odd as he slowly reconstituted into the familiar blue-skinned jellyfish man the team was used to.
"We can talk about it later, when we're not dead." Odd replied, picking the hybrid up and rushing out of the lab behind the others, recalling their Pokemon along the way, aside from Refrain. Odd told her to continue carrying the fuel canister and to hurry with it. "Can you drive your bike in this condition?" He asked as they got outside.
"I think so.... More or less..." Lykas responded, shaking his head to try and get his bearings again. Despite the lack of proper hearing and the resulting lack of proper balance, Odd managed to stumble over to Lykas' vespa and set him on it. "Go! I'm going to help with the submersible."
"Odd, no!" Lykas grabbed the channeler's arm and practically begged him with his eyes alone to not risk it.
"Go. I'm more likely to survive an explosion out here than you or anyone else." Odd replied, taking note that his ability to hear was slowly returning, a loud ringing in his ears now replacing the just-slightly-less-than-total-silence he'd been hearing a moment ago.
Lykas sighed and started up Amphitrite. "Promise you'll come back safe?" He asked.
"Always." Odd assured him before the hybrid took off, leaving him to go assist their friends. He found Refrain had arrived with the fuel but not Sub. Or Sol.
"Son of a-!" He practically slapped himself in the forehead when he figured it out. "He's an idiot. I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill him and then I'm then I'm going to trap his soul in an hourglass and and torture him for a while if he doesn't hurry the Hell up." He told himself, looking back the way Sub should be coming from. Immediately. "Refrain, help them fill this thing up if they need it and then get inside." He told his Oranguru, standing as a sentinel to wait for Sub.
Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 3:46 am
SubonicXP
As soon as the middle head's mouth shut the orb began to act violently as it pulsated inward, an incredibly powerful force immediately generated from it as it threatened to pull in anything and everything around it save for its user and the trainer himself (as he had now jumped onto his dragon's back and held on for dear life). The orb was now a literal black hole, now smaller in size as it began to slowly contract but the smaller it got the greater the force of its pull. Not even the metal siding of the room they found themselves in was safe as it threatened to snatch them off too. Even if Sub couldn't catch the queen in this attack at the very least he could slow her down enough to let them get the submersible fueled up and going.
Darksol88
"Black Hole what!?" Someone apparently wasn't quite as knowledgeable on whatever Sub was about to do, and even with the warning, Sol wasn't quite so keen on leaving anyone behind like last time. Seeing the attack and feeling the energy as it grew to immense levels, he'd be forgiven for thinking that the attack came from a legendary Pokemon rather than a fairly powerful Hydreigon. While he had recalled Swampert before the worst of it began, he'd start sliding towards the black hole as it contracted. Taking notice of the queen, he remembered one thing about Ein's labs.
Stuff had a way of surviving the craziest things that'd kill anything else. Knowing he had only one shot at this, he rushed forward and jumped just in front of Sub and Valdemar, aiming to backflip into a kick that with any luck, might mean the queen being slowed down would be the least of her worries from the Black Hole Eclipse. He'd barely manage to get a hand onto Valdemar before the attack threatened to swallow him within, but something on him wouldn't be quite so lucky. A pair of sandals, of all things, with a bunch of lumpy nubs that'd look to make walking on spikes seem more tolerable. Had he been using them to suppress the noise of his talons?
Perhaps for the moment, such details weren't important. Barely managing to hold on, he'd try everything he could to pull himself down. "Sorry, making sure that queen doesn't get a third chance! You understand!" He yelled over the noise, hoping the rest still heeded the command to leave while they had the chance.
Sub's black hole bomb immediately begins demonstrating its singularity buried within its immense well of gravity as soon as Sol spin-kicks the queen into the middle of it, she crosses the threshold soon enough and gets absorbed and crushed down into a single point from the massive store of gravity. Its influence begins expanding, absorbing the remnants of the swarm into itself and expanding, sucking in desks, dust... anything to expand its mass. This wasn't going to go on forever but if the Snagems stay in this room much longer this place was going to be their tomb...
0:57
Reno Vantas
Splattered against the side of the submarine, busy pondering the question of how the heck he was alive and why Darts had considered this a good plan would be Beau. While he was currently in the euphorious throes of mild delirium die to a concussion and the sight of the explosion that had been generated, the Vivillon hybrid was alive. Sure as hell not well, but he was alive. And praying to all available deities to enact some divine retribution on Darts. It didn't seem likely but it was worth a try for certain.
Blizzard120
Tristen and Freth rushed down the corridor, with the Articuno female recalling her Glalie on the way out. Now that the door was blown open, the two followed the rest of the crew and found their way back to the submersable...plus one other. ".......that thing looks worse than the one we came in on!"
"Not now, Freth! Over here! On the less rickety one!"
"Yea, yea..." Freth followed Tristen in and got into the submersible.
Requiem of Whyspers
"Always." Odd assured him before the hybrid took off, leaving him to go assist their friends. He found Refrain had arrived with the fuel but not Sub. Or Sol.
"Son of a-!" He practically slapped himself in the forehead when he figured it out. "He's an idiot. I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill him and then I'm then I'm going to trap his soul in an hourglass and and torture him for a while if he doesn't hurry the Hell up." He told himself, looking back the way Sub should be coming from. Immediately. "Refrain, help them fill this thing up if they need it and then get inside." He told his Oranguru, standing as a sentinel to wait for Sub.
Espeon_Commander
“Yeah. Okay, let’s go then. And also…” She’d bring out each of her Pokémon’s Pokéballs and recall them all, though Kayvaan would try to object. Aile would get to the door before she heard Sub, and she’d pause to listen before shooting something back at him. “Tch. Don’t die just yet. Martyrdom doesn’t sound like your style.” She’d then finish heading outside and was about halfway to the dock when she saw both heaping piles of rusting scrap that were somehow called submersibles. “I… I’ve never felt the need to actually pray before, despite all years I went to church,” Aile mumbled, a look of disbelief on her face. She’d make a small cross across her chest as she finished the walk down, still staring at the rust bucket.
TerashiLeonGoken
"NOW!" I shouted.
Keiko and I moved quickly, recalling all of our Pokemon except Haku in a flash and taking our Hoverboards from my duffel bag/her purse and sailing toward the front door. As we neared the horde, I picked Haku up and had him use Protect as we made good our escape, so that we couldn't be touched by any Beedrill in our passing.
Once outside, I recalled Haku, heading to the submersible while waiting to be able to sense things again so I could let Rala out and have her warp us to Orre proper. But that moment never happened. The best I could guess was that whatever was stopping teleportation in the lab covered the entire island. So, when Keiko and I made it to the submersible, we got in and waited for the others. Our Pokemon were too tired from fighting Gonzap's Pokemon and the horde of Beedrill, or we'd help take that Magnezone down like we really wanted to. But it couldn't be helped. Our strong Pokemon were running on fumes, and our weak Pokemon... well, they were weak. They'd only help marginally, if at all. We were out of options.
Darksol88
Recalling Woobat as she scrambled to her feet, Amaranth would be quick to swap her Togekiss into the fray once the door was open. Seeing the unusual attack from Sub to follow and the pull it threatened to do was all the warning she needed to follow the command without hesitation. "Extreme Speed, Breeze! Get us out of here!" She yelled as she practically dove onto the Togekiss' back, having her race out of the lab as fast as possible and holding on for dear life.
--
Those who did manage to get outside would see that the submersible had been given a friend in the form of a rusted, red heap of scrap metal. Parts of it were strewn around the entrance to the lab and the nearby jagged rocks, looking like they could have once been some sort of robot resembling Groudon put to a purpose that it was never designed for. Shards of glass could be seen alongside the mangled remains of a cockpit, doing nothing to keep it protected now. Miraculously, one part of the unusual contraption had remained intact and might still be usable. A vacuum cleaner with a second hole for exhaust and an engine that appeared to be outright overkill for busting a few dust bunnies. Unfortunately, being at the edge of the island meant it would soon fall into the water below, given the burial at sea it deserved.
For anyone else, it'd look like a death trap composed of some metal, duct tape, and a prayer. For Sol, it was proof that for today, a few odd and rickshaw inventions really were number one in the world.
Darts hauls Beau to his feet, dragging the little concussion that could outside. "What's that look for?" He asks the half-conscious bug as they make their way to where everyone was boarding the submarine, passing the Groudon. "Litter just keeps getting worse and worse these days... shame about the environment." The Giratina hybrid says sadly, shaking his head as he helps Beau aboard the watercraft.
0:48
Wes and company were already emptying their haul of flammable liquid into the submersible when Aria shows up with another barrel of the stuff the Silver Snatcher doesn't ask questions, he just empties it into the fuel tank until it's topped off before spinning the remnants aside and hopping into the cockpit, firing it up with a push of a couple buttons. A passable pilot in his own right, Wes shares Aria's opinion about who does or does not need to die here as the motor thrums to life, the turbines pistoning as the Kyogre sub flares to life once more with the presence of injected fuel. There's a smoky flavor to the air, as if the island itself can taste the bomb's timer coming to a crescendo. "All's ashore that's going ashore!" Wes screams to the entrance of the lab, setting his silver shades on his face with the wind whipping his hair as he begins taxiing away from the shoreline. Odd, Sub, and Sol were only going to have...
0:32
To either get aboard the swiftly departing vehicle or figure out something on their own, because otherwise the rest of the Snagems are swiftly going to be on their way to Gateon across the way and out of harm's way - abandoning them without a ride.
"I told you it would work!" Sub panted as he and Sol were unceremoniously spit out by Griswold after said Ghost had risen up out of Odd's shadow. The Dark One would appear a little worse for wear, panting and disheveled, a streak of white in his hair which wasn't there before. While the Snagem leader looked positively exhausted he knew there wasn't time to catch his breath so after quickly recalling Griswold the Dark Channeler attempted to pull Sol up to his feet and help him to the submersible. "If Cera is anything to go by you're probably going to have waking nightmares for awhile but you'll be fine." Evidently Sub had used Griswold and his Channeling to get him and Sol out of there is the form of a shadow, having recalled Valdemar and let the black hole do is horrible work while they fled. There was also one other thing different about Sub that he didn't notice and that was his ring, or to be more specific his artifact, the gem stone on it was still glowing and normally it didn't do that unless he was actively channeling. How odd.
"Someone get this damn floating bucket running! I don't want to be here when the lab explodes, the volcano erupts or that black hole comes back to bite me in the behind. Any combination of those scenarios will turn this place into hell on Earth and I'm not ready to go there just yet." Sub insisted as he made his way into the vessel.
Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 9:34 pm
Aile would have tried to make herself as comfortable as possible inside the death trap submersible, just finding an out of the way corner and kind of hiding there. Her eyes would turn to Sub and Sol when they entered, the woman giving them both a look over before turning down to her bag. “Mm.. Ah.” She pulled a silver flask from the bag, though her eyes narrowed as she did. Aile would shake the flask in front of her, then right up against her ear, before finally opening it and upturning it with an annoyed look on her face. “It was full when I left…”
Espeon_Commander
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Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 10:29 pm
Atlantis_Darts
SubonicXP
Only seconds after Sol's stunt had it dawned on him that escape wasn't going to be quite so easy. Getting away from the earlier attack would be a tough task for even a Ninjask after guzzling a gallon of coffee, let alone Sub or himself. He was loathe to admit that perhaps he hadn't thought things through as well as he first thought, but it was then that Sub seemed to have an idea. All he had heard before seeing Griswold, however, was that he was mostly certain that the idea would work before being plunged into the shadows.
What he saw within there wasn't something he could grasp, let alone retell easily. It was sure to linger with him for a while, but compared to anything from either of Ein's labs, he could deal with that. The remark about Cera dealing with similar reminded him about the events in Mossdeep, but as he hadn't been on the rocket, the most he knew of the events aboard the spacecraft was that things had gotten hectic and nearly deadly for everyone involved. That, and Cera had seemed to act odd afterward... he hadn't pressed the topic when she seemed to not want to talk about the events, but now? He found himself wishing that he had taken the time to do so if it was anything like what he had just gone through.
"I think I'll manage. Guess I owe you this time," he finally commented a few seconds later, quickly getting to his feet with Sub's help. He did notice the gemstone's constant glow as he boarded the submersible, but asking about it would have to wait. "Now, hit it!"
--
Luckily, it would seem that Amaranth had already boarded and recalled her Togekiss, even more scrunched inside it to her dismay. Not that she'd complain; it certainly beat the alternative right now.
Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 10:59 pm
Beau would simply roll over as he saw Darts moving away from where he had set the Vivillon hybrid down in the thing. "Why did you do that. Yknow we could've done it so that I didn't end up a windshield smear? Just....why?" Beau protested, barely able to struggle his way to his feet let alone put up a prolonged protest.
Up in the sub's cockpit, Aria would be swift and decisive once she saw what seemed to be everyone board. "Time to boogie! Keep all appendages inside the sub while we get the hell outta dodge!" Aria shouted to the passengers before she rammed the throttle with a swift kick.
"Someone get this damn floating bucket running! I don't want to be here when the lab explodes, the volcano erupts or that black hole comes back to bite me in the behind. Any combination of those scenarios will turn this place into hell on Earth and I'm not ready to go there just yet." Sub insisted as he made his way into the vessel.
Espeon_Commander
Aile would have tried to make herself as comfortable as possible inside the death trap submersible, just finding an out of the way corner and kind of hiding there. Her eyes would turn to Sub and Sol when they entered, the woman giving them both a look over before turning down to her bag. “Mm.. Ah.” She pulled a silver flask from the bag, though her eyes narrowed as she did. Aile would shake the flask in front of her, then right up against her ear, before finally opening it and upturning it with an annoyed look on her face. “It was full when I left…”
Darksol88
"I think I'll manage. Guess I owe you this time," he finally commented a few seconds later, quickly getting to his feet with Sub's help. He did notice the gemstone's constant glow as he boarded the submersible, but asking about it would have to wait. "Now, hit it!"
--
Luckily, it would seem that Amaranth had already boarded and recalled her Togekiss, even more scrunched inside it to her dismay. Not that she'd complain; it certainly beat the alternative right now.
Reno Vantas
Beau would simply roll over as he saw Darts moving away from where he had set the Vivillon hybrid down in the thing. "Why did you do that. Yknow we could've done it so that I didn't end up a windshield smear? Just....why?" Beau protested, barely able to struggle his way to his feet let alone put up a prolonged protest.
Up in the sub's cockpit, Aria would be swift and decisive once she saw what seemed to be everyone board. "Time to boogie! Keep all appendages inside the sub while we get the hell outta dodge!" Aria shouted to the passengers before she rammed the throttle with a swift kick.
The boat roars off into the ocean surf piloted by Wes as the last three manage to scramble aboard, making a beeline straight for Gateon Port. Behind the wake of the boat, that little timer kept on ticking down...
0:05
0:04
0:03
0:02
0:01...
The core of the volcano would detonate, sounding like a very distant 'boom' to the Snagems in the safety of their submersible but that sound would grow louder and louder as whatever device Ein had planted in order to make the volcano erupt does its job, and well. The formerly dormant crater boils over with lava and the top of Citadark Isle blows its stack straight off in a massive explosion of ash and lava, the conical top of the pumice-encrusted island exploding outwards with a roar like the end of the world and lava flows roll down across the surface of the island.
The red-hot magma boils the island from front to back, the very molten essence of the earth rolling down those corrupted tunnels and purging, sealing that vault one last time... forever. The cradle of Snagem, the Snagem we know of today is sealed hopefully to never see the light of day again. When the ex-Rocket Sub and Sol the hired gun set out from that twisted lab all those years ago, clearly they had never assumed that what they set in motion in those times would endure like it has to the present day. But it has, much to the good of the world at large they have assembled an up and coming group to stand against atrocities like the ones perpetrated below Citadark Isle.
--
As the cramped Robo Kyogre approaches Gateon Port, the concussive force of the explosion back on the island finally catches up to them, the sonic energy hits the back of the boat in a wave, carrying the entire kit and caboodle of the team up out of the water and into the port itself, sending the boat crashing down in the middle of the cobblestones inside the town itself. The flippers rip and tear the bricks off of the very foundation of the ground in order to slow itself finally, mercifully to a complete stop. The cockpit spits itself off of the top of the rig, the high-impact resisting glass clattering to the wrecked port below. Wes pushes his glasses up off of his eyes, and sighs tiredly, rubbing his eyes in the pilot's seat. "You guys don't make anything easy, do you?" From almost front to back, he was exhausted, no doubt matching the rest of the team.
Darts for his part, sits up from clutching onto Beau for dear life and cocks his head as he slides out of the compact quarters and down onto the bricks below, and it wasn't the astronomical bill for all this damage he was calculating. Something was wrong. He had smelled smoke in the air earlier when they were on Citadark, and he had just assumed it was from the island volcano getting ready to erupt.
Atlantis_Darts
There's a smoky flavor to the air, as if the island itself can taste the bomb's timer coming to a crescendo.
He now knows that assumption was wrong. Dead wrong. Gateon Port was burning. The gambler clenches his fist and takes a couple hesitant steps out to try and survey the damage and the carnage is... devastating. The town from top to bottom on all sides of the team is gutted, buildings burning and collapsing. The light rain still falls from earlier, but a conflagration of this size it was going to be no use in quenching. Bodies of the innocent sailors who had been enjoying grog in the taverns much earlier in the evening litter the streets alongside the fallen forms of the loved ones they went down trying to protect. A scene of chaos and destruction unfolds in front of the Snagems, even stretching beyond the walls of this city.
Out in the bay, the joint navy that had been so prominent in patrolling the edges of the dangerous waters outside of Citadark is gone, their lights extinguished other than some flickering flames off in the distance. Darts' eyesight isn't good enough to make out what's going on that far out, but he's pretty sure he can catch a glimpse of those massive warships going under, torn apart by some massive force. "Guys, I think we got..."
"Company?" Zera's voice cackles as the Koffing hybrid ambles forward out of the wreckage of one of the nearby formerly domiciles now ruins, her hands tucked inside her hoodie until she pulls out a purple hand to give a little wave at the cramped group stuffed inside the sub. "Oh I'd say you have more like an entire reunion... Alola, Snagems!"
Kess accompanies her out of the darkness, utterly silent. The Zapdos hybrid's weighted clothes move back and forth alongside her muscles as she hefts her blade-less (for now) hilt in one hand, her needle-sharp beak staring down the group.
There's a thump from the other side of the watercraft as Dull lands, the shiny Gengar hybrid's eyes crazed and infused with a spiderweb of black cracks that weren't there the last time they ran into him. "Hello Odd." He greets, an insane grin spreading across his mouth like a cheshire cat. "How's your Marowak doing?"
And finally, and most concerning for any of the team that had run into him, there's no thump to herald the coming of this final hulking monstrosity but his silence was no doubt even more unnerving. Just as unable to be sensed as last time, a razor-toothed mouth reddened already with the blood of many hundreds of innocents was the killing machine birthed in the gene pools of the lab they had just left, the valedictorian of his class. The Sharpedo hybrid's mouth gapes slightly, silently as S-22's muscular frame lightly lands on the dockyard, his eyes as always covered by the visor that Ein had welded onto his face. Clad in a plain jumpsuit with his designation stenciled on it, his massive muscles ripple slightly beneath the cut of the fabric, demonstrating a layer of scars across them that hadn't been there the last time the team had run into him. Of course, the last time the team had seen this menace he had been getting up close and personal with reentry. No doubt he had ended up getting patched under Ein's loving embrace following that little incident. And speaking of...
The screen implanted on S-22's chest flickers to life, revealing the supremely confident - and smiling - mad scientist known as Ein, leader of Team Cipher. The high collar of his pristine labcoat framing his face, he adjusts the spectacles on the bridge of his nose, brushing a couple of locks of hair that always dangle into his face out of the way before addressing them. "My, my, my... and here I thought you all would have learned by now to sacrifice a pawn here and there in order to secure victory. Gonzap has proved more valuable than I expected. How was my lab?" The malevolent grin that spreads across his insidious face is filled with nothing but sweet loathing for each and every one of them.
Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 3:24 pm
The ride for Aile would not have been any more comfortable than for anyone else, with the woman hanging on for dear life to anything she could find. She would look considerably more pale then when she first entered, and probably not all of that was due to fright. “Are we still alive,” she’d ask shakily, slowly standing up when the rust bucket finally stopped moving. She waited until everyone else made their way out of the sub, then made her own way out, staring at the destruction of Gateon Port and the culprits. “Of all the people I wouldn’t have expected in a podunk region,” Aile muttered, backing up as far away from the new group as possible and keeping her staff close to her chest. “And I thought I was done interacting with you lot.” All she wanted to do was head back to Pyrite now and hide, to try and recover from what had just happened to her, especially now that Cipher decided to show up. She honestly didn’t believe that she would have wound up in any sort of Snagem affairs here, or deal with anything that would be on the world’s radar out here in the middle of nowhere.
I nearly leapt out of the submersible when the Ciphers showed up. After stealing my entire team (at the time) and knocking me into a YEARLONG COMA, I wanted nothing more than to watch each of them die in a fire. But despite my valiant effort to run up to them, Pokemon blazing, something held me back.
Or, rather, someone. "I know you hate them, but our Pokemon are worn out from getting us out of an exploding lab atop an overflowing volcano, not to mention protecting us from three of Gonzap's Pokemon and a swarm of Beedrill. Please, just let it go, for now."
As much as I wanted to beat those Ciphers senseless with my bare hands, I knew she was right - I'd just be putting myself, her, and the rest of the team in danger. We just exhausted all our resources getting out of that lab, and the Ciphers, for all we knew, were fresh - that they suffered no difficulty getting to us at our weakest. I hated it, but the safest bet was to stay put, so that's what I did.
Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 6:00 pm
No sooner did Sub exit the submersible and vainly attempt to take his first breath of fresh air in the past few hours (it was anything but fresh now) would he see the phantom of his past, his mug flickering on a screen implanted in a mutant monstrosity. While he and Sol had just spent the better part of their day going down a blood stained memory lane and 'relishing' in their past the Dark One did not expect to see the antagonist of the drama that was his life at the end of his reminiscing. This had to be a joke, a sick cosmic joke the gods were playing on him, punishment for defying the natural order of things with his very existence, or at least his extended one.
"That's a good question, have their ever figured out what happens to stuff that gets sucked up into a black hole? Because I'm guessing that's how your lab is right about now. That or strewn across Citadark and or encased in magma but I'm sure you figured that much." Sub replied to Ein, scowling at the man on the screen. His focus was completely on the mad scientist, the Snagem leader not even acknowledging the other 'Cipher members', let alone the more physically threatening one of the group, that being S-22, the one which had the screen implanted on his body. "I take it Gonzap was just another pawn to you, huh? Where did you dig him up from? You know what, it doesn't matter. Unlike you I consider all my allies and teammates of equal value, no one being less valuable than the other." He said, looking over at Aile for a second before turning to lock eyes with Kess, knowing her to be the weakest link in Ein's chain of loyalty.
"I wonder how long it will be until one of you are designated to be the next Gonzap, just another dispensable pawn in dear leader's game." The man said, keeping eye contact with Kess. This was just as much a psychological game as it was a physical one and Sub was playing to win just as much as Ein was. "So! I take it all this is your doing? I would ask why destroy Gateon Port but then again look who I'm talking to. So let's cut to the chase, what do you want with us? You've obviously arranged all this and waited here so we would cross paths and while any normal person would assume it's to kill us I know you better than that, making this our grave is beneath you, there is still plenty of pegs for you to knock us down."
Sol and Amaranth were both left holding on to whatever they could manage to cling to as the lab blew up and Citadark Isle erupted, neither of them prepared for the Robo Kyogre to suddenly go from submersible to aircraft. "You know," he began as he eventually got into a more composed sitting position. "Actually not the worst ride I've had. And... Wes, right? You figured out that one sooner than I did. When it comes to us, things do not simply come easy." He'd stop to rub one of his talons, shaking his head. "Also, I'm never grabbing sandals like that again. Good for sneaking around, but you'd think they'd manage to hit one pressure point well."
--
Elsewhere in Orre, a manor out in the middle of an unusually dreary and spooky forest would shake. It seemed there would be an eruption of its own, but where there wasn't a volcanic element to speak of, there was anger and a lot of annoyance.
"What do you mean, you let someone take them!?"
"B-but he was singing your praises! Chobin was so happy for you! He was happy to let the rainbow bird man celebrate your great inventions!"
"Rainbow bird-"
Another shake.
"Why did you let him in!? He kept running off with my Poké Poles every time I sold them!"
"He didn't take the best ones... Chobin couldn't convince him to take your calendar or refrigerator-"
"You still let him in!"
--
"Wonder if he's noticed yet... oh. Crap." Sol would soon see his beak gaping at what he saw, seeing Gateon Port in only slightly less disarray than Citadark Isle had to be. Being in the lab and its constant reminders of how everything started were bad enough, nevermind seeing the slight oddity with Sub's gem just before they left and taking a good look at Amaranth. Last time he saw her, she was still a hybrid, not a human. Was she not a clone as he and Sub first thought- wait a second. Now it was coming back to him. There was a woman in one of the tanks that, unlike many of the others, didn't have some sort of S-Number designation. At the time, they had left the tank alone as it didn't involve the task at hand. But looking at Amaranth now, he could swear he was seeing the same person from back then.
He'd have to put any questions about it to the side for now. Staring down all too many from Cipher, especially Ein and S-22, it wasn't hard to grasp what must've been orchestrated. "That's the funny thing about chess," he remarked as he stared down Ein and a grin that he'd long grown tired of seeing. "A pawn here and there does need to be sacrificed, but even the lowly pawn can become something more. They might even become a queen." As he spoke, Aile would find an Ultra Ball tossed to her. The one that contained Gonzap's now-former Skarmory, no less. "Sacrificing all of them would be a foolish play, wouldn't you agree? After all, you appear to have no issues taking the one we sacrificed as soon as we began the game. But I'm getting ahead of myself. You aimed for things to happen like this, didn't you?"
A hand would start to move behind him, onto the hilt of a wrapped-up blade. The bandages served to give it a mostly nondescript appearance, done for reasons only known by Sol himself. "Have Sub and I get a reminder of our past and the others get to see every skeleton in our closets dragged out and paraded around. Anything to bring us down and remind us that we're all lower than the dirt beneath your feet, correct? And now, everyone knows the ugly first chapter of the tale. If anything, I suppose we should be thanking you for that much. Saves us having to take the time to put them all aside and bring it out in the open."
Through all of this, Amaranth would just stare at the screen on S-22's chest, glaring at Ein. But instead of paralyzing fear, something else had awoken in her thanks to the lab. A fist was clenched and if it hadn't been for knowing that S-22 would have no trouble killing her in seconds, she'd have gone to kick that screen too. "Glad it's gone," she shot back, stepping forward despite being well aware that she was horribly out of her league. "Your idea of housing sucks."
