[Theory Crafting Thread]

But Crescent (or any alter ego) doesn’t show up either in the bad future when we get Decimated. 

[Theory Crafting Thread]

33 minutes ago, Node15 said:

This also bring up the very strange question  of why didn't Madame X, Kieran, and Freya take the opportunity on Eclysia Pyramid to take Melia and kill or at least capture everyone else as well as taking the Jewel of Life. Also they have a way to Time Travel so they don't even have that excuse.

I also wondered about that. I thought of several explanations:

 

1) There are several people, related or not, taking Madame X’s armor (the Madame X we had atop Eclysia Pyramid wasn’t really consistent with every other encounter we had). Can be explained by the “armor factory” in Amethyst Cave. 

 

2) The Madame X in Eclysia Pyramid has had her memory rewritten as well.

 

3) It’s a much younger Madame X which we meet at Eclysia (hence maybe why she insists to lock Aelita and us up). 

4) The alliance between the Surfer Duo and Madame X is only circumstancial. They have an agreement stating that some targets and objectives are off limits (to limit the potential for infighting or treachery). 

[Theory Crafting Thread]

Just now, Crystalrage said:

Sign me up bro

No, I'd suggest working with them towards a "spot the impersonator" show. Better money this way (and you can keep tabs on them more effectively). 

 

 

[Theory Crafting Thread]

36 minutes ago, nhehvnukl said:

I'm pretty sure whatever Comet and Cosmia are doing is related to the stone phenomenon. They invite people to a location via their Nancy disguise and then Nim turns them into stone. Seriously, why is everyone so confused about this? Nim says quite clearly that she came for Lavender and to "do her job", i.e turn her into stone. Lavender was there because of an invitation from "Nancy". Thus, Nim, Comet and Cosmia are working together. Considering the fact that Nim is doing Crescent's bidding, that means that Crescent, Comet and Cosmia are working together. Why? To "get out of the danger zone", as Cosmia says.

 

That's a good and clear summary (and yes, your conclusion is sound), but it doesn't explain everything, far from it... Here are a few questions:

1) What kind of "danger zone" are we speaking about? Apart from being obviously working with the culprit behind the stone phenomenon and impersonating someone who is actually around? What exactly is a bigger threat? And how are they getting out of it?

1 bis: Aren't they attracting exactly the attention of any agent who could be after them?

1 ter: Or are they cooperating under threat of petrification? If so, how do you qualify this mess as "getting out of the danger zone" instead of "staying alive"?

2) How exactly can Cosmia (who is going out of her way to cover up Madame X's identity) ally with Crescent, or simply take her orders, instead of getting pushed off a cliff?

(2 bis: Is Cosmia Madame X?)

(2 ter: Is Crescent indeed going out of her way to keep information from the cast?)

(2 quater: Was Crescent another alias for Cosmia, or conversely? [combine with 2 bis])

3) Why of all people impersonate Nancy and the MC?

4) How is "turning Axis High students to stone" any relevant to whatever "big danger the Universe is in"?

(4 bis: is Crescent thinking small-scale when she says she wants to see the MC smile because there's so little time left?)

(4 ter: Is Crescent the craftedly deceptive Big Bad?)

[Theory Crafting Thread]

1 hour ago, Node15 said:

Rather I think that Cosmia and Comet are trying to get some info by posing as the MC and their mother since there's no real reason for them to disguise themselves.

This sounds like the stupidest plan in the entire game, including Team Anti-Assist's antics and the policemen's attempt at striking it rich.

Seriously, no one is better than the entire cast at failing to come up with useful information.

 

 

1 hour ago, Node15 said:

Also about the Xenpurgis idea I suppose it could make some sense since the Puppet Master did warn us about it however if it was some kind of disease I kind of doubt that we'd be able to stop it. Also remember how Flora mentions the Xenpurgis and how it shall never rise so I have a feeling that the Xenpurgis has to do with Team Xen and not Dr. Isha specifically since how would Flora stop the Xenpurgis?

Isha has some sort of connection with Team Xen, of course, but you make a point. If the vaccines were behind the Xenpurgis, what exactly could we do? What could Flora do?

I have a couple of possibilities in mind, but none seem very plausible:

1) the Xenpurgis needs some sort of specific activation sequence (for instance, set the GDC dome to radiate at some eldritch frequency to activate whichever nasty stuff could be in the vaccines -- or in the water, the food, and so on...)

2) Flora knows she can't do anything about it but needs something to motivate her troops after she sent a lot of grunts to be slaughtered.

 

Something is a bit strange though -- Flora refers to the Xenpurgis as something that every Bladestar grunt knows, and yet nobody seems to treat it as something serious? Is "Xenpurgis" the GDC equivalent of a real conspiracy theory? Why didn't she release (even anonymously) the information, spread the rumor, since she gains from every loss of face from the GDC authorities?

[The Last, Only, and Very Final X% Hype Thread]

On 5/1/2020 at 9:14 PM, nguyengiangoc said:

Assuming Elias is gonna use a Normal type team, I suspect his team members can be among the following:

[suggestions]

- Slaking/Snorlax

I haven't seen anyone make this point, but Elias can't use Snorlax or Slaking, because sloth and gluttony are deadly sins. These Pokemon would even have to be curbed on a Holy Field...

[From Everland to Reborn ~ A fairytale themed run [Last defeated: Adrienn]]

Yay, Season 4! 

But I'm really worried the beginning is too good to be true. Too much positive emotion, that's... really ominous. 

10 hours ago, Candy said:

It can only go downhill from here  Prolly will be a slow but sure descent, too.

Now I'm really scared... But I now realize it's somewhat true, from E16 on, the picture really looks grimmer and grimmer somehow. Like Pyrrhic victories. 

[Theory Crafting Thread]

22 minutes ago, TheHellHamster said:

That doesn't necessarily mean that Crescent is the one in danger. Perhaps due to her track record of caring about the MC this means that we are the ones in danger but she isn't in a position to be able to help us?

It doesn't necessarily mean that Crescent is alive either. She could be Madelis's nightmare for all we know (or perhaps Zetta if you want to get meta). 

 

6 hours ago, SmilodonLady said:

Freya red haired bitch, who ever she is has got to be lying about Crescent's death. WLL proves her to be a pathological liar and the more I think about it, the more I realize the timeline doesn't add up. Like on valor mnt. when Crescent pushes Sharon and then goes with Saki for a bit. She presumably encountered the red haired bitch and that could be why she was delayed in comming to the player's rescue. You then meet with her in Tesla's house, and unless I'm mistaken this would be after Crescent's 'death'. And the version of Crescent in the nightmare city could be either her or perhaps the player's own nightmare about her.

I thought that too, but actually Freya's timeline makes sense. From Braixen's memories (which could be faked but let's assume they weren't), Crescent appears after the Surfers' attack, barely on time to rescue the downed Saki & co. Still, her saying about them "there's nothing to worry about" at Tesla's house is rather careless if so (but then again, first rule of Being A Mysterious Omniscient Figure: you can't go around and admit that some things are outside your control). 

[The Odd One Out -- A Reborn Adventure]

So here we are, at the very last chapter of Part 1. I didn't make any pictures, maybe I'll add some later. Perhaps how the battle against the game's Corey went, perhaps something about Beryl Bridge. 

As I said, there is going to be a short hiatus after this one, you'll have to go find something else to read for a while (how fortunate, I suppose, that someone decided to start a new season of their tale).  I have plot details for Part 2 to figure out -- Yureyu, the Orphanage, Blacksteam to some extent. 

If you really are bored in that time, you might also try and find some little hints that may be relevant in the future, or bring to light all the pointless references... or try the math problem from chapter 16. 

 

Enjoy!

 

Chapter 26: Darwinism

 

 

Spoiler

I could go on fighting, but I knew I wouldn't be able to down the Crobat in time. It became a matter of survival. And in such cases... there were no rules. 

I tried to look around the room to try and find an escape plan, but there didn't seem to be any exit, or any way to stop the gas leaks. Of course, maybe I could wait and detonate it all, but it didn't seem like a winning plan -- it would remove the threat, but me and Corey along, and it may well collapse the building and bury the police officers under the wreckage. Corey was dangerous enough to maybe justify such methods, but the sacrifice involved was rather significant and I didn't want to try this except as a desperate last resort. 

The least strong point, I found myself thinking, while I let poor Antum try clumsily to hit the Crobat who was flinging him around without any care, should be the door. 

"Are you giving up yet?" Corey asked on the speakers. "If so, I can abbreviate your misery."

 

As an answer, I took all of my remaining Pokeballs and sent all the Pokemon inside to help me in my predicament. 

 

"This," Corey observed, "is cheating. By refusing to abide by the formal rules, you have doomed yourself and the police officers."

 

I felt drunk on adrenaline, and insane due to the gas, so I yelled at him to bring it. Still proper, he only used his Crobat to speed at me with blink-and-you'll-miss-it speed -- which let him be intercepted by Sicy's (the Vanillite) Icy Wind, slightly deviating its course from me and forcing it to brutally slow down before hitting the wall. 

"Leaf, Hex." I decided. "You hammer at the door. Acid, raw strength, everything, but no fire. Sicy, Antum, Batley, you keep the Crobat off them and me, please."

Leaf started by kicking the steel door, which had little effect, while Hex spouted acid that similarly did little. The Crobat regained control of its course and flew directly at Leaf, the easiest and (figuratively, I hoped) juiciest target. Indeed, if I couldn't leave, I was dead (and so were the police officers) -- and Leaf was one who actively tried to prevent that. 

Sicy threw another well-placed Icy Wind at the Crobat, while Batley managed to send it a psychic attack, disrupting its coordination and slamming it against the wall. This was Antum's cue to launch another Charged Beam, which made the air meters around the ray uncomfortably hot. The Crobat thrashed and convulsed weakly against the current, but it took off afterwards, as nimble as if it hadn't incurred any damage. 

The poisonous bat changed tactics and threw went straight for Batley, grabbing her with its deceptively powerful paws, pressing at its head to prevent any retaliation, before flying at Antum with renewed rage. I was, at that point, looking anxiously at Leaf and Hex's so far fruitless attempt at breaking the door open, reminding Leaf that (because I remembered from old chemistry classes that acid damaging metal produced a well-known explosive gas), I didn't want her to use any fire, and not paying attention to the Crobat's mind game. 

On its own, the Antum used another Charged Beam. All the Crobat had to do was to drop Batley in the course of the ray, and fly away as the electricity ignited the gas in the way (the quantity of which was increasing) and provoked a powerful detonation that deafened me, threw Leaf and Baby to the ground, sent Batley and Antum flying (not on their own terms), and broke several glass tubes, releasing the gas in ever larger quantities.  

Shit.

 

But it wasn't all. The confused and barely holding on Batley tried to aim a final move at the Crobat, the most powerful attack she could muster. But Corey's Pokemon was already flying at Leaf and Batley mis-aimed. Hex threw herself in front of Leaf to shield her from the damage, and the attack took a heavy toll on her. In a supreme effort of lucidity, she then bodily opposed the incoming Crobat head on. Batley fell back on the ground, motionless, and I recalled her. 

Now only Leaf remained mostly unscathed, while Sicy, Hex, and Antum were, to various degrees, weary. The Crobat also started to look slower, slightly clumsier. Still largely more than a match for my weakened team. More than likely to be my murderer. I realized that my vision had started to slightly blur. I was living on borrowed time. Would this blasted door not open?

 

Because the Crobat had latched onto Hex and was inoculating her some sort of apparently very damaging venom she wasn't immune too -- a boosted Venoshock, probably -- Leaf had deserted the door and done a Quick Attack to force the Crobat to let go. I ordered Antum, who still was in the middle of the field, to come towards me, and started to kick at the door myself, with my back slightly bent backwards to enable me to push against it with my whole weight -- just like that martial arts teacher had said once, but for real. It hurt badly.

Seeing me as an unprotected target, the Crobat went to attack me, only to be tackled by Leaf again, her momentum sufficient to draw the Crobat to the ground and keep it pinned for the short time Hex (the only Pokemon I had that was heavier than Corey's) took to replace her. And Hex began to reciprocate by dripping nasty acid on the Crobat, while Antum and Sicy took turns attacking with their best moves, and while Leaf and I (who started to really struggle to breathe and not distinguish shapes much) hammered at the door in madness, forcing myself to go on in spite of my injuries. 

If I had turned around to see Corey, I would have noticed that he had left his place and gone towards my end of the field, and that he had a manic glint in the eye. 

 

"Crobat, Heat Wave!"

 

As soon as I realized in my failing mind what the words entailed, I got clear from the door and recalled Leaf, and Sicy -- but I didn't manage to recall Hex and Antum before the Fire-type attack ignited all the gas in the room, causing a massive explosion that shattered every glass tube, threw me nastily against the wall and probably burned part of my body (yet new pains, while I had the PULSE to thank for shredded clothes), made me see stars (and hear nothing) and utterly fainted Hex and Antum. 

On the upside, I realized in an adrenaline-powered blur, Corey was down, the Crobat was panting heavily, not yet ready to take off, and there were fissures in the door. While attempting to get up, I recalled Hex and Antum; then, with doubled frenzy, ignoring the various pains that made me want to scream, I kicked at the door until it gave enough way for me to slip through. 

I relished the flow of mostly clean air to my brain, and realized that Corey and his Crobat were hot on my trail. I only had a few seconds, and it wouldn't be sufficient to climb down the stairs. There only remained one way: hop over the waist-high fence and drop to the lower level.

 
The landing was harsher on my body than I expected, and it took all of my panicked and adrenaline-boosted willpower, as well as the full support of the wall, to get up. I could hear the Crobat slip through the cracks at that point. I would never make it out in time. That left one solution: the hidden room. Hopefully, it would be gas proof. 

Even though I was much closer, I reached that room and managed to lock myself in about half a second before the Crobat took a swing at it.
Whew. I was safe for now. 

"Not unimpressive." speakers said in Corey's ominous voice. Oh no. Not again! "But doomed regardless."

There was a click, and then a small hissing sound which I immediately recognized as being very bad news. I tried to unlock the door and open it, because anything was probably better than such a grisly death, but it looked like Corey had locked it from the outside. 

I was going to die here. 
I was going to die here.
There wasn't anything I could do. Or was it? There had to be something.
Five minutes, remember? The clock? Nothing is impossible if you haven't spent five minutes by a literal clock trying to figure it out. 
You don't need five minutes to do the impossible. You only need one. 
What did I have?
A little money. Thrashing insane or unconscious police officers, tied and gagged. Two Pokemon, wounded. Various Trainer items. Four unconscious Pokemon. Shredded clothes. 
 

I looked at the doors, felt them. Metal. Corey's words rung again into my mind. Something about searing metal. Then again, I slowly realized, with almost a smile, I could do better.

"Sicy." I called. "Please cool down that piece of metal as much as you can."

 

Metal reacted pretty quickly to variations in temperature. After maybe a couple of minutes of Icy Winds, the door was as cold as it could get. Without waiting for it to slowly heat back up again, praying for the gas source to be in the back of the room rather than the front, praying that regardless not too much gas had been sprayed into the room, I ordered Leaf to perform her most powerful Flame Charge at the door. Under the sudden heat variation, the metal which the cold had already made brittle cracked, allowing me to see... a Crobat's very disturbing eyes. 

 

I swore under my breath while retreating. Without waiting for instructions, Sicy bounced towards the opening, and, drawing water vapor from around her, threw a big ball of mist at Corey's ace Pokemon's eyes. It actually screamed in pain (a sound that, against reason and everything, made me uncomfortable and want to go help, which was akin to a suicidal option) and retreated briskly. 

Taking advantage of that time, I quickly kicked the door (I was starting to really learn the technique) to make my exit easier. Motioning at Sicy and Leaf to stay close, I went first through the opening. The Crobat was forsaking all its coordination, and was simply dripping acid everywhere and performing wonderful acrobatics, perhaps in chance of dissipating what it had got in the eyes. There was a golden opportunity there; Sicy managed to hit it fair and square with an Icy Wind so powerful that I thought I saw frost on the Crobat's eyes. 

However, it regained its focus within seconds and dived at me with murder in its eyes. Leaf intercepted it in the nick of time, slamming them both against a glass tube which resisted the impact. Without concern for her ally, Sicy launched another Ice attack at the tube that seemed to partly crystallize its contents. Leaf let the Crobat go. It fell to the ground and didn't move again. I resisted the impulse to start panting with expletives.

 

"Well." Corey said from farther in the hall, looking as enthusiastic as ever (but at least not murderously angry at me). "I suppose that leads us to a fight of five against..." he looked at Sicy who had fallen to the ground, exhausted, and Leaf, who didn't look in much better shape, and finally at me. "one."
"I'm pretty sure that Gym battles can't legally let you poison and murder your challenger." I answered drily. 
"My place. My rules." Corey answered. "However, I thought it over and... I wish to reconsider my position."
"I'm listening." I said, trying to remain calm and not throw myself at him in anger -- that would be an embarrassing, and dangerous failure if I tried. 

"Come see me on Beryl Bridge at..." he looked at his watch. "Ten thirty, in an hour and a half. Come alone. Bring however many Pokemon you wish. I will not have any. Whatever questions you may have, I will answer them. The Gym will be deserted and disarmed; the police officers will be able to rescue and subdue their captured partners until fresh air counters the effects of the gas."
"Why should I believe you?" I asked angrily. 
"I have five other Pokemon. None as deadly as Crobat, but each sufficiently to down that Combusken and kill you. I will not use them. You may leave."
Trying as hard as I could to still not look like an easy, broken target, I obeyed his order again and all but fled the Gym that had almost cost me my life. 

 

Spoiler

Player's note: I have battled Corey in three different sessions. The first two sessions had one battle each, the last session had three battles (two losses and a win, of course).

First session was in vanilla E18. No issue at all, I went there with two fainted Pokemon and it went smoothly, Hex and Batley doing most of the work (Hex being tanky enough with Acid Spray and Yawn to destroy the Crobat, Batley killing about half the team with Confusion) while Wolfgang and Leaf did a smaller part. 
Second session was in E18.2 and much tougher. I made the mistake of sending Batley out too early; it couldn't do as much as the last time. Corey started switching his Pokemon around and I won by about 20 hp on my last Pokemon (a wrong crit and I'd have lost). 

As for the third session... well, it was painful. 

Its first battle started with bad luck, and went on with reckless decisions. But finally I managed to get Hex v Crobat in the end. Hex got pretty much one-shot (> 85%'ed) by a crit +4 Venoshock, and I think the crit mattered. If Hex had tanked the hit, he'd have landed a killing Acid Spray. 

The second battle went a bit worse in the beginning, with misses at crucial points and crits from the enemy downing Pokemon before their time. I gave up when Batley (whose role still was to kill Mareanie+Nidorina, but took 60% from Mareanie's Venoshock once) did a Calm Mind instead of a Confusion, thus dooming her (and probably dooming the battle as well, given how close it was with the Crobat).   

The third battle was much luckier: 

Spoiler

 

Turn 1: I get Bubbled while I Screech.

Turn 2: I Stomp, Skrelp survives thanks to the Focus Sash but flinches.

Turn 3 is below.

 

 

Turn 4: I land one Echoed Voice and Croagunk kills Baby with Venoshock. I send in Wolfgang.

 

 

End of turn 5: Croagunk dies and as Corey sends Skuntank, I send Leaf instead (because I checked in another battle that Skuntank's Flamethrower one-shots Wolfgang).

 

 

 

 

The above was turn 6, with Flame Charge being a crit. On turn 7, Leaf downs Corey's Pokemon  with another Flame Charge but suffers from Aftermath and the poison. Then Corey sends Mareanie in while I switch for Batley. 

 

 

Mareanie survives with only a few HPs, inflicts like 55 damage with Venoshock. On the next turn, Batley uses another Confusion to finish Mareanie off. Then Corey sends off Crobat and I call the only mon that can hold it off, Hex.

 

 

Oh, and it carries a seed because Crobat can set up very fast to become a serious problem, and I need all the firepower I can (and ideally much more, but that's impossible, alas). Before the next screenshot, there is one Body Slam from me and one Nasty Plot by him. It is the only time I don't Yawn him -- the other time in the play session, it backfired as he wrecked me in his sleep.   

 

 

Another lucky crit and paralysis for Body Slam. I think either would have been mostly fine. 

 

 

 

So back to yellow range for the Crobat. The nice thing is that it gets paralyzed the two next turns, but it wasn't 100% necessary.

So Corey only has his final Nidorina, who flinches me with a Bite before I can Yawn her. 

 

 

Then the strat is usual: Acid Spray to death.

 

 

And... at last. 

 

 

***********************************

 

 

As the adrenaline dropped and my mixed emotions of anger and panic relented, I became aware of how badly I hurt. Such a short time had not dissipated the previous swelling injuries the PULSE had inflicted me. And some new ones had been added: my ankles hurt, doubtlessly because of the fall, I had a headache, maybe owing to the gas, and a large part of my face felt uncomfortably warm. 

I wanted to go home. I wanted to sleep for a week. I wanted to find a deep burrow and wrap an endless stack of blankets around me and lick my wounds. But I couldn't. It wasn't over yet. The Chief of the City Police Department was waiting for me at the healing point. I saw him wince upon looking at me. 

"It didn't go well, I assume." he started hesitantly. "My men..."
"Corey says they'll be fine. He will have vacated the Gym by ten thirty and deactivated all the traps." I answered briefly, in a weary voice. 
"You... actually succeeded." the policeman marvelled, incredulous. 
"At that time, he wants me alone on Beryl Bridge." I went on. "And we only have his word that all is going to happen as he promised."

As his eyes lost some of their gleam, I felt obligated to provide him with a more satisfactory fact. "There's an upside, though. He made a pretty close attempt to kill me. I barely made it. I beat his Crobat only, and he had five more Pokemon to end only one of mine -- and one of me. He didn't go on and offered this resolution instead."
"Hm. I'm sorry for asking this of you, but..."
"Can I see the ordeal to the end?" I cut him off in a pained voice. "I may. I'm not sure. If it's a trap, I'm probably gone."
"I wasn't going to phrase it this way..."
"Did you torture the first Meteor you captured?" I asked angrily, annoyed at his obvious attempt to defuse everything. He was the freaking local Chief of Police, and he was asking me to do his job. I saw his expression darken. And there I was thinking I couldn't have felt worse.
"Look," he said after a pause. "Not everything is black or..."
"I don't want to hear it." I said dully. 
There was a heavy silence full of good intentions, brooding and aborted metaphysical interrogations about the necessity of evil, finally interrupted by the officer.
"If you excuse me for making the suggestion, maybe you should be moving to the bridge now. He won't be able to set anything up if you are there before him."
"Unless that's what he wants me to think." I answered automatically, even though I was aware that he was probably right. 

 

 

*******************************

 

 

The bridge was even more spectacular when one was standing on it. It might have had something to do with the wind, as there was nothing to block it anymore -- Beryl had been built right against the mountain for that reason. But there was this feeling of altitude one couldn't simply dismiss, a vague vertigo of the large empty spaces on either side. 

 

The wind was cold and was rushing through my shredded clothes. I couldn't just sit and wait, so I paced tiredly, each step a wince, along the bridge. I remained first very close to the western edge, near the Beryl Ward and probably where Corey would come from, but I got bored quickly and went farther and farther. At about ten fifteen (according to my Pokegear), I was on my last (painful) back and forth, completely on the eastern side, when I heard a weak cry. 

I first imagined it was the wind, but, curious in spite of myself, I realized that it was a child, maybe seven or eight. He was above the bridge, maybe eight feet, apparently airborne only thanks to some sort of balloon. The wind was pushing him towards the north. He cried again. 

He was too high for me to reach directly, and I didn't dare try and attack the balloon, for fear of the resulting damage to the child. There was only one thing left to do. Muttering to myself how insane it was, barely refraining myself from yelling from pain, I pushed myself on top of the hips-tall brick wall preventing falls on the northern side, very cautiously got up, trying to accurately compensate for the wind. Then I was tall enough to grab the boy by his knees with one hand, and using the other, jumped off the wall (onto the bridge, of course), pulling the child with me and forcing the balloon off.  

"It's okay." I said in as reassuring a voice as I could manage. "I got you now. You're safe."
"Thank... thank you." the boy stuttered tearfully. "There was this balloon, I grabbed it, and I took me higher and higher and..." he sobbed. 
"It's all right. You're safe now. Where are you living?" I asked him. 
"In the Lapis Ward, below. But I know the way!" he answered, the fear passing quickly. Reckless. "I'll be safe, don't worry." and he simply left, walking brightly, truly oblivious to the danger he had escaped, completely forgetful of the emotion he had been feeling not a minute ago. 

 

I was, of course, worried about him, but I had to hope for the best. The police would be watching the bridge from nearby and would find the boy, I hoped. The only thing I could do for him was to make sure that his captor would not harm anyone else -- so, under mocking caws of nocturnal birds, I captured the Drifloon. Then I went to my appointment. 

 

"There you are at last." Corey greeted me. He had dropped the Meteor clothes for normal ones, but he wasn't wearing his silver ring. As far as I could see, he was casually leaning on the wall, southern side. "So, Gabriel," he went on, "what is it you want to know? Why I joined Team Meteor?"

That was interesting, I thought, but not as important as, say, the names and positions of infiltrated agents of Team Meteor. Or, I realized after a couple of seconds, the full (or even partial) PULSE blueprints. Or Team Meteor's future plans. Or actual goals. But there would be time to ask him that... Better to placate him. I nodded. 

"There was this ring, a brilliant Ruby Ring. I am not one for jewelry, but it was the most dazzling ring I had seen. I purchased it from a collector some time ago, to introduce it to what true beauty was. Indeed, it became my love's wedding ring. It wasn't long after we were married that my wife got pregnant, and we were both very excited. We were happy. We were naive. My wife didn't survive Heather's birth."

Oh... I wanted to express my sympathy, but didn't really know how to go about it, since that tragedy was about a decade ago. Regardless, Corey motioned me to stay silent, as his tale wasn't over. 

"I was told that she died of a mechanical error during the delivery." A mechanical error? "But that wasn't all; at some point, the doctor assigned to her had taken the ring." Hum, keeping the ring when you go to a hospital to deliver... It must have been a wonderful ring. "And would not return it to me. I learnt later that he had been dispatched by Team Meteor to obtain that ring. I did what I could, but I wasn't able, in the end, to recover it."

Please don't go where I think this is going...
 

"So I made a deal. I agreed to serve the Meteors as long as I was allowed to keep the ring. The last token of our happiness. I just had to keep it, no matter the cost. As I realize now, that was selfish. I placed my own desires above what was best for Heather. And now, because of it, she's gone."

 

 

Was Heather the only angle he had to apprach the whole mess? Not the countless casualties and the huge devastation he had overseen, in his words? Not the fact that Heather was seriously annoyed at him even before he got outed?

 

"Gabriel." he went on, his voice displaying some intensity for the first time. He was now sitting on the wall, but the rigid self-control he had displayed at most points was completely slipping. "Heather has the ring now. She will be hunted for it, and she doesn't want to see me. Please... watch over her for me. " his voice broke. 

"But what's the connection?" I asked, exasperated. "Between these facts a decade old and modern Team Meteor? What's the big picture? Would it kill you to tell me?" 

And the penny dropped. The only reason he had kept going through the years. Corey sitting on a wall. Finally emotional. Asking me to keep an eye on his daughter. Corey not killing me, but not wanting to surrender to the police...
Corey was planning to kill himself. 

As soon as I realized it, I leaped at him in alarm. On a normal day, I might have been able to make it. But it wasn't a normal day. It had been among the most physically demanding and painful days of my life. I hurt everywhere and I was exhausted. He was already falling backwards towards the Lapis Ward when I reached him. My fingers slipped on the tip of his shoe, unable to prevent his fall, and I could but watch as he disappeared into the darkness. 

 

"Wow." said a voice I recognized only too well. "What a moron."
"Hi, Fern." was all I could answer, still stunned at Corey's action and Fern's reaction. "I don't think he was a moron." I added as the silence became awkward. 
"Oh, he was. That dumb-wad just threw himself off of the Beryl Bridge. Sucker's gone for sure. And to think I came up here just to challenge him... What a waste."
"That's... all you find to say?" I asked. 
"Not like I knew him. Some old guy goes crazy and throws himself off a bridge... Big deal. I just see it as natural selection, see?"

 

"That's... not how it works." was all I could answer. He had a daughter, so his genes were already tramsmitted to the next generation.
"Hey, you know what would be more of a waste? If you had beaten him and if he had offed himself before giving you a Badge."

Heh heh.
 

"Very funny." I said. "We had a battle." I recalled with a shiver. "It... devolved badly."
"You couldn't even beat him? I always knew you were a loser." was Fern's charitable comment. 

 

I left without a word. I went back to Beryl, full of dark thoughts, and immediately left towards Jasper, unwilling to go talking to the police officers.

Of course, that boy had managed to get himself in trouble again.  This time, he had been cornered by a pair of Scolipedes. Hex, Batley and Mouse (who had replaced the wounded Baby after the ordeal at Corey's Gym) didn't have too much trouble shooing them away. So this time, I didn't let the boy get away. I firmly took his hand and told him I'd escort him back home, whether he wanted or not. I was exhausted, traumatized and hurting about everywhere, but I still had whatever little authority and strength was necessary to overpower a seven-ish-year-old. 

 

At about one in the morning, a Lapis Ward mother would open the door after somebody had rung, only to discover her missing child, exhausted but high on candy (the only way I had found to keep him walking). A quarter of an hour past that, I would trip into the Lapis Ward Pokemon Center, drop onto the first seat available and immediately pass out, oblivious to any reactions of anyone already inside. 

 

 

End of Part 1

To be continued...

 

 

Character ratings: 
 

Spoiler

Ame: 5/10 (-1). I may have said the wrong thing somewhere, but can't she get a handle on her Gym leaders instead of letting me try to escape their assassination attempts and then witness, powerless, their suicide? It was pretty obvious Corey wasn't exactly sane!
Corey: 1/10 (+1). I suppose I can sympathize with his (former) predicament. It's not really up to me to judge a human being on what he needs to do to keep himself functional. 
Fern: 3/10 (-1). So far he was being a petty obstructionist who seemed to enjoy my misery for some reason. I'm not unused to that. However, mocking a person offing themselves is a new low. 

 

 

Death count:

Spoiler

Start-Florinia: 4

Florinia-Corey: 2

Total: 6

 

[NUMBEBBEBEBEBEBERRRRRRRRSSSSSSSS]

414

[Theory Crafting Thread]

2 hours ago, Magus543 said:

The reason Indriad doesn't have Gardevoir the first time we meet him is probably because it's AFTER Gardevoir dies in V 12, remember there is a line about Indriad saying two people saw his wife dying, referring to the MC and himself since he didn't recognize Venam due to the hair. It's not in chronological order. 

I am aware of that. I was using this fact to argue that in the game, the sequences in the past were plot-moving instead of mostly expository. In other words, I was arguing for the first choice of the following alternative: is Rejuv a huge, ramified and intricate stable time loop, or is it rather a linear (timeline-wise) adventure with very “vivid” history lessons?

Of course, to draw a conclusion we'd need to consider the entirety of the plot...

 

Random question about Crescent -- does anyone have the impression, looking back into the game, that in her interactions with the cast all she's doing is drive the flow of information away? Attacking first whoever could provide it instead of the main threat? 

1) When Crescent gets him, Jenner is busted as a Team Xen operative (on our side) and a traitor (on Team Xen's side), and he's probably desperate enough to regain some sort of esteem to spill most of the beans to anyone. She vanishes him.

2) Same thing with Zetta in Amethyst Grotto, plus the lie to the cast about Melia being dead

3) Crescent chose to chime in Carotos at the very last moment, when the base was already collapsing. From her own admission, Mewtwo woudn't have served Madelis for long. Madelis doesn't get captured and doesn't reveal any kind of information. (I may be a bit harsh -- Crescent needs her own credibility after all, and that also means not fighting battles you don't have reasonable odds of success). 

4) Crescent and Ren... well. 

5) For all her big talk, Crescent does nothing whatsoever at Blacksteeple. Even though "at this point" (timey, wimey notwithstanding) she's not with the Stormchasers anymore. 

6) Crescent and Sharon -- that's the most obvious one. Sharon is at her lowest point, trying to convey into words how come she can't quit Team Xen, finds herself facing a cliff... only to be pushed. Again, we could have got a whole lot of useful information from her, but for Crescent (no matter about Saki & co appearing afterwards).

7) Crescent and Zetta & Geara -- She traps Zetta and breaks Geara. Note how Geara is the main threat (the one with intent) but she goes after Zetta (who iirc is freaking out and on the verge of defection). 

[Theory Crafting Thread]

Just now, Magus543 said:

Why exactly is this tournament so important? 

I wish we knew.

What we do know is that it is important. If it weren't, then it's just a plot device to get us/someone else to the 18 Badges and that sounds too lazy. 

Other indices of its importance include: 

1) the fact that someone took the bother to circumvent the (heavy) procedures to register us.

2) the fact that these procedures were very paranoid in itself -- especially when time travel is involved, any mildly relevant background (such as the tournament's former fiasco and Cassandra's former decisions) event can and should be treated as deliberate interference.

3) That weird programming glitch to shift brackets (if it was just a retcon, then it would have been retconned -- or perhaps that's what Jan wants us to think )  

4) Aelita and Venam being impersonated

 

Given 3), one can wonder if the goal wasn't to force the cast's best Trainer (ie the MC) to become as strong as possible when facing Risa. It would cement Risa as a bad guy, of course... Or maybe it's a setup for Risa to know as much as possible about us and thus be able to wreck us. 

4) is, at least for Venam, really, really strange though. Venam is supposed to be turned to stone (a perfectly acceptable excuse for failing to show up and battle, imo), and somehow nobody, not even Amber, noticed?  

 

5 minutes ago, Tikkit said:

Maybe the tournament has no importance, and whoever made us sign up just wanted to divert our attention away from them. Can't focus on team Xen or whatever if you're busy in the tournament.

Good idea. Showing us a prize to keep our attention focused... Given how the plot works, it makes sense, and sounds plausible. Then again, it seriously backfires, does it not? It doesn't explain why somebody bothered to impersonate Venam. Perhaps it was the original attempt and some other parties are trying to profit off the opportunity. 

 

19 minutes ago, Magus543 said:

 If i had to guess another reason for the tournament setup, perhaps it's a way to gauge how powerful the group is?  

 I don't know. If it's not of serious significance, then it's probably Cassandra or Team Xen higher-ups registering us, and honestly there are easier ways to gauge our strength -- make a fake Xen ambush (like, get Florin kidnapped by Team Xen grunts that you want to be rid of anyway) and nudge the cast in the right direction while feeding the rest of the world misinformation.  

 

24 minutes ago, Magus543 said:

Is it like a nudge to get Melia in a certain emotional state or to get her to train to become stronger? So under this train of thought, perhaps the tournament is a way to divide our group?

It's also an interesting theory, but it would sound like a pretty clumsy attempt to get us to train, wouldn't it? (and we'd do it anyway)

Melia is a weirdness magnet enough, and Team Xen has her DNA, so she could be easily impersonated and registered; however, if the goal is Melia-related, why involve everyone else? 

Emotional reasons or attempts to divide the group are good ideas, but I don't really believe them. If you want to unbalance Melia, just fetch Stormchaser files (or, I suppose, forge a Xen file about why they want her light and make it as gruesome as possible)... If you want to divide the group, there's no chance a mundane tournament is going to do the trick (the cast is supposed to be a group of fire-forged friends, isn't it?). You'd need to pull off something worse than a Reborn!Lin to do that. 

 

21 minutes ago, Tikkit said:

Vivian would have made the protection spell anyway, in fact we probably just made things more difficult for her by getting everyone to interfere.

 I agree to a certain extent. But if we hadn't been there, I wonder what would have happened? I think Vivian would have done the ritual anyway, because she knew she had to, and neither Cella nor Anju would have been aware of it. Sounds like a worse outcome to me.

I also forgot one very measurable example of effect from the past on the future -- when we first meet him, Indriad has no Gardevoir to make us disappear... I don't know if it's a good thing or not though.  

[Theory Crafting Thread]

8 hours ago, Tikkit said:

Anyway, it would be weird for us to go back in time to sign up for the tournament if we say we don't want to participate, and if we don't really have a reason to sign up for it. It seems especially odd to do something like that, when most time travel we've done does little but explain past events. Like some of Indriad's words in Chrysalis Manor, or the stuff with Aelita or Storm 9.

Clearly, a lot of parties are interested in the tournament. We could be sent back in time to register once we realize how important it is. 
 

I understand your point about time travel being (in the game) mostly a glorified way for exposition of past events. But I don’t quite agree – we make a lot of ripples in the past.

 

Saving the officer (if so), the Rift book, interfering with Indriad’s bomb, stealing a file from Rejuv. Co, killing Gardevoir (at last!), helping Vivian make the protection spell and helping Cella and Anju figure out what is happening... 

[Theory Crafting Thread]

Ok, so I found a couple of very strange ideas instead of doing whataver I was supposed to do, so let me sketch them...

 

1) About Yveltal's Demise

Spoiler

So we find in a deserted Xen lab that diary, saying that someone need "a way to destroy Yveltal while also preventing the impending doom that is a result of its own demise", since "it sucks the life force from every living thing around it".

Well, so far, we are introduced to three very interesting elements:

1) there's been an awfully suspicious nuclear incident involving namesakes of Team Xen (in the past) (suspicious, like, ten deaths but somehow everyone left afterwards)

2) A woman, named Freya, is supposed to be found dead at that accident but, so far, she's roaming Aevium 50 years afterward.

3) Time-travel is a thing for many characters

 

How does this involve Yveltal? Well, imagine you've got this nasty legendary bird you want to kill for whichever reason. The thing is, it sucks the life energy of whatever is around him upon dying. So you put it in an environment where there's nothing but death energy around. Melt a nuclear power plant with Yvektal in the center, and there's no life energy around to draw from.

 

Another consequence of that, of course, is that in Freya's timeline, the Miera incident is the end. So she had to make a big time-travel to the past... Maybe with us? With Amthyst Grotto's power to protect the world because the plant was engineered to be as toxic as possible upon its destuction by Yveltal? 

 

Of course there's at least one other likely explanation: Freya faked her death.

 

I also wonder about the significance of her belonging to the International Police -- is it misinformation? Identity theft? Illusion? Is she a rogue agent? Or is she undercover all this time, playing the (very) long game? The last one would explain why she always says it's all business.

 

2) About Amanda

Spoiler

So remember, she's an awfully advanced robot whose goal is to reduce the League to insignificance, so that "when its creators decide to shine" nobody will be able to face them. That supposes a very long-term, planning-oriented view. Very underhanded. I can see two couples that could fit the bill:

 

(but before, just a question it might be worthwhile thinking about: did Amanda get updated instructions at any point?)

 

a. The Surfer Duo.

Technologically savvy? Yes. Underhanded and manipulative? Definitely. Remember how Kieran enables us to progress into Mount Valor? How he's freely given us some information about the Pyramid (toying a bit with us, also)? How he's involved in the trip to Hiyoshi City, and Nymeria played along with him instead of returning us to our timeline?

Remember that we only got serious interference from the Surfers when we were on assignments from Alexandra (and Kieran tried to lure and kill her)? Alexandra, who is the leading figure of Sashila Village, the people Celine apparently talked to, with such effect (I refer you to Karen's diary, although Celine could be more an Aevium figure than a Badlands figure only)? Celine, who is named as Amanda's adversary? In short, Amanda seems the adversary of the former leader of the Surfers' enemy. So... does that make Amanda and the Surfers allies?

 

 

b. The Puppet Masters. Of course, Amanda seems too... mundane for them (or maybe they're too eldritch for her), but how exactly was Amanda supposed to know Melia would get a ticket to the GCD ball? Because Amanda is a robot, it can't dream, thus get influenced by the PM. And they're also, as Zetta notes, "on another level" than Team Xen. Similar wording to Madelis... Also,  they're all for long-term and underhanded methods, remember how they guide and nudge the cast, only it never exactly appears as it is... how powerful is dream control (not immediately useful, sure, but potent enough if you have enough time to plot carefully).

 

 

 

We could get even further and infer that the Surfer Duo is the Puppet Masters (or conversely), but that seems pretty weak evidence. Besides, each of them seems powerful enough on their own, why pretend that there are two different entities?

 

I'm also thinking of option c. Some sort of payback from Spacea and Tiempa on Melia for her rebellion. Or because they want to take control of Aevium "for the greater good". (It sounds even weirder than the above though.)

 

Oh, and a third one about the Tournament because I really don't want to do whatever I'm supposed to:

Spoiler

We've been enrolled mysteriously into the Tournament and can't opt out. But that's weird, because they say that the policy is very strict; they require ID and an interview. So either someone very carefully impersonated all of the cast -- Huey, Melia, Venam, Erin, Aelita, us -- with official documents and all, or... we travelled back in time and registered ourselves then.

 

Why do I think the second option is plausible?

Because I can't see anyone who could and would pull off the first one. The Surfers can impersonate people but it's hard to see why they'd do it to Huey? Same for Cassandra or any Xen higher-up who could overrule the process (and there's no reason to involve and coerce us, apart maybe to somewhat control our whereabouts?). Comet & Cosmia could impersonate people but as far as we know they do not have official documents for all the cast, and they have no reason to involve Erin or Aelita. Bladestar has no reason (and little influence on the matter) to bring Melia or Aelita in, the Puppet Master (as far as we know) can't impersonate the cast on its own (I suppose they can let a bureaucrat have a very realistic dream where we register and act upon it "irl", but that's a bit far-fetched).

Still, I wonder if the Puppet Masters are involved in the glitch that remade the brackets (in order to let Erin attend the GDC Ball)...

 

There are impersonators at the tournament though -- Risa mentions that Aelita and Venam got impersonated, but "Venam" didn't act like Venam. Since Risa may be a major antagonist, there's no way to tell how genuine she is at that point, though, so time-travelling Venam/Aelita aren't excluded, but maybe slightly more unlikely.

 

[Theory Crafting Thread]

2 hours ago, Magus543 said:

As for robo Amanda, i'm still scratching my head at this part. Nor do i have any guess as to who Celine is or if she's against us or not. 

(Spoiler for the end of the hidden library sidequest)

Spoiler

Celine is the person Karen swears by. Celine has a prominent place in Karen's diary in Alamissa Urben -- she's had a great influence on Alexandra, Adam, Damian and "Eve", all of whom Karen knows very well.

[Theory Crafting Thread]

Did I miss something, or is everyone completely forgetting about whoever is behind

Spoiler

Robot Amanda? She named the plan she opposed as Celine's, "of course"... And said the plan started to go into motion shortly before the MC returned to Aevium. With "gaining control" as the end goal.

 

 

Melia being the antagonist is really a funny idea though.

[Parody a scene.]

Okay, so, since Team Xen is doing PSAs over the Coronavirus, some particularly dirty-minded opponents are bound to counterattack...

(warning: what follows is nowhere near any kind of sound medical advice -- please don't follow anyone's actions as shown below)

 

*****

 

Getting into Xen headquarters had been a breeze. She should have done that earlier, actually. These distancing measures were actually severely hurting their ability to be a nuisance, and their security. She hadn't had any trouble to find a sick executive, send them wherever she pleased, and take their uniform (and access codes the person had so carelessly written on a small note on their desk, because they were better off self-isolating but worried about forgetting the codes -- everyone knew why no one ever claimed they had forgotten the codes). The cafeteria was sparsely populated, with at most a couple of people per six-person-table, always at opposite ends. A crowd of Team Xen grunts was waiting outside and ugly words were already said about how "the profiteers should eat faster". She almost felt bad for what she was up to do.

 

She rose up and tinged her spoon against her lifted glass.

 

"Your attention, please."

 

The ambient noise instantly stopped. Everyone remembered the disastrous PSA announcement that had ended up with over fifty deaths, curtesy of Madame X's utterly lacking impulse control. Not that, of course, anybody would ever dare even think it in these terms.

 

"You are aware that for a few weeks now, we have been enforcing stringent distancing measures to stop the propagation of the Covid-19 epidemic among us. I am aware that for many of you, it was a considerable and unexpected effort, and I cannot tell how much I appreciate it. I come back to you because there are news on this topic."

 

She stopped for a short break to appreciate her effect. Everyone was mesmerized by her words. She took a sip of water and went on.

 

"According to recent groundbreaking works by world-known specialists such as Pr. Nat R.D. Doplum and Dr. Jonas Railobro, the damages caused by that epidemic are mostly psychosomatic, a symptom of self-fulfilling prophecy. Everyone fears a disease such as the Coronavirus, and that very concern causes people's bodies to mimic the symptoms. In the light of this truly astounding finding, we believe that the time of self-isolation has passed, and that activities should start again as they used to be."

 

Of course, the noise started again, mutters of wonder and, perhaps, skepticism, which would need to be addressed. She raised her glass, hit again once with the spoon, and everyone fell silent. She took a sip and finished:

 

"Our operations stopped abruptly, so recovery of our pre-epidemic rhythm will not be instantaneous. I will present to you tomorrow the plan that your upper management has devised, and its execution will begin the day after. Medical supplies, such as masks, gloves, soap and disinfectants, for people whose concerns have not been addressed will be available, for we must be ready to all outcomes. Preventive medication will be issued as well. Thank you."

 

Crescent sat down, and, hearing the applause, seeing the rush of the waiting grunts in the cafeteria, fought hard to suppress the wide, vicious smile she felt coming to her lips. Perhaps, she thought, perhaps the epidemic had a silver lining after all.

[Reborn | A Fragmented World]

Okay, so first -- don't stress so much! 

(and please don't be stressed or ashamed over your own stress, that's doubling your troubles ). 

 

Second -- it's finally out! You've been teasing it for a while, I was quite excited. 

 

So, I think it's a nice prologue. Are the events in Sinnoh that drove her to Reborn mundane, plot-relevant, or very plot-relevant (like, end-of-arc revelations)? Does she have a specific reason to go to Reborn? How will she react to Reborn? 

 

I'm very interested to find out! 

[The Odd One Out -- A Reborn Adventure]

Since we're in kind of an important progression, I'm making a slightly shorter delay for this chapter and the next one which is the finale of Part 1. Expect a bit of a hiatus afterwards as I need to fully figure out Gabriel's next misfortunes the next steps of the plot. Mostly, I need to fill in the blanks between the end of Part 1 and whichever showdowns I plan for Part 2. 

 

Warning: There are some descriptions of violence in the chapter but nothing imo that's harsher than the game. 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 25: Last Stand

 

 

Spoiler

 

I was very careful about the team members I picked to go into Corey's Gym. I feared that things might not go as per plan, and I was skeptical of them devolving into a standard Gym battle. This meant that I would need significantly more leeway. Leeway and creativity required raw materials. In this situation, I resolved to keep as much elemental power as I could. In this case, I swapped Tailor and, even though it was a heartbreak, Wolfgang, for Sicy (the Vanillite) and Antum (the Klink). 

 

 

After a short, painful training session, which was probably more of a warm-up, I went into the Gym as Corey's delay was going to a close. 
The building was impressive, empty and eerily silent. In front of its entrance, which was digging directly into the mountain, six glass tubes filled with a colorful gas were standing, either red or blue. They were arranged in a two-by-three rectangle. On either side of the colorful assembly, there were stairs leading to a small upper floor, actually more a balcony.

Nobody was in sight and the air smelt utterly normal. I walked up the stairs, walked through the balcony, which led to an empty arena at the other end, with a few of the glass tubes around it, which made for a nice decoration. However, the floor of the arena itself was of a sickly purple, and I didn't want to tread it. 
I walked back down towards the entrance, more wary of this empty place than ever. And then I saw salvation. Or, more precisely, a communication panel similar to that I had seen at Julia's and Florinia's Gyms. And it functionned. I pressed "Grand Hall" and prayed for somebody to be at the other end. 

 

After thirty endless seconds, I heard Ame's voice. 
"Hello?" she asked. 
"Ame," I said, controlling my voice to conceal my unease.
"Gabriel," she acknowledged me. "So you're at Corey's Gym, right? He varies between two fields to battle, a corrosive field, and a corrosive mist field. The latter is the scarier, as it poisons Pokemon every single turn. But..."
"Ame," I cut her off. "That's not it. Corey's Team Meteor. He's taken the police hostage and has declared he would kill them unless I personally negotiate their release. I'm not up to fighting him, least of all on his terms."
"Oh." was Ame's answer. I understood that it was a lot for her to digest, but it annoyed me nonetheless. 
"I don't think he wants to bargain. He's totally out of control, and Heather left upon discovering her dad's actions."

Ame swore viciously. 
"I'm sorry, Gabriel." she said, her voice sad. "There isn't anyone we can safely send in your place, not without a significant delay. We're coordinating the aftermath of Jasper, and Obsidia, and it's hard too."

Maybe I could have taken it in stride. But this night, after this insane and endless day, I simply couldn't. So instead of simply wishing she could help, I started complaining. 

 

"That's not fair of you, is it? I saved all these Wards from the Meteors and the PULSEs. At my own stupid personal risk, even though I had no reason for it. Or personal stakes. And now you won't lift a finger to help me when he's going to kill your officers and me? So what are you going to let your Gym Leaders do? What do you already let your sex-orgy-slash-pervert guy get away with?" I said, remembering an obscure bit of trivia from a few days ago that I had dismissed as unreliable, but seemed so much more likely now that Corey was of Team Meteor. 

 

 

 

There was a stunned silence at the other end. Then Ame answered in a hard, almost threatening voice, "You are the mathematician. You should be careful with your implications." and the line went dead. 

 

I had a mental swearword. I was on my own. 

 

I looked again all over the room, but I realized that apart from the gas columns, there wasn't anything remarkable. Cautiously, I went forward, but nothing revealed itself. I realized that the glass tubes had a metallic, quite old-school, prominent button. I didn't know what it did, and a few nasty ideas came to my mind. For instance, they could seal the doors shut and release some other deadly gas Corey had in store. There was no way I was touching them. 

As I approached towards one tube, my gaze lost in the blue gas curls, something ignited on the other side of the glass. I heard a spark, which resounded sharply in the empty, ominously silent room. My eyes darted towards the entrance, and I ran towards that exit, oblivious to everything else. But nothing happened to the room or its entrance. It was as silent as before, as empty as ever. Except that four gas tubes had changed colors, the one that had reacted to my approach and the three nearest ones. Now the color pattern was clearer: the two tubes on the left were red, as was the one in the center and on the front row; the others were blue. 

Could this, I thought, be some sort of puzzle?
It was entirely possible, I decided. But what would be the reward? Doors sealing, gas leaking, my death? No point in taking such a risk.

 

"Take the chance," a loud voice, definitely Corey's, but harsher and amplified, resounded in the room. I looked around me -- nobody. "Or you're not leaving this place alive, nor are the police officers." Perhaps it was speakers. "Make it blue; it will not harm you."

Shaking with apprehension, I went to the leftmost red tube which was on the front row. If the logic held, that was a correct way to apply Corey's order-slash-threat. There were sparks again and everything turned blue. There was a sharp sound of something unlocking, and a part of the back wall simply split. There had been a secret door, I realized. 

The room before me looked like a small living room. There were a few bookshelves, a table, a sofa, a couple of cupboards, but no television. Corey wouldn't have liked most of the movie happy endings anyway. There also were four police officers lying on their chests, hands tied between their back, bound and gagged, and still trying to thrash around (although they mostly managed to slightly shift their weight around). There wasn't anyone else in sight. 

Perhaps this would be simpler than expected, after all. 

 

I went at the policeman closest from the entrance and managed to untie his hands. He reacted with instant aggression, as he threw his hands to the ground and pushed up with a monomaniac's determination. Then he threw himself at me snarling like a madman, and missed by inches while I hit my head against the wall. I knew I couldn't fend him off alone. I sent Hex as a shield, but he didn't notice her in the slightest and went at me again. Due to his angle of attack, and his single-minded ferociousness, I only missed his tackle by getting into a corner, a situation I realized panickedly was less than good. And Hex couldn't really help me, as I didn't want her to directly hit the man and wound him for something he wasn't really responsible for. Indeed, I assumed the gas was the same as the one that had been used at the Grand Hall, and have made everyone, myself included, irrationally aggressive and deaf to reason or moderation. 

This, I thought, wasn't going well. I saw a manic smile rise on the policeman's lips as he raised his hands before him, at my neck's height...

 

It was at this point that Corey made a whirlwind entrance in the room, grabbed the police officer by his hair, pulled his head back, and sprayed something out of a very small can into his nose. The policeman simply collapsed to the floor. The outed Meteor operative was still wearing his dark grey Meteor agent cloak, but his face and black hair with a very slight reflection of dark purple, and he was wearing a thin silver ring without ornaments on his left hand. 
There we go, I thought to myself. Look tough.

"So," Corey said, "you came."
"I'm here to negotiate the release the police officers." I answered in a tone I forced myself to project as absolutely confident and reasonable. 
"By all means, let us bargain." he said with some sort of mocking haughtiness. "Have a seat." he indicated the table. 

 

I went there, always keeping an eye out for a trap or a betrayal, and sat down at the table, making sure that Corey couldn't possibly block my way out should things become heated. Corey sat opposite me.

 

"So," I said to keep the dialog going, "I'm assuming it is the same gas that was employed at the Grand Hall three or four nights ago, when the Obsidia PULSE was growing?"
"Indeed." Corey acknowledged, his eyes steadily gazing at me.

 

His fixed look was becoming very quickly uncomfortable, but I couldn't really weaken my position by admitting that. I started with the common sense arguments I had found. 

 

"Listen." I said, as firmly as I knew how. "I don't know what you think you're doing, but you have to realize that your position is hopeless. You're alone here, the rest of the League is coming, and you can't hold out against all of them. Team Meteor hasn't shown up to help you. Everything's going to be much simpler if you surrender."
"Childish." Corey answered. "You cannot possibly believe that the delusion you mistake for self-confidence is enough to sway me."

A chill ran down my spine as I realized that, however pessimistic, the renegade Gym Leader's analysis was quite spot-on. But I couldn't afford to show that. 
"Contrary to your self-aggrandizing expectations, you still haven't truly experienced the harshness of life. Let me enlighten you."
"You're the one backed into a corner." I snapped, annoyed. "Stop patronizing me. You don't have any lessons to teach to anyone, least of all to me."
"Yet still you came." Corey answered flatly. "But I will not surrender to the police. For any reason." he added in a dead earnest voice. I knew I wouldn't manage to force him to do that. But maybe convince him? "Do you wish to know why?"
 

I needed a reasonable basis for discussion, I realized. I nodded. 

 

"As you know, the first information that law enforcement got about Team Meteor came from a suspect they caught in the aftermath of the Grandview Station destruction. How do you think they got him to talk?"

I felt my throat tighten, but I knew I couldn't afford to let it show. I motioned him to go on. 

 

"It started with some three hours in a pitch-dark room of about three per three per three. Feet. As the Meteor agent wouldn't talk, he was beaten up. Badly and everywhere where it could hurt. He got swollen dark blue spots all over his body. Nothing broken of course, as it would impede the next steps. As he only said he had promised to not tell, they started breaking his fingers with a hammer. One by one."
My stomach started to churn at about this point, picturing in horrific detail the agony of the poor bastard. He was a murderer and a terrorist, I recalled. And Corey wasn't a reliable narrator.

"But it still wasn't enough", Corey went on. "So they sat him on a metal chair and seared him until he gave something useful. He yielded, begging for mercy and covered in third-degree burns. They relented and dropped him in a dark cell somewhere. And of course, Team Meteor got wind of his betrayal and ordered his termination."
I thought about the timeline. This could have been another reason for his coming to the Grand Hall and releasing the aggression gas. If the story held, I recalled myself. If Corey wasn't simply using a simple ploy to weaken me and my position. I filed the allegations somewhere in my head and then tried to temporarily dismiss them altogether.

"So, however cruel reality may be, it does not mandate me to choose the most painful of paths. I will not surrender to the police."

 

"This isn't relevant." I declared after thinking it over during a pause. "You can as well as anyone hide or flee. By antagonizing the police and attacking their officers, you expose yourself more to their retribution."
"How is that any different of your situation with respect to Team Meteor?"
 

This wasn't information I wanted to give. But on the other hand, perhaps it could help persuade him...
 

"What I want is to go home, far, far away from Reborn." I answered after taking time to word it carefully. "Because of the general state of the city, and because Team Meteor blasted Grandview Station, that is impossible. My only way out is if the station is rebuilt. That can't happen if Team Meteor manages to destroy Reborn City."
"I... see." Corey answered after what seemed like an endless break. "In that case, I will offer you a Gym battle."

"What?" I asked, incredulous. 
"If you win, I release the police officers. You may also get a Badge, if it is not deactivated yet." 
"And if I lose?" I went on, still in disbelief, because I needed to hear about both outcomes. 
"If you lose, or leave the Gym before the fight -- I cannot believe you did not come prepared -- I will kill the police officers and leave you to take the fall."
"This," I observed, after I managed to acknowledge that Corey was fully serious, "isn't a negotiation."
"I temporarily have the upper hand. Life isn't fair. Why should I be?" was Corey's answer, before he rose briskly and left. 

 

 

**********************************

 

 

That Gym battle had more stakes and longer odds than what I was comfortable with. I also didn't have much information on the Gym Leader. I had, however, a first-hand recollection of his skill, if not his strength. In an ideal world, I wouldn't take this fight. 

In this sub-optimal world either, if I had had a grain of sense, I would have left the Gym, no matter the ethical arguments against. I was dead scared of Corey, of what he could do, and what he would do. I had little reason to believe Corey was genuine. Still, I couldn't bear the idea of letting the officers be murdered because of my cowardice. 
I took a deep breath and tried to plan. I failed, because there were too many unknowns. I would be fighting on terrain I didn't know, against a foe I had little specific information. I didn't want to call Ame until there was a chance to talk calmly about Corey's allegations. And I still was very annoyed at how she had hung up on me -- even though I was uneasy about the whole conversation. 

My heart beating way too fast, my breathing quick, I left the room after a last look at the helpless, but still potentially dangerous, officers, and walked up the stairs to the arena. Corey was waiting for me at his designated spot. Upon seeing me, he motioned at me to take my place and I obeyed. I saw him fiddle with something rectangle-shaped, until he looked satisfied and lowered it. 

"So," he said, and the room resounded with his voice, probably due to another set of hidden speakers. "Gym Leaders are entitled to a bit of speech before a fight. I will make my own."
"You wrecked the splinter of life I had rebuilt for myself, Gabriel." he started. "First, you destroyed the three PULSE systems that I oversaw. Second, you helped the City Police Department ambush me. Outed me in front of my own daughter. My one hope and memory of her. The only reason I have kept going through the years."
I realized, mentally wincing, that I had drastically underestimated the depth of the quarrel he thought he had with me. This Gym battle seemed a worse and worse idea every second, but his threat was still in effect, and I didn't dare move away. 
"And, as you said, you didn't intend to do any of this! You simply insert yourself into that story, selfishly, without a care for anyone else or the ins and the outs. And now you've called Ame. You have forced my hand, Gabriel. There is nothing left I have to lose."

 

Without looking, he pushed a button on his remote control. I heard the doors behind me shut and I fought hard to not start or shiver. I started to realize that my initial idea of letting someone else handle the situation had probably been the good one. 
"Thus, I will bring you down with me. Crobat, make him suffer."

There was a small clicking sound and the Crobat got out of the Pokeball, flying in this very controlled pattern of small, but swift and very regular, direction changes. 
I hadn't expected Corey to go for this particular Pokemon right at the start. But I could improvise a little. The poisonous bat was much too fast for any of my grounded Pokemons to manage to hit him, short of a wide area effect. And even Batley wasn't fast enough. So I needed wide area effects... 

"Baby, go! Echoed Voice!"

The air vibration that the attack created was more impressive, and wider, than I recalled, and it neatly took the Crobat despite its instantaneous reaction. The power of that vibration pushed it back quite a little, but it didn't seemed damaged in the slightest. It wasn't too much of a surprise, the first one of a series of Echoed Voices being quite low-powered. 

The Crobat's counterattack was as swift as his moves. In the blink of an eye, it was on the Loudred and gave him a deeply poisonous bite, despite my Pokemon's desperate struggle to get free. Then, upon my request, Baby used Echoed Voice again, and that forced the sickly purple flying Pokemon off him. 

 

The Crobat soared, flew over Baby and dived at the Loudred's back, latching itself onto it and inoculating a second dose of even deadlier venom. In her panic, Baby turned brutally, causing the Crobat to lose his grip, and used an even more powerful Echoed Voice, reinforced by the interference with the remains of the previous sound waves. 
She was aiming at the Crobat. Which had been in her back. In other words, however unvoluntarily, the sound wave aggressed me as well as the Crobat. The latter got the full strength of the attack; it simply docked with its small paws into the ground to resist the displacement and did not seem otherwise bothered. I, however, suffered an acute headache and was temporarily deafened. I was about half-conscious when I saw Baby fall to a final attack. 

 

It took over a minute, and some unusual ringing in the ears to dismiss, but I managed to regain most of my senses (including a rebooted hearing). The Crobat's venom was simply too powerful. I needed something that didn't fear it and could attack... Hex may have been my best choice, but it was so slow. 

"Antum, Charged Beam!"

 

The Steel-typed Pokemon launched an electricity ray that missed the Crobat by ten feet -- that was how fast the Crobat was. What I didn't expect was the sudden heat wave that seemed to come from the beam. For a second, I remained puzzled. As the Crobat started seizing the Klink, causing it to try to grind its paws against the gear, a rather successful tactic, I realized what was happening. 

 

The long time to recover. That heat wave after a spark. The shut doors. "I will bring you down with me." 
The weird ringing, which was actually, now that I could pay attention to it, a hissing. 
Toxic gases. 

 

I tried to shake my head, experimentally. I found it too light, like a glass of wine on an empty stomach. I didn't have much time. I started breathing faster in panic, even though, I found myself thinking, it was the worst idea. I tried to slow everything down, my heartbeat, my breathing, but the downside of this was that the focus prevented me to think. 

"So you figured it out." Corey's voice resounded again, harsher than ever. "Too late."

 

 

 

Character ratings: 

 

Spoiler

Corey: 0/10 (-1). Bastard tries to kill me because I happened to be the only one with luck and a good reason to help? Because my action forced to make him face the consequences of his own? That is messed-up. 
Ame: 6/10 (-1). What is the deal with her not willing to help? And hanging up on me like that? When Corey's about to murder me? 

 

[A Couple Questions]

1 hour ago, Lady Taria said:

This is actually one of the reasons I thought about waiting for V13. I don't want to start posting the fanfic, only to have to go back and rewrite the whole thing because I got something wrong.

I think that for a large part the beginning of the game is fine – IMO we’ve got good enough lore for you to cover at least Blacksteeple and maybe even to Mt Valor (though you’d want to be careful around the Indriad parts). 
 

But I would be very wary to postpone your start to V13 – we’re at 41% and it’s been 8 months since V12. If you want to write it, I don’t think it’s good to procrastinate by that much. 

As long as you don’t get characters killed or shipped, any mistake is probably repairable (and even so, you can break relationships – see eg “Awesome Adventure” for Reborn – and the Rejuv plot gives us several factors capable of retconning a death, at the cost, possibly, of further plot intricacies). 
 

I would also be careful around Crescent – we still know very little about her motives, knowledge, intentions, plans and goals, so it’s not easy to get how she would react in a different setting. A mistake there is probably harder to fix, but I can think of ways it can be done. 
 

But then again, it’s your story, you do what sounds best for you. For all it’s worth, I think it’s a good idea to get the MC (or Melia) closer to other characters. 

[The Odd One Out -- A Reborn Adventure]

Aaaand the bets are off! Will Gabriel and Heather triumph from the PULSE Tangrowth and the Meteor Edgelord? Are they equipped to handle the cold reality? 

Keep reading to find out! 

 

 

 

Chapter 24: The Cleansing

 

 

Spoiler

 

As soon as I realized I would be facing several opponents, I sent into battle three Pokemon, Tailor, Wolfgang, and Batley. I threw an Antidote at Batley, ordering her to bring it to Heather. Upon my command, Tailor ran on all fours, as low as he could, towards the massive Tangrowth, which didn't have an earthly shape any more. 
Instead, the Pokemon looked like a huge tangle of vines, from which many smaller tangles grew in all directions and all over its surface. Two half-vegetal, half-metallic arms were attached to it, and they were shaking with irrepressible violence. The root system of the monster was so overdeveloped that, in a radius of ten feet, it was over one foot tall, and doubtlessly much deeper under the ground. 

Nimble and graceful, the Minccino managed to dodge frightfully powerful but thankfully rather slow vine attacks and more devious vegetal traps. He avoided getting entangled in the aerial roots by running over them, surprisingly sure-footed. Then, as he got close to the enormous monster, he ducked outside the range of the repulsive hybrid arms, and started singing a lullaby to the PULSE Pokemon. 

That was an idea I had had while waiting for that dialogue of the deaf to reach its confrontational conclusion. I knew the PULSE was tougher than most Pokemon and wouldn't go gently to sleep, all the more so since sleep was reportedly deadly to them. But I intended to somewhat numb it, thus putting myself and my team at singificantly lesser risk when battling other enemies. 

Wolfgang's purpose, compared to the other ones, was much more straightforward: he was to battle ZEL's Glaceon and Taka's well-known Exeggcute. He focused on the sigificantly stronger Glaceon, trying to Fury Cut it into submission. ZEL's command, however, was very effective. The Ice Pokemon just knew when to dodge, when to take the hit, how to minimize the damage, and when to strike back. Under its harassment of Icy Winds (as well as the not-altogether-negligible influence of the Exeggcute), Wolfgang was slower, frailer, and less effective than usual. He wouldn't manage his task without an ally. 

"Leaf, Flame Charge at the Glaceon!" I called out, sending Leaf into battle. 
"Are you just going to sit here doing nothing?" ZEL shouted at Taka in Zero's tone, aggressive and angry. 

Taka called forth his Chatot to replace its mostly harmless Exeggcute, but Zero's outburst had disrupted the so finely calculated control of the Glaceon, who didn't manage to escape Leaf's fiery assault. The shock threw the Eeveelution in the air, an easy target at last for Wolfgang's final Fury Cut. 

Already, miraculously thinking slightly ahead, I recalled Leaf as soon as I could, because she wouldn't fare well against Taka's Chatot, and sent into battle Hex the Swalot, who had already faced such an enemy. Her first contribution was to take in Wolfgang's place Taka's bird's powerful Chatter attack, allowing Wolfgang to focus on ZEL's second Pokemon, an Espeon who fainted to Fury Cuts even before being able to attack. 

"Lumi, you're fucking useless." Zero snapped with disgust. "Umbreon, go."

The dark Pokemon was unfortunately careful to not repeat the Espeon's mistake, and feinted to escape my musician Pokemon's cuts. It then went after the one Pokemon whose continuous focus and presence was of utmost importance, even though it was the frailest of those fighting. 

It engaged Tailor, interrupting his song, thus letting the PULSE Tangrowth wake up and unleash its power. At least two dozen vines sprouted in seconds from the ground, circling around me, Wolfgang, and Hex, while Tailor was trying to hold his ground (and failing) in a slap fight with the Umbreon, while avoiding the powerful arms of the plant monster. 

The fight, I thought as I saw the plants growing around me, was over for us. There wouldn't be any identificable remains left. But I had not used all of my resources, and in a panicked move, I called Leaf and Baby (the Loudred) to my help, and I started yelling instructions. To Leaf, to burn the plants around me. To Wolfgang, to start cutting, and to Batley to come and help. To Hex, to spray acid around herself. In seconds, the first assault had been repelled, but it was plain that another one, deadlier, was in the works. I didn't have much time. 

"Leaf, I muttered, go distract the Umbreon. Help Tailor sing."

 

Leaf sprang off as fast as a loosened bow's string (Flame Charges had their advantages) towards the PULSE, too fast for the Chatot to hit, too fast for the Tangrowth to react to the new threat, and kicked the Umbreon in the belly. Irritated at the distraction, the dark cat Pokemon changed targets and focused on the newcomer. Tailor, now relieved from pressure, began to sing, and was promptly slammed into the "rooty" ground by the Tangrowth's fist, which started swinging indistinctly at Leaf and the Umbreon, who were still fighting very close by. The latter was robust enough to withstand Leaf's effective kicks, and had experience enough to retaliate effectively. 

Now the PULSE was unleashed and I had lost my only means to safely contain its absurd strength. If I didn't have enough with that, I had to manage Hex's fight against Taka's Chatot, Wolfgang's continued (and necessary) "gardening" and Leaf's struggle against the Umbreon. All this, and the instant-death danger, made a big, coherent whole that was becoming too much for me to handle. Before, I had plans, or at least some improvised mental guidelines. Now, I was overwhelmed, and noted, not without alarm, that vines went growing again around me, much more than before, and I realized the battle was lost. And I was going to die horrifically, without even a chance to notify my family. 

Not yet, a stubbornly optimistic voice pointed out in my head. You have five Pokemon, don't micromanage. 
It's no use, it's all over but the neck-snapping, or choking, the pessimistic voice answered. 
Stop it! the optimistic voice ordered. You're going to win this, but you need a plan. A main target, priorities, a win-condition. What do you need to do?
 

Stop the Tangrowth, I realized. I can handle it if the Tangrowth doesn't attack.
And I knew what to do. 

 

"Leaf, Hex, forget your enemies and target the roots, with fire and acid!" I shouted. "Baby, Batley, you keep the Umbreon and the Chatot away, and try to attack the Tangrowth when you can. Wolfgang, on me!" I shouted, running towards Wolfgang (and the vines that were threateningly growing and creepily aiming for my neck). 
Upon reaching the vines, I threw myself to the ground and covered my head with my hands, praying silently that the timing was right, while the Kricketune was cutting the dangerous plants at mid-thigh (mine, not his) height. But then another vine I didn't see coming grabbed at my ankle. 
 

Shit.

 

It pulled me effortlessly, and suspended abruptly me upside down in the air, where I could dimly see, despite the disorientation, Wolfgang struggling in an incredibly violent vegetal zerg rush which he didn't quite manage to contain, let alone come and help me. I tried to flail around to force the plant to let me go, to little avail. 
What actually happened was that another batch of artificially-enabled plants grew all around me, blinkingly fast. Then one of them hit me hard in the head, making my neck worryingly warm, and making me see stars (and all sorts of inconsistent stuff).  And the rest of them followed suit, hitting me in the ribs, at stomach height, in the back, in the hips, in the legs. 

When they finally stopped (with my head still spinning), I was nothing more than a giant bruise with a bloodied head. Out of the blue, they dropped me to the ground, which my head hit first (albeit not from very far, fortunately). 

When the world stopped spinning, the Tangrowth had fallen motionless, the Chatot and the Umbreon were nowhere to be seen, and my five-Pokemon team, looking exhausted, barely able to fight but still willing, were watching me anxiously. Taka was watching them with an expression hard to read. ZEL looked more unstable than ever, its hands alternating between clenched fists, a relaxed position, and a half-extended hand as if to help me up (from fifty feet). Its eyes were moving more erratically than I recalled seeing them, and it seemed like the different personalities were disputing its voice, the end result being an exercise in nonsense spoken in an inhuman tone. 

 

It hurt pretty much everywhere above my ankles, I felt my nose bleeding and I knew I had a stiff neck, but I managed to get up after a couple of tries, and walk in minute steps towards my team, standing near the (now useless and doomed) aerial root field, at the center of which the Tangrowth had fallen. My fantasy classics kept urging me of one thing. I had to look tough enough. I realized that both Heather and the Meteor lead had interrupted their battle and were facing one another, as frozen, Heather distinctly not looking at me. 
 

 

Spoiler

Actually, with the team I had, and while I was quite nervous, the double battle was pretty easy, much, much more than I expected. I started with Tailor (Minccino) and Wolfgang (Kricketune). The former sung both Pokemon asleep (starting with the Glaceon) while the latter sprayed the Glaceon with Fury Cuts. 

Then Helping Hand+Fury Cut one shot Espeon and Umbreon, reducing the fight to a two-on-one. The Exeggcute was no challenge. The Chatot was beaten with Hex (Swalot) Yawning ad Acid Spraying it while Baby (Loudred) dealt damage with Echoed Voice. The PULSE was defeated with similar tactics except that Batley (Swoobat) replaced Baby and used Attract first, and super effective moves next. 

 

***********

 

Taka finally broke the heavy silence.

"Well, that's not good."
"The PULSE has been deactivated." ZEL said, in Eve's matter-of-fact tone. "There is no longer any purpose in defending this location."
"I'm going to make myself scarce, then." Taka answered. "You coming? Because you owe me reports."

ZEL answered something in a much softer voice I didn't exactly get, (so it might have been Lumi speaking), and then it and Taka simply walked away towards the Rhodocline Jungle. If I had had fully evolved Pokemon, not exhausted by the fight, if I hadn't been in such incomfort simply walking in baby steps, I might have been able to stop them. But in my situation, I didn't even bother to move. They were more than able to make good on their escape and injure me more significantly if I tried to intervene. 

On the bright side, this meant that the Meteor Edgelord was outnumbered two to one (I counted for half a person, in my state and with my team; Heather counted for half a person as well, and her Salamence for a full one). I walked slowly towards him, as he was the only enemy in sight and it was what somebody who could still fight would do. 

He seemed to come at the same realization and recalled his Crobat. The Pokemon, I recalled, had stood up -- and very effectively stalled -- quite a long time against a massively more powerful Pokemon. Clearly, he wasn't a Trainer to be trifled with. He emitted a deep, resonant sigh, and said simply: "Great. They just run away."
He cast me a glance, then looked at Heather, and took off at a dead sprint towards the center of the Ward. It was a pretty good idea, as I clearly wasn't in shape to run, and Heather, as a child, wouldn't react (or be) fast enough to get him. I forced myself to run as fast as I could in his pursuit -- which, in my beaten body, amounted more or less to an agononizing normal walk -- even Heather could keep a faster pace than me, but she was no match for the Meteor (for starters, he was a male adult). 

 

Fortunately, we didn't need to catch up with him, because, as the path turned, he found himself face to face with no less than five police officers, counting the chief. Surprised, he slightly retreated, and the policemen eagerly took the ground he was conceding. The Meteor was trapped, as we (most especially, Heather running beside her Salamence that was flying at very low altitude) were blocking his only way to retreat. 

"You are completely surrounded." the chief of police said to the Meteor, nodding at me and Heather. "There is nowhere to run."

 

"You..." the Meteor growled at me, I couldn't help but shiver at the disgusted tone in his voice. "These officers were supposed to remain detained."
"But we freed them." the Chief confirmed, exercising the proper caution of not letting them know too much about my role. "Now, let us see your face."
The Meteor's arms fell along his body and he didn't resist as his hood was taken off. There was a strangled sound by the police chief. I felt, more than I saw, Heather become increasingly nervous and start shaking.

"Yes." was the Meteor's comment. "But life is cruel. Why expect otherwise?"
"No..." muttered Heather, in a broken voice that was so unlike her that I turned to her, worried, (and had to move my whole body because my stiff neck wouldn't let me do it). Her face was almost literally crumpled. "It's impossible..."
"I'm sorry, Heather." the Meteor turned around, and I saw the little girl shudder from the corner of my eye. 

"Dad..." she started in a flat, dead voice. "I knew you were a jerk. But I... I didn't know... you were... evil." she added, her voice getting more and more broken. She might have sobbed at the end. "I can't..." she went on, tears audible in her voice at that point, and she hopped on her Salamence and the dragon flew away, completely ignoring (or perhaps much too uncomfortably aware of) the dramatic scene on the ground. Utter silence followed. 

 

"Corey..." was all the police chief could say, baffled. "But... it doesn't make sense. The Gym Leaders are among Reborn's most trusted citizens... Why help Team Meteor?"
 

That guy was a Gym Leader? Meteor infiltration was that bad? 

"Why," Corey spat, "put so much stock on authority? Welcome to reality. It's cold. It's cruel. It's life."
"You mean," the Chief asked, one step ahead of my horrified realization, "that there are others?"
"You would be foolish to think otherwise. Grow up. Not everything is nice and simple. Your candyland-paradise is but a crack dream." was Corey-Meteor Edgelord's answer, and his voice was growing from dull to slightly contemptuous. 

"Those are some big words for someone who's going to be facing the judge." the police chief answered confidently, almost dismissively. 
"They're not. You didn't do anything actually. Just teach Heather what she would learn on her own. Pain." How edgy could he get? I thought, and how badly did he not realize that he had already, beforehand, taught her? Otherwise, she wouldn't have left to fight on her own. 

 "You want to take me to court?" he sneered. "Come get me." Corey said, defiant, but his body posture tensed and his hands went so slightly towards his belt. "I'll be waiting at my Gym."

With the lightning fast reflexes I had seen demonstrated, he grabbed a Pokeball and brought forth a Skuntank. The smelly Pokemon emitted an abundant foul-looking gas at the police officers, leading them to shut their eyes and block their breathing by reflex. But people with closed eyes and no breathing aren't very useful at overpowering a prisoner. Corey sprinted with the momentum of a cannonball towards them, shattering the formation and escaping from the ambush. 
When the gas had mostly dissipated, I forced myself to walk towards the police officers. 

"Gabriel." the Chief said, concerned. "You did it. But what happened to you?"
 

Need... to look... tough... despite the pain. 
 

I wiped the nosebleed that started to bother me, and some other blood on my face trickling from my eyebrow arch around my eyes. Both efforts were quite doomed, but they delayed the inevitable. I took a deep breath. 

 

"I couldn't have done it without Heather. There were three of them and she forced Corey to stall her while I dealt with the PULSE and the two others. It started well and then it went downhill. The plants got me and they beat me up."

I cut myself off, struck by a very frightening thought. 

 

Why hadn't they simply snapped my neck? It would have been the easiest way to deal with me. Instead, striking me with several plants diverted effort from the main threat -- the team that was attacking the Tangrowth roots. What game were they playing? Mercy was impossible, or else they wouldn't have used such an abomination. Stupidity was ruled out, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to create it.

 

So what?
 

"When they released me and my head stopped spinning, the PULSE was down. How about you?"
"There wasn't anything much. Consolidating defences and stuff. We recovered a few members of the police force thanks to you. We were already in the Beryl Ward when we got your latest report, so we decided to trust you and ambush the Meteors from the other side. That part..." he sighed. "It could have gone better."
 

Have to look... not too broken. Even though my legs were killing me. 
 

"What are we doing next?" I asked. 
"We know where he's heading. It's probably a trap, but we should be able to get him. You, on the other hand, need to take a well-deserved rest. We've set up a small healing machine and a rudimentary PC nearby." 

 

***********************

 

It felt almost good to sit down and drop the pretense. Almost, because I still hurt about everywhere. And I felt deeply scared. Because, contrarily to common sense, I had allowed myself to be painted as a target. The Meteors would remember be as the most notable, or effective opponent. They would be coming after me. How stupid of me, I thought. And then I remembered that I had agreed because I didn't rationally (or ethically for that matter) have any better option. 

I had put my Pokeballs in the primitive healing machine, and it had confirmed that there were no serious injuries -- the healing would be over in a few minutes. Only Tailor had raised any red flags, so he had automatically been transferred to a Pokemon Center. They had transmitted back a message along the lines of "Are you crazy? He's been waiting in that dismal state for too long! We can probably heal him, but it's riskier." And so I was waiting for developments and trying to rest, at last away from the fight.

 
Which was obviously why I became very concerned when I saw a police officer coming at me with an unsteady pace. My bad feeling worsened when he came close enough for me to make out his face. It was the police chief, and he probably had been punched a few times in the head. He had a black eye, blood oozing from both of his eyebrows, and dried blood on his lips and under his nose. 

 

I was sufficiently alarmed to rise up without worrying about the pain. 

 

"What happened?" I asked. 
"I'm not sure." the chief slightly stuttered. "We went into the Gym. There was this funny smell in the air. There were five of us. We started to investigate the Gym and nobody seemed to be there. Then I heard people arguing, and I realized that two of my officers had had a disagreement that escalated to a fistfight. Indigned, I went to them to separate them, and... I don't recall very well, but I think it somehow degenerated into a five-sided brawl."
 

The aggression gas, I thought in a flash of insight. Like in the Grand Hall. Did it mean Corey was behind that event as well? 
 

"So, why are you here?"
"Corey sprung out of nowhere and he sprayed something at us that completely robbed me of my strength. When I came by, we were in a room we didn't know before, and my four officers were tied and gagged and were mindlessly thrashing around, as in a frenzy. Corey said that he would consider negotiating the release of these officers only if you were the mediator on our side."

 

I shivered. I knew bargaining to be one of my weakest suits. I knew Corey didn't want me any good. I knew he had more than the possibility to make good on his hatred. 

 

"It's a trap as well. He won't free them. He'll just kill me. If he was able to get you, he won't have any trouble at all with me."
"You destroyed the PULSEs." the chief objected. "We didn't."
"Just luck. And I looked less of a threat than I actually was. And I had allies." I protested. "But one on one, he's just going to make mincemeat of me. I can't go in earnest against a Gym Leader. Can't you call someone else?"
"He gave me an hour, and maybe forty-five minutes remain. I don't think he was bluffing, he's too far gone. We can't summon any of our higher League members in that time, and it's dubious whether any of them could defeat Corey without putting the police officers at a serious risk."
 

And I wanted it all to be risk-free. 

 

"Gabriel." he started. "I hate to say it, but you're the only one who has a chance to save my men... again. I really would appreciate if you gave it an earnest try."

 

And there again I was asked an impossible, just short from self-sacrificial, task. There again, upon refusing, short- or longer-term retorsion measures could get taken. And ultimately, I would be contributing to Reborn's demise, stranding me there forever. That reasoning seemed weaker and weaker each time I invoked it. I sighed miserably and said in a lifeless voice: "All right."

 

 

 

Character ratings: 

Spoiler

Corey: 1/10 (-1). A Reborn Gym Leader assisting terrorists? Why? And he hinted that there were others as well? That was a mess, but it shouldn't have been unexpected. The existence of the PULSE was much more a giveaway of the nefarious group's capabilities. 
Taka: 2/10 (-2). He's dangerous. He freaking almost killed me. Or did he seriously try?
ZEL: 1/10 (-1). Pretty much the same. 
Heather: 5/10 (no change). She held her own in the fight. I really wish she could have dealt with the PULSE instead of me. But I can't blame her for leaving when she discovered the bad guy had been her father all along. 

 

 

 

 

[V13 Discussion Thread]

1 hour ago, Tikkit said:

Fun fact, Did you know we fight Geara just as many times as Ghost Girl Sariah?

That information leads to only two possible conclusions: 

1) Sariah and Geara are a "villanous" ship redeemed by The Power Of Love

2) Sariah is Geara's conscience incarnate, corrupted and in a different body because Geara's villainy.  

[A Couple Questions]

I should probably apologize for answering in text instead of the poll, as you intended. At least, this way, if the reasons I give don't apply for you (or sound nonsensical), you can just ignore my two cents. 

(also, I may like being more verbose than necessary)

 

In my opinion, you shouldn't wait for V13 to start writing. I don't think there is going to be massive early-game changes now that the plot is settled. At worst you'll have to redo a few battles (and you can even handwave it by explaining that the characters diversified their teams later on), but I don't think anything will mandate a larger-scale revision (of course, I have no information but what's publically available on this topic, so it's a guess).

Also, you're probably aware of it, but it's easier to get going once you've started. 

Of course, it depends on your way of writing -- perhaps you're planning everything first very cautiously before writing a single word, in this case perhaps you can go on planning. 

 

Parts aren't mandatory, but given the scale of Rejuvenation's adventure, it sounds pretty likely that there are going to be many chapters. Grouping them into parts should help the reader keep the larger picture in mind. 

 

As for the fights -- why force yourself to more consistency than necessary? If your fights are recordings of the game, play at a level you're about confortable with. If you tell them instead of showing them, you can keep the broad ideas but be considerably more flexible. 

 

About basing it off 100% of Rejuv's story... I don't like writing it (difference and originality bring value, I heard), but you're going to need to be very careful with your plot modifications.

I'm confident that you can twist Reborn's plot to not fit the Big Reveal^TM (or Big Reveals^TM) the dev team is planning for us, because you probably can also twist the ending -- and character relationships are well-established enough that we know what could conceivably happen in a barely alternate universe.
But Rejuv has an insane amount of unknowns, which makes significant plot deviations very dangerous because you don't really know what you break. 

 

Some examples off my head, there are probably others:

Spoiler

What if the Eldest had actually been following Kenneth in Mount Carotos and got killed by Team Xen?

Or, perhaps, C. joined you in a heroic battle against the ever scarier Rift Gyarados, and finally succumbed while helping you lay it to rest?

For a more recent example, what if Erick had been badly wounded against the Garbodor and couldn't fulfill his V12 role? Plot time is pretty short from that point IIRC, definitely not more than a few weeks.

(I don't have any subtler examples in mind but I'm qute sure they exist if you're imaginative enough).   

[V13 Discussion Thread]

Interesting discussion about role reversal for Ren/Reina.

But I have another Crescent suggestion — she’s actually the MC’s time-travelling future teenage daughter (born after the plot ended, of course). 
 

For good measure, we can even say that she kicked the plot in motion by setting Indriad free after  striking a deal with him about the MC’s revival from an untimely car crash. So Indriad betrays her anyway, she flees and gets herself sheltered by the Stormchasers. 

[V13 Discussion Thread]

What I am also interested in is how the devs feel when they read through all this theory-crafting. 

How do they refrain from wanting to answer, to talk about their design, how they see their characters?