The Battle for Caldera

[bravenewmods]

The time for action is at hand, and the players have been set in place. Those who choose to make an attempt at diplomacy head off at the appointed time to meet with Valeria, the clerk and representative of the general who leads the Gigas army. Those who wish to take more direct action against Gigas leave with General Ironbrand to put their plans into motion. In the meantime, the refugees continue to stream into Union, while supplies are gathered and flow the other way.

The outcome of this war may very well depend on the combined results of these four efforts…

((This log will be a catch-all for all four efforts of the attempt to save Caldera. There will be four different parts of this post: Diplomacy, Aggression, Refugees, and Supplies. The first two should be well established, but the Refugees portion will encompass bringing those in Caldera who require help to Union and giving them medical aid and care, while the Supplies portion will encompass people in Union setting up shelters and gathering resources to send back to Caldera, as well as other miscellaneous tasks that may be of help. Gathering resources may entail leaving Union to explore out in other areas. You all signed up for groups, so please try to maintain these groups when posting, particularly to the Diplomacy and Aggression sections. The other two may be more free-form.

Mods will be responding at least once every 24 hours to keep the logs moving.

EDIT 5/31: Please try to group up if possible! We'll generally try to wait for threads to have 2-3 people before we jump in. Threads with 3+ may attract the attention of something a little more... interesting.))

Comments

[bravenewmods]

((We'll hop in here as soon as you guys leave Union, probably! Sorry for not saying anything until now!))

[moemoetentacles]

...Huh?

[Squid Girl isn't the most observant Inkay out there, but even she has to notice eventually that the water isn't collecting anymore.]

Hey! What the heck!

[bravenewmods]

...

[It glances up to meet her outraged gaze for a moment.

Then it turns around and bounces away as quickly as it can.]

[somnambulatory]

[It looks like Jinxie's team is mostly fine for the time being, so they continue pressing forward.

Dokuro, sensing it's about to become a target, flashes its red eyes at the group in an intimidating Leer.

Waff puffs up with air, letting loose with another Gust attack. It's not all that effective against the Pidgeot troops, but it's really the best thing it has going at the moment.

Foxfire, leaping into the fray even as it is accosted by soldiers and spears, rears up to display all nine of its tails before a loud Roar rumbles up from the back of its throat.

And moving to play a bit of defense this time, Whisper glows with a soft light as it erects a protective Light Screen around the rest of Jinxie's Pokemon.

Meanwhile, Rotom speeds toward the line of siege engines, still protected by Double Team and Substitute. As it flies forward, it does its best to blend in with and zigzag its flight path between the substitute and Doyle, making it hard to determine its true location and identity.]

[timeywimeyorb]

[Cerberus growls and dodges the shield thrown at him. Setsuna pulls back to avoid getting skewered, but she can sense that the man is distracted now so his intent to slash at her isn't followed through very well.]

Cerberus! Go!

[The Houndour, used to working in a pack, springs after the retreating swordsman. He leaps over him however, recognizing that the leader is the weakest of the bunch right now. If he can beat the other swordsman there all the better. He bears his teeth and lunges at the captain with the intent of using Beat Up to take him out.

Setsuna assists in this endeavor by trying to take down the man rushing to his aid. She Teleports in front of him to block his way and kicks at him. She's not letting you get out of this so easily.

The pokemon had more strength than there human counterparts...then again Reuniclus DOES have Recover going for it. Hecate and Lethe attack again with the same moves from before. If nothing else they can keep the pokemon focused on them and not turn their attention on the girls.]

[whateveryoueatliveitspart]

[Apollo really hopes that the rider who fell survives, but he quickly has other things to worry about when the Hurricane comes his way. Talonflame's maneuverability has been reduced by having to carry Apollo and it can't avoid the attack. It becomes disoriented as the winds blow it around and has no idea what or where to attack. While Apollo has Persim Berries with him, he can't exactly rummage around for them at the moment with such wild movement; the berry that he'd already taken from his pocket before the attack hit is all he has to work with. As Talonflame jerks its head around, Apollo shoves the Aspear Berry into its mouth and mentally "yells" for Talonflame to use Natural Gift. Talonflame wildly sprays Ice-type energy in every direction as it flails around, including on itself and Apollo. Because of its Fire-typing it's neutral to Ice, but Apollo grits his teeth as he feels frost form on parts of his body.

Tropius attempts to dodge the attacks, but with a weakness to Flying-type even the grazing blows from the ones that hit her become much more serious. She uses Whirlwind in the general direction of her attackers and Bellsprout uses Stun Spore, but she's trying her best to retreat before her last few hit points are knocked off.

Hippowdon and Shiftry decide that they're close enough to a good position to act. Hippowdon peeks his head up and uses Yawn at Gigas' forces, and a moment later Shiftry uses Nature Powder, which becomes Earth Power. Cracks travel from Shiftry to Gigas' forces and begin erupting in golden light beneath them. Hippowdon is already moving away and looking for hiding spots to move between, knowing that with its speed it needs that head start on any retaliation.]

[antiseptic]

[Well. They didn't go undetected for long, but he can work with this. It's a pity that they lost the element of surprise, however.]

Let's take out the trainers first.

[Pokemon are all but useless without their trainers anyway. He quickly summons two of his other Pokemon, Jigglypuff and Sandshrew, then directs a powerful Hypnosis at one of the trainers while Jigglypuff begins to sing.]

[incousinswithyou]

[Michiru manages to counter that leg sweep and to get her arms up, but she gets caught up in the stuff. The soldier gets a glare...and her eyes are glowing with another Nasty Plot. Gardevoir sweeps in and levels a Moonblast at the human and Michiru follows up immediately with a Psybeam. Her mobility is about zero, but that doesn't stop her from attacking, at least.

A thought, and Gyarados throws another Twister at the cells while Milotic turns and aims a neat Water Pulse straight at Michiru's soldier.]

[actsmagnificent]

[ Hey, careful with that sword! There's only one individual Haruka allows to penetrate her person. Haruka rolls so that she's basically all but beneath World Shaking just to be sure she isn't in the way of those attacks; the more she eats of the Berry, the more she can feel the venom draining from her system. Not long now. Right, she can stand...

It's interesting, the way those Pokémon clump together. Setsuna's Houndour seems to have Haruka's prime target under control, so what if. Hm. Worth a shot.

Pulling herself up using World Shaking as a handhold, she physically turns his head so he's facing the sleeping Reuniclus and its fellows, then gives him his favorite command. ] Run.

[ And there goes Rhyhorn, Bulldozing his way towards the enemy. Cubchoo is so excited that Brine worked that she uses it again, aiming for the soldier that'd assaulted Michiru (Setsuna is in the way of the other). Murkrow continues to pick on the weakest target, Pursuing it before wheeling off to see whether he can make himself irritating to the soldiers. Anybody need a beak to the head?

Haruka's up by this point, however. And more than ready to be done with this fight. Whatever's in this caravan had better be worth taking intact. ]

No finesse. [ She whips an Air Slash at the back of the soldier Setsuna had just kicked and grins around him at her ally. She can barely stand. Clearly, that means she needs to mouth off. ] This is a Pokémon battle.

[makeitquick]

Just to make sure- that's a thief, right?

[ Melaka comments, pointing at it ]

[bravenewmods]

[With the items in hand, the party is safe. Or are they? There's a growling noise echoing off the vaults of the cavern. It sounds very menacing.]

[bravenewmods]

[The Reuniclus all glance awkwardly at each other as Rhyhorn gallops their way. ...Then they float up about twenty feet in the air. If Rhyhorn doesn't stop, he'll crash straight into the caravan and do some hefty damage, which seems fine with the Reuniclus.

The soldier entangling Michiru will quickly bring up his shield to protect himself from the attacks coming his way; he pushes his way forward through water, psyblast, and... moon power to reach down and hold his sword to the prone Michiru's throat.]

B-Back off from the captain or I slice her thr --

[Donk.

The threat is somewhat short lived as Brine comes from a direction he didn't anticipate to blast him in the face.

Setsuna's soldier will stop in his tracks at her sudden appearance. Shieldless now, her kick catches him off-guard, but a kick probably isn't the best weapon to bring to a fight against a sword as he attempts to slice at her once again.

Meantime, the captain is too busy being savaged to do much but scream.

The Reuniclus seem to have decided that they're really not invested enough in this battle to get beat up when their trainer is already almost dead and spend their time using Recover on themselves. If the enemy could kindly return them to their Pokeballs when they were done so they could be passed on to some other trainer once these ones were dead, they'd appreciate it.]

[meguriau]

[ Roxas stops right before he was to bump into Lea's arm. It isn't hard for him to keep quiet because well... he's quiet most of the time to begin with.

Also easy to herd.

Sora on the other hand was more difficult. He flicks his feelers a little nervously but tries his hardest to keep still. Keeper does the same though it's hard to stop keys from jingling when you're floating in midair. ]

[threemoms]

[ The heck is that?

Whatever it was, it sounds very menacing. ]

It might be a good idea to leave. [ Hotaru's about a half-second from taking her Absol form, Usagi or no Usagi.

Unlike the other two Enlightened in their group, she felt vulnerable like this. And vulnerable wasn't a good thing when there was a very menacing sounding growl coming from somewhere in the cavern.

Her Litwick, on the other hand. seemed to... actually, her Litwick didn't seem to care whatsoever. She was just standing at the edge of the island staring into the lava. Wow. Simple minds have no worries. ]

[meguriau]

I don't really know how to put it...

[ He's quiet for a moment because wow what are words. But eventually, maybe even surprisingly, he speaks again. ]

Maybe I need to stop hiding.

[timeywimeyorb]

[It appeared they were down to one. Setsuna was glad she had a battle to focus on and not the cries of the dying captain. Perhaps she'd let Cerberus get a little TOO aggressive. She stumbles back as the blade comes at her, though for her troubles gets cut on the leg.

Setsuna gasps in pain and teleports back again.

Unfortunately for the man that cut her, Cerberus is now finished with the captain. He senses his partner's pain and blasts another Ember towards the guy. You have really picked the wrong person to mess with, buddy.]

[incousinswithyou]

[Michiru's soldier gets one last vindictive psychic attack. Looks like crushing enemies to the ground with one's mind is pretty useful. And stay down.

She rolls over, trying to get to her knees, at least, even as Gardevoir grabs her and Teleports them away from the soldier, and closer to the others.

With Setsuna out of the way, Michiru sends a thought to Gyarados and the serpent throws a controlled Dragon Rage at the remaining soldier, taking care not to hit Cerberus. Milotic holds, for the moment, and coils herself around Michiru and Gardevoir instead.]

[crimson_pinnacle]

[It makes sense, and really the first words Red heard was to not do anything dangerous from his mom too, so he can understand Kanji not wanting to leave...However. He perks up again at Lucas' suggestion.]

I have three.

[Bringing up his Warp Band, Red summons Abelard(Charizard), Nike(Pidgeot), and...Ribbons(Aerodactyl). Abby and Nike seem calm enough, Abby in particular nosing Red and taking his hat to hold. Ribbons however scowls. This wasn't a fight and he wanted no part of any proceedings otherwise.]

They're all nice enough though. Just don't pet Ribbons. Or ask about his name. I'll tell you later.

[bravenewmods]

[A troop of about 8 soldiers come into view. They're all holding rifles and are scanning the area intently, obviously searching]

[stahlflugel]

Hhhhh, that IS a scary face. Rosa covers her face with her wings, cowering. She does NOT want to do this, not at all... Only 25... really?

Either way, it seemed like the answer was obvious enough. The ground rumbles and shakes as something a little ways into the forest unleashes an Earthquake, forming a large fissure in the path. A roar, and a blue oversized Tyrantrum crashes through the undergrowth, intent on ramming the cart and freeing it of its delicious contents.

The skarmory on it's back is holding on for dear life.

Who knew that all Eren had to say was "there's food in the carts" to get Napoleon going?

Well, he may as well help with it. Eren hops off of Napoleon back into the tree and uses Stealth Rock. Hunks of stone rise from the earth and surround the cart and its protectors. Between the rocks and the earthquake damage, the cart wasn't going anywhere fast.

[thefloorislava]

[Crap. Lea holds his breath, pressing himself into the wall as much as possible. The soldiers looked strong, and he did not want to be caught.

Robin does his best to hide them all, both from sight and from being heard, but his inexperience is hurting him here.

And of course, when one is trying not to make noise, well... that's exactly when they make the most. Sharky's snout twitches, and Lea can't catch him in time to stifle the sneeze. Which is both loud, and sudden]

[inthenameofthemoon]

A-ancient relic?!

[ Well, she's just going to let Haruka take that thing from her without any kind of retort. Why? Well, she's pretty sure that she doesn't want to be the one who gets in trouble for breaking something that valuable.

She'd apologize profusely because the last thing she wants is to get on Haruka's bad side but.... ]

.... what's that?

[ Welp. If being surrounded by lava wasn't enough to put Usagi on edge, that growl sure did a good job of it. ]

[meguriau]

[ Roxas does the same as Lea and looking at Keeper to try and keep quiet.

But that didn't matter much once Sharky sneezed. Sora flicks his feelers anxiously while Roxas turns to see if the soldiers had noticed.

Which really, it would have been a miracle if they hadn't but luck is probably not on their side today. ]

[incousinswithyou]

[well, now.] It seems like we've worn out our welcome.

[and the scrolls go in a convenient pack she's got on her. Want to put the TM in here too?

She glances at her Gardevoir and. She knows exhaustion when she sees it. Hypocrite.] We should start walking.

[turning to the land bridge. This will be fun.]

[flying_chains]

If by "go off" you mean "Morgiana jumped up to rooftop height while carrying her friend." then yes that is what happened next.

She stood on top of what had once been a restaurant of some kind but was now abandoned and looked across the sea of humanity beyond.

"This will be difficult."