Event - Confrontation with the Enhanced

[bravenewmods]

With the revelation of the presence of the Enhanced, Union was able to quickly mobilize. As the strange conditions continued to worsen, the Trainers of Union once again set out to bring order to the chaos.

This time however, they do not walk entirely alone. A small, dedicated team remains behind in Union, sorting through the dossiers and information that Crystal and Rory have collected. Connected to those in the field via Warp Band network, hopefully they can identify the Enhanced and find a way to calm them before a tragedy occurs.

[OOC: There will be a thread for each active team based on the sign-ups. Any areas that did not have any sign-ups will not be present and will be addressed later. As per our usual standards, moderators and NPC helpers will progress the log at least once every 24 hours. The Union log will work somewhat differently from the battle logs in that the participants will be collecting information concerning the Enhanced; when enough information has been accumulated, they will be asked to tag into the battle threads to provide guidance and support to those out in the field.

Characters participating in the Union log will function as support staff for this event. They will have their own log interacting with Rory and Crystal and as characters in other logs encounter the Enhanced, they can use the observations made to try to find out more about the Enhanced in the field and help the people in the field determine an appropriate situation. Because of this, players in the Union thread may threadjack any ongoing log to relay information as needed.

The outcome of this event will depend very much on player decisions and the ability of the characters to respond to the threats at hand, so we would highly encourage you all to tag as regularly as possible. Thanks!]

Comments

[a_gentle_boy]

Falling out of a tree from the shockwave of a ridiculous attack doesn't require much mental exertion; Lucas has totally got this. ...Well, maybe there's a brief moment of interruption while he hangs awkwardly from a lower branch. Piyo chirps in minor concern as a falling star sprinkles stardust overhead the group - a Wish, just in case they'll need it later.

As the others continue to protest and impart their good intentions, Lucas frowns in concentration. He's not entirely certain what to make of what he's picking up here. Clearly, Sakina likes exercising. ...Exercising a lot. Exercising in ways that would probably kill most other people. But what that has to do with the situation at hand and why Altaria would feel the need to try to convey this is beyond him.

"..."

And then something strikes him.

"Wait."

A slight pause.

"Maybe we should fight. ...Fake fight. She's burning with the desire to destroy something, right...? She hasn't been able to release her energy since she left. Miss Tycoon says that if we try to fight for real, she'll get more upset, but maybe... maybe if we can work it out of her..."

And then Lucas slowly begins to pull himself up on the branch. It looks almost like...

"Miss Sakina! I... I bet you can't do more pull-ups than us! And... I bet Piyo can fly higher than Altaria!"

Piyo stares. No, she can't.

"Go fly higher than Altaria!"

[ladyofluminosity]

What was he doing?

For a moment, Lux doubted him, doubted Lucas's decision. Fight her, was he crazy? That would be suicide! She would kill every single one of them! But, as she thinks about it, it strangely made sense. That's what she wanted, right? To engage something, blow off some steam.

It was crazy, but. Time to take Lucas's bluff. "Hey, don't count us out! Aubrey!"

The Altaria looked at his human in disbelief. But, seeing Lux nod, he let out something of a resigned coo and flapped his wings with meaningful force, hovering above Piyo and climbing higher.

Jogging over to one of the trees, Lux made her best effort to climb up--she definitely wasn't the most physically toned person out there, but she managed all right. Looking toward Lucas, she nodded, then engaged the others on the ground, giving them a subtle wink. "Come on, let's go! Or are you too scared that we'll beat you?"

[child_of_luv]

Say what?

Well, if it was competition and distraction they wanted, then this would be right up the alley of some of her Pokemon... and, while Eros couldn't fly, a certain suave bird could. Minako grinned back at them.

"Scared? No way!" She turned and jumped for a nearby branch, summoning Rico, her Staraptor, discreetly while she was turned away from Sakina. She could hold her own for a bit here with the pull-ups, but Rico gave a loud "STAR!" before taking off to fly above the others. Let's go! "Rico can fly higher than all of them!"

[thunderboltprincess]

Uh, okay? So, no fighting physically but a competition could get those feelings out just as easily.

Yeah, that made sense.

Plastering on a cocky grin, Mako flexes her arms to show off her biceps before running over to the tree as well.

"I bet I can do more than all of you combined!"

She doesn't have a flying Pokémon, but she has Hime.

"I bet my Eevee is faster than any Pokémon you guys have."

[bnw_sheepy_npcs]

[ Something seems to be watching from the distance, out of direct sight.

At first it seemed like this was going to be a bad situation, but what were the humans doing? It was curious. They were climbing a tree? Why?

It did look kind of fun, though. Maybe it should try flying really high too. ]

[bnw_wighty_npcs]

[But what's this?

Something Else seems to be watching Something from... well, right next it, really. There is a gentle poke on Something's tail from behind and the sensation of what amounts to a wet nose.]

[bnw_sheepy_npcs]

[ Hey whoa that's it's tail what are you

Oh, it's you! Hello! What are you doing here? Did you come to find out what these fabled "pull ups" are? ]

[bnw_wighty_npcs]

[There is the sound of faint, if a little subdued laughter.

No, silly! It lives here now. Didn't you get the memo? It's a good place to watch all the humans when it needs to. ...It would show you around, but... someone's made a terrible mess of the place...

It's a little concerned. It wants to fix this, but... that's not allowed, of course.]

[bnw_sheepy_npcs]

[ Oh. Right. That makes sense, considering all the flowers. You really like those, don't you?

Terrible mess? It did look a little pink in here earlier, but it thought that that was normal. Pink is definitely its color, there is nothing wrong with pink.

But innocent joking aside, the pink creature coos gently in agreement, it knows your pain. But it's been watching humans too, and they would probably be able to fix your garden. They're nicer this time.

Well, some of them. ]

[bnw_wighty_npcs]

[Mm-hm! It even went into the city once for a week! They were all very nice about it; these humans have a lot of respect for them... Actually, there have been a lot of friends passing by recently, and they've all had a good experience, it thinks.

This isn't going as well, though... even if there are a lot of humans that are nice, just a few bad ones can cause so much suffering...]

[bnw_sheepy_npcs]

[ You went into their city? The actual city?

Hello friend, what is personal space?

Tell it everything! What was it like? What were the people like? Did you talk to them? What do they eat? And what are those weird things they wear on their heads sometimes? It's very curious about those.

Another sad coo. Too much suffering, it makes it sad, and it makes their friends angry. Why did it have to be that way? Why couldn't everyone get alone? ]

[bnw_wighty_npcs]

[Well...

It will shuffle a little shyly. OK, it was exaggerating a little. There were two of them that time and they didn't really talk to them. ...Or show themselves. But it did watch them - a lot!

It saw lots of interesting things! Like they eat mostly plants and they have ways of making plants look like meat even though it's plants and it's not sure it sees the point, but it guesses they like pretend meat! It's pretty sure the head things are for decoration; the bigger and more colorful the head thing, the more likely they are to find a mate! Like its flower. ...Not that it needs a mate, but if you can't have a flower, you can at least have a nice head-thing.

Their other friends are warming up to them, though... Did it hear about the dreams and nightmares? Maybe it would all turn out different this time...]

[bnw_sheepy_npcs]

[ Plants into meat? That gets a giggle out of the pink creature. Why would they do that? Humans are very silly sometimes. Although very practical, they may have something with these head decoration things that aren't flowers.

It did hear about that, and that somehow the humans managed to resolve their quarrel. Was there really singing? It heard that there was singing.

In any case, it has faith in these ones. They weren't cruel and oppressive like the others. But could the rest of the humans be like them? It wasn't so sure. There were those that used the items from the past, even now. ]

[bnw_wighty_npcs]

[If Darkrai has decided to play nice this time, there must be a good chance! Besides, all of them like its flowers, so that means there's a lot of good in the world still.

(Flowers are very important.)

So why is it here today? It's very happy that it's here! It's been a while since anyone came to the grove. Will it be staying long? Maybe they should watch from somewhere inside? It can show you its home...]

[bnw_sheepy_npcs]

[ Cresselia probably had something to do with it, you know that Darkrai has a soft spot for her. It doesn't see what she sees in him, really. She's too good for him.

(Yes, yes.)

It is passing through, and has been trying to make contact for a while now, but isn't sure how. There's trouble in other places, things that directly and indirectly concern it, that it wonders, maybe these humans can help. But at the same time, it is very hesitant. ]

[bnw_wighty_npcs]

[Aww, Darkrai's not bad! ...For a perpetually angry keeper of the nightmare realm. ...It could just be a lot worse; he's probably been brooding for about 500 years.

But ooooh... It thinks it knows what the concern is, though it hasn't had much chance to get out recently. If there's anything it can do, though...

It doesn't know if the humans are ready for a plea for help about that kind of thing yet, but it has faith that they will do what they can. Maybe a little more time to grow.]

24 hour advancement

[bnw_void_npcs]

Sakina stares at the team. The intense, murderous drive seems to be abating, slightly at least. But it seems to be replaced by something else, an almost towering irritation. Her face flushes a bit, the first bit of color any of you have ever seen in her face.

"That... that's not how you do this!" she shouts. "None of you are able to defeat my methods, stop this right now!"

Her Mega Altaria coos lazily while giving the fliers a bit of a disdainful glance. It clearly knows how this is going to go and has no intention of losing or even coming close. Meanwhile, Mega Aggron and Mega Gyrados rouse themselves, looking a bit confusedly at Sakina.

[a_gentle_boy]

In the meantime, the flying egg with two inch stubby wings has decided that there's no way she's getting even half as high as the Altaria so she'll just flap back down after a few moments of awkwardly fluttering to settle on Lucas's head.

So far, he has managed to do exactly 1 pull-up and 1 half-up.

"If you can't do that... at least... use Encore."

The boy grunts his instructions through gritted teeth, to which Piyo looks vaguely confused for a moment before she understands. After a moment, she'll begin to clap her arms together and cheer half-heartedly for her trainer; Lucas will find himself continuing on in the same slow repetitive motion, unable to stop even if he wanted to. In record time (another half minute) he has reached the extremely impressive total of 4.

"Then... show us how to do it right...!"

[ladyofluminosity]

You were really going all out on this, weren't you Lucas? Makoto and Minako seemed to be getting fired up as well, which seemed to at least somewhat defuse the situation. Curse her competitive nature.

Managing two pull-ups--likely with terrible form--Lux slowly moved her hands a bit closer together, enough that she could activate her Warp Band. "Poro!" With a flash of light, the Mamoswine appeared beneath her, shaking a bit as it woke up from its nap. "Hey Aggron, I have a sparing partner for you!"

W-what?! Lux! The Mamoswine protested, looking up at his human, then warily at the Mega Aggron. What... what did he just get summoned into?

As for pull-ups, she wasn't about to lose to a kid (who was probably relatively close to her age, all told), and shakily pulled herself up for a third. This was a lot harder than it looked...

Wait, Encore?! Really?!

"Hey, that's cheating!"

[child_of_luv]

Encore??? So not fair! Minako knew she wasn't going to be able to keep this up forever... but... She dropped back down to the ground.

"How do you want to do it, then?" She tilted her head, curious. "We can do it your way, if you want."

Eros cooed. He was willing to give it a try, too! How? How?

Artemis, the Persian, held back. He was curious about all this, but was happy to sit back and watch.

Rico was still above, circling, daring the flyers to go higher and higher.

[bnw_void_npcs]

Sakina's demeanor and aura have changed. No longer is she murderous, but somehow she is even more terrifying. She steps into a fairy ring and appears right beside the party.

"Sloppy technique. Poor shape. These are things we will... correct.

[OOC: The ensuing scene takes about 3 hours and is the most hellish training experience your characters and their Pokemon have ever had in their life. Feel free to react as you think is appropriate and use your imagination to fill in the blanks!]

[a_gentle_boy]

[As wonderful as it is that no one is fatally injured, Lucas is just going to be unconscious in a corner somewhere about two and a half hours in. A Teddiursa holds a large leaf fan and waves it over his face while Piyo cheerfully performs repeated applications of Wish.

On the plus side, he did end up making it to twenty five pullups.]

[child_of_luv]

Minako made it to the end, but it had been hard. She was breathing hard, and had slowed down in her pacing considerably by the time they finished. But, her competitive spirit had kept her moving until Sakina finally called it off. She bent over, propping her hands on her knees to catch her breath.

Rico had long since landed. This was crazy! Not one girl had been impressed by him? It didn't help that he was insanely tired, too, but that was besides the point. None of his flirting and flexing had worked!

Eros was actually tired, too, which was rare, and Artemis was just... smug. The Persian hadn't participated because he knew most of it was going to end in absolute exhaustion or utter failure on the part of anyone but Sakina and her team, Lucas being a prime example. The only one who had an inkling of a chance of fully matching the pace was Makoto.

"Do... do you feel any better?" Minako asked between heavy breaths. "You... you're really tough... to keep up with..."

[ladyofluminosity]

[ Lux manages to hold out just a little bit longer than Lucas, if only just--more because she paced herself and decided to not cheat use the help of Encore. She leans against Poro, who is likewise exhausted, willing the world to stop hurting.

Good Savior she had no idea she could hurt this much. ]

I can't... No more... please...

[thunderboltprincess]

Makoto, for her part, was sore and tired, but she could stand and wasn't breathing anywhere near as heavily as Minako. Poor Lucas and Lux looked like they were ready to kick it.

Hime, poor thing, looked bedraggled and pathetic, lying on the ground in a limp, dull pile, mewling softly. Usato was running around fanning everyone with his leaf, and maybe falling a bit. (He's sorry for squashing you, Artemis.) Cotton looked as worn out as Makoto, but somehow the Mareep seemed pleased with herself for keeping up withthe bigger, scarier Pokemon.

"Haha.... That reminds me of the one workout session I had with Haruka-san. Except I'll probably have less bruises."