???

Channah: Sure... Why do the, er, Guzzlord need watching over?

Vermilion City

Ever: —And that's why you should give peas a chance.

-the two mons in front of them nod and head off-

Voltorb: <Do you ever feel that our entire dispute over that tree was just a setup for a cosmic joke?>

Sandshrew: <You're a cosmic joke.>

Ever: (flatly) Another case resolved.

Diesel: <Why is this a service you offer?>

Ever: It isn't. Mons just seem to come here, and I'm always here, so they ask me stuff.

Diesel: <Why not move benches?>

Ever: I like this bench.

-...-

Ever: I should catch a Mienfoo.

Diesel: <Any particular reason?>

Ever: Yeah, I don't really have a lot of Fighting-types. There's Custard, but that's it.

Diesel: <We don't have any Rock-types on the team, though. Maybe you should revive a fossil.>

Ever: I think I'll go right ahead and let the dead rest.

Diesel: <Fair point. How about a Geodude? Remember Agatha's Golem?>

Ever: I could find an Onix. Everyone needs one fuckoff-huge mon, right?

Diesel: <Onix evolves into Steelix though.>

Ever: Whoof. Good catch.

Diesel: <The opposite, really.>

Ever: Since when do you pun?

Diesel: <I'm trying to open myself up to new experiences.>

Ever: Oh, will you listen to—

Diesel: <I will not listen to glitch music.>

Ever: Coward.

Diesel: <No.>

Ever: Hmm, what about a Slugma? I could use more Fire-types, too.

Diesel: <Yeah, but that double Water weakness...>

Ever: -sighs- Poor, predictable Rock.

Diesel: <Bah. Rock-types need to get knocked down a peg.>

Ever: How unexpectedly venomous of you.

???

Guzzlord Suit: -To Channah- Well, they've been here since long before I was even born, but we couldn't take them offworld with us because they just eat too much, and everything. And well, I figured if someone had to watch over them, it might as well be me.

-Looking at the surroundings-

If he says they've been around since long before he was born, this universe might be displaced to relation to our own like how Salvador's future and the other monverse is.

If the air above is toxic, do you have any spare suits lying around? My partner and I would like to avoid getting something nasty.

Guzzlord Suit: Oh, those would be in the door just behind me.

Muddy: <I guess we'll be Safeguarding again...>

Edited by rmctagg09 on Jan 21st 2019 at 5:38:54 AM

After picking everyone up, Silas takes time to greet them all as he leads them to the Lounge on the lower deck.

Roxy is there relaxing in her new suit, "Hey guys! The Fox is ready to fight!"

Silas rolls his eyes a bit and adjusts his Jackal V2 outfit, "Okay welcome aboard, you're all here to join me on a hunt for a Poacher, before we begin. How much does everybody know about the Hunter's guild and such?"

~That's him speak for "Any major questions?"~ Hacks translates with a green.

~It's completely legal,~ Ziltoid notes, ~The goal is to get through without getting your craft wrecked. If you can tank the blasts, then you tank the blasts.~

~Perfectly legal, and fun to watch,~ Thraxx responds smugly.

The two look out as the Horizon slows for a bit, only for its wings to extend and the funnels to zip out and start firing on the turrets.

Thraxx blinks, ~What?! He can't do that!~

~Oh didn't you just agree that it was legal to get through anyway possible?~

Thraxx grumbled.

Horizon quickly boosted and picked up more speed, the two were neck and neck.

Oblivion Wing

-A certain cosplaying girl near the back glances up from her phone-

I used to work for someone who did poaching but I didn't get any sense they were in a guild so... Recap?

Jupiter Orbit

<I'm getting a hint of bias towards wanting Silas to lose,> Sunny muttered to Roy.

"Let's not jump to any conclusions," Roy whispered back. "Arrow has been exclusively defensive so far. Silas opened fire. They may have a point," he allowed.

Oblivion Wing

Amaterasu, wearing her human form, has been keeping herself relatively hidden for a while. She can be found, with enough searching, but for now, she has elected to stay silent.

She has a few Pokeballs with her, and her shirt reads "達".

Edited by AbsentCoder on Jan 21st 2019 at 3:48:08 AM

Oblivion Wing

-An athletic-looking woman in a form-fitting, Roserade-themed costume glares at the cosplayer in the back, but says nothing and turns back to the Jackal and the Fox, one hand on her Tropius's back.-

Gaia: I am familiar with such groups and their style of operations. I presume that all of you are prepared to deal with them?

Somewhere

-Amidst the barrage of malware sites and pop-up ads, Halis's PDA may receive a text.-

Oblivion Wing

Priscilla, completely covered in her armor save for her helmet: They're organizing. Not too surprising given the circumstances; this sort of black market industry needs a level of organization to be profitable, though this level of formality is admittedly new to me. Kinda hits too close to more mainstream industrial cartels. What's up with that?

-The shadows seem to shift.-

-And then out of the aforementioned shadows, a cloaked, masked figure enters the group's field of vision.-

Rogue: ...Hope the openings weren't filled up already.

-They give the briefest glance toward Gaia.-

Halis notices this text and replies to it posthaste, not wanting to miss a chance in communication.

The GM House

-Deziree finishes packing up her bag - with all the essentials for delving into Alakagross ruins! Well, almost. She was still missing an Auric for this particular adventure, since Mobius seemed oddly adamant to not going.-

-She looks over to see Ludmilla, sitting on the couch where she'd made her reading nook for the last three weeks.-

Deziree: Hey, Millie.

-Ludmilla looks up.-

Deziree: Wanna go on an adventure?

-Ludmilla goes back to her book before Deziree scoops up Ludmilla and unrolls her from her blanket.-

Deziree: I didn't hear a no!

Ludmilla: Mrph.

Banshee's answering machine.

Henry: Tell me again, Banshee. How hard is it to look for a palm tree in the Arctic? I gave you a simple task, and yet here I am waiting for an escaped Alolan exeggutor. Now, you can give me back my deposit now or you can give me the exeggutor you promised five days ago in 48 hours. Let's sweeten the deal; you give it back to me in less time and you'll retain your next contract. Hunting spinarak shouldn't be too difficult now, would it? And don't forget. Best Berry has DNA tags; to pull off a switcheroo would be... unwise. Apparently, Delta seems to deliver the goods for a fraction of what you're costing us even when he resorts to price gauging. You don't want to lose this fat contract now, do you? That's a good poacher. I will call back.

Edited by MasterJayAM on Mar 1st 2019 at 8:10:48 PM

~Of course I don't want him to win! I have money riding on this!~ Thraxx explains.

Ziltoid smirks as best he can, ~Thraxx and I make bets every so often on this sort of thing. We hire champions to fight for us. He hired the Bounty Hunter Arrow, I hired Silas by giving his ship artificial gravity.~

The large screen boots up and begins to display a network of sorts of various poachers, notable "faces" including Hunter J and Delta.

"The Hunter's Guild is a international crime organization based around the trafficking of pokemon, and is often the reason so many of them have high tech tools such as the Petrifiers-"

Display a old model arm cannon petrifier and new model rifles and pistol models, as well as a diagram of how it works.

"-that are often used. Last year they hit a snag when Detective Sholto caught one of their "Customers" who had a list of known Hunters with faces and info, probably as some form of blackmail insurance but it ended out catching numerous poachers who had avoided law due to their anonymity and lack of actual records."

The screen showed several unmasked poachers all with a big mark over them reading "ARRESTED".

"I came into contact with Delta a little while ago during my time stuck "working" for the thief known as Jay. Since then I've been waging a private little war, destabilizing his infrastructure and networks. Delta stands out as a more technological poacher-"

Display of a server farm, and then that farm on fire, complete with a Charizard wearing a vented mask

"-that Hazard and I have had to deal with. The guild itself is insidious in that it's hidden itself so well that we're not certain it exists."

Hacks spoke up, ~Well we're certain it does, after all we did gleam some message logs to and from someone named "Castle". The guild is incredibly secretive so it's not been a easy fight, hence the destabilization.~

Silas nodded and clicked onto the next image, it was of microdrones, pistol petrifiers, advanced netguns, and a blurry image of the orange helmet of Delta, "As far as we can tell the guild rewards excellence and Delta's under Hunter J in that category officially but quickly advancing for his no nonsense style. He called me out to a fight and even made a fake bomb threat to get me there, he proceeded to pull my team apart and then still had a mon left to mess with me. If I'm making anything clear is that these guys don't waste time and probably won't just toss pokeballs at you hoping for a fair clean fight. Especially not with the petrifiers."

Roxy spoke up, "That said let's avoid any casualties, I think Silas has enough nightmares as it is and we want a level of deniability."

Silas nodded, "Delta's a big challenge and I think he's more than prepared for any nonsense, if he took me apart with ease, I don't wanna know what he has in mind for our powered members."

The screen displayed another image, it was of a island off the coast of Sinnoh, it appeared to have a small modern town in it, only the town was notably abandoned, "We're not going after Delta specifically, he sent me this target, probably as a test of some sort but a poacher is a poacher and I couldn't just let this go by."

The next image was of a oddly armored individual, a singular red V visor on their helmet, and what appeared to be mechanical lining to the suit.

"This is Banshee, little is known about them beyond noted similarities to Delta, which is not a good thing. This means that Banshee is also a no nonsense individual who's likely got their grunts and guards on command to take out all intruders using whatever they can."

Out of the wall popped Bishop, "We can tell that Banshee also uses similar technology due to a datastream coming from the island, presumably from their own servers meant to run the tech needed such as the Microdrones and scanners."

The next slide was of the scanners themselves, small pen shaped drones, "These guys only do one thing, locate mons, they can apparently scan the smallest trace of Pokemon DNA."

Roxy blinked, "Wait doesn't that mean several of us are likely to get sniffed out?"

"I'm still not sure what the transformation does and honestly I don't want to find out if these things can spot us, just avoid their paths all together and don't destroy them. They'll come running if a drone goes down."

Hacks nodded, ~One last thing we have to say before we take any further questions is this.~

"Delta revealed to me that he wasn't bothered by what I was doing and found my resistance amusing, after all he has countless server farms so even if he suffers some setbacks to a big one going down it won't be a big loss, he just has backups. But when we scanned the island as far as we could tell there was only that one Datastream so as far as we know, one server set. This is odd for someone so similar to Delta."

The screen clicked off and Silas looked about the room, "Okay everyone. Any major questions? Ask now or back out while you can, cause Bishop'll be making this boat take off soon."

Oblivion Wing

-Gaia listens to Silas's briefing impassively, then shakes her head.-

Gaia: I do wonder how the town came to be abandoned, but that is merely personal curiosity. Again, I have experience with such groups. I have worked with partners of Detective Sholto before, and while I suspect that we are being lured into a trap, I believe we are more than capable of-

-She stops suddenly when she notices Rogue, and turns to face them, any trace of surprise in her expression hidden by her helmet. When she does speak, it is in a tone of perfect neutrality.-

Gaia: ...What, exactly, are you doing here? I thought you had decided that it was in your best interests to stay out of such proceedings.

Cerulean City

-And indeed, Lucius is stood behind Halis, chewing on an ice cream.-

Lucius: So, did you catch a mon, or turn into one? I was a little unclear on that point.

Edited by Herbert40k on Jan 21st 2019 at 1:17:44 PM

Halis: "EEP!"

Halis makes a vaguely-squeaky noise, quickly retreating and fumbling with the PDA having just read the message shortly before this happened, realizing it's just Lucius.

Halis: "H-how did you do that? Sneaking up on me isn't something people just do for fun... uh, anyway, both? I caught a Bellsprout named Orea, and I temporarily turned into a... Sandshrew, I think? It was a weird icey version, though, not the ones I've seen around here... that whole experience was bizzare, really."

Halis takes a moment to calm down after having been scared by this sudden arrival.

Cerulean City

-Lucius shrugs.-

Lucius: Fae shit. Sometimes I find myself in random places, with no memory of how I got there or why. Though that may just be the drinking. I'm not sure on that point.

-He smiles at Halis.-

Lucius: Anyway, that's great to hear! You're halfway there. And also slightly-less-than-half Pokemon now, but I digress. Wanna visit one of those stores?

Oblivion Wing, Over Sinnoh

Priscilla: I've encountered the Hunter's Guild referenced in several of the emails I intercepted from my brother, though he never gave too many details. The most I can piece together is that a division of the Best Berry corporation relies on them to recover escaped or seized pokémon.

Murphy, manifesting as a porygon looked at his trainer, then dematerialized.

Murphy, in Priscilla's suit: So, how much do we know about this facility so far? Should be take reconnaissance? How good are their firewalls?

Priscilla: Indeed. What are our current tactical advantages so far? How big a stockpile do we have altogether? How well do we know their defenses? Where can we strike first to cause the most amount of disruption?

Halis puts their PDA away and re-tightens their scarf a bit, looking around a bit.

Halis: "That'd be nice, yes... I've actually been trying to look for them a bit, but I can't seem to find... well, anything about it, posted or otherwise. It must be really well-hidden, but I'm guessing you know where it is, so that's fine."

Halis is ready to follow Lucius's lead.

Oblivion Wing

-Shaun's grip on his bow tightens.-

Shaun: "Death is too good for poachers."

-Vulpecula pats him on the back.-

Vulpecula: "No questions here. Just raw, deep-seated anger."

Jupiter Orbit

<Money is the fastest way to compromise integrity,> Sunny considered. <We at least have a neutral third party to act as a referee to this, right?> She asked.

Oblivion Wing

So there's a massive cartel of poachers out there and we need to prove that we'd be able to deal with them, Amaterasu considered. "And we need to be certain to do it without a trace, lest we get hunted down by the poachers," she said to herself.

"What do we know about the place we're raiding? Anything like its layout?" She asked, her tails flitting behind her.

-Rogue listens to the briefing, silently processing the information. Upon Gaia's inquiry, however, Rogue speaks in a tone that, to the one person who knows their identity for sure, is surprisingly dismissive, not even turning to look at her again.-

Rogue: I needed a change of pace. An opportunity to do something worthwhile. I hope you understand me having my own reasons for being here. You should be the last person to question it, considering you're back in action for the first time in years yourself.

Edited by BittersweetNSour on Jan 21st 2019 at 9:04:17 AM

Oblivion Wing

-Gaia eyes Rogue for a moment longer, expression still unreadable behind her helmet, before giving a small nod.-

Gaia: ...Very well. I will keep an eye on you. And you should be the last individual to comment on my return to duty, considering that you know why it is necessary.

Cerulean City

Lucius: Alright, follow me!

-He throws open the door to the nearest random building and steps through.-

???

Channah: -in response to Guzzlord Suit's explanation- Doesn't sound like the kind of thing I'd volunteer for, but uh, alright.

Hale: <IdonotknowSafeguard.>

Channah: I was gonna swap you out anyway.

Hale: -glares- <Andwhatifthemaliciousonereturns.>

Channah: Oh we're fine, and you're not my only Pokemon.

Hale: <Merelythemostcompetent->

Channah: -switches Hale out for Montanari before he can insult the rest of her team again- -to Guzzlord Suit- Can you... move out of the way, then?

Even Halis is a bit confused by this.

Halis: "But, uh, that doesn't look like the... oh, nevermind."

They follow Lucius into the seemingly-unrelated building.

Oblivion Wing

-The cosplayer sighs a little-

I said used to, it's been like a decade and I've been keeping in good graces with basically everyone since then.

-She goes back to checking her phone-

Ammy's already asked everything I was thinking of asking.