Cerulean City

-I follow Bastion and Misango to the Cerulean Gym-

"We'll have someone up in a few minutes Ma'am. We're just-"

The castle shuddered for a moment, the lights went out, and came back on.

"-Dealing with some issues, this place is old and the generators are a bit rusted. Please be patient."

Jackal's voice came over, "I recall some stuff about a island called Hyul detailed in a report by one of my associates at my job. If I recall the report said Nightingale was there as well, I believe they can cover what is up with "elf ears" more. Apparently they met a princess who was the last of her kind and she's currently out and about, exploring the world."

There was a few moments of silence, and then, "Ancient societies lecture. Hm. Might need to attend that. According to the report that happens tomorrow around midday, it may be nothing, but it should help clear up some questions."

"Of course it seems largely voluntary."

Obelisk's voice came over, "Perhaps we should attend."

"Up to you Gaia, you're the one taking point on this undercover work."

Castle Lycanrow, Rosalind's Quarters - Infiltration Day

-Marigold stops midway through changing to sigh into the intercom.-

Marigold: Urgh, typical. I suppose it would've been too much to expect such technical issues to be ironed out before I arrived.

-She then puts her finger to her ear to reply to Rogue and Jackal.-

Marigold: No surveillance equipment is good. I was unable to find any bugs in my room, so I presume we are above suspicion for now. As for this island, I will confess that I'm not familiar. It seems sensible for me to attend this lecture tomorrow in order to glean what if any intentions Pokefutures have for the island before assisting with the rest of the team's infiltration.

Rooftop, Lumiose City

Walter: If I may posit a suggestion, I strongly recommend that you release Mr. Thomas' and Jonathan's pokémon and direct them to provide assistance to the superhero if you do not want what I assume is your father to escape before he sees reason.

Beat.

Walter: Also, you might want to actually use this device for its intended purpose. As much as I loathe to listen to Simple Plan, Weezer, N*Sync, and Sum 41, there's something you should know about this device. There are modes that will allow you to hide your aura signature while using your own auric powers unabated. I've since configured it to that setting. You're welcome.

Edited by MasterJayAM on Mar 18th 2019 at 7:51:44 PM

Rogue: ...Interesting. If not for the circumstances, I'd almost want to attend the lecture for the sake of actually learning the stuff.

-And they continue onward to Marigold's chambers.-

-With incredible timing, it would seem.-

Rogue: ...

Rogue: ...

M: <...Maybe stop staring?>

-Rogue looks away.-

Edited by BittersweetNSour on Mar 17th 2019 at 8:58:12 AM

Ivan, putting his headphones back on: "Hmm..."

-Two figures appear on Ivan's shoulders.-

Ivan's Good Angel: ~You should go assist your friend! He may need help!~

Ivan's... Other Good Angel: ~Kick your dad's ass! He deserves it!~

Ivan: ~I thought one of you was supposed to be evil?~

Ivan's Good Angel: ~He's sick, but Angel Resources gave a statement that the department is more or less united on this issue. By the way, eat more oranges.~

-Poof. They're gone.-

Ivan: "Hmm..."

-Ivan rustles in his bag and pulls out the industrial-sized can of facepaint. He shoddily puts together a disguise for himself and Calvin.-

Ivan?: "Fear not, Arachna-Guy, for it is I, the totally not made up Silver Sentinel!"

Calvin?: <and me, the wonderful shinescale, etc. etc. etc.>

-Ivan seems to have stolen a tablecloth, painted his face, amd adorned a... whatever those blindfolds with holes in them are called, in silver.-

-Calvin is just a bit shinier than usual.-

   The Last Laugh   : "Another wannabe hero enters the fray! You doofuses just keep coming, eh?"

-TLL flings a table at Sil Sen. A strong blast of water from Shinescale stops it midair... which leaves an opening for a Chaos Balloon from TLL. Shinescale is hit with a water balloon that's- it's just a frozen water balloon. It hurts like hell, still.-

-Also, Drake and Shinji emerged stealthily, during this.-

Edited by redneckphoenix on Mar 17th 2019 at 9:16:27 AM

Castle Lycanrow, Marigold's Quarters - Infiltration Day

-Marigold reddens slightly as Rogue reenters the room, pausing midway through pulling up her tights to glare at them.-

Marigold: ...Care to knock next time?

Rogue: (high pitched "I Fucked Up" voice) Um. Yeah. My bad.

-They tap their helmet a bit.-

Rogue: Myra please reset my systems quickly so I can go back to stealthing and hide from the world forever

M: <What was that about being careful with names?>

-The helmet turns off, then reboots, as does the active camouflage in their cloak.-

-And they promptly exit the room, hood pulled over their head.-

Edited by BittersweetNSour on Mar 17th 2019 at 9:24:05 AM

Lumiose City Streets

Drake: <Finally, we get to do superhero stuff for a change! Love the upgrade, Arachna-Guy.>

Arachna-Guy: Okay, I know I said I was okay with backup but this isn't exactly what I had in mind. Also, thanks, strange joltik that I've never met before in my life. Go attack those drifloon. And uh... Silver Sentinel. Tell your kabuto to strike those things out of the sky with a rock throw.

Arachna-Guy, meanwhile, once again attempts to strike at the Last Laugh, being careful not to harm any of the civilians.

Arachna-Guy: Aranos, direct your attention to the Mr. Mime.

An alarming moment occurs to Arachna-Guy: his inhaler has run out of medication.

Jonathan by this time has already left, leaving a pair of really expensive [Vans] shoes in the ground.

Edited by MasterJayAM on Mar 17th 2019 at 10:01:48 PM

As soon as Marigold finished dressing, a intern knocked on the door, "Miss Taylor. I am here to escort you to the dining hall."

Outside with Rogue, her comms cracked in came Jackal's voice, "Rogue you okay? Your suit's telemetry shut down, was a little worried there for a moment. Everything okay?"

Silver Sentinel: "Yes, go, forge your path! Fulfill your duty!"

   The Last Laugh   : "You know who you sound like?"

-Ivan sweats.-

"You sound exactly like [Dr. Phil.] I hate that show, it's always so-"

-TLL's shitty pun is cut off by a web to the mouth. He can still breathe, but the web on his mouth is really distracting from the web on his feet.-

   TLL, muffled   : "Mrh [Vrns]..."

-A large zap from Drake and a healthy-sized rock barrage knock out the Aerries. They explode spontaneously, for like the fifth time this week.-

Marc: 😐

-Marc flings up a Protect. He's not getting paid enough. Fortunately, he deflects the attack from Aranos. Unfortunately, that leaves TLL open for a strong blast of water from Shinescales. The web is blown away, while TLL is flung off the roof.-

   TLL   : "I'm Okay!"

Ivan->Tommy: ~Your stress levels are rising. You good?~

-TLL emerges from behind the building, dusting himself off. He flings a balloon full of sawdust at Arachna-Guy.-

Edited by redneckphoenix on Mar 17th 2019 at 10:09:14 AM

Near Eddisburg

Skadi is camped out on a hill, a winter camo cloak thrown over them, watching Castle Lycanrow through a pair of binoculars. Next to them, Gloire is phased mostly into the ground, only her head poking out.

Skadi: "Different scenario, same damn thing. Two months shy of 74 years. Funny how little things change."

Gloire nods.

Skadi: "Even better, we don't have to sit out here all night, waiting for a signal. We can do that in a heated room with tea."

Vermillion

Red and Lifthrasir are walking around town.

Nothing could possibly go wrong, right?

Right?

They're not being followed by an odd-looking Gallade.

Nope.

He's just going the same way they are.

Castle Lycanrow, Marigold's Quarters - Infiltration Day

-The moment the intern knocks, Marigold looks up at the door with mild annoyance.-

Marigold: One moment.

-She finishes dressing, adjusts her cuffs, then opens the door.-

Marigold: Ah, pleased to meet you. Shall we get moving? I'd rather not keep everyone waiting on my first day here.

Edited by Herbert40k on Mar 17th 2019 at 2:22:34 PM

Eddisburg Streets

-Pent-disguised-as-a-tourist stops against a wall to talk obnoxiously into his phone (and at the Aurabolt comms)-

Yeah I hope they got a cater-combs tour. Did one back in Lumee-o's and it was swell. Any pics you want if I git down there?

-Pent stays on his phone as he goes looking for any access to the catacombs from within the town-

"Of course Ma'am. Follow me."

The Intern lead Marigold into a elevator, and it went up 5 floors, and into a hall, which lead to a large dining room. Inside were top science types of all shapes, sizes, and colours. The one at the head was a curly brown haired woman with fair skin, and a pair of thick green glasses, her eyes couldn't be seen behind them.

"Aaaaaah, you must be Marigold. So glad Corporate could send us a history buff, welcome. Please sit, the meal will begin shortly."

The intern left and Marigold was left to seat herself, a goblet of wine nearby.

The woman at the head spoke again, "I am Dr. Elizabeth Tonio, pleasure to make your acquaintance."

-Rogue's voice squeaks over the telecomm-

Rogue: Yep! Totally fine. Nothing happened. That was just, uh, a minor technical malfunction. When there's a Rotom in your helmet, these things happen, you know? It's all fixed now. Everything is peachy-keen.

M: <Just this once, I will forgive you for blaming me.>

Castle Lycanrow, Dining Hall - Infiltration Day

-Marigold takes a seat next to Dr. Tonio, picks up the goblet of wine, and smiles.-

Marigold: Charmed. I must say, I'm delighted to finally meet you in person, Doctor Tonio. Your research has long been an inspiration to me, so it's a great privilege to be able to work alongside you now.

Lumiose City

Arachna-Guy, in his head: ~I'm fine. This mask has a filter.~

Arachna-Guy shoots a polymer cord and flings himself up the roof. Aranos, meanwhile, fires a poison jab at Marc. Or two. Or several.

Arachna-Guy: Okay, man, don't you think this has gone on long enough? Like, what could you possibly hope to gain from this? If it isn't someone else's pokémon, it's going to be the police, or some other group of superheroes, or me and that other guy again, or some angry time cop who thinks he's Jake Peralta. The worst you've done is vandalism, and all you're going to merit is, what, three, maybe four weeks' worth of community service? Someone out there is going to be disappointed in you. Plus, you're like, in your forties and are probably very out of shape. If I wanted it, you'd be a pretzel by now.

He didn't need to lie. He could probably reduce this wannabe into a crying mess if they were to engage physically.

Edited by MasterJayAM on Mar 17th 2019 at 10:44:07 PM

"Jeez, maybe when you get back I should look over your equipment, make sure this doesn't happen again."

A voice became audible in the background, Jackal chose to ignore it, "Still, I'll patch you through to Nightingale, they can cover anything about that elf ear island and we can go from there about tomorrow's lecture, Patching you thro-"

The voice of Fox became audible, "Hey come on! Stop hiding out here by yourself!"

"Fox, I'm good. I'm doing my jo-"

"Rogue and Gaia are professionals, they got this. Come on the tavern is about to start music and I need a dance partner!"

"Fox... I don't dance. You can use anyone."

"No I can't. It's not right, I picked you and you need to unwind a bit, don't get so high strung that you shut down. The others will be there, it's good fun!"

"...Why me?"

"Because we're dating silly, you dance with your partner. Even if you aren't any good. Come on!"

"I need to-"

"That's a flick of a switch! Come on!"

There was a click and the HUD would show Nightingale's ID listed on the comm channel.

There was the sound of Roxy dragging Silas away from his mic and eventually, the channel went dead, his protests dying out. It clicked off due to a lack of activity, Jackal away to go dance with his girlfriend.

Tonio laughed, "Please stop laying it on so thick, I know you want to please me and all but don't worry. I don't bite!"

The nervous laughter from a few of the other scientists implied otherwise, "Still, I never did get the idea why corporate decided to send you over, the message was really unclear. Just notes about "Extra brains" and "Historical knowledge." I dug into your file and it did say you dropped out of your [German] course."

Tonio took a sip of her wine as servers started to walk in with the food, "Ah well. You looking forward to seeing what the old king buried in here? A few documents haven't been uploaded yet but they seem to be a journal. He was apparently afraid of what he had made. Stating the work was evil incarnate."

She had a wicked grin, "Imagine what he could've done, and how we could use it."

Castle Lycanrow, Dining Hall - Infiltration Day

-Marigold laughs along with Dr. Tonio.-

Marigold: If you insist. I just felt I ought to take the chance to acknowledge the impact of your work - after all, your papers on biomechanical integration are practically required reading for anyone who wants a future with Pokefutures, if you'll pardon the pun.

-She takes a sip of her wine.-

Marigold: Anyway, I freely admit that my [German] needs work, but the nature of my research makes me ideally suited to unearthing Helmuth's creations and I suspect that corporate considers me something of a "rising star", as it were. Hence the transfer. Whatever we find, I'm sure we'll be able to make good use of it.

-Rogue lets out a groan of mild self-frustration, luckily with effort to conceal it.-

Rogue: ...Right. Hey, Night. Jackal said you've got an idea about that island with elf-eared people and stuff? What's your experience with it? Just, keep talking while I go back to doing my job, I'll tap out Morse responses if I need to. Fuck, I think I lost track of her... Guess I'll just do some more recon.

-They go back and explore the halls more.-

Eddisburg Tavern

-Seems another foxgirl has dragged along her reluctant boyfriend.-

-Obscura birb/aura doggo solidarity.-

Eddisburg Streets

-Pent turned another corner and took the opportunity to whisper while heading through an alley-

It was an adventure we went on. Also sorry for how I'm about to sound, undercover right now.

-He exits the alley-

You play much vidjia? It was a bit like the new Zeyda one. Good vacation spot too, big island, friendly natives, old castly ruins kinda like the one 'ere!

-He heads into another alley-

We needed to take control of six ancient mechanical beasts created by a human precursor civilization that fell when a glitch-based ancient Entity took control of their infrastructure.

-And exits the alley-

A'h made some friends. There was a right princess freed up after and she's gone on to just be quiet somewhere a'h think? Stayin' out of trouble after all that strife yaknow?

Edited by Pentigan on Mar 18th 2019 at 2:17:56 AM

Rogue: Interesting. Any connection to the Feywilds, do you know? A tie to Xerneas's domain would certainly explain why it's something these guys brought up in the context of immortality research.

-They pause.-

Rogue: Oh, gods, I almost forgot about Castle Bluestone. Guess we should check that out more on our next trip to Galar.

Eddisburg Streets

I ain't noticed any fairy-likes connection while I was there sorry. I think it was just their weird precur tech radiating a mutation. Though like if we're going to a fae place can I come along? The fae thing always intrigues me even though the downsides to just becoming fae are super not my speed...