PTS-Stones of Power

[Nyaa-Neko]

Flygon-Shana glanced at Ruin with a haughty air. She couldn't help but feel a little angry at the other trainer (because of Rayquaza's intent dislike of the dragon-owner), but then again, she was in kind of an angry mood. In her defense, having a legendary kill off your Pokemon, pull you through fire, embed a molten stone in your neck, then promptly rip it out again wouldn't exactly put anyone in a good mood...

But she couldn't help but feel a little bit revengeful toward Rain, and figured that putting herself with the psychic-person rather than the dragon-person would at least show a LITTLE bit of revenge. Or something. Shana, apparently, still had a teenage human mind, though she was in a most-likely-adult flygon body.

[Ruin Queen of Oblivion]

"I should've stayed in Kanto..." Rain mutters.

[Lee]

Ryki grinned and waved, leaning on one crutch. Really, her foot would be fine in no time. It was just her arms that were a problem.

Though, looking at the flygon (whom she could only supposed was Shana, since she'd never seen such a ...pudgy, flygon before), she wondered if maybe it would be better to be in a Scarmory form.

Only, she might not ever get rid of the burns in her human self, and she liked being human. So maybe she'd only be a Scarmory when she had to move fast or something. Yes, that sounded like a good idea. She'd be human when she could, and when she needed to be mobile and the sort, she'd be Scarmory.

Yes, very good.

"Hello. Nice bath in hot lava, 'eh?"

Rose shook his head, but he couldn't be angry. After all, Ryki was alive and would get better, now would she? So there really wasn't anything for him to be angry about. Until he found Groudon or Kyogre, in which point of case he would pummel them for nearly killing the entire group.

[Nyaa-Neko]

Shana simply glared at Ryki. Insolent little eevee trainer...although, maybe she got what she deserved with the lava.

She blinked her large red eyes, then shook her head. What was she thinking? Revenge wouldn't make her popular!

[MorriganFearn]

(("his darling Ryki"... Heheheh. Shana has such funny perception.))

The psychic breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Ryki walk in the door. At least she was alive. From the floor Famine grined a stitchy grin at his trainer, and Revan caught the trail of Shana's though.

*She's not my darling anything, Shana. I'm just glad to know she wasn't killed. Those ledgendaries have a lot to answer for, but I'd like it if the list of casualties was kept as low as possible,* he sent to the flygon, while pretending to scratch her head. "Hey, Shana, it's all right. When we get out of this lab I'll buy you some flygon treats. Is there anything you'd paticularly like?"

<How can you buy anything with no money?> Pest asked innocently, zooming around his head. <Your pack is cinders. We don't even have a change of clothes.>

His trainer sighed. Revan was tired, and he really didn't want to deal with crap right now. To distract himself he looked over the room. Suddenly his senses twinged the familiar twinge of someone telling what was not the absolute truth, Well, Pest's senss twinged, and Pest passed it on, because he was always one to share. Revan glanced in the direction of the odd boy who was talking to the professor, and introducing the group as "friends" of his.

Beyond the fact that the lie grated across Revan's psychic nerves, he barely knew the kid. And his mother was absolutely fine with the idea that this Jason was introducing "friends" that she had never met before today, and that Jason would be journeying with them? Especially a group that contained two girls and one fully grown man (all right, technically Revan wasn't "fully grown" but still, he was old in comparison to the others).

Revan knew that his mother would have had a fit if he had declared that he was going to be spending time in the company of two girls who were already into their late teens when he was only thirteen. Heck, she would have a fit now, if she saw the company he was currently keeping. Two (three when Shana wasn't a flygon) teenaged girls that Mom had never met before and didn't know if they were "safe" (i.e. not tramps -- Revan's mother was quite harsh on members of her own sex when it came to her darling boy) would not be allowed to travel with Revan.

*Makes you miss her, doesn't it?* Famine commented privately, his mental voice freezingly cold as usual to Revan's mind. That was the problem with telepathy with ghosts, they could do it, but it hurt.

"Mrs. Kurano, please don't mistake Jason," Revan said quickly. "We probably won't be traveling together very far. He merely discovered that we all happened to be going in the same direction and it's better to go as a group than alone, and --," he swung around, hearing Ryki's comment.

"A very fun bath, but Ryki, perhaps not something to discuss right now?" he suggested out of the corner of his mouth. "We can talk about it outside. How are you? Do you need -- I dunno -- burn heal or something?"

[Lee]

Ryki raised her semi-good hand to the back of her head and scratched it innocently. "Mm. So a girl can't even make a joke anymore, is that it? Jeez." She looked towards Jason, and whom she supposed was his mother, since Revan had addressed her as a 'Mrs. Kurano'. Although she was a bit embarassed about being so loose-tongued.

But it wasn't her fault. Ryki just had a hard time keeping her mouth shut. A really hard time.

"Mmm. Burn heal is nice. They had some at the hospital, but I haven't got any." She grinned, "Cleared up most of my foot real quick, and the skin's already growing back on my arms." The only reason she knew that was because it itched. She'd heard that it itched when your skin grew back.

She guessed it was a good thing it itched then. Or else her skin wouldn't be growning back, and that wasn't good.

[MorriganFearn]

Larousse City, Kantorean

He twitched quietly in the gloom of the abandoned lab. He had to get his thoughts in order. The tiny voice that said that this had been a mistake was arguing with about a million other voices. It had long become the weakest influence on his mind. He had to get revenge. To be the hero. To remodle the world in his image.

The man twitched again, trying to marshal the schizophrenic thoughts into one choesive whole. He was a man of science. He should control this, even as his DNA warped out of control, tweaking the chemical make up in his brain.

Hiding the stone from his prying colueges had been a mistake. But it was his discovery, his genius, that they had taken from him. How could anyone say that what he had created was too powerful? How dare they?

The analytical voice of reason calmly told him that he was insane. He accepted this. It was not unexpected, an after effect of using a stone without intervention was that one started taking on certain characteristics. In the case of the misnamed "common" stone: the change and variability of DNA normally possed was rapidly increased, mutations in body chemistry going out of control. Yet ironically they kept themselves quiet, under his skin.

Eevee and their unstable DNA were truely amazing. He felt privaleged to be able to study the effects so closely, and such care. Even though he could no more take on the shape of any of the evolutions he felt the possibilities of each of them in his multiple personality crazed mind. It was fascinating.

Finally he rose, feeling solid in mind for a few moments. Walter was in charge at the moment. That was the name that he had given the "water" personality. The one that wanted to flow around obsticals, and had an icy clear goal in mind.

Chaos, pure and simple, yet so fascinatingly complex. Therein lay the wonderful conundrum. This was where the true greatness of his creation, his research, showed: in the chaos it caused.

So, he would have to spread that chaos around, and to do that, he would need to make more stones, and find more perfect possesors of them.

~~~

Kantorean Lab

Revan's expression was a mix between sympathy, and horror. "We have got to get some burn heals," he said instensely, before his expression turned completely to horror.

*Freeze* Jirachi commanded, and Professor Kurano did just that, as did all of the pokemon in the lab not associated with the little party.

"I so hate doing that," Jirachi tinkled regretfully. "I'm afraid things are moving a little faster than we, um, originally anticipated. Jason, and, um, Shana, you may need to capture some more powerful pokemon. Unless, Shana if you stayed in your flygon form, you would be powerful enough. Anyway, I'm very sorry, but Mewtwo conveiniently forgot to inform us that the common stone, which we had all assumed had been stolen by theives, is actually still in the possession of one of the original scientists who started the stone project."

"Then he's the guy I need to beat up," Revan muttered, thinking really violent thoughts about a person who designed something to run people into dark types.

"Well, I hope that it could be resolved without bloodshed," Jirachi twittered. "And we also discovered that for some reason, Mewtwo wouldn't tell us why, a lucario family was used as stone guardians, and, well, that family has now gone, well, I don't know how to put this, um, missing. So, if you could find them, that would be of great help. However, the most important part is finding the scientist with the Common Stone, I'm afraid. Mewtwo was chuckling a bit when he told us that a human who hadn't been prepared for the stone had a hold of it. That always means trouble."

[Lee]

Ryki sighed at the idea of Burn Heals...They were so wonderful...She loved them...Maybe she should wish for some since Jirachi was here...

Wait. Jirachi? She tuned into the conversation, frowning more deeply with each word. "I thought we were just supposed to protect these stones. Now we have to find some scientist with a stone, and Mewtwo is laughing about the matter?" She felt like a Houndour set on a track...She would forever feel sorry for those pokemon. Always. Always always always.

"This just is not fair. Not in any way." Well, at least she hadn't been told to train her pokemon. Rose could take on whatever needed to be taken on. The rest of her pokemon just didn't want to battle. Well, neither did Rose, but that was besides the point.

[MorriganFearn]

<I know,> Jirachi said, before brightening up and doing a mid air-twirl. <But humans thrive in adversity, I hear. It builds character!>

Revan's eyelid twitched. Famine, at his feet chuckled nastily. <All brightness and light, aren't you. Yeah, nearly getting fired alive does build character. Looking for one pokemon out of millions certainly builds character, and facing down a cliched evil scientist at the end of the day certainly builds character. And psychosis. But as long as you're happy, Jirachi.>

<I am,> Jirachi clearly had the same grasp of sarcasm as the average duck. <I love to see humans improving themselves, and bettering their race.>

"Funny," Revan muttered. "All I see for the future is civilization crashing down around it's ears."

[Lee]

((-pokes roleplay-))

Rose stared at Jirachi with a murderous look. His voice was grating when he spoke (which wasn't understandable by most of the party), < Just you wait. You'll be sorry for having us dumped into that volcano. Couldn't you have stopped them or something? Lava happens to KILL people you know. >

Ryki blinked, staring at Jirachi. She (unknowingly) repeated much of what Rose had said, though in a gentler tone. Of course, it also went along with Revan's, come to think of it. "Umm...Dumping people into lava doesn't improve character. Most of the time, it kills them."

[Nyaa-Neko]

((Time to introduce a buncha characterzzzz! By the way, I now "claim" posession of the Fist Stone and the Toxic Stone for Aerona and the Wing Stone for Shana. I'm assuming Shana will eventually get the Swarm Stone as well, since Rayquaza has that one...

Er...wait...actually, Latios and Latias will come once they leave the lab. ^_^;; So you'll have to wait on that...))

Unknown backroute, Sinnoh:

Aerona grinned as she saw the mother lucario fall, blood spurting out of the bullet wound. The baby, a shiny riolu puppy, frantically called for his mother, even as her eyes turned blank and dead. Aerona figured that the lucario mother, as powerful as she was normal, was entrusted with the deed of looking after two of the stones because she had such a rare baby. They must have hoped her mother's instinct woud carry to the stones as well, or at least keep her and the stones out of harm's way.

Unfortunately, her mother's instinct was what killed her - she gladly took the bullet for her own son.

Crying, the little riolu dashed away, once he realized his mother was dead. But Aerona didn't care - let the shiny thing die on its own, motherless, then find it and sell its pelt. She had larger fish to fry...or, rather, smaller. But hey, there were two of them.

Laughing to herself, she unceremoniously shoved the lucario corpse out of the way, staring at the glittering stones underneath. One was a sort of clear tan-like color with a dark brown symbol she could only assume was the universal fighting logo - a fist. The other was a dark violet, displaying a lavender "X" in the middle.

"Finally...the Fist Stone and the Toxic Stone..."

And with that, the woman put on some rubber gloves, scooped up the two rocks, placed them in a plastic zip-locked bag, put said bag in her backpack, and walked away...leaving the corpse to rot behind her.

---

Kantorean Lab:

Shana frowned. So she had to be a flygon, then? Well, it was better than trying to rip that stupid stone from her neck...stupid, stupid Kyogre with its stupid, stupid plan of randomly letting them fall into a volcano. It was pointless, had too many cons and not enough pros (did it HAVE any pros?), and...was...stupid.

Plus, now she had a melted stone embedded to her neck.

So she simply glared at Jirachi, and hung out by her "trainer", Revan.

((We should leave the lab soon-ish so I can introduce Teh Latis! We can split into groups, if need be...))

[MorriganFearn]

((Yup, watch as Revan has another hissy fit ^^.))

<Um,> Jirachi looked distressed. <Well -- er, I'm certian -- Oh yes, I know what it was. Kyogre said there was a reason he sent you there. Well, rather he had me and Celibi send you there, as Kyogre is bound by the limitations of his body, and as a water type has no power over teleportation. Anyway, he said that the chosen ones could withstand anything, and so you do proving that humanity has the capability to --,>

"I DON'T BELIEVE THIS!" Revan yelled, losing all grip of his temper. "You are out of your mind, you sparkly little star fairy! Ryki is on CRUCHES! She's got second degree burns you idiotic twinkle toes! Every heard of them?! They hurt! Shana's pokemon got CRISPED! Do you even begin to comprehend the damage you crazy psychos in ledgendary land have done?!"

<Whoa,> Famine said, his perpetual smile now not quite so wide. <Revan, there's a line you don't cross.>

"And?" Revan swung around to glare down at the ghost. He was breathing heavily and his eyes were shining a wee bit too brightly.

<You crossed it, I think,> Famine said, pointing up at the floating image of Jirachi, the mentally unscrewed.

Jirachi laughed, a high brittle sound, as bright as Revan's eyes. <Well, well, I was only trying to help, you know. I like helping humans. I like it. I really do.> Papers and pencils were bobbing higher and haigher above the desks scattered around the lab. Underneath where Jirachi was floating a tile began to pull itself lose from the floor.

Then Jirachi straightened with a little effort, all emotion, but psychotic happiness being throttled down. The objects dropped to the desks, and the floor tile flattened out as if someone had smashed it. <Oh dear. I'm sorry about that. I really should have let myself go quite like that. I'm terribly sorry, do believe me.>

Revan opened his mouth again, this time to appologize, however one small hand was wave in front of his face. <I think it best if you leave. Now. All righty? I like to help people, I really do. I really love it. That's why I'm going to ignore you right now. 'Kaysies? Because it would not be helpful of me to either detain you any longer, or rip -- actually, I'm not thinking about that. Bye-bye, now. LEAVE!>

Revan nodded mutely, and began to make a speedy exit.

((I've always thought that happy pokemon were a bit psychotic, deep down. I mean, one day pokemon like chansey and blissey are going to have to crack, right? I also wondered why they gave a dark stone to the psychic type, was it possibly because Jiri is a little schizo? Not that Revan is much better... Muhahaha, evil plot ideas abound, precious.))

[Ruin Queen of Oblivion]

Rain had listened intently to all of this, and shakes her head. Another stone out there missing that's not stolen, this could be trouble, these things should not be misused, she thinks.

[Nyaa-Neko]

((Gonna bump this...with the arrival of "Tia".))

Shana glared at Revan. Oh yeah, mention her darling mega-valuable Pokemon got "crisped", why don'tcha...

She glanced around the lab, rearing back on her legs. She twitched her wings a bit, releasing light vibrations into the air. They bounced around, and she listened to them...

A boring lab. Why were they here? There were no dragons, and having a pichu or spinerak on a dragon team would be...largely innefective. Sniffing the air haughtily, the bug-dragon eyed Revan with a hint of disdain. "<Well, Revan, I think we should go now. I'm sure ->" But she was cut off by the sound of a human dashing into the lab.

"Ah! I found Ray's girl!" The girl grinned, flipping her side bangs back behind her ears. "Great!"

The older teenager couldn't have been more than nineteen. She was sort of tall, around 5' 7", but that was also accented by her inch-tall heels. She wore a red spaghetti-strap dress with a halfway-down-the-thigh flaring skirt, over which she wore a lightweight white jacket (which ended just below her chest). For footware she wore red sandals with barely any soles, held to her feet by thin red straps that snaked up her calves. Her eyes were a bright yellow, clearly accenting the cute smile she wore on her clear face. Finally, her hair was a deep red that fell in a layered cascade just past her shoulders with white bunches of hair pulled from the middle of her head (Shana assumed it was seriously bleached).

All-in-all...

Shana hated this girl. How could she possibly run around looking like a model? Or, at the very least, some bubblegum anime heroine.

The "bubblegum anime" girl smiled cutely at Shana. "Hey there...I don't remember your name, but I've been looking for you...my name is Tia, by the way." Tia's yellow glance darted around the rest of the group. "These must be your friends or whatever, right? Nice to meet everyone!" She waved cutely, flipping her hair as she did so. "Anyway, my brother's outside...maybe everybody could join us? We have some...pretty stone-things we need to hand off. You know, um, trinkets. Or whatever."

((Mwahahaha, I claim Teh Lati-Dragonz.))

[MorriganFearn]

Famine eyed the girl, grinning. She was attractive in that phoney human way where the obsessive need to look cute got in the way of actually being beautiful where it mattered. Not that there was any difference from the rest of the girls met so far. Well, Ryki was too spacey to fall into that pit, but the other two -- one was trying oh-so-hard to be cool mistress of the night and the other was a deluded flygon at the moment.

Revan was edging past the girl before she even got the first perky breath out. He stopped at the sliding glass doors as she finished, however, wincing in pain. The poor girl had a brother? Another bunch of silly kids roped into this psychotic idea cooked up by a dozen of half baked ledgends. They had his sympathies. Poor idiots didn't know what they were getting into.

<Hey, is it just me or do the legendaries choose stupider airheads every time we meet one?> Famine asked the room at large. <If you've got any grand ideas about people saving the world, forget it. Unless you've got money.>

"Famine," Revan glared. "Stow it and let's go."