Onward: Orange

[voidtreckermods]

On the second night those still on the train may be woken by rough seas, the train lurching and rolling in the waves.

If they manage to sleep through the choppy waters they might instead be woken by the voice over the ICPs. "Orange team to doors. Orange team to doors."

Those that head the instruction and exit out of the luggage carriage or dressing room doors will be met with a strange sight.

The sea is glowing. Or at least part of the sea. Underneath them, from where Bui lies there is a light that shines upwards through the dark water, rippling over the water, breaking into specks of light in the waves.

It seems it is time for another investigation.

Night Dive

The water is even colder at night, the water eerie as they make the dive down to the city. The whole city is lit up, light reflecting off shells and coral.

The light seems to be coming from the far palace. Outside the palace there is a sigil, in the shape of a shell, glowing brightly. It had not been there before, nothing to suggest there had been anything special about that patch of ground. Yet it glows now.

Crabs

The city of Bui, until now, has been peaceful, eerily empty even. But as they investigate they will find a different problem. Some of the giant crabs have found their way to the city. Not overwhelming numbers, but enough to be a problem, especially as their aim seems to be attacking the sleeping citizens.

On the Train

For those who remain on the train dawn brings it's own problems. Dawn breaks into darkness, the sun barely penetrating. Shadows are deep and the temperature cooler. It is not too dark to see, more like an endless twilight.

The seas remain rough and choppy, like a storm is brewing.

Comments

[mtsilver_conquor]

TRAIN
Anytime Eva's on the train, she can be found looking out at the stormy sea, naked worry in her eyes as she scans and rescans the horizon, one hand holding onto the edge of the doorway, the other at her throat, half curled around a non-existent pendent. "Let the storms pass, let the Titan drive them away with a flap of her wings..."

It's a simple prayer, but one said in earnest. "Please-"


CRABS
A - Local pokemon trainer hates crabs
"This would be easier if I had Helmutt," the pokemon trainer mutters as a powerful finned kick takes her out of the way of the crabs, Lele darting in to take her place. "Lele: Psycho Shock!!"

If you're watching - or fighting the crabs with Eva- you see the porygon2's eyes light up and the effect is almost comical. Bright pink against neon green. But, that's not all you see as psychic energy literally manifests into several bright pink petals, that then slice through the water and slam into the crab. The effect is brutal, though mostly hidden behind the now murky water.

Eva turns to you. "Do you think that dealt with it?"


B- Escape the crabs!
"MOVE!"

That's the only warning you get before Eva barrels into you and yanks you out of the way of a particularly large and nasty crab's pinchers. "Ugh! Come on, let's get some distance between it and us- Maybe one of the air-bubbles this place has?"

Either way, she's tugging you along with her.


EXPLORING (or oh look, her porygon2... talks?)
When she's not fighting crabs, Eva's very much poking around the underwater city, Lele trailing her as the porygon2 records everything onto its memory banks. Now and again, Eva does find something pretty enough she's tempted to take it, but she never does.

Anyone who comes across her during this time will become aware her porygon2 has the voice of a bland robotic female.

What do? Confront her about it, or listen in on whatever conversation she's having(?) with it?

[blue_ice]

The sea has been stirred up tonight, and Kaiba definitely doesn't like it. He's pretty much defenseless, so he's had to rely on stronger teammates for help. He whines, but he's been behaving himself.

He's reluctantly staying close to Eva and the Porygon, and in the quiet as he unearths various meaningless carvings...that voice absolutely catches his attention. He swims back up to them.

"...what did you say?"

[mtsilver_conquor]

It's telling Eva freezes a bit before answering, voice light even if she doesn't feel it. For all she trusts Kaiba- It's fast becoming a habit to brush over her world, to tell people just enough but never go into detail.

And well. She's pretty sure people would have a heart attack at the thought of an AI, no matter how chained and shackled and bound to her will it is, on the train. Or think Lele was sentient, or worse, sapient.

"Huh? Oh, just that this reminds me of Kaina's markets, but underwater."

[blue_ice]

"...your voice sounded strange. But maybe that's the helmet system."

Kaiba squints at her suspiciously. He doesn't buy that at all. But he knows it's better to lead around to the point than to press.

"Kaina was like this? A small local market?"

[mtsilver_conquor]

"It could be, yeah. These do seem rather old fashioned."

She might keep it out of her voice, but her shoulder's slump, just a bit, in relief.

"Local but also world-famous. I've visited a few times, though I stayed away from the Tourist End." even though the helmet, it's clear her face's scrunched.

[blue_ice]

"Tourist ends are terrible everywhere," he agreed, observing the stalls in this eerie light. The architecture was oddly beautiful. Each item for sale told a story, items hanging in the water.

He looked back at them, still squinting. "We shouldn't stay too long. I'm hearing noises I don't like."

[mtsilver_conquor]

"Yeah and more chance of being recognised," there's a distinctly unhappy tone to her voice.

Eva blinks then scoffs with a wave of her hand. "You're hearing things. I've only heard us talking here, and we haven't even seen everything on offer."

[blue_ice]

"...I don't think that was your voice," Kaiba disagrees. "Everyone down here is unconscious except the three of us."

Not two. Three. He squints.

[mtsilver_conquor]

Eva flinches, just a little.

"... Lele's an AI. I undid the vocal locks a little to let it talk."

Let him make of it as he will.

B.

[deductiongeek]

Conan was a very experienced adventurer with a seemingly endless list of skills and expertise.

Conan was also three feet tall and none of his gadgets worked underwater. This left him extremely ill suited to fighting crabs underwater. It was probably a good thing that Eva grabbed him. And that he was small enough to drag along easily.

"I saw an air bubble not far from here. Down the hallway and to the right."

[mtsilver_conquor]

"Hopefully we'll make it before we become crab food-"

Not that she's looking behind her to see how close the crab is. Nope. Eva is far more focused on the directions she was given and as soon as they reach that air bubble, she literally yeets Conan up into it first.

"Up you go-"

Her safety is secondary to a child's.

[deductiongeek]

It takes a moment of flailing before Conan is able to adjust and bring himself to a stop.

"Was throwing me up here really necessary?"

[mtsilver_conquor]

"If it helps, it was to get you to safety faster than you could have normally," Eva says as she hauls herself up out of the water, though not unscathed, given the vicious kick directed downwards. One of her flippers has had a chunk taken out of it, though Eva doesn't pay it any mind, eyes riveted to the water below as she places herself between it and Conan.

"So... either that thing's going to try and follow us up -Dancer can probably handle it-" she doesn't sound that confident, "it'll wait down there, or it will get bored and wander off."

[deductiongeek]

He really hated how useless all of his tools were down here. Anywhere else and he could have at least kicked something at the crabs. Here all he could do was swim away, and that too was limited by his size.

"What about a trap?"

If they could expect where it would be, it was predictable. And that might be just enough.

[mtsilver_conquor]

"That'd be the easiest to pull off, more so if we can lure a few of them into it," Eva agrees as she takes a quick, calculating look around the area with an experienced eye.

"Just depends how messy you want the end result to be, really. It wouldn't have to be, but Princess is up with Kuroba-kun so we can't use Sing, and Lele's out of juice re: attacks but it could probably do a hologram... Ne, Conan-kun, if I give you Lele's 'ball, could you release it at the same time I do Dancer?"

[deductiongeek]

Conan considers this.

"If you tell me how to release it. I haven't gotten a close look at how those work yet."

[mtsilver_conquor]

Eva holds out Lele's pokeball in one hand, Dancer's in the other, finger poised over the central button.

"Central button but move your finger out of the way right after to avoid burned fingers, but I do have potions on me. Anyway, don't wait for it to form. Say 'Auth: Pro: HoloDe'."

Which, when le is released, will spawn two holograms that will zip into the water to lure in as many crabs s possible, while Lele remains, specifically, in front of Conan.

"Another thing, Eva says, and it's not the friendly, casual woman so many know her as, but the woman hardened by her world, the woman who's wrapped herself in the mantle of Champion. "if I move, you move and fair warning, I will grab you if I need to. Your safety is paramount, potions or not. I know how to deal with monsters; trust me, please?"

Escape the crabs

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin swivels his head around as soon as he hears the order. He suddenly feels himself yanked by the arm in a most emphatic way, and when he looks behind him, there is that big, ugly crab waving its pinchers angrily at him. And right beside him is Eva, in her most no-nonsense mood.

"Hi, Eva!" he grins at her. "Obviously you're taking your big sister role seriously. Feeling protective about me, your adopted little brother? Okay, if you like, we can take a break. There are some tunnels with air bubbles not far from here."

He points in the direction of the tunnel mouths.

[mtsilver_conquor]

"You're an elf, that makes you older than me, Curufin-san." There's a laugh though, because yes, yes she's feeling protective. More so because this is underwater and she can't move as fast as she'd like.

That said, very much tugging/dragging him in the direction pointed as fast as she can go. "As long as we can get up into them, I can drive the crabs off. Probably. Either way, I'm going to have words with the Train after. I'm, a pokemon trainer and that means I should at least have access to my pokemon for the missions. It'd make things so much easier!"

[so_dark_a_road]

"Only about 2800 years older than you, Eva! That's hardly anything. I'm barely out of my adolescence." He's laughing, too. Actually, he's the equivalent of a 28-year-old mortal, but he likes to exaggerate for the sake of humor.

He gives the crab a swift kick, knocking it away from them, and then he lets Eva tug him in the direction he indicated, chuckling all the way. Other crabs are following them, though. When they get there, it turns out Curufin was talking about the domes of air, one of which has an entrance conveniently near.

"In here?" he says, shoving the door open. "Say, what happened to your pokemon? Did the train refuse to let you bring Princess along, or has this world's magic-suppressing effect deprived you of his company?"

[mtsilver_conquor]

"Ahh. So basically, something like 20?" There's a laugh in her voice as if his laughter is infectious. It might as well be when it keeps her mind off the darker side of the situation: that if they don't deal with the crabs, they will be out of luck.

Hopefully, the fox won't let that happen, but she doesn't think so.

Eva all but dives through the door and scrambles up into the air dome, which thankfully, is rather large.

"Princess's on Kuroba-kun sitting duty, Lele's out of juice or it'd be firing off a few Destruction Beams," she means Hyper Beam, "at the crabs- and Dancer would drown."

Yet, even as says that, she's looking around the doom with a critical eye, Dancer's 'ball in hand. "If we can lure them in, Dancer can take them out, but it'll be messy."

[so_dark_a_road]

"Closer to 30, but my mother treats me as if I were still a teenager, and I kind of like it. It makes me feel loved, and it make me remember the old days. So, I make jokes about it." He hears the laugh in her voice and it lightens his heart to think that his humor entertains her and keeps her thinking about the positives.

The fox better be looking out for Eva!

He follows her into the opened door of the dome and looks around curiously.

"Ah, Princess is being responsible, looking after Kaito! Nice of him. And as for your others, can you summon them to come to you here? I see what you mean about luring the crabs into this place. They couldn't run away once they were trapped, and we could kill them one way or another."

[mtsilver_conquor]

"I know what you mean and yeah, it can be nice." Most of the time, anyway.

"Only because I told him to, actually," Eva admits as does rough calculations on the fly before tapping the pokeball's central button to release the contained pokemon. Dancer appears mid-air in a multicoloured burst of light and sound, wheeling around to land on Eva's shoulder. "Hm? Oh, yeah. That's the handy part about monsterballs. Anyway, Dancer can handle them- all we'df have to do is get out of the way. I can probably use Lele to lure them in..."

[so_dark_a_road]

Family has it's upside and it's downside!

"Hi, Dancer!" he greets the pokemon with a grin. "All right, sounds like a plan!" he says to Eva. "Lele can lure the crabs in here, and Dancer can handle them once they're here. And if anything goes wrong, I have my goblin sword and dagger."

[mtsilver_conquor]

"It shouldn't, but..." Well, she only has one functional pokemon to pull this off with and she doesn't know how many crabs Lele will lure in. But, she's faced worse and they dod have the SA's if things get upended. A exhale and then a sharp nod as Eva swaps Dancer's 'ball for Lele's, the porygon2 appearing in the same flash of light. "Lele: OpLure."

There's not even a bob as Lele zips into the water and Eva backs away, eyes pinned to the water as she motions Curufin to get behind her, while Dancer migrates down her forearm until Eva's holding the bird like a falconer.

And then, the mantle of Champion settles about her.

"Stay behind me and if I move, you move. This is a high-level street battle in a small space. One that will get messy but as long as you are behind me you will be safe."