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

[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."

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin gets behind her with a grin. He's so used to wearing the (metaphorical) mantle of champion that it is amusing and touching to be told to be the protected one.

"Street battles I understand. Don't worry about me, though. I'm fine, even if it gets messy."

There are crabs outside in the area, and they seem to be drawn towards the dome.

[mtsilver_conquor]

Eva's not sure he does, not with pokemon, but that's neither here nor there. It can be addressed, if at all, later and it's with that in mind she pulls the Champion's mantle tighter until it's armour.

And then Lele zips back into the room, trailed by crabs as it leads the on a marry dance of real-porygon2 and hologram-porygon2. Throughout it all, the pokemon seems to have the time of its life.

Not that Eva cares, keen eyes tracking the number of crabs that enter. There's maybe twenty. It'll do, and a seemingly careless madcap grin crosses her face as she all but flings dancer up into the air over said crabs as they attempt and fail to locate the real prey. "Da!Go!"

Dancer immediately falls into an aerial dance that's more heat shimmer and ember flickers that strangely almost resemble swords. From that, she goes into another aerial dance, first wheeling higher into the air- and then, wreathed in firey white flames that seem to give her much, much larger wings, she dives into the knot of crabs.

The result of the Swords Dance'd Sky Attack on a non-pokemon is... Messy. Sprayfully so, though Eva never once looks away. To do so means she could miss anything left alive, could put them at risk, and she won't do that.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin watches with delight as one pokemon leads the crabs in and the result is a very entertaining crab-and-pokemon dance.

And then Dancer falls upon the crabs with fire and fury.

Curufin shields his face with a sleeve as the walls are sprayed with pieces of crab and fluids of crab. He drops his arm swiftly and looks around to see if any of the crustaceans have survived. His sword is at the ready.

[mtsilver_conquor]

By the time Dancer's done, there's maybe one crab that isn't in pieces, but it's also very, very dead and barely holding together.

Eva lets Dancer loop the room a few more times before recalling the fire-type with a simple 'Good'. She then turns to Curufin. "We need to move. This world's somehow replicating phenomena called Pressure, which means pokemon expend more energy than normal to attack."