Sutoratosu

...I have serious misgivings with that statment, but I won't even bother voicing them, cause the whole thing about "Being Light Hearted" is really a dead horse topic at this point here anyways... what would she do... continue being manipulative for a good intention, or... just say screw it and take a partner for herself... ? hmmmm....

To be honest, I was sitting here hoping that some serious shit would start soon... I NEVER go into any story thinking it is going to be all "Happy HAPPY fun times", soldier... such is the exact opposite of the very dictionary definition of Conflict.

Somehow... Mareek made a man out of him... I figured it's about time for Nemo to change for good, finally take to heart every value that's rubbed off on him. Go from a coward, to a warrior... since, ya know soldiers, the little guys actually been put through a nice bit of (Mostly off-screen) crap since he decided to leave home and join Mareek. Plus I thought this was just a great opportunity. though, from this point, I think the parallels between his and Mareek's relationship are going to stop having parallels with Starkiller's and Vader's. Was nice while it lasted though...

Erce let out an indignant growl as she pulled back and took off into the air, scythes held up instinctively to protect her face and eyes from the wet dirt being slung around, though the rest of her was covered with it aside from her buzzing wings. She glanced over at the Nemo's theater, seeing just how much trouble the ground type was having... She had wasted too much time. This ended now. Without another noise, she faded into a blur... before reappearing ever so breifly twice in the air, both times preparing and firing off a lightning quick slice of vacuum pressure at the Small Shellos, and then fading back into the shadows just as the heavy rain fall was beginning to lighten up. Nemo Nemo meanwhile simply lay on the ground after being tossed like a rag doll from the Rock Type's charge. He was hurt, yes, but pain wasn't the main thing keeping him down... he'd just come to realize that the fight was hopeless. Here he was, battling something frickin several times his size, stronger and more resilient than him, an opponent who had just sat here the entire time, brushing off his blows and completely just knocked him away like he was a leaf in the gust. Why the hell should he even bother? Why_not just... keep lying here, let himself appear to be out cold... Erce would be fine on her own, right? she was so much older and stronger, surely she could... she didn't need his help to beat this rhino... "Are you just going to give up?" A familiar voice called. The ground type's eyes flickered open to find Mareek kneeling, looking down into his face- and his eyes were cold... Nemo had no idea they could even get that barren and harsh, what had happened to usual kindness and patience he'd always gotten from him? "I know what you can take Nemo, that attack might hurt, but you've still got more than enough fire in you to keep going. I've seen you take a worst hit from Java during practice, and even though you could barely stand afterwards, you still wanted to keep going. I had to step in and stop you before it got worse. Do you remember that?" Nemo... he did remember that. It was... not too long after the trip, wasn't it? That's right, it was... Mareek and him had been training with swordsmanship, and he had been impressed with how quick of a learner he'd proven to be... and so his trainer had proposed a mock battle against Java to see how well he could apply what he'd learned in actual combat... He struck the porygon with every blow he made with Bone Rush, didn't miss even once... had just the right form too... and then the Co-Strategist had gotten angry at him... and the next thing he knew, He was on the recieving end of a double tap from the normal type's Tri-Attack; was thrown back into a tree so hard he'd blacked out a bit. and Mareek was exactly right, he had gotten back up, and he had wanted revenge... even he could still recall even now how much the attack had hurt and how his entire being had felt stiff as a board... "So I'm taking that as a yes then..." His trainer sighed, breaking the Cubone out of his ruminations as the boy shook his head, eyes still cold and face still blank of expression. "All the work we've done, as far as we've gotten, the strength we've managed to build by working together... trusting each other. And now you want to give it all up just because some rock type happens to be a bit hard to take down? He doesn't hit as hard as those two Tri-Attacks to the face did back then, does he? You're still conscious, so it couldn't have..." Nemo... nemo focused on one word in particular... trust. That's right, wasn't it? trust? wasn't that why he'd gone with Mareek in the first place, wasn't that the whole reason he followed him out of that forest those few months ago? Wasn't that the reason he'd faced off against a Lapras, for Arceus' sakes? Isn't that the reason he still kept going after he'd gotten his ass handed to him in one shot from said lapras? Wasn't it the reason he'd let the trainer teach him anything? He'd put his faith into Mareek for so long, had upheld it and persevered through so much already... and yet, he was going to just lie here in front of this challenge? Even if he was fighting by himself... "I told you earlier that you were going to have to handle this on your own," Mareek continued, startling the ground type. "I lied, Nemo. You will never be alone ever again, so long as Me and Erce and Java are around, I swear that you won't. We're a team, the four of us... which includes you." Nemo... started tearing up a bit at that... drops of water beginning to roll and spill along the interior of his helmet as he stared up, his trainer's face protecting his own from the rain. and he nodded. "You aren't alone, remember that, I'm right here..." the boy continued, drawing his little speech to a close, beginning to stand again. "You aren't alone in this... because we're both fighting. Will you trust me here, Nemo?" He turned his attention back to the Rhyhorn nearby. "Will you trust me like you've already done so many times, even when I put you in situations worse than this?" .... .... .... Nothing. Just staring. staring and rainfall and utter silence. "I have my answer then..." Mareek said, the hardness of his eyes vanished, something different there as he retrieved the Cubone's sphere, "If you don't want to keep going... buddy... no one's going to force you to." No... no... Nemo wasn't, not when he saw that look on his face... That look of not stone, but instead disappointment, of something else too... NO! damn it, he wasn't going to give up! He wasn't going to lose trust now... not after everything that had happened, all the effort he'd given, and certainly not after the fact that though yes, there were hard times... those hard times, trials and tribulations and training... they had all ultimately turned him from a coward into a fighter... and Fighters did not run, Mareek had taught him that, make a tactical retreat maybe, bide their time when needed, but never flat out just run away to never return... only cowards did that. And Mareek was right about another thing... Nemo wasn't alone either. Without a word, the Cubone picked himself up to his feet, glaring at the rock type as the soaked boy moved his hand away from the Ball's trigger behind him, holding out his club and projected a green length of energy, like a samurai preparing to face off. "CUBE!" he shouted, glancing back as the rain pelted his already damp fur, dripping off his helm and club. And there was fire in the little swordsman's eyes. And Mareek just smirked in response, thrusting out an outstretched palm towards the Rhyhorn. "Stone Bunker!" he roared. Nemo responded instantly, body glowing a pale haze of white yet again before two salvos of light shot out, breaking off into spheres that elongated themselves before dying down in their glow, revealing slate grey spears of rock. And then the stones he'd used to make the dividing barrier to keep the Shellos out took a glow all their own, all as one, they floated off towards the swordsman, arranging themselves into rows, slamming down into the earth two layers thick, nestled close together in walls- an outer one and an inner one, seperating the rock type and Nemo just like the walls of a bunker would... and the Cubone stood waiting there, Bone Rush ready for if the Rhino smashed through both layers before his ride could arrive...

I can tell when I'm being baited... Arya merely shrugged her shoulders. "I've just honestly never had any issues finding partners before- I always just let it happen as it happens, leave it all to fate... so I'm not really all that worried." she gave a bit of her own smile now to meet Lyre's, maintaining her tone just as it had been when she'd first sat down. "Anyway... I just saw you sitting here all alone and everything, and you looked like something was bothering you, so... I just wanted to see if I could help or something..."

#Blame Interpol Anyways... soldiers, I've noticed something... strange. I'm starting to see a whole lot of parallels between Mareek and Nemo and the story of the original Starkiller (AKA, Galen Marek). Mareek is kinda like vader in a way- he found Nemo when he was weak and alone (though mareek didn't happen to orphan Nemo, it was already done before he ever found him) and lashed out at a threat in order to defend the boy (IE, when mareek ordered his team to attack the theiving swellow and drove it off) like how vader struck down the storm troopers who intended to kill SK... And then afterwards, Mareek took the orphan in- and lo and behold, the little ground type has more or less become an apprentice to him in the way of the sword and fighting.... Like Vader did with SK and taught him in the force. And Vader received formal training as a boy to acquire the skills he had- so did Mareek in a way(from tae-kwondo at home in saffron...), and then they take that knowledge and impart it into the mind of a lost youth who goes on to become their apprentice/ disciple of sorts... and both those lost youths so happen to be trained by them... in the proper art of the sword... And dear god... this fight with Lana right now, where Nemo Thinks he would have to go in alone and was mentally preparing for it... it's like Mareek was giving him his first true mission, like Vader did with Starkiller... "You were weak when I found you. I did not expect you to survive your training. But now, your hatred has become your strength. At last, the dark side is your ally." -Darth Vader upon sending Starkiller on his first true mission And I know Galen somehow fits into all this somewhere... just don't know where yet. but he just has to with all this... It's pretty weird though, the amount of similar tropes and whatnot going on without me even consciously thinking about it as I write, soldiers... a little creepy even, given that... well, to get the names for Galen E. Sisto and Marek Akira Sisto, I kinda...Took the name "Galen Marek", split it in half to have the first and last name separate, added an e to the last name, because, why_not? And then... there you have it. Galen and his younger brother Mareek I'm a bit scared to tell the truth... :/ EDIT: and... Java is like proxy, with his weird, machine nature and computing and simulation/ tactics abilities, and in some weird kind of way, Erce could be compared to Juno Eclipse with her role as the pilot/ the freaking Rogue Shadow itself and everything... since one of the tactics Mareek has is for Nemo to hop on her back and ride her like Eragon and Sephira... or a Targaryan, what have you... I am very scared now...

I see, just read the bulbapedia page... my my... how fitting, now I can say that Mareek got the idea from what he'd heard of him while studying cipher among other organizations... but for a long while, he has a few qualms against actually trying the tactic himself because of how/who the idea was first started by along with his own fear/ misgivings about what could happen if shit went wrong...

What the hell is Evice 2.0, soldier? All I'm getting from google is that... it's apprently a firmware of some sort??? Personally I'd say the Aerodactyl...

@Commander: I've just gone and looked at Xatu... then I looked at King Kong- laughed to myself maniacally for a bit... Yeah, Henry might be the one to take on the Skarmory instead of Mareek afterall... cuase Xatu gets teleport, and skill swap (Now, I know what you're thinking, and don't worry... I won't have Mareek teach the Xatu Skill Swap until mid-to-late fifties or so... cause the idea of King Kong at full power will actually be a bit intimidating to him and he'll have to come around to the idea of even trying to control that much bundled-up pwnage...in other words, he'll be afraid to experiment with it. Either that or maybe Sergeant Chimchain will decide to just nerf it a bit to make it less... OP) anyways, yeah, soldiers... Teleport > Power of flight (Which it also has... ) So... I'ma take Xatu and King Kong and just replace CBRN and Zeal slots with em.

"Oh no, no... there is no way I'm going through this again..." Fayth thought as she struggled inside the invertebrates mouth, moving her hand to her waist and drawing one of the slender, balanced knives from it's sheath. She flipped it end over end in her fingers, gripping it backhanded as she made every possible effort to get over to the side... "Think, think...this thing lives in the dessert, right? And each night like snakes and other reptiles in the same environment burrow under the sand to escape the frigid temperatures- go where some the excess heat of the day was still preserved... though, I don't know exactly if the same logic applies here, but..." She cut herself off as she focused on the small blade in her hand, Enchanting it to begin to chill the very air around it's hard steel, not stopping until she herself could see a hazy, pale blue mist of sorts beginning to spill off the knife's form "Spread...Freeze!" She mentally ordered the magic as she turned over and shot her arm straight up and over in an arc, lodging the weapon into the side interior wall of the creature's maw... hoping it would work.

Hey now, soldier... Galen wouldn't... tch, please, Electivire, enough men have already fallen by it's hands... (One to be exact..but still too many), and the Eldest Sisto son isn't exactly all too willing or eager to go adding onto the body count... but then again... that electric type has a mind and will completely of it's own...

Yeah, I know... "Wait," Arya said, processing what exactly she'd heard. This might not be as easy as just introducing them and leaving while they hit it off... "So you've already met her then? Well... " She thought quickly to herself, working out how to make the offer seem attractive, then... "Yeah," Arya said, sighing in a bit of sympathy to the girl. "She may seem flighty and all, but it's only the first day- and we're all new here and everything... maybe she's just seems flighty because she's nervous and maybe has a bit trouble adjusting? Happens to the best of us afterall, right?"

*Begins long rant on the failings of the IP and how they enabled such actions to occur through constant absentee status, but realizes is beating a dead horse* Well, guess we'll all just have to find that out in the story now, won't we?

Like I said, Mareek will probably end up agreeing to something and taking it onto his own team out of a pity case like he did when he found Nemo being harassed by the Swellow. He has... somewhat of a particular soft spot in his heart for individuals that have been wronged and victimized.

Actually... that;s an interesting piece I'm surprised not one of any of the PCs who know have even considered yet... kinda disappointed about it, obviously... like Sergeant chim said soldiers, no damning evidence exists as to who exactly will do it... that skarmory could have nothing malicious to do with the scene at all, there's the possibility it could've been circling to try to signal searchers to come fast and help... or something of a similar purpose, such as trying to communicate that something is very wrong, etc... everyone and everyone's mother who found out so far has simply jumped more or less to the conclusion that it's tied directly to the culprit of the crime/ is the culprit itself. just a thought though...

Well, in that case... maybe Mareek would be willing to take it in depending on what happens. I mean if Evan made it clear he wants nothing to do with the thing, he'd likely say "Screw it" and take the trade since he's the one who more or less convinced him to even keep it in the first place... plus, if he were to find out about the whole Ryan's death prediction thing... well, if the bird was in the hands of the general pc group, it'd be easier to monitor, wouldn't it? at least, that would be his reasoning... It would really just be a charity case like Nemo was honestly, since he would feel kinda shitty about having let the thing enter into that situation...encase it hasn't been demonstrated too often, Mareek has somewhat of a softspot for broken and downtrodden things- like Tyrion Lanister @Commander, I'm not too sure about D-blim, soldier... never really been too high in my regards... (Pun intended) EDIT: Actually... driftblim might do it... interesting...

Holy mother of god... soldiers, I just looked at Slaking... This... this thing... is a freaking monster when it gets up off it's ass and actually does something... all this time, I never even noticed, to think it's base stat total are the same as groudon and kyogre... now I understand why it has such a horrid ability.... He is the king kong of the pokemon verse. I'm not gonna lie... I'm considering this guy to replace D-nite. ways can be found to turn his ability from a weakness into a strength, I'm sure... just have to get creative... probably very creative. Still looking for Murica-bird's replacement. I don't really want Mareek to have a skarmory because... well, there's probably gonna be issues down the line with hard feelings and bad memories from others depending on what chim has planned for us all, and as for Sigilyph... I don't think so either...just doesn't feel like it fits right. But King kong here though...

if we're gonna talk about teams, soldiers, I'm honestly not too hot about these two troopers right here... Everything else on his team, I more or less have something deep planned that can justify their reason being there, whether for story purposes like Mossad or for symbolic purposes like the first two triumpharants... These two here though, they kinda feel like tack-ons to me that were added because I couldn't think of anything else to fill the slots with. I want something that's capable of flight, for utility purposes and such (Even though Java can kinda fly in a way...and so can Erce, though it'll be cut to just glidding in the future...)but that won't take freaking forever to actually get to a fairly useful point in battle (Talking about the Braviary here, at an evo level of 54... one less than D-knight, and as badass as murica bird is, It's no psuedo legendary, yet only has a two stage line with no inbetween stage... and if that much work has to be put in for something, I think there should be an equal pay-out for it; like with a magickarp, the things worthless, but if you keep it and grow it to level 20 and sit there and endure all those battles of switching out tediously... you get an absolute monster for your babying. But with Rufflet's line... the pay out isn't equivalent to the expending effort in my opinion) and that doesn't have a weakness to rock types given that's the type the overall team plan has the biggest vulnerability to. And at the same time, there's also D-nite... I think it's just too mainstream, soldiers, like a cliched tv trope that's been beaten to death by now, and I want something a bit more... exotic, different. plus, everyone and everyone's mother uses dragon types if they can get their hands on em... so I figured Why_not break the mold and go for something else. Only question is... what to replace them with...

Good..."You have your training..." was all Mareek said to his oldest partner- though the barest hint of a smile was tucking at his lips. Erce didn't even have to hear him to know what she'd do- he was exactly right, it was all like their training had been; predicting, timing, speed, and reaction. The mantis had already laid eyes on her newest attacker after pulling back up from the failed assault on the shellos, seeing as the rock type prepared the rocks before launching them off, one after another... and she merely hovered there, a coy grin on her maw. The moment of impact came. The rocks tore through the illusion like tissue paper, continuing on into the sky without a target. Mareek turned his attention back to Nemo as the small Warrior recovered from having been knocked down by the Hidden Power, though he looked more miffed than actually injured from it. Obviously that Rhyhorn is something Nemo can't take down by himself... time to start the beginning of the end. "Nemo," He ordered, voice even and collected despite having lost control of the fight. "Bonemerang- and prepare to mount afterwards...And Erce, theater is over. close the curtains." The cubone looked on in absolute glee as he reeled back his arm and let the Club rip with as much force as he could muster, aiming squarely at the Rhyhorn's jaw to try and distract it, relishing in the thought of flying... On the other side of the field meanwhile multiple scythers seemingly materialized out of thin air, circling in around the Shellos and not wasting a single moment as all eight took off towards it from all cardinal directions, claws blazing a pale, sickly green and various war shrieks issuing out as they closed the ground, ready to destroy their objective target in one fell swoop... The only one that was real though, was the one coming in diagonally from behind.... not that anyone could tell, though.

Soldiers, we need a clean up in aisle twelve, I repeat, clean up in aisle twelve, thank you.

It's exactly like Commander said, soldier, around here things fall into rhythmic cycles that ebb and flow over time- it's just how it is, near regardless of what roleplay is in question. *Slaps up diagram and pulls out laser pointer* you see, It's like a wave more or less; this RP forum has a "Wave length" of sorts, which tends to either lengthen or shorten as it so pleases and as various outside influences and circumstances dictate that it shall. There are times when it rises to it's Crest, the cresendo of overall general activity, and then like any wave, said activity falls gradually and eventually it will enter it's trough period in which overall general activity will be low once more. For example, During times such as summer holiday the wave length generally shortens overall, and the frequency of crest and the rate of rise from trough periods is much more than, say, during the general schooling year or during times such as winter break and the holidays, in which the wave length tends to elongate and the rate of overall rise is much less. And it keeps going like that, soldier, high and low, rising and falling, the times in between the crests changing somewhat predictably though not consistently enough for a scientifically exact figure of measurement. That's the time cycle Reborn RP forum in a nutshell. If you're ever bored waiting or anything, you could always try going out to the CW forum and writing up something while you wait, etc. Also, I'm currently waiting on Rustytengo, so my hands are rather tied at the moment ((Don't want Arya to suddenly start acting sporadically or anything))