Sutoratosu

"Alright, let's get moving then," Ethic said, beginning down the hallway with Enya again. "The more time we waste the worse things could be getting for Rose is she's in trouble..." All the while though he kept an eye on how she held that bear... of course she was attached to it, she was a kid afterall... but if something really was going on with that toy, then her attachment might serve to complicate things if he had to take action... Eh, well, I'll just have to cross that bridge if or when I get to it... ((Rose, I'm just gonna go ahead and call this end of scene for us, not really anything more to add at this point.))

There seemed to be nothing but dead silence from the others at that attempt to cheer them up. Quiet shook his head, sighing as the moment dragged on longer and longer. "Can we stop wasting time with small talk?" He asked. "The more time you spend standing here, the more people die painfully and slowly from infection back in the city. Just thought I should point that out real quick." His snideness and general insensitivity wasn't without cause though; what he had said was completely true, the more time they wasted, the more innocent people were being eliminated by this fiasco... and the longer they took getting to the deepest level of these ruins and him and Stone being able to offer Jace proof... the harder it would be to save anyone at all. Gen half expected Bane to respond to that like he had been, though the commander surprisingly provided nothing in reprimand. "I'll let that one slide," He said, "Only because he actually has a point about that; time is something we don't have much of. Ms. Stone, if you would please continue your explanation..." "Just Gen is fine," she said, glancing back at him for a moment. "and yes, we do need to get moving on. The computers within this complex, from what the initial exploration teams managed to uncover, are close enough to our own systems that we should in theory be able to hack and bypass our way into them as needed with a bit of creativity and reverse engineering. Like I said before, that's where we'll likely find every bit of information we need regarding the purpose of the facility and it's general layout and security. Put simply, to find the cure, we follow the digital trail down the rabbit hole and into wonderland." Apparently finished with what she needed to say, she stepped back, letting Jace take over again. "And there you have it," He said. "Our initial strategy within the complex will be to hunt down and break into every single computer system we can find and steal every bit of data out of them. For the sake of effeciency, we will be dividing into seven teams, The inquisitor team, and the attack team, from which there will be made four squads; and before you go saying anything about how 14 does not divide into 4, listen: out of the groups of seven, We will have 2 main teams consisting of four members, which will be repsponsible for carrying out that particular groups task for the mission, and then we will have 2 teams consisting of only 3 members, which will be devoted to conducting reconaissance for whichever group they are in. We will have two high commanders, myself for the inquisitor team, and Commander Stone for the attack team, and then we will have two sub-commanders who will be responsible for the Reconnaissance sub teams, and they are... Lance Quiet, and Garren Forrest." He looked at the two men as he called their names, letting his gaze linger especially long on quiet. "Both of you, step forward!"

Oh, galen, asking dem philosophical questions and making your little bro think...

"How interesting," Galen observed, lifting his head a little from where his cheek had been resting on his hand, arm still propped up on the seat's rest. "It seems either that she's just toying with him and dragging things along, or the girl really is showing him a bit of mercy...." "Well, not everyone wants to completely curb stump the opposition," Mareek said, looking at his Dex as Java's search finally finished and the Porygon2 revealed the identity of their little whistle blower from back in the corridors. Kenny Holmes, eh? Alright, now I've got a name to put with the face... and I don't intend to forget what happened back there anytime soon... "Some people actually want to feel like the fight wasn't entirely 1-sided when it comes to competitive battles... though I think it's honestly more about Self-Restraint than it is an actual desire to show mercy." "But why hold back?" The gardener asked, almost Socratic-ike. "In a battle such as this, why prevent yourself from using the appropriate amount of force to end the match as quickly and efficiently as possible? Why bother babying the competition like some poinsettia fresh from the branch? Seems like more of an insult in my opinion..." Mareek looked at him for a moment at that comment, detecting from the man's tone he was obviously trying to steer this conversation somewhere. "Don't know," He said, though he had to admit, now he was legitimately pondering the question... especially with the match with Lana coming up later today. He didn't exactly have to keep an ear low to the ground to know that almost everyone and everyone's mother's bets here were against her along with this kid Shiro down on the battlefield now actually standing much of a chance. Not that he'd ever brought up the odds to her or anyone else really, but still, it had been floating in the back of his mind ever since he'd seen the matchups yesterday.... "Though in all honesty, I don't really focus on competitive battling like I used to, and even when I did, I always used the same philosophy your thinking of, being that it's basically the exact same basic concept I was always taught while learning self defense... so I probably couldn't give you a good answer anyway." With that said, he returned his sight to the battle field, his mind beginning to race with thoughts of whether it was better to show restraint; intentionally fight below one's capabilities, or to simply use as little force as needed to end the fight as quick as possible... while true, if the person finds out you were holding back, it could cause them offense... but at the same time, if you decide not to hold any punches on them and instead just swat them down like flies when it's obvious the fight is 1 sided, well.... defeat like that can be humiliating to some... but so could knowing the other side didn't take you serious... and Galen could tell full well from his brother's eyes that he'd gotten him thinking just now... himself turning back to look at the field.

"We're known as The Order of The White Flare, " Maya said, glancing at him. "Sworn servants and adherents of the Teachings of Ryder, the Phoenix Lord. Our own records can't even trace our history back to it's exact beginning, but the scriptures say that Ryder himself founded and led the first incarnation of it himself when he still walked the earth as a magus and a healer, with his apprentices going on to eventually spread his knowledge and establish the order in it's modern form..." She held up a hand, fingers beginning to crackle and dance with a bit of flames the color of fresh snow fall, flickering to and fro in the air. "Our sacred text say that Ryder started in his journey in order to save his wife from her deathbed," She continued. "He traveled across the land, high and low, looking for a cure at every point he could, not caring whether it was magic or not. Eventually he had gone to all four corners of the world looking for the answer, and had been rewarded for his efforts...with nothing. They say that it was then that in despair, every bit of magic he knew having proved useless and thinking his wife surely dead by then, Ryder sunk to his knees and gazed to the heavens, gazed to the sun itself, broken and defeated and weeping. And they say he asked the heavens why she must die so young, why he could not find a way to save her and their unborn child. And they say he even tried to beseech the sun itself to aid in him, one final, desperate plea... to the only light in his life that Ryder could still see in his grief. And then he gave into his exhaustion, and faded into unconsciousness, and gradually the hands of death began to encroach upon him... but he had a dream." She willed for the Snow Fire to die around her hand and returned it to the ships railing, gazing back out over the ocean. "And in this dream, he saw the sun, bold and pure white above him. And he saw a light break off from it's outer reaches, a fire, bright as the star itself. And he saw it descend through the heavens, a bolt of hope. And he dreamed that light came to him, was drawn to him... and then he awakened. And there hovering above his unconscious form was the very same light he had seen, and he could make it out to in fact be a glorious fire, burning the color of platinum. And then he looked to the sun, and he saw it still bold and white in the sky before it shrank away and returned to as it had been before. And he knew... that his plea had been answered, he knew not exactly how, or by who or what... but he didn't care either." She took her attention off the swells and the waves of the endless expanse of blue, actually gazing fully at Karn for the first time in the entire conversation. "He took this White Fire, and it became one with him, a part of his very being. And then he returned home as fast as his feet would take him... only to find that his wife and their unborn son in her womb had died not even a day after he had departed..."

But yeah, just steal her mons, you're actually doing them a favor by taking them with you

No one spoke in response to Zoliver's question, a cold wind howling through the square as the minutes dragged on. Absalom glanced around at everyone else, as did Lucian and Boho, namely directing their focus to Leon... but all the man gave them was a shake of his head, looking at Deric with an oddly understanding expression. Sometimes the hardest sentences to dish out... were those that had to be executed by your own hand. Deric He managed to stem the flow of his weeping after a while. Little by little he let everything fade away from his soul, the anger, the hate, the raw, primal desire to kill and destroy... everything, and everything's mother as well. If Lucretia herself, the victim of his vile crime, had forgiven this man... then Deric had no right to retain the desire for vengeance against him; To be avenged wasn't what she would want... she'd want order and the law to be enforced, for justice to reign over base emotions like that dominating the minds lesser men far and wide, things like wraith and greed and cruelty and arrogance. He knew her final wish, he knew what she wanted... and to break an oath sworn to her was simply unthinkable in his eyes. "So this is how it ends?" He asked, looking down at the form of the man he'd so brutally battered and broken. Seeing Marca like this... seeing the man who he once called friend, who he even called brother... it brought back something in his mind, something long buried and repressed. "Do you remember that day, Marc?" he said. "Do you remember all those years ago, when we found the crazy hermit woman out in the woods?" Marca had managed to slowly stem his own sorrow as well, now staring up at Deric, eyes wide as the recallaition came to his own mind as well. "She... what she said....It came true..." 10 years ago, The Copora Wood, the Capital Province, Renalim "Any last words, witch?" Deric asked as he stood over top the grizzled old woman, struggling to catch his breath all the while, hair a mess with sweat and the raw exertion of battle. The cold reassurance of steel lay in his hand, sword to the offender's throat, ready to deliver the death she had so rightfully earned with her foul workings. The wild grove around the three of them stirred with a winter wind as a light snow began to fall, turning the earth and treetops all around a dusty white. The ritualistic fire pit nearby had been extinguished during all the skirmishing he and Marca had gone through to subdue the suspect, a few blue coals still smoldering in it, steam hissing and rising as the white flakes made fatal collisions with their hot surfaces. "Why give her any last words?" Marca asked from beside him, glaring down at the magic user with nothing but disgust, actually spitting on the hermit's defeated form, though she returned his spittle with some of her own, lobbing a thick wad of dirty blood from her mouth, smack onto his cheek where he stood."Arghhh... See what I mean? Kill her! I just want to get out of this damn place and report to your father already...sending us out here to hunt some damn sorceress on nothing more than rumor when it's cold as this witch's tit probably is... what was he thinking?" "I'm my father's son," Deric answered his gripping simply, keeping the blade where it was. "I was raised not to think lightly of the death penalty, neither when ordering it nor when it's carried out by my own hand. The damned get their last say in this world before the steel flies, that;s the way it's always been and that's the way it shall remain even when the sons and daughters of our own sons and daughters take on the cloak. Now shut yee up, Marca, you're not the one about to die here." Marca turned his withering gaze on him now instead of the woman, shivering as he rubbed his arm, breath bursting out in great puffs of steam as his anger rose like a candle flame. "Oh please," he said. "We're not even real magistrates yet, you see a damn cloak on either of our shoulders!? You're old man probably just meant for this to be some wild goose chase to keep a few trainees like us occupied and out of his way!" "Then explain why he pulled us aside after giving us today's assignment and told us to abandon the task and flee back to the Holding if things grew bad? Last I checked, wild Geese don't pose enough of a threat to drive two near fully grown men running like children still clinging to their mother's skirts..." Marca seemed to think about it for a moment, but Deric didn't give the chance to retort. "Obviously my father fully believed what he was telling us, and oh, look... we found a sorceress, just as was claimed we would. Amazing how that works, isn't it, old friend?" A moment more of silence from the other boy dressed in a light steel cuirass and vambraces. "Fine," he finally said, crossing his arms and turning away, accepting his verbal defeat for what it was. "Just hurry up and kill the old bitch... you waste more any time, and she'll probably turn us to frogs. Either that of those Chimera White people we hear so much about will swoop in and claim her head, and the glory, for themselves... Deric shook his head as he looked back down at the woman, her ancient, cataract grey eyes blankly meeting his own as he lifted the sword over his head. "There is no glory in this, Marca..." He said, holding the weapon in it's wind up position. "It's not war... and there's not even any glory in that either. Moving on, any last words, sorceress? better make them count." "You both will become engulfed in stirfe..." She said weakly, blood visible in her mouth and tongue as she spoke slow and monotnously. "Yes, yes... I can see it now, I can see it clear. A wedge, a girl... no, no, a woman... I see... a woman and a man, a bueatiful ceremony... a ceremony which can never come to be in this world"- She began controting strangely on the frozen earth, cuasing both him and Marca to take a step back.- "I see... another man, one scornful of their joy... Dark of hair, dark of eyes, dark of deed and heart. I see him... he will destroy the wedge, and in destroying it, he will cause it to expand farther outwards than ever before-" "Shut her up, Deric," Marca ordered. "She's babbled long enough, Time to put her down." "You!!!" She suddenly shouted, pointing at Marca then Derric with a gnarled, wraith like finger. "And you!!! I see... a dragon... eight men. A city, dessert, sand and glass, ethereal moonlight... a beautiful woman's face! Compassion warring with hate, an unexpected visit, a final pardon! blonde of hair! blonde of hair! One of you... will KILL THE OTHER! TEN YEARS TIME, IN TEN YEARS TIME, I SEE IT!!! The old dragon slayer stands witness, the Ulsaran man stands firm! The boy turns away! the Criminal Ponders! the SCARLET SWORD WILL BE THE END OF ONE OF YOU! LONE SURVIVOR, NO ONE BY HIS SIDE-" "Give me this, damnit!" Marca roared, tearing the sword from Deric's grasp as the hag started cackling hysterically. He arched his arms back. The strikes were brutal, swift and merciless as the north wind as the blood flew from his poor skill with a sword. The mad laughter finally died as her head rolled onto the frosty ground, hacked muscle and sinew dangling here and there as it bounced once... twice... then rolled to a stop. blood specks and bone fragment stained the white around both their boots and on their pants legs. Marca let the gore soaked blade rest finally, breath fleeting from him as he tried ever more to catch it's grace, casting the thing to the earth and walking back the way they'd come from town. All deric could do was look at him like he had just gone mad. "It's over," Marca said, noticing his expression. "The bitch is finished now, our assignment's complete... let's just forget it now, forget everything that happened here; for she's a corpse now and that was the goal for venturing here in the first place..." "You took an act of justice and completely stripped it of every shred of honor and good it had..." He said, casting a glance down at the blood stained blade... the eerie thought that the stuff would never wipe off the metal waltzed into his mind. and what she had said...about a scarlet blade... but she had also said it would be ten years... "We can't just...just forget what she spouted though." "She's dead now, deric!" he said, nerves already frayed and his friend's pussyfooting around things right now not helping. "Any power of divination or prophecy goes to the grave with her! forget the bitch, forget her visions... they mean nothing now." He ended the conversation there, tramping back into the underbrush and leaving. Deric spent a few more minutes. Motionless, stunned. The snow fell in drifts, his shoulders becoming cloaked in their freezing majesty... becoming cloaked like a magistrate's would be. "A...a scarlet blade..." He said as he stooped and tried to collect his weapon. His bare hand came away with only the hilt. Shattered. The once fine Renal-Wrought Steel blade lay snapped in two in the snow bank, gleaming crimson and white. And he just left it there, left the hag with a dying gift... aside from the one Marca had so brutally delivered her. and then he turned. and then he walked away... walked away into the white of the snow drift. Deric... "One of us will kill the other," he said. "The Scarlet sword will be the end..." "In ten years time," Marca picked up. "In ten years time she saw it..." "Blonde of hair..." "Blonde of hair..." "Eight men"- He looked at the party, counting that number exactly aside from himself and marca- "A city...dessert..." "Sand and glass," Marca said. "Ethereal Moonlight...." "The boy looks...away..." He glanced at Absalom, actually seeing the child turning his back to the deed a little... trying to avert the sight of what he could tell was coming. "The Scarlet sword will be the end..." Marca fixed his gaze on Lucretia's sword in Deric's hand... just as the prophecy foretold, scarlet of blade... In ten years time she saw it-" "Blonde of hair... Blonde of hair." He Finished. Then he was immediately down to business. "Freyal Marca Lupai... in the name of the nation of Renalim, on the authority of the power of Arch Magistrate invested in me and in my fore fathers and mothers before me...on the crimes of the Rape and Murder of Lucretia Highlym and the homicides of numerous others....I hereby sentence you to die." He raised the blade above his head... oh so reminiscent of that day, both the sorceress encounter, and... that dreadful evening in the town square. "Do you have any last words...?" .... .... .... "I'm sorry." The sound of metal whistling through air... the brief, but characteristic, chink of blade cutting into flesh. Then the thump of a head hitting the stones and rolling away. It was...over. five long years... and actually for five years even before that, this tragedy had been brewing oh so subtly... and now it was over. "I stand alone..." Deric sung bitterly, gazing down at the body. "No one by my side... No one...by my side." He sheathed his...no, her blade, turning back to look at all of them, no expression on his face... "It's over." he said. "it's finally...over, all these years...and it's all so damn empty in the end. Each and every last one of them dead, every person I've ever loved or called my dearest friends... I loved those men like they were my family, like we were all brothers bound by blood, even Marca, till the end. And I loved her even more... and now they're all cold and dead, these people who were my friends... these people who were my family. these people...who were My Magistrates."

Chimchain "I doubt it," Argo said as Trystane approached. "Have you been keeping track of the time? We've barely spent the lesser part of an hour around here; everyone else is probably still going about their business or wandering around." He cast a glance down at the bag the hunter had been given earlier. "Besides, are you sure you have everything we need? always best to double check yourself... be a shame if you rushed off to head to the gate and in the process forgot something important, like utensils or the like..." Perhaps the steed had a point in that... and didn't the general store clerk say something about utensils as well?

Maya only glanced at Karn as he stood there. It honestly struck her as a bit odd that the man would just up and approach her out of the blue like this, not to mention ironic... "I've no questions for you, ser..." she said simply, returning her gaze to the waters, then turning them up to the perpetually eclipsed sun overhead, studying the colors of the sky around the Lunamancer's sorcery. She could feel a familiar sensation in her mind after a few moments, an interference almost, like a haze that in truth was always there, lurking, but only ever felt when she looked up at it's cause. She knew perfectly what it was, had been taught about all occasions in which White Fire had weakened during events like the one forever stuck up in the sky now. And that brought something else to her mind... "On second thought," she began, not taking her eyes off the dark shape high above. "I do have a question... how did you acquire your power over water?"

No... in IRL esoteric/ Metaphysical/ occult beliefs and systems, the whole "Mood Ring color thing" is definitely far more common for Auras than it is for souls. and lucifer just kinda nibbles on the person's life force from how it;s been portrayed by zephyr so far, he doesn't actually do anything to their minds themselves. At least, that's how I've read it every single time it's come up so far

If no one has any objections, then this means we're done with dragon's and can move on... to electric types.

I asociate being alive with basic consciousness of mind, at least as much as an animal would have, and even more so with being capable of self awareness in this case seeing as mons tend to be a lot smarter than your typical IRL bear or fish or wht have you. So while yes, I at this point still techincally count Java as more of a machine than being alive because only now has he truly began achieving things like emotion and self reflection and actually questioning his own existence and such, he is gradually moving towards becoming qualified to be considered a living being in my eyes. though he probably won't be completely until it's near time for him to evolve again, which I'm thinking I'll probably do when hes around lvl.40-45. alright, thanks for clearing it up. A bit too late to go and change things with that particular situation now, but I'll keep that in mind for the future.

about the illusion thing, it really doesn't matter in the end since Mareek ordered the Lock On from Java and knows for certain they (Or at the very least knows that Ryu) were there behind him. and like Commander said, kenny kinda uses it so much that it's probably safe to say he'd be known for it at this point. and even with Mareek not knowing who Kenny his (being probably the most introverted PC around here at this point except for maybe shiro, though he's starting to move out of it a bit...), I imagine that it's not too hard to figure out that if the lock On finds a target and you still don't see anything despite it being detected but know the guy has a zorua, then obviously he's doing something with that fox's ability. and I like the altered post better too. Actually edited Galen's perspective a little to include a bit of his thoughts on the matter. The irony though...so damn high...

huh? ah shit... misread the post and thought they were visible... I'll go fix that now... EDIT: It's done. and big brother to the rescue... sort of. Ok, maybe not really... more like Big brother is watching....

"Don't see em, but if what Java said was right, he's probably noticed by now thanks to that Lucario and has that Zoroa making some illusion..." Mareek said, casting a quick glance over his shoulder, him and Erce thinking they'd gone far enough to slow down a bit... no one in sight, but still... should be sure. That roaring din coming nearby though gave him an idea, and it wasn't a TV monitor either... It was the none other than the stairs leading up to the stands. "Java, where are you?" he asked, pausing for a moment as he began his way up. The Porygon2 responded by appearing behind him and Erce, having retreated back to the Dex after the last TV stunt, having returned the volume on the set to normal before he'd left it's systems. Mareek jabbed a thumb down the hall way. "Use lock on, see if anyone's there." Java turned his sights back down the corridor, forming a red ring of light around his body before expanding it outwards and scanning the ground and walls with it gradually... locking onto Ryu a second later once he'd gone down far enough and causing a strange crimson outline of a Lucario to burn in the air before fading to nothing. "He's definitely using that Zoroa then. But I know how to get rid of him. Both of you, back inside for now." He didn't really give them much warning, recalling them both to their capsules before he'd even said the words, tucking them back onto his belt as he climbed up into the seated crowd looking down over the battlefield. He wove his way through the stands making sure to take a few turns here and there and wander a few of the less crowded rows, only stopping when he was sure that the lucario would have lost his and his partner's auras thanks to all the people around though still casting the occasional over the shoulder glance for good measure. Only then did he finally shake his head in bitter disgust, both at his failure to pay proper attention to detail, and even more at the bumbling idiot who decided he was gonna play the big damn hero and go blabbing off back there... "Java," he said, able to speak at a normal level, being a bit high in the stands and away from the brunt of the noise. "Run a search on the site, find every student who has both a Lucario and a Zoroa... I want to know who that god damn imbecile was." Java went back to work in the Dex, firing up the browser and starting the inquiry as Mareek walked a bit further, finding it a bit ironic that he'd left here earlier because he wanted some peace and quiet, headed to the Waiting room and found some, only to return here after he'd gone and done something amitably stupid that had done away with that... but that was his damn life more or less, irony everywhere... and it wasn't funny anymore, hadn't been funny for a loooong time... "Oye, young man," A voice called to him from nearby, interrupting his thoughts. He glanced around at the few spectators this far up. He only managed to find the owner of it when a Hispanic man, maybe in his late twenties or early thirties at the most, held up his hand in greeting, actually sitting a few seats back the way he'd just come. "Es no problemo, trust me, look at all this space around us," He gestured his arms out wide, acknowledging all the forgotten seats.... "Besides, the way you keep looking over you're shoulder like that, you look like you're running from la Policia Internacionale... if they ever actually bothered getting up off their asses and actually chased down people, that is." Mareek looked at the Spaniard for a moment, a bit guarded about just going and sitting up to a stranger who'd offered out of the blue like that... but the casual jab the man had thrown the IP's way had calmed his initial suspicion, if even by only a little bit. and chances were he wasn't going to get found by Tweedledumb from back in the hallways. might as well just take up the offer..."Alright... sure, I guess..." He said, taking a seat to the right of the gentleman, though being sure to have a space of a whole other chair in between them... Galen... He watched with a bit of curiosity on his brow as his kid brother walked right past him in the stands, especially when the boy cast a few hurried glances over his shoulder, though no one was following him that Galen could see. Still though, he looked a little pissed about something, and well... some habits of an older brother died hard. With just a bit of coaxing and a jab at the IP's incompetency, he'd managed to get the kid to stop and sit nearby. He could tell something had obviously gone down, the annoyance plastered all over his sibling's face said it all, and coupled with the fact that, at least in Galen's own opinion, it seemed the kid hadn't gotten much better at hiding his body language than he had been when he was little... well, he could still read him like a book. And it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out from the constant checking behind him the boy had done that he felt he was being followed. "Well let's see whoever it is try something now that he's here..." He thought to himself, crossing his arms as he leaned back in his seat, making sure to keep his periphery vision open for someone else coming this way. "Even if he won't talk about whatever's wrong, I can still diffuse things with just a few words if needed. Not like I've got much else to do at the moment anyway... maybe it'll even be a little entertaining to send some little shit messing with my brother packing without even having to raise a finger."

wait... Why you followin' me? Mareek's running from Kenny, man, the guy who kinda exposed and confronted him... Not from henry... eh...whatever.

Mareek was smirking on the inside when Henry interjected into the scene and drew away kenny's attention, thanking Arceus some time had been bought for him. He didn't hesitate, ordering Java to disappear into his Dex and taking Erce's capsule from his belt and whispering to the sphere as he held his thumb on the trigger, careful not to release the pressure yet. "Listen, Erce, something...kinda came up. no time to explain, but I need you to use Double Team on us pronto, alright?" A flash of white later and his request was granted, hand on Erce's shoulder as the Mantis automatically launched up her Ninjutsu Technique, making an identical copy of the two of them in the corridor, while all the while the real boy and his scyther were backing up slowly... but Mareek knew he'd have to work faster, it wouldn't fool that damn jackal for more than a second at best... He considered having grabbing on tight and having Erce use agility... but given that she was shorter than him and they weighed about the same, he figured she might have a bit of difficulty pulling it off... he could try running, but... Java had a plan though... back to Television he went, poking around for a second or two before turning the volume of the broadcast up to max, hopefully loud enough to provide even more of distraction. Mareek didn't even bother checking his Dex; he knew whose doing it was, turning on his heels and taking off down the hall as Erce herself disappeared in a blur of motion behind him, all the while their illusionary copies stood exactly where they'd been before... both of them looking off towards the monitor, seemingly vexed as it blasted the program as loud as it could...

This is getting good... but its time to use this distraction to get out of there... or at least try

Foe Kenny and Ryu used WHISTLE BLOW! It's super effective! The jig is up! Mareek and the NSA Java used... THINK FAST! THINK FAST turned into RED HERRING!

Something around here felt...odd to Java. Like someone else was poking around in the computer system... then for the first time he noticed the freaking Lucario that was by the side of the Trainer talking to Evan, looked like... a dear Arceus. How they hadn't noticed the jackal before, he had no idea, but it didn't matter now, he could feel the thing trying to find him, could sense anomalies in the data... they had been compromised less than even a minute before starting the operation. It was kinda humiliating... There it was again. This time it got through; the jig was up, and like a spring time bunery, he bolted from the system, trying to find the passage way he'd opened to get in the first place, he had to be quick, had to get back and tell Mareek to move on, get out of there... but he found himself so rushed that he couldn't locate his own exit route to the outside world... that left only one option; The web connection directly to Mareek's Dex... he just hoped he hadn't wasted too much time searching... "It's over." Was what Mareek heard in his Earphones next, Java using a computerized voice to really the message as he rushed through back into the device's software and closed the internet pathway behind him, making sure it was closed tight. "He has a Lucario out with him, has had it out the entire time since he walked up... He had a Zoroa as well. it's done. they know." Mareek took a second to take that news in, cursing under his breath as he gauged from how far he'd seen them down the hall how long they would probably take to get to him. A lucario? he snarled mentally to himself, chagrined over the catastrophic failure. How the hell could both of us miss that when we looked? Must've been too busy watching Evan... damn it, I'm usually good at keeping an eye out for the small details! Java came in over the earbuds again, using the same unnaturally choppy sounding computerized voice. "I'd say get out of here... but I think it may be too late to try" He could see what Java meant... he felt a presence close to him, like someone was standing right beside... yeah, he knew it, this was a complete Charlie Foxtrot, no doubt about it. three, two...one... where were they? He knew something was about to come... "Eavesdropper!" "So you found me..." He sighed, going ahead and taking the other earbud out. Java appeared in the air beside him, looking at the Lucario by the trainer's side as Mareek looked the other boy coldly in the eye, seemingly unphased by his sudden appearance... though that was only because he'd had forewarning. Things were looking a bit dicey, but he knew how to maneuver his way out of this... all he needed was to use a Red Herring. "Yeah, I was eavesdropping on you, saw that Lucario of yours while I was walking by and figured I get some possible intel when I saw you stop to talk. The thing could be a major threat on the battle field, and I don't like to leave any wild cards..." As much as he didn't like lying like this, he had no choice but to right now. What, was he gonna come out with his suspicions about Evan to this random ass stranger? Hell no, in fact, it was better the guy think Mareek was actually targeting him for the surveillance instead, make him think that Evan had just been some guy who happened to be standing around. "Before you go condemning me though," he continued, raising his hands up defensively, though his expression remained cold. "It's only fair to tell you; every single shred of battle data about you and your team is probably already available on the web for anyone to find as they so please. anything I'd get from listening in just now only would've been extra fodder compared to that sheer amount of information." Java meanwhile, saw that he should probably just follow the boy's lead on this, nodding his head earnestly to confirm his trainers claims about the secret website...

Don't know... but Chimchain said earlier, in one of the IC post about Kristen and Henry's battle, IIRC, that Ground type moves hit Flying types that aren't currently flying... but I'm not sure how B-rang works in regards to that, so you'll have to wait for him to get back on to answer that.

Looks like we're gonna have us a whistle blower then... oh the scandal... :3

I'm sorry, you lost me... so if... oh, ok. well the thing I'm pointing at in this case is the fact that when charging up, V-wave takes the form of a Cyclone/Twister/ what have you, which swirls around the user before they actually attack, like you can see in the video. Vacuum Shield, Erce's signature technique, is pretty much just a V-wave attack that's been modified to act more like a support move; IE, when she uses Vacuum Shield, she just charges up for a V-wave, creating that twister effect and holding her breath (Which too has been trained and practiced over time), but she doesn't actually unleash her attack, so it's just the twister part that's happening, and she holds it like that as long as. That's essentially all V-shield is at the end of the day, so wind based attacks pretty much are either absorbed into it's own wind force and dissipated, being a twister and all. I forgot about that... but what, is he gonna attack and destroy the monitor? gonna be a little hard to explain that one to the teachers... actually, I don't even know if ryu would still be able to sense Java while he's inside the TV. Perhaps Chim could shed some light?

Well, from how it's depitcted in the Anime: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Ominous_Wind_(move)#In_the_anime I'd say yeah, it is wind based, it just has a repulsive feel to it or whatever. Basically it's like a foul wind or something. And I'm assuming Type doesn't matter as much as the move's actual mechanics do when it comes to using a move to intercept another move, only when attacking an actual pokemon with said move. Example: How Nemo used Bonemerang to intercept Chalchi's initial volley of Water Pulses back in Mareek and Jacob's battle in Chapter 2. IT was a ground typed move, but obviously the mechanics of how it worked took precedence over the typing itself. EDIT: and from how james had shade use it back in the Haunted house to try to screw with Jacob and Kristen, you kinda proved that it's wind based... :/