Pokémon: Aftermath #3a - In the Thin Ice [IC]

[Felicity]

Adam started moving as well, albeit at a somewhat slower pace until he got used to the extra weight of Claire. He let out a whistle whilst he was behind to call Lockhart over "Keep an eye on them. If they run, Pursue them, if they try anything, be ready to sucker punch the shit out of them. Stay in their line of sight so they know to stay in line." The bird didn't respond as he flew to obey the instructions as Adam trudged along behind the group, keeping an eye on all of them.

[SilverJakler]

"Dang, all those sound like pretty good additions to the team... if only that were an option..." said Seth, disappointment in his eyes. He was walking right behind the electric duo, trying to keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary, however limited Giga's light might be.

Gigawatt was also remaining focused, making sure to check the surroundings as well as keeping his Fire Punch lit. He enjoyed Raito's company, it seemed the two hit it off well. Hopefully being around the others made it a little easier for the little guy to traverse the cavern without getting too spooked. Lighting the way, this was Giga's job. And he wanted to do a good job of it. He wanted to look back at the group, but he thought it'd be smarter to keep his eyes forward, as to not run into any... obstacles along the way.

[Rielly987]

{Tunnel Crew}

"Wow. just wow" Pine was stunned. This was his every dream, the ruins were stunning. " If you guys dont mind I'm gonna take some rubbings. Keep going I'll catch up after i finish." This was not an chance he was going to miss. "Man if only Terra was here... He would of loved this place" The boy opened his bag and began to dig through it for charcoal and paper.

[Azeria]

At the tunnel the group entered only to find ancient ruins standing there,Micheal was awed by the ruins having only seen the Old Chatueu as the oldest thing in his area."By the Lord Arceus,what is this beauty?"He said as he continued to look at the walls of the ruins.

[DarkLight]

{Cabin Crew}

"Terra? Was he a friend of your's?" Miki asked curiously. Raito seemed to be getting more comfortable around the tunnel, so she took a look at the etchings as well.

[Jory]

Jory nodded and rested his head on top of Carissa's, tired from the day's hiking and fighting. "Yeah, I suppose so. I just hope we get to Snowpoint soon. My toes are getting cold." Shredder scoffed at his Trainer and continued loping alongside the group, making sure to keep an eye on the Acolytes.

[Rielly987]

{Cabin Crew}

'Yeah uh... He was my partner once. A Sandslash that explored ruins with me... He passed not so long ago... Church did something I'm not gonna forgive" Pine only faced the wall, away from the rest of the group. *Sigh* "But, hes still with me, one way or another." The boy smiled at Miki but depression ripped through his body like a sword. He missed his best friend but he had to push on for him. There was going to be hell to pay and he'd be damned if Dawn got away with it.

Edited December 15, 2014 by Rielly987

[DarkLight]

{Pine}

"O-Oh, I'm sorry, I-I didn't mean to bring that up..." Miki apologized, feeling foolish for breaching into a very sensitive topic. Trying to pull the subject back to a lighter route, she glanced at the drawings. "Umm... What made you so interested in ruins? I mean, did you see something really cool back at home that sparked your interest?"

[M_Cowher]

{Tunnel}

Thoron had remained quiet for a while but finally decided to voice a question nagging him, ​"Nemir? If this tunnel truly does lead into snow point temple, what should we expect there? I hardly expect that we will just be able to walk right out of the tunnel into this temple, and receive no resistance. I fear that we may find a host of eager acolytes when we enter."

Edited December 15, 2014 by M_Cowher

[krim]

{Tunnel}
Hearing Thorons question, Nemir responded "Ever since Snowpoint was taken over and the church gained power, setting foot into the temple has been forbidden. Apparently the acolytes believe that it was "tainted" by a "false god". I doubt there will be many people in there with that set into place, and judging by how far down we are, we will be arriving at the lowest level of the temple which not many ever visited anyways. Of course, that doesn't nullify the risk altogether, but it's the best shot we have for getting in undetected." He grimaced a little about how stupid the church was and wondered if they even knew what god the temple was for.

[Rielly987]

{Tunnel Group}

Pine ran his charcoal over one last line of ancient script and answered Miki's question. "I love the tales of the past, how mystical it was, how beautiful the world was. It's something I've always wanted to enjoy myself and the next best thing is the ruins the are everywhere." As Pine rolled up his rubbing he over heard Nemir talking about Snowpoint Temple. "I'd expect none the less. To my knowledge it's for Regigigas, The Golem Maker. It was a major religion in the ancient past. Spanning several regions. It was said to have dragged the continents to their current locations and create the three Regi's. Later it's followers grew in fear of it and locked it away in some temple somewhere, while the three Regi's where scattered around the globe as keys. Hopefully the entire place has been left preserved." Pine was always proud he knew this knowledge, as the Regi's were one of his favorite myths

[Chevaleresse]

Sarcus shared a dubious look with Absolution. It seemed to be a massive stretch that anyone would be as generous as these Pokemon seemed to be. Then again, they weren't people, and they hadn't been exposed to Dawn's regime. His trust for Pokemon in general beating out his distrust for Ice-types, he climbed on top of the Mamoswine.

[Flux]

{Flux and Fria}

Flux sighed. She was stubborn all right, but who was he to talk? He could be just as stubborn himself... He thought about staying and helping, but decided against it. He'd probably just get in the way of whatever she had planned. He would use the opportunity she gave him, whether he had agreed to the plan or not.

"You'd better not die..." he whispered with a hint of a smile as he ran past the cabin under the cover of the blizzard. "There'll be hell to pay if you do."

[Notus]

Tunnel Group

Jon was paying so much attention on the way ahead that he almost jumped when he heard the sound of flapping wings behind him. In the blink of an eye, a goup of Golbat passed straight through the group, presumably scaring the hell out of some people. The Golbats didn't actually attack them, but it seemed they were fleeing from something...

Kyte turned to the back of the group, let out a low growl, and took a fighting stance. His fins had capted a vibration in the ground and soon it was not only him that could feel it. The ground started shaking, making some icy stalactites break free from the tunnel's roof and fall. All of a sudden, the frozen ground right behind the group broke, and through the hole came an enormous silver head.

The Steelix didn't seem very happy to have visitors in it's territory...

***

Carissa, Adam & Jory

Since they were with the acolytes now there was no reason to avoid the main road to Snowpoint, so the rest of the trip was pretty quick and smooth - or as much as it could be with a group of hurt people in the middle of a storm. They had to make various stops through the way for the acolytes to recover some of their strenght, but aside of that and the cold everything ran quite well. Claire, although still breathing, had not moved through the whole way, and Karen often looked back at her and Adam with a concerned face.

The blizzard was so intense that the group didn't notice the lights of Snowpoint until they arrived in the city's entrance - which had some barricades set for narrowing the path and a group of older acolytes controlling it.

"Karen... Holy Arceus, you guys surely took a beating." One of the women said, noticing their approach. She then noticed Claire being carried by Adam. "Oh my, Claire! Right, you all come with me to the Pokémon Center immediately." She said, turning around and leading the way.

***

Sarcus

The Mamoswine waited for both trainer and pokémon to get on him, and then stood once again. It was a huge pokémon, and scarred enough to show it had seen many battles through it's life. The Froslass floated alongside it as they walked through the forest, and aside of one or other wild pokémon that appeared - only to be put to run by a mighty roar from the mamoth - the trip kept going without any further incidents.

After some time, they arrived in a clearing in the forest. Froslass took the lead then, and pointed towards the northern treeline. Faintly through the storm, Sarcus and Absolution could see the dim lights of Snowpoint city. Mamoswine knelt once more, to let them down.

[krim]

{Tunnel Group}

Turning towards the sound of wings, Nemir watched as the steelix's head rose from the ground. "Well....that's a new one..." he said slightly mystified about why he had never noticed the huge beast here before. "I doubt it can fit through the hole leading into the temple.....it's just over there." he pointed past the pillar they had just reached. "I think....we can make a run for it. Vis let's go!!" he yelled whilst speeding off in the direction he had pointed.

Edited December 17, 2014 by DragonMasterKrim

[DarkLight]

{Tunnel Group}

As the rumbled beneath them, Raito ran back and jumped into Miki's arms once more. Once the rumbling stopped, the Jolteon took a peek and found himself facing an unhappy Steelix. Hearing Kyte's low growl, Raito gained some confidence and growled as well, threatening to take some action should the Steelix decided to attack.

Miki gasped as the angry face stared at her and the group. "H-Hi?" she said meekly before Nemir suggested to run for the exit. "And bye." Miki squeaked before she also took off after Nemir. She definitely didn't want to be in his range of attack.

[grasssnake485]

[Tunnel group]

Alina gulped as she watched the enormous steelix emerge. "MAPLE!" she screamed, slamming her palm on the pokeball's button at her waist. Her serperior materialized in a flash of light, coiled around her shoulders like a fancy scarf. "Maple, grass knot," Alina commanded, before following Nemir and Miki towards the exit. Maple 's eyes glowed, and weeds grew out of the cracks in the ground, in front of the approaching steelix.

[Rielly987]

{Tunnel}

As the Icicles crashed around him, Pine began to curl into a ball. Shaking back and forth right where he was standing before. His eyes filled with fear. "NO, NO STOP IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE!" He shouts out. While not to anyone in particular. His hand covered his ears as the ground split open and frozen shards smashed into the floor. Petrified with fear the boy made no move to the exit.

Edited December 17, 2014 by Rielly987

[Commander]

Drake knew no one in the house, but it was quite odd that the lights would be left on. Maybe my group came here to rest...or perhaps some Acolytes use this as a base. I should prepare for the latter and so no mercy. Just then, a figure ran by him, but he couldn't quite figure who it was. "Typhoon, keep close to him. If he tries to attack you, show no mercy."

The bat followed the orders trying to catch up with the figure. He was able to get a good look, but he didn't recognize him. For now, he was willing to wait, but if the man tried anything, he'd enjoy ripping him to shreds. Shortly behind, Drake followed and kept glancing to see which way the man and Typhoon went.

[Chevaleresse]

Sarcus gave the Mamoswine a rub as he slid off of its back. "Wish I had more to thank you with, but I'm traveling light." Absolution hopped lightly down to the ground and gave what looked like a polite bow to the large Pokemon before following his trainer as he walked toward Snowpoint. He wondered how he was going to meet up with the rest of the group, however.

[M_Cowher]

{Tunnel Group}

Thoron was about to bolt to the tunnel but when Pine collapsed he knew that he couldn't leave the boy behind. "Rusgon now!" Rusgon shifted into the shape of a large Camerupt and began to spew fire to try to ward off the Steelix. Thoron grabbed Pine by the shoulders and began dragging him back to the tunnel and hoped that nothing bad happened to Rusgon. "Pine can you hear me?" Thoron said to Pine to try to snap him back to the situation.

[Azeria]

The Steelix was humongous in size,a good meter larger than the usual size of a Steelix."Well shit,First the Abomasnow,now this...i'm tempted to say that Dawn's been sending these at us but it probably isnt true."Regardless the Steelix was going right in the way of a Serperior's Grass knot attack so it would probably drop...a creature of that size falling down would make quite a commotion though."Nappy,use rock tomb to cover the Steelix"Micheal said as the Steelix came closer and closer.

[Felicity]

(Carissa, Jory and Adam)

Adam looked at Jory and Carissa, speaking in hushed tones. "I'll go to the Pokemon Centre, then when she's dealt with, I'll bug out with Lockhart. This little deal we have is the only reason they haven't squealed on us yet, we have to minimise the loss for when they do rat us out. You two get out and get safe." Adam then went to the acolyte who was walking away and followed, glancing at the other acolytes to follow as well.

[SilverJakler]

"Move, people, move!" Seth and Giga started booking it as the Steelix poked its head through the shattered floor, looking as if someone just chipped its armor. He looked back over his shoulder and saw people trying to use attacks to ward and slow the Steelix down, but he knew that one wrong move could very well end their little adventure here. The duo turned and stopped as Seth said,

"Guys, be careful what attacks you use! You could bring the whole cave down on top of us, only try to slow its progress, we can't have dozens of moves going on at once!"

[Notus]

Tunnel Group

Jon listened to Seth and had to agree in evrything. "Right! No Earthquakes or Rock Slides from us." He yelled, then turning back to Kyte, wo still stood his ground staring at the Steelix. "Buddy, retreat! But do it shooting an Hydro Pump to slow it down!" The Swampert nooded and began walking backwards, all the while shooting a torrent of high pressured water from his open mouth.

The Steelix managed to avoid Kyte's first shot and tried to advance, but then Maple's Grass knot hit and caused the pokémon to fall to the ground - not that big of a fall since it was still half buried underground, but it did ensure that the Rock Tomb hit it. Large boulders fell from the cave's roof, but luckily it was sturdy enough to not collapse with only that. Dust and ice flew in the air with the impact, and for a second the metal head disappeared under the rocks. The fire thrown by Rusgon passed by, causing more of the Ice in the cave's roof to melt and stalactites to fall, but when the dust went down... There was no more sign of the Steelix.

What? Were did it go? Jon tought, only to be answered by the ground shaking once more. "It's under us!" He yelled to everyone, and a moment later the metal snake emerged again, this time between the group and the tunnel leading into the temple, a wicked grin on it's face.

Sarcus

Weird enough, this part of the city's perimeter seemed to be completely unguarded and soon Sarcus found himself standing near the now closed pokémart. The city was quiet, and only a few acolytes passed on the street from time to time, luckily far enough not to notice him. Not long after he arrived though a bigger group passed by headed to the Pokémon Center, and Sarcus recognized Carissa, Adam and Jory there.

Flux & Commander

Soon Flux arrived in the clearing that Fria told him about. He could see the lights of Snowpoint already in the distance, but there was still no sign of the Dusk agent.