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

[SilverJakler]

"No prob, man." Seth was just about done packing. He threw his bag over his shoulder after restocking and was ready to go. "Welp, if you guys are ready, we should head out as soon as the others get back." he said to the rest of the people still lingering in the cabin.

-------------------

Gigawatt instantly took a liking to this spiky thing before him. He outstretched his left arm and extended his index finger towards Raito, a little spark forming on his fingertip. He was trying to perform a standard electric type greeting, a sort of handshake, by sharing electricity with the other Pokemon in question.

[Felicity]

"Lockhart, get ready to Pursue if she runs." Adam called to the bird as he emerged from the tree line. "That went as well as could be expected, I'd liked to have done more, but I doubt a heat wave or Incinerate would have done more than attract others." He said as he joined Carrisa and Jory, looking at the Acolyte with disdain. "So what now? Should we regroup with the others or try to proceed on our own

[Tacos]

Carissa held up a finger to signal Adam to wait. Carissa then held up the radio to her mouth. "My apologies. This is Claire. We ran into a rather angry Abomasnow that we had to deal with. Still on route to Snowpoint with the targets. Over." Carissa pressed the button again and turned to Adam. "Well, if you could guess at this point, I'm going to be Claire. Claire lost three of her acolytes in a mission to capture you two." Carissa pointed to Jory and Adam as she walked over to two acolytes, plucking a pair of handcuffs from each, as well as their respective keys. "I'll enter this city with you two in handcuffs, and I'll state that I'm taking you both to reeducation. But we all know I can't let that happen to my teammates. It's just a simple ploy to get into the city safely and without questions. But I'm sure you two have figured that out by now. Unfortunately, we don't have a way of contacting the others to let them know we're in safely. That's my only worry." Carissa sighed.

[Jory]

Jory looked to Carissa proudly, appreciating the plan. "Yeah, okay. Make sure you leave us with the keys to the cuffs, though. I don't want to end up in another situation where I think I have it all figured out, only to end up transferred to a different guard and stuck in the cuffs." He then looked down at the leader and sighed. "Another dead. This war's had too many casualties already, although she won't be the last." Shredder was rolling around in the snow, enjoying himself after the battle. "Hey, buddy. You okay or do you need a heal?" Shredder looked up and shook his head, then continued frolicking. "Shredder and I are good. And you're welcome, by the way," he said with a cocky grin. "I guess you owe me one."

[Felicity]

Adam stared blankly at the woman suggesting her plan and the dude grining to himself with a corpse right next to him. " I highly doubt that will work. The other guards have to have known this Claire girl, especially if you used her specific name. Also, they have to have protocols for that shit, passwords, group names, you lost two people? they'll want to know the specifics of who they were. I say we use Lockhart to scout the area, regroup, then continue with the original plan with the added benefit of having the uniforms as a resource if needed"

[Jory]

Jory walked over to the girl who he'd floored with his elbow, picking her up roughly and carrying her over to Adam and Carissa by the collar of her uniform. He then addressed Adam. "You clearly don't have a very high opinion of me, so let me explain to you how this works. We don't kill if we don't have to. That's why this girl is still alive." He then addressed the Acolyte. "Alright, here's the deal. You're going to tell us everything about your squad and the Conclave that you were a part of. Then, you're going to tell us the fastest way to Snowpoint City. After that, we're going to give you enough food and water for two days. You're going to head South to warmer weather. If we so much as hear you pissing in the snow again, Shredder over there is going to gut you and we'll leave you as a tasty treat for whatever Ursaring finds you first. Got it?" he asked harshly.

[Tacos]

Carissa took a step back, intimidated by this side of Jory. She then sidestepped closer to Adam. "Well, if we get the info out of her then we'll know how to get to Snowpoint, what to do when we get there, how to deal with you two, and how to get info back to the team that we made it." Without waiting for a response, she stepped behind Jory and popped her head out from beneath his shoulder. "Look sweetheart, we don't want to hurt you anymore than he did already. Just tell us the information we need and we'll both get out of here without any problems." Carissa tried to make her voice as comforting as possible. She didn't want all the violence, but she had to do what she had to do.

[krim]

"Okay" he said walking back into the cabin. He noticed the empty book case and then said "I see you all have taken a liking to the books. It makes me happy that we won't have to leave any behind for the Church to find." he paused for a moment and then continued "Thoron should be in in a minute, and we will have to go soon after, so make your final preparations now."

[Felicity]

Adam had to fight not to growl at the pair of lovebirds."Look, even if we have the information, and we get in, what will we do? There's a reason we started out as a force, there's a reason we were meant to work together. Three people can't take on a city, and we don't know what happened to the others. We can't count on them right now. Why are you both so insistent on rushing in?!" Adam pushed, he had to at least try to make them see sense, even if he didn't think it likely. He looked up at Lockhart, making sure he bird was there in case he needed the pokemon.

[Jory]

Jory shook his head. "You clearly don't understand. We're not going to rush in. By getting into the city before the rest of the force, we'll be able to gather more information about the enemy before we even strike. Haven't you ever heard the saying 'Knowledge is power'?" He then looked to Carissa and back to the Acolyte, then at Adam. "You're not helping, you know. All we need is for her to give us the information, but you're so stuck on being right that you can't even let me effectively interrogate this Acolyte. So back off, jackass," he said to Adam, pointing toward the treeline.

[Felicity]

Woah, this guy goes ahead and insults Adam after he tries to save their asses from stupidity? "Woah, I'm trying to speak some sense, you dipshit. You say I don't understand? I understand plenty. I understand that you're probably gonna get killed if you go in there, and then your knowledge won't mean shit. But you know what? Fuck it. If you won't at least try to listen, then that's fine! Just don't blame me when we're both roasting in hell." Adam ranted at he man. His hands were clenched, his teeth gritted. Adam was ready and wanted a fight, despite his better judgement.

[Tacos]

"Both of you shut the hell up!" Carissa stood in between the two quarreling men. "We're a team for fuck's sake. I agree with Jory's plan but for fuck's sake you don't need to be at each other's throats about this. How do you expect us to work out any plan if we can't even get along." Carissa put her head in her hand and shook it in disappointment. "Look Adam, at this point, I have no clue where the other group is. I guarantee that we can work this out if we end up just working together. All we need to do is get in the entrance and disappear until the other's arrive. I don't want to have to keep up this act for longer than I have to. So once we get in the city we're going into hiding. I guarantee that we can wait it out. It will probably be less than 24 hours before the other team arrives." Carissa sighed once again. "So how about we get the information we need, get going, and start getting to know each other a bit better so we don't end up killing each other on the battlefield!"

[M_Cowher]

Thoron stepped inside wordlessly behind Nemir, and as Nemir suggested searched the house for any spare supplies. Aside from basic provisions like food and potions nothing but a particular book caught Thoron's eye 'Survivalist's guide to sinnoh', covered with a picture of a trainer huddling for warmth around a small fire. 'Not much that I don't know about survival, but even I can learn a thing or two.' and put the book into his pack positioning it so that it wouldn't smash his provisions. "I'll be outside waiting by the tunnel" Thoron calmly said to the group as a whole, and walked out of the cabin with Rusgon and waited by the entrance to the tunnel. Thoron took out the remains of Will's dagger and fingered it in his palm in deep thought.

Edited December 12, 2014 by M_Cowher

[Felicity]

Now Adam was pissed. "Fucks sake, the ONE fucking courtesy I extended to you was not to insult your battling prowess, now you say we'll kill each other. Fuck you, there's no way that's gonna happen, and I'll damn well prove it in the city. Let's get on with this shit." Adam stepped towards the Acolyte and growled. "Answer it, or I'll have Lockhart rip your damn vocal chords out out, and you'll still have to write it out in the bloody snow." He really wanted this girl to disobey...

[DarkLight]

{Jon and Miki}

Miki beamed happily when Jon accepted the offer. This could be just like when I read to Raito back at home! "Then that's settled! No take backs, okay?" she exclaimed joyously, not really caring how childish she must have sounded. As Nemir announced a countdown, Miki did a quick check of her bag to see if she could fit any more belongings inside. With the books, mittens, marshmallow bag and other various potions and necessities, it was clear that her backpack was full to the brim. Content with the finding, she zipped it up tightly and hoisted it onto her back. As Thoron left for the tunnel, however, Miki came back to her senses and questioned the objective. "Wait a second... What about the others outside? Shouldn't we go help them?"

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{Raito and Giga}

The over-excited Jolteon stared at the little spark on Giga's fingertip, watching the electricity dance around before he allowed the yellow spark to tickle his skin. With a contented cry, Raito sat down and held out a paw for Giga to touch. A few seconds later, Raito's little paw was sparkling with his own electricity.

[krim]

"As much as I hate to say it...we will have to let them find their own way into the city. With acolyte patrols out, it's too dangerous to go looking for them. I hope to meet them after we get through the tunnel and temple...but depending on what awaits us, it might be later." Nemir said while filling his bag with the last of the potions.

[SilverJakler]

Gigawatt and Raito's electricity combined and made a short spark. Giga smiled and gave a little laugh, it'd been a while since he was able to do that, he'd been cramped in his Pokeball for who knows how long... ever since Seth's parents were taken away. He hadn't met any friendly electric types in a while.

[Rielly987]

{Cabin Crew}

"They should be good, they went to find Fria and Flux if they found them then they should get there no problem." At least Pine hoped so "It's best to get moving, im ready when you all are"

[Notus]

Jory, Adam & Carissa

The acolyte looked with fear from Shredder to Lockhart, and immediattely started to talk. Apparently, Snowpoint's Conclave was fully focused on blocking the route from anyone coming from or going to Eterna, and most of their forces were employed in this. The city itself had only a small garrison of Acolytes, plus the Gym trainers and - obviously - the leader Candice, the Ice Queen of Snowpoint. There were guards in all the entrances of the city, and the order was to let no one not belonging to the Church in and out unless properly authorized. Not only that, people couldn't leave their houses from dusk till dawn.

While she - shakilly - proceeded to tell the group details of the guards passwords and such, the other free acolyte ran over to where Claire was laying in the snow. Shaking, she turned the older girl so she was once again facing the sky. The girl then proceeded to check her pulse...

"W-what? She's alive!" She couldn't keep the exclamation. Then her skin turned pale, and she stood up between the Dusk members and her coleague. "Y-you don't lay a hand on her though, I'm warning you." Despite her efforts to act tough, it was visible that her legs were shaking.

((What happened to the Vaporeon, it's trainer, and the Icy Wind that Lockhart took Dobby? Feel free to make up the whole fight, but it is a little weird that it was ignored. Just a heads up.))

***

Cabin

{Jon, Miki, Nemir}

"All... right then." Jon was still not sure about what he had just done, but it seemed he would go with the flow by now. Then he turned serious again. "I agree with Nemir too, they did say they had a plan right? if we delay too much here, the Acolytes may catch up with us. We must hurry."

***

Flux & Fria

"Oh, that's nothing special really... I grew up in these woods and pokémon were always friendly towards me for some reason. Maybe it was because I was not afraid of them. But yeah, I hope everybody is safe and sound too." Fria raised her shoulders, and they kept going for some more time until they spotted a light in the distance.

It was a small cabin with the inside lit up. The blizzard made it hard to see exactly what exactly was going on there and as they walked closer to it... Fria suddenly moved to get behind a large tree, pulling Flux in tow. She put her index finger in front of her lips, motioning for the professor to keep quiet, and then pointed towards the direction they were going in,whispering into his ear with an urgent tone. "There, on the end of the treeline. Acolytes."

And indeed, looking with attention there were various shadows - around twenty - moving in a sneaky way towards the cabin. They were still under the cover of the trees, so it was unlikely someone would see them from over there, but in that number and counting with surprise on their side...

"Jeez, so many... And moving like that, they're going to assault that cabin. Any plan Flux?"

((note: Cabin Crew cannot see the acolytes coming at all))

[Tacos]

Carissa slowly walked towards Claire and the other acolyte. "Look sweetheart, I don't want to harm her, I just want her uniform and we'll be good to go, alright? I'll even give her my clothes if she wants. So how about it?" Carissa crossed her arms and began tapping her foot, signaling that she was feeling rather impatient. "No one will get hurt if you just cooperate."

[krim]

"Alright everyone...I think enough of us are in agreement, and Thoron is waiting for us. It's time to go" Nemir said. He threw his bag over his shoulder and walked out towards the icy rock where Thoron was, and had Vis once again use strength to open the stairway.

[Notus]

Carissa, Adam & Jory

"Let her... Have your clothes?" The girl asked, staring at Carissa. Then she snapped. "Your CLOTHES?! She needs a HOSPITAL! You guys did this to her, and I don't care what you do with the city, but you are responsible if she dies! You can have my uniform if you want it, but you must at least take her with you. to the Snowpoint!" The girl's face was flushed red by that time, her legs still shaking - but wether it was fear or anger, no one could tell.

[M_Cowher]

Thoron put Will's dagger back into the back and gestured toward the tunnel as Nemir "Finally time to go?"

[krim]

"Yeah....We've spent long enough here, and we've taken everything of use. The acolytes are bound to find us soon if we stick around." He said and then continued with "Everyone go before Vis and I.....I want to reseal the tunnels once we are inside."

[Tacos]

Carissa bent down a short distance away from the acolytes. "Honey, if I could, I would. But there's no way I can get in there with her. Either she goes or I do, and seeing as I need to get there right now, I can't do much. It's a bit too late to change that. They already think she's coming back in perfect health, and that obviously isn't the case." Carissa paused and turned back to Adam. She walked over and whispered to him so that that acolytes couldn't hear. "Hey, you said you didn't want to go through with this part of the plan. If you can find your way back to the others with this girl, maybe they can help her. Who knows, maybe she can be on our side?"