playthough From Everland to Reborn ~ A fairytale themed run [Last defeated: Amaria]

[Candy]

Just now, Corso said:

Capitalism and the american dream, isn't it?

yeetus. Vanilla has a similar idea to the traditional american way of thinking (freedom, liberty and pursuit of happiness, wasn't it?) and that also includes Capitalism. however Everland is an absolute government and everything is pretty much controlled by the Queen to make it easy for a select Overworld people to live happily. 

the episode is titled "Duality" so I tried to write in as many dichotomous stuffs in. South Obsidia vs Obsidia/North Obsidia, Vanilla's vision vs Queen's Everland, Reborn citizens who want to save vs those who just follow effortlessly, progress vs deforestation, and poison vs antidote. lemme feel a bit clever there, just a tiiiiinie bit

[Corso]

EPISODES HAVE TITLES!?

[Candy]

53 minutes ago, Corso said:

EPISODES HAVE TITLES!?

Bruh. If you check the first page of this long-ass thread, there's a list of episodes by season, and each episode has its "official" title xD they aren't really important because, as you can tell from the lame title of "From Everland to Reborn", I suck at naming things lolol

[Candy]

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 73

Victoria was in Beryl Cemetery. Indeed I had been to all the wards except for Onyx, to which she likely had no connection with, so she had to be there by process of elimination. I wondered if Candy and Ame were annoyed that I had taken so long to find her.

“Oh, Vanilla. You’re back in town. Hope everyone was doing alright when you left,” she said when she saw me approaching her.

“Yeah, most of them were,” I said and started going down the stairs when I noted that we weren’t alone. There was one other man kneeling in front of a gravestone, praying.

Victoria said she was glad to hear that, and looked at Kiki’s gravestone again. On closer inspection, I noticed that there was a faint redness around her eyes.

“I was just… saying ‘Hello’,” she said.

“I’m sure that’s not all you said.”

Victoria chuckled.

“Yes, it wasn’t all I said. The majority of the time I’ve spent here, I’ve apologized for all my mistakes. As if that would solve anything.”

“If you know that it won’t solve anything, there’s no use in apologizing,” I said.

“I can’t help it. I can’t live with the weight of her death,” she said and shook her head. “When I think she could’ve lived some more time. When I think she could’ve taught me how to be a good leader step by step… It makes my blood boil in anger. At Team Meteor. At Solaris. At Cal. But most of all, at myself.”

“I understand you, believe me. I-”

“No,” she cut my sentence with irritation. “You wouldn’t understand. If you think me losing Kiki is comparable to you losing your pachirisu friend, it’s not.”

She then moved closer to me and stroked Pikachu’s head.

“It’s not the same, because your friend came back. Kiki will never.”

“I wasn’t referring to Pikachu. I do know what it feels like to lose people, forever.”

Victoria seemed surprised and instantly broke eye contact with me.

“S-sorry for assuming,” she apologized.

“Because of me, a person that was very dear to me died,” I told her. “And for a long time, I didn’t know how to cope with the loss. But today, I know the way to do it isn’t apologizing or crying in front of a gravestone, or pretending the tragedy didn’t happen, or lashing out at everyone and everything.”

Here, I took a pause. I remembered Wolfie’s dying words, one more time: “Long live Queen Eterna”

“I know what I have to do. And you... Kiki entrusted you Apophyll, the place she loved, the people she wanted to protect at all costs. You know what to do.”

Victoria gazed at me in silence. The man who probably could hear all of our conversation, also said nothing. Only the trees around us kept whispering among themselves.

“It’s been a long time since we last saw each other, Vanilla. I’ve been reminded of that fact just now,” she said at last.

“What do you mean?”

“Perhaps you can’t notice it yourself, but you’re no longer the girl with bloodshot eyes I once knew,” she elaborated. “I wonder if it’s because you’re close to finding what neither I nor- surprisingly perhaps- Kiki believed existed. True Inner Peace.”

At this, I had to laugh out loud.

“Impossible. I still have anger in me, but many things have happened since then that have helped me organize my mind. I’m now in better control of my impulses.”

“That’s a good thing. I hope I can one day say the same for myself,” she said and smiled. “I’ll be waiting in the Grand Hall, then.”

Huh? I had yet to tell her that Ame had asked her to come, so how did she know?

“Ame had told me about this mission already. And I knew you wouldn’t come looking for me for any other reason,” she said, and then got close to whisper in my ear. “But if you could do me a favor. Talk to that man over there. I think I vaguely remember him being a Team Meteor grunt, but I’m not 100% sure. It’d be best to make sure he isn’t a spy.”

 

Victoria left and now it was Team Meteor spy’s turn.

On a closer look, I realized I also knew the man. I couldn’t recognize him at first because he wasn’t wearing his Team Meteor uniform and his hair was visible now, but I think his name was Simon. I vaguely remember him tackling Saphira when we kind of raided their hideout in Tanzan Mountain.

He frowned at me when he saw me approaching him.

“I hoped I’d go unnoticed, but I guess we must talk,” he said. “I must admit that was a nice little conversation you had just now. I hope you don’t mind me listening in.”

“What are you doing here? Are you on Team Meteor’s business?”

“Come here, I’ll show you.”

He stepped to the side so that I could read the tombstone.

Tara.

“This is…” I trailed.

“I don’t know her last name or her family, or anything really,” he said. “I didn’t even have her body, since it’s located at the bottom of the lake. This is all I could do. To place a tombstone in her memory.”

He walked over to another gravestone, and cleaned it with a damp towel.

“Twice. Twice I’ve lost the girl I loved,” he sighed and squatted.

“My condolences, but Tara’s death was a product of her own choice. Had she not been Team Meteor and tried to cross the lake, she might’ve still been alive.”

“Yes, she made that choice, and died for it. She must’ve wanted something really badly, too.”

“What do you mean?”

Simon stood back up and placed the towel in his pocket.

“Humans are weakest when they’re promised a dream. Not any dream, though. A dream they should be well aware of that it can’t come true.”

He rested his hand on top of the clean tombstone.

“In my case, that was seeing my wife again. I don’t know what Tara’s dream was, but if she had none, she wouldn’t have joined Team Meteor. All of us fight as a team in order to bring a new world in which the impossibilities of this world become possibilities.”

“I doubt Team Meteor could accomplish that. You, Tara and all the other grunts were scammed. How could you fall for such an obvious trap?”

“Like I said, humans are weakest when they’re promised an impossible dream. Vanilla, you too have someone you’d pay any price to bring back, don’t you?”

Wolfie's face crossed my mind for a brief moment.

“Perhaps I do, but I wouldn’t believe anyone if they told me they could bring her back,” I said with confidence.

“You’d be surprised. I hope you’ll remember those words, if someone tries to take advantage of your weak point,” he said. “As for me, I also know what I will do: I’ll live the remainder of my life as an ex-Team Meteor member, in this world. This is goodbye for good, Vanilla.”

Simon passed by my side and left me standing next to Tara’s grave.

“I won’t be surprised,” I whispered to myself.

 

I returned to the Grand Hall afterwards to carry on with the mission.

All of the people we needed were assembled. Victoria and Adrienn were talking to each other, Candy was snacking on chocolate, Arclight was on his phone and Ame was with the front desk until she saw me entering the Hall. She then called everyone to form a circle and told us the details of the mission.

“Does everyone know each other, or should we start with introductions?” Ame asked us.

“I think all of us knows each other, save perhaps for Arclight and Vanilla. Do you know each other?” Adrienn asked.

“I don’t recall him,” I said truthfully.

“That’s great to hear, really. It’s refreshing when I meet someone new and they don’t jump at my throat to get an autograph,” Arclight said, laughing. “You can call me Arc. Hope we can be good buddies in this mission, especially since you’ll be in my team.”

“Ok Arc, don’t run ahead with the plan. I’ll carry it from here,” said Ame. “First, let me fill everyone in on the basics so that we can all be on the same page.”

Ame talked about the process she and her team took to pinpoint the location of a Team Meteor base inside the city. They apparently received an anonymous tip about the base and that started some investigations that led to one conclusion.

“Devon?” asked Adrienn.

“Devon.”

“I’m not surprised. Even after other multiregional corporations like Sweets co. and Sylph co. generously donated for the restaurations, Devon refused to do that or even let anyone walk in freely in their building. I felt they were pretty shady since then.”

“Well, now it’s no longer an anonymous tip. I called Mr. Stone and he said that they had never had a branch here in Reborn.”

“Good. Let’s close down the building and burn it,” said Victoria, a little too energetically.

“Woah, calm down Victoria. You’re starting to sound like Julia,” Candy said. “We can’t just kill everyone inside.”

“Yes we can’t,” Ame agreed. “We need to capture them alive, or this terrorism will never cease.”

“I don’t want to leave any room for mishaps. If we aren’t careful, they might escape us. Even at this moment, they might be working on clearing up evidence to abandon their base.”

“I doubt that’s the case,” Ame said. “I’ve set up cameras to monitor the movement of people in and out of the building, and in the past week I’ve seen no change. If somehow the anonymous tip was leaked, they should’ve already vacated the premises.”

“Besides we definitely have one person in there that we’d like to capture alive,” Arclight added. “Why don’t you tell them about that, Ame?”

“Right. Team Meteor’s leader, Lin, is likely to be in there.”

Lin. Candy told me earlier that she’s in there. I’d only met her only once, when we were in her Tanzan Mountain base, but knew nothing more than that she stood over Solaris, as Eclipse had briefed us before dying to a chandelure’s flames.

“We need to capture her,” Ame continued. “However, I’ve been told by Saphira that we can’t take any chances with her. That’s why we need to go together and try to apprehend her 6 vs 1.”

“Surely an elite team including the sensei of Apophyll Academy, a gym leader, an ex-Champion and current Champion should do it,” Arclight said.

“And an ace trainer and a league challenger that's defeated more Team Meteor admins than all of us combined,” added Ame.

I wasn't aware of it until now because my tourist pamphlet only listed Gym leaders, but it turned out that Ame was the Reborn league champion. I wondered if we'd have a chance to fight together so that I could see what kind of pokemon she has, to give myself advantage on our future battle.

As for the plan, it was to separate into two groups of three and raid the building from its two exits. Ame and Adrienn would go in from the front entrance, to give the appearance of a visit to discuss donations, while Candy stood guarding the entrance in case civilians tried going into the building. Only if things became unmanageable inside, would Ame contact her to join in as backup. Meanwhile, Arclight, Victoria and I would go in from the basement side and join the rest of them in the upper floors. That way none of the enemy could escape us.

Ame gave a radio transceiver to Arclight and another one to Candy.

“Let’s get to work then, team.”

 

As we headed out of the Grand Hall, Candy approached me.

“It’s a bummer that I have to be the one guarding the main entrance,” she said. “Even though I’m a pokemon caretaker and breeder, I enjoy the rare times when I get to use my pokemon to relive old times.”

“Maybe you should’ve come with me to challenge the League when I first came to Reborn. Trust me, there hasn’t been a shortage of pokemon battles.”

“That’d defeat the purpose. If you eat too much chocolate, your tongue will become numb to its taste.”

She smiled and broke off a piece of chocolate from her bar and gave it to me.

 

VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS

Spoiler

• Victoria (+1): 7/10 She's doing her best to cope with a loss, and hasn't run away from her responsibilities, which is admirable
• Simon(&Tara) (+1): 5/10 I didn't hate them to begin with, and now that Simon is not Team Meteor, he's just a dude plagued with misfortune
• Ame (+1): 6/10 She's league champion and coordinator, and has been doing her job diligently
• Arclight: 4/10 I don't have much of an opinion on him yet

 

It's Devon time. I'm excited how it'll turn out :3 Look forward to it hopefully in a not-so-distant future, maybe.

 

QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

[J-Awesome_One]

Yay! I was literally wondering today while I was working when you were gonna update this. Haha. You know have me doubly excited for the upcoming mission.  Nice episode as always!

[Candy]

4 hours ago, J-Awesome_One said:

Yay! I was literally wondering today while I was working when you were gonna update this. Haha. You know have me doubly excited for the upcoming mission.  Nice episode as always!

Makes me happy to know that Vanini occupies even a second of someone else's conscience xD I've been busy with other stories, projects and work, but I felt it was time for a new FEtR chapter haha

[J-Awesome_One]

27 minutes ago, Candy said:

Makes me happy to know that Vanini occupies even a second of someone else's conscience xD I've been busy with other stories, projects and work, but I felt it was time for a new FEtR chapter haha

Hold on! When you say other stories... O,O

[Candy]

2 hours ago, J-Awesome_One said:

Hold on! When you say other stories... O,O

Not my girl Violetta yet  it's my Ace Attorney fic, which I started relatively recently but is closer to being finished than any of my other fics lol

[Aphelli]

5 hours ago, Candy said:

Makes me happy to know that Vanini occupies even a second of someone else's conscience xD

Given how developed your story is, it's probably happening more often than you think!

I'm quite worried about how badly Devon will mess everyone up (and hoping against hope the answer is: "not too much").   

 

Also who is Violetta?  

[Candy]

3 hours ago, Mindlack said:

Also who is Violetta?  

My Rejuv run protagonist, but I donut have enough brains to be playing Rejuv and writing a story on it so it's on a longass hiatus xD

[J-Awesome_One]

7 hours ago, Candy said:

Not my girl Violetta yet  it's my Ace Attorney fic, which I started relatively recently but is closer to being finished than any of my other fics lol

You got my hopes up! Dx Haha.

[Corso]

It must have passed a long real life time and/or a long reborn time because I don't remember if Vanilla and Victoria (it's been so long since I played Reborn that I had to check Victoria's name) were on good terms, I remember they had a battle shortly before or after Kiki's death (when Vanilla was still insufferable).

Sudden thought, the appearance in the story of worse characters than Vanilla (Titania and Saphira) might have made her look more human than her initial self, or maybe it's just her character development, in any case you're doing a great job Candy.

 

[Candy]

7 hours ago, Corso said:

It must have passed a long real life time and/or a long reborn time because I don't remember if Vanilla and Victoria (it's been so long since I played Reborn that I had to check Victoria's name) were on good terms, I remember they had a battle shortly before or after Kiki's death (when Vanilla was still insufferable).

Sudden thought, the appearance in the story of worse characters than Vanilla (Titania and Saphira) might have made her look more human than her initial self, or maybe it's just her character development, in any case you're doing a great job Candy.

 

I think the last time they saw each other was when Kiki died. Back then, they were on semi-bad terms because Vanini was coping with Pikachu's death and Victoria was like "oH yOu DoNt CaRe AbOuT Kiki" which clashed with Vanini's opinion that babysitting Kiki was a disservice to her, iirc. 

Now, Vanini's toned down character is supposed to be character development xD In the beginning she's enraged and her only goal is to get stronger so she can fite in her homeland, but as time passes, she makes meaningful connections with the Reborn peeps that makes her fite Team Meteor not only because she wants to get stronger but also to protect the peeps she cares about now. She's still the same blunt, opinionated, perhaps short-tempered girl as before, but as her initial bloodthirst quenched, she has had more room in her mind to empathize with others, which is what I kinda tried to show in this chapter with Victoria. 

Idk about Tania and Saphira. I think Vanini is somewhat similar to Saphira in that she fights for peeps she cares about like Saphira does for her sisters, but her scope is wider than just two people. I'd say they're all in the same level of "bad" in the sense that they don't hesitate to harm or kill those who threaten the safety of the people they care about. A couple of reasons I can think of that you might feel less inclined to hate Vanini is that you've seen all of her thought processes, her pains and recoveries, so you're less likely to label her as a coldblooded assassin like you might Tania and Saphira, and Vanini hasn't killed anyone since coming to Reborn (as Candy says, it's not necessary to kill when things are decided with a pokemon battle).

[Corso]

We must not forget that she hasn't won a fist fight in years now (the blind girl's mom mopped the floor with her and Victoria was clearly winning before they were stopped). To be honest I expected the skilled soldier to be able to overpower the housewife so good job again because that time you made me root for Vanilla.

[Aphelli]

7 hours ago, Candy said:

you're less likely to label her as a coldblooded assassin like you might Saphira

I haven't re-read all that you made Saphira do, but I don't remember anything that was like a cold-blooded murder.

I do remember an unambiguous full-blown assault launched against her home by terrorists who had already abducted her sister and are twice as many as there are battlers defending the house. Honestly, I feel that at this level we're mostly talking self-defence.

(Not to say that the needless Meteor deaths weren't sad, but I feel that calling Saphira a murderer for this is a bit too much.

Also, most of the blame lies with Sirius. Had he been a competent squad leader, he'd have made sure his subordinates could swim, and then given them safety vests anyway).

 

 

7 hours ago, Candy said:

Vanini hasn't killed anyone since coming to Reborn (as Candy says, it's not necessary to kill when things are decided with a pokemon battle).

Now I really want to see her go to Aevium. Who wants to bet on how many hours she'd hold before her first kill?

(I admit, that is being cheap)

[Candy]

10 hours ago, Corso said:

We must not forget that she hasn't won a fist fight in years now (the blind girl's mom mopped the floor with her and Victoria was clearly winning before they were stopped). To be honest I expected the skilled soldier to be able to overpower the housewife so good job again because that time you made me root for Vanilla.

I don't remember if I didn't write it in, but the housewife used to be a student in Apophyll Academy, and in my mind Apophyll Academy martial artists > thug who learned fighting from another thug that learned fighting from trial and error lol Vanini almost won in a 1-on-1 against Aladdin, though, had the peeps in Ametrine not butted in xD

 

9 hours ago, Mindlack said:

I haven't re-read all that you made Saphira do, but I don't remember anything that was like a cold-blooded murder.

I do remember an unambiguous full-blown assault launched against her home by terrorists who had already abducted her sister and are twice as many as there are battlers defending the house. Honestly, I feel that at this level we're mostly talking self-defence.

(Not to say that the needless Meteor deaths weren't sad, but I feel that calling Saphira a murderer for this is a bit too much.

Also, most of the blame lies with Sirius. Had he been a competent squad leader, he'd have made sure his subordinates could swim, and then given them safety vests anyway).

 

 

Now I really want to see her go to Aevium. Who wants to bet on how many hours she'd hold before her first kill?

(I admit, that is being cheap)

Yah I'm talking original game Tanzan arc. It can be taken as self-defense but she had zero mercy which might be taken as cold-blooded.

When the kids had been kidnapped in Yureyu building, protagonist and Cain didn't kill anyone unlike Saphira and Tania.

[Aphelli]

4 hours ago, Candy said:

Yah I'm talking original game Tanzan arc. It can be taken as self-defense but she had zero mercy which might be taken as cold-blooded.

When the kids had been kidnapped in Yureyu building, protagonist and Cain didn't kill anyone unlike Saphira and Tania.

I beg to disagree with your comparison. Yureyu and WTC are, when you think of it, rather mirroring each other, while Tanzan Cove is different. 

 

In Yureyu/WTC, we are teamed with another character to reclaim people Team Meteor abducted.

In Yureyu, the Team Meteor members are antagonistic and callous, yet are defeated bloodlessly, while Team Meteor members "staffing" the WTC aren't like this at all, but many are stabbed to death.

 

In Yureyu, neither the MC, nor Cain, nor anyone else want blood to come out. It's even dubious whether they would be capable of it. Also, if Cain/MC started harming Meteors to get the children back, violence would escalate, the hostage children would get hurt (at best), and Sirius would win in the end, because he's unquestionably way more ruthless than anyone else there.

But Saphira is defending her home and family (not trying to abide by "common-sense morality") in Tanzan Cove, so (although I don't really like to admit it) what other option does she have? She's outnumbered, so her only option to take them down is sinking the boat. Stalling has no point because our faction is, in effect, trapped in the house. She could negotiate or plead, but that is, in effect, taking a risk with her family -- she would be trading increased odds against her family to retain the hope to keep her hands clean (remember, time works against her and her ability to be a threat, hence against her bargaining power). Would you trust someone willing to make that trade to protect you?

 

(PS: Despite the rather edgy talk, I'm speaking about story morality here. I probably couldn't apply it in real life, even in similarly unambiguous circumstances. Although I'm definitely glad I don't actually know.)

Edited June 9, 2020 by Mindlack

[Corso]

For example, she could have:

A) used her Dragonite (who can fly at supersonic speed according to the pokedex if we want to consider it realistic) and any other flying dragon she might have to take her family if not everyone in that house to safety

B) defeated Sirius and his level ~50 team in a pokemon battle to scare him and/or the other meteor grunts; I suppose she could have even defeated the entire meteor army singlehandedly if she had wanted

[Aphelli]

I'll grant you that I really didn't think of A). There are drawbacks though. Dragonite probably can't accelerate to supersonic speed on such short distances, needs several trips back and forth (and they don't even know where it's safe), and clearly can't fly even near supersonic speed without the wind/sonic bang horrifically mauling a human body (you know, like why you shouldn't stay outside in a hurricane, even if nothing fell on you, but at least three times worse).

Maybe the other flying dragons could help, but does Saphira have her full team on her?

 

B) seems to me like a losing proposition though. First, Sirius is in a boat and Saphira is in the air, so they'll have to find a (literal) common ground (which may, or may not be closer than the boat to the house). So added risk. Second, Sirius can seriously mess Saphira up without fighting (have the Seviper slither around, unnoticed, until it has sneaked behind her and... or Chandelure if you want to get more horrific), and has enough grunts and other Pokemon to keep her overwhelmed until it is too late. So in her value system, high risk, not high reward.

 

Also a note: the Belrose sisters' home burnt when they were young. That probably explains such a fierce attachment to it (and why they didn't think of fleeing it with the Dragonite).

Edited June 9, 2020 by Mindlack

[Corso]

She doesn't need to go that fast, they could probably fly back to the city like we always do.
The ground issue doesn't really matter in my opinion, we can fight with fire-type pokemon literally underwater. And well it is true that Sirius could do those things, but why didn't he do them to the main character then?

And well even the wild Whiscash swimming in the lake could have defeated Sirius and his grunts, I don't think it would have been impossible for her (what if the meteor grunts were actually killed by the Whiscash lol).

But all these considerations are beyond my point, what I wanted to say is that she had other options but she (as Titania did later) chose the "easy way" so that she could forget her opponents were human beings.

[Aphelli]

Must... stop... responding...

It's... becoming... so... irrelevant. 

Ugh. The impulse is too strong. Maybe next time I'll manage to restrain. 

 

I always thought that the underwater mechanic was a compromise between "realism" (whatever it might mean) and gameplay. Realistically, no non-aquatic Pokemon (or some that were specifically comfortable in water, like dolphins) should remain conscious after even, like, three turns underwater. Another hint about that is the behavior of moves like Fly and Dive (because the other Pokemon will naturally adjust their levels in the water precisely to get hit). Then again, trying to find some remotely consistent biology principles in Pokemon is probably a hopeless quest. 

 

But Sirius does fight disloyally -- iirc, you only escape his Chandelure (when Eclipse... doesn't) because Aya is watching out.  He has his Seviper bite Florinia in the "defeat Solaris" route when Team Meteor attacks Fiore Mansion. And he has the Abra teleport you to wherever when you attack their base in Tanzan Mountain. He doesn't at Mosswater (where he states he wanted to send a message but got bored by the group's slow progress), in Yureyu (he doesn't really care because he already has what he wanted from the children), in the Belrose home because he's seething with rage (and grief? how knows), the second time in Tanzan Mountain (because Lin is coming and we have to pretend to be a Meteor, which doesn't fool her), and in Agate, where iirc the order seems to delay us (and it looks like Lin would rather toy with us than have us killed).  

 

As you said, it's beside the point anyway. In two sentences, my point is that, although the loss of life is sad in each case, I feel that the situations of Titania and Saphira are deeply dissimilar, and that the latter is justified in employing lethal force. I believe that when you don't have the time to think of a perfect solution, you shouldn't be expected to put the life of your (terrorist) assailants before the well-being of your loved ones. 

[Candy]

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 74

Longass chapter with an awkward ending but it do be like that sometimes.

 

As planned, Candy, Ame and Adrienn went to the fake Devon Corp’s main entrance while Victoria, Arclight and I headed down the stairs to the railnet, which had a second entrance.

“Arc calling Ame,” Arclight said when we were in our positions.

There was some buzzing sounds but soon we heard Ame’s voice.

“Go ahead,” she said.

“We’re at the entrance. We await your signal.”

“We’re ready as well. Let’s go in now.”

Arc turned off transmission, and we followed him up the stairs and broke the door in front of us. We entered the building’s basement and found New World Orderlies awaiting us. That confirmed it for us that this building indeed was a Team Meteor base hidden under Devon Corp’s facade.

“Oh? Finally someone shows up,” said one orderly.

“Finally?” I whispered, but the Meteor grunts didn’t offer an explanation. Instead they sent out their pokemon to engage us in battle.

The battle wasn’t hard; however, it seemed as though the orderlies were stalling us unnecessarily. There was a metallic gate too, which would have stopped us in our tracks had Victoria’s incineroar not been able to soften it with heat and tear it apart.

We followed through to the next floor, which was a corridor that connected the path we came from with the path Ame and co were supposed to take. I thought they should’ve been waiting for us here, since we took a while to clear the bunch in the basement, but they were nowhere to be seen.

“Maybe they went on ahead,” said Victoria.

“Come in, Ame,” Arclight said to the transceiver. “Do you copy?”

There was no response for a moment, but then we heard Candy’s voice.

“I copy. What’s up?”

“That’s what we’d like to know.”

I clicked my tongue and ran over to the storefront. 

“Hey Vanilla,” Arclight called behind me. “Don’t make rash movements.”

The storefront wasn’t empty, but Ame and Adrienn weren’t in it. Only a few Team Meteor grunts were sitting or lying on the floor unconscious. They didn’t appear to have been physically assaulted, but I couldn’t be sure of that with their uniform covering them from head to toe.

“Ame, do you copy?” I heard Arclight’s voice, but this time through a radio transmission.

I looked around the messy storefront and found it. A transceiver I judged to be Ame’s.

“I found Ame’s transceiver,” I said through it. “She isn’t here, though.”

“I’m coming in,” said Candy.

She flung the door open and found me shaking limp bodies.

“Vanilla. Gosh, I told you guys I’d only participate if we weren’t killing people,” she said, shaking her head.

“They aren’t dead,” I said. “They’re unconscious for some reason. Didn’t you hear anything from outside?”

“Not at all, it was really silent. But this room sure is a mess. A fight must’ve gone down here, somehow.”

We went back to regroup with the other two, and I gave Arclight the transceiver I found.

“We have to call it quits,” I said. “They knew we were coming, and set a trap for us. They must’ve also captured Ame and Adrienn already- otherwise, that transceiver wouldn’t be here.”

“Wow Vanilla, you’re sounding like a leader,” Candy commented.

“They bested Ame and Adrienn, who are above me strength-wise,” I said. “I’m not so stupid as to force a battle I know I’ll lose for sure.” 

“I agree, let’s return to the Grand Hall and plot a plan to rescue Ame and Adrienn,” Arclight said, and we would’ve done just that, if only a thick gate didn’t fall with a loud thudding noise, blocking the way we’d come from and the storefront simultaneously. Victoria sent out her incineroar to try to break the gate like she did in the basement, but whatever the material was, it did not seem affected by the heat. We tried the brittle-break method I’d used a couple of times in the past as well, but nothing.

“This isn’t looking good,” Arclight said.

“There’s no choice but to go forward,” I said. “We’ll be walking right into their trap now.”

 

Upstairs, we found a few Team Meteor grunts and orderlies awaiting us. In front of them, was a panel on the floor, which Arclight found had electricity flowing through it through a physical demonstration.

“Dumbasses. The panel is a puzzle,” said one of the grunts. “See that display over there? You can control the tiles from there. If you figure out the timing on which to switch the tiles, you won’t need to get electrocuted. There are more of these in the next floors too.”

The puzzle, indeed, required one of us to remain on this floor to control it. Arclight volunteered to stay, and gave me Ame’s transceiver.

“I don’t have one for you, Victoria, but you should be able to do with two among the three of you,” he said. “Copy me when you need the tiles shifted.”

We battled the enemy on every floor while carefully orchestrating the tiles. 

The enemy knew about us. I mean, every one of us. They knew Candy was a Pokemon caretaker and breeder in Obsidia, who was once Hoenn League champion. They knew Victoria was a graduate of Apophyll Academy and even that she was hurting from the loss of her mentor. Sometimes they made fun of her for it, and she repaid them with a punch or kick to the face. Oh, and they also knew who I was, but that wasn’t all that surprising since I also remembered some of these people by face. However, this all made it even more clear that somehow Team Meteor had found we were going to invade their base, and what our every move was going to be. I was starting to get suspicions that I wasn’t proud of having, but I couldn’t help but draw parallels between this event and the one that happened in my hometown many months ago.

My mind was thus engaged in deep thought when we entered a small room, which closed its door shut behind us as soon as we entered it.

“It’s no use. It’s the same as the gates below. Nothing can penetrate these,” Victoria said, knocking on the metal.

However, shutting our means of escaping wasn’t all this time. The walls started closing in on us, threatening to make us a human sandwich. Victoria’s incineroar bought us some time as Candy and I followed to the next room.

“She found me,” I heard Arclight’s voice through the transceiver.

“What’s happening? Arclight! Answer me,” I shouted, but the transceiver only transmitted one last cracking sound and went silent.

“Tsk. He’s gone.”

“Without him we can’t change the tiles. We’ll get electrocuted.”

We didn’t get electrocuted, but also that was the last thing I heard before my eyesight suddenly started blacking out and my legs gave in on me.

 

Pikachu was patting my cheek when I woke up.

We were all alone in a tiny room that was filled with boxes but also a computer with which I could change up my party pokemon and a healing machine.

“Do you know what happened?” I asked Pikachu, but he shook his head sideways.

I tried standing up, but the whole front side of my body hurt so much I could pass out from it. I couldn’t quite remember, but perhaps I fainted and fell on the floor. Otherwise I couldn’t explain this localized pain.

I used the wall to prop myself up and tossed my body towards the computer. I checked my pokemon party and I switched Golden Key (klefki) and Gretel (slurpuff) for Bambi (sawsbuck) and Aladdin (medicham). I was expecting to fight a Team Meteor admin or Solaris, or at worst Lin, on a Factory Field, so I judged pokemon that could withstand electric and steel type attacks would give me an advantage.

Then, I exited the small room. Outside of it was a pokemon battle field, and a cage in which I probably had to enter. I obliged, since I saw no choice but to fight.

I waited a little while, but the person that came in from the other side wasn’t whom I was expecting to fight.

“Vanilla,” Victoria exclaimed when she saw me in a cage.

She also entered hers, and was surprised when it trapped her inside.

The large monitor on the left side of the field turned on, and Lin’s face was broadcasted through it. A microphone’s unpleasant screech filled the room and when it was gone, Lin started speaking.

“I understand you and your petty shambles of acquaintances have come here to stop me,” she said. “How funny. You thought you were strong together, and yet, here you are now.”

“What do you want?” I asked.

“What do I want? Many things, but for now, to teach you a lesson,” she said. “Numbers do not help. Friends do not help. Spirit does not help.”

“What does someone like her know about spirit,” Victoria mumbled.

“In the end, you are still powerless. You are still a victim. You always will be, won’t you?”

The last question seemed to be more directed towards Victoria than to me.

“Now we will play a game,” Lin carried on. “In order to reunite with your so-called friends, you must fight them. The winner may proceed. The loser will suffer a penalty. There are no rules. Begin.”

The monitor then shut off without warning.

“That b*tch,” I said, cracking my knuckles. “She has such a punchable face that it makes Jasmin’s look kissable. I can’t wait to be in the same room as her.”

“Not so fast,” Victoria said. “We have to fight so that one of us can leave this cage. Otherwise, I’m assuming we’ll be stuck here indefinitely.”

“Yeah, I think these cages’ bars are made of that same material we encountered earlier,” I said, examining them. “We’ll have to fight. Let the stronger trainer punch Lin’s face in.”

“I couldn’t have said it better.”

Spoiler

 

Fortunately for me, I was the stronger trainer. Victoria pulled a good fight, but it was clear she had been rusty in pokemon battling, presumably because she had been busy with the city renovations.

When we were done battling, my cage’s door opened and Victoria screamed in pain. She started trembling uncontrollably, and I wasn’t sure what was going on until I touched one of the bars of her cage for a brief moment and felt the electricity.

“So this is the penalty she was talking about,” I said. “Hang in there, Victoria. Don’t die on me.”

“A-as Kiki’s s-successor,” she said while barely able to command her mouth. “It’s g-gonna take a l-lot m-more than th-this to break my s-s-spirit.”

I rushed out of that floor and encountered a new puzzle upstairs. This one was also a tile puzzle, but a little more complicated- from what I could figure out, there were also moving tiles that I had to change the course of in order to make it to the next area.

“Team Meteor often has some kind of puzzle in their bases,” I commented to Pikachu. “I always thought it was to stall us and buy them some time. However, now I’m starting to feel as though I was just being toyed with.”

Toyed or not toyed, I had to keep playing the game. Candy had to be in here somewhere, and I had to continue going until I was reunited with her.

 

On the next floor, there was a battlefield just like the one I battled on with Victoria. My next opponent was Arclight, who was waiting inside his cage already.

“Vanilla,” he said. “I’m glad you’re alive and well.”

“What happened to you? Have you seen the others?”

“I got caught by some orderlies under Lin’s orders,” he explained. “I haven’t seen most of our team, but I was with Adrienn a few moments ago. Xe’s on the floor below.”

“Getting electrocuted? I also won the battle and left Victoria downstairs.”

“No, in xyr case, xe refused to battle me and received the penalty by default. The floor in xyr cage was searing,” he said and hit the bars of his cage. 

“I didn’t know forfeiting was an option.”

Right then, our conversation got cut short because the monitor turned on again and Lin was there to speak.

“Do you understand yet? You have no control. You never did, even if your glass-spun egos depend on convincing yourselves otherwise.”

“I’ll judge for myself what my glass-spun ego depends on,” I spat on the ground.

Lin ignored me and continued to talk.

“You are pigs to be herded. You are pigs to be hurt. Sputter, shiver and squeal. It changes nothing.”

Then she again turned off the monitor abruptly, leaving the two of us to battle.

“She’s gonna eat those words when one of us ‘little piggies’ catches up to her,” Arclight said. “Regardless, for all my tough talk, I don’t have a way out of this. It pisses me off, but she’s right. We got cocky, and now we’re trapped.”

“There’s still one way out of this,” I said. “And it’s by winning in a pokemon battle. Let the better trainer out of the two of us escape and be the ‘little piggy’ that catches up to her.”

Arclight looked at me in silence, before nodding and smiling.

“That’s true. It’s still too early to be losing hope.”

Spoiler

 

 

I thought I would lose this battle when Arclight sent mega-evolved his ampharos. The pokemon kept zapping my pokemon and paralyzing them, so I thought it would finish my whole team one by one in no time. Fortunately for me, its luck ran out and missed two attacks which was enough for my Anna (K-ninetales) to make it faint slowly but steadily.

“Great job, Vanilla. You’re pretty on par with us in the Nightclub. Maybe we’ll see you there soon,” Arclight said when the battle concluded.

However, before I could respond to his comment, the floor beneath him caved in and he fell down while screaming. I hoped, rather than believed, that he would survive the fall. Yet, I must carry on.

While I solved the next puzzle, I wondered who I would encounter next: whether Ame or Candy. From what I had gathered so far, the fights appeared to be in tournament format. Victoria and me, and Adrienn and Arclight were paired, and so it must be the case that Ame and Candy were paired with each other. The winner would be the one to face me, I figured.

 

The said winner was, surprisingly perhaps, Candy.

“I didn’t think you’d beat the current Reborn champion in battle,” I said. “It seems you’ve still got it in you.”

“Perhaps, or perhaps I got lucky. Ame is a stand-in champion, after all,” she said.

“To be honest, I was looking forward to fighting you when this tournament thing began,” I said. “I want to know how much I’ve grown as a trainer and beating you, who gave me these pokemon in the first place, will prove my team’s strength.”

“Would prove it,” Candy said, but she didn’t seem to be in her best mood. “I’m sorry Vanilla, but I can’t lose this battle.”

Before I could ask her what she meant with that, the infamous monitor turned on and Lin interrupted us.

“If you think family bonds could be stronger than mere friendships, you were wrong. Friends, family, lovers. No bond between two people is stronger than the power of a single independent and efficient individual. Your case is a textbook example of this.”

The monitor turned off.

“Perhaps our bond isn’t strong enough to beat Lin,” Candy said. “But I hope it’s strong enough to keep both of us safe and sound.”

“What do you mean?”

“Send out your pokemon, Vanilla. We’ll test the strength of our bond in battle.”

Spoiler

 

I wasn’t sure what she meant by testing our bond in battle either. All I knew was that when our battle was over, I was on the losing side of things.

“You said you couldn’t lose, and it seems I couldn’t overpower you,” I said.

“I’m sure, and afraid, you will in no time,” she said and exited her cage to approach me. “Your progress is amazing. And I’m not only talking about battling, either. I’m proud of the person you’ve become.”

“Weird thing for you to say when you know I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot the enemy dead.”

“Even if we have our differences, even if we can’t walk the same path, and even if we can’t always agree with each other, I will always be your cousin and your friend.”

She turned her back to me then, and sighed.

“I wish I could be proud of myself too, but age hasn’t made me anymore mature or courageous. On the contrary, it’s made me selfish and anxious.”

“You? Selfish and anxious? Come on now, you can’t be serious.”

“I am, and today is a textbook example of it,” she said and shook her head. “Don’t mind me. I’ll go ahead.”

I saw Candy go up the stairs, and then I was just alone with Pikachu. Yet, it seemed off. In every other instance, the loser received a penalty, yet no matter how long I waited, such a thing didn’t appear to come my way. 

“Is my cage broken, or did Lin run out of torture devices?” I asked no one in particular.

Anyway I sat down with Pikachu on my lap, waiting for something to change, or for someone to come to my rescue. I got bored and started playing rock paper scissors with Pikachu, until the cage’s door suddenly swung open.

“What’s the meaning of this?”

I wasn’t going to complain about not getting my piece of punishment. 

 

Because Candy had solved the puzzle before me, it was quite easy for me to just follow the path she laid for me. I made it to where she was in no time, but when I found her she was sobbing on the floor.

“Candy? What happened?” I stroked her back.

However, she didn’t need to give me a response. A quick look about the area allowed me to find what seemed like Ame’s body lying but 10 meters from where I stood. At the sight of it, I had to hold my mouth lest I might puke right then and there.

“Lin’s hydreigon,” Candy said between hiccups. “It chomped on Ame’s head.”

I took a few deep breaths and composed myself.

“Let’s go Candy. We have to finish what we started.”

I cut a piece of my bubblegum dress and gave it to her so she could wipe her tears, and we slowly walked out of the place. When we passed next to the headless body, I couldn’t help but take a glimpse of it. I wished I could take it with us so that we could give her a proper burial, but that would have to wait. I wasn’t sure what awaited us next, and I doubted I could protect Candy while carrying a body on my other shoulder.

 

On the next room, we found ZEL. They seemed quite distressed- even more distressed than the last time we met in their Tanzan base, when they were struggling to control PULSE Abra. 

“Just what the hell did you mess up so badly?”

“This wasn’t a user error. Some kind of corrupted program must have been injected into the system.”

“So your security system was just shit.”

“Stop blaming her! I don’t see you helping.”

“Shut up Lumi. Can the data be repaired or not?”

We could’ve just interrupted their self-conversation, but I told Candy to stand by. I felt that since they weren’t aware we were standing in the same room, they might spill some vital information that could be of use to us.

“All PULSE2 and Arc-PULSE data has been left unaltered,” they said. “However, the PULSE-Magnezone damage is irreparable.”

It all appeared to be an issue with the PULSE-Magnezone, which was blinking intermittently on one corner of the room. They couldn’t leave the Devon Corp base until it was fixed, or at least made to be in a moveable state, but they hadn’t managed to and that had delayed their stay until now.

“Tch. Lin must’ve known this was coming,” they said. “I bet it has something to do with the hero brigade she had hauled in here.”

Then, they finally noticed us.

“Speaking of the devil, huh? They’ve already come to destroy this PULSE like all the others.”

“So it’s too late already.”

“Well, there’s no way in hell I’m going to let you do that, Vanilla. Prepare yourself.”

“Control your temper, Zero. Remember, Lin requested that Vanilla not be harmed.”

“She what?” I exclaimed unwittingly. “Why could she possibly request that?”

“I don’t know what goes in Lin’s head. If it were up to me, we’d have erased your existence out of this planet already,” they said.

I had to be satisfied with that response, but I honestly couldn’t be. It creepily matched with the earlier happening with my penalty not coming through, and I knew I couldn’t rest until I found out what was Lin’s motives in keeping me “safe” at least temporarily.

“If you insist on destroying the PULSE, we’ll have to counter with a pokemon battle.”

“I didn’t really come to destroy it, but I guess I might as well,” I said. “Take it as a little payback for the pain your leader inflicted on my comrades.”

Spoiler

 

Perhaps due to it being in a state of highwire or perhaps because it wasn’t built to fight off a trainer, the magnezone went down to a single Hi Jump Kick from Aladdin (medicham), concluding the battle. 

“Magnezone, magnezone! Please be okay,” they screamed when they saw their PULSE flashing ever more alarmingly.

However, it was pointless. Seconds later, the machine shut down and caused a small earthquake, while a cloud of smoke emerged from it and almost asphyxiated all of us in its perimeter. Perhaps not Candy, though because with all the snot she had in her nose, I doubted she could even breathe in the smoke. 

We found ZEL lying on the ground, and I wasn’t sure whether they had survived the mini explosion from a close distance.

However, when Pikachu poked their head, they slowly came back to their senses.

“Hmm. The… PULSE. The PULSE. Hey, we didn’t lose hearing in the explosion, did we?”

“It wasn’t that loud, to be honest,” I said.

“I can hear you,” ZEL said. “But Lumi and Eve. Hey! Say something!”

“I thought you were crazy, but it seems that concussion made it worse.”

“Oh no, the magnezone. It’s gone,” said ZEL, ignoring me and instead knocking his face on the broken machine. “I’m… alone. I’m alone. I’m alone, and… empty.”

I’m not going to pretend that ZEL’s face at that moment wasn’t terrifying. I felt like they might take a knife any minute and kill either me or themselves… or himself, since I presumed the only one left in that body was Zero. Fortunately for me, he didn’t do any of that, and instead quickly left after whispering that he had to get to Agate.

“What was all that?” Candy asked after blowing her nose.

“It’s a long story for another time,” I said. “Since Zero headed for the exit, we mustn’t be that far from it either. Let’s go.”

 

VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS

Spoiler

• Arclight (+1): 5/10 I don't like being bossed around but I have to admit he was working as a good leader
• Lin (-1): -3/10 She's mysterious but everything she says pisses me off for some reason
• ZEL (-1): 2/10 Now that they're just Zero, I don't have any small partiality towards them anymore

 

TEAM RECAP

Spoiler

 

Phewh that was a lot of battling and editing yeet hope it was kinda enjoyable  

 

QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

[Corso]

Awesome episode, but I have several questions:

1) Several times you could have used Aladdin's fake out (e.g. vs Ampahros)

2) LettingSeismitoad take a leaf blade from Leavanny

3) WHY DIDN'T YOU END THE EPISODE BEFORE THE BATTLE AGAINST CANDY THAT WAS THE BEST CLIFFHANGER I WAS ALREADY ABOUT TO EXPRESS MY HYPE FOR THE UPCOMING BATTLE

We've also never had that battle with our teams

 

Fun fact: the devon arc is the 23rd episode in my run and it came out on 25/02/2018

[Candy]

4 hours ago, Corso said:

Awesome episode, but I have several questions:

1) Several times you could have used Aladdin's fake out (e.g. vs Ampahros)

2) LettingSeismitoad take a leaf blade from Leavanny

3) WHY DIDN'T YOU END THE EPISODE BEFORE THE BATTLE AGAINST CANDY THAT WAS THE BEST CLIFFHANGER I WAS ALREADY ABOUT TO EXPRESS MY HYPE FOR THE UPCOMING BATTLE

We've also never had that battle with our teams

 

Fun fact: the devon arc is the 23rd episode in my run and it came out on 25/02/2018

1) Sometimes I don't use Fake Out against a mega-evolved mon because mega-evolution takes speed changes into account the turn after it occurs, so if I waited a turn I might be outsped for the actual attack (wasn't sure which was faster mega-ampharos or medicham cause both are slow lol)

2) Honestly Candy's team was weaker than Vanilla's and it was kinda hard for her to win unless I actively made stoopid moves

3) I thought about it but felt it'd be another short chapter, and there were a few people who knew the fight would happen (because I hinted it on my Look-at-Candy's-art-almost-ded server) so I figured hecc let it happen yeet But lol at someone actively asking for a cliffhanger xD

 

It's been so long since your run that it feels surreal somehow. Like where did all that time go. I guess I can say the same for my run since it's been going for like 3 years now and that's insane.

[Evi Crystal]

Candy's VS Sprite Portrait looks gorgeous. Great job on that

 

Also I didn't (or did maybe) expect Vanilla to lose against Candy, but I didn't though, that she didn't got her penalty... That's very strange- and kinda unfair for Victoria, Adrienn and Arclight