MARCH UPDATE

POSTED ON Jan 25, 2021 4:07:27 GMT

The mission

Amber swiped a hand across her forehead, which was already sweaty.

She was a little surprised at how little work she had to do in the line of work she'd chosen, especially in a region that had just been visited by aliens. And it even seemed as if some of those aliens were here to stay. Amber had noticed the dirty looks that people had shot one strange, purple Pokemon with a long stinger, and read up on it later on the news.

Even so, there was something that would be... at least tangentially related. Apparently, some athlete had vanished for multiple days into the desert on some sort of pleasure trip because he liked to risk his life. This was close enough to a paramedic's job for Amber to jump at the opportunity.

She waited at the entrance to the desert for someone to join her, goggles nestled securely over her face. Ninian, her Amaura, stood ready to join her as well once they got moving.

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POSTED ON Jan 25, 2021 4:29:34 GMT

The desert...

He hadn't wanted to come back to this place ever again, but duty held no pity for those who had willingly enlisted. And so, he was back.

These days his many duties seemed closer to a Ranger's than a Soldier's, but he couldn't say he disliked it. Better a rescue than a battlefield.

He arrived at the meeting place by riding his Flygon, noting as the dragon descended the presence of another. His partner, and more importantly, paramedic for the mission, he imagined.

Dismounting from Guirus, the uniformed youth took two steps towards the girl before saluting, raising his voice.

"Greetings! Sergeant John Sullivan, reporting for duty." He said, the words feeling wrong even as they rolled off his tongue.

They weren't even inside the desert proper yet, and he already felt ill.

"... Ugh. Just call me Doug, tho. All this rank jazz mean nothin' to non army folk." He said, reaching over the saddle of Guirus as the Flygon approached the duo and grasping his signature straw hat, substituting the standard military cap for it.

"Shall we go over the details one last time, miss...?"

TAG: @amber

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POSTED ON Jan 25, 2021 19:01:34 GMT

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Chloe never imagined that she would be sent to a desert out of all places in Hoenn. As she managed to reach the meet up location, she had already been dripping in sweat. The fact that this had been her first time coming to a desert was part of it, the other being the hot blazing sun. With a heav ysigh she quickly wiped off some sweat that had been accumulating on her forehead. Taking a long sip from her decently sized water bottle. She would be a fool if she didn't come to this mission ill prepared, Chloe carried a backpack filled with extra and emergency supplies, the last thing she wanted to happen was for the team to run out of supplies.
[break][break]

She spotted out two figures in the nearby distance and steadily approached them. She put on a smile, that seemed to waver due to the heat. "Hello.. I'm Chloe." She greeted slightly panting, acknowledging the two of them. Chloe was an individual who had respected superiority, but since the other man insisted on just being called Doug she would respect his wishes.
[break][break]
She took a glance out towards the desert, a little bewildered that people actually traversed it. The athlete was someone with insane guts that was for sure.. Well she was somewhat in the same shoes, since they were all going to be searching for the said athlete.

+ John Sullivan @amber

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Jett

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POSTED ON Jan 26, 2021 23:38:51 GMT

Amber's mission partners arrived soon after she had, the first from above on a Flygon. The dragon sailed smoothly and majestically through the air, and Amber was treated to a welcome gust of wind as it landed.

The rider of the Flygon was a boy who seemed about her age, but introduced himself as Sergeant John Sullivan. Huh. Someone who had enlisted in the military, then. Amber had began to reply when the sergeant immediately corrected himself and asked her to call him Doug.

She had to admit, she didn't know where they had gotten "Doug" from "John Sullivan." Perhaps it was a middle name, or something. "Hello, Doug. I'm Amber Richter, and you can call me Amber."

Another woman, who looked a little older than either of them, approached on foot, introducing herself as Chloe. Amber couldn't gather much from that introduction, but she nodded and restated her name for Chloe's benefit.

She nodded when Doug asked if they could go over the details one more time. She had just refreshed herself on them, but the hot sun, even during winter, seemed to leech the sharpness from her brain, or something. She'd have to reconsider her whole wardrobe if Hoenn was like this in January.

"We're looking for Sophie Solis," she began, trying to remember all that she could. "She's been known to go off on spontaneous trips to places that are out of the way with only the company of her Houndour, returning a couple of days later at the most unharmed. Amber tried not to wince at the thought. The desert, chock-full of rock and ground types, was a terrible place for someone with only a Houndour.

"However, her family has not heard back from her in five days, which is longer than she's ever been gone before," Amber continued. "Attempts to reach her phone failed, and her Houndour's tracking chip was found in the city... without the Houndour."

She peered up at her mission partners. "Anything else I'm missing?"

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POSTED ON Jan 27, 2021 0:39:46 GMT

Another companion arrived shortly after him, and soon they stood in a circle, going through the details of the mission on last time.

He tried not to feel some second hand embarrassment as he listened to Sofie Solis' story, himself one to wander into such things recklessly and without preparation merely several ago. Heck, he could well have died at it too, had it not been for Bailey Cooper's help.

This time, he would be one of those offering help.

"I believe that's all." Said Doug, looking between the two girls before nodding. "Pleasure to work with both of ya, Amber, Chloe. Let's go find our dumbass charge."

He turned towards the desert, taking a step to it before pausing and staring blankly at the vast stretches of empty nothing.

Right. No need to do this the real hard way, right?

"Uh... Got an idea." He said, raching under his jacket to produce a single Net ball. It released a circular pokemon in a flash of red light, the Orbeetle's eyes swiftly adjusting to his surroundings before his eyes fell upon his trainer.

"This here's Garo." Said Doug, "He's an Orbeetle. He's quite useful in this kinda situation. Given a bit of time, he can detect everything in a 6 or so miles radius."

About... 10 kilometres.

Patting the pokemon, the youth grinned.

"Just leave it to him!" He said as the Orbeetle floated above the trio, his eyes shining brightly as he began to scan his surroundings.

It would take just a bit...

"... So. Ya both from Hoenn?" He said after a while, trying to make small talk.

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POSTED ON Jan 27, 2021 5:03:47 GMT

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From the looks of things, both Amber and Doug looked to be quite capable. She felt relieved, the last few times she had been on a mission other rangers gave her a harder time instead of helping her. An exception would be Raziel Beckett without his guidance they would of never put out that fire. Since then Chloe felt a lot more confident in her own skills, and she wasn't going to let herself slow down the other two. Listening to Amber retell the details of the athlete she nodded in confirmation.
[break][break]
Her worry only grew when Amber mentioned how many days Sophie had been missing for and couldn't help but think of all the possibilities as to why she hadn't returned, another mystery was why the houndours GPS had been discovered but not the pokemon itself. The worse case scenario would be that Sofia was dead and they wouldn't be able to find her remains. The best scenario would be that she had been injured and lying low, waiting for help. Chloe hoped that was the case and that they would be able to find Sophie without any issues. Chloe was distracted from her thoughts when Doug came up with an idea.
[break][break]
She looked towards the Orbeetle with admiration, Chloe always adored bug pokemon but didn't really have any on her team. Dougs orbeetle seemed to be well suited for the task. "Counting on you Garo!" Chloe shouted towards the orbeetle as it soon vanished from view. While it was a good idea, she doubted that it would work in the long run. "I still think it'd be best if we were on the move." Chloe suggested, she wasn't exactly sure if there had been other rescue teams searching for Sophie - she felt that there had to be. But if there had been prior arranged rescues, why couldn't they find Sophie?
[break][break]
Chloe felt that she was overthinking things again, and that it would stress Amber and Doug out. That was the last thing she wanted. She cleared her throat and answered the man's question. "Oh.. I'm from Unova, Castelia city to be exact been in Hoenn for a good five months or so."

+ John Sullivan [break][break]
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POSTED ON Feb 1, 2021 3:53:59 GMT

Amber snorted when John Sullivan called their charge a dumbass. It was... well, it was true, more or less. But Amber saw the appeal in excursions like those. Just one person and their Pokemon against the world... It sounded spectacular. Until, of course, it didn't, and reality came crashing back down.

Doug went ahead and released a Pokemon that he claimed would be able to scan the whole area in a six mile radius. Now, that was impressive. Amber eyed the Orbeetle, curious and intrigued. That made her realize that a psychic Pokemon would be extremely helpful if she achieved her dream profession. A partner who could locate those who were in the most critical need, and rescue them in time, would be extremely beneficial. Bramimond, her Bronzong, would work for that, but their mind was somewhat alien, and frequently hard for Amber to understand.

It was something to think about for the future. She had time to work on it.

@chloe that they get moving, and Amber shrugged. "Maybe we could give Garo a second?" she suggested. "Unless it'll take him a while. Then it might be a good idea to get started." She looked to Doug for guidance.

"Yeah, I'm from Sinnoh, not here," Amber admitted as Chloe declared that she was from Unova. "Never been outside Snowpoint City in my life before, but I figured that this was where all the interesting stuff was going down. Er..."

What was she thinking, being so blatantly offensive? To a Hoenn native like Doug might be (he hadn't mentioned anything yet), that would certainly be in terrible taste. Who would call a war against aliens "interesting?"

"Eventful," Amber amended.

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POSTED ON Feb 3, 2021 3:19:23 GMT

Doug nodded at both, stretching his arms above his head.

"We can get a move on. He'll let us know if he finds anythin'." He said, before turning his gaze to his Flygon. "Spread yer wings for a bit, eh? Desert's quite big, so I'm guessin' it'll take a while, even with Garo 'round. Stick 'round his radius, tho."

With a nod and a flap of his wings, Guirus took to the air, rapidly ascending before zooming into the distance.

And with that, they could begin walking. A trudge through the sand was not quite a walk in the park, but standing still under the heat of the sun was not much better.

Garo hovered far above them with his gaze set on the horizon, never quite doing anything to seek their attention. Nothing yet, then.

So they made small talk in the meanwhile, and surprise, not a single person present belonged to Hoenn. One had to wonder if Hoenn was more immigrants than natives at this point.

Doug gave a sound snort at Amber's faux pas, wondering how long it had been since the girl had arrived. Couldn't have been much, if she could still sound like that.

"No need to run back the cassette, lass. I ain't from 'Oenn either." He said, smiling lazily.

"I'm from Kanto. Been 'ere in Hoenn for three years." He said, glancing between her and Chloe at that.

Kantonian, and has been living in Hoenn for three years... It shouldn't prove hard to guess what had brought him there.

"Good to see people from all over the world with some spunk in 'em. Ain't no one choosin' this place as their vacation spot since the aliens popped up!" He said with a laugh.

"So, just lookin' for thrills 'ere, then?" He asked, taking Amber at her word. Chloe had been much more vague- so he was a bit curious.

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POSTED ON Feb 5, 2021 22:12:06 GMT

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Chloe found it a bit funny how all three of them were not native to Hoenn. Yet here they were scaling a desert in order to try and find a missing athlete, this was Chloe's first trip to the desert and she had limited knowledge when it came to Hoenn in general since she had only been in the region for a good few months. Hopefully no problems would arise. Chloe didn't see the harm in waiting for the orbeetle. Simply nodding she looked to the sky, curious to know what exactly could be seen from up there. When Amber mentioned that she had came from Shinnoh, Chloe was a little eager to give her response. "Oh wow! Snowpoint is a lovely city, I've been there a few times with my mom." Since Chloe's mother was a pretty renown actress, they frequented trips to different regions all the time - the only regions that she hadn't visited was Kanto and Galar. Chloe had always wanted to visit Kanto, but thanks to Team Rocket she never got the chance too.
[break][break]
They agreed to get a move on, and Chloe was starting to regret suggesting to do so. Traversing such a barren land wasn't easy, and she lagged behind the other two but somehow managed to keep a close distance. Briefly hearing Doug mention that he was from Kanto, Chloe fell silent. She wasn't exactly sure how to respond she felt sorry for him he still looked so young and considering the state of Kanto, it couldn't have been easy for him. When they mentioned the ultra beasts war Chloe again didn't really have much to say silently listening and forcing a chuckle.
[break][break]
The two of them seemed to be more experienced when it came to Hoenn and it's problems. Chloe had a hard time trying to relate, Unova also didn't really have much issues, and since she was born with a silver spoon life had always been easy for her. When Doug questioned why she had came to Hoenn, Chloe didn't really have an answer at least not one she felt confident in. "Oh! Well.. I guess, I came because.. I just wanted to uh.. uh.." She realized that what she was saying sounded stupid and her face became red with a blush. I came to help people." She resorted after gathering her scattered thoughts. Chloe hoped that they'd think that her face was red due to the blazing sun. Her throat felt a bit dry, and she fumbled around reaching for her backpack. Pulling out a large container for water.
[break][break]
Thankfully the container was still cold to the touch, it was worth the ridiculous amount of money she spent for it. Just as she was about to take a drink herself, she paused and realized that she hadn't offered it to Amber or Doug. Extending her hand and handing it towards Amber, "Both of you, feel free to drink as much as you need!" Chloe croaked out, her voice was a little dry but she remained cheerful as the three of them trudged through the scorching sands.

+ John Sullivan [break][break]
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POSTED ON Feb 7, 2021 16:13:18 GMT

Amber watched Doug operate, impressed with his preparation for the job at hand. The Orbeetle and Flygon were perfect choices for this mission.

As they began walking, it quickly became clear that all three of them were new to the region. Well, not new. Doug had been here for three years since coming from Kanto, but Chloe was a new arrival like Amber, and they were all immigrants of some kind.

(The implication from Doug's origin and the time he'd spent away from home was not lost on Amber, but in her experience, people who underwent loss rarely wanted pity, so she kept her face neutral. Additionally, she wasn't sure what she would have said in response to that, anyways.)

Doug pointed out that Amber shouldn't try to censor herself for his sake, and she smiled sheepishly. "It was still a little rude," she protested, "but I do appreciate it."

Chloe had apparently had been to Snowpoint before, which was a pleasant surprise. "It is a nice place," she said, "but no place for me, I think. I want to be a paramedic, and the worst injury that happened there was my neighbor Johnson regularly trying to snowboard and failing utterly." Here, she shrugged. "So I guess I'm like you, Chloe. I like helping people, and there are... well, more people to help in Hoenn than there are in Sinnoh."

The trek was dry and hot and Amber had no idea when it would end, so she accepted Chloe's offer of a drink with a nod of thanks. Holding the container a few inches above her mouth, she swallowed enough water to wet her throat, before holding it out to Doug wordlessly.

John Sullivan
@chloe

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POSTED ON Feb 7, 2021 23:26:16 GMT

"Well, we are happy to have ya both. People like ya are doin' the gods work." He said with a smile, snatching the container as it was offered to him and taking a quick swig before offering it back to Chloe. "Thanks lass!"

"I really mean it- not many've been comin' to Hoenn since this mess started, and it often feels like the few who are ain't do so to help." He said, frowning at the horizon.

Crime rates hadn't lowered much since the Rockets were taken out; heck, pokemon contraband had only gotten worse. Seemed like a lot o' the folk comin' into Hoenn just saw an easy place to make their illicit business.

He shook his head. No point in dwelling on it.

"So yeah, glad to have y'all on board." He said, grinning at them. Not a few seconds later, they felt it. Something akin to a prod to the back of their minds. A message.

"Garo foun' somethin'." Said Doug, frowning. The message they got was not a good one. Garo had found something human shaped alright.

It just wasn't moving a lot.

"Let's rush! Ya two got wings?" He said as he turned his gaze towards them. His Flygon could only carry one person at a time, two in a crisis- but he was unlikely to be speedy under such conditions.

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POSTED ON Feb 9, 2021 3:10:48 GMT

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Chloe appreciated the two's optimism and kindness. "No problem" She responded taking the bottle back and having a few glugs herself before putting it back into her backpack. A sigh came from Chloe when Doug mentioned that there had been a severe lack in help for the problems in Hoenn. It made sense there weren't many people who would want to put themselves in the face of danger. "I was really afraid coming to Hoenn, and was even considering to leave since things aren't going well.. but " She briefly fell silent thinking about her next words. "This region is beautiful, even if It's not my home I wouldn't feel right If I left without helping! " She finished with a bright smile. It made her hope that other people would feel the same way as she did.
[break][break]
Chloe gave a thumbs up to Doug and Amber, she was glad to work with people who were so capable. The news was expected at least it was for Chloe. "Right, yes I do!" Her hands reached for a pokeball and she quickly tossed it into the air - a drampa emerged. Oakley wasn't the fastest flyer around but capable, the pokemon could easily fly with two people but the weight could prove to be a problem. Chloe hopped onto Oakley and made some space for Amber to also ride it. "Amber if you don't have a flying top feel free to hop on!" Amber didn't seem to be very heavy, so it should pose no problem to her.
"We'll follow your lead Doug!"

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POSTED ON Feb 10, 2021 0:51:48 GMT

Something touched Amber's mind, and she recoiled physically. The feeling was a familiar one, from when Bramimond would contact her mentally, but from an unfamiliar source, and it unnerved her. But she soon realized it was probably Garo, and relaxed.

Well, relaxed for just a moment, until it became clear just why they had been contacted. "Ah," she said, readying a couple of Pokeballs for when they reached their charge. "Let's hope we're not too late." If the psychic-type could sense her mind, then Sophie was probably still alive, at least.

For a moment, she hesitated. Arion could fly, but he needed a running start, and she'd never tried to fly with him before. She wasn't going to take that risk, since time was of the essence here. Thankfully, Chloe was ready with a Drampa, and Amber thanked her and the large dragon as she climbed aboard.

Finally, she pulled out Libra's Pokeball. The Corsola would probably be her healer of choice when they reached Sophie, because who knew how dehydrated Sophie-- and, oh god, her Houndour too-- would be when they got there.

"Doug, did Garo see the Houndour, or just Sophie?" she asked, nervousness creeping into her voice. Dark types were harder to detect with psychic abilities... Surely that was it, right?

John Sullivan
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POSTED ON Feb 11, 2021 1:55:23 GMT

Doug sprinted behind Chloe's Drampa, Guirus still off in the distance, just beginning to turn around on Garo's signal.

Practically speaking his role in this search was over, . He didn't have a whole lot of healers on hand, and he was only trained on Battlefield first aid.

"Forget 'bout me, I'm just slowin' ya without Guirus! Follow Garo!" He said to Chloe, before nodding to Amber. "Hope ya've been practicin' at this whole paramedic thing, cause it's showtime!"

Following Garo would take them on a several miles long trip, at the end of which they would find an elevated plateu with a large fissure splitting it down the middle.

Inside the fissure, leaning limply against a rock, barely if at all moving, they would find a young woman holding onto a (presumably) empty canteen on one hand and a pokeball in the other.

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