Callan observed Lars' mounting anxiety, his voice growing more desperate as he called for Elinor through the earpiece. Ro, the Metagross, bore Lars on its back while an Aggron trudged close behind. As they continued their search, Callan couldn't help but comment.

"Naming your Aggron after Elly is nice." He tried to offer comfort, but the weight of their task hung heavy in the air.

They pressed on in silence, the cave's oppressive atmosphere closing in around them. As they approached a river, Callan's Walrein, Kamini, emerged from the water, its presence a welcome sight. "Kamini," Callan asked, "can you find any caves beneath the river?"

Kamini shook its massive head, disappointment evident in its eyes.

With a sigh, Callan returned his attention to Lars, recognizing the need to address the elephant in the room – the breakup between Lars and Elinor. "I know what you wanna ask man, just say it."

“You… you don’t understand.”

For one thing, Lars didn’t own an Aggron—clearly that was obvious. Most of his Mega-capable Pokémon (with some exceptions) were always a part of his permanent ‘known’ rotation of companions. This…

“That’s not my Aggron. That’s Eli’s. I found him wandering somewhere before I found you out here.”

His nervous, shaking hands are still tapping the earpiece in a vain attempt to contact his cousin, but he only picks up static on some channels, and scrambled transmissions from the other. No luck, nothing.

“Look around his neck, you may recognize him at the very least.”

The Metagross lets out a quiet little grating noise, ‘sighing’ before he felt Lars lean against one side of the four legs in defeat.

“I’ve also been meaning to ask you about it, too. What happened?”

---

pd: cave
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"Right," Callan replied, grumbling and unconvinced as they continued to walk across the cave.

"Nothing happened, Lars," Callan said, trying to dismiss the topic. "We just grew distant. A relationship needs to be nurtured, and neither of us really did that, so we just... fell out?"

Even as he spoke, Callan found himself unconvinced. But that was the reality, wasn't it? No grand feat, just two people taking each other for granted.

The conversation would have to wait, though. A sudden surge of light burst from the other end of the cave, and Callan instinctively shouted, "Dawn, KING'S SHIELD!" His Aegislash emerged from its Pokeball, creating a barrier to deflect the incoming HYPER BEAM.

"Shit!" Callan growled. It was clear that Team Rocket was taking full advantage of the rift here, and they'd have to be on go through them if they wanted to continue finding the Aggron.

While he’d already had this exact same conversation with his cousin, fact of the matter he was getting two very different sides to one story here.

Just as he was about to elaborate on what the other had said, a bright light had cut them off and—

“Che palle, not now!” he growled quietly as he pushed himself up and plucked a Safari Ball from his pockets, throwing it out and summoning—

Instead of Lynette, though, it was Gareth, and the Gallade looked around, attention perked in the direction where the attack had come from.

“Get ready,” he said next, and the Gallade crossed his blade-arms together, boosting his power by means of a Swords Dance.

“Even out here they won’t quit!”

---

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Callan's eyes narrowed as the situation escalated. He quickly recalled Dawn, his Aegislash, and slid behind a boulder to take cover from the ongoing attacks.

He tosses out a SCATTERBANG to disorient the Rockets. The flash, audible bang, and the grunts of whoever had been attacking them was immediate.

As he crouched down, Kamini, his Walrein, emerged from the water. She unleashed a powerful BRINE attack, targeting the Pokémon responsible for the HYPER BEAM. The force of her assault knocked the attacker off balance, leaving it momentarily stunned.

However, in the heat of the battle, Kamini soon found herself surrounded by enemies. Callan's heart raced as he realized his Pokémon was in danger. "Kamini, hold on! We're coming!" He called out to his Walrein.

---

Participation +50
Post +30
Assist +20
Scatterbang +10

“Gareth!” was all the warning he would give next—the Gallade seemingly warping out of existence and reappearing next to the Walrein in a quiet Teleporting gesture, swinging his blade-arms at whoever had caught the dual-type off-guard.

At the same time, the Metagross then extended his reach, locking onto the closest one (or two) attackers that had the other Pokémon surrounded and holding them in place with a burst of Telekinetic energy.

“Come on, let’s go!” he said in Callan’s direction, pulling something that looked like a flash of energy before it lengthened into an icicle the length of a survival knife and throwing it forward towards the other attackers.

At least this aspect of his shared power with the Iceborne Mirage, he was able to control. Anything else that involved the same power was… well… hit and miss entirely.

---

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10 ↠ Gallade coming in to assist the Walrein via Teleport!

The battle rages on and Lars' Gallade manages to fend off the attackers from Walrein's blind spot.

However chaos would ensue, as a swarm of Nihilego erupt from the cave mouth, clearly incensed that there were people inside of it's den. "We have to go inward!"

Callan yells, as he watches Lars generate an ice knife and tosses it towards a Rocket. It lands squarely in his shoulder as he screams and falls on the ground.

Taking the opportunity, Callan pulls Lars towards the group with the opening as they run deeper into the cave. In any case, it was clear they were not going to be able to find their contact here.

As a flurry of Venoshocks flew towards them, Kamini dives in, blocking the poison from hitting Callan, but being struck in the process. It falls limp as Callan looks on in horror, he quickly recalls the Pokemon into her Pokeball.

Not now. Callan fumed internally as they continued to dash into the cave.

---

Participation +50
Post +40
Assist +20
Scatterbang +10
Pokemon Death +200

The Gallade managed to take a swing and clobber one of the other attackers away before indiscriminately firing a Drain Punch in a random direction—before breaking out into a run as well, keeping the Walrein shielded to the best of his ability.

(While it wasn’t Lynette, any Pokémon that Gareth fought alongside with was automatically considered a comrade, and he would do his absolute best to defend them, given his upbringing.)

He’d very barely missed an incoming ‘spray’ of tentacles and skidded towards Lars, the red beam of light recalling him in a flash as he realized that—

“Che cazzo, not here!” he hissed at the sight of the tentacle hentai jellyfish. Getting stung by one of those was a hell trip in and on itself. And now that faelan foxgrove wasn’t here, well, needless to say if he got stung a second time who knew what would happen!

Just to make sure they weren’t going to be followed, he reached into another pocket with the safety glove on and pulled out a handful of the poison barbs and scattered them behind their tracks.

Hopefully the idiots chasing them wouldn’t follow them and make the mistake of stepping on the surprise trap!

---

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10 ↠ scattered a poison barbs trap

As Lars scatters the poison barbs behind them, Callan sends out his Garganacl. "Salt Cure!"

He says, as the Garganacl creates cyrstalized salt to block the path that they had gone through. TRhey wouldnt' be able to use the entrance, but with a ground type, they'll be able to find their way back. but first, they had someone to find.

"Looks like we'll have to search further in." Callan purses his lips, trying not to think about the carelessness that had caused him to lose his Walrein.

"Come on, let's go."

---

Participation +50
Post +50
Assist +20
Scatterbang +10
Pokemon Death +200
Completion +100
Mission Fail +300

Total: 730 MP

“We have no other choice but to keep searching,” he agreed grimly.

Thankfully, there were no tentacle jellyfish following them—for now.

He was well-aware of what had happened the last time he lost control of his own powers, which was literally like a tempest in a coffee cup at this point. Nihilego toxin only exacerbated the situation, and he didn’t want a repeat of that break down—more so in front of Callan.

There were cracks appearing on the Composed’s façade, and he didn’t like it.

While the entrance had been blockaded, he continued to try and contact Elinor Anderson—to no avail.

“Still no sign of her, or our other contact either,” he fumed quietly after checking his phone for any other alerts he may have missed.

---

pd: cave
100 ↠ cave thread completion
50 ↠ participate in a PD thread
60 ↠ post in a PD thread
300 ↠ objective failed: unable to make contact!