[attr="class","frlastcont"]

Balder Schwartz kyle lopez

Before Thomas could seal the deal with the young woman, bickering resumed. Thomas looked on in irritation around him, as Balder attacked Kyle, Noah attempted to fight back, only for the masked man to stop him, and for Kyle to hiss back at him. But before Stormy could be used to get back the shoe, Thomas managed to get it for the cash offer.

"Thank you. And I suppose it's because they need something with Mateo's scent to track him. Personally, I'm not sure how much help it'll be, considering how little I know about how those portals work, but being able to hone in on his scent would be a logical way to track him through... wherever he went.", he would tell Annie, as he pulled out an evidence bag from one of the pockets of his jacket, sliding the shoe into it, and handing it to Kyle.

"Kyle, I know it's hard, but we need to plan for this. Every day will be like torture, but what good will we be to Mateo in our state, especially if we're too fucked up to actually fight back against that thing, especially on its home turf?", Thomas questioned him, trying to reason with him, at least until Fernando came in, and started to berate him.

As Kyle walked off, Thomas cursed to himself. "I should run too. But first-", Thomas said, he would slip on a pair of disposable gloves, and grab a kit for taking liquid samples from his pockets. He would carefully make his way up to the puddles o toxins that bled out from the visitor, attempting to suck it in with a pipette. If successful, he would transfer the contents of the pipette into a vial, capping it once filled. He would then scour the battlefield, until he found one of the severed tentacles. The trainer would place the severed tendril into an evidence bag, before going over to Colt and Ripper, recalling them back to their Pokeballs, and heading off to the nearest operational Pokemon Center, hoping to get Kalameet some medical treatment, and to swap him out for Kiryu.

---

tags: kyle lopez Annie Mei FERNANDO SILPH
notes: Thomas tries to explain some sort of reasoning to Annie
Thomas tries to talk reason into Kyle
Thomas attempts to collect samples, before running off to the Upper District's Pokemon Center

It was... all over.

Or was it?

Due to Alexei running to catch up with his Nidoking who had run so close to where the portal was located, he very nearly missed what had happened to—

Holy shit.

He saw an evil black tentacle suddenly snap up one of the other people and disappeared into the blackness that was the portal before it fizzled out into nothingness. Of course, closest to the portal was one pink-haired... wait, she looked familiar!

"Ru-Ruby?!" Alexei exclaimed, recalling the Nidoking and rushing over to her, crouching down and attempting to shake her on the shoulder gently. "H-hey..." he continued, trying to get her attention.

He didn't realize his hearing was slowly coming back until he heard the sounds of disagreement echoing from where a group of people, including one dog boy (Kyle) were apparently arguing. Knowing that the young girl needed someone she was familiar with near her, he instead chose to accompany her for the time being, blocking out the sounds of the argument.

"Hey... you in there?" He asked her gently. He figured, after seeing what happened she was not alright.

[attr="class","bodygoldt"]kyle lopez noah faber

[attr="class","bodygoldp"]

[attr="class","niknik"]

[attr="class","merrkI"]


maybe it was the adrenaline pumping through his veins that made him cry out that challenge to people. no one seemed too keen on following up with an actual fight so that was good. then he was approached by the man he protected from noah, and he had to stare at his body for a moment because wow he didn't realize he was both topless and hot.

however Balder Schwartz words brought him back to reality and also cut pretty deep. kazimir could get the concern behind him but it did make the mighty pokenger feel...less super. yeah he was just a regular guy going around in a costume trying to help, shouldn't that count for something? then again it was coming from the guy who went super sayain and wrestled the giant alien jellyfish so...maybe he had a point. of course he did have some power as the memory of that strange green shield appearing earlier flooded his head, of course he had no idea how that even happened other than he was in danger. could be useful if he was the suicidal type of guy but he doubt that was what anyone needed on a rescue mission.

so instead he nodded to the alolan sayain's words and caught a glimpse of Annie Mei offering money to balder. he wasn't sort of paying attention to why people were angry at her but he could see that she was missing a shoe and that balder mentioned something about bare feet. "hey! camp annie lady." he made his way to her side and started to take off his boots. even if he wasn't going to be much help on a trip to another dimension he could at least do this, so he took off his boots and handed them to her. "might be too big for ya, but a good hero just can't let someone go around bare foot. don't worry, i got plenty extras."

[attr="class","niknik"]

[attr="class","merkI"]

Ruby didn't even realize that Alexei and his pokemon had arrived for a few seconds. Her wide eyes staring ahead at nothing, her mind struggling to comprehend what was going on. That is until he spoke to her. She slowly turned her head to look at him, ears bleeding and looking certainly ragged as well. It felt like a cruel fate to meet him here again of all places, and yet his presence certainly helped bring her back to reality. He was hurt... And despite her own fears she couldn't sit there and ignore it.

The young girl reached up with one hand to gently touch his ear, her face's shocked expression still remaining, however. She was incredibly quiet when she spoke, almost a mumble. "You're bleeding..." It didn't take long for her psychic pokemon to understand what Ruby was so worried over. Grace instinctively used Wish on Alexei, intent to restore him as good as new as soon as it took effect. Ever so slowly Ruby stood up to her feet, standing with weak knees as she allowed herself to lean against him for support.

She didn't know what was going on. People were arguing, that much she could tell. Her eyes swept over the group of people still there that had survived. A few recognizable faces, which surprised her the most. And yet... their actions unsettled her. She didn't know what was going on, and she was positive that she missed the majority of the conversation, but she briefly heard Balder say her name. Or at least, she assumed she did. The nightmare of what she saw before them was a travesty.

The city was in ruins. Explosions had wrecked the landscape. The roads cracked, buildings ripped apart, windows shattered, everything was damaged. People lived here... People lived in those houses. Or at least, perhaps there used to be people living there. She looked up at Alexei with intense worry on her face. Before she could speak, however, an image popped into her head. Or rather, her future actions. Astral and Grace seemed to be working together to show her what she should do.

"I..." Ruby gulped softly, forcing herself to stand straight up and on her own two feet despite how wobbly they were. "I need- I need to do something." She gave Alexei as genuine a smile as she could before reaching out to touch Grace's hand. As soon as she gripped firmly, Ruby returned Astral to her Pokeball and the pair seemed to vanish from thin air, teleporting away.

It was cold atop the lighthouse, but it was precisely where Astral said she would be. She didn't understand fate, she didn't understand what it meant to be lucky to be alive, but the only thing Ruby understood is that while everyone else was just leaving, or arguing... People's lives were still at stake. People were trapped under rubble, people were hurt from explosions or that rain that hurt whisper, or who knows what other things happened when she wasn't looking. It was too much to simply do absolutely nothing about it.

Grace slowly stepped over the edge of the lighthouse, walking out into the sky as the psychic pokemon supported her own weight with her mental prowess and Ruby slowly let go of her hand. She wasn't physically strong, she couldn't fight those beasts the same way everyone else did. People and pokemon lost their lives here today and she and Whisper almost joined them. They were seconds away from death, no way to pretend they weren't.

Her rain-soaked jacket wasn't keeping her warm in the night air, but she clutched it closer to her anyways as Grace continued to float outwards. With a silent mental command to her pokemon, Grace and her telepathy caught it instantly. Finally simply floating, the Gardevoir simply began to spin. True to her name, it appeared as if she was gracefully dancing in the air. Without a second of hesitation, she began using Life Dew. Over and over and over again, despite the physical toll it took on her, she continued trying to let the healing rain drop down to the city below.

Ruby didn't pretend to understand what had happened, nor did she pretend that somehow she was strong enough to defend people from such devastation. She was young, inexperienced, with childish fantasies still wanting to run rampant in her head. She was weak, afraid, and terrified of what was to come. The tears began to flow and she didn't even try to stop them, she didn't have the energy to do so.

And yet, this felt right. She couldn't stand to just leave, to just give up and go home. People needed help and as long as she was still standing she'd try. She might not be very good at it, but she was determined to make a difference.

No matter how small.



notes: Wish on Alexei. Teleported to the lighthouse as Grace used life dew over, and over and over again as much as she can.