Picking herself off her knees after having gone through as much as she could with the corpse before her, Elaine once again looked around to reassess the damage. The others had already gotten to work with assisting the surviving Pokemon.

She, unfortunately, held no skill in doing what the others were doing. The grim reality was that Elaine was the type of person who only thrived after tragedy struck and even then was only the type who thrived off of solving puzzles.

Walking past the others who were tending to the few living left behind and doing so in a way that needed no intervention on her part, Elaine walked over to the epicenter and found her eyes trailing over the damage around her.

“Still, it’s dangerous to be around here. We don’t know whether it left, is still around, or is going to circle back here without paying attention to its surroundings.”

From next to the epicenter, she pointed at the damage that had been left behind to the surroundings as she walked to one of the deepest wounds in the timber around them she could find. “Moreover, between the clean incisions on all of the Pokemon and the damage to the surroundings, it’s possible that multiple Pokemon are now active and engaged.”

Suffice to say the danger hadn’t passed and as aloof as Elaine had been acting, the reality was that there was good reason to be anxious, no matter how much she was hiding it.

---

TL;DR: Elaine examines the damage in detail and points out the possibility of something else being engaged with the rampaging Pokemon.

Tags: Pace Mahmoud ; boruta maher ; Kaida Adachi

---

“Being prepared for more than just one is probably a good idea. While I surmised that it broke out, we can’t even say that it did so on its own.” There were too many unknowns as usual. At the early stage, eliminating the vast array of possibilities was the best bet, but it wasn’t like they could do much else based on the information here.

Placing the nameplate to the side, on one of the still remaining shelves, she looked off into the distance of the hole that was left behind. In the end, the next course of action was clear. They needed to venture out into the trail of destruction left behind.

“Elaine Highland, detective.” Among the flurry of introductions that were being given, Elaine dropped one of her own before making her way out the hole. She had initially planned to use Ginga to survey from overhead, but the one going by Bo had already thrown out a Pokemon to do just that. There was no point in adding to the list of Pokemon scouting, especially if the one she would have added was going to be far too conspicuous.

As she (and presumably the rest of the group) made headway deeper and deeper into the woods, the aftereffects became more and more evident. It was like the world before them had been rent apart by a typhoon of destruction, leaving behind scars of death and despair. If the Pokemon in question was rampaging out of any sort of despair, it sure as hell was spreading it quite well.

Unfortunately, Elaine was no doctor. She was not the type of person who could render aid to those who were hurt beyond basic first aid. She, however, was the type of person who could examine a corpse without batting an eye.

While the tears in the earth and the epicenter were one thing, the remains of the recently killed were another, so she went straight for that.

“Incisions and...is that some poison?” She said, while running a finger on one of the dead. Given the likely type of Pokemon, she could narrow down to some extent what had escaped, though she had no knowledge of what Pokemon Bailey Cooper had used. “Did she have a Drapion?”

Elaine quickly shook her head. “No, it’s not like that’s the only Pokemon that could use poison attacks and cause this much damage. Regardless, it either probably ran into something large enough that could try and fight its rampage.” Running her hand across the dead Zigzagoon she had been examining, she shook her head again. “Or it got further agitated after seeing other Pokemon in the vicinity.”

No matter what happened, tragedy begat more tragedy and it was almost certain that this new tragedy was going to bring forth a new chain of more. It was inevitable. Just that reality was enough was to make Elaine clench her teeth and a fist.

---

TL;DR: Elaine examines one of the dead and further attempts to hypothesize about what had happened though it ends up being a couple of possibilities that may at best be only partially right.

Tags: Pace Mahmoud & boruta maher & Kaida Adachi

---

It was a stark contrast to the meticulous organization of the rest of the storehouse. How quickly a world of complete organization made through some absurd degree of bookkeeping had shifted to one of disarray, marred by the presence of splinters, strewn about fragments of Pokeballs, and a trail of ongoing destruction.

Elaine stood with her arms crossed as she focused her gaze towards a location at a slightly different location from the others. While the others looked to the trails and Pokeballs on the floor, she saw something in the vicinity that was different from the rest.

With an arm still held across her chest, she knelt and picked the object off the ground before standing back up with the same semi-cross-armed position maintained.

“Bailey Cooper.”

Though she muttered, it would have been easy for anyone to hear her low utterance of the deceased former-Champion’s name. Though she knew little about the woman in question, she was fully aware of her death, as was likely everyone standing in the facility.

“Was it out of grief? Or out of a desire to stretch after being confined ever since her passing?” There was little to go on in regards to what its motive was. Elaine was hardly an expert in determining a Pokemon’s emotional state from their footprints alone, unlike some people. “Well, it’s obvious that it got emotional and went on a rampage.”

Unfortunately, there were a few things she was unable to figure out even further. “But how did it break out to begin with? Pokeballs aren’t exactly easy to break from the inside once a Pokemon is caught. Did someone else let it out or did it really somehow break out from within?”

She continued to speak of possibilities, as if dancing to her own tune, ignorant to the rhythm of the others who were working with her for this incident. All the while, she gazed at the tattered nameplate she held.

---

TL;DR: Elaine spots the nameplate and begins to mull over and hypothesize that the Pokemon broke out due to emotional state though what emotional state and how it even broke out remain unknown to her.

Tags: Pace Mahmoud & boruta maher & Kaida Adachi

---

character tag: Elaine Highland[break]
team: Rangers[break]
ranger raid: 1B for Best

“I know you find what they’re doing abhorrent, but please do show at least some restraint, kid.” Come to think of it, did Elaine even know the boy’s name? “It’s not worth shedding their blood over another’s grave.”

There was no point in trying to use logic to get to someone so heated up. She could only prod his emotions and hoped he responded. Beyond that, it was best not to push things further. She had seen many a similar emotion before someone was discovered dead.

As much as dealing with the vandals was a problem, so was preventing the boy from becoming another one of the people she pointed to and declared to be the murderer.

It was a wonderfully tight balance, but one she had to walk regardless. So, she kept in the same fashion as him and masked her movements to the best of her ability while her Mawile tread equally as silently by her side.

It didn’t take long, however, to find a group of four by a bonfire.

Guess that’s them.

The group’s premier Sherlock Holmes made her quick deduction as the body count before them matched the number they were told. Moreover, there was the issue of what looked to be a Houndour closest to them along with a number of other Pokemon at the fire.

At the end of the day, it all came down to brawn—the worst kind of ending possible. Nevertheless, the job had to be done.

“Best to try and make this quick. Unfortunately, the one thing I can think of that can do that would disturb the ground and I don’t want to do that.” She muttered in a low enough voice so the young man could hear. “If the Houndour acts as the scout, then let’s focus on silencing it quickly enough that it can’t alert them and then ambush them.”

Barbaric tactics. Unrefined ideas. Yet, it was probably the best course.

“If you can deal it enough damage, Titania can take it out before it can attack. What do you think?” she asked as she stroked Titania’s head and maw.

---

Aaron Toral

Law Enforcement

Elaine Highland - Independent Detective

• player/ooc name: Kohaku
• character tags: Elaine Highland
• dropped characters' tags (if applicable): Nope
• ic posts for characters:Posty Posty
• are characters in directories?: Y
• any notes/comments: Endwalker. Endwalker. Sleep. Endwalker. Endwalker. Also I need to get Elaine involved in the overall plot. Somehow. Endwalker. Endwalker. Endwalker. Endwalker. Sleep.

It didn’t take long for her to approach. The Corviknight she had taken to riding upon the back of had made its way to the first site rather quickly and effortlessly. It wasn’t too hard to find—the scattering sparks were a dead giveaway of something being wrong. But, before she made the mistake of carelessly approaching, she got her hand at the ready, clasping at a Pokeball.

“Okay, now!”

With that simple command, the armored bird moved straight towards the billboard. That was all it took for something to materialize around the billboard. A magenta and blue being that had seemingly been made of multiple parts moving independently, frantically and oh so tangentially connected to a central main body.

It was like watching a malfunctioning toy in some aspect.

But she had no time to dwell on that. If she didn’t take this opportunity, she would lose a chance to completely startle it.

“TITANIA! DISRUPT!”

The pokeball in her hand released the brutal deciever Pokemon who had taken the first opportunity to bare its open maw to the frantic Pokemon, only serving to make its movements more erratic as it started to store electricity.

But that would not be the end of it. Before the tiny thing could release any of it, Titania flipped over its side and landed its fist straight into where that thing’s neck would be. A direct Sucker Punch that caused the Porygon-Z to change its head’s position ever so slightly, turning the head ever so slightly, turning the apex of its head, the center of its charge towards…

“TO THE RIGHT, HURRY!”

Shouting a command to the Corviknight, she felt a thrust as the bird deftly moved itself in the direction she had indicated, barely avoiding the thick golden lines of plasma that streaked from its head into the sky.

With a quick flick of her hand, she returned the falling Titania to its ball, only to watch the Porygon-Z quickly floating towards a nearby onlooker’s phone, dissipating and flowing into it.

“Guess we should be glad it used Thunder and missed, huh...” Elaine wiped the sweat off her forehead as she let out a deep sigh and gazed upwards. “Well, it’s scared enough. If we hit the others, we can have them all lead us to the culprit. Shame this is more of a brawny job rather than a brainy one for me.”

---

Katarina Dewi
Mission: Data Leak

So much for sympathy among men. Even if he was probably still just a young boy, Elaine found her eyes widening when she watched him drive his feet between the culprit’s legs. She could almost find herself giving an awkward, strained chuckle as she watched his Trevenant take quick action and completely smash the Smeargle.

For someone trying to be the good cop, you’re pulling the bad cop act surprisingly well.

Of course, that was hardly the end of the brutality. She had to keep up the stern act, but it was definitely not fun watching him torture the man. For all he said about honoring the dead, torturing someone over their corpses was not something she felt to be too tasteful.

She had seen multiple cases of similar, after all.



Still, it was enough to get the man to talk. There were three others, hired to play pranks. An odd story, but not something she was unfamiliar with.


“Wonder what’s behind the guy who hired them. Probably covering something given they paid four people to play pranks on a burial ground.” The girl muttered as she bit at her thumbnail and gave a grave gaze off into the distance, one that would be easily seen by anyone looking at her.

But, her gaze was cut off as she heard Aaron’s request.

“Sure. Let’s let the guy go, Titania.” As she saw Titania lift its maw away from the physically and definitely now mentally damaged prankster, adding a frown of clear disappointment as she did, Elaine faced Aaron. “However, next time, let me play the good cop. You make a ridiculously frightening bad cop, kid.”

---

Aaron Toral

And just as she had hoped, the young boy had taken prompt action to catch the culprit at first sight. So, there was no need for a rush. She pushed herself off the ground, stood, and walked forward. She would not bring Ginga out here, so as to not accidentally desecrate the graves in the area. However, she did not make the mistake of rushing into the headway of Aaron’s own attack.

Rather, she walked so she could catch him at the back while having Titania going around in another direction to catch him and Intimidate him with her maw. It was a simple strategy, incorporating Aaron’s own assault with two other arms to create a three-pronged ambush.

Given that he had all the necessary and stereotypical vandal’s Pokemon with him, it was likely that he was a prankster working on his own.

“Of course, we can’t assume that he’s on his own. Isn’t that right, Titania?”

The Deceiver Pokemon opened its maw wide before the guy who had clumsily been captured.

And with a single, alluring voice, Elaine said one last sentence. “So, you’re better speak up before Titania decides to clamp down. You understand?”

---

Aaron Toral

Well, as much as she was not too keen on waiting around here, waiting until the turn of the night was probably the best choice here. If the culprit was the type who was more prone to take action at night, then there was no reason to keep loitering around when the nearest headstones were already cleaned up by the young boy before her.

Moreover, no matter how much they cleaned, it would be pointless to keep going if they were simply going to watch things get vandalized again.

Yes, the correct course of action was simply to patrol and apprehend the culprit. It was not a major crime, but it was enough to stimulate utter disgust in the young woman.

“That sounds like a plan. I’ll rest around here as well and keep an eye out.”

---

Unlike Aaron who had planned to sleep in a tree, Elaine was older and far less mobile. While that made her seem frail, it was nowhere close to that. She was not someone who could fit in places as easily as the young boy.

Instead, as much as it annoyed her, she found herself taking a seat on the ground, leaning against a nearby tree, keeping herself hidden from view. She kept one leg flexed, her head and arm on her knee, and slept. It was hardly the most comfortable position, but was enough that she could react if she had heard something.

And sure enough during the dead of night, she had heard something rustle. Her eyes opened wide as she placed intense focus on the direction of the sound. For all she knew, it could be a Rattata roaming around, but given the fact that the culprit was the type to act at night, it was best to stay vigilant. With a light tap, she awoke Titania. And as she focused upon the source of the sound, she could only hope that the young boy was as alert to the sound as she was.

---

Aaron Toral

Death was hardly something meant to be taken lightly. As much as it was an inescapable part of life, it was one that touched upon a multitude of people. And upon the grounds where death was given somber remembrance, it was best to match the ambiance and remain somber on one’s own.

No matter who it was, be it people or Pokemon, every single tombstone here (even if Mt. Pyre was exclusively a cemetery for Pokemon) encased a single, long story, that deserved to be remembered and treated with respect.

Be it the murderer or the victim, the blood that stained the ground as a result was not something to be taken lightly. As one whose life was built on a trail of death ranging from the mundane to the absurd, Elaine was one who knew that best.

“So, what kind of dumbass thinks it’s a good idea to desecrate graves like this?”

With Titania plodding around behind her, she looked upon the boy who was clearly doing his best to reverse what had already happened to one. Though, her stern demeanor and crossed arms would probably belie the reality that she was aware that the young boy before her was not the cause but attempting to be the solution.

---

Aaron Toral