Dom had almost forgotten about Zinnia in the chaos. As the other Unown swarmed, however, he could pick out the Unown-Z among them, joining in on the writhing mass of shapes and eyes. How Dom could pick them out in the crowd, he couldn't say, but every so often he would see a flash of Zinnia among them. The Blissey was clearly less concerned about one little Unown-Z, though it became more concerned about the group of swirling Unown when it was pummeled by their Hidden Power. Its face screwed up and it launched an Egg Bomb in retaliation, though North was the main victim in the blast radius. The Noivern snarled and flung a Dragon Pulse at the Blissey, finally knocking it out of commission.[break][break]

Dom was plenty happy to let North do his thing as he focused on trying to get himself and Mars the hell out of here. But when they turned to make for the exit, a Steelix blocked their path. Dom's lip curled and his fingertips strayed over his Pokeballs. Fire and Ground would be dangerous to use in an enclosed space like this—Lynx it was. He released his Lucario, who took up a spot next to Mars' Blastoise.[break][break]

"Once this is all over," he said, turning his attention to Mars with a half glance, "Remind me to ask you about them." He'd jerked his thumb over his shoulder to indicate the mass of Unown. He'd tentatively put together that these must belong to Mars and if that guy had this many, he had to know something about them.[break][break]

Lynx had assumed a fighting stance, but now he took off at a quick pace, darting for the Steelix. With a flex of his paws, he struck out with a Force Palm as it roared.

[break][break]

+ Martín del Mar[break]mission: SURVIVING SPACE-TIME

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[attr="class","credit"]milky

Dom couldn't help but grin at the compliment. Lynx was doing well, wasn't he? The Lucario was a far cry from the shy little Riolu that Dom had befriended months ago. He was just glad other people could see it, too. Lynx deserved it.[break][break]

In short order, they were out in the open and Matias had a request. Dom's brow furrowed for one moment before he nodded. He recalled Lynx just as the Kleavor swung, leaving the giant rock bug with nothing but empty air to slash through. A second later and a Lapras had replaced the Lucario on the field.[break][break]

"Lotus, Ice Beam! Aim for its feet!" She wasted no time and directed an Ice Beam at the legs of the Kleavor. Frost climbed up its feet, rooting it to the spot. At least for now. "I hope that's good enough," Dom called to Matias.

[break][break]

+ MATIAS SILPH[break]mission: surviving space-time

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[attr="class","credit"]milky

Dom huffed as he sorted through his backpack, taking a quick inventory of what was left. Luckily, Sneasel were pretty small, so it had only managed to make off with half of his jerky. Still, he felt his eye twitch. That stuff was expensive. And really tasty. A whicker from Mags caught his attention and he scowled.[break][break]

"You don't gotta make fun of me, Mags. You could've helped." When he looked up—zipping up his backpack and setting it against his leg—the Mudsdale was looking at him with a tilted head. No, she wasn't looking at him, she was looking past him. Dom's brow furrowed and he turned to follow her eye line. There was a sudden golden shimmer in the grass, one that didn't blend in as well as it might have hoped. Dom poured out the rest of his trail mix into his hand, offering it to the shape. "You're a little nicer than that Sneasel, huh bro?"[break][break]

The Sentret peeked its head out from the edge of the grass, sniffing cautiously. Her fur shone when the sun hit it, gold where it should have been brown. "Aren't you pretty?" The Sentret snuck forward a few steps, paused to see if Dom would try to eat it, then ventured closer. Eventually, it was right at his hand, picking the best nuts out of the offered trail mix. Dom pulled out a Pokeball and gently bonked the golden Sentret.

[break][break]

+ catching!

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[attr="class","credit"]milky

Machamp and Lucario worked in tandem, the former acting as a tank to draw the Kleavor's fire while the latter flung Aura Sphere after Aura Sphere from range. Lynx backed away when necessary, keeping space between him and his opponent but never getting so far out of range that the Kleavor might think them not worth the effort and leave. The Kleavor roared, grinding its axes together before swinging violently again. But it seemed to be following the pair of Pokemon just as planned.[break][break]

Dom flashed a half-grin at Matias. "I'm Dominic!" He winced, smile falling away, as the tombstone shattered. Bits of stone peppered his face. Oops. That wasn't ideal. "You're Machamp's doing great!" Better to change the subject? It wasn't like they were the ones doing all the work in this particular situation, anyhow.

[break][break]

+ MATIAS SILPH[break]mission: surviving space-time

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[attr="class","credit"]milky

The fight quickly became a mass of chaos. Lynx struck out, the Kleavor struck back, lights flashed as the Sceptile disappeared and was replaced by a hulking Machamp. The Machamp crashed into Kleavor, sending the stone bug stumbling backward. Lynx took the opportunity to steel himself, dragging his paws against each other in a Swords Dance.[break][break]

Dom nodded to Matias, cupping his hands around his mouth to shout, "Lynx, we need to bring it outside." The Lucario glanced over his shoulder, nodded in agreement, and refocused back on the fight. Dom began to move, following Matias to give their Pokemon enough space to draw the Kleavor out. Lynx backed up a few more steps before winding up and sending an Aura Sphere flying at the Kleavor.

[break][break]

+ MATIAS SILPH[break]mission: surviving space-time

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[attr="class","credit"]milky

It wasn't long before Dom needed to rest. The back-country routes like this were always harder to traverse than walking along a highly-maintained trail. He found a spot that could pass for a clearing where the grass wasn't quite so high and slung off his pack. He set about tamping down some of the grass into a sitting spot that was soft enough. He pulled a bag of trail mix out of his bag and began to snack while Mags grazed idly nearby.[break][break]

It was such an idylic scene that Dom didn't notice the rustle in the grass as something snuck up behind him. The rustling of grass simply seemed to be the wind. It wasn't until the telltale sound of food wrappers reached Dom did he realize he was being stolen from. He whirled around, spilling his trail mix in the process, just in time to catch sight of a Sneasel as it darted back into the woods with an armfull of jerkey.[break][break]

"Hope that's tasty, dude!

[break][break]

+ skip.

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

[attr="class","credit"]milky

It had been a while, admittedly, since Dom had visited Mt. Pyre. His work routes didn't often take him out towards the mountain, though he had passed it more than a few times while heading out to the eastern islands. That made it all the more annoying when his otherwise-uneventful trip was interrupted by a space-time distortion.[break][break]

"Not again," was all he could groan as the shroud of black clouds swept over him, pulling him into the anomaly's grasp. He quickly released Lynx, who appraised the situation with a disapproving glance. All they had to do was survive and—[break][break]

A shout caught his attention and when Dom turned to look he caught sight of a man fighting something he might have mistaken for a Scyther at first glance. In the dark. If he'd been drunk.[break][break]

"Lynx!" The Lucario didn't need any further prompting. He broke out in a run, the spikes on the back of his paws glowing dimly in the strange space. He leaped, delivering a Metal Claw that the Kleavor expertly blocked with its axes before swinging out in Close Combat.[break][break]

Dom made his way over to where Matias stood. Up closer, he realized he recognized the man in passing, though he wasn't sure if they'd ever been properly introduced. Not that this was the time for formal hellos and how-are-yous. Instead, what Dom said was, "We're here to help, bro!"

[break][break]

+ MATIAS SILPH[break]mission: surviving space-time

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[attr="class","credit"]milky

He hadn't noticed the little swarm of Unown before. The sight of them made his heart jump. His hand went to Zinnia's Pokeball as they flew over to join the growing mass of other Unown, twisting and twirling. Dom might say the Unown-Z seemed happy, except that he wasn't sure they felt or expressed emotions the same way as his other Pokemon.[break][break]

The sound of Mars' voice made him jump. The other man didn't seem quite as concerned as Dom felt, and the Ranger tried to use that to steady his nerves. He flashed a worried look at Mars before nodding sharply.[break][break]

"Been readin' reports of these things," he said as he turned whirled around toward the way they came. The edge of the distortion expanded down the cave until it was out of sight. Damn. "But I haven't actually—" A roar cut him off mid-sentence, reverberating the cavern and rattling Dom's teeth. He turned back to see a Blissey, looking particularly enraged and staring down the pair.[break][break]

"That didn't take long." Dom reached for North's Pokeball but hesitated. He hadn't experienced one of these distortions for himself. He couldn't say for sure if any of what they were experiencing was real. Would a Noivern actually come out of the Pokeball if he released it? Would any of his attacks work the same way? Dom gritted his teeth and pressed the button on the Pokeball.[break][break]

The flash of light that signaled North's appearance was, itself, muted and twisted by the distortion field around them. The Noivern shook himself and looked back to Dom incredulously. Why did he always get let out for the ridiculous shit?[break][break]

[break][break]

+ Martín del Mar[break]mission: SURVIVING SPACE-TIME

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[attr="class","credit"]milky

His foray into Granite Cave to meet Father Winter weighed heavily on his mind, even weeks later. Reports were coming into the Rangers of strange dimensional distortions, ones that seemed to tug at the very fabric of reality. Reports that sounded all-too-familiar. Dom hadn't even spent much time with the Unown-Z since he captured it; memories of watching the distant explosions from Lynx, of talking to Nona, were still too fresh. As he walked his assigned path—somewhere between Rustboro City and Verdanturf Town—he finally convinced himself to take a proper look at Zinnia.[break][break]

Sighing, he paused his walk and reached for the Pokeball in his pocket. He stared at it for longer than was really necessary. It was just a Pokemon. This was his whole thing. A flash of light lit up the otherwise dim cave and, when it faded, an Unown-Z floated in front of Dom. They blinked, gliding through the air in a loose arc around Dom.[break][break]

"Look, I know we don't really know each other or whatever, but—hey, where are you going?" Seemingly satisfied with their initial loop around Dom, Zinnia rotated sharply in the air and zoomed the other way. They were after something. Dom felt the ground buckle and rumble as he hurried after Zinnia. Just ahead he caught sight of another figure—was that Mars?!—before they were all engulfed in a swirling wall of dark clouds.

[break][break]

+ Martín del Mar[break]mission: SURVIVING SPACE-TIME

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[attr="class","credit"]milky

Dom liked routes like this, the ones that were really wild. Sure almost every road between the cities and towns had some degree of nature to it, but places like this—ones where the road disappeared and all that stretched out before you was wilderness—were becoming rarer and rarer. Civilization crept in at a steady rate, choking out the truly wild places and constricting them down to puddles. For now, though, Dom could simply enjoy it.[break][break]

He took care as he hiked, Magnolia plodding along behind him. No matter how much he liked nature, the further you got away from the cities, the more dangerous injuries were. Part of being a Ranger was having a team curated to help you survive while camping, but even the most well-crafted team had its weak spots. A bite from a Pokemon or a slip on the edge of a cliff could spell disaster. And if, Arceus forbid, a Pokeball broke, there were all kinds of awful implications.

[break][break]

+ ooc notes

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[attr="class","credit"]milky