Okay.

He had to remain calm, and not lose his shit. He could find his way out of here.

“Alright, if I were a specter, what would I do?” he mused to himself quietly, eyeing the place—wait, was he hearing things?

He thought he could hear voices from beyond the veil whispering all manner of nonsensical things… like they had unfinished business… he wondered if he could reason with them.

To that, he squared his shoulders, and took the bold first step and tried to locate the closest floating ‘spirit ball’ he could find.

+ @tag
+ prompt: ❄️ Mention the whisperings of the dead.

“Oh, you have got to be fucking—”

How many times had he tried to complete that sentence today?

Pinching the bridge of his nose out of sheer irritation, he heard a loud crashing noise that broke through his concentration—holy fucking shit what was that?

Looking over at his Lucario, he nodded quietly, grimly, because they knew that shite was going to hit the fan if they didn’t catch that van.

“Get ‘em.”

With as much finesse and grace as the Lucario could muster, the jackal Pokémon concentrated before summoning up a sphereical ball of Auric energy, before taking aim and throwing it in the general direction of the mad ‘truck driver’.

Hopefully that would put an end to this madness… or so he hoped.



+ Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki, Momo Sakai, Elise Calcifet; rip John Sullivan
+ Lucario used Aura Sphere in a last-ditch attempt to take out the danged ‘truck driver’ (Iron bundle)!
+ rest in pieces doug

“You know what, if I find another Wooloo that’s not going to get attached to all of these four, I’ll give ‘em to you so you can have your own fluffy companion,” he offered.

It was there, after all. Rarely had he found another who was so enamored with the concept of ovine Pokémon like then!

(Then again, there were Mareep; however Mareep wool tended to have staticky discharge due to it coming from an Electric-type, plus it tended to fuzz up faster so there was that.)

Wain continued to allow the Alakazam to examine him, behaving like this cute little shit disturber before he was set back down on the ground… and then immediately sent careening towards where his grumpy sibling, Ger, was still munching on grass!

“Uh-oh,” he continued, unable to hide this grin behind his hands as they were about to have a Wooloo-on-Wooloo collision—

What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?!

‘Beeeeeeeh!’ Wain bleated out, happy and caring none the wiser before he crashed, literally crashed—into his sibling.

+ @maoja
+ will Ger get pissed off? Tune in and find out XD

Of all things—why was there a Magnezone here?

Why, to help get the stage assembled, of course!

Who knew that their Lock-on ‘attack’ would prove to be valuable; to ensure that not a beam was out of place, not a single nail would be misaligned.

And so the Magnezone hummed along, helping other Pokémon who needed assistance with getting everything settled away.

+ kyle lopez, Yuina Higashi, Thomas Benoit, Josh Devlin
+ pkjob: densoku

Brr, since when did it get cold out here?

He knew that Mount Pyre was one of the two highest peaks in the Hoenn region, but it didn’t hold a candle to Mount Lanakila—now that was a mountain that had snow all year round, despite being located on a tropical island paradise.

And then, he remembered that there were some Pokémon who behaved like spectral ghosts in the snow—Froslass for one.

He sincerely hoped he didn’t encounter one of them while trying to navigate his way out of this danged maze—why were the walls so high; how could he fly over them anyway?! That was going to be hard, if not borderline impossible—because he didn’t have a single Flying-type on him!

Whoops.

+ @tag
+ prompt: ❄️ Reference ‘ghosts’ in some way.

He’d been wandering around the region and had somehow ended up at Mount Pyre, when he thought… was he seeing things?

Looking around, he thought he saw a flash of white nearby; was the reputation of Mount Pyre going to precede it?

Those sounds were making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end… he continued to look around to take stock of the situation; and hopefully not lose his head.

+ @tag
+ prompt: ❄️ Use the color ‘white’ in a post.

“Oh, come on! You have got to be—” he trailed off, sighing as he realized where the redirected attack had been launched…

“Sorry!” he yelled in the direction where…

Oh, crap, looks like they were going to be down a member moving forward…

At least one problem had been dealt with; but now they still had one more to handle—before looking over at Li the Lucario, nodding quietly.

The jackal Pokémon then charged forward, closing the distance before attempting to slam into the other Iron Bundle with an Extreme Speed attack!

Unfortunately this would leave the others open…

“Take care of that attack!” he yelled in his companions’ direction; because holy shit he was going to get up-close and personal in case the danged thing was going to run away…



+ Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki, Momo Sakai, Elise Calcifet; rip John Sullivan
+ Lucario charged forward, using Extreme Speed to try and slam into the Iron Bundle!
+ rest in pieces doug

Okay, when did the weather become freezing cold?!

Also, what was up with the—oh, come on! Jack knew that this part of Slateport was supposed to be borderline Alolan weather but—where was this snow coming from?!

This was nothing like the home he was used to! Where was that snow coming from?!

No, scratch that, there was—there were bigger problems to handle, and he was down one Pokémon—so how was he going to handle this?

He then swapped out Emm the Gardevoir for Li the Lucario; realizing that there could be one possible way to stop this.

“Li, you know what to do.”

Was he going to sacrifice another Pokémon? Definitely not!

It just so happened that his Lucario knew Counter, and literally threw himself in the path of the oncoming Beak Blast to take the hit—and hopefully, return it with twice the impact on the Delibird-adjacent beast that had fired it off!



+ Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki, Momo Sakai, Elise Calcifet, John Sullivan
+ Gardevoir swapped out for Lucario!
+ Lucario then threw himself towards the incoming Beak Blast attack, and used Counter to hopefully take the damage, and return it back double toward the Delibird-adjacent Pokémon-like thing!

They would then come across—

“Hey, what—” he stammered, before the powder-white Darumaka suddenly came screaming in with a Hammer Arm attack aimed at the Absol!

“Not nice!” he yelped as he barely got out of the way; while the Absol had all the wind knocked out of her due to the force of the attack.

She was not going to go down that easily, though!

Charging forward with a subtle Swords Dance boost, Cordy would meet the incoming Superpower attack from the white Darumaka head-on, before swinging her head horn as hard as she could in a retaliatory Night Slash, bouncing off the smaller Pokémon.

“Yeah, you… you go handle that!” he exclaimed as he got up, while the two continued to try and knock each other off their feet.

However, his Absol would emerge victorious with a surprise Sucker Punch before he flung the second Safari Ball at the white Darumaka.

Odd.

+ @tag
+ safari trip leggo | catch attempt on g!darumaka!

The next Pokémon that they would encounter was hanging off a tree, creaking quietly as the wind blew around it…

All it took was for the Absol to affix her stare at the Burmy before she shook her head and looked over at where Jack had finally managed to come out of the undergrowth, before he followed her gaze.

“Oh. But it’s… it’s too peaceful,” he breathed quietly.

Those were the words that the Absol needed to hear, turning tail and heading towards another part of the Safari Zone.

They were still pretty far from their target (Lapras), but somehow, they would get there.

+ @tag
+ safari trip leggo | skipping Burmy

Around the time he spotted the tree-topper Pokémon (what, it looked like a star, can you blame him?!) he was already strolling down the path accompanied by his Absol.

“Cordy, what is it?” he asked, before watching her white fur stand up on all end while the Staryu’s gem shined for a few moments before it fired off a burst of Psychic energy at the Absol… only to belatedly realize that it had made a mistake!

“Oh, that’s interesting. Get ‘em!” he continued as he jumped out of the way while his Absol then leaped forward, bringing down a Night Slash from her horn while the Staryu immediately switched gears and retaliated with a powerful burst of Briny water.

The two would continue to trade blows for a few minutes, before a final Night Slash knocked out the Staryu—and out came the first Safari Ball!

+ @tag
+ safari trip leggo | catch attempt on Staryu!

“Don’t mind Ger here, he’s just being a sourpuss… unlike his siblings,” he laughed once the other Wooloo had wandered away, but still close enough that he was nibbling grass.

“Sometimes the airheads need someone who can bring them out of the clouds, you know, keep their heads screwed on straight.”

The other three Wooloo didn’t want to leave, because they were basking, no—soaking in all the attention that was being lavished on them!

“Just don’t have a Yamper around a Wooloo, though, they tend to get stressed out since Yamper are natural herders,” he added while he let the other three just soak up all the love and affection that their surprise guest was lavishing all over them.

The one in her arms (Lis, or Cyn, honestly the only way to tell them apart was by their collars at this point) gently nipped at her fingers before wain had gotten picked up by an Alakazam and made to—

“Uh, I gotta ask… where’s he taking Wain?” he exclaimed, hoping that the Alakazam wouldn’t wander too far away.

+ @maoja
+ there goes Wain lol

“You have… got to be fucking kidding me.”

Normally Jack would keep the irreverent thoughts to himself; however this was just… he then pinched the bridge of his nose as everything happened way too fast; even though his Garchomp had full intention of barreling forward to trap the damned Delibird-adjacent Pokémon within his scythes so they could bring it in once and for all…

Things really didn’t just seem to go the way they did, would they?

He could only bite back another grimace as he recalled his Garchomp, gone too soon due to seemingly rampaging ‘convenient coincidences’ and decided that, once and for fucking all, that he meant business.

Before that, though, they would have to evade the incoming one-two punch from the now two Delibird-adjacent beasts!

Maybe I should’ve brought Bas along! he thought, his mind flashing back to his Incineroar who was most likely standing guard over his other rowdy Pokémon at the moment…

Just before the Hydro Pump burst knocked him clean off his feet and drenched him from head to toe!

“Okay. Okay,” he breathed out, getting up and realizing he was now dripping, soaked to the bone.

“That is fucking enough!” he growled, cracking his knuckles together and looking over at where the others who were trying to corral the damned Delibird-adjacent monstroties were scattered.

“Melt or electrify the water; whatever you do, do not get hit by either of them!” he yelled, deciding that once and for all he was going to take charge.

“Hit them were it hurts the most!”

Seeing that there was a sweeping beam of frigid energy, he then made to duck behind an overturned stand of scattered fruit—before summoning his Gardevoir once more.

“I know, Emm! But this is getting way out of hand!”

Peeking from around the side, he then realized that—

“Go after them, on my signal!”

Which meant that right after a surprise ‘flash bang’ grenade of his own in the form of his Gardevoir’s Dazzling Gleam was thrown forward; hopefully aimed and exploding as close to the two Delibird-like monsters as possible; an attempt to scramble their ‘visual’ capabilities!



+ Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki, Momo Sakai, Elise Calcifet, John Sullivan
+ Garchomp has been plowed! (KOd? Dead? Who knows!)
+ Jack is 10000% done with ANYTHING Delibird-related
+ Jackie is blasted off his feet and drenched to the bone via the Hydro Pump, but is wise enough to get the fuck out of the Ice Beam range by taking cover behind an overturned stall
+ Jack.exe has now reverted to ‘Tactician’ Mode!
+ After coming up with a plan, sends out Gardevoir again, who then used Dazzling Gleam as a distracting maneuver; an attempt to flash-bang blind the two Iron Bundles to allow everyone else enough time to get close to bring them both in once and for all!