[attr="class","rosepost"]"One of the fastest..." she echoed thoughtfully. Training her Zeraora was a must. She would need its speed to better serve Hoenn in its time of need. Parcels, life-saving medicine, intel, all of it would need to move quickly and unhindered. [break][break]

She felt far more confident about her near future. While her pokemon needed more combat training, she would need to trickle in some movement, too. "That is fantastic advice. I'll have to get my Zeraora training, and maybe I can pit him against yours to see where we can improve." She smiled. "I appreciate it. I think I'll go pick him up and try today - no time like the present, yeah?"

[break][break]Josh Devlin [break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]"it kinda makes me wonder it there's even such a thing as time here...it feels more like time is at a standstill here..."[break][break]

"Don't say that!" She reacted on instinct, defense. She paused for a moment, then looked rightfully embarrassed. "Sorry. I mean, nothing can escape time, is all." Guilt pooled at the base of her throat. "I, um, I don't mean to be rude," she said as she started making her way up the clocktower stairs so they could investigate fully. [break][break]

"I'm from Sinnoh," she explained, "and we praise the Almighty Sinnoh, who resides over time." The clocktower felt warmer up top. "It feels sacrilegious to suggest time doesn't reach anywhere, particularly anywhere we can access." [break][break]

At the top of the clocktower was proper flooring to stand on, but the clock face sat on a hinge, one they could open with a push. She did, letting the large clockface creep out and open, giving them a large hole to look out on the environment through. "This is a skyline," she said with awe. It led from the tip of the clockface all to the castle. "This will get us to the next landmark quickly... I think it's safe." She looked to him with a visible question on her face. Would he opt to try it?

[break][break]silverio delfino | 22 involve the use of a grappling hook/tool and "sky-lines" (shamelessly stolen from bioshock: infinite) to travel or engage in combat.[break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]"Yessir," she chirped with only a little irony. Eyes and ears open indeed... she looked on with awe. [break][break]

The clock tower was massive and magnificent. The clicking of gears, however, was absent through most of the building. [break][break]

"It seems... stuck?" She moved to the central pillar of the clock tower ahead of them, that that the spiraling staircase was built around. The pieces inside should have pistoning and turning, but neither was happening. Upon closer investigation, it was clear that the negative spaces weren't artistically chosen but instead a result of actual missing pieces. "Someone removed some gears... not sure who would do that, though. Why interrupt a clock tower from counting time?"

[break][break]silverio delfino | 05 investigate a broken clock tower and discover that they are missing parts.[break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]"Seems like a good investment," she said with a smile. She was eager to see how his reputable fast pokemon operated in battle and what kind of advice he gave his challengers. [break][break]

She hadn't expected the question. [break][break]

She hummed thoughtfully as she considered her Zeraora. "I've seen it climb more than I've seen it run. It likes to stand on two legs, but I think I've seen it run on four more often." It was a pretty versatile pokemon, seemingly a master of all kinds of movement. "I didn't realize they were so divided in two different preferences for movement." But pokemon behaviorism was no area of study for her. She looked to her Slowking and nudged a piece of seaweed of his face, thankful that he was a very straightforward pokemon.

[break][break]Josh Devlin [break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]Her eyes widened at Silverio's pitch. "Maybe it is... but that suggests there's something valuable in there. Something we might want to know about." The League needed good reports on these areas anyways. If they took inventory of the spatial rift, then they would know if anything had been taken, if anything was secretly valuable or dangerous in Rocket hands. [break][break]

She made a run for the tower with Silverio's pokemon protecting them. The tower door, however, was completely locked. The door had some jammed gears in lieu of a door knob. She pressed down on the top gear to get it to rotate and presumably open the door, but it wouldn't budge. She pulled a pin from her hair and stuck it between the gears, wiggling to garner some kind of movement. [break][break]

As it happened, the gears moved the opposite direction than she'd initially shoved them. The gears worked against each other and door creeped open, giving them an opportunity to venture inside. A narrow staircase lined the wall, spiraling up the tower.

[break][break]silverio delfino | 08 involve "lockpicking" or "jamming machinery" in some way.[break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]The beast was magnificent, but thankfully, Silverio was prepared with his Greninja to offer additional manpower against it. It truly carried weight like a divine pokemon, though she had never seen its visage. Perhaps, it was a divine protector of time or of this land. She was thoroughly convinced this was sacred land she stood on, and she didn't want to disrespect Almighty Sinnoh nor disappoint. [break][break]

"I think electricity will help," she urged. Mega Audino summoned a thunderbolt to strike the beast, its form rattling from the sudden shock. Still, the creature seemed minimally impacted. It continued towards them. [break][break]

She looked between Silverio and the clock tower ahead. "I think we should just make a break for it," she advised nervously, unsure either of them could tame the monster. She wished she could have trapped it, but she wasn't well-equipped for such a strategy.

[break][break]silverio delfino |[break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]She grinned. "Lucky one indeed," she agreed. It was a great perspective, though she wasn't sure he was totally genuine about it. Still, it was a little adventure, and she felt honored to be somewhere filled with clocks on the overarching presence of time in some odd sense. She wanted to pray, but they had more to accomplish. [break][break]

After all, the League wanted thorough notes on the place. [break][break]

"Let's head this way." She took them down a winding, stone-laden path towards the clock tower. There was a much larger castle in the distance, but this was the first landmark of note. [break][break]

And then a steaming eruption came from their left. She threw herself backwards, Audino crying out in surprise. "Don't hold back," she ordered from the ground, scrambling to get back to her feet. Audino mega evolved and used hyper voice to launch the Volcanion back several yards. "What is this thing?" She'd never seen a pokemon like it; hot steam emitted from its body.

[break][break]silverio delfino | 01 engage or flee soulless volcanion guards. [break]

[attr="class","rosepost"]Dewford's taste of disaster meant there were dozens of volunteers at work at any given moment. [break][break]

It also meant that folks had to be trained to do things properly, as there were simply too many people to try and train one on one. She hadn't intended to sign up for anything when she stopped by the town to deliver a parcel, but she couldn't pass up the opportunity right before her. After all, cleaning up Sea Mauville had taught her how important it was to be well-versed in all areas of rescue. [break][break]

She stood in line with the other recruits with excitement. Whatever the camp could offer would lead to her improvement, and she had come to Hoenn solely to help.

[break][break]Montgomery James [break]