Closed Somewhere a Clock is Ticking

She couldn't do this. That's what the pink cat-like goddess realized as she sat bleeding and in pain from her battle. She had made it back to the Tree but she had still failed in her mission. She couldn't kill her older brother. She couldn't kill Arceus.

She had failed everything, human and Pokémon alike. She couldn't talk sense into him, she couldn't even beat him. When it boiled down to it she was still the weak little sister. But she had to stop him, she had to...

She cried for all the lives she just doomed. All of the humans that she had worked so hard to save... And any Pokémon they owned too. Humans and Pokémon... Such a bond they had managed to form despite the language barrier. Two species, so alike, yet so different.

That's when it hit her. The great idea. With most of her side weak or sleeping she could do something Arceus could never. She could made them, humans and Pokémon, stronger, bring them even closer.

She just hoped that Arceus wouldn't find out and break them.

Beware the white-hair, young ones.
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You are a human or Pokémon. After a strange dream you have traveled to a tree that seems to be mad out of stone. Once inside you were attacked by orange blobs until Mew, the legendary Pokémon save you. She told you that Arceus was after humans and Pokémon alike. That she was too weak to stop him. But she offers you a chance to help. She'll give you weapons and new abilities. But on one condition. You must release your Pokémon or leave your pack. She warns you that Arceus is crafty. But she trusts that you are strong enough.
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Rules:
1. This is an AU of the anime-verse. However, please use an OC not a AU version of an existing character. Satoshi et al are just blissfully unaware, mkay?
2. If you die once or twice Mew can bring you back, but she can't do this forever and is still recovering. Don't push it.
3. No godmodding
4. While you are in this RP, my word is god. Yes, I want you to have fun and be creative but don't argue with me when I am trying to enforce the rules.
5. You can play as either a human or a wild Pokémon
6. This is a literate RP, absolutely no eceptions.
7. I expect that you will follow the rules: tCoD's as well as mine.
8. Please use character development. The personalty you chose is a guide, not a straitjacket.
IX. Illic est haud novem.
10. Pokémon (for once) have the ability to understand humans and humans (for once) have the ability to understand Pokémon. But only within the group. The Legendaries communicate via telepathy.
11. If you can name the band that wrote the song that is the title, you get a cookie. I'll give you a hint: fugo vehiculum.
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From the look of things, Kanto was having a normal, peaceful night. The Hoothoot hooted, Zubat flew in search of food, and all of the other nocturnal Pokémon went about their lives. A light breeze rolled by, shaking the trees and grass as it gently blew across the area. In the center of this beautiful night sat a magnificent tree, the only one that didn't move with the wind.

Tonight would be the most important night of ten creatures' lives.

To most, it was a Saturday night.

Another breeze rolled by, blowing black hair into a girl's face. The girl rubbed her arms and shivered, teeth chattering. Why does it have to be so could out? The girl sighed. "I wish a had a jacket or something..." She cleared the hair out of her eyes and looked ahead at the tree ahead of her.

This is the one! The one from my dream! Oh, she remembered that dream clearly.

"Help me!" a voice cried out. The girl spun around.

"Who are you?" she asked, seeing no one.

"Help me!" the voice requested again. "To whoever gets this message: I request your help! In Kanto there is a great tree... A tree made out of stone." Said stone tree appeared in the girls mind. You must come here and help me, whoever you all are! The fate of the world rests on this!' This just confused the girl.

"What? Why? Who are you?"

"Please come and save us all!" said the voice again. And then nothing.

"Whoever that poor women was, I will help her! Because... Because..." The girl sighed. "I wanted to think of something nobler, but it's because I'm bored."

Bad Kuuken! Kuuken's mind snapped at her. Kuunken laughed. "Oh well. I'm sure it's for a good cause." She paused. "I do wonder what that women meant by 'the fate of the world rests on this', though." Kuuken started to slowly make her way closer to the tree.

Chris stared at the tree curiously, before nearly running over Kuuken with her bike. With a yelp, she swerved to the side to avoid hitting her, and ended up crashing in the grass. Ouch.
She jumped up, unharmed -minus a scraped knee that was bleeding a little bit- and quickly folded it up before putting it in her backpack. Chris grinned, stepping closer to the tree.
"So.. this is the tree, huh? I don't suppose you're here because of that, too?"
She turned red. That was silly. Why would someone else be there, because of some silly dream she had? Or not.. if it had been real. Which she doubted, but something about it seemed.. important. Like it was real.
Not that it was.
Was it?

The cold chill of the night... it was making Jade shiver. She longed to be home in bed, curled up with her precious Persian, but she knew she had to do this. She could see the giant stone tree in the distance – the same one from the dreams she'd been having. Those creepy, dark dreams.

The next thing she knew, a message was playing out in her head. "Help me! To whoever gets this message, I request your help! In Kanto there is a great tree... A tree made out of stone." a picture of the tree embedded itself into her mind, "You must come here and help me, whoever you all are! The fate of the world rests upon this! Please come and save us all!"

...

"What the hell was that?" Jade grunted, "Fate of the world..." she stopped talking and continued her trek toward the weird stone tree. She certainly hoped she wasn't going crazy, but that didn't matter. Arriving at the stone tree would likely explain everything.

Little did she know these would be the last few minutes she would spend as a truly living creature.

((Am I doing this right? I've never really done an actual literate RP before... >< I'll add more in my posts if I have to.))

Entia looked up at the huge tree before her.

Is it true? Is it really made of stone?

She reached out a hand and touched the cold, rough surface.

She shivered. It was true. And she had to rescue someone. She had no idea who, but their voice was feminine.

Her eerie, cynical blue eyes closed.

I don't want this. I want things to be normal. I want to have a regular life without trees made out of rock or weird dreams. Gespenti, Set, Korin... I want them all back.

She narrowed her eyes so her eyebrows met in the middle of her forehead, a raven-black V on her face.

"It isn't fair. Everyone I care about dies, or is stolen, or vanishes, and even then I can't just be left alone!"

The feeling of anger took over her mind. It occupied her completely, seemed to control her body...

With horror, she realized that golden fur was sprouting out of her arms. She could smell more, felt warmer, felt more powerful. Her clothes split and fell off as they no longer fit her.

What!...

She howled mournfully.

What's wrong with me?

((EDIT: In case you couldn't tell, that was Ninetales. And she howled pretty loudly, too, so someone should hear her.))

"Ack!" Kuuken lept out of the way of an incoming bike as is swerved out of the way. The owner of said bike then crashed. Kuuken cringed. The girl, however, jumped up without missing a beat. Kuuken took deep breaths to calm herself.

But then the girl mentioned the tree and maybe that dream. She then saw the girl blush.

"'That'? You mean the dream? Y-you couldn't have had it too! That's impossable!" she yelled, before realizing that the girl could have meant something completely different. "Oh... S-sorry. I wasn't thinking. I had a dream recently and I wanted to check this out. And I was worried about the woman that was yelling..." Kuuken rubbed the back of her head. "But I'm sure you don't care. You're just here to train or something. Or meet up with someone. Or you live nearby and wanted to visit and now I'm rambling!" She laughed nervously before noticing the girl's bleeding knee.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?" she asked.

Chris laughed nervously,.
"Sorry for almost running you over.. Yeah, I'm fine. 'Ve had worse. Actually.. I don't live anywhere near here. Wait a sec.. you had the dream too?! With the lady and the 'end of the world" stuff? No way!"
This was crazy. So it was real! So.. was this really as important as that lady had said..?

The forest was not what would normally spring to one's mind when they thought of the term "Harsh, unforgiving enviroment filled with enemies." And yet, it applied perfectly to his situation. He had been running all night. He knew that there was little point- He had made the error of teaching his former comrades all he knew about tracking. For two had found them in his hiding place. All three Scyther snarled, and then charged. Six blades clashed- The attackers had brought both of theirs in a slashing motion towards him, while he brought one each to parry them. With blades still locked, the lone creature took a step backwards... And then disengaged to charge upon his targets. His blades went through their abdomens cleanly, and as he pulled them out, dripping with green blood, the attackers fell to the ground dead. The loner panted for a moment, and then cocked his head. He heard the sound of more coming... Five, ten... Twenty. With a yelp he took to running. He couldn't fight off that many alone. And so he ran and ran, for it was all he could do.

Several hours into the next night, and he had finally exited the forest. The others he knew would not be able to track him out here- They were unfamiliar with the terrain outside of the wooded cover, and so would not be able to read the signs. A Scyther like he was still recognizable, though, and this was but a flat plain. And so he did not stop, but continued to run as long as he could, weaving through the tall grass and hiding behind the sparse trees. He did not stop running until he passed out from exhaustion...

-----

Several weeks later, the Scyther found himself at the edge of another forest. He had wandered across the land, guided by little more than hunger. Upon reaching this place, though, he felt a twinge. He hopped back a distance, and still he felt that curious pull. So it wasn't something from the forest itself. Blades at the ready, the Scyther crept towards the forest. Eyes were peeled, watching the trees for any signs of enemies. As he entered the woods, he began moving carefully, stepping on rocks or sticks whenever possible, and balancing his weight off of his feet as much as possible.

Long into this, the Scyther entered a clearing with a tree of some sort. It wasn't a type he recognized, and there was little of import about it anyway. There seemed to be others here. He watched them for a few moments, and then suddenly snarled with realization.

Humans...

With a light step, the Scyther crept silently into the area, blades at the ready. He kept a close eye on their belts- He had heard of those things humans had... Zocket Pails or something, that they used to confine those of the wild. He would not let that happen.

((Server issues. The other one's deleted.))

Another gentle breeze blew past as Kuuken's jaw dropped. "Y-yeah! And she was all desperate and stuff..." Kuuken smiled. "It's nice to know you're alright."

Wow! Someone who had the same dream I did!

"If it was from one source... Who has that kind of power?" Kuuken wondered.

I wonder what that lady's like... Is she nice? Cold? Weird?

"Oh yeah! I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Kuuken. What's you're name?"

"A tree made out of stone... It was nowhere near the mountains - Faelynn knew that. The message had been interesting. Not a prank, because she would have known if a Psychic-type had been playing tricks on her. Embracing the welcoming bite of the wind, she drifted south, scanning the horizon for any sign of this mysterious tree.

Days passed. The moon slid across the sky, followed by the sun's dangerous heat. She moved mostly at night, ghosting past cities and clearings, avoiding confrontations. She was curious, and perhaps the one who had sent the message was desperate enough for aid that she would give Faelynn something useful in return. The south, she had wandered over before, but she missed the chill of the Ice Path, and the cold mountains where the air was bitter. There was no snow here, just greenery that demanded that she freeze it. Pokemon trainers sometimes found her, but she eluded them, and fought when she needed to. She was strong. She knew it, and imposed her frost on everything she passed - the ice melted quickly, so her trail wasn't very obvious, but it was quite impressive to be followed around by a path of frost, even if it only extended a metre behind her.

The tree could be seen now, odd, unmoving. It looked so... still. Was it really made out of stone? There were others nearby, but she ignored them, confident in her ability to fade into the background if needed. No, what interested her was the tree, and as she drifted closer, she could sense something rushing... As if some sort of invisible tide was tugging her closer.

Lev woke up. He looked around, and saw nothing but bushes, so he hadn't been moved around or taken during the night.

...fate of the world..., a message replayed itself in his mind.

A tree made of stone..., Lev continued recalling.

I request your help!, he was probably remembering it in the wrong order.

Then, piecing it together, Lev remembered it. It was the recurring dream, with a voice that shouted for help. He remembered why he was here, alone and chasing after a peculiar tree. Getting up, he realized it was actually quite late in the afternoon, so Lev hurried in the direction he was travelling in. Not that there was anyway to know it was the right way, something just told him it was right.

The sun had long since set when Lev arrived. He saw a great tree that towered above him. More importantly, he noticed others. Humans, rather. Lev crept closer, but tried his best to stay out of sight, especially after recognizing one of the faces. The older-looking one worked at the ranch he escaped from.

Strange, though, was how he knew what they were saying. They talked about a dream, something about saving the world and coming to the tree.

Lev was about to trot up and maybe even try to ask them something, but then he heard a cry. No, a howl, but it could've just been a cry too. He looked around and saw a Ninetales.

Wait... wasn't there another human there before?, he thought.

Gardean walked, he had done that for a while. the wind caused his skirt to fly up a bit, revealing the lower part of his thin, white legs. But he was alone for the moment, so he really didn't bother. What bothered him was the dream he had been having, someone urged him to go to a big tree made of stone. He couldn't help but think it was real, and had begun to travel to this tree made of stone.

He eventually got to a tree made of stone, it was big, really big. Gardean then heard voices, and realized there was humans at the other side of the tree. He didn't like humans a lot, really, with the exception of his own trainer, that is, so he kept hidden at the opposite side of the tree.

Storm stopped in front of the tree, looking around suspiciously. There was the scent of humans, and some other Pokemon, one particularly near by.. The tree caught her attention again. It was exactly as she remembered it, from her dream.. Storm padded up and touched it with her snout. It felt mostly like stone,and something else, but that might not be important.

Storm looked around now. Pretty close by were some humans, and the scent of some Pokemon. Again, nothing had changed, and she sat down a bit away from the tree.

Now that she got closer, there were... more humans? And Pokemon too. Jade stared at them, not wanting to go near yet wanting to see if anyone else had had the same dream. Her forest-green hair and her white dress ruffled in the breeze. Oh why hadn't she brought a jacket?

...Well, might as well go down there.

She slowly trotted up to the stone tree, albeit away from the rest of the humans and Pokemon, and looked slowly over the tree. It was exactly how she remembered it – stony, and didn't move in the wind – and she had the urge to touch it. So she slowly reached her hand out and felt over the solid surface, hesitantly. She couldn't help but get the feeling that something was going to happen to her when she did.

...Nothing. Her hand fell back by her side and she sighed.

In Kanto there is a great tree... A tree made out of stone. You must come here and help me, whoever you all are! The fate of the world rests on this...

Vita woke up, sighed, and rubbed her head, annoyed. Her charmeleon was sleeping soundly by her feet, his tail flame flickering calmly in the night. Far away, an animal howled mournfully -- what was it, a ninetales? -- and Vita shivered slightly in the cold night. It was probably the millionth time that she had that dream, and it just kept repeating over, over, and over again. Honestly, whomever was sending her the message should really just stop. Can't she -- Vita was pretty sure it was a she -- respect other people's sleep for just one night?

Her charmeleon stirred and opened one black eye, the sat up. "Char?" He muttered sleepily. Vita stood up, looking at the strange structure she was sleeping next to. It was a huge rock of sorts, shaped like a tree. Its gray branches spread over the sky like a cloth, covering the stars.

So, she was at the huge stone, tree, Vita thought to herself, but now what? She didn't want to sleep again -- the dream was getting plain annoying -- but there wasn't anything else to do.

"Char!" Vita turned her head to her charmeleon's call. The orange lizard was pointing at something... a figure... There was someone else here. Someone else who had decided to come to the strange stone tree in the middle of the night.

"I'm Chris, and-"
She stopped and looked around. She could hear several.. something walking in the grass, and saw a few Pokemon nearby. She stepped closer to Kuuken.
"Okay.. I don't suppose some Pokemon had the dream too. That, or.."
She silently cursed herself for not bringing any Pokemon. What if they attacked or something.
No, that's silly. Calm down, for pete's sake!

Lev took a few steps towards the two girls, making himself, mostly, visible. He sensed an apprehension about the girl from the ranch, Chris.

So he spoke up, not that the humans were supposed to understand him, though he did understand them, "What dream? Did you dream of a world in trouble and someone telling you to go to a stone tree too?"

Was that Eevee talking to her?! Chris jumped and looked at it for a moment.. Yes, it talked. Was that normal? She decided not to question it, or things would get quite confusing quickly. As she thought this, something clicked. To anyone else, he looked like just an ordinary Eevee, but she recognized him, or at least thought so. Was he from the ranch?
She went over to him, leaning down a bit to see him face-to-face. Chris tried not to sound too excited, but she was glad to see someone familiar here, even if it was an Eevee.
"We did.. You're from the ranch, aren't you?"

((What the hell, do we have our powers yet, or not..?))

((I don't think so.))

((Bit of a corundrum, now that you mention it. The talking was mentioned in the rules, rather than the story, so I'm guessing it's... already present anyway? A passive effect of the stone tree? Ketsu, save us... I'm... going with that until then...))

Lev smiled, "Why yes, I am. I ran away after you ran away, 'cause of the dream and all..."

Then what happened sank in.

"Woah, wait, you know what I'm saying?", he asked in surprise.