Open A Shadowy Past

((hmm, what could this be?))

Angeline Hill yawned as she rolled herself out of bed. Another day, another sucker to bend to our will, she thought as she quickly changed into her outfit. Why quickly? Because she could hear the footsteps of a little ten-year-old running down the hallway.

"Angel! Angel! Guess what?" the ten-year-old in question, Mike, shouted excitedly as he dashed into the room. Before even allowing her to ask, he answered his own question. He grinned widely as he yelled, "The boss is letting me and Andy go on a mission today! He says we can even get some new teammates along the way!"

"Human teammates or Pokémon?" Angel replied, trying to keep her feelings of annoyedness from seeping into her voice.

"I dunno. The boss didn't say."

((Okay so basically it's morning, so your characters are either just getting up or have been awake for a little bit already)

Deax yawned. She woke up at 3 AM after a particulary strange dream.

"I just don't get it, Nigel." she sighed, rubbing the back of her sleeping Persian, "Who's that girl who keeps appearing in my dreams? I can't see how I could ever like anyone like her. She's way too peppy for my tastes."

She laughed a bit.

"I wonder if she exists." she said, "I mean, I keep on dreaming about her. Could she be real?"

"No good two-timin' lies comin' outta their mouths!"

"Cheatin', mistreatin' games that they play gonna bring them down~! Well come on, Jordan! Sing along!"

Mia stared expectantly at the Shadow Trainer curled up on the couch. Jordan replied by tilting her head and shrugging. "I... don't know the words..." her voice still sounded so weak... and uncertain. As if she still wasn't sure if that was her name. Even though they were able to find out via the ID she'd had on her.

"Right... I keep forgetting you wouldn't remember..." she sat next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. Stark white, with violet stripes from a fusion gone wrong... "It's gonna be OK, Jordan. Look, Cherry's gonna figure this out."

At that exact moment, Cherry poked her head in. "I think I've got this security system figured out. C'mon in and look."

The pair walked through the door that revealed the workshop. Of course, her big project was hidden away, in a secret chamber... and no one but Mia and Jordan even knew a thing about it. On the workbench was a Poke Ball.

"Alright, Adam. Bring me the capsule." the Infernape placed the device into her hands. "This here... the first time you use it, it registers your handprint. Then if someone tries to take it from you, it'll zap them."

Mia blinked. "Yeaaahhh... but what about trades?"

"...Damn it. Although with Nightmare running around I doubt trades are the first thing on peoples' minds... hm."

Jordan... looked spaced out. She didn't care about security systems, because it was too late for her. She wanted to hear about the secret project, a way to turn her back... maybe even get her memories back.

She left the base early that morning and headed for the Pokemon Center. She'd been granted an entire week of rest after her last delivery - five whole trainers, which must have been a record. But even though Jessica was proud, she always dreaded that moment of returning to base and being slashed and burned and everything else imaginable to make sure that she was still "pure", as they put it. And with such a large success, they were even more thorough to ensure that she told the truth.

She decided to aim a little lower, this time; just one or two people. That wouldn't be too bad. It wouldn't require much pain or effort. Yes, one would be best. She grinned, already planning a new deception.

*Boom*

The noise echoed across the training grounds in a Team Nightmare base. The noise's origin was the sound of a rock striking an even larger rock.

The creator of said noise was Placido Wisel, who had slammed his fist into the ground, sending up chunks of stone. He then punched those stones at his Rhyperior, Grannel, who responded with a Stone Edge. The sets of rocks collided, resulting in another resounding crash.

Placido circled to one side, trying to catch a glimpse of Grannel through the crushed rocks. Movement caught his eye to the left. He jumped for the Rhyperior, only to find himself facing a second pokemon: his Scizor, Skiel.

Interesting, he thought, now how best to handle these two opponents?

Meanwhile, James Thalus was watching the battle on one end of the training room, while his Slowking, Bismuth, looked on.

He's been doing this for a while now, he thought as Placido tried to hit Skiel with Shadow Break, missing, and of course, I have to be the one wasting time watching his battles when I could be finding out new ways of perfecting Shadow Trainers. Sure, Placido's a prodigal fighter, but why is it that I'm always the one that has to watch him? Even if his fights are somewhat entertaining.

At this point, Placido had taken several steps back before he realized that he was right near Grannel. The Shadow Trainer barely had time to jump before the Rhyperior smashed his fist right where Placido was standing. He grinned as he hit the ground - only to note that he was now right next to Skiel.

"He doesn't miss a beat," James observed as Placido ducked under a Bullet Punch, and successfully hit the Scizor with Shadow Break, "but was it really wise for him to battle two of his best?"

The answer came when Placido ducked under a second Bullet Punch, and this time, the Punch struck the charging Grannel. Caught by surprise, the Rhyperior was thrown back, and hit the ground with a resounding thud.

"A stupid question, in hindsight," James noted.

Placido stopped after that last strike. "Splendid," he said, "It's simply splendid when the sounds of battle come together."

He walked over to Grannel, who was beginning to get up. "Not now, my friend," he said, recalling the Rhyperior, "you'll need to save your strength for some hopefully worthy opponents."

He turned to Skiel, "We should probably begin to search, then," he said. Without wasting another word, he strode to the exit.

James ran after him, "Mr. Wisel, if I might interrupt, where exactly do you plan to go?"

Placido looked at him with the interest one reserves for an insect. 'Wherever my assignments take me," he said, "and since I have no assignments, I figured I would seek out worthy enemies in Goldenrod. I hope the mighty scientist has no problem with that."

James opened his mouth to retort, thoguht better of it, and instead said: "Just keep your PokeGear at the ready; I don't want this to turn into a repeat of those refugees in Violet."

Placido sighed. "That was nearly a year ago," he said, "I think most of the Team has cut their losses."

Without waiting for a reply, he walked out of the training grounds, Skiel not far behind.
----
Ciel Alioth stood at the water's edge right outside of Ecruteak City, watching the sun slowly rise. Her Arcanine Ara sat vigilantly by her side, ready to react to a threat.

A year... it's been nearly a year since that night... she thought, nearly a year since that man... that monster ruined everything.

She turned away from the sunrise. There would be time to see sunrises and sunsets when this was all over.

After all, today's only just begun, she thought, perhaps today... I will see that monster again.

Shihab took another sip of coffee as he went over a few reports from the relative safety of his office. The boom did not shake him, the sounds of training were a normal thing here. He didn't even look outside, as the scenery was too unfamiliar still, seeming almost unwelcoming.

"Piii!", the boom did startle Sunyer, though.
"Worry not, this place is sturdier than that.", Shihab assured, stroking the Pichu.

"Now... what transpires today...", he mumbled.
So far, nothing, a Mike was supposed to go on a mission. Alright, Shihab didn't really have much to do with that. Sometimes, he wondered why he took this administrative position, as field banditry was far more exciting.

Susan tapped her fingers impatiently on her desk.

Nothing to do other than monitor the cameras.

"Come here, Ella." Susan called out.

The espeon strutted over to her, jumping down onto her lap. The Shadow Trainer absentmindedly petted her, muttering and ranting about her job.

"Just monitoring the camera's all day... Nothing to do... Waiting and waiting to sense danger... Working with imbeciles..."

Susan stopped her stroking and looked over at Xatu. He was staring out the window at the sun again. As always.

"Is there something wrong?"

The Xatu shook his head. He continued gazing. Never blinking.

"I'm going to go get some coffee."

She strode out of her office.

Jon blinked sleepily as he woke up. Stretching out his arms, he pulled himself into a sitting position and released his two Pokemon. "Come on out, Shelly, Slashem," he half-yawned as he released them from their Pokeballs. Glancing at his watch, he almost fell off the bed. "Kurt," he said to the man he was boarding with, "What happened? Didn't I ask you to wake me up at ten? It's 11:30!"

Getting up from the desk at which he made his PokeBalls, Kurt replied, "I let you sleep. You looked like you needed it after you didn't get back until midnight. You shouldn't train so hard, you know. You need a break once in a while."

"Fine," muttered Jon as he got up. Grabbing a brown T-shirt and a pair of jeans, he went into the bathroom and changed his clothes. Scrubbing his face with some acne medicine, he came back out. "But, I can't stop just yet. I'm going to go to Union Cave until Shelly evolves, OK? I should be back by eight."

"Why do the young have to rush so much? There's a lot more to do than just hardcore level grinding. Take some time and relax."

"I can't, Kurt. I have to be able to beat Nightmare. And the Pokemon League. Plus, my ultimate goal is to beat my sister."

"You said she was a coordinator."

"Point taken. I'll go wander around town."

Beckoning his Pokemon, he left Kurt's house and headed toward the PokeMart. Buying five Super Potions and a couple PokeBalls, he decided to check out Slowpoke Well.

((If I screwed up in taking the mantle of a minor third character, tell me. I just usually prefer it as dialogue is my strong point.))

Chuck finished his rather large breakfast and patted his stomach. "That was a good one," he said, his speech slurred by his fiendish muzzle. "Eggs. I love eggs." Heading over to where the training fields were, he talked to James Thalus. "Morning, boss." he said. "What do I have to do today?" Hearing the noise of Wisel's practice, he muttered to himself, "Placido. That jerk. Such an arrogant fool."

James turned to look at Chuck when the latter addressed him.

Oh yeah. Yesterday, I was told by Placido I was going to assign one of the members on a mission...

"Uh, just start looking for targets around Ecruteak. I've been getting reports that at least one member of the Resistance is causing trouble up there. If you find a rogue Shadow Trainer, alert us, and try to get it ready for incarceration by the time we arrive. That's... all, I guess."

Placido, meanwhile, was nearby the training grounds' entryway, and caught sight of Chuck speaking to James.

"When I told James he'd be assigning a member, I never realized that he was who that he was going to be," Placido said to Skiel, "I was hoping it would be a Shadow Trainer that wasn't infused with the DNA of a pokemon like a Snorlax."

Skiel looked at him without saying a word.

"I know, it wasn't my decision to whom he would assign, but you have to admit, Chuck is not the first person I would go to.

"Well, hopefully he won't assign that boy to Goldenrod. I don't need anyone interfering with my work."

With that, he ran outside of the base completely, until he was in an outside area. Here, he tossed a pokeball, deploying his Salamence, Taiyo.

"Now let's go."

((I'm writing this post based on how the Nightmare Base could be anywhere. How close would you say it is to Goldenrod?))
----
Ciel was walking through Ecruteak's streets, thinking on what little she'd learned since coming here.

Wisel himself has definitely not shown up here with the past few weeks, she thought, granted, if what that rumor I heard is true, and he is an admin, it would make sense that he would avoid a place like this. Despite being called a city, this place... looks a lot more out of the way than a city should be.

Perhaps, today, I'll be on the move. I need to think carefully, as his movements are too unpredictable to find a pattern out of.

Jordan receded back into the house and turned the radio down, before curling up on the couch again. She wasn't interested in that. She wanted to hear about the secret project. She had given Adella to her temporarily for that specific purpose anyway.

There, on the table across the room... there was a glass filled with water. Jordan extended her hand, and it started to glow blue as she tried to bring it over to herself.

"Come on... come on..."

...She succeeded in scooting it forward about three inches before it fell off the table and the water spilled into the carpet.

"...Oh..."

--------------

"So... what if they try to capture the Pokemon outright? Like during a battle or something?" Mia tilted her head.

"That's a much easier problem to fix. Adam?" once again, a device got placed in her hands. This one looked a bit like a collar. "This projects a force field around the Pokemon that only allows the ID of the Poke Ball the Pokemon was captured in to call it in. Even if they have snagging equipment, it won't let the Poke Ball capture it."

"Uh...huh. Does it work so far?"

"Pretty well, actually. All three of mine have got one."

Now outside of the base and in Goldenrod, Placido signaled Taiyo to fly upwards, scouting out any possible contenders for worthy opponents. He, meanwhile, would be calmly walking through the city with Skiel, giving the appearance of a simple Trainer, even if he was older than most of the simple trainers.

Just then, his PokeGear went off. Placido checked the caller ID and was displeased to see that it was James who was calling.

"If you're going to call me every five minutes, I'm not going to get much done, now am I?"

"Yes, but I haven't heard any rumors of enemy activity here," James replied, "I think that it would be a little more beneficial if you go to-"

"I'm sorry, did I say I was looking for the enemy? My exact words were, and I quote, 'I figured I would seek out worthy enemies in Goldenrod.' Worthy enemies doesn't necessary include your enemies."

There was a pause at the other end of the connection; eventually James said, in a resigned tone, "That's true, but it would be more productive if you went to-"

"James, why do you keep talking about productive? You're the one that wastes time observing my battles when you could be doing some of your much vaunted research."

On the other end of the line, James sighed. "Look, if you're going to change locations, just avoid Ecruteak and go to Azalea. I've already assigned someone else to the former city."

"Duly noted," Placido said dryly, and then cut off the connection. Turning to Skiel, he said, "I really didn't want to tell him that I had no intention of changing positions. It seemed like such a waste of both our times."

With that, he began to walk to the department store.

There was rush of air as the Pokemon Center's glass doors opened. Jessica, blinking, entered and gave her Pokemon to Nurse Joy. Might as well have them fully rested.

If there were resistance members here, they'd probably be staying at the Pokemon Center. Admittedly, being in Goldenrod, there was also a large chance that some lived here and would be in their own houses, but there had to be somebody. ...She hoped.

It would be easier to go somewhere else, somewhere smaller like Azalea, but she knew from experience that after resting for a week her muscles would have lost some of their endurance. She's rather not have to hurry somewhere if she didn't have to. In any case, if she left now she would miss the rush of trainers leaving the center, which was what she relied on. If nobody promising exited, then she'd leave, but for now Goldenrod was her safest bet.

Jessica took one of the couches in the lobby and picked up a magazine, pretending to read it as she watched the door to the overnight rooms. Any minute, now...

A low, purpley-blue orb hung in the sky, floating in the breeze and making good time. It was headed towards Goldenrod, and the sun was to the right of it, still slightly touching the horizon. The balloon made a low-pitched whooping sound, expanding and then recontracting. The creature had a basket attached at its bottom half, and its contents were as follows.

A stuffed black backpack lurched on its side. A particularly keen nose would smell berries and metal and lots of food, both human and pokémon. Speaking of which, four other people slept in the rather expansive basket. A red-green cricket chittered in his sleep, wings rustling against one another as he breathed. A small, blue dinosaur kicked in his sleep next to a small, round, light red kitten, who was tied by her tail to the basket so as not to float away in her sleep. A tall, thin teenager lay curled up in the fetal position in the middle of the group, his nose whistling slightly.

A cloud shifted, and a sunbeam shot into the basket and stopped on Graham Bepya's eyelid, which flicked open as the teenager sighed himself awake. With a heavy breath out of his nose, Graham carefully moved into a crouching position. The basket was stable enough, but Graham was careful still. He had only bough it a few towns ago, after Patches had evolved into a drifblim, and it was still being broken in. Graham placed a dark hand on Patches' belly, careful to brace himself on the basket.

"Hey, Patches," he muttered. A lowing, deep sound in return. "Yeah, I can see it on the horizon. Thanks, by the way."

Just past the biggest Daycare in the region (too big, in Graham's opinion) was a series of buildings, obviously Goldenrod. Skyscrapers and cheery, sunny colors painted the city in the distance.

"We can go down, now, Patches," he said, but it was unneeded; the drifblim had the same thought and had begun descending. While they slowly grew closer to the earth below, Graham steeped quietly around, tapping the hoppip on her head and shaking the cranidos slightly. Dom, the kricketune, was already standing up, trilling sleepily and twitching his mustache.

The basket bumped against the ground, and remained hovering a few inches. Graham helped Dox out of the basket, since his arms were too short to help him, and untied Ginny from her anchor. She yawned, felt the breeze for a moment, and bumped into her Friend Ball, obviously wanting to be alone for a while. Dom, after helping Graham to remove the basket, began to play a song with his arms as his trainer collapsed the basket. Patches scooped up Dox and, both of them giggling raspily, took off. Dom rolled his eyes and fell into step with Graham.

He saw a trainer or two on the path ahead. He hoped they didn't want to battle this early in the morning, because he didn't feel like it but would feel bad if he said no.

Deax looked around at where she had slept. She was just out of Ilex Forest, past the guardhouse where a woman and her Butterfree cheerfully greeted her as she made her way outside.

She could see a daycare close by and the tips of the skyscrapers of Goldenrod farther back.

"Please, have no trainers ask me for a battle." she sighed, "I'm too tired."

She let out a grunt as she made her way to the city. Nigel walked along beside her, baring his teeth at the Rattata running through the grass.

"Not now, Nigel." she groaned.

((Gonna be preocupied. My head hurts, schol, and everything, so it'll be awhile until I post. If you want to interact with my character, I'm around the outskirts of Goldenrod, and I'll try to post soon. So I guess this is a temporary dropout...))

A whoooing noise from above was, again, heard as Patches floated past with a delighted-looking cranidos in tow. This, for some strange reason, drew odd looks from passerby. Weird. Graham, in turning his head to follow their movements in the sky, caught sight of someone behind him. She was a bit scary-looking, all black hair and baggy pants, but she had a persian with her and Graham decided to say hello. With Dom still playing a quiet song, the group, two in the air and two on the ground, backtracked a bit until they were withing speaking distance of the group. Dox and Patches flew over their heads.

"Oh, hello. That's a nice persian you have there." She had red eyes. "What's..." Here Graham examined the Persian for a moment. "... his name? I would ask you," hesaid seriously, looking at the persian, "but I think then I would just end up calling you 'Persian'."

Dom stopped his song and looked curiously at the big cat pokémon, and then said something too quick for a human to catch to him.

(I think you mean "Dom" when you said "Dox"....Flying Cranidos xDDDD)

"His name is Nigel." Deax yawned, "Those are some nice looking Pokemon too. What are they? I've never seen them before..."

He's looking at me oddly. Does he think I'm a Nightmare member? she thought, He better not...to be compared those fools.

"So, why are you going to Goldenrod?" Deax asked, "I mean...I did see you guys heading that way."

(Nope. Dox ze cranidos is in Patches' 'arms'. He's loving it.)

"Oh," said Graham, suddenly a bit more excited. "This little guy down here is Dom. He's a kricketune; those guys up there are Patches and Dox." He then realized what little that told her. "I'm from Sinnoh," he added to clarify things.

"I'm heading to the Department Store, since I want my hoppip to learn Flash and I saw a commercial for it back in Violet." He didn't mention anything about la Resistance. Red eyes take warning, as they say. He had heard hearsay about reformed Shadows, but taking chances with people wasn't Graham's style.

"Well... is that all?" Mia asked, tilting her head.

"Yeah, that's it for today. I'll do the you know what later on." Cherry winked at her. "...hey, where'd Jordan go?"

Mia turned around about then to see her sitting on the couch like before, now with a chocolate bar in her hand, staring sadly at what seemed to be the wall opposite her. "Jordan, are you OK?"

"I'm fine..."

"...Alright." Mia walked up and sat next to her. "Because you don't look OK. You look sad."

"Maybe a little..."

Placido calmly strolled into the Department Store, Skiel at his heels. Unseen by either of them, Taiyo flew to the building's rooftop and perched himself there. The Salamence's gaze panned over the city, and didn't see anything out of the ordinary; people were walking, someone with a Persian was talking to someone else further off; it looked like a normal day in the city.

In the store itself, Placido walked over to one of the desks. Leaning towards the clerk, he said: "I would like to know if you've received any new shipments in the recent days."

The clerk looked up at him. "I'm sorry, sir, but there's been no new arrivals in the past few weeks; Team Nightmare's been continuing to intercept many of the shipments here. I had thought this was common-"

"Not as common as you might think," Placido said, voice dry yet again, "not all of us have grand knowledge of this little Nightmare crisis that you seem to be giving oh so much attention to."

Neither his voice nor face showed signs of annoyance; they instead carried the same calm, almost bored tone that he'd had when speaking to James earlier in the day. The clerk didn't react to this that much, instead saying, "I didn't mean to offend you, sir. I thought-"

"It doesn't matter what you did or didn't think," Placido said, "it's been made clear that you don't have anything recent, so I will waste neither of our times and leave you be."

With that, he walked over to a nearby seat. Skiel followed him, and when he reached the seat, the Scizor gave him a skeptical look.

"You don't think that was necessary, do you," Placido said, unfazed by the bug and steel type, "it might not have been, but I do occasionally wonder if this place ever packs anything interesting sans an occasional worthy opponent. That it why I'm going to wait here and observe for anyone that looks like a decent challenge. And who knows? I might find myself an enemy of Nightmare in the process."

With that, he picked up a nearby newspaper and began to read.