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Open Rise of Team Galactic

Devack could have retorted that he had faced horrific criminals during the past ten years of his life, ones whose intentions sickened the mad. He could have retorted that after facing all of this, one more criminal leader would be next to nothing. But he didn't. Common sense told him to hold those little secrets back until the time was right.

Instead, he said: "I myself never said anything about going after them, I merely asked you if you thought it was just. If angering their leader is your version of just, then so be it."

With that, Devack turned around, and started to walk away. As he did so, he caught sight of Scar, who was prowling through the further streets of the city.

And if angering the leader will draw her out, then all the more reason to attack her subordinates. And that is why, even now, Tremaine should be on the way to complete her mission...
----
While this was happening, the Skarmory known as Tremaine was flying high above Hearthome, and was now above Amity Square. It was here that she caught sight of the grunt walking into the gate to the Square.

Knowing that she couldn't reach him in time, the Skarmory contented herself by landing on top of the building gate, making a soft thump as she did so.

Sooner or later, the grunt would have to leave the gate. That would be when Tremain would attack.

((That post underwent so many revisions that it wasn't funny))
 
Huygens looked at the door when he heard it open, half-concerned that someone might have come after him even though it was coming from the opposite door.

"--gonna cave if I pressed a bit harder, but if they don't let you in, they've got problems that logic isn't going to help. Am I right?" Sterling smiled down at Rigel, who looked up at her with a blank expression. He had been trying to pay attention, really, but Sterling had been talking for several minutes straight, too quickly for him to translate the words in his head.

"You--" Huygens started, but he cut himself off and cradled his broken arm. He glared like a child who hadn't gotten his way.

"Oh... you're hurt," Sterling said, walking forward. Rigel peered around her legs at the grunt, ear twitching. "What happened?"

Huygens scowled. "Why do you want to know?"

Movement and a flash of yellow. Huygens glanced down at Rigel. Rigel leered back and showed his teeth.

His scowl deepened. "I lost a battle," he said. "My arm was broken by an empoleon named Empress."

"And why did you get into a battle?"

"I was guarding the church."

Sterling was silent for a moment, digesting this information. Then she stepped closer and held out a hand.

"Give me your arm." Huygens visibly hesitated, but her unrelenting stare (and a low rumbling in Rigel's throat) forced him into obeying her. Sterling gripped both sides of the break. "This will hurt," she said, voice cheery. She forcibly straightened the bone. He howled in pain.

Unnoticed, Rigel glittered silver.

"You're a Team Galactic grunt," she hissed in his ear. "There are people stronger than you who are doing more important things. Do you know who they are?"

She pulled back and dug her fingers into the bruised area on his arm.

"Ow! No, I... ow, ow!" He tried to pull away - a foolish mistake. He yelped when it caused pain worse than Sterling's attempts at feeling for any other injuries.

"No names? No missions?"

"I don't know anything - ow!"

Sterling made a disappointed sound and let go of the arm, just in time for it to glitter silver. The bruises remained, but the pain disappeared. She petted Rigel's head. "Can you move your fingers?"

Huygens curled his fingers into a fist and opened his hand.

Sterling smiled. "Good. That will make it easier." She reached out - he flinched, thinking she was going to touch his face like a creep - and tugged at his hair.

"Ow - what the hell?"

"Dye, is it? The last grunt I talked to had a wig. But those will be contacts." She pointed at his eye, close enough to feel his eyelashes. "You all work so hard to look the same... you're the face of Team Galactic, but you always lose. But your leader knows which of you are stronger and which of you only have a few insects from when you called yourself bug catchers." She watched his face as she said this, and was satisfied with the tightening around his mouth. "You're one of them, then? You wouldn't have failed if that wasn't the intent ... I wonder why you were really there."

"I was there to guard the church," Huygens said.

"Were you," Sterling said. It was not a question. "Let's go back there and see, shall we? I'll escort you and you can lead me there."

"I've got someone waiting for me," he said.

Crack. Pop. A bit of electricity discharged from Rigel's fur.

"...but flying takes a long time. Right. Okay."

He rubbed his arm and stepped out the door. Sterling caught it before it closed, but she waited a few moments before stepping out to follow.
 
Tremaine was considering drilling through the ceiling of the gate with drill peck when a human stepped out... followed by another human.

The second also slightly resembled a human that her master hated so much, but Devack's orders were to kill only the human with the injured arm.

The Skarmory would simply have to go with her orders and see how things played themselves out; hopefully for the best.

With that in mind, she flew up, circled thrice, and screeched once, before going into a screaming dive-bomb at the human with the injured arm.
----
Back nearby the church, Devack saw his Skarmory circling three times, and then heard the screech of the bird. Granted, most people across the city could hear it; it stood out pretty well.

Tremaine's found something, or rather, someone... I must hurry to assist her, as will Scar.

With that in mind, he began to run to where he saw Tremaine circling.

It was time for his first victim.
 
"Fire Blast!"

Eagun's Salamence took a deep breath and breathed out a huge ring of fire, which began resembling the Kanji for 'fire' as it travelled through the air. The large letter-shaped fireball hit the Skarmory directly, just as it began its deadly dive.

"Sorry to that Skarmory and whoever owns it, but I need that grunt alive. Only problem now? They know I'm here. Gah."

As the Grunt and his companion began to flee, Eagun called out Rotom and commanded a Thunder Wave on them, to keep them locked down while he thought of what to do. However, there was something else bugging him. Why did that companion look so dang familiar?
 
(Uggh, failpost)

The green dragon Pokemon groaned as she watched Marcus walk ahead. So much for his enthusiasm for this 'asking for directions' plan. Obviously, it was up to her then to make sure it worked out... or not. She walked ahead, toward the church woman and her honchkrow, standing before them. Kali then gave a chirp, trying to get their attention, then pointed toward the approaching, distracted Marcus. As her trainer finally caught up, she nonchalantly slid her tail in front of his legs, giving him something to trip over, especially if he wasn't paying attention. Kali just chuckled quietly to herself... at least now hopefully Marcus would be forced to talk to the lady.
 
((Previous post deleted due to my shortsightedness. Let me try this again...))

Scar, hiding closer to the Amity Gate (which he had gone to after he had seen Tremaine fly over to there, briefly catching sight of his master along the way), had had also seen Tremaine's soon-to-be attack, and also saw the Skarmory get blasted down by a fire blast.

He looked around for Devack, and saw, much to his horror, that his master had only just left the church. The Luxray estimated that Devack wouldn't be able to go after the humans that he despised, and the Luxray saw that he had Kaa, Facilier, and Frollo with him. Scar was on his own.

Thinking quickly, and deciding that he couldn't wait for his master to make his move, the Luxray gathered electric energy, and fired it at the human male.

((Remember folks, Luxray have x-ray vision... hopefully this post isn't made of fail))
 
((I didn't think I needed a real history and I filled out personality. I hate 500 Errors! I filled it out, but I got a 500 when I tried to submit and could see if it went through. I'll fill it out. Again. And hope it works. This time.))
 
Still free falling, Arnold was having quite a time. "I'M SO STUPIDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!" It was a rush though. He spotted a Skarmory in the air, not too far away from him. But suddenly, it was shot down by a Fire Blast. What the hell? Sick and tired of falling and curious, Arnold fumbled with the Fluffy's Pokeball. Finally getting it, he clicked it and Fluffy appeared in a red light. The Altaria swooped underneath him and he fell on his stomach. Sighing, Arnold sat up and Fluffy grunted. Locating where the Skarmory fell, he saw a Luxray kneeling beside and it began to charge some electricity. Where was it aimed to? He turned to follow the path. It was aimed at a human! With some funky hair. Arnold was too high to scream at the male. Acting fast, he unclipped Belly's ball and chucked it, releasing the Metagross. "Belly! Use Protect when you get on the ground!" Arnold screamed. The Metagross was confused about being up so high but waited for gravity to bring it down so it could obey its Trainer's commands. Arnold prayed that gravity would work and Belly could save a life.
 
Circling was not exactly inconspicuous, but it was the screech that caught Huygens's attention. He looked up, screamed, and dove out of the way - just in time for a blast of flame to strike the skarmory. The skarmory plummeted to the ground. Sterling looked around and darted for the trees, followed by Rigel.

She looked back around, reaching for a pokeball, and saw that Huygens was still scrambling to get up. His expression was one of panic. The skarmory was crashed on the ground not far from him, which attracted all of his attention, but Sterling was more focused on the source of the flame - there.

A flash of white light, of a pokemon being sent out, and a thin stream of electricity struck Huygens's arm. His arm twitched and he fell again, having been unable to get up fast enough. Sterling jerked her head and Rigel darted out, but there was another flash - an electric bolt that struck Huygens again, from a different source, and accompanied by a loud CRACK. Huygens screamed. The thunderbolt left him shivering and whimpering. Rigel reached him a moment later, and he glared at the luxray.

"Right," Sterling said. "Now I'm mad."

A thunder wave struck the tree Sterling was hiding behind, and steam rose from the trunk. Sterling glanced at it and moved to another tree. She tossed two pokeballs.

A bronzong, and ditto materialised, filling the world with that much more pink and blue.

(It was around this point that another metal pokemon near-crashed, gravity being unable to accelerate the metagross enough for its speed to exceed that of lightning, and the metagross was met with Rigel's baleful stare. Sterling barely paid attention to it.)

"Make this 2D first," she said. "Gravity. Spread it out."

She stood up quickly, knowing it'd be harder to do in a few moments. Saiph lowered itself to the ground and glowed a faint pink.

Immediately she felt a strong pull downward, and the ground pushed hard against her feet. Huygens, even though his muscles had stopped twitching for a moment, found himself unable to move. Rigel bristled; he found it harder to raise his legs to move, though everyone else would be slowed down similarly and he'd still be one of the fastest.

"Psychic," Sterling said. "Bring the grunt here. Don't bother saving him from friction - the suit'll survive. Mintaka, transform into Rigel and get out there with him."

Rigel didn't need orders. Thunder waves leapt from him to everyone close by he thought might be an enemy, without regard for whomever they were allying with. The luxray first, without any warning, followed by the skarmory, metagross, salamence... he didn't wait to see if the thunder waves hit, since he was trying to get as many down as possible, and Huygens was only slowly being pulled away. Except the luxray, which he'd target multiple times if the previous attacks failed.

(( @Exo-Raikou: It's also unclear whether you meant thunder wave or thunderbolt, so I assumed the latter for reasons of amusement. Also thunder wave is probably weak enough that no electricity-gathering is necessary while thunderbolt would use a moment to charge.

Gravity would affect a large area - if a flamethrower could reach skarmory then gravity can probably reach the attacker, for example. Probably not particularly strong around the edges of town, though. ))
 
((It was indeed thunderbolt. I really need to get more specific, huh?))

Scar had no chance to react to what had happened after launching the thunderbolt.

His original plan was to find some way to get Tremaine out of the line of fire - Master Devack relied on the Skarmory too much for her to be brought down.

Now, however, it seemed that this wasn't the case. The Luxray could feel himself becoming heavier and heavier with every second, and just as began to crawl - yes, crawl - to Tremaine, a wave of electricity struck the Luxray, and then another one struck Tremaine.

Scar suddenly found himself robbed of any movement at all. Try as he might, the Luxray could not reach - and subsequently shield - any part of Tremaine.

And she was terribly injured by both the fire and the fall. At this point, Scar could only hope that Master Devack would arrive soon.
----
Devack had been running to where he had seen Tremaine's signal. He had ran even faster when he saw Tremaine shot down by a fire blast. As it stood, he wasn't even close to the church. It didn't help that every step took even more and more effort.

I should have known that the Galactic would have backup... no doubt that there backup was what hit Tremaine... I can't send Kaa, Facilier or Frollo ahead, given the sudden gravity increase, and I have no idea where Scar is...

Devack decided that his best option was to move on forward until he had reached where Tremaine had signaled him. From there, he would plan out his battle.

((It occurs to me how long a good post must take when I'm trying to cover my tracks and not make an idiot out of myself. As it stands, I probably missed another detail in this post.))
 
Before she could get on her Honchkrow's back, the loud sound of attacks being thrown and orders being yelled a bit off caught the girl's attention. She recalled the bird Pokemon and ran in the direction of the noise, her boot clacking loudly on the cobblestones with the effort of running under the Gravity effect. The sounds had also attracted a few civilians, who peeks warily out of houses and businesses, whispering to each other in a worried tone. There was no doubt to them that Team Galactic was involved.

The girl plucked a ball from her belt and threw it with some effort; it didn't go far, but it released a small pale blue foxlike Pokemon; a Glaceon. The Glaceon glanced back at his owner and then took off towards the source of the disruption, growling under his breath at the effort involved.

"Jack, Ice Beam the Luxray stat! Violent actions will not be tolerated, no matter the side they're on! Aim for the muzzle!" She called, lagging behind her faster Pokemon.

The Ice type took less than a second to process his orders and sucked in a quick breath of air before launching a blindingly white beam of cold at the Luxray's face. He continued his laboured running towards Huygens and the others.


---

Inside the church, which was now empty except for Tsuki, a soft sound much like talking so faint that exact words could not be picked out was filling the air. Everything was still otherwise; the pews and altar sat as silent as the grave, and the brightly-coloured murals didn't move despite the illusion of life they portrayed. Strangely, the building seemed to be immune to the effects of the Gravity...
 
"Darn. It left." Simon mumured to himself. He'd gotten distracted again. Really needed to work on that. He was just about to return to Hearthome, but jumped as he heard attacks being shouted and the sounds of thunder and fire crackling. Sliding his glasses away from his face ans swallowing hard, he pulled out an Ultra Ball and released Frias, who chittered eagerly.

"Take us undergrond."
 
While running to the battle - for Devack could hear that it was just that - Devack found that the closer he got, the more effort it took to move, though Devack wasn't quite sure if that mean gravity was intensifying the closer he came to the battle, or that he was just running out of energy.

Tremaine hasn't flown back up, though, Devack thought, if something has happened to her...

If she was hurt, he knew what would happen to whoever had wounded her to the point where she couldn't fly. And he would enjoy every minute of it.
----
Scar did nothing to try and avoid the blast of cold energy headed straight for him. He took the hit on his face, and the subsequent freezing of his mouth, without as much as a wince.

Nothing mattered except protecting Tremaine. She was one of Master Devack's most useful pokemon, and Scar knew that without her, Master Devack's mission would be heavily impeded.

And the Luxray couldn't have that. Master Devack's success meant everything.

((Now I wish I had written personalities for Devack's pokemon, even though only Scar's has been firmly established.))
 
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Arnold watched as the guy took the Thunderbolt attack. Dammit, I was too late. He suddenly felt a push, down on him. Gravity? He didn't want to take a chance of killing Fluffy so he quickly returned her before they crash-landed. Seeing a girl running, he decided to follow her since she was running towards his Metagross. Belly seemed to be staring the group of people near the funky hair dude. Why is it so hard to move? He let out Teddy, just in case for backup. Teddy let out a little growl but felt the change in gravity. He looked at Arnold, puzzled. He just shrugged. Together, they attempted to run towards Belly.
 
Unsurprisingly, by the time Mina had entered the city within visual of the church, the battle had broken up by way of underwhelming walloping. The poor kid seemed rather flustered, seeing how he ran off screaming - but it wasn't a big surprise. Most of these kids were plucked straight off the starting line; bug catchers away from home and obsessive about finding bigger and bigger crawlies - or youngsters who thought they were hot shit for catching a 'top-percentage' Ratatta. Ages of ignorance drawn in by delusions of grandeur. Still, for what little concern they were, they always seemed to draw quite a crowd - maybe that neon green hair was like a berserk button to people.

But it wasn't Mina's concern - all they did was waste time while the higher-ups laid down their.. 'important' plans; they would show up soon enough. For the time being, she weaved her way through the crowded streets of Hearthome - drawing more than a few nervous glares; what passed for inconspicuous elsewhere barely applied around here. Brightly coloured frilly dressed hippies, stoners, and of course the eccentric trainers littering the place - it was like something out of that old 'Distortion Zone' TV program from way back when.
The Poffin shop was a corner store across from the church and in front of the bus stop - a rather smart business move really, selling caffeine and cheap snacks to people who were actually up that bloody early. Of course, one had to wonder if that was actually in the owner's presence of mind - the door opening with a jingle of a hanging chime, noone inside even seemed to notice as Mina slid inside. As usual, it smelled strongly of coffee mixed with smoky Rindo berries in here, half the occupants staring into space and with bags under their eyes that made Mina look well-rested.

"Uhm.. a.. large, strong espresso and small mocha... please." Mina spoke, pulling her hood off and trying to jostle the shopkeep's attention with a hand wave. As usual, the dude behind the counter was a shaggy-haired mess, slightly glazed over eyes shadowed by a company front-rim cap, shirt buttons done unevenly and a blank grin on his face. It took him a second or two to respond at all - in a rather thick surfer-esque accent - 'Sure thing dudette!'
He hopped off immediately between the coffee machine and shelves of flavourings with a finesse one simply wouldn't expect out of him, machines whirring to life and filling the air with a fresh, steamy coffee scent.

Mina just sighed, stepping off to the side as coffee dude worked, and reaching into one of her many pockets pulled out what looked like a regular Pokéball, painted over with a metallic purple, which sparkled gently under the café lights. Predictably still no concern to the Café-goers, she released what was a slightly dishevelled looking Lucario - whom looked absolutely euphoric right off the bat, snout in the air deeply taking in the coffee aroma.
Both scooted back up to the counter as coffee-dude was just finishing, sliding the two cups forward and ringing the register. The Lucario quickly grabbed the smaller cup in both paws and started into her mocha with a contented sigh.
'Whooa, dudette, that dudette-mon just like, horked your coffee'
"Yeah.. yeah that's fine. Keep the change." Mina spoke, sliding some money onto the counter
'Kay. Laters!'

With a snork, the two exited onto the street, a slight breeze brushing past. The people seemed a bit.. frantic, currently. Probably another Galactic gimmick. Ruffling her Lucario's hair a bit, Mina sips at her still-molten coffee, traipsing down the street slowly. She seemed to be going against traffic though, it was somewhat odd...
As if there was ever a dull moment around here, though, Mina got the answer to her un-asked question, as a fireball shot into the air and, upon exploding rather violently, sent some flier down with a trail of smoke for a rather unfortunate crash landing. Quite a few screams could be heard from the crowd, as they were most certainly in a hurry to leave now save a few trainers. There was another loud crash as another Pokémon seemed to violently hit the ground, ground rumbling underneath from the shock. Both Mina and the Lucario growled under their breath. Always during coffee time.

"Ammy.. we should check this out. Bloody idiots already managing to blow things up."
Ammy looked rather disinterested, sipping at her mocha with closed eyes - but had started shifting uncomfortably, gripping the cup tightly as it threatened to slide out of her paws, suddenly feeling twice as heavy.
"...Gravity. Come on." Mina grumbled, taking a slightly struggled gulp of her coffee and heading down the street, trying to keep a brisk enough stride against her added weight - it was a bigger problem than she thought, the area littered with collateral damage and Pokémon, it looked like little more than a free for all in the church backyard, attacks flying in every direction, and it was getting terribly difficult to move.
"On the other hand.." She mused to herself.
 
Eagun, now land-bound by the effects of gravity, hopped off Salamence and went over to check on the Skarmory, whist calling out Infernape to deal with the Bronzong. He couldn't do anything about the escaping Grunt anymore, and instead pulled out a Burn Heal and Hyper Potion to tend to the Skarmory, muttering an apology in the process.

When suddenly, he turned around to see a Luxray with a frozen mouth and a Glaceon, both charging towards him.

"Brilliant. More complications."
 
Tremaine, fully healed, managed to use her wings as leverage to get back onto her feet. The amount of effort it took for such a deed also doubled as a signal for "you're not flying any time soon."

Which made transporting the weakened Scar that much more difficult. The combination of the high gravity and whatever attacks had been used on him clearly indicated that he could barely move; getting up and walking was out of the question entirely. She glanced first at the Glaceon that had attacked Scar (and was running at them under the strain of the high gravity) and then at the human that had healed her, and was surprised to see that it wasn't Devack.

For the briefest of moments, the problem with Scar was put out of her head. There was a stranger issue at hand: why was a random trainer that she had never met before helping her? Devack had never helped the pokemon he'd attacked, and would often attack them further once their trainer had been dealt with. To see someone doing what was essentially the exact opposite of Devack's actions was...

Interesting.

She pushed the thoughts out of her head and looked straight at the human, and jerked her head towards Scar, as an indication of his condition.

Hopefully, he would be healed before Devack showed up. If her master knew that Scar had followed Tremaine - and thus losing valuable scouting time - she doubted that the would be pleased.

Of course, the aforementioned Glaceon was going to complicate things.

((I'm well aware that I have an insanely high amount of pokemon viewpoint posts. I intend to cut down on them once Devack shows up))
 
(( Falling used to hurt. Or at least, the sudden stop at the end. ))

Rigel should have stopped the trainer from healing the skarmory, but he was distracted now, staring down the glaceon with his spikes sticking out and teeth showing. Sparks flew from his fur.

Sterling watched the successful healing of the skarmory with slight surprise, and then at Rigel to see what was going on. He was distracted. Her view was blocked so she couldn't see why, but whatever it was, it shouldn't have happened.

"Magnet rise," Sterling said. She nodded at the fully-transformed Mintaka to show the orders affected it as well, and both jolteon focused the flow of electric energy within them. They felt themselves get lighter - not enough to actually levitate, but enough to cancel the slowing effects of heightened gravity - and Mintaka darted out to Rigel's side.

Now successfully pulled out of his reverie, Rigel threw a quick thunder wave at the trainer who healed the skarmory, and a second one at the skarmory in case one of the potions helped with paralysis. Following Rigel's lead, Mintaka targeted the salamence and infernape with more thunder waves.

It took that long to get the Galactic grunt to Sterling's side. She looked down at him; normally she'd crouch to get closer, but then she'd probably need help to get up. "You're causing a lot of trouble, aren't you? Maybe I should leave you to them."

A look of terror crossed his face.

"I won't. You're under my protection for now, but only because you can't protect yourself." She peeked around the tree again, then backpedaled as quickly as she could without falling. "Discharge!"

There was something to be said about recklessly targeting everyone in the vicinity: skarmory, luxray, salamence, infernape, metagross, teddiursa, the glaceon, the human, each other, the innocent bystanders who had yet to run ... as sparks flew from the bodies of both jolteon and electricity collected in their fur, Sterling gave in to gravity for a moment and crouched behind Saiph. She pulled Huygens by his arm to give him a bit of protection too - too many blasts of electricity put him at risk of a heart attack.

Twin discharges were released in a brilliant flash. Sterling didn't manage to close her eyes in time and found them seared by pure white, but even if her eyes had been closed she would have felt the loud CRACK in her ears and the wave of heat released by the explosion of energy.
 
Eagun felt his paralysed self get hit by the blinding charge of eletrical energy, but he couldn't worry about that yet. Glancing around, he saw Infernape still standing, but moving painfully slowly, and Salamence had apparently be hurt badly by the electric type attack. Recalling Salamence, Eagun saw a red flash in the corner of his eye. It was Infernape.

"Sweet, Blaze. Lets hope this new energy can help him get through that paralysis."

"Alrighty Infernape, its our turn. Fire Blast. The Gravity should make your aim perfect."

However, he called out his own Jolteon for good measure. Now there were three Jolteons and a weakened Infernape on the battlefield. This would get very interesting.
 
Pounding into the ground, Frias found it much easier than normal. Must have been the weight; everything felt twice as heavy. Simon leaped down the hole, following a perplexed Frias.

As soon as they were underground, they tried to make their way back to town. Land above shook and crumbled, spattering the two with dirt and pebbles. Simon ordered Frias to put up a protect and they dashed back out, popping out from their original hole with difficultly.

"Going any farther was probably a bad idea, huh? Sorry." the boy sheepishly grinned, and recalled the Gliscor.

Moments later, a loud crackle and rumble was heard.

"T-t-town? Did I s-say town? Nononono, I meant stay in the routes with the nice bug types."
 
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