RPG Pok

[Imp]

[color=navy][size=1]Like a large metallic bird glistening in the pink glow of the sunrise, the Sky Pirate soared through the sky over Johto, headed in the direction of Mahogany Town. It really was a gorgeous airship, Halberd's most prized creation. It looked mildly like a Ho-oh that had been turned to silver and bronze, except with gleaming rose-coloured "eyes" that provided light if needed to the path of this airship. The "feet" and "tail" of the Sky Pirate were glowing with either blue flames (in the feet's case) or with little ripples of bright green energy waves (in the tail's case). Some lights on the tail occasionally flashed in a little rainbow of colours. The lights were actually the signs of a sort of radar system working, so as to detect anything sneaking up on this newly crafted airship from behind.

Four people were inside this spacious aircraft, four people who looked to be quite happy. After all, they had just been reunited after spending such a long time away from each other, and were about to reunite with one or possibly two other friends once they got to Mahogany Town. But who were these people exactly? Piloting the Sky Pirate was its creator, Halberd. Halberd really didn't need to do much to steer the airship at this point--he just kept occasionally glancing at the radar screen to see if anything was coming. Part of his time was spent looking out the wide window in front of him, which showed the sky in a beautiful shade of deep blue. Fortunately, he was facing west, away from the rising sun. Also occasionally, he turned around to talk to the other three people in there, or to the pink Butterfree flying around near him. "Pinky" wasn't the only Pokemon in the aircraft though--there were four, one per trainer. A Bellossom--"Bella"--was talking to Pinky as well.

Warren, the blonde boy with the racoon hat, was sitting on a little sofa in the main room of the Sky Pirate (that's where everyone was at this point) with Mimi the Buneary in his lap. He was combing Mimi's little fluffy ears--Mimi always enjoyed a nice ear-brushing in the morning. It felt good, just like any morning should. After all, Mimi was one of the few Pokemon out of all of the ones these four people kept who was mostly out in the daytime--this was a mostly nocturnal group.

Yamiko and Lupin were sitting next to each other not too far from Warren, and a little Umbreon named Alice lay curled up near them. Yamiko was trembling with excitement, for out of the window she could see the Dragon's Den in the distance, meaning Mahogany Town was close by. And this meant that she would be introduced to Merlin--the fourth Black Cat Bandit and the supposed leader of the Coalition. She kept glancing out the window, then at Lupin, then at Bella, then back at Lupin again.
"Well, we're almost here," she said in a mildly excited tone.
"Oh yes, of course," Lupin replied, while both looking out the window and petting Alice.
Okay, so this was a mostly happy or excited group, but Lupin was quite possibly the exception to that. He certainly seemed to be the most calm out of the group, but at least he wasn't worried or upset about the present situation. Maybe it was because the sun had just started to rise, meaning that daytime was approaching. Naturally, anyone who loved the night would not be too pleased about the sunrise. Lupin mildly wished that they had headed to Mahogany Town a bit earlier, but apparently Warren had a bit of trouble waking up earlier, so accomodations had to be made.

Just then, a mail icon appeared on a screen one one of the side walls of the Sky Pirate. This screen was actually a built-in computer, and the icon indicated a new email, one from Merlin judging by the crystal ball icon on the envelope.
"Oh! I'll get it!" Warren jumped up, momentarily forgetting about Mimi. The startled little rabbit jumped off Warren's lap and ran over to where Bella was.
Once Warren clicked on the envelope icon on the screen, what came up was indeed an email from Merlin:

"There's a change of plans. There are no troops here, but there is something similar to a police system that kicks out anyone involved with either army in this war. I know we're not technically aligned with either of them, but I fear that they might kick us out for discussing anything relating to war-related plans. Even something as benign as meeting up with Morty. That is our plan, right? (Hopefully)

*~AbraKadabra Alakazam~*

P.S. We're meeting on top of the Ice Path instead. Make sure Alice is roaming, and Coil once you land."

At that point, the Sky Pirate was soaring right above Blackthorn City, in which various dragon Pokemon and Coalition troops patrolled about. Mahogany town was close, and the Ice Path was even closer... all that was left was to look for Merlin. But how? It would have been unusual for Merlin to have his Dusknoir or Honchkrow or Lunatone fly around and be visible, as the usual tendency of the Black Cat Bandits was to avoid detection by anyone other than themselves. Fortunately, Merlin mentioned Alice "roaming", which meant "being outside her Pokeball".
"It's Merlin," Warren announced to the group. "Apparently we're meeting atop the Ice Path instead."
"Oh! We're close!" Halberd realised, and began to steer the Sky Pirate west of Blackthorn City.
"...And apparently we're using the telepathy method to find him," Warren continued. "Alice is out, right?"
"She's right here," Lupin answered. Alice's ears perked up at the sound of her name and the word "telepathy"--ears that soon after picked up what Lupin said to her next. "It appears as if Oracle is trying to talk to you."
Oracle was Merlin's Espeon, one whose goal was to establish a telepathic connection with as many of the Black Cat Bandits' Pokemon as possible. So far, the connection worked only with Pluto, Imperio, Alice, and all psychic-type Pokemon except Loony, and worked best with Alice. (Maybe it had to do with both of them evolving from the same Pokemon?) So Alice closed her eyes, and thought about that admittedly dreamy Espeon...

[i]"Ah, Alice,"[/i] Oracle said telepathically.
[i]"Whee...! Where are you anyways?"[/i] Alice answered.
[i]As Halberd probably sees now, the Ice Path is surrounded by a thick layer of fog... as it usually is."[/i]
[i]"I can see that..."[/i]
Alice looked out the window to see a cloud-topped mountain just west of Blackthorn City. Apparently Halberd had noticed this, as he had the Sky Pirate decelerate and activate its radar. At the same time, Alice leapt off Lupin's lap and instead went to sit atop Halberd's.
[i]"I think you'll have to go a bit north..."[/i] Oracle thought to Alice after a while.
"Umbreon." Alice momentarily opened her eyes and pointed her paw at the top of the radar screen.
"Oh, heading north, are we?" Halberd mentioned, understanding this gesture.
[i]"Wait, now you're too far east..."[/i]
"Breon." This time, Alice pointed to the left of the radar screen.
"Hold on, hold on, I'm looking..." Halberd muttered. [i]If only I knew what I was looking for.[/i]
"If I remember correctly," Lupin commented, "didn't Merlin use to use one of his Pokemon as a landmark?"
"Oh, of course, that's right... so that means I'm looking for a... Mismagius, Dusknoir, Honchkrow, or Lunatone... I don't think he'd send Oracle or Loony..."

Halberd lost his train of thought when he finally spotted something witch-shaped on the radar screen.
"Ah, he's using Imperio this time," Halberd realised. Then he said to Warren, "Do we need to do anything else?"
"Erm... we need Coil. AFTER landing, of course," Warren replied as he returned to his seat. [i]Sending out Coil before landing might damage the Sky Pirate's operating system, causing us to crash, yadda yadda yadda...[/i]
"Sorry, Mimi-chan," Warren whispered to his little Buneary as he picked her up.
[i]"All right, Halberd spotted Imperio,"[/i] Alice said telepathically to Oracle.

Meanwhile, a smile sneaked its way onto Yamiko's face as the Sky Pirate descended into the fog.
"I always liked the fog..."
"Best alternative to darkness, if you ask me," Lupin commented. "Good--this means we don't have to be standing in sunlight for three hours."

It wasn't too long before the Sky Pirate landed, and the five Black Cat Bandits exited the large bird-shaped aircraft. As Lupin walked out, he briefly glanced to his left at a smaller aircraft shaped like Darkrai, the "Nightcraft" that he owned yet Halberd built.
[i]I suppose we won't be needing this for just a meeting.[/i]
As promised, Halberd let his Magnezone out of its Pokeball upon exiting (and getting a good distance away from) the Sky Pirate. A series of beeps issued from Coil's mody and its magnets spun around, then it pointed those magnets in one direction.
"MAGGG-nezone," it declared in a robotic voice.
"Well, there's no need to ask which way to go [i]now[/i], huh?" Warren commented, resulting in a little but of snickering from the group. He was always the one to say the funniest things...
Halberd led the group, following closely behind his Magnezone. Imperio, Merlin's Mismagius, was floating down to the group from her lookout spot, looking almost invisible against the dark purple fog (the sun had not yet fully risen). Soon enough he followed Yamiko and Lupin, who brought up the rear of the group. Alice walked along in front of the two, hoping to catch sight of Oracle. Yamiko was holding Bella in both hands--the fog creeped out the Bellossom a bit, as things like this usually did. She wanted to use Sunny Day to get rid of this fog, but doing something like that was selfish--selfish actions were usually not accepted in a large group. There were already so many Pokemon (and one person) who preferred it to be dark like this... Lupin had one arm around Yamiko so as to not lose track of her, but otherwise kept looking around for Merlin or... anything else that looked suspicious or interesting. There appeared to be no wild Pokemon around--maybe most of them were sleeping in the cave part of the Ice Path. And finally, Warren was jogging along behind Halberd, eager to avoid losing sight of him, holding Mimi close in his arms.

The magnetic signal Coil picked up came from Merlin's Lunatone--Coil nearly bumped into it before it stopped before those sinister red eyes.
"Well, of course you were able to find us," Merlin said as a sort of greeting. He barely ever said a simple hello to greet people.
"All right! Merlin!" Warren jumped up and nearly hugged Merlin as he approached him. He would have had he not a Buneary in his arms.
"Ah, and there's the happy couple now," Merlin noticed, for he just spotted Yamiko and Lupin emerge from the fog.
"Very good job with the setting," Lupin commented, looking about the area. Here was a sort of "oasis" amidst the rocky expanse atop the Ice Path, where there was grass and one or two trees and even a small pond. The fog around the place was a little more lit than before, but the surroundings were still barely visible.
"The fog is even my favourite colour..." Yamiko noted, at the purple tint the fog took on.
"Of course, who could say no to purple fog--even if it won't stay purple forever?" Merlin replied. "We could very well be on the inside of a Smoke Ball, or perhaps a giant Mismagius is using Ominous Wind on us all."
"Mis mis miss..." Imperio muttered, proceeding to use a miniature-Ominous Wind attack himself.
"Ha ha, bellissimo!" Merlin giggled, even applauding slightly.

The meeting was meant as both a discussion of what to do next, and as a little rest stop. All of the Pokemon were outside their Pokeballs, and either took the time to interact with each other, admire the surroundings, or mope around in a corner... or just stay with their trainers. Fulva, Mesmeria, and Gardevoir were gathered next to the pond, which Starmie and Sakurabyss immediately jumped into. Airmor and Raven started to fly about the area, careful not to go too far so as to avoid losing sight of the group. But at one point they collided with each other, which was rather painful on the Honchkrow's part. (Colliding with a Skarmory? Ouch...) Maneki just curled up in a little patch of grass for a little nap--besides, Alice or Oracle (who were sitting not too far from where she was) might wake her up before it was time to leave. Nimerta and Zorro were both meditating underneath one of trees, so the trio of ghost Pokemon near them (Imperio, Pluto, and Banette) had to keep quiet so as to not interrupt them. All three of them spent their time either having staring contests or getting to know Banette a little bit more. Pika, Ambipom, and Beatrice were involved in a game of tag for a moment, but then Pika and Beatrice got annoyed at numerous times when Ambipom tagged both of them at the same time with the hands on his long tails. Such an unfair game... not to mention Pika threatened to shock Beatrice if she cheated. All three just argued a bit underneath the other tree. Near them, Pinky and Bella were engaged in quite a conversation, although Pinky spent much of her time talking about her extensive love life with other Butterfrees. (<"I made 12 eggs with Probiscus, too, and he kissed all of them!">) Scout was wandering about the area and soon spotted Weavile talking with a group of wild Sneasel--she mostly bragged about now being stronger than them, her older siblings. But he wsn't aware of Metamon spying on him from a patch of grass, transforming into a perfect copy of Scout. Scout finally looked back and got an annoyed look on his face when he spotted an Absol that looked just like him, trying to stifle a loud belly laugh. And high above the group, Coil floated in solitude, though it occasionally glimpsed Lunatone, who was giving Loony a ride around the area.

Meanwhile, the five trainers were gathered around a large rock, and some Pokemon were with them as well. Warren was still holding Mimi, although Itachi was peering over his shoulder, wanting to be petted as well. Sirius and Arcanine were both seated behind Lupin, obviously two of the most loyal and true Pokemon of the group. (Why were those two with Lupin rather than Yamiko? I have no idea...) And all five people were indeed discussing what to do next.
"Well, I think the obvious thing to do is contact Morty first," Merlin suggested, taking out his Pokenav. Out of all the Black Cat Bandits, Merlin used the call feature of the Pokenav the most frequently--he usually used it with Morty, although usually he didn't get a reply. And while the Black Cat Bandits were separate, he called them the most often. But now he tried Morty again...
"Would it be safe to head to Ecruteak yet?" Warren asked.
"Sorry, it still won't do us any good," Lupin answered. "Wars are overrated anyways, and if we go there, we'll likely be shot at or captured by Coalition soldiers."
"Even if we're on their side?!?" Warren exclaimed.
"He has a point--we're not even soldiers ourselves," Halberd commented. "Ha ha, Lupin, I'm sure you won't object to picking out a Federation city to explore."
"Actually, I will," Lupin replied, causing a surprised stare from both Halberd and Warren. "Keep in mind that it's practically daytime, not a wise time to go wandering about in an enemy town. (Unless it's foggy like this area.) What might be an interesting thing to do eventually is to head to the Indigo Plateau and check on what the Elites are doing, or perhaps to sneak into their supply base and see what kind of supplies they have in store."
"Erm... where is that supply base? Which town?" Yamiko asked.
"Hmm, now that's a good question," Halberd muttered, suddenly deep in thought. "If Olivine or Vermillion City are under control of the Federation--wait, I think at least Vermillion is--there's a good chance they could hold supply bases--since they're ports."
"Wait a minute..." Yamiko started, then began to think as well. "I remember Morty telling us that... Celadon and Mahogany are neutral, while Pewter, Saffron, Ecruteak, and... Cerulean... are with the Coalition. So every other town must side with the Federation--oh dear, that means both Vermillion [i]and[/i] Olivine could be supply bases."
"With two supply bases, it's a good thing we ain't fighting against the Federation--you know, as soldiers," Warren mentioned.
"Hold on," Halberd halted them, "let's find out what Morty says first... if he answers his phone."

Merlin had his Pokenav to his ear, intently listening for Morty's reply. All of a sudden, a grin spread across his face.
"Morty! Greetings from the foggy area atop the Ice Path!"
The rest of the group spent the next few moments with their heads turned eagerly towards Merlin (except Lupin still occasionally looked around the area some more). Occasionally Merlin muttered such things as "Uh-huh" or "Sure" or "Where are you?" or "What are you up to?". At one point he even asked Morty whether or not he knew where the supply base(s) for the Federation were. Whatever the reply was, Merlin frowned, then said, "Tsk tsk tsk, Lupin's not going to be happy about..." then was cut off by Morty's continued speech.
...
...
Finally, Merlin smiled broadly again and nodded, ending with "Oh, thank you so much, my friend..." before hanging up. When he did, Warren was staring at him as if to say "What? What's the news?"
"Heh, Morty says hi to everyone here," Merlin announced to the group. "He seemed rather glad to hear from me--he said he's been busy lately. Ecruteak apparently is under constant patrolling by Coalition and even some Federation soldiers who are looking for him. Morty's been sitting in his gym for such a long time, almost desperate for backup, he says. Of course, you could imagine how pleased he must have been when his best friend called him, no? Apparently, the last few times when I tried to call him, he was busy trying to call for other reinforcements... But anyways, he says that it's likely that Olivine and/or Vermillion could be supply bases for the Federation--although that really is common sense."
"Obviously they're not trying to hide their bases," Lupin commented, "with such obvious locations as those."
"Yes, really," Merlin continued. "Quite the opposite of us in too many ways. (With the probable exception of Sabrina--hee hee...) Anyways, he told us that it might bee too dangerous to try to break into the supply bases--if that's a good term, 'breaking' in--but we certainly might check up on some of the less violent Federation towns to see what they're up to. So how about it--shall we pick a town?"
"How about Violet City?" Warren suggested, as an out-of-the-blue idea.
"Now now, let's not go picking towns yet," Lupin retorted, looking towards the sky. It was still foggy, but the fog was barely purple anymore. Clearly the sun was high enough in the sky to be called "daylight". And a quick glance at the clock on his mobile told him it was 7:34 AM. "It's just after 7:30--maybe it would just be better to check the status of Blackthorn City, then we'll call it day perhaps."
"Right, right, we have an hour and a half until 'bedtime'," Warren mentioned with quite a bit of levity and almost sarcasm.
"Oh? And what happened to your suggestion of staying up until noon every day?" Lupin teased.
"You know I was joking, right? Mornings are good too, you know. And this way we can wake up and it will be nighttime already."

With that, the Black Cat Bandits started to round up their Pokemon, although they left a few out for the short trip to Blackthorn City. This time, only six Pokemon were out: Mimi and five of the larger Pokemon. A short trip like this wasn't worth a flight on the Sky Pirate. So they rode out... Yamiko was riding on Fulva as usual--the Ninetales was barely able to support her weight while dashing low on the rocky surface of the flattened mountain. The two of them followed Lupin, who was riding on Arcanine. Merlin was above them, being carried on the shoulders of Pluto, his Dusknoir. On the two sides of Merlin and Pluto were Halberd and Warren, both riding on Magnezones. The one Halberd was riding was Coil, but the one carrying Warren was actually Metamon--Halberd's Ditto--who had transformed into a duplicate of Coil. (Warren himself didn't have any Pokemon big enough to ride on, but he was still holding Mimi as he hovered along.)[/color][/size]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OOC: That's all I'll post for now... Don't worry, my posts will be a bit shorter after this.. for some reason I always tend to make my first posts relatively long...

[M.Ali]

[SIZE="2"][COLOR="DarkRed"]"So, Hario, explain to me exactly where we are going to place the explosives."

"Sure," Hario replied as he took out his Pokenav. "Haunter was nice enough to give me the schematics of the bunker so we wont get lost. While Oliver starts the commotion, the both of us are gonna go around to the side and sneak into this window, hopefully Oliver's gonna do a good enough job and--"

"What do you mean hopefully? I'm gonna show you guys how a mission is supposed to be done."

"Of course you are Oliver," Hario calmly retorted with a sarcastic nod and smile, "now back to what I was saying, hopefu--I mean [i]when[/i] Oliver does his job of getting everyone's attention, that part of the area should be cleared." Pointing to certain spots on the screen of his Pokenav, he continued, "That's when we split up. I'll cover the east half of the bunker, while you do the same with the west, and place the bombs here, here, here, and here. If you run into anyone, silence them immediately. We can't have them setting off the alarms, so we have to get in and get out as quickly as possible."

"Okay that sounds easy enough...so when do we get this thing goin?" Timber asked eagerly.

"As soon as everyone is ready. I'm good to go." With that being said, a brownish-greenish blur sped back besides Timber.

"Me too." Confirmed the trainer as he called his pokemon back into their pokeballs.

"I've been ready fo--wait....hold on. Come out Swalot," a burst of light erupted from the Pokeball as Swalot made his appearance. "You can spit out that prisoner now before he gives you gas." The stomach pokemon opened it's mouth, and belched the now dead, slime coated man out. "Now I'm ready!" With looks of disgust, and horror, both Hario and Timber turned and began to walk towards their destination.
[/COLOR][/SIZE]

[PyrusDragon]

Timber pulled out another Pokeball as they approached their destination. "This guy might be of some help." with that, Timber threw the pokeball and a Gallade stood beside him. "Whisper is my silent killer. He'll be the one to get any undistracted guards for us." Whisper nodded after hearing its job.

They could see their target getting closer to them. Several guards stood around the area. All Federation men. "It's heavily guarded... just as expected." Hario whispered.

Oliver smirked. "No problem..." He walked foward getting the Gastly ready. Timber and Hario headed to the back of the area and waited for Oliver to begin.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

[COLOR=indigo]It hadn't taken too long to determine how to find Palkia and Dialga; the legends were generally in agreement. They were found at a place called Spear Pilliar on the peak of Mt. Coronet. According to the legends, Mt. Coronet was where the Sinnoh region began, and the ruin-like area at the top, the Spear Pillar, was where Palkia and Dialga could be found. Of course, people had been to Spear Pilliar and found no sign of Palkia or Dialga. But according to the legends, it wasn't that easy.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#4b0082]The key seemed to be three other legendary Pokemon, known as the 'lake Pokemon' because they were said to reside at three lakes throughout the Sinnoh region. Some believed these Pokemon to be real, because there were Pokemon residing there. But nobody knew anything about them. They were seen only rarely, and even then they were just glimpsed briefly. They were unknowns, so of course there were people who believed them to be Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit, the trio from the legends. There wasn't any evidence to prove this, but there wasn't any to disprove it, either. [/COLOR][COLOR=#4b0082]One thing was certain, however. Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit were an integral part of the legends of Palkia and Dialga, and the trio were always a trio, not just three seperate Pokemon. All this made determining if these Pokemon were real a lot simpler. If one of the trio existed, all three of them existed. And if they were real, then Palkia and Dialga were also real. So verifying the existance of one of them meant they all existed.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#4b0082]Aesera'd been in Saffron for a couple days, and she'd made good use of the time, going over the data Silph obtained in Sinnoh. Studying the legends to the extent she'd studied the legends of Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn would take a lot more time, but the time she'd spent was more than enough to complete her assignment. Or to come as close to it as she could, at least. She'd determined how one would find and control Palkia and Dialga, this requiring the trio. And she'd determined the extent of their abilities as described in the legends. What she couldn't do was determine if Palkia, Dialga, and the trio were real. She didn't think they were, but there was no conclusive evidence. The only way to be sure would be to mount an expedition, even a small one, to Sinnoh to follow the legends and try to find Palkia, Dialga, and the trio.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#4b0082]Aesera was still in Saffron at Silph HQ, continuing her research; specifically, she was looking in more detail at the abilities of the Pokemon. She had, however, made a recording of her analysis, including her statement that determining the existance of the Pokemon would require an expedition to Sinnoh. She'd had Gardevoir leave Saffron on her own and go to Azaela with the message, returning to Aesera with the reply. If she wasn't given a new assignment, she'd finish up her research and return to Azaela and her position as an instructor.[/COLOR]

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

OOC: That's your cue, Kei. What's next for Aesera?

[M.Ali]

[SIZE="2"][COLOR="DarkRed"][b]OOC: Where's everyone who signed up for this?[/b]

[CENTER]+++++++++++++++++[/CENTER]

Oliver made his way towards the bunker, the 4 guards who were wrapped up in a comical conversation didn't even notice him as he stood directly in front of them, "Hey shit faces! Let me in on the joke...I wanna laugh too....heh." The now attention ready soldiers, immediately took out their pokeballs and in a threatening tone one of them said,

"You're either dumb, or just plain stupid! Look around, you're out numbered!", on that note, the guarding troop threw his pokeball and call forth his Mightyena. "Mightyena, use Crunch!" and as the Pokemon began to make his approach, Oliver began to act,

"Make your appearance Jynx dear." and with a flash of white light Jynx appeared on the scene. "Now use Ice Beam on this interference." Instantly obeying her trainer's command, she unleashed a powerful Ice Beam that instantaneously froze the dog Pokemon. "I hope that this isn't what I have to deal with from all of you?" Oliver edged on, enraging the guards even more.

As the guard yelled, "Oh yeah, well how about this!" his comrades radioed for assistance, and just like Hario planned, all of the troops from the front half of the bunker began to file out. There stood before Oliver at least 20 federation troops prepared for battle.

"This is more my speed!" Oliver said while clutching the Gastly filled pokeballs. "Let's rock it! Come on out everyone!" and with that being said, the Gastly immediately appeared from their pokeballs and the mock battle ensued.

"That's our cue!" Hario said as him, Timber, and Whisper made their way into the window. Once they were in the now unoccupied room, Hario pulled out his Pokenav. "Okay, as soon as we exit this room, we split up."

"Alright," Timber began, "but first things first." With a nod from Hario, Timber reached into his backpack and pulled out the first set of explosives, set them in the concealed designated spot, and headed towards the hallway with Hario.

"Take a look at your Pokenav...each explosive is synced with our Pokenav's clock, we only have 10 minutes, so we have to do this as fast a possible, then we rendezvous back at the window so we can get the hell outta here. "

"No problem, I'll be done in 8 minutes!" Timber reassured Hario.

"Heh, you sound like Oliver." With a slight chuckle from the both of them, they both went their seperate directions not knowing what kind of peril awaited around each corner.... [/COLOR][/SIZE]

[PyrusDragon]

OOC: That's a good question
+---------------------------+
Whisper ran alongside it's trainer. The corridor they ran through seemed to be quiet. "Well Whisper, looks like the right sopt." Timber pulled out another set of explosives and placed it on the ground. Whisper nodded in sync with Timber as the took off once more.

Outside, the mock battle was going well. Gastly were battling it out with Electabuzz, Mightyena, and other random pokemon within the enemy ranks.

[Imp]

OOC: Ahh, I might as well get another post in. Besides, tomorrow is Lupin's birthday. :)
IC:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[color=navy][size=1]As the Black Cat Bandits wandered along through the fog atop the Ice Path, the fog began to lift, and the surroundings started to brighten. Within a few minutes, they could see a white circle of a sun through a thin layer of cloud. By that time, Yamiko and Lupin (and the Pokemon they were riding on) were no longer surrounded by fog, and if they looked up they could see Pluto's face-covered abdomen protruding from the low clouds above, and the occasional magnet showing up in a hole in the clouds. Then the ground sloped downward, quite sharply...
"Nine... Nine...Nine," Fulva panted as she called after Arcanine. Even though she was carrying the lighter person, she wasn't as big and strong as Arcanine was, and her feet hurt whenever she jumped down to a ledge. On one particular ledge, she barely avoided spraining her ank... er, wrist. (Front legs don't have ankles.) It was from this ledge that Fulva and Yamiko got a clear view of Blackthorn City, and the large patch of blue sky above it. The sun had rose over Mt. Silver in the distance, threatening to sting the eyes of all those who looked east. Above, Halberd, Warren, and Merlin stayed in the clouds to avoid this problem; below, Arcanine sped up at he headed down the slope with Lupin on his back, eager to reach a shadowy area just outside the city.
"I don't know if we can continue down this slope without you getting hurt..." Yamiko commented as Fulva slowed to a stop.
[i]"But then... how are you going to get down there?"[/i] Fulva asked telepathically.
[i]"I have a Plan B..."[/i] Yamiko thought back as she returned Fulva to her Pokeball, and opened another one. "Gardevoir!" [i]"Time to fly!"[/i]
Gardevoir nodded, and took Yamiko by the hand. Both of them became surrounded by an aura of psychic energy, which lifted them into the air. Up they flew, Gardevoir guiding Yamiko along towards where Halberd and Warren and Merlin were.

"Let's start heading down..." Merlin suggested, just as he spotted Yamiko flying along with Gardevoir. His eyebrows must have gone all the way up to his hairline as he saw this.
[i]Niiiiice. Maybe I should try that with Pluto...[/i]
"Hey Pluto," Merlin whispered to the Dusknoir he was riding on, "let's try it--hold my hand and..."
At that point, Merlin slid right off of Pluto's shoulder and fell toward the ground--Pluto wasn't holding onto his hand tightly enough.
"Dusk...?"
Pluto was looking around to see where Merlin went, and finally spotted him falling some hundred feet below him. For a second it looked like Merlin was about to fall right on top of Lupin. But just before he got there...
"Noir!"
Pluto used his Psychic attack to lift Merlin back up. Once he was back up, he rolled his eye, then held Merlin aloft while holding his hand.
[i]Ah, so that's how it's supposed to feel,[/i] Merlin thought.
Of course, while Gardevoir and Yamiko were flying along gracefully and in perfect synch, Merlin felt more like Pluto was pulling him along.
[i]How does she do that anyways? I'm convinced she actually [/i]does[i] have telekinetic abilities. Although I think part of it has to do with their telepathic connection, and practice doesn't hurt.[/i]
There was always someone around who tried to prove Kelsey had more psychic abilities than just a telepathic connection to four Pokemon--even if Bella was inside her Pokeball, now Merlin was doing it...

"Boys..." Lupin muttered as he looked up at Merlin. "I swear it's that hormone that causes such craziness..."
"Ark ark," Arcanine barked as he noticed the ground leveling out, and the sun coming out. From then on he did his best to stay in the shade.

It wasn't too long before the fivesome arrived in Blackthorn City. They were walking along one of the main streets, where they could see most of the action taking place. However, it wasn't much--some Dragon Pokemon, some Coalition soldiers... A few of those soldiers looked their way, but didn't recognise them as soldiers of either army... maybe they were just visitors. At least Blackthorn City wasn't one of the more stringent towns that worked around the clock to keep a certain kind of people out or to shoot at any unidentified person what walked past. In fact, one thing that definitely gave the soldiers the impression that the Black Cat Bandits were more tourists than anything was the way they were looking around the place in wonder. At one point, Warren even reached out to pet one of the Dragonair. Some soldiers and other people thought it odd for someone to be underneath an umbrella on a sunny day, but that was Lupin's way of staying out of the sun. As the group wandered along, only three Pokemon were out of their Pokeballs--a Mightyena, a Buneary, and a... Metamon was having fun transforming into various objects or Pokemon. Dragonair, Gabite, a trash can, Shelgon, a Pidgey, a gun, Halberd, even a soldier... although the last two had Ditto's glossy pink skin and the tiny-eyed and wide-mouthed "Ditto face", and the soldier looked like a toy. Metamon often had trouble transforming into humans...

The Black Cat Bandits saw many things, but one thing they [i]didn't[/i] see was a Federation soldier. Apparently Blackthorn was not a popular place to attack--since it had no major operations bases anyways. The only thing it [i]did[/i] have was a training centre for the Coalition troops, which several more experienced Coalition soldiers (and a group of Dragonite) kept close watch over all day and all night. Surely, whatever number of Federation troops that attacked this place would be in for a battle in which there were a lot more soldiers than expected. Provided Clair and some of the army generals stationed there were able to use some good common sense, they would probably have some of the soldiers-in-training help fight off any Federation troop that came too close. In fact, there was even a rumour floating around some of the Coalition soldiers that "the trainees would attack any Federation soldier who got as close as the Dragon's Den". Whatever the exact details were, it was apparent that Clair was keen on keeping Blackthorn City "clean", brushing away any Federal speck of dust that touched its surface. Yet, it was also apparent that many people didn't want Blackthorn to be a hostile place where some average Joe would walk in and be faced--at gunpoint--with questions about his standing in the war. Perhaps even Clair believed that whatever any Federation-allied person tried to do here would fail here in due time. After all, plans about the Coalition's actions were rarely discussed here--if they were discussed, it was usually with code words and nonverbal signals... Perhaps that was the reason why Ecruteak was in such chaos--it was quite the contrary. all Blackthorn was was a safe and secure place from which new Coalition soldiers came, it seemed like.

After a while though, Lupin tapped Halberd on the shoulder, gesturing towards a place where maybe the group could sit down and talk about something. Halberd shrugged and looked at him, as if to ask what was wrong. Eventually Lupin led the group to a small table that sat in the shade of a building, right next to the main street.
"Alright, Mr. Unnoticed," Warren said to Lupin as he looked around, "why the open location, with four, five... eight soldiers able to see us?" Then he continued in a whisper, "And one, maybe two able to hear us?"
"It doesn't matter if they hear us," Lupin answered, "since we're on their side anyways, and anything we talk about might be useful to them. And if I were a soldier or even a spy for the Federation, I'd want to steer clear of any Coalition soldiers whenever possible, so as to avoid the risk of being questioned."
"Of course, I don't know..." Yamiko commented as she looked around, paying special attention to the brick wall right next to her. "There could be hidden cameras installed by Federation spies, or maybe..."
"Setting up a camera seems an awful lot of extra work in a place where not much important information is usually exchanged," Merlin added.
"I'm not saying we should let our guard down," Lupin clarified. "I'm perfectly aware of the possibility of us being watched... there's [i]always[/i] that possibility. I'm just saying it's not very likely."
"It's not very [i]smart[/i], indeed," Warren mentioned. "Of course, you can't expect every criminal, say, to be as smart as..."
"True, true, certainly, not as they ought to be," Lupin cut him off the second he thought he knew where Warren's statement was heading. "Well, that's... their problem."
As Yamiko looked around some more, she spotted the closest soldier writing in a notepad. Perhaps he was taking notes on some of the points the group brought up--she had to admit some of them were brilliant. But in the end she had to conclude that nobody could possibly be watching or eavesdropping them, as it was nigh impossible to wire anything through a brick wall, and putting an ear to the wall to listen wouldn't work very well either, with so many pores in each brick to slow sound waves.

"So what are we doing next?" Yamiko asked the others, in a fairly soft voice. Then she smiled briefly at Metamon, who was having fun transforming into a tire and rolling around on the street. She also noticed that Mimi's ears perked up, alert for the tiniest foreign sound, and Sirius was doing a similar thing by wandering around the area, sniffing at things and also keeping his ears open.
"Well, it's already been said that it's not a good time to go to Olivine or Vermillion," Halberd reminded. "Personally I think we should head to Ecruteak first thing tonight."
"Why--to talk to Morty?" Merlin asked, a confused expression on his face. He took out his Pokenav and shook it a bit with his fingers. "When this will do it without putting us all in danger?"
"Mobile conversations can be tapped into," Lupin mentioned. "And to think, it would be with Morty that the most important conversations about the Coalition would take place."
"Yes, but who knows about Morty and I, eh? You can't tap into a phone call if you're not even aware that the call exists. Same way that you can't sneak through a door that has no lock."
"I'd question your use of that type of comparison, but there's [i]always[/i] that possibility."
Merlin smiled, speaking in a deeper, quieter, and more solemn voice than usual. "I'm just saying it's not very likely."
Yamiko giggled, Halberd smiled and shook his head, and Warren nearly fell off the chair laughing. That was just too good an imitation of Lupin.
"All right then," Lupin said with a sigh, "Ecruteak it is... although, don't you think--that that's where every roaming Coalition soldier would be going as well?"
"Good--we can meet up with them and hear their idea of a plan," Yamiko assured, traces of giggles showing up in her speech. [i]Oh boy... if Merlin became an actor, there would be no way he would make it into any theatrical genre other than comedy...[/i]

About three hours later, the Black Cat Bandits were inside the Sky Pirate once more, but were not up in the air. They were all in the "bedroom" of the large aircraft, sound asleep. (Their bedtime just recently became noon.) Halberd looked like he was wearily trying to count Mareep, until his arm fell limp and he fell asleep. Warren seemed to have a hard time falling asleep, as it was the middle of the daytime, but he made it there eventually, especially after a little massage from Merlin, who was sleeping in the same bed as him. And Yamiko and Lupin were already in deep sleep in the third bed. Good day, you five little creatures of the night.[/color][/size]