Unova Knights (Myra, Jennasect, Lexiface)

[Myracuulous]

Sometimes, the darkest nights begin with the brightest days. When the light and warmth of the sun make danger seem like some distant dream, and trainers relax in the calm of a beautiful summer afternoon, there is no one left to guard against the coming storm and shadow. But in the darkest nights, even a little spark can burn like a morning star, and guide the world back towards the dawn.

This is a story about a night, a knight, and the unlikely heroes who saved Unova from destruction.​

It was early summer in Anville town, and trainers had gathered from far and wide to visit what was usually a quiet little village. The big trains were all completely still in the yard, but their slumber was more than made up for by the bustling tourists. Stalls between the rails offered cotton candy and popcorn, or little amusement park games with piles of enticing pokedolls and prizes to lure in their perspective players. Strings of lights and streamers were woven through the air between the sleeping boxcars, and upbeat music played from speakers all around the town.

In the centre of the festivities was a single train, brand new and shining in the sun. Sleek and modern, yes, but with huge bay windows and a domed top that added elegance to functionality. On the side of the bullet engine car, the words Western Express gleamed in inset silver lettering, mirrored on the banners and posters around the town. Today was to be the train's maiden voyage, straight down through the western forests to the coast and then onwards across the sea to Liberty Garden. The festivities on the other end were to be far grander than this little Anville fair, and open only to the passengers on the first train.

Tickets on the train weren't expensive, but the best seats were on the VIP cars right up front behind the engine. Available by lottery only, each rider-to-be was hoping that their number would come up, and they would get that extra special trip. The lucky winners were to be announced only shortly before the train started boarding passengers, adding an element of suspense to increase the excitement. Hundreds of trainers had already bought their tickets, while dozens more waited eagerly in line for theirs.

After weaving his way through the crowd, one particular young trainer had finally managed to worm his way into the ticket line. He was a foot shorter than nearly everyone around him and looked barely old enough to officially train a pokemon, despite having been of age for two years. His messy black-blue hair spiked out in every which way, no matter how much tending it was given, and his too-big glasses constantly looked like they might fall off. From his wide-eyed jittering, the average onlooker might guess that the cotton candy in his left hand was not his first dose of sugar for the day, though in fact the twelve-year-old was simply always this excited. In his right hand was a plush Pikachu that was nearly as big as him, on top of which perched a bright yellow Joltik that could be mistaken for just a tuft of plush hair, but for the four blue eyes that looked eagerly around.

"Today's our lucky day, right Tomi?" the boy asked his pokemon. The Joltik squeaked in agreement, and jumped up and down on his plush perch. "If we can win at the Ducklett pull AND the ball toss, I just know we'll win a VIP ticket too! And then we'll have pancakes, and milkshakes, and huuge hamburgers all the way to Liberty Garden!" Both trainer and pokemon nearly drooled at the thought of the VIP dining lounge, with its all-you-can-eat buffet. The ticket line wasn't terribly long, but the pair were already looking impatiently forwards, eager to see the rest of the fair instead of standing around waiting.

 

[Jennasect]

Disclaimer #1: I have never played an forum-based RPG before.
Disclaimer #2: Mary Snivy, I'm not. I haven't written anything in thirteen months.
Disclaimer #3: I like puns and metafiction when I do write.

“In medias res,” murmured Maia, upon her awakening. It had been her father's favourite storytelling phrase—the middle of the action. She was used to being in the middle of the action, she had grown up in the middle of the action, and, now that she was practically a fugitive camped in a treeside bower with only her rucksack and the last gift her parents gave her before they died, she certainly felt herself in the middle of the action. She rose and crept down from her shelter, tucked in the mountained margin of Anville Town and, making her way slowly down the hills, observed the lights and motion below without saying a word.

Maia heard a sharp “Aaaaark!” behind her; it was Archen, her best friend and her constant companion on her adventures. He hopped along the red pines, racing her down the scraggy hillside towards Anville and the trains. She skidded to a halt in the dirt outside the train compound, and Archen let out another squawk, leaped onto her, and butted her cheek with his scaly head.

“Thanks for cheering me up, Reeee-no,” Maia said happily to her Pokemon. “I was feeling pretty defeated up there.”

She rumpled Reno's tri-coloured feathers, and ran a hand through her own messy ginger hair, shaking her head to feel her hair's new lightness; she had just cut it off into a choppy bob, with a pocket knife and some help from Reno's claws, after escaping her aunt's house in Striaton City. Aunt Nancy had forced Maia to grow her hair out during the year after her parents died—“You'll look like a proper young lady so long as you're living with me,” Nancy had told her niece—and a shorter cut would better suit a would-be adventurer like Maia. She flexed her arm muscles, feeling the ancient brass arm-cuff she always wore wriggle up her scrawny bicep, and clambered over the trainyard fence with Reno in tow.

When she hopped to the ground, she grinned at the smell of buttered popcorn and fresh-spun cotton candy. Her provisions had run dry, and the girl and her Pokemon were hungry this evening. Reno, who had been keeping watch while his trainer slept, was exhausted; he crooned contentedly in the warm air that drifted delicious smells his way, and tugged at the strap of Maia's rucksack to indicate that he wanted to return to his ball.

“You rest up while I grab us some more provisions,” she told him, fumbling inside her bag for her Poke balls. She stuck out her elbow as she dug for the ball, and a harried-looking train conductor rushed by her. Maia dropped an Old Unovan swear word as she fumbled the bag. Her parents' gift fell out of the rucksack and broke on the ground. She and Reno shrieked as the gift—a Poke ball—broke open and, in a flash of light, a Sneasel popped out.

The strange Pokemon from Johto darted away into the crowd, in pursuit of a tiny yellow bug-type Pokemon that had caught his attention.

 

[Lexiface]

Celia rested her head against the window of the train, her eyes closed. It had been a busy couple of days getting here to Anville Town. For starters, there had been the long, cramped boat ride from Johto. She'd had to scrape up money from trainer battles against Bug-catchers and Youngsters - it had taken months to save up enough to buy her own ticket here. Then there had been navigating through Castelia - what a nightmare! - followed up by Nimbasa's chaos. So much commotion and hustle-bustle had left this small-town girl wiped.

Sitting beside her in the car was an Audino and an Umbreon; the Umbreon curled at Celia's feet while the Audino kept an eye out for where they were heading.

As the train from Nimbasa began to slow and Anville Town grew ever closer, the Audino tugged at Celia's sleeve to wake her up. When this failed, a simple touch to Celia's hand had her waking up rather peacefully.

"Hm? Oh... we're here... We're here!" she smiled, her excitement growing as she began to regain her senses. "Thanks Clarence!" she added, rubbing the top of the Audino's head affectionately as she looked out the window at the approaching station.

With a quirk of a smile, she looked down at the Umbreon at her feet. "Come on, lazy - we're almost there!" He looked up at her blankly and tipped his head to the side slightly - the Umbreon equivalent of a shrug. She laughed, relenting. "Oh fine. In you go then - I can't exactly carry you around, you know." She rustled in her bag for his Pokeball and in a flash of light, he was gone.

Once the train pulled into the station, Celia soon became lost in the crowd of trainers exiting the train and was nearly pushed onto the track in all the excitement. Just as she was finally beginning to catch her breath, a blur of black crossed her vision and, using poor Clarence as a spring-board, continued to rocket off in pursuit of... whatever it happened to be pursuing.

"H-hey!" Celia called out to nobody in particular, hoping to maybe catch sight of its trainer or someone who was otherwise responsible for this...

 

[Jennasect]

Maia gathered her things into her bag as quickly as possible, head bent low over the rucksack to avoid the crowd's stares. She paused at her third and last Poke ball, picked it up, and threw it towards the ground in the Sneasel's direction. “Go, Ana!” cried Maia. A Larvesta emerged from the ball, and the three-foot-tall bug Pokemon scuttled after the Sneasel as quickly as her six stubby legs would allow. (Fortunately, Ana's sticky bug feet let her clamber over and around the throng of onlookers, many of whom were frightened of the huge, hairy bug. Women fainted, children cried, and a conductor in his gold-buttoned uniform threw a candy apple at Ana.)

Maia darted through the gap in the crowd that her Larvesta had woven, while Reno stayed behind to mind the rucksack, and to apologize with a frantic dance and a series of squawks to an Audino onto whose head the Sneasel sprung. When Maia had caught up with her Pokemon—and to the Sneasel, who was poised to strike at a boy's Joltik—she commanded, “Ana, use Take Down!” The Larvesta, with its fiery-hot body, smashed into the Sneasel and knocked it out cold. Maia scooped the Sneasel into its Poke ball and thrust it as far as it would go into her bag. Ana shook the dirt off herself, plucked the candy apple out of her fuzzy mane, and nonchalantly ate the dust-covered treat.

Her face as red-hot as her Larvesta's body—or, indeed, Maia's own hair—Maia turned to the boy, who looked to be about her own age, and said frantically, “I'm so sorry about that! I hope your Joltik is okay! Oh, that's just a plush Pikachu...” She paused to collect herself, and continued on, more brightly this time:

“My Larvesta's name is Ana, short for Anansi. I chose that name because it sounds like Aunt Nancy, and my Aunt Nancy's terrified of bugs! What's your Joltik's name—in fact, what's your name? I'm Maia!”

OOC: Upon rereading, I'm sorry if I started godmodding by not allowing the other characters' Pokemon to attack--I was pretty eager to set up that Aunt Nancy pun.

Also, I have to do schoolwork today when I'd rather be Pokemon-ing. Fuck.

 

[Myracuulous]

"And fries and big slices of chocolate cake and--TOMI!" The boy's food revelries were interrupted by the surprise attack on his partner, and he barely had time to try and pull his plush toy and less-than-plush spider away when a second combatant joined the fray against the first. It all happened so fast, even for him, that by the time he realized a trainer was introducing herself he'd only just stopped thinking about milkshakes. His Joltik shook its self from head to toe, then looked up from the ground where he'd fallen about ten times his height and cheeped happily as if the whole thing had been great fun.

After ensuring that his pokemon was okay, he looked up at the red-headed girl who'd just caused all this excitement. "Assistant Deputy Pokemon Researcher In Training Jaden, very nice to meet you" he said, holding out a hand. "And this is Tomi... but he's not named after any of my aunts or anything, just Tomi. What sort of pokemon was that just now? It didn't look like anything from Unova at all!"

 

[Jennasect]

Maia chuckled softly at his prestigious researcher's title. "It's a Sneasel," she told him. Her chuckle stopped short. "They live in the mountains ... in Johto."

 

[Jennasect]

RPG dying

i r sad

 

[Lexiface]

(OOC: Not if I can help it! :3)

Celia looked around a little exasperatedly, trying to catch a glimpse of anybody who might be responsible. She put up a hand to her forehead to shield her eyes from the sun as she squinted her way through the crowd, finally catching sight of a Sneasel and an apologetic red-head - supposedly its trainer.

"Was... that the one who did it?" she asked Clarence. He shrugged, then nodded. "Deeeee," he said by way of confirmation.

"Come on, Clarence - I'll see what I can do about this," she replied and, biting back her initial reflex of nervousness, Celia made her way over to confront the trainer. If something like this had happened to her, she wouldn't have bothered... but to her Pokemon? No - she was going to say something about this! She would confront her and make her pay for it! Or at least give her an Oran Berry or two! Yeah! She was going to DO this!

"Um, excuse me... I think your Sneasel injured my Audino here on its way over..." Celia said rather quietly upon reaching the red-head, her arms crossed in an attempt to be confrontational (but likely just made her look uncomfortable... which she was). Okay, so much for the bravado and over-inflated confidence, but she was still doing something - that would have to be enough.

Clarence looked at the Sneasel rather calmly and then up at the trainer, the scratch marks reddening on its pink little head.

 

[Jennasect]

A little bit of colour--a lot of colour--returned to Maia's face. "I'm sorry, sorry," she quickly told the new girl. Maia shook the bag containing the Sneasel out of spite, and fished out a half-consumed bottle of Lemonade. "Would you like a drink?" she asked the Audino. She looked up from the Pokemon to his owner. "Lemon kills bacteria, so it's good for wounds," she explained proudly. "I'm going to be an adventurer, so I have to know these things."

Maia studied the new girl carefully. Something, perhaps the crisscrossed arms, made her look ill at ease. "What part of the world are you from?"