The Crystal [pg-16]

[LordSephy]

"I was speaking from experience, I've killed enough, if it was a feasible option I would never kill anybody again for the rest of my life I would take it, but it's not." Shen stood up and stepped forward till he was almost helmet to nose with Marc. "My disdain from killing doesen't come from cowardice, it comes out of respect for the dead, something you should learn, and if your survival is the only one that matters to you then why are you here? You sound just like one of the raiders that got this war started in the first place, and what about respect for your 'comrades' before this mission is over your life will end up in someone elses hands, and pray it's not me because I find you not worth the trouble, I need to keep training, and if you have any other insults for me say them with your fighting skills and your sword, not your snake tongue, I'll be in front of the castle if you've learned respect for your fellow man." Shen said, before walking back towards the castle, Scizor following calmly behind him.

 

[Kon~]

Spoink's stubby arm touched the crystal, and in an instant everything changed.

The crystal flushed from clear to pearly pink. Similarly pearly light exploded in all directions, flaring out of the window like smoke and engulfing the entire room. Spoink doubled up with the strangeness of the sensation he was feeling, and in her unconciousness, Jen frowned, sharing the experience.

And in the same instant, everything returned to normal. The smoke-like light imploded on itself and faded from existance. Spoink's halted bouncing resumed. Jen's face returned to calm. Her cloudy eyes had seen nothing of the event.

 

[X75flames]

Leon saw the Starly returning, scared half to death. The Pidgey followed behind calmly. "Fool, that Pidgey is going to get noticed!" Leon started running towards the birds, when something caught his eye. A pink light shone out of one of the guest rooms. "Looks like someone soul bounded…." Smoke followed the light. "That's not normal…" Leon forgot about the birds and sprinted towards the front of the castle. He dashed in barely side stepping some guards in time. Leon tried to open the guest rom door, but it wouldn't budge. "Hello?!? Hello?!?" Leon franticly called, but there was no response. "I'm coming in!" Leon kicked the door, but it still didn't budge.

Kabutops walked up to Leon who was now starting to panic. The pokemon head butted the door like it was paper, and it flew open. Leon saw Jen on the floor, the color drained from her face, and her Spoink bouncing over her. The Spoink's eyes showed how worried it was. Leon kneeled by her, and put his hand on her neck checking for a pulse. It was there, but only slightly. Leon grabbed her shoulders and shook her.

 

[Kon~]

Jen could feel the clouds in her mind clearing, and someone shaking her shoulders. She felt strange... sort of giddy and carefree, despite the position she found herself in, unable to move or see. A few blinks later and she had dim vision: enough to see shadows and shapes. Two shapes in particular.

A man's face and a pair of blades.
Edgear and Scyther.

'Am I dreaming?' she thought, and tried to verbalise something, but ended up coughing roughly. She managed to say a single word: "Edgear?"

 

[X75flames]

Jen looked like she was coming to. Leon held Jen, and grabbed the pillow off her bed to prop her head up. Leon backed up, and kneeled down. He still wasn't used to the whole taking care of his troops thing. Kabutops had lost interest, and left the doorway.

"Edgear?"

"Who?" Leon looked at the Spoink wondering if that was its name, but it looked indifferent to her voice. Leon looked at her again, and nudged her once more. "Come on, snap out of it."

 

[Kon~]

Jen's eyes flew wide open, and this time they were clear and knowing.

"Ah! Wh--?" she gasped, jolting upright. "Edgear?" She seemed to catch herself, and only then noticed who she was in the presence of.

"Oh... Ah! Lieutenant! I'm sorry!" she cried, attempting to bow from a sitting position. As hard as she tried, she couldn't manage to make her legs work. She struggled with both hands against the floor, but couldn't lift herself up. Spoink hopped forwards tentatively, holding the pink crystal to his chest. She caught his eye and then giggled. "So... we bonded after all?" she said, taking the crystal and rubbing Spoink's smooth head. He chirped a reply and bounded against her touch.

 

[RainbowMunchies]

Leon seemed a bit stiff when he walked out of the room. Talulah was a bit surprised, but she supposed he needed to keep face in front of his troops. She giggled, bringing her hands up to cover her mouth, but stopped quickly. Giggling was not something she was prone to do, and it caused her to look down at Lise in surprise.

The bird pokemon seemed to be laughing as well, only it didn't seem quite as surprised about it as Talulah. Talulah composed herself, standing. She refused to acknowledge that this bond was changing her-- it just felt too right to argue against. Slowly they made their way out of the room, towards the back field that Leon had mentioned to her. If Leon wanted her to train with Lise, then train she would.

The castle was very large, and it was easy to get lost, but Talulah simply made a bee-line for where she supposed the back of the castle would be. Lise just waddled along beside her, his feet slapping noisily on the tiles. Talulah saw light, and sped up a bit in anticipation of the outdoors.

They exited the door, and Talulah almost regretted having left the castle. It was still boiling out! The sun shimmered in the sky, causing the air around them to wiggle and shift. Lise peeped in annoyance, and Talulah had to agree-- she was no sissy, but this heat was oppressive.

"Yeesh, I cannot stand this heat. How are we going to train in this heat? We'll pass out!"

Lise stood still for a moment, before trotting out in front of Talulah and turning to face her.

"Prin!" he said, a determined look on his face.

Talulah laughed. What was he up to?

The prinplup drew a deep breath, raising its flippers to spread out flat on either side. Lise drew his head back, leaning backwards until Talulah was sure he was going to fall on his butt, then lurched forward, clenching his throat muscles with a deep grunt.

From his beak blew a whirlwind of cool air, hunks of ice and snow mixed throughout. Talulah yelped in surprise as the wind hit her, instantly cooling her skin and melting against her face. Her breath fanned out in front of her visibly, and she crossed her eyes to try and see.

"LUP!" Lise chirped loudly, unclenching his throat in one motion. His beak closed, and he looked up at Talulah happily, making small peeping sounds in the back of his throat.

"Wow..." Talulah said simply, blinking.

 

[seal]

Marc watched the White Knight walk back to the castle grounds. Marc instantly hated that Knight for the way he doesn't understand what it's like not to have been born with a silver spoon in your mouth. Fighting a hobby? Never, fighting is about survival. Trust a Knight to think chivalry is more important than what is necessary. Marc turned away making sure his personal hatred of the Knight wouldn't get in the way in the heat of battle.

 

[Kon~]

Once the feeling in her legs had returned, Jen pushed herself upwards and attempted to stand upright, with considerable assistance from Spoink. Her knees shook and the bizarre sensation from before had remained; she felt overly cheerful, although she did not allow the emotion to stray onto her face, and her mind span giddily. With a bounce in her step that was unnatural to her, she stumbled across the room to the door with the intention of making her way up to the ridge, for dusk was nearing, but stopped when she felt the chill. Her breath hung in the air, and the stone floors cooled substantially, as she felt them through her bare feet. She wondered what manner of witchcraft was behind this, curious more than anything, and opened the door the smallest amount so that she might peer through the crack.

There, she saw the girl she had smiled at across the war room table all those hours ago, and with her, that same blue Pokémon. Jen's experience with Pokémon was limited: she had seen blue Pokémon shoot water; she had seen red ones breath fire; she had even seen yellow ones send lightning at their foes. But ice? The ice that was carried on the blue Pokémon's breath was unnatural, as far as she knew. She pulled the heavy door wide open and stood in a position she knew not to be threatening to these creatures.

"Hey! How is it doing that?" she called, gesturing towards the creature. At the same time, a smaller thought entered her head; If it can do that, what can Spoink do?

 

[X75flames]

Leon watched as Jennifer stood up, and the proceeded to walk out of the room. Kabutops was long gone, and her Spoink followed her. Leon was now basicly alone in her room. He stood and also walked out. "Glad to know your ok." Leon continued to walk back outside. He found Kabutops by the door. Together they walked out, and back to the ridge. When they got there, Leon laid on his back, and started to nap. Kabutops saw that Leon was trying to get some sleep so he also lay down beside him.

 

[MegaSlowBro.]

"Is that all, your Majesty?" replied Adric.

The Queen smiled. She slowly nodded and waved her hand, dismissing him.
Adric bowed and walked towards the great oak doors, replaying everything that had happened a while ago. When the meeting was over, Adric had a thought of what his fellow knights were like.

During the meeting, there was a boy and his Houndoom.

The two looked like they could blend in with the crowd, but something about the boy caught Adric's eye. The gleam in the young knight and his partner seemed to send a chill down his spine, almost like he was hiding something. Also, the grin that he had on looked strange, but he couldn't judge him just yet.

Hmm...I'll have to ask the Queen about this one...Marc was it? I have to make sure I keep an eye on him...

Adric continued down the steps, his mind deep in thought. Another particular figure grabbed his attention more than Marc.

In the corner of the room, there was a knight - taller than Adric himself - who had his full armor on, hiding his facial features. Adric knew that this was the White Knight, as if the people around the room didn't look uncomfortable enough. During his life in the castle walls, he had always heard of him, but strangely Adric had never crossed paths with him. Knowing that there was another well experienced knight in his squad, Adric's shoulders relaxed.

Well...at least things will be more managable. I wonder what you'll be like...

 

[seal]

Marcs thoughts turned to the other person in the meeting. Adric Lion or something like that. He thought that someone trying to order him was going to have a tough task. He's always fought alone, and always would do. That White Knight was naive and a fool. It's people like him who had caused Marc such suffering. People who don't understand what it's like to have to work hard and to have to fight for yourself from day one. Marc laughed though after remembering that his emotions would only lead to his downfall. Marc would try to teach him in the true art of warfare, though if Marc failed then the Knight would meet his fate.

 

[RainbowMunchies]

It wasn't a minute after Lise had cooled the area that the brunette from earlier stumbled out of a castle door, her bouncy pokemon in tow, before stopping and gesturing towards Lise.

"Hey! How is it doing that?" she called to Talulah, obviously referring the icy wind that had just blasted forth from Lise's beak.

Talulah wasn't quite sure how to answer. It was a very good question.

"Um... I'm not sure," she answered truthfully, bringing one arm up to rub the back of her head.

Turning back to face Lise, she spoke mostly to herself.

"I guess that's what Leon meant when he told me to go train with Lise..."

 

[seal]

Marc finally took one last look at the market to see if there was anything worth stealing but there wasn't. Marc walked back to the castle grounds, Houndoom growling at his feet at strangers, causing them to flee. Marc found this rather fun, and so did Houndoom. They arrived back at the castle grounds having alienated half the population of Grenold.

 

[MegaSlowBro.]

The bright light from the sun temporarily blinded Adric as he finally stepped out onto the castle grounds. Finding the nearest tree that had shade, Adric walked over and sat down comfortably on the grass, appreciating the short break. Looking over to his right, Adric could see two figures heading in his direction.

 

[LordSephy]

Shen had grown exceedingly bored of training, so he sat on the castle wall watching the scenery. That boy mark was so....arrogant, he had no sense of honor, and worst of all he didn't even pay enough attention to understand what he was saying, oh Shen knew how to kill, he had done it more times than he liked to remember, he enjoyed fighting, but not killing. That man Adric Griffin had been at the meeting, he seemed a good soldier, he was respectful to the queen and had the fire of a warrior inside, an all around good leader.

 

[MegaSlowBro.]

Adric got up and stretched, admiring the scenery around him. By now, he had recognized the two figures. One of them was the White Knight, who seemed to perch himself on top a castle wall. The other one was Marc, his Houndoom followng behind closely. Deciding it was the right time, Adric started to walk in the direction of Marc, curious to see the boy's true nature. Calling over his shoulder, Adric's Pupitar (named Takeo), follows from behind.

 

[MasterLink742]

Blade found his way to the Witherian castle after a quick training session with Lametto. He looked up and thought The castle has gotten bigger since I was last here.... The sight of the castle brought back memories of the orphanage, of his friend Jennifer, and of the beginning of his training as a Blade...
Lametto shook Blade's pant leg, and Blade snapped back to reality.
"Let's go." Blade finally said to his Ralts friend. The crystal still in his pocket. Blade made a mental note to find out about it while he was here.
((OOC: Headed to bed now ))

 

[X75flames]

Leon saw someone walking towards the castle, but they wernt in normal cloathing. He assumed that this is the other recrute that he had contacted earlier about joining them. Leon had sent it from the king's office, so he might have gotten his hopes up, but he was here, and before the mission had started too. Leon started towards him, all the while thinking how fast he got here.

Once again Leon came back from the ridge onto the castle grounds. Kabutops had saw the man, and was unimpressed, and uninterested. He decided that he could better spend his time resting, or fighting wild pokemon, which ever took his fancey first.

Leon finaly reached the man right as he got to the doorway of the castle. "Hello, I'm assuming that you are here for a mission? I'm the Lutenite, and will be your commanding officer throught our jounry. Those two girls down the hall will also be with us. My name is Leon. May I ask yours?" Leon tried to do the bonding thing again. He still wasn't used to being so nice to his troops. While Leon was talking he handed the man a note.

 

[seal]

Marc and Houndoom saw Adric approaching and, after the failure that his previous discussion with the White Knight had been, said to the person who would be leading him," Hello! I recognise you from the meeting. Dare I ask what tremendous feat you have done to earn a place on this squad?"