Jane - Solo RP & Special Missions

"*Owww!*" Jane found herself face-down in the dirt of no fault of her own. Really. One movement she had been chasing this weird pokémon. The next she felt like she had tripped over the mother of all tripwires. Not only did it hurt - it felt *wrong* somehow. As if she had forgotten her aunt in the oven or something. It didn't make sense at all, but it was definitely wrong.

With a sigh she rolled over and looked up at the sky. Then she sat up and looked around, brushing away as much dirt as possible from her clothes and face. No sign of that weird critter. Figures! With a small sigh she relaxed a bit.

Then, once she felt ready, she stood up. Even if she had lost the silly thing it had still been an exciting new sight! She just had to tell Maeve and Lo! Maybe send a message to Lavender *ahem* Salena too. Jane's mood rapidly improved at the prospect of gossiping about this critter as she flipped up her dex.

Five minutes later her joy had shifted to annoyance and then worry. "What? 'Can't reach that number' on her too?! Bleh. Maybe I banged up the dex a bit ..."

She shrugged and headed back towards the nearest pokécenter - she'd just use their phone! Easy peasy. Right?

"Hmm..." Now she started to worry that she'd hit her head. Squinting at the screen she triple checked that she hadn't mis-typed. Nope. Just to be sure she tried again. Nope. Hmm! Maybe the line simply didn't work? For science she dialed a completely random number and quickly hung up again once an old man responded. That did work!

Confused but not yet defeated Jane sat down to think a bit. Maybe it was that weird pokémon? But she had never heard of any pokémon capable of disconnecting phone lines. Well, not like this at least. Some *could* glitch electronics - close enough? Hmm...

With a start she rushed towards the PC. Pew! Her pokémon were still in the system! But ... They were boxed up? Must be a silly mistake. She'd just move them back to the ranch real quick!

"404 - Ranch not found"

"Eh?!" Okay this was just dumb. Phones, sure, but buildings? That couldn't be right! Something was clearly fishy. After asking the nurses (whom all seemed a bit ... off? She thought she had a decent idea of who would be working today but clearly not...) to just do a quick check-up Jane headed for the buss and her own ranch. It would be nice to just sit down and laugh about all this silliness with her friends. Surely she'd feel much better really soon!

"Uhum." Jane sits down on a bench to think things trough. She was fairly sure her friends did in fact exist. Especially since she still had Ms Christie and all their contact info. Furthermore she was also sure that they had existed just a few hours ago. And the only thing - only odd thing except all this non-existance - was that strange pokémon. She wasn't sure how or what it had done, but it couldn't be a coincidence could it? (And if it was the odds of finding out what actually happened were probably pretty slim to non-existent anyhow.)

So! She jumped up again. There were only one thing to do. She would need to find that pokémon and make it give her friends back. Unsnap them or something. And since she didn't know the first thing about it she hurried back to the one lead she had - the site of the encounter. Hopefully there'd be some clues there!

"That's weird." Jane looked towards the sky. It was almost as if they didn't want to be seen. Suspicious. And as it just happened - she was looking for suspicious things! So she made the sensible snap decision and release Ana, hopping up on the back of the grass snake. "I know you don't like to carry people - but it's an emergency! We need to follow those flying dragons and get our friends back. Quietly if we can!"

One of the Gym Trainers on the sidelines greets Jane as she enters. "Hello, Ms. Woodson, have you participated in the Gauntlet before? I'm not sure if you were aware, but you must pass a special Gauntlet of trainers before you may challenge the Leader." One of the others nearby leans over and whispers in her ear. "Oh! Right, sorry. I forgot. There is also the alternative 'Gauntlet', where you must battle the best trainer in our Gym. The alternative Gauntlet is a full six on six battle, but only against a single trainer. This is a relatively new regulation put in place by Leader Satori in an attempt to allow more challengers to have a shot at her. Regardless of which Gauntlet you pass, your Pokemon will be healed for free before you challenge the Leader."

One of the Gym Trainers begins typing on a tablet for a moment. "Hmm. Strange, we don't seem to have any record of a challenger named 'Jane Woodson'..."

The trainer gives Jane instructions on where to go for the alternative gauntlet challenge. When she reaches the arena in question, she finds, of all things, a Pikachu running an agility course. In a fighting-type gym. Now where'd that sense of deja vu come from?

The person at the far side of the arena glances up. "Huh? Who told you my name?" In the blink of an eye, the course-running Pikachu is standing on the tallest portion of it and watching Jane carefully. "The front-runners that hang about the entrance know better than to go spreading names around, so who told you?" Her eyes are narrowed only slightly, and there is just the hint of an edge to her tone, but Jane gets the feeling that she should choose her next words very carefully. If only because she remembers watching the Raven that she (Jane) knows beat up some strange, possibly otherworldly 'Boss' Pokemon in the Rock Tunnel before she 'tripped into another world'. That's not someone you want to get on the bad side of.