Adventure Thread - Group A

Holly shrugs. "I don't know either, but this seems like a rather drastic move. D'Mara, or whoever the Usurper is, seem like they're more crazy than anything. Imagine the power it must have taken just to defeat a Legendary Pokemon in the first place, let alone to then steal their power. I mean, I like to think I'm pretty strong, but I know for sure there is no way I could take on a Legendary Pokemon and win. Even the two of us together with all our Pokemon would probably be no match for a Legendary Pokemon at its full strength. Which means we'd have to find one that is already weakened...and we don't even know where to find one for sure!"

Holly sighs and just slinks up to Rei, cuddling up to her to distract her from such distasteful thoughts.

Holly leans against Rei a bit more aggressively, and even goes as far as placing a hand on her leg to get her attention.

Holly steals a kiss from Rei and slinks into her lap to distract her further from her own thoughts!

"Yeah. You can come I guess. My test should be....within two or three days. I'll let you know when I'm going." Tiki has nothing else to do for the day, so she turns in for the day.

---

In the morning, Tiki yawns, and goes to get up out of bed. She nearly slips, and hits her head! A sign of danger!? No...She slipped on....slime? In fact, there was slime everywhere! Where would it come from? World of coarse! He seemed blind, went wherever he wanted, but this was a bit much. After a bit of looking over the room, he was nowhere to be found. "Where are you, World? You got this room all dirty." Tiki follows the slime trail...and it leans outside? Tiki tracks the slime trail all down the halls, and ends up outside the guild. Tiki feels water hit her nose, and looks up to dark, now rainy skies. "Huh....Rain came out of nowhere...." Perhaps World really needed the water. Tiki finds the slimy goober, and he is wiggling all over the place. "World there you are! Are you....rain dancing?" The Sliggoo wiggled, and waggled in the rain until he started glowing! He grew into a massive form, and as the glow faded, there stood a big, round, purple creature. It sniffed around i nthe rain, looked back at Tiki, it's big, cute eyes sparkled when they spotted Tiki, it lumbered over, and picked up Tiki in a large, goopy hug! "Bwah!? Wha-!? World! Look at you! You got super big!" Tiki returns the hug as the big goop continues to cover its owner in slime.

Clay wakes up to a surprise, too. An unexpected and rather damp weight settles on his chest, and he's awakened by a deep-voiced croak to find himself staring up into a familiar face somewhat larger than before. "Sandy! Sheesh, you guys all like to evolve in the middle of the night when I'm not watching, huh?" Clay sits up - with some difficulty, since Sandy is almost as tall as him now and weighs a good deal more - and, noticing that Sandy's head-fin is now two fins, scratches the amphibian between them.

Unfortunately, the pleasant surprise gives way to contemplating the future. Rei and Holly are gone, and Tiki's still going, as far as he knows. And now he has to decide what to do.

Does he stay at the Guild? The Usurper has proved her agents can reach there, and she might be in a position of power herself if Rei's suspicions were true - but on the other hand, the only way to really be any more safe would be to drop off the Usurper's radar completely, and Clay suspects that wouldn't be as easy as breaking your trail to give a predator the slip. Not to mention that the Guild has resources he wouldn't have easy access to elsewhere - the healers, the library (if he ever learns to read well enough for it to be useful), the vendors, space for his Pokémon to stay.

Does he go to Cerulean? Kalani is there, and ample places to train, and the relatively small village might have fewer potential spies for the Usurper... but on the other hand staying with Kalani might put her in the line of fire. The Usurper almost certainly isn't above striking at people he cares about.

What about Celadon? That's where Rei said she was going, to research in the Grand Library, and it's where Tiki is eventually headed, too. There may very well be safety in numbers. But it's unfamiliar territory for Clay, and if anything at all in the dreams is to be trusted, it's also the Usurper's eventual target. The Usurper would have to be an idiot not to have scouts there if she had any chance to do so, just as a matter of strategy.

He sighs and rests his forehead against Sandy's, testing out the lower croaks Sandy makes as a Swampert. "Such a mess. Well, it won't get better sitting here. Right, buddy?" "Swam-perrrrt." Sandy burbles his agreement and pat's Clay's shoulder with a broad, strong hand.

The decision about leaving, at least, can be tabled for a few days. Smith is forging his new staff, and he knows Tiki isn't planning on leaving until after her performance. In the meantime... he can train, he can keep a lookout, and he can figure out who to talk to and what to say to them in the Guild while he's still definitely here. And Fan and Sandy are both in their prime now... maybe he should think about finding tutors who might be willing to teach them techniques they wouldn't master on their own.

Speaking of training... before breakfast, he makes sure Peng is in his lineup. Peng is his only teammate who can really fly - Flower and Thunder both float through the air but neither is as fast as Peng's wings, nor can they fly as high. So Peng is his best line to the others if something goes wrong, especially to Rei all the way out in Cerulean. Maybe he should see about finding another flying Pokémon, but in the meantime Peng is lagging behind the rest of his A-team a little and needs some training, if only so he can fight his way free to go for help if Clay really needs it.

At breakfast, Clay coaches Peng over his new duties in between bites. "Okay, this is important. From here on out a dangerous enemy might make an appearance. You're gonna be my long-distance distress call - if things go really bad, I might call you out and tell you to go to Tiki, or Rei." When he refers to his friends, he says their names aloud in human language. "You remember them, right? Tiki's got red hair and a loud voice, Rei's got white hair and flowing clothes. If you're looking for Rei you can also find the girl with blue hair and a Honedge - that's Holly, she'll be close by Rei and can take you to her. For now Tiki's probably going to be somewhere around this building or this city, and Rei will be in the other human settlement to the north; if they go on the move I'll update you. You got all that?"

Peng salutes with his leek. "You can rely on me, boss. Tiki's red, Rei's white, Holly's blue; Red's around here, White and Blue are to the north. You give me the word, I go to them." Curiously, he quacks, "So who's this dangerous enemy, anyway?"

Clay grimaces. "I dunno if I can explain it properly, but they're bad news. Work for a big bird of prey and want to take over everything. Predators who're never full."

He'll wait around a while at breakfast in case Tiki comes by and has anything particular to say. If she doesnt turn up or doesn't stick around, he'll head to training and debate with himself how much he should tell Instructor Mason about the attack on Rei and her suspicions. Accusing D'mara to the Guild would be a big deal - you don't challenge one of the dominants if you know what's good for you, not unless you're sure you can take them on or you have backup, and he's pretty sure that if he suggests D'mara is responsible for what happened to Rei it's not going to go anywhere good without really solid proof.

This is unexpected news, and the way Clay's thoughts are running this morning, he can't help thinking about what it means for his strategy. In three days, he'll have his staff and Tiki will have had her performance - with any luck Rei won't yet have left for Celadon. If he can get Tiki on board, they can search for the tree Ming-Na told him about together quite easily... and, on a more personal note, he can see the troop again and maybe even get a rematch with Brenda without much fuss. That could be cool, assuming he can find time in between the world-saving.

"If he wants a reply now, you can tell him I'd be happy to come along." Clay gives the messenger a bright smile. "Oh, and thanks for reading it out. Sorry, I know it's kind of a pain."

Tiki has had some fun checking out her new tubby dragon, but everyone around the guild has seemed on edge. Tiki feels the rain started by World is starting to affect the mood. This whole end of the world situation was also starting to eat away at her resolve to just ignore it. Something just felt....off around the guild. As Tiki stared at the rainy clouds, she felt they might darken over time...If this Usurper was going to move again, she needed to be harder to find. But, first, she wanted to have a quick talk with Miss Genevive. Tiki makes her way towards her office.

Tiki shifts around a bit, and approaches the desk. "Hi Ms G...I'm doing alright I guess. How are things around the guild?"