Saylee—Pokémon: 16 Deaths: 12
Key—Pokémon: 9 Deaths: 7
Archie—Pokémon: 6 Deaths: 3
Blue—Pokémon: 6 Deaths: 1
{Darnua 19th, 10:10 am}
{Snowpoint Lodge, Route 216}
Because the lodge primarily catered to groups of skiiers and snowboarders, the training hall was much smaller than the cavernous rooms usually found in Pokémon Centres and hostels on routes frequented by trainers. The ceiling was high, at least, allowing a bit of space for winged Pokémon to fly, but the floorspace was only half the size of a regulation battlefield. When Saylee saw it, she started calculating how many they could have out at a time, who would be best to train with who, how to use the space efficiently without slacking on anybody's training.
"This is tiny!" Key exclaimed.
"Yeah, we noticed," Star muttered as she and Sally loped into the room. "Everybody's gotta take turns at training."
"We've got to introduce everybody to each other first, though, right?" Sally asked, sniffing obnoxiously at the pokeballs in Archie's hands until Star batted her sister away with a paw to her nose. Sally stuck her tongue out at Star and then turned back to her trainer. "The Princess said that you have Prince! I'd like to finally meet this guy, and I'm sure that Terra would be overjoyed to see him again…"
Saylee scratched behind Sally's torn-up ears. "Should we reunite Caelin, Prince and Terra first, then?"
"You think Prince is ready for that?" Blue asked Archie.
Archie singled out a pokeball that had to be Prince's, staring contemplatively at it. "I think so," he said slowly. "I think he has a lot to say to Caelin, anyway. I don't know about Terra…"
"I think she'll be happy to see him," Key assured him, edging away from Star before releasing her little Turtwig.
"Keep your distance, twiglet," Star snarled possessively. Terra took a startled step backwards.
Saylee released Caelin, who immediately took in Star glaring at Terra and scooped her handmaiden up in her arms. "Sal, control your sister," the princess ordered imperiously.
"Never seen anybody do that," Sally muttered, smiling at Terra. "Terra, this is my sister Star. Star, be nice to Terra, she's my friend."
"It is an honour to meet you," Terra said politely, bowing her head slightly to Star. "Your sister is an exemplary warrior and a great Luxray. You must be very proud."
"Well… yeah," Star said, tipping her her and then backing up to sit next to Archie.
Caelin narrowed her eyes on Archie. "And we believe that this human is Prince's kidnapper," she continued coldly.
"Enough with the kidnapper stuff, okay?" Archie grumbled as Terra narrowed her eyes in a glare startlingly similar to her princess'. "Prince wanted to… you know what, I'll let him explain himself." He opened the pokeball that he'd singled out.
The regal black-and-blue Pokémon towered over Saylee, the golden crest that curved around his head making him look even taller. Though he was a foot and a half taller than Caelin, he shrank back nervously as Caelin's crowning flame flared up angrily when she noticed him. "Prince!" she snapped. "So, we find you at last! What have you to say for yourself?"
"Princess!" the Empoleon said in surprise, straightening up. "What a surprise to see you here…"
"Prince!" Terra said, sounding somewhat happier. "You're okay!"
"We shall see," Caelin said darkly.
"Forgive us, Princess," Prince said, bowing until he was deferentially lower than Caelin. "What can we say? We knew you longed to be stronger and rise in your clan. We only hoped to raise our own strength to your equal."
"And you could not tell us this before allowing yourself to be kidnapped by this villain because…?" Caelin snapped, gesturing at Archie.
"Don't you trash talk my boys," Star snarled, fur rising as she sparked angrily.
"Leave it, Twinkle," Sally said, nipping at her sister's ear. "This is important."
"Time was short… but you are right," Prince sighed. "I was wrong not to inform you first. Forgive me. I have heard humans say, though, that it is better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission," he added with a little smile.
"Tch… spineless," Caelin muttered. "We beg for nothing. You are still beneath us…" she glared up at him. "...no matter how much taller you have become."
"He has certainly raised his strength, has he not, my lady?" Terra pointed out, smiling up at Prince. She tilted her head, her smile fading a little. "Though… you look like no Empoleon I have ever seen," she added. "Are you quite alright, Prince?"
"My evolution was indeed… unnatural," he admitted, reaching self-consciously for his crest. "But I am uninjured and in no pain, I simply look different, that is all."
Blue nudged Saylee with his elbow, showing her the screen of his pokedex. The Empoleon depicted on it bore a golden trident crest on its face rather than the curved crown that arched over the back of Prince's head, and the majority of its body was black, not the gentle blue that Prince was.
"Signal?" Saylee whispered. Blue nodded with a grim expression on his face.
"If you have indeed sought to raise your strength, do you too seek to claim your clan's throne?" Caelin asked Prince. "When we defeat Indra, the pair of us will no longer be viable as mates, but…" she smiled proudly at him. "We would be proud to have one so tenacious as an ally."
"I am honoured," Prince said, smiling back. "As for my clan… I do not know, at this time. I may have the power, perhaps, but I also have the power now to take any other fate of my choosing. I have not chosen yet, but…"
"Well, we suppose we have more pressing matters to concern ourselves now," Caelin allowed. "Galactic's fate must come swiftly. Do you intend to fight alongside us to that end?"
"But of course," Prince said, bowing again. "Not as a prince of the waterlands, nor as your betrothed… but simply as a Pokemon of this land who will no longer allow these transgressions to pass." His expression darkened. "For it must be done," he muttered softly. "Done it must be to guard ourselves, and for it…"
"We apologize for nothing," Caelin said darkly. "Very well. Let us meet your companions, and then we shall introduce you to our own retinue."
"I think that went well….?" Saylee muttered.
"Nothing's on fire, so I guess so," Key suggested.
Terra glanced over at them. "My lady, perhaps we ought to introduce our humans to Prince first?" she suggested.
"But of course… these are our trusted advisors, Sar Saylee and Lady Key," Caelin said, gesturing to Saylee and Key. "And Terra, the other human is Sar Kanto's mate, Sir Blue."
"Not Sir, Lord or anything like that," Blue said with a shrug. "Just Blue. Blue Oak."
"I'm honoured to make your acquaintance," Prince said, bowing politely to Saylee and Key. "And Star, who is this other Luxray and why are you tolerating her standing so close to you? That's unusual."
"This is my cub sister, Sally," Star said, nudging up against Sally. "Her I can tolerate. The rest of them really need to back away from my boys."
"We were here first," Key shot back. "So, Archie, can we meet the rest of your Pokémon? And can I meet yours too, Blue? I mean, I bet Lee already knows them all, but…"
"Actually, I've picked up a couple new ones," Blue said, picking a couple of pokéballs out of his pocket.
"You? You hate training new Pokémon," Saylee said in surprise, openly gaping at the pokeballs.
"Yeah, well, stuff happens… Archie first," Blue said, mock-bowing Archie forwards while pocketing his pokeballs again.
"Well, aside from Prince and Star…" Archie pulled four more pokéballs out of his pocket, stared at one for a long moment, then pocketed it with a shudder before releasing a Beautifly, a Rapidash and a Buizel. "Warin, Pegasus and Basil… meet Princess Caelin, Terra, Key, Saylee and Sally."
"Oh, he's gorgeous," Saylee blurted out, reaching a hand out towards the Rapidash, before quickly jerking it back. "Whoops… I'm asking to get burned doing that. Sorry."
"No, no, darling… do continue," the Rapidash said, flaring his mane proudly.
"Watch out, Archie, I think Pegasus has a new favourite human," the Beautifly said wryly, before fluttering over to the pin in Key's hair. "Hey, is that-? Oh, wait, it's not real…" He coughed delicately and fluttered around in front of Key. "Uh, hi," he said awkwardly. "I'm Warin… but you knew that already."
"You're gorgeous too," Key offered.
"Damn straight," Warin said proudly.
"Please don't get them competing over who's more beautiful," Prince muttered. "And try not to startle Basil. He can be a little jumpy."
"I'm not that—AAAAH!" Basil shrieked, flipping about a foot in the air as Shanks materialized through the floor.
"Ahhh, that never gets old," Shanks chuckled. He turned to Prince. "'Sup, Swabbie. I see you survived meetin' your lady again, huh?"
"Is that… Shanks?" Prince gasped. "You became a ghost? Did Pete—?"
"Nah, just me," Shanks said, waving He glanced sideways at Blue. "He, uh… well, don't know how ta explain the whole thing, but he didn't want ta stay," the dead Sharpedo said a little awkwardly. "Said being a ghost wasn't his scene, and he had faith ya'd handle shit without him anyways…"
"...Yeah, I couldn't see Pete staying as a ghost," Blue admitted, rubbing his arms as if chilled, even though the cabin was very well heated, especially with Pegasus preening his flaring mane. "We've dealt with ghosts enough, and they're..." he shuddered again, glancing at Saylee. "Fair warning, Shanks is by far the least freaky ghost in this building right now."
"The least… how many ghosts are there here?!" Saylee asked, looking around nervously.
"Just one more," Blue assured her, "it's just a doozy."
"Is it something to do with that last pokéball that you put back in your pocket?" Key asked.
Archie nodded. "This one, uh… kinda possessed me for a while," he said, taking the Ultra Ball back out of his pocket and showing it to them. "His name's Sutekh… probably… and he's a ghost-type called a Spiritomb. Long, gruesome story short—seriously, if you want to know how Spiritomb are made, look it up yourself because I want to puke just thinking about it—he's made up of a hundred and eight angry human souls and he's kinda Zubatshit insane. He's a bit easier to control now that I've got him in a pokéball, and he's got a lot of power that comes in handy in a pinch, but I kinda prefer not taking him out if at all possible. I hope you don't mind me not introducing him."
"Most ghosts are pretty unpleasant one way or another, so yeah, that's fine," Saylee said quickly. Shanks made a face at her. "Okay, Gengar are one thing when you're not in a malevolent mood, but as it happens I have heard rumours about how Spiritomb are made and I really don't wanna learn more."
"We do not approve of this criminal having control of a dangerous spirit," Caelin said with a frown.
"Would you stop callin' him a criminal?" Star growled angrily.
"He kinda is, Twinkle," Sally chastised her sister. "Y'know, with the whole committing crimes thing…"
Blue laughed. "She's got you pegged," he said, nudging Archie.
"We'll deal with him after Galactic," Saylee said, looking curiously at her boyfriend. "Your turn, Blue. Who are your new Pokémon?"
Blue juggled his pokéballs with a grin; three that Saylee knew, three that she didn't. "You're gonna love 'em," he promised, tossing the first few into the air.
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Okay, introductions are gonna take a while and this chapter got ABSURDLY overlong so I've split it-the key part of this one is Caelin, Terra and Prince reuniting, after all. Next week will be the end of introducing characters to each other and on with the plot, I promise :P (And for anybody who's curious and hasn't been reading Deliverance, I did actually write a recipe to create a Spiritomb. Warning for gore and the fact that I have a more than slightly morbid sense of humour.)
Tragically, Key has left me again to go on to further travel in the US Q_Q Wish her luck and no more shenanigans in airports!
SAYLEE
Princess Caelin the Infernape, Sally the Luxray, Zoe the Crobat, Ferne the Floatzel, Shanks the Gengar
KEY
Terra the Turtwig, Tashigi the Togetic, Maya the Azumarill, Ephraim the Leafeon, Raiden the Rotom, Gareth the Gallade
ARCHIE
Prince the Empoleon, Star the Luxray, Warin the Beautifly, Pegasus the Rapidash, Sutekh the Spiritomb, Basil the Buizel
BLUE
Sam the Blastoise, Gary the Arcanine, Adam the Alakazam, Eira the Electabuzz, Girish the Gabite, Rashad the Lucario