EXTERMINATION

[Uboa]

'...Oh, oh dear God, no,' solemnly said Ellie as she stood over her destroyed campsite, clear footprints of Pokemon and even some that belonged to humans, all around the ruined tent and scattered firewood. She sighed and let out a hmph, nearly biting her finger off in anger as her Flareon, Shirl, did the same, growling and sniffing at the ground to see if she could catch a scent. With a shake of her head and a small smile, however, Shirl stopped and lowered her back, allowing the girl to climb on before letting out a soft purr, the soft crackle of twigs and leaves underneath her paws melding in with the wind and Pokemon that inhabited the dreary forest, 'We might as well start looking for shelter, hm? No use standing around here, now that all our hard work is gone...' Her face turned pensive for a few seconds, the anger now barely visible in her eyes as Shirl did the same, her blue fur shivering as soon as Ellie's body tensed up, almost as if they'd both thought the same thing. Unluckily, the look of childish fear in their faces showed that they had. For a second, they hesitated, but one curious, determined nod from Ellie sent Shirl rushing off deeper into the forest, her speeding nearly causing Ellie to buckle over, let alone nearly having her glasses fall off her face.

However, it wasn't long, as their destination wasn't too far from where their camp used to be, and it was a source for a lot of nights where the girl and her Pokemon would wake up from strange sounds, which they threw in as a) ghosts and spirits or b) Synthetic search parties, neither of which she was curious enough to find out, '...T-The Chateu... It couldn't be just some abandoned building, no, it has to be haunted too...' Shirl shuddered at the thought, and they'd both spend a few minutes just staring at the imposing, Victorian styled mansion, its broken down windows and fading walls only helping the creepy factor that surrounded it. Of course, neither of them wanted to go in, but what were they supposed to do? It could rain at any moment, and it'd be better to be harassed by spirits than to catch a cold and die. '...S-Sure it is. Just t-take us over, Shirl, I don't like being out in the open like this...' Then, they noticed something. What they both guessed were either guard dogs or very pissed off strays were watching them intently, clearly not wanting anyone in that territory. Shirl growled slightly and assumed a pouncing position, ready to attack even if they were behind a rusted, vine covered gate.

Ellie remained calm, however, now forgetting all her previous fears of ghost butlers and demon children. She was worried, of course, for if they were guard dogs, there's the possibility that this was, in fact, Synthetic territory, though the only thing that'd give her away would be her eyes, seeing as Shirl was a synth, and even those, she kept covered up with her hair and glasses, and any sudden move towards that area, she'd see coming. And if they were normal humans, they might confuse her for a synth and shoot her on sight, and she didn't want that either. 'Well, there's really nowhere we can go... I guess let's just wait here, maybe someone will see us...' She shrugged and patted Shirl to have her relax, knowing there was nothing they or the dogs could do, 'Flareon, Flare...' Shirl nodded in understanding and laid down on her paws as Ellie played with her two other Pokeballs in her fingers, though she mostly did it to have them ready to throw out if the need arose, lazily laying back on the Fire-type's back, yawning.

((THAR, IS ALL GEWD NAO. 8D))
​

 

[Strikit]

With his Pokemon flanking him, Kamikaze to his right, Cyco to his left, and Alice floating methodically from one side to the other, Chase slowly and quietly descended the stairs into the entrance hall. No one was there yet, but that was to be expected. As the leader he liked to be there first and therefore have the time to examine everyone properly before leaving. There was no room to leave holes in procedure. That could lead to death easily and unpleasantly.

It didn't take long for the first team member to come in.

"Good evening, Chase," she said softly. Tall, dark haired, and blue eyed, Shauna Anderson was a real knockout. That caused people to underestimate her, but Chase wouldn't make that mistake. He'd seen what she could do with a knife, gun, or whatever else is available. And her team was a force to be reckoned with as well. Her primary Pokemon was a Crobat she called Eddie, and though he was sweet and calm most of the time he was horribly dangerous in battle. Even Cyco had a grudging respect for Eddie. Her other Pokemon was an Ursaring she called Sam. Large, intimidating, and completely calm, he wasn't a danger outside of the battle field. But Shauna was incredible with them, and in any situation it was an asset to have her on the same side. Chase offered her a nod in return, approving of her dark outfit, her hair tied up, and the darkened fur of her Pokemon.

After Shauna a few more people filtered in. Chase approved them and their Pokemon one by one. One of these people was Gerallt. He entered with his Dodrio and Luxray, to Chase's approval. The Dodrio was well prepared, as was the Luxray.

"You'll want to listen close, because I don't have time to repeat myself. You're all adequately prepared, which is good. We're going to stay together and everyone must keep their Pokemon in their sight. You are responsible for your, and their lives. Likewise, your Pokemon are responsible for yours. You will be a real team tonight.

"Now, there are certain Pokemon that have been designated as pack carriers. Those are Gerallt's Dodrio, Hal's Tauros and Jolteon, and Cynthia's Mightyena. I have leather straps in my pockets in case we get more than expected and need more pack carriers.

"On the subject of Synthetics. If we go under attack, aim for the human. Kill them. Incapacitate but do not kill their Pokemon. Find the balls and pull the Pokemon into them. We will bring them back to the Chateau and try to rehabilitate them. The good news, if you are the one who found the Pokemon you have the first claim on it. Cyco here is an example of the benefits of letting a Synthetic Pokemon live.

"That said, I'm not going to lie to you. What we are about to do is incredibly dangerous and some of you may die. But I'm going to do my best to keep you alive. Follow my orders unquestionably and do not be a hero. Now, we're going out the back. I'll take the lead. Once we get outside stay in the shadows and make no sound if you can help it."

Finished, he led the way out through the back door of the Chateau into the forest and proceeded in a southwestern direction.

***

From his position on the rooftop, Nate could see for miles. Guard duty was peaceful, really. Rarely was there any reason to sound an alarm. Most of the time it was just peaceful quiet and solitude. Apparently, however, today was going to be interesting. There was a girl outside of the gate making the guard dogs go crazy. Cursing under his breath, Nate climbed down the roof with his Persian behind him. The dogs were going to arouse suspicion, and that wouldn't do. He dropped down into the yard, causing the dogs to turn around. When they saw him they quieted and flanked him on both sides as they had been trained to do.

"Who are you?" he demanded. "And let me see your irises. Hurry, I won't wait forever."

 

[Serin]

((OOC: RAAAID!!!! :3))

Hours had passed and Jonathan was barely awoke, he had been forcing his eyes to stay open in order to watch the two Synthetics watching him. It was a funny thought to Jonathan and he almost cracked a smile from his beat-up, bruised and bloody face.

They had literally tortured him, well the brute one, Luther, had while the other one, Ivan had been conversing with someone over a screen on a device of some sort. It had sounded as if it were orders and then when he put the device away, he had came back over and whispered something into Luther's ear. His face flushed with anger and punched Jonathan one last time. Then he just stomped over to the opposite side of the cave and sat down angrily, his face red and his eyes mugging Jonathan.

Ivan was a bit more relaxed, he had simply sighed and walked towards the exit of the cave to gaze among something, presumably the towns, or maybe the forest that resides near the mountain. Apparently they had possibly received an order to stay positioned there, or so Jonathan believed. Ivan, not too long before he received the call, had called someone himself, telling about how they had found Jonathan inside the cave and his situation. There wasn't a reasonable explanation for why they would stay there watching him instead of just killing him or taking him to Sunnyshore already, but Jonathan remained thankful that his life was being spared for now.

Just as Jonathan had slumped down a bit to get a bit more relaxed, realizing the two Synthetics didn't have any more plans for him at the moment, a beep began to sound from Luther and he pulled out a device, clicked a button, put it away, and got up to walk towards three bags, two of them looked like supply backpacks and the other one, Jonathan recognized it as a carrier for a sniper. Something was going down tonight, he just knew.

Luther unzipped the bag and set up the large metallic gun, attaching a tripod under it and then a long barrel to the opposite end of the gun than the handle and then a large scope on top of it. He then clipped a cylinder filled with some type of orange liquid, most likely energy ammunition Jonathan guessed, to the end of it and then he lied down, his right eye looking through the scope and the large barrel pointing out of the cave.

Ivan, on the other hand, was rummaging through one of the smaller bags, pulling out different supplies, one of them a small bottle with a blue liquid inside, another object was a syringe a medical doctor would use, then several types of straps which he equipped around his shoulders, crossing his chest, attached to them two pistols, adding to his arsenal of the two pistols he already had clipped to his belt. He then reached behind his belt for a Poke'ball, colored gray and light blue, and released a Weavile; it's fur commonly blue but on it's back it had black tiger stripes, his feathers a deep red along with the gem on it's forehead. His claws were white but the tips were colored black and it's eyes...pitch dark. A small brown bag was tied around it's shoulder.

Ivan picked up the small bottle with the blue liquid in it he had pulled out of his backpack earlier, held his head back, and let some of it drop into both of his eyes, then he did the same to his Weavile. When he reached back down to pick up his backpack, Jonathan caught a glimpse at Ivan's eyes, a bright green color now, and he got up, strapped the bag to his back, then walked over to Luther and whispered something into his ear who seemed not to listen too much, and left the cave, along with his Weavile.

Something is definitely going down...And if things go well, it will be easy escaping. But just as the idea entered Jonathan's head, a Charmeleon popped out of a Poke'ball from Luther's waist, and it walked over to in front of Jonathan. His right arm was pitch black and seemed rather larger than the left and it's claws were definitely a lot larger and looked a lot sharper. The fire on his tail flickered black a few times but then back to it's normal color. "Keep a watch on that punk, will ya?" Luther had called out, and the Charmeleon's eyes glued onto Jonathan, looking as if he would rip through anything that moves even the slightest.

But Jonathan wasn't too worried about that right now, he was wondering about Luther. Can that guy read minds or something? These Synthetics are coming up with something new every day, aren't they? The idea seemed ludicrous, but anything was possible with the technology Synthetics had come up with in the present days, and if it was so, then Jonathan's escape would definitely be a lot harder than he thought.

 

[Uboa]

Ellie sighed happily, for a while, she'd forgotten how peaceful and serene a forest could be. At the same time, she yawned, she'd also forgotten how boring it was when nothing interesting happened, and the dogs yapping were starting to get on her nerves. Shirl rising up from her laying down position and growling caught her attention, however, and she also sat up on her Flareon, her petite figure making her look like a little kid as she tilted her head, watching the strange man walk over. His attitude didn't exactly appeal to her and she rose an eyebrow, Shirl spatting out a small spout of flames from her mouth as a rebuttal while Ellie, calmly but with the same tone as the man, spoke, 'I'm just a woman looking for shelter, you in a hurry to pick some berries or something?' She smirked, but the mention of irises made her shudder, and she glanced at Shirl, just in case he was in fact synth. The Flareon, understanding, nodded, they both knew she wouldn't end up like her mother. She took a quick glance at the man's eyes, but couldn't notice much color from the dark environment, given they didn't look creepy enough to be black. She nonchalantly moved her hair from her eyes and pulled her glasses away, showing her small, blue eyes, tilting her head as she spoke.

'They're natural, too, don't go getting a spoon and gouging out my eyes to make sure, aye?'
​

 

[eveelution]

Gerallt had passed examinations luckily, and he took one last look over OWaIn's harness to make sure he could comfortably carry supplies. The pokemon stood still, and then Balthazar and OWaIn walked towards the doorway, following Chase. Gerallt stood with Balthazar in front of him and OWaIn behind, creeping through the shadowed forest. Balthazar helped pick out a path so that Gerallt and OWaIn didn't make to much noise as they followed Chase.

The forest was spooky, certainly, moonlight flickering the overhanging boughs of trees. O was comforting In, as Wa carefully followed in Gerallt's footsteps. Balthazar was tense, his large bat like ears alert to the sound of cloth as the members of the raid breathed in, out, in, out. He had taken Chase's warning about the lives of his master and teammate to heart, and even Gerallt and OWaIn were taking this seriously.

Gerallt focused on his footsteps, but on the seemingly endless trip his mind wandered. He wasn't worried that the raid might turn violent. No he had been in plenty of violent fights when he had served. What worried him was whether he would survive the night. Whether his inexperience would be blamed if something went wrong. Gerallt shook his head to clear the thoughts from his mind. He would survive, and fill his duty to Sinnoh, and to an extent, to Xavier to the best of his ability.

 

[RainbowMunchies]

The man said his name was Alexander, reaching out to shake Sirius' hand with a firm grip. She sized him up. He seemed nice enough, then again, you couldn't always trust the scientists. They were the ones who did all the dirty work. Well, not all of them, but a majority of them. After all, cloning wasn't exactly a clean process. There were always experiments being run to see what could be improved.

Beneath her, the bike swerved back and forth, going only fast enough to keep upright. It'd been a while since Sirius had ridden a bike. Dosne had always been able to keep up, but Nike had never liked the sensation of riding, and had been too slow to keep up with Dosne. That'd been the end of their bike riding days.

"So," Alexander said, breaking through her memories and distracting her a bit from her riding, "did you have anything that you wanted to talk about?"

"Uh...."

Sirius was drawing a blank. It had been exciting to hear this man had raised Nayna, but other then that, she couldn't seem to think of anything to ask him. Finally, she gave in and asked Generic Question #1.

"What is it you do with the pokemon? Are the little baby pokemon cute?"

She sounded like an idiot. A phrase went through her mind-- better to stay quiet and risk being thought of as stupid, then open your mouth and prove it.

Oh well, what's done is done, she thought to herself, grimacing a bit, and staring straight ahead at the path she was riding on.

 

[X75flames]

"What is it you do with the pokemon? Are the little baby pokemon cute?"

Alexander watched as she shakily rode the bike. Alexnader started walking fast to help her stay up. Her sandslash moved with surprising agility. "I don't see them when they are first cloned. They do all of that on the floor beneath mine. They move the young into the biodome after they become stable. After that it is our job to train them however the person who ordered it sees fit."

Alexander's mind was racing, but maybe he could finaly get some answers. "So, what is it that you do? I mean, I know that you go out, and capture TBs, but what do you do with them when you get back?"

 

[RainbowMunchies]

"Well..."

Sirius wasn't exactly sure how much it was regulation for her to say. This man worked for the T.B.R.A., so it wouldn't be a huge thing to tell him, but...

"Mostly they send me on missions that require extremely trustworthy workers--undercover work and the like, but I'm also assigned to cases where the targets are... expendable..."

She trailed off, not wanting to continue. Not every TB was kept for cloning-- they would be overrun with cages full of True Borns if that were the case! Sometimes, if the TB was compromising too much, or too dangerous to hold, it was necessary to get rid of them. Of course, only certain agents could do this. In many cases, only a certain TB would need to be taken out.

Certain people, Sirius thought bitterly, wouldn't be able to handle putting the limitations on themselves. That Colbie girl for instance...

She hoped Alexander wasn't too curious about why she'd trailed off, but honestly, who wouldn't be? The T.B.R.A. was apparently the growing force of super-cool-crime-fighter. She sighed.

 

[X75flames]

Alexander watched as she let her sentence trail off. 'I'm not going to get much out of her.' Alexander was going to push her further, but when she let out a sigh, he new it was over. He would just have to find a different source. Alexander assumed that she was try hard not to remember something, and didn't want to make it worse, and hurt her. He turned from looking at her, back to the road.

Alexander thought through what else he needed to know. "So, have you, um…, seen where they keep them…?" He hopped that this didn't make whatever she was thinking about worse, but kept looking ahead to keep her from feeling uncomfortable.

 

[RainbowMunchies]

This question struck Sirius as a bit odd. She'd never thought about that-- most of the missions she were sent on were for extermination, and in all other cases she typically handed the target over to a handler before they even reached the towns. She shook her head slowly, still thinking.

"No." she finally said. "I would suppose the head building, but it doesn't look quite large enough..."

Dosne grunted beside her. He was getting annoyed with the speed she was biking-- he couldn't run full-tilt, but he couldn't just walk either. She sighed in exaggeration, hopping off the bike and walking it beside her instead. He seemed happy with this, and waddled up to keep pace next to her, his claws occasionally tapping the sides of her boots.

"So do you ever keep any of the pokemon you particularly like?" she said, hoping to change the mood of the conversation. It would be interesting to see if he got first pick-- she'd actually never seen the pokemon he'd returned earlier, though she'd seen many different kinds on different missions.

 

[X75flames]

"So do you ever keep any of the pokemon you particularly like?"

He watched as Siruis got off the bike. Weird. Her sandlash had also recently started lagging. No matter, these simple observations were pointless. It didn't reveal anything about the sandslash, or its trainer. He turned back to her question.

Alexander thought about it for a second. "No. Most are specialy requested, and it is extremely important that they get to their new trainer. We are given one when we join though. I was also given a Gastly. Since we haven't cloned Ghost pokemon before, they wanted me to see if he was stable. Why? Can't you just request any pokemon that you want?"

 

[RainbowMunchies]

"Oh..."

Sirius thought about the question for a long moment.

"Well, I got Dosne when I was twelve. I begged and worked my butt off to get into the T.B.R.A.-- it was my dream. Finally, they agreed I could join as long as they got to assign me the pokemon. In retrospect, I think Dosne was a leftover. There was a large raid at the time, resulting in a lot of deaths. They were shorthanded-- it was probably the only reason I was able to get in at such a young age."

She laughed-- a melancholy sound. She hadn't cared that she'd been forced to have a sandshrew. Sirius had been so happy to receive Dosne and be accepeted into the force, it hadn't mattered.

"Then Nike-- that's the Prinplup you saw-- I received her when the higher-ups had seen how well I did with Dosne. Her original owner was killed while patrolling the perimeter. She was a wreck when I got her-- just a little scared Piplup. Dosne and I worked together to get her back into shape, and now... well let's just say she's nothing like the shy, timid Piplup I first met."

Again, Sirius laughed. Two down, one to go.

"And then there's Nayna, who you raised. I didn't really tell them what I wanted with him-- just that I didn't want anything too aggressive. I also said something other than the types I already had would be nice-- and voila! Nayna."

Sirius finished that with a smile, reaching down to pat Dosne softly right between the ears. His eyes closed in relaxation-- he could walk like this all day and not get tired, and the sun felt good on his fur.

 

[X75flames]

Alexander shifted through Siruis' retellings of how she got her pokemon. Little helped Alexander decide her motives, or personality. The tower was growing steadily in sight. He turned and once again looked over to Siruis. "You'll need this." Alexander handed her a visitor's pass. "Don't lose it. If we get into the biodome, and you don't have it, I won't be able to help you."

Alexander put the bike back into the rotating rack, and once again watched if float away. He walked back over to Sirius. "Ready to go inside?"

 

[RainbowMunchies]

Sirius took the pass in her hand and nodded. She was ready.

She'd only been in the biodome a few times-- one of those times to pick up Nayna. It wasn't exactly the kind of place her type hung around...

 

[X75flames]

The doors split open, and Alexander walked into the building. The secretary looked up. "Your late you know?"

'Oh crap! I still have to deal with her…' "Sorry, I got caught up in a battle." 'Oh, I'm going to get it bad for bringing Sirius here.' Alexander waited for the snide remarks.

"And you brought a friend? Just make sure she keeps her visitor's pass on." Alexander gratefully walked to the elevator. He was surprised that she didn't mess with him after all that he had put her through today. Alexander waited for Sirius to enter the elevator, since she was following him. He stood there brooding, thinking of all the ways this could, and would, bite him in the butt latter. As Alexander cycled through his upcoming torment, he realized that the secretary hadn't asked about his Gastley. He figured that she was just glad, and didn't want to bring it up, least Alexander bring him out.

(OOC: You can have her talk to you... I'm going to pay for this latter anyways -_-)

 

[RainbowMunchies]

"Hello," Sirius said politely, passing the secretary's desk. She smiled at the woman, who smiled back-- though most likely because it was her job. Sirius had always been interested into what the insides of these buildings looked like, and now she took the chance to glance around before resettling her gaze on the secretary once again. She was a pretty woman, with striking eyes, and for a moment Sirius felt pressured to say something.

"I hope it isn't any trouble for me to keep Dosne out," she gestured down at her Sandslash, a bit embarrassed to be wasting the woman's time. "He isn't fond of pokeball travel, and he won't be any trouble."

Dosne grunted in agreement, staring forward as if looking through the bottom half of the desk. He was lost in some other thoughts. Sirius glanced around and saw other pokemon out and about with their owners-- she mentally punched herself for asking the silly question.

"Of course," the woman spoke in forcefully kind voice, before glancing back down at something on her desk. The woman didn't look back up, and Sirius let out a breath she'd been holding. This conversation was obviously over. Siirus turned, Dosne beside her, and tugged down on the bottom of her shirt before walking over to the elevatpr where Alexander was holding the door for her. She shrugged before speaking.

"Nice lady."

 

[Strikit]

The packs of dogs on either side of Nate bared white fangs and snarled, not appreciating the Flareon's elemental attack. None of them were weak against flames. In fact, they were all resistant or almost impervious. But Flareon still had fangs, and they wanted to assert their dominance over her. Nate's Persian wasn't happy, either. He twitched his tail and hissed, though he knew to behave himself until told otherwise.

"Alright. I'm going to tell you right now before I let you in, betrayal results in death on the spot. Keep your head up so people can see your eyes, and keep your Flareon under control."

He crossed the lawn to the gate with the dogs trailing behind him. A Houndour and Arcanine grabbed the gate and pushed it outward; it was so heavy that just one man couldn't open it, but the mechanism to open it had broken a long time ago.

"Hurry up and get in."

***

Chase led the way with Kamikaze right next to him, Alice floating close behind him, and Cyco behind them. The rest of the party followed in a similar fashion, with their Pokemon around or near them. That was good; if they had set places they could stay together more easily. Chase's feet made a muffled crunching sound every now and then as he stepped on the grass, but that was the only sound he could hear. He thought back to the first raid he'd ever been on. Every now and then he had stepped on a twig, and every time the raid leader had looked close to killing him. His heartbeat had been thundering in his ears, and Kamikaze had seemed nervous as well. But now he led the way like a pro, hardly even uneasy.

With a glance over his shoulder Chase noted that some people did look afraid, but others looked eager. It was a good mix. Fear would keep them alive, and eagerness would make them successful. Breathing in deeply, he enjoyed the scent of the clean night air, but noticed that there was the faintest aroma of rain. Usually he enjoyed rain but right now he hoped that the skies would be clear. Muddy ground would be their enemy and it would wash the paint off of their Pokemon.

Two hours passed in silence as they grew nearer to Floaroma. The scent of flowers wafted on the breeze, letting them know they were getting critically close. He stopped and turned around. Gerallt was the first behind him, so he leaned closer and breathed, "We're close. Be silent. Tell the person behind you and they'll pass it on."

 

[Uboa]

Ellie internally sighed in relief, glad that she didn't have to fight a pack of pissed off clones, though that didn't mean she was scared, no, she was plenty confident she could make an easy escape. Shirl was fast enough by herself and Oyuki could provide a distraction with her Double Team if need be. She nodded at his warning, putting her glasses back on and spinning a small node on the side, the glasses turning clear in seconds as her bright blue eyes, her easy giveaway, shone against what little light there was around them, 'Yeah yeah, I'm not an idiot, feel free to strip-search me if that makes you feel any better, though,' she said with a smirk and a wink at the man as the gate opened.

Shirl relaxed as it opened, knowing she had no reason to bare fangs anymore as she blatantly ignored every last glare and fang she received, walking in with Ellie on top as the gates opened, not even bothering to glance at the two Pokemon that did so. Ellie looked on at the Arcanine with awe, however, remembering the last time she'd seen one back in Ecruteak when she spied in on a trainer battle. The fact that it seemed pretty hostile towards Shirl kept her from patting the dog Pokemon, though, and she sighed as Shirl easily crossed the garden in a few strides, only stopping once they got to the door, blinking curiously at the large entrance before the two of them pushed it open with ease, blinking at the dark, dusty room with confusion, shudders running down her spine as she glanced around, '...Okay, so, the creepy factor is still there. Might as well look around, right Shirl? I mean, if they had a douchebag guard and everything, there must be someone in here, right?'

Shirl shuddered along with Ellie as she walked in more into the house, the sound of the creaking of the closing front door only helping them feel creeped out as Shirl walked over to the closest door she could find, Ellie knocking on it with both a scared expression but an eager one, she'd forgotten the last time she talked with someone aside from her Pokemon, and she was plenty eager for a meal that wasn't two Oran berries and half a Pecha.
​

 

[Strikit]

When the newcomer just trotted in past Nate he began to feel a bit nervous. The True Borns at the Chateau were angry, aggressive, and likely to attack anyone unfamiliar. He would have to do something about that. He hurried in after her with his Persian on his heels and climbed the stairs. Down one of the hallways was a door with a simple X carved into it from what looked to be claws. Nate rapped on it and entered after he was invited.

Sitting at the desk within was Xavier, which made it obvious that this was Xavier's office. The window behind him was boarded up, but the older man had obviously made strides to make the room pleasant. There were maroon drapes over the boards, the floor was clean, and the desk was almost perfect except for nicks here and there that were probably due to its age. Jack the Zangoose stood next to the desk, preening his claws. When Nate entered Jack looked up and offered a quick nod to his Persian.

"Sir, we have another new person," he said quickly. "Her eyes check out, but her Flareon appears to be Synthetic. I know you wish to confront all new people, so I thought you'd like to know."

"Ah yes," Xavier said happily. "It's good to see forces assembling. Jack, come. Nate, you stay here and make sure no one rummages through my desk."

Humming under his breath Xavier got to his feet and left his office with Jack at his heels. As usual, he seemed far less at ease than his master, but that was just part of his personality. However, it did calm him somewhat, listening to Xavier's off key humming. Xavier descended the stairs at a steady pace and quickly found the new girl. She was small, absolutely pixie-like. Her Flareon was by comparison gargantuan. The difference brought Xavier a faint smile.

"Good evening, m'dear," he said cheerily. "We're glad to offer you refuge here. Might I ask your name? And your Flareon's, of course."

Jack offered a slight bow and inclination of his head. [My master and I extend the hospitality of all of the Chateau's resources.]

 

[Uboa]

Ellie heard the front door suddenly open and that just made the poor girl and the Fire-type jump up in surprise, but quickly relaxed when all they saw was Douchebag Guard and his Persian walk in, groaning a little as Shirl sighed in relief, 'Gah, it's like they're trying to give us a heart attack... Just lay down in the corner, I'll walk around for a little bit and see if anyone can lead us to... somewhere,' Ellie said with a sigh as Shirl nodded, albeit worryingly as she was afraid to let the girl wander around by herself, but she was hardier than her size let on. Before Ellie could dismount her trusty steed, however, a new pair walked into the foyer, and the two of them quickly walked over.

The older looking man and his Zangoose certianly looked friendlier than the first bunch, and she could see the color in their eyes, normal, ordinary human and Pokemon. 'If this really had been some sort of trap, we'd be captured and knocked out by now, anyways...' The kind way he talked left Ellie with a smile and Shirl instantly took a liking, relaxing quickly in their presence, 'It's safe to assume you're the owner of this humble abode? I'm Ellie, Ellie Bauzá and this big ol' furball is Shirl. And yours, my good man and Zangoose?' She smiled big and offered her small hand, the fact that she was on Shirl still not helping the fact she was shorter than the man, which internally annoyed her to no end. Her eyes began to wander towards the stairs where the man had come from, curious to know if they were the only ones here, something she truly doubted from his use of words.

Shirl, although relaxed, wasn't completely comfortable around the strangers but understood the two of them meant no harm, bowing her head towards the Zangoose in greeting before speaking in her Pokemon language, 'A-Ah, thank you, I hope you'll excuse the intrusion... Though, it is safe to say we are not the only ones here, are we? I can smell other humans and Pokemon...' Shirl turned her head towards the stairs for a second, only now realizing how much bigger the mansion seemed inside before turning back to the Zangoose, blinking curiously, 'I'll assume this is some sort of collective shelter for people hiding form the clones?' A part of her stung at the term, clone, knowing she was nothing more than that, a clone of a Flareon. Her blue fur, black eyes and large size only made her sigh, but she quickly pushed it to the back of her mind. Clone or not, that was behind her now, all that mattered was Ellie's well being.​