Ahriman's Story

Deep within the catacombs, a lone woman in a large grey jacket silently walked around a corner. While brown heels making odd noises across the dusty floor within the catacombs, her murky magenta eyes barely gave anything away as to her thoughts. Pausing for a moment, she shook her head, her short pale green hair waving about. With what seemed to be a gesture of regaining her bearings, the woman continued onward.

It was only the sound of a small rock clattering along the ground in the dark ahead that made the woman stop and take up a defensive posture. Creeping forward at a slower pace, the woman closed her eyes and took a short breath before opening them again. Relaxing her stance, she looked into the dark ahead of her, and then glanced behind her.

"I already know you're hiding in the shadows around me, evil spirit. It's like hide and seek, only we're not playing a game. Not of that kind." The woman spoke as she turned around, still looking around her warily. Her face never changed expression. Again, the crackling of rocks and bones, though this time, a voice with a robotic bent followed.

"Evil spirit? It has been a long time since one used such a nickname for me. However, that means..."

The woman took a more solid stance in the direction the voice came from. As the pattering of something running towards her intensified, she prepared herself for the inevitable contact. Then, it came, a large black bipedal fox-like creature tackled the woman, pushing her to the ground as it positioned itself over her, the sound of metal quite prominent with every action.

"That you are she... Rachel, it has been a long time," it snarled with a sadistic joy. "It has been a long, long, time."

Finding herself on her back, pinned under the large fox, the woman's eyes met the light blue eyes belonging to it. "Time cannot be long. It isn't a material thing. It has been a while, however, Ahriman."

Tracing a claw down her chest, the bipedal fox smirked. "Still as peculiar as always. You always did irritate me. Your father, he's quite accomplished now, and I must thank him for being able to see you again like this..."

"So his experiments worked. That sounds like him. Always trying new things." Rachel's breaths grew more tense as she recalled what this fox used to be known for. While she never really understood her father's decisions, she never questioned them. Something made her feel quite uncomfortable however, especially pinned down as she was.

"Yes, it is a quality I find I like. It also means his daughters are quite the prey. The mere thought has me... excited."

The woman looked aside. "... Your cruelty is unusual among your species. Ahriman... I know you. You will try again..." She paused for a moment. "But you also know there are many who will try and stop you."

The fox laughed. "Like they could do anything to me! No. I feel like I have the strength to take on a thousand. Tens of thousands! They'll all kneel before me as I complete my revenge... Especially against that one woman, and my own offspring." In its anger, it dragged the woman as it ran the claw deeper, tearing part of the woman's dress as her jacket came unzipped and fell aside. Lifting her and pinning her against the wall, it snarled.

Without missing a beat, the woman looked back at the fox, her eyes meeting its own once more. "Revenge won't satisfy you. No matter how many you exact it upon."

Another claw, this time resulting in her dress being ripped down the center. "You still know how to make me angry! You Humans are all the same!" He threw her to the floor as he looked over her. "No one will stop my vengeance! I will not lose this time!"

"Ahriman... We are not enemies. My father will likely provide aid, though we will have to fight each other eventually. Even my ability to let you go about your evil ways will wear off." The woman sat up, silently figuring out how to stand on her own at the moment.

"Graaah! Take me to your father! Enough of your prattle! If you get in the way of my vengeance, I'll make you beg for forgiveness at my feet!"

The woman pulled herself up using a wall and her legs. "Fine. Follow me." The woman released a Probopass, which she immediately took to riding as the Pokemon made sure to fetch her jacket. "Ahriman... You know what is to come. I'll keep an eye on events. Let's see what happens."

"Yes... Let's..." The fox stated as it followed the woman out of the catacombs.

Several more Trainers would surround the crash site, all pondering about what had occurred. Among them, one Trainer cleared them aside to make a path for himself. He was still dressed in his chef's outfit, his blond hair also impeccable, but he approached firsthand.

Out of the way, all of you. Keep a safe distance from the impact point.

The man brandished a Poke Ball and sent out a Starmie that proceeded to help create a patrol space, ensuring that the crowd was kept a distance away. Around this time, a woman arrived with a camera crew in tow as well. Her pink hair was in twin braids, and her orange glasses were peculiar in style.

And would you look at that! We're live on the scene of an incredible impact in the center of Lumiose City! We'll take you in for a closer look at the mysterious situation!

Somehow, she seemed to have some sass, or bite, to her tone. Nonetheless, she smiled as she saw the Starmie, and the man to whom it belonged. Once off mic and camera, she approached him.

Siebold! How nice of you to make it here. You work hard.

The man adjusted his outfit and nodded, serious as ever.

Yes, Malva. Some of us enjoy what we do. Now, regarding this situation, I've sent someone to speak to Clemont. Rachel is also en route.

Malva nodded.

Wonderful, Siebold! I'll see if I can get an interview with that man tending to the impact zone.

Malva would go with her camera crew to get a closer look as she approached Jakob.

Sir, we'll ask you to back a bit away from the... person who fell here! Oh my goodness! Well, I suppose I should ask you what you saw. Care to tell everyone at home what you witnessed as we get medical personnel on the scene?

In the shadows, a pair of gleaming eyes observed the situation, avoiding Siebold's Starmie, and it's careful patrol as medical crews began to arrive.

Fortunately for Khima, who couldnt even hope to reply toi Jakobs question, he'd covered her with his trenchcoat nicely. Even then her hair did the rest. Khima herself was in shock, and soon the scent of motor oil could be scented by pretty much everything, but it was a certain type of motor oil in question. extremely expensive military grade motor oil was in this womans bloodstream. Stuff that only starships and starfighters could use without burning out their energy cores.

Two other women at the edge of the city were hampered briefly before one of them managed to translate rthe words of the guard into basic to at least communicate with the guy that they wanted to go to the city to the impact zone where their sister was. It took a bit of doing but eventually they got through and headed into the city, using Khimas smoke trail as their compass they soon arrived at the plaza

"Khima is in there ?" Jadwa asked pointing to the sudden throng of people surrounding a obliterated fountain plaza

"I think so, wait, you smell that ?" Aliyah replied, the black dressed woman and green dressed woman took a strong snifgf "Khima might be injured, if I am smelling her last oil bath frokm this far... "

Jadwa smirked "Relax Green Leader, relax, I smell something tinny too nearby, like a Droid or something, maybe they could help Khima ?" Aliyah traded looks briefly with Jadwa's manner of thinking, of course Jadwa was worried about their sister. Shye too smelled the droidlike smell.. Finally Aliyah nodded and allowed Jadwa to try and contact the tinny smell, in this case Jakob vy wireless, of course trust Jadwa to forget entirely that her comms were fucked to begin with it only gave Jakob some garbled feedback with the question, though trusting he had inrternal comm scrubbing ability he could easily make it out "Hi, Green 3 here, is Green 9 OK?"

In truth, the android paused for only a moment. Something whirred behind his “eyes” as he performed a quick read of the woman's face in front of him. “No response… conscious, but no recognition. In shock?” It was then that the android flung the trenchcoat around the woman, regardless of consent.

Immediately after that action, his motion tracker pinged, indicating someone was approaching. Multiple blips, to be specific, led by a person calling after him. The first thing Jakob noticed was the tell-tale signature of an approaching news camera.

“Are you local law enforcement?” Jakob asked the lady who approached with a metal-toned voice, clear and concise, like a soldier. He did not speak unkindly, but he did stand between the news crew and the mysterious woman as if he didn't trust them. The android wasn’t as familiar with Ruulan uniforms, but Malva didn’t appear to be dressed like a police officer. “If not, I must recommend you maintain your distance in case of foreign contamination.” Jakob held up a hand, but kept his distance from the reporter. After all, the machine woman who came crashing down came crashing down from space. Who knew what microbes latched on during space travel amongst the dust and stars? Jakob, being a machine, was not susceptible to such microbes, but he wasn't entirely knowledgable of the typical Ruulan immune system.

“As far as I can tell, this woman has an advanced cybernetic physiology. It would explain how she could survive a crash landing from space.” Jakob added in response to the news woman’s question. “Anything outside of that, I cannot say with certainty at this time. I will need to perform a full diagnostic.”

When the medics proper arrive, Jakob would not hesitate to inform them of his analysis. However, it was at that point where he started picking up some sort of static on unencrypted COMM channels. The android glanced around, unable to find the source. The audio was heavily garbled, likely due to a combination of factors, but especially the presence of so many radios within downtown Luminose.

"What the hell? That wasn't an ordinary explosion...that felt more like an impact. Best stay back and let them handle this until things start exploding..." A man looked down from his luxurious hotel window at the commotion...and got the best view in the house in more ways than one.

"Guess I'd better get dressed anyway. All the years I've been doing this, whenever something falls down from space, it's either bad in itself or it releases something that is. And holy shit, that redhead...I'd love to get HER number sometime." Grunting, a young, well muscled Terran man started putting on his advanced suit of armor. Far more refined than the Expansion Suit, built for the rigors of defending Wing City and all the horrors that that implied. This was the Andee suit. And he was a TETRS agent, codename Vandal. Any threat to Ruula was a threat to Terra by proxy due to the existence of a rumored portal. There had to be one...otherwise, how the hell did he get here? And thus was the explosives expert roused into action.

"Good thing about getting to take my suit out here...I get my full arsenal, not just the mini boomers I carry with me for emergencies like that last time."

It was here, suddenly, that a large figure stepped out of the shadows. In a full reveal, a large and imposing fox-like creature stepped into the open, dark in color, and clearly blended together with all sorts of mechanical parts. Having caught the attention of some trainers on the skirts of the scene, the creature stepped forward, slowly but surely making its way past the crowd.

Noticing it, the Starmie flew low and proceeded to block its path before being swatted aside with a swipe of claws delivered with great speed, the Starmie itself flying into a trainer standing nearby as both he and the Starmie crashed into the outer wall of a building nearby, a cafe.

In...my way. Get out of my way! I have unfinished business with you all.

As some of the other trainers in the are began stepping aside, Siebold and Malva both dropped what they were doing, even before they could respond to Jakob, and both retrieved Poke Balls.

Well our business here isn't finished. Now your rude interruption makes me so mad, I could just burn you up! Though if you really want to interfere here, you are welcome to battle us!

As my colleague has stated, we cannot allow you to continue unimpeded into this area. Stand back now before we must move you ourselves.

The fox-like creature smirked. The metallic croak in its already low and evil voice only made it scarier somehow.

I will not be leaving here without a trophy of my efforts. Anything less would not be worth this trip! I will see all of you torn apart! I cannot stand idly by and watch more of you go about your sick and pathetic lives! I'll be taking the girl since I lack for proper entertainment these days, and it is clear all of you feel she is important to a large degree. What suffering it will cause then if I take her from you all!

The fox-like creature seemed ready to make a run for Khima.