Earl Knight's Story

After Jennifer and DIN-06 had been sufficiently filled up, as if on cue another dish was immediately brought out. A new set of young women in lavish furisode dresses accompanied the dish. "We hope you enjoyed your first course! Here's your second course, Chirashi sushi!" one of the girls explained, spreading out. "The chef recommends four minutes before eating this dish." she explained "And you know what that means!" all three girls said simultaneously. "Let's pass the time with a battle!" they want on, drawing and priming pokeballs.

Three pokemon emerged onto the field: A scizor, a gliscor and a hippowdon. A localized sandstorm brewed around the party, flowing freely from Hippowdon's nostrils. The two DINs glanced at each other momentarily before calling out in unison. "I choose you, Aegislash!"

Two aegislash emerged onto the field, though Jennifer likely knew what was actually going on.

----

Meanwhile, on an unsuspecting street corner, a small crowd stopped to take notice of the oddly dressed individuals. To say that they'd never seen anything quite like it was an understatement. Children stopped to point and ask questions of their elders, travelers attempted to discern the purpose of their equipment. Was that armor? Such odd tastes for a walk in the city! A well dressed man studied the contents of a book nearby, content to enjoy the sunlight perhaps. None approached however, either unnerved by the puzzling weapons they were sporting or convinced the group was far too busy to stop and talk.

...One young woman seemed to have a bit more purpose than the rest. She was wearing rather form-fitting clothing that exposed her mid-rift and sporting an athletic body build accompanied by hair that was barely restrained into the form of a luxuriously huge pony tail. She readily approached the men, eyeing them up and down speculatively. A belt full of tiny red and white balls rested comfortably upon her hips.

"Evenin' sirs." she announced, adjusting her hat slightly to sit more comfortably upon her head. "Y'all a'lil lost?" she wound up asking, eyeing the weaponry in a manner that suggested she knew exactly what they were and was slightly nervous seeing such things in the crowded city.

Jennifer nervously looked to the two robots as she shielded her eyes from the blowing grit. How was this legal in a restaurant? Looked like they had a plan, but she ran through some numbers. Between the speed, the sand vulnerability and the moveset, the illusion would be unbelievable right away as soon as it attacked or was attacked. Of course, that was Zoroark's whole shtick. Throw off the foe just enough to gain an edge. Very physically defensive, this team...so this is why she was asked to bring special attackers. Serena was leading the charge this time...

"Ferrothorn, use Leech Seed on Gliscor!" Power Whip wouldn't do enough, and Gliscor had a nasty habit of healing itself. Plus, it would dodge Hippowdon's EQ and it was the fastest of the enemy bunch, making it a primary target. She wanted to force the enemy team to use contact moves, when King's Shield and Iron Barbs would come in handy.

The three soldiers looked back at the young woman with mixed reactions; Marcus seemed intrigued and cautious, while Charley seemed wary, and cautious. 'Ost' was pleasantly surprised that one of the locals had come and spoken to them, albeit he still seemed to have a careful caution about him.

All in all they had just gotten slightly less at ease, given that few had seen fit to come talk to them, outside of one brief run-in with the authorities.

It was Marcus that spoke up in response. "Evening," he began carefully. "Ma'am," he added. "Er, Miss?" He paused, flustering himself.

Thankfully 'Ost' came to his rescue. "After a fashion," he replied to her inquiry. "We are emissaries of the Holy God-Emperor of Man, and have been dispatched here to make a pilgrimage," he said reverently.

Marcus broke out into a slight sweat. Devout to the Emperor though he was, Ost claiming to be pilgrims in unfamiliar territory worried him.

Charley was a little more blunt with the matter. "Guns are for the enemies of Man," he explained, his voice boisterous and booming. "We must return to Terra."

"Right, right," Marcus finally broke in, waving both of them down. "We're trying to get back to Terra. Uh, my name is Marcus. Marcus Salazar," he said, offering a hand. "This is Ostdarva Fandiv and Charley Sweepers."

DIN-05.2 seemed to hold back, waiting to pull off some sort of combo with her sister bot. Meanwhile, Gliscor deftly dodged the leech seed, mocking Jennifer's ferrothorn with an outstretched tongue. It seemed at home in the sandstorm, deftly using the others' impaired vision to it's advantage. Scizor began to perform a rythmic dance, an aura of power beginning to radiate from her body as it completed. Hippowdon abruptly lunged forward, rushing Ferrothorn. The hippo pokemon's mouth opened wide, revealing fire flowing freely from their lips.

"Aegislash, protect Ferrothorn!" DIN-05.2 blurted out. 'Zoroark' burst in front of Ferrothorn, a crystaline shield forming to intercept the blow. A loud crash and the scraping of gigantic teeth against crystal was heard as hairline cracks ran down the shield. Gliscor in turn slammed a claw into the floor, discharging a shockwave that managed to get around Zoroark's shield. Gliscor dove down and struck the ground with their claw, sending a powerful shockwave towards the entire opposing team. Only Zoroark would be able to protect itself from this attack as it swept through the battlefield, wreaking havoc.

"Aegislash, autotomize!" DIN-06 commanded, suddenly turning the tides of speed against the foes. Note worthily, Zoroark's 'illusion' did not falter under the sandstorm. Sand passed harmless over their seemingly steel body. What sorcery was this?



...Meanwhile, Jessica took everything possible the wrong way. She wasn't quite sure what these gentlemen's manhood had to do with this but she could see they were from off-world and thus chose not to question it. Clearly they were just from the manliest planet ever. ...She nearly lost her focus for a bit as she debated the consequences of visiting such a planet. How did they--? No, wait, she was still talking to people. No time for that now.

Jessica nodded in understanding. "I reckon the wild monsters'll be the most aggressive thing round these parts." she mused aloud. "Normally we don't recommend any a' y'all offworlders leave the city without a guide, 'cuz see the wild ones. They're real wary of offworlders." she explained, eyeing the guns they were wielding. "Course, if'n you want any help with that, I could prolly tag along." she offered off-handedly, apparently having nothing better to do--or perhaps deeming this a perfect opportunity to learn more about these odd, possibly male-exclusive off-worlders.

"Name's Jessica. Jessica Stark." she offered Marcus alongside an outstretched, gloved hand. "I'm trainin' for a journey m'self. One through space, actually. I'm a Voyager, y'see? Luckily we won't need to go there to get to Terra though. That'd probably take a while." she went on to remark, chuckling light-heartedly.

Jennifer knew that once again she was in a bad spot. DIN-06 had asked for a special attacker, but unluckily for her, she didn't have one that was strong enough to keep up with these other Trainers. Hm...Zoroark often packed Flamethrower to roast Scizor, and Aegislash had the power to get rid of Hippowdon. The only threat left was Gliscor...and she had to get some damage on it.

"Ferrothorn, use Gyro Ball!" The squat, iron-clad fruit wrapped the three anchoring vines over itself together to make one super-powerful appendage, then swung it around to get its whole body spinning like a top. Faster and faster, blindingly so, like one of those battling tops kids played with. Then with a slight tilt of the body, it charged forward towards Gliscor, using the high speed to have its iron barbs tear into the enemy.

"I expended several of my shells into the beasts that assailed us on our way here," the man called Charley explained, sounding pleased with himself. "Though durable, even they are not a match for the Emperor's Munitions."

Marcus grinned, albeit slightly uncomfortably, at the man. "Yes, well." He looked back at Jessica and shook her hand. "I think we could accept a young woman's offer to help get us to uh... the city we need to get to, all the same." With a wide smile, he nodded to himself and checked his sides to ensure his comrades approved.

Charley seemed ambivalent, though slightly miffed; in his mind all he needed was his heavy bolter.

Ostdarva seemed to ponder the statement with more clarity. "You seek to join us on our pilgrimage to make one of your own," he inquired.
"I will accept this, if you will hear the Voice of the Emperor."

When it was all said and done, Marcus seemed content that there was no contest, and so looked Jessica over again.
"So, do we need to pay you for this, or anything?"

The crack of hard pokemon bodies against eachother was heard as Gliscor was sent flying several meters backwards, nearly leaving the battlefield, two more cracks as Aegislash brutally drove her edge into Hippowdon. The pokemon was unable to defend itself, overwhelmed by the assault. Scizor attempted to punish 'Aegislash' with a powerful blow from it's claws, attempting to capitalize on the supposed dark type weakness with it's 'knock off' attack.

A pair of safety goggles dropped to the floor, knocked off a newly revealed zoroark's face. The illusion fox smirked devilishly at the startled scizor before opening wide and exhaling a powerful blast of flames. Scizor stumbled back, wilting under the heat and collapsing as the flames began to dissipate. Gliscor retreated a bit and dropped to the ground to rest.

With another blow from it's massive blade Aegislash felled the hippowdon before turning on Gliscor.

"Head Smash!" DIN-06 ordered. Aegislash bodily slammed the tip of it's blade into Gliscor, sending the pokemon flying through the air.

"Night Daze!" DIN-05.2 followed up. Zoroark began to glow with a dark aura, launching a powerful evil shockwave that rippled outwards towards Gliscor, striking the pokemon as it caught it's footing. Gliscor cried out, slamming into a nearby wall and collapsing.

The furisode girls were defeated, right on time too!

DIN-06 smiled and nodded in approval at the display. "...That worked." she mused aloud. The sandstorm dissipated and their food, protected by it's metal serving dome, was revealed! Once again it was delicious food of a very reasonable portion, considering they still had many courses left. DIN-05.2 eyed DIN-06 curiously. "Who do you think will be next?" she asked, curious.

DIN-06 considered the question for a moment. "White, I want you to use your emboar." she mused aloud. "Jennifer? I don't think Ferrothorn would have a good time with either of the remaining teams. We need a pokemon that can tank a lot of water, ice and grass attacks for us. Do you have any pokemon like that?" she asked, leaning forward a bit. Her robotic, glowing lavender eyes were focused as she enjoyed the food. DIN-05.2 nodded in acknowledgement, but her gaze was locked on the food she could not eat. One could see it was a bit hard for her if they paid attention.

A group of men entered the Sushi High Roller and began having a conversation with the greeter. He didn't seem intent on letting them in, the restaurant's standards a bit too high for them.



Meanwhile, on the street...

Jessica's brow furrowed slightly at the idea of shooting wild pokemon. Something in her lithe gut told her this was a bad omen, but... They were here right? Nothing fishy going on? She supposed it wasn't worth bringing up, probably just a bit of unrestrained empathy on her part. "I reckon' this is buildin' up to be a plan." she replied, her grip strong as she shook Marcus' hand. Hers were the hands of a working woman. "But nah. I'm finer than poliwag hair split four ways." she went on, flashing a thumbs up as she seemed to decline the offer of payment.

"Fastest way to Castelia's probably takin' a boat from Coumarine City. and travelin' through Driftveil n' Nimbasa. Probably at least a week's time..." she mused aloud, glancing around for a moment. "Say, what's this about the voice of the emperor anyway?" she wound up asking off-handedly. It sounded a tad weird, perhaps like some sort of alien voice message on a communicator of sorts. Yet, the way they phrased it made it sound almost... devout?

Luckily, she had no one to offend by entertaining the notion.

"Grass, ice and water? Ferrothorn can handle all that and then some quite well. And what he can't handle, if they go up close to do it, they're in for a surprise." Jennifer smiled and let her hardworking Pokemon sample some of the meal to regain their strength.

"Hey, White, you can at least taste this stuff, right? I feel bad for you, not being able to enjoy this wonderful food. I spent half a million to get you people in here, you're going to enjoy yourself, damn it!" She grinned, hoping the facial expression would override the words she was saying.

---

Meanwhile, over at the station, passengers were turning heads at the strangers and the Voyager, the latter speaking with what sounded like a Johto accent. It sounded like the strange men had to fight their way through the unforgiving wilderness to get this far, as if one of those anomalies the League was looking into had pulled them right off of Terra. In this light, them wanting to get back made a lot more sense. At least one of them wasn't totally foreign to the idea of sharing the land with powerful beasts.

The three men did not particularly seem to be for or against teaming up with this young woman, with the exception of Marcus; his motives might not have necessarily been clear, or even noticeable at all, but it was worth nothing that he was the youngest of the lot.

Most of Jessica's strange terminology and spouting on about the cities left them all looking thoroughly confused. They had yet to really look over the map outside of marking 'Current location' and 'Escape Point', and so the city names were all a jumble of decidedly strange words.

Her interest in the Emperor stunned all of them, however. Fortunately- or unfortunately, depending on which camp you sat in- Ostdarva was the first to snap out of this. He whipped out a book, roughly the size of a large canteen, or maybe a Pokedex, and flipped to the back pages.

Then Ostdarva cleared his throat and spoke loudly, his voice flowing throughout the crowded area around the fountain.

"The Emperor is our guiding light, A Beacon of Hope for humanity in a galaxy of darkness!" Ostdarva had naturally moved himself to a position to stand on the edge of the fountain; Charley had closed his eyes to listen, and Marcus, while clearly similarly moved by the devotions, was watching the crowd- and their new friend- carefully.

"As we serve Him, He is our greatest servant. As we pray to Him, His thoughts are only for us." Holding the small book aloft with one hand, he gestured to the area around, his eyes wide with fervent flame.

"And in the dark when shadows threaten, The Emperor is with us... in spirit and in fact!"

With that, Ostdarva jumped down from the edge of the fountain and grinned widely and expectantly at Jessica, practically glowing.

DIN-05.2's eyes lit up. "Don't mind if I do!" she replied cheerily and, to DIN-06's abject horror, she began to eat. Serena seemed to gawk for a moment, raising a finger. "All... right." she stammered out. "That's something we'll have to deal with. Later, of course." she went on to muse aloud, glancing at Jennifer.

DIN-06 emitted a rather anxious sigh. "Well--If you're sure. You know your team better than I do." she replied, seeming a tad unconvinced by Jennifer's contribution. One had to wonder what she knew that Jennifer didn't. The food, plentiful as it was, was vanishing rapidly between the three of them. Their next course would be coming soon...



Meanwhile, on the street...

Jessica listened intently. If there was one thing she knew not to trifle with, it was the religious devotion of off-worlders. Avoiding fights and keeping yourself alive was imperative when representing the UPL abroad. It was a job that required an open mind and an inhuman amount of patience.

"Well I reckon' he's somethin' pretty incredible by the way y'all're talkin' 'bout 'im." she replied, considering this for a good moment before continuing. "Would he--The Emperor--speak to someone like me? Like, the way we speak to each other?" she went on to ask, very curious to say the least. It would become clear that she was eager to hear their patron saint of mankind, having taken Ostdarva's earlier words quite literally. She would decline to mention that disembodied spirits were frequently the source of intense fear among Ruulans, in part because of their tendency to prey upon the living for one reason or another. It was decidedly a very bad time to bring this up.

"All right. Serena, I know you're in the lead here, but sounds like we have a hail team coming up. I have two choices here...Ferrothorn and Lucario. I could maul stuff but leave myself wide open to Froslass, who is faster and has miss hax bullshit like Gliscor earlier, or I can sit there, tank it and get the sure counter-hit with Ferrothorn and leave the snow maiden to you guys. The other thing I'm worried about is Walrein, who can not only spam Blizzard but also protect and heal until our food gets cold. In either case, we're going to see an Abomasnow. Still, you probably know a lot of things I don't, so if you insist, I'll go with Lucario or maybe even Scizor."

The last kappa roll disappeared down Ferrothorn's gullet. It seemed to really appreciate getting to sample the fresh cucumber. "White. If you have any fire types, now's the time to bust them out. Here come the waitresses." Man, this thinking about battling was really taking away from being able to enjoy the food. What a rip-off.

The sky spewed open as a torrent of energy red hot energy blasted nearby Prism Tower in an a event that would be rather chaotic and wild to the citizens of the country. The energy did not cease as the man walked from it's glowing glory, the sky shifted with his arrival taking on the look of ash and hell fire as if the end of times were upon these cretins. The God of war had arrived on this planet ready to lay waste with his blade. His semi hulking figured took in all the sights of his surroundings as he flexed his muscles.

"I've been trapped far too long and this was a meeting long in the waiting." the man seemingly talk into thin air before lashing out with the fist that appeared to be engulfed in fire.

A large wheel of fire whipped across the ground hitting a nearby building laying waste to it's structure.

"This will be the beginning of my domination." His voice raged in a heavy tone as he began his onset onto the city.

Jennifer furrowed her brow at the explosion outside. "Dammit...I hope it's nothing serious. I mean, right when I'm in the middle of an amazing dinner. Between the gangsters in the alleys and Clemont himself, I think they could at least keep the damage contained. Hey, Ferrothorn, how was the kappa roll?" The iron-bodied Pokemon nodded happily, knowing better than to bounce and break the floor.

"Okay. New plan. Dine, pay, dash. First chance we get, we're running on out of here and seeing what's up. I know what you two are capable of. Also, Serena, you've got to tell me sometime where you got that sword and shield Pokemon. Speaking as a specialist in steel-type Pokemon, it looks really amazing."