PTU Ambitions and Glory: Victory or Tragedy

[Eshkigal]

Welcome again, friends, to the world of Pokemon! What has happened until this point has been...complicated. There have been demigods and demons, the fall of a city, the unknown rise of another. Travel to realms beyond, the meeting and departure of a multitude of new friends.

Here, we come to see Avery, Cain, Shaun, and Xiri. One a dead girl who managed to claw her way back to the land of the living. Another a girl with a god growing in her mind and in her bag. One of the last of a city led by a gym leader that tried to drown the world in madness, his dreams in tatters, his life in shambles, with no idea what is to come next. The last a hunter who has found himself brought to help this strange collection, and aiding a spirit in search for its other half. As they found one another, many other faces came and went, seeking their own adventures. Right now, they are traveling to Mahogany after a harrowing time in Ecruteak, the four having conquered the madness of the Ghost Gym, bound in the Distortion. They now find themselves in a field of fallen foes, mankey and primeape littering the ground as two help wounded...potential allies. Though considering one of their number had been assaulted by Avery, they may be foes too. However, right now they are looking at the friendly ghost curiously, trying to figure out what she means. The pangoro slaps the ground at her question, aura burning stronger as it slowly recovers more from being beaten by these foes, aura burning with confidence and pride. This is home. This is theirs. The others work to take care of their own teams, none lost but some wounded.

[Merilan]

Xiri looks a little sad, that they've had to be attacked in their own homes - even if what they did was brave, standing their ground to defeat it. What caused everyone to be so... angry? Does this happen all the time? I want to help.

The ghost girl's Aura ebbs and flows with her sincerity.

[Eshkigal]

They just kind of shrug, and point to the primeape and mankey.
"Oi, Boss, maybe it's just what I heard, but these guys are known for attitude problems. Maybe they're just jerks?"
The pangoro and simisage shrug and nod a bit at that. Looking at the pokedex screen shows Kongou holding the pokedex entry like a book.
"This also says they tend to be territorial an' brutal. So either they spotted these guys, or they're expanding out. Meaning they're getting close to human lands anyway. Or...if they are fleeing something, it's a whole lot nastier than these guys, so we'd need to take precautions."

[Toxic Mind]

"That's the first rational thing I've heard out of you, Ghost in the Pokedex." Shaun says, his face still down as he applies bandages to Phos to help his recovery. Next to him sits his Capture Styler, in easy reach in case the Pangoro decides that their help was less than appreciated.

[Merilan]

Xiri looks a little intimidated by the description, but it doesn't look like the Pangoro or Simisage were going to bowl her over with their claws or anything. She also pets Kongou on the... err, top of the Pokedex, beaming with happiness that her Rotom is doing its best to be helpful!

But Kongou's description also brings a point of curiousity. Are you... running away from something...? she inquires, her Aura gaining a lace of trepidation around it.

[Esprit15]

"Thuggish Fighting types. Reminds me of... home," Angelo says, pausing abruptly as he remembers that there are no remants of that. He was one of the last people to have memories of life in that city before its destruction. Retribution flared in his mind; one day, someone would have to answer for what happened to Saffron.

But not right now. Right now his group had to stay safe. They would be important to his own survival. "Are you certain you are alright?" he asks Avery as he finishes applying a bandage.

[Ionbound]

Avery nods and says, "Yeah, I'm okay. Just a bit scratched up. Thanks for the help with the bandages, Angelo."

[Eshkigal]

"Eh? Boss lady, I didn't mean them, I meant...okay, you wanna believe that, let's go with that."
Meanwhile, the pangoro and the simisage look at you kinda weird, trying to figure out what the hell you meant. Meanwhile, Kongou looks over to the mankey and primeape now and then.
Avery's leg gets bandaged up, as do your teams. Do you leave the two wilds where they lay? Do you make mankey soup? Or do you continue onwards?

[Merilan]

Xiri blinks once, shamed at her misunderstanding. She shakes her head, but then redoubles her earnestness as she cups her hands together. I mean... is there something -- out there, in this plain, agitating everyone? Did something agitate that pack... something frightening?

[Toxic Mind]

"We should move on." Shaun says, standing. "If something frightened them, then we do not nt to meet it." He turns to the Pangoro and its companion. "Can you move enough to get away before these ones wake up? I don't ant to leave you in the same situation we found you."

[Eshkigal]

The wilds look to each other, then to you, and slowly nod. Something roams the dark places, apparently. Something big, something terrifying, and it's deeper in the woods...

[Ionbound]

Avery stares off into the woods and says, "You said something big drove the Mankey into these woods, right? What if...What if it kept going?"

[Esprit15]

"Let me guess: what if we go and find it?"

[Merilan]

Xiri looks with concern, but nods in gratitude to the both of them. She looks towards her companions; she'd be loathe to leave the wilds agitated to this dark thing, after all, but they've more of a stake in their adventure than she does right now to needlessly endanger them.

[Toxic Mind]

"If it chases a pack of these into a human town, the consequences for both could be grave indeed. I do not like diverting from our goal, but this is a worthy cause."

[Esprit15]

"Why do I always end up with the white knight..." Cain mumbles to himself. "Well, why not. I need a new scar - this one in my stomach is boring already." He would need strength, after all, for his future plans.

[Eshkigal]

With that in agreement, the party decides to make a small detour, though considering that heading towards the mountains should mean less worries about gyarados infested (and carved) rivers, that may be a good thing. Getting the pangoro and simisage safely situated away and using the angry mankey as impromptu pillows-you try getting up when a giant bear with a grudge is sitting on you-the party begins making its way into the woods. Hours of travel in, the first signs of something wrong are showing up, as you finally find a notable gap in the tree cover. This lets you see the sky, and even in the diminishing light of the sun you see great clouds of smoke trailing from beyond the mountains into the woods, a great and ugly black scar burnt upon the slope of a mountain a few dozen miles in the distance and descending into the forest, a cloud of bird mon then flying past the gap as fast as possible. Some have burns on their bodies, and panic is evident enough that reading auras is redundant. But, something's off about this still...
(Perception checks people)

[Esprit15]

There was so much damage, here. What could cause this scope of damage? It was impressive.

Spoiler

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(2d6+5)[11]

[Ionbound]

Avery blinks and says, "Wow...What could have caused this kind of devastation? Surely...Surely not just one pokemon, right?"

Spoiler: OOC

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4d6+4[/roll]

[Toxic Mind]

One angry fire pokemon. Shaun says, looking around. Or a whole lot of smaller ones.

[Eshkigal]

Looking through the gap, Cain, Shaun, and Avery notice that there is a point where it seems to slowly be moving towards Mahogany, judging by the fact it seems to have the least amount of smoke and steam currently while also being too strange, too direct, for its movement to be natural. However, Avery notices something a little extra. On one of the birds, there is a rough handprint that couldn't be anything but human. As it flies by, she can't help but remember about the existence of firebringers, those who have great pyrokinetic abilities...

[Ionbound]

Avery blinks as she sees the bird and then says, "I...I really hope I'm wrong. But...We might be dealing with an out-of-control firebringer. Which is really bad."

[Merilan]

Xiri quietly kneels by one of the bird Pokemon, her expression just as saddened as she was before; she looks to Avery, then the others. She shuts her eyes, and her Aura grows with a resolute concern:

If we don't control it, the fire could spread very wide and consume the wilds.

Spoiler: OOC

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Xiri's Perception: (2d6+2)[6]
Kongou's Perception: (2d6)[6]

[Esprit15]

"Well I guess we best control him," Cain says calmly, not slowing down. Firebringer, eh? That sounded like a proper challenge.

[Ionbound]

Avery nods and says, "Yeah. We need to help whoever this is."

[Toxic Mind]

"Or stop them before they hurt anything or anyone else." Shaun says, a somber look on his face. Whoever or whatever this thing was, it was causing untold amounts of harm. It needed to be stopped.

[Eshkigal]

In agreement (even if one of your number is less than enthused at the idea of risking his own neck for nothing), the group once again sets out, trying to cut ahead a bit to reach this walking conflagration without having to run through an inferno. As you get closer, you see more pokemon fleeing and scurrying away, shrieks and howls of fear as the fires roar gets ever closer, lighting the night sky with a glow like dawn in the distance. Which slowly becomes closer, and closer, as you decide your best work will be in stopping it at its source. However, you end up wearied as you get stuck in the blaze, unable to keep pace with the Firebringer. However, you do eventually figure out your angle of approach you're barely keeping out of the inferno, smoke burning in your lungs. Which is when you finally see...you can't even tell gender at this point. Stumbling the brush is what you know must once have been a man. Once, before the flames licked all that they were away, leaving a charred body, burnt and scarred skin cracking and splitting as they cough up smoke from a lipless mouth, their very touch burning all they touch as they give a plaintive, almost pathetic mewl of pain. There is no fat upon it, as skin and flesh bubble and fry, the putrid stench of burning human flesh almost stronger than the smell of smoke. What seems to be glowing veins of molten rock pulse beneath its charred flesh, and it stares, ever onward it stares, eyelids having burnt away years ago, with eyes that seem closer to burnt out embers at this point.
Beside it stride two pokemon, one a great snail made of fire and stone trying to give this thing, this...Burning Man some support in their stumbling. The other is a hound, two curled horns jutting out of its skull as it howls and roars, shouting either warning or death to the heavens in its travels. They are the only things that don't burn in this hellish conflagration, the Klaxon shouting its warning and the only thing able to stand freely within this roaming Holocaust.

Spoiler: Xiri

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The auras of the three are strange. The human bears no malice to any that are near, but something far away. But its aura is clouded by pain and suffering, ones ground deep in. Decades spent burning, unable to put itself out, unable to find even the mercy of death. It wants nothing more than to have the hurting stop, and it is a maddening drive. But it seems to stare at you for a minute, the faintest glimmer of recognition before the pain blinds it again. The pokemon feel great duty and care for their companion, and a sadness at seeing it this way, but are too strongly loyal. They will fight any risk to it, to the last, without a second thought.

[Ionbound]

Avery's eyes widen when she sees the corrupted Flamebringer and says hoarsely, "Dear Arceus...What...What happened to her..."

[Merilan]

"Oi, Boss, you gotta pull it together..." Kongou, for once, sounds a little concerned, the Pokedex bobbing up and down over the white-haired girl. Xiri doesn't seem to be doing too well in this area, fume and smoke odours messing with her senses and slowing her. It's doubled, when the burning man approaches them, and she pulls her head up to stare amidst leaning against something - anything - sturdy, and not on fire or hot.

She puts her fingers to her temples, eyes shut, a little hunched over. She echoes, to her companions, It wants help... please stop the pain... I've been engulfed in flame... for so long... as she struggles to translate the creature's suffering to them.

[Esprit15]

"If it wants to be put out of its misery, it looks like those two will need to be dealt with first. It's easy enough for Avery and myself to smother him, should he so desire, but it won't do any good if the Pokémon following him kill us first."