PMD: Through the Gate

[Satoren]

To my Dear Friend RX,

It has been some time since last we met. I hope you are well. The same cannot be said for me, I’m afraid. I apologize that my first letter to you is one of dire importance, but I did not know who else to turn to. You see, my daughter has disappeared. She has been missing for quite some time now. I have sought the help of my neighbours and made many attempts to locate her, but all for naught. I am worried, frightened even of what might become of her. I shudder to think of the possibilities.

Enclosed with this letter is a map leading to the village I live in. It is a secluded town hidden away in the mountains north of the town of Spirit. The route is quite old and has not been traversed in some time, so you may have trouble locating it. I implore you, RX, to please help me; If not for my sake, at least so that my daughter may be safe.

Sincerely,
Holly​

Zilla glanced at the letter in his paws, then looked down at RX. The Flareon, standing tall on two feet, was still dwarfed by the large Buizel walking behind him. “How do you know this pokemon, RX?” he asked.

“She was a neighbour of mine for some time,” RX replied. He turned his head towards his assistant and adjusted his hat with a smile. “Of course, that was a time before I joined the guild. And much longer still since you and I met. It appears I wasn’t the only one who moved away from my village. Truth be told, I’ve never even heard of this town of Babel.”

The Buizel then reached for his backpack and began shuffling its contents. He then pulled out a small rolled up piece of parchment. A small scroll in proportion to him, but for his partner, it was a full-blown map of the area. It had a considerable amount of age to it. The creases were close to tearing, and it was already a darker shade of yellow than it would have been years ago. Taking care to unfurl it, Zilla slowly unrolled the map, lightly biting his tongue and squinting as the map’s details revealed themselves.

“So, how far are we from our destination?” RX asked his gargantuan sidekick. The Buizel spun the map around several times and looked around them in hopes of finding some sort of hint as to where exactly they were. However, the thick fog and tall trees made it difficult to surmise anything, not to mention that fact that it felt as though they had gone around the mountain several times already.

“Well, we’ve been going around the mountain for an hour now, I suppose we’ll get there in a just a little while longer,” Zilla answered; his reply was as disjointed as the road they were travelling on.

“An abandoned road leading to a town forgotten by time; I must say, this has greatly piqued my curiosity,” mused RX with a nod. “What about you, Zilla? What do you make of this trip?”

Zilla shrugged his shoulders. “ I don’t really know what to make of it. This is my first big assignment and all. But I have to say, so far…” He paused and looked up at trees much taller than him, their branches without foliage. Their bark seemed blacker then night, and a faint creaking could be heard as the wind brushed against them gently. “So far, it’s really eerie,” he finished.

“Oh, it isn’t just the ambience that is ominous,” RX said while grasping the tongue of his hat. “Ever since I got that letter, I’ve felt that there is something…off about this whole affair. Well, all the more reason why we should answer Holly’s call. Also, I hadn’t really intended for this to be a major expedition; but…” The Flareon glanced at their other companions trailing behind them. “It seemed that they had other ideas,” he said with a sort of sarcastic grin. “Oh, not you of course, Brendan; Your presence was accounted for,” RX added, gesturing at the greyish-green Pokemon with muscular arms. “You lot, on the other hand…” Zilla smiled weakly and glanced at the other Pokemon that had found themselves travelling with their group.

Among them were a tall, black Pokemon with pointed ears and a glowing, yellow ring on his forehead, A lighter blue Pokemon of a similar build, and a smaller, glittering fox-like Pokemon, ghostly grey in color, as well as a white and red Pokemon with distinctly sharp claws. Although, it was almost certain that it was their intention from the beginning to join them. The way the Glaceon tackled RX to the ground only to give him a hug was a strong hint to that. Zilla chuckled. Despite knowing that RX was being rather stern at the moment, he didn’t seem all that intimidating. It was one of his more charming attributes.

“Well, it really can’t be helped at this point,” the Flareon continued with a sigh. “We’re all perfectly lost in these woods together; misery loves company and all that. But if we ever get to this blasted village, don’t expect me to pay for your accommodations.” Having said that, RX quickly dashed over to the Glaceon’s side. “Of course, I am planning to get a sizeable room. And you’re more than welcome to stay with me for the trip,” he whispered to her. His tone was much different from earlier. It sounded childish and affectionate, which pretty much summed up RX’s relationship with Belle.
“Wait, what about me?” Zilla interjected.

“I suppose you and Brendan can share a room. That way you boys can roughhouse all you want. Might even do you some good to get to know each other better,” RX responded flatly. Zilla’s jaw dropped at the statement, and yet somehow, he knew to expect it. In the pecking order for RX’s affection, he knew he didn’t stand a chance against Belle. Oh well, he didn’t really mind it terribly. But still, before they could worry about all that, they had to worry about how to get out of this ominous forest.


ooc: OKAY YOU KNOW WHAT this is a horrible horrible first post. But I have been on writer's block all weekend while being distracted by Animal Crossing. So I dun caaaarrrre.

 

[Rex]

The Assassin Team, all assembled in Babel Town, were together in the local Inn. Jacob, the Lucario and Second-in-Command of the group, was in the process of booking their rooms. He was speaking with a Nidorino, who was currently manning the counter. The Nidorino was glancing at the sheathed broadsword roped around the Lucario's waist.

"We have six rooms, three of which have two beds, the other three have one," the Nidorino was saying.

"Great, will take the three with two beds, indefinitely," the Lucario replied.

"We require a week's down payment if you want us to hold onto them," the Nidorino answered.

The Lucario nodded, and dug into a pocket in his coat. He pulled out a small bag, opened it, and upturned it over the desk. The bag's contents, a number of gold coins, fell onto the desk. "With this cover it?"

The Nidorino stared at the money. He looked up at Jacob for a moment, then back at the money. "Yes."

"Great," Jake grinned. He pocketed the empty bag again, and accepted the three keys the Nidorino offered him. That done, he went to the Lounge, where his teammates were all waiting. The head of the gang, Seth, was sitting in the seat closest to the fire. Laying in front of the fire, already dosing off, was Andre. Hades was on his left immediately after he entered, arms crossed. Sven was sitting on a larger chair, and Claire was leaning against the wall in the corner of the room.

"We have the rooms for the week, after that, I don't know," the Lucario said, flashing the keys. "Hades, you better finish what you brought us here to do fast." With that, he threw one of the keys at Sven, and the other at Seth. "We have three rooms, and each has two beds. I'll share with Hades, though I doubt he'll sleep. Seth, you and Andre can share a room, and that leaves the last to you and Claire, Sven."

"Great, I've got to share with the bitchy one," the Shiny Smeargle frowned.

"Be happy I didn't get a single room for you two," the Lucario retorted, "You already fight like an old married couple."

Sven sighed, and stood up. He pocketed the key and walked to the doorway.

"If you're going out, give me the key," Claire called from the corner.

"I'll be right back, just getting some supplies," the Smeargle replied, before leaving.

"Hey, jackass! Get back here!" the Weavile yelled. Growling to herself, she took off after him. Jacob watched her go, bemused. He then turned to his three remaining comrades. "I guess I should make sure they don't strangle each other." With that, he waved, and turned to leave.

"Have fun with that!" Seth called from his seat.

Chuckling to himself, the Lucario departed, hurrying after the Smeargle and Weavile.

 

[Brendan Savem]

Brendan walked quietly just a few feet behind Zilla, having most of his view blocked by the massive Buizel. Not that there was too much to see anyway, this fog had them blanketed them every since they reached the foot of the mountains, and it was only getting worse. The Machop was certain that they'd perform an entire loop of the mountains before long, if they haven't done so already. If it was any consolation, the tree bark did seem to be getting blacker. Brendan wouldn't be surprised if this was the reason that a town like Babel was off the map, nobody could ever even find it. He walked long distances for expeditions before, a few of those in which he got horribly lost and never even got to the destination. Then again, Brendan thought as he turned his head to count their additional companions, this wasn't meant to be an expedition.

Brendan a plain looking Machop, if not slightly taller. He was level with RX in height, but not in size, any attempt to compare him to Zilla would have been hopeless. He wore a red and black waistcoat and black pants, but that's it. Some would say that he's underdressed, but Machop usually lived in mountainous areas, and they didn't wear any clothes, so he might be counted as overdressed. He had a yellow backpack which had a strap that was slung across his chest, with the bag on his back. It bulged slightly with weight, but the fighting type wasn't fazed. He had a headband wrapped around his head, just above his eyes.

“How do you know this pokemon, RX?” Zilla asked, breaking the silence that had overcome the group. Brendan moved around Zilla to see he was holding a letter, the same one RX received a few days ago.

“She was a neighbour of mine for some time,” RX replied. “Of course, that was a time before I joined the guild. And much longer still since you and I met. It appears I wasn’t the only one who moved away from my village. Truth be told, I’ve never even heard of this town of Babel.”

Babel, Brendan replayed the name in his head. Brendan did his homework on the town, almost nothing came out of it. The town was like a ghost, nobody was exactly sure that it even existed, or even had pokémon still living in it. There were some rather tall tales about it too, like the the village being a secret cult of blood-drinkers, zombie pokémon emerging at night, and a living fog that would ensnare you for all eternity. That last one was starting to prove itself as being true. Hopefully, the directions RX was given would help.

“An abandoned road leading to a town forgotten by time; I must say, this has greatly piqued my curiosity,” RX mused, Brendan snapped back to attention. “What about you, Zilla? What do you make of this trip?”

“I don’t really know what to make of it. This is my first big assignment and all. But I have to say, so far… So far, it’s really eerie,”

“Oh, it isn’t just the ambience that is ominous. Ever since I got that letter, I’ve felt that there is something…off about this whole affair. Well, all the more reason why we should answer Holly’s call. Also, I hadn’t really intended for this to be a major expedition; but…" RX turned to face the rest of the troop. "It seemed that they had other ideas. Oh, not you of course, Brendan; Your presence was accounted for,” RX added, gesturing at Brendan. “You lot, on the other hand…”

"No sweat RX, It's probably my fault they knew we were going." Brendan smiled, then turned towards the others behind him, while RX focused on Belle. "Look guys, I do appreciate that you wanted to come, but just don't expect anything too exciting. We still have no idea what we're going to find in Babel, if we even find the it. Heck, don't be surprised if we spend the next week or something going round in circles in this- Wait what I'm bunking with Zilla?" Brendan turned his head to RX, with Zilla just beside him with his jaw dropped in disappointment. Roughhousing in a probably tiny innroom with a Godzilla Weasel? That would be disastrous. Brendan sighed, it couldn't be all that bad as long as they didn't do any roughhousing indoors.

"Hey, if you want Zilla, I could sleep outside if you need space." Brendan asked, not realising what the huge buizel was actually disappointed about.

(Whee, first post is a butchered version of the first <<)

 

[Shiny Motley]

Lyni self-consciously pretended to groom herself, swiping a paw over her ear as if she was trying to swipe some mud off to keep her grey fur’s luster. She really lived up to her nickname, “Shiny”, with how the sunlight seemed to sparkle off her unusually colored pelt. Well, it would be sparkling if it wasn’t so foggy so high up in the mountains. The veteran member of the guild was wearing her usual outfit, consisting of a black vest over her white blouse and a green bow with the guild’s logo in the center at the base of her right ear.

She knew she should’ve just stayed back at the headquarters and been the good little Eevee she was supposed to be, but that was just impossible for the adventurous little creature. If she hadn’t so selfishly decided to follow her “other father” out when she overheard him and Brendan discussing about some mission or trip or whatever, then perhaps she would still have a place to sleep for the night, some food in her stomach, or even friends to rely on. But no, she had none of the above now, especially since she found out that RX wasn’t even going to bother paying for her room or anything. She had been relying on that for the whole trip, and left all her money at the guild. Gosh, what a great father he was to take care of Belle and not his “daughter”.

Okay well, maybe she was exaggerating a little. Of course RX and the others would help her if she really was in a pinch, like when she tripped over a tree root earlier (thus alerting the party about her presence). But it still didn’t assuage Lyni’s guilt for disobeying unsaid orders.

“C-can’t I at least sleep on the floor or something, guys?” she managed to stutter out as the Flareon and the Glaceon went all snuggle-wuggle for a bit. She knew the answer would probably be “no”, but it didn’t hurt to ask. However, when RX passively forced Zilla, his assistant, and Brendan to room together, she highly regretted asking the question. “Never mind, you can just ignore me,” she mumbled again, swatting a paw over her ear again. Well, guess she’ll just have to sleep outside tonight then.

Ears drooping a little in a combination of shame, sadness, and just overall depression, Lyni’s usually energetic steps became sluggish, and she felt herself trailing behind the rest of the group a good three paces away. She was hungry, lonely, and upset, and on top of that she was on a mountain, making her acrophobia kick in and further disturb her thoughts.

This day just couldn’t get any better, huh?

(Yay for emo Shiny. XD)

 

[Mr.RMA]

RMA simply stood by the rest of the group, nodding every so often as the others spoke, definitely showing signs of weariness from the struggle it took him to get here. He had gotten himself lost at least three different times in his attempt to track down RX and his team, all simply for the sake of boredom, and now, when he had hoped to catch up to the group much earlier, he had only recently, miraculously, reached them.

He placed himself in this foolish position, even though he knew he shouldn't have done so in the first place. He was supposed to remain back at the guild headquarters, but having done so for weeks now, without any sign of a mission, or any other event coming his way, the Zangoose decided to take matters into his own hands and follow the well known Flareon on what he could only guess was an exciting expedition of some kind. Truly a gripping, risky, adventurous journey of danger, peril and incitement.

Well, he had at least encountered some danger, though not quite in the way he had wanted... Yup, he was a beginner all right, and his error count, increasing at a near laughable rate, was more than enough proof: Tripping over rocks, roots, and his own clumsy feet, falling over mountain ledges, rolling down numerous steep, usually painful slopes, and mistaking the footprints of another accumulation for RX's were just a small sample of his work, the reward of all this coming in the form of major exhaustion and several tears in his jacket. It seemed every time he made the right decision, he'd make three horribly wrong ones.

As discouraging as it seemed, RMA still carried on, believing all of it to just be a test of his own resolve. So long as he kept going, he'd surely have a change in fortune sooner or later, or so his strange little mind would like him to think, as well as making the assumption that once reached the team, that they wouldn't mind him tagging along, even though they were almost certainly not preparing for one more. He was a bit of an ignorant creature, and planning ahead for such technicalities wasn't one of his strengths.

"They wouldn't just leave me out here. They have to recognize me somewhat. I mean, it's not like I joined yesterday or anything." He had convinced himself. "Who knows? Maybe they'll be impressed by my ability to find them?" That was wishful thinking, even RMA knew this, but it was better in his mind to anticipate too much instead of too little.

Well, now that he was here, no one seemed to have any objections with his presence, though it was obvious that they weren't going to take any such responsibility for him by the lack of room plans concerning himself. 'Meh, no matter, I'm uninvited anyways. I'll just sleep under the stars or something.' In his current state, he wouldn't have minded sleeping in the middle of a family of Loudred.

His optimism, he could tell, wasn't shared by another uninvited guest in the group. Just as he was quick to learn who RX was, RMA was just as quick to get to know a little about Lyni, or Shiny as most people seemed to call her, and the name he ended up remembering more easily in the process. She definitely appeared crestfallen, most likely from the same implication he received concerning the rooms. In any other circumstance, he would've quickly tried to spur on a conversation, mostly considering how they were both near the back end of the group, but seeing how he was still catching his breath, he decided against it. Sometime later definitely though. He never turned down an opportunity for a chat, even with the opportunity was non-existent.

(OoC: Sorta started this before seeing the edit. Sorry if the beginning seemed a bit jumbled.)

 

[Chadwyck]

Chadwyck had no idea that there would be this many people on this mission, and the arrival of RMA who had, apparently, been tracking them since they had left the guild. He couldn't say much though, he hadn't really been invited along for the expedition either. And, in fairness to RMA, he was impressed that the Zangoose had been able to find them in this unnatural fog in the middle of these mountains.

The Umbreon had more or less made RX bring him along for the ride, partially because the Dark-Type was hopelessly bored and suffering from cabin fever being cooped up in the guild for so long, but it was mostly because he really liked the company of RX and his gargantuan Buizel companion.

The mountain was cold, the fog only adding to the chill. Luckily, Chadwyck wore a black jacket, covered with zippers, and a newsboy cap, turned sideways and a pair of flight goggles over the brim.

"Come on, Shiny," Chadwyck smiled at the Eevee, who he could tell was feeling a bit down on herself, "chin up." He patted the younger member's head and kept on walking to the front of the group. All the walking in circles and the ominous feeling that they would be endlessly trapped in the mountains for the rest of their lives, which without food would be quite soon, had him a bit winded.

"So I guess I've got my own room, then? Glad I've got some money saved up from some other jobs." The Dark-type sighed, he'd been prepared to pay his own way all along.

OoC: It's not really the greatest post, but I want it to keep going

 

[Brendan Savem]

(Bumpy bump :3)

Brendan looked over, and realised the bedroom problem has spread to everyone else in the group, mostly concerned that their crasher status meant no cozy room for them. Brendan sighed, no exploration team should be caught dead with this kind of dreary attitude, positive, time for something positive.

"Alright guys! Look, it's cold, it's foggy, and we haven't stopped walking all day." Brendan started, pausing to collect his thoughts before he continued. "I know how tired we all are now, but we can't let it get us down! We're close, that's certain, and everything will be much better when we get there. We shouldn't have to worry about rooms, and beds, and who has to sleep outside until we get there." Brendan paused again, he wasn't sure what everyone else thought, but he felt his own words were giving him additional strength. He smiled and consolidated with the fact that he was getting on a roll. "Who knows, there could be a room for everybody! It could be in a five-star resort with giant rooms, and huge king beds for each person, and we can all enjoy hot chocolate, and we can all snuggle up together at night, and hold each other close, and... and..."

Brendan's face fell as he realised what he was starting to say. He turned his head towards Belle and RX. Their backs towards him, the hushed voice of RX continuing to give gentle whispers to Belle. Brendan sighed, and turned back to the group.

"How about we start moving. Give these two a little space, you know." Brendan said in a more hushed voice, then turned and began to lead the group onwards down the path.