Let's Just Get There.

[tisari]

Imogene stared as Vincent came into the clearing.
Bazeedle...? Only a Duskull would have a name like that, she thought to herself with a bored expression, watching the little situation unfold. Flash's anger seemed to have subsided somewhat, replaced by his worry for his daughter. That was a relief. Still, if they didn't succeed in bringing Grepa back, they'd...well. It wouldn't be good.

"We'll bring her back," Imogene assured Flash. She was worried about the Electrike now, too. Though, she was curious on what this Bazeedle guy was like, so she turned to Kallan and Vincent.
"Um, if you guys know this Bazeedle guy...where do you think he would have gone?" Once again, she really was no use to them. Just a deadweight. Even though they were the ones that had joined her. But at the same time, thank goodness. She wouldn't have been able to cope with this. By now she would have been ripped to shreds, or at least, running crying back to Sasqui. It was a bit of a reality check. But still she had no idea of whether or not this was something trainers regularly encountered. She'd have to give them her thanks when the entire mess was over with.
Glancing down at Oran, she let out a sigh and fumbled through her bag.
"You look terrible," she told him blankly as she knelt down beside him, finding a potion. Then she took out the few remaining oran berries she had.
"Here. The potion will help you more, but I don't know if you'd really like it." Being wild as you are, she added to herself, glancing upwards. For some reason, she could imagine Flash wincing away from anything like the powerful medicine. Still, seeing the little Electrike who had been so tough moments earlier break down made her realize how much pressure they must all go through being part of Flash's pack.

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[Kimo]

The Electrike seemed to loosen up as the stream of cold liquid sunk into his knocked up fur. Not only did it settle the pain of his cuts and scabs, but it put back some energy into his legs. He couldn’t help but sigh happily. This kind of relief came rarely.
Oran looked over surprisingly at the berries sitting right next to his head. The same ones they had just unsuccessfully battled for, now simply handed over to him. The irony was overwhelming.
<Well, at least they’re my type,> he said, sitting up. Immediately, he slammed his paw on top of the delicate round fruit, producing a mushy mess as he lifted it back up. Pricking out some barbs stuck around his muzzle, he painted a fresh new line around his mouth. He used two in the process. <Yup, worth battling for,>he said, feeling pretty empty about his new paint job.

Kallan and Vincent looked over, having the same expression of absolute certainty. “The Haunted Mansion,” they said at the same time, Vincent bitterly adding in, <of course.>
<Really, there’s nowhere else ghosts want to be unless it’s inside that stupid place. The only ones who’d live out here are.. well, me I guess.>
Kallan nodded, agreeing with Vincent for once. “Besides, we know this ghost. Bezeedle is the kind of Duskull that lurks all alone in the darkness and uses his loneliness to fuel his haunting act.” It’s actually powerful stuff, he would’ve added in, but Vincent would’ve just rolled his eyes even more.
“Though what they’re doing with outside Pokemon.. I really don’t know. This is a first.” Kallan was back to a Haunter and now directing his speech to the Gastly. “I really wouldn’t know what they would possibly need with these electric thingies..”
Vincent listened intently at first, but for the second time today he seemed to lose his concentration by a sight beyond Kallan. Oh hey, it’s the yellow thing again.”

Behind them was a gasping, exhausted Penelope, barely keeping her head up as she dragged herself- and apparently someone else- closer and closer to the others. Oran raised his head in recognition of who the Girafarig was carrying with what he believed to be her tail- it was one of the lower ranked Electrikes in Flash’s tribe. Nameless, of course- he wasn’t even supposed to address her until she got one along with markings.
But Flash wasn’t here. Who cared?

<Hello, um.. Fellow Electrike,> he said as she raised her groggy face towards him.
<Oh, Oran,> he murmured, feeling a funny feeling in her stomach, probably from the fading poison. It could’ve been from surprise, though, that a higher ranked Electrike was talking to her..
<Glad to see someone who’s.. sticking to the fight.>
<Fight? Oh..> Oran’s face flashed with embarrassment. <We had to stop it. Grepa got stolen somehow and now Flash is making these guys find her.. And making me supervise them.> Does he see my condition? Does he even understand we feel pain too? He would’ve voiced his frustration, but.. Too strange to say to the Electrike.

<Oh. Pssh. To be honest, I hate Grepa. I wouldn't stop a fight just to save her deranged little butt, but.. yeah. Flash.>

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[tisari]

Imogene stood up as she saw that Oran had returned to health, and let out a sigh of relief. At least he was better.
"Haunted Mansion," Imogene muttered. "Of course," she repeated, without knowing it. Sounded like a cheery place. The entire situation was making her sarcastic and slightly grumpy, but still, she took a deep breath and followed Vincent's gaze to where Penelope was, along with the other Electrike. Blinking in surprise, she looked at them in shock. She'd completely forgotten.
Guilt twisted her stomach. She ran away from them. Idiot... But at least they were helping each other.
"I'm sorry!" she blurted towards the Girafarig. "I didn't mean to leave you there, but I'd completely forgotten." she said in apology, drooping slightly. But then her eyes widened again, remembering the situation. She wanted to get this over with. She was tired, her pokemon were tired, the pokemon AROUND her were tired; hell, Kallan must have been exhausted and Vincent too from running away so much...She turned to the two ghosts.
"Where's the Haunted Mansion?"

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[Kimo]

The Girafarig’s tail let the Electrike loose, making her plop to the ground sluggishly. One minute her innards were screaming in pain from poison, the next minute she was screaming since the Girafarig (minus a fully functioning brain) was dragging her through the dirt.
<Ugh.. What a day. First my partner overeats even after I tell him he’s gonna get weighed down, and he darts away when I need him badly. Then I get poisoned and left in the dust to rot, so some Girafarig thinks it’s smart to pull me through mud using my face to practically make a canal.> She growled and looked at the ground pitying herself.
<Yeah well, I’m right with you. You wanna hear about it?> Oran didn’t care about her rank right now. He had to tell someone. <Barked at Belue, slammed into that yellowneck’s feet, sent headfirst into a thorn bush, and placed here to watch over these guys Pleasant day, I’ll tell you.>
Conversation faded into grumbling and the Pokemon started to settle down, glancing at their surroundings and the group that had formed around Imo:
A grumpy Haunter who, like Lassie, had a desperate instinct to go home;
A Gastly with a less-than-scary smile and less-than-happy attitude of re-entering the Mansion;
A thickheaded Girafarig that everyone but Vincent generally hated (although, the Gastly had mixed feelings for her tail);
And two Electrikes, both placed in the outcast section and put in the embarrassing role of babysitting a human.

This information did not matter to Kallan. Home did.
<It’s thataway,> Kallan pointed, seeing the familiar dirtpath that signaled the road through the bushes. “The trail leads to Tarro Town. Since you’re human and sheltered from real suffering=” Kallan was interrupted by Vincent’s growling- “..It might seem a bit scary and desolate even before we enter the house. But, just know-”
Kallan paused to swallow his pride. He was about to unveil the truth behind everything he had once lived for, all for a girl. A human one, too!

“..It’s all an illusion.”

The Haunter sighed. Ouch. What a big blow to the ego. Darn that Vincent!

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[tisari]

Imogene winced as the Electrike was dropped into the mud, and sighed. The electrikes were terribly negative. She felt bad for them. But even more so, she was frustrated at Flash. She wanted to just rant at him, and rant, and rant- if he wouldn't tear out her guts. So this was what you had to deal with as a trainer.
Saving your pathetic life? a little sarcastic voice in her head sounded. This forest was getting to her. Her optimistic attitude was being replaced by something that looked at what was real.

Of course, when it was thrust in your face, it was hard to ignore. She couldn't help but wonder what else had happened to others who had gotten on the wrong side of the Electrikes.
She turned back to Kallan as he pointed out where the Haunted Mansion was. I am sheltered from real suffering, she decided with a bored expression. In her entire life she'd never had much to complain about.
That was only because she'd never wanted to complain about anything. But at the same time, she knew that Kallan was right, despite Vincent's little warning growl (which, Imogene admitted, she was almost surprised to hear come out of the gastly).

Her eyes blinked and widened as she was informed it was an illusion. She was taking in this stuff like she was reading a book. She needed to. An illusion? her mind flashed back to when she'd first met Kallan, and immediately she felt herself get embarrassed. She probably looked so helpless and pathetic.
Her mind was so blank from being so tired at this point, however, she wasn't worried about the Mansion as much as she might have been normally. Something had snapped in her- all she wanted to do was get the thing over with, so she straightened up a bit and released K.
The Elekid yawned and looked tiredly around at everyone.
<What->
"We need to find Flash's daughter, and Oran is escorting us. I don't know about Penelope or the other electrike, though." she stated, glancing back towards them in confusion before finding another potion and giving it to K. She only had two or three left now.
Not good...

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[Kimo]

The Electrikes glanced over as the Elekid entered the atmosphere, but seeing as it was with the girl, they looked away uninterested. Unlike Grepa, they didn’t care as much about fighting as they did for survival. All that dog cares about is pride and honor, the nameless Electrike thought sarcastically.
She shook her head. <I can’t believe you’re doing this,> she said in sympathy for Oran.
<Correction: I can’t believe Flash is making me do this.>

Penelope got up on her hind legs, looking like she was about to whinny and buck, but instead a huge sneeze erupted from her nose. <Ahhhh, Tailie, that was a biiig un.>
Her tail nodded curtly. <Cha. Big.>

Vincent looked over dully to Kinetic. <Hi,> he said a bit flatly. He wasn’t as chipper since meeting Imogene; they already had been through a lot, and it was making him exhausted. He looked at Kallan, ready to hit the road.
"Okay, let’s-"
He was suddenly interupted by an high pitched, angry Scottish voice.
<’Ey!> called a nearby tree. <Wot do you think yer doing? Stay off mah turf, ya lily livered pansy! Thazz right, mah propertay! Now ye better get off or I’ll knock tha both a’ ya till yer legs are sore! Scat!>

Kallan and Vincent looked dumbfounded. The Haunter looked around for the source and the Gastly looked down, searching for his legs. <Aha!> called Kallan, amplifying his voice so it echoed loudly. A frightened Pachirisu stood in a hole in the tree and scurried away before anyone could do anything about it.

"..Okay. Weird. Alright, let’s go." Kallan quickly forgot about the whole thing and floated off, all the joined group members following behind him.

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[tisari]

Imogene raised an eyebrow at the weird Pachirisu, who K immediately stared at. For a moment she thought he would run towards it for a hug, since- well- despite such a nasty attitude, it was a cute pokemon, but it left out of sight before he had the chance.
Nodding blankly to what Kallan had said about it being weird, she followed Kallan along with everyone else, with K trotting along behind her, slightly more energized than before thanks to the potion.

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[Kimo]

((A few more posts and we can reach Tarro Town. :3 It will be Six Flags!))
Kallan floated in front, followed by Vincent, then Imogene and K, Penelope and finally the Electrikes. They stuck with their own little friendship circle, but they kept their voices loud enough for the others to hear. They didn’t really care.
<So, yeah.. Does anyone even know where Grepa is?>
<Sounds like the Ghosts know.>
<And you’re trusting them? They’ll probably just ambush us or something.>
<Well.. There’s nothing else I can do. I’m supposed to watch them, so yeah. Really, can you stop making this day harder for me? Plus, can’t you just try to like Grepa and look a bit? The sooner she’s found, the sooner we can vamoose. Seriously.>
<..The day that I care about her is the day I grow wings, Oran. Wait.. So you actually like her? I can’t see how anyone could! I liked her when we were little, but.. Now she’s all bi-polar or something.>
<..Look, I have to get used to her. I know what you’re saying, but.. See, she’s uh.. I was told she's gonna be my future mate.> Oran looked away embarrassedly.

There was a very awkward silence between them for a while.

“Alright, so here’s the plan. We’re gonna camp up in the church for a bit, I know you like it there, Vincent.” The Gastly nodded, pleased. “I like it there too.
“Then we’re gonna go into the Mansion, and we’re going to have to act like I’m scaring you into the house. The ghosts can’t know I’m siding with a human. Just.. it’ll make things complicated. Plus I kinda got on Chester’s bad side when I left to get you, Vincent.” The Gastly didn’t seem too excited about that.
“There’s a good private room I know we can stay in that people know not to go in. I spend a lot of time in it. Imogene and guests can stay there while I go talk to Bazeedle about this Grepa person. As I get her, Vincent will escort Imogene to the library and get you out the hole in the wall.”

Vincent proofread the plan, finding anything that wouldn’t work out for his new human friend. <..But what about the three-story drop?>

Kallan looked panicked for a second. “She can fly, duh. Didn’t you see that before? However you did that..” The Haunter muttered the last part to himself and gave Imogene a weird stare before focusing back on the road in front of them.

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[tisari]

Imogene was paying half-attention to the Electrikes conversation, finding their lifestyle quite interesting. How did they live like that? It seemed tough. Still, she enjoyed the silence that came after Oran gave the news of him and Grepa having to be mates.
Arranged...mateage? What would you call that... she thought about it faintly for a while, finally deciding to return K once more. The Elekid was bored, and Imogene knew he needed rest anyways.

She looked up as Kallan started talking about the plan. It sounded pretty good, she had to admit; she couldn't find anything wrong with it. Besides the fact that they were going into a haunted mansion. But...it was all an illusion, right?
"I'm a pokemorph," she said quickly. "I have DNA mixed with my own that allows me to do that." she explained briefly, though she had no idea how it really worked.

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[Kimo]

Kallan looked back at her, obviously puzzled. “What? That sounds weird.. I’ve never heard that before.” He averted his eyes and tried to think how it was possible to make someone part Pokemon. And what was DNA?
<Golly, that’s thuh weirdest thing I’ve ever heared.> In an effort to understand like the Haunter was trying, the Girafarig’s eyes became crossed.
<Freak! Freak!> her Tail barked before Penelope shook it madly.
<Sorries. Itsa whole nuther brain down there, can’t do nuthin ‘bout what he says. I wanna do surg-or-ree on it.> Honestly, the Girafarig was getting tired of living with the tail’s stupidity and unnessarary action. And it always came back into the picture, even when everyone hated it. It couldn’t get the point, could it?
As the Girafarig rambled on, Vincent noticed a tree that had a knife stuck in it on the left side of the trail. Yup, I recognize this place. <We’re almost there,> the Gastly said enthusiastically, excited to visit the church for one last time in his little ghostly life. ’Cause we’re never going back to Tarro Town, right? I hope not.

[/center]

[tisari]

Imogene raised an eyebrow at Kallan. He'd...never heard of it?
"There's been a lot more pokemorphs lately," she sighed, and yawned afterwards, raising her hand to cover her mouth. "People are beginning to experiment. I don't like it, but I don't hate it, either." she shrugged. To be honest, she'd never even thought about her opinion on pokemorphs. And to think; she was one. Sheesh!
She didn't pay any attention to the tail though, just smiled a little bit. She knew she was a little weird. But apparently if it would save her from a three story drop, that was good enough for her.

"So...we're camping in a church in Tarro?" she raised an eyebrow. That was kinda creepy. Though, she was surrounded by pokemon, so she wasn't too scared. Glancing up, she saw what must have been the remains of the town. It looked...creepy. Though, just a little ways up was the church. She lifted a hand, pointing at it.
"Is that it...?"

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[Kimo]

"Hmm." huffed Kallan, not really understanding at all. A person trying to be a pokemon? How silly.

All of the pokemon looked up, even the toothy brown ball on Penelope’s back.
Vincent sped forward, making it easier to gaze at what was left of the cozy wooden structure and the delicately painted glass windows. One of the doors to the place was ripped open, but the Gastly didn’t mind at all. It wasn’t the condition of the place that mattered to him, it was the feeling of safety and tranquility that rose within him that made it a great place to feel alone and important.
Of course, those were his own personal problems. Being a peace-loving Gastly in a house full of pranksters didn’t make it easy for him to fit in.

<Yes, this is the place,> chimed Vincent happily.

((You can start the next board. :3))

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