Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ulla looked back at Decidueye as he merely nodded to assure her that he would not leave her side. Ulla looked at Abby as she smiled. "I'm coming along!" She said as he caught up with Abby as they were now following Odd.

Abby was on guard as it was while she was following Odd through what seemed to be an empty forest, being led by some random hybrid. Suddenly being surrounded by hybrids didn't exactly put her mind at ease. That said, she understood why they were doing this to an extent. "Yeah, I get it. It's his mission, after all," she told them. When she and Ulla were offered tea, Abby nodded, despite the fact that she preferred more flavorful drinks. As she followed the feminine hybrid, Abby stuck a hand in one of her pockets. Shortly after, Ulla's SNAG would beep, signifying the receiving of a message.

"Where are they?!" Odd growled at James upon realizing the girls were gone. "If they're in any danger, I won't hesitate to slay you where you stand!" He threatened, grabbing his Artifact from it's holster on his belt and brandishing it against the hybrid.

"And you would succeed should you try." James admitted with a nod. "But rest assured, my wife and children are merely keeping them polite company while you are preoccupied." He assured the Channeler.

Odd relaxed slightly, at least returning his Artifact to it's place on his belt. Fermata stood at his side, stoic but very ready to jump into action if needed.

James lead them forward for a bit longer before stopping in a smaller clearing. "Here is where the tales are passed down in our clan." He announced, spreading out his wings at last to reveal that he did, in fact, have arms beneath them. Odd had been wondering about that since meeting him but the overbearing curiosity had been a bit more pressing.

"So... What exactly am I here to learn?" Odd finally asked after a seconds of silence between the two.

"The ancient Ghost Clan... Was not as harmonious as it's fellows were. The Hybrids and Channelers were divided, as were most of the other elemental clans but the Ghost Clan took this a step further." James explained, taking a seat in the grass and motioning for Odd to do the same. As the Channeler did as he was bid, the forest around them began to shift. James' eyes began to glow with a soft light, indicating the use of his Psychic power about the same time, so Odd assumed the two actions were connected, remaining on alert.

The forest around them shifted, now, changing to something far younger than the forest they found themselves in. All around the clearing where small huts of varying kinds, most of them set up like tents.



The world shifted again, the encampment disappearing with a mystical shimmer, at this point. "What exactly was that?" Odd asked, feeling a strange sort of tension in his chest.

~~~

The young hybrid led the girls to their home, which might not have even been noticed at first had they not been shown the way. It was a fairly large estate house built right into the forest, trees growing up and through the building in several places. "Mother will meet us in the foyer." She announced as they drew closer.

Surely enough, as they entered the home, a much older hybrid greeted them with what could only be taken as a warm smile, despite the beak on her face preventing such a display of warmth being genuinely possible. "Welcome home, dear." She greeted the younger hybrid. "If you would like to take your friends to the lounge, I'll bring you some drinks." She offered, walking off again.

"My apologies. Mother tends to use her abilities to predict things more often than she ought." The younger hybrid apologized to Abby and Ulla. "I haven't asked for your names yet... I'm sorry." She finally realized. "I am Celeste, my father's youngest daughter." She introduced herself with a polite bow before she began to lead the two humans to the lounge her mother had mentioned. "What may we call you?"

Walking through the building, Abby and Ulla would see many articles of traditional, Native Unovan décor scattered throughout. They would also find countless bookshelves around the house, each labeled with keywords such as "Fire", "Grass", "Dragon" and "Hybrid" or "Channeler". These were the books where the ancient lineages' tales were stored. Strangely enough, should they attempt to remove one of the books from it's shelf, they would be unable to do so. A strange power prevented them from being moved at all, reflecting any intrusive hands.

Ulla looked at Abby when she introduced her as her younger sister. She understood why she did it as she looked at the older women. "It's nice to meet you." She said as she looked at the articles and different types of information on the bookshelves. Each of them tickled Ulla's curiosity but she saw they couldn't really be moved. "Uhmm....with Odd busy doing his thing. What will we be doing?"

"I wouldn't mind spending time in the garden," Abby spoke up, knowing that she needed to add to her team. The thought of Pokemon showing up there had her wondering what kind of Fire or Fighting type she could pick up there. As her imagination ran wild, her eyes drifted to Ulla, bringing her back to earth, so to speak. She knew she could handle herself if she were on her own, but based on Ulla's previous words and actions, the small Fairy Channeler would have a harder time of it.

"Then again, if they're almost here, there might not be a point.... huh. I'm not sure what to do, actually," Abby added, pretending to be unsure. "What do you think, Ulla?" she asked, smiling down at Ulla.

"I can't argue with that logic!" Abby cheered, trying not to look too excited but not having an easy time of reining in her enthusiasm. "Might as well go on ahead then. Are you coming with us, or are we going out there on our own?" Abby asked Celeste, not sure how the host wanted to handle things and not wanting to insult her hospitality.

Forgetting Ulla for a moment, Absinthe gave in to her excitement and rushed headlong into the garden, not realizing she was in danger of getting lost until she could no longer recognize her surroundings.

"Okay, that was potentially a mistake. Nothing I can do about it now, though if I get out of here, I should try to be more careful from now on," the young Deathrage muttered to herself as she walked along the garden more slowly, trying to find a way back to the mansion so she didn't feel quite as lost. Unfortunately, something else would catch her attention - a small Pokemon with white and pink fur. Abby of course didn't recognize the creature, but thought to herself that it was probably something that Keiko would catch and that it probably wasn't worth her time. However, she checked its data anyway, and when she saw its typing and Pokedex information, her interest was piqued.

"Alright, let's see if your Pokedex entry is accurate," Abby retorted, letting Angela, her Combusken, out of her ball. Recognizing the challenge for what it was, the small Pokemon stood on its hind legs and Leered at Angela, its frightening black eyes staring into the Fire-type's soul.

Angela was a hardened fighter, however, and while the move forced her to drop her guard a bit, she refused to show fear. "Don't take that, Angela. Double Kick the little baby Pokemon back to its mama!" Abby demanded. The tough Combusken obeyed, lunging at her opponent with two energy-imbued talons. The attack landed, dealing super-effective damage, but the small Pokemon didn't seem that hurt by it. "You're a toughie, I'll give you that," Abby grunted, but before she could order another attack, the enemy retaliated with a powerful Thrash, barreling through Angela and dealing significant damage to her. "Jeez!" Abby spat, more than a little surprised at the small Pokemon's strength.

"Alright, that was your one and only free shot. Angie, focus your energy while bulking up, and do it quick. Starting to get the feeling you'll need all your strength for this," the adolescent ordered. The Combusken began amplifying its strength. This helped Abby's starter weather the tide of Thrash, but she was starting to feel the pain. "Alright, hit it with a Counter! Don't hold back!" The strength that Angela summoned with Counter was incredible - once Thrash came around for the third time, the Combusken was able to fully turn around the strength behind the attack, knocking the enemy squarely on its back and inflicting Confusion - thought that was the result of Thrash running its course. That said, Angela was not immune to the damage the third Thrash inflicted, and the Fire-type was running out of steam. "Quick, Slash it before it gets up!" Absinthe ordered. The Combusken scratched at the small Pokemon with her talons, but was unable to score a critical hit with the move. The enemy, however, powered past its Confusion to deliver another Thrash, knocking Angela on her feet and knocking her out.

Abby recalled her fainted Combusken in a panic, though the Deathrage pride swelling within her refused to let her show her fear. "It's up to you, Palladia!" Abby roared, letting her Machop out of its ball. The enemy began moving to Thrash at the newcomer, but wound up hurting itself instead, giving the Machop the perfect opportunity to attack. "No holding back! Cross Chop!" Abby blurted in a panic. Palladia, sensing her trainer's distress, ran up to the enemy and delivered two swift strikes simultaneously, though failed to score a critical hit with her attack. The small Pokemon, clearly frustrated, began stomping at the ground before racing toward Palladia, gathering Ground-type energy before colliding into the Machop via Stomping Tantrum. This knocked Palladia back significantly, but she was far from fainting.

Abby scoffed as a plan formed in her mind. "I know this will soften you up a bit but it has to be close to fainting now. Use Close Combat, okay?" Palladia nodded before gathering Fighting-type energy and lunging at the enemy, landing many blows against it. The small Pokemon, weakened though it was, refused to faint, and instead pummeled Palladia with Flail - the enemy's last resort to knock Abby out of the fight. Palladia couldn't take the attack with all the damage she had taken up to this point, and fanted as well.

Knowing that Broly didn't have any moves that would be super-effective against this Pokemon yet, Abby decided to try her luck with a Pokeball, chucking it at the small Pokemon with all her strength, as if that would increase the chances of capture. Surprisingly, however, the ball continued rolling until it finally pinged and rested still. Surprised and elated, Abby picked up the ball, planted it on her belt and promptly sat for a rest. "That was intense," the young Trainer sighed, only to catch a glimpse of a much larger creature in the shade. Those markings, those colors, there could be no question - it was definitely a larger, perhaps more evolved version of her catch, and it was staring at her murderously. It had to be the mother of the Pokemon she just caught.

"BEWEARRR!" the large Pokemon roared, raising its arms menacingly. Abby had one Pokemon left, but she knew he couldn't take on this monster when both Angela and Palladia fell to its cub. With no other recourse, Absinthe swallowed her Deathrage pride and ran as far and as fast as her adolescent legs could take her with no thought to her destination other than it being a place of safety. To her surprise, when her legs could carry her no longer, she found herself back at the entrance of the garden, with the mother of the Stufful she had just caught nowhere in sight.

By the time the girls had completed their personal journeys through the garden and returned to the entrance to the mansion, Odd and James had arrived with the Channeler staring off into the distance, intently focusing on something he saw there. "I must assume you see it." James questioned Odd calmly as he waved for the two girls to come closer to the house. "The garden will survive but the two of you must come here, close to the house so that your friend may have the space he will nee shortly.

Should either question why, a bone cloaked in shadows would come flying through the air, an eerie green flame on either end. "Maro!" The fiery, Shadow Bone would loop through the edge of the garden and circle back to it's progenitor.

"Of course I see it!" Odd retorted to James' question as the emerald flames he was watched grew closer and brighter. "What's an Alolan Marowak doing here?" He questioned the Xatu hybrid.

"A personal challenge, of sorts, from Amaya." She had her Dusknoir transport it here to await you some time ago. "

"Of course she would..." Odd replied, drawing Wraith Harvest from it's clip at his waist and pulling an Ultra Ball from his belt. "Adagio." He invited his Lampent into the garden as he opened the Ball. Femata stood by Odd's side, a silent grassy guardian, as the Lamp Pokemon made her way forward to challenge the Bone Keeper.

"Maro!" Marowak exclaimed, pointing it's bone at her, drawing it back before lurching forward with a Bone Club. Odd jumped forward and met the bone with his sickle's backside, deflecting it away thanks to the sharp curve of the near-circular crescent blade. "Adagio, use Safeguard! Protect me from it's flames!" The Lamp Pokemon nodded and spun in place, sending out a wave of protective white energy, falling veil-like over the garden.

Marowak grunted and drew back it's bone again imbuing it with shadowy, accursed energy, before striking once more. The Shadow Bone was met, this time, by a Devil Whisper halberd of Ghost energy Odd had forged in the moment he had between attacks. "You and I will be the ones battling here!" He assured the Ghost/Fire-type. Adagio's presence was merely to keep the battle fair and equivalent, preventing the other Pokemon from utilizing it's Fire moves against him.

Speaking of Fire moves, Marowak began to spin it's bone rapidly, forming a whirling ring of flames which it hurled toward Odd. Fortunately for the Channeler, he'd had the foresight he had and Adagio thrust her body into the flames' pathj and soaked up the emerald fire, preventing it from reaching her master and buffing herself, though she didn't plan to use the buff if she didn't need to. "Great job, Adagio!" Odd praised as he spun on his heel and swung his shadowy halberd toward Marowak with tremendous speed in a sweeping arc.

"Wak!" The Bone Keeper exclaimed as it jumped into the air, deftly dodging the swing and flipping over in the air to bring another Shadow Bone down upon Odd from above. It didn't expect him to have used his momentum to carry his spin all the way around and switch it's direction into an overhead swing of his own. The two Ghostly weapons clashed in the air for the moment, small spiritual sparks flying from the point of collision before the two moves shattered, sending Odd stumbling forward a step or two from the stance he'd been holding to keep pressure on his attack.

Marowak stamped it's foot into the ground as it landed and, dipping low, it came back up to thrust a balled-up paw into the human's torso like a fist. Just as it did, a jagged spire of stone erupted via Stone Edge, attempting to skewer the Channeler through the stomach.

Unable to escape the attack in that distance, Odd recalled, just as the attack pierced his stomach, that he had lost control of his intangibility, for the most part, in exchange for it reacting on it's own to physical assaults such as this. The proof would come as he stepped straight through the spire, and also through Marowak before he became solid again. Shadowy ribbons erupted from his own shadow as he utilized Pharoah's Oppression to wind them around Marowak's ankles while it was stunned and, by the time it realized it was entangled, Odd had already turned to face it again. Glaring into the Pokemon's eyes, he unleashed a maddening wave of Eldritch Maleficence at the Maorwak.

Momentarily scared senseless by the insanity-inducing images being engraved upon it's soul, Marowak stumbled as it attempted to escape, tripping over the shadowy bindings around it's legs, damaging itself as it slammed into the ground face-first. Drawing back his hand to his side, a black light engulfed it for a moment before he thrust his fist forward light a punch. From the punch was launched a seemingly endless barrage of tiny, needle-like arrows of Ghost-type energy via his Infernal Fusillade.

Gripped by the madness of his previous attack, Marowak was unable to flee properly, bombarded by the attack as it's energy was whittled away little by little. Odd was breathing heavily by the time he ceased the attack, recalling Fermata at this point and letting out Cadenza. "I'm running out of energy..." He informed his primary comrade. Normally he wouldn't have tried channeling so much without the Pokemon present to act as a sort of "battery" to help fuel his channeling.

~You're going to kill yourself if you keep trying to rely on your own energy too much.~ Cadenza informed the man as he rushed to his side, latching onto his back and beginning to funnel energy from their surrounding through himself and into Odd.

"I know... I'm sorry." Odd responded verbally to Cadenza's spiritual commentary. "Thanks for always helping me out, though."

Without every getting up from the ground, Marowak began to sing a soft, mournful song filled with the sound of regret and vengeful desires. "Perish Song! We need to end this now!" Odd realized. "We have one of two options left. And I opting for the more dangerous choice!"

Odd's Ghostly energy flared with Cadenza fueling him, droplets of shadows rising both from his own shadow and from the hole in Cadenza's back, fragmented souls they had absorbed over the years being returned to a corporeal form as they poured energy into them. Ghostly dopplegangers of the various Snagems as well as various enemies whose energy they had claimed for themselves over the years began to form, a Black Parade of death marching forward to strike at the still-singing Marowak. As the last of the parade laid waste to their target, Odd followed it up with one final attack, hurling an enormous orb of ethereal flames at Marowak.

The flames consumed the remnants of the spiritual energy that he had expended using Black Parade, burning it and returning it slowly to him at the same time it burnt up the last vestiges of Marowak's energy. Pulling a Dusk Ball from his pocket, he prepared to throw it when something terrifyingly familiar struck his senses. He actually recognized this soul. He threw the Dusk Ball at last, drawing the Alolan Marowak into it in the dim heart of the forest mansion, the garden canopy providing the ideal location for the Ball's boosted capture effect to work. As the Dusk Ball came to a stop and beeped rather quietly, Odd spoke a name. "Beat..." Did he remember Odd? That would need to be determined later.