First Experiences

The Shuppet, having being scared out of it's childish wits, could only burble helplessly before cuddling closer to its trainer. Instinct was important in such hostile environments, but did Alice instinctively trust her saviour? Looks like she wouldn't have time to think.

Twin orbs of scarlet appeared before her, about five feet off the ground. This way, it repeated insistently. To its credit, the voice was an extremely calm, soft voice; gender-neutral, although hinting towards a bit of feminity. The eyes themselves, windows to the soul, were clear and sharp. Quick, Alice.

It seemed with the mystical approach of her saviour, the fog had begun to thin out. The radius of clear ground Alice stood in rapidly began receding, and her saviour along with it, unwilling to reveal themselves. There was a strong, honest energy emanating from the general direction of the chatoyant orbs, laced with psychic energy. Was this the source of disruption?

"Sorry-- yeah." Alice practically stammered. She hurried towards the source of the vooce and odd lights, hoping to hell that this someone wouldn't let them down. Bran was spooked almost as much as her now, and Alice's legs ached. "If you don't mind me asking... Who are you? And where are we?"

(Can I just say I am loving the grim dark theme of this? xD It's a freakin' horror story!)

The lights flickered; eyes, obviously, needed to blink. And just like that, they retreated into the mist. The heavy precipitation completely cleared with a strange, violent slash of air, and all that stood before them was...a Lairon. Really? That was underwhelming. The Steel type looked up at them, unimpressed, before grunting, turning, and beginning to slowly waddle away.

Follow him.

The quiet voice spoke telepathically into Alice's mind, and the female could swear there was a swift rustle of fur and fire behind her, gone with the wind. Evidently the voice was less disposed to answers.

Who I am doesn't matter. It's what I do that defines me. Holy fluff it's Batman

As the voice spoke, it rather sounded as though its lips were twisting into a cruel grin. Unnerving, and icy cold.

Where? Why, Alice...

"This is your Wonderland."

Alice followed the Lairon after that. Sure, she might have wanted something more, but she also loved Lairon as a Pokemon and had yet to see one up close. The vooce's final answer set her on edge.

"If I had a Wonderland it wouldn't look anything like this!" She rebuked, stomach clenching. They almost sounded like they enjoyed this. "Just let us out already! Why should we trust you over whatever controlled Laura anyway?!"

"Because you were never meant to be here," The voice simply replied. The Lairon so far had been walking with a relaxed, if disdainful air, as though escorting humans was beneath him, when suddenly the pokemon tensed up. "Prepare yourself, Alice. I'll tell you what you need to know." Finally, some answers.

"This is the lair, or domain, of Déméteros. Or, as you humans know, Palkia. I felt great powers clashing and converging, and I'm here to prevent that. It seems you and your friend got caught up in a dimensional rift that opened up somewhere near your previous location. You weren't meant to be here." The voice emphasized on the last sentence.

"It seems you were momentarily removed to a safer location, but Palkia threw you back out...probably hoping you'd help resolve the conflict. That fool. What was he thinking, getting humans involved?" The vulpine voice snarled. The Lairon was looking around frantically, as fog began setting in again. The dual type let out a warning roar, moving to protect Alice with his steely hide.

"Unfortunately every time you show a display of power, like that attack you just executed at the ground," The voice commented dryly, "attracts attention you don't want. Unfortunately, it's a little too late now. Archeómire knows you're here." Archeom...?

Predictably, Laura emerged from the fog...but she wasn't alone. Flanked by pokemon on both sides, the girl leered evilly at Alice. "Hello, there~" She hissed, eyes narrowing. "I was hoping it wouldn't come to this...you still have a chance, Alice. This doesn't concern you. You're on the wrong side..."

Alice listened to Lairon's explanation, a mixture of disturbance and excitement rising inside of her. Palkia was the Pokemon of space, wasn't it? It didn't matter what Professor Ivy thought of dimensions. She was experiencing proof that alternate dimensions existed, and perhaps if she fixed Palkia's problem, it would give her an explanation as to what was going on in her life. The thought was almost dizzying. What if she solved this conflict and it sent her home? Sent her back to the world where Bran and the others couldn't follow? She glanced up to the Shuppet, and her ghost looked back, tilting its head in puzzlement at her expression. Alice looked afraid again. She couldn't bear the thought...

Lairon's explanation ended, and fake Laura stood before her with its small army. Great, it looked ready to murder her, too. Alice raised her hands in a gesture of at-least-temporary surrender, "Listen... You can say that, but I don't even know what this conflict is or why it started." She pointed out to both sides, "I'm just being thrown around without being told anything. What's going on, and what does it have to do with Navel Island's mountain? Why stop people climbing it? It's a gym property, right? Do you do this to every single person who tries to hike that monstrosity?"

(It's not the Lairon's explanation o3o/)

Altaria, Shiftry, Wigglytuff, Victreebel. The line-up that stood next to Laura glared at Alice, naturally harbouring resentment against those who would oppose their sentiments. Or more specifically, the sentiments of the one they followed. "Ohh-ho-ho, noooo, Alice~" The girl hissed. "I don't blame you. After all..." She pointed a finger to somewhere behind her. "That little temptress, the witch, led you astray!"

The voice mentally sighed, before a Ninetales walked out of the fog. Only, it wasn't an ordinary 'tales. Standing at four and a half feet at the shoulder, this silvery Ninetales was much larger than the average of its species. The fur seems to have greyed with age, and now was an attractive platinum gold, and the crimson eyes shone with intelligence. The Lairon grunted its concern as the powerful pokemon strode out purposefully. "Well, I won't contest it at least. However, I'm not here to take sides in your petty fight." The Ninetales lifted its muzzle, evidently being the one to speak all this time.

"Our lord Kyurem will see his desire fulfilled!" Laura almost screamed at the fire type - clearly the possession was driving her a little crazy. The Ninetales ignored her, evidently being very self-assured in its abilities, and turned to Alice. "I'm not too sure on the details myself, but it seems like some form of dimensional struggle. Archéomire wants something Déméteros is denying it, and the other legendaries are not interfering. This shouldn't affect your world, but one never knows. The reason you got pulled in was when I entered, the radius of the rip included you two...I didn't..." It shook its head helplessly. Well. The accident was almost convenient.

"If you walk far enough in one direction, you'll see chaotic space, or a rip, since all dimensions are enclosed within chaos. With a little help, you can get back home...but Archéomire- er, Kyurem has turned violent in his conquest," The Ninetales sighed again, as though only mildly annoyed by the passage of events. "I can handle the pokemon, but the human...too fragile," it grimaced. Laura was growing impatient as the Ninetales privately spoke to Alice, and with a shout, the pokemon at her side lurched forward.

"It's not actually a separate entity, it's a possession of her physical body..." The Ninetals, without turning, threateningly waved its tails near the pokemon - each enclosed with the curse of a 1000 years. But when the Wigglytuff drew too close, the Ninetales turned, glared at the company - while the Lairon squirmed uncomfortably in the background - and with a quiet growl, released a massive burst of white-hot flames. The heat of it was unbelievable, and even though the Ninetales' tails flared out in a protective shield around Alice, the heat would still hit her - not unlike the heat from radiation - or the poisoning thereof.

The pokemon squealed and scurried back, angrily eyeing the Ninetales, but not daring to cross the flames either. Laura was forced to take a step back - her human body could still very much be easily damaged - permanently. "I'l handle this here, see what you can do to help. And oh look, reinforcements." As though it was a small scale war, pokemon arrived from behind Alice, rushing to combat the opponents. Clearly the two legends had picked representatives to fight for them. Well, it was rather like a game of chess, only if the kings fought, it'd be rather disastrous for a few dozen dimensions.

Unfortunately, Alice's dream of moving on ahead would be crushed. Laura would move ahead to block off the girl's path. "What our lord wants is only his right..."
"A right that could ruin our lord and endanger all who live in it?" With a flurry of petals, A Bellossom appeared - a representative? Things were reaching their climax.

(Ew, this is becoming a story @-@ don't wanna keep typing, but I can't seem to break it off either. Ugh.)

The accident was indeed, almost convenient, although whatever had it in for Laura had clearly despised her on sight, too. After all, she had needed rescuing for wanting to climb a mountain, not for any kind of conflict between gods. Alice felt bad for both sides when she thought about it. Could a Wigglytuff truly enjoy itself in this kind of space? Did a Bellossom long for grass that wasn't dead? She didn't know much of either side's master, but it was honestly petty and wrong. They were all clearly losing it.

The blonde cried out, reeling backwards as the Ninetales protected her. She was terrified of fire at the best of times, but face-melting, cursed fox fire was probably top of her list or second only to erupting volcano. She hoped never to meet Moltres or Groudon. At least Entei was forever shy of people. Blue eyes fixed on Laura, and Alice wasn't sure what to do for her friend. None of her Pokemon had pretty attacks that pulled demon-like monsters from a human host. All her Pokemon could do was damage the other. All she could hope was reach out and shout, and hope to be heard.

"Laura, listen to me!" Alice yelled over the crowd, moving to be better seen near the frontline of the skirmish, "It's Alice! And I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you, and that I didn't see what happened until it's too late, but you have to fight whatever's using you!" The young woman continued, Bran hovering over her shoulder with concern, "Think of Shellder, how much he always misses you when you're apart! How we're going to get that water stone once we're out of here! About meeting Horsea along the shore! Our fight with the Gyarados! We'll never know more about Alec if you don't get out of here safely!" Alice paused, "You're my only friend in this world! You're my best friend-- you've been here since the start and I don't want us to fall apart! I want you to be with me until you're sick of me. Laura, you have to get that thing out of there!"

Laura paused to dubiously look at Alice, with a rather deadpanned gaze. "Wow. I'm tempted to release this host so that you can have a heart-to-heart exchange, but..." With a flourish of her hand, a pair of glimmering shadows appeared at her side. A cloud passed over the battleground, as attacks flared on either side. For those few moments, as the large-scale warfare of the surrounding powerful leviathans dwarfed the two humans, the ethereal shifting forms grinned diabolically at Alice, demon eyes glinting cruelly at the girl. There was no mercy, no pity.

Then the cloud passed, and the shadows retracted into physical forms. A pair of Sableye stalked Alice, one of them on all fours, looking rather like a certain hellhound. Worst of all, the undoubtedly powerful Ninetales seemed alarmed at their presence. "There's no running now, Alice. There's nowhere to hide." It was unknown who spoke these ominous words, but they reached the girl anyway. The quadruped Sableye, snarling ferally, leaped for the girl, diamond eyes shining the emptiness within forth. It moved like one possessed, crazed and unpredictable.

There's nowhere to hide.

Alice gasped, that unshakable dread deep seated as the Sableye suddenly formed, crawling after her like demented demons from a horror movie. That they were ghosts, too, made things even harder. "Gael, please, use your water pulse and ice beam!" She commanded, releasing the small water-type from its ball. The Pokemon hastily reacted, hoping to repel, confuse and perhaps even freeze one of the duo with its attack. Sending out her Stunky as well, she ordered a toxic and iron tail to the other. Bran was too weak and mismatched in type against them, so she held him back. It was a sensible move. He was terrified.

Nowhere to run or hide, but I don't know how to win this fight, either...!

The Sableye evidently found time to snicker as the attacks passed right through the dual type - an after image? The ghost type phased next to Gael, scything down with a wicked claw- when it was interrupted by a vicious ram to the aide by the Lairon. The Steel quadruped roared angrily at the Sableye, which strangely skidded no more than a few feet from the force of the 300 pound tackle, and hissed back angrily, lashing out with the unfinished attack. The defense of the armoured dual type was legendary, but that didn't stop the Sableye's claw from driving itself deep into the steel hide of the Lairon. The latter gave no more than a painful wince, roughly shouldering Alice aside and rearing its mighty head up towards the offender.

A quick report from the second Sableye caused the attacking ghost to hesitate and retreat. Yanking its hand out, it swiped downwards quickly, the force of the movement causing a rip in the unstable space of the dimension, and by passing through the chaotic space within, the diabolical shadow returned to rest beside Laura and the other Sableye. It continued crouching and pacing on all fours, while the former pokemon continued standing like normal. Strange.

Suddenly, the air was filled with a mighty static, and the Ninetails lifted its head. 'It comes. Prepare.' Moving like a streak of lightning, it dashed across, leaving a trail of blazing fire between Alice and Laura, separating the two combatants. Laura and the biped Sableye seemed wary of the powerful fox, but the quadruped ghost cackled madly at the fire type. No matter, as most attention would be diverted towards the sky, where a massive form was beginning to take shape. Kyurem.

Alice almost fell over when the Lairon knocked her aside, and she felt the pain wave through her side. She hardly complained, though, those Sableye were strange and vicious, and it was as if no Pokemon were capable of harming them. Were they even real Pokemon? Even the Lairon's endurance seemed admirable considering the state of his hide.

Fire made a line before her, and Alice visibly jerked and shrieked, Gael looking back in alarm. He followed her gaze to the wide flames, and began making his way back to her. He wasn't fond given that he didn't want to dry out, either, but he and Sakina's presence would at least soothe the human as much was possible in this place. Alice slowly crouched to take Gael in her arms, Sakina staying on the ground incase fright caused a spout of gas-- and all looked up as a great beast began to form up above them, orange eyes piercing the blackness of this dismal world.

"... Oh my god..." It looked amazing, beyond words, but its presence probably wasn't a positive thing, either.