Pokemon Umbral Discussion 31: Zero Mode and Asuras
 

I'm not going to allow for fourth evolutions to any Pokemon for an extremely long time. An evolution to a Shuckle? Yeah, that's good. A second evolution to a two-stage Pokemon? Sure, we'll work that.

But when it comes to fourth stage evolutions, you'll basically be turning your own Pokemon into freaks. Insane freaks that will not obey you. You and your Pokemon will be doing a special mission when it's time.

It's explained like this: most Pokemon, at least in the world of Pokemon Umbral, tend to be under a lot of mental stress, particularly Honmyr variants and especially during pitched combat. This is a reflex to the immense power they wield. It's a huge strain for them, even though their bodies flash-evolve and they usually only know four to six moves to compensate. Herego, while it's entirely possible for a Pokemon to continue to evolve and grow even stronger and know every move, Pokemon usually stop at two evolutions and at level 100 by their own choice.

Pokeweapons, which go beyond these limits, are more or less on the brink of going overboard, or Berserk for lack of a better word. It takes millions of dollars worth of conditioning and specially controlled evolutions to produce a single useable Pokeweapon (a non-Berserker type).

-----

Now, you're probably wondering about the title of this discussion thread. Zero Mode is going to be the Gabriel Force's version of Umbral Awakening. As for Asuras, they're the mistakes geniuses often make when trying to create Legendary Pokebrids like Moera, The Light, and The Dark. Those three were Delta class Asuras. There are two other classes, Alpha and Beta, and why they're generally considered to be failures, they are certainly more powerful. Especially Alphas. You'll have a lot of fun with these types when venturing into Millenium House and as you continue to wage war on the Prideguard.

Now, hit us up with a picture, Ren-I mean Menarker!

Oh. Nice...
I really need to write up a semi-scientific explanation for pokemon (and physics) in the world of umbral...

An asuras... Is Big G one of those?

And just call us by our in-game names, there's not that much of difference between us IC and OOC.

And wait, pokemon can get more powerful by sacrifcing their sanity for power?
...
I really, really hope the same counts for humans.

Of course humans gain power through sacrificing insanity. That's basically what Asuras are. And they definitely sacrifice appearance as well, especially the Alphas and Betas. U-G-L-Y. They ain't got no alibis. They ugly. They ugly.

Some questions before I continue: If Kurika uses Justice Fist, she's going to hit the Plasma Wall and contract both Fire and Plasmaburn. Are you okay with this? And no, Moon's Pokemon's water attacks will not remove the wall. That's not nearly enough water.

And Rachel cannot use Sync Techs as a free action. I don't even know where you got that from.

Last mission, actually.
...
Hey, it was worth a try!

Can she at least use both her technique and her own attack attack in the same turn?

But wait, I was hoping for something pure-human. Asuras are uber-pokebrids, aren't they?
Or just make Impact's insanity sacrificing his full-demon uber-transformation.

And damn, I hadn't considered that. Ah well, Kurika's getting switched out anyway, let her be set on fire.

Huh. Well, I guess Impact likes his girls hot.

AB used horrible pun!
It's super effective!
Wild Gem fainted.

Impact used Facepalm!
It's super insulting!
Armored Bishoujo used Cosplay!
It's super inspiring!
Impact used Sketch!
He now has costume ideas for his subordinate girls when he goes evil!
It's super creepy!

And I'm just going to stop there. Too many posts and god knows when Menarker will post. Wait, why don't I just post it? He did send me that PM.

Here goes!

Gardevoir, Use Flash!

http://i1038.photobucket.com/albums/...onUmbral14.png

Phoenix Wright: "Objection! I have found a flaw in that comic strip!"
Armored Bishoujo: "Me, too, which is why I did this little omake thingie! Go ahead, Wright!"
Phoenix Wright: "The enemy Metang is a genderless robot Pokemon! How could it be attracted to that busty Gardevoir?"
Armored Bishoujo: "And that, as they say, is that."

Wow. Is the commentary Menarker's? Cause damn, he murdered that joke. And it wasn't even ironic. It has a "look at me i am being completely sincere and that is supposed to be funny" air about it, but it's like a robot made to look like a human, it has all the appearances of the real thing, but it is not the real thing! It is a lie! Burn the fake irony! Buuuuurn it!

I...I did the commentary. *mindlessly kicks a pebble*

Oh!
Oh. I- I'm sorry... I didn't... I mean, I...
...

I'm just going to imagine gardevoir's breasts now, please excuse me.

Edit:
Okay, I'm back in time for the post. Few questions:
What's up with Matt's rage? He was at 100 when he shifted, that cost him 60, down to 40. Then two hyper beams, makes 2 times 10, makes 20. He should have 60.
Second, what do you mean by this:
?
My plan was to sit out one turn, to revive with 1 HP and get a turn's worth of plasmaburn healing, and then enter combat again, and then to use a full restore to get my health back and fully cure the burn. Is there any reason I can't do that?

No Rage gained from moves that cost Rage. This includes moves that are used when in Paradigm Shift and other modes like Maid to Mistress.

And sure, you could do that. All I really read is the orange list. If you want me to see something else, you've gotta lemme know.

Oh, I see.
Damn, pokebrids are so getting shafted. Ah well, I won't complain. Yet.

Edit: Nevermind that, they aren't really, are they? They get a huge range of attacks, pretty good stats and an uber-form. Not to mention a pretty good selection of Synctechs. They're balanced.

Not really shafted. What would you rather have, one Hyper Beam and 10 Rage or two Hyper Beams?

Aw, hell. Is there really no way to give 'em fourth evolutions without turning them into Berserk monsters?

Because, you know, I could probably come up with some bullshit to justify it if you'd let me.

Or not. I can develop their characters either way. But the evolutions I was thinking of just seemed fitting.

Anyway, Harliette is on fire again. We're probably going to need Moon to put her out. And maybe he should also construct a Water Evolith. Or a Power Amplifier. And we should also probably put Kurika out too. She could single-handedly eliminate Snorlax and Flygon, probably.

Do we have Wilhelmina target the enemy sniper? Two fire shots ought to take the bastard down. Gem, maybe we should keep Impact out for three turns. That way, he can return fully healed of Plasmaburn and with 100 RPs. He could use Dark Ambition or C,C&C with Rayleen to let everyone bring the pain. As for Renny... I think the only item he's got left is a Max Revive? We could have him use Prosperous Gifts and revive, say, Kingdra, Swampert, Nidoqueen and Magnezone. But then he'd be left out of items and we still have one more fight ahead of us.

Of course, there's another alternative. We could forget all that and just have Lexhur use his laser. That would destroy Soldier B and both tanks, and then we'd be left with just Soldier A and the two enemy pokemon. Then we don't really have to worry about reviving anyone all that much. We revive Pierce's Kingdra, and then Moon, Pierce and the Water Evolith can put out Harliette and Kurika. Then we beat the living shit out of the three unlucky survivors.

EDIT: Why did Future Shock end? It was on turn 4 and it's supposed to last a full five turns, I think.

Yah, see my edit.

As for the battle...
Ok, we took a few casualties, but nothing that seems very urgent. Harliette is on fire again, what else is new...

(Exact casualties:
Pierce:
Aria heavily wounded
Kingdra killed
Renny:
Magnemite down
Swampert down
Harliette:
Self great damage, burnt, on fire
Nidoqueen down.)

I'm thinking we should focus on killing the enemy infantry. The tanks really aren't a problem, Rachel and Lexhur can focus on keeping those out of battle... though on the other hand, the more we destroy, the more likely Wildfire is to face us in direct combat.

'fcourse, the question is... sunny day or rain? I'm not sure how much rain helps us in terms of defense, but water moves are still pretty central to this. On the other hand, fire might mean that we take even more damage from Wildfire's "look at me I'm a craaazy bitch" antics, while giving us a good damage boost against infantry. I haven't done the exact allocation, but it seems quit feasible that we could take out both soldiers and the sniper by the end of the turn, and heal up Impact and Harliette as well.
Drac, if you want to discuss who should give which orders, now is the time to do so.


Hey, AB, I forgot to ask: Do we get to restock items at the end of battle?

Edit:
In regards to Drac, what use would Impact's staying out longer have? He can full-restore himself next turn, he'd be in-battle with full rage and full health two turns sooner, at the cost of just one item. Unless you somehow want to get rid of Impact, but that's just inconceivable! Why would you possibly want that?

First off, read my post above yours.

Wildfire didn't really hurt us much this turn because she used up two actions to go Zero Mode and buff herself. If we use Sunny Day, I'm pretty sure she'll be kicking our asses to hell next turn.

So I say we stick with rain for now.

As for who should give orders. Well, we should do it the way we agreed before. Impact gives the basic outline and a few specifics. Renny and Pierce pick their own attacks and perhaps give a few specific commands like "Moon, use Surf to attack the tank twice" or "Harliette, sling some poison attacks at that soldier". Or something.

I'd be allright with that allocation. And I saw your post. See my edit.

Thing is, I'm not even sure if sunny day will affect Wildfire's attacks at all. Will it, AB?

It should.

And I forgot Impact was at 100 Rage. Nevermind that then, bring him in early and kick some ass.

By the way AB, Harliette was rendered immune to Plasmaburn thanks to Rachel, remember? So we really only have Kurika burned.

Wha? I totally understand Magnezone being knocked out... but Swampert? I don't agree...

Snorlax has a Special Attack of 65, which is pretty crappy, to point that a pokemon isn't considered a strong attacker even when using Hyper Beam a 150 power move and STAB. So it knocking out Swampert whose speciality aside from power is stamina seems absurd! Matt should be OHKOing nearly anything with his Hyper Beam then, since his special attack stat is so many orders higher than Snorlax.
It's the reason why Giga Impact was given to Snorlax, since after the change in the pokemon battle system where moves were divided by Attack/SpecialAttack/Status instead of element type (Such as all fire moves being special attack and all normal moves being Attack type), Snorlax who used to get high power from Hyper Beam in the old generations could not use Hyper Beam effectively due to it using his inferior special attack stat.
If it was Giga Impact, I could totally understand. But then Snorlax would be plasmaburned by the wall! I call cheat! I'd say Great, maybe Severe damage at most. *Pout*

And yeah, around the time that AB posts during the night and when Gem is active is around 2AM, and I'm in bed. Hence why I send the PMs to AB beforehand so he doesn't have to wait for me.

I admit, I forgot about the fire wall too, but I would not have allowed Kurika to attack through it! Renny is not happy that Pierce/Impact ordered her to rush through it and suffer those burns!

Like Drac said, Harriette shouldn't be burned due to Rachel's special ability. ^^:

Gem said that Impact would probably give Renny some of his items after the battle since Renny makes better use of them than he could.

I agree that she needs to take down the sniper, but if we're still in rainy weather, fire bullets will be weakened.

Anyhow, it's still early, so back to bed for me.

CURSE YOU TIMEZONES! CURSE YOU ALL!

Anyways,I'm still waiting for Hammond to charge up Sky Attack. Should Pike continue Thunder Spamming, or maybe try a discharge?

Also, I agree with Menarker about the Hyper Beam thing. If anything, change it so Snorlax used Giga Impact.

Corrected. Thank you for waiting.

Yes, you'll replenish items after the Prideguard is defeated. This'll be your last battle with them so hang in there.

Sunny Day does boost Cerulean Wildfire's fire-based attacks, which in a way does make up pretty much all of her damage. She's destined to be packing Almighty type damage as well, but there's little way to prepare for those except for having lotsa HP.

Allright then we'll stay with rainy day. But you're aware that we're sacrificing one hell of a lot of offensive potential, yes?

Oh, and AB: Did we have any overkill damage? Like, did Wildfire die with our last attack, or did we have any attacks left over once it was dead? Cause if not, I'd be quite surprised.

Considering our MIV is already far too close to 50% for comfort? Yes, I'm aware.

What do you mean "for comfort"? 50% isn't necessarily bad. We get double rage, and need no cooldown times.

And one more thing: Does Wildfire fuction like one of our destroyers? Like, does she need rage? for her techniques?

Status effects also become harder to cure. You wanna do that with Plasmaburn and fire?

And there's also, of course, Fear. I'd hate to have someone valuable forfeit a turn at the worst possible moment.

And considering that Wildfire has been pretty liberal in the use of her techniques and probably by now would've used up more than 500 Rage? Pretty sure she doesn't spend rage.

She's been using a lot of techniques, yes, but she's been bashing us only as an in-combat unit. She's now switched to destroyer, I'm hoping that her offensive performance will at least drop a little, hence my question.

Status effects take a longer time to cure. I assumed that meant that "natural" healing (like recovering from confusion) will be less likely. But we don't recover naturally from fire or plasma anyway, so where's the problem?

And I'm not saying that <50 morale is utterly good, but that it has both, advantages and disadvantages. Which outweigh which is entirely situational.

This might be a good time for Cecilia to show up. Swampert and Magnezone are knocked out. Mollesk and Umbreon are oiled. Shaymin is weak to fire and Togekiss might serve a better purpose with Serene Blessing to buy a turn's worth of protection from everything that isn't Almighty typed, probably after Magnet Crush wears off. (Good against everything but some of Cerulean's attacks.)

So I'm sending her out. She got water bombs and armor, so that'll still get the STAB and rain bonus. Plus, her ability gives her 3 turns worth of invincibility.

AB: Can we get a chart on the formation of the enemy forces, in case we decide to use AOE attacks like Lexhur's Laser or Desperado? K,THX!

AB actually included a formation:
And I realized something interesting. Rearguard, eh? Wouldn't that mean that she can't attack?

No. Lexhur counts as a Rearguard too, and he can certainly attack. If anything, we might not be able to directly attack her until we dealt with everyone else... Of course, I would appreciate if AB could clarify whether we can attack her.

I'm almost certain we can't attack her. Other wise we'd just go Lexhur Laser, finish her off.

And I see. Though the rearguard, by definition, doesn't fight on the front lines, so that's a bit confusing. It'd make more sense for there to just be a "destroyer" postion. But that is of little relevance.

Had a thought for a plan for this turn...

Does Lexhur have 500 rage? If so...

Wilhelmina takes care of the sniper.

Lexhur uses Drill Gore to knock the Trainer himself all the way back to the city slums, leaving the pokemons stranded with the rest of the formation, the trainer not being around to send out replacements. 400 rage left.

Lexhur... I'M A FIRING MA LAZAH! Crazy damage on 5 targets, focusing on knocking out the soldiers. Lexhur is back down to 0 rage.
We take out the pokemons, since Magnet Crush is still active and locking the tanks down, and we can probably assume the soldiers are dead by laser. We then use the rest of the attackers to do some crazy damage on Wildfire... If we can.

Thoughts?

I'd prefer to save Lexhu'r sage. Drill gore on the trainer (or at least the pokemon) would be effective, but we can, I think, kill the trainers without needing Lexhur's laser, and we'd still have some attacks left over to hit the tanks.

Oh, and what's up with the fire wall? It's on the enemy side now, right? And damaging them? How much further can we push it? Because immersing the enemy's slayers in a wall of fire would go a long way towards making up for the lack of fire attacks on our side.

You misunderstood me. But I also made a mistake on the plan.

I meant that I intended the laser would hit Soldier A, DragonMaw, Soldier B, Posideon, and Pokemon A. The tanks might be knocked out... maybe not. But we'll Drill Gore the trainer, the soldiers would likely be dead, the tanks be locked down by Magnet Crush, leaving only the pokemons already on the field to be knocked out, before we target Wildfire...

But I remembered that the tanks are Large sized. So from Far end to Far end of the laser, we got Soldier A, DragonMaw Slot 1, DragonMaw Slot 2, Soldier B, Posideon Slot 1. Thus very likely knocking out everything out except the pokemons and maybe the Water Tank (since it is only hit on one half). We Drill Gore the trainer far far away, leave the remaining tank(s) alone since Magnet Crush is still active, and attack the pokemons or Wildfire.

I didn't intend to target the pokemons with the laser. I viewed the soldiers as a more cruical threat, especially since Snorlax is in recharging mode due to that Hyper Beam, which I still think reeks of cheatery.

By removing all the support, we can keep them from knocking out targets that Wildfire weaken or visa versa. Less ganging up and less total hits.

I actually proposed using Lexhur's laser. Granted, I suggested it be centered on Soldier B and hitting both tanks. If we want a clear shot at Wildfire, we'd have to take out the tanks anyway. Then we'd only have to deal with one soldier and the trainer.

As for Grill Goring the trainer, I don't think it's feasible. I mean, the trainers on our side can't be targetted like that, or else enemies would be knocking us out of the field left and right. So presumably, enemy trainers can't be targetted like that either.

It's pretty obvious. Can't see why you'd think it was possible.

Anyway, we might want to save Lexhur's laser for a quick kill on Wildfire once we finally clear a path to her.

I second the notion of saving Lexhur's laser for WildFire. Right now, Just hold enemies back and stay alive.

And what should I do about Sky Attack? I was going to hit WildFire with it, but that seems impossible now. Should I direct it at one of the tanks or the soldiers?

My guess would be the fact that, during our first battle, foot soldiers got to flinch our trainers with their OC spray. Why wouldn't we be able to remove their trainers from battle?

And like I said, I think we should save the laser for Wildfire.

Hm, I'd forgot about that. Still, some clarification would be nice.

Hey AB, just what can we do to enemy trainers? The footsoldiers during our first fight flinched our trainers, after all. Can we, say, use Devil's Drift to knock them out of battle? Put them to sleep? Flinch them? Make them infatuated or confused?

Though I just checked again...
"Grill gore" does huge dark damage and flinch+bleed. The attack we're looking for is devil drift. That removes an enemy for two turns. Unfortunately, it also deals sever damage, which would probably result in the trainer's pokemon going rogue. :(

So that's a no-no.

Ah, my mistake.

Also, I figured that we could do that against trainers because we could do sleep affliction to Regina during that Pokegeddon thing.

Lexhur's Laser does great splash damage, so I figure that hitting Wildfire with it and only her would waste a good portion of its power, unless we were allowed to focus it so it only hits one target. With the absurd boost in power it got, removing all other attackers sound like a good plan to me so we stay limited to the 3 attacks she can use.

Regina was a Battle Master.

Oh. ^^;

I need another nap.

And we can eliminate enemy pokemon by either sending them out-of-battle, or by hitting them with status moves, we can kill enemy soldiers, we're still stunning the enemy tanks. So we should only take damage from reinforcements and wildfire's attacks anyway, without having to use a lot of Lexhur-rage.

You probably did have overkill damage, but you could've designated a target if there was the rare chance that you did "defeat" Ceru before running out of attacks.

Ceru functions as a superpowered asshole. Zero Mode's fueling her with unlimited Rage until she dies completely. Same with a Ruin General's Umbral Awakening.

You can inflict status effects on enemy Trainers. One of the things you'll want to concern yourselves with is dealing actual damage. Trainers fall very quickly. Like, a Trainer attack can kill a Trainer in one shot. And then you'll have to deal with Rogue Pokemon. I'll come up with some methods for dealing with enemy trainers directly. Flashbang items come to mind as a non-lethal flinch. I'll let you take some with you after this battle when you can restock.

Anyways, here's a rundown of the future of Pokemon Umbral

- Mission 3: Watchmen defeat Cerulean Wildfire. Watchmen fight Grant, Lucian, and Discord. Rig is used to steal Arceus, Dialga, and Palkia. Watchmen fight Mio. Mio is captured. Faynoc flees. Mission is complete.

- Intermission: Irene joins Watchmen as District Chief. Rayleen and Dormond leave PATCA. Crosswald Crusade plotline begins. Mio and Marionata join Watchmen. Twiloch joins Crusaders.

- Pierce's Sidequest: To Millenium House! Mavyn joins Watchmen. PATCA breaks into Millenium House in pursuit of Pierce who went there, earlier and alone. Jeanette and Chizuru join Pierce. Basic enemies vary between Pokebrids, Asuras, and security robots. Quite a large number of bosses in this quest as well. Mew, Lugia, Darkrai, Cresselia, and Enmekki are captured.

- Rayleen's Sidequest: Destruct, Alice, Pauline, Killian, Lucian, Discord, Nyoka, Jenny, Jeanette, and more join Crusaders. Rayleen hires new PCs and many NPCs, then returns to her house to discuss everything. Prideguard attacks the house. Crusaders defeat the Prideguard and escape.

- Mission 4: Life's a Beach! Vast majority of estrogen-equipped characters have signed a deal to pose for a bikini photoshoot. Charlotte is welcome to do so as well. Watchmen and Crusaders merge for a large party. New Ruin Pokemon and two Ruin Generals attack. Alphonsine and Cardia join Watchmen. Andora joins Crusaders.

- Mission 5: To the Netherworld! In order to combat the Prideguard's increasingly powerful forces, Mika leads Watchmen PCs (including Crusaders if you guys want) to Netherworld for demonic upgrades. Enemies are feral demons as well as Kimono forces for the sake of training.

- Mission 6: Defend the Metropolis! Pokegeddon succeeds in destroying the PC Box storage system at the Fainas Metropolis Pokemon Center, releasing pissed off Pokemon by the hundreds of thousands. Rig is used to recapture Pokemon while Watchmen and Crusaders get back to back to stem off the Pokemon legions. New Ruin Pokemon and two more Ruin Generals attack. Terrance and Joy joins Crusaders.

- Mission 7 (Watchmen): Discovers a Prideguard facility in Basne Islands. Charlie joins Watchmen. Primary enemies vary between HPG soldiers, robotic security, and Asuras.

- Mission 7 (Crusaders): Assaults the Prideguard facility near the undersea Mersapien Haven. Nelhina and Delphina join Crusaders. Primary enemies vary between HPG soldiers, robotic security, and Asuras.

- Mission 8: A killing spree against various Ruin Generals for both sides. Nothing more.

- Mission 9 (Watchmen): Attack and board the Warship Supremacy. Enemy is unsurprisingly the Prideguard. Burkmont escapes, the little turb.

- Mission 9 (Crusaders): Convince the Junk Chief Iris to ally herself and her people with the Crusaders. Iris joins Crusaders.

- Mission 10: Kill That Fat Bastard! Watchmen and Crusaders merge for the final time to take down the Prideguard for good. The enemy? They might be the Prideguard. Plenty of powerful foes and bosses here. After Burkmont goes down, there's nothing else other than...

- Mission 11: Into the Fahngrest Empire. Defeat Idolus, Twiloch and Marionata. Challenge the Kimonos to prove yourselves. Lexhur breaks the final piece of the seal. Defeat Primal Exist's guardians and then defeat Primal Exist herself. A winner is you!

Obviously, this is subject to change, but I don't think it will by very much. All we need to do is decide where Charlotte, Impact, and Matthias slide in their sidequests, throw in an arena mission if we really give a shit and call it a day.

Twiloch joins Rayleen's team only to betray us? Gee, I would probably have preferred you kept this plot-line of yours mostly secret. I don't think we needed to know all this early on.

It's more of an honorable truce. Basically, Burkmont does something that pisses off Idolus which you'll hear about at the end of Mission 3, anyways. Idolus has Marionata and Twilock join the Watchmen and Crusaders, respectively, under a temporary and honorable truce in which they'll help each other for the cause of destroying the Prideguard.

Then, they'll honorably end the truce for a final battle. No backstabbing, no "surprise, I'm now your enemy!". It's basically Marionata and Twilock going "Okay, this is where our truce ends. We'll go over there to be with Idolus. You prepare and then come to us when you're ready. It's time we ended this."

All in all, there isn't a whole lot of surprises unveiled here. I'm pretty much out of them, to be honest. After Mission 5, it's going to a lot of lather, rinse, repeat with no unexpected surprises thrown in. I am actually quite done unveiling things.

EDIT: A lot of what was revealed here is actually going to be revealed at the end of Mission 3. There's still plenty of room for surprises throughout the plot that I do not intend to reveal. The end of Mission 3 is going to have one of those "we're putting everything together and this is what we've gotta do to win" intermissions where you learn who your enemy is and what you'll generally have to do to defeat them.

Can we do that retroactively? If so, fire tank. Please?

You mean "Impact's sidequest", right? Cause that was totally what I wanted to do with Impact's sidequest. And you knew it. Because I suggested that plot point.

Mothfucker. How come?

And would it be possible to get a quick recap of the Homnyr mythology? All the stuff we already learned was sorta mushed-up.

Well, since Impact will probably become the only full demon character, I figured that would be his sidequest. 'Cause he isn't getting full demon in Mission 5.

Ah, it turns out that I'm too fuckin' lazy to do that. Oh effin' well.

Lexhur breaks the final seal because when you defeat Idolus, Marionata, and Twiloch, Lexhur will be the only Ruin General with an active seal. Hell, he'll be the only remaining Ruin General, period.

Anyways, I think I can somehow conjure up a full mythology behind Honmyr, though it isn't really important to the plot at this point.

A long time ago, human civilization was poised to overtake the natural world. In order to curb the unchecked growth of humans, an ancient being living in the subterraneon world beneath Honmyr unleashed an obscure power that flash-evolved normal animals like mice, deer, bears, etc. This flash-evolution lead to the creation of all non-Legendary Pokemon as you know them, from Bulbasaur to Rotom and beyond.

Needless to say, this resulted in a war. As the war progressed, humans and Pokemon slowly and steadily found a way to co-exist. Apricorns, walking with Pokemon, the works.

Now we come to the part about Honmyr specifically. We're closing in on the important year mentioned several times so far: 1600 years ago. The Fahngrest Empire is beset by numerous foes. Powerful bandit groups in the forests, pirates from the sea, high crime, poor resources, weak leaders...all kinds of tragic problems. This was also the year of Malcolm Elliot. Interested in flash-evolution, Malcolm wasted no time in discovering Primal Exist.

Overcome with a desire for knowledge, Malcolm subjugated Primal Exist (it was surprisingly easy) and began his dark mission to instill flash-evolution in humans. The results were the Ruin Pokemon and, in some special and rare cases, the Ruin Generals. This was pretty much the final nail in the coffin of the Fahngrest Empire. The only hint of its existence is the Fahngrest Ruins located far too the north in Honmyr, at the southern end of the central of three canyons appropriately named Tri-Scar Canyon. According to the Ruin Generals, some years after the Ruin Pokemon began their invasion of the world, a mysterious being called Gaea struck down Primal Exist by using a move called Tri-Scar. This move cut Primal Exist to pieces and created those three large canyons, so there's no question about how powerful the move was.

Nobody really knows what Gaea's ultimate intentions are. In the past, humans and Pokemon alike thought of Gaea as a heroine who struck down Ruin Pokemon and battled them all the way back to Honmyr. The destruction of Primal Exist led Idolus, the Dragon Ruin General and most powerful of them all, to call a retreat. They would return many centuries later to begin their revenge. Well, a handful of them. The rest're jackoffs.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Honmyr develops while all this falls into the forgotten history. Idolus loses control of a large number of his subordinate generals. Assholes like Faynoc and Burkmont are all too willing to accept power from Idolus in the form of pieces that fell from Primal Exist upon her death, all for the sake of destroying anyone Idolus doesn't feel able to defeat on his own. And you, the Watchmen of the Fainas Metropolis branch of the Pokemon Advanced Tactics and Counterterrorism Agency, are called upon to clean up this epic clusterfuck before Honmyr and the rest of the world is consumed.

You mean Jeanette, Chizuru and Shizuka join Pierce, right? I understand if you've changed your mind, but it'd be nice to know.

And you forgot to add Elizabeth joining PATCA right there at the end.

Also, where does rescuing Sam fit into your little mission rundown?

I think I'm going to attempt to forget that summary, just so things end up being a surprise later. Shouldn't be too hard, its early, I didn't sleep terribly well.

Anyways, I got an idea for Charlotte's sidequest, I'll attempt to complete the plan while I still remember the rest of the plot.

Ah, right. Thanks for the recap, I remember a lot of that, now.
And remind me, legendaries originate independently of primal exist, and they fought Elliot, and Exist, alongside Gaia. When Gaia Tri-Scarred exist, the Ruin generals sealed exist away to prevent it from being destroyed utterly.
Did I get that right?

Kaay... but why would we want to free Exist?

And I'll post a plan tomorrow morning. I have a lot of it thought up, but the writing will take more time than I have right now.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Come on, AB's gotta have some surprises left to throw at us. Maybe Exist wants us to kill her. Maybe if we don't free her, someone else will and use her for evil purposes.

Fair enough. But can we at least set up a huge ambush, with masses of air and artillery support? Cause I would like nothing more than seeing exist emerge, and immediately disappear in half a dozen mushroom clouds.

I predict that the answer to that is going to be "no". But it'd be awesome if we could.

I can't see any reason for Shizuka going to Millenium House. Hell, I'm having difficulty finding any reason for her to be involved with the Watchmen or the Crusaders until Mission 11. There needs to be a considerable Kimono force stationed in the Fahngrest Ruins until you guys get there at the end.

I'll have to read all that plotline for your sidequest again. Y'know, come up with an A objective, B objective list thingie.

Primal Exist will give you a reason for wanting to get rid of her. She's not going to sit on the sidelines until the endgame. And she's not leaving the seal. You're going in after her, and that seal is pretty small.

Faynoc is a big deal?

That's... really all I got. And anyway, how's Pierce going to get to bang her again if she's going to stay holed up in Fahngrest Ruins?

Me or Geminex?

Yours, silly. I don't think Gem even gave me a PM about his sidequest.

Actually, nevermind. I found a reason for Shizuka to be there. Oh, this is gonna be hilarious.

Really? But it's all he ever talks about.

Anyway, I'll resend it to you I guess. Revised, even.

Should I be worried? I think I should be worried.

Any new thoughts about a plan?

1: Devil's Drift on Trainer is right out, given that the trainer is sure to die and thus make the pokemons go rogue. Gotta think of something that Lexhur can do.

2: Renny will switch out and Cecilia will go on, activating invincibility skill as she attacks with water bomb.

3: Gem states he wants to hold onto the laser for later. I frankly don't see why. We either have to hit hard and fast by knocking out her forces so they don't overwhelm us so we can get some good shots at her, or just endure for 4 more turns before she pelters out. But with the morale gauge sinking, we might not want to just turtle up especially since we don't want to have to endure nearly the entire force for 4 turns.

4: Tanks being locked down at the moment.

5: Perhaps one of the tanks can be stolen by Matthias's OMGHAX ability after Rachel's ability expires.


So...

Kurika (Impact) On Fire. You heartless asses. >_<
Pierce >
Renny > Switch with Cecilia. Activates her ability and water attacks. Renny's Mollesk to hopefully recover from its damage during the time switched out.
Charlotte > Waiting for Hammond to attack with Sky Attack. One other action.
Matthias >
Rachel > Still locking tanks down with Magnet Crush. Actions undetermined. Might have to apply Full Restores to Kurika to ease her status condition.
Moon > Maybe having to wash off Kurika?
Harliette >
Wilhelmina > Killing off enemy Sniper.
Lexhur: He'll be at 500 rage at the time of the turn.

Other factors:
Rain Dance to cease soon.
Future Shock to cease soon if not already.
Wilhelmina's ability to end soon.
Enemy Snorlax cannot act this turn.

Erm. Last time I checked, Drizzle doesn't actually expire. It's only removed when it'a cleared out by another weather effect.

Oh, right. I was thinking of some other previous rain dance or something.

Yes, if Aria is still out, then rain dance won't be a problem. Sorry, been feeling out of it lately. Not feeling that well for some reason.

Know that my conversational topics are wide and varied, reflecting my depth of character!
Also, wanna bet that I can make that chip on your should somehow grow even larger than your ego?

Buuuut right. Strategy. I have one dilemma left to work out...
See, I like to have my cake and eat it too. In other words, I like to have the defensive protection of my Rain and the offensive bonuses of my Sunny day too.

And it's possible, we just need to change the weather more than once during a single turn.
And I... just figured out exactly how to do that. >:]




Harliette: Either Aqua shot (on fire tank) or desperado, sing on enemy trainer by blissey, either to use full restore on self or use illumise for another helping hand on Harliette
Renny: Cecilia to use Great Escape, then Water bomb on Footsoldier A
Impact: Full restore on self, then C, C & C (Letting each affected enforcer using an extra round's worth of attacks. Kurika is on fire, which is why I don't think she's affected.)
(Cecilia: Water bomb on Foot Soldier A
Shannon: Florescence with Sunny Day, Shiftry with Solar Beam on Foot Soldier A
Milsha: Flamethrower on Soldier B
Matt's enforcer: Not sure what his enforcer is)
(Once Impact's done that, can he still attack?)
Wilhelmina: Two fire shots on enemy sniper. He should die from that. Or else.
Charlotte: Hammond's sky attack on the fire tank, Fire Blast on Soldier B.
Matt to use Rage Rocket on self and Paradigm shift again to Porygon Z, because STAB-boosted Hyper Beam, fuck yeah. On Fire tank, please.
Rachel: Rage rocket on Moon, then either Thunder on Fire Tank or another rage rocket on someone.
Moon: Fathom with Rain dance, Starmie with Surf on Fire tank, backlash to hit fathom. Build either power or Barrier amplifier, not sure. Probably Barrier, since he's acting quite late (and I have no desire to die to Wildfire), though if you guys think Power would be much better, I can restructure the plan so he acts earlier.
Trainer attacks to finish off any surviving foot Soldiers.

Lexhur: Hey, AB, if Lexhur uses Devil Drift to remove an enemy pokemon from battle for 2 turns, can the enemy trainer redeploy one right away? Or is that slot gone for two turns? Cause if it's gone, I'd just use Devil Drift once this turn (on Flygon), once next (on Snorlax) and no more trainer interference.

I'm uncertain about some stuff, tell me what you guys think. The way I see it, if AB's responses are favorable and luck is with us, we have a dead enemy Sniper, two dead enemy Foot Soldiers, an enemy trainer who's asleep and whose pokemon are out-of-battle for the next few turns, a heavily damaged enemy tank, and a destroyer with 200 rage left over (300 start of next turn), plus a bit of healing on our side.

What... do you think?

You recall that if we have Moon and Shannon out on the field at the same time, they can flinch 4 foes 100% chance with their special technique? (Both need to spend 40 RP)

Otherwise, I am pretty much liking the plan. However, I want to look over the details.

Can you edit CCC (and your other technique) to your bio? So we don't have to search for it every damn time? But just find one of my posts and look up the bios through my signature?


EDIT: Why is Shannon able to act? She is Charlotte's enforcer, and you don't have her switched out. Is that a direct result of CCC? That's one of the reasons why I want to read it (and have it available to refer to.)
If that IS the case though, it doesn't explain why Pierce is mysteriously left out of the plan. (Blaziken would do great during the Sunny Day with Fire attacks)

Dante, if you can finally let us know who your enforcer is, that would be great.

Moon is right beside Impact, right? Any chance the backlash can hit Kurika (who is supposably behind him) and wash her off a bit?

Sorry, your ego's using up all the room.

Also, Blaziken is currently KOed.

Oh. ^^;

Anyhow, we got some AOE flinchers in the group.

If Rachel could use Max Revive on Blaziken, then Pierce would get 25 rage in the process, and pay for the ability to use Chizuru's AOE flinching ability. That should deal with just about everything except the sniper (which Wilhelmina can handle) and Ceru (our main target) and maybe the tanks (Don't know if Tanks have immunity to flinching, but they are locked down by Magnet Crush). We can focus our attacks on Ceru instead of the soldiers if we wanted to.

Then whatever rage Moon and Shannon gets next turn, could be used (maybe Max revive a pokemon to give them rage or something) to pay for their 4 target flinch. Good in case of more reinforcement. Pierce probably get some rage from his pokemons being hit that turn.

Double rocket boost Pierce next turn, repeat his thing.

Continue cycle. :3

EDIT:

.....

DING!

I just remembered that trainers get 25 rage for pokemons revived and pokebrid and slayer combatants get 50...

So when the situation goes bad (in a turn or two), Renny can switch in, use Prosperous Gifts with Max Revive. He has 70 rage so he can revive 7 targets...

Renny: Revive Swampert and Magnezone. Renny gains 50 rage.
Pierce: Revive Blaziken and Kingdra. Pierce gains 50 rage.
Harriette: Revive her Nidoqueen. Harriette gains 25 rage.
Kurika (if she gets knocked out from the fire): Revive her, she gets 50 rage.

You guys get the idea... Mind you, Revive items are weaker than normal when used with Prosperous Gifts... But yeah. ^^

Does Renny even have a Max Revive to use?

Yup, it's his only item left. He used Rage Rocket first during Pokegeddon and Full Restore during the buffing phase.

Right.

Anyway, been thinking about my character for the side-RP and I need to clear something with AB. See, the character I'm thinking of is an inventor. I was thinking of having her invent a battle suit that functions as every piece of Slayer armor in one place. Basically, your default Normal resistance and three other resistances that can be switched around. The other invention would be a belt with pouches that effectively function as pokeballs for Slayer weapons. Why not use actual pokeballs? Because it'd be rather silly if professional soldiers were running around yelling "Go, Strange Parasites!!!". Both would be designed to work together and operated with an interface at the suit's wrist. I haven't come up with names for 'em yet, but I will.

Anyway, so as not to mess with balance and shit, for all intents and purposes both would function exactly like things work now. Basically, you start the process of switching a piece of weapon or resistance one turn, and get it at the start of the next turn. The only problem I could foresee is that since these would presumably be mass-produced, or at least made available to other PATCA Slayers, it would eliminate any need for your NPC Daphne. What do you think?

Yes, I just came up with Batman's utility belt. Shut up.

You can use Lexhur's Devil Drift twice in the same round if you want. Lexhur can use as many attacks as has Rage to pay for. Herego, if he has 500 Rage, you can have him use Recoilless Cannon ten times. How's that for locked and loaded?

As for this strange powered armor Drac mentioned, I'm kinda lost. It's basically just a composite Slayer/Daphne powered suit, right?

Here's something I decided on quite recently:

I'm going to end upgrades at fourteen. That's your first level of whatever class you chose and then fourteen upgrades after that, giving you a total of fifteen levels. You're basically forced to spend the first four on your original class. All I can do is apologize for that. After that, your choices are your own as I intend to grant demonic powers as the last class that anyone can enroll in.

Why only so many? Because you're effin' powerful enough as is, don't'cha think?

I'll also offer upgrades at the end of everyone else's sidequests so that we have enough missions to squeeze all those upgrade chances in. Now that you know, you can plan where you want your level development to go after that. Demonology won't exactly be accessible by then, but you can always choose that upgrade ahead of time and then have it granted during Mission 5.

Yeah, pretty much. Not very important to us, but it should be pretty big ingame.

Fifteen upgrades? That's enough for five levels in three classes! Or six in two and three in one. Or any combination of such.

I don't suppose we could get a list of upgrades for every class up to level 6?

Who is this "Pierce" you speak of? Some NPC?

Considering that we will have killed or incapacitated everything on the field, I really don't see why we'd need to flinch anyone. I mean, yes, it's cost-effective, but it really isn't necessary.

Aaaaand...
See, we could do Prosperous Max Revives. But I do not think that AB wants us to gain that many RPs from just one technique. The way I see it, if we use it, the best-case scenario is that AB goes "you get no rage from that", and the worst-case scenario is that he eliminates Vengeful Rage altogether.
So, I wouldn't want to risk it.

Here's CCC, I'll put it in my bio.
That was when I was still assuming that trainers would only get to use one pokemon by default, so interpret the "extra attack" as "one round's worth of atttacks".

I know that I can do that. I'm asking if devil-drifting a pokemon out of battle will allow that pokemon's trainer to send another one out right away.

I think Aria might "accidentally" miss with a Thunder attack and hit someone else...

Well, if Ash can accidently capture a rice donut into a pokeball, which is neither a pokemon nor alive, (During the Episode he caught Mankey) then I'm sure that there can be technology to store heavier and more complex items into devices similar to Pokeballs. So it is at least plausible (even if it was more or less a joke in the anime)

And I second the request for updates for details on upgraded classes like Pokemon Breeder, Ragnarok, Ascended Pokebrids and what not. It doesn't have to be finalized (as we'll probably have ideas of what the class might/should have or what not) but it would be nice to see an prototype stage of what what is planned for upgrades before we go too far down a path, only to find out that we didn't get the character concept we were hoping for.

And I got no problem with AB saying that the group gets no rage from using Prosperous Gifts with reviving targets (as opposed to removing Vengeful Spirit or vetoing my technique) if it is going to be a huge problem. Alternatively, Vengeful Spirit could be altered to trigger at the time of the target being knocked out instead of upon reviving? It probably sounds weird, but at least it's not something that can be abused with Prosperous Gift. Plus, for a trainer, it makes sense since they might be more motivated to action when one of their pokemons are knocked out.

Also, if Matthias is having problem choosing an enforcer, we could easily decide that Muon opted to be his enforcer. She did join the group after we found her after all. :3

Yes. Let us end Renny.

But threats aside, there's still some uncertainties in regards to my plan. Stuff I wanted your input on was:

Harliette: Desperado or Aqua Shot? Illumise to use helping hand or Harliette to use a full restore on self?
Matt: What enforcer? Preferrably not muon.
Pierce: Well, what to do? What pokemon do you have? Tyranitar, Metagross and Skarmory, right? I'm thinking Metagross and Tyranitar. Or, yeah, we revive Blaziken.
Rachel: Rage Rocket or Full Restore or Max Revive or Thunder? Help me out here, people!
Moon: Barrier amp or Power amp? Barrier'd be a bit better, I think.

I want answers, people!

Harliette: Go with Desperado. We gotta burn up her Rage.
Matt: Go with Hector. His Co-Op Tech, Shadow Falls, might affect Wildfire's ranged attacks as well.

Hector's Co-Op Technique for your convenience: Pierce: I'd suggest reviving Blaziken and Kingdra.
Rachel: Full Restore on Impact to give him Plasmaburn immunity.
Moon: Barrier Amplifier.

Yah, I've seen that. It would've been my recommendation also, but I thought Matt might've already picked one and just neglected to tell us.

I like the thought of using Rachel to bestow Plasmaburn immunity... yeah.

Desperado, I would've thought so as well. Though when to best use that? To begin with (when the infantry is avaliable), or near the end (where we'll hit just the tanks)?
I'd probably use it late.

What d'you mean by this? That he should revive them? That they should be revived, and he should use them? Cause neither are really feasible. We don't have that many max revives to go around, unless Renny wants to use some prosperous gifts.

Menarker already said he wanted to use Prosperous Gifts.

If we don't want to revive them, though, I'd probably go with Tyranitar and Aria. Though Tyranitar's going to need some de-oiling if we're going to keep him out.

He suggested it, but... I think, if anything, Renny should recieve healing, not dispense it. Let him sit in the rear, let him recover. It might be useful, but not necessarily...

What movesets do Metagross and Skarmory have?

Oh, AB, I just realized something. Do NPC Slayers get accessories?

Apologies on my dissappearance. Can't promise I'll show up more often though my weekend will be a bit less hectic. Online classes + Assistant Stage Management gig = very very tired Dante. Just pulled an all nighter for a homework deal. Combat won't see many posts for me simply because they aren't needed. I'll try and keep up on it though just so I can make sure Impact isn't making me do something stupid

Going with Aster for my Enforcer. Presuming he wasn't already picked and I just forgot.

Also Gem your plan for me is flawed. I still have a full turn of Paradigm Shift.

Here's Pierce's moveset. I swear, I'll get around to editing this into his bio eventually!Tyranitar (Male)
Ability: Sand Stream
Earthquake/Crunch
Stone Edge/Focus Blast
Protect/Roar
Item: Terra Hammer

Aria Nagarai (Female)
Ability: Drizzle
Draco Meteor/Thunder
Thunder Wave/Dragon Pulse
Extreme Speed/Ice Beam
Item: White Herb

Metagross (Genderless)
Ability: Clear Body
Meteor Mash/Zen Headbutt
Giga Impact/Iron Defense
Item: Metronome

Blaziken (Male)
Ability: Blaze
Flare Blitz/Overheat
Sky Uppercut/Reversal
Item: Expert Belt

Kingdra (Female)
Ability: Sniper
Draco Meteor/Hydro Pump
Blizzard/Dragon Pulse
Item: White Herb

Skarmory (Female)
Ability: Keen Eye
Steel Wing/Night Slash
Drill Peck/Roost
Item: Metronome

As for Matt's Enforcer, hmm... One alternative is to switch Aster in permanently and use his Signature Sequence. I forget the name, the one that gives him invincibility.

Riiight...

I don't think Matt needs to switch with Aster. Damage-wise, Matt's more effective, and it's not like he needs healing.

I think we can spare one max Revive for Pierce. Maybe go Blaziken and Metagross? That could all work out.

Yeah, let's go with Blaziken and Metagross.

And what should we do with Aster, then?