The WHIRL Team

[ooc: I hate to say it, but skip me please; the other two living characters that Legato just met are in the SH, so there isn't much I can do. ;-; Just say she landed in front of them]

Ezio was climbing up a tall mountainous structure, seeking a better view beyond in the night sky. Once he reached the top, he discovered nothing but dangerous waters surrounding where he was, and also hole in the mountain, leading down into a cavern. There was a pool at the bottom, and since there was no other way out than back the way he came, he jumped, swan diving safely into the pool. At the bottom he saw shiny feathers, twinkleing in the moonlight. He grabbed a handful and put them in his pouch, seeing them as some sort of mystical value. Upon rising from the waters he took a breath and made it out, to see yet another hole leading downward. But this one seemed man-made and fresh, as if there was a struggle here earlier. Wanting to get to the "bottom" of this, Ezio set himself up to climb down until he reached something else. Starting off by pushing his hand and feet on the walls, and slide down, to grabbing rocks on the side one by one as the walls became further apart. When close enough to the ground he jumped, seeing a red shell in front of him with blood spilling out. Must've fought as long as possible to not become one of the beasts to end up here. "Requiescat in pace(rest in peace)." Ezio's senses picked up at the sound of something, turning around to see a bird up on the legde. Seemed healthy enough to speak to, so he did. "Ciao(hello) stranger, my name is Ezio Auditore, and what might yours be?"

Ariel was shaking all over. So much had just happened. That...that monster had touched her! He acted as if she were his! She hadn't responded-- she was just too shocked to say or do anything. Thankfully her team saved her.

At the cost of one...Jorf... Was everyone destined to die here? Eagle's death was bad enough, but Jorf too? And it would have never happened if it wasn't for her. Maybe she should have accepted the clown's advances. That way, she won't mess anything else up for her friends. She could just stay with the clown, let him focus his attention on her, so Jiru could train on the weaker infected to evolve and fly away from this hell of an island.

While Ariel planned on what to do, Jiru had asked her something. She blinked, not knowing what he had said. She simply nodded in reply, hoping that would sufface. The Charmeleon motioned for her to follow him, and she did. Before going far, however, Jiru assembled his items onto a string. This gave Ariel a moment to think again. If that monster is still alive, which she had a feeling was the case, since infected could survive more than a normal pokemon, I'll accept his offer. You're better off without me, Jiru...

Suddenly, a Pidgeot descended from the sky. Ariel instinctively stepped back, not knowing whether this was a friend or foe. She assumed the answer was friend, not only because Pidgeot were not native to the islands, but because of its graceful decent and calm appearance.
"Who are you?" the Sneasel asked bluntly. Barely a second after asking that, another voice spoke. "Ciao(hello) stranger, my name is Ezio Auditore, and what might yours be?" More living? This was getting insane.

(OOC: Skip me yet again. I don't have the means to continue...Yet)

"Who are you?" The Sneasel said daintily, a moment after a Breloom came into the scene and introduced himself with a foreign accent. Legato ruffled her feathers in the cave's natural cold, resting her wings at her sides. The Pidgeot was weary, yes, but at the same time she was relieved that she hadn't met another undead. Of course, her training at boot camp had set her on constant straining, causing her to be always on edge. The only time she had been able to let her guard down was by... her son... Staccato dearest, I'll find you...

She shook her head to disperse of the negative thoughts, her head feathers flowing from side to side. That Breloom- Ezio- and the Sneasel and Charmeleon seemed amicable enough. Perhaps if she teamed up with these Pokemon (whom she had to admit were a little shorter...), she would find her beloved son. Nodding to herself, Legato decided that she would. Her time at training had taught her to always have comrades on your side. Without support, you were more likely to fall amongst the infected and undead.

The Pidgeot stood at full height, making her seem powerful but at the same time elegant. She always loved to make lasting first impressions. "I am Legato. And whom might you all be?" She gave a short nod to Ezio to show that she had caught his name. After a moment for letting her proud stance be known, she slumped downward with defeat.

"I know we just met... but this island... I've seen so many freshly killed." Legato didn't know why this had affected her so much. After all, she had killed infected without another thought before. The Blaziken she had seen on the beach was unnerving, but for the Pidgeot, the Shuckle had done it. What was causing so many recent deaths? Why were these Pokemon, obviously striving to live, dying on this sole island? "You wouldn't have known a Blaziken and a Shuckle by any chance, would you?" Strutting with her strong legs, Legato came closer to the other three Pokemon. "I'd love to know about their lives, if you did."

(OOC-skip please she is resting)

The bird mentioned two people she wanted to know more about, the red one here, and someone else that Ezio never seen. He inspected the dead body more, remebered something. "Yes, I did know this one, but only at one point. He offered to heal my wounds from the long road from which I had traveled, so I let him. Strange he seemed, but a good man none the less to help a random person such as myself. The other one you mentioned, I cannot say anything about." He went back deeper into his memory and remebered a vile creature, like the others in this world, that the doctor had with him. "The uccello(bird) that looked like her," pointing at Legato, "did he not have one with him?" Ezio waited for an answer then asked another question. "So, what happened here?"

Jiru smiled back at Ariel as she nodded which he figured was her saying she was fine. He managed to put the Silver Wing and Tidal Bell on two separate strings before putting them around his neck. He turned once again to Ariel before hearing wing beats and looking behind him to see a Pidgeot. He took a defensive stance till he realized that the bird wasn't infected, though he kept his guard up cause things weren't always what they seemed in these times.

"Ciao(hello) stranger, my name is Ezio Auditore, and what might yours be?" Jiru looked once again over to where Ariel stood to see another pokemon, though he couldn't remember what it was called. There just popping up everywhere. He though as he walked over and sat on a rock.

"My name is Shinjiru, but everyone just calls me Jiru." He said as he crossed his arms. He turned back to the Pidgeot, who had mentioned seeing Eagle and Jorf. He let out a sigh thinking about his dead friends. "I would prefer not to talk about them. It would just bring my spirit down." He looked down at the ground, thinking about his lost friends while the others talked.

((Skip, please. My internet has gone AWOL))

(OCC: Skip me for now too. Sorry for the wait, I forgot about Whirl completely.)

The Sneasel stayed silent on the subject, the Charmeleon saying it only hurt talking about it, while the Breloom talked about how the Shuckle had healed him on a route. Perhaps... these Pokemon died valiantly. Nothing else could really describe it- if these Pokemon, touched and connected to the two lost ones, were broken down by loss, then their time alive must have been worth it. Legato said nothing however, knowing that only speaking of the death only made it harder.

"Alright- I've only wished to know their background; but we need to move on," whether she meant moving on from these deaths or continuing onward, it was unclear. "Did you have any plans of escape?" She let the others take charge; she was used to following orders anyways, and a leader had to be able to defend the group. Legato could only support, and help out where it's needed.

Yes, I'm certainly not cut out for a leader role. The Pidgeot glanced at the Pokemon that surrounded her at this moment. A Sneasel with an agonized face, almost brought down by sadness. Poor dearie. She thought to herself, her instinctive motherly-nature coming into play. She'd have a talk with the dual type later on. The next member was the Charmeleon, strong and powerful in his own right; but at the moment, he looked distraught, and Legato could only imagine what he was thinking. Ezio, the Breloom that he was, seemed able and agile; perhaps herself and he could make a good team someday.

At that moment, she heard movement from behind her; from below the ledge? Could it have been the falling infected she had seen? Or an entirely new undead? Legato fell seamlessly into a defensive pose, though she backed up to stand beside Jiru and Ezio. "Let's get out of here quickly, or prepare to have a fight, if you will."

(OOC-Sorry for the wait, Jane is 'asleep' so to speak so you may skip me)

Legato said to prepare for battle because of possible trouble, and so Ezio did. He formed and dropped seed bombs into a pile, you can never be too safe, and sprinkled some stun spore over it. Creating a bomb causing damage and stunning capabilities. "Grab some if you wish, if not I'll be using them of course." Ezio put one in each hand and formed a stance for fast throws and easy recovering. Now all that was left, was to wait for whatever was going to show up.

"Let's get out of here quickly, or prepare to have a fight, if you will." The Pidgeot said. Jiru let out a low growl before turned around, ready to leave.
"We should leave, I don't need another fight." Jiru said as he started to go up, back to the surface. "That clown already did a good number on me before you showed up, and before Jorf died..." He added. He looked back over his shoulder at Ariel, the only other friend he had left. "Come on, we should go while we still can." He said as he ran back down to her, holding out his hand for her to take so that he could help her if she needed it. That clown wont lay another finger on you, not while there's still fire on my tail. He thought to himself. I promise you that.

"Let's get out of here quickly, or prepare to have a fight, if you will." Ariel definately didn't want a fight. Not after all of her blunders in previous ones. Jiru's mention of Jorf made Ariel's heart sink. It felt like everyone would be dead soon if they didn't get off of this island. Either the infected would get them, or hunger.

The Sneasel couldn't remember the last time she had had anything to eat. She was starting to feel dizzy from it.
She heard Jiru call out to her. "Come on, we should go while we still can." Had he seen her stumbling from hunger? She hoped not--she didn't any more reasons to feel weak and insignificant.
Either way she took his hand and allowed him to lead her onward.

In the darkness of the abysm where Jokermime was plugged to his own demise, the demented clown was slowly starting to come to his senses. Death has rejected him yet again so he could suffer for a whole lot of more times to come.

As he started to come to his senses he started to feel different...something felt different on his body, sure he had a few more wounds, but that was not it, since he didn't felt pain since a long time ago. It was something else...He crawled towards a small pool of water and when he saw what was reflected in it he screamed. His scream echoed through the abyms he was on and up to the cave.

His hair as grown and was now a complete green instead of a moss covered mess. His face was plain white and had a strange red mark across his lips and cheeks...his smile like scar was still in his face but was smaller. And together, the mark and the scar, made a smile even more disturbing than before. He took a good look at himself...He couldn't believe how disturbing he looked, it seemed to even scare himself. He ran his hands through his face as he analyzed every inch of his new and more macabre self.

He looked around as he rubbed his hands against the sides of his torso, he felt cold...he noticed a few corpses, what were they doing there? Why were they using strange clothes with an R? So many questions but he didn't cared, he only grabbed on a weird shirt with long sleeves from one of the corpses and slipped it off of the corpse as he stretched the thing in the ground, he noticed some paint, slightly dried on the ground and tried to use it to paint the straight jacket he had found earlier. He was pleased after he had finished and tried to put it on, but he couldn't find where to slide his arms into, his hands bursted through the sides...only after that he noticed the sleeves were right behind the holes he had made.

He hit his forehead with his large head by the stupidity of his act...but oh well, it was done now. He looked at the corpses and decided to search on them for anything else that could look interesting enough for his little adventures. He found a note book on one, he tried to read but it was very difficult due how long he was infected, it took him 10 whole minutes to try to read the tittle in the cape of the book...It said "Move Tutor Manual". He went through it and stopped on a page with a picture of a thunder and a fist, by it he could recognize as the move Thunder Punch...Jokermime grinned, he had ideas for that... He started giggling quietly and it slowly grew to a monstrous cackle as he thought on what he would be doing with such a move.

"Come on, we should go while we still can." The Charmeleon spoke with determination, a spirit of one with a goal in mind. Legato dropped her wings and turned around, making her way over to the others as she peered into the darkness of the Whirl Islands. It isn't safe here, that's for sure. Something was out there, something that the Pidgeot wasn't exactly sure about, but its malignant power seemed to emanate even to here. The bird Pokemon rustled her feathers nervously, and though she loomed over the other Pokemon, she felt as small as a Rattata.

Don't fret. She told herself, nodding to Jiru that she was following him. Though taking out the threat before it became too powerful was what she normally would have done, Legato had to admit that the Charmeleon and Sneasel did seem rather worn out. These poor Pokemon must be tuckered out! The flying type thought with shame. How could she have thought about fighting before looking out for these Pokemon in front of her? The Bird Pokemon preened her chest feathers in anxiety, looking over the others that she stood with. "Then let's get a move on."

Ezio let out a sigh of disappointment after everyone set off to leave with Ezio having wasted his time on the bombs. "Ah well. If they can't be used now, maybe sometime later." Ezio went to where the sound was heard and place some bombs on the walls around and underneath the floor below. "If there is something meant to come, they'll have their own suprise waiting." Ezio ran to catch up with the rest, following them to wherever the destination.

Jiru lead the way through the caves, back the way they had come, his tail lighting a path for everyone to see. He held onto Ariels hand to help her along, though he felt a little hotter as he held it, but pushed the strange feeling aside till they got back to the surface. He didn't really have this feeling before, but he could feel his tail flame get brighter with it, though if it got any brighter then it was sure to lead those infected right to them.

Jiru soon spotted light up ahead, but they had to travel more silently, remembering there first time entering the cave they had been swarmed by infected pokemon, and Ariel and himself where to weak for an all out fight again. If only Jorf was still here, he could then make something to restore there strength, but sadly the little shelled pokemon has died in his last attempt to be rid of the Mime pokemon.

Jiru stepped out into the light of the moon that nested itself in the sky, one of the few things that didn't seem to change from this epidemic. He looked off in the distance, seeing an island far off with a city plastered on it. He figured that must be Cianwood City. He remembered going there once, but that was then, and this is now. They needed to get off this island, there wasn't much room for fighting inside those caves, and out in the open like this was hardly safe with those flying infected lurking about.

Ariel followed along silently, letting Jiru lead her. She wanted to thank him for being so kind to her, even after all of her blunders. She stayed silent, though, deciding that she would mention it at another time.
The walk to outside was mercifully uneventful. If the infected had attacked them, Ariel wasn't quite sure what she would do. Both she and Jiru were extemely exausted, and she didn't know how well Legato and Ezio could fight.

Ariel soon felt the cool sea breeze on her face. Everything was calm on the shore, nothing making a sound but the sloshing of the waves. We made it out... she thought to herself. Maybe things were going to get better, after all of the tragedies.

The sneasel sat down on the sand, the softest thing she had felt in days. She looked to see what the others were doing. Jiru was gazing out at the sea, a longing expression on his face. Ariel followed his gaze, and came upon Cinawood City. The place she had last been truely happy, with her parents. A tear rolled down her cheek.
"Cinawood..."The place that started it all...

He screamed in rage. He was taking too much time, he started to crawl out of the hole taking the book with him and walked to the caves entrance as he grumbled and and growled unrecognizable speech.

He sat down at the entrance and tried again to read. It was so hard! He was starting to loose patience, he tried to follow the steps one by one, in a slow manner. First focus...Than channel the energy...than thrust your fist forward and unleash it...It was hard to read and this was what he had got by now. He tried once...twice...three, four, five, ENDLESS TIMES AND NOTHING! He screamed and punched the book of Move Tutor away. The book exploded as a crackling noise was heard.

The clown blinked...He walked towards the book and picked it up, he brushed it softly with his hand...It seemed that it was slightly burned. He tried again unleashing his rage onto the book...Same thing but this time he saw. When the fist made impact it was surrounded by electricity and nearly unleashed a thunder onto the object. He started to charge his hands with electricity and unleashed a few Thunder-Punches into some boulders. He than moved his hands towards his face and grinned.

Ooooh...I feel like a Million VOLTS!

He laughed maniacly but than slapped his mouth holding his hands against it giggling. He remembered of the Sneasel...that dear beautiful little minx that escaped him, and the Lizard...That red one with the flame. He thought about the Shuckle too, but he could've sworn he saw the blood covered shell of the idiotic being a moment ago...might had been plunged into his own death after causing an Earthquake.

He walked at a fast pace as he grinned, he could smell them close. As he reached towards the end of the cave he could see them there...They were gazing out on the sea. There was two more with them, a bird and a mushroom...Blergh...Jokermime HATES vegetables...He shrugged and than started to climb up the rocks near the entrance to the cave trying to remain unseen and standed right above of the entrance sitted on a rock. He whistled loudly to get their attention.

Stop me if you heard this one before! There was these 5 guys in a complex of deserted islands...One says to the other...

He waited them to give their own punch lines. As he laid down on the rock with his belly down tapping his fingers on the ground.

Legato followed Jiru quietly, keeping her eyes on his flaming tail. And as fast as they had met, they had found their way into the open air, the sun just rising in the horizon. Hm... Her son had loved watching the sun, imagining how it would feel to fly when his wings weren't developed yet. The Pidgeot ruffled her feathers against the ocean wind, sighing as she took a place next to Jiru and Ariel, whom had both stared across the expansion of sea and over to Cianwood.

It was odd to imagine that just a few hours ago she had been resting within that city, her mind dull and void of emotion as she solely sought out her lost son. Everything else for her had lost meaning then; she avoided sleep, struggled through hunger, skittered past enemy lines. All in the name of her lost son. Legato let her eye lids down for a moment, to revere at how much she had lost. But I've found others, and that counts for something. Indeed, now that she was with others, her eyes had been opened (she opened her eyes at this time also).

"Stop me if you heard this one before! There was these 5 guys in a complex of deserted islands... One says to the other..." A jarring voice interrupts her thoughts, and the Pidgeot instantly had swerved around and narrowed her eyes to mere slits. Find the source. But what had that voice said? Five guys in a complex of deserted isl- Oh, for Arceus' sake. It must be that clown that she had seen falling down - really, she would have figured that the thing would have died from the collision, but obviously not.

Legato raised a talon, watching it glimmer in the morning sun, heaving a quiet sigh. She would not, could not fight if it wasn't necessary. It was... basically saying that she was falling to her past and cruel trainer that said that 'war was inevitable'. "..." She stayed quiet, setting her foot down and glaring into empty space.