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With the night having passed, the group was ready as they could hear the shifting of the forest around them. While Ryia herself was ready for combat right off the bat, what she was not ready for was for a man to come and approach them and speak directly. It was clear he was not alone and it was clear that he was ready to fight as he introduced his presence. Ryia was naturally taken off guard by his entirely human, if not a bit unkempt, appearance though remembered again that this was just what Lycans did. Though, he was certainly less feral than she was expecting. As Lindow and him began speaking with one another, a clear tension in the air between the two, Ryia was intrigued by the information on the demon gate. The idea that it wasn't above ground was certainly familiar to her, after all the last one they had found was in an underground ruin. Of course, trying to tunnel everywhere in this forest was both disrespectful and not particularly practical. Besides it would've had to either been placed not in the immediate forest or moved there. And if the werewolf didn't know, who of course he could've been withholding information, there was only one other group that made their home in the forest. Stepping up, now feeling more able to partake in the conversation, the girl asked "um, have you uh...noticed anything strange about the forest. Uh, recently, that is?" He looked at Ryia silently. Looking her up and down. Then he grinned and said, "hm, not bad I suppose." He didn't answer right away then finally said, "Besides that the outskirts are dying, and the animals are all worked up, not much I guess." Troubled, both by his appraisal of her and the first part of his answer, the girl asked, "the uh, outskirts are dying?" She'll also look over to Cym and Pan as well on this. Neither elf seemed to notice her question; Cym looking back and forth rapidly while Pan stared unblinkingly at the man. "What, didn't you see? Even a human should have been able to tell." the man replied. "Ah...yeah, I suppose that was the case..." She said thinking back to when they had first entered the forest. There wasn't much in way of life to greet them and while she probably thought it strange at the time there was a plethora of new experiences the past few days that took her mind away from them. Feeling incredibly awkward about the entire situation the girl gave a polite bow and said, "um, thank you for the info." "You humans are such funny creatures. One of you wants to fight, and right next to him you're acting so meek. It's no wonder your kind die so easily." He laughed more, echoed by howls all around. "Six" Keres said suddenly. "So they are..." The girl muttered to herself, realizing that they were in fact besieged by wolf people. A troubled expression was still on her face as she knew what this was going to lead to. Looking at the man directly, "do you uh...really want to eat us?" "Well, those animals look to have much more meat on them. But, food is food." He chuckled. "But maybe I'll bring you back, you look like a stronger woman than those others at least." "I see...You seem um, well, reasonable enough? Or uh, talkative at least, so I'd uh...really rather...well, if you could just not. I don't want to have to fight and I'd um, well, I uh...would really like it if we could all be peaceful with each other. Um, elves too..." She didn't want to engage in combat with the minotaurs where they last were, and just because they were people who also had bestial traits didn't mean they couldn't be reasoned with or had to be outright killed. "Well isn't that nice. What about him, then." He looked at Lindow. "I can tell, he's a killer. He can't wait to get started." Then at Reinaan. "The boy there seems more wild than you, too. No, they came here to take my head for sure." He then smiled wide. "And her. Look at her eyes and tell me she wants any sort of peace." Looking back, Ryia saw that Madelyn's expression was one of utter contempt towards the lycan. Though, that expression was something of a common place one for Madelyn, she couldn't exactly just say that and it certainly didn't negate her feelings either. Nor did she doubt Lindow and Reinaan were more than willing to get into a fight. A bit deflated as she didn't know how to continue with such peace talks, the girl said, "I uh...I suppose not..."

With the two of them having made it to the office building proper, Carmen was a bit hesitant to go into yet another haunted building so soon. The plain and mundane office building before her had its own sort of dread to begin with, more to do with the general horrors of an average 9-5 work shift and having to work in office filled with people. It was like school only she was even more likely to get yelled at for not doing her work properly. "But...that sorta happens already...hehe..." The girl mumbled and quietly laughed to herself at this, as Brian began to talk about his discontent with the job. Carmen hadn't even thought about their lack of knowledge with what they were dealing with, feeling nervous to actually walk through the door at all for fear that it could cause some kind of paranormal happenings. Letting out a sigh, as they began gearing up to head into the building, Carmen had the presence of mind to take two flashlights with her this time. That way if one was unruefully taken from her grasp again she had a back up. With her mediocre perpetrations complete, the girl walked in after Brian only to find that her worst fears were in fact confirmed upon entering the office building. Which was to say, it was in fact a regular old office building that you could see on any TV show. That happened to take place in an office at least. As she began her own investigation of the area she looked around before deciding to go the scariest place. The place where one was most likely to chance any kind of encounter in an office building. The water cooler. Looking at the half empty cooler, the girl flicked it with her hand, seeing if anything jumped out. When nothing did she thought that there was a chance that there could be some kind of strange ghost or haunt, possessing the cooler itself that would be triggered upon the use of it. With trembling hands she reached out, getting ready to push the tab down before she realized she had no cup to put the water in. While this was not particularly vital to her experiment she thought it would be rude to splash water on the floor and that anyone watching via a security camera would see her do that and chew her out later at her own home. The legal fines alone were enough to scare the girl into being considerate. Unfortunately for her there were no cups to use, as they were all currently in the small waste bin to the side of the cooler. Looking at the bin, then the cooler, the girl cautiously made her way over to it, shuffling the garbage can under the cooler directly. Gulping nervously, she flipped the cooler on to let water flow from it. And...nothing happened. Well, the cups got wet as water did indeed come out but there was no ghost or anything that had come to attack her. Letting out a sigh of relief the girl then stiffened up again as she realized that she had actually made no real progress in the investigation and the unknown was still just as unknown. So, she instead moved her search to the desk nearby. It seemed pretty standard; a cup filled with pens, a computer and a photo a dachshund wearing a deerstalker hat and a collar with a tag that read "Sherlock." The girl let out an audible, "heh," at this before looking at the desk. Nothing seemed completely out of the ordinary and the computer didn't seem to be on either. The girl decided to confront her fears once more, doing exactly as she had with the cooler and, trembling, had moved to turn on the computer. Nothing happened. The girl let out a sigh of relief as nothing happened. Then, froze again. Nothing had happened. That was certainly not normal. The girl gulped nervously, remembering the flickering lights from the last mission before she looked to the photo of the dog. "What would you do Sherlock?"

Hector watched everyone else vanish in a beam of light until only he and Jirachi remained. The Mist was what felt like only inches away from them then. Long, wispy coils stretched out from the bulk of it, and for a split second Hector thought they were forming into something more solid as they got closer. Frayed tendrils became fingers first, then hands, reaching out for the two of them languidly. He blinked and they were just tendrils again. All six of Hector shifted uncomfortably, and without any of his companions around, he was honest with himself. He was scared. He envied the ones to be teleported initially. Hearing about the Mist had been unnerving—Hector had been unsure how they were supposed to help even then—but experiencing it so closely was another thing entirely. How are we supposed to fight against… this? Hector felt an inclination in the back of his mind to form up into a shield wall, but his instinct was cowed by how awestruck he was by what he saw in front of him. The Legends had failed to prevent this. Card games and video games had taught him those legends were supposed to be god-like; forces of nature unto themselves. Yet all of them had failed. All of them except… Hector looked at Jirachi. A tiny blip of a figure against the endless wall of Mist. The final bastion of the once mighty legendaries that had created the world. Hector had thought of him as inspiring so far, occasionally childish, but in that moment he saw him in a new light. The Wish Pokémon seemed lonely. Small. Tired. Hector saw a shining light appear in the corner of his vision. His stomach churned in anticipation of being teleported away. He spared Jirachi one final glance. I can’t imagine how he feels right now. It was rough waking up as a Pokémon, but that probably has nothing on waking up to learn that while you were asleep the world ended and all your friends and family are dead or turned insane by some freaky Mist. The light became blinding. Hector vanished a split second later, still staring sadly at Jirachi. Don’t worry, you aren’t alone now. We’ll help. I promise. ----------- Hector stumbled when his feet found solid ground. They were in some kind of clearing now. He didn’t have to wonder where for long, because Jirachi appeared only a moment after he did. Then he explained what they needed to do to prevent the Mist. Hector was surprised by how easy the request was. His memory of life past his teenage years had been missing since he woke up as a Falinks, but he knew that he had no need of those memories to conjure up a happy moment. NCM had been his escape from a miserable home life. The friends he had made discussing the Pokémon TCG had been his substitute for any real connection with his mother and father. The in-jokes, the late night troll posting, the club shenanigans and all of the theory-crafting in group private messages for local tournaments. He picked one that stuck out to him. The day he told the group PM that he had qualified to go to the 2014 Pokémon TCG World Tournament. It was hosted in Washington, not far from his home state, so he would even be able to afford the trip. They had stayed up until the sun had come up working on his deck for the tournament. Discussing tech choices and the meta. There had been talks of some of them showing up to support him and hang out in person. It was one of his favorite memories. He met Jirachi's eyes, scooped the badge off of his chest, and wished with all his might.

"Yay! It sounds like everyone's ready. ♪ And don't worry. This shouldn't hurt if we all do it right. Just make sure not to move too much. Let's go!" "...that doesn't sound good..." Marv muttered to himself, swallowing hard a bit. "This is the very center of this island. It is from here that we will either make our last stand, or begin our first steps toward saving this world. Please. On my count, lift your badges into the air. When you do, please focus on happy thoughts. On hopeful thoughts. What brings you happiness? What brings you hope? These will provide you with the strength you need to stand against the Endless Mist. And lastly, make a wish! Wish to clear away the Mist! ♪ All right. On my count: One, two, three, wish!" A happy thought? A bunch of hopeful thoughts? Something that brings happiness and hope? Marv had to ponder this for a few moments. What actually made the Froakie...no...what made the former young man happy? Thing was, he couldn't remember much of anything...nothing except for his time on Yanma's and Nincada's Custom Monsters...those forums, his time has Order Shadow. It was a time in his life that...he recalled giving him the most peace and tranquility in life...least as far as he could remember. But the first few years of him being on the YCM forum was a rocky one...not until he found his stride in... ...the Role-playing section... Marv thought, taking a deep introspective look at what really made him happy. His mind recalled his time in the RP Section on YCM starting out...and it was cringey at best. His first few delves into RP were...very...not worth writing home about. It wasn't until the moments that YCM began to adopt an Advanced RP format...which meant it was 100+ words per post. Now that, that was something that actually assisted him with really breaking into his stride. Bits of moments and memories of these began to be brought up to his mind. There were countless RPs he ended up dipping his toes into, many died after a few months...hell, a few weeks if anything! But a few actually ended properly...and two of them were brought up immediately. On NCM, there was an RP known as "Twilight of the Gods", which he joined in with four others...and it ended with only two people. He was excited that it finally ended and things were wrapped up nicely enough, despite that he felt fatigued with that RP...he found joy and ideas coming from different things he remembered. The second...was from YCM...an RP he did that was known as "Generations", which was an Assassin's Creed based one. He had that working and it took forever to finish, due to some things...he was fuzzy on the specific details...but he knew there was a reason. At the very end though, he knew this was the only RP of his that he finished. Funnily enough...this did bring a smile to his face. There was also the moment he was labeled as the "Typecast Shonen Protagonist", just because of his character creation...they all were shonen specific and he always made em, cause he used himself as a basis for most. It brought another smile to his face. It wasn't just that, but quite a few other memories came to his mind, namely the people and friends he met through the RP Section. Marv remembered their usernames almost immediately: DukeMiltank, Civ, Manetric, Setora, the list went on... Hell, there was a moment that Civ and another friend of his made Order Shadow a living meme after his one RP failed and he was planning to revitalize it and remake it. For the longest time...the question was always the same: "WHERE'S GRIMM NIGHT'S, SHADOW??". This little memory caused him to smile from ear to ear and even start to snicker a bit as he thought long and hard on it. He remembered Civ and the others in the RP section really being there for him...namely Civ and another specific one...they were like his inner circle, he remembered that vividly now.. It brought a smile to his face... With these memories in mind...he W I S H E D.

In truth, being told that it ‘shouldn’t hurt’ wasn’t the most comforting thing Es could have heard when the most damage she had sustained thus-far had been at the hands of the Jirachi’s rolling-over-in-sleep; but she still did her best to stay put. Of course, that took a good few moments of adjusting plasma-output and dialing the optimal drift down to a null-status, something which made her body feel… Antsy, and as if the slightest provocation would prompt her to jump from the core she inhabited, but if her staying-put was that necessary, it would have to do. Of course, as the light enveloped the others, the lack of any obvious screams of pain was a bit more comforting; and the endless torrent of light which soon followed didn’t hurt either. In a lot of ways, it was… The polar-opposite of traveling through a solid-wall, she realized. Whereas in the wall, she had been hyper-aware of her core’s every movement, of her intangible self’s every inch traveled, and all her senses were overcome with sheer nothing this was… The opposite. It was bright, and she couldn’t tell where she was going; just that she was. It was disorienting in all the opposite ways, sure-- But at least it was familiar enough that, as she was spat out on the other side, she had little trouble righting herself. Plasma sputtered momentarily as her wings flared back into motion, the telltale circular drift returned to her movement; a simple drift which kept afloat as she idly watched the others appear one by one. Their own entrances were hit or miss, as could be expected, but she was admittedly relieved when Jirachi followed the rest of the group with little trouble. On some level, after all, she had been afraid they had been sent here to die. That, luckily, was not the case; for even if wishing seemed a rather… Novel solution, something deep within her told her that, should any Pokémon be an authority on wishing, it was the ‘genius’ in front of them. Of course, that whole, ‘remember happy memories’ notion was… A bit more difficult a request to complete. Even as she bent a wing unnaturally backwards, pushing it into the badge ever-so-slightly before increasing the density of the plasma, so as to ‘grab’ it and pull it off… She still hesitated for a moment, lucky the count hadn’t begun; after all. What should she think about? What could she think about? That was a difficult question to answer, she realized, as she drifted idly out of consciousness, and into the back of her mind. Even as, there was no analogue within the digital-landscape that would aid her in this, it seemed… A bit more comfortable to her, as she tried to think. The others had spoken much of the forum-- Likely because that was all that they could remember. It was the same for her as well; but whereas the others had interacted, and talked, and spoken… Well, she had done very little of any of those things. It was her fault, really, but she had mostly just… Read, the forum, as a means to let time pass her by while she… Waited. For what, she wasn’t sure, but it was always while she was waiting. But that meant there were no strong emotional connections to the memory. Similarly, she could remember messaging some people with advice from some of the hobby-sub-forums, but… Well, that hadn’t been out of happiness, so much as it was something she knew, and knew she could at least help with. It was more an obligation than out of happiness, really. Which left the only place to look for happy-memories, happy-thoughts… This existence. Of course, in this confusing, terrifying experience, there had been few truly ‘happy’ moments, but… Well, the choice of what to think about was an easy one. Even if for a brief, scant few moments, she had found someone she could consider a friend; a prospect she felt was… Likely rare, in her past, even if she couldn’t remember too well. Someone she felt like she could bounce off of in conversations, with whom she could joke around with for the most part... And even if that ended suddenly, and explosively, as all good things are want to do-- It was still a happy memory, and a good locus for her to focus her mind on as she raised the badge high; as the count began, and she was once again manipulating her wing-directly, as she held the badge to the sky, and made a single, bold, wish.

When all was said and done Chester was filled with renewed zeal and an inner strength that allowed him to stride to Jirachi and the others, ready to take on and tackle any problem that may have come their way. Of course he stood resolutely and fearless towards the coming light that encroached upon them, no matter the half assurances that Jirachi had given them and the rather ominous way the light had moved towards them. He knew that he was here to save the world and with everyone else at his side, even if he didn't know all of them fully, he could most certainly do it. Of course this unshakable confidence was briefly shaken by the disorienting sensation of being teleported but the metaphorical fall was only brief before he metaphorically rose through such discomfort in an equally short amount of time. With the blinding light having faded and his eyes and sense of balance having adjusted to the new environment, Chester could tell definitely feel the ominous presence of the woods that they were in, made only more ominous by the encroaching mist coming upon them. Jirachi had mentioned that their goal would either be a success of failure here, but Chester had not gotten to where he was today by simply believing he would fail at every turn. No, he was here to save the world, work alongside his comrades and help them all return home safely and no obstacle of madness or violence would stop him. Of course such gusto would get him nowhere if he simply charged forward, only more evident as Jirachi had made their advice known about what to do. Chester looked at the badge he was given, clenching onto it in stubby hand as he directed his mind to happier thoughts. Chester could only remember his time on the forums. He had no memory of what his life was outside of that, what his world was like. He didn't know who he associated with, what he did for a living was or even what his current goals were. He knew that he was going to school and working feverishly towards a degree of some kind, but he didn't ever really mention what major, why he wanted it or even how close he was to attaining it. But he didn't need what he couldn't remember to give him satisfaction. In fact, he was already satisfied, perhaps already living his best life on the forum. Sure his job as a moderator was stress inducing; bots continually appearing to spam the thread with who knew what, the populace constantly going at each other's throats for one reason or another, making sure rules were followed and requests were listened to and even having to pester other moderators about things that were currently non-functional with the site. He didn't mind any hate or jeering he got from the crowd because at the end of the day he was doing his job and he liked his job. But that was abstract and while it evoked a feeling of pride in him it was hardly the all encompassing joy that was probably needed for such a wish. So he only needed to go back further. He had always loved this community, from the very first day he joined in it. As cheesy as it may have been it was the truth. He loved the vast wealth of knowledge that everyone had collaborated together and making, he enjoyed the in depths discussions about games and pastimes that he actually loved. Sure there was times where it was stressful, there were times where he didn't get along with others and an innumerable times he was heckled for being an "ass kisser" or "mini mod," but those didn't bother him too much. After all he was the one following the rules and he was the one typically being civil. But, if that's how they wanted to view him than so be it. He always felt that he was working towards the communities best interest, and if people were mad at him for working with the mods and already "doing a mod's job," then there was only one thing to do about that. Chester was starting to realize that he perhaps was more of a competitive person then he first gave himself credit for. After all, he wanted to be a mod for altruistic means but he certainly couldn't deny the catharsis that came with proving the naysayers either wrong or right, depending on how you looked at it, and gaining his mod ship. He felt ecstatic that day the position was crowned onto him, though. And beyond the feeling of competitive triumph there was an overwhelming sense of pride and bliss as he had been the one chosen by the mods to become the next mod and he was similarly accepted by the people. Sure there was jokes and jeers about it, but the idea that it was an "obvious choice" made the validation granted from even the negative comments all the better. And so, pouring that joy and sense of accomplishment into his badge, into the vision of a clearer, brighter forest and WISHED.

Being in the back half of the teleportation move Jirachi had performed, Noibat came closer to the Mist than she had ever wanted. It moved in an unnatural way, almost malicious in her anxiety ridden mind, like it wanted to attack her personally. But the light from the small wish-granter whisked her away in time to avoid contact with the force that sought to end the entire pokemon world. Before she had a moment to adjust to the various sensations involved they were already done and arrived at their destination. The center of the island as Jirachi put it. So they had a bit more time before the Mist came for them again but if they did nothing it would just be a repeat of the previous scene. Having seen it first hand now it was something she hoped to avoid and they were granted an opportunity. Albeit one Noibat had to do everything she could to try and not scoff at. "A wish? Based on happiness and hope..." Noibat thought and moped to herself though unknowingly the sentiment would echo into the other's minds via the telepathy she still didnt know she had if they weren't overly involved in their own thoughts. That was a tall order given what she remembered. All she could remember was the forums. And while that gave her a lot of memories to work with, a lot of that was centered around the 2010 era. Not exactly a happy time in hindsight. A dumb teenaged Noi- well Fleur at this point there was no need to hide her username from her own thoughts. A dumb teenaged Fleur was hyperactive in the clubs section of the forum and in various associated circles as a result. A lot of it was pointless drama cooked up by other dumb teens not thinking twice about the hurtful things they were saying to each other anonymously on the internet. Fleur wanted to remember happier things. More recent things. She had a weird feeling she was actually pretty happy as of late. But her forum activity had dropped off by a lot, taken away to other sites and apps she couldn't now remember. There were only pieces to work with in the last couple years, a birthday, a hype game release, and a girlfriend she had to be living with. It was a year old status update, her last one she'd made. Something about living with her. The thought terrified Fleur as she continued to search for some scrap of happiness to work with the wish. There was someone in the human world wondering where she had gone, and she couldn't remember their name or face. This was too much for her. Well all of this was but if she kept dwelling on that sentiment with everything that happened the Mist would already be here. So back to the early 2010s she went, digging through the mire of mixed up memories. She thought of her own club she ran for a while, Shooting Sonic. It was Yu-Gi-Oh! themed as 5Ds was all the rage at the time. But calling any club themed was a bit misleading. Shooting Sonic was constantly off topic and devolving into nonsense, a lot of which Fleur enjoyed or started herself. But several times they and other clubs of the like had been reminded by the ever nosy moderators to get back to their main topics. It was always an invasion of privacy having a non-member just post in the thread like that. But it was a public forum and mods had to do their jobs as best they thought. It seemed like Shooting Sonic should have been the answer. She had made one of her long time best friends there after all. But the more Fleur thought of it the more she thought about connections long since faded or broken. Many of those members hadn't been around in years, let alone made the switch to the new forum. It was then she thought about some of the other clubs and this pushed her mind back to just a bit before making Shooting Sonic. The Club Wars. The height of YCM insanity. A Final Fantasy themed club and a Pokemon themed club had declared war on each other and decided to make it into a full blown RP over in the RP section. But because most of these clubs had a great intersection of members, several others got dragged into the mess. Among them was a Naruto themed club and a Club dedicated to roleplaying proper. Everyone was making characters that were in effect just their forum selves but with a suitable set of super powers or what have you to do battle with each other. It was a remarkably light hearted affair showing just how innocent the initial declaration of war had been. Fleur had been part of at least two of these warring clubs at the time. And while she had never really roleplayed on YCM before she did have some experience as a cringy twelve year old Sonic OC roleplayer in other sites under her belt. (A fact she only remembered for having talked about it when joining the club wars.) There was one user in particular at the time that seemed to be on everyone's radar. One Light_Zero had annoyed several people in several different places and had given himself quite the loaded kit to fight in the war with. Fleur at the time had decided to join the Club Wars purely to get a shot at him and knock him down a peg or two. There was a unique sense of comradery as she expressed her intensions to join and designed a silly character of herself. All her clubmates were hyping each other up and were eager to see her join. And sure enough she eventually got her fight with Zero and got to hit him squarely in the gut. A smile crept in on Noibat's face. Was that it? Would something as stupid as a group of kids essentially turning themselves into action figures and smashing them at each other in longform writing really work for whatever it was Jirachi thought they could do? She'd hate to be the one dragging the process down if it wasn't up to snuff. Noibat removed the badge from her ear and looked it over in her hands. More than anything she wanted her small speck of stupid happiness to be enough to the join others probably way better memories. With the triumphant joy of beating up a forum menace in an explosively chaotic RP she held up the badge and WISHED.