Inner Focus Training Arena

[Hanafuda]

Seb stepped into the building, entering a forest arena. There was an open space in the middle, with various tall trees around the area. “Heheh. I’m loving this place so much,” Seb said, hands on his hips as he looked around. “It has everything! Good food, friendly staff, epic sceneries, a hotel with comfy rooms and TV and, best of all, battles! I’m pretty sure we’re gonna have something epic happening here.”

Jack looked around with a smile, admiring the lush trees and bushes. It looked like the perfect place for agility practice as well as stealth for anyone interested.

“Okay, I wasn’t forgetting anything, right?” Seb checked his pockets before taking out a Poké Ball into his hand. “Ah, here he is. How are you holding up in there, Zack?” He grimaced a bit. “Again, I’m sorry for putting you on timeout yesterday, but it’s okay now. I just hope you don’t do anything suicidal again. Now come on out. Jack surely misses you.” He threw the Ball to the ground.

The Ball opened, and a humanoid Pidgey came out in a white flash of light.

“Good morning, Zack,” Jack said, waving at him.

“Mornin’,” Zack replied with his back turned, holding his elbows into his wings. He seemed downcast.

“Um, you okay?”

“Yeah. Just doin’ some thinkin’.”

“Huh?” The Farfetch’d looked confused with an irked eye. “Whaddya mean?”

“Thinkin’ about yesterday. I…” Zack sighed. “I disappointed Seb, eh?”

“Oh, right. You rushed into that fight. I was telling you that you couldn’t possibly win.”

“I should’ve listened to you guys. …Sorry…”

“Huh? You’re acting kinda weird, friend. You’re not the sort to apologize.”

“Well, this is kind of a first to me. Yeah, it feels weird sayin’ these things.” Zack shook his head and sighed once more. “But… I dunno anymore. I thought bein’ a hero was all about the fightin’ and savin’ the world.”

“Well… This might sound weird, but…” Jack approached his friend and placed a wing on his shoulder. “To save the world, you should save yourself first.”

Zack raised his head, confusion visible in his expression. “Say what?”

“Save yourself from making dumb decisions, for example.”

“Aah. Okay.”

“And be more respectful, please.”

“I already respect you, Jack-o.” Zack turned his head to look at the Farfetch’d over his shoulder.

“And I appreciate that, but you should extend that respect towards other people.” Jack turned his gaze over the horizon. “And apologize to that woman.”

“Oof, that scary woman… Yeah, I was also thinkin’ of doin’ that when we see her again.”

“Alright. Feeling better now?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Zack twisted his beak into a smile. “Feel lighter all of a sudden. Thanks, man.”

“Making amends?” Seb said as he looked at his birds. “Nice. And I’m pretty sure you wanted to say sorry to me too, Zack?”

The Pidgey nodded at his Trainer.

“Alright. Glad you did that.” Seb looked around some more. “Now that you’re doing fine, how about some battling?”

Zack chirped aloud and jumped onto his Trainer’s shoulder, a cocky smile and glare on his face.

“Alright. Don’t get too excited.”

Jack gave the Pidgey a thumbs-up. “You can do it.”

Zack nodded with renewed confidence. “Yeah, you’re gonna see the future hero in action! Gotta shake off some rust first, though.”

“Now then,” Seb exclaimed as he looked for other Trainers in the arena, “who’s up for a duel?”

@Flyg0n

 

[ShiniGojira]

With questions flying left and right, and people leaving in search of clues, June decided to leave the office as well. There was probably more he could've learned about, but he was definitely not cut out for this, he needed some time off to clear his mind, organize his thoughts as they say, leave the problem solving to the experts or whatever.

And that was probably why he was standing in front of a training dummy, with his claws clenched into fists. Training was certainly one way to keep his mind off of things.

He charged forward, swinging at the dummy, his tail flame burning brighter than before. He grunted, throwing another punch before Evie chimed in from beside him when his fist connected.

"You're doing it again, June," she said, freezing him in place. "You're still thinking like a human. You need to remember that your punches aren't going to do as much damage as your claws. You'll need to learn how to use your body properly if you want to improve."

He glanced at her briefly, opening his mouth before closing it and turning his head away. She was right, he needed to learn, he needed to be able to defend himself, he couldn't keep relying on them.

He sighed, biting down a snarky remark. "Yeah, okay."

June looked like he wanted to say more but Evie pretended to not notice as he refocused on the dummy.

 

[Chibi Pika]

<><><><><>​

Alright, so... investigating. Jade really didn't have the first clue on where to begin with investigating. None of her experience back home was relevant here. Not when her time on the Rebellion revolved around a known enemy with a known location. Finding clues was so much easier when you already knew where to look.

So she ended up texting Laura to meet her at the training grounds. At the end of their first meeting, the older girl had offered to exchange numbers. After puzzling out how to even get phone service on the island. Which hadn't occurred to Jade since she hadn't checked her Pokégear since arriving.

 

[Sinderella]

They might as well have turned these indoor arenas into dance studios. The floors really were perfect; she couldn't get over it.

She finished it out her her series of a la Seconde turns with a leg hold, before bowing out into a tilt, which she ended up stumbling out of. She gave a gruff breath as she kicked the ground.

"Can't even blame the floor, that was just me that time," she said in a huff.


"I still thought your lines were very clean."


"That's something," she said, sliding down into a middle split. "Maybe I'm just not stretched."

She eyed Kimiko, sitting nearby on one of the observer benches, with a thoughtful shine in her eyes. "I actually don't turn that often in the routines my team does, but I like to stay on top of my technique for the outside stuff we do." She dropped down to her elbows and began to thumb her chin. "Though, I should be a responsible person and practice what I already know if this season's routine. I bet they fucking finished it already, so I'm gonna have to play catch up..."

If you make it back, that is.

She abruptly pushed herself back up. She really shouldn't be thinking like that. She needed to be thinking about how she was going to prevent that.


"We should probably figure out a game plan while there's nobody else around," she said in a borderline whisper. The entire arena stood empty, undoubtedly because everyone was still down at the cove. "Maybe go back to the dorms for extra safety..." Wire taps were definitely still a thing. Though, who's to say there weren't wire taps in her room?

Hm. She should go looking for those. She knew what they looked like, so it wouldn't be hard.

"Also, where the fuck is Odile?"

The stupid weed wasn't in the bush when they'd gone to leave, and was now nowhere to be found. This seemed like the most likely place for her to come, if not the marsh. So much for sticking together. Idiot.


"I didn't see where she went, but I haven't heard anybody scream yet..."

She sighed yet again. She was doing that a lot today. As she did, she kicked her legs back together and pushed herself back up to stand. "More turns so I don't fucking lose it," she declared as she stepped into another series of pirouettes.


As Odette began to spin around, Odile rolled into the arena from one of the side entrances. Without a word, she tumbled up to her vessel, and began to roll around her in the opposite direction she was spinning.

"̷L̷o̶o̷o̵o̸o̶o̸o̵o̴o̸o̷k̷ ̷w̷e̷'̶r̴e̸ ̶s̴p̷i̵r̵a̴l̶i̵n̵g̸ ̴o̸u̵t̸ ̸o̴f̸ ̵c̴o̶n̴t̶r̷o̶o̵o̶o̸o̷l̶l̵l̷l̴,̵"̴ she droned on.


Odette stopped herself with her foot and shot a glare down at Odile. "Fancy seeing you here, pain in my ass. What happened to 'do not move from this spot'? Where'd you even go?"


"̴I̷ ̸C̷A̷N̸N̸O̷T̶ ̸B̴E̶ ̸S̴H̷A̷C̶K̷L̶E̷D̴ ̵D̷O̴W̴N̵ ̷B̷Y̶ ̷T̸H̶E̴ ̴W̴O̵R̵D̸ ̶O̴F̴ ̸L̷A̸W̵,̷"̷ Odile bellowed, continuing with her rolling. Rolling was proving to be much more fun than flying, though it might have just been because she was still a little sleepy. "̷A̶n̶d̴ ̶t̵o̸ ̴t̷h̵e̶ ̵w̸o̸o̶d̴s̶.̵ ̶T̶o̶ ̴s̸l̶e̶e̸p̵.̷"̷

She didn't need to offer anything else other than that.

"Yeah, but you can be shackled by the word of your ball."

Well, she was here now, and really, if she were lying she probably would have come up with a much more exaggerated excuse. Being that she was so sluggish, Odette could believe that she really had flown off to go sleep in a tree somewhere.

With a roll of her eyes, she went back to her spins.

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully. A good portion of it was spent chatting with Hayes at the dorms while their pokemon relaxed in the dappled sunlight of the garden. In the late afternoon, Steven excused himself, making up a story that he'd wanted to head to the Swap Shop after their battle strategy conversation. He bid Hayes goodbye (and a promise that if the young man ever needed anything, he could come calling any time, day or night) and headed toward the shop.

As soon as Hayes was out of eyesight, though, Steven veered toward the training arena with Aggron in tow. He didn't want his presence there to seem suspicious, showing up so close to the end of the day, and he'd wanted to try out a few techniques, so he was happy to spend a few hours at the arena simply, well, training.

Steven was careful to avoid Odette and the Alakazam trainer as they left the arena for the day; he didn't want to have to field any unexpected questions or attract unwanted attention. This was supposed to be a clandestine outing. At least as clandestine as one could be with a hulking Aggron slamming rocks around the practice field.

Aggron hadn't run Rock Slide in his moveset for quite a while, but the TM was second nature to him, and it wasn't long before he was hitting all the patterns they'd wanted to practice. Wide spreads, tight clusters, sequenced chases across the field for even the most mobile opponent.

Steven was just about to test out one of the more interesting strategies he'd cooked up since they arrived on the island when he glanced at his watch. It was getting late. He signaled to Aggron and his partner's thunderbolt fizzled out as he left the rock-strewn battlefield and joined his trainer near the arena's entrance.

In the lull in their training, it was clear that the facility was almost completely vacant. Exactly like how Hayes had described it when he heard the mysterious training the previous night.

Steven strained to hear anything, and Aggron's head tilted back and forth as he did the same, but neither picked up anything unusual. Undeterred, they exchanged a determined look and took leave of their practice field.

It was fortunate the ground-themed battlefield they chose was next to the grassy one where Hayes had reported the mysterious presence; it made for a short walk. No time for Steven to talk himself out of this investigation and reconsider how incredibly foolish this might be.

Quietly the pair made their way down the hallway that ran between the main battlefields, and approached the entrance to the grass themed arena. Steven took a steadying breath and shared a long, level look with Aggron. Be prepared for whatever we might find.


On high alert, they peered in through the arena's entrance to see if they could catch Hayes's mystery late night trainers in the act.

@Flyg0n

 

[MintyMimix]

Violet and Hazel set their sights on the training arena as soon as they finished their conversation with Steven. The longer they delayed, the higher the chance a critical clue could be compromised considering the chance that a guest from the other ship or member of staff could accidentally clean or up, or worse, tamper with it.

The look that Steven gave Violet before they left though... she would need to talk to him about it as soon as they had the chance to meet again in private. It was a scar of shame that didn't suit him.

Hazel was a shaky mess as she asked Violet to hold her claw during their march to the arena, and her trainer accepted without hesitation. Once they arrived to the grand building, they made a beeline for the grassy battleground, and Hazel got to work on her text to the group. She relayed to Violet that if anyone other than those on the S.S. Trousselin arrived to distract them as much as possible.

Her typing was slow, and Violet looked over and even made a few corrections to help get her point across, but the Weavile managed to relay the message to the rest of the "serious business" squad as best as she could. Violet clasped her fingers around the claws more tightly as soon as it was sent, to which Hazel returned a grateful, if still anxious smile. Now all they needed to do was wait for the others to arrive and keep an eye out to make sure nothing would get tampered with.

 

[Sinderella]

Odette wasn't quite sure what pacing was going to do for her here. Everyone who had come here to investigate had long since found what they were looking for, and had vacated the area. So what was she here for now? There was always the possibility that they'd overlooked something--really, nobody here was an ace detective--but Hazel's text made it seem like they were pretty thorough.

Yet, she still had questions. On her walk over from the Cafe, she'd pretty much started to convince herself that Steven had been up to something. Again, she'd been here for hours yesterday, and saw nothing out of the ordinary past her battle with Noro. It wasn't wild convenience that she happened to steal a glance at him walking in as she was leaving, only for him to conveniently be pursued by the Latii's with such vital information. No, something was missing there.

Not to mention, Hazel's text spoke of ghost type residue now. As a partial ghost trainer herself, this was up her alley. So, she might as well look around in the meantime.

"Sniff around the building. Let me know if you smell a ghost," she said to Odile and Enora as she stopped in front of the training area entrance.


"̶B̶u̵t̵ ̵h̸o̴o̴o̷o̷n̵e̵e̷e̷e̶e̸y̷y̸y̷y̵y̵y̵y̵ ̷I̷'̷m̴ ̵a̵l̶r̴e̸a̶d̸y̷ ̷h̶e̶e̵e̴e̶e̷e̵r̴e̴,"̵ Odile smirked.


"You're not a ghost, you're a demon. Stark difference."


"̴W̸e̸l̸l̸ ̶f̵i̸n̶e̶,̵ ̸b̸e̴ ̸l̵i̵k̵e̸ ̴t̷h̴a̶t̸.̸ ̶I̸ ̸j̸u̴s̶t̷ ̸w̴o̷n̴'̶t̴ ̴r̶e̸a̶d̷ ̶y̴o̶u̸r̵ ̵f̸o̴r̵t̷u̵n̷e̴ ̶a̶n̸y̶m̴o̴r̶e̶.̶"̸ ̴


"What ever will I do," Odette said in a monotone.



Enora glanced back and forth between the two before huffing to herself. "Well, if you two are done, I'm going to walk the perimeter. Odile, since you can fly, can you perhaps--?"


"̵C̷r̸a̷w̸l̵ ̶a̴r̷o̴u̷n̷d̴ ̷o̷n̴ ̸t̸h̵e̵ ̴r̴o̸o̸f̷?̴ ̷S̵a̸y̶ ̶l̶e̷s̸s̵.̷"̸

She darted forward, and before long, she was crawling up the side of the arena walls. Like the demon she was.


Enora watched for a beat before eyeing Odette again. "I won't go far. You can yell if you see something."


"Back at you."

Odette watched as Enora trotted off, nose hovering over the grass. She took this new moment of lonesome to inhale deeply, hoping it would do something to jumpstart her sensitivity toward ghost type presences. Anything similar to the vibes Loic or Isaur or Ange gave off. However, nothing felt any different. Whatever was here before was now long gone.

She held up two fingers and mimed taking a drag from a cigarette. Or in this case, a blunt. She knew that as soon as she got off this damn island, she was going to raid Hau's stash for all he had, and nobody was going to stop her.

"No, no, Odette," she said to herself, quietly mocking somebody else's voice. "That's a poor long term coping mechanism. You'll fry your brain."

She switched her voice back to her own. "Did it occur to you that my brain is already fried? At least this time it'd be by my own volition."

She let her own words linger around her before slowly dropping her hand and shoving it into her jogger pocket. She began to shake her head doubtfully.

"What the actual fuck is going on here."

[[ @Panoramic_Vacuum @HelloYellow17 ]]

 

[Sinderella]

It felt weird. Knowing somebody she had spoken to just a day our two before was now gone. Though it was good to hear that a mythical stepped up and saved that kid with the Marshtomp, it didn't change the fact that they still had work to do. Still had plans to break into that damn room. Orzo was out and about, looking defeated and sad, and even Clink had been standing by. Odette had almost felt bad for the Hoopa, but it was easy for one to act. Hell, Xavian could be acting. Or possessed. She was still stuck on that.

No matter, though. Hopefully she'd be able to organize her thoughts once they committed the crime of breaking and entering. Until then, she had one more thing she wanted to do.


"̶O̸h̷h̸h̶h̸h̷h̸h̵h̷h̴h̷h̴ ̵b̶a̶t̸t̸l̵e̴ ̸a̷r̵e̴n̸a̴ ̴a̴g̷a̶i̵n̵?̶ ̴A̶r̶e̶ ̴w̵e̵ ̴g̷o̵n̶n̷a̶ ̴h̵a̶v̶e̸ ̴r̴o̴u̶n̴d̷ ̵t̵w̷o̶ ̴w̸i̷t̵h̸ ̷t̶h̴e̷ ̸A̷l̶a̴k̵a̷z̷a̶m̶?̷"̶ Odile beamed as they neared the circular building.


"I wholly understand the need to train, but this hardly seems like the time," Enora said suspiciously.


"No. No training right now," she assured them. "I'm actually ghost hunting."

If not Mt. Moxie, the battle arena surely seemed like the place a Marshadow would hang out. Besides, there weren't any real "haunted-esque" places on this island that she'd figured she'd find a ghost. So, this would have to do.


"̷O̶h̷,̵ ̵w̴e̷l̴l̶ ̶t̴h̸a̶t̴'̵l̷l̸ ̸b̶e̵ ̶e̴a̵s̶y̸.̶ ̸G̸h̸o̵s̴t̴s̸ ̸a̸r̴e̸ ̶s̸i̴m̸p̷l̴y̸ ̷d̵r̶a̴w̵n̶ ̸t̶o̶ ̵y̷o̷u̶r̷ ̷p̴o̶s̸s̶e̶s̴s̷e̷d̶ ̵a̴s̴s̷.̵"̴


"Seems that way back home, huh," she huffed. "Hoping that charm still works here."

[[ @Flyg0n @Dragonfree ]]