[RAID] Tricksters in the Dark

[TRHQ Harvard]

As the energy dissipated, Mesprit zoomed in close to the humans. The petite Legend pulled up short right behind Aulus. More specifically, right behind Aulus' head.

With a frustrated huff, it smacked the backside of the man's head, ruffling the hair.

With that taken care of, Mesprit backed off from the group again. It was looking extremely worn down now. Its eyes lit with recognition--Oh hey! It remembered that attack it had forgotten! Oh well.--before dimming again. It was tired. And the Will-O-Wisp from Demeter was uncomfortable. Mesprit pouted as it started to hover in a slow pace around the room.


Harvard's brain registered something like a burning in her left shoulder. She merely shook her head and started to sit up. It didn't make sense to her why Yale looked so horrified after quickly retracting his elbow blades and scrambling to get off her-- Her breath hitched as she put weight on the left arm for support and almost collapsed again. Gritting her teeth and refusing to make any noise to draw attention, she turned her head to inspect the source of the- oh. A slit in the shoulder of her uniform vest and shirt was... leaking... Yeah, that would do it. Would also explain why Yale was looking beside himself with guilt and grief, and why she suddenly felt lightheaded. Harvard used her good arm to finish sitting up with a grunt, Yale not hesitating to help support her and help her to stand. She reached under the vest and applied pressure with her gloved right hand.

With her left hand, she winced as she dug out some Ultraballs from a pouch on her belt. "I'm fine. Check on the others," she ordered quietly, leaning against the wall. Yale looked uncertain, but a pointed nod from Harvard and he walked away.

"It's weakened," she spoke to the rest of her Rocket team. "Let's get this over with and get out of here." Harvard waited for Mesprit to dip from being hit by Jace before flinging one of the balls at it. The ball bounced off the Legend's head, but all it succeeded in was a sad squeak.

((Match the dice roll to get bragging rights!))  

[TawnyAngel]

...It touched him. It had actually touched him. Aulus raised a hand to the back of his head, as if pressing against the spot it had touched would make it not have happened. Was it true? Did you really lose all your emotions once touched by this thing.

He felt sick and cold and terrified and furious, things he might not experience again before too long.

"You son of a b***h I'm going to rip your head off and spit down the hole!"

What he actually did was throw an ultra ball; even if it was too late to do anything about him containing the beast would keep his friends from sharing the same fate.  

[Blood_Goddess]

"GEN!" Bro' glared at the legendary, knock him down do ya?
The ghost was up in the air again, despite the other two members of the team, who were weaker then he was.
He heard the order from the Elite, though he didn't need to be prompted to do this.
For the attack that he had been hit with, Bro delved out some payback of his own, aiming a Payback attack on the Misprite, to help with the catching process.

Jerome was back on his feet, oddly enough he seemed fine, other then a little dizzy from being uprooted so abruptly.
They had been supplied with balls to help catch the pokemon, waiting for Bro's attempt, but throwing the ball with as good of aim as he could muster.  

[TawnyAngel]

TawnyAngel

((Try rolling!))  

[Natsuko-neko]

Xander nodded in response to Aulus then groaned as it made his head hurt worse. He opened his eyes when he heard Harvard say something about finishing this fight off. He pulled out an empty ultraball and tossed it at the legend then closed his eyes again, figuring he would miss.  

[Rocket Agent Tambrey]

Tambrey wasn't having a good time detangling her thoughts from the pain she could feel, but she did see... a changed Jace, standing over her with Treestar and then registered his being replaced, to her it was with the blink of an eye, by Rory.

Treestar began to cry and wriggle in Rory's arms, his leaf flitting about. He wanted his trainer but he also wanted to get the thing that was hurting and scaring everyone, including him. Jace was going and he didn't want to abandon him or anyone. He'd been shocked at the sudden change in his friend, but words of a certain Meganium were recalled in his head.

Lasi was aghast at the sight of his trainer laying there, but with Rory there, he knew his duties were elsewhere. He approached the three of them, Rory, Treestar and Tambrey, deposited Neph, gently, in front of them and, with a glare, shot back the way he came, following Jace, ready to send a Confuse Ray at the Mesprit. He wasn't allowed to try and kill it... but he could try and make it easier to catch. Taking away its freedom sounded like a nice revenge after all it had put them through.  

[TRHQ Harvard]

Harvard resisted the urge to roll her eyes at Aulus' outburst. "Agent, if you could please limit the language?" Plus her head was a bit sore, and from the looks of things hers was far from the worst. "We'll get the labs to work on seeing if that rumor has any truth to it as soon as we get back."

Mesprit gave a pained squeal as it was hit by Bro's attack and dipped low again. Jerome's catch attempt added to its headache, but Harvard let out a breathy chuckle when she saw Xander's attempt succeed. She pushed away from the wall.

"Good work, everyone. Objective complete." That covered it, right? She never was one for wasting words.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Well pardon me Sir but given I might not have any emotions in a few days I'm going to make the most of outbursts and cussing the sky blue!" Aulus replied, possibly unwisely, as the contained Mesprit hit the ground. He wasn't good at containing his feelings, never had been and now... he couldn't imagine living without his stupid volatile nature much as he might curse the trouble it got him into. He wouldn't be him without anger and passion and... and all the stuff that made him him, that made him human.

"Did any of the rest of you get touched?" he added, looking around at the team with wide eyes; he'd been too focused on the battle to really notice any of them until the Future Sight attack.  

[LexThetaSigma]

"Stay with us, Tam, come on," Rory whispered as he let the crying pokemon down to go back to his trainer. He turned his attention away from them in time to see the Mespirit go down, then captured. He breathed a sigh of relief when Harvard announced the objective as completed. Now they could go home.

He recalled Jace and Demeter and was about to turn back to Tambrey when he heard Aulus. Then he remembered the tapping.

"There was something on the way down here," Rory explained, "I felt it tap me on the shoulder a time or two." No, no, no, not now! Hopefully the legend was just that, a legend.  

[Natsuko-neko]

Xander opened his eyes again just in time to see the ultraball he tossed catch the legend, thanks to Eclipse having nudged him to try and get him up. That was a surprise. He blinked but then turned his attention to calling back his pokemon except for Zack just yet. The Arcanine ignored his own wounds and helped his partner up on to unstable feet before pushing the blond onto his back.

Xander slumped on the dog's back for a moment then attempted to grab a few oran berries from his belt and give them to Zack, not bothering to sit up since he would probably fall off from the dizziness. Once Zack was healed he carefully moved closer to Aulus. "Touched? Not that I remember." Xander said, voice slightly muffled from the Arcanine's fur. He idley hoped he wasn't bleeding too much all over Zack.

After a moment he pushed up on his arms to look around only for the cave to seem like it grew thanks to his dizziness. "Whoa, it's bigger on the inside!" He said then relaxed back on Zack while giggling.  

[TawnyAngel]

s**t, s**t, s**t and other curses he would think of when he'd finished panicking a bit! Hands clenching and unclenching he hurried over to Rory and Tam, trying to focus on her rather than on his own problems or rather possible future problems. That had been selfish. Maybe not feeling would make him a better person, all logic and doing the right thing at the right time... but if he didn't feel and therefore didn't care why would he ever bother to do anything at all.

"Let's get you moving, shall we Tam?" Aulus suggested, trying to sound normal rather than shaken and scared, really really trying to think about his injured friend rather than himself. "When we get back to base they'll give you some lovely drugs and you'll feel much better." Maybe he could get hold of some too.

Swiping his forehead with the back of his hand he looked around at the group again. "I can carry somebody if needs be, or Char can." Oh, s**t, right, pokemon! Fumbling for his pokeballs he recalled Tortie, Red, Discord and Paul but left Char out for now in case his carrying services were required.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Jerome cracked his neck, furrowing his brow as he walked over with the rest of the group, catching Aulus and his panicing about being touched? and emotions or lack of.

"Sucker was goin' around tryin' to spook us out, whats that ganna do with anythin' though?" He asked,
He stepped in, seeing to be in much better shape then some of the others, he lent a hand to anyone who might need help getting up and out.  

[TRHQ Harvard]

Harvard gave Aulus a flat look. Surely, an attitude like that was just asking for a write-up or disciplinary action of some sort, right?

After a pause, the Elite merely shrugged (and bit back a hiss at the reminder of why shrugging of the left shoulder was NOT a good idea). "I am positive we will know by tomorrow. For now, we have other concerns."

She followed over to where Tambrey and Rory were. "How is she?" she asked, nodding to Tambrey and hovering her left hand over her other Pokeballs.

Yale, meanwhile, saw Xander had Pokemon help already, and moved to check up on Jerome. He made an inquisitive sound and tilted his head, asking if Jerome was in need of assistance.  

[Rocket Agent Tambrey]

Tambrey looked up at Rory and shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts enough.
"Not going anywhere." She promised, though she didn't sound very well, pained by her injuries and, honestly, rather wanting to pass out rather than deal with them.
"Kind 'f... hurts though." Understatement and the drugs Aulus mentioned sounded good.

She winced and didn't seem comfortable as Treestar tried to snuggle against her.
Hey, there was Harvard as well.
Well, the question wasn't addressed for her and she was tired. She tried making a thumbs up sign anyway.
Couldn't walk, her insides felt torn up and she wanted to not be awake if she could, but she could recognise that she was able to communicate and, if a little dazed, knew who and where she was.
"May not be able... to walk." She offered, implicating that otherwise she was 'fine' though looking at her would be enough to suggest not entirely true.  

[TawnyAngel]

How could the damn elite be so calm? Had she already been touched by the thing or what?

"I'll scout the way back to the copter to check it's clear," Aulus decided, about half a second after he decided he felt like he was going to explode if he had to stand here and try to be polite to the elite any longer. What did he expect? This was Team Rocket, it wasn't famed for being full of cuddly caring people. "Char, stay behind and be a rear guard or carry people as necessary," Aulus ordered over his shoulder, already making his way back towards the tunnel they had emerged from with his staff back in his hand.

Everything seemed quiet as he went, unreasonably so.

They would know by tomorrow, she said.

What would he tell Claire and Alex? His girlfriend and his best friend, two people who had come to mean the world to him between them. Tightening his grip on his staff Aulus hastened onward with no thoughts in hid mind, only a swirl of sickening feelings in his gut.