Exploration of the Triad Temple

[Sneer]

Near the entrance of the mine, five beings stood, awaiting their guests. Cliff and Rampardos impatiently fidgeted as they waited, and Cliff turned to his left with an accusatory eye.

"Where are they Sneer? I want to explore what is behind that door!" He said. Rampardos snorted in agreement. Staying in place, a large green serpentine pokemon ignored their impatient drawl as she stared ahead. Closing her eyes, Sneer turned to Cliff and opened her eyes again, regarding him with a slight glare.

"Patience, Gym Leader. My Victory Seekers will be here, and we shall get it done. Your rushing attitude won't make them come any faster, so be patient." She said, causing the man to cow slightly. Cliff huffed and turned his eyes back to the road while Tucker and Archeops studied a stone.

(OOC: The following people were invited to participate in this expedition. If anyone posts other than them, that post shall be deleted. This thread is reserved for the following:

Sneer
Spirit
Alan
Aldo
Sawyer
Nick
Whomever Basile decides to bring in

I suggest your strongest team, for even I do not know what we will encounter on the road *Kitty is making this up as she goes along*. Except for Basile, who is incredibly sick and therefore has an excuse, everyone on the above list must post in this thread at least once a day in order to claim the bounty of this journey. I`ll make one plot-related post a day until we get to the finale on the 7th, so stay tuned you guys. Everyone else, enjoy the show.)

[Alan Nurmi]

Alan walked towards the beings nearby to the entrance of the mine, on him were the pokeballs for his team, and well he didn't know why at first he accepted this. He wanted to be just not involved but he was pushed into being involved. Or maybe he just wanted to help. He was going to just do it for whatever the reason. He stopped and put his hands behind his head. This was definitely not his day. He had brought along Suicune, Mew, Houndour, Emolga, Dratini, and that strange, white Eevee. He left Hope behind because he wanted to have her stay out of trouble. Suicune was the better choice. This was the best that he could do in ways of Pokemon. He just hoped that it would be enough to last him. He saw the green, grassy snake Pokemon, a Serperior. Wasn't he contacted by a snake? A Serperior named Sneer? It was something like that. He didn’t care too much. He just wanted to get this over and done with.


"Alright, I'm here" he replied coolly. "Guess I need to wait until the others show up then. Don't mind me then. I'll just be waiting over there."

He didn't even point as he walked off to the side and just stood there silently.

[Aldo]

Riolu ran ahead of his trainer cheerfully, happily bouncing along the path towards the mine. "Slow down already. The rocks aren't going anywhere soon," Aldo called after the little Fighting type, who ignored him and just continued running forward. "And what about you? You plan on walking anytime soon?" he asked the Snivy who was perched on his shoulder. In response she simply hugged his head tightly as Aldo sighed. Sometimes he just wanted a Pokemon who would actually listen to him without being so clingy. Looking ahead, he saw the five he was supposed to meet near the entrance. "Alright, let go. There's a friend, or whatever. Go hug her," he told Snivy, who only tightened her grip in response as they got closer.

[nick]

Nick was preparing for his next gym battle when he was contacted about this. He didn't know why exactly an up and coming dragon tamer would be more useful than some of the other stronger trainers out there, but he wasn't about to question it. This sounded like a pretty serious thing and something he couldn't pass up on. Who knew? Maybe it would be good training for his next gym battle. He could certainly use the preparation.

He saw the rest of the group up ahead and quickened his pace. Drake was out of his pokeball and wrapped lightly around his neck like a scarf. He would be the only Pokemon out of his pokeball today. His Misquaza and Charmander were still in theirs. Both of their pokeballs were attached to the belt around his waist. If there were to be trouble, he would be ready.

As Nick made it to the others, he waved casually to them. "Hello. Nick here. Reporting in." He greeted then stood off to the side, ready to start whatever this was about. His Dratini, still wrapped around his neck, let out a bored yawn.

[Spirit Hope]

Spirit cautiously walked through the new area that surrounded her. She was near the entrance to a mine where she was to meet up with several people. She was unsure on why she decided to go, nor is she sure how or why she was picked to go. Drinyo, Spirit's partner wasn't very happy about the idea of going.

"I'm telling you, this is a trap that you're bringing us into, I don't trust the looks of this in the slightest. Can we even trust these people? We don't know any of them and for all we know they could be rouges out to kill us!" Spirit's scraggy was not making it easier for her, every word he spoke was making her more paranoid as well, she was unsure, just as he.

Along with Drinyo, Spirit also had brought along a Larvesta, a talking Cottonee, whom somehow began tagging alone at some point in time while walking towards Quakita City and a Sandshrew that she met while walking towards her destination. Up ahead Spirit spotted the people she was to meet up with. " Well here goes nothing..." Spirit said quietly as she took a deep breath and walked over to them, Drinyo following closely behind, glaring at his potential enemies.

[Sawyer]

This was quite a ways back from Droughtenna, wasn't it? Okay, maybe it wasn't, but Sawyer hadn't planned on backtracking nevertheless. Beau, her Zekrom, had been acting odd ever since they'd left the mining town, and kept looking south. At first she thought it might have been the heat, but being a legendary, dragon type, AND electric type ruled that out, especially since he'd been out the entire trip TO Droughtenna and had no problems. Also, she had no idea if wanting to go back to Quakita was what he wanted - honestly she was acting on a whim. The dragon was in his pokeball currently, so she had no idea if going back would work or not, but regardless, she'd also been sought out by what was apparently the VictorySeeker's head honcho, a hearty Serperior by the name of Sneer. She and a few others were to investigate a mine... she wasn't really sure.

But here she was. Underground with a bunch of people she didn't know aside from Tucker and Cliff, smiling awkwardly and rubbing the back of her head as she was the last one to approach the group.

"Uh... heeeeey. So, this is it, huh?" she asked, taking a moment to observe her company. Interesting little lot Sneer had picked out, and the trainer couldn't help but notice Cliff's annoyance over something. She was pretty interested in what Archeops was looking at, though, carefully approaching the bird and peering out from behind him at the wall. What in Arceus' name..? She held her tongue, patting Luca on the head as she'd noticed he'd stayed close to her. The Axew eyed everyone curiously, taking a bit longer of a notice to Nick's Dratini.

"So, what're we gonna do now?" Sawyer asked somewhat absently, still distracted with the odd runes.

[Sneer]

Sneer smirked as she glanced at Cliff in pride, who merely shrugged as he started into the mine, Tucker and their pokemon following behind. With a snicker, the Serperior turned to her group and cleared her throat.

"Welcome you guys. Let's head on in and look at this door. If anyone can figure this out, it's you guys. After all, I don't employ idiots. Now then, let's get going." She said, making her way into the mine, leading the group inside. The cave got darker and darker, and soon it was pitch black. In the distance, a bluish light was faint. No doubt it was from Cliff's Rampardos.

"Not a problem. Keep up." She said, her collar, back, and tail glowing bright green as she continued on. In no time, the green hue of the cavern turned turquoise as Sneer's green blended with Rampardos's blue. They came up to a large, silvery door with strange characters written on it, and Sneer stared up at it along with Rampardos and Archeops.

"Well, here we are, again. Who is going to get us inside?" Cliff asked. Sneer rolled her eyes as she looked at Archeops.

"Tell them what the door says and leave the rest to us." She asked with an air of dominance. Archeops snickered as he fluttered onto Sneer's tail, studying the wall while she lifted him up to the door.

"Alright, well, language has gotten weird over the years, so it isn't a perfect translation, but it tells us that the key lies in the answer to this riddle.

All in one, one in all
Differing opinions made it fall.
From where one stood, there are three
Each determined to be free.

Three keys, joined by another
Will open this door, to a world other.
Energies of pokemon combine, to grant access
For those who swear not to take excess.

The first key, found in a storm
The second key from volcanoes born.
The third key, where dragons fear to tread
Combine with dragons to move ahead." Archeops said as Sneer brought her tail down. She looked over at the Victory Seekers and moved out of the way.

"We tried to open this door before. All we've managed to figure out is that it needs a certain combination of moves. We presented the door with a Hydreigon that knew Surf, Stone Edge and Ice Beam, but I guess it didn't like it, since the door refused to open. What do you guys think?" She asked, looking at each of the trainers for an answer.

(OOC: It's up to you to open the door. Treat this like a Breeding Center Hint. You guys can talk about what the answer might be and whatnot in chat, or your characters can try and figure it out in the thread itself. Either way, someone has to try and get the door open ICly. The only hint I`ll give you is that you have to attack the door.)

[Alan Nurmi]

Alan had gone into the mine with everyone else. He listened to the riddle poem, yeah that's what he would call it, and just stood there thinking as he stared at the silvery door with the strange writing. So, there was something due to perhaps attacking the door? That’s what the snake had brought in a Hydreigon to do. So, he was going off of the storm being water, the volcano being rock, and the dragons fear being ice. And then combine it with a dragon-type Pokemon. That's what had occurred first. So, obviously that Serperior had probably gone off on the wrong track. Or that there was something else that no one had thought about. From Volcanoes born, did that have something to do with a fire type? He wasn’t sure what it meant but he would just test out what he had guessed at. This meant that they were meant to go in some sort of form. He would try electric for storm, fire for volcano, and ice for the last part.

"Come on out, partners!" Alan stated coolly as he threw the four Pokeballs up into the air. The three Pokeballs opened up and release Inferno, Adelle, a strange Eevee, and a Dratini. Inferno, the Houndour, looked back towards Alan for a moment before looking towards the door which drew its attention. Adelle was staring at the door as well. The Eevee just followed suit with the others. His eyes were filled with curiosity about what he saw.

Alan snapped his fingers together, bringing his Pokemon to attention, and pointed towards the door. "I need you three to help me and the group to get past these doors. Dratini you will stand back and be needed later if this initial plan of mine does not work. Inferno, Adelle, and Eevee step up" he said calmly. His Pokemon stepped up, two did so with a lot of excitement by bounding up, and others just stepped forward without a care in the world. "You three will need to attack but not simultaneously. We will need to connect the three attacks still. Adelle will go first with Thunder Shock. Inferno goes second with Ember. And you, Eevee will go last with Winter Rush. I want each attack to hit the door just as the one ends. And they will need to be in specific spots. You, Adelle, will aim for the top middle. Aim high. Inferno, aim for the bottom left. Eevee shall aim for the bottom right. Now, do you get it?"

He had pointed at various parts of the door for each of his Pokemon. They had turned around to listen to him. After that, they turned back towards the door. Alan smiled as his three Pokemon took one paw-step forward showing that they were ready. They had his plan in mind. Or he hoped that they did.

"Do it!" Alan commanded with a kind tone.

Adelle did her very best to unleash a bolt of electricity (Thunder Shock) attack towards the top middle part of the door. Inferno followed suit with spitting out a bunch of small flames towards the bottom left. And then Eevee charged forward quickly gaining an icy sheen around its body to use Winter Rush. Three attacks. If things went correctly then each one would be connected to the next.


OOC: Done...

[Aldo]

Closing his eyes as he listened to Archeops read the riddle, Aldo tried to think through what it could mean. The volcano it mentioned most likely meant fire and as best he could remember, dragons didn't react very well to ice. The only one he couldn't figure was the line about a storm and dragons. A storm would either mean thunder or rain, but he had no idea which it was. With a small sigh, he opened his eyes and tossed Marshtomp's pokeball out, the mudfish Pokemon looking around curiously. "Alright, Marshtomp, you and Riolu are gonna help me test something. You use Ice Ball on that door and Riolu, use Thunder Punch," he instructed the two Pokemon. Facing the door, Marshtomp opened his mouth wide while forming a sphere of ice as Riolu's arm began to crackle with electricity. As if following some unspoken count, the both of them released their attacks at the same time.

[nick]

Nick thought about the riddle over and over again when it was presented with him. When he saw others attacking the door with their Pokemon, Nick nodded at Dratini. "Ice isn't the only type that's good against dragons. So are other dragons. Drake, use Dragon's Breath" Nick commanded. The Dratini unwrapped himself from Nick's neck. Meanwhile, Nick threw another Pokeball out. "Chara, help with your Ember attack." He commanded the female Charmander. Drake and Chara hit their attacks in unison with the other attacks.

[Spirit Hope]

Spirit looked into the words of the riddle, repeating any possible meaning she could come up with. She had an idea, and it seemed she wasn't the only one as the others began using similar ideas on the door. She though, didn't have many Pokemon with the type of attacks possibly being asked in the riddle. Thankfully she did have one. Reaching for one of her Pokeballs, Spirit sent out a small Larvesta.

"Shiloh, could you use your ember on the door?" Spirit asked quietly. The Small fire bug nodded his head in response to the question and shot out his fiery attack at the door, adding to the other Pokemon's attacks.

[Sawyer]

Sawyer kept to herself as she followed the rest of the group, gladly taking up the rear so she could observe. Luca walked beside her, admiring the bright colors that eventually poured from Sneer and Rampardos's bodies as they progressed. Normally he would have tried poking at his trainer's leg so he could sit on her shoulder and get a more aerial view, but he was so entranced that he simply stopped and stared more as Archeops started to read.

The Blizzara native tapped her chin, watching with an arched brow as the others didn't really say much, instead going about their way and full-out attacking the door with whatever they had. Wait... what? Sawyer blinked several times, then shook her head. Maybe they had the right idea, but... what if they didn't? She and her Axew exchanged a glance before she crossed her arms, closing her eyes as she waited. When it became her turn, she spoke.

"All in one, one in all... differing opinions made it fall. What is it, exactly? From where one stood, there are three..." she paused. "Does anyone here have any idea at all on what we might be finding or even releasing here?" The idea of it being completely unknown made her shiver in excitement, Luca doing the same, but it also worried her. "But, I suppose that doesn't matter so much if we can't actually get the door open."

"Three keys joined by another. Energies of pokemon combine. Grant access to those who don't take excess. Honestly, this door sounds a bit judgmental to me. So... you guys probably have the right idea with the attacks, but what is the another that they're supposed to be joined by? The trainer? A certain pokemon? Maybe we don't have the right, er, kind of people either." Sawyer glanced at Sneer for a second and grinned. "But that's impossible. We're Victory Seekers, right? Unless, one of you are traitors..." she cast a wary glare at the rest of the people before continuing, Luca eyeing her and yawning, tapping his foot.

"Yes yes, I know. Taking forever. But this is the last part!" The girl cleared her throat again and took up a dramatic pose, looking around at the other peoples' pokemon. "Storms, volcanoes, where dragons fear. Water was probably wrong, since if that was the case, you'd think they would suggest an ocean... so the electric typed attacks were good." Luca snorted. Who died and gave her the authority to give others praise? "Where dragons fear... dragons don't like ice or other dragon attacks, but I doubt a dragon could actually go inside a dragon and be scared? Ice just fits better, in my opinion. And then, the end! Combine with dragons to move ahead." She nudged Luca, who moved forward, staring up in awe at the big door. "Maybe we need to use electric, fire, and ice moves that are known by dragon types? Luca here knows a fire typed move, and... I have a dragon who knows electric moves, but he's a bit big, so... anyone have any pokemon like that? Maybe an ice move? I mean, I could just be wrong - the door could open any second for all I know."

[Sneer]

Sneer grinned as everyone attacked, her joy only increasing when Sawyer spoke. She glanced behind her with a knowing glint in her eye as she stared at the door again, which glowed in a pulsating pattern with every attack that hit it.

"Of course! I don't know WHY I never considered this, the door is referring to the Unova legends! This door, it MUST lead to something involving those three. Well done everyone, let's pull back and coordinate our efforts. We're going to smack this door with everything we got, so get ready. I`ll help too. Cliff, Tucker, you guys might want to move back too." She said as Sawyer released Beau. Everyone stepped back and let their pokemon in front.

"Alright, I don't know if we need a dragon to execute the attacks or a dragon attack added in, so here's what I am going to do. I am going to use Dragon Pulse while the other dragons use their respective type's attack. Beau, however, needs to throw a Zap Cannon. Everyone else, fire, ice and electricity. Ready? One, two, three! Attack!" Sneer shouted as she threw a Dragon Pulse towards the door. Everyone else made their attacks in sync and hit the inscriptions, causing the door to glow, much to Cliff and Tucker's surprise as Rampardos and Archeops added in their own Flamethrower and Dragon Breath, respectively.

"It's almost open! Hang in there!" Tucker called as the glowing intensified. When the light became too much to bear, everyone shut their eyes while the door rumbled as it slowly opened. When the light faded, everyone stopped their attacks and they were left in darkness for a moment before Beau's tail revved, casting an obnoxiously bright blue light that illuminated the whole cavern.

"Well done, now hang tight guys, I`m going to go ahead for a second to make sure the coast is clear. Just because nothing is running out here, it doesn't mean there isn't something in there ready to kill us." She said as her tail glowed a bright green, sharpening into a deadly Leaf Blade. The Serperior narrowed her eyes as she carefully slithered ahead, keeping a sharp eye out while everyone waited at the entrance with baited breath.

"Be careful." Cliff muttered under his breath as he and Rampardos stepped in front of the group, ready to defend them. After what seemed like forever, a shriek was heard, followed by a purple and orange light that shone from inside the previously blocked room, growing brighter as it got closer. Soon, Sneer came into view, following a pair of Chandelure, one of which was 'shiny'. The green Snake grinned as the trio stopped in front of the group.

"It's all clear, it's a temple, not a cage! Nothing to kill us here except for the traps, but we'll be safe from those. Everyone, meet the guardians of the Triad Temple, the Chandelure Twins. They aren't your typical wild Chandelure, these two are actually decent. The shriek you heard? I triggered a pitfall trap. Thank Arceus I`m a Serperior, I was dang-near impaled by the spikes in the pit, and the only reason I wasn't was because I was able to twist myself around them. These two came to my rescue and pulled me out, and they agreed to give us the treasure inside. The only catch is that they will not tell me what it is, and they won't do anything beyond guiding us there. I got a freebie because I didn't know, but we're on our own with any traps or puzzles we encounter." Said Sneer to a rapt audience. The Chandelure looked at the group as though assessing them and nodded to one another before turning to Sneer.

"Chandeluuuuuuure." Said the shiny as Sneer nodded in understanding.

"One pokemon per trainer please. Pokeballs will be locked once you come in here, and having more than one pokemon will be met with ill will." She said as Cliff snorted at her.

"And what about you? Your trainer ain't exactly here." He snapped. Sneer rolled her eyes as she made her way to the Victory Seekers.

"That's why I have them. Congratulations Aldo, you are going to be my trainer for this. I know Flash, Dragon Pulse, Dragon Tail, Flamethrower, Leaf Blade and Frenzy Plant. Don't make me use Frenzy Plant unless it's dire, it's difficult to undo and move around afterwards." She said as she clicked his pokeballs, recalling Marshtomp and Riolu and staring at the snivy.

"She'll need to get in a pokeball too, sadly." She said in an apologetic manner. Looking at everyone else, Sneer cleared her throat, waiting for everyone to make their choice.

(OOC: Except for Aldo, who got the level 100 Sneer by a vote, everyone needs to choose one of their pokemon to take with them into the temple. Pokeballs will be locked when you go inside, so you can't call other pokemon, and X-Transceivers will be disabled too. Choose wisely.)

EDIT: Oops, activated the battle code. My bad! At least I got a 9 XD

[Spirit Hope]

Spirit watched as Sneer slithered ahead of the group through the now opened door. After a long, troublesome wait, there was a sudden shriek causing Spirit to jump a little. What just happened?!After the shriek two lights glistened within the darkness that rested on the other side of the door, an orange light and a purple light. 'What could that be...' Spirit thought to herself, still shaken from the shriek. Spirit noticed that her partner, Drinyo scooted closer to her, he didn't trust the orange and purple lights, then again he didn't trust very much...

The glowing was getting brighter as the maker got closer. After a short moment of illuminating lights, Sneer can into view from the door following the snake was a pair of Chandelure, so that's what was causing the light... One of the Chandelure was shiny, how rare, Spirit couldn't help but admire the beautiful colours of the two fire Pokemon a little.Sneer explained what she had discovered, apparently from what was learned, the place beyond that door was a temple, one with a lot of traps too... Sneer had triggered a pitfall trap, thankfully the Serperior had gotten out fine with thanks to the Chandelure and even got the team some tour guides who were willing to guide everyone to a treasure that hid within the walls of this temple.Spirit felt a little excited about the idea, hidden temples and treasure. It sounds more like a story than anything, yet here she was, with a group of people ready to discover something hidden for a long time. The shiny Chandelure gave out a cry, telling something to Sneer, who nodded back, than gave the interesting catch to everything. Everyone could only have one Pokemon out for the trip... Cliff snorted at the Serperior and pointed out that her trainer wasn't here, the snake in response roller her eyes and chose Aldo, one of the Victor seeker team members, to be her temporary trainer for this expedition. Sneer recalled all of Aldo's Pokemon, hesitating a little with the Snivy before sending that Pokemon back in her Pokeball as well. Everyone began deciding the Pokemon that the would take with them.

Spirit sighed slightly to herself. She could take her current strongest, a level 16 Sandshrew or either of her two level 9 Pokemon, however she couldn't find it in her heart to return Drinyo in his Pokeball, he was her main Partner and friend, though he claims not to trust her... Spirit picked up Shiloh's Pokeball and sent him back within it's contents.

"Drinyo would you like to join me?" the Scraggy sighed and gave a slight glare at her.

"You think I trust anything going on here? We're about to go blindly into a place we know nothing about, with two guides we also know nothing about and everyone here seems perfectly fine with that. I'm not stupid and I can't believe that your going with this! Of course I'm gonna go with ya, if I don't you might go jumping in the wrong hole cause someone told you to! Though though I'm surprised you don't want to take someone stronger like that annoying Cottonee you found..." Drinyo said, starting to doubt his own strength to protect his trainer. It was true that he wasn't her strongest, level wise but he wasn't completely weak!

"...Your not weak Drinyo, you have the highest health out of all my Pokemon, that enough is good for a lot, level isn't always everything." Spirit said trying to comfort her Pokemon, she wasn't use to comforting, but she knew her Pessimistic Pokefriend needed a little reassurance. Drinyo looked at Spirit and gave a slight smile. "Thanks for trying to help, I still don't trust you, nor anyone else here, but I might as well help you, seeing as I am your Pokemon.


(OOC: I need to re-look this over when its later in the day. Too late to think straight....Lol)

[Alan Nurmi]

The snake Pokemon survived when she went ahead. Something about pitfall traps. He looked at the girl who had said something about traitors. Why would she even say that? To be truthful, he wasn’t exactly trusting of the others here. Sneer was probably the only one that he could trust or perhaps not. If he had to work with these others then he would so while being hesitant about relying on them. He had to pick one Pokemon based on what Sneer translated from the ghost Pokemon. There were only a few choices here that would make sense. And he would just have to believe these ghost Pokemon if they were really the guardians of the temple. He couldn’t figure it out right now if they were not who they said they were. So, he just had to go with their word for now. He saw that Sneer had chosen one of the other Victory Seekers to be her temporary trainer. He saw that another trainer had chosen one already. It was his turn then perhaps.

Six choices, one could only be out. What would be the most useful? Or did power have a key role to play in all of this? In terms of levels, Suicune was the most powerful but he hated to rely on power alone. There was the Houndour and the Eevee. Then the rest of the Pokemon were in the next line of order. If he was going to get something out of this then he would have to bring the variable along. He returned all of his Pokemon to their Pokeballs. And then he turned around to look back towards the way that he had come for a moment. There was really nothing holding him back but then again he might as well finish the job. He picked out the pokeball that had the one Pokemon he thought he would use. This one was his choice. He wasn’t going to use power as that would obviously mean Suicune. A Pokemon wasn’t weak or strong based on its power. A Pokemon was only as strong as the trainer who wielded it. This Pokemon was a perfect match for him in terms of that.

“Come on out, newbie. Let’s see what you can do” Alan replied as he released the Mew in front of him.

Alan looked at the cat legendary, the one that was believed to be the ancestor, or whatever else was said about it. He looked at his other Pokeballs, solemnly wishing that he could have them out, and so rules were rules after all. He wasn’t going to test the guardians or the temple itself. He watched the mew float closer to him, until she was close up to his face, and then got out of his line of sight. So, maybe she would float above him? He, instead, felt the small pink-cat Pokemon land directly on his head and curl up there, yawning rather cutely to his belief. She rubbed her head against his hair as if just trying to get in a comfortable position. She batted at his hand when he tried to get her off of her perch.

“Alright” he said softly. “You can stay there for now, Amber. I may need your help later on.”

Alan, with his new living and breathing fur hat accessory, turned around to face the open doorway and well the others. He was ready to go on ahead even if the others weren’t.

OOC: I'll fix this later. Alan chooses Mew as his Pokemon. The others were returned to their pokeballs