Roleplay

Mason had tried to help. He really had. Luca and Barb had fought valiantly, but the Roserade had been taken down first, and Luca had fallen back to protect Mason. That's how they both were taken.

Mason had been too scared to use his powers. He wasn't even sure if it would have helped, but after what had been done to him, he wasn't going to show what he could do to a hostile group of people, that's for sure.

He saw Xanthia get knocked out and called out, but soon enough, he and Luca were no better off.

(It's okay! ;) )

It was cold, and dark.. and the ceiling was dripping. Xanthia woke with her head swimming in pain, confusion making her unsure of where she was. Blinking blearily she found she was tied rather tightly to a post, her hands and feet bound behind her so she could not see them. She could feel the rope around her wrists cutting off the circulation in her hands and feet. Her head hurt, and she could feel something warm and wet dripping off the side. It was either water from the ceiling or her own blood.

Blearily looking around she saw that a faint light was cast through high windows, lighting up a dungeon-like basement with smooth walls and several gravestones. They were in a mausoleum by the looks of it. Mason was in the corner.. too far away to untie Xanthia.. his head drooped, his eyes closed. Knocked unconsious as well.

her apricorns were all gone, likely in possession of the gang who had taken them down. There was no way in hell they were getting them back any time soon. Ugh.. she was so annoyed about the Monstrosity.. she probably shouldn't have been using him so soon after capture, but she needed the extra legs.. or something. At least she knew he wasn't captured by the men.. or at least he probably would have bitten them if that was the case. She could still feel the life signatures of her pokemon.. though that didn't mean much.. only that they were alive. Xanthia flinched as she saw a small rattata about the size of her fist skitter along into the darkness. She could use this to her advantage. Trying to focus, her head panged and she felt hot wet blood drip from her nose.

Awesome. That meant they'd hit her hard enough to mess up her powers.. at least temporarily. She'd have to touch the creature to get out of here, and it didn't look interested in her at all. She cursed, trying to think of something, but the throbbing in her head and smell of blood was starting to make her dizzy again. She needed food.. and water.. and from the looks of it.. she wasn't going to get any for a while.

"Mason." Xanthia hissed, and when he didn't move she narrowed her eyes and kicked a tiny rounded pebble at his leg. "Mason.." she hissed again.

Mason's eyes opened with a snap. "Huh.... What...." His head felt full off fuzzy, buzzing things and his vision was blurry. Was he in some sort of... Evil basement? Yeah that looked about right. And he was sitting right in a puddle. Fantastic. The pool of cold water was probably about an inch deep too, but wet pants were the least of his worries.

Gasping, he tugged at the bindings holding his wrists, but that only brought pain. Then he remembered that someone had called his name and he looked up, eyes shivering into focus. "Xanthia?"

Xanthia glanced towards Mason, squinting through the darkness as her eyes adjusted to the faint light and she could make out his face. He wasn't hurt.. or at least.. he wasn't bleeding like she was. he did look rather uncomfortable and disoriented.

"Listen. That power of yours.. if you use it now, we'd get buried alive.. Earthquake is not a wise choice.." She paused. "There's a Rattata but i don't know if making it mad and getting it to bite or scratch you would do much, you are too far away from me to unbind me.. and your hands are behind your back.. probably too hard to reach the ropes.. unless you think you can."

She rested her dripping nose on her shirt, letting the blood dry up as she put pressure on it. "Whatever you do, make sure you don't use that earthquake. I don't want to be buried alive in this place."

A flicker of energy passed across her mind. Xanthia glanced up for just a moment, wondering what it was.. but it was gone moments later.

Mason nodded and coughed. "I wasn't going to. Then they'd notice and probably kill me. But yeah your point is probably even more important..." He looked up, squinting as he tried to read the words on the stones. "No way I can reach your hands to untie you, but what is this place?"

He scooted around the pole so he wasn't sitting directly in the puddle any more. His foot was sore, and he tried to check to see if it was bleeding but he couldn't bend his stiff legs enough.

The presence only started to grow stronger, and Xanthia instinctively recognized it as a faint glimmer of color lit up the room. A kirlia appeared from the teleport, brushing off his skirt and casting his eyes towards Xanthia.

<Komerade.. i have found you.> He looked excited, clasping his hands together excitedly.

Xanthia flinched and recoiled, bristling. "You... What the hell are you doing here? Get the hell out of here." She snapped, looking furious.

<I can help you.> The Kirlia stated.

"GET OUT." Cold fury seemed to be radiating from Xanthia as she glared at the psychic pokemon.

The Kirlia glanced towards Xanthia, looking amused. <You have your own plan?>

"Yes, and it doesn't involve letting some random psychic pokemon scan my head." Xanthia hissed. "GO AWAY!"

The Kirlia simply laughed, and then shrugged, tucking his arms over each other. <Have it your way.. but first.> he approached Xanthia slowly, gliding across the ground smoothly.

"Get away from me! What are you doing! Don't touch me!" Xanthia snapped as the Kirlia set a gentle paw on her head. A moment later the wound on her head was healed.

<Not all psychics are out to get you...> He winked and was gone in a crack of energy.

Xanthia hated that Kirlia.. he called himself Constantine.. and he was the biggest pain in the butt she'd ever met. She hated psychic type pokemon.. they could easily take control of her any time they wanted, and invade her brain to read her thoughts.. it was invading her personal private self.. in order to get what they want. Constantine was just like the other psychics, and had been stalking her since she'd started out this journey. She'd hoped that she would have lost him.. but he had a psychic lock on her.. which was annoying.. it meant he could find her whenever he wanted.. and annoy her.

What was even more annoying was that he'd healed her head.. made her feel better.. she could feel her powers rushing back to her.. she didn't want him meddling with her.. and now.. she didn't feel like using her initial plan anymore.

What was she going to do now? She couldn't ask him to come back, and using her powers would be like admitting she had needed his help.. she couldn't stay here forever... and she couldn't keep Mason here.

Heaving a sigh, she had no choice. Other than calling Constantine back and seeing his smug grin, she would have to rely on her own powers.

That rock.. the same one she'd thrown at Mason. She could feel it now. Focusing on it, she made it roll across the floor back towards her. Just a tiny psychic push.. not enough to make her nose bleed, but enough to cause her a bit of pain. The rock slid back towards her and she focused, watching the Rattata move.

Back and forth.. back and forth.. busy making its nest. A focus again, this time the rock rose into the air slightly, her head twinging in pain as she threw the rock right at the Rattata. It squeaked as the rock smacked its ear, flitting its eyes towards the two trainers it had been ignoring.

"over here you vermin." Xanthia hissed.

The Rattata narrowed its eyes and pounced at her, sinking its fangs into her hand. The moment it made contact its eyes went wide and it stopped mid-bite, allowing her to communicate with it. It recoiled backwards, eyes flitting to the skin it had broken on her hand with an apologetic tilt of its head. it scampered over to her ropes and started gnawing.

A few drips of blood came from her nose, but she tucked her head into her sleeve again to stay the bleeding. It hadn't hurt nearly as much this time and the bleeding was less. Probably because the rock had been small..

((Going to have them stuck in the mausoleum for a bit.. he can ask her questions about Constantine and her powers while the Rattata chews the ropes, and then they navigate the underground maze XD))

Mason had been completely stunned by the appearance of the Kirlia. When he was gone, and she had communicated with the Rattata, his eyes narrowed.

"So you can talk to them. You... You have powers too... Who was that pokemon, how did you know him? And why did he help you if you're enemies?" He paused to catch a breath. "And WHY DIDNT YOU SAY ANYTHING?" He wasn't shouting, he simply was emphasizing each word sharply. He tugged at his bound hands again, not caring that his wrists were bleeding. He surely wasn't going to be stuck down here and he honestly had no idea if she intended to let him go too or not. Heck, this could even be a trap! He wouldn't know...

She was focused on the Rattata as it chewed away at her ropes, and all of the sudden he was drilling into her rather angrily.

"You know, none of these questions have anything to do with the situation we are in right now." She stated dryly, feeling the tickle of whiskers against her wrists. "That's Constantine. He's been following me for a while. Not of my own volition or anything. I hate psychic types, they are far too invasive... they can easily read my mind, manipulate memories.. mess with my emotions... Constantine has just.. been stalking me ever since i entered this region. Nothing can be done about it because he has a Psychic lock on me. Probably has one on you now too, the selfish little jerk."

She felt several ropes snap and the sensation of blood rushing to her fingertips. "You wouldn't have said anything if I hadn't discovered it by chance. My abilities are not something I like to broadcast to the world." Xanthia stared over at Mason, her eyes growing cold and unfeeling "No normal person would just accept another person's mutation without them having one of their own. I guess you were too much of an idiot to figure that out."

Xanthia was bitter, cold and hurting. She'd never meant for anyone else to know about her abilities. He'd try and take advantage of her now.. or run and tell Cyanna where she was. "You want to know why I don't go around broadcasting what I can do? Because I am not like you. I didn't just develop powers because of nuclear explosions. I wasn't born to a loving family. I was never protected by anyone. I was manufactured.. created to be a soldier in the war." As she spoke her blue eyes seemed to become dark pools of hatred. Slowly as she continued, they started to look haunted, gaunt, and filled with disgust for those around her. A reflection of what had happened crossed her gaze as years of fear and people manipulating her to their own ends had made her into who she is today. "People use me. Try to make me manipulate pokemon for their own means."

A snap of the ropes and Xanthia was free of her hand binding, rubbing her wrists to get back the circulation as the Rattata moved to gnaw on her leg binding.

She didn't want to kill him... yet.. she could use him to aid her in her quest. It sucked that he knew about her abilities.. the only other people who had ever known had died years ago in the war.. or the subsequent hunt to destroy the Rainbow Children. They were far too dangerous with their abilities combined to leave on their own.

"How is this? I ask this Rattata to help you as well, gnaw away those bindings and let you go.. and in exchange you keep your mouth shut about my powers. You will come with me wherever I go, and if you so much as try to escape I will ask a wild pokemon to tear out your throat. It's not hard to find aggressive pokemon nowadays. You are going to help me reach my goals.. or you will die here." It was an ultimatum, no room for any negotiation.

He was hurt. He felt very hurt. And guilty. More than a bit... When her eyes took on that dead look, he thought about apologizing, and he shifted uncomfortably. He opened his mouth to speak, but her expression had silenced him as she continued.

But then she took it too far.

"So it's either DIE or help YOU?" he positively snarled, green eyes practically spitting sparks. "Well maybe I'll just stay here, then. You think you're the only one with horrors in your past? I'm not as NAIVE as you think I am." He spit out the next words. "First of all, my mother never wanted me. I have a feeling she would have killed me had she seen the opportunity. Once my father died she left. EVERYONE ELSE in my town DIED due to disease. And then I began this suicide mission to try and find somewhere I could just SURVIVE. Well, that went over about as well as a rainstorm would to an unprotected Charizard. Six months before you met me I was captured. A lot like this actually." The ice in his words was being replaced by hysteria. "AND YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DID? Every SINGLE FRICKING DAY, they brought in new pokemon and tested ALL OF THEIR POWERS ON ME. Do you know what it feels like, huh, to be torn apart inside and put back together by your own warped DNA? To feel your bones break and reset into new patterns. To scorch your own corneas and suffer temporary blindness due to an attack you produced yourself? And then there were the injuries caused by the pokemons' attacks in the first place! THE ONLY REASON IM ALIVE IS BECAUSE THEY KEPT HEALING ME. They even used man-made Fire and lightning and God knows what else but I can't replicate those. I told them but they KEPT TRYING. And when it didn't work they... Did unspeakable things. For TWO FREAKING MONTHS! DO YOU KNOW WHAT THATS LIKE?! DO YOU?!?"

He didn't continue with how Luca, practically mad with his emotions, had finally broken him out and how they had teamed up to defeat and outrun the tormentors. They'd stayed away from all human habitation since.

Mason knew he had probably sealed his fate and a spark of fear had entered his gaze. He had been holding in those emotions for so long that he hadn't been able to help himself. His chin fell against his chest and he waited.

(HEY LOOK A LONG POST! I can't wait to see what she'll do. XD)

The last of the ropes snapped as Mason snarled at her, a defiant light burning in his eyes. She waited, her hand resting along the Rattata's head as she listened.

And she waited as he shouted at her, screamed until he was hoarse, telling her all about the tests they had run on him and what they had done.

Her stone cold gaze rested on him as he asked her if she knew what it was like to be torn apart and put together by her own DNA. She knew that feeling. Then her eyes got even darker as he talked to her about torture. She wanted to scream.. she wanted to yell.. to tell him he had no idea what it felt like. That he had no idea how she connected with her pokemon.. and sometimes with ones she met in the wild who decided to aid her for short times.. she could feel their emotions.. their pain.. everything. And the times they had died.. so had she.. She wanted to tell him that.. to blurt out to him.. to ask him if he knew what it was like to feel death. She wanted to ask if he knew how it felt to have his entire team there one moment, and then vaporized the next. Sure, she'd never had physical injuries from any of these.. but the amount of mental scarring.... Though she blamed Arceus for the mind wipe.. the truth was... some of those memories were gone because her brain simply was creating walls to keep her functional.

"I never asked for your life story and I don't care." She stated. "I don't know you. You could be anyone... anything. Someone sent who wants to eliminate all of the Rainbow Children. You could not be a part of them. It doesn't matter. The fact is.. I can't let you out of here unless you are with me. There is no human on this earth who can be trusted. Everyone lies.. everyone can be manipulated by psychic pokemon.. or broken by life experiences. I could kill you right now.. call Constantine back to blow up your brain. But I am trying.. one last time.. to trust humans again." A pause, a shake of her head. "The truth is.. I can't do this alone. What i am doing is dangerous.. but if all goes well.. it should be able to grant your wish as well as my own."

her fear was heightened, her anger was heightened, the Rattata was responding to her emotions, hackles raising to make himself look twice as big as before, a low growl coming from his mouth. She was teetering on the edge.. one step in the wrong direction and she might snap.. and her snapping would probably not be the best thing for them right now...