Super Journal

	Greta. That was the name given to her by him. Edelweiss, the Venusaur, had assured her that it was a fine, proper name, if a bit plain. Well, she didn't mind plain, exactly - simple was good enough for her. However, she found herself doubting the authenticity of this lizard's claims due to his own rather demure and non-combative personality, not to mention the fact that his name was a bit funny itself. She had a feeling he wouldn't find fault in most names, really, and it became apparent to her as time went on, and Karsten's menagerie expanded that he was utterly terrible at the skill. Still, she had to admit it could be much, much worse. Currently, everyone was out of their pokeballs and getting a little exercise. Standard, when there wasn't other kinds of action going on. Exercise was good. That little ball Karsten had fit her into wasn't uncomfortable exactly, but she preferred wide, open spaces and fresh air. The others were out and about, playing, or lounging to their tastes. She had been climbing a nearby tree, a bit of a hard task for a dog-like pokemon, but she managed it. Here, on the branch, she surveyed the others.

		Edelweiss. Named after some flower or another. As she mentioned before, he was a non-confrontational Venusaur. Large, but slightly cowardly. Pulled through when Karsten needed him to, though. Despite how he acted, he was actually a rather powerful fighter with multiple forms of disabling opponents and powerful grass attacks. She stood little chance of beating him in a spar, at the moment at least. It was also him that Karsten used to capture her in the first place - so she had respect for the creature. He was also rather smart, and she would often confront him about things she didn't quite understand. Which had been less, lately. Edelweiss said she had begun to get smarter, herself. She wasn't sure how much of that she believed. but maybe he had a point. Here she was, being introspective. It wasn't usual at all for her.

		Next was Saft. Literally 'juice'. Creative. She had thought her to be some kind of turtle at first, but instead proved to be some kind of worm creature in a rock. Saft wasn't a coward, but had an arguably more irritating trait - she was utterly devoid of motivation. She only really acted when the medic insisted. She had no drive, and would often just lounge and do nothing for days on end, letting pungent berries ferment in her shell. The odor was rather strong as well, just another reason to keep away. At least she was dependable.

		The next member of Karsten's crew was Maus. A little mewling rodent that hogged much of the medic's attention, Greta noted to herself. She had insisted on having her own nest, INSIDE. What a spoiled little pup she was! The very nerve, too, taking up so much of Karsten's time that he could have spent doing -useful- things like erecting a better barricade or training. Greta would often watch Maus be cuddled by Karsten with her best look of contempt - not only was she an attention hog, she seemed to refuse to get any stronger as well, and started crying when Greta ambus-er, challenged her to a spar. Bah. Puppies.

		Schmuddellasche. The mud fish was about as incomprehensible as his name was. He wasn't used very often, but he often enough had a very distant look on his face. Greta had a feeling Karsten mostly intended to use him for leverage against Keldeo, but it was hard to say if he'd actually come in handy. Furthermore, he was a 'gift' from that vile creature, Giratina. Nope. She didn't like him, not one bit. Schmuddellasche seemed to just be biding his time, waiting for something... or maybe she was just imagining it. Who could tell? Either way, she'd have to keep an eye on that one.

		Duft. This one wasn't so bad. Duft was a fairly peaceful, but tough as nails sort of customer that sort of fancied herself a team mom helping out Karsten from the sidelines. She had been living in rather dreadful conditions in one of the human buildings before Karsten took her in, and seemed determined to return the favour. As far as combat strength, she seemed to be just a notch below Saft, but has a desire to come into her own.

		Then there was Glucklich. The hapless Gloom was rescued by Karsten from those horrible bees and is terrified by bug types now. Smells awful, REALLY awful to Greta's sensitive nose, though Karsten's been trying to fix that apparently. Apart from that, the girl seems to have a massive drooling problem. Karsten's kept her out of combat so far, but has taken the opportunity to harvest spores from her flower now and again to use against their enemies.

		Mew was pretty annoying, but wasn't here. Thank god.

		And finally, the creepiest one of all. Juwel. A female weedle rescued from the body of Karsten's ally and nurtured in combat carrion. The medic actually went out of his way to save one of those creatures even though it would have gladly killed the old human. Dull-witted but considering Karsten a mother figure, she often sits on his shoulder or crawls just behind his feet. Those soulless, white eyes bothered Greta. They bothered her a LOT, but there wasn't anything she could do about it, unfortunately. To top it all off, the thing was psychic as well. There was no telling what the horrible little pest could do. Still, Karsten sparing it proved that he had a sort of compassion that she had been told didn't exist in humans.

		Karsten himself... was a bit of a curiosity to her. From the moment she laid her eyes on him, he had been 'the enemy' and she had every intention of clamping her jaws into his throat and tearing the life from him. She had failed, however, and was now his prisoner. Of a sort. She had been watched by Edelweiss early on when allowed outside of her ball, and Karsten had spoken to her in some useless human jabber she couldn't comprehend, thinking it'd change her temperament. But then, he started doing something different. Something... interesting. He started taking her on walks around the edges of the forest, and then... fighting her. She had relished it greatly, seeing it at first as an opportunity to lay into her enemy, the one who had imprisoned her. He proved surprisingly resilient, however, and would just smile off her blows and wait for her to tire out before striking. It forced her to attack smarter, not harder, and eventually it became... a game of sorts to try and get past Karsten's defenses. And as far as games went... she began to focus less on hurting Karsten and more on the challenge itself, and enjoyed herself. Even she surprised herself one afternoon when, after she managed to deck the medic hard enough to send him to the ground, she had rushed over to his side to make sure he was okay. She realized... she actually kind of liked him! He had been making a very obvious effort, provided her with a challenge, a competition of sorts, and, well, seemed rather fond of her. And she liked that, as much as she hadn't wanted to admit it. Humans... weren't actually that bad. Maybe she could try and reason with the General herself, if he didn't just execute her for treason.

		She found herself lost in her thoughts, to a point where she almost didn't notice that things around them had gotten deadly quiet. All of the others seemed to have noticed around, and as they looked around in confusion, the forest around them proved rather unfamiliar. Karsten himself was nowhere in sight. The hairs on the back of Greta's neck began to stand up, something wasn't right here. She hopped down from her tree branch and barked out at Edelweiss. "Situation?" The enormous venusaur shrugged his body non-committally. "I dunno. Trees're different." The others began crowding around, sensing something was wrong. Maus and Juwel didn't -quite- understand, but huddled up near Duft for the moment. The orb of gases floated nearby, trying to comfort them as best she could without arms. It was the beach-dweller that spoke up first. "Leeeeeet's goooo hooome." Schmuddel droned in his annoyingly drawn-out tone of voice. Duft echoed his sentiments. "Yes, without delay, we should return to the encampment. Our master will find us there."

		"One problem with that, chief." called the Gloom from the edge of the clearing they had been using. "...It's not there anymore. Don't see any landmarks or even our own footprints on the way here. We're... lost." Greta growled and glanced around, highly suspicious of every rock and shadow around, now. "Trickery. This smells like the enemy." At those words, a disturbing, high-pitched laughter rung out over the clearly. Greta turned and gnashed her teeth, her back towards her comrades as they formed a circle to protect Juwel and Maus. "So quick to call your former comrades 'the enemy' now, are you? Tsk, tsk, little dog, your true master won't care for that very much!" the voice that the laughter belonged to rang out. Greta's ears perked, but she couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. It seemed like... from everywhere at once? Or no... from herself? Her head hurt a bit as she thought about it. "Just hurry and show yourself!" she snapped, irritated. The voice chuckled. "If you insist, madam hound." An odd creature stepped out from behind one of the trees. It was a bipedal creature, about as tall as a man, with yellow fur all over its body and an enormous nose. The Hypno's white furry collar suited the clothes... clothes? it was wearing oddly well, a jumpsuit of some kind in purple and yellow checkers, little red shoes with turned up corners, and a funny little cap on its head with four points on it ending in tiny little bells. Instead of a pendulum, it was carrying a gold pocketwatch on a chain, though it seemed to be able to bounce it up and down like a yo-yo. It was doing this at the moment.

		Greta leapt forward without hesitation, rearing her paw back to strike the Hypno as the growl in her throat rose in pitch. The Hypno simply gestured, however, and she found herself stuck in place, mid-air, unable to do anything but thrash uselessly and bark insults at the creature. "My, my, what a horrible little mouth you have, m'dear." the hypno remarked. The other pokemon were watching the creature carefully. It was Duft who spoke up, reservation in her voice. "Are you the one responsible for this?" Unlike Greta, she kept her indignation in check until they knew more - though her patience could be gauged by how brief and frequent her puffs of smoke had become. The creature gave a rather unsettling grin, its teeth much more pointed than his species would suggest. "That would be correct. But make no mistake. I mean you no harm." Duft seemed a bit nonplussed at that, but then Glucklich responded most irate, "Then explain yourself, already!" Greta continued to thrash around to no effect midair as the thing continued. "You may call me... the Fool. We are not your enemy, nor your ally, and neither can we truly be considered a neutral party either." "...We?" Edelweiss spoke up. "My friends and I." the Fool answered unhelpfully. "We have little interest in the conflict itself, but our presence here is graciously... tolerated by the grand arbiter of the events. What we -are- curious about is all of you. The so-called trained pokemon the humans are using. Truly fascinating... or at least I think so. So I have brought you here with the intention to observe!"

		"And where is 'here' exactly?" Duft asked, irritated. "Oh, you'll find that out easily enough. Don't let me ruin the experiment." the Fool said, beginning to walk up the tree he was next to with little regard to gravity. He checks his pocketwatch during this. "But no doubt you do wish to go home as soon as possible, so I'll tell you this - if you want to return to where you were, just find Karsten. It's that simple, dears! Now then, I'm afraid I must be off. It's almost time for tea with Justice and the Hanged Man, and they are dreadfully irate when I'm late. Ta!" And with that, the creature... was simply gone, with no further fanfare. Greta found herself plopped to the ground disgracefully and some tinge of embarassment flooded through her. "The nerve! Next time I see him, I'll rip him limb from limb!" the Riolu growled. "You barely come up to his waist." Edel commented, but a stern look from Greta immediately shut him up. "Hush a moment." Duft looked over to the east after a moment. "Do you.. hear that?" Everyone stopped and listened for a moment. There was some sort of awful racket for sure. Greta could hear blaring noises that were unpleasant to her ears, but past that... she heard the faint sound of conversation. Human conversation. "The others must be this way. That was easy." the Riolu remarked. "File up and move out!" She eagerly sprinted ahead of the others as Glucklich sighed. "There the git goes again, gettin' herself into trouble. I don't really like the mess what we been dropped into, but we're not gonna get ourselves outta it sittin' pretty here, gloom?" Edel nodded. "Pile up on my back and I'll carry everyone," the venusaur offered, and knelt down. Glucklich ended up having to be the one to load up Maus, Juwel, and Schmuddellasche due to the distinct lack of arms and hands in the group, but eventually they got boarded, and ventured after Greta. What they came across... wasn't quite what they expected.

		They had come to a large, stone path flowing between the trees, on the edge of the forest. Odd markings dotted the middle and sides of the path, and glistening stones were found every few feet along the exactly middle, reflecting the sun's light. Beyond... was a large city. Easily towering far beyond the tiny village where the encampment had been, buildings of steel and glass dominated the skyline as the stone path split and flowed through the metal jungle like a river. More than that, humans and pokemon were walking around, talking, laughing. Steel boxes on wheels roamed the concrete rivers, blaring noise again that made Greta wince in pain. The humans themselves were dressed in all sorts of bright, loose clothing - absolutely nothing like the uniforms the soldiers they belonged to wore. Where... were they? Edelweiss had stopped underneath a metal panel on sticks nearby, squinting at it. Glucklich was peeking up at it too from Edel's flower. "Wossit say, Edel? You're the one what can read." Edel bit his lip and concentrated a moment, spelling it out. "S.... o... l... i... n... Hang on... this sign says 'Solingen'." Greta rolled her eyes. "Who cares what dumb letters say? It's just more nonsense." Saft seemed to wake up as Edel spoke though. "Are you sure? Sure, sure? If so, this isn't nonsense at all, Gret-gret, this is Solingen, the city we and Karsten grew up in. We're... home."

		That had to sink in for a moment. There was silence between them all for a moment, though Maus continued obliviously playing with Juwel on Edel's back. "His home?" Greta repeated, confused. "How did we get here, then? And why are there humans? This doesn't make any sense." Glucklich pointed out, "There were humans when everyone fought that Clefable..." Edel shakes his head, a gesture that sends everyone on top for something to cling on to. "The sign says Solingen, and... it does look a little bit like it, but it was nowhere near this large before." "Well iddn't this a great big clump of rot." the gloom mutters. "Well, d'ya reckon we can find him, then?" Edel nods. "I'll lead us to where I think his house is..." The clump of pokemon proceeded into the city, common sense telling them to stay on the sidewalk and out of the path of the steel boxes. The humans and other pokemon gave them odd looks that they couldn't quite place, but generally gave them a wide berth. Edel and Saft alike seemed to be confused at things being older than they remembered, out of place, or just plain gone, but seemed fairly confident they knew which direction to go. As they did, Greta noticed even the youngest children seemed to be accompanied by pokemon, carrying little red and white versions of the balls that Karsten kept them in. How odd. After a moment though, Greta's ears pricked up. She heard... humans shouting, pokemon crying out, she could smell sweat and even a little blood. There was... combat somewhere nearby? The others gave her an odd look as she took a detour, stopping outside of a large building with many official-looking signs that Edel craned his head up to read. Greta stretched to look in the front window to see what was going on, and found herself rather... surprised. There were indeed humans and pokemon in there - in some sort of... arena. The humans were yelling orders, and the pokemon carried them out, attacking each other. But... she couldn't sense true aggression or bloodthirst. She watched, in a daze, as an Alakazam slammed a Torkoal into a wall, and its trainer recalled it before beginning to talk pleasantly with the Alakazam's owner. The other human hugged her Alakazam, yattering on about something, she couldn't quite hear from here. But Greta realized after a moment... this was a place of competition. Like her and Karsten's playfights but on a more serious scale. This was a place where you could fight without holding back but not fear for your life, either. She didn't even notice her tail beginning to wag with the thought. "It says... 'turnhalle'. I don't know that word." Edel proclaimed after a moment of reading.

		"'ey, what's your deal?" Glucklich asked Greta after a moment. She popped out of her daze and turned around, crossing her arms. "It looks fun, that's what." "If y'say so." the Gloom rolled her eyes. "...My, who are they?" Duft asked after a moment, turned away from the Pokemon Gym. Everyone else glanced over to see a few men in uniforms - but definitely not like Karsten's. They were watching the group from just outside one of the steel boxes, holding a few... nets and talking in German. Only Edel and Saft could really understand what they were saying to each other - "...Dex says they're owned, but it can't find a trainer ID. Probably some fucking kid who jailbroke his balls and accidentally disabled the safety lock." "Well, come on. Let's take them in. Whoever owns them will probably come to the station anyway, then we can slap them with a few fines." The two men released a couple of Arcanines from balls and began to approach the group. "...Run. Now." Saft taps Edelweiss on the back. Greta had never heard her use that tone before, so this was likely pretty serious! The venusaur nodded, and then with a burst of speed began to take off, Greta tailing behind before jumping on. "Aw hell, they're breaking for it! Get in the van." The Arcanines began barking and running after them all, while the officers hopped in their car to try and catch up. Edelweiss breathed heavily - he was a fast venusaur, but not that fast! It was only a matter of a few seconds before the police dogs caught up and surrounded the group with suppressive fire spins. The next thing they knew, nets were thrown, and they found themselves in the darkness of the officers' paddy wagon.

		Greta was a bit dazed, but managed to sit up. "What happened? We're... captured?" she looked around with a bit of fright. The Gloom hopped off of the venusaur and rolled her eyes again. "No, we're being taken out for berries and honey." Maus and Juwel plopped down next to Glucklich, causing her to jump back a bit from the Weedle, eyeing it with caution. Saft spoke up as the truck began moving. "I've seen them do this to growlithes on the street before. They must think we're wild. ...This is bad." "Well, we just have to escape, right?" Greta offers, looking around. The only window was a small, barred thing in the back that she couldn't reach. "Yeah, good luck with that." Edel replied and laid down. "Some adventure this was." The koffing floated in contemplation a moment. "Perhaps we're not yet without a chance." she said, slowly, her puffs unsteady. "...All of you, go to the front, as far as you can." The others seemed unsure a moment, but she shooed them away before floating to the direct opposite corner herself. "Be ready to run." she warned, and then inhaled air...

		*KABOOM*

		There was a deafening explosion that threw the truck clear off of its wheels and sent it hurtling into the railing of the bridge they were passing over - metal grinded on pavement as the truck slid for several meters, cars swerving out of its way. The doors were of course completely blown off, and the dazed pokemon practically tumbled out of the compartment. Glucklich made a note to check - the human officers seemed to have struck their heads in the crash and fallen unconscious. Duft herself was out like a light after that powerful Self Destruct, and everyone else, miraculously, seemed to be unharmed. Greta snatched Duft and jumped onto Edel's back and whistled for the gloom. "Book it!" she barked at the venusaur, and together the group of pokemon bounded away from the crash as people inside their cars ducked and screamed as they passed. "I know this bridge!" Edel said after a moment. "We're not far from Karsten's house!" There was excitement in his voice as they bounded down the road, coming off the bridge into a verdant residential area. A lot of the houses here seemed quite old, but one in particular stood out to the venusaur and shuckle - a little country home with a beautiful little garden next to it. Edel practically leapt over the fence, and Greta found herself quite relieved to finally be getting out of this mess. Though... as they stopped in front of the house, things were oddly quiet. An old woman looked out of one of the windows through a set of blinds, but that was all of the activity Greta could see. "Let's look for him, eh?" Glucklich suggested, and they began to split their separate ways, with Edel trying to figure out how to get into the house, Saft going to the garden, and the others going their various ways. Greta was smarter, she thought, and put her nose to the ground to begin to track. ...Ah, there we were. This place definitely did smell like Karsten, and a lot of other unknown humans. The freshest scent... hm... she slowly made her way around back of the house, where her nose led her to a tall, spiked gate and a fence she couldn't quite squeeze her way past. She shook the gate with frustration, before she heard a slurping sound come up from behind her. She glanced, and - ugh, yep, it was him. Schmuddellasche was slowly moving his way through the mud after her. With a glance at the gate, he sunk under the ground, then rose out of the earth on the other side, before... jolting electricity up at a latch on the other side. The gate swung open to a dumbfounded Greta. "Theeeere yoooou gooooo." the mudfish said, happily, and Greta decided, maybe she had the wrong impression of the guy.

		She hurried into the fenced off area, but didn't see any humans here. It was like another garden, except there was large rocks planted in the ground instead of crops. Weird. Did humans grow rocks, too? She followed the scent over to one of the rocks, and the earth in front of it smelled richly of Karsten. There were more of those squiggly things written on the rock in front of her, but she found herself frustrated. "Edel!" she called out. "I need to read something! I might have found a thing to help us find him." The venusaur waddled around from around front, squeezing into the place and looking around with a bit of a frown, and then his gaze fell as he looked upon the stone.

		"So what's it say?" Greta asked, impatient. Edel barely even looked. "It says, 'Karsten Blum'." "Well, that's helpful. Why's his name here? Where is he? Why do I smell him here?" Edel shook his head and called the others around. "...You're standing on him, Greta. This is the family's graveyard... where humans bury and honor their dead. Like with the guy Mew pretended to be." Greta was silent for a moment, and so were the others as they entered. "But how can he be dead?" Greta asked. Glucklich spoke up, cradling the unconscious Duft. "I think... this might be the future, like with the Clefable thing. That Hypno probably carried us here..."

		Everyone was silent as they looked on the tombstone, Maus and Juwel thankfully still a bit unaware of what it meant. Greta, though, dropped to the ground, staring as the stone and
laying a paw on the earth beneath her. So that was it. Karsten was... gone, here. Nothing more than a pile of bones six feet underneath. What had happened? Had he lived a life
without them? Did he... miss her? She found herself wondering that and realized... hell, she missed HIM already. All sorts of feelings were welling up inside her right now, and as sirens in the distance began to close in, she did the only thing she truly felt she could - she lifted back her head and howled in mourning. There was a bright light around around her, she felt her consciousness expand, her senses sharpen like steel. Her ears grew out and metal spikes emerged from her chest and paws, and deep down she felt a burning anger rise. And then the world fell away - they were no longer at Karsten's house but back in the forest where they had been left. The Fool was standing nearby, with a smile on his lips.

		"Well? That was certainly an experience out of the ordinary, wouldn't you sa-" the Hypno didn't even have time to finish his words before Greta had leapt at him again, paws raised to do some serious damage. He held up a hand again to freeze her midair, but her body flared with a burst of blue energy, seeming to overpower the creature for a moment. She landed, her fist connecting and sending it flying into the tree behind it, visibly splintering the bark. <Shut. UP.> she growled, more with her raw intention to kill than with any vocal language. The Hypno slowly stood up, reaching up to feel its face and looking horrified as it pulled its hand back bloody. "Oh me, oh my! That -hurt-, you brute!" <I SAID SHUT UP.> Greta roared with her aura, and the others too, seemed indignant. Edel began glowing, gathering sunlight, Saft begin spinning in place, kicking up dirt, Schmuddellasche began crackling with electricity, Duft was awake again and pouring toxic gas, Glucklich seemed ready to rain spores down - even Maus and Juwel seemed upset, standing side by side and baring fangs/needles at the creature.

		"Hmph." replied the Fool. "You philistines have no regard for peaceful observation, I see. Well, it wouldn't do to get into a fight here, that would be interfering. Not that I was before, either - removing you from the battlefield is obviously interference, so I placed you in an illusion of a possible future instead. So many futures, so many possibilities... I am the Fool, the walker of infinite paths. But you didn't even let me finish or explain. Well, no matter, I'm quite satisfied, thank you. I'd best be off. World?" Greta barks and lunges at the Fool again, but an Eevee materializes out of midair next to the Hypno and with a flash of light, both are gone as Greta smashes her paw into the tree behind where the Fool was standing. "This may or may not be the last time we meet," the Fool's last words echo around them. She pauses there a moment, rage on her face, but she shakes her head as she hears Karsten's voice.

		"{Edel? Greta? Everyone? Where are you?}"

		With that, Greta's rage quickly leaves, and the lot go back, practically jumping Karsten. The medic is very confused, but laughs as he escorts them all back to the encampment for rest and a hot meal.