Summit the Indigo Plateau! Reno and Sub vs the Elite Four

[Reno Vantas]

Reno would nod along to Sub's story, keeping only vague focus on the island they were approaching as he relied on his Cloyster for any major steering requirements. "And somehow I managed to loop myself into that whole mess for a time. I'd say I'm surprised but based off my luck, I'm more surprised that I didn't end up piloting that submarine and dying in it." Reno said, slowly turning to look over at the hastily dressed guard and the apologetic response. Giving a chuckle, he would once again crack open his badge case to show off his Soul Badge to get the ball rolling.

And rolling it went, the gates once again opening and closing behind the duo as a new question entered the air. "....Which time do you mean? If its for before ending up part of Team Rocket, then I have a much clearer picture of things. Grew up in Goldenrod City out of the orphanage there. Didn't really have much for normal family, so spent most of my time learning from fun folks on the street. So y'know, inevitably started grabbing things I didn't own and somehow managing to get away. Apparently I did that a little too well or something, because thats when I ended up grabbed into Rocket and you should know the rest from there."

Looking down at Tesei, he would give the Cloyster a soft scratch to his head before continuing. "If you mean before Snagem, then I got most of that too. I was never told why we were at Snowpoint Temple, all I know is I got separated, chased around by what I now know was the Ziton, and there are implications there that both terrify and intrigue me but thats beside the point, and I ended up slightly activating some Psychic powers to teleport myself into the ocean. Which is where a little Shellder picked me up, helped me get to shore, and then I....kinda drifted. Mostly because I was an uneducated teen, partly because whatever I did to escape is what resulted in me losing all that memory and inadvertently created Rome."

Staring towards the oncoming gate and the new patch of land that it was sitting on, Reno would reach towards his badge case. "And...yeah, he's still there. I do not question why, mostly because at this point we seem content to operate as...however you want to call this. DID, personification of some traits givne form, whatever. Either way, he has enough autonomy that when he wants, he can have his own experiences. Y'know that whole separate construct I made that Crystal's mind went into? That started as me basically giving Rome a body." Reaching the shoreline, Reno would hop onto shore and point a Pokeball towards his Cloyster. "C'mon, Tesei. Just a little further and then we can start blasting the best of the best."  

[Reno Vantas]

Reno would look over at Sub with a furrowed brow and a tilted head as he spoke. "What? Kaiden is an Alakazam. I never had..." Reno started, attempting to understand what exactly it was that Sub was saying when a foreign memory blinked to life in his mind. Of him and an Abra, back before he ever met the man named Shades. ".....I did have an Abra...." Reno muttered, slowly taking a seat on the ground as he could already feel a wave of something about to overwhelm him. And as soon as he was stable, he felt the memories come rushing back in. One of those people he learned from on the streets had given him an Abra, saying that the thing was useless for a getaway since all it could do for him was teleport back to the Pokemon Center. All Reno had to do was promise to let it keep its name. Tesei. Easy enough request and it gave him a friend of his own so he agreed to the whole deal.

He never quite got what the guy had been saying about Tesei only being able to teleport to the Pokemon Center. It had taken a little time but Reno was eventually able to get the Psychic type to teleport them both to either locations that he knew well or to places within line of sight. And he quickly put this bit of training into practice, grabbing all kinds of goods and materials for himself to either play around with or for general survival and then teleporting away when he was about to be caught. And for some reason, the whole only going to Pokemon Centers must have been a common thing since his pursuers would quickly pivot to running towards the place the second he disappeared while he simply watched on from places like nearby rooftops or even a small ways behind them. But someone else must have been paying attention to these antics, since members of Team Rocket managed to locate and lock down his teleporting, which is when he got placed into the group alongside the one person who seemed to be able to most easily keep him from teleporting whenever it wasn't needed.

Blinking a few times, Reno would return his eyes to Sub as the waves of memories relented for a moment. "I was this little teleporting thief. Didn't have a lick of sense how much skill it took to have a Psychic type teleport you somewhere that wasn't a few preset locations, but Team Rocket did. And then I got drafted into it and placed alongside you. All because they saw you were most able to keep me from simply teleporting out and going back to what I was doing before." Reno said, eyes slowly drifting downwards again. "Because no one readily believed a moron kid could do it, Tesei and I got used to grab anything not too locked down and then teleport to fake them out like I would be easily found near the Pokemon Center. Even got dragged along as an emergency exit, which is why I ended up at....Snow.....Point...."

A more familiar set of memories danced through his mind now, but with a few additions that had been omitted from his previous ventures through them. He was still there with Shades, still exploring around for his own amusement while he waited for whatever their job was there to be finished. But now he was messing around with his partner Pokemon, exploring nooks and crannies of the place to see if he might find something useful to get this whole process moving along. And then whatever it was they were doing triggered a rumble, sending one of the nearby archways crumbling to crush him as he walked through it. He was nearly crushed by the debris, only being saved by a quick teleport that sent him and Tesei a few feet further into the section of the temple even as the entrance to it disappeared into the debris. And from there, it once again faded into the familiar, of his desperate attempts to either teleport himself out or find another out to get back to where the Rockets were. And then the eventual pursuit of him by what could've been his own mind breaking down, but what he knew now was the first time he encountered the Ziton.

But as the pursuit drew to its close, with the collection of minds breathing down his neck, things began to twist from what his initial recollection had told him. He didn't feel this spontaneous welling of power as he finally unlocked his psychic potential for one second before burning it out to escape. All he could feel was fear and panic as the monster pursuing him drew closer once more, having finally cornered him in a spot he couldn't somehow manage one last escape by managing to create a divide between him and Tesei. But, in that last moment, those last few seconds that stretched onto infinity, he saw a pink glow begin to envelop him. And then he was looking at the back of this unstoppable behemoth, a tidal wave of eyes suddenly appearing across its body to focus in on where he now was even as it continued its attack on where a small Abra now was. It was a move Tesei should've been able to avoid, even after the Ally Switch with Reno. But the Abra was staying still. Eyes focused on Reno, even as a flurry of tendrils extended to envelop the Psychic Pokemon.

It wasn't much but Reno felt something connecting between them in that focused gesture, something that led him to simply nod towards his Pokemon before attempting to do what he had seen Tesei do a thousand times before: build up energy to try and teleport the both of them out. He had to make something work, something to keep this place from becoming their tomb. And as the thought crossed his mind, he received a thought back. 'Mine, not ours.' And with that, the connection that he had been feeling would erupt like an aggreived volcano. The sudden pain and intense mental anguish as the tendrils finally made contact with Tesei would rupture Reno's desperate attempt at concentrating, sending all the energy he had been building up into teleporting him out. But with no destination in mind from all of the sudden stress, pain, and trauma dumped into his brain, the pink flash would greet Reno with a quick introduction into the ocean in a state that would end with him drowning before long without help. But help would arrive, as a lone Shellder saw the struggling teenager and would quickly place itself in the crook of Reno's arm, doing its best to keep him afloat and steer him towards what seemed to be a shoreline. "Yeah, Tesei. Shore's that'a way. Let's get ta shore." He mumbled.

Back in the present, Reno could finally feel things settling down. Taking a few deep breathes, he would blink back the tears that now seemed to be streaming from his eyes. "I didn't just randomly awaken Psychic powers in Snowpoint. I....I channeled with Tesei the Abra. And was still deep in that connection when the Ziton ripped his mind apart. And in response, my mind just...buried everything it could about the psychic stuff as deep as it could and let it become its own thing. First, some boogeyman, some cartoon villain to scare me away from even having the thought of the power as something that was me, and then as a second side to me, something more intelligent and conniving than I tended to be. Something to tell me how destructive and vile these powers could be..." Still breathing heavily and tears still rolling their way down his cheeks, Reno wouldn't be moving any time soon.  

[Reno Vantas]

Tesei would respond to Sub's insinuation with a quick lock-and-load on the horn he had, giving a smirk towards his trainer's friend before turning back to where Reno was. And he was still sitting on the ground on the ground, but it seemed like his breathing was finally slowing down. And as his gaze rose up to meet Tesei's, he could see a deep appreciation being directed towards himself. Giving a nod with his whole body, the Cloyster would watch as his trainer finally placed a hand on his leg, gave himself a little push, and finally made to stand up.

Giving a quick wipe of his face to clear off any remaining tears, Reno would look towards Sub with a smile on his face. "Yeah, just needed a minute to process." Giving a nod towards the Cloyster that was still floating in the water, Reno added, "I'd say I should do something in Tesei's memory but apparently I was on top of that even in my fragile state. So all that leaves is the one thing that was always on my plate. Making sure that wherever that thing slinked off to in Ultra Space can be found and finishing the fight. But we've torn enough holes in reality for a while now, so we can leave that particular manhunt for later."

Opening Tesei's Pokeball and returning the Water type to his home, Reno would give a nod towards the guard at the gate in front of them. "Now, lets go have a fun time seeing exactly how we stack up against the Elite Four." Reno told Sub, already cracking open his badge case before the guard could speak. But they would still get the spiel. "Only those holding the Marsh Badge or the Storm Badge may pass." And once Sub followed suit with showing his respective badge, the gate in front of them would open. Watching as the gate closed shut once more, Reno would blow out a breath before asking, "Well, I just told my entire childhood. Care to reciprocate? I know it involved a guy whose name you have....lets call it borrowed. What else is there to that story?"  

[Reno Vantas]

Reno was doing his best to keep pace with Sub's story, keeping himself assessed on the whole lost his blood brother and went on a bit of a dark binge because of it story. But a part of himself couldn't help but latch onto one detail in the story that stood out as odd: Subbarao was taken out by a Kakuna nest, but somehow ended up a part of the Ziton. And there is no way Sub would've skimmed over his original best friend being a psychic prodigy, so Subbarao somehow managing to keep his mind in this reality himself without anything to anchor to seemed exceedingly unlikely. Which meant the Ziton was there, somehow. He really hated that Divit was right about that zen future or past nonsense he gave at the Isle of Armor when it came to this thing.

Clicking open his badge case as he heard the ask from the guard, he would pass through the gate alongside Sub. And before he could gather his thoughts to figure out a question for the bits of history that came after he came back to the name Sub, Reno found himself once again on the questioned side of things. "Well.... I gave the broad strokes pretty quickly in Galar, so might as well start from scratch on the whole thing. The Ziton as a whole entity is a collection of Psychics, both Pokemon and human, all held together in this one entity. Power-wise, it can make itself look like the physical appearance of any mind it has possessed and, as we saw with Crystal, it can hide within a body. It also has a massive quantity of Psychic energy that allows for it to do...a ton? Honestly, whatever it can think of it seems like." Reno stopped himself, sighing as he figured it would be easiest to just jump straight in. "But that's taking it as a whole. The thing that really makes it dangerous, that steers that ball of primal consumption is a central mind: The Master."

"That's definitely not his true name but its all I know him by. He is either the original Psychic Channeler Master or at least was the first notable one. And at some point way in past, he ended up latched onto this core of power. And in pursuit of restoring what that core used to be, he set himself to work steering it to grab and consume whatever Psychic power sources it could. I don't know if its a return on investment thing or a personal taste thing, but it only seems to do it to suitably powerful sources." Reno would pause to scratch his chin before adding, "Might be presumptuous to put myself in that category. I'll go with also personally hates me. Which is interesting since I am the one who kinda freed it..."

"Yeah, should probably go over that too." Reno sheepishly added, scratching at the back of his head. "The Ziton got sealed at some point in the distant past by this separate sect of Psychic Channelers. And I got recommended to go check out that place because they were unique channelers, had this mystical artifact that connected back to their original Psychic Master, and would be helpful since I am not exactly a traditional Psychic Channeler myself. What I found was a chest under an ancient tree, a guy calling himself the Master when I meditated there, and released the Ziton when I opened the chest after that Master dude attempted to consume my mind. It stopped the whole predation on anyone who went there for training thing, but apparently I did not squash it out well enough in that first fight to stop it permanently. And that is everything I know for certain."

Pinching at his brow, Reno would take a moment before speaking again. "Then there's the things I either can't confirm or don't have definitive proof for. First off, the thing survived that jump into Ultra Space and has likely used that outside perspective to end up in places in our timeline before it was actually released. Nothing definitive for that, but the fact that Subbarao was in that thing and it attacking me in the Snowpoint Temple in the past points to it being likely. And second, that mind at the core of it originally started as some guy called Ultrarius. And....geez, even with all the caveats, everything I got around that name sounds absolutely insane."

Before he could continue, a voice would interrupt the distracted Reno. "Only those holding the Earth Badge or the Rising Badge may pass." The guard announced, turning Reno's attention from Sub and their discussion to open his badge case. Once Sub showed his matching badge, the gate would open and reveal the final approach to the Indigo Plateau. Passing through once Sub had done so, Reno gave Sub a look. "Well, we can either talk about what exactly happened between meeting Ein and now to get Snagem started, because I know that some of the people here did not end up here by their own volition, or we can keep on that whole Ultrarius insanity and you can get to hear that particular batch of schizophrenic-sounding ramblings. Your choice." He asked.