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The world loaded in, and Laguna was already ready for action. Grabbing the Pokeballs on her hip, she immediately flung out her Pokemon for tonight's battle.

Roxanne formed first, the massive Onix had but recently been equipped with her own unique cosmetic. Appearing like she was carved from solid ice, the enormous crystal snake roared as it wrapped its massive body around the group in the garden. "Roxanne!" Laguna spoke, pointing the murder weapon spoon still in her grip up at her Pokemon. "Guard Cygnus with your life. His work is important, do what you can. Stealth Rock, set up a perimeter." The Onix roared loudly in response, swirling about as chunks of sharp stone began flying about the garden. Her other Pokemon stood at the ready, climbing atop Roxanne's massive form to get a better view.

Eyes wide, Laguna scanned across the garden trying to locate any potential threats and anything that could be of use to them. It didn't take long for her gaze to settle on the PokePong table. "Bingo." She quickly slid over towards it, intending to jump over to the other side.

Instead, she mistimed her jump and slammed her lower legs into the table, slamming her face down onto the table with a solid smack.

"Fils de pute!" Laguna suddenly shouted loudly, pulling up to reveal her nose crooked and bleeding. That's what she got trying to act all cool, it was probably broken. But there was no time to stand around and complain about it, she had suffered worse injuries in this game before she could toughen through it.

She was going to have to.

With a twirl of her wrist and spinning the spoon to call him down from their perch, Laguna summoned her Cryogonal. They quickly flew down from the top of the Onix at the ready to assist. "Hail, use your chains, help me drag the table." The two of them pushed and dragged the table over towards the middle of the garden, suddenly tipping it forwards to use as a makeshift barricade. It was big and heavy enough, hopefully, it would help at least a few people withstand a few attacks. While she was sending all her Pokemon out to defend others, it was going to have to be her own shield.

It was only then she realized people were speaking and shouting and talking. Her attention focused on Yggy Br00ks who was asking about support pokemon. "I- I don't have any! Sorry! But I'll protect the ones we got!" She'd call out, only to immediately point the spoon over towards the Meowth who was... healing with a screech. Sure. This game made sense. "Sir Hail, Guard that Meowth. If any of our healers go down, it will be hell."

The Cryogonal immediately understood, rotating and spinning over towards the Galarian Meowth. "Incoming shield here!" Laguna would shout to try and get Yggy Br00ks 's attention. True to her word, Sir Hail would let out a Light Screen, the shimmering wall of light glowing amidst the otherwise gloomy atmosphere.

Wiping her glove on her face to try and clean her face up, blood continued to drip and all she managed to do was smear it everywhere. Great. Her last pokemon slid down the back of the Onix with ease and the look on Glacia's face seeing the state of Laguna was mortifying. For just a moment, the Bergmite looked terrified before it steeled her resolve, and it just melted Laguna's heart. "I'll be fine. I promise. Please, there's bigger fish to fry."

Glacia finally relented, sighing softly as their own expression softened. "Do not touch any corrupted Pokemon," Laguna warned, a hand clutching her nose at this point, the pain certainly worse than she was willing to admit. "I know you're worried about me, but you must protect that Core with everything you are. Be the hero we need right now. That I need."

The Bergmite's resolve seemed to swell, confidently nodding its head before leaping towards the burning core. A Protect formed around Glacia as it began to Guard the Moltres Heart, with everything that it could.

Never had an iceberg looked so heroic.

CLEVERLY USE AN OBJECT TO DEFEND YOURSELF +10
INTERACT WITH ANOTHER PLAYER +10
SUSTAIN A PLAYER INJURY +10

SPOILER: Click to show

{BREAKDOWN}BERGMITE 500/500 Active
GUARDING the MOLTRES CORE

CRYOGONAL 500/500 Active
GUARDING Yggy Br00ks 's GALARIAN MEOWTH

ONIX 500/500 Active
GUARDING CYGNUS

A Temporary Knight of Mythstar. She didn't know if that was like a probational membership to the guild, or if it meant anything more special than that, but she was certainly going to treat that title with pride. Cygnus mentioned something about a heart, and she was planning on protecting it no matter the cost.

And just like that, the servers shut down to prepare.

Her headset came tumbling down off of her head as she laid back in bed staring at the ceiling. Her stomach growled, and her head felt a little woozy. Virtual alcohol had certainly done a number on her. It wasn't quite a hangover and more of a strange missing sensation. Like the pleasant buzzed feeling just vanished all at once, leaving her feeling... normal.

And hungry. Most of all hungry.

Her stomach suddenly growled as she laid in bed and it took energy to slowly sit up and swing herself off over the edge.

"Alright Abby, let's get some food. And, maybe actually try grocery shopping today." She spoke to herself in her lonely apartment, hoisting herself down off the bed and into her wheelchair. "We got a big day tomorrow, can't let Ash or Cygnus down, can we?"

That, and she was in desperate need of some snacks. Prepping for big raids in video games always gave her the munchies.

Glacia the Bergmite (Tank), Sir Hail the Cryogonal (Tank), Roxanne the Onix (Tank).

Laguna was taken aback as the corrupted pokemon all began to attack players. But only certain players. Very interesting.

She took a step back, and then quickly took a quick drink of actual water from the sink to try and clear her head at least a little bit from all the alcohol.

It was at that moment that she decided to actually attempt to text the professor. She didn't need to call them! She could just, send a message, right? That at least she did know how to do.

"hey Professor, Laguna. there's some really spooky stuff happening at the Bronstanton Manor. talking like, whispers on the wind, a trapped voice, corrupted twisting pokemon, and all kinds of secrets. the heads of the house were murdered, and it's realy not looking good. but theres lots of paranormal stuff, i think you might be able to help piece the puzzle together after people arent at risk at dying. okay gotta go, love you. bye"

Laguna stared at the text she already sent, going deep red. She was so used to texting her Mom...

Screw it, she couldn't spend time panicking. There was a murder to solve, some voice to rescue, and people to probably save.

Crumb probably sold the Status Powders to Putters collected from his Butterfree, but the missing Poison Powder absolutely was the cause of death for Ophelia. She was Fairy Type, and Poison is super effective. The Wood Hammer move could have easily slain Reginald, being Ground Type. Someone stole the move from its drawer, and likely killed him in the Training Room. But there had to be a Murder Weapon. The Quest confirmed it. If they were to somehow use Wood Hammer on the prison, maybe that would suffice, but there was only one. And it had to be something symbolic of both murders. Something that could have reasonably been used to poison, and smash.

And the only thing that made sense was the Wooden Spoon in the Lawnmower. Then what was the Prison? Drowning?

The Keg. It all made sense. All of the more paranormal elements started because of the keg, she was sure of it. Not to mention what it had been doing to their heads.

But who was the murderer? There was only one person who seemed to have any grievances with the family. Elmerich's Pokemon had evolved with a Water Stone and was clearly unhappy. But why was it evolved? Was someone trying to frame him for the stolen water stones? Is that why Reginald was presumably killed in the Training Room? Did he go to confront them after his wife's death?

She was just going to have to guess, wasn't she? Miss Putters seemed the most likely culprit. Any ice-type moves could have melted and caused the mildew, her para-lychee ice cream could have made your tongue numb so you didn't notice the poison going down, and it didn't matter that Chadwick was immune, he left right away. And then it was just easy pickings to surprise Reginald with her presence in the Training Room.

But even that wasn't enough, she had to get rid of any evidence. And knowing Crumb would probably start up his lawnmower to mow first thing, he would have destroyed the evidence himself. It seemed entirely logical. The only thing that didn't make sense was... Why? That didn't matter right now, unfortunately. What did matter was taking the wooden spoon to the keg and smashing that thing wide open!

Kicking her feet behind her, she dashed right out of the back door towards the shed as she witnessed the carnage of poison, flames, and corruption taking place. It was absolute chaos, and Tuesday was an absolute #badass because of it.

And it sounded like a hell of a fun time to get to experience.

Her feet hit the ground running, or perhaps more accurately skating along. Snowflakes flew from her feet as she zoomed across the open ground, her pokemon right behind. "Glacia, jump into my arms! I got a plan!" Sure enough, the Bergmite grinned widely, leaping into their arms as they skated towards the Greenhouse. Her eyes narrowed down on Jam, the Groudon and immediately came up with a plan.

"Sir Hail, Haze! Cover our entrance and exit!" The Cryogonal seemed to shudder as if taking a deep breath, before letting out this thick black mist. It spread across the yard, adding to the mess of flames and other traps. Perfect.

Laguna continued her focus on Jam, sliding straight towards the lumbering Groudon. Just before she would slam right into them, she leaped.

"Protect!"

Glacia's forcefield of protection slammed into the Groudon as she landed on top of them, only for her to use him like a trampoline and leap straight off into the fire and flames, and into the shed!

Sliding in and tumbling to the ground, she didn't bother to take note of how many bruises she got from that fall, she quickly got to work. "Spoon!" She shouted suddenly, almost like a madwoman.

"We're getting the spoon to the Keg!" She clarified a few seconds later. "And then we're gonna smash it!" And promptly, went back into madwoman mode. She tried to grab the spoon, hoping that it was still there. And if someone else had grabbed it first? Well, she'd gladly escort them the way there. The Haze from the Cryogonal surely provided a good escape.

Freezer had been the absolute best thing she could have ever unlocked in this game. The sheer freedom of movement alone made her feel so absolutely inspired, she was looking at everything in a new light. The crooked roots in the Misty Timberlands looked like they'd be great fun to slide on! Like, Tarzan. Except Tarzan used bare feet and slid on solid bark moving at super speeds. That dude probably had splinters for days.

Yikes. No, this was much better. Simply gliding across the surface without any friction, like she was ice-skating, skiing or sledding, or any other winter sport! Sledding wasn't really a sport, but uh, Bobsledding was an Olympic sport! Yeah, that would do.

Certainly more of a sport than Curling, anyhow.

Still, she wasn't alone in her endeavor. Her ever-faithful Bergmite Glacia was hopping and gliding ber her side. Wide smiles on both of their faces, simply having fun. Now even the huge hills she normally had to climb down were fun to traverse! As long as she didn't hit a tree.

As long as she could actually see the tree coming through all the mist.

*SMACK*

By the time Laguna finally managed to clear the gross disgusting mud from her eyes, Glacia had already struck! It seemed to... not even move in response. In fact, it seemed to use Defense Curl! It's bug shell just toughening up! No wonder she tripped so hard over it. But it just continued to seem so bored, and the hard shell definitely hurt Glacia on impact.

"Bluh, you're not piercing that armor right away! Let's freeze-dry that bug! With uh... not freeze dry. You don't have that." Glacia looked almost disappointed as Laguna continued to spit out mud. Gross. "Oh, come on. You got Icy Wind! Use that!"

Glacia spun, the winds picking up around them and the mist swirling in the chilly breeze. The frozen air suddenly slammed into the bug pokemon, hoping to disrupt the Venipede and knock it off balance!

Laguna was still trying to recover from her bout of laughter when Yggy Br00ks came over her way. She raised a hand to wave, clambering up from her place on the floor. She was about to show off the golden carrot, to see if it really was as funny to anyone else as it was for her when they suddenly asked about anything weird.

"Weird?" She blinked slowly, looking around. Now that she mentioned it, things were a bit weird. She had been kind of ignoring most of the strangest things, counting it up to just the amount of alcohol she had drunk or the spooky lighting of the manner. "Yeah... Actually, some things are weird... I mean, I thought it might have been a cosmetic at first."

At the topic of cosmetics, she pointed towards her Bergmite who was currently having fun being a hockey-puck gliding around in the kitchen. It's physical form glitching back and forth as a few of its ice-spikes were filled with TV static.

She watched as her conversation partner's pokemon ripped open the fridge, simply growing more and more curious. It sounded almost like there was a mystery, behind the mystery. Just one look over at Kath Ulu 's pokemon revealed something strange was happening indeed.

And there was only one thing to do when encountered with something strange. Stare it straight in the face! "N'ayez pas peur, Yggy Br00ks ! It's all a game! You go uh, go ask Chadwick! I'm gonna make notes for Professor Ash! She loves ghosties, even gave me a hug for talking about spirits and stuff! Ooh, I should call her... I don't remember how to do that. Ask Chadwick how to use the phone please!"

Even as she spoke, Laguna ripped a few napkins from the counter in the fridge and began to approach Kath Ulu . "Heyyyy girly, don't mind me. Your, uh, pokemon friends look a little funny. Can you ask them to sit still so I can draw for jus' a second? Merci." She didn't even really wait for a response, just starting to sketch out the Grookey almost immediately.

Interestingly, her artistic skills didn't seem to fade all that much with her drunken state. She was just quickly attempting to sketch out all the symbols across their fur onto the kitchen napkin. "There's some, uh, spooky ghosty symbol stuff going on. And I gotta write it all down so the Professor gives me another hug. Okay, that's just a bonus from solving the mystery. But I do like hugs."