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A phenomenon stood in the middle of the unsettled stadium, not silent, but murmuring gravely over the recent dispatch of the empire's famed gladiators. Their black-armored bodies littered the shredded grass alongside the carcasses of the most horrifying examples of natural perversion within the current limits of genetic engineering. The victor wore a loose tunic of leathers, aged to gray smoke, in the fashion of nomadic gypsy wilderness-dwellers long-forgotten to this civilization.
Perhaps it only appeared faded while the champion danced confidently in a disorienting blur, a flurry that left the compound eye with motion sickness. Disturbingly, this fatal blur that seemed to stir wind and heat, this visible speed did not die when the champion came to a stop; his standing image was indecisive, insecure and erratic from every angle upon his physical field-space, as though his holographic projection had completely lost anchor--both in space-time and for the cameras that served the safely-distant patrons. Witnesses of scientific background recognized this phenomenon for what it was: telekinetic matterstring transference. In other words, a humanoid that could end and renew his own existence at will, at least within his own field-space. He could possibly recognize and sustain stable wormholes, or even create them.
"Solem'uri jal-Akezo" closed his stance, and suffered the insult to his pride, to hear the dreary multitudes sputter out their failure to pronounce his name, though he couldn't justly blame them. Their tongues had evolved for a diet primarily of insects and birds. But it was still unpleasant to hear their gutter squeals.
He closed his stance, though he did not disarm either of his two strange swords. They dropped low and clinked against his shoe-buckles; three-quarters of an arm's length, some alien anthropology students in the crowd recognized them as shadowbanes, ancient weapons of uncertain origin, believed for many hundreds of years to be totally mythological. The blades, though they appeared harmlessly blunt, were in fact constructed of supercooled liquid, a mimetic carbon glass that allowed these simple sticks to cut from any angle, and perform a few other useful tricks. The phase voltage of Solem'uri's shadowbanes was clearly erratic, the liquid swords seemingly melting in midair and struggling to correct their posture, perhaps due to a poor conductor in the handle battery.
He waited a while longer for the crowds to grow quiet again. "I once escaped my certain fate," he said, but the words seemed forced, like a statement made only under the most banal obligation. He continued, "I paid a price as well, though not as much as everyone that befell that fate, but in some ways I was certain to escape this certain fate... does that make sense? It should, even though it's a paradox. The nature of the universe now is modnar. The modnar needs an exception to every rule... I suppose this is impossible to understand," he finished in a slight tone of self-disgust. To demonstrate his nature once more, jal-Akezo's face became the distorted blur of unblinking eyes, whorled with red hair and beard, like a tapestry woven of living thread that writhed and came undone, colored snakes reorganizing the colony into multiple alternatives simultaneously and vibrating in time with the peaceful pulse of his heart.
He hesitated, awaiting a moment of low murmur before the unrest at his presence turned again toward outrage. "Oh well, it's not my job to explain everything. All you need to know is that everything you know now--and since I haven't met any one of you that are like me, everything that you know exists, including yourselves--is about to end. There is no escape from the plunge into the annihilating limbous. If I could have helped you, I would have long ago... well, let me rephrase this: I would have helped you a long time if there had ever been any chance for you to impress me enough, or to convince me to help you...! So if there are any more of you that would call me a heretic, worthy of execution, or a heartless scumbag seduced by his own power, then step forward! For I am the exception that will the prove the rule."
From every angle around the muddy stadium, the roar of the crowd was like the sound of thunder.
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Bad Dragonite
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Dhampir
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OoC: Just setting up a possible secondary character, if the opportunity arises for one.
SERVER. This was a silent imperative, a begging question known only to one, and in fact written in an algebraic language that only it could understand. Letters were digits whose numerical bases are derived from randomized equations to preserve total system security. Parallel processors continually scanned and hacked all digital communications observable to current sensory hardware, broadcasting a plea for assistance encoded in gibberish. Only when similar gibberish is detected begins the long process, in terms of digital cycles, for each system to trade translation keys, also idiosyncratically encoded, and to trade further amendments to the code translation as authenticity reaches even higher levels of verification.
The Mobile Robotic Detective-Provocateur, special-operations custom enforcement/apprehension model no. K628, was for the first time in its existence operating alone in a network vacuum. The recognition of this fact, as happens whenever a special-operations droid discovers it is experiencing a new environment condition, engaged K628's autodefenses. This response was hard-coded, just like its procedure of operating according to randomized coding algorithms, in the molecular structure of its network of crystalline hard drive. The ping of its onboard sonar system accelerated by several orders of magnitude, confirming millions of times per second that indeed this creature pit was yet empty. The flow of deadly neurotoxins began toward the porous nanotubes that covered the surface of the metal urumi whips that now unraveled from about its wrists.
SERVER. Target located. Requesting confirmation before beginning procedural apprehension. *** Warning: This directive is hard-coded and will proceed regardless of final Server confirmation at the beginning of cycle...
SERVER. This was a silent imperative, a begging question known only to one, and in fact written in an algebraic language that only it could understand. Letters were digits whose numerical bases are derived from randomized equations to preserve total system security. Parallel processors continually scanned and hacked all digital communications observable to current sensory hardware, broadcasting a plea for assistance encoded in gibberish. Only when similar gibberish is detected begins the long process, in terms of digital cycles, for each system to trade translation keys, also idiosyncratically encoded, and to trade further amendments to the code translation as authenticity reaches even higher levels of verification.
The Mobile Robotic Detective-Provocateur, special-operations custom enforcement/apprehension model no. K628, was for the first time in its existence operating alone in a network vacuum. The recognition of this fact, as happens whenever a special-operations droid discovers it is experiencing a new environment condition, engaged K628's autodefenses. This response was hard-coded, just like its procedure of operating according to randomized coding algorithms, in the molecular structure of its network of crystalline hard drive. The ping of its onboard sonar system accelerated by several orders of magnitude, confirming millions of times per second that indeed this creature pit was yet empty. The flow of deadly neurotoxins began toward the porous nanotubes that covered the surface of the metal urumi whips that now unraveled from about its wrists.
SERVER. Target located. Requesting confirmation before beginning procedural apprehension. *** Warning: This directive is hard-coded and will proceed regardless of final Server confirmation at the beginning of cycle...
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I REALLY HATE POKEMON!
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A child in a T-Shirt and shorts, donning a baseball cap, wielding a bat, appeared before his foe. As odd as it would seem, the bat was special. The Gutsy Bat.
And the boy's name was Ness.
A sickening grief overcame any spectators, which came hand-in-hand with the realization that this child would be killed. He must surely be brave, but scared...
But upon closer inspection, one would notice a smile...one kept with him through times when others weaker than himself would likely take their own lives.
And the boy's name was Ness.
A sickening grief overcame any spectators, which came hand-in-hand with the realization that this child would be killed. He must surely be brave, but scared...
But upon closer inspection, one would notice a smile...one kept with him through times when others weaker than himself would likely take their own lives.
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Dhampir
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Ness and Solem'uri stood before each other. The man had the impression that the boy fixed the same slight smirk for which he'd been chastised in his youth. It implied he never took anything seriously, they said. If only he had known then that his eternal adulthood would be so humorless.
Then again, he may only be self-identifying with the lad, he recognized. The boy earned immense respect when he stepped forward, only visibly armed with a baseball bat. The blank smirk fix betrayed, to jal-Akezo, no understanding of the magnitude of this courage--nor of its grave futility. How did a child, at least near-human, come to the solar hive of these mindless exoskeletons, Solem'uri had to wonder, and the audience seemed to echo that in titters. Ness' humanity may be questionable, however: while the minds of these insectoids were in most cases nothing more than a porous null, a processor for olfactory sensations and neurologically-hardwired obedience, Ness' young mind was smooth, but--at least while at rest--utterly locked.
It was a miracle, attributable only to his psychic potency, that he had not yet been eaten alive. But unless Ness had learned to jump between worlds, he was doomed to a fate the same as they. It was nothing but a given, and Solem'uri didn't think Ness possessed the mental talent to conduct a matterstring. There was no doubt in his mind and not a whisper of gut-felt conflict; it was just as well that this boy's blood be on his hands for there was no difference in the end. Better for the boy in fact, considering the alternative fate-
There was a tangible ripple in the crowd, a pneumatic choir of overgrown gossamer, when Solem'uri jal-Akezo dismissed his shadowbanes sinking the liquid blades into their klein-bottled saber handles and clipped the bottles to his belt. From under each shoulder inside his leathered robe he drew magnetic-rail pistols and fired at the boy's head six shots total. He thought nothing of violence against the child, thought of nothing at all; he was only, and he only felt, his pistols' familiar kick.
OoC: Sorry for the lack of substantive aggression, I must admit I never played Earthbound and so I don't know much about Ness, and sorry as well that I didn't mention this fellow had pistols. I would say, treat him basically like a gunslinger for now, with telekinesis, and whatever you can make of his superpowers
Then again, he may only be self-identifying with the lad, he recognized. The boy earned immense respect when he stepped forward, only visibly armed with a baseball bat. The blank smirk fix betrayed, to jal-Akezo, no understanding of the magnitude of this courage--nor of its grave futility. How did a child, at least near-human, come to the solar hive of these mindless exoskeletons, Solem'uri had to wonder, and the audience seemed to echo that in titters. Ness' humanity may be questionable, however: while the minds of these insectoids were in most cases nothing more than a porous null, a processor for olfactory sensations and neurologically-hardwired obedience, Ness' young mind was smooth, but--at least while at rest--utterly locked.
It was a miracle, attributable only to his psychic potency, that he had not yet been eaten alive. But unless Ness had learned to jump between worlds, he was doomed to a fate the same as they. It was nothing but a given, and Solem'uri didn't think Ness possessed the mental talent to conduct a matterstring. There was no doubt in his mind and not a whisper of gut-felt conflict; it was just as well that this boy's blood be on his hands for there was no difference in the end. Better for the boy in fact, considering the alternative fate-
There was a tangible ripple in the crowd, a pneumatic choir of overgrown gossamer, when Solem'uri jal-Akezo dismissed his shadowbanes sinking the liquid blades into their klein-bottled saber handles and clipped the bottles to his belt. From under each shoulder inside his leathered robe he drew magnetic-rail pistols and fired at the boy's head six shots total. He thought nothing of violence against the child, thought of nothing at all; he was only, and he only felt, his pistols' familiar kick.
OoC: Sorry for the lack of substantive aggression, I must admit I never played Earthbound and so I don't know much about Ness, and sorry as well that I didn't mention this fellow had pistols. I would say, treat him basically like a gunslinger for now, with telekinesis, and whatever you can make of his superpowers
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I REALLY HATE POKEMON!
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OoC: And you'll have to forgive my short replies. Also, don't worry about not mentioning the guns, Ness has a number of items I intend on springing mid-fight that will even the playing field.
And I'll likely reply to this tonight or tomorrow. Or in ten minutes, depending on how hard my Tylenol PM hits me. =D
And I'll likely reply to this tonight or tomorrow. Or in ten minutes, depending on how hard my Tylenol PM hits me. =D
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Dhampir
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OoC: Just working in the background with that little droid intrigue, pay no attention.
Warlock-General Adoniel relaxed. The virtual-space wormhole appeared stable. While K628 believed it was entirely alone, Adoniel was watching from an alternate reality with a secret window into K628's entire system. This was a significant technological breakthrough in the General's work toward addressing matterstring teleporters and the threat they pose. K628's target in particular, the infamous heretic dimsider known as Solem'uri, is rumored to be an advanced magematician with complete knowledge of the alrithmetical theory behind matterstring transference.
The Warlock's own magematicians had long ago perfected trans-necromancy, resulting in Adoniel's altered form. Relaxation flooded his veins: this is the literal sense: this grand technological achievement filled him with no pleasure, for his essence no longer possessed the capacity for passion or rapture, and all emotion and sensation for him was the product of a needle and a drug. His implanted neurological processors ceased calculations regarding the fate of K628 and began to systemic shutdown of all but basic and vital functions. Purpose had been achieved, and his body as well was being put to sleep-mode. Adoniel's neurological processors were linked to his powered armor, which responded to the achievement of purpose with the sudden (and from then on periodic) delivery of short-action tranquilizers.
Adoniel's consciousness, in the context of all that remained of his humanity, slumped towards death. But whatever he had become remained active, and aware of his will and purpose: Solem'uri will be surely weakened in his horrific duel with the child, and if the boy shows the mettle to slay the heretic, then K628 is there to step in and preserve the honor of the Warlock-General unto its own destruction. At which point, if the magematicians' ritual calculations are correct, and if his smithigeers were successful in their design of K628's custom parts, then Adoniel's consciousness would return in absolute to his biological constitution. Until then, he would simply sleep, and watch the fate of his sworn enemy through the eyes of a droid, the eyes of a droid in an alternate reality; as though in a dream.
Warlock-General Adoniel relaxed. The virtual-space wormhole appeared stable. While K628 believed it was entirely alone, Adoniel was watching from an alternate reality with a secret window into K628's entire system. This was a significant technological breakthrough in the General's work toward addressing matterstring teleporters and the threat they pose. K628's target in particular, the infamous heretic dimsider known as Solem'uri, is rumored to be an advanced magematician with complete knowledge of the alrithmetical theory behind matterstring transference.
The Warlock's own magematicians had long ago perfected trans-necromancy, resulting in Adoniel's altered form. Relaxation flooded his veins: this is the literal sense: this grand technological achievement filled him with no pleasure, for his essence no longer possessed the capacity for passion or rapture, and all emotion and sensation for him was the product of a needle and a drug. His implanted neurological processors ceased calculations regarding the fate of K628 and began to systemic shutdown of all but basic and vital functions. Purpose had been achieved, and his body as well was being put to sleep-mode. Adoniel's neurological processors were linked to his powered armor, which responded to the achievement of purpose with the sudden (and from then on periodic) delivery of short-action tranquilizers.
Adoniel's consciousness, in the context of all that remained of his humanity, slumped towards death. But whatever he had become remained active, and aware of his will and purpose: Solem'uri will be surely weakened in his horrific duel with the child, and if the boy shows the mettle to slay the heretic, then K628 is there to step in and preserve the honor of the Warlock-General unto its own destruction. At which point, if the magematicians' ritual calculations are correct, and if his smithigeers were successful in their design of K628's custom parts, then Adoniel's consciousness would return in absolute to his biological constitution. Until then, he would simply sleep, and watch the fate of his sworn enemy through the eyes of a droid, the eyes of a droid in an alternate reality; as though in a dream.
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I REALLY HATE POKEMON!
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Ness became enveloped in a red-tinted translucent spherical shield which reflected the projectiles back. They were easily side-stepped by Solem'uri, but as he thought critically about how basic a defense the maneuver was, his face looked as if he had become concerned.
The child was already at his side and had delivered a smashing blow to the enemies ribs. It resulted in a crunching sound that was a bit unsettling.
Ness jumped backward and into the air. He then fired from his hands, his PK Fire at his foe
The child was already at his side and had delivered a smashing blow to the enemies ribs. It resulted in a crunching sound that was a bit unsettling.
Ness jumped backward and into the air. He then fired from his hands, his PK Fire at his foe
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Dhampir
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Solem'uri took a knee, riding the momentum of Ness' smash and holstering his pistols. His feet swiveling in their stance left mud ruts in the turf. Ness' telekinetic skill was obvious, employed to enhance his average human abilities as he flipped a great height into the air and launched a firebolt at his opponent. Coming to his senses, Solem'uri's image blurred and dissolved into fractals at in the path of the flame while jal-Akezo reappeared in a defensive a few feet away.
He knew now that his opponent, despite being a good-hearted mentalist, could not or did not know to restrict the effect upon his immediate fieldspace that Solem'uri could exert through will.
Solem'uri launched into the air, the universe expanding behind him in his invisible furnace of post-plasma. His physical outline was nothing more than a montage of shifting holograms that quickly withered into sacrificial smoke as he flew like a missile at the airborne boy. Ness summoned another firebolt while Solem'uri closed the distance, but when it entered his fieldspace it collided with a solid psychedelix of unknown colors in hypnotic rotation, deflecting the firework explosion into a harmless rain that died in embers. The kaleidoscopic near-matter of post-plasma gathered around jal-Akezo's hand like strings of smoke around a water skin, trading energy for mass density though paradoxically with no apparent loss of speed and yet immune to Ness' telekinetic barrier. Solem'uri was just above Ness when he delivered his punch, closing his fist only the moment before colliding with Ness' skull from the temple to the upper jaw.
As he fell to the field like a meteorite Ness' stunned vision was fixed on Solem'uri jal-Akezo's slow, graceful descent, suspended for what seemed like it would be forever overhead.
OoC: Didn't really know how to work with Ness in the power system I have, so I tried to play it off like he might be able to learn how to psychically inhibit his opponent's powers to some degree
He knew now that his opponent, despite being a good-hearted mentalist, could not or did not know to restrict the effect upon his immediate fieldspace that Solem'uri could exert through will.
Solem'uri launched into the air, the universe expanding behind him in his invisible furnace of post-plasma. His physical outline was nothing more than a montage of shifting holograms that quickly withered into sacrificial smoke as he flew like a missile at the airborne boy. Ness summoned another firebolt while Solem'uri closed the distance, but when it entered his fieldspace it collided with a solid psychedelix of unknown colors in hypnotic rotation, deflecting the firework explosion into a harmless rain that died in embers. The kaleidoscopic near-matter of post-plasma gathered around jal-Akezo's hand like strings of smoke around a water skin, trading energy for mass density though paradoxically with no apparent loss of speed and yet immune to Ness' telekinetic barrier. Solem'uri was just above Ness when he delivered his punch, closing his fist only the moment before colliding with Ness' skull from the temple to the upper jaw.
As he fell to the field like a meteorite Ness' stunned vision was fixed on Solem'uri jal-Akezo's slow, graceful descent, suspended for what seemed like it would be forever overhead.
OoC: Didn't really know how to work with Ness in the power system I have, so I tried to play it off like he might be able to learn how to psychically inhibit his opponent's powers to some degree
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I REALLY HATE POKEMON!
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OoC: Ness' powers aren't clearly defined in-game, but are often hinted at, so you can be a little creative.
Ness' jaw felt as if it were unhinged, but he needed immediate retaliation. He fired his PK Thunder behind himself and into his backside. The power ran through his body and rocketed Ness' into Solem'uri.
To Ness' surprise, he was caught by Solem'uri. Bare handed. He embraced Ness in a ferocious bearhug that paralyzed Ness for a moment. Ness gathered himself and kneed Solem'uri in the gut five times in rapid succession, resulting in Ness' release, putting Solem'uri on the defensive.
Ness' jaw felt as if it were unhinged, but he needed immediate retaliation. He fired his PK Thunder behind himself and into his backside. The power ran through his body and rocketed Ness' into Solem'uri.
To Ness' surprise, he was caught by Solem'uri. Bare handed. He embraced Ness in a ferocious bearhug that paralyzed Ness for a moment. Ness gathered himself and kneed Solem'uri in the gut five times in rapid succession, resulting in Ness' release, putting Solem'uri on the defensive.
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Dhampir
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Ness may have put Solem'uri on the defensive, but the dimsider was well-trained in taking control of the rhythm of battle. He had learned it with this principle: a river that meets a boulder, no matter the size, can strike with all possible force and yet in the same motion surround and flow beyond. He would snatch advantage right out of the boy's mouth.
Post-plasma propelled him into a swinging momentum, attempting to take his opponent's outer gate. Ness tried to dodge without breaking his concentration, but jal-Akezo's strike still slashed his face. His bladed dueling gauntlets caused a small, sudden jet of blood splashing on his bracers' exaggerated serrations--the wound was deep--Ness paid a price for dodging the strike.
However, Solem'uri miscalculated the timing of his ascension. Ness had sacrificed his moment of advantage in the interesting of preparation, and though the moment of pain when his young skin stretched open along the gash, that moment had sliced into his focus. However, his discipline won over as their shared field-space swelled with static electricity.
An orb of thunder emanated from the center of Ness' mind, crackling and generating bolts after collision with random ions in the air. Having deactivated his shadowbanes, Solem'uri possessed no defense against such a quantity of current that charged his immediate field-space. There was no noise but the burning of his flesh as the stormy globe discharged itself throughout the fluids of the dimsider's body. He was helpless to control the violent muscle contractions that brought him to his knees.
OoC: My next post will probably include something with that droid and warlock intrigue. I'd really like it if someone noticed that this is now MULTIplayer.
Post-plasma propelled him into a swinging momentum, attempting to take his opponent's outer gate. Ness tried to dodge without breaking his concentration, but jal-Akezo's strike still slashed his face. His bladed dueling gauntlets caused a small, sudden jet of blood splashing on his bracers' exaggerated serrations--the wound was deep--Ness paid a price for dodging the strike.
However, Solem'uri miscalculated the timing of his ascension. Ness had sacrificed his moment of advantage in the interesting of preparation, and though the moment of pain when his young skin stretched open along the gash, that moment had sliced into his focus. However, his discipline won over as their shared field-space swelled with static electricity.
An orb of thunder emanated from the center of Ness' mind, crackling and generating bolts after collision with random ions in the air. Having deactivated his shadowbanes, Solem'uri possessed no defense against such a quantity of current that charged his immediate field-space. There was no noise but the burning of his flesh as the stormy globe discharged itself throughout the fluids of the dimsider's body. He was helpless to control the violent muscle contractions that brought him to his knees.
OoC: My next post will probably include something with that droid and warlock intrigue. I'd really like it if someone noticed that this is now MULTIplayer.
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I REALLY HATE POKEMON!
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Ness' face was a bloody, bruised, and broken sight. The damage was great, yet not serious enough to tend to at a moment where a foe was vulnerable.
Ness shot a green psychic energy that creeped at Solem'uri. The PK Flash exploded in front of him but Solem'uri but he performed a backflip, avoiding the blast.
From his backpack, Ness retrieved his Pair of Dirty Socks and chucked them into the land Solem'uri's face. He peeled the filth off only to view a bat smash to the face.
OoC: I'll explain the socks, smash and bat for you.
Pair of Dirty Socks: It temporarily prevents battle, making the foe nauseous.
Smash: Same as a critical hit, it is based on Ness' Guts
Gutsy Bat: Arguably his best bat, since it greatly increases his guts and attack.
I'll try to minimize or at least explain hardcore game elements. =)
Ness shot a green psychic energy that creeped at Solem'uri. The PK Flash exploded in front of him but Solem'uri but he performed a backflip, avoiding the blast.
From his backpack, Ness retrieved his Pair of Dirty Socks and chucked them into the land Solem'uri's face. He peeled the filth off only to view a bat smash to the face.
OoC: I'll explain the socks, smash and bat for you.
Pair of Dirty Socks: It temporarily prevents battle, making the foe nauseous.
Smash: Same as a critical hit, it is based on Ness' Guts
Gutsy Bat: Arguably his best bat, since it greatly increases his guts and attack.
I'll try to minimize or at least explain hardcore game elements. =)
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I REALLY HATE POKEMON!
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