[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

The card grows warm, and your bodies with it. Marco looks a little nervous when stepping through the card, but he's dared far crazier things.

You step through the Morgusi portal into Cress City. You wave the dust out of your eyes; it's everywhere. Some of it is sharp enough to mildly cut you when the wind picks up.

There are no people around, even for the sparsely populated city. You can hear a clamor coming from the Gym, the PokeCenter, and the Cathedral. A big plume of smoke rises into the air far to the southwest, easily visible from here.

Nathan tries his absolute hardest to keep that dust out of his eyes, but to no avail.  There's just way, way too much of it. And to think that all of this was probably kicked up by the comet's impact...  "...dang it, I'm going to have to wash those thoroughly later..." Nathan mumbles.  (OOC: for those confused, Nathan wears contacts.  He doesn't really talk about it, though, and very few people outside of his immediate family know IC as a result)

Well, nothing he can do about that right now.  Besides, there are bigger problems right now.

"We need to act fast.  If that plume of smoke is any indication, Deoxys is already wreaking havoc, and the League is having trouble keeping up with it.  I wouldn't be surprised if there are clones spreading out and doing most of the dirty work...they might not be as strong as the original, but that doesn't mean they aren't dangerous..."

No need to exchange any words when Spira returns Ditto to Nathan.  The young trainer simply nods in response.

(BTW, speaking of returning pokemon, how much exp does Solomon currently have, @Lord Windos?)

Windos raises a good point.  It's probably rather unlikely that any shops are open in Cress City right now, given that the place is rather devoid of people.  If the citizens aren't in hiding, they were probably evacuated.

"...the Pokemon Center, the Cathedral, and the Gym...those are some rather big, standout buildings that are frequented by a lot of people...I wouldn't be surprised if Deoxys hit them first because of a large concentration of people there...and there's obviously still trouble in those places, too...either Deoxys or its clones are still hanging around, or this is just the aftermath of an initial strike.  Everyone, be careful.  We're essentially in enemy territory now.  If Deoxys has come this far already, then we need to expect opposition on the way to the center of this whole mess.  And if that's the case, that would mean Teleporting closer to the center is out of the question due to the extreme danger."  (I recently picked up the Phoenix Wright Trilogy on Switch.  Got my thinking cap on right now, lol)

Nathan turns to face the direction the Gym is in.  "...if anyone can get us a proper update on what exactly is going on with Deoxys, it's the local Gym Leader.  Maybe she's at the Gym."