Elisabeth Gaultier's Story

While the brilliant shining sun illuminated the shores of Castelia City, the shrieks and squawks of Wingulls and Pellippers could be heard faintly over the hustle and bustle of the disembarking ship. Though as the various passengers flooded out onto the boardwalk adjacent to their ship, the crowds seemed to divert around a single bench. Up above the heads of the passersby stood one of the two occupants of the bench, a stately Honchkrow that offered much of its gaze to the immediate surroundings of the woman sitting on the bench alongside it. As more and more people entered the pair's immediate vicinity, the pokemon's movements became more brisk, eyeing each and every person that crossed its line of sight. The unease of the flying type didn't go unnoticed, as many of the Wingulls and other native fowl began to drift farther from the pier.

The woman, clad in almost entirely white save for black gloves, shoes and sunglasses, was undeniably the Honchkrow's trainer. Those well versed in Unova's trainer scene might recognize her as Elisabeth Gaultier, due to her proven prowess as a primarily Ghost-type trainer and her transparency in ambition to become one of this region's Elite Four. Most notably, she followed this path whilst being completely blind, relying both on other senses and the pokemon she trains with to compensate for this lack of vision. Though for those that were not involved in either the aforementioned scene nor the Pokemon Leagues, she was a stranger at best. The level of fame to become universally recognized was nowhere near Gaultier's grasp, but it wasn't impossible at the rate she was moving.

Crowds of people eventually jammed and jostled their way past the gangplanks of their ships, and very few lingered, aside from one person who had dropped all sorts of papers and materials. The Honchkrow's head swiveled towards this person, watching them with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion. Gaultier remained still, facing straight ahead.

Willow swore under her breath as she got the last of her things scooped back up. She sighed deeply, now one of the only people left on the dock she felt so. Out of place, and like she was standing out more than otherwise possible. She scanned the area quickly, thankful for the cool sea breeze staving off the sun. The city looked so intimidating from here, all shiny and tall with swarms of people on every visible street. She felt like such an outcast, right until she noticed a Honchkrow staring at her.

That was different. Not only was it a species not predominate or considered native to Unova, it was very attentive. And attached to someone with a very...Questionable..Fashion sense. Not that Willow's was the best herself, but still. All white? Who does that? Either way the lady in white stood out even more than the awkward Professor. As mean as she felt it was, Willow already felt a little less like a sore thumb. Man, she was becoming pretty internally catty.

She slung her bag over her shoulder and fished a Pokeball out of it. The thing was an old model ball, and it had plenty of scratches here and there but she still polished it every day so it shined like new. Just seeing another trainer with a Pokemon often considered less than friendly out made her feel comfortable enough to bring King out.

The large Arbok hissed and stretched, happy to be in the outdoors. It's tongue flicked through the air, giving it a sense of it's surroundings and causing it to immediately lock eyes with the Honchkrow. King was nowhere near aggressive, but he was quite protective of his trainer. He slithered over to her side and nudged her shoulder a bit then gestured over to the Honchkrow in case Willow had missed it.

She simply patted his scaly head and smiled. "Be nice you big marshmallow. It's probably just interested because I look straight outta Sinoh." King merely shook his head, relaxing as he did so. Whereas Willow was a bit skittish, King was an outgoing, dominant personality, quick to make friends and even quicker to fit for them. They matched wonderfully that way, and the antsy woman smiled all the way to the bench.

She glanced up at the seemingly wary Honchkrow as she approached the bench and cleared her throat. It sounded more pathetic than commanding and King gave out a soft hissing-chuckle. Willow paid little attention to the woman herself, rude she knew but the Honchkrow was interesting. She spoke while eyeing the Pokemon. "E..Excuse me, Ma'm. Would you happen to know where the...The...Oh, damnit it all, what was the name of that blasted hotel.."

Instead of turning towards the new trainer, Elisabeth remained facing forward while being spoken to, whilst the sinister companion of hers was the one paying visual attention. Eventually Gaultier did respond, and whilst doing so the Honchkrow focused its gaze on the Arbok accompanying Willow.

"There are a lot of hotels here, after all this is quite the tourist trap," the trainer reached up and scratched her chin, replacing the hand back in her lap once finished. "Do you not have the hotel name or address written down?"

Willow cocked her head and studied the woman as she spoke. Sure, Willow herself had been ignoring the lady in favour of her Honchkrow, but this was different. The lady in white had a very..Practiced? Form of not paying attention. That's when she noticed the sunglasses and put two and two together. Well, at least this woman couldn't see horribly awkward she was at the moment. That was a plus.

She mentally reprimanded herself for that thought.

"I..I did, I think. But uh. Some guy kinda knocked me over, lost the scrap of paper it was on..I think it..I think it started with an S. Sea-something, maybe?" She felt like such a loser, stumbling through her sentence like that. Without even thinking she put her hand on King's head, which was good because it made stop glaring at the Honchkrow and glance at this trainer. "I usually only travel for work. I'm always wanted to see Unova though, and without a job, or employer or..Anything. I'm a bit nervous, so it's kind of..Becoming a disaster."

King's tail nudged her, causing her to nearly stumble forward onto the bench. She glared at her oldest friend a moment but the Arbok just flicked it's tongue at her. Someone she picked up on the hint, too.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I've been so rude. My name is Willow Ramsey. It's a pleasure to meet you." She extended her hand to the lady in white, unsure of what to do with a blind person. That's a sheltered life for you.

"Nothing's ringing any bells. Must be one I haven't seen before," she smirked at her own joke. The mention of lacking a job made her turn towards Willow, though not quite exactly facing her. "You dropped all sorts of papers. Are you studying to become a professor?" Gaining the favor of a new professor was an attractive proposition, just one more person that could serve as a recommendation for the League. She hated to play politics with someone who seemed so unaware, but her ambition convinced her otherwise.

The Honchkrow peered down towards Willow's extended hand, then glanced back to Gaultier, who seemed to make some semblance of 'eye contact' with the pokemon. Then the blind trainer extended her own hand, catching and shaking Willow's in one motion with no discernible error or feeling around. "Elisabeth Gaultier. Nice to meet you too."

Willow was quite surprised at the firmness and ease of the obviously blind woman's handshake. Not to mention her joke at her own expense. This lady was something, though the Honchkrow was much more interesting. Ghost and Psychic types were pretty prone to ESP-like abilities, but Dark? One of the three types Willow didn't know to well. This was bound to be interesting assuming the lady let her hover around for awhile.

King merely looked deadpan at the Honchkrow, still unsure whether it was friend or foe. He did however nudge his trainer again, breaking her from her rampant theories and bringing her back to the conversation.

"Oh, no!" She giggled and released Elisabeth's hand. "I actually am a Professor, actually. Have been for a few years now. Although most of my work has been academic so far so outside of a few select science circles I pretty much don't exist." That was the truth, really. Even the UPL barely recognized her when it came to things like Gyms or the various Elite's. In fact she had probably offended them greatly when she refused to set up a lab and hand our starters like most professors ended up doing.

"Hoping to change that, however. How about you? I'd guess a rather serious trainer for that Honchkrow of yours."

Emiko Touko landed, wheezing from the rush. "All right, Unfezant, return. Now to give Burgh his marching orders. Knowing him, he'd likely favor Sticky Webs so our guys can safely unload on them from a distance."

Where else would Touko be? Still directing traffic and giving orders, this time barking into her Xtransceiver at an old friend.

"I don't care if you're having the shits right now, get your ass to Virbank and help Roxie, I am not having some of my best backup bottled up!" She was clearly channeling her inner boss bitch as she shouted at the troops to start moving up to gain ground and engage the NRE forces, who had brought knives to a gun fight...and the UPL had orders to shoot to kill, forcing the enemy Pokémon to choose between protecting their Trainers and being effective combat units.

"Burgh, get your big boy boots on, let's show them they picked the wrong side in this fight!" After giving everyone their marching orders, she moved to hold the Skyarrow Bridge, the gateway to the eastern part of Unova. The Striaton leaders were strong, but not as strong as the Shadow Triad...and she couldn't bear the thought of the enemy getting all the way to her home town.

Touko biked quickly across the Skyarrow Bridge, retreating to Pinwheel Forest to establish a command post deep in the woods. The stage was set, now everyone just had to play their part and hope she started her first war on the right foot.

Emiko Touko couldn't believe it. Her side was...winning? "I guess that's what happens when you put all your eggs in one basket! Melaine may be amazingly strong, but everyone else is a PUSH OVER! Fire teams, move up, they're just about to break!" Then something came on the monitor in one of the Nacrene warehouses where she had set up her command post, getting a good view of the action as well as directing logistical traffic and protecting the east end of the Skyarrow Bridge from a surprise attack. "Wait, no, not the fact that they're flying in using super strong birds, I can get Skyla to worry about that. I'm talking about the dude by the ice cream shop, he's way too calm about this. Get a team over there, assume hostile. I want him alive."

Stay calm, Touko. It's just like a normal battle. You've got this, she repeated to herself, one hand on her chest as she rode the edge between exhilaration and over-stimulation.

Emiko Touko was positively giddy, watching the glorious sight of victory unfold! "Burgh. They're retreating. Mop up any stragglers, take captives if you can. James, grab Allen, you two are with me. I'm going in after them. We have a chance to end this war right here before more people get killed."

Wren's ears perked up at the comment, causing him to turn around from the path he was walking. What was this war the stranger was talking about?

Ahem, excuse me. What did you just say?

he inquired, lifting his hand to his chin in puzzled repose.

Touko skidded to a stop on the bridge as some random citizen asked her about some sort of war going on.

"Wherever you've been, you'd better get back there. Some Diancie went all power trippy and established her own freaking Diamond Domain right over in the harbor there, and recently declared war on us. If you're a strong Trainer that can take out the Shadow Obelisks that have popped up and are juicing her up to where not even I'm a match for her, that's great, but for now I have holdouts to mop up and capture. I'm trying to rendezvous with a couple of my friends so we can strike at the enemy territory, so with all respect..."

And then she just gave Wren a hip check out of her way before continuing to the Castelia pier to meet up with James and Allen.

"Ah, James, it's been a while. Good to see you've been well. Who's your friend and why does he look like he wants to battle me? We do not have time for this, we can't just let the NRE retreat to lick their wounds and prepare for the next attack. I managed to catch them by surprise this time by having the troops use guns in addition to their Pokémon, but they won't fall for that again."

Wren Harrington stood in surprise, stunned by the sudden interposition. Not quite an experienced trainer just yet, he stepped back a bit as the commotion unfolded.

Yes! Well, thank you ma'am!

he stammered, unsure of which direction to go. Looking eastward, he turned on his heel and shouted over his shoulder,

Thanks for the tip! I'll be back soon!

came his echoing response before he disappeared off into the wilderness.