Story So Far Volume 2 Chapter 8

==Pokemon Universe==
===Arrival===
Upon arriving to the Pokemon Universe, the gang arrived in the starting village of Pokemon with a few weeks to prepare for the annual Pokemon fair and tournament.  First things first, Gongshow Gaiden needed Pokemon of their own.  It's suspicious in the Pokemon universe to do anything for yourself.  So off to see Dr Oak they went, and they got the following starter Pokemon:
Luke got Squirtle, Mark got Abra, Steve started with Charmander, and Karissa started with Bulbasaur.  Back outside, the gang was about to skip along the road to find more and better Pokemon to fight in the tournament.  Steve wanted to find out if the technology behind the Pokemon Center healing could be transferred to humans so he could get his skeleton replaced with adamantium.
===The Encounter===
However, Team Plasma had something else in mind for the Pokemon that the group had just gotten.  They wanted to free the Pokemon from their lives of slavery and battling in gladiatorial tournaments for the entertainment of millions.  This reasonable philosophy could only be responded to in one way - VIOLENCE!
The gang's Pokemon fought Team Plasma's Pokemon valiantly, but Steve and Luke didn't agree with the idea that Pokemon should do all the work.  Luke's Vertical Water Slicer attack was super effective against the Growlithe that Team Plasma (Luke - really, I was just showing them the hypocrisy of using enslaved Pokemon to fight against the concept of enslaving Pokemon).
After some debate, Karissa convinced Steve to heal the Growlithe, since apparently, a human attack isn't as restrained on Pokemon as Pokemon attacks are.  Team Plasma ran off, and Gongshow Gaiden left the village.
===Preparation===
Over the next two or three weeks, the group trained separately, getting new Pokemon, and evolving them to win the tournament.
Luke got Jynx, Gastly, Kakuna, and Aerodactyl, along with Squirtle.  Steve got Victreebell, Raticate, and evolved Charmander into Charizard. Mark got Machamp, Scyther, Abra, and Onyx. Karissa, knowing the most about Pokemon in the group, got her hands on Ninetails, Jolteon, and Zapdos in addition to Bulbasaur.
Finally, the group got back together in Utvara and was ready for the tournament.
==The Tournament==
===Round One===
Then the tournament began.  The first round was like this:
Luke (W) vs Gary Oak
Temari (W) vs Wedge
Lance (W) vs Blaine
Mark (W) vs Kain
Karissa (W) vs James (James!? Whaaaaat?) - James' mimicing pokemon were no match for Karissa's electric power.
Garruk (W) vs Biggs
Ash (W) vs Wing Fei-Hong
Steve (W) vs Jace
===Finding Jace, Finding Memories===
After the first round, Karissa, Mark, and Steve went to explore the fairgrounds.  Luke was more interested in finding Jace to see if he could be convinced to return the memories taken on Zendikar.
Luke scanned the crowd, looking for any sign of the planeswalkers on the tournament docket. But there are a lot of people.
 Looking for Jace in this crowd is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Except the needle is psychic and always wears blue. And knows someone is looking for him, may be trying really hard to be inconspicuous and/or using an illusion to hide.
Glancing back and forth, for a moment, Luke thought he found Jace.  Taking a glance to the side, he caught Jace's eyes.  Time stood still with Luke's realization that Jace caught him. 
That's when the vision started.
  Flash flash flash, Luke sees a series of memories pass before his eyes, as if someone is watching them in fast forward.  
Technodrome, Holnist camp, Jumanji, then Zendikar.
Luke recalled the event where the group met James as Pete and fought Malificent and Rakka Mar in the Eldrazi prison. After talking with James, the group heard a sound of footsteps approaching. Then nothing. Blankness. Erased, or hidden. Then Jace yelling at everyone to run, as gargantuan Eldrazi wreck the landscape behind them.But Jace knows. And maybe he's busy watching Luke's memories. Maybe Luke could get in. Get that missing memory. Or maybe its safer to stay out of the brain of a memory sculptor.
Luke had another idea.  "Okay Jace, you know what I've been up to for the past few months, it would only be fair for you to give me my memory back in return."
An echo: Fair... Hrm. Perhaps.
Rewind back to the footsteps. 
James: Crap. Pretend you don't know me. He puts his hood back up.
The footsteps come close, and out from behind a shadowed pillar steps a young man in blue, confident and exhaling power. Jace. 
Jace: James. What have you told them? 
James: I have no idea of who this James is you speak. He doesn't sound familiar. At all. 
James: Though I am sure if I did know him we would be best friends because from what you've told me he sounds like a cool guy.
Jace: The Knights won't be happy.
James: They already don't like me. It's fine. I'll leave. No big deal.
Jace: You won't leave. Not yet. But if you want to sow chaos by inviting your friends into our secrets, you invite a world of trouble. 
James: What do you want? 
Jace: A favor. Simple favor. Your friends will hunt down Goliath and end his ritual. *You* will find Nissa Revane and aid her. Then you and your friends split ways.
Luke: Agreed .
Back in the present...
Luke: And what makes us so bad, Jace?
Echo: Besides every horrific act you committed? 
Jace: You're wildcards, and the Knights have no place for you. You're lucky you haven't been made a mark yet.
Luke: Point taken.  You've been in my mind several times now, Jace, and I'm sure you've been in the minds of all of my friends more than once. Are we truly monsters, or are we simply doing the best we can, given the circumstances?
No response from Jace on that one...
Elsewhere, Karissa is seemingly wandering in search of James. She has a shirt with a picture of zapdos on it and is licking a pikachu popsicle.
Time skips forward, through James showing Luke how to bind the spirit of a Bloodghast to himself to summon, and through a conversation with a great minotaur to convince him to work with Mark.
 Forward again with the group following a trail of destruction and demonic symbols. 
Echo: Sometimes you do good. Then a flash in slow motion of Chris killing a defenseless girl to finish Goliath's ritual.
Luke: Yeah, I wasn't in the ritual area to stop that one.
Echo: And sometimes you as a team do horrible things.
Echo: As do we all...
Luke: Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, eh?
The final thing Luke saw as the vision faded is James tackling Nissa a moment too late after she swings her staff to shatter the prison of the Eldrazi.
When his vision of reality returned, a large man carrying a stuffed Snorlax bumps into you and yells "Watch out!" .  Jace was gone.
Echo: As do we all...
===James and Karissa===
Meanwhile, Karissa was looking for James.
A voice behind her.
James: Hi. She spun around.
Karissa:"Hi!", holding her hand out for a handshake, "good fight, earlier. Thanks for the advice, I'm pretty new to this area".
James hugs Karissa. He whispers: I'm sorry I haven't called. Cell service has been really sporadic.
Karissa: Whoa, ok, it's alright. *whispers* what happened to you?
James: I often get in with the wrong crowd. Usually not always on purpose. Mostly I get knocked on the head and find out later I've joined.
James: It's like the worst hangover ever. Oh my god, I woke up with a snake tattoo, oh my god and I think that I've been forced into the Seeds of Chaos too.
James: Those might not be the lyrics. I can't remember. Knocked on the head.
Karissa: You have a snake tattoo? Anyways, listen, how do I get you out?
James: It's a song. Amanda Marshall. You may not have been in that timeline. It's good. You should YouTube it sometime.
James: I can't get out. Not yet.
James: It's okay. I have plans to disassemble them from the inside.
James: Not really actually. Not yet. But soon. I just have a feeling that I will get some plan inspiration soon.
Karissa: What is their overall goal?
James: I can't tell for sure. I don't know who is leading them. But as far as I can tell, its the opposite of the Black Sheep Knights.
James: The Knights wanted to correct things back to how they used to be and keep the multiverse under control. Under law.
James: Their law, of course. But still law.
James: The Seeds are just trying to sow as much panic as possible. So that there is so much in-fighting that when rumour of a fragment arises, one of us can swoop in and swipe it.
James: I assume their goal is the same as the gods. Like the golden rule: whoever has the gold makes the rule, whoever has the tablet fragments makes the rule.
[ADD MORE HERE]
===Round Two (Quarterfinals)===
This round ended up like this:
Luke (W) vs Temari - Luke's Ice-based pokemon turned out to be very effective against Temari's flyers.
Lance (W) vs Mark - Mark's fighters were weak against Lance's dragons.
Steve (W) vs Ash
Karissa (W) vs Garruk
And like that, nearly all of the great trainers on the plane had been defeated by a few completely unknown trainers that had been capturing and training Pokemon for all of a couple weeks.  (Luke - suck it, Pokemonverse!)
===Round Three (Semifinals)===
Luke (W) vs Lance - Once again, Luke's Ice power came into its own against flyers.  Also, Gastly's hypnotic power disabled Lance's dragons temporarily when it really mattered.
Karissa (W) vs Steve - The only pokemon of Steve's that stood a chance against Karissa's electric pokemon, especially Zapdos, was Raticate.  Even then, Steve was very quickly defeated.
===Round Four (FINALS)===
Karissa (W) vs Luke - this was a surprisingly close fight, mainly between Luke's Gastly and Karissa's entire team, since Gastly was immune to many of Karissa's team's attacks.
==The Invasion==
===The Aftermath===
With Joker dead (for now) and the Colossus gone, the gang found Garruk Wildspeaker scrounging through their stuff.  He tried to take the Rainbow Amulet from the group, but Karissa and Mark immediately threatened him with severe violence. 
Garruk summoned some creatures, Mark awakened his first planeswalker ability (Lightning Bolt), Karissa devised a new Electric Spear attack, Luke summoned his second Bloodghast, and Steve got Charizard to carry a vending machine to bring him a drink.
When it became clear that Garruk could utterly destroy the party if he wanted to, Karissa delved him and found the reason he wanted to get the Rainbow Amulet in the first place - he was cursed by some powerful, dark entity.  Mark and Luke thought this was the Veil Curse from Liliana Vess.  In any case, Karissa tried to cure the curse with Mark's help.  They failed, but they came close enough to temporarily release it from Garruk.
Category:Volume 2