Martin headed to the Explorer's Guide Service thinking about a few of the remarks along the way. He didn't consider practicing for a contest, but Goldeen was very enthusiastic about showing off. Sprout and Nincada didn't seem the type to try looking great for such a thing. Now he just had something else to think about practicing if he found the time. He made his way there, looking at the lady in front of him. She already looked just as ready to go hiking for days, if not weeks with that large of a bag.

"Hey there, nice backpack. I considered using one like that for my trip to Pureplain, myself. Is it as durable as it looks? Oh right, what I wanted, heh." Looking back at the list of things the place offers, Martin took a few seconds looking for the most obvious things to be asking for. The Endless Forest was on the list, but it looked like it was ready to be removed. With a raised eyebrow, he looked back at her. "Do you have any tips on what I can expect on Route 5? I know that's the way out of here, but never hurts to ask. Oh, the moderate tip is what I'm asking for. Also, what's the deal with the Endless Forest? I'd ask a tip, but it looks like you don't take any. How about a map for the Endless Forest, and directions to the closest gym or contest? I'm not big on contests, but if it's on the way, why not check at least one out? Oh, and one last thing, sorry. Do you have any idea where I would find a Slowpoke? Is there a price for information like that, or should I just hope for the best?"

Martin was going a bit big on asking questions, figuring he could go light on asking about tips. Part of the trip is finding things out on the way. He still needed directions to the gym, and the Endless Forest was really tempting. How could no one make a map of it, or avoid getting lost? He figured it was pretty difficult to get lost, as surely you could just backtrack if you lost track of where you were.

Amelia was a little surprised when the man stood up and bowed back to her, having not been expecting to be treated as anything more then a curious child. Still, the display managed to elicit a small smile from the girl and she listened to each of the men as they addressed her. Her expression turned to one of shock when Jacques introduced himself and revealed he was a member of the Elite Four of Isson. When the two took their seats again, she hesitantly took one of the open ones, unsure if she should. When the menus came around, she didn't bother looking at it, despite her hunger, as she wasn't sure she would be able to afford what was on it and she didn't want to ask the two gentlemen for a free meal.

Looking between the two infront of her, Amelia eventually decided to address Jacques first.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Jacques. I'm Amelia Averyonna of Witchpeak City. I was wondering why there were so many people at the Lab but I guess I know now. And it was fun fighting Joshua, he was a... nice guy." She said before looking a bit more serious. "I'm surprised to hear you're a member of the Elite Four though. I have to wonder if you've met my teacher yet. I'm sure he's going to come to challenge you and the others here sooner or later."

Turning to Carl now, she gave him a kind smile.
"That sounds like a really neat skill to have. What moves can you change the types of? How do you even do that, I thought all but a few moves stayed the same type no matter what one tried to do?" She asked.

@PlatinumSkink

---

"So many!...." Claire frowned, completely overwhelmed by the amount of accessories they had for sale here. She hadn't seen this many accessories for sale in one place since she had moved to Isson! Granted, she had only been here a short while. Even so, she had the sudden urge to buy all of them! But she had so little money and so many things to choose from! She'd have liked to buy one for all of her pokemon, but...money! She still needed to stop by the mart and buy some items to help. It'd be good if she was planning on traveling a long distance to stock up a bit.

Hrm...

Eventually though, she settled on buying something for Ralia, just for now. she'd have to buy more things later. She didn't want to spend too much money and then needing to use it on something else.

"Here we go!" Claire finished fixing the bow to Ralia's horn. A rather elegant looking purple bow, designed to exude an air of elegance and beauty, with just a hint of playfulness. It was an expensive, 400P item, but she could at least spend that much on one of her darling little pokemon. Ralia seemed to like it at least. The small pokemon gave her a bright smile, before teleporting on top of her head. "Aha, you look adorable! Hey hey, lets see...ehm...eh?"

As she walked through the crowded marketplace, she came across a rather unusually large crowd, standing in front of a bunch of posters. Well, that could only mean one thing, right? One was Valire, the 'Contest Queen'. Ruler of the Cute contests, but partcipated in all of them. Next was a group of girls giggling over a pair of men. Tough and Cool, respectively. Next was grace, the Monarch of 'Beauty'? Well, Claire had to agree there, heh. She heard something about a Clever king, by the name of Roderick and an up and coming starlet by the name of Penelope.

Huhm.

Well, they certainly seemed talented...not as talented as her of course, heh! She would have maybe challenged them to an impromptu contest, but a certain blond named Yvonne caught her eye first.

"Ah...Hey, hey." She glanced up at Ralia. "Lets go say high to our friend, yeah?" She flashed an impish smirk and Ralia gave her a playful salute. Before Claire or Yvonne could react, Ralia seemed to take initiative. First, a double team followed by a teleport...and Yvonne would suddenly find herself having a pile of at least twenty Ralts fall on her from above, with Ralia taking a position on her head. Claire waited a few seconds for Yvonne to react to Ralia before sneaking up behind the other girl and giving her side a playful poke.

"Hi Yvonne!~ You look like you just won the lottery, hah! Guess what?" She made a flourish, and in one swift and dexterous motion pulled the Challenge badge from her jacket. "I got the Challege badge!~" She put the badge back in its place as she continued. "More importantly thoooough...what'cha doing here?" She asked with her usual grin. "Scoping out the competition?"

❄Erika Olson❄

---

---

Although not entirely to plan, they still ended up with the scroll. "Whew. Nicely done everyone!" Erika had prepared further praise for their efforts before entering the gauntlet of trench-crawling and whirlwind-evading, but unfortunately the wording inside the scroll left a lot to be desired. "The Trail Master is Amazing." Erika said the sentence out loud, sounding disappointed, expecting a clue or detail about an additional reward. "Well.. at least we got it."

Fast-forwarding to when they were all committed with the trench idea, Erika didn't really anticipate those three far Pidgeotto to leave their perch to get opportune positions for a whirlwind. Erika didn't know if they could count on them being safe enough to carry on with the original plan. It was true, laying down like this in the trench would probably prevent them from just sliding off the edge of the trail but would the force of the wind knock them into each and then slip out? Erika didn't know but she wasn't just going to let that Pidgeotto try without some resistance.

With a quick maneuver, she released Sno from her Pokeball and pulled her in a close hug as there wasn't a lot of room in this trench. Sno wasn't exactly necessary for this next part of Erika's impromptu plan but she might help. Speaking of plan, it was nice that Erika had spent a lot of time training with her mother. She was taught a lot of things and at this particular point remembered Zubats could cause a really annoying condition. "Um. Joshua quick! Have Zubat use supersonic on the Pidgeotto! Sno, use double team and have your copies run around everywhere. Cause mass confusion!"

Was this the best plan? Probably not. There was no guarantee any of this would work but it might give them enough time for Gibs to finish the first stretch of trench.

@Eklispe

Dawkin headed off from the waters and onto the next route. There, he was greeted with a slight kiss of cold, but otherwise a natural route.



… And as one travels Route 5, one might realize that the route’s grass contain many Deerlings walking around, enjoying the relative lack of humans and other dangers. Upon approach of any humans the timid Pokémon are however quick to run and hide in any patches of tall grass or forests they can find. Most of them are pink in color, not really helping them hide anywhere as their spring-form’s really colorful, but closer to the Frozen Cavern there are Deerlings that still haven’t shifted from their winter form.





And, also. Every here and there on the route there’s a couple of rather distinct leaves just sticking up at random, sometimes in very odd locations like in the middle of the road or right in the middle of nowhere. If wandering close enough, it’d be obvious. They’re sleeping Oddishes.





… So, yeah, it’d find plenty of cold soil on this route next to the Frozen Cavern. Natural Oddish habitat. Then, as said, looking into the grass there were numerous bugs.









For training, this was better for Atlas. The bugs and grass-Pokémon could be targeted by Headbutts, and his Steel-type protected against the Absorb of Oddishes. Wooper… not similarly, but there were bugs here to train against, so. Not as much experience in shooting down bugs with water, though.



So, what now?



Connected areas:
Lakewatch Town. Right behind you.
Stillwood Village. In the north lies the forest which hides the village, Mt. Strength lying behind it..
Route 6. Vast plains start in the south-east, this route leads towards Raremine Town.
Frozen Cavern. After an incline up to the ridge of Mt. Chill, a cavern of ice could guide the way to Route 9 and Cooldome City.
Endless Forest. To the south, a dark forest looms. There are no indications as to why you’d ever want to go there.



__________________________

@Pikmin Eye

The girl smirked at the comment about the backpack. ‘Oh, it’s sturdy alright. Otherwise I wouldn’t be using it. Okay, so let’s see.’ She then said, thinking a bit about the things Martin had said he wanted to know about.

‘Route 5. There are lots of Oddishes and Deerlings on the route. Look in grass for Scatterbugs and Caterpies. The route hoots with Hoothoots during night, same as Route 4. Look in forests long enough, and you can find small gatherings of forest-dwelling electric Pokémon in both Route 4 and 5, like Pikachu. Careful wandering those forests, though. It’s spring. Sawbucks are more active than in other seasons, and they’re more inclined to attack than Deerlings are. … Heh, I just told someone that. But, Moderate Tip, eh. Alright.’ She smirked. ‘Look carefully at the trees in the forests of Route 4 or 5. If you think they’re suspect, throw some water at them. You might face an interesting surprise.’ She chuckled a little bit before thinking a bit more.

‘Alright, I’ll count this as a minor tip for Endless Forest. So here’s the thing. Endless Forest messes with your mind.’ The girl lifts a finger and pokes to the side of her head. ‘Be it by Pokémon hijinks, by fairy-tale magic or whatever other mystical reason, you’re always going to find your way to the same pathway through the forest, and it’s never, EVER going to end. Doesn’t matter what direction you enter the forest, you end up on the same road. Leave the road and you’ll end up on the road again. Try to follow it to the end of the road? Well. You’ll find it never ends. Hence the name. Endless Forest. Fortunately, turning back means you’ll exit the forest before long, regardless of how deep you went. The Endless Forest is the same, regardless of how experienced you are.’ She sighs a bit. ‘But, it does have its share of interesting Pokémon, so feel free to have a look. If you like seeing Abras teleporting away from you before you can catch them, anyway.’ She put her hand back on the table and went on to the next subject.

‘The closest gym is Lesley’s Major League Gym, here in town, but I’m going to assume you’re looking for the Minor League Gyms. Well, there’s quite a few of them around here, actually. You could take a boat to Highhill for Lorette’s Gym, or go north to Stillwood for Archie’s Gym, or head east to Raremine for Kristy’s Gym. … But if you want to go to a contest, all wannabe coordinators have to start at the Normal Rank Contest Hall in Redcoast City, past Highhill Town and Rainrock City, and while you’re there maybe you want to challenge Hector’s Gym? Now I’ve mentioned four Minor League Gyms for you. Heh.’ So she said.

‘Directions to a specific Pokémon is a Considerable or a Masterful tip depending on the Pokémon. Considerable for Slowpoke, ‘cause there are Slowpokes in Wet Caverns, right next to here. They’re uncommon, but they can be found fishing in underground ponds. Search long enough and you’ll find one. Just make sure you don’t get lost, ‘lright?’ She swung a little with her legs under the chair. ‘If you make that one a Masterful Tip rather than a Considerable Tip and I’ll tell you where you’ll definitely find one~’ She teased. Otherwise…

‘So far, that’s been three minor tips and two considerable. That’ll be 550 P, so far.’ She said with a slightly amused tone.

__________________________

@Joshua Tamashii

Jacques chuckled a bit at the mention of Joshua. ‘He certainly is. And a natural at becoming friends with Pokémon. They just seem to instinctively like him. Quite an interesting case.’ He mentioned, thinking on that trainer. Then… her teacher? ‘Oh?’ Jacques sounded interested. ‘Without a name or description, I’m unsure. I’ve had plenty of challengers, after all. Fu-fu. But I’ll keep this in mind, and be prepared.’ He said. And then… he noted that Amelia was not looking at the menus.

‘Not going to eat? Despite sitting at our table? That won’t do. That won’t do at all.’ Jacques glanced over the menu once again, and then… ‘Unless you already have a dinner table at which you’re intending to eat at, for which I harbor doubts as you’re a Pokémon Trainer from Witchpeak, I will now be treating you. Select your meal, or I will pick for you.’ There was finality in his voice, saying that Amelia had no choice unless she could come up with a decent enough reason not to.

Then the other guy.

‘Oh, right!’ The Move Changer’s eyes lit up as Amelia asked him about the very thing he was good at. ‘So, here’s the thing.’ He said, as he picked up a Pokéball and let a Pokémon out of it. On his side, appeared a bipedal orange-red lizard Pokémon, standing and looking to Charl and Amelia, its tail raised and on fire.

‘Charmander!’ The little Pokémon called out its name.





‘So, Pokémon obviously cannot change the types of their moves all willy-nilly, they need to have the innate ability within them. As such, a Pokémon’s moves can only change type to the type of the Pokémon itself. It also needs to be an attack move that isn’t too strong (50 potential power max), but with all that, I can have a Pokémon learn to use their innate element to change the type of their basic attack moves. As a demonstration. Charmander!’ The Pokémon smirked, as well as a lizard can smirk, and it already knew what was coming.

‘Fire Scratch!’

‘Chaaaaar…!’ The Charmander held its claws to its mouth, where it breathed out small bits of fire… and then the fire remained at the claws, as it held up its tiny claws and saw them glowing in fire. Of course, Charmander wouldn’t actually attack anything right now, but if it clawed anything with that “Scratch”, it would certainly so Fire-type damage. Both Charl and Charmander looked happily to Amelia as the claws slowly cooled.

‘So, of course, Charmander eventually learns Fire Fang, making this pointless. But… I can do it. If for any reason you want to and you give me a bit of time and a payment, I can teach your Pokémon a version of their low-powered physical attack move that is of their Type. Pretty cool, eh?’ Charl smiled happily to Amelia as he presented. ‘For 3000- er, 2900 P and some time to train, I could give it a try. It’s not ALWAYS possible, but hey! I can do it!’ He kept his smile, and Charmander smiled right beside him.

__________________________

@Rune_Alchemist

Claire got a happy call of that she had excellent taste when she was buying the ribbon, and she was free to return to shop again. That aside. Time to ambush Yvonne.

‘Eh.’ Yvonne blinked in surprise and- ‘AH!?’ She yelped a little at the sudden impact, raising her hands in slight panic, but numerous seconds later she realized she hadn’t actually been bombarded by a pile of Pokémon, but one and her illusions. ‘Oy.’ If any had landed on her arm or anywhere else she could see, she’d hold that part in front of her and glare at the Ralias she could see, clearly not entirely appreciating the scare.

She flinched a bit as she was then poked on the side by Claire, and then turned to frown at her, Ralia clones still on top of her. The frown… turned into a fairly blank stare as Claire showed off her Challenge Badge. ‘Ooooh. Well done. Good for you. I knew you had it in you.’ Spoken without a shred of enthusiasm. Then, onto what she was doing. Yvonne smirked confidently as she placed her hands on her hips and raised her chin in pride, despite still being covered in Ralias.

‘Oh, ho-ho. Indeed, I was. They’re kids, showing up to a talent-show hoping to somehow make it big. But, to get to move on to Super-Rank you need to not only WIN, you need to convince the Judge you’re worthy of it, too. Winning is not a challenge at this stage. As such, it’s simply a matter of appealing to the Judge. Yes. This is the time.’ Yvonne lifted one hand to the sky and held the other to her chest, in a pose that she might actually have been able to pull off while looking graceful hadn’t it been for the twenty Ralias.

‘Me, as a complete unknown, will rise to stardom without being sponsored by anyone. I shall awe the crowd, and whispers shall be heard! Rumors will be spread! The whole region will be asking, just who is this wonderful-’

‘Oh, hey, Yvonne! Long time no-’

Unless she was holding on Ralia would suddenly find herself falling (along with clones) , because Yvonne launched herself into the nearby accessory shop behind the lines of wares at a speed and angle that didn’t necessarily seem healthy to the human body when including sliding into the parameter.

The one who had spoken… was Alberto, who was now walking over, Lucia in tow. He was now looking confused, however, looking around and seemingly not even seeing Claire.

‘-see… Huh? Where’d she go?’ He asked, a bit dumbfounded.

‘…’ Lucia, however, was looking straight at Claire, analyzing her with a dull look.

__________________________

@Pirouette

‘I’m sure we got it for a reason~!’ Joshua smiled happily as Erika sounded disappointed with the message. Regardless, moving on.

Then there was the Pidgeotto. Ewan nodded, and pointed at the target Pidgeotto. ‘Zubat!’

‘Zbat!’ The bat had heard, and aimed its Supersonic at the Pidgeotto. The waves hit before the bird could successfully blow them away, but the annoyed Pidgeotto tried to blow them off anyway. But, there was a bunch of Snos everywhere, for Double Team filling up parts of the pathway. The slightly confused Pidgeotto blew his Whirlwind a bit high, through numerous of Sno’s mirages but over their heads, and all seemed fine-

‘DUCK!’ Ewan called, grabbing the head of anyone who was daring to look up and pushed them down.

‘Duck?’ Duessel the Psyduck asked, raising his head, when suddenly Pidgeot flew past as impossible speed. A wind way stronger than that of the Pidgeotto’s Whirlwinds shook all their bodies as the bird flew over their heads in the trench, but fortunately most of the force simply pushed them further down into the trench. They were safe. … Except for Duessel, who blew over the edge.

‘DUUUUUuuuuck-’ splash

‘… Duessel, support us from down there.’ Ewan commanded, thinking that he’ll recall him when they’ve gotten past the worst of it. ‘Keep going.’

They were now past the first stretch, the bridge to the middle. One of the three Pidgeottos guarding the last part was behind them and confused. The two others were floating in the air, waving their wings and looking for opportunities to Whirlwind effectively. One was still on the right on the map, the other was in the middle (the one on the left of the three is behind you instead, with other words). Pidgeot was resettling in his place in the corner, but he was looking over, and the paranoid might say he looked like he was plotting something.

Any adjustment in the actions?

"I've been though the Wet caverns pretty well, so I don't mind paying for an upgrade for a master tip on where I can find a Slowploke. I normally like getting a bit of information for an area, and leaving the rest to discovery. It's amazing that they are in there and I never discovered it. So many Gyms around here, gonna keep me busy for quite a long time. I'm gonna be the one to collect those badges as I go, even if it takes a while. I actually find the idea of getting lost in the Endless Forest pretty interesting. I'm a bit of a hiker as well. Maybe I'll find some new routes, ha ha. I'll pay at once, so sorry but I guess I'm adding a bit more to the price. Actually, if Raremine is a Gym, then I'll probably need to hear about Route 6. I guess a casual tip will be good enough. Don't need to know everything at once."

Route 5 had some interesting thing he was sure would have been missed. Pikachus up ahead? Splashing water on trees? So that meant getting a bucket of water to take with him. Well, that or a bottle. Might be a bit much carrying heavy objects to throw at a tree. Aggresive Sawbuck was concerning, but he was prepared with Repel in advance this time. Nothing catching him off guard in Route 5, or Route 6.

Well it wasn't the best area for training but it had allowed both his Pokémon to get stronger and learn one new move a piece. Now then he wanted to see about catching another Pokémon for his team. Further into the forest were electric Pokémon, but there was also the risk of running into aggressive wild Sawbucks. Hm, if worst came to worst he had a few repels handy. Dawkin returned both his Pokémon to their Pokeballs and began moving into the forest with hopes of finding some of these electric Pokémon. Altas and Wooper could both fight against them reasonably well. If they ran into a Sawbuck... Wooper wouldn't stand a chance, Atlas might be able to put up a fight if it came down to it. Regardless he'd try to move carefully, both not to scare of any of the Pokémon he was looking for and to not draw the attention of those he wasn't.

Action: Look for Pokémon

---

@PlatinumSkink

---

Ralia and her clones stared impishly up at Yvonne, giving her an innocent look as they clung to her arms and shoulders. The ones that fell to the ground, crowded around her legs and stared up at her with the biggest eyes they could manage. By the time Claire had walked up and given Yvonne the poke, most had already taken to climbing on Yvonne and use her as a jungle gym. Claire couldn't help but to snicker at the pose - which was completely ruined by the Ralts clinging to her and Ralia on her head who was playing with the blonds hair.

"Someone's confident." Claire snickered as Yvonne went on to proclaim she'd be the best contestant in the entire region. Well, it was good her rival and competition was this confident, yes! "Hey, we should go practice-eh? Yvonne!" As Yvonne bolted at the appearance of Alberto and Lucia. Ralia and her clones suddenly lost their grip on their new plaything, flying off in every direction with Claire barely managing to catch the small pokemon when she was already halfway to the ground. Ralts stared after the fleeing human, tilting its head quizzically as if confused - or at least concerned - but it quickly passed as it climbed onto Claire's shoulders and stared at the two new people it was presented with.

"..." She stared back at Lucia with a somewhat uneasy expression for a few seconds, eyes glancing to either side. "...and why do I suddenly feel like I'm being judged and deemed trash? I mean, I am various meanings of the word trash on the internet buuuut that's irrelevant, heh." She chuckled with a grin. "Alberto and Lucia right? You're pretty popular around here, aren't ya?" For the most part, Claire didn't seem to impressed or at least she didn't seem to treat them any differently as she would anyone else. "So has Yvonne always been that good at skedaddling or is she just that eager to get a sale on shiny new ribbons?" Meanwhile, the clones had recovered from falling and were crowding around the two new people.

Amelia recoiled a bit when Jacques spoke with such finality towards her, having not been expecting that tone to come from the man. Still, it would be rude to decline his offer and she was rather hungry. She decided to look at a menu after she was done talking for the moment though, since it would also be rude to not reply to the two adults in front of her.

Listening to each adult in turn, she turned to Charl first.
"That a very neat trick. Sadly, it doesn't seem to work like move like Fire Punch, since your Charmander can't just light it's claws on fire without breathing on them. But it's still rather neat and I hope you luck in your endeavor. Still, I have to wonder how it would work if you gave a move like Ember a new type, like ghost? I'm sure that would be much more difficult." She said, looking thoughtful for a second before giving him a sad smile. "Sadly, I must decline your services for the time being. I might be able to afford the cost but I don't think I can afford to leave behind any of my partners. Maybe another time though."

She then turned to Jacques and gave him a slight smile.
"All I'll tell you about my teacher is that his name is also Joshua and that he has thirty-two gym badges to his name. He won't know much about you and I think it'll be fair if you don't know much about him. He's also the one who taught me how to battle so I think how things worked out with my battle with your Joshua shows to results of that training Sir." She said before picking up a menu and looking at it to see what they had for human and possibly pokemon as well. Her partners had worked hard today and she figured they could use a treat.

@Pikmin Eye

The girl smirked a bit, leaning forward on her elbows and inspecting Martin for a bit.

‘Alright. Then, walk back into the Wet Caverns from here. In the very first crossroad, go right. You’ll end up at a deep pond. There, Slowpokes typically fish for food. Now, if you have Pokémon that can help you dive, that pond is actually a tunnel, which leads somewhere, but I’m not about to spoil where. It’s dark down there, but it’s somewhat lit up by the Chinchou’s inhabiting it, if you want one. That’ll do for the Masterful tip.’ She nodded, and then continued.

‘Route 6, famous enough to actually get a name of its own. It is called the Vast Plains, and it’s pretty wild. Nowhere to hide. It’s a bit more dangerous than going the northern path, but that’s all part of being a Pokémon Trainer, eh?’ She chuckled a little. ‘The most common Pokémon are Starly, Doduo, Ponyta and Bunnelby underground or at night. There’s also a whole bunch of more uncommon and rarer Pokémon of the “wild” flavor on there. But what most people should be worried about while crossing Route 6 are the hordes of Tauros that sometimes rampage across the plains. They take offense so easily. Tihi.’ She smirked as she said. ‘That’ll do for the minor tip or Route 6.’

‘That’s four minor tips, one considerable and one masterful. That’s a total of 900 P for all I’ve told you. Oh, and here’s the random map of Endless Forest you asked for, if you think that’ll be of any use. Believe me when I say, though, it’s useless. Anyways. Will that be all?’ She asked as she reached down and grabbed a paper from behind the desk to hand over to him.

__________________________

@Eklispe

The forests of Route 5 were only a small part of the route and not the main part, a piece of Route 4 which is a forest route leaking out over Stillwood Village and onto Route 5, but certainly a part to explore. Moving through the trees, there were many more Deerlings in here as well where there were actual cover. Every here and there was a looming shape of a larger quadruped, mildly threatening by just their existence, wandering silently.





Dawkin was able to avoid them though, and the creatures seemed unthreatened by his presence for as long as he kept his distance. So he was fine on that front, for the moment. So, he kept looking…

It didn’t take all that long. He knew what he was looking for, and this forest wasn’t that tight on trees, one could see pretty far, and with yellow being the dominant color, it wasn’t as if the creatures he was looking for had any amount of real natural camouflage.

First, something jumped over his head, from one tree to the next. A Pokémon jumping from treetop to treetop, yellow standing out considerably from the surrounding green.





So, not exactly what he was looking for, but close, and he could follow it. And following that way, eventually Dawkin heard some sounds from deeper within the forest. Following those, he could eventually spy more yellow in the distance.





‘Pika!’ ‘Pika-pi!‘

There are numerous Pikachus playing about with one another, searching bushes together for berries or otherwise, generally making noises as they run on the forest ground from tree to bush to tree, communicating to one another with quick and happy sounds of their names as they run about. And after them…

‘Pichu!’ ‘Pi!’ ‘Piiich!’ … Runs a small group of four little Pichus. It’s slower than the Pikachus, looking really happy as it chases them, but every once in awhile the Pikachus wait up to allow the pre-evolution to catch up.





So, that’s the scene presented to Dawkin right now. There are still the Emolgas in the trees if he has interest in those. None of the Pokémon around are currently aware of him. What does he want to do?

__________________________

@Rune_Alchemist

‘Huh?’ Alberto blinked in surprise as he seemingly suddenly realized Claire existed, looking towards her in surprise when she started talking, eyes a bit wide. After a bit of staring and listening, he scratched behind his head awkwardly and smiled as he talked.

‘Ah, yeah. That’s us. I-it seems we are, though we haven’t really earned it yet. But, um. I-I’m not sure why you’d think you’re tr- er, that, you seem like you’re nice enough. I-I mean, yeah, you’re cool. You’re okay. I haven’t really had enough of an impression to make a judgement, but, er…’ He was a bit confused as he looked at her.

‘…’ Lucia, on the other hand, had a look on her face that somehow spoke “yeah, you’re trash compared to us, good that you realized”. If nothing else, Ralia’s emotional sensor confirmed it.

‘Oh, Yvonne’s, er.’ Alberto looked around trying to find her. … Yvonne actually exited the store somewhere behind him and was slowly walking towards them with a frown as Alberto was talking. ‘As far as I can tell, she’s the kind that only wants to be seen at her best, so, um, usually I see her or she doesn’t. Maybe that’s because she’s good at running? Didn’t expect to see her here. I mean, I knew she’d end up here eventually, but not at the same time as us. I’m happy she looked so happy, though. I haven’t seen her since-’ Then Yvonne, with an annoyed look, lifted a hand to the back of Alberto’s head and pushed upwards to tilt his head until he was looking downwards.

‘-OOOH…!!!’ Alberto made a sound of amazement as he apparently hadn’t seen the Ralia clones crowding around him and Lucia. He instantly went down to a crouch, looking closer to Ralia and looking at each with amazement, while Yvonne stood sighing a bit in satisfaction behind him.

‘S-so many… But they’re one and the same! Double Team? But they’re all moving so individually! And she’s SOOOO CUTE~! This is amazing! So wonderful! I-I’m taken! I don’t know if I’ll ever see something so breathtaking, I’m-!’ Alberto said, launching into his own little tirade while holding fingers forward to see if Ralia would play with him. Yvonne had a look of light superiority to her expression as she looked towards Claire and spoke.

‘Sure. Let’s go practice. Did you have something in mind? I’m more than ready go in there right at this moment, but we can practice somewhere. I’ll admit I’m curious to what you’re going to be bringing to the table, if you mean together.’ She spoke to Claire with a passive voice with mild hints of victory in it while Alberto was obsessing over Ralia. Lucia turned and looked at Yvonne for a moment, and Yvonne gave a slight frowning glance back before looking back to Claire.

Ralia could feel from the emotions that these two consider one another enemies. Not rivals, enemies. There was a certain hatred between both of these. For comparison, there was always some amount of competitive excitement in Yvonne when she spoke to Claire that Ralia could feel, but that was completely gone with the appearance of these two. Alberto, though, was mostly a ball of confusion, attempted friendliness, awkwardness and excitement towards most of everyone. As soon as he noticed them, anyways.

__________________________

@Joshua Tamashii

‘Yeah, a Charmander’s fire naturally comes from its mouth, so I used that. But… hm.’ Charl looked like he considered with a little smile, Charmander standing looking on with interest by the side. ‘Assuming the Pokémon is a ghost-type and already knows Ember, I could give it a try. I think it should be possible. I’m optimistic and kind of eager to attempt. But, you didn’t want to leave anyone behind for now. That’s fine. I’ll be here in Highhill Town if you ever want to make use of me!’ He smiled happily.

‘Char!’ Charmander gave a happy little call to punctuate the happiness.

‘Another Joshua, huh?’ Jacques listened to what she was saying with an interested little smile. ‘Hm. Interesting. I’ll keep this in mind. But, heh.’ He smirked, staring with a penetrating gaze at Amelia. ‘It makes me wonder. Why did a trainer with badges from multiple regions stop by to train you? Did you know him previously? I’ll admit, you appeared out of nowhere to me as a trainer to receive Kalmia’s Pokédex. What makes you special, according to yourself? Do I have reason to be interested in your development?’ He asked, gazing at her curiously.

Also, yes. Obviously, a restaurant in the Pokémon world has food for both humans and Pokémon. They’re partners, way more than pets, after all.

Martin nodded his head, sliding the money over the counter. "Thanks for your time. Better to be prepared in advance of the areas. Wasn't expecting to be backtracking to the Wet Caverns, but I guess that's in my plan now. I know you call this map of the Endless Forest useless, but there has to be some part of it the same in there somewhere. Land can't change that badly, right?" Turning around with his wallet emptier, and a better idea of where to go next, he left the building.

Martin stood outside of the Exporers Guide, trying to draw a mental map of all the locations to go. North, east, even west. All directions from here was a good way to go for a Gym. Trying to make another route to add in the Contest was the hard part. It was far to the west, short of the Sacred Shrine. Okay... If he went back through the Wet Caverns, he could look for that Slowpoke. After, he'd have to cross through Route 5. Maybe take a detour to check out the Endless Forest, then backtrack again to Stillwood for one Gym. Take it out with flying colors, and proceed along Route 4. Take a left for High Hill town for a second Gym. Then make it to Redcoast city. Wait, he missed Raremine. Okay, so after Endless Forest, go there, and then back on track. That checked off... Most of them? A well thought out trail plan was a great start, and should hit all of the areas listed. Four out of four gyms visited, and the Contest. He'd have to come back here eventually for the major Gym, but would he be ready? Well worth asking about where the gyms were. He waved farewell to Guide on his way out. His team was fresh and ready to go.

So first on the list was to head back to the Wet Caverns. He headed towards the canoes, Pokeball in hand. "Come on out, Goldeen. You enjoy swimming, so why not let you play while I cross the water?" Goldeen dove head first into the water, elegant and with minimal splash. Martin wasn't even sure how a contest worked, but Goldeen was impressive even without training. Maybe a Pokemon could do a better job teaching him a bit about it. Then he laughed, this would get him laughed at if he said that to anyone. The Wet Caverns had an underwater area, somewhere close by the Slowpoke spot. Goldeen was a good swimmer, so he might just have a chance at checking that out.

Action: Head to the Wet Caverns to catch Pokemon.

@PlatinumSkink

---

Note to self: Alberto was adorable.
Also note to self: Lucia needed to work that pole out of her butt.

"Well, someone has good tastes!" Claire laughed heartily as Alberto played with Ralia. The Ralts in question started to return the favor. Several of the clones started climbing on Alberto, intent on playing with him. Ralia grabbed his hand, giggling brightly as she started playing with them. The clones by now, had reached up to his shoulders. However, the same could not be said for Lucia. Two of the clones were staring up at her with a curious pout. "Adorable, isn't she?" Claire grinned, turning to Yvonne.

"Hey Yvonne. You're pretty good at this whole skedaddling thing, y'know?" Still, she wanted some practice and she wasn't going to wait around and talk when she could be doing. "Anyways! Practice is always good. Gotta always stay in tip-top shape or you'll get lazy." She gave Yvonne a smug smirk. "And just because I'm such a good sport, I'll let you decide the type of competition we do."

Dawkin was pleased that he was able to find the electric type Pokémon without too much trouble and without running into any Sawsbucks either. He scanned each Pokémon as he came across them, making sure that his Pokedex was muted to prevent any untimely discovery. At this point he was in the perfect position for anything he wanted to do. Which basically amounted to him choosing which Pokémon he wanted to try catching. Any attempt to catch one would likely alert and/or scare off any others so it'd be best to pick the one he wanted the most first. Dawkin remained motionless in thought for a while, pondering the issue.

He would catch a Pichu. Mudshot reduced the Pokémon's speed and Wooper wouldn't be affected by electric attacks so he should open up with that. Dawkin released Wooper and told the Pokémon to stay still, which she had no problems doing, and waited until the Pikachus had moved along without the Pichus. Hmm, maybe he should see if he could convince one to join his team. Did that really work though? It seemed you'd have to have something they wanted first like food, or to save them from something. Whatever, he'd catch one this way and worry about it later. "Alright Whooper, use Mudshot." Wooper hopped out of the bush they were hiding behind and immediately propelled and burst of mud towards the closest Pichu. Time to catch a Pichu!

---

@Pikmin Eye

‘The land, maybe it doesn’t change. But your perception of it…’ The girl smirked at him, and then collected the money to then wave when he left.

‘Come see visit us again if you need any further tips~!’ She said, and then sighed when she thought he was out of hearing range, bringing up her phone again to entertain herself in the store otherwise empty of people.

So, he left Lakewatch Town behind to go back over the river and up the hill to the east entrance of Wet Caverns.





As instructed, he went forward towards the first intersect-

WET CAVERNS WELCOMING COMMITTEE!





He was forced to deal with a couple of Zubats anyhow he felt was appropriate, then he went forward towards the first intersection. The damp cavern smelled wet to him, where he walked through a cavern of rock with the river to his left, leading out. At the crossroad in four directions, he saw that in the direction the girl had indicated, there was electric light shining, for some reason. There was no water heading in there, but notable time to remind, Water-Pokémon from Pokéballs can get a small bubble of water around them to float in slightly above the ground for convenience. Anyways, with the assumption that Martin headed in there.

It quickly became apparent that this was a dead end. But, it also became clear why someone had lit electric lights here, because it would have been pitch black otherwise. This was a tiny pocket in the cavern, a small round room with a hole in the middle, straight down. The water was pitch-black, one couldn’t possibly see down into it. But, far down there, there were tiny flashes of light from living beings.

But, more obviously, there were pink Pokémon sitting in a circle around the hole, all with their tails dipped into the water.





None of them had noticed him, obviously. About a third had fishes on their tails, but hadn’t even noticed. If they noticed, they wouldn’t be reacting to it for an additional number of seconds. If the girl’s words held truth, then the hole in the water led somewhere, but it was extremely dark down there, albeit with small shining lights from Pokémon living down there. Now, then.

What would Martin do?

Amelia listened to the two adults as she browsed the menu. Before she responded, she would wait until she could place her order. getting a simple burger and fries for herself and enough pokefood for her five pokemon. If there was one on the menu that was said to be favored by Ghost-types, she would order that one. Once the orders were made, she turned to Jacques, sadly having nothing to say to Charl for the time being.
"I cannot tell you why he started training me. Maybe he saw some potential within me. Maybe he felt guilty for getting me in trouble when we first met. Either way, he did it for reasons you'll have to ask him if you met. He also contacted the Professor for me and helped me get the Pureplain, so I really owe him a lot." She said before carefully thinking about her next response. Considering who she was talking to, she saw no reason to be secretive "I don't know what really makes me so special, other then my... affinity for Ghost-types. I can sense them, know when their around. And they're generally pretty friendly towards me. I've managed to catch all my partners without having the battle a single one... though I did have to battle Pumpkaboos... friend or sibling, it was one of the two."

Whenever their food came by, Amelia would let out all her pokemon, Phantump coming out in a more dazzling display since it was a shiny pokemon.

The trip to the Wet Cavers was pretty calm and easy. Martin was already forgetting why it was a bother to go here, until the numerous Zubats appeared to stop him. "You guys never give up, do you?" Digging into his pockets, he called out Nincada to handle the fight. "Nincada, a couple of Tackles should be enough." Nincada looked upwards at the bats, jumping as high as it could to hit them with it's body. It took a few tries, but the incoming damage wasn't that important. With the Pokemon taken care of, Martin could advance again. It would be worth the idea of doing some training, but Slowpoke first. He was keeping Bulbasaur ready so this fight would be nice and easy.

The path to them was getting dark, but the water was finally stopping. After stumbling through water, and already knowing his clothing would be drenched again, he spotted the glow in the distance. He had a flashlight, but nothing too fancy. Thankfully, he didn't need it, as someone already though ahead. Following the trail, he finally spotted the color of pink Pokemon huddled around a hole filled with water. Martin would have sworn that was just a puddle of water, but the tip said it went deeper. Right now, what mattered was catching one of these. He pulled out his Pokedex, scanning the closest one, and pocketing it afterwords.

He pulled out a Pokeball from his belt, "Alright, let's get a Slowpoke, Sprout. Use Leech Seed and then we'll wait it out to catch it. If it fights back, just dodge the attacks." Sprout appeared in a flash of red light, looking around the area, and spotting a Slowpoke and releasing seeds from his back towards the Pokemon. While Leech Seed wasn't that powerful, the heal combined with constant damage would be an easy way to catch Pokemon. That hole in the ground was looking pretty interesting, not like it would be much more water soaking his clothes at this point. If only he could see in that darkness.

@Rune_Alchemist

‘Oooh…!’ Alberto was wide-eyed as he got to play a bit with Ralia, poking the Pokémon lightly and playfully while reaching for those climbing on him to see if he could put one on his head or similar silly antics because he was finding this amazing. ‘Absolutely…!’ He responded to the claim Ralia’s adorable.

Meanwhile Lucia simply stood upright keeping her eyes more on Alberto right now, ignoring any other looks. Like, he was her most important priority right now, and playing was fine but she was keeping an eye on him just in case he did something she didn’t approve of. Didn’t seem like there was any problems with playing with Ralia.

‘… Hmpf!’ Yvonne made a self-content sound about being good at “skedaddling”. ‘I’m going to assume you mean practicing our contest performances. Very well. Then we’ll need a sufficiently private stage. How about-’

‘Oh, I could borrow you my private one? It’s in the backstage area of the Dreamer Studi-’ Alberto started, raising his chin to the current discussion, but his interruption was interrupted by Yvonne continuing.

‘… we go out on Route 11 and find somewhere. I heard there are abandoned buildings out there. They should do. Okay, so I’m to pick type… but what categories are you prepared to compete in? Any, or are you focused?’ Yvonne asked Claire, giving a serious stare and a smirk.

‘Um.’ Alberto clearly wasn’t seeing the problem with his own proposition, looking over from Yvonne to Claire now, confused. Yvonne’s already directing one foot to start walking, if Claire would like to follow.

Would she?

__________________________

@Eklispe

Wooper came out, aimed her shot, and Mud Shot was away!

‘Chu?’ The targeted Pichu raises it’s ears a little as it somehow senses the incoming shot of mud before-

The shot of mud impacts the Pichu, which is sent rolling into a tree and hits it, it’s eyes crossed out and out.

It’s Super Effective! Pichu fainted!

… That is, not in a state to be captured.

The remaining Pichus, panicked by the ambush, scattered, running in separate directions. So did the Pikachus, running as mouse tend to upon being attacked. Two of them, however, frowned notably and dashed up towards Wooper on four legs each and tail in the winds.

‘Pika-CHUUUUUUU…!’ They launched their Thundershocks, in their intentions to counter the attack. However, they clearly hadn’t taken done their type-matchup homework, because Wooper had absolutely nothing to fear from the yellow electrical bolts trying to zap her. The willpower to fight immediately drained from the expressions of the two attacking Pikachu, their legs breaking to stop and expressions replaced with doubtful ones. Ooops.

Anyways. The Pichus he was after were fleeing in three different directions and one was lying fainted. Two Pikachus had moved to attack, buuuut their violent intentions just went out along with their electric sparks as they hit Wooper. Now, what?

__________________________

@Joshua Tamashii

Amelia let out her Pokémon, and they could feed as they liked. Now, Pokémon-food are sorted by kind of body rather than type, but there’s probably something in there that’s good for them. Charmander got its own little piece of food to eat, though Jacques wasn’t letting out any of his own Pokémon.

‘Oh?’ Jacques raised an eyebrow, looking at Amelia. ‘You can sense spirits, know when they’re around… you say?’ He then inspected her Pokémon as they came out, his eyes lingering on each. They stopped when he reached Phantump, considering. ‘That’s very interesting. Such abilities exist in minor amounts in various Mediums, but to that degree… I know of only three others. None of them is a fan of me. Granted, two of them aren’t particularly fans of anyone, but…’ He chuckles thinking about something, a personal joke, perhaps.

‘Oooh. Now I see.’ Charl commented, looking towards Litwick with a little smile. ‘Alright. I know what you were thinking. Hmm.’ He was clearly thinking about it, even if he wouldn’t be attempting it. Jacques, though, turned to look at Amelia again.

Now, Jacques has multiple questions that he’d wish to ask, but asking each one at a time would take ages, so here’s the questions that aren’t necessarily asked without waiting for Amelia’s answer in between.

‘I’m curious. Was there any particular way this ability manifested?’
‘Do you have any interest in others who can do similar things? Anything you’d wish to ask them?’
‘So, with that ability of yours… What are your ambitions? Anything that concerns your ghosts, perhaps? Fu-fu.’

Jacques fairly naturally picked something from a somewhat higher price-class, like that’s just natural, while Charles took something more modest.

__________________________

@Pikmin Eye

Now, Nincada doesn’t know Tackle. But a few Scratches later, intercepting the Zubats as they were descending to attack, the bat Pokémon were fainting or fleeing, and Martin was free to head on, Nincada a few exp-points richer.

Arriving in the corner of the cave with the pool, Bulbasaur came out and shot his Leech Seeds at the Slowpoke.

The Slowpoke was hit. The seeds started draining it.

Slowpoke didn’t move. The seeds continued draining it.

Slowpoke sat, not moving, dumb blank face looking at the wall. It didn’t seem to have noticed the-

‘SLOW!?’ The Slowpoke suddenly called out, startled, numerous seconds later than it felt reasonable that it should. It spun around, identifying the attacker and turned towards Sprout, a splash of water following it as the tail whipped out of the water. Making a (delayed) decision…

‘… POKE!’ Tail in the winds, the Slowpoke darted towards Sprout on four legs, intending on delivering a Tackle.

The rest of the Slowpokes didn’t seem to have noticed that there was suddenly a battle happening, sitting there so silently.

The Leech seed hit Slowpoke as intended, and Martin waited. He waited. It took quite a while for the Slowpoke to even register that it was under attack, which was fine with him. Slowpoke turned sluggishly towards Sprout, finally catching onto the attack, and was using Tackle on Sprout, just as planned. "Sprout, dodge the attack. We just need to wait it out, then I'll catch it. Just keep dodging until it's weak enough." This was pretty good of a plan, but it was a lot of waiting.

Sprout jumped to the side, to avoid the attack. Looking back at his opponent, in some kind of a taunt. Martin had no idea what it was supposed to be, but it wasn't that big of a deal. He had his spare Pokeball ready to be thrown, when that was ready. How long was he supposed to wait for Leech Seed to put him weak enough? It looked like it was on one or two glows, so not much longer.

Amelia smiled as her pokemon ate, seeing is as a well earned reward for their hard work for earlier. She had to keep an eye on Phantump though, grabbing her gently as she began floating off to scare some of the other customers.
"You can't do that here, it'll cause trouble for others." She said to the little tree spirit as Shuppet finished her meal and floated over to Amelia, who wrapped an arm around the little puppet, giving her a kind smile. Litwick made his way to his usual perch on top of her head while Driffloon was content to just float nearby and look around at everyone there though. Pumpkaboo though... he seemed to be curious about Jacques' hat, knocking it off the older man's head before flying inside of it and floating up, turning around curiously and letting out a few surprised cries, unable to see outside of it... or get out of it. Amelia giggled at the sight, unable to help herself, before turning to Jacques as he suddenly hit her with three rapid fire questions. Blinking in surprise, she took some time to think about it, helping Pumpkaboo out of the hat and handing it back to Jacques before answering.
"I don't know if there was any way that they manifested. It just kinda... was always something I could do. It may have simply grown over time or I may have been able to do so from birth. I don't really know or recall." She said slowly, stopping Pumpkaboo from going after the hat again. "As for others who can do the same thing... if I meet them I do, if I don't I don't. I'll leave it up to fate. As for my plans in the future, I have none. My parents didn't give me a lot of freedom and they're probably looking for me to lock me in my room again, so I'm just trying to remain as free as I can be for as long as possible. Maybe I'll find another goal as I'm journeying around."

@PlatinumSkink

---

Ralia grinned brightly, obviously enjoying playing with Alberto. The clones returned his playfulness with playfulness of their own, letting the human at least attempt to pick them up and place them on his head with varying levels of success. Some hung off his arms like they had with Yvonne earlier. One had climbed to his head and was hanging off of it. Two however, walked over to Lucia with a frown. They seemed to have a small conversation with themselves, before trying to climb on the stoic girl as if in a deliberate attempt to annoy her.

"Eh? Route 11? Dreamer studios is right here, though." Claire replied with a frown. "Buuut, I did say I'd let you pick the contest. Might as well let you choose the venue too." She grinned, turning to Alberto. "Hehe, sorry, gotta go. I'll see you on the stage later, yea? Good luck with your contests! And tell your girlfriend to work that pole out of her butt or she's gonna grow up and be a wrinkly old hag!" Before either of them could respond to the comment Claire had already bolted off after Yvonne, the horde of Ralia clones disappearing almost instantly, though not before one gave Alberto a hug.

"Hehe, well, you'll have to tell me how you know them later." Claire chuckled as she followed Yvonne. "As for contests...now, this is gonna sound crazy buuuut...I'm gonna be the queen of them all." She proudly proclaimed, earning a giggle from Ralia. "Small steps first, though! I haven't decided which I'll conquer first...but, that'll be decided once I an get better teamwork with my team here."