@Pikmin Eye

There were a couple of Durants homing to Vice Grip at Heatmor, but it turned out the anteater was perfectly equipped to deal with such an attack. An Incinerate fireball was launched, the attack wide-spread and hitting every ant adjacent to Heatmor, taking them out and at the end of it a crowd of burned Durants lay defeated. The Pokémon was admiring its incoming feast when Goldeen’s surge of water encompassed the lone source of light currently in the cavern.

‘Mooooor…’ The creature complained, looking over with tired eyes as Goldeen came in and Horn Attacked-!

Goldeen’s attack struck true, and Heatmor recoiled, waving its clawed arms with surprising speed to wave off the goldfish-Pokémon. However, with this attack, something became apparent…

Heatmor’s level can be estimated to be 15 ± 2

Horn Attack had done damage, but not very much. Heatmor was giving Goldeen and Martin a tired but threatening stare which translated roughly to “really? you wanna do this?”.

While his body was soaked and flames diminished, Heatmor was probably more than capable of dishing out physical attacks as well, if those claws were of any indication.

… Would Martin still go ahead with this plan?



__________________________

@Joshua Tamashii

Lakewatch Town was bustling with happy people calling from different shops around town and people riding over the water, the atmosphere was overall positive around here. Still, yeah, places to go, things to see. Amelia managed to take the canoes to the main landmass, where there were some regular buildings as well, before finally exiting out to Route 5.



… 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. These were sleeping Oddishes, the Pokédex could probably point out.





… So, yeah, it’d find plenty of cold soil on this route next to the Frozen Cavern. Natural Oddish habitat.

So, of course, Amelia can continue her trip along the road towards Route 6. Or she could…



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.

The plan was going to go well, but Martin seemed to have missed something important. He is not as strong as his opponent. The body language on Heatsmor, combined with not even bothering to attack. Yeah, this was a good way of guessing the trip was exploration. "Well, that did not work... Sorry for trying to catch you?" Martin rubbed the back of his head, taking a step back. He needed a couple Pokemon to get back out of here, and not enough items to attempt this. "Goldeen. We're done here, return."

Martin called back Goldeen, showing he wasn't intending a fight at this point. "Thanks for dealing with those Durants, I'll let you get back to that." Martin waited to see if Heatsmor would stand down from fighting, which was looking pretty good.

Assuming Heatsmor didn't intend to keep fighting, Martin would call out Nincada again, and keep exploring the Vast Underground.

@PlatinumSkink

---

"Rrral-!~" There was a cry of displeasure as Stefan quick attacked out of the way of the clones, and it quickly became apparent that the one hanging from his horn, was indeed the real Ralia who was now struggling to hang onto the Absol. Several of the clones dove out of the way as Absol swiftly avoided the horde of small pokemon, barreling through them as it avoided their entrapment. Not that illusory clones could really entrap anyone. The plan had at least worked in some fashion, as now Absol couldn't harm Ralia for as long as she was holding onto him.

That said, they would still be at a stalemate unless Claire could pull something out of her clever brain. At least now that the effects of that taunt wore off Ralia could likely have worked out some of that aggression from the insult. Well, maybe she could pull off a one-two combo here, if she was lucky.

"Alright, Ralia, hop off!" At the command, Ralia swung as best she could off of Absol's horn, landing in a surprisingly graceful manner a few feet away from where Absol had previously been. Claire brushed some loose hair out of her eyes as she grinned, giving the next command. "Growl!"

The Ralts turned to face Stefan, giving a rather unimpressive cute growl in his direction. It likely wouldn't do anything major, but she didn't have much to work with. Besides, she'd wrap things up with her next turn, heh.

@Pikmin Eye

Heatmor stared squarely at Martin as he returned Goldeen and made his apology, and kept watching him until he was a bit away before turning back to its ants. Seemed like Martin had gotten away without being pursued.

Going deeper into Vast Underground, he quickly found out that what just had happened wasn’t anywhere close to an isolated incident. There were Durants running around, digging and climbing walls, and every so often there were Heatmors pursuing them. There were far more Durants than there were Heatmors, many holes too small for Heatmor but just right for Durant, but that didn’t mean the Heatmors had any trouble finding ways to get what they wanted. They torched tunnels, causing the Durants to flee, and the Heatmors took advantage…

The levels on the Heatmors varied dramatically. Some appeared far more powerful than others, while others weren’t quite as intimidating, and the latter were more likely to be in a group of other Heatmors of similar level. But, for Martin this meant that although he perhaps made the right choice not to engage the last Heatmor, it didn’t mean all of them were above his level. It just meant that if he wanted to engage one, he might want to make it escape a smaller pack, first.

Huh. This rock looks peculiar.



… So, as he wandered, Martin might realize he faced a gigantic crossroad. The “main path” was branching off, gigantic halls of darkness dug out from a huge explance of rock. In the direction to the left, he could hear the flow of running water. To his right, the air felt a bit colder. And straight ahead was… a deep echoing noise, something smashing against something else, something powerful.

Alright. What would Martin do now? The crossroad would still be here if he decided to hunt Pokémon instead.



__________________________

@Rune_Alchemist

The Absol came to a stop, some distance away from the clones but keeping his eyes focused on Ralia where she had landed after jumping off him. Then, Ralia made her Growl. Stefan looked mildly annoyed at his slightly reduced Attack.

‘… Right. Leer!’ Yvonne commanded from the other side, and Stefan aimed a particularly penetrating stare at Ralia, decreasing her defenses. A Leer for a Growl, bringing things back to an equal level.

‘Alright. Now let’s dodge the last move, and then you know what to do,’ Yvonne commanded with authority, frowning with her muscles a bit tense, looking at Ralia.

‘Absol.’ Stefan confirmed, nodding as the two faced against Ralia, keeping an eye on where the real one was.

Penultimate exchange complete. Last moves.

More walking the dark caves, the only light being of nearby Heatsmor going after Durants. This place had a charm to it in an odd way. No one came down here, so it was just Pokemon. Martin had the bad fortune of thinking too much before nearly tripping over a rock. He looked back at what caused it, only to realize it wasn't an average rock. He found an Everstone, so it was good luck? He pocketed it in his bag, almost getting left behind by Nincada, who didn't notice him stopping. Martin picked up the pace to catch up, finally noticing Nincada stopped. "Hey, almost lost you. Why did you stop now?"

Up ahead was a crossroads, three different routes to pick from. The left sounded like more water, and the right was cold air. The middle route sounded like trouble out of Martin's ability right now. He wanted a Heatsmor, but they traveled in groups, which made it a lot tougher. Of course, hunting Durants by flushing them out did make a lot of chances to catch a Durant in the confusion. They both looked like good choices.

Actually, Martin had an Everstone. "Hey Nincada, I need you to hold something real quick." So he gave the stone to Nincada to hold onto. The bug wasn't sure what it was, but took it anyways. Martin knew his bug types, and Nincada had an interestng evolution that he didn't want to miss happening. So why take a chance when he happened to have the stone with him?

Back to thinking, and Martin had it. Durants are tough Pokemon to take out, but the local Heatsmor loved to attack these things. All he needed was to attack one that got separated from the others, and he could take it down with Sprout. Leech Seed, and Growl until it was weak enough. Okay, time to put this in action. Turning around, Martin was off to catch a Durant. Hopefully Sprout had a good rest from the last fight by now. "Okay Nincada, let's catch a Pokemon before heading on." He wanted a Heatsmor, but should see if it was possible later. Chances were great to get a Durant, and he might find a better chance later for Heatsmor. He called out Sprout to see if he was still sleeping just in case. If he was, Martin could wait before moving.

Action: Battle a lower level Durant to catch it with Bulbasaur, using Leech Seed, then Growl until it was time to use a Pokeball.

Amelia was starting to wonder how many times she might be left either breathless or with a sense of wonder on this trip. The view that greeted her when she reached Route 5 was positively stunning and she had to take a second to take it all in, just staring out at it with her mouth open slightly in shock. When she finally did recover, she began moving through the route, looking for a spot with an excellent view. Of course, she was scanning the Pokémon she came across and tried to approach the Deerlings she came across, approaching them slowly and in a nonthreatening manner.

Whether she failed or not, Amelia would continue looking for a hill or similar relatively safe place with a view before taking a seat and reaching into her bag to pull out something she hadn't used yet and somewhat wish she had. Her sketchpad, filled with several drawings of her pokemon friends back home. Moving to a blank page, she brought out a pencil and began sketching the landscape before her, her attention now completely on the task at hand and not her surroundings.

@PlatinumSkink

---

"Heh..." Claire grinned, a confident smirk moving across her face as she placed her hands on her hips. "You know, as a pokemon trainer there's one thing that's always a clever move." She began, with Ralia giving a small cry of agreement just afterwards. "Pin 'em, Ralia! Use Confusion to trap 'em!" Claire eagerly commanded. Now, confusion normally wouldn't have had much of an effect on a dark type. That's when you got creative with your attacks and use the environment to your advantage.

Ralia immediately complied, gathering all the psychic energy she could gather - but instead of focusing it on Absol, she focused it on the objects in the room, starting with the largest pieces of old furniture first as she grabbed them with her psychic energies and attempted to first, make a barrier between her and Absol and cut their line of sight on her and swapped places with one of her clones as a precautionary measure.

Secondly, she would attempt to pin Absol behind a barrier of old furniture by moving them until he either couldn't make his final move because he couldn't get to her, or because the strategy failed.

Claire was confident that Ralia could keep it up for some time though.

Dawkin was relieved to see the Energy Ball wasn't headed towards him, giving him enough time to snatch the pokeball and analyze the situation once more. Wooper was now the subject of Sawsbuck's wrath. Unfortunately there was no way for Dawkin to leave with Wooper and not bring the Sawsbuck with him. It was a darn shame that escape ropes didn't work in forests... Would repel even have any effect at this point? The Sawsbuck might be mad enough and strong enough that it didn't care. Well it should at least save him from more trouble. Dawkin sprayed himself with the can of repel in one hand and returned Wooper to her Pokeball, waiting long enough for Sawsbuck to attempt an attack to give him just a little bit more time to... RUN! As Dawkin's legs pumped frantically it occurred to him that being a Pokémon trainer involved a lot more running then he'd previously thought. Obviously he planned on making his way back to the route and then hopefully back to town to heal up his Pokémon before doing anything else.

---

❄Erika Olson❄

---

---

Fresh off of training, Erika applied four potions to her team members to bring them back up to strength. For most of her party it was being a bit too careful but considering what Erika wanted to try and do next, it was the right call. Aside from her first battle, she hadn't had any experience outside of that but now, she earned to test her Pokemon and her skills out again. Ewan had wanted to face the next gym leader, which meant he was going to be the one Erika would want to challenge. "Whew. That was a good workout, huh." Erika said to her team as she applied potions to all of them before returning them to their Pokeballs.

Before Erika asked, however, she wanted to take the opportunity to find another Pikachu, realizing that an electric type would cover a her present lack of power against water types. "Alright, I'm going to go see if I can find a Pikachu, since Joshua made me totally jealous. Then maybe we can go to the Frozen Cave to check out all the Ice Pokemon." She said to her companions before setting off back into the woods. Gibs was the obvious choice to use as he should have no issues with an electric type.

@Pikmin Eye

Sprout did need some more moments to sleep, but with Martin preparing for the optimum moment to strike, there was more than enough time to poke Sprout awake.

It was fairly easy to find a weak Durant and, unlike the Heatmors, they had no reason to watch one-another’s backs, they were basically assuming quite a few of their number was going to fall anyway. Since Martin waited until he could take advantage of the chaos of a Heatmor attack, the Durant he had chosen to attack had no allies backing it up for they were all scrambling for safety, and Sprout’s Leech Seed hit well.

‘Drant!’ the ant exclaimed, feeling its energy drained, before it realized that it wasn’t actually burned to a crisp by a Heatmor’s fire and it was something else entirely. It spun around and focused on Sprout, recognizing its attacker, and then violently went to attack. Sprout got off a Growl before the Durant could get close, and get close it could due to violent speed. And that’s when…!

… All its attacks went wide. Sprout, a more experienced combatant, was able to jump aside as Durant aimed powerful Vice Grips and Fury Cutters at him. But, there was something about how Durant was attacking. It was putting all its strength in every blow, and each of those blows came strong enough to make dents in rock. But, they were inaccurate, and Sprout was able to dodge basically all of them, partly because Durant was panicked by the nearby Heatmor. Regardless, Sprout hadn’t suffered a hit when Durant was weakened enough for Martin to throw the Pokéball.

It hit the tough hide of the ant-Pokémon, and the Pokémon was brought inside with a flash.

It shook once! It shook twice! It shook thrice…!





__________________________

@Joshua Tamashii

Unfortunately, the naturally timid Deerlings weren’t Ghost Pokémon and felt no reason not to be frightened by Amelia’s approach and did what deer do, turn and dash away upon a human’s approach. Any secret ambitions of Amelia’s of becoming a fairy tale princess are hereby shattered.

Otherwise, Amelia would certainly find a hill of some kind closer up towards the mountains and a bit northwards on the route, where while the height may make it a bit cold, she’ll find herself a view of the lake, the forests, the mountains and all other things that Route 5 had to offer, giving her plenty of view to draw.

__________________________

@Rune_Alchemist

Ralia focused on the items lying around. A large sofa was excellent for the thing she wanted to do. The furniture blasted itself in-between Ralia and Stefan, allowing her to then commit to teleporting to another clone and remove herself from the situation. Stefan blinked with a frown, unable to tell what she was doing.

‘Tsk. After her! Pursuit!’ Yvonne commanded, and Stefan leapt forward. Pursuit was just that, enhanced pursuit. A move specifically for hunting down those who escape by the means of a Pokémon move. But the thing was, Stefan had not seen Ralia teleporting, and as such couldn’t use the more unnatural attributes of the move.

Though, Ralia couldn’t pin an Absol in full motion. Confusion is a weak telekinetic force. Although she could send various furnitures around, there simply wasn’t enough of it to pin the agile disaster Pokémon. Stefan quickly found that the Ralia behind the couch was no longer its target, and proceeded to continue his pursuit.

Except, he had no reliable way of finding the true Ralia. Despite this, now being aware of Ralia moving furniture, Ralia couldn’t manage to pin him. This… went on for a bit, Stefan dodging Ralia’s attempts to pin him and Stefan being unable to pursue Ralia’s true self.

Yvonne bit together in frustration. ‘I… I think the final exchange would be considered over by now.’ Yvonne frowns as she says, watching the two Pokémon draw this out without someone clearly coming out on top.

__________________________

@Eklispe

Dawkin manages to return Wooper to her Pokéball before Sawsbuck impacted, and then the repel combined with legging it leaving the proud stag behind, Sawsbuck not really feeling like pursuing when Dawkin had the repel on him. Satisfied that Dawkin had learned a lesson and wouldn’t be bothering him, Sawsbuck let him go and continued wandering the forest.

Eventually, Dawkin emerged from the forest. Yupp, back to regular Route 5.



If it’s of relevance, there’s one girl sitting on a hill over there drawing, and he MIGHT see Erika entering the forest on another side of the forest, but otherwise, yeah. Dawkin may act as he pleases.



Connected areas:
Lakewatch Town. On the south-west of the route, Lakewatch Town lies adjacent to the lake on the road to the Wet Caverns.
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.



__________________________

@Pirouette

After having seen a couple during the training, Erika knew roughly how to wander in the woods to find another Pikachu. Soon enough, she finds a Pikachu sitting by a tree chewing on a berry. Its ears perks up as it hears her approach, turning its head to look towards her.

‘Pika?’ it asks.





So, what does she do?

Sprout did a great job battling the Durant Martin picked out. They didn't have enough power to hurt it, but Leech Seed didn't care about that. While Sprout did a great job avoiding it's attacks, Martin took note of how hard it was hitting. He was almost worried what would happen if it connected. His concerns didn't last too long, as Durant was weakened as planned by outlasting it. With a toss of his Pokeball, he was relieved. That makes the fifth Pokemon to his team, and a tough one at that. While a bad choice to use here with all the Heatsmor and other Durants, it was another Bug Pokemon. Something Martin was more than happy to add.

"Good to see you woke up, Sprout. So welcome to a really huge cave. Hope you aren't afraid of the dark." At this mention, Sprout looked around and came to the same understanding. He also couldn't see a thing. It was a good thing Martin was having trouble seeing down here, cause he missed Sprout silently laughing at him. What human willingly goes to a place with no idea of what to do or where to go? It didn't stay silent for long, as Sprout was just laughing as the idea just got funnier and funnier. "Okay, I get it. You can stop now. It is a great idea to explore a dark cave all by myself who knows how far underground. I don't need to explain this to you. Just come back, me and Nincada can handle exploring the dark."

With a flash of red light, Sprout was called back. He didn't ask for a Pokemon to sass him, but not much to do about it. He has two new Pokemon caught since he left, and still no chance to check them out or say hi. Just the downside of a no stops trip to see how far he can go.

"Okay Nincada, it's time to move on. I've thought about it, and I'd rather take the path up ahead that went towards water. The other choices just sounds like a bad idea. I got some Potions easily, but it might be going quickly if I make bad choices. Think you can take me that way?" Nincada sat still, not giving any response. Martin still wondered why was Nincada so silent all the time. Nincada finally looked in a direction and started walking. "Okay, I guess it's this way then. Don't leave me behind this time, please."

Action: Go back to the splitting path, and take the left turn. Towards the sounds of water.

@PlatinumSkink

---

Ah, as she thought. Ralia wasn't currently strong enough to pull of such a complicated maneuver. She had pulled off the ol' swictharoo on them well, and even had managed to get the table in place. Impressive enough by itself! Well, it was a good strategy at least. She smirked, rubbing the back of her neck in mild disappointment as she shook her head before she laughed loudly.

"Well," Claire looked over to Yvette, taking her eyes off of Ralia and her clones. "Alright Ralia, that's enough girl! Show's over." All at once, Ralia's clones turned to face Claire with a slight pout, twirling on a single foot as they face their trainer. "Sorry girl, play times over. At this rate we've got ourselves a stalemate." Ralia folded her tine arms, tapping her foot impertinently as if unsatisfied with the result. "Hey hey, don't give me that look, we did good for a test run." Ralia sighed, shaking her head before the clones vanished.

"Weeeelll, not the result I was expecting but hey, maybe that just means we're both fabulously amazing?" She grinned as Ralia walked back over to Claire, who quickly picked up the tiny pokemon. Lure simply looked on, a neutral expression on its three faces, though she seemed mildly interested.

❄Erika Olson❄

---

---

It thankfully did not take as long as Erika had thought to find another Pikachu. Of course finding one that looked so natural and peaceful seemed to pull a bit at Erika's heart strings. "I'm sorry little Pikachu but hopefully we will be great friends and an even better team after this." Erika offered before finding a particular Pokeball of hers and throwing it, summoning Gibs to the field. "Gib! Gible!" The high-and-mighty Dragon Pokemon hollered as he was summoned.

"Alright Gibs, time to get another teammate! Sand-Attack, blind that Pikachu before charging in with Dragon Rage!" Erika commanded and obediently Gibs followed the command, digging up dirt and flinging it towards the Pikachu before growling and charging forward.

Dawkin made it out of the forest still at practically a full sprint before he stopped to look behind and listen to hear if the Sawsbuck was still following him. After a few seconds of silence Dawkin determined it was likely fine. As such Dawkin flopped onto the ground breathing heavily. Ha...ha...ha... Jeez that had been a little too close. He had quite the tendency for getting himself into dangerous situations. Well, wasn't danger the best way to grow? His legs certainly had to be growing the way they were feeling right now at least. After a minute or so Dawkin got up and headed back to the city, wanting to quickly heal his Pokémon at the Pokémon center and make his way back out to Route 5 to get used to his Pichu. He wasn't going to sell it. Oh no, this was to make a point. They wanted him to catch and Pichu and sell it? He'd catch it, show up the selling spot to tell them he wasn't interested and keep it. Was that simply him being petty? Maybe. Maybe not. More importantly at the moment, Dawkin found himself at the edge of the forest at the base of the hill the drawing girl was on. Not that he really take note of her. He figured being near the forest might make Pichu feel better and it would be a good place to look for other trainers or wild Pokémon to battle making sure there were no hard feelings. He released Pichu and the barely one foot tall electric mouse did a swivel with bright observant brown eyes before finally locking onto Dawkin. "Hey buddy, feeling better?" Dawkin asked evenly. The Pichu gave him a glance up and down and turned away, raising its face in what amounted to a disdainful sniff. Dawkin shook his head, "Well we won't be of much use to each other at that rate. I think I might be able to change your mind though..." Dawkin reached into his pocket and pulled out a Rare Candy, unwrapping it and slowly offering it to the Pichu.

Its nose twitched twice and it swiftly dropped its pose and looked curiously at the Rare Candy with those bright eyes. It immediately made a little hop to snatch the candy and Dawkin retracted it upwards. "Ah, I see I have something you want. Well if you promise to play nice I'll let you have it." The Pichu scowled at him briefly before capitulating and switching its expression to a heart-jerking wobbly-eye stare. Dawkin laughed a little, "Looks like we have a deal." Now the candy was held in the palm of his hand rather than his fingers and he lowered it to the Pichu's level. The electric mouse waited for a moment to be sure there were no more tricks and then happily popped the Rare Candy into his mouth. A little squeal of excitement was immediately heard and sparks of electricity and arced to everything nearby. Dawkin's hand jerked back in surprise at the sudden light zap he'd received. It was nothing permanently harmful, but it had been quite surprising. Dawkin shook his hand to relieve the pain and spent a moment grabbing a water bottle and drizzling some water over the zapped area.

When he looked up he saw to his shock that a fire had started in the grass at the base of the hill. "Shiiii- p!" Dawkin tossed what remained of his water at the fire and released Wooper, "Water gun the hill!" Wooper, not too bright but enthusiastic as ever, proceeded to do just that. The burst of water put out the fairly small fire at the start of the hill. And also the rest of the hill. The spray of water continued all the way into the air, causing a sudden shower above the poor girl at the top of the hill. Wooper looked at Dawkin cheerily, pleased it had helped out and Pichu merely looked at the strip of soaked ground with some confusion, still happy that it had gotten a sweet treat. Ugh.... How embarrassing. Dawkin's pale skin made the red flush of shame more prominent and it borne a harsh contrast to his regular cool and composed impression. "I-I'm very sorry. I-he-well-it... _sorry..." Dawkin looked at the ground awkwardly with his fist at his temple as though he could somehow push a solution out of his brain.

---

Amelia was so intent on her sketch that she didn't notice or hear Dawkin as he talked or ordered his pokemon from nearby. So, it was definitely a surprise for her when the cold water came splashing down on her back, causing her to let out a scream as it hit. Even after the water stopped hitting her, the cold mountain air around her did not help matters, chilling her to the bone.

The first thing she did when she got over her shock was to check on her sketch. Luckily, the water had only hit her back, so it was unharmed. That helped her feel a bit relieved as she closed the pad and got to her feet, looking around for the source of the water. It didn't take long as a boy approached her, looking rather embarrassed and mumbling an apology, or something along those lines.

Despite how cold and upset she was feeling, Amelia couldn't help but laugh at the boys awkwardness. Taking a second, she examined the person in front of her. He was a good deal taller then her, probably a foot or more, with messy red hair and pale green eyes and skin almost as pale as hers at a quick glance. Looking away from the boy, she spotted a Pichu and Wooper nearby and quickly put two and two together. She gave Dawkin a kind smile before speaking.
"It's no problem. I just got a bit wet and nothing got damaged." She said before kneeling down and reaching out to Dawkin's pokemon. "I assume these two are the reason why?"

@Pikmin Eye

Martin wandered in the direction of the flowing water. The amount of Pokémon decreased rather drastically here. While it wasn’t as extreme as to the right, the air grew colder here, too. Was that a touch of wind he was feeling? Regardless, he could climb the rocks of this vast cavern towards the sound.

And there it is. An underground river, coursing from his right to his left. It floods on an angle, coming down with plenty of sound from the uneven and rocky river’s bottom, crashing off making plenty of foam. On the other side of the river the cavern continues further, it’s just this sudden river blocking the way. The river is too deep to cross on foot, and there’s a powerful current towards Martin’s left should he desire to cross. It was difficult to lean to try to see where the river came from or where it went.

There are two sets of red fish in the water. Some are Goldeens, bravely defying the powerful current and swimming up the river to the right, displaying themselves with the grace they’re known for. The others are, uh, rather big, red fishes with vacant eyes trying desperately to swim up the current but are being flushed down left. So both fishes are facing the same direction… but each is moving in a different direction, one braving the current and the other flushed away by it. Huh.

Goldeens going up, and…



… going down.

But, that wasn’t all that was here. Martin could look to his right and find what appeared to be a former campsite. Someone had been here, recently, and decided to pitch a tent and light a fire for the night. Except, whoever the person was must have left in a hurry. The sticks that made a fire are strewn about and scorched from being on-fire, the tent was still there but collapsed and torn apart, and there was remnants from a bag here which contents were spilled out.

… There was a torn Team Virtue uniform (for a male) spilling out of it. … There may be other things left behind in the bag, but it was pretty clear Durants had been all over this and taken all they considered of value.

But, he could still see a couple of things if he searched the remnants of the camp.







… … …

There’s a Pokémon in one of the Great Balls.



Now what?



__________________________

@Rune_Alchemist

As Claire stopped Ralia, Yvonne called back Stefan as well. The Absol looked very unhappy with this result. Yvonne frowned, but was quick to reassure him.

‘Don’t worry. You’re still the coolest. Nobody can compete with you when it comes to cool.’

‘Absol,’ Stefan stated with surety and a nod of “of course”, looking quite proud of himself. Yvonne crossed her arms, raised her chin and looked over towards Claire.

‘This would be the point when the judges judged who was the cleverest, but I’m pretty sure everyone present is too biased to make that kind of call right now,’ she proudly stated, Stefan turning and reinforcing this call with a glare.

‘Wanna continue? I can totally do this all day, I’ve got plenty of tricks prepared to make you feel bad about yourself!’ Yvonne continued, sneering a little.

Ralia felt concern from Yvonne, but she was disguising it with a haughty proud demeanour.

But before that, as a result of this training…



… Or whatsoever. She’ll now appeal a bit more to a Clever-crowd in the first round.

Now, then.



__________________________

@Pirouette

Thing is, Dragon Rage is a projectile, described as a shock-wave but animated as a purple fireball, so no need to charge to do it. Anyways.

Gibs first sand-attack showered Pikachu with sand, causing the Pokémon to shake himself to try to get the sand off. Then, trying to counter, Pikachu let off a pika-shout and launched a Thundershock… which promptly missed, just sending some shocks into the grass at the wrong place. Gibs sand-attack was doing work. Then, Gibs launched the Dragon Rage, which Pikachu just managed to get sand out of his eyes to see coming.

‘PIK-!’ he shouted, too late, as the attack impacted and Pikachu was sent flying back, rolling in the grass from the dragon’s attack.

Pikachu fainted!

… So. Dragon Rage is a move that grows less powerful the stronger the Pokémon fighting are, so for the moment it is massively overpowered. Pikachu’s of this level cannot handle that level of power. Would Erika want to try again? There’s another Pikachu over there…

__________________________

@Eklispe@Joshua Tamashii

From that Rare Candy…



Moving on.

Flushing the hill with water roused several Oddishes, who looked around curiously just to ensure they weren’t being attacked, before starting to randomly tread around drinking of the water that had been added to the soil, as a bit of a backdrop to their current conversation.

The currently rather cold air and a wet outfit was definitely not a good combination for Amelia, she might want to do something about that pretty soon.

Thank Arcues she didn't seem to think he was a bumbling idiot, despite that his speech and actions were indicating just that. Closer inspection of the girl he'd inadvertently wronged revealed a dome of blonde hair with a single slit for her eye. She looked to be somewhat frail, but perhaps he was simply making that up. Pichu was naturally curious at the approach of a new person and after a careful look at Dawkin to evaluate whether he could, he took a short hop to Amelia and sniffed at her hand. Meanwhile Wooper just gave Amelia a look of genuine happiness, seemingly because of her mere presence, but made no moves. "Ah- yes, Wooper gets a little overzealous. Also I wouldn't pet Wooper, I'm sure she'd appreciate it but she protects herself from drying out with a protective, and somewhat toxic, film." Dawkin's voice regained its normal assurance upon him explaining something that he well knew. He took a short breath to help restore him calmness. "Sorry again about the water, if you want I can pay for it to be dry-cleaned, or maybe a new shirt..." Dawkin pulled out his Pokedex and began checking to see how money he had in his account at the moment. With the catch of Pichu he could probably easily afford fixing his mistake.

---

Down the path Martin went, following Nincada. The further they went, the colder it was getting. He went the other way than that path, why was the cold going this way? Forward he went anyways, despite climbing over rocks in his path. When Nincada started to struggle to go up a section, Martin had to help the bug up. In the distance was the sound of water. "More water, this far down?" Martin didn't exactly say that to anyone, but rather just asked the question out loud. Being by himself left him talking out loud to fill the silence. After getting there, he noticed colors and shapes in the water. Pulling out his Pokedex, he recognized the Goldeen immediately. Goldeen went one way, and Magikarp was being dragged by the current.

While waiting to see how strong the current was by watching how fast the Magikarp were going past him. Martin decided to see if this side had a path that could be reasonably crossed. Nincada was not a fan of all the water, and kept his distance from even having a chance at falling in. "You can handle dark caves, but water is where you draw the line?" Nincada continued to not even make a response to it. How does a Pokemon have this little care to do anything? Shaking his head, Martin went to the right first, looking for a way to cross. He didn't find a way across, but he stumbled across what looked like a camping site. "Guess this place isn't as empty as I thought it was. Wonder who thought it was a good idea to be down here?"

Curiosity got the better of Martin, as he had to know if this was abandoned recently or not. Just reaching for the bag, he already noticed a uniform partly sticking out. He carefully removed it and held it in front of him. It looked like Team Virtue. He crumpled the suit in a ball and tossed it back on the floor. "Figures thats who'd be down here." It looked like Pokemon attacked this place, leaving Martin think about the Durants back a bit in here. Sleeping here wasn't that great of an idea. Still, he went through the bag. If Team Virtue left it behind, they wouldn't be needing it.

Deftly going through the bag, he caught the shine of a card. A key card. He already had ideas of what this was for, as he saw a place in the last town that was locked by a key card. Not likely it was the same thing, but that'd be a day if it was. A Thunder stone, Pokedollars, even Great Balls. He had no problem pocketing these until he found an owned Pokeball. "Leaving a Pokemon behind, now that's just wrong. Come on out."

Martin called out the Pokemon, it didn't matter what it was. Immediately, he could smell it. Foul air, toxic scent. Smelled almost like home, just a reminder of why he set out. The Pokemon turned around and looked at him confused as he already had a Pokedex out. A Trubbish. Yeah, just like home, and it's a Poison type. Taking a few steps back, Martin looked at it. "Hello, I'm Martin, and you kind of got left behind. So how about joining me for a while? Better than staying down here by yourself. You can think for a while, I'm going to see if I can cross this river."

Martin called back Nincada, reaching for Goldeen once again. Goldeen jumped out of the Pokeball and went straight for the water. She surfaced a bit down the river, not realizing what happened. It took a while for her to fight the current to get back to Martin, looking at him in confusion. "Sorry about that, but I kind of need your help again. Can you take me across this river?" Goldeen looked at Martin and then the other side. There was already Goldeens going across this river, so Martin had good hopes for this. Looking back at Trubbish, Martin gave a smile, "Looks like we're traveling together down here. I'll make sure you get out of here, then you can decide if you want to stay with me or be released." Martin did want a Poison type, but not for a reason like this. If he was going to have one, he wanted to make sure it was happy to be here.

Action: Keep Trubbish for now, and see if Goldeen can cross the River. Assuming she can, cross the river this way and stop to apply a Potion to Durant and Slowpoke. The continue forward. If she can not, turn back around and take a left with Trubbish joining him.

Amelia smiled as Pichu came closer and sniffed her hand. He in turn, reached a bit further and gently scratched the little pokemon under their chin. Looking back up at Dawkin as he spoke about Wooper's toxic film, she simply nodded, already knowing that due to just having used her pokedex on some back in town. When another gust of wind finally came around, the young girl visibly shivered.
"I guess I should head back to town to at least change into something a bit drier." She said, getting back up, smiling at him. "I appreciate the offer but you don't have to. I'll be fine."

When she saw Dawkin bring out his pokedex, her expression reading as one of surprise.
"I guess you're one of the professor's chosen ones as well? Or maybe Mr. Jacques'?" She asked him.

@PlatinumSkink

---

"Combee..." Lure hovered silently, feeling a little intrigued by this whole contest business, but made no attempt to show that to Claire or any parties present. The silly small pokemon known as Ralia would probably feel it, though. She wanted to see more, and cast a glance over to Claire to see if she'd take Yvonne up on this offer of more practice.

"Bad about myself? Pfft," Claire laughed, giving Yvonne a confident smirk. "Them's fightin' words, Yvonne!" Lets see...did she have time? This was a nice distraction and all, but she also promised Anise she'd buy her dinner. She also said she'd invite Yvonne to that. She also wanted to ask Anise where she could find some good looking fighting types, and she was supposed to meet up with Erika later...hmm, right right. "Buuut I'll have to reschedule your beat down for later." Ralia climed on top of Claire's head, whilst Lure buzzed in mild displeasure.

"I, have got a dinner date with a cutie." She grinned. "Ah...that reminds me. You wanna come with? I kinda owe her for helping me in Hector's gym, heh. Food's on me!" That also reminded her she had no idea of any decent restaurants in Red coast. Oh well! Winging it was her forte.

"Combee...!" Lure buzzed in mild annoyance.

"Hey hey, don't get uppity ya silly bug. We can practice more later. 'Sides, I'm hungry."