---

^{Pureplain City || Trainer School || Afternoon}
Needless to say, the students’ chatter of a fairy-type perked Eryn up straight away, and she was barely able to keep herself from chasing after them and blowing her cool as a trainer. Sure a fairy-type wasn’t what she needed at the moment, seeing as she only had a fire-type to work with, but such was team-building, and she knew there was no better time to start than here and now. The immunity over dragon-types was a nifty trait, and if, fingers crossed, it were a steel-fairy dual, that meant one less weakness and therefore one more advantage and reason to be excited.

So, though Eryn wasn’t at the student’s heels, she was still rearing to go, and if it weren’t for Dei’s growl she would have completely missed the resting feline as well.

“Oh, a Purrloin! Good catch, Dei.” Eryn knelt, patting her Charmander on the back before focusing on the Purrloin. “Hey there, pretty kitty. How’re you doing?” In Eryn’s experience, Purrloin liked to be complimented—perhaps even more than Skitty or Meowth, likely because of their dark-type affinity. Vanity was something often associated with dark-types, though Eryn had little personal experience to go off.

Still, the fairy-type was still on her mind, and, as one of the students had said, it was a first come, first serve situation, so she knew she’d do well to get on with searching if she wanted to have a chance.

“Well, I have to go, but you keep looking silky soft,” Eryn said, waving and straightening. Beside her, Dei—who’d voiced his disapproval with silence throughout this exchange—uttered a curt “Char” of agreement.

Heading away from the Purrloin, Eryn was again engrossed in the possibility of a fairy-type. Figuring that her best chance lay in going in a different direction than the students, Eryn took a route along the perimeter, looking for anything that stood out in the scenery. Fairy-types were, according to her rudimentary knowledge and gut instinct since she had no real-life experience to go off, easily attracted to flashy things, so she kept her eyes peeled for anything that caught the eye.

---

@PlatinumSkink

Dawkin inspected the tomb as he followed after Amelia, making sure to pay attention to his surrounding lest any lingering Goletts sneak up on him. The building was massive, even though it was filled with large amounts of sand, a sense of the majesty that was once here could still be felt. Dawkin looked at the unfolding situation with some concern. It seemed the pair that had been captured came to a decision and one of them broke free, causing many of the Pokémon there to chase him, leaving Amelia and his companion. It seemed they also wanted to go deeper into the temple. Dawkin had a feeling Amelia wouldn't appreciate it if he tried to rescue her at the moment, despite the fact that this was the best chance to do so. Well with the lessened security it should be easy for Dawkin to keep tailing Amelia, and unless something else unusual happened that was just what he would do.

---

@Dusksong

'Rrloin?' Purrloin asked, the feline turning its head to Eryn as she spoke to it, complimented it. Still, she didn’t spent a long time near it, so the cat simply curled up with a little 'Purr…' as Eryn left.

Eryn then went through the park that was there, looking for things out of the ordinary… and she found something most assuredly out of the ordinary. On a foldable chair among a couple of trees sat Oaken, one leg folded over the other and playing with a jar he was holding. This in itself wouldn’t be so peculiar, if he wasn’t completely surrounded by numerous meowing Purrloins, a couple of blue and black additional little quadrupeds…





… and a bunch of crustaceans with rocks as their shells.





When Eryn came close, he started talking without even looking at her.

'Honey. A sweet substance that Pokémon find irresistable, they’re drawn to this scent,' Oaken stated, utterly in control of the situation. 'Seeking after the Pokémon myself is inefficient. Especially here. I imagine a fairy shipped here from its natural habitat is either very used to humans or utterly terrified. The former ones should already all be captured. Hence, I seek the latter kind. The shy ones will avoid anyone who’s actively searching for them. But someone who sits still, who holds something that smells so very good and alluring, who’s seemingly distributing this sweetness amongst nearby Pokémon out of kindness…' Oaken stated, as if read from a strategy guide. Then… he pointed to a tree. '… And there she is.'

Indeed, right there, a being different from the surrounding Pokémon was daring to peek out, partly hiding behind a tree. It was a soft little face, yet from the back of her head extended a large, flower-like entity with strong jaws…





Not paying the peeking Pokémon any mind, Oaken closed his jar of honey and folded his foldable chair before putting them both into his bag. Then he turned, intending to leave.

'Weak. A Mawile’s average strength is unremarkable, and she has no evolutions beyond the regular. Extremely few gain the ability to see her upgraded form, and even if I one day obtain that ability I’ll be able to simply find a Mawile of my own in its natural habitat at that point. I wager that particular Mawile is worth more as the temporary companion and pride of whatever student finds her than what worth she’d be to me. I have proven I could obtain her, with a trainer of Kalmia’s as witness. That will suffice. I am done here.' So Oaken said, turning to walk by Eryn on his way out of the school.

The Pokémon that had been around Oaken had all been given a bit of honey on sticks and leaves, and they were following hoping for more.

The shy-seeming Mawile over there had gained no such, and was looking a bit distraught.

What would Eryn do?

---

^{Pureplain City || Trainer School || Afternoon}
Despite him barely doing anything, Oaken always seemed to push Eryn’s buttons somehow, and now was no different. Seeing him sitting, almost carelessly, on the chair as he tempted the park Pokemon to him struck a chord of annoyance in Eryn, and it didn’t help that he launched into one of his trademark villain monologues when she approached.

“Hi to you too, Oaken. You put down any other trainers since I last saw you?” Eryn asked sarcastically. Whatever manners she’d been brought up to have could be saved for people who saw kindness as a virtue to be spread rather than a scarce resource to be rationed and earned.

Movement from the trees, however, snapped Eryn’s attention from the sitting trainer, and she looked over in time to see a pale yellow- and black-schemed creature peek out from behind a trunk. Had she been alone, it probably would have taken a few moments for her to place the Pokemon, but right now she had Oaken and all his righteous commentary—whether she liked it or not.

“‘Unremarkable?’” Eryn repeated, turning on Oaken when he walked over. “Shouldn’t the mark of a truly great trainer be the ability to overcome the odds and prove themselves above the crowd?”

Glancing back at the Mawile—who’d hidden again, though not so successfully that a bit of its jaws didn’t peek out from behind the tree—Eryn made up her mind. “Tell you what: I’ll beat you down with that exact Mawile one day. You just wait and see.”

Then, turning her attention to the hiding Pokemon, Eryn approached quietly, Dei beside her. Thankfully, her Charmander tended towards silent disapproval, so Eryn knew she could count on him to behave.

“Heya, Mawile. What do you say you come with me? I’ll make sure you get lots of goodies to eat, not just honey.” Though she didn’t have anything to eat on her, Eryn figured she could probably find something the Mawile liked sooner or later.

---

@PlatinumSkink

"Well, guess it's time to get moving." Joshua said to himself, putting his now empty water bottle into his bag before looking over at the group of Golett's heading towards town. He glanced down at Absol before simply nodding and heading towards the ruins while Absol went to intercept the Golett's heading to cause trouble. Absol got ahead of the group in short order and the more powerful and experienced Disaster pokemon earned it's title by creating some lovely ice sculptures with a Blizzard or two before running off to join his Trainer.

Amelia in the meantime, didn't stay idle turning her trip down into the tombs. She managed to grab all her pokeballs and waited to see what was going to happen. If she needed two, she would call upon her pokemon to battle, but she really hoped it didn't come down to that. Sadly, it seemed that the residents of the tomb had other plans, as she saw that they were putting the captives to sleep. Thankfully, it didn't seem like she would have to fight impossible odds as one of her fellow captives got free of the Golett carrying him and ran away, causing most of them to follow him. That being said, it would still be five against five and she didn't put the odds entirely in her favor. Still, she had to do something until Dawkin could come and help her. With that, she threw all her pokeballs into the air.
"Litwick, Fire Spin on the Golett holding the Honedge and Bronzor. Shuppet, Knock Off on the Golett holding me. Everyone else, Astonish the same Golett!" She commanded.

Her pokemon popped out of their pokeballs and immediately sprang into action: Litwick unleashed it's fire spin the on Golett coming to put Amelia to sleep, catching Honedge and Bronzor in the process due to the golem-like pokemon holding the two. Being they were steel-types and Fire Spin a fire-type move, albeit a weak one, it might've dealt some decent damage to them while the ground-type Golett was unharmed. However, Fire Spin was also a trap-type move, preventing those caught inside of escaping it. While this wouldn't effect the two Ghost-types as they were immune to trapping effects, it would keep the Bronzor in place.

Meanwhile, Shuppet aimed a knock-off at the Golett holding Amelia. If the move hit, it would likely drop her if she counted as a held item for some reason. Then again, she was being held. Meanwhile, Phantump, Pumpkaboo, and Driffloon all used Astonish on the Golett. Four super effective attacks on the same target in rapid succession. Amelia could only hope they all hit and that it would be enough to knock the Golett out.

"This looks like it could be rather dangerous." Joshua said calmly, walking up behind Dawkin. He cast an eye around the tombs and frowned. He wasn't special like Amelia but even he could tell before entering that something was off. That feeling was growing.

It seemed Amelia was not content to be put to sleep and see what happened. She released all her pokemon at once, rapid fire commands following their appearance. Joshua had managed to catch up and commented on the situation. Did this guy follow Amelia all over the place? He seemed knowledgeable and understanding before but now he wasn't so sure. Whatever.

"Thanks for the warning." Dawkin said, reluctantly keeping the venom out of his voice. Having said that he left his hiding spot to help Amelia, releasing his Pokémon as well. "Whooper, watergun the one trapped in the firespin if he gets out. Atlas, Metal Claw the one holding Amelia" Between that and the Pokémon Amelia had used, this should be cleaned up pretty quick.

Whooper would carefully eyeball the one trapped in the firespinning, waiting for any sign of the Golett escaping or the spin vanishing to give him a chance to attack without his own attack being diluted. Atlas meanwhile rushed headlong towards Amelia, just in case her own Pokémon didn't manage to free her.

---

@Dusksong

Oaken did not reply to her first statement, merely raised a single eyebrow and gave her a sideways glance. However, he stopped when Eryn mentioned the parts about a truly great trainer turning the unremarkable. That, he took seriously. He turned to look at her, eyes unflinching.

'You are right. A great trainer can turn any Pokémon into a champion…' Though, then he glanced over to the Mawile. '… But I see no reason to give myself a handicap. A journey raising Pokémon like that will be needlessly tough, and in the end the battles at the Pokémon League will demand the most powerful and efficient Pokémon in order to reliably perform. I will pick the Pokémon that give me the best chance of victory. It’s as simple as that.'

He then simply looked as she approached the Mawile, after declaring she’d use precisely that one to defeat him. '… Good luck with that, then.' He didn’t sound like he understood the point of that. He turned and took a number of steps away.

Meanwhile, Mawile noticed Eryn’s approach, looking up at her with a bit of hesitation. It looked at with a bit of a frown, and wasn’t really convinced by her words. She’d have to work a little bit more than just that.

'… Mawiles bite,' Oaken gave a final little supposed word of advice, before turning to walk. There were still the Pokémon cats, quadrupeds and crustaceans taking part in the honey that had been spread about on leaves and sticks that Oaken had used to lure them all here.

What would Eryn do now?

__________________________

@Joshua Tamashii

For a brief moment, when the blizzards hit, one of the Goletts imagined an alternate scenario. There, an awesome monster of ice and darkness stood before them, like a dark god who had taken notice of them. “You dare wander outside your tomb?” it would ask. “This is our world! Go back whence you came!” And so, the other Goletts all cowered… but this one stood form. “No!”, it replied. “This world is ours, as much as it is yours! Fellow Goletts! We must stand firm in the face of this injustice, and collect plenty of humans for our master! For our beloved emperor!” And so, the Goletts cried out in passion and huddled together, holding their heat in place before the blizzard. “You dare defy me?” the dark god asked. “Then, you shall face the consequences!”

The terrific blizzard intensified, hitting the group of Goletts with a freezing gale that would surely be their end… but they stood firm. As one, the group of Goletts gathered their individual strengths, and advanced at the dark god before them. “How can this be!?” the god shouted. “You are but mere Goletts! You have no right to survive my storm!” Yet, they surely stood, their little gemstone eyes glinting with determination. “We fight for our own freedom, and for our beloved emperor! You shall not stop us!” And with that, they broke ranks, as a group they charged and struck the menacing god. Their opponent roared out in pain, striking back with massively powerful blows, but the determination of the little Goletts won out, and finally the massive beast collapsed before their assault.

“The god is slain! The world has been conquered for our emperor! We are free!” And so, the Goletts rejoiced and celebrated, free to kidnap as many humans as they liked, and their beloved emperor gave a particularly handsome reward to that one Golett who had led the charge, who was more than proud and happy to accept it. Soon enough, he was a mighty Golurk, standing at its master’s side forever proud and revered as the world was conquered…

Now, of course, that didn’t happen. What happened was that the desert momentarily turned into a snowstorm and the Goletts were left as frozen ice-sculptures. When later the desert turned back into desert and the ice thawed they’d collapse where they were because ice had damaged them enough to faint them multiple times over.

Now, then. Later.

@Joshua Tamashii@Eklispe

Amelia unleashed her team of Pokémon, and the room suddenly grew plenty crowded with ghosts. Then Dawkin added to the fray, and it became quite the ambush.

The Golett wielding a Bronzor and Honedge had been about to put the other girl to sleep, but instead spun to face the noise and promptly ended up in a spinning little inferno of Fire Spin blown Litwick. It staggered back, and the two steel-types it was carrying also felt the damage and promptly abandoned the one carrying them, the remaining Golett then taking Wooper’s Water Gun for more damage and fire spinning about it… Though, it wasn’t quite out yet.

The one carrying Amelia was momentarily confused by the sudden noise, but was then hit by Knock Off, causing the ghost to stagger and Amelia to be Knock-Offed, because she was totally an item and as such promptly fell to the floor, which fortunately wasn’t that far due to Golett’s short height. That particular Golett proceeded to be Astonished three times and Metal Clawed once, which was completely enough, and the Golett fell fainted onto its side.

Counter attack time. Litwick found himself targeted by all three of the armed Golett trio. Honedge flew forth and attempted a Fury Cutter! … Which was hilariously ineffective given Bug-type against Ghost/Fire. The same could not be said for when Bronzor shot a Confusion or when the Fire Spun Golett charged forth for an Astonish of his own, dealing a not-inconsequential amount of damage on Litwick. Still, he had plenty of fight in him to go.

The remaining Golett carrying the girl, looked back at the small army of opponents that it had no chance against. The girl herself also blinked back at the sudden commotion. … Then the Golett lifted the girl above its head and made a mad dash for the exit straight ahead of them, leading deeper into the tomb, the direction all the other captives had been led. The Bronzor flew to hover in the way of pursuit, however temporarily.

Their actions now?

__________________________

@Gardevoiran

Alice decided she had other things to do elsewhere in Pureplain City, and as such will not be continuing. Now, then.

Vivia was currently in the motion of stopping Rotom from committing arson as the little ghost found it funny to discharge electricity into the grass to cause a bit of fire, but Vivia was swift to stomp out the the result and then gripping Rotom by the head to glare at him, Venonat standing at the ready to Foresight the ghost to allow for Vivia’s grab. Still, otherwise she had Scraggy train against a few birds and mice, then hearing Skylar’s suggestion.

'Oh, yeah, sure. There should be some interesting things in that forest. I never went in there,' she said, sounding decently interested. 'Will you be fine? The ground will get a lot less even, and I imagine roots or little cliffs or such things in the wildlife…' Vivia asked, looking a little worried Skylar before they went on.

So, with the assumption that they did head into Silent Forest, travelling north up past the plains of Route 1. Finally, they stepped past the trees, and entered what may have felt like a new world entirely.



What would Skylar do from here?



Connected areas:
Route 1. To the south.
Route 3. If you head north-east for a while.
Silent Shrine. Go north, you should be able to find the road there.

@PlatinumSkink

---

Well this was bad.

Urgh, maybe she should have played more defensively again. Claire hadn't expected that flower to be swift enough to completely change attacks like that or at least Zeal could get off one attack. There was nothing she could do to defend against this, was there? Zeal was asleep and she had nothing that could wake him up. Well this was quite the predicament she was in. Claire frowned, grimacing at the thought. This kid was brutal. Absolutely Brutal.

"Alright," She placed a hand on the back of her head. "This looks bad, but this is when spirit will get us through this! Zeal! Come on, you're not gonna let Del out do ya, are ya?!" She shouted. "Shake off that sleepiness and burn that overgrown weed!"

There was only one thing she could hope for here - the Focus band did its job, and Zeal woke up on the exact same turn or fast enough to dodge the next attack. In other words, she'd need to be really lucky.

@Rune_Alchemist

She did not get lucky.

Zeal stayed asleep as Sunfloorall blasted its whole Solar Beam at him, scoring a direct hit. Zeal had already been somewhat damaged by Lilligiant’s Mega Drains, and then he had been touched by slight Solar Beam residue earlier, and this was powerful enough in a direct hit to be way too powerful. Zeal took the whole hit, the Focus Band didn’t help either, and he fainted on the spot. While asleep.

‘Are you having trouble yet?’ Archie asked, smiling so widely and tilting his head a bit while looking at her. Sunfloorall also smiled so widely at her… though the yellow flower was looking somewhat pale. Some of the petals were looking just a bit wilted. Doing those powerful blast was draining it, due to its ability.

So, Claire’s next action?

---

---

Skylar looked at Vivia with a smile on his face (even if he was facing a bit too far left). "No worries, Vivia! I've got Seabreeze watching me! Plus, despite the glasses and cane, I'm not completely unable to see." Skylar said as he walked along a roughly flat path, patting the ground with his cane as he took each step, just in case there was a sudden drop-off anywhere that he wasn't expecting. "I have... uh... 500/20 vision... with a cone of about 20 degrees in visibility. I'm not able to see much unless it's directly in front of me. I normally rely on my hearing and my dad's Xatu to see, but since he went back to the lab I'm a bit out of luck, heh."

The kid walked into the forest, skipping past all the Petilil and Cottonee he could hear as they moved through the forest. "Seabreeze should be just fine, though I think he's a bit erratic in his thoughts, too." Skylar kept explaining as the two walked, with Seabreeze watching every step and occasionally being distracted by the shimmer of attacks being used to put on small little shows. "Some people would sooner let Seabreeze go for being how he is, but I think he's great! After all, how could I judge something that's kind of like me? It'd just be wrong."

The entire time Skylar was walking and leading the path, he was looking out for any flying-types that he could find. He wanted to seek them out and train them so he could use them, though he was looking for something a bit more in each of them. If he found a Pokemon that wasn't the greatest and had some form of issue, he wouldn't idly stand by and keep it from being all that it could be. "I'm not interested in the Pokemon League or Contests. I'm interested in learning about Pokemon. I see them not only as potential friends, but as balls of potential that just need the right amount of friendship to tap into. It's that simple for me, really."

The trainer looked up at Seabreeze. "Keep an eye out for some flying types, okay buddy? I'm not sure what we'll find here, but if we find a Tropius that's willing to let us befriend it, I would love to catch it."

Of course, Seabreeze responded with an excited "Wingull!"

@PlatinumSkink

---

"Welp," Claire sighed, running a hand through her hair with a smile. "Looks like I need to put more points into luck, heh. Ya did good, Zeal." She recalled her pokemon, considering her options. Well, all out offense had failed against this guy but now she was a bit more prepared for what this flower could do. It was losing health every turn, right? Then that meant, she just needed to stall and let him KO himself and she liked to think she had the perfect candidate for that.

"Trouble?" Claire responded with a hearty laugh. "Like I'ma let some overgrown weeds get in my way." An aggressive smirk began growing on her face as she reached for her next pokeball. "I am pretty tired of those cheap tricks of yours." She just had to hope Ledyba could out speed this flower and get off a Reflect. She could use Safeguard. That would prevent him from falling asleep, too - but if he wasn't fast enough then the chances of success would decrease dramatically. If successful, that would prevent sleep and make it useless but also waste a turn and Ritz would take a pretty bad hit, even with his type advantages.

Well, time for a small gamble that he'd try using Grass Whistle again.

"Alright, Ritz, show 'em how its done!"

"L-led!" Released in a flash of red light, Ritz only had to take one look at Sunflora to stop feeling his wings. "L-ledyba!" He shot a quick look back to Claire who gave the timid bug an encouraging smile.

"Hey! Think of it like this. Its a nice tasty flower for you to snack on."

"...L-ledyba."

"Hey, come on now! You've gotten lots stronger, haven't you?" Claire with a soft tone. "That Sunflora isn't gonna out do us! Just stay calm and listen, alright? I won't let it hurt ya."

"L-ledyba." With some new found determination, Ledyba gave the Sunflora a sharp glare.

"Alright! Safeguard first!" Ledyba took to the skies, keeping some distance from the Sunflora. "Try and avoid that solar beam if he uses it! Follow it up with a Light Screen, then focus on dodging!"

"Whooper Water gun again. Atlas, Metal Claw the Golett that's armed." Technically he wanted to help the girl being carried away, but she did say that she wanted to try to communicate with whatever temple spirt was in control here, and it'd be rather impolite of him to ruin her chance to do so. That's not to say he wouldn't do the same thing he'd done for Amelia, and tail her in case she got into trouble. "Amelia are you all right?" Dawkin asked and he hurried to help her up, the fall hadn't been a big one but even a small fall could be very painful if you landed wrong, as his little brothers could testify too.

---

Amelia let out a small scream as she was dropped, even though she had been somewhat expecting it. Luckily, the fall wasn't far and she landed rather well, so she was able to get on her feet quickly while still seeing what had happened to her partners and what Dawkin's pokemon, who had entered the fray, were up to. Litwick got ganged up on but otherwise seemed alright and in good enough condition to keep fighting. She also didn't want to hurt his pride by taking him out so he was going to stick around. Assessing the situation was easy and she issued her orders quickly. While this meant she kind of ignored Dawkin, it was out of simple concern for her partners and focusing on her current task. She meant nothing harmful by doing so. However, she also took Dawkin's orders into account before speaking.
"Leave the Golett to me, Fire Spin might end up hurting Atlas. If Atlas knows a ground type move, use it on the Honedge, since it has the No Guard Ability and will always get hit as a result. Have Wooper help me take out the Bronzor, since Atlas won't do as well against that one." She said to him before ordering her pokemon. "Litwick, get close to Golett and Astonish it as much as you can. Stay within your flames. Shuppet, Driffloon, Knock-Off and Astonish on the Bronzor. Phantump and Pumpkaboo, both of you Astonish the Honedge."

Her hope was that maybe the Honedge, being unable to avoid attacks due to it's ability would fall quickly. If not, she hoped to at least distract them from ganging up on Litwick, so he might not get knocked out instantly. On top of that, with Fire Spin going, Golett was taking constant, if rather small, damage, which would hopefully help take it down without Liwick getting knock out.

Regardless, her pokemon lept into action, Liwick literally so in that he jumped into his own Fire Spin, keeping within his flames. Under normal circumstances, his would likely hurt him but since Litwick possessed the Flame Body ability, it instead healed him, even if only by a very minor amount. Meanwhile, her other pokemon flew over to their respective targets and used the moves they had been ordered to, making it a 2v1 battle between them and their opponents, 3v1 is Dawkin did what she suggested.

---------------------------

Meanwhile, concerning the fleeing Golett, a white blur ran through the battlefield and got in front of it, cutting it off before it reached the exit. THE DARK GOD HAD RISEN ONCE AGAIN! Absol growled at the Golett.

"That's the only warning you'll get mate." Joshua said to the Golett calmly as he walked up behind it. "Release the girl and you'll get out of this unscathed. Don't and well..."

Absol's horn glowed as black energy with a dark purple border surrounded it, the Disaster pokemon preparing to use Night Slash if the Golett attempted to fight back. It would no hesitate.

---

^{Pureplain City || Trainer School || Afternoon}
“Thanks for the tip,” Eryn said as Oaken left. He was an alright guy when he wasn’t acting like an uppity schmuck, however rarely that might be.

Dealing with Oaken, though, was the easy part this time. Where Oaken wouldn’t challenge her to another battle for a while, the Mawile might force Eryn to partake in one very soon. And, seeing as Dei’s only offensive option was Scratch, a battle against the steel-type was the last thing Eryn wanted. Creativity was, therefore, Eryn’s best option at the moment, and seeing how much the Mawile wanted some honey, Eryn figured her best option was to get the Mawile some.

Turning her attention to the various Pokemon partaking in the honey fest, Eryn considered her options, Pokedex in hand. Dwebble, like the Mawile, were resistant to normal=type moves and therefore a poor choice of an opponent. Shinx, on the other hand, were electric-types, and paralysis was a possibility Eryn didn’t really feel like risking. That left the Purrloin, but from her experiences feeding stray Pokemon, Eryn knew trying to take food from a Purrloin was a bad idea. In fact, she was tackling the problem in the wrong way: instead of trying to figure out which Pokemon Dei had the best chance against in a battle, figuring out which Pokemon would be least likely to challenge Dei might mean being able to avoid battle altogether.. And, of the three species of Pokemon gathered around the honey, which Pokemon would be less likely to try and battle a orange, flaming Pokemon than Dwebble? Sure its rocky shell offered natural protection against flames, but its shell-less parts were as vulnerable to fire as the next bug-type. That, and the fact that Dwebble were known to be aggressive when shell-less, suggested that the bug-type would likely avoid confronting Dei if possible, likely retreating into its shell rather than trying to pick a fight.

“Alright, Dei. Grab that honeyed stick near that Dwebble for me, would you?” Eryn said, pointing to the stick near a Dwebble. For someone who worked so methodically, Oaken had sure used a lot of honey to find the Mawile, and Eryn wondered if he was disappointed his efforts had gone to waste. Nevertheless, she was thankful for his generosity this time. There seemed to be more than enough honey to go around, and the Pokemon were hardly fighting for shares.

Eryn watched patiently as Dei approached the Dwebble, then bent over and grabbed a stick of honey before making back for her. The Dwebble, who had its own share of honey to mind, hopefully wouldn't notice the minor transgression, thus allowing her to offer the gained honey to the Mawile.

---

@PlatinumSkink

Uh guess she was fine. Dawkin stepped back somewhat awkwardly as Amelia got up and began giving commands to the small army assembled, as well as to himself. "Yeah, sure." Dawkin said hesitatingly. He'd been a little bit more focused on helping Amelia than the ideal battle strategy but apparently that was not the case for her. Perhaps she'd been thinking of this whilst being carried. "Atlas mudshot Honedge, Wooper mudshot Bronzer." Both of his Pokémon spent a moment adjusting to these new orders and promptly both fired of a salvo of mud at their respective targets. That should help things a little bit. However once again Dawkin was focused on something other than the battle. There was Joshua, interfering with things again. Hadn't he been paying attention? The girl has said she'd wanted to be brought to wherever they were taking her. Dawkin clenched his jaw as he controlled his anger. And to think he'd liked this guy at first.

---

@Gardevoiran

'Oh. Alright, if you say so,' Vivia said, acknowledging with Skylar said and then heading out with him. She listened to the rest he had to say but didn’t really have anything else to say, so moving on. As they wandered the forest, it sounded like there were some soft tunes in the distance, sounding like some kind of melody? They walked on, and then they walked into a decently large Pokémon, extending its long neck to eat fruits from the nearby trees.

So, funny that was specifically what he was looking for. Because… there are Tropius in this forest, walking about from tree to tree, seeking fruits and not minding Skylar and Vivia at all.





… Except, they’re somewhat of the hulking giants of Silent Forest. Being in their presence, Skylar feels that he’s a bit out of his own league, and if he wants to catch one he’s going to have to return when he’s somewhat stronger. If he got too close, he’d get a threatening stare… and maybe be offered a fruit, the large Pokémon lowering its neck to offer the fruits growing on its neck to them, but that’s about it. Currently, their levels range from 20 to 30. There MAY be younger Tropius around, they aren’t born on level 20… but to find those, he might have to change his strategy.

So… This little pocket in the forest seems to be a Tropius napping ground, with numerous Tropius lying collapsed and snoring. … Or not, seeing how multiple others were fleeing the scene, as if in a panic. If one were to ask why exactly they were running… then one’s eyes (assuming they were functioning well enough) would be drawn towards the stump before the groove, where a pink ball of a Pokémon stood, turning to stare at the new people that had entered the scene.





‘... Puff?’ At the start, Jigglypuff was looking at Skylar, who… wasn’t triggering her instinct to sing when their eyes met? Jigglypuff was confused. However… then it met the eyes of either Seabreeze or Vivia, the latter who blinked a bit in surprise towards it. Satisfied, Jigglypuff smiled under its giant eyes, and then opened its mouth.

Jigglypuff was intending to sing for them. It’s pretty common knowledge what a Jigglypuff’s song does.

Skylar / Seabreeze’s action?

If he needs outside input for any reason, we can assume Vivia called 'It’s gonna sing!' before starting her own actions, which she will have, but Skylar’s first.

__________________________

@Rune_Alchemist

‘Cheap tricks?’ Archie giggled, no other word for what he was doing, before he smiled widely with hands behind his back and tilted his head while play-pouting. ‘Hey, that’s rude! Those “tricks” are my bread and butter~!’

Ritz came out, and Archie smiled widely. ‘Tihi. Still red. Not fire, but still red. So, so red…’ … and that was all Archie said, while Sunfloorall had started charging a Solar Beam in its own, preparing to fire as Ritz flew up into the sky.

While Solar Beam didn’t need a turn to charge because of the harsh sunlight, it still took long enough that Ritz had the advantage in speed. That said, Safeguard didn’t help when the sunflower went all-out assault. Due to the distance Ritz managed to precisely maneuver out of the way as another massive beam shot into the sky past him, yet the mere proximity to the powerful rays damaged him a notable amount despite the double resistance. Then, he got Reflect up just in time, because he wasn’t as lucky with the dodges the second time. The Solar Beam hit right into the shield protecting him, and all his Special Defense would have been pointless before firepower of that magnitude. However, Reflect protected him, the beam dispersing to his left and right as he resisted the beam.

When the beam finally dispersed, was still in the game, though damaged heavily.

‘Yeah, shoot another beam. You don’t have a lot to go, so we’ll have to take out as many as we can while you still got it,’ Archie said, still smiling, and Sunfloorall responded.


While Ritz was doing his best to dodge, and having reflect and double-resistance at his side, two more Solar Beams STILL did too much damage, even though it was merely by proximity, causing Ritz to faint. The tactics employed had ensured that it took four Solar Beams rather than two, but in the end Ritz wasn’t fast enough to quite dodge the beams. Still, Sunfloorall looked like it was about to faint, now.

‘Niiiice~ So, you got one or two Solarge Beams to go. Think you can take another Pokémon?’ Archie asked his gasping sunflower.


Sunfloorall called out, eager to serve but almost drained.

__________________________

@Joshua Tamashii@Eklispe

Litwick went and Astonished the Golett within his own Fire Spin, taking some fire damage which was absorbed by Flash Fire and powered up Litwick’s own flame. Golett, meanwhile, took too much damage and fell into a heap and fainted.

Sooo, ability update. Seems Bronzor here went with Heatproof, meaning it actually didn’t take particularly much damage from Fire Spin. This, however, meant it does not have Levitate, and was as such promptly Mud Shot by Wooper, taking super-effective damage and quivering back. Meanwhile, while Atlas does not know Mud Shot, he can Mud Slap aplenty in the direction of Honedge, who was hit and got some mud on the eyes on its guard and had its accuracy decreased… not that it mattered, No Guard ensured it hit its next Fury Cutter anyway.

The combination of Wooper’s Mud Shot, Shuppet’s Knock Off and Drifloon’s Astonish was enough to faint Bronzor. However, thanks to its impressive defense was still just barely around after two Astonishes and a Mud Slap, partly due to the low-power nature of the moves. In annoyance, it sliced back a Fury Cutter against Phantump, who due to Grass-type took a decent amount of damage from the one-step powered up cutting move… but now Honedge’s going to be taken out by any move that any Pokémon performs, so for all intents and purposes, this particular skirmish is over. It’s just a highly damaged Honedge left.

Without any further ado,



Meanwhile.

The Golett carrying the girl flinched to a stop as Absol overtook it and growled. As Absol doesn’t actually learn the move Growl, Golett’s attack-stat was unaffected.

An ultimatum was given, release the girl or suffer a fate worse than death _{(slight dramatisation)}. Golett held the girl, slightly quivering as its loyalty was tested. It considered for many long seconds, during which it honestly considered abandoning the cause…

… but no!

It could not abandon the emperor! The emperor that for so long and bravely supported them, that hatched this plan and promised prosperity to them all, that urged them on this quest for him! Their loyalty was absolute!

‘Golett!’ With this in mind, Golett steeled itself, a tear of yellow oil _{or something} leaking from its shiny eyes, as it took one step-

aaaaaaaaaand was cut down by a Night Slash, falling down into a heap after the absurdly powerful slash.

The girl fell onto the floor _{or perhaps Absol or Joshua caught her}, and was quick to get up on her feet and dust herself off. She then turned towards her saviors.

‘It would seem I have been saved,’ she said, before bowing to them. ‘Thank you, but I ask that you leave this place at once. The spirits are uneasy, and only someone who can commune with them will be able to unearth the cause. As such, I should proceed alone. I’d like to ask you to go look after my father in the meantime. He was being pursued by a group of Pokémon. That is all. Have a good day,’ she said, before turning around and intending on heading deeper into the tombs on her own.

In any case. They’re standing in a bit of a crossroad of sand. The rest of the Goletts headed into the architecture ahead, further into the tombs. Right from the entrance was the direction the man had dashed, pursued by a small army of enemies. Left was another tomb-like cavern, who knows where that led, and finally there was always back, following the stairs back out.

What would they do now?

__________________________

@Dusksong

‘Dwebble!’ the Dwebble sounded annoyed as something was taking its honey-covered stick, and turned to face the slimy thief… only to end up face-to-face with (comparatively) big fire lizard. It then made a quick call that this particular bit of honey probably wasn’t worth it, and instead turned to mess with its mates to get some more honey from them. Dei was free to return to Eryn safely.

What exactly did she wish to do with said stick of honey?

The skirmish had gone pretty well and things were basically finished. "Wooper, mud shot. Good work you two." Dawkin said, recalling Atlas and Wooper once he'd seen Honedge faint. A quick glance ahead showed Joshua had dealt with the kidnapper Golett, and the kidnappe was running off. Dawkin turned to Amelia, "Well I was on planning on following that girl deeper into the temple in case she runs into trouble, especially since you and her seem to be after the same thing. Sound like a plan?" Dawkin asked. He had contemplated asking her if she could get Joshua to leave them alone, but figured that question would be in poor taste.

---

---

^{Pureplain City || Trainer School || Afternoon}
“Alright! Good going, Dei!” Eryn beamed as Dei sped back to her side, grousing a “Char” to, presumably, let her know how much he apprciated the current situation. In response, Eryn gave him a few hefty pats on the back. “Oh, cheer up, ‘ya old grouch.”

Then, turning her attention to the Mawile again, Eryn held out the stick of honey. “Heya, Mawile. Here’s that honey you wanted.” Eryn paused, glancing over her shoulder to the scattered feasters. “But, just so you know, you don’t need to be hiding back here. You can totally claim your share, and I can help you do just that. So how about it?” Eryn grinned, pulling out a Pokeball. “Tag along with me and get strong alongside this grouch over here?”

Hearing his name, Dei exhaled a smoky gust of air, giving the Mawile a distrustful side eye but otherwise not responding.

“I promise he’s all bark, but I’ll help both of you sharpen your bites enough to claim as much honey as you’d want.” Eryn continued holding the stick out for the Mawile, hoping that—fingers crossed—the steel-type would take the peace offering and give her offer some consideration.

---

@PlatinumSkink

@Dusksong

‘Maw…?’ Mawile looked up to Eryn as she handed over that stick of honey, accepting it with somewhat eager little hands before starting to lick at the honey on the stick, her eyes wide with the eagerness to taste that sweetness. Then… Eryn proposed that.

Mawile paused and stood straight, staring at Eryn, honey-stick lowered. It was a stare that differed from earlier, an analytical stare of someone in full control of her emotions and considering her options from a serious angle. After all, she knew she was on the lower rung of the Pokémon world right now, and growing strong had its attractive options. More like, having been released into this park of unappealing young trainers, it was pretty infuriating. Like an insult to her intelligence, that she wasn’t worth more than a brief event for the trainers at this school. Of course, it was her own fault for being captured in the wild to begin with, but that didn’t make it any less infuriating.

She knew that she’d likely leave here in a Pokéball one way or another, but here was the option to give herself up for the promise of becoming strong enough to get her treats. It was slightly insulting. Then again, this trainer didn’t look like she had much else to offer at this moment, and Mawile herself HAD been attracted here by the sweet smell of honey, so it wasn’t too unreasonable, she supposed. She slightly blamed herself for being attracted to the honey, lured like some common animal. The reason she hadn’t approached the honey to claim her share was honestly because she hadn’t wanted to be found by any students, but this girl was no student. Perhaps… perhaps that was…

Mawile considered this fairly important decision concerning her life for a few more moments…

---

After Valen had received his pokemon from Kalmia, he was off to explore Pureplain City, his new partner floating by his side. He hadn't opted to participate in any battles because he'd been far too nervous, but now Valen had felt as if he may have missed out some. His thoughts were distracted by Qwerty squawking.

"Kre! Kre!" Qwerty the Porygon honked in excitement, floating circles around Valen.

"Qwerty, you're so energetic," Valen said, half impressed and half worried. "I mean, I hope you don't hurt yourself. Maybe you should slow down..."

Qwerty shook her head fiercely, insistent on whizzing around in frenzied circles. Having spent most of her time in cyberspace, the outside world was quite literally an entirely new universe to explore. How could she waste even a second not taking in the sights? All she had ever seen in her life were pixels, binary numbers, firewalls, and data streams. And while that had been an interesting and fun part of her life, she had always wanted to experience other things. She was a pokemon, too! Qwerty hadn't even seen other pokemon until she had been transferred to the lab. Of course she knew information and quite a bit of it. For example, she knew about most pokemon she had read about. But reading and seeing were two different things. And now, well, she was outside. Qwerty was seeing grass, flowers, buildings, even more pokemon, and the sky.

The sky was like an air ocean, Qwerty thought in her own pokemon-like way. Would she be able to voyage across it one day, to outer space?

As the glitter of the blue ocean sparkled with promises in the distance, Qwerty decided she had to cross the sea on earth before she went into the sky, at least.

While Qwerty excitedly zipped along, checking out the cracks in concrete and the jasmine blossoms that crawled along the local fences, Valen walked aimlessly, feeling quite empty and strange. It's so different being so far away from home. I wonder how mad Mom and Dad are. I wonder how many times they've called me. I wonder if they're right about me not being able to become a pokemon trainer... I wonder if I'll have to come back. What do I do now? I've got a pokemon, that's step one. But where do I go from here? Valerian, having been quite sheltered and a homebody for most of his life, had never truly gotten to explore or make decisions for himself. He'd always been listening to his parents. And now he had all the freedom to do what he wanted to do, but he had no idea what to achieve.

He sat down on a bench, a little bummed out and overwhelmed. Qwerty looked at him quizzically. Her human seemed to be exhibiting signs of sadness. This was not good. They needed to keep exploring. She needed to make him smile because if he smiled, that meant he was happy. She gently nudged his shoulder with her flat, blue and pink bill. "Kre?"

Valen patted Qwerty. "I'm sorry, we can get up in a minute. I'm just feeling weird..." Could Qwerty understand him, he wondered. Talking out loud helped, at least. He found himself wanting to do it more. "My parents are probably really mad at me and I'm just feeling kind of scared. You know?"

Qwerty shook her head.

"See, that's what kind of surprises me. Kalmia said you hadn't seen the outside world before either, she said me and you were really alike. But you're really happy and you're not afraid of anything. Why not? Isn't being out here really overwhelming?"

Qwerty shook her head. "Kre! Kre! Kre!" Her energy and all around happy attitude were infectios, Valen thought, a grin coming onto his face. He found himself standing up.

"Alright, you know what, this is your first day as much as mine. We should find something you want to do, Qwerty." If he couldn't think of the next move, Qwerty's choice was the next best thing, he figured.

Qwerty's eyes widened at at thought, and she immediately began spinning her polygon feet like the wheels on a car. Her human was letting her decide! There were so many things to do! Well, the first thing that caught her immediate attention was a bulletin board, numerous notices tacked on.

"Hm? Oh, hey, there's a bunch of advertisements and stuff here..." Valen muttered. One ad in particular stood out to him, however. It was asking for help in dealing with some wild pokemon that kept attacking a circuit breaker box.

"Well that's interesting. I didn't know pokemon cared about stuff like that," Valen said. "Qwerty, look. Some guy's having trouble with some pokemon attacking a part of his house or something..." As he said it outloud, Valen felt nervous. What if something went wrong?

"So you want to see if you can help? You sure? It sounds dangerous..."

But Qwerty shook her head and 'jumped' up and down in mid-air, demanding. "Kre kre kreeeee," she said, sounding almost as if she were pleading.

"Okay. Maybe it won't be so bad. I mean, maybe we could help this guy out. Maybe we'll get something cool? We'd kind of be saving the day," Valen said dreamily. Porygon's seemed to be a smart and bright species. Qwerty probably was going forward because she knew what she could handle. It would be experience for sure, Valen thought. And if he could do something like this, why, maybe he'd be able to call his parents about his sucess and show them how well he was doing his first day.

"Well, I guess... Okay. Okay, let me put this guy's address in," Valen said, taking out his pokedex and typing in the coordinates. Proving Mom and Dad wrong and showing them that I don't have to be whatever mold they always want to fit me into, Valen thought. It'll be good. I've got to be different than the Valen in Sinnoh. I've got to do more! Having convinced himself, the two went along, ready to tackle the first task of the day.

After a short, 15 minute stroll, Valen found himself in front of a one-story wooden house. The dark blue shingles on the roof looked somewhat crooked and the white, patchy paint on the exterior didn't do the abode any favors either. From the way the porch creeked as he went up the steps to how the window screens had holes, the whole place looked like it needed sprucing up. But he wasn't here to judge, he and Qwerty were on a mission after all. Valen knocked on the door three times and waited.

What pokemon would they be facing? What would their client be like? Valen and Qwerty waited in nervous anticipation.

---