---

---

"Oh for the love of Lugia...!" Skylar sighed. He could only assume what Vivia was screaming about was a Jigglypuff. A single moment passed before he immediately had a plan. It'd give Skylar and Vivia a chance to run, but it wasn't the worst idea that Skylar had ever created. That went to the incident with the Murkrow at his dad's lab, and that was a story for another day.

"Vivia, get ready to run!" Skylar brandished a Pokeball from his bag and prepared it to toss, patting Seabreeze on the head to get his attention. "Seabreeze, I can't tell where it is with my eyes! I need you to fly over to it and make noise!"

Seabreeze hopped off of Skylar's head and flapped his wings on over to Jigglypuff with haste, getting right behind the Jigglypuff and using Supersonic on it to try and confuse it, as well as alert Skylar to the 'puff's location. Skylar's head snapped towards it as soon as he heard the Supersonic, and he took one deep breath before throwing the empty Pokeball at the Jigglypuff. If he somehow managed to land it in the ball, they'd get a few seconds to run behind cover and hide at the very least.

Neither Joshua nor Absol attempted to catch the girl as she fell. It wasn't a dangerous fall or anything and the worse that would happen was if she fell at an odd angle and injured herself in some way. Which didn't seem to happen, so there was no need for concern in the end. Awesome.

Amelia, meanwhile, let Dawkin finish off the Honedge while she check on her partners, especially Litwick and Phantump who had taken some rather hefty blows. After making sure everyone was okay, she returned them to their pokeballs and turned to the girl as she spoke to the room before proceeding in deeper, after which Dawkin approached her about her plans on what to do next. She looked around before making up her mind.
"I'll go deeper into the tombs as well, try to calm down whatever it is that's causing all the ghosts to attack the people coming here." She said before turning to Joshua, who was leaning against a nearby wall. "What are you going to do?"

"Chase after Pops and see if I can find any Sigilyph around here. Typically a tomb like this would have several flying about on their usual routes, but I haven't see a single one. So either there were none around to begin with or something happened to them all. Either way, you two can go and do your thing, but I'm still concerned about what might be down there." He said.

"It's a powerful pokemon most likely. Given the residents we do know of it's likely an Aegislash. The Royal Sword pokemon." Amelia said. "If this is the tomb of a king, it would make sense."

"That's also a pokemon even your full teams combined can't deal with. So try and find a way to settle it without battling if you can. I think you're going to need your... gift here Ame. That girl obviously thinks she has it as well, but I've seen no evidence of that. You on the other hand... I'll believe in you but if I don't hear from either of you after a while, I'm coming back in for you both. This is dangerous after all and I don't want something bad happening to either of you." He said before casually pushing himself off the wall and rolling his shoulders. "Anyway, best of luck down there. Absol, let's see if we can't find us that old man and some... bird-things. Seriously, I'll never figure out what they really are."

With that, Joshua walked away, waving good-bye. Amelia returned the wave before turning towards the tunnel the girl had gone down and taking a deep breath.
"Shall we?" She asked. Regardless of his answer, she would venture deeper into the tombs.

---

^{Pureplain City || Trainer School || Afternoon}
When the Mawile met Eryn’s eyes the second time, Eryn was taken aback by the new intensity of the Mawile’s stare. Gone was the timidness, the lack of forethought Eryn had been expecting to see, and in its place she saw, for a brief moment, a glimpse of an individual who looked much too calculating for the Pokemon too shy to get honey themself.

And then the Mawile blinked, their call pitched in a way that reminded Eryn of the stereotypical fairy-type, all cute and cheery as the Mawile skipped over, allowing itself to be wrapped up into the Pokeball’s red beam with a prompt click of a button.

“Woah.” Eryn paused, turning to look at Dei. “Did you catch that?”

The Charmander harrumphed imperiously in response.

“You’re right. Maybe I was reading too much into it.” With a small frown, Eryn released the Mawile again, watching the Pokemon cautiously as it peered up with large, innocent eyes. Had she just imagined it?

“Well, moving on. Mawile, how do you feel about the name ‘Kyllene’? Kylie for short.”

There was a brief pause as the Mawile considered the name, and Eryn could’ve sworn she saw a flash of some emotion—annoyance?—flicker over the Mawile’s features. But, it was gone just as quickly as it’d come, and the Mawile was again all cheery smiles and big eyes.

“Maw,” she said, her larger jaws bobbing as she nodded.

“Great! Kylie, meet Dei. Dei, Kylie,” Eryn said, beaming.

As prompted, the two Pokemon looked at each other, Dei with his arms crossed and Kylie with an enthusiastic smile. “Maw!” Kylie called cheerily in greeting. When Dei didn’t respond, she moved to tackle him with arms outstretched—a hug, Eryn realized—but Dei immediately swivelled so his tail was between them, growling.

“Oh, Kylie, coming on too strong there. Let’s give the grump some room,” Eryn said, bending down to separate the two. “And Dei,” Eryn said, reaching for the Charmander so unhesitatingly that he was forced to move his tail to avoid burning her, “play nice.”

After giving both Pokemon a few gentle pats, Eryn straightened, glancing behind her to the Pokemon still feasting on the scattered honey. “Alright, what do you two say we get some training in?” Her eyes skimmed over the wild Pokemon. “Kylie, your Fairy Wind should do pretty well against any of the Purrloin around here, and Dei, well, Dei’s gotta get some work in sometime, and Purrloin aren’t the worst targets. So, let’s have you two tag team.”

The two Pokemon glanced at each other. Kylie smiled sweetly, clasping her hands together, to which Dei responded by silently baring his teeth. Not to be put down, Kylie tried a kind, drawn-out “Maw” along the tones of a whiny “why?” but with her larger pair of jaws gaping above, teeth glinting in the sun as the jaws flexed out in a yawn. To this, Dei crossed his arms, his teeth disappearing as he glared.

“Okay, we agreed then?” Eryn glanced between her Pokemon. Kylie chirped an affirmative “Maw” and Dei was silent, which in total was good enough for her.

“Great! Let’s start off with those two Purrloin over there.” Eryn pointed at two Purrloin to the edge of the crowd of Pokemon. “First let’s separate those two from the others. Kylie, a Fairy Wind should get their attention fairly quickly, so let’s start with that. Then, after we lead them a short distance away, Dei, add some Growls to weaken their attacks as Kylie continues with Fairy Wind.”

Her Pokemon nodded, then turned to face the Purrloin, Dei’s tail lashing behind him as Kylie whipped forth a Fairy Wind.

---

@PlatinumSkink

Dawkin wasn't surprised to hear her response. It would be a waste to leave now. Amelia suspected there might be an Aegislash further in, it would be strong enough to take both of their teams combined, probably with very little effort, considering how many lower level pokemon it had working for it. Yeah, like because we're stupid enough to try killing ourselves over a battle we can't win. Dawkin thought to himself grumpily, displeased with Joshua's babying. Whatever, "Yeah, let's go." Dawkin said, heading after Amelia.

---

@PlatinumSkink

---

"Ritz!" Claire grimaced as the Ledyba was soundly defeated. "Ahaha, you did good boy. You took a solar beam right to the face and lived, heh!" She recalled her Ledyba. She'd have to give him something special after this. Some sorta treat? hugs? She'd think of something. More importantly what to do here? She was down three pokemon, and had three left. There was Lure, who she wasn't sure would be so helpful aside from her type resistance. Ralia, who'd she prefer to use last, and Pip. It was a bit mean, but Pip was about to get a crash course in pokemon battles. She just had to avoid and last for about two turns.

"Alright, Pip!" She released Chikorita from her pokeball, the small grass type eagerly running in a circle as she was released. She didn't seem intimidated by the large plant at all. "Sunflora wants to play a game of tag, girl. Let's show 'em who's the queen of games around here."

"Chiko!~" The leaf on top of her head perked up, Pip seemingly getting the idea swiftly began to run around the field with a single goal of avoiding the Solar Beams.

@prettydrops

Flaaaaaaaaaashbaaaaaaaaaaack…



In Pureplain City at this moment.





Connected areas:
Route 1. Easier path, just follow the bigger road.
Route 2. Walk through quite an amount of suburbs until you eventually reach the path.
Sea. There’s water, alright. Can take you anywhere you want to go, assuming you have means to traverse it.



Buuuuuuuuuuut seems like Valen already took a quest on his own. That’s fine, too.

So, Valen approached the house. He knocks on the door, and after a bit of time steps can be heard from the other direction. The door opens, and a man stands on the other side. A man with blonde hair, slightly tan skin, clothes that look like they might have belonged on a noble once upon a time but has been worn out from extended use and a limited wardrobe and a look in his eyes that looked like he was mostly empty inside.



‘So, you’ve come. You’re a trainer, I assume?’ the man said, staring at Valen and then at Qwerty. His tone didn’t sound particularly excited. He gave the slightest of nods. ‘Forgive me for my appearance. I’m Johannes, a teacher of the Trainers’ School. There’s a couple Pokémon that finds it amusing to cut my power every couple nights. If you would, could you catch them? I don’t think they’ll leave me alone unless they’re caught. You can do whatever you want with them, after. Release them on the opposite side of Isson, if you can. I’ll reward you, of course. Here’s the, uh…’ He went through his pocket. ‘Here’s the advance, since I guess the Pokéballs cost somewhat. I’ll give you something else upon the task being completed.’

Valen earned 1000 P!

‘They’re only around at night, so wait around, I suppose. The breaker’s on the pole behind the house,’ he said, and then closed the door. If Valen had additional questions, he’d have to knock again.

Well then. Would he wait around?

If he decides to wait until night and check behind the house as wished, then…



__________________________

@Gardevoiran

Seabreeze flew in, and shot out a Supersonic at Jigglypuff. Jigglypuff wavered, Confused by the sudden waves, but nonetheless intended to sing. Vivia nodded and dove to hide, her multiple Pokémon following behind.

‘Jiii-’ -And just as the first tone escaped Jigglypuff’s mouth, the ball hit its head, and Jigglypuff looked forward on confusion as it was absorbed into the Pokéball. The ball hit the ground as Skylar rushed to hide.

The ball rolled once. The ball rolled twi-



__________________________

@Dusksong

So, the strategy amounted to that Kylie drew the attention of the wild Purrloins and Dei reduced their attack with Growl. The Purrloins were rather unhappy with being targeted by sudden fairy-infused gusts of wind, and were more than happy to barr their claws for Scratches. However, they were quick to realize they weren’t very effective against a Mawile’s surprisingly solid hide, so being the clever little buggers they are they went for Dei instead. That said, he wasn’t defenseless either.

They went through this process a couple of times. After not too long, Dei was the one that had taken a bit too much damage, but it was a while because each pair of Purrloins needed to learn the lesson of that attacking Mawile wasn’t a profitable venture. After a bit of training, Eryn’s Pokémon had gotten a fair bit stronger. It went better for Kyllene due to the favorable matchup.




Though, it took some doing. If you wish to keep track of percentages, Dei’s now at 23% and Kylie at 49%

Hm? Someone seems to have dropped a Pokéball here.



Alright, that’s about that. Now what?



__________________________

@Joshua Tamashii@Eklispe

Honedge fainted as intended from Wooper’s next Mud Shot and then they headed on, Joshua heading off on a different route.

So. Following the corridor of this ancient tomb, they’d see that it opened up into a hall straight ahead. A hall of kings, all things considered. The girl that had been saved was dashing straight into the open, all eyes falling on her. Within the hall stood lines of Goletts, with Bronzors and Honedges standing by to be wielded by the automaton Pokémon, but most notably was the throne-seeming seat straight ahead, and what was around it. To the left and right stood large, bulky automatons that looked far stronger than the smaller counterparts…





… The one on the right was occasionally scratching the seal, as if it itched. Regardless. What was perhaps the most striking was the one who stood before the throne itself, like a king. It was a regular human, a boy who looked to be a teenager in age, stood with an aura of strength as he watched the girl that had just entered the hall. He did look like somewhat of an adventurer, with brown hair and clothes suited for embarking into the wild… and no sword, whatever the picture might imply.



And, just as Amelia had guessed, behind him floated a sword and shield interjoined, proving that this boy had some degree of power here.





Amelia and Dawkin moved forward some distance… only to perhaps suddenly be startled by something large and flying floating by from right to left through a corridor that opened up as a crossroad to the left and right. There were additional routes they could take, but they were patrolled.





Sooooo, there are certainly Sigilyphs around. There were some flying around here and nothing special happened to them. It was just that all wild Pokémon had evacuated the last room due to scripted event. This most certainly means that Joshua will be able to find some on the route he’s going, aside from probably annihilating the force going after the girl’s father.

Apart from that, Amelia felt something else now. There were more ghosts around, ghosts unaffiliated with the faction that had grown under the Aegislash’s influence. They were scattered around the tombs, afraid and confused to this change, avoiding contact with the oppressive forces. Most of them were Yamask, but there were other, more powerful entities mixed in among them. If Amelia wanted to seek them out, she had the power she needed to do it.





Below here’s a map.



The girl who without care for her own safety dashed straight into the arms of the opposing force had drawn their attention, they weren’t looking for anyone else right now. Words were being exchanged, but it was currently too far away for Amelia and Dawkin to hear them. They could get closer, but that’d certainly risk that they’d be seen.

The Yamask images notes that there’s a powerful presence of ghosts there that aren’t necessarily affiliated with the opponents. Yamasks themselves are basically everywhere, you’re going to see one in every corridor just floating about feeling sorry for itself and drifting through the walls. The enemies about are Goletts, Sigilyphs, Honedges and Bronzors… though note that since Amelia can’t sense the non-ghosts, there may be Sigilyphs or Bronzors not noted on the map.

That in the room behind Aegislash are sleeping people.

What will they do now?

__________________________

@Rune_Alchemist

Archie tilted his head a bit at Claire’s next Pokémon.

‘That one… is not at a level to compete here,’ Archie said, looking at Pip running about. Then he smirked widely at Claire. ‘Stalling tactics, heh,’

Sunfloorall was already charging the next Solar Beam, and soon enough shot it out! … Pip didn’t do all that good at dodging, her speed wasn’t high enough yet compared to this huge sunflower that probably had plenty of practice aiming its ginormous beams. Pip got hit, and Level 8 just didn’t cut it against firepower of this magnitude, even with Not Very Effective. Pip fainted. However…


Sunfloorall called out as the wilted sunflower collapsed under the blazing sun, batteries exhausted. The massive flower fainted, hitting the wooden floor beneath and now both Pokémon lay fainted. … We’ll say they got some experience for being shot~


For enduring the best.


‘Cause ow.

‘Teh-heh. Looks like I’m down to my last Pokémon. And you’re down to your last two, right? Alright, let’s do this. Me first,’ Archie smiled excitedly, returning Sunfloorall and holding forth a hand so that Ramsey could drop down a Pokéball into the hand. With that, Archie threw the ball forth, and it hit the wooden floor to crash open. A green creature with a green leaf skirt and two red flowers on its head and a happy smile emerged, looking forth towards Claire.

‘Bellawesome, you’re up.’

‘Bellossom~’





While not as giant as the other Pokémon Archie had presented, Bellawesome was certainly bigger than the average Bellossom. Compared to a normal 40 cm / 1 feet 4 inches Bellossom, Bellawesome was more than twice the height at a full meter / 3 feet 3 inches tall. And, while both trainer and Pokémon were smiling…

‘Bellawesome. Prepare your blade,’ Archie told.

‘Bellossom~’ the Pokémon called again, and then… petals emerged. Bellawesome spun in place, and green leaves spun into the around it, joining together one by one. A flower sprouted which the Bellossom grabbed with both little green hands, directing it forward. The leaves spinning in the air joined into one long string of leaves, before suddenly freezing in place, hardened on top of the flower that acted like the handle. Bellawesome had drawn her blade, turned one shoulder towards Claire, and she held the sword in a trained stance.



‘You wouldn’t happen to have any close-combat fighters left, would you? Bellawesome loves a good tussle~’ Archie smiled so widely, hands behind his back as he looked towards Claire. Bellawesome also smiled, eager to prove herself.

---

^{Pureplain City || Trainer School || Late Afternoon}
Seeing as there were a lot of Purrloin, Dei and Kylie had a lot of targets, and a good chunk of the afternoon was spent battling them. Dei took the brunt of the damage, since he was the one fielding the Purrloin’s retaliatory attacks, but he also adamantly refused to be recalled towards the end, matching the Purrloin’s attacks with his own. Though he wasn't built for Scratching like the Purrloin, he made up for what he lacked in finesse with brute strength, and combined with Kylie’s Fairy Winds, the Purrloin went down relatively quickly.

Midway through the afternoon, Eryn spotted a stray Pokeball at the base of a bush—unused, to boot—and she counted her lucky stars as she stuck it in her backpack. Finders keepers, or so it went. It wasn’t soon after that Dei had finally spewed his first burst of flame, and Eryn cut the battling off quickly after that, running up to Dei and scooping him up.

“Oh, stop squirming, Dei,” she said with a grin. “I saw that Ember. Great job.”

Up close, though, the effects of the Purrloins’ Scratches was clearer, and Eryn winced when she spotted a particularly nasty-looking cut on the back of Dei’s leg. Though she’d known that injuries came with the job for Pokemon, it was a bit unsettling to see it all firsthand.

“Alright, time to get you two healed up.” Glancing at Kylie, Eryn was relieved to see that she looked to be in much better shape—her steel-type physique paying off, most likely. “Dei, I’m going to return you for some well-deserved rest, and no, you don’t get to say no this time, unless you want me to hold you until we get to the Pokemon Center.”

Dei stopped struggling, resorting to silently glaring at Eryn instead, and Eryn glared right back.

“You’d stretch out that cut if you moved around too much, so just let me handle it, alright?”

Retrieving Dei’s Pokeball, Eryn recalled the sulky Charmander, then turned to Kylie to check her over for injuries.

“You look like you can handle some walking, but what do you think? Wanna go back in your ball?”

Kylie blinked balefully up at her, then shook her head. “Maw.”

“Alright, you’re not in top shape, got it.” Eryn sighed, bending down. “Want a lift?”

Kylie grinned, hopping into Eryn’s arms. She wasn’t much heavier than Dei, despite being a steel-type, but Eryn figured her size played a large role in that.

“Hut! Off to the Pokemon Center we go!” Eryn said, shifting Kylie so her weight rested partially on a shoulder.

---

^{Route 2 || Sunset}
“Alright, you two. Keep your eyes peeled for a, what was it, a ‘little blue reptile?’”

“Maw!” Kylie called, enthusiastic as always. Beside her, Dei was quiet, watching the Mawile through the corner of his eye. The team dynamic wasn’t quite there yet, and it was quite clear that Dei didn’t trust Kylie in the slightest. That said, the two had worked together when Eryn asked them to earlier in the day, so Eryn wasn’t the most worried about conflict during a battle. She was more interested in getting to know Kylie better, since the Mawile’s enthusiasm seemed, though sweet, a bit of a flat personality that she couldn’t imagine defining anyone. Sure there were people who seemed almost furiously happy all times of the day, but even they had their own problems, and when they fell into spells of sadness, they tended to fall deeper than most. Eryn wasn’t sure if Kylie fell into this category, but she figured she’d keep her eyes peeled for any signs of a character she’d need to take into account and work to strengthen.

That said, Route 2 wasn’t going to be easy going either, since she’d have to get through the Wet Caverns before she could get to Lakewatch Town. Water-types lurked throughout the path from here on, and Dei’s natural weakness to them wasn’t balanced by an advantage on her current team. She’d have to start thinking about what kind of grass-type she wanted, and soon. Such is what had drawn her interest to the mysterious “blue reptile” she’d learned about at the school, and though the details were vague, the possibility of seeing a rare Pokemon was thrilling on its own. However, she had no clues to go off, no good way to go about trying to find said Pokemon. If only Oaken were around to bounce ideas off. Despite his flaws, he had memorized a wealth of information that Eryn could only hope to match someday, and she figured that if her last encounter with him said anything, it was that he was a decent person under all the pretentious pragmatism.

“Well, off we go!” A grin on her face, Eryn led the way onto the route path, the sky a brilliant gradient of orange and purple above.

---

@PlatinumSkink

Dawkin looked at the situation uneasily. Those were very powerful Pokémon there was no doubt about it. They may have been able to use mostly brute force to get this far, but any direct confrontation from here on would be incredibly dangerous. They carefully crept forward and Dawkin barely resisted letting out a shout as a dark shape suddenly flew by them. Ghost Pokémon. Dawkin shook his head and swallowed the noise he'd almost let out. The girl they'd been trailing seemed to have no such qualms, sprinting right past the danger and running up to what appeared to be the human leader. "It doesn't look like we can do anything but watch and see what happens." Dawkin whispered to Amelia. After all they couldn't fight, couldn't get much closer without being seen. Really all they can do was wait and see if the girl succeeded on her mission.

---

@PlatinumSkink

---

"Chiko!~~"

Claire knew Pip wasn't likely to last long. That said, she at least expected her to dodge reasonably well. The ginormous Solar Beam hit the Chikorita, the small grass type taking the hit like a champ. The power form the blast caused her to be sent flying back, slamming right into Claire. The redhead caught her pokemon with a mild grimace. Now most pokemon would probably be upset at this...but Pip seemed perfectly happy. A large smile was plastered on the Chikorita's face, causing Claire to chuckle lightly.

"Remind me to buy you some more treats later. Or let you play with Ritz." She chuckled as Archie made his declaration. He was down to one, she was down to two. One of her best, and one of her worst. She was gonna...need to play it well here, but this is the exact sort of thing she craved. Excitement! Close battles! Trainer and Pokemon doing their best to overcome a seemingly impossible challenge! All that sorta stuff, heh! Despite the somewhat bad situation, she couldn't help but to get excited.

"Bellawesome...?" Claire echoed with a laughed. "Well I gotta admit at least one of 'em has a nifty nickname." Another big one, wasn't she? All of Archie's pokemon were pretty big. Expected at this point, what wasn't expected was that blade.

"Sorry." Claire grinned. "Fresh outta fighting types. I save the best for last, after all." Claire reached for the pokeball containing Lure. "Alright, Lure! Lets show this plant how we do things!"

"Combee." In a rather unenthusiastic flash of red light, Lure entered the battlefield.

"Alright, hit 'em with a gust!"

"Combee." In a mocking manner, Lure flapped its wings weakly in the direction of Bellawesome.

"...Lure, remember that talk we had about contests?"

"Com. Combee."

"Yes I know this isn't a contest." Placing a hand on her forehead, Claire sighed. "Look, just...try not to lose this for me please? I'll give you some more honey if you-"

Lure made a show of some honey it already had with it.

"Okay. Fine. You want to do a contest. Do your best and we'll go do one next."

"Combee~" Seemingly satisfied, Claire and Lure turned back to their opponents.

"Aha, sorry about that. Lure! Gust!"

With a little more effort this time, Combee turned to Bellawesome, using her wings to flap up a mighty gust.

---

---

"Oh thank Lugia..." Skylar emerged from behind the tree and walked over to his new Pokeball. Hello there, new friend.

Would he like to give it a nickname? Yes indeed... uh... we'll call her Celebrity. Shockingly fitting for a Jigglypuff, huh.

"Come on out, Celebrity. No need to be cooped up in your ball all the time, anyway." Skylar said as he let the beast out of it's ball. Once she was out, though, she looked up at Skylar with a frown. "Puff!" Wingull had already perched on top of Skylar's head again, and the trainer was already crouched down to look at his new friend. "Welcome to the team, Celebrity! I'm Skylar, and this is Seabreeze."

Celebrity watched closely as Skylar held his hand down to her in peace, and stared at it carefully before she turned away at it. "Jigg!" Sheesh, she was a sassy girl. As long as she didn't sing, everything should be fine though. Heck, if she did, he'd put her back in her ball for a while.

"Wingull?" Seabreeze cawed out softly to Skylar as he looked at the sleeping Tropius around the group. Well shoot. There they were. There's a good amount of sleeping ones, too, which was great, because that gave Skylar an optimal bet against catching one of the behemoths of the forest.

Skylar turned to Vivia's general direction. "I think I can get one of these guys, too. Wish me luck."

Skylar slowly approached one of the smaller sleeping Tropius before pulling out one more pokeball from his belt and preparing to throw it at the monster. He waited until it gave one big snore before threw a Pokeball right at it, hoping it would catch.

---

Valen was left feeling somewhat befuddled after the exchange with the old-fashioned dressed gentleman. He hadn’t offered a whole lot of explanation, and though Valen wanted to ask more questions, he figured night time would be better. After all, that was when the pokemon would appear. The client hadn’t mentioned what pokemon would appear, however, and that left Valen feeling uneasy.

Then again, the man had mentioned he was with the trainer’s school. Why would he give out a difficult task? The job in question had mentioned that even beginning trainers were qualified to help. But what constituted a beginning trainer, exactly? Six months of experience? Three months?

He would probably specify if something was really wrong… Valen thought. Looking at Qwerty, he saw the Porygon was brimming with excitement. Clearly she felt the opposite about the whole situation. To Qwerty, it was an opportunity to be grabbed. He wasn’t sure if he had the heart to tell her he was having second thoughts for the second time. Not to mention, the man had already given him the money. And to knock on the door only to tell the man he couldn’t do the job? That was embarrassing.

So what could they do? Valen felt ill-prepared and he knew in order to actually do his intended job, not to mention beat down this general feeling of anxiety, he needed to get ready.

What did trainers do to prepare? Train, he realized, both nervousness and excitement fluttering in his chest. He’d never trained a pokemon before. Checking Qwerty’s moves on his pokedex, he noted that while his pokemon had some interesting options for defense, her attacks didn’t seem as powerful. Tackle was a basic move, and it wasn’t shabby, but what if the target pokemon could resist Qwerty’s tackle? What pokemon resist Tackle? he wondered. Wait… I’m the trainer now. I should know that. Maybe I need to do some more research. Like, he said he was with the trainer’s school. He’s giving me until night time. Maybe he expects me to prepare? It made sense, after all, that a teacher would want a student to study and apply what they learned.

“Qwerty, since we’ve got some time, want to head to the trainer’s school? Maybe we can find some information or something. And maybe you can train there, to prepare for tonight, you know?”
“Kre!” A school. The Porygon was beyond thrilled.

After they arrived to the school, Valen took note of his surroundings. There was apparently an Elite Four in the school, a myriad of trainers to battle against, and even a happy little patch of grass where pokemon could be found. There were so many different things to do, and Qwerty zipping around the halls wasn’t helping with narrowing down the scope.

“Qwerty! Come on, you’re in a school. You’re not supposed to rush through the hallways,” Valen said, trying to hide his giggling, so as not to encourage the Porygon with her antics even more. “Alright, alright, lemme push this door open…” As they reached the end of a hallway, Valen opened the door, sunlight splashing cheerfully on his face. “Well, hey, we’re in the courtyard now. Maybe we can find someone to, like, spar or whatever it’s called with.” Qwerty nodded, studying the area before them with great interest. It was a decently sized playground with a plethora of pokemon and people partaking in all sorts of recreation. There were quite a few large structures that she did not understand the purpose of at all. What was the steel construction that looked like a ladder placed sideways? What was the contraption that was built of steel pipes and dome shaped? They were monkey bars and climbing domes, respectively, but Qwerty had no idea, of course.

They were interrupted by a, “A Porygon? That’s cool, it’s supposed to be a Virtual pokemon, right?” Valen and Qwerty both spun around to see a, thankfully, friendly faced boy talking to them.

“Oh, yeah, uh, her name’s Qwerty. I just, actually, uh, got her,” Valen replied, trying to sound confident but feeling anything but. Talking to people was nerve-wracking, no matter how gregarious they seemed.

“Well what’s your name?” The boy inquired, not seeming to care. “Mine’s Rex.” He stuck out his hand and Valen, not wanting to be rude, shook it.

“Valen. I’m Valen. And I’m actually a really new trainer. I mean, I just got my pokemon a little over an hour ago,” Valen admitted. “I-It’s nice to meet you, Rex.”

“Wow, you’re a total noob!” Rex laughed. “It’s okay. I’ve only been a trainer for a few weeks. We all start somewhere, right?”

“Yeah,” Valen replied, chuckling, feeling ever so slightly more relaxed. “Yeah, guess you’re right.”

“So, Valen, what brings ya to the trainer’s school, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Well, I guess I wanted to check it out and kind of train I guess. I thought there’d be a lot of trainers here. I don’t really know anybody though…”

“Well why don’t your pokemon and mine train for a bit? I’ve never fought a Virtual pokemon before,” Rex said, grinning. At Valen’s immediate switch to an anxious facial expression he held up his hands. “I don’t mean an official battle or nothin’. Just training! I could you show you some battling tips n’ stuff, and your Porygon could probably learn some from my pokemon. I just meant it’d be a good experience! For your pokemon and mine, ya know?”

“Oh, uhhh,” Valen paused, flipping through yes and no. “Qwerty?”
Qwerty flipped in mid air, practically honking. She was ready to train. He took a deep breath. It was going to be fine. He had to be able to do things like this, for himself and Qwerty and whatever other pokemon he'd be taking care of.

“Well, it’s a good idea and we came here to do that anyways, so I can't say no. Ha, just, uh, don’t make fun of me okay. I’m really, really new to this stuff,” Valen laughed sheepishly, rubbing his shoulder.

“No worries! You guys’ll be fine!” At Rex’s call, his pokemon’s forms coalesced outside their pokeballs—there was a Poliwag and a Butterfree. “Why don’t you try practicing on my guys first and then we can try and work on your dodging?”

“Sounds good,” Valen replied, trying to calm himself. It was just training! You can do this. Let’s start, come on! “Qwerty, let’s try a Sharpen and then a Tackle!”

“That Porygon’s a newbie but those angles are getting sharper. Look alive, guys!”

The training commenced.

---

Amelia was silent as she observed the situation before them. Too many pokemon for them to fight, even if you dismissed the presence of the fully evolved pokemon. Too many hostile ones for them to even consider trying to negotiate. Amelia sighed and closed her eyes, focusing for a bit.
"Four Ghost-types to our left and three to our right. I think there are some beyond the throne room there, but it's too hard to tell how many. I don't know where any Bronzors or Sigilyphs might be... honestly, I don't know what to do." She said, taking a seat on the ground and rubbing her forehead. "Too many hostile pokemon to bother trying to reason with them. Even if we dismiss the Aegislash and Golurks there are far too many for us to fight with out pokemon. Even trying some sort of distraction would likely backfire on us badly and we'd end up being put to sleep.

I think... the Yamask are the only ones that haven't bothered attacking us so far. They might be the only friendly pokemon here... there's a chance there's a Cofagrigus around here somewhere... but trying to find it might mean a lot of battling. I don't think our pokemon will be able to withstand multiple battles, especially mine. I just... I don't know what to do. This isn't right, this shouldn't be happening.

I guess all we can do is wait and see how things go for her down there, because we can't do anything."

@Dusksong

To start with, Eryn and her team went to the Pokécenter.



And then it was off to Route 2! She cleared off away from the buildings of Pureplain City, headed through the fairly extensive suburbs and then finally erun arrived to…



__________________________

@Rune_Alchemist

‘I know, right~!?’ Archie grinned about the nifty nickname, failing to hear about how that implied the other nicknames weren’t also amazing. Regardless, no close combat fighters for Bellawesome. ‘Aww, that’s alright. Bellawesome, do your thing~’ Archie simply said when Lure came out. Bellawesome waited patiently for the Claire / Lure discussion to conclude, and then… then dashed forth.

‘Belloss~’ Given how the skirt glowed from the sunlight, it was apparent that Bellawesome also was under the effect of Chlorophyll, boosting her speed under the harsh sunlight. When Lure’s Gust came, Bellawesome pranced aside. Jumping into the air and drifting through the air with grace, holding the blade close to her body, she let herself be carried past the wind by jumping on the side of the wind blowing back towards the source. There was something inherently graceful and full of skill in this Swordmaster Bellossom, as she skipped past the Gust with rather minimal damage and kept running for Lure.

Given the artful dodge, Bellawesome had been momentarily delayed from arriving at Lure in a single turn, but she was getting closer and had the Leaf Blade at the ready, seemingly intending on using it. Will Claire think of some way to corner her?

__________________________

@Gardevoiran

'Oh. Okay. Good luck,' Vivia said, nodding to him and then taking a while to consider what she was doing right now.

Skylar found a decently small Tropius, snoring where it lay, and threw his ball. It hit and the Pokémon was transferred into the Pokéball and landed on the ground.

The ball rolled once. The ball rolled twice…



__________________________

@prettydrops

Valen headed off to the Trainers’ School.



Confusion as to why a trainer with a Butterfree isn’t on the leaderboard aside, Qwerty definitely had some trouble against the higher-leveled opponents. That said, this was mere training for fun, and they probably held back a bit. Some training later, and Qwerty was a bit damaged, but also a bit stronger!



Yikes.

‘Hmmmmm…’ The voice of a woman nearby sounded out. ‘A Porygon in Pureplain City. How rare,’ she said, intrigued.



‘Oh, Professor Kathryn!’ Rex introduced, looking to the red-haired pony-tailed woman in official attire and with goggles on her head for some reason, and she smiled and waved back.

‘Hello. Don’t mind me, I’m simply watching. I wonder though…’ she said, leaning forward a bit and inspecting Qwerty. ‘Most Porygons of Isson are produced in Worldedge City and are generally only obtainable in the Entertainment District of the same city. What’s your story, little one? Were you transferred from Worldedge City here to be this boy’s Pokémon? Did you come from some other region? Perhaps you don’t even know, maybe everything felt like the same old cyberspace, to you?’ she asked, with a kind smile, directed at Qwerty.

‘Regardless…’ she said as she stood straight again, shifting her eyes to Valen and smiling a bit to him. ‘One day you’ll with to return to the labs of Worldedge City. That’s the one place you’ll find the items you’ll one day need, after all.’ Saying so, Kathryn was ready to just turn around and give a wave of “good bye” to them and walk. Still, perhaps Valen wanted to ask her something more if he so felt like it.

So, was there anything else he wanted to do here?



__________________________

@Joshua Tamashii@Eklispe

So, the two decide not to move. This results in not particularly much. The girl ahead of them appears to have engaged in conversation with whatever entities oppose her, but that is currently too far away to be eavesdropped on. So far she hasn’t been snapped out in any form of way, standing defiantly in the middle of the room. Regardless, nothing much was happening right now, but if they remained in this corridor then eventually undoubtedly something would arrive to head through. This was the main path out, after all. But for now, they simply stood around, waiting for something to happen…

‘Yamask?’

One of the mask-carrying ghosts stopped by and said something that sounded like a question, looking wide-eyed at Amelia. Then, a second later, it called out. Not loudly, not in alarm or anything, but more like it had realized something.

‘Yamask! Yamask!’

Then… Amelia felt more ghosts heading in. All weaker presences, but together they were…

‘Yam?’ ‘Yamask?’ ‘Yamask!’ ‘Mask!’ ‘Yamask?’ ‘Ask-ask!’ ‘Yamask?’



A troupe of little Yamasks looked in, drifting in from who knows where, looking over Amelia and Dawkin with interest. They drifted close, inspecting them curiously, amassing as a small swarm of ghosts that suddenly drifted in, called by the first Yamask’s call for attention. Amelia suddenly had a this little crowd of ghosts looking at her attentively, and the occasional one drifted and looked at Dawkin instead because he was here too, but it was mainly Amelia. It didn’t appear like they had drawn the attention of the Pokémon under the command of the Aegislash, but here was a bunch of other ghosts, all of a sudden. The voices they called out with sounded astounded, surprised, hopeful.

Now to remake that map, since the Yamask on the map were meant to signify an unknown ghost of some kind of some amount of power, this should make that clearer.



So. How does the two react?

Dawkin watched the girl from a distance somewhat nervously. This could go very badly for all of them at the drop of a hat. His tenseness made him jump a little at the sudden call from a masked ghost Pokémon "Uh... You really do have a knack for ghost Pokémon don't you." Dawkin said, somewhat alarmed by the small horde of ghost Pokémon that had showed up. At least they didn't seem to be aggressive, or attracting the scary Pokémon in the next room. Anyway, he decided to just wait for Amelia to handle it in some way, this was her area of expertise after all.

---

Amelia was feeling rather discouraged right up until the Yamask began showing up. The first one cuased her to jump, having been so distracted she hadn't noticed it's presence coming closer until it spoke. She quickly recognized the second cry as a call for comrades, which was quickly confirmed when several presences began coming closer, revealed to be more Yamasks, who quickly crowded around her. This brought a smile to the young girl's face as she slowly rose to her feet, reaching out to pet the Yamask if they would let her, while replying to Dawkin's comment.
"I guess you could say that. I'm from Witchpeak City and I spent a lot of time in the cemetery there. I'm friends with all the Ghost-types that inhabit it." She said to him before turning her attention to the Yamasks. "Hello there my friends. Do you know what's going on in this tomb? Can you possibly help us? Is there a Cofagrigus here I can possibly talk to? We're trying to keep things from escalating out of the tombs so that you'll be left in relative peace down here."

---

After seeing a successful fire off of a magenta and indigo colored beam, Valen knew Qwerty had succeeded in learning a new move. “Nice, Qwerty!” Qwerty chittered back happily in response, tired, but feeling very accomplished.

When they were interrupted by the strange woman who Valen came to learn was an esteemed professor, he listened intently about Qwerty’s origins and subsequent future. Evolve, Valen thought, nerves and excitement bubbling up inside him. Qwerty, too, was both mystified and eager to know more.

“Wait,” Valen said, taking a ginger step forward and swallowing nervously. “I just wanted to know—what’s the best way I can train Qwerty? It’s just—I’m a new trainer and I don’t know a whole lot about pokemon. And, you see, Qwerty wants to go to space one day. Do you think it’d ever be possible? Sorry if these are dumb questions…”

After the conversation with the professor, Valen took it upon himself to go to the pokemon center. Qwerty needed some healing up, though the center was barely a ten minute walk from the school. Afterwards, it was off to the trainer school again. with plenty of time to spare until their big job tonight, he figured that he still needed to do research on pokemon around the area and anything else he could do to prepare Qwerty. Perhaps Qwerty had become stronger, yes, but some additional training wouldn’t hurt. The sun was still high in the sky and having been given a decent pay, he needed to make sure they wouldn’t disappoint their client.

Heading off to the library, Valen familiarized himself with Pureplain City and the various pokemon that were common to the area. While it was a wealth of information, it still didn’t help him narrow down which pokemon were messing with the man’s breaker box. After all, any pokemon could have the proclivity to be mischievous. Still, it helped him learn about where certain pokemon were.

Next, he looked up water pokemon. While he wasn’t entirely sure about what other pokemon he specifically needed, a reliable water type pokemon seemed to be a good place to start. They could ferry across the water and they’d be protection from fire type pokemon too. Valen shivered— gripping the pale scar tissue that slunk around his wrist and traveled up his arm. When he was younger, he’d been burned by a sparkler during a festival in Canalave City. Though he’d handled sparklers often enough before then, that time for some reason, oxygen had just perfectly and unfortunately united with the small spark of a flame, turning into a burning, searing blaze that had left him with third degree burn injuries.

Most people would go through at least one serious injury in their life if they ever experience life. Injuries and unfortunate events were apart of life for people, pokemon too. They typically recovered just fine and it was life experience that usually ended up making a person more well rounded. And though Valen felt perfectly fine and didn’t think about the incident at all (if anything, it was at least an interesting story to tell), he couldn’t shake the fear of fire. Most people could handle lighters or matches while he couldn’t. And forget about fire pokemon, he thought. Any thoughts of having a fire type pokemon, the idea of handling fire, or being near a creature that had control over fire, was terrifying.

Mudkip, Staryu, Psyduck, and Tentacool looked like interesting pokemon, Valen thought, as he clicked around on a website. Now where could I find them…? Ground types seemed safe too. Valen dug around, reading articles and sifting through fakemon to figure out which pokemon were real. Online resources were reliable, but also clouded in not so trustworthy information. Still, he learned about something called a ‘Trapinch’ and some other species like and Sandshrew. Hmm, wonder where I can get these pokemon…

Professor Kalmia had mentioned having a well rounded team, or something like that. She’d even encouraged him to get a fire type. She had said Growlithe, Vulpix, and Torchic were wonderful fire type pokemon. I mean… If anything, I want to avoid them though. Maybe I’m better off knowing where they are so I don’t run into them? Man, I’ve already read so much!

The final pokemon type he found himself reading about was the ghost type. They were intriguing for sure, and quite creepy. Valen wasn’t sure if he liked them. Still, he found himself actually wanting to see a Ghastly up close. It looked so goofy, even Qwerty started snorting when she saw the supposedly scary gas pokemon. The Honedge family was another bizarre but curious set of pokemon.

Having spent a solid chunk time on reading about different pokemon and some of the ones that could possibly help him on his journey, Valen looked to Qwerty—who was nowhere to be found. “Qwerty?” He asked, looking about, confusion creeping in.

Some static crackled, drawing Valen’s attention to the computer next to him. His eyes widened as he saw the power button glow and dim rapidly. Before he knew it, a beam similar to that of a pokeball releasing its contents shot out, and Qwerty materialized, giggling. Had she gone into cyberspace just to hide and surprise him?

“Qwerty!” Valen couldn’t help but try to scold the Porygon. “You can’t just— go into cyberspace whenever you want! These computers aren’t ours,” Valen cautioned Qwerty. The Porygon seemed to pout but he remained firm. “I wouldn’t go inside a house that wasn’t mine, unless I was allowed to, Qwerty. The same thing goes for you, alright?” Qwerty, though miffed, nodded. Logically it made sense even if she didn’t want to admit it.

"Tell you what-- you can go inside my pokedex or something if you want," Valen offered. "How's that?" Qwerty responded with a cheerful chirp. She had never been in a pokedex before! Much more interesting than a boring, school PC.

“I'm glad you're cool with it, then. Well, I think I’ve just about crammed my head full of too much for today,” Valen said, stretching. “I could use a walk or something. Do you mind if we train some more? We don’t know who your opponents are gonna be, y’know. We need to be as prepared as possible. I think your Psybeam attack can hit most of the Pokemon in this area, but we just really need to make sure we can handle whatever comes our way.”

Qwerty’s expression shifted, a determined gleam lighting her eyes. More training sounded like fun, and indeed she needed to be prepared for whatever the real world threw her way. Nodding, she let out a, "kre!"

"Back to the playground I guess," Valen said standing up. "I guess I don't feel as nervous asking for someone to train with."

Soon, they found themselves back on the school courtyard, training with some other trainers and their Pokemon. There was much experience to be gained, after all.

---

---

---

"Awesome! Now we've got a team brewing!" Skylar fist pumped, exciting Seabreeze and causing him to caw in satisfaction. Celebrity didn't do anything though, because she was just really moody. The moodiest Jigglypuff around at that point, or at least the moodiest one he'd ever heard of.

Skylar excitedly turned to Vivia. "We didn't actually have a Tropius at the lab in Freecape. They were always super rare and hard to come by for us, so we only ever saw one since my dad's been running the lab." Skylar eagerly said as he took out his Pokedex, naming the new arrival onto the team. Paradise seemed fitting, since these were a more tropical species of Pokemon. "I can see their outlines barely, and it just... ooh, it's so exciting!"

Skylar switched his Pokedex to the camera function before patting Seabreeze. "Hey Sea, go fly around the Tropius real quick."

After an excited "Wingull!" Seabreeze took off and glided over to the Tropius, with Skylar preparing the Pokedex to take a picture.

3... 2... 1... flash!

Seabreeze was gonna be his mascot for his upcoming photography career. Oh, and that photo's going to be sent to his dad as soon as he gets to Highhill Town's Pokemon Center.

"C'mon out, Paradise. You can't wake up in a Pokeball." Skylar said as he let Paradise free from her Pokeball, placing it within his bag again. Seabreeze had already landed back on Skylar's head, surveying the landscape before nuzzling into Skylar's hair.

"I think some training is in order. Shouldn't be too bad to do it." Skylar turned to Vivia again. "What're you gonna do, Vivia? There are a lot of Tropius here to catch, and the other Pokemon here in the forest are cute, too."

---

^{Route 2 || Sunset}
The surprise of seeing a blue, red-ridged Pokemon take a chunk out of a rowboat was quickly replaced by unfiltered delight, courtesy of her brain putting two and two together.

“Praise Arceus, of course!” Eryn slapped her forehead. “The blue reptile’s a Totodile! Why didn’t I think of that?”

As if the Totodile had heard Eryn, it met her eyes, and Eryn froze, thoughts whirling. A water-type—not Dei, then. But Kylie didn’t have an advantage either, and since the Totodile was a water-type, it could easily retreat back into the water if it wanted. But, luckily, not right now, since it was stuck in the sinking—

“Ah! It’s sinking!” Bursting into a sprint, Eryn ran towards the boat, gripping onto the bridge supports as she reached for the boat. Whether or not her shorts got wet was hardly important considering that the Totodile was, in fact, literally stuck in a sinking ship. And, using what forearm strength she had—combined with the tremendously underwhelming leverage her feet offered as they sank into the muddy river bank—she was barely able to keep herself from sliding in after the sinking boat.

“Oh no you don’t!” Gritting her teeth, Eryn redoubled her efforts, digging her feet into the riverbank. Mud be damned, she wasn’t about to let a Pokemon drown.

A tug on her shirt prompted her to look back, and she saw Kylie bravely clutching onto the hem of her shirt, and Dei clinging onto the tip of Kylie’s jaws back on the drier portion of the riverbank. “Maw!” Kylie said, tugging valiantly. On the bank, Dei gave a growl just as Eryn felt the boat shift just a bit towards her.

“Yes! It’s moving!” The slight budge of the boat was all the encouragement Eryn needed, and the rest of the tug—though tiring—was relatively quick. Soon enough, the trio had manage to beach the vessel, and Eryn collapsed back onto the riverbank with relief.

“Oh my, that’s enough arms for one day,” she said, panting. Beside her, Kylie was panting as well, as was Dei a bit above her on the riverbank. “Good job—hah—both of you—hah—thinking on—hah—your feet.”

After a moment more of rest, Eryn sat up, breathing deeply as she took in the stuck Totodile. It was still her first day of training, but she’d already gotten two Pokemon under her belt and now had a chance at a third. Did she want to take it? A water-type was, of course, a vital and missing component of her team, considering that Dei was weak to water-types and would therefore be unable to traverse many wet terrains water-types might be able to. In fact, wet terrain itself was a testament to the necessity of water-types, since the majority of Pokemon would be unable to traverse across open water.

That said, was a Totodile what Eryn was looking for in a water-type? Sure she’d admired the battle prowess of Feraligatr so often portrayed in media, but she already had two sets of sharp fangs on her team. Although a third nibbler would fit right in, she was uncertain about the prospect of getting so many Pokemon in one day. Was she going to be one of those trainers who winded up catching everything they saw, stowing Pokemon away digital boxes instead of training them like they’d originally planned to do? This, however, might naturally resolve itself when she had a full team. Where she currently needed a water-type, in the future—should she catch this Totodile—she wouldn’t have the need and thus wouldn’t be immediately drawn to thinking about catching a water-type. When she had a full roster, she’d be focused on training the Pokemon she had rather than catching new Pokemon, wouldn’t she?

Eryn exhaled, blinking as the Totodile did. Maybe she was overthinking it. Maybe there was an easier way to resolve the dilemma at hand: ask the Totodile. But, to do that, she’d have to get him free first. Sure she’d be giving up a possible advantage in freeing the water-type, but she couldn’t imagine a universe in which she’d want to set her Pokemon like that on a Pokemon she was hoping to capture. She wanted Pokemon willing to fight by her side, not Pokemon forced to obey her command.

Considering catching the stuck Totodile, though, had reminded her of another way to free the water-type: If she threw a Pokeball at it, the Pokeball would wrap it up and—by doing so—free the Totodile when it released it. After all, Pokeballs tended to release Pokemon somewhere they’d feel comfortable on their feet.

This, however, meant that she’d be throwing a Pokeball at a defenseless Pokemon—something she definitely didn’t want to be doing, since the chances of her catching a Pokemon in that case were so close to zilch she might as well just throw a Pokeball against the ground. Plus, there was the added downside of violating the Totodile’s trust, since she didn’t want to be wrapping the water-type into a Pokeball when she didn’t even know if it wanted to be caught. But, if she informed the Totodile of her plan, then maybe it’d be able to give her pointers on how it wanted to proceed.

“Alright, Totodile. Two options,” Eryn said, getting on her feet. “One, I try and wedge you free. I don’t like that option because that boat is sharp and I don’t want to risk hurting you on the splinters.” Now that she was closer, she could see the splinters in the cracked wood, and she was liking that plan even less. Though the Totodile had natural defenses in its scales, why take the risk at all if it were avoidable?

“The second is that I throw a Pokeball at you because—because—the Pokeball will wrap you up and deposit you somewhere else when you get out. This way, you won’t get hurt, and I won’t touch you.” Eryn bit her lip. “And you probably won’t get caught if you don’t want to. So, blink once if you want me to try to pry you free, and blink twice if you want me to use a Pokeball.”

Eryn watched with some trepidation. Was it wrong of her to hope the Totodile chose the second method? She didn’t have ulterior motives—not really—but at the same time she could only admit that she’d be keeping her fingers crossed if the Totodile did go into a Pokeball.

---

@PlatinumSkink

@PlatinumSkink

---

Oh, that thing was pretty quick.

Bellawesome expertly dodged the gust, quickly closing the distance between the two of them. Heh. That was fine. Lure didn't have just ranged attacks, after all. And as soon as she got close, that is when they'd strike!

"Another gust, Lure! And put some distance between ya!"

Idly complying, Lure shot another gust of wind towards Bellawesome. The Combee would continue to fire Gust attacks at Bellawesome, whilst putting a few more feet of distance between herself and the grass type at the same time. With its speed, it'd surely eventually catch up, but this didn't mean it'd get away entirely unscathed. The moment Bellawesome got within striking distance however, Claire would give Lure her next command.

"Alright girl, show that flower how bug types deal with plants! Bug bite!" Briefly, Lure gave Claire a look that clearly said 'REALLY?', but quickly remembered the previous talk about contests. Combe turned to face Bellawesome, three mouths ready to bite.

@Joshua Tamashii@Eklispe

‘Yaaaam…’ One of the Yamask sounded out at the question of what’s going on, the ghosts looking between one another for the moment. They didn’t look like they were sure how to answer. Then there was the question of if they could help, and they perked up. Then if there was a Cofagrigus to talk to. They exchanged looks once again, and then a unanimous decision was made.

‘Yamask!’ ‘Yaaaa!’ ‘Amask!’ ‘Ya-mama!’

The little swarm of ghosts reached for Amelia’s clothes and started trying to pull her up, and in the direction to the right in the crossing ahead. Though, there was still a Sigilyph patrolling… but two of the Yamasks put on their determined faces and blocked the path before it could arrive.

‘YaMAAAAAAASK!’ … And they went in to engage the Psychic type with Astonishes, the surprised flying patroller staggering before realizing it had come under fire from denizens of the tomb that it usually protected! Still, the remaining Yamasks urged Amelia on. … They did not do the same for Dawkin, one might have thrown him a confused stare, wondering if he wanted to come too, but otherwise yeah.

Ahead in the corridor, the Yamasks then took a sharp left into a small room in the midst of the corridor. There floated a Honedge…

‘Yamask!’ … That the present Yamasks immediately engaged, flying forward to Astonish the rather confused sword Pokémon. Still, it’d start fighting back soon enough, though it’d be rather outnumbered. The room was otherwise pretty empty, except for one giant sarcophagus in the middle of the room…

… No, that’s not a sarcophagus.





It’s currently pretending, but Amelia’s ghost-sense isn’t lying to her.



Now then?

__________________________

@prettydrops

‘Mh?’ Kathryn made a little noise of curiosity when Valen asked her to wait, turning around to look at him curiously. She listened to his questions, and gave him a little smile as she started talking.

‘Don’t think too hard on it. There isn’t a right way to go on your Pokémon journey or train your Pokémon, and for now you don’t have to worry about how to make them the very best, either. It isn’t like there’s a system in place where you need to KO a specific number of specific Pokémon in order to make sure your Pokémon grows in a specific way you want, or so. Battle wild Pokémon or trainer Pokémon, and they’ll naturally grow. Just have a bunch of fun together. Alright?’ Kathryn told. And then…

‘As for going to space… Isson doesn’t really have an equivalent of the Mossdeep Space Center, they’re the ones sending rockets to space over there in Hoenn, but perhaps one day. Who knows?’ Kathryn shrugged and smiled a bit more, but that’ll do for now.

Then he took a quick visit to the Pokémon Center…



And then he went and searched the locations of some Pokémon…



And then he went and started training some more against some trainers at the school. Sure.





Then he engaged a couple trainers for training.





He got to fight a Geodude and a Budew. With Psybeam at its side, Qwerty was more than able to defeat both Pokémon with current capabilities.



There. Now what?



__________________________

@Gardevoiran

Vivia listened to Skylar’s excited little rant, smiling just a little bittersweetly. He took that photo, because the Pokédex indeed has a camera feature, and then the newly named Paradise came out of

'Paradise,' Vivia repeated, a bit in awe at the name. It wouldn’t take all that long for Paradise to wake up, a couple rounds aren’t that long, but still. Still, then he asked what Vivia wanted to do. She looked around with a neutral expression and then spoke.

'I’m not sure. I want to go on to the gyms eventually, but the Pokémon around here aren’t immediately interesting to me. I think I’ll go along with you and train my Pokémon somewhat.'

The Pokémon to train on in here are the Petilils and the Cottonee mentioned earlier, the occasional Jigglypuff, as well as two previously unseen cat Pokémon that they hadn’t noticed earlier.









They didn’t really have any advantages against the Pokémon around. The grass-types had flying against them but water in their favour against flying-type move less Seabreeze, and they’d notice that all the cats had Fake Out which they’d start out with before Scratching up close. Mostly due to taking damage back in turn they weren’t able to continue too long without taking too much damage, having to stop. Though, they got a decent amount of experience.





But they’re both pretty damaged now. The Pokémon in here are decently tough.

… Hm? Someone seems to have dropped their glasses in the forest. Said someone is not Vivia.



Or more accurately, one of his Pokémon probably did.

Paradise can wake up now.

What would Skylar do next?



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.



__________________________

@Dusksong

Totodile watched her as she and her Pokémon took on the considerably effortful task of saving the boat and managing to drag it onto what qualified as shore. It then watched her as she was outlining the options for how they could attempt freeing it. The Totodile blinked once. Then twice. Then a couple more times. First time had seemed involuntary, it was just time to blink, and then it got confused and blinked more. Then, it placed its two small blue hands against the wood, and pushed. With sound of cracking in the boat but no seeming damage to Totodile, the snout of the reptile shot out on its own and Totodile stumbled back to its feet, standing on the back of the boat Eryn had so painstakingly saved. It looked over at her and opened its big mouth.

'Totodile!' it announced, looking and sounding happy, and then leapt off the boat into the water.

It started to swimming up the stream, not looking at Eryn again. She could of course follow if she wished to. Just staying here would mean she’d be left behind as Totodile swam back into the lake. What would she do?



Connected areas:
Pureplain City. You can get back without complication.
Infested Woods. You’re right next to it.
Wet Caverns. May need to cross a bridge or two to get there.



__________________________

@Rune_Alchemist

Bellawesome continued dodging gusts, perhaps taking some damage on the sidelines by being graced by the powerful winds, but she reached Lure more or less fine. Then, Lure got in for a Bug Bite just as promised. This was at the same time as Bellawesome dashed in for a strike, and-

Lure was slapped by the flat side of the Leaf Blade from straight in front, the blade finely placed between the mouths of the Combee, before Bellawesome used superior strength and led Lure’s charge down into the floor with a slam of the sword following. If Lure continued to hunt after Bellawesome, she’d continue with similar feats, using the blade with magnificent skill to block Lure’s bites while dealing counter-attack damage in turn, all while smiling so happily. Now, Bug/Flying meant Lure wasn’t taking a lot of damage either, but the Leaf Blade was definitely making itself felt eventually.

‘Awwwwww, she’s having fun!’ Archie told, smiling so happily and bouncing a bit in joy on the other side.

This final Pokémon of Archie’s was edging out in a stat that could not be found on any chart describing the capabilities of Pokémon. Skill. With it, Bellawesome currently had a significant advantage over Lure, who couldn’t seem to get a solid hit with either Gust or Bug Bite in the regular ways of their usage.

What would Claire do now?