---

As the Shuppet circled Valen letting out their own, unique cries, he was panicked at first. Were they going to attack him? But his fears were assuaged once he saw Qwerty do a backflip mid air. She seemed quite triumphant, and though Valen was still nervous, he relaxed considerably.

"Wow, we did it," he sighed, looking at the Shuppet circling him and Qwerty. The three ghosts and the Virtual Pokemon seemed intrigued by each other. They were communicating back and forth with rapid chatters of their own, no doubt asking each other questions and coming to some kind of understanding. Qwerty was curious about where the Shuppet had grown up, what were their favorite parts in the city, barring the old coot's backyard of course. Did they enjoy solid food as much as emotions of misery? And the Shuppet, in turn, were interested by Qwerty. Where had she come from? What was her virtual world like? What were her favorite toys? Valen admired the scene with a small across his face before remembering-- he could tell the old man that he'd completed the mission now! And even receive some kind of reward. Would it be some kind of pokemon? He hoped so. I guess any reward's good enough as any, he thought, trying to train himself to be more easily satisfied than he actually felt.

He knocked on the door. "Uh... Hello?". As the client opened the door, Valen swallowed. "I just, I mean, I got the Shuppet..." The ghost types cackled, and Valen just hoped they wouldn't fly away, making him look like a liar and a fool in front of the client! "They uh, they decided they're moving onto bigger and better things I guess. But they're with me now! Sooo uh." What was the polite way to ask for a reward? Was it polite? He really didn't know. It was the first time he'd done a non volunteering job. "But, you know, well, you said you'd give me something else after the task had been completed. So that's why I'm here." Little did he know, though, the Shuppet found his nervous energy somewhat fresh tasting. It wasn't quite misery, but the flavor of thinking something bad was going to happen was a bold experience that probably tasted something like roasted red pepper, sage, and garlic.

---

After the conversation, with the night still being young, Valen found himself going to the local pokemon center. Qwerty had been returned to her pokeball on account of there being more pokemon being out and about Valen. Thankfully, the three Shuppet circling him, cackling and giggling hardly brought a glance from anyone. With Kalmia often taking her own long walks through the city with all the pokemon she took care of, who would think three Shuppet were strange?

"Oof," Valen waved Shuppet #1 away from the PC sceen. "C'mon, you guys wanna get to this place or not?" All three circled around him frenetically. "I guess that's a yes. Then let me-- hey, no playing with the mouse! Come on, let me find out where to take you guys!"

After some playful struggle, the Shuppet settled for contedly sitting on his shoulders and top of his head as he looked up where to take them. "Hm... Horror... House? In Pureplain? Oh wow, huh, I thought I'd have to get out a lot further. Well that works for me! What about you guys?"

The Shuppet dissappeared, reappearing in front of the screen, their eyes glued to the pictures. They guffawed at the sight. What an interesting place they'd be going to! Had they proper mouths, they would have been smiling, although the way their eyes crinkled up at the corners was enough to read their expressions as amused.

"Let's head out then. Hey-- no going through my bag!"

---

Arriving at the Horror House took approximately a half an hour of walking around, though the destination had been simple to navigate through. The spindly and dark building loomed over them, and even if Valen knew it was just an attraction, the atmosphere was chilling. "Sheesh, you'd think I would have outgrown this stuff by now..." The Shuppet, meanwhile, were enjoying the taste of Valen's fear. It was sweet, very sweet. "I mean... I guess I can't just leave you guys here. Let me talk to someone." He knocked on the door of the establishment. "Hello? Anybody there?"

---

@PlatinumSkink

---

Archie opted for the simple solution. Bellawesome sped across the field, intending on cutting down all the copies as she swung her leaf blade like some hula girl with an attitude. She'd have to match this fight with her own beauty and grace. She only had a small window to deal with Bellawesome before things got bad for Ralia. Once she got into close range, it wasn't going to go well for her.

"Alright..." They had entered the home stretch. The battle was likely going to be over in only a few more moments, either with her win or her loss, and she wasn't going to let the latter part happen. It was a simple plan, but one that would hopefully give her the most amount of success. She just needed to hope Ralia could pull it off. "Hit 'em with a Confusion!"

"Rrral!~" Several of the clones that hadn't been hit yet made every attempt to avoid Bellawesome, mostly in their usual comical and over the top fashions. Ralia herself had taken refuge among a small group that were constantly moving about, making sure to keep up the facade herself, not in the center or back, that would be too obvious. Just a bit to the left. Concentrating her psychic energy, she blasted an attack right towards Bellawesome.

Sensing Claire's intent however, as soon as Bellawesome got close enough she'd teleport away to the far side of the field.

@Eklispe@Joshua Tamashii

‘Cof…!’ Cofagrigus made a scoffing noise in reply to Amelia’s little speech to it. Two of its shadowy arms crossed and entwined underneath its face, looking down at her where he floated in mid-air. Still, anyway.

‘… Cofagrigus!’ it called, waving one of its other arms in a circle twice, on the point of that it’d already decided it was going to do something. With that, it started drifting towards the exit of the room.

That was some form of result. What would they do now?



__________________________

@Gardevoiran

‘Uh-huh. You seem like you’re doing fine,’ Earl stated about the blindness as Skylar got his hands on the herbs finally. Then, Seabreeze was fed one of the herbs, munching on it for a bit, experiencing how UTTERLY AWFUL it tasted, when the Pokédex suddenly piped up.



Fowl Flap is a flying-type move with an 18% chance of making an opponent drowsy. The user waves its wings in a sleepy manner.

It really did feel like he was about to evolve for a second there, then something also realized it wasn’t time yet and promptly stopped. Decreased Special Defence and Dragon-type would both be temporary.

‘Huh,’ the boy said, looking up at the Pokémon that had fallen asleep on Skylar’s head, and then looked down on the Pokédex. ‘Why, that’s handy. I had no idea what it’d actually do, but seems like it recovered health as intended. Good. That’s a step in the right direction,’ Earl commented, nodding. Cleffa and a couple Budews started cheering and bumping into one another like they had done a good job.

Then, he looked to Skylar’s next question, looking at the glasses with an unchanging expression.

‘I’m here gathering ingredients. This is somewhat of a fairy forest, so a bunch of these plants have unpredictable effects. Also, they say some form of a horned, mystical Pokémon inhabits these forests. I’m looking for it, see if it’ll gift me one of its horns. I bet it’d make my brews into miracles,’ he said, a snide smirk appearing on his mouth. ‘That’d make for some legendary potion, now, wouldn’t it? Currently, my brewed herbs have rather random effects, no two alike, but one day…’

‘How about you and the girl? Just out adventuring?’ Earl asked, looking Skylar over.

Vivia is currently busy giving Celebrity all the pats, both hands, a bit amazed that the Pokémon is apparently enjoying itself. That’s when Venonat, mildly jealous, dashed in next to Celebrity, also wanting pats.

'Ahahaha, sorry, you get some too-' Vivia said, letting her hand move over to pat Venonat… only to have completely forgotten that the hair around a Venonat is stiff, prickly and coated in poison. Vivia let her hand fall on the being, paused a moment, and then had to lift her hand away from the little needles she had pricked herself on with small tears in her eyes as said hand closed to shield the pain. Gloves of some kind so she can pat Venonat is most assuredly on the to-buy list…

In any case.

What would Skylar do?

__________________________

@prettydrops

Eventually he came to open the door again. The man who was his client for this matter stood there once again. He frowned a bit as the Shuppets still flew about, though notably they had reason to hide from this man. Still, Valen made the claim that he was going to move the Shuppets elsewhere, that they had decided to “move on to bigger things”…

‘That so?’ the man questioned, sounding like he wasn’t entirely convinced. Still...

‘I suppose you’re here for your reward, then,’ the man said, turning and heading into the house again. It took a bit of searching, but he eventually returned with two Pokéballs.

‘Here. Take one of these two, if you so want them. Otherwise, I suppose I can pay you in more cash,’ he said, and allowed Valen to examine the contents of the Pokéballs.



Moving on towards the attraction over here. Keeping in mind that I earlier established with Amelia that there’s no more ghost-Pokémon in Pureplain City, I need to keep this established. Let’s simply say that someone came out to greet you and would be more than happy to have the Shuppets join their troop and that’d be the best for this particular plot as you can now say your goodbyes and move on to the next thing you want to do.

What would Valen want to do now?





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.



__________________________

@Rune_Alchemist

Ralia pulled off a Confusion at Bellawesome as she dashed and sliced some clones, and it hit. Bellawesome jolted a bit with damage, but didn’t appear to be Confused nor particularly damaged for that matter. With that, Ralia was starting to run out of non-sliced clones to hide behind, and Bellawesome now approached the group which Ralia was part of. Ever one for efficiency, when so many were so close Bellawesome was quick to slice all about her in a way that took as many of them as possible in as few slices she could… and Ralia teleported out of the way before she could be hit.

‘A-ha! There she was!’ Archie called excitedly.

‘Bellossom~!’ Bellawesome called, spinning around to look across the battlefield for Ralia’s new location. Even if she was hiding among other clones, it was clear enough where she would have gone, and Bellawesome took off with considerable speed to cross the battlefield. It would not be long before Bellawesome arrived again, and this time she knew where she’d find Ralia. There may not be time for two moves this time.

What would Claire and Ralia do?

---

After dropping the Shuppet off at the troupe, Valen was on his way, deciding to take the Route to Highhill Town. As he headed out into the night, he glanced at the pokeballs around his waist. He hadn't gotten a chance to introduce the new pokemon to Qwerty. There's only two, I could probably handle both of them out.

Hesitantly, he released the Snivy. It was an interesting pokemon, no doubt, with sly amber eyes and a brilliant green coloring. His pokedex went off, rattling off about information on the pokemon. He held out his hand for the pokemon, who sniffed it hesitantly.

Qwerty greeted the Snivy with a cheerful cry, the Snivy responding with the tiniest of smiles.

Valen wasn't sure what to do about the grassy, reptilian ppkemon. The creature seemed hesitant about accepting him, but it hadn't not approved of him.

"Well hi," he didn't know what else to say. "I'm Valerian, just Valen though. Valerian's pretentious enough." The pokemon moved in front him, hardly acknowledging what he'd said. It was certainly testing him, even if he didn't realize it entirely. However, the pokemon reacted positively to Qwerty, and the two communicated and got along, it seemed. Qwerty was enthralled with the new addition to the budding team.

At least they're friendly with each other. Better to have that Snivy like one of us, intstead of neither of us.

The grass rustled, and Valen only just managed to dodge an irate Rattata's tackle. "Ack! Ow!" He'd heard about this, wild pokemon that often attacked trainers to prove themselves or train.

Qwerty and the Snivy were quick to move to the front. Other wild pokemon watched, some curious, others itching to join in the fight.

Huh... He didn't want the wild pokemon to end up too badly hurt. It was tough enough surviving in the wild, after all. "Don't get in too bad of a fight, guys." The Rattata that had attacked them, however, scampered off, feeling quite intimidated. And probably for good reason.

Still, the random encounter had given Valen an idea. There were probably quite a few wild pokemon on this route, weren't there? Perhaps there was a potential team member just waiting to be found on their way to Highhill. Or even potential items that had been dropped. That settled it then.

"While we're on route 1, let's keep an eye out for pokemon, or maybe like stuff on the ground," Valen added. "Who knows? Maybe we'll find a friend or something? I guess, try not to get hurt but we can try and train some too, if a pokemon challenges us I mean."

Qwerty let out a "kre!" The Snivy huffed, though the pokemon wouldn't do something as paltry as look for items, testing moves and building up strength after being in a pokeball was at the highest on the list.

As they fought their battles, practicing their techniques and trying to grow, they continued on the route, the moon round and luminous above them.

---

---

---

"Oh jeez! Sorry about that, buddy!" Skylar apologized, patting Seabreeze on the head as the Wingull looked towards the pond, diving down into it to try and wash out the awful taste in his mouth. Skylar felt really bad for the bird, but there wasn't much he could do. He still had the herbs in his possession, though, and he was certainly keeping them in case of a pinch. They did heal up his Pokemon, but it didn't exactly work out as well as he had thought.

Earl explained why he had been in the woods, and told about his plight to find the horned Pokemon of the woods. Skylar admired that, and rightfully responded. "I feel that. I'm trying to become the best flying type trainer in the region myself. Hopefully I can get the attention of one of the legendary flying-type Pokemon in the region." Skylar placed a hand on his hip as Seabreeze came flying back up, landing in Skylar's hair and... making the boy wet. He didn't mind that, though.

Earl asked about Vivia next. "Oh, Vivia? She's new to this too, heck, she was even my first battle! She lost, but she still gave it her all with her team. She's really cool. We're traveling together for right now, since we're both kinda new."

Skylar smiled and waved at Vivia before turning back to Earl. "So what is the mystical Pokemon you're speaking of? I've just looked for a lot of flying Pokemon since I've been in this forest, but a mystical Pokemon like that would be super cool to see."

Celebrity was busy looking at Venonat while all of this was going on, and was upset at the jealous poison type, especially since it made the pats stop! Celebrity was not having that, and simply frowned at the bug-eyed brat.

@PlatinumSkink

---

"Ralia, confusion!" Despite the attacks it had taken, Bellawesome didn't seem to be too bothered, but that thing was fast and it hit hard. She could stall, but that would just delay the inevitable so she was going to take it head on. It might have been reckless, but that was her plan for now.

"RRRRAAAAL!~" Summoning as much psychic energy as her little pokemon body could, Ralia turned towards her opponent and sent another blast of weak psychic energy towards the grass type.

@prettydrops




Gender: ♂
Type: Grass
Personality: (Up to player.)
Quirks/Talents/Aspirations/Other: (Up to player.)
Level: 5
Moves: Tackle, Leer
Ability: Overgrow. Boosts power of Grass-type moves when heavily damaged.
Held Item: None.



And so, at some point, Valen headed out from Pureplain City and headed for Route 1.



Valen and his Pokémon ended up struggling with a bunch of Rattatas and Pidgeys. That is totally and completely fine, Snivy has a few levels to catch up on Qwerty. Now, the Ratattas here were a bit weak for Qwerty to efficiently train being on level 9, but Snivy got some experience for free.



Took some damage, though. With that out of the way-

And that’s a random fireball that just flew straight past Valen and his Pokémon as they were training.

‘Rowl! Rowl! Grrrrr-!’ … And there’s an angry Growlithe that just shot the Ember at them, standing in a ready stance and glaring at them, breathing a bit of fire preparing to potentially battle.





It would appear they had somehow entered its territory. What would Valen do now?

__________________________

@Gardevoiran

Seabreeze went down to the pond to wash out the taste, then flew up to sit on his head again… THEN fell asleep, as that was the last recorded effect of the herbs. He’ll wake up with a few pats, though. The equivalent of a couple of turns, which goes fast with talking.

‘Flying, huh,’ Earl replied, looking about a bit. ‘Assuming you already got a Tropius, I think Cottonee’s the only flying thing about, though that one isn’t a Flying-type…’ He thought about it a little bit more, then shrugged. ‘Drifloons appear on Route 3, though.’

Vivia caught the wave, and forced a smile through the pain of her closed fist and waved a bit back with her other hand while Venonat caught Celebrity’s frown and glared right back. A jealous little Venonat here. So here we now had a purple ball and a pink ball in a staring contest.

‘So, yes,’ Earl smirked at the question. ‘I read about it in Rainrock City. Apparently, there’s this legend about a mythical Pokémon whose power can heal any form of wound or something… or it defends the weak and fights for righteousness. One of the two. Still, I’ve been searching around here for quite a while, and I’ve found nothing,’ he finished, crossing his arms and nodding to himself.

‘Might be time to look for a new forest and try out their herbs. I’ve got a ton of things I’d like to try out.’

‘Cl-cleeeff…’ Cleffa made a bit of a worried sound at Earl’s most recent remark, shying back a bit.

‘Budew!’ one of his Budews suddenly called out.

‘Hm? Can’t think of what else to try out?’ Earl looked back. He considered it for a bit, then shrugged.

‘Cleffa, cast Metronome on the brew!’

‘Cleffa!’ Cleffa replied, _{totally having learned the move as an Egg-move, apparently}, and ran forth to wave its fingers at the brew…

Metronome became Bind! … Cleffa attempted to bind around the pot and promptly burned herself. ‘C-cleff!’

‘Again!’ Earl called.

Cleffa tried again! This time… Metronome became Bulk Up! … Cleffa boosted her own stats and became 1.5 times bigger with bigger muscles suddenly! ‘Cleffa!?’

That didn’t do it either, so once again, Cleffa tried Metronome! Metronome became...

Heat Wave

Cleffa blew out a powerful blast of exceedingly hot breath, blowing away and fainting multiple crying Budews and almost setting the room on fire. Some of the brew it was blasted on was shot out in multiple directions, but the rest of it was blasted to massive degrees before their eyes and melted all which had been thrown into it, leading that the potion had an even red coloration made in a mix of who knows what. Cleffa breathed out in relief, while Earl smirked and walked forward to scoop up some of the potion into a glass container. He turned and walked over to Skylar again.



‘Hm-hm-hm! I’m interested in what this’ll do. Try it out in battle sometime,’ Earl said, smiling slyly.

‘Now, where were we?’

Yeah, where were you?

__________________________

@Rune_Alchemist

Ralia shot off a Confusion… which hit Bellawesome, but wasn’t enough to stop her. Bellawesome swooped forth with her blade at the ready, there was no way for Ralia to dodge the considerably faster Pokémon. The blade flew forth in an arc… and stopped right by her head.

Bellawesome smiled at the smaller Ralts, holding the blade at the ready. Telepathy told that the moment Ralia tried something, she would most certainly faint. Because Bellawesome was strong enough to faint Ralia in a single strike, at this rate.

‘Oh-hohohoho! Bellawesome, you know you’re making us more likely to lose like this?’ Archie called while laughing at the Pokémon’s actions.

‘Bellossom~!’ Bellawesome simply replied, smiling widely.

‘Teh-heh… I understand. Hey, Claire!’ Archie called, while raising an empty hand which Ramsey promptly put something into. ‘Bellawesome is having fun. You’ve entertained her. She doesn’t want this battle to end. That’s why…’

Archie braced himself and threw whatever it was in his hand across the battlefield to Claire…



‘You get one… more… try…’ Archie said, a little grin on his lips and waving a single finger as he said. ‘… And if your choice is a close-combat fighter, that’d make Bellawesome really happy~’

‘Belloss~!’ Bellawesome called happily.

‘Young master, I will remind you that you are a Gym Leader,’ Ramsey said. ‘You aren’t supposed to give challengers extra chances if they’ve proven themselves powerful enough to overcome you.’

‘What, I can’t…?’ Archie asked, turning wide-eyed to Ramsey. ‘But, but… Bellawesome is having so much fuuuuuun…’ Archie continued, his eyes growing wide, wet and totally puppy-eyed. Ramsey looked down at the young master with an unreadable expression, and then sighed.

‘Young master, you are the Gym Leader. You decide the rules. I am simply here to remind you,’ the butler told. Archie smiled widely.

‘Thank you, Ramsey! You’re the best~!’ he said, before turning to Claire.

‘Now, what’ll you do?’

Revive, of course, wouldn’t restore more than half health to a Pokémon… but Bellawesome had taken her fair share of hits as well already. What would Claire do?

__________________________

@Eklispe@Joshua Tamashii

The two followed Cofagrigus, who rounded a corner… and ran into a couple of Bronzors harassing another Pokémon. Cofagrigus, less than amused, sent forth an Ominous Wind that blasted the Bronzors aside. In their wake sat an unamused purple Pokémon, glaring back at them. This particular ghost did not seem like it was particularly having problems, but regardless Cofagrigus had just solved said problems. Now, they were face-to-face with a…





The Cofagrigus and the Gengar exchanged glares, before they started shouting out at one another.

‘Cofagrigus…!’

‘Geng? Gengar, Gengar!’

‘Cofa, cofagrigus!’

‘Geeeeeeeeng-gengar!’

And since nobody understands this conversation, here’s a rough translation. It may or may not be entirely accurate.



Basically, it boiled down to the two Pokémon shouting at one another before ending up in one another’s faces, two of Cofagrigus hands holding forcefully against Gengar’s two hands as if struggling for superiority while both were grinning widely.

Sounds could be heard from deeper into the tomb. The forces had started to move.

---

As the fireball went whizzing past Valen, his heart beat furiously and sweat appeared on his brow. Of all the things that could have terrified him, or come hurtling his way, a fireball? What were the odds? Why me?

"Ahhh!" He ducked, covering his head, trying to run in the opposite direction but only managing to trip and fall in his panic. "Qwerty! Snivy!"

While the Snivy didn't seem to care all that much, Qwerty's attention was promptly at Valen's side. "Kree!" The Virtual Pokemon exclaimed, worried, angry, and confused all at once. She was hovering in the air-- and the next thing Valen knew, she had been hit by another fireball from the snarling Growlithe. His eyes widened in horror. "Qwerty?!" The pokemon was knocked back, but his initial reaction was transformed into one of awe as Qwerty's body began to change color. The flat pink and blue planes that made up her form changed to fiery red and orange, and a shimmering heat seemed to be emanating from her.

"That's... Conversion 2," Valen mumbled, dazed. Qwerty had been hit by the attack, no doubt, but she seemed fine for the most part.

All Valerian truly wanted to do was run and get out of their situation, but Qwerty was angry. If that Growlith didn't want them in his territory, well, he could have been much more polite about it, she thought. How dare he ambush them with his awful Embers? She wouldn't stand for it! With a shrill cry, she whizzed towards the Growlithe, readying a Psybeam.

"Wait no, Qwerty! Come back!" Valen shouted, but Qwerty refused. The Snivy watched on, curious, itching to join the fight... Valen, who noticed the eager grass snake's fighting stance, pushed him back. The Snivy responded with and indignant hiss.

"Two against one's not fair," Valen said, shaking his head. "I know you don't like me, I'm sorry about this..." Snivy was recalled back to the pokeball in a flash of red. The capsule shook once, as if to protest, but Snivy was somewhat tired after his training.

"Qwerty, you too, sorry but now! Return!" But the return light beam kept missing the very much excited Porygon, who was itching to prove to this Growlithe that it couldn't mess with them! She refused to back down! Valen pressed his fingers to his temples. It seemed like he was going to be engaged in this mess no matter what. I hope we make it out of this, alright.

---

As Amelia followed Cofagrigus, she sensed the other ghosts as they moved around the tomb. They were gathering up together which could only mean one thing: they were running out of time. Still, it seemed that their new companion was not the most concerned with this, as it stopped for a seemingly casual, if slightly heated chat with a Gengar that they had come across. Still, she said nothing about this, as she knew they had some help waiting by the most likely route the Ghost-types were going to take. She just knew that Joshua wouldn't be able to hold back an entire army. Regardless, she was certain that Cofagrigus didn't forget the threat of an army marching and would simply wait for it to make it's way toward them.

Meanwhile, in the tunnel leading towards the surface, Joshua got to his feet and stretched a bit.
"Showtime I guess." He said to himself, looking down at Absol, who had joined him. He glanced around at the hall they were in and sighed. In a scenario like this, he had a bit of an advantage when it came to holding back a group of enemies. His pokemon where strong and given the narrow space, under normal cicumstances, nothing would be able to leave the hallway. But his enemies were Ghost-types, so they might be able to pass through the walls. But then again, most of them weren't really real ghosts, more like objects, so who knew. Regardless of the actual facts, he brought out four more pokemon: Greninja, Bisharp, Weavile, and Pangoro. " Absol, Gangoro, and Bisharp, up in front. Weavile and Greninja, cover our rear just in case and take down anything that gets past or around us."

His pokemon took their place and Joshua waited for the first wave to appear. He was going to make sure to send a good number of them packing until he was either overwhelmed or they stopped their advance.

---

---

"Well shoot, now I wanna go get a Drifloon, heh." Skylar scratched behind his head as he took the Heat Wave potion, curious as to how that'll work. Maybe it gives the Pokemon access to the move in battle? He wasn't exactly sure, but he wasn't afraid to test it out in a minute if he could.

Though, when the question of what the two boys were doing came up, Skylar thought for a moment before snapping. "Maybe if we battle we can bring out the Pokemon you want to see? A test of strength might be all that we need." Skylar raised his arm, elbow out, and fist against his chest, before thinking for a moment and realizing something. "Err... but let's let Seabreeze wake up first. I don't want him missing out on the battle."

Whilst the two boys talked, Celebrity looked at Venonat and had it up to here with the bug. Without so much as a warning (outside of the large breath the puffball took), Celebrity began to vocalize itself. As soon as the first word came out, Vivia and Venonat would know (Paradise would be just out of reach of the move's full effect, thankfully.)

Celebrity used Sing!

Oh dear. This would not bode well.

Dawkin stared at the two pokemon, somewhat bewildered by the mixed aggressive and friendless he thought he saw. At the end... Things seemed to work out. "Well that's good I guess." Dawkin muttered to himself, not at all pleased that he still had virtually no understanding of the situation but following along none the less. "So is our plan to have these two heavy lifters just take out everything? In case you forgot we're not exactly on par with the Pokemon here and I don't know that these guys can take of it all by themselves." Dawkin whispered to Amelia, unsure if the Pokemon in question would take offensive to his doubt.

---

@PlatinumSkink

---

It seemed she was about to lose this battle. Ralia got off her confusion, but it wasn't enough. Bellawesome closed in, speeding through the clones that were left right towards the small Ralts. The small psychic type tossed her hands up in the air, standing up straight as though she were about to be arrested as the leaf blade came right for her neck.

Yet the strike never came?

"E-eh?"

"R-ral?"

Claire was understandably caught off guard by this turn of events, Ralia was too. Claire looked from Bellawesome to Archie, then back to Ralia. The Ralts hadn't moved an inch and was still alive and well, though from the beads of sweat forming on her head she wasn't doing to well as she tried to do her best impression of a pokemon statue. She was so caught off guard by both Archie and the turn of events, she almost missed the Revive being thrown at her. It smacked right into her head, quickly bringing the redhead back to reality as she snatched it before it hit the ground.

"A...revive?"

At first, Claire was a bit angry. Was she being messed with? Patronized? Archie didn't seem the type, but she couldn't help but feel slightly agitated by potentially being given a freebie. On the other hand...she did want to win, and she certainly didn't mind using this to achieve that...so she had a dilemma. Should she take the freebie? Her pride was hurting at the thought. She had lost, that much was certain. Claire looked at the healing item in front of her, then back to the pokemon, then back to Archie.

"...urgh, I feel kind of bad taking this." Claire grunted, smirking in a mildly angry fashion. "I lost fair and square. Taking a freebie just isn't my style." Claire continued, sighing. It might be odd for a trainer to say this. She could imagine other people would take this offer, but... "Thanks, but I'll take the L here."

The Silent Forest. Damp, with an air of serenity and a never ending silence that was likely it's namesake; Erza had been ghosting through without paying serious attention to his surroundings so far, only ever stopping at the sight of a new pokémon in order to register it into his pokédex.









He briefly considered training his Growlithe right there - but he was feeling drawn towards the shrine and he could always revisit here later in order to catch some new pokémon - maybe even explore in search of a rarer pokémon that might lurk in these woods.

Moving on forward, hasty as it was very common to Erza, the boy eventually found himself standing a short distance away from the beautiful temple that was likely known as the Silent Shrine. His eyes narrowed slightly, focusing on the details spread about the building, he took note of the pillars, the decoration, the lights - everything seemed to emmanate peace in this peculiar place. His legs worked their way closer, the boy now standing next to the pillar, a hand gently running through it's surface as he analyzed the building's every detail. Curious, interested and excited, Erza was anxious to enter the temple, but he took a few minutes wandering around the temple, nodding his head should the man running the shop outside see him. He wasn't quite interested in spending hard earned money with souvenirs however; he might need it for more pokéballs, supplies and...

The boy ran his hands through his clothes. Dirty, soaked and in terrible shape - damn, he was seriously starting to worry about how he looked. No trainer would take him seriously if he already looked like a mess in the very start of his journey. Maybe praying at the temple, as per tradition, would help in this endeavor - or rather, adventure.

Erza entered the shrine. It was safe to say that it looked very beautiful and that feeling of peace only seemed to increase as he dwelved inside the building.

There were two boys conversating. Erza caught their names during the conversation; Rodger and Oaken. Both looked like trainers and somewhat friendly to one another, so Erza assumed they were travelling together. They mentioned that the gym leader might be lost in the Silent Forest and seemed very disinterested in searching for her; the thought made Erza's heart race a little, the boy considering that there could be some peril in this quiet forest. Taking a deep breath, the boy approached the altar and leaned down, onto his knees. His hands moved to clasp together and his eyes fluttered closed. For now, he'd honor the tradition - especially after listening that every champion of Isson had previously prayed at this very shrine one time or another.

I'm not exactly the religious kind, so I'm sorry- I have no idea of how I should start...

Well. I don't want an easy adventure, to be frank. Maybe some good fortune, maybe some luck to run into some rare, strong pokémon that can help me achieve my objective. I want to be a champion, you know? And not only that, I want to catch every pokémon! But, above all that, I want that this feeling never ends. You know, this thrill? The adrenaline that rushes through you whenever you are in a battle with a wild pokémon or another trainer. It's something so amazing I can barely describe it.

That wasn't praying, was it? Well, it felt like I've been talking to myself mentally. Heh, funny.

Erza smiled and stood up, looking up at the unknown figure at the altar. No matter how weird this whole thing was, he'd cast a glance at the boys (if they were still there) before making his way outside of the shrine. A lost kid in the woods, eh? Chances are that whoever it is, it should be safe. Gym leaders are tough, after all. But Erza could catch two pidgeys with one pokéball right now: Searching the woods for rarer pokémon and a Gym Leader. It would be nice to challenge someone far above him in terms of skill and experience.

---

^{Route 2 || Night}
The fisherman seemed nice enough, and his Pokemon were certainly impressive. The Vaporeon was the first to notice Eryn approaching, alerting the fisherman, who seemed rather unsurprised. So unsurprised, in fact, that he offered Eryn a fishing rod without batting an eye.

“Oh, thanks,” Eryn said, receiving the fishing rod with some surprise. Taking the fisherman up on his offer, she sat down beside him, Dei and Kylie gathering on the other side of her. “Er, like this, then…” Eryn fumbled with the hook for a bit before managing to cast the line. Though she’d fished before, she’d only done so a few times to make sure she had the basic trainer skills down. Past being able to cast and reel, she was out of her element.

“Right, waiting.” Straightening, Eryn turned back to the fisherman, who was again waking up his Swampert. “Long day?” It was getting late, but Eryn didn’t feel too tired yet. She glanced at her Pokemon. Dei stood beside her, staring impassively at the fisherman’s Pokemon, and Kylie sat next to him, dangling her legs over the edge of the dock as she peered into the water. Then, as if noticing Eryn’s gaze, Kylie looked up, grinning as she met Eryn’s eyes.

“Maw,” she said, kicking her legs back and forth.

“Glad you two aren’t that worn out yet,” Eryn said with a smile. Then, remembering the fisherman’s question, her smile turned sheepish. “I’m at Dragon Lake, so tips on finding Pokemon would be great. I’m looking to catch a water-type and, if possible, a dragon-type.” She paused. “But, other than that, do you know any good training spots? And fishing spots, I guess,” she said, glancing down at the bob floating in the water. “Or any interesting rumors you’ve heard. I’d be up for an adventure.”

---

@PlatinumSkink

@prettydrops

Qwerty used Conversion2! Qwerty transformed into the Fire type!

With that, Qwerty hunted out after the Growlithe. She unleashed a Psybeam, which hit the puppy Pokémon straight on. Because of a combination of higher level and a pretty powerful move Growlithe took the majority of its health from the blow, frowning and looking back at Qwerty.

‘… Rowl!’ Growlithe returned it by sending another Ember back, which impacted Qwerty! But, due to Conversion2, this time it was not very effective! Qwerty took only a small amount of damage and was in a good state to counter, or whatever she wanted to do!

That is, Qwerty is most assuredly winning this fight like this. What’s Qwerty and Valen’s course of action?

__________________________

@Gardevoiran

‘Heh,’ Earl gave the slightest of a smile. ‘I have tried that already. However, I am up for trying it again… on the ground,’ Earl said.

They probably eventually get down to the ground, and Earl brought with him one of the Beduws, which he then lobbed forward at something that resembled a bunch of grass that could be fought on.

‘Alright, let’s do this,’ … After Seabreeze had woken up.

Herbalist Earl wants to fight!

‘I’ll start with Budew,’ Earl says, gesturing to his Pokémon.





‘Budew!’

Yupp.

Meanwhile, Celebrity started singing to Venonat and Vivia.

'Wait, I-!'
‘Veno-!’

Both individuals sounded out somewhat in panic, before Celebrity’s song penetrated their ears, and… both promptly fell asleep, not fast enough to do anything to change their fates.

Venonat fell asleep!
Vivia fell asleep!

Celebrity stands victorious by the sleeping forms of both the Venonat and the trainer. If this was the intention or not is up to Celebrity.

__________________________

@Eklispe@Joshua Tamashii

Gengar and Cofagrigus took a moment waiting for the army to pass, and then moved onwards. … It appears they’re intending on approaching the opponents head on. Does the two of them have better ideas?



Meanwhile. To outline the brief adventure of Joshua off-screen.

If he wanted a Sigilyph, he’d find one. They’re Uncommon down here, but spend long enough and you will run into one.

As for saving the young girl’s father, that probably went off without a hitch. The question then was if he was then sent to find more backup outside the base, if he proceeded to head deeper inside to attempt to save his daughter or if Joshua just brought him to the entrance or so.

Regardless, indeed. The thundering sound of quite a few Goletts marshing upon the exit is approaching, with Honedges and Bronzors floating along joining them in their endeavours… Will result in quite a battle quite soon.

__________________________

@Rune_Alchemist

‘… Eh? Why?’ Archie asked, his eyes wide and his expression one of utter confusion. Bellawesome as well looked over at her, looking surprised. Ramsey, however, shook his head a bit.

‘Young master, I bid you to accept the young lady’s decision. She has her pride as a Pokémon trainer, and you should respect it,’ Ramsey told, and Archie looked up at him, still with the expression of confusion.

‘I don’t… get it. But… okay,’ Archie said, sounding disappointed as he looked towards Bellawesome and Ralia. ‘Bellawesome,’

CHING

Ralia fainted!

‘Loss,’ After an exceedingly fast last swipe of her sword, Bellawesome made a similarly disappointed sound while letting her Leaf Blade blow off into the winds as regular leaves after she let go of it. She turned and returned towards Archie, who looked to Claire while still looking remarkably confused.

‘… I’ll expect you to come back, okay?’ Archie said, before turning around and dashing straight off the platform onto the sea of trees, joining the Pokémon he had been previously playing with. Meanwhile, Ramsey headed over to Claire.

‘May I escort you down, miss Claire?’

With the assumption she’d then head down and get her Pokémon healed…





Claire’s in Stillwood Village. What does she want to do now.



Connected areas:
Route 4. Forest route at the base of Mt. Strength leading west to Rainrock City.
Route 5. A grassy incline connecting mountains, forests, plains, Stillwood and Lakewatch.
Route 14. The waters of Dragon Lake are also known as Route 14. It connects Lakewatch Town, Highhill Town and Stillwood Village.
Mountain Valley. A passage between Mt. Strength and Mt. Chill, a shortcut to Worldedge City.



__________________________

@Lo

Erza went by the two boys on their way out and then himself went to pray at the altar. He prayed for a thrilling adventure, perhaps the luck to run into some rare Pokémon and whatnot… Was that a glimmer of light from the idol? Nah, probably a trick of light.

Regardless, he was soon enough turning to head off into the Silent Forest proper. Within, he would find that the skies above darkened under the thickness of the crowns and the clouds gathering overhead. And then, rain fell upon his steps, as the forest before him lit up with mysterious light in the silence…



__________________________

@Dusksong

She got a few pointers from the fisherman who was clearly experienced in the art of giving fishing pointers and soon enough she got something into the water.

‘’Pert,’ Swampert simply replied to the question of if it had been a long day, looking pretty tired.

‘We went up extra late for this. Not that you’d see it by looking at this guy,’ the fisherman declared, pointing a thumb over at the Swampert. But, then there were the other questions.

‘Water-type, huh,’ the fisherman commented, pulling and throwing out his line again. ‘Then it depends mostly on what kind of water-type you want. This is freshwater, you’re not going to find any salt-water fish in this. The best fishing spots are actually around the middle of the lake, but the problem with fishing there is that your boat is going to be assaulted by Carvanhas, which isn’t pleasant. We’re all dreaming of the day we fish up a Feebas, but that ain’t happening,’ he said with a sigh.

‘Otherwise you should find some of them in Wet Caverns. If you’d rather have a sea-worthy fish, then suppose you’ll need to head north past Rainrock City until you finally reach a sea-route. Dragon-type, however. Yeah, they’re here. The Lakewatchers that patrol the lake will prevent you from catching them, though. They defend the dragons from poachers… as well as from everyone else, including trainers. That said, they murmur that there’s a place in Wet Caverns where a dragon might be caught without their supervision… dunno where it is, though,’ the fisherman shrugged and continued.

‘Wet Caverns and Infested Forest both work for training. If you find either too tough, you can always head back and head north via Route 1 instead, far easier. … Infested Forest is known to be a place for Bug-types, but some people claim they’ve seen ghosts in there, too. Heh, who knows? Might have just seen a shadow move or something. Eh, I dunno.’

‘Swaaamp,’ Swampert suddenly stated.

‘You’re about to have a bite,’ the fisherman translated.

If she pulled at this moment…!



What would Eryn do now?

---

^{Route 2 || Night}
Eryn stared at the orange fish she’d reeled up, watching as it flopped on the dock. Was she surprised she’d reeled up the most common fish in the region and perhaps even the world? Of course not, and she felt dumb even thinking that she was a bit disappointed.

“Well, would you say it’s worth catching?” Eryn asked, glancing at the fisherman. “Wait.” She paused, looking back at the beached Magikarp. “You know what, don’t answer that.” She’d pulled up her first catch, and sure it wasn’t the most fascinating specimen—alright, so maybe not even an interesting specimen—but hadn’t she been the one internally touting that she hadn’t signed up to be a trainer to coast along? She’d signed up for the long haul: the side routes, dead ends, and all, and what better personified a temporary setback for long-term gain than a Magikarp?

“Sorry about that,” Eryn said, crouching and touching the Magikarp’s scales. They were slick smooth, built more like a carapace than like individual scales and surprisingly solid to the touch. As if registering her touch, the Magikarp stilled its flopping, its round eye staring up at her with an indecipherably blank gaze.

“Of course you’re worth catching,” Eryn murmured, retrieving a Pokeball with a grin. “You’re worth catching, even if it’s just ‘cuz I’m the one who fished you up,” she said, pressing the Pokeball to the Magikarp’s flank. Immediately, the Magikarp disappeared, engulfed into the red glow and into the Pokeball that glowed in Eryn’s palm. The capsule hummed with indecisive energy, caught between shaking and stilling for an uncertain second as Eryn stared down at it, uncertain herself. Then, the glow faded, and Eryn grinned anew.

“Alright, let’s see,” Eryn said, pressing the button and pocketing the Pokeball before she caught the newly-released Magikarp in midair, huffing. “Big gal, huh, Tula. Welcome to the team.”

Lowering the Magikarp down so that her other two Pokemon could take a gander, Eryn watched their reactions carefully, scanning their faces for any sort of indication as to what their thoughts were. Dei was, unsurprisingly, unimpressed with his new teammate, which he punctuated with a smoky snort after he finished looking Tula over. Kylie, on the other hand, slowly neared the fish, pressing a black-gloved hand to Tula’s scales before snapping the hand back and glancing at it. Then, she repeated the movement, this time leaving her hand on Tula’s scales and peering into the Magikarp’s eyes with a friendly smile.

“Mawile,” she said, stretching the syllables out in a sing-song manner. Dei snorted again.

“Glad that you both approve,” Eryn said, holding Dei’s gaze for an additional moment before straightening again, Tula circled in her arms. “Thanks for the tips, Mr. Fisherman. I think I’m set on fishing for a bit here, but thanks for letting me borrow the fishing rod.”

If the fisherman took the rod back, Eryn would move on without another thought since she doesn’t see herself actively reaching for it in the foreseeable future anyway. If he told her to keep it, though, she’d be pleasant surprised and accept, being the kind of person who liked to have too much over too little. A practical hoarder, if you will, though she’d keep herself within limits since she’s travelling. And she’d get the fisherman’s name and contact information through her Pokedex to keep him updated on her Magikarp because, after all, she owes her catch to him from tools and execution to reeling and completion.

Then, having properly thanked the fisherman again, she’d head along to the Infested Woods because what better time than the dead of night to see if the rumors about ghosts were really true?

“Right-o, Dei. Get that flame ready for some action.” Eryn grinned, patting Tula’s side as she watched Dei’s tail flick in front, the glow a small beacon in the darkness. “Don’cha worry, Tutu. You just watch and see how it’s done for now.” Given the darkness, she kept her ears perked instead of her eyes. She’d get some last training in before she called it a night and maybe—just maybe—get a glimpse or two of the rumored ghost-types haunting the woods.

---

@PlatinumSkink

Erza's sense of direction wasn't particularly great. So he just took a random path and followed it through; unknowingly, he was heading towards the Northern Silent Forest. He could notice that he was getting somewhere because the scenery was slowly changing. The practically ever pouring rain was there nonetheless, bothering him slightly but making no huge difference as the boy was already soaked, unfortunately. He could only hope that he wouldn't catch a cold or something that'd impact his journey negatively.

The forest seemed darker now. Looking up, Erza could barely see the sky; this forest was dense and thick. The boy was already beginning to feel an eery feeling within himself. The silence and the emptiness of this place was unsettling; and what were those blue lights that he could see in the distance, anyway? They clearly didn't seem to belong here.

Slowly but steady, Erza's steps brought the boy further into this mysterious place. He could now tell that the blue lights were lanterns. There were arcs placed everywhere that didn't seem to lead anywhere. Erza could, however, identify some pokémon:



´

A fairy-type. Exciting, but Erza knew that without a Steel or Poison type, he would waste too much resources and risk hurting his pokémon in a possible uneven battle. As far as he knew from reading pokémon related materials, Fairies are tough to battle without the advantage.

It didn't took him much longer to notice other pokémon he didn't encounter before:








Erza took a deep breath. It was raining, but he still had his Growlithe with him; fire types don't do well in the rain... but again, Growlithe didn't even knew a fire type move just yet. Maybe he could have some fun while heading deeper in the Silent Forest, hm? Smirking at the thought, Erza carefully picked Growlithe's pokéball and summoned his companion forth, the creature surging in a flash of red light with a yawn.

"Ready, Growlithe? Let's see how tough the pokémon in here are!"

---

---

Skylar carefully stepped down to the ground and ran to where he thought the other side of the arena was (he had to use his cane to prod his way there, but he wasn't too afraid of this battle, although he certainly felt like he should. With the stuff made by Earl, there was no telling how this battle could go, though he certainly wasn't about to lose so easily to Earl, not at all.

As he got his bearings of the battlefield spatially (and as Celebrity waddled over to his side), he could've sworn he heard a familiar jingle echo in his head.

Herbalist Earl wants to battle!

Skylar pondered who to send in first. Celebrity was a big no, since she was still kind of low on health and he didn't want to use his one Potion on her just yet. Seabreeze was still a bit affected by the Herb that Skylar gave him a while ago, leaving the last party member up in peak condition, and ready to rock and roll.

"C'mon, Paradise. It's time to show us what ya got!"

Paradise raised her head before happily stomping her way over to the battlefield, ruffling her wings out before standing ready to fight.

Rising Star Skylar sent out Paradise!

He was ready to rock and roll right along with her. They could definitely do this, no doubt.

@PlatinumSkink

---

Claire watched as Bellawesome dealt the final blow. Ralia, in a rather over dramatic fashion managed to twirl twice on her feet, holding a hand over her chest and one on her forehead before finally falling over, fainted. Pocketing the revive, Claire gave Archie a small smile as she placed a hand on her hip. Ah, loss really hurt, didn't it? But it didn't matter. Everyone had fun, and that was the most important thing. Even little Pip seemed happy at even just getting the chance to do something.

"Yea, don't you worry." Claire said with a grin, recalling Ralia to her pokeball. Extending a finger towards Archie, she shouted as he ran off to return playing. "One of these days I'ma come back, and then I'm gonna kick your ass! You can bet all the gym badges in the world!" Before Ramsey could make his way over to her, Claire had already bolted off in the other direction with her usual energy. No defeat would keep her down! Nay, a defeat was just a chance to get stronger, and Claire definitely felt like she had learned a lot from this battle. As much as she didn't like them, she'd need to start taking status moves more into account.

Making a brief stop at a pokemon center to heal her pokemon, then taking a break and finding a nice break outside playing with her pokemon, Claire ended up on a bench. Pip was playing tag with Ritz not far away. The grounded grass type was having quite the fun time trying to tackle a flying type. Claire was busy looking over a map of the region. Hm. Where should she go next? If she wanted to follow up on her meeting with Uxie, she'd need to backtrack to Rainrock or head straight to world edge. Head through mountain valley, and travel north on Route 10.

"Hmm-ah," Suddenly feeling a weight on her head as Ralia teleported on top of her, Claire glanced upwards. "What do you think, girl? Rainrock or Worldedge?" Really though, there were still a lot of places she hadn't been yet. Zooming straight to worldedge might have been jumping the gun a bit, but at the same time she couldn't leave Uxie hanging. If this was something important, then she couldn't just sit around and do her own thing.

"Rrralll?"

"Hmm...how about," Claire pointed to Worldedge on the map. "We go first to Worldedge, finish up business there, then go north to Bigfjord. If Professor Dunstan is a no go, then we can backtrack to Rainrock."

"Ralts!" A small happy cry from her partner was all Claire needed to decide her course of action.

"Alright!" Bouncing up, Claire quickly returned her pokemon to her pokeballs. "Mountain Valley, here we come!"

"Rrral!~" With a set course and determined path, Claire headed out of Stillwood and for Worldedge city.

---

Valen was sweating bullets. This whole battle with a fire type was making him nervous. Couldn't the ember attack ending up starting a fire or something around them?

Qwerty wouldn't like this but they were going to run. Let the Growlithe have his stupid territory or something, fear was at the forefront of Valen's mind. Maybe for a second he'd considered that this was a new experience, this was a whole new place, this was a fresh journey where he could reinvent himself.

But those thoughts were short-lived as he saw another Ember fly by. Valen took out the pokeball with trembling hands and pressed the return button once more. Thankfully, Qwerty was caught off gaurd and dissappeared in a flash of red. No matter how huffy or cross she became, Valen decided he would deal with it accordingly. He couldn't do this.

Valen hurried away!

He was going to hightail it to Highhill Town.

---