---

---

This place wasn't too bad of a training ground for his team, though they did end up fatigued after that training session, opting to either rest against one of his legs or snooze in his arms. Cyril issued one more attack for Cation, knocking the Glameow out, before the Shinx slowly trotting over to his partner and plopping down on his foot. Heh, I guess even he could be tired out, so maybe letting them get a little bit of a longer rest was in order.

"Good job you four," he murmured as he rubbed Aster and Mimi who were both sleeping in his arms. Cyril felt he maybe should of eased up on training them too hard; guess some old habits died hard as he scooped up Cation and Velvet, letting them all nap for a bit in his arms.

Despite this, they were troopers from his evaluation and would probably be more than raring to go again in a bit. As they all snuggled together, Cyril peered around the forest as he held the quartet in one hand, in case he had to quickly return them to their Pokéballs. With a smile that could bring sunshine to the deepest and darkest recesses of these forest, a couple of things came to mind.

For starters, where was Chloe? Whipping his head around, he let out a dejected sigh before facepalming, practically slapping himself in the face, "Silly me, I got wrapped up a bit during our training session."

Gliding through the forest, he began seeking out his companion through the foliage, adhering to the silence is golden sentiment as he watched the different Petilil and Cottonee playing around. Hmm, maybe he could catch one n a repeated return? That thought crossed his mind briefly as he passed by some of the former, watching the cute group scurry off, only to peer behind some bushes.

Cyril chuckled and crouched down, offering them a wave and playful smile before standing back up and continuing on his way, seeking out Chloe whilst keeping his eyes and ears peeled Singing or Glameows. The last thing he needed was to fall asleep like some of the Youngsters and Lass' he found in the forest.

While he was attempting to seek out Chloe, due to keeping a careful eye and maintaining some awareness of his surroundings, maybe there was a possibility of finding some items scattered throughout the forest in the process.

@PlatinumSkink

---

Claire narrowed her eyes at the Gyrados. Damn, that thing knew a healing move. Should have seen that coming. It could fly too, meaning it could go around and easily get a heal off. Which meant their only option was to overpower the Gyrados before it could be healed...or take out the Floette. With how uncoordinated everyone was, she didn't think that was much of a chance, either. Besides then they had to contend with the Steelix. So taking it out or at least running interference was a priority.

Nrgh. If only she had Del with her. She could go for the poison strats. That Fairy type wouldn't last long against him.

"The only joke here is your battle ability." Claire replied to the lass. She really didn't have many good options here. Gyrados, Steelix, Floette, and Azumarill. Water/flying, Steel/Ground, Fairy, and Water. Tch, all bad match-ups for her...but nothing a little creativity couldn't handle.

"Alright! Combee! Monferno! Larvitar!" Might as well go full force here. She wasn't quite sure if she could command this many pokemon at once, but she might as well give it a shot.

"Ralts! Keep Double teaming! Larvitar, use screech to lower those two defenses and occupy that rampaging Gyarados! Monferno, follow up with a power-up punch on that Steelix! Chikorita, protect Monferno from Azumarill with Razor leaf! Bronzor, keep that steelix busy with Hypnosis, Combee...run interference in case that Floette goes for another wish."

Ralts would eagerly keep multiplying herself. Larvitar gave a friendly grin, before lowering his head and unleashing an ear-splitting screech towards the two serpentine pokemon. Monferno cracked his knuckles, before nimbly dodging through the battlefield and aiming to land a blow right on that Steelix. Chikorita positioned herself close enough towards Zeal so she could use a razor leaf to blast Azumarill if needed, and Combee...looked at the battlefield, then to Claire, with an expression that almost read 'bitch, really?'

"Don't sass me. I'll take you to a contest hall after this, promise!"

Combee flapped her wings, buffeting Claire with a gust of wind and almost causing her mask to fall off before fluttering away and doing as she was told.

Dawkin couldn't resist a smirk upon successfully grabbing the package, holding it in one hand, he turned and run, beaming Cacena back into his Pokeball and, as he run back Pichu saying, "Get on." Pichu scampered up and perched and his shoulder as the seemingly delinquent duo dashed away. "Throw Thunderwaves back and tell me if something gets too close" Dawkin said. Pichu seemed eager, throwing zaps at his chasers, Pokemon and people alike. "Chu, chu, chuuuu!". It almost sounded like maniacal laughter. However it seemed he wasn't the only one with dirty moves, and one of them cried out that he was the thief. Absolutely absurd, he hadn't thought of getting others to help him...

"They're frauds, help me get to the police station" Dawkin cried out as he ran. After all, there was no way a criminal would want to end up at a police station, so even if they didn't understand what was going on, in a battle of "he said she said", even if he was second, surely they wouldn't stop him if he was trying to get to the police station anyway. Plus there was no way those two bozos would have a story that would hold up, especially since Dawkin could just direct them to the secret base. Checkmate! Let's see if they would be stupid enough to try recruiting him after this!

---

@hatakekuro

A good thing to remember, that a lot of Pokémon love to battle.

At the suggestion, Bulbasaur's eyes widened and it lifted its lowered head of hiding to one of confrontation.

‘Bulba!’ he yelled out, springing forth from the tall grass, ready to do battle. A wild Bulbasaur appeared!

Bulbasaur is going to Tackle, despite what might be the optimum strategy. If met with equal Tackles, it will be a Tackle fight. If faced with dodgy Lupin, he will instead lash out with Vine Whips, which will be fast enough to hit the quick little ice gremlin. If faced with Incinerate from a distance, Bulbasaur will try to hit a Leech Seed from a distance and then focus on dodging Incinerates.

What will Basil do?

Oh yeah, Pokemon were battle hungry monsters. It was sometimes easy to forget that when some of them look like living plush toys rather than the little blood knights that they are.

And this little death bulb was raring to go! "Alright! Cecil, come on out!" He tossed out a pokeball and with a flash of white light and the Darumaka stood there glaring at its opponent!

"Dar dar!"

So the strategy was simple; Basil was going to order Cecil to use Rage, which would mean that she was going to have to eat a hit in exchange of a boosted attack stat before following it up with a Tackle. Cecil's special attack was not exactly the best and even with a type advantage it definitely would take quite a few hits to finish the fight.

---

^{Wet Caverns || Day 5: Afternoon}
On the way to the Wet Caverns, Eryn regaled her team with her time underwater, telling them about what she’d seen and found in giddy tones that only quieted when she realized how much of a racket she was making. Listening closely were Eri and Dei, who only stopped to address brief questions from each other. Dei seemed rather grumpy about the whole thing, which Eryn put down to her decision not to bring him along, while Eri was simply fascinated by what’d happened. Though she felt bad for them for different reasons, she’d apologized already, and Dei was the type to brood anyway.

Behind them was Kylie, who seemed to be caught between listening to her and watching her teammates, and Eryn caught her with narrowed eyes and pursed mouths more than once before the Mawile noticed her gaze and relaxed into ditsy smiles. If Eryn considered only at the moments when she caught Kylie off guard, she would’ve assumed the Mawile to be more interested in watching her teammates struggle to understand what Eryn was telling them, but those were rare moments. More frequent were her endearing glances and happy smiles, which Eryn was struggling to believe at times now. The speed at which she could raise a smile was frightening, and though Eryn hadn’t caught her dropping one yet, she had a feeling that the day was coming.

Peri and Tula brought up the rear in terms of interest. Where Peri appeared to be bored by the story, her eyes wandering from the path and to the distance multiple times, Tula seemed uninterested simply because she always did. Though she wiggled in Eryn’s arms, her eyes retained their ever-glassy sheen, and Eryn found it hard to tell whether she was wiggling because she understood or because it was simply something to do.

Still, Eryn found more than enough of an audience in Eri and Dei, and she pushed on with her tale. By the time the group arrived at the cavern entrance, she was just about done fielding questions, though she was forced to stop when Peri took off in another direction. Her initial confusion gave way to surprise as she realized that Peri was leading them towards the collapsed wall she’d exited through last time she was here, and she was all grins when Peri started digging through the fallen dirt and rocks without much effort.

“Nice going, Peri!” she said, grinning and patting her Onix as she stepped through the newly-reopened entrance. “Guess we won’t be dodging Graveler after all.”

As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she was better able to make out the tunnels around her, which were as confusing and disorganized as she remembered them to be.

Her eyes caught on something small poking out of the ground nearby, and she beamed, waving. “Hi Ms. Diglett!”

Walking over to the small brown Pokemon, she crouched, Tula wriggling in her arms. “Do you know how I can get in contact with Mr. and Mrs. Onix? I wanted to show them, well, their daughter.”

She grinned, looking behind her to Peri, who seemed to be caught between agitation and confusion, looking rapidly around her at the tunnels before them. “You good?” she asked, straightening and taking a few steps towards the Onix. “What’s wrong?”

Peri barely spared her a glance before straightening, rising up to her full height, which was surprisingly small compared to the tunnel ceiling. It wasn’t until Peri started opening her mouth that it clicked for Eryn, and her grin dropped off her face as she grabbed Tula close, attempting to cover where she thought the Magikarp’s ears might be.

“She’s gonna bl—”

Sure Peri was smaller and younger than the last Onix that Eryn had heard roar in these tunnels, but these were tunnels—smooth, long echo chambers with minimal insulation and maximum echo space. Though this roar was softer on Eryn’s eardrums, her ears didn’t exactly enjoy the experience, and she was barely able to resist the urge to duck again, previous knowledge or not.

“Well, a little warning next time would be nice!” she called up to Peri, rubbing a throbbing ear as the roar faded into the tunnels. The look Peri threw down at her and the rest of their team was equal parts amused and smug, and Eryn could only sigh in response as she walked over and patted the Onix, her hand bouncing harmlessly off the Onix's flank. “Do it for everyone’s ears, at least. Going deaf isn’t on anyone’s to-do list.”

---

@Gardevoiran

Vivia looked down at Mac a bit when he showed up wanting to be picked up, and she supposed she probably should. She bent down and picked up the warm fire chicken, shuddering a bit at the sudden heat.

‘Well, suppose I should bring some Pokémon out, too,’ Vivia supposed, and for the moment let Venonat and Scraggy out. They could walk along. She did not want Rotom out… but he’d probably sneak out the Pokéball and accompany them regardless.

‘Yeah, let’s go,’ Vivia nodded, and then they were off.



Skylar and Vivia headed through Route 5 and headed south, where the trees eventually stopped, the sky opened up, and the world that opened up in front of them was so… vast…



__________________________

@Savo

Cyril looked around the forest for things as he headed on the way. He didn’t find a lot, but he found some things.



Then, he found Chloe. She was squatting in front of two Pokémon, which she’d just caught by the looks of it. There was a little green dude (girl) and a little pink ball staring back at Chloe curiously.



‘I’m… out of Pokéballs,’ Chloe said, sighing happily at her cute little new companions, saying this as a result of Cyril coming close. ‘Guess I should head to the Poké Mart before going to the clothing-stores in Highhill Town, huh?’ she said, with a little giggle. ‘Alright! I’m gonna go to Highhill Town, then! How about you?’ Chloe asked, straightening her legs and stretching a little, before very much intending to continue walking, two new cute critters on her side.

What would Cyril do?





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.



__________________________

@Rune_Alchemist

‘… Kh,’ Cathia made a light sound of annoyance as Claire released even more Pokémon into the mix. As a direct response, she took out her remaining two Pokéballs and released their contents, too. They took the shape of a small dinosaur with a hard head and a sleek, leafy snake-thing on legs.




… And since Claire’s acting with hers immediately guess Cathia can, too.

She starts her round with an immediate spree of one-hit-knockout moves. Azumarill blasts off another Bubblebeam at Dwebble, who immediately takes the Super Effective bubbles and faints. Servine manifests a Leaf Tornado around the Slowpoke, which cuts deep into it and faints the water-psychic type with a super-effective whirlwind of leaves. Steelix slides over and drops a Rock Tomb on the Snorunt, fainting the poor little ice-thing as the giant steel-snake towered over it. Bagon meanwhile dashed over and bit hard into the floating Honedge, doing super-effective damage but not enough to faint it.

Gyarados, meanwhile, tried to strike the Tauros next to it… but instead managed to slam its own head into the ceiling, somehow! Gyarados hurt itself in confusion! Honedge, meanwhile, faced the unfortunate reality that while it was pumped up with Sword Dance, it only knew Tackle, Fury Cutter and Pursuit as offensive moves. None of which were very powerful alternatives and none gave STAB-power. It settled for Pursuiting the Gyarados, despite having a Bagon biting into the side of the blade. Even with Sword Dance, that didn’t do a lot. Tauros Horn Attacked Gyarados as well, doing a modest amount of damage. But, Gyarados had still not fainted, but it was definitely on its last legs…

Then came Claire’s counter-attack! Or, part of it, anyway!

Ralia continued filling her portion of the lab up with clones, something that Cathia was DEFINITELY aware of peering in that direction. Laurel Screeched at Steelix in preparation for Zeal flying forth and Power-Up Punching it! … Which still didn’t do all THAT much damage, because it’s a Steelix, but definitely more than Steelix was comfortable with. Pip threw a Razor Leaf at Azumarill, which hit and did a modest sum of Super Effective damage, Azumarill making annoyed noises from over there. Tez tried to hypnotise the Steelix, but had a bad luck roll so guess Steelix wasn’t looking at him right that moment. Floette flew over to Steelix, who’d been badly hurt, and there was a bit too far to interfere with Floette throwing out another Wish over the steel snake…

But that’s when Lure flew in and bit at Floette anyway.

Now, But Bite is not very effective, but since Floette’s a Special Defence tank, may as well Bug Bite over neutral damage Gust anyway, and Floette looked shocked and hurt over suddenly being bitten and preoccupied with being bitten.

On the battlefield right now, Claire’s only remaining allies were Tauros and Honedge, the rest lay fainted here and there. Now Cathia definitely turned to look over at Claire’s Pokémon, a sharp glare in her eyes as she prepared the next move. Last turn’s Wish came down and healed Gyarados a substantial amount, but Steelix honestly looked more like it was in danger now. The Lass was currently panicking, and the other out-of-Pokémon trainer fled.

Claire’s next move?

__________________________

@Eklispe

‘D-don’t let him get to the police station! He’ll have his partner bust him out again…!’ Mia cried out, obviously making stuff up as she ran, from Dawkin’s perspective.

Still… both of them suddenly found that they could run no more, because they were suddenly surrounded by the large bodies of a crowd of very curious miners, who stood with crossed arms and no shortage of Drilburs around to also stare at them. If Pichu tried to Thunder Wave all of these, he’d find himself suddenly repeatedly Mud Slapped by the Drilburs. Mia didn’t look very happy with this, either.

The miners started speaking among themselves.

‘What’s up?’
‘Shrimp says he stole from her.’
‘Punk says she’s a fraud.’
‘Who’s right?’
‘Who knows?’
‘So they’re at odds about it?’
‘Looks that way.’
‘Then there’s only one way to determine the truth, ain’t it?’
‘Yupp.’
‘Absolutely.’
‘Correct.’

With sagely nods and unanimous agreement, the miners suddenly spread out, creating a circle around the two trainers. Their eager expressions and the circle they were making for it could only mean one thing.

‘Let’s see a fair Pokémon Battle! Three on three! GO!’

This apparently passed as fair justice here.

‘This is ridiculous…’ Mia grumbled over there, but regardless glared at Dawkin. ‘Fine, then… I’ll just have to grind you down to dust, then!’

‘Growlithe!’ Allan’s Growlithe called, apparently intent to help her.



Dawkin’s actions? Perhaps he thinks differently from everyone else?

__________________________

@hatakekuro

With higher Attack and higher Health, as well as a steadily increasing Attack-stat due to Rage, Cecil had the clear advantage as the two Pokémon started fiercely butting heads. Still, there was something of elation in the relatively simple battle, just two Pokémon continuously butting heads glaring at one another between each slam, and then just at it again! Bulbasaur was definitely not showing any intention of giving up, intent on tackling down this red thing however he could!

Still, eventually Bulbasaur staggered from taking a bit too much Rage to the head, and Basil opted to throw a Pokéball. It hit the Bulbasaur, and the green saur with a bulb on it was transformed into light and absorbed into the Pokéball, which fell onto the ground, momentarily motionless.

It rolled once.

It rolled twice.

It ro-



__________________________

@Typical

‘Diglett!’ Diglett answered enthusiastically. She didn’t do much more. She just looked super happy and was completely useless.

Then Peri roared through the caverns, the echo of the cry of an Onix bouncing between the walls and causing no shortage of somewhat hurt ears. It was moments after that, however, that the cave started sounding in earnest, as there was sudden shaking and cracking and nothing in the cavern staying still as big and powerful things approached.

Crashing through the wall was a snake built out of boulders, much like Peri. Then another through the wall. One dropped from the ceiling with echoing impact as it hit the cavern floor. Regardless, they inspected Peri intently and curiously before two more Onixes appeared. One larger than the others, and one that was right behind him. Peri’s parents watched her over closely…

And then there were some roars. Then some more Onixes roaring at one another. Peri probably felt inclined to join them, because the roaring was in celebration. And then, the Onixes suddenly leaps to carve a new tunnel, and Peri found herself invited to join. Under the assumption she wasn’t about to break tradition, she probably headed with them for a time and momentarily left Eryn and co on their own as the conglomeration of giant rock snakes carried themselves through the tunnels and down to make an entirely new tunnel, digging through and letting Peri down first in order to let her go first and prove what she’s capable of.

They were gone for a while, during which Peri was shown the ropes for how to Onix. While a normal Onix would only have learned this as a move far, far later… mom and dad and the whole pack acted as tutors, giving Peri early access to a powerful Ground-type move, essential to any Onix.



Eventually, the group of Onixes cracked back through the ground before Eryn, allowing Peri to return to her, Peri’s dad looking proud enough of her as he looked to Eryn, giving a satisfied nod. Peri’s mom, meanwhile, still wasn’t entirely sure about her daughter’s trainer, and took the moment while giving Peri a bit of a hug (basically a nicer Constrict) to whisper some “Onix” into her ear… basically saying that “if the girl proves insufficient, you’re always welcome to ditch her and come back to us,” basically. And with that, that should do for a Onix family reunion, and Peri was let go to return to Eryn.

‘Diglett!’ Diglett happily calls again.

So, what now?

Still in Wet Caverns.





Connected areas:
Route 2. Feel free to fast-travel.
Lakewatch Town. Behind you.

---

---

As Skylar and Vivia stepped onto Route 5, Skylar poked his Pokedex to figure out what had actually been already discovered on that Route before. Since the Pokedex had a map and all, it should display where some Pokemon were in the grand scheme... only to then realize that there wasn't just potential for an Emolga here, but there was also Scatterbug! Not only that, but the route up ahead seemed to have even more Flying types for Skylar to catch! He was beaming with excitement.

"Aaaalright, uh, small stop. There's some flying types here that I wanna try to catch." Skylar awkwardly paused and looked out into the small, peaceful route to try and see if he could catch a glimpse of the Emolga and Scatterbug that he was after. It wouldn't be easy to find them, but maybe he'd get lucky? Worst case, he could always come back here on the way to Raremine and see if he had any better luck.

Who knows? Since this route bordered Route 6, maybe he could snag a Starly that happened to wander a little farther from the flock than anticipated? It'd certainly help keep Skylar and Vivia from getting into trouble on Route 6, that's for sure.

"Alright, time to go on a small adventure!"

There is something both terrifying and oddly admirable about these creatures battling with such reckless determination. A primal desire to conquer those in combat for either their supremacy or for the safe of survival. Or perhaps it was for some sort of Poke blood god. It was probably that.

"Keep at it Cecil! You're doing great!"

He had to hand it to the Bulbasaur; it was taking one heck of a beating and it still would not let up at all, but even with all the determination in the world it would be able to withstand Cecil's strikes. "Now's my chance." At the moment it staggered back, Basil had clicked the button on a Pokeball to make it expand before throwing it straight at the wild Pokemon. It bounced off its head and was absorbed into it with a flash of light and fell on the ground with an unceremonious thud.

It was eerily silent as he focused on the ball as if staring at it would increase his odds of catching the thing. With each shake, Basil tensed in anticipation."Come on, come on, come on..." Basil repeated almost like a chant.

And then it clicked...? Wait, it clicked. He walked over to the Pokeball and picked it up, shaking before his grip tightened around the ball."Yes!" He practically screamed out as he jumped for joy, throwing his arms up in the air. Of course, he realized what he was doing and composed himself. Hopefully no one was around to see that happen. He already suffered from enough embarrassment from playing as The Bard and he was certain Cecil had experienced it second hand.

His Pokedex buzzed. It was probably the money from the catch being transferred to him. "Holy sh-!"

"Dar!"

"Sorry Cecil..." But still, that's a hefty sum! That was more than three times the amount he received when he added Lupin to his party. That's what catching a crazy rare Pokemon would do.

"Now what to name the little guy?" Basil asked himself as he glanced down at the newly caught Pokemon. Well, he had a name in mind, but perhaps now was not the right time; the Bulbasaur was heavily wounded and Cecil certainly was not too spry herself considering she just marathoned multiple battles in a row prior to catching their newest team member. So there would have to be a change of plans; instead of heading into the woods like he planned earlier, but his Pokemon required attention and to be frank, he was desperately in need of supplies.

He returned Cecil to her Pokeball and rushed over to Highhill Town as quickly as he could on the safe roads to avoid both wild Pokemon and overeager trainers. Whenever he arrives, he will head straight to the Pokemon center for his tired Mon's to get some well deserved rest before they make their next move.

---

---

Well then, these items would be plenty handy as he traversed and scooped up anything that wasn't nailed down like he normally would when on a journey! As he cavorted about the forest, he took note that some of his partners were starting to feel re-energized, primarily Cation as he squirmed about before glancing back over at Cyril, "Shiiii?"

He didn't particularly look tousled up too much as he grinned at the small Shinx before pocketing some moss and scratching behind Cation's ear, much to the delight. He couldn't help but coo as the electric cat purred in his arms, though he made sure to keep himself focused on the forest.

After some time, he placed the Shinx down to let him romp around, only to have Cyril warn him about staying close and not to get lost in these woods, to which he gave a little salute with his paws before dashing around Cyril.

The researcher couldn't help but squee a bit at the cute little action as he continued gallivanting through the forest, as well as ushering a warning to Cation every time he wanted to explore a place, especially when Cyril discerned something was off. Besides collecting more items, such as moss, as well as keeping an eye out for sleep-inducing Pokémon, the walk around was mildly uneventful.

Every now and then he would come back to the other trio that was napping in his arms and would either scritch one of Velvet's ears, which caused it to curl and unfurl in delight or rub some drool off of Aster's mouth. Eventually he hit the jackpot, the motherload, the cutest of all girls (at least to him right now), the orange lass Chloe!

Cyril gave a polite, yet dainty little wave as he approached, with Cation taking the initiative and dashing on forth to introduce himself to the duo, prancing on over and practically getting into their faces with a huge grin, "Shiiiiinx!"

"Hey, if you had anymore, you probably wouldn't even wanna leave this forest," he chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck with a great, big toothy grin as he approached the girl. "Bet you would stay here, building up an army of cute Pokémon and then," his voice became a hushed whisper as he began raising up his arm, his vision darkening as he made his hand claw-shaped.

Then, it came jutting down, the hand crinkling inward as it scooped the air, stopping a foot away from Chloe, "Blam, you invade this regions Pokémon League with your legion of cuteness and initiate a hostile takeover!" Despite the slight volume increase, he never raised it above a hushed whisper as his visage lightened up, resulting in the boy chuckling to himself as he brushed his messy brown hair to the side.

"But you wouldn't do that, riiiiiiiight," he mused before winking to the girl and checking back over to see how Cation was doing.

... Cation was draped over the Jigglypuffs head, technically body, "Shi, shi, shiiiii!" Cyril couldn't help but snuff a snigger as he witnessed this, though that gentle laughter was enough to rouse the Budew from his slumber, causing him to let a wide open yawn as he shook his little bud, "Buuuuud..."

"But to answer your question, I did say I would join you shopping, didn't I," he smirked and winked as he snapped his fingers as he let Aster hop from his arms to investigate the two new Pokémon with a curious yet cautious approach as he leaned in to look at the duo, "Fwee?"

"So lets not dawdle then! I'll lead the way!" With that declaration, he lightly pounded his chest with full assurance before doing a small pirouette and pointing in the direction he came from. Just needed to retrace his steps after all. Would help if he had a map of the region and not just a map of Pureplain, buuuut maybe he could buy one at the next stop.

Peering to the side, Cyril noticed his partner shying towards the Petilil and twiddling his buds as he let out a rather awkward "Fwee," as a way to greet her before glancing away. Heh, the little rascal. "Come on, you'll get more time to spend with your little girl friend while we navigate our way out, don't worry," his grin became no different than a Meowth, mischievous and coy as he looked down at the duo as the Budew shook his body, "F-fwee!" Hee, looks like he was pretty flustered.

At this point, I'm guessing Chloe and the other two would follow alongside Cyril, and Cation would probably bounce off the Jigglypuff too while he lead them through the forest. It was one forest, he had wandered through these before! Eterna Forest and the Old Chateau game to mind during his early years when a conference was held in Eterna City, so yeah, he had some experience!

Whether or not it's any good, well, that's a secret.

Regardless, Cyril was somewhat focused on ensuring no one fell asleep though a part of his mind was screaming at him to ask something about the girl he was traveling with. Of course, that part of his mind was doing twirls while trying to look extremely cool to everyone (i.e. just Cyril) and they were in forest with sleep inducing Pokémon.

"Hm hm~, speaking of the League, do you have any goals or dreams beyond getting intimate with the fashion of each town," Cyril mused to the girl as he reached over and twirled Mimi's curly little hair, causing her to stir and giggle a bit as she continued her nap. "Do you plan on being a fashion designer some day, participating in contests or gym battles, or do you not have that completely thought out yet," he questioned Chloe before directing her down there, realizing there were a couple of Glameow glaring at them in secret from the bushels.

While waiting for a response from the girl it seemed his own partner was a bit busy trying to get familiar with the other grass type in the party as well, keeping a short, healthy distance between the shy plant and the other, "F-fwee budeee!" Seems introductions were in order for the two as the former had finally gotten around to introducing himself before seguing into asking about her home, this forest.

Still, the moment, Chloe responded, Cyril would merely smile and nod his head, pinching his chin between his index finger and thumb before giving a noncommittal answer to analyze for later, "Aha, I see, I see."

And that was enough ruminating on it, time to answer it! As he began to open his mouth, Cyril came to a pause, holding his arm out signalling for the rest of the party to stop, "Fwee?" Aster tilted his little body, befuddled at the sudden stop as he shifted on over to Cyril, who seemed to look a bit worried at the time.

"Ah, it's nothing, don't worry lil' buddy! I'm just getting a sense of déjà vu, that's all," Cyril stated to Aster before giving him a light pat on the bud before continuing to analyze the area. For all his words, it was more than a sense of déjà vu - they were literally back where they found Chloe, much to his surprise and chagrin.

He managed to keep a marginal poker face as he patted some of the dirt with his foot, before doing a little pirouette and pointing in another direction, "I think we need-to-go thattaway!" Right, there was no way he would get this wrong twice in a row, definitely! They were not lost in any way, shape or form! Gesturing for the group to move again, he began leading them through the forest once more, before following up with another question towards Chloe, "What places have you been to in Isson already and what can you tell me about em'?"

---

OK, it was obvious that they were lost after a couple of loops around this place, with Cyril being seemingly flabbergasted despite keeping the visage that everything was under control. He couldn't help but feel a sweat droplet form on the side of his face as he began to chortle nervously to himself with a weak grin on his face, "Aha, I... think we've been here before, seems a bit familiar if you ask me."

Cyril raised a finger as he turned back to chat with Chloe, before anxiously looking away from her cute little face, "Hnng, eh, you know what, I'll just admit it, I have no idea where we are going." Yeah, in truth, navigating forests was never really his strong suit, at least not without a map in his possession.

The thicket here was somewhat denser, with it being much harder to peer through the trees at the exact moment, though there were openings of light that managed to breakthrough. Now that he thought about it, didn't Chloe have a Pidgey?

"Hey Chloe, how about you use your Pidgey to get a birds eye view, then have him lead us through the forest instead of me," he chuckled before placing a hand on his hip and waggling a finger, "I've never been particularly good at traveling through forests without guides after all..."

Speaking of guides, as much as he believed they had looped to where he had discovered Chloe with the rest of her new partners, in reality it seemed he had managed to lead the duo deeper into the forest. That probably explained the abundance of Glameows and Cottonees gathering about. "I can only hope we don't get lost any further, aha~."

And here's to hoping he didn't jinx it.

Dawkin skidded to a halt on the dry ground as he came up against a very formidable wall of flesh. While Dawkin was more than content to let Pichu blast away at the baddies, he was less ready to use him against the miners that had ended up surrounding him and his pursuers. So he reluctantly told Pichu to relax and waited in the wall of bodies as they discussed his fate(who gave them the right to do that?!). The electric mouse seemed a bit disappointed but didn't protest overly.

Eventually the group decided on a three pokemon battle... somehow, and fanned out to permit just that. Dawkin was a bit flabbergasted at the seemingly hive minded miners coming to a decision just like that. However this seemed like his only real option, plus this was a good chance for revenge and getting away with whatever this package was in one fell swoop! "Sounds good to me, I'll show you what I can do when it's a fair fight. Try all you might, the only one getting dusted here is you!"

Dawkin returned Pichu to his Pokeball and sent Atlas out, the stocky Pokemon throwing up a buff of dust on impact. "Let's show these goons what we're made of, use Rock Tomb!"

Actions: Use Atlas as first pokemon to Rock Tomb Growlith to death defeat!

---

@Gardevoiran

Vivia nodded to him and let him go off trying his catching thing while she went off training in the woods for the sake of it. Simply because.

Skylar detected a suitable Scatterbug to attempt catching. He had Celebrity Sing at it, which was successful and the Scatterbug fell asleep and other Scatterbugs scurried away. Skylar then threw the Pokéball!

…

There’s something to be said about a blind person throwing a ball. This usually isn’t much of a problem for Skylar, but this time it was. So he threw the Pokéball and it careened way right of where he intended it to. It bounced off a tree and further right into the woods. Said tree was filled with Scatterbugs that got frightened by the sudden noise and unleashed a cloud of Stun Spore in all directions, catching Celebrity by surprise and Paralyzing her.

Meanwhile, the ball was about to hit another tree… before the tree turned a branch to send the ball flying before the tree ran off. The ball then flew into the crown of a tree, where an Emolga picked it up and carried it off with a happy whistling. It dropped it towards a Sawsbuck, for no other reason than it felt like it… and the Sawsbuck slammed it away with one of its horns, sending the ball spinning off further into the woods.

It then landed in the flower of a Gloom. The Gloom panicked and spread Poison Powder all around it, poisoning multiple Deerlings that were just hanging around. An irritated Sawsbuck charged the Gloom and sent it flying with a strike of its horns, and assumed the other Sawsbuck was the cause of this attack. It charged off, and the two Sawsbucks suddenly squared off for supremacy in the outskirts of Stillwood Forest.

The Gloom, meanwhile, flew into another tree… where a Pikachu was resting. Disturbed by the sudden flying poisonous flower, it let off a panicked Thundershock! Multiple sleeping Hoothoots awoke from sudden electric shocks going through them! Gloom and Pikachu suddenly found themselves assaulted by a small crowd of owls, forcing them to dash off across the branches of the trees they were inhabiting!

… But they ran out of branches! Gloom realized a second too late and almost fell off into the Dragon Lake, which waters the branch was hanging off of, but Pikachu at the last second managed to catch the flower before it fell in! There was a panicked number of moments where it looked certain that Gloom would fall into the waters with Carvanha looking on with interest below, Pikachu struggling to lift the somewhat-heavier-than-itself flower-creature while the impending threat of Hoothoot approached from behind…

… But the Hoothoots realized the situation! The birds with weirdly small wings flew about and grabbed both the Gloom and the Pikachu and lifted them to safety! It was all super-happy and wholesome, and during the lifting the Pokéball fell out of Gloom’s flower. It dropped into the waters of Dragon Lake below, Carvanha fleeing as they came across it, and then it was carried by the currents to a much deeper place…

It sank to the bottom, gently drifting down due to the pressure from above, and then it hit something. That something was absorbed into the Pokéball. The ball rolled once. It rolled twice. It rolled thrice… … … … …



… That aside! Skylar attempted again and was met with no particular difficulties.



So, Skylar started looking for an Emolga by the trees. It didn’t take too long! With some help from his Pokémon he soon found one leaping from tree to tree, taking a leisurely jumping tour just for the sake of it! Perhaps it was the same one from before and his Pokémon had simply been keeping track of it.



Now, Celebrity is currently paralyzed, so instead Skylar sent out Paradise!

Emolga was a bit distressed to suddenly find a huge Tropius flying after him! Still, nothing like a Thundershock to bring down a flying foe! Emolga spun around and excitedly unleashed a Thundershock attack which struck Paradise straight on…!

It did barely any damage.

Paradise, in turn, stomped the squirrel in mid-air and he was meteor-smashed into the forest floor with a heavy slam. Emolga was pushing himself out of a hole in the ground when it was time for Skylar to finish the fight by throwing a Pokéball at the squirrel.

It ro-



__________________________

@hatakekuro

Basil dashed over Route 1 on the way to the next town. Said town rose before him on a hill, with old buildings and a gentle road leading up around the hill. Surrounding the place was ranches and crops, places of growing food and such, and children running around being happy… a very country place not too far from Pureplain City. He’d arrived.



With that said, Basil made a beeline for the Pokémon Center. The building stood where it could easily be seen with a red roof, and inside he was immediately welcomed as the Pokémon Trainer he was.



With that done, he came out into Highhill Town again, with the sun looking down at him from above and this peaceful little town around him. What will he do here?



Connected areas:
Route 1. To the south, is the common route of first journeys. Green and straight.
Route 3. To the north, the route to Rainrock or the Silent Shrine. A wet woodland.
Route 14. To the east, the lake known as the Dragon Lake, potentially for crossing.

Basil did not take any note of his surroundings even when he first entered the town, save for looking for the red roof of a Pokemon Center that was really hard to miss in such a small town. Inside, he was greeted by a Nurse Joy who asked him if he wanted his Pokemon healed, which was an obvious yes. He handed his Pokemon over to the nurse, the first of many to be sure.

Huh, who would have thought that the healing machine would have such a satisfying jingle.

"Thank you very much, ma'am." He smiled shyly as he collected his Pokemon before he made his way out of the facility.

It was definitely because he was perhaps a bit too focused on getting his Pokemon healed, but he only just noticed how beautiful this quaint town was. This was certainly different from the hustling bustle of Worldedge and Pureplain, but there was something soothing about the slower, quieter pace of life that was attractive to him. Basil took a deep breath of the country air and just drank the scenery in. So much to do, so much to see!

Well, the first thing he should do is actually stock up on items so it was off to the Pokemart. Ever the array of items they had in stock, but he could not spend willy nilly.

Basil bought five Pokeballs, four potions, three antidotes, and three paralyze heals. So it was around 3,100p?

Well stocked on supplies, Basil left the store and looked at his Pokedex, curious to see what was around the general vicinity. What caught his attention was that a Pokemon called Karrablast. If he remembered correctly, its evolution had a very strong type combination so he definitely could use something like that on the team despite the fact that most of his team is weak to fire types. Eh, he'd worry about that later. It's an uncommon Pokemon so it won't be exactly the easiest thing to find.

@PlatinumSkink

---

Of course she'd have two more pokemon, too.

At least those two didn't seem quite as dangerous to deal with for now. The biggest boon was stopping Floette from getting close enough to heal Steelix. Now she just needed to take it down. Her pokemon were still in top shape, so this could easily be doable.

"Monferno, Larvitar! Same strategy! Another power-up punch and Screech on that Steelix." Larvitar bellowed another attack towards the large steel-type serpent, making sure he was hit with another heavy defense drop. Zeal hadn't moved very far from the rock snake On command he immediately rushed forwards again, following up with another power-up punch on the Steelix in hopes of getting it to faint this turn.

"Ralts, one more double team for good measure!" The horde of Ralia clones had gave a friendly salute, each pirouetting in unison as more clones popped into existence. She was still wary of her taking a steel-type attack from that Steelix. "Bronzor, Psywave on that Gyarados, Chikorita keep up distracting that Azumarill with Razorleaf! Combee...just keep doin' your thing."

"Brnzzzz!" With a cry of its own, Bronzor spun in place, summoning its psychic ability and unleashing a psychic wave towards that Gyarados. She was hoping she'd get a pretty high luck with that attack, but she was simply hoping to keep the Gyarados distracted while they took out Steelix. Pip happily hopped in place, standing as close as she could between Zeal and Azumarill, once again using Razorleaf to inflict damage.

Combee of course, just kept doing her own thing and launched a gust towards Floette, intending on keeping it from even getting anywhere near the two other pokemon.

She couldn't make a plan for the Servine or Bagon yet, not with having to focus on taking out the two biggest threats. It might not be an ideal strategy...ah wait.

"...hey you two with the Tauros and Bagon! Keep that Servine and Bagon off me!"

---

---

... and immediately, Skylar tossed out Royal and crouched down to be a little more on-level with the Emolga. "Hey pal, you feeling okay?"

"Emu?" Royal looked up at Skylar with an odd expression. Clearly he was a little confused.

"No no bud, it's okay, we're nice." Skylar offered a reassuring smile, as did Mac and JoJo still hanging out near Skylar's legs, and Paradise behind Skylar. Speaking of Paradise... "Oh no, girl, you're hurt aren't you? Come on back." Paradise nodded solemnly and returned to her Pokeball for a good rest. The team would need that since Skylar had a few Pokemon worse for wear, so that was his next order of business in the grand scheme.

"Emu...?" Royal was still confused, clearly, but seemed to relax a bit. "Emuem?"

"You're not lookin' so good either, buddy." Skylar offered his hand down to Royal. "Let's go get you patched up, maybe a little bit of food?"

The Emolga was apprehensive at first, but stepped over to Skylar's arm and climbed on. Skylar lifted Royal up to his shoulder for the Emolga to climb onto and he watched as Vivia came back with a new pal as well. Good for her! Seems like it'd be a nice addition to her team.

"Nice job Vivia! Is Bonsly gonna get a nickname or are you gonna fly like a lot of trainers do?" Skylar had to ask, since he was nicknaming all of his pals anyway. No matter Vivia's answer (which Skylar will respond to next time), Skylar thought about their next plan.

"Alright, apparently Route 6 is kind of tough, and I've got a few hurt buddies with me. I'm gonna run over on to the Pokemon Center in Lakewatch for just a quick heal up, maybe the Pokemart to get a quick bit of food for the team, then we'll be back and ready to move to Route 6 and then to Raremine." Skylar explained to Vivia while looking over to Dragon Lake in anticipation. "Before I leave to do that, though, we're waiting on one... more..."

"Wirgurr!!!" Sure enough, there was Seabreeze with yet another Pokeball in his beak. Heck yeah! There it was!

Skylar got it back and the notifications on his Pokedex prompted to appear for real. A... Stunfisk that was asleep was what he caught? Sure, that's fine, he wasn't complaining. Welcome to the team, Stunfisk! "Thanks Seabreeze! We'll name her Fortune." Skylar tucked away the Pokeball as he sent the new Stunfisk back to the PC. She'd be nice to meet later but right now... maybe not so much, what with Jeebs and Royal as the two new pals to meet.

"Everyone's here, nice. We'll be right back, Vivia!"

And so Skylar did... just that. Ran off to go heal the team up before he went back.

(Assuming that everything is simple and clean. Go in, heal, go back to the route. If something interesting happens, though, please do note!)

If everything went well, Skylar would've made it back to Route 5 and would hopefully meet up with Vivia near the entrance to Route 6, unless she tagged along with Skylar to go and heal her team up. This is where we would actually continue things, though the whole team was out again as Skylar got back.



"Oh, uh, new introductions. Vivia, this is Jeebs and Royal." Skylar pointed to the Scatterbug and Emolga on his shoulders, smiling. "Smiley and Celebrity are taking a quick little break. I've still got my eyes set on one more buddy, though. So... we're on the hunt for a Starly. If I find one quick, we can both hop on Paradise and we'll cruise our way right through Route 6." Skylar looked over to Route 6, a hand placed on Paradise's neck as he smiled with confidence.

"Raremine, here we come!"

@Savo

Chloe giggled a little at Cyril’s statement about catching everything in the forest. ‘Teh-heh, maybe I would~’ she teased a little, about invading the Pokémon League with an army of cute Pokémon. ‘Actually, I think I’ve caught what I wanted in here already, these two. They’re the cutest in Silent Forest~!’ she petted their heads, and her Pokémon looked decently appreciative.

Jigglypuff didn’t look super happy about Cation draped over her. In fact, she looked like she was going to retaliate, before Chloe snatched her up first.

Aster said hello to Petilil. Petilil looked curiously after him, then just answered with a happy little ‘Peti!’ before looking moderately confused at Aster looking away.

Then they were on their way, until Cyril asked Chloe about what her hopes for the future was. Chloe immediately began smiling, but let him finish first. She looked a bit confused about something he suggested. ‘What, fashion designer? Why would I want to be a fashion designer? I want to look good, not make others look good!’ she said, giggling a bit at the statement. ‘No, I want to see the world. When I’m done with my travels in Isson, I’m going to take my Pokémon on a journey across the world, see all the sights, see all the styles and fashion of all the different cultures, and so on. I never really had a home, my parents and I were always living on the road, and part of that desire to travel is still in my blood. But before I go anywhere…’ she looked to Cyril with a determined little grin.

‘I’m going to become the Champion of Isson. Count on it!’ she made a bold proclamation, Sentret backing up her statement with a ‘Sentret!’

Then about places she’d been to.

‘Oh, right, yeah! I went to Worldedge City because it was the biggest place and it was awesome. Then I asked where I could find the professor and found that I needed to go to Pureplain City, so I headed west and down to Rainrock City. That’s when I met Jacques, and he sent me to Redcoast City where he gave me the Pokédex. Then I went by sea to Pureplain City, so, that’s the length of routes that I could tell you about!’ she said.

Then they apparently somehow got lost.

‘Uh. But how’s that possible? We’ve been heading in a straight line, we even tried just retracing our steps to get back to Route 1…’ Chloe asked, positively astounded, because such a seasoned traveller like her would typically never get lost in a forest like this. ‘Right, Pidgey! Fly up and direct us out of the forest, would you?’ she asked.

Pidgey gave them both a deadass how the <omitted word> did you manage to get lost in <omitted word> Silent Forest, the most basic of basic <omitted word> forest of Isson? Are you both complete <omitted word> <omitted word>? stare, before waving his wings and flying up to the treetops, landing on one, and then unceremoniously pointing in a direction with a wing while looking down at them with a judgemental stare proclaiming them idiots.

‘Nicely done, Pidgey! Alright, this way!’ Chloe said, skipping over rock and branch to head towards the exit.

They were heading along, numerous times they had Pidgey making irritated bird noises when they were somehow getting off track, but they were slowly but surely making progress… when they…

Came across two dudes in white clothes and capes, one with red hair and the other with white hair.

‘Oh, hey! I’m so happy to see you, we somehow got lost in this forest…’ the red-haired one one said, breathing out a sigh of relief.

‘Yeah, this forest doesn’t have a reputation for being difficult, really took us by surprise,’ the white-haired one also sighed, but more out of being sick of the forest.

‘Who’d have thought looking for Team Amethyst members would be so difficult?’ the red-haired one lamented.

‘Oh, yeah, maybe you’ve seen them?’ the white-haired one looked hopefully at them. ‘They’re supposed to be two well dressed individuals, one male and one fe… male…’ He suddenly blinked a bit at them. Then his companion blinked in basically the same way. They exchanged a look. Yupp, there could be no mistake.

‘YOUR DISGUISES WON’T FOOL US, TEAM AMETHYST!’ the red-haired one declared.

‘WE’LL BEAT YOU IN A FIGHT AND THEN BRING YOU BACK TO BASE!’ the white-haired one declared in addition.







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.



__________________________

@Eklispe

‘Prove it! … Oh, darn, rocks,’ Mia made a statement as she realized none in her team really liked taking on rocks. ‘Growlithe! Dodge the rocks, shoot Embers back at it!’ she clenched her fists as she commanded.

‘Growlithe!’ Growlithe started out, the somewhat faster Pokémon deciding to focus on dodging the rocks that started spontaneously falling out of the sky. It was decently successful, the dog managing to dodge the rocks and then threw back a fireball Ember at Atlas! Steel and Rock combined to make it neutral damage, which meant his low Special Defense took a decent hit. ‘Yes! We got this…!’ Mia said in her hope-spot…!

That’s when Atlas took advantage of Growlithe’s brief pause to throw an Ember and bombarded more Rock Tomb over him even as he took an Ember to the face.

‘Groooowl…!’ Growlithe called out from the sudden Super-Effective damage that was blasted on top of him. ‘Oh, no…!’

Due to Growlithe’s speed, he was still quick to fire another Ember at Atlas… and proved exceedingly lucky! He hit a ridiculously lucky hit, the fire burning through Atlas steel parts! Critical Hit! Atlas was burned! … But he still stood!

Now, Burn cut his Attack in half, but Atlas decided that he was not going to care about that as the little fighter brought down another Rock Tomb straight down into the slowed-down Growlithe’s back! Critical Hit! Growlithe fainted!



Still, after that Critical Hit and suffering a Burn, he’d faint next turn as far as this was going.

‘Grrr,’ Mia made an irritated noise. She could still see Pichu over there, dissuading her from sending out Ducklett… ‘Minccino! Go!’ she instead sent out the cuddly Pokémon!



What’s Dawkin’s next move?

__________________________

@hatakekuro

Fortunately for Basil, the workings of the rarity system is as follows; Common you’ll find no matter what, looking for them or not. Uncommon you’ll find if you look for them, and have a chance to find even if not. Only first at Rare is it up in the air or might need special means to find it. So, it took a bit of searching, but then he found a Karrablast loitering beside a field of crops somewhere.



The bug was going to Peck the incoming rolling Cecil! It… didn’t go too well! Cecil rolled over the bug and did way more damage than Karrablast did back! Cecil rolled over, improving damage, and Karrablast was going to take it straight on! Karrablast used Endure…! … Which was good for it, because now it took the improved power Rollout and still stood with 1 HP! Rollout isn’t really a good catching move because of the rampantly increasing amount of power… Karrablast gave a cry of success for Endure-ing that Rollout! … Aaaaaand that’s when Basil threw a Pokéball and the bug was absorbed into the ball as a bit of light!

It rolled once! It rolled twice…!







Connected areas:
Route 1. To the south, is the common route of first journeys. Green and straight.
Route 3. To the north, the route to Rainrock or the Silent Shrine. A wet woodland.
Route 14. To the east, the lake known as the Dragon Lake, potentially for crossing.

And caught! That could not have gone better at all! He was lucky that it was able to eat blows like that or else it would have been like a bug against a windshield. What a curious Pokemon though; the only way that it could evolve is that it was bathed in electricity at the same time with a Shelmet. Okay seriously, how does something change through millions of years, adapting to survive against various predators and environments, and that method was how they evolved?

That aside, Basil made a quick stop to the Pokemon center again to heal Lancer, the Karrablast before going back out to the town. There were those stones, but he wanted to save that for later and explore the rest of the town. What he wanted to do was talk to the locals to hear about any rumors or strange happenings on the country side because that's what typically happens in rural places. Things like crop circles, haunted places with spirits, local mythical monsters, and all that stuff that just seems to only happen out in the country. Who knows, maybe there will be a lead worth investigating.

---

^{Wet Caverns || Day 5: Afternoon}
Though Eryn had known that Peri’s roar was nothing compared to a full-grown Onix’s, that didn’t mean she was prepared for when Peri’s parents started roaring, or that she was anywhere close to being cool with the ear-splitting cacophony that ensued when the whole colony joined in. A glance to her side showed that none of her Pokemon were taking it too well, and even Tula had stilled to let her properly cover her ears.

“Do any of you want me to return you?” she shouted, barely making out her own voice in her head.

Dei was the first to shoot her a glare, followed by Kylie, whose annoyance quickly melted into a shade of sadness that Eryn had a feeling was for show. To his credit, Eri had put on a brave face, but his eyes had shot to Dei first before he closed his mouth, and from the way his Nuzleaf hands were clamped over his ears so hard she could make out the indent of where they pressed into his skin, it was obvious he wasn’t taking the roars well.

Still, no one had volunteered. Even Tula was staying calm in her arms, so Eryn turned back to the Onix, hiding a smile. Her Pokemon really were adorable, and as for her ears, she could take it too.

After another few seconds of unadulterated sound, Peri made to follow the other Onix off, sparing Eryn a glance that Eryn returned with a nod, thumbs up, and smile. While there wasn’t a world where she’d mind Peri going off with her parents, it was nice to note that Peri had checked with her before going off, however brief that check was. Maybe it was Peri’s constant stubbornness, but Eryn would’ve guessed her to be the first to roam off without permission, so she was pleased to see that the Onix still minded her somewhere under that rocky exterior.

When the silence stayed put, she looked over to her team and Ms. Diglett next to them, shrugging. “Well, I guess it’s just us for now then.”

Her eyes wandered into the murky darkness of the tunnels as she rubbed a hand over Tula’s carapace, comforted by the way her fingers skimmed over the Margikarp’s cool, smooth scales. Last time she was here, she’d had two goals: to get to Lakewatch, and to find a Pokemon. She’d achieved both those goals, but the second one had panned out differently from how she’d planned. In her head, she’d always wanted one type of Pokemon from the caverns—the type that people came specifically to Lakewatch to find, and the type that always came to mind when she thought of an ace trainer. Sure she wouldn’t trade Peri for the world, and sure she had her hands pretty full with her team at the moment, but if she didn’t pursue her original plan now, she’d be admitting defeat. It'd be in in a small way, but in a meaningful one, and four years staring out classroom windows dreaming about her bright future on the road hadn’t shaped her into a defeatist.

Reaching up to touch the tip of her cap, she frowned. “What did I read in the trainer school again?” The books in the library had confirmed that there were dragons in the cave, but the specifics were escaping her. “In the deeper caverns? Near the water? Or not.”

She sighed, shaking her head. It’d only been a few days since Pureplain, and already she was beginning to forget. “Maybe I should start taking notes,” she joked, rubbing Tula’s chin with a thumb. “Should I, Tutu? Should I?”

Looking at her team showed that no one was impressed by her baby voice, and she cleared her throat, straightening. “Well, since you’re all so helpful, maybe I should ask you,” she said, then paused. “Wait, that’s it!” Grinning, she fished out her Pokedex, scrolling through her contacts. “I’ll ask Braith! He knew about the true Dragon Lake, and he’s got a Noivern, so he’ll probably know something. Plus, I need to tell him that the Descent Tower is super not boring, though would that be a bad idea? Probably, huh?”

She turned to her Pokemon, half-expecting them to answer back. Instead, she was met by faces of annoyance, confusion, and forced, happy cluelessness that gave her little to work with. At least Ms. Diglett was actually happy.

“See, this is why I ask Tula,” she said, rolling her eyes dramatically as she dialed Braith up. It was late in the afternoon, and most people would be planning for dinner if they weren’t trainers with skewed travelling schedules, but Eryn had a hunch Braith would pick up. While reception wasn’t strong in the tunnel, it was functional, likely because she was still close to the walls, and Eryn rolled with it.


The aura of smugness that surrounded Peri when she returned was thick enough to force Eryn to acknowledge it, and she did so by giving the Onix a suspicious look through slightly narrowed eyes. “There something you wanna share?”

Whatever she’d been expecting, it wasn’t Peri taking a successful dive down into the ground, and the dots connected when her attention flicked from the other Onix to the tunnels around them.

A grin split her face, and she ran over to Peri, wrapping her and Tula into a hug with an excited shriek. “Arceus, did you learn to dig? Like the move proper? So you can ram opponents and caves for me now?” Eryn’s toes tingled with excitement at the prospect, and she shrieked again when Peri gave a casually smug nod. “Thank you so much!” she called to the Onix gathered behind Peri, who didn’t look particularly taken by her reaction.

The one closest to Peri—Peri’s mom, probably, since Eryn's Pokedex was telling her the Onix was female—gave Eryn an unimpressed look down her nose, and Eryn got the message.

“Loud and clear, Momma Onix! I promise to only use Peri’s power for good!” she said, straightening into a salute.

After thanking the rest of the Onix and letting Peri have her final goodbyes, during which Eryn got the idea to crown Peri with the King’s—rebranded Queen’s—Rock, Eryn headed away from the tunnels and back into the main cavern under Peri’s lead. Something about having a giant rock snake who now knew how to traverse said tunnels reassured Eryn, and she was brimming with confidence as she headed deeper into the caverns.

“One dragon-type and we’re good,” she said, looking to her team with a grin. “One last teammate and we’re full house and ready to rumble, so keep your eyes peeled!”

---

---

---

Around the time he announced the plan, Mimi and Velvet began waking from their slumber, with the small Happiny wiggling her ponytail and the Buneary stretching her ears out as if they were limbs before covering her mouth. "Bun," she mused before glancing up at her and giving her partner a less than amused stare as she clambered onto Cyril's shoulder.

"Yeah, I uh, wonder how that happened too," he stated, looking suspiciously to the side while he began to furiously itch at his neck and chuckle nervously. That totally didn't look out of place and he totally was not doing it to interject any sort of levity into this silly situation. "Pi pi?"

After a couple of minutes, the Pidgey was thankfully able to point them in the right direction, though the researcher did continue to eye the bushels to the side with a small smile as sweat bullets formed on the side of his face. "Alright then, follow after Chloe everyone," he ushered to the trio walking as Cation purred loudly and ran alongside the blonde lass whilst Aster and Mimi tottled alongside each other, staying close by Cyril.

Thankfully, having a guide was helpful to the lost traveler, especially with someone inept as Cyril leading them out of the forest originally. Still, this did give him some time to ruminate on some of some of the words Chloe left him with during their time traversing through the forest. The desire to travel and attempt becoming the champion were dreams befitting new trainers as he softly smiled to himself, keeping an eye on her back.

"She would of gotten along with Morgan," Cyril wistfully mused to himself as his smile became a little more somber, something that three out of the four partners caught onto. Velvet made hers more obvious by pressing an ear against his cheek, "Bun?"

Despite how deadpan she sounded, there was some inquiry as to whether or not he was fine, to which he followed up by beaming at the bunny, "Everything is just fine, just thinking about things, that's all~."

Still, that wasn't enough to fool her, let alone Aster and Mimi, the two of which, while running, held onto one of his pants legs, staring up at him with expectant eyes. Ugh, how could he say no to them as he furrowed his brows and let his guard down as that solemn smile returned briefly, "I'll talk to you all about it later, alright? I promise."

He briefly put up a thumbs up while keeping that same smile from before, not bothering to hide it. That was satisfactory for the trio at least as Velvet went back to lazing on his shoulder whilst Aster and Mimi continued running alongside each other, chirping placidly to one another.

After a few minutes, Cyril began to pick up the pace, running alongside Chloe now as the forestry began to abate. From what he could discern, it seemed like they had almost escaped these lost woods! Cyril couldn't help but give a sigh of relief and an exaggerated swipe of his forehead for almost being out of there.

Well, that was of course they ran into some trouble. Two fashionable weirdos stating they were glad to run into Chloe and Cyril. Still, that was enough to give the young man a sigh of relief as he casually followed up behind the silver-haired fellows comment about the forest, "Aha, I know right~?"

Still, the fact that they commented on Team Amethyst made Cyril narrow his eyes at the two as he ushered for Cation to come back to his side. The confused little kitty pondered on why before he noticed Mimi was shivering and peaking behind Cyril and Aster, while nearby, wasn't as hidden. Even Velvet seemed more irritated than usual (which he was oblivious to in general). "Shiii!"

As the Shinx exclaimed, he bounced back over to Cyril and patiently sat in front of one of his legs as the duo continued on this spiel. Cyril, however, could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Something was off as the silver-haired one began to comment on Team Amethyst and how they were seeking two individuals out.

Especially when they got to the baseline description of the two they were pursuing. This was going south real fast as they instantly jumped to the worst possible scenario. Cyril and Velvet couldn't help but facepalm.

The first thing was a battle then huh? Maybe he could attempt to diffuse the situation. Holding out an arm to try and stop Chloe from acting too rash, he peered behind him before murmuring to her, "Let me try to handle this first."

With that said, time to get this ball rolling. Cackling like a madman, his smile greatly expanded as he placed a hand on his hip and pressed all the fingers of his other hand against the side of his head as he struck a pose.

"Well, well, well, looks like some people have finally noticed how fabulous we look, wouldn't you say," once more, he glanced over to Chloe with a wink before simmering down and clearing his throat, glancing lazily over at the Pokémon sent out and held out a hand and waggled a finger.

"However it seems they've jumped to the wrong conclusion and are eager to get straight into a battle, tut, tut," Cyril sighed with a dejected smile, brushing his hair out of his face with a smile. As much as he and Chloe could earn a bit of cash, they didn't need to be on any list at the moment... plus, Team Amethyst, eh?

Only knew that they poached and sold Pokémon for top dollar and that they were in a war with some other Team known as Virtue. He was definitely a betting man, and would wholeheartedly put his money in on these two being the latter. "I find it a bit insulting you call these "disguises," especially since we aren't affiliated with Team Amethyst in any way, shape, or form," of course, just stating it straight out wouldn't convince them, there would need to be crucial evidence.

"We're both trainers who have recently departed from Professor Kalmia's lab. The both of us have Trainer Licenses, as well as Pokédexes gifted from her and Jacques. We can provide those two things if you like," Cyril worked to give as disarming of a smile as he could possible to the duo in the hopes they would lower their guard and instead talk like sensible people.

Still, his own Pokémon still seemed heavily defensive (if your name wasn't Cation) and looked to appeal to Velvet who easily looked to be the most likely to incite something. "Easy now Velvet, we don't have to start a confrontation if we don't have to," he stated in a soothing voice as he scritched one of her ear buns, which caused her to relax a bit, "Bun, bun."

Despite all her grumbling, she was relatively pacified for now as he returned to the Virtue Grunts. "Beyond the general information about gender and fashion choices, do either of you have any other information," Cyril questioned the duo as he looked over the two with a piercing glance.

"Specifics such as accessories, their height, their names, specific parts of their outfits, the Pokémon on their team, hair color, and so on," with that, he paused for a moment to collect himself before holding a fist up to his throat and clearing it before continuing.

Holding his arms out to his side, he tilted his head and gave a Meowth-like smile to them both, "And just out of curiosity, what is Team Amethyst getting up to in a forest like this?"

@Rune_Alchemist

‘Do not worry, my darling!’ called the grunt disguised as a rich boy. ‘My Honedge and I will-’

Bagon used Bite! It’s Super Effective! Honedge fainted!

‘-immediately faint. Do not worry, darling! I believe in your victory!’

Gyarados attempted to Trash at Laurel, throwing the great weight of its tail at the little rock! … The sea serpent dramatically missed, breaching the wall and into some electrical wires, promptly shocking itself! Gyarados hurt itself in confusion!

Tez shot it with a Psywave! It did some damage!

Lure continued to Bug Bite Floette! It did very little damage, and the annoyed Floette replied with a full Fairy Wind, doing way more damage back, but Lure wasn't about to be knocked out in one shot! Wish was prevented for another turn!

Tauros did its job and Horn Attacked Servine, who replied with a Leaf Tornado! The Leaf Tornado had been meant for Laurel, but Tauros got in the way! Servine clearly did more damage, but was held up nonetheless!

Steelix shot some Rock Tomb at Zeal, because Steelix is severely missing Ground-type moves in its moveset. Zeal took some damage blocking the rocks, but not that much because Fighting-type made it neutral damage! Then, Laurel screamed at it again, and Monferno flew in to punch…

… And Monferno lands a Critical Hit on Steelix! The giant metal snake was blasted across the room and burst through numerous computers and things and broke through a wall, right next to a wide-eyed Cathia! Steelix fainted!

‘…!’ Cathia was now looking worried. Gyarados was hurt, Steelix was fainted, both Servine and Floette was being held up. She could command Azumarill to Bubblebeam the Monferno, which would equalize things, but she was taking way too much damage in the middle of the enemy base…

… Then someone walked past a corner behind Claire.

Ralia felt a sudden spike in fear from Cathia. Also, you know how the Ralts family tends to avoid bad people? Ralia was feeling that the individual showing up was someone to avoid. Cathia’s eyes darted between Claire and whoever was behind her.

‘Tsk, I can’t handle both of them…’ Cathia muttered, implying she felt she could handle any one of them on their own. ‘Azumarill, defend me!’ she commanded, and then reached out with her Pokéballs, beaming Steelix, Gyarados, Bagon and Servine back, while Floette flew back on her own.

‘I’ll have you know I still technically won, because I’m escaping with what I came for…!’ she said, stashing the papers she retrieved inside her clothes while pulling an Escape Rope. Unless Claire did something drastic and really fast, Cathia’s manage to grab onto Azumarill and have Floette land on her before she threw out the rope, and had herself be teleported out of the base.

If Claire attempts to stop her, go ahead. What does Claire do?

If not.



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@Gardevoiran

Now, Wingulls can’t learn Dive, so technically Seabreeze should probably have had considerable trouble getting down to the bottom of the lake to retrieve the Pokéball, but since you did what would have saved it anyway, press the button to send it back to the PC, we’ll just continue.

‘Bonsly will do just fine,’ Vivia said about a modestly happy Bonsly with a slight note of affection in her voice when asked about nicknames, because that’s the norm and what’s expected is to call your Pokémon, it’s those that nickname their Pokémon that are the outliers, heh.

Vivia nodded and stayed to train Bonsly a bit while Skylar headed back to Lakewatch Town to get his Pokémon healed. A few skips over some rivers later, and…



… And then he was on the road again!

He got to Route 6, the vast open fields spreading out before him. While he went to catch a Star, Vivia went off to that Rapidash service over there to admire the horses just a bit. Just a little bit. And perhaps to chat with the owners for a bit.

Skylar found a Staravia, flying by itself seeking prey, and sent out Seabreeze to hunt after it. Seabreeze was the faster bird, but Staravia saw him coming. The bird quickly spun about and chased straight towards him! Seabreeze’s Attack was lowered by Intimidate! … Not that it mattered a lot!

As commanded, Seabreeze unleashed a Water Pulse! Staravia didn’t bother to dodge but crashed straight through the pulse, dealt remarkable damage… but in turn it flew in and hit Seabreeze with a destructive Wing Attack! Ow!

Seabreeze shot a Water Gun now, to be safe and not faint the target (though Staravia would have survived another Water Pulse), and this, too, hit! Staravia glared back at Seabreeze, and dove in and hit another Wing Attack! Unfortunately, Staravia’s high attack caused it to be too much! Seabreeze fainted!

Staravia gave a short little victory cry…! … And then it was hit by Skylar throwing a Pokéball at it! The bird was absorbed into the ball, and it fell down onto the field!

It rolled once! It rolled twice! It rolled thrice…!



__________________________

@hatakekuro

Quick stop to heal.



So, Basil asked around for some stories and histories. There were four curious local ones that he could find out.

He found a few elders that could tell him a thing or two.









So, those were some things Basil could hear about that were way out of his level-range.

What was he going to do, now?



Connected areas:
Route 1. To the south, is the common route of first journeys. Green and straight.
Route 3. To the north, the route to Rainrock or the Silent Shrine. A wet woodland.
Route 14. To the east, the lake known as the Dragon Lake, potentially for crossing.



__________________________

@Typical

‘Diglett!’ Diglett happily called at several times when it was just them.

Eventually, she decided to call Braith. It took a couple of beeps before the phone answered on the other side.

‘You have reached the delicate ears of the trainer of the lavish endeavor, Braith. How may I be of service?’ Braith eventually answered, sounding as confident as ever. ‘Oh, the little sapling? How goes your journey?’ he then said when he realized who was calling, changing his tone to sound a little less flirty, a little less prideful. He then chuckled a little. ‘I am afraid the badge still eludes me. Who knew dragons were so proficient with electricity and martial arts? Made doing damage with a water and ice-type proper precarious, I’ll have you know,’ he said, but didn’t sound like he was discouraged in any way, shape or form.

‘Hm-hm, you seek a dragon, do you?’ he sounded out in slight amusement at this idea. ‘There are, indeed. There’s a specific place you want to go to. If you enter the cave from Route 2, the path immediately splits into three. You want to go down the deep path. A word of caution, it gets very dark down there, a source of light is to be recommended. Follow that path, and you will run into an underground river. Follow the river leftwards, and you will find a point where the waters of Dragon Lake enters the Wet Caverns. Here, young dragons seeking adventure occasionally find their way into the cave to explore. At any point along this underground river you may find them roaming about.’ So were his words on finding said dragon.

‘Not completely boring, you say? Perhaps my impression was influenced by the fact I was constantly stressed about getting my face wet,’ he chuckled about Lakewatch underwater, and then onto the suggestion of dinner. ‘I shall remain training around Lakewatch Town until I can successfully claim the badge, so chances are I will still be there when you return from the cavern. I have little reason to head to Raremine Town, however. The heat doesn’t entirely agree with me. … Unless perhaps I fancy a visit to their Stone Store? They sell the most exquisite jewelry there… along with Pokémon evolutionary stones, of course,’ he said, giving another little chuckle as he did.

‘I may keep you updated when I find the time, then. It is not as if I could not fly wherever whenever on Noivern should I desire it. But I’ll focus on my own journey first and foremost. Good luck, miss Eryn. Give your regards to Eri for me. Farewell for now!’ And with that, the call was ended, and Eryn had a few more directions.

So, Eryn headed back to the main cavern…

Oh, and lest you forgot.



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@Savo

Chloe did not notice Cyril looking weird, just heading on and pursuing the path out of the forest. He was free to wallow in his memories on his own and with his own team.

Then there were these two.

Chloe gave Cyril an odd glance when he instead of meeting the challenge tried to defuse the situation, prompting her to take a step back and let the more experienced Pokémon Trainer do his thing, maybe she’d even learn something?

The two grunts looked perplexed and maybe a bit insulted that Cyril started out with acknowledging the “compliment” to their style and then just telling them they’re wrong. Cyril then went on about Trainer Cards and Pokédexes and…

‘Those might just be part of the disguise!’ the red-haired one said, unconvinced.

‘More than that, you’re acting far too confident for someone we’re engaging! You must have practiced for this exact situation!’ the white-haired one called, convinced by his own argument.

‘In fact, you’re acting so shady, it’s disturbing…’ red-haired one said, and then turned to Chloe with a concerned look. ‘Is this man forcing you to accompany him in his vile deeds? Is he mistreating you? If you come with us, I promise we can protect you…!’

‘The heck are you on about?’ Chloe asked, seriously confused.

Red-haired guy looked positively mortified.

‘That does it, get them! You’re coming with us!’ white-haired guy declared, pointing forward to his Pokémon and entirely ignoring the rest of Cyril’s questions.







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.