@hatakekuro

After healing his Pokémon, Basil was on the way.

It did not take long to reach what he'd seen earlier.

If he went there…







Connected areas:
Redcoast City. To the west. A pretty straight road.
Rainrock City. To the east. Requires a bit of a climbing road.
Route 12. Requires crossing Route 11 on the way north, also pretty well-traveled.
Pokéball Factory. A turn east on the path north should bring you there.
Northern Silent Forest. Going south, one can breach into the rainy forest.



__________________________

@Gardevoiran

Armor and Plume fossils successfully traded.


‘Eeeh, Fire Stones aren’t worth as much as Dusk Stones. Rarer,’ Brendon said, looking a bit sceptical. ‘Still, I don’t really have much use of a Dusk Stone, myself. So, if you’d like to give me any of those OTHER fossils you got, then I’m up for a trade!’ Brendon negotiated with a wide smile.

Skylar then hurried back to Raremine Town, and went first to the Pokémon Center, and then to the research lab. A building with white walls contrasting the usual yellow, brown or beige buildings of Raremine town, a sterile looking building that was the research center for examining the products find in the desert and the desert mines. Going inside there were signs pointing rather handedly towards the “Fossil Resurrection” area… assuming one can see, anyway. But assuming Skylar could find his way…

‘WELCOME! … To the HALL OF RESURRECTION!’

Skylar found himself in a lab-like room, blue walls, covered with tubes and cables and liquids pumping around and the room otherwise dominated by a giant, square machine in the middle of the room, with a bunch of glowy yellow lines around it that seemed more to make it look cool than actually be practical. Then there was the excited-looking scientist standing with arms spread demonstrating the machine.


‘In this machine, the souls of old are reunited with their bodies and are brought forth to walk this earth once more! One would have thought this would be the realm of the occult, but no! This is science! SCIENCE! Oooh, most based and excellent science! With it, the dead walk once more! Hahahahaha!’

The eccentric scientist held his arms forth to Skylar.

‘You have a fossil you would like to resurrect, do you not? Give it here! Give me, and I will bring it back to life for you, free of charge!’

Weirdness about free resurrection services aside, assuming he was given the fossil he pressed a button on the machine and the top of it opened like a giant maw or a treasure chest. The man placed the fossil in the middle of it, clicked the same button again, and it shut tight.

‘Then, let the resurrection process COMMENCE!’

So he called, and slammed his fist into a far too big to be practical button on his display, and the machine gave an unsettlingly loud churn and started vibrating, the yellow lines on it starting to glow brighter in the bottom and going upwards, as if it was filling up with energy, and then it reached full, aaaaaaaaaaand…!

…

It fizzled out and the machine’s shaking slowed down until it stopped.

…

But the machine didn’t seem to be turned off?

…

…

…

‘What, did you think it would be done instantly?’ The scientist crossed his arms, shaking his head. ‘This is going to take numerous hours, straight into the night at this rate. Come back tomorrow. Hah, instantly. Do I look like some kind of miracle worker? Kids these days are always so impatient…’

So, it turns out Skylar would have to wait until tomorrow to get his Pokémon. Eventually he’d find himself outside the lab again, unless he had additional questions or so. He might notice a sign that pointed to Professor Dunstan’s office, a famous researcher of legendary Pokémon, if that was of interest. Otherwise, it was back out on the streets of Raremine Town.

What would he do here?





Connected areas:
Route 6. The Vast Plains open up to the north of Raremine. The shorter paths lead to Route 8 and 16, while west far enough leads to Lakewatch Town.
Route 7. The single rocky desert of Isson, it connects to the Desert Mines, the Old Tombs and to the Mythic Oasis.

---

---

(First off, the trade.)
"But fossils are much rarer than stones, yeah?" Skylar countered the negotiations with his own. "It seems awfully like a lot to give up one of these fossils for just one stone, but if you threw in that Shiny Stone with the Dusk Stone, then I could part with either one of these fossils. Your pick." Skylar offered the Helix and Cover fossils he had, in case the hiker was willing to make that trade. "Seems a lot more even that way."

(Back in the 'present'.)
"Hey, you're bringing something back from the beyond for free, I'm not going to act like it's such a burden on me if I can't get my Pokemon now." Skylar offered a smile before a soft poke got his attention. JoJo was prodding at his leg and trying to get him to notice something. "Ralts."

Skylar looked over to Dunstan's sign on his wall after being directed there by JoJo. "... Legendary Researcher... interesting. Might be worth it to show him the pictures of the Legendary Pokemon I've seen so far. Eh, I can do that tomorrow when I come back for the Plume Fossil." As if on cue, Skylar's stomach rumbled. "... yeah, tomorrow. Seabreeze, JoJo, care to go grab a meal and get back to the mines for some more training?"

"Wingull!" "Rrrallala!"

"Motion carried. There's gotta be something around here..." Skylar murmured to himself and his group as he left (though if Dunstan wanted to stop Skylar on his way out, say, interested in those photos, Skylar wouldn't be opposed.) From there, he quickly went back to the center to withdraw Jeebs back into the group since the Plume Fossil had to wait, went to buy some sort of meal for him and his team, and began the long trek back towards the Desert Mines. The sun was setting at this point, so he'd probably only be there for a little while, but any sort of training was good training. Heck, maybe he could have the next gym be similar to Lorette's where it was just the Gym Leader at full force? That'd be fun.

Once Skylar made it back, the same strategy from before was the play. Switch-Training Jeebs and Royal (now also getting JoJo in on some experience), and Paradise, Seabreeze, and Mac keeping the fights simple and clean. All this while, Skylar'd be mining what he could and having whoever wasn't battling at the moment sifting through the results. Maybe he'd find another Plume, maybe he'd just find dirt. Who knows? Regardless, good training.

So this was it? The Abandoned Shrine? For something that is 'abandoned' it certainly was in much better shape than what he had envisioned it to be, as well as the Chingling happily going about their day. At this point Basil would have asked himself why there would be a shrine in the middle of nowhere, but this was by far the least strange thing he had seen today.

Still, it was quite odd; the entire shrine seemed to be paying tribute to this colorful mirror. Well it was time for investigation! Basil whipped out a pencil and drawing pad from his backpack and began to sketch out any markings that stood out to him. He even sketched out the mirror just to have an image of it on standby for any particular reason. It was at this point he wished he brought some colored pencils so that he could actually get the frame's coloring, but for now he just did some shading and labeled each part what color it was. He could just make another sketch and color it in later.

@Gardevoiran

‘Mmmmm, nah,’ Brendon sounded. ‘Fossils are actually sorta common here, and we’re talking the rare stones here. I’d have agreed if it was just a Fire or Leaf Stone, but this is the Dusk and Shiny Stones here. So one fossil for one stone. Deal?’

Back to present.

‘Darn straight!’ the scientist agreed with Skylar’s words that he was not going to act like it was a burden, his smile back, as he went off to do other things.

Dunstan did not stop Skylar on the way out, Dunstan wasn’t aware that Skylar was even here, as such couldn’t do something like that. Moving on!

Skylar had a meal, and then went back to the mines. Business was slowing down, and he was warned that at a certain time the guests would be recommended to leave and the lights would be turned off, but he could do things until then.

Focused on training the lower-leveled Pokémon in the mines. The others got some experience, but this’ll about do.



…

What?



Aside from that. Skylar dug some more, and while his time didn’t yield as many findings as last time, he still found something. Another rock, and some sort of claw that must have loosened from an ancient Pokémon, perhaps?



There. What will Skylar do now?





Connected areas:
Route 7. Right behind you.



__________________________

@hatakekuro

Basil sketched out the mirror and its surroundings.



After nothing of note happened, Basil then advanced into the shrine, discovered the secret exit out the back, he inspected the mirror. Poking it revealed it to be a physical object, and picking it up revealed it to not be trapped. Having come this far, Basil decided to take the mirror with him out the back, exiting towards Northern Silent Forest…

‘Hold it,’ called a voice from above and behind him.

A small blue frog dropped down in front of him, looking all stylish and threatening(?) as it landed. On his left, a mostly yellow/redish humanoid-beast-like Pokémon landed with a martial-arts stance, and on his right a big-headed blue/grey also humanoid little thing drifted down more slowly than the others with no visible means of flight, its limbs in a resting pose.

Behind him, now, dropped an actual human, who quickly dropped down into a martial-art stance of some sort. She had red hair and an exotic outfit with reddish pants, a dark shirt with her elbows revealed, and a long blue scarf that was currently lifted to cover her mouth, unlike in the following image of her.



‘What’s your business with the mirror?’ she asked, all her Pokémon looking ready for battle… and so did she, for whatever reason.

Basil’s actions?

---

---

"... ... ... ok, sure." Skylar pulled out his Cover Fossil and gently handed it to Brendon. "It might be a little bit more of an unfortunate trade for me, but if this Cover Fossil gets a good home then I'm sure it'll be okay."

Assuming everything went well, Skylar'd get his Dusk Stone and Brendon would get the Cover Fossil. A solid trade, if not just a little annoying in the end.

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

"Heyyy! Nice! Didn't think we'd get that evolution so soon!" Skylar raised a hand for his new butterfly companion, who high-fived it with joy. "I love your pattern, buddy. I think that's the... Marine pattern? Make sense since Isson is an island region and all."

"Villon!"

"Emol?" Royal looked up at Skylar with a bit of curiosity.

"You've done great too, Royal. Unfortunately, a lot of the stuff in this cave is a lot tougher for you to fight compared to Seabreeze and Paradise." Skylar crouched down to get closer down to his Emolga. "Don't worry, we'll get a good chance next town over to train you up. For now, take a load off." He pulled out Royal's Pokeball and put him away, doing the same for Jeebs and his Pokeball before getting back to mining.

Skylar grabbed a Razor Claw and a Hard Stone from his digging efforts, and it was around that time when he figured he should probably get back to Town, or at least begin to start heading back. The mine was going to close fairly soon, so if he was bound to do anymore training or digging he'd have to come back tomorrow. Not that it disturbed him, since he was going to come back out anyway to do some more digging and training after he got his Archen from the lab.

It was around that time when Skylar noticed that, well, the mines do go a little deeper. He looked to his left and right, before seeing JoJo at his knee and crouching. "Think we could go just a little further?" Skylar asked his green little friend.

"Ralts." The psychic Pokemon nodded at the suggestion. Maybe a little further wouldn't hurt.

"Seabreeze, what do you think?"

"Gull!" Seabreeze cawed in approval.

"Heh, alright then. We'll go just a little further. Maybe we'll see some better foes for training on. I don't think we should spend too much time since this place is closing soon, though." Even if it wasn't truly closing, Skylar wasn't super keen on staying here with the lights off. Not that the darkness really bothered Skylar, since he couldn't see well regardless, but it might get just a little more spooky then he would like for it to be.

@Gardevoiran

‘Nice! I’ll make sure of it!’ Brendon said, as a hand was shook and items exchanged.



Back to present.

Skylar decided to head down into the mines. Perhaps intending to fight some slightly tougher Pokémon or so. The lights quickly vanished as he and his Pokémon went deeper, meaning Pokémon unable to see in the dark or not accustomed to the underground may be at a disadvantage. Still, he headed down, went around a corner, and-



What does Skylar do?

__________________________

@hatakekuro

Basil jumped at suddenly being called out for most definitely taking the mirror from the shrine. Pokemon started dropping from above, soon followed by an oddly dressed girl who was quite aggressive judging from the fact she looked ready to perform a flying kick to his face. It was quite the shock considering he did not see anyone around the shrine so it was either poor timing or she was spying on him from the moment he entered its grounds. "Uh, t-the gym leader of Highhill sent me here. I was investigating the connection between the endless rain and the fairies that helped the hero long before." He said with a slight shake as he was not quite fond of the idea of getting his teeth kicked in. "By chance I met Lorette and she said to bring back whatever I found here to her and, well, this mirror seems pretty important to me." Hopefully that explanation would be enough to satisfy her. "If you don't mind me asking, why is it so important?"

The girl, that had been behind the roof practicing her ninja silence before jumping down, stared at him unconvinced. ‘Lorette? Why would she want this mirror? She's left it untouched all those times she came to visit. I don't buy it. Far more likely, you're making up an excuse to make me let you get away with it!’ the girl called, no small amount of anger in her voice. ‘I'm not telling you anything until you make sense. What exactly did she tell you?’ she then followed up, clearly not in an answering-questions mood.

Well, she certainly was a tough customer to sell this story. It certainly did not help that Lorette was exactly one for giving out detailed instructions and reasons in the first place. Things couldn't go his way that easily, could they? He sighed and shook his head knowing that this was going to probably not going to buy it. "Uh, honestly she was pretty vague about the whole thing. I was asking her about the presence in the Silent Shrine that listened to my prayer and that I haven't made any significant headway in my investigation. She said it is meant to be kept a secret, but she was feeling generous and told me about this shrine and some hints on how to find it." Basil scratched his chin before he snapped his fingers at what he remembered. "Oh wait, the one thing she did tell me was to remember that she referred the Deepforest Shrine as the Shrine of the Center and that once I found what I needed that the next part would be pretty easy... Though I am not sure what that part is." Yeah that really did not help his case considering he sounded incredible suspicious with the lack of information. "I'm not exactly sure what she gets out of this or what will even happen once I bring it back to her, but if you want you can follow me back and ask her yourself. I'm supposed to meet her in the shrine right now." Maybe this would help him get out of trouble?

The girl looked supremely suspicious of him, but ultimately held out her hand. ‘... I carry the mirror,’ she insisted.

Basil did not have any objections to that! "Please, do so." At this point he was just happy that he wasn't beaten into a pulp.

After handing the mirror over to the girl, the two of them started a silent and awkward walk through the Northern Silent Forest. The girl kept all three of her Pokémon out, and Meditite floated above her head as a psychic umbrella, using weak psychic forces to prevent the water from hitting the girl or her companions. They kept a healthy distance and kept looking around, like they were expecting to be surrounded by Basil’s companions and attacked or something, but as no such event happened they kept on walking.

Finally, they arrived back where Basil had received this mission in the first place.



Except, there was no Lorette here. She was missing. That said, when a particular Ralts saw him, it immediately piqued up and ran deeper inside, before coming back with a piece of paper that it handed over to Basil.



‘… What does it say?’ the girl, who still kept a healthy distance, asked.

---

---

As the mines got darker and darker, Skylar pulled Royal out of his Pokeball once again. While technically Royal didn't know Flash, not that Skylar really needed it since he couldn't see in the first place, A little bit of some dim light wouldn't be a terrible idea. "Hey Royal, mind using Charge? Maybe we can get a little more light shining in here."

"Emu!" The Emolga flew out in front of Skylar and clenched its paws, gathering some form of energy before dimly glowing around it's cheeks. There, not too much light, but it was at least enough to have everyone tell where Skylar was.

"Alright, everyone, stick together. We're not working with a lot of light here, so it'd be best if we hung... hm?" Skylar stopped his explanation as he heard someone in the distance, and it very well seemed that JoJo heard the same kind of commotion going on. The boy slowly moved his way towards the source of the noise when he finally got a good look at the scene going on.

There was a girl, a shiny pink light, a bunch of assumedly Team Virtue grunts mining away at some kind of treasure, and their head honcho. Skylar couldn't help but sigh with annoyance. "Professor Kalmia was right, these team Virtue members are really narrow." Skylar stepped forward a second, before JoJo grabbed his leg and caused him to stop. "Eh? What's up, bud?"

"Rrallal! R-ral!" JoJo was clearly afraid of what was going on over there, and opted to try and keep Skylar from getting involved. To be fair, if Skylar did choose to engage, this would be a 2 on 5 fight, unless the trainer with the pink light opted to run away. Skylar shook his head and looked over.

"JoJo, it might be a rough fight, but we've gotta try. We won't become one of the strongest trainers in Isson if we don't stand up for what's right." Skylar gripped all of his Pokeballs and let the whole team out. "Besides, with pals like you all, I think we've got some pretty good odds."

"Wingull!"
"Tropius!"
"Combu~~sken!"
"Vivi!"
"Emolga!"

JoJo looked at the rest of the group before shaking his head and teleporting on top of Paradise's head, hugging her gently. "Ralts!"

"Good to hear! Let's roll!" Skylar darted ahead with the rest of his team in tow. As he passed the girl that was running, he offered a friendly wave before he stopped and stood between her and the Team Virtue Grunts. "Need a hand?"

"I gotta say, didn't think I'd find more of you causing trouble with your rashness." Skylar opened. "I've met both your team and the members of Amethyst, and I honestly think you guys might be more of a nuisance than them!" Skylar's whole team was at his back, all ready to stand and fight these fools.

"You guys mind letting her go, or does this blind kid have to put you all in your place like I did on Route 3?" Skylar pointed to his sunglasses before grabbing and lifting them up, again revealing his glossy eyes if the grunts could see them in the dark.

Basil squinted as he read the note and then re-read because he was just lost Wait, what he was supposed to bring wasn't the mirror, but a person? Seriously, how in the fresh hell was he supposed to figure that out on his own when she as vague as she was? Also, the Lost Shrine? How many shrines were there?!

He sighed and looked up at the mystery girl. "It said that she went back to the gym and what I was supposed to be looking for was a person on Route 11 that hangs around the Abandoned Shrine. Apparently she's the disciple of a gym leader from Redcoast and that Lorette was hiding something from her too and deserves to know. Between the two of us we could find the Lost Shrine." So he did not even find what he was supposed to be looking for. That mirror seemed so important, but in the end he was supposed to find some girl under the tutelage of a gym leader? Just his luck that the only things he found were the mirror and a very angry ninja girl that... was... hanging around the shrine.

"You wouldn't happen to be girl that Lorette was talking about, right?"

@hatakekuro

‘... Huh,’ the girl made a noise as Basil asked that. She was still frowning, but now she pulled down her blue scarf, revealing her mouth and not looking quite as ninja anymore.

‘That... would be me, yeah. I am Anise, disciple of the Fighting-type Gym Leader of Redcoast City, Hector,’ she introduced herself. She looked between Basil and the note with narrowed eyes as if trying to discern some kind of trickery for numerous seconds.

‘Lost Shrine? I've... never even heard of that,’ Anise said, sounding quite disbelieving, still. ‘There's three shrines, built to be a triangle. The triangle's a bit obtuse, but. ...’ She looked like she was hesitating for a couple of seconds, but then spoke again.

‘It was said that once upon a time, a beast of rain rampaged, but it was calmed. However, there may come a time when it rampages again. “When the Strong One is reflected in the shrine’s mirror, the beasts will revert to their true form, and nature will be calmed”. So went the legend which I was trying to ask Lorette about. It's not how it was originally told, years of being retold orally has changed it, but something like that. Lorette came to see the mirror a couple times, but ultimately never had anything to say about it. I've been trying to figure it out before it rampages again. I've tried fighting trainers in front of the mirror tosee if maybe one of them is the "Strong One", but no such luck. Should have occurred to me when it didn't react to Hector, either,’ she said, sighing a bit.

‘Can you make anything of that?’ she asked, peering at Basil.

At least he had a name to put to the unmasked face now. Better than the cold hostility of being stared down by a ninja. "Basil Rivens, rookie trainer and employed by Professor Kalmia." He introduced himself with some hope that it would have eased her doubts though that skeptical look sure wasn't inspiring any confidence, but at least she was starting to tell him some much needed information.

Still, there were some questions that he needed some answers to. "Is this related to the Legend of the Silent Shrine? From what I heard, there was a legend that a trainer was visited by fae that helped them defeat the creature." There was a whole bunch of information that needed to be sorted out or else he was going to get lost in the details.

It looked like he wasn't the only one who was lost in all of this. Anise had definitely been at this longer than he had so there was probably not much he could say that would be helpful in this situation considering he was just going into this as blind as a Zubat. "Maybe need you need to come at it with a different perspective? Physical strength is only one definition of being strong, but there is also of will and character though there could be other factors such as location or simply it won't activate until the beast reveals itself again." There was a detail that he was interested in; if the three known shrines were meant to be positioned triangularly then where would this Lost Shrine be?

Basil was fishing around his belt until he pulled his Pokedex out of its case and turned it on. "Let's see, where oh where... Ah." He approached Anise and held the device out in front of her. On the screen was a map of the general area of Isson they were in. "Would you be able to pin down where the three shrines are approximately?" He asked before leading into another question. "This is the Shrine of the Center right? Is it called that because it's in the center of the forest or the center of something else?"

@hatakekuro

He got another frown as an answer to his introduction. Still, progress. Then he went on to ask about Silent Shrine legend.

‘As far as I can tell, those are separate legends, that somehow involve the same shrine. Though, I wouldn't be surprised if they're somehow connected,’ Anise told, crossing her arms. Then the part about how she may have defined "strong" right. ‘Could be. Doesn't give me a better clue as to what I should reflect in the mirror, though.’

She frowned considerably when he asked where on the moderately small screen the three shrines are. Instead of poking, she put a hand into a pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, ensuring Meditite was keeping it dry. ‘It's called the Shrine of the Center because it's at the center of the perpetual rain...’ she said as she looked at her own drawing... and then her eyes went wide. ‘Wait, uh... there's... if there's a fourth shrine... It can't be just... right...?’ ... She stared at the paper for a couple of seconds, then she proceeded to put her hand in her face as she presented the piece of paper to Basil.

She could freeze him with how cold she was. At least she was talking to him.

So they were separate legends, but it would be strange if there was absolutely no connection at all since the same shrines were involved in both tales. There had to be some crossover, but for there was a more pressing mystery at the moment. "Yeah I have no idea either. Further research will be required to answer that." He sighed and shook his head as he said that though maybe they will find more answers at this Lost Shrine?

He looked at the drawing that Anise drew, wondering why she was in such a state though it was very plain to see what it was. It was exactly as he thought. "If what you said about the Shrine of the Center is true, then there is simply one answer." Basil pulled out his own pencil and jotted down a few markings to complete the shape; it was a diamond with the location of the Lost Shrine marked down near the shore.

"It's here." He tapped on the point where the Lost Shrine should be. If it really was the location then it simply was a wonder how no one had found it sooner so there was another idea creeping in the back of his mind. "If we go there, something is probably protecting it from outsiders. We will have to proceed with caution."

@Gardevoiran

‘Eh?’ the girl blinked in surprise when Skylar just passed her by, coming to a very sudden stop.

‘That girl is actively hiding something from us!’ the officer declared, stopping a Pokémon battle’s distance away from Skylar and pointing his spear at him. ‘I am sure you’re feeling oh so noble protecting her,’ he said, his words dripping in venom. ‘but that girl is carrying a secret that could mean victory over the amts! Let us pass!’

‘Y-you can’t take them all on at once! We have to run…!’ the girl tried to persuade Skylar, but considering he likely wouldn’t, and also unnerved the grunts somewhat by showing his eyes (not to mention full 6-Pokémon team), she decided that… ‘Oooooh! Grandpa always said there was no running from a trainer battle!’ she called with significant regret in her voice as she cast down two more Pokéballs, making a total of three Pokémon take their stances before her!



And the pink Spritzee above them.

‘Hmpf. Seems like you’re not planning on running. In that case, there is no need to rush this. We can follow the tried and true methods of Team combat…’ the officer said with his arms crossed. He leaned and whispered something in Grunt 4’s ear, the guy turning a little pale as the officer placed a hand on the guy’s back and pushed him forward.

‘Grunts of Team Virtue, ATTACK FIRST!’ the officer commanded, and the four grunts all took out two Pokéballs each, throwing them out along with the names of each of the Pokémon…!



Each set of two belongs to a different grunt.

Koffing is filling the whole tunnel with a weird gas. Neutralizing Gas is nullifying all abilities!

Grunt 1 is doing something weird. He’s having Patrat use Bide, and then he has his Lillipup Tackle his companion! Patrat’s glaring at Paradise!

Grunt 2 is taking a ranged role. Bellsprout is throwing out Vine Whip at Azurill while Espurr puts up a Light Screen, protecting their whole team!

Grunt 3 has Koffing unleash a terrifying multitargeting attack in Poison Gas, blasted straight forward at Skylar’s team, threatening to hit anyone that doesn’t move out of the way, while Wooper’s shooting a Mud Shot at Mac!

Grunt 4 has Rufflet swirl around Skylar’s team… and try to charge at Skylar! He’s not going to actually attack Skylar, but he’s going to Fury Attack someone who so selflessly tries to protect him! Foongus, meanwhile, takes advantage of its secondary Poison-type to dash into the Poison Gas cloud and uses Mega Drain at Seabreeze!

The girl is cautiously looking at Skylar for tips on how to lead the battle, not wanting her own attacks to conflict with his she’s going to wait a little.

What’s Skylar’s first move, then?

__________________________

@hatakekuro

‘Oh,’ Anise made a bit of a noise at Basil’s observation. She looked at the map as he’d marked it, looking maybe a little alarmed he’d drawn on her map (even though it was just a sketch), still, she pushed that aside in her mind. ‘Huh. I suppose it’s underground there, then? We’d dive underwater and find a secret passageway inland to that location?’ she asked, looking a bit befuddled.

‘Is that the only possibility?’ she asked, looking curiously at Basil about it.

Basil was starting to get a bit too focused to notice that he startled Anise. If it was there then it was a question of where exactly it was in the general vicinity. Anise had a pretty good idea that it was underground and that they would have to swim through some secret passage way though that felt very extreme. "Uh, it's certainly an option, but why would anyone build a shrine so out of the way?" There weren't really that many options that he could think of; if it wasn't underground or anywhere in that area that he pinned then he simply had no clue. He scratched the back of his head as he wracked his brain to think of any other solutions.

There was something else he remembered. "Hey, you know how the Abandoned Shrine had that secret exit? Is there a chance that one of the two other shrines has a secret tunnel that leads to it?" It was a long shot, but it couldn't hurt to ask.

---

---

"Wow, that's a lot of Pokemon. You really should've brought a few more!" Skylar sounded confident in his team, everyone taking a stance in front of the trainer as he prepared for his all-out assault on this squadron of Pokemon. It wasn't going to be easy, but Skylar felt like he could make it out of this battle reasonably well.

He turned to the girl beside him. "I'll help get your weaknesses if you get mine. We won't let them get your heirloom!"


This wasn't going to be easy, but Skylar had plans for this.

"Mac! Don't even let that Patrat get a chance to hurt Paradise!"
- Mac is the easiest first choice of moves. See, there are two normal types here, and Mac's already rocking quite a strong type advantage against most of these goons. The immediate concern he has, though, is keeping Patrat from getting off quite a nasty bide onto Paradise. So... we're going for a Double Kick on the Patrat. If I'm not wrong, the additive damage from the Tackle plus a Double Kick should handle this Patrat easy. From there, Double Kicking the Lillipup should clean up two of these foes easily.

"JoJo, we need that Koffing down! Soften it up for Sandile with a Confusion!"
- Unfortunately, JoJo isn't as easy. That being said, Confusion is super effective on the Koffing, and Sandile should outspeed it as well, so maybe we can score an early victory on the Koffing before it poisons the whole squad, or at least the ones that haven't moved to clear the distance.

"Royal, take out this underhanded Rufflet! Spark and Quick Attack!"
- This Rufflet's doing a low-blow of a thing, but it's not to worry. While I'm sure that Royal's not going to be strong enough to handle everything that this Rufflet's trying to throw out at us, I do know that he'll be very weak after the Spark and a Quick Attack might be able to finish him off.

"Paradise, move and Razor Leaf the Wooper! After that, just go for them at whoever you can hit!"
- If we're weighing the strengths, I don't think splitting some of this damage would be the grandest idea at first. If we're also weighing the strengths, keeping Mac at his best is the greatest move we can make as he has the best matchup against quite a fair few of these Pokemon. It's a tried-and-true method to keeping this fight as clean as possible. Paradise is also a big girl, she can do it.

I would also like to point out the position of JoJo on top of Paradise. If Paradise is moving out of the Poison Gas range, then it could stand to assume that JoJo would be fine too. If you wanna get both of them poisoned, then that'll be fine, but still.

"Hey, don't think I didn't see that Foongus! Seabreeze, Wing Attack!"
- Honestly, Seabreeze is kinda weird here. He has good matchups, but Wingull isn't the greatest Pokemon. That being said, level differences and type matchups do work. Seabreeze should be able to make a solid dent in this Foongus, if not outright K-O it. Just assume that Seabreeze is just going to continue from there.

"Jeebs, hit the Foongus, Rufflet, and Espurr with a solid Struggle Bug!"
- Spread damage dividing sucks, but Struggle Bug has incredible utility with it. Espurr is specially offensive and Foongus is using a special move. Keeping damage off Seabreeze is a solid option and chipping damage on all the other options is also a good choice. Maybe not the greatest, but hopefully we can make up for any issues on the next round.

@hatakekuro

‘I dunno. I was trying to reason how there could be a shrine on that location. Because if it's there, it certainly isn't above ground. I know, Hector sometimes makes us jog the coast from Redcoast to Pureplain,’ Anise said, shrugging a bit.

‘Eeeeeeh...’ Anise made an awkward noise at the mention of the secret exit. ‘I don't... think that's it...’ she said, looking a bit guilty. ‘... on account I made that secret exit...’ she admitted, looking embarrassed. ‘I used a Zigzagoon with a Nugget to lure trainers to the mirror, having Zigzagoon run through the shrine and exit that entrance, and then I ambushed the trainer and battled them, in hopes of presenting it with a "strong one"...’ So, yeah, unless someone else made those secret exits, that's not necessarily it.

Oh, so that was it. Well, it was worth a shot to ask, but man there were so many other questions that mainly consisted on why and how she even did that. "Huh, wouldn't that be quite expensive if the trainers got the Nugget?" But no seriously, what did happen if that happened? Just how many Nuggets would she have to mine to keep that up? Actually, this was totally off track.

There certainly was not much else choice on where else to start looking; Basil certainly knew as much as the next person so he had little choice, but to leave it in Anise's capable hands. "Well, I suppose that we're going diving then, unless that mirror can reveal a path for us. Can you lead the way?"

@Gardevoiran

Mac had absolutely no problem running over to the charging Patrat and giving him way more punishment than he could take, the two kicks in quick succession sending the rat flying back to his trainer. Patrat fainted! Lillipup was alarmed, but quick to employ a new tactic. That is to say, Tackle the offender!

Royal intercepted the Rufflet with a Spark, being WAY faster! It did heavy super-effective damage, but the Rufflet wasn’t down and attacked straight back with Fury Attack! It hit once, twice, and OW, the third one became a Critical Hit! Did around half his health total! Rufflet is not frightened at all and goes in for another Fury Attack!

Jeebs shot Struggle Bug on their enemies! It did some damage to Foongus, minimal damage to Rufflet and a decent chunk of Super-Effective damage to Espurr! More importantly, it lowered their Special Attack!

Wooper WAS going to Mud Shot at Mac… but Paradise got off a focused Razor Leaf directly at it, and double Super Effective was more than the dull-witted Pokémon could handle! Wooper fainted! JoJo also shot a Confusion at Koffing, and on que Sandile shot a Sand Tomb at the same target, and those together JUST PRECISELY didn’t faint the Koffing, who unfortunately proved too accurate for Paradise to dodge! Paradise and JoJo were poisoned!

For maybe the first time, the “I hit you first if I use my ranged attack and you need to reach me first” becomes a drawback! Foongus hit Seabreeze with a moderately strong Mega Drain, albeit weakened by Struggle Bug, but healed nothing as Seabreeze came down at it with a powerful Super Effective Wing Attack! Relatively high health meant the mushroom didn’t faint yet, though. Oh, and since the Foongus was in the poison cloud, and Seabreeze dove at it… Seabreeze was poisoned! Foongus is going to try to Mega Drain Seabreeze again!

Espurr raises a Light Screen! … a little late, because a lot of damage has been done to their team already. Regardless, next it will try to use Confusion on Jeebs, because he aimed for it.

Bellsprout Vine Whips Azurill! … The trainer is confused as to why it didn’t do more damage to the obviously Water-Type, and aims to Vine Whip it again! Meanwhile, the girl decides to have her Pokémon help Royal! They aim a Bubblebeam and a Fairy Wind at the Rufflet, doing reduced damage due to Light Screen, meaning the Rufflet does not faint! However, with Royal’s Quick Attack next turn, it will be enough to take the angry bird out!

… and then, at the end of the round, the Sand Tomb residential damage swirled around Koffing, and was too much! Koffing fainted! All abilities are suddenly relevant again!

How does Skylar proceed?

__________________________

@hatakekuro

‘Nobody was getting my Nugget. I was watching, after all,’ Anise declared with utmost confidence. In any case, suppose they made that trip, then, Anise could guide the way. To make a long trip short, they were eventually out of the rain and arrived at…



There’s a significant amount of cliff down to the water from here that would be considered difficult to climb without the appropriate tools or Pokémon. Suffice to say, it’s pretty easy to understand why this isn’t considered a “route”.

‘I was wondering, when you looked at my map, why did you consider this direction, and not the opposite?’ Anise asks, curious.

It was Basil's turn to now hide his face in his palm from embarrassment. "It just seemed like they were all spaced out so exact that I thought if we went to approximate distance away from the shrine we may have found a secret entrance or something. I'm dumb, I know." Ugh and he acted so confident too! He sat down and pulled out his map to see where in the world he went wrong.

The Shrine of the Center is where the never ending rain was, the shrines that they know make up a triangle, and that mirror was a part of all of this. He just sighed heavily and said, "It probably is in the opposite direction that we came. If I have to think about it again, couldn't the Shrine of the Center be called that because it's the center of three other shrines?" They had all the pieces for the puzzle, but he just couldn't seem to figure out their proper place. "What ran through your head when you looked at your map?"

@hatakekuro

Anise looked a little confused about that first part, but in any case. What he said next... and what went through her mind at the time.

‘I was thinking...’ Anise started, and then put a little accent on her tone to indicate thinking. ‘If we place a shrine to the north-east of the circle, we have ourselves a perfect triangle overlaying the circle, with the Shrine of the Center being its center, as well.’

‘Still, if that's the case...’ Anise said, frowning as she considered. ‘... that'd place the shrine inside Mt. Strength, on the western side.’ So she figured.