"Be on your guard Crocus!"

Disappointing, but expected that Lorette would switch her Pokemon out when it was obvious that it would only end in Basil's favor. So what did the gym leader send out? Why, she sent out the pure manifestation of violence and aggression with a yellow coat of paint and like her previous Pokemon, had lances for hands.

Well, second verse same as the first! "Leech Seed again and follow up with Growl!" Since Crocus had a free action and now that the violent Beedrill was trying to come at him to fiercely jab at the Bulbasaur, it would probably be hard for the bug-type to change course. Of course that Beedrill resist Crocus' grass-type attacks and had the higher attack stat, but it definitely can't do much if its life force was being sucked out of it while dropping its attack stat.

---

---

"Aaaalright! Good job, gang!" Skylar cheered on his pals as they finished up the first round of training. "We got a looot of solid training done there, everyone. Seriously, great job! We might be able to tackle the Gym today, actually. But before we do that..." Skylar took a quick look at JoJo. Something told him the Ralts was really close to a good point, and Skylar felt that in the mines they could juuust barely push it. That being said, the mines weren't offering as much to gain now, so Skylar made his decision.

"We'll take a break. We need to go find the gym, and we'll no doubt be able to get some more training done there for the rest of... you... guys?" Skylar found his attention grabbed by a specific ally, JoJo himself.

"... rall."

"Wait, you wanna try and grind this out? JoJo, are you sure?"

"Ralts!" The Ralts seemed adamant on his choice.

"... I guess it couldn't hurt. If it's just you training, we should be f-" cronch Skylar was interrupted by Pretzl biting his arm. "And in the ball you go. And you guys too, just so we can focus hard on JoJo's training."

And so Skylar was left with just Seabreeze on his head, and his Ralts as the only Pokemon out right now. He took a quick breath and then gave a confident smirk to his friends. "Alright, lets go JoJo. Let's see if we can't maybe squeeze a little more for you out of this mine."

@Joshua Tamashii
_{appropriate music}

‘I, uh, didn’t dare to look at her. Can’t help. A whole bunch of pairs of eyes I could have met and looked guilty to. Sorry,’ Leila said, looking a bit awkward.

‘My Pokémon have been here right beside me. I wasn’t doing nothing, I was preparing the tent, making me the only one who was actually preparing for our camping. I kept track of my Pokémon, too. Are we sure that the perpetrator is among us? It could just have been any wild Pokémon that happened to pass by as Palpitoad left to investigate the earthquake,’ Annica reasoned, crossing her arms as she considered it.

To get more information out of her, it may be needed to point out another contradiction or find something in the court record somewhere. Maybe.

What will Amelia do now?









Or she could leave.



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



__________________________

@Pirouette

In the end, Ewan managed to defeat Maple, but that was actually barely. Half Ewan’s team were weak to fire, so it was really up to Duessel the Psyduck to pull his weight for a long stretch of that.

Meanwhile, in the fight between Joshua and Ellyn, Ellyn barely won, in large part because of her recently evolved Quilava being a great deal more competent than the small Pokémon that littered Joshua’s team, but it was a close battle.

‘Ah, Erika! Welcome back!’ Joshua said, smiling so widely. ‘Yes, we’re here to defeat Archie! We just went to catch some birds in the Mountain Valley to help us with the task! They should come in handy!’ he said, quite hopeful about this.

‘I could head for Mt. Strength. I could use a Fighting-type,’ Ewan said, nodding to Erika as she appeared.

‘You’re one of Kalmia’s…’ Ellyn commented, eyeing her kinda suspiciously.

‘Oh, oh! Yes! You are! I’m Maple! This is Ellyn! We’ve already beaten the Bug and Grass-gyms!’ Maple said, excitedly.

‘… Mt. Strength is the wrong direction to get to any of the three remaining Minor League gyms around here…’ Ellyn muttered.

‘Lesse. Mt. Strength. Fighting-types,’ Maple focused. ‘They’re strong against… I already got Fire for Ice… Normal, Rock, Steel and Dark. …’ Maple’s eyes widened. ‘What the- almost all types Fighting is strong against is Major League Gyms! Is this some kind of conspiracy!? An anti-fighting-type initiative!? Wait, are there any more types with similar disadvantages…!?’

‘… uh. Pretty sure that’s just coincidental…’ Ellyn said, but Maple was already wrapped in the conspiracy.

‘Regardless! That means I have little reason to go to Mt. Strength as it is! Unless I want Rock-types for the Flying-type Gym… but no! Rock has too many weaknesses! A full team of Electric Pokémon it is! Come, Ellyn! To the Power Station!’ Maple said, spinning to grab Ellyn and carry her somewhere.

‘… Power Station is beyond Mt. Strength, could be a case for an adventure…’ Ellyn quickly mentioned.

‘…’ Maple stopped short. ‘TO MT. STRENGTH!’ Maple spun around and headed back towards Route 4, still dragging an Ellyn with an expression questioning why she opened her mouth with her. Problem with that was that Erika probably wasn’t going towards that place yet, because…

‘Yeah, we got to beat the Gym Leader first! If you’re fine with waiting, then that’d be really sweet of you~!’ Joshua said, Ewan nodding and the two of them went off, first to the Pokémon Center after that battle and then over to the Pokémon Gym.

Would Erika do anything in the meantime, then? There was someone she wanted to have along as a guide, was it?





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



__________________________


@hatakekuro

Crocus successfully put hit Beedrill with a Leech Seed as the giant bee appeared, and then Growled to decrease the bee’s attack as it homed in for a Fury Attack! It flew forth and thrust down its piercers in a furious charge and-

Utterly missed. There was now a string of needle holes in a line straight past Crocus position, but Crocus had been entirely untouched. Beedrill took some damage from Leech Seed draining health and sending it to Crocus.

‘Oh, well. It was worth a try,’ Lorette shrugged a bit. ‘Beedrill! U-Turn!’ she then commanded.

Beedrill spun about, suddenly covered in green energy as the bee surged towards Crocus, intending on hitting and then flying off back to its Pokéball!

Crocus has a choice between trying to counter/prevent the move, or taking the hit and making a first move against whatever new Pokémon might appear. Do decide that now, before opening the hider, if so.



How will Basil react?

__________________________

@Gardevoiran

Somehow sensing that they were on the cusp of something, JoJo and Skylar spent some more time grinding! They Confused some more Geodudes, some more Sandshrews, maybe even Disarming Voiced some Sandiles, until finally…!



JoJo feels a wealth of energy within him. He has a choice. He can let the energy loose now, or he can hold it back to release at a later time for maximum drama.



That was done and Skylar’s still in the mines. What will he do now?

What will Skylar do now?





Connected areas:
Route 7. Right behind you.

Awesome, it looked like things were going his way again and-

She was switching out again?!

"Like I'll let you get away!" Basil declared. He knew that Crocus would not be able to match the Beedrill's strength even with a de-buff in a head-to-head clash, but what if he leveraged the bug-types own physical abilities against it? He held off his orders and watched tensely for the right moment when to strike as it grew closer and closer until Basil finally shouted,"Crocus, use Vine Whip to grab the Beedrill and use its momentum to do a back throw to the ground!" What Basil had essentially ordered his Bulbasaur to do was a judo throw to the ground. It didn't need to be perfect, it just needed to be forced to stay in the fight while the Leech Seed ate away at it.

❄Erika Olson❄

---

---

Erika smiled at Joshua having missed that particular charm of his. She then gave Ewan a nod at the mention of needing a Fighting-Type, understanding that but that certainly sounded like an interest in joining her. As for the other two...

Ellyn didn't appear to be very warm to the idea and Maple went on about how Mount Strength wasn't needed. It appears she wasn't the only one trying to think of making a balanced team, but why did she have a team of all fire types just now? Did she really have that many Pokemon?!? Yikes. Erika was so behind and the icing was that she only had one gym badge while they had two. Aaaah! Could she really be Pokemon Champion at this rate? She needed to kick herself into high gear if she is going to compete for real.

"Oh that's too bad. Well then... oh, good luck then!" She didn't have a lot of time to converse with them before those two were off. That probably wasn't the last she was going to see of them and the Power Station might be a place worth looking into at some point. First thing was first, however, and that was Sno.

Erika nodded to Joshua. "In that case, I'll be around. I want to do a few things here in the Village before we set out. Hopefully that'll mean we end up finished at the same time. Let's meet up here when we are done, then? Good luck with Archie! Uuumm... try your best to block the sun. He's got a really strong team because of it."

She hoped they did not mind the advice and with that she departed for the Pokemart. Having a few more potions, status heals, and Pokeballs seemed prudent. Plus an escape rope just in case they had to do a bit of climbing. After the Pokemart shopping spree, she'd dig in her now cluttered bag for her Pokedex and use the call feature, extending a call to the entry, Elana the Explorer Guide.

If she could manage to reach Elana, "Oh hi Elana, I hope you're not busy at the moment. I-um.. just wanted to request your help to guide me through Mount Strength if that is okay? I have the map but I wanted a Dawnstone if you remember that conversation and I'll take all the help I could get. So yea, I need you here... To help me find a Dawnstone, I mean!" Erika nervously laughed brushing some of her hair behind her ear. "Yea! So if you have the time to come to Stillwood Village, I'll be here."

Aaand with that, Erika would hang up and facepalm pretty hard. Why was she so awkward?

Taking a moment to recompose herself, she did also want to investigate the Berry Garden. She happened to have a couple of berries that would be worth investing some time and energy into growing. She'd make way for there, interested in looking for a plot for some of her berries.

@hatakekuro

As Beedrill surged towards him, Crocus threw out the Vine Whips to grab the bee and veer it off course… but the giant bee was too fast, too strong, too determined! The vines gripped the bee but it was too much to try to throw it around, instead they just somewhat lessened the impact as Beedrill slammed into Crocus, doing a modest amount of damage. Beedrill bounced off him and headed back towards its trainer…

‘Good job, Beedrill!’ Lorette started as was holding up a Pokéball to return the bee, and held a different Pokéball at the ready. ‘Now, go, L-’

The vines on Beedrill suddenly went taut and Beedrill swung in them to crash headfirst into the floorboards underneath it! The vines gripping the bee wouldn’t let it leave, even if it had managed to hit Crocus with the U-Turn! Beedrill took Struggle recoil damage from slamming into the floorboards, and then Leech Life drained some health back to Crocus, healing from the impact!

‘… So that’s how it’s going to be,’ Lorette giggled a little. ‘Alright! Beedrill, U-Turn him! U-Turn him repeatedly!’ Lorette said a sentence that would otherwise be impossible, and Beedrill quickly obeyed, spinning around with the intention to surge into Crocus once again!

Crocus would be armed with the knowledge that, due to how U-Turn works, Beedrill would bounce back every time the move hit.

What will Basil and Crocus do?

__________________________

@Pirouette

Maple froze dead in her tracks when Erika told her good luck. She spun about in confusion.

‘What, weren’t you coming?’ Maple asked, confused and wide-eyed.

‘… She JUST said she’d wait for Joshua and Ewan to beat the Gym Leader, first,’ Ellyn explained, exasperated.

‘… “Wait”?’ Maple asked, as if trying to come to terms with this foreign concept. ‘Aaaaah, I don’t want to wait here! We’ll go ahead to Mt. Strength, we can see if we’ll meet up there! See you there!’ Maple said, spinning back to go towards Mt. Strength again.

‘… More likely we’ll blow right through Mt. Strength and it’ll be a while before we meet again…’ Ellyn sighed a bit, but then waved to Erika. ‘Good luck, you too. I’ll need to do my best to make sure Maple doesn’t run off a cliff, but we’ll see each other again,’ Ellyn said with certainty, before needing to follow Maple or the girl would be way off and leaving her behind, too.

Ewan and Joshua appreciated the hint about the sun, and then got going. Now, Erika went to the Pokémart…



Feel free to calculate how much that shopping spree would cost.

Then, she called Elana.

‘Hello, this is Elana of the Explorer’s Guide Service,’ Elana answered the phone pretty quickly, probably because she was holding it at the time. Erika introduced herself, and… ‘Oh, it’s you,’ Elana quickly noted, before listening to the rest.

‘I remember. Alright, I’ll be off my current job in just a bit, and then Stillwood isn’t too far off. I’ll be there in maybe two hours, if that works for you. Still, be ready for a long hike. That 2,900P fee isn’t going to cover much if I have to use two Escape Ropes,’ she said, and that’d be that.

So, eventually, Erika went to the Berry Garden…



So that’s that. What will Erika do now? She has the option to simply wait until Joshua and Ewan come back and Elana arrives.





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

❄Erika Olson❄

---

---

At the Pokemart, Erika had purchased the following: 5 Potions, 2 Super Potions 3 Antidotes, 3 Paralysis Heal, 1 Escape Rope, 5 Great Balls. All in total she spent: 7350P.

Moving on she deals with her call and then finds herself at the Berry Garden.

When it came to berries, Erika was somewhat of a novice. She knew the importance of some that would mend status ailments and how their use can come in handy for battles. However, there was a science here to growing berries that might actually make really delicious Pokemon treats. Her team might just have to be fine with the standard berries, they were still delicious, right? That raised a tangent in her mind wondering what berries actually tasted like? Did humans eat them? She snapped the thought from her head trying to refocus on the receptionist's explanation.

It would be nice to have berries but she wasn't sure when she'd be able to return here. Returning on foot was quite troublesome as well. Flying on a Pokemon was the best, obviously, but she needed a Pokemon to fly.Tara was a bit too small at the moment. Maybe by the time Tara evolved, it would be about time?

"Thanks for the starter kit and the information. Can I buy enough damp mulch for one plot.. and a single plot, of course." And with that Erika would plant each of the new berries she acquired into the plot.

With that bit of business done, she'd return to the center of Stillwood Village and await her companions to join her for the expedition into Mount Strength.

@Pirouette

‘Of course! That will be 1,900P,’ the woman at the Berry Garden said, and the purchase was done. Erika applied the Damp Mulch and planted the berries in her little patch of soil in the garden, ensuring she didn’t need to water her berries, and then she was on her way. After that, she awaited the return of her companions.

Eventually, from the direction of the Gym came a… positively dancing Joshua, who was followed by a Zubat spinning around him.

‘ERIKA! WE WON!’ Joshua called out so happily, lifting his new sparkling Treetop Badge up high. ‘And it was all thanks to this hero! Who’s the best darling hero Zubat? You are, that’s who! You’re the best, most delightful, beautiful Zubat across the land, and you’re my hero! You’re an absolute charm, Zubat! My hero!’

Erika has never seen a happier Zubat, the bat acting positively abashed in the praise but flying about making happy Zubat-cries.

Behind Joshua, Ewan arrived, nodding appreciatively at Erika.

‘Thank you for the tip about the weather. It made me remember I had found a Hail TM in the Frozen Cavern earlier, and I applied it to great effect. Sven really came through, despite Ground-typing. Just had to switch between him and the rest at steady intervals to keep Hail going, but with that, I won modestly easily. That Bellossom was no joke, though, has to just keep my distance and let the hail do the job. Archie wasn’t very happy with that and had to be coaxed into giving me the badge by his butler…’ Ewan sighed a little, seemingly regretting his strategy but coming out on top nonetheless.

‘In any case. Your tip saved me. Please, have this other TM I found as, er, payback,’ Ewan said, offering something to Erika and looking like he found what he said a bit amusing.



Joshua then proceeded to tell the epic tale about how his Zubat saved the day, but through his flowery descriptions it basically amounted to “Zubat used Confuse Ray and got lucky repeatedly”. Still, Joshua was pretty good at making a dramatic story out of it.

Eventually, a young woman approached them, having found her way towards them. A blonde girl in a tight hat with goggles, wearing a jacket and had way too big a backpack on her back. She found Erika decently quickly, but stopped a bit of a distance as she noticed the other two.



‘Oooh, you must be the guide Erika spoke about!’ Joshua flew back on his feet, skipped over and bowed ever so gracefully to her. ‘I am Joshua, and it’s a delight to be charmed by your presence. I can feel the weight of your experience already from here, and it has touched my heart. It shall be a gift to be amazed by your enchanting abilities!’

‘… Likewise?’ Elana asked, looking a little confused as she looked between Joshua and Ewan. She then took to walking around Joshua and proceeding directly to Erika, leaning in really close to whisper. ‘You haven’t tricked me into going to a mixer, have you?’ she asked, mildly startled.

Anyway, with that out of the way (and probably with a few Erika lines explaining), they were on the way!

Still, here’s Stillwood Village if she wanted to do anything here.



Otherwise, they departed westwards. Leaving the village, they’d still find themselves to be in Stillwood Forest, albeit one which wasn’t quite as tight and let sunlight shine down through the trees. This route was the gradual thinning of the Stillwood Forest, until eventually it led somewhere else. Either to the route where it always rained, or to the mountain.



So, assuming she heads on.

Heading up the forest hill towards Mt. Strength. The mountain-range rises above, but after a walk up the cliffside the entrance can be found fairly close to the base. The arc of rock is carved-out with great effort, with patterns and ancient letters and the like, the opening wide enough that a truck could be driven through. With the stories of the wild caves of Mt. Strength going around, one wouldn’t be blamed expecting to be delving into caverns of absolute chaos and roughness. Yet as one descends into the cave and it opens up in its whole honesty, the ground beneath becomes… cobblestone.

Well, it worked just not in the way that Basil had expected it to.

Crocus ate the attack like a champ and still did not let go of his opponent being the ever tenacious bud of a grass-type. As it stood it looked like it was going to be a battle to see who would give out first. Basil bit his cheeks in stress as he weighed the risks. His Bulbasaur was proving to be essential with its Leech Seed, but that's all that it really could do in a battle where its type match up was less than ideal so Crocus' viability for the rest of the challenge was questionable. No, the only other on his team that could eat more hits was Roxanne, but she was poisoned so he needed to save her when she really needed her and of course Glory would take it out, but he wanted to a clean switch just in case there was another chance of being poisoned by Twin Needle.

There was only one thing to do at this point. "Don't let it go and use Growl!" Despite the difference between Crocus' and the Beedrill's stats, if they could lower the bug's attack stat low enough it was likely that they would win this battle of attrition via Leech Seed and recoil damage though the recoil would probably decrease from the lowered attack stat, but it was better than eating those hits as they were.

❄Erika Olson❄

---

---

Erika had to do a double take at the reported funds in her account after she stepped out of the Berry Garden. All that money was gone in about an hour of spending which was quite tragic. No doubt her guide was going to cost her a fair bit, too, but at least she'll be able to earn more money?

Anyway, she didn't have to wait too long. She let her Pokemon out to stretch their legs and chill in the relaxing aura of this place. It made time go by quickly because her friends Joshua and Ewan emerged.

"Oh I'm glad!" Erika smiled watching them approach as she sat on a bench, turning away from what she was watching. Chic was in the middle showing Sno and Gibs how to kick. Their attempts to kick high went about as successful as you can imagine...

"Chic turned into my hero in her fight against Bellawe... Bellossom." Erika responded to Joshua and glanced over to Chic was finding it quite amusing to watch her teammates try to kick. She could only imagine how a Zubat managed the feat of carrying Joshua's challenge. Supersonics and Wing Attacks? Zubat had never registered on her radar of competitive Pokemon so she didn't know too much about them.

Ewan's subsequent arrival brought Erika out of her thought. Again she smiled, "Oh think nothing of it!" Her eyes sparkled at the mention of Hail. She wanted that but would reserve that for later because....

She received a different TM which was quite nice! "Thanks so much Ewan! I guess I should have played it safe and let Gibs stay out of danger. I lost sandstorm halfway through the challenge, and it took the rest of my team for that close win." She turned away and frowned, thinking about how she might do that battle differently. She didn't feel like there was honor in a lot of switching, but that was dumb because there were even moves about preserving stat changes in a switch. So why recklessly throw her team into situations when playing smart like Ewan could have been better. Something to note for the future. "I've got our guide coming here so we just have to wait a bit longer, I think." She would add before Joshua began her story. Of course. Confuse Ray would save you if you got lucky. Joshua seemed the lucky type.

Then Elana showed up. Erika jumped to her feet and was ready to give her greetings when Joshua stepped in. "_{Oh that's just Joshua..."} She said quietly as Joshua's earnest introduction had pretty much taken all the focus. Then Elana walked around and right up to Erika who stiffened as she got very close. She was leaning so close... "_{Oh no, no. They are just my friends wanting to join us."} Erika responded. Did Elana want it to be just the two of them? Her heart fluttered at the thought, and her stomach felt like she had butterfrees flying around. Surely this was just about business and the cost of guiding others and not something else... right?

And with that they carried on through route 4. Elana as the lead and Erika right behind her with her other friends likely following. on the way there, Erika would talk with the two about Archie and the battles they had. She'd even try to talk a bit about trying to strategize for each gym by building a balanced team. She was lacking a good Steel and Fairy type but with the evolutions she had, she could cover a lot with her Pokemon so far.

Anyway with Elana guiding them they reached Mt. Strength quickly. Once there, it appears there were some tricks already with the revelation that wild Pokemon liked to jump trainers. "Oh that does sound bad." Erika would admit thinking about she had actually considered letting Chic walk around to view the fighting types earlier. She'd obviously be targeted. So that meant she needed to find a lame looking Pokemon which felt mean. But if she did have to choose with something she didn't agree with...

Tara popped out of her ball with her fluffy cloud wings and splitting feather like hair thing. She wasn't ridiculous but maybe to some? Also a Flying type would mean that she could just fly away from any attempted fights and the Pokemon would recognize that... right? "Okay, I think Tara will be good for that."

Of course Elana knew what she was doing and also had Slurpuff out for another reason. The Dawn Stone and the prospect of finding Erika quite optimistic, although she wasn't sure if stones smelled? Maybe to a Slurpuff. "Oh okay, okay." Erika nodded hanging onto all of Elana's words. Then Elana hit with the proposition. Now depending on the circumstances, that could be crazy good for Elana, likely scoring a surplus of stones to pay her commission several times over. Erika should have objected, at the very least obtained a thunderstone and waterstone for her team evolutions. However... "Oh uh huh, you can take any other stone you find. That's fine!" Erika conceded immediately because Elana would be pleased and it was quite easy to have tunnel vision for that if you were a bit smitten. Poor Joshua and Ewan, though.

"Oh the map, yes." Erika dug into her pack and withdrew her map. She unfolded it and glanced around at the various locations. "It seems like the stones would be lower in the mountain like how it was in the Frozen Caverns so maybe there. But does Slurpuff smell anything or maybe you have a better idea, Elana?" And Joshua and Ewan. Though Erika seemed to forget them at the moment. But any direction was a good one as long as it seemed to be drawing them to a Dawn Stone's location!

@hatakekuro

Crocus managed to Growl before Beedrill hit him again, decreasing the power of U-Turn. Once again, with no choice in the matter, Beedrill bounced back towards its trainer… only for the vine to slam it down into the floor again as it couldn't return. The annoyed bee immediately surged in at Crocus again, while Leech Seed drained some health to him…!

Two round-trips later, and standing only due to Growl and Leech Seed, Crocus outlasted the angry giant bee, which now lay fainted at the end of the vine, having slammed its face into the floor repeatedly with the excess power of U-Turn. The Bulbasaur was heavily damaged, however.



‘Nicely done,’ Lorette smiled as she returned Beedrill. ‘Now, let me reintroduce you. Escavalier!’ she called, throwing out a Pokéball, and the knightly, slow but powerful bug with twin lances formed once again.

At this point, Basil should determine what he wants to do beforehand, really.



How will Basil react?

__________________________

@Pirouette

Elana peered at her intently from really close when she insisted the two boys were just friends that wanted to join them. After all, Erika was looking really nervous and like someone that may just be hiding something. ‘… Well, okay, then,’ she eventually concluded that it didn’t necessarily matter that much, leaning away from her and focusing on the journey at hand.

They then embarked on their trip and arrived at Mt. Strength. At the mention of needing to send out Pokémon that didn’t look too tough, Joshua and Ewan looked at one another.

‘It’s gotta be Mudkipz!’ Joshua said, sending out his Pokémon and grabbing around her. ‘You’re such a sweet-looking little thing, who’d be scared of you?’ he said, hugging around his Mudkip happily, and the Mudkip looked similarly happy.



‘… I suppose Duessel,’ Ewan said, sending out the Psyduck, who immediately looked back at Ewan with a kinda sad-looking expression, while holding onto his head. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll look far tougher after you evolve,’ Ewan assured his Pokémon. Duessel looked sort-of relieved with that.



The deal of the stones was agreed upon. Elana nodded, and then held the Shiny Stone in front of Slurpuff. ‘Smell this. Keep in mind that we’re not looking for exactly this stone, just another kind of evolution stone,’ she told. Slurpuff excitedly nodded, smelled it, and… ‘Slurpuff!’ the Pokémon called, and was immediately on its way. Elana nodded to Erika and started to follow already. ‘It does seem like we’re heading down…’ Elana remarked on where Slurpuff was heading.

They headed down through tunnels, leaving behind the underground town of fighting-types to follow relatively normal underground tunnels, snaking in varying direction and leading further down the mountain. Then and again Pokémon headed by, Machops fighting or transporting rocks somewhere or Meditites just sitting on the wayside meditating.

Joshua and Ewan were momentarily happy to follow. Joshua got into a bit of trouble when he accidentally stepped on a Geodude. The Geodude immediately attacked, but Joshua could take it out with one shot via Mudkip’s Water Gun. However, a couple Machops saw the display, and decided Mudkip was worthy of being challenged! Ewan had to step in to help defeat the wild Pokémon for a bit, there…

Meanwhile, Slurpuff was heading through the tunnel with utmost determination, seeking directly through the tunnels until it found what it was looking for. There! A stone! … A Shiny Stone, just as the one Elana had showed it! … Some time later, it found another stone! Another Shiny Stone, that is. … And then another. Then another. Then…

‘I… did tell you that what we were looking for wasn’t EXACTLY like this?’ Elana asked, frowning a little at her Pokémon as she was holding the fifth Shiny Stone they’d found. Slurpuff tilted its head a little, confused. Elana sighed. ‘Well, guess we can keep looking…’

They’d now been wandering the tunnels for quite an amount of time. Stones were, though, not the only thing they’d found around here. Quite a bit of basic Pokémon Trainer necessities were lying about…



They kept wandering the lower parts of Mt. Strength. Slurpuff was attempting to widen the search-parameters, actually finding a Fire Stone down there, which Elana promptly collected. Joshua and Ewan were discussing what kind of Fighting-type they could imagine capturing, neither of the two had become particularly impressed with any of the Fighting-types they’d seen so far. Still, they continued wandering the dark caves until-

The cave suddenly started shaking! Like there was an earthquake or something going on!

‘Woah-!’ Joshua called, grabbing onto the wall. ‘What’s this-!?’ he asked, clearly excited by the level of power displayed.

‘Huh, that’s odd. The Pokémon down here should be pretty weak…’ Elana commented, crouching to pick up Slurpuff, to prevent the light Pokémon from bouncing off.

‘… It’s coming from that direction,’ Ewan pointed, because indeed, the shaking seemed to be coming from behind that wall. There were even sounds, and the sounds were coming closer…!

‘… There should be no reason to worry, the Pokémon of Mt. Strength isn’t the kind that’d want to hurt you past challenging your Pokémon, and there’s none bigger than a Machamp; they wouldn’t hurt you accidentally,’ Elana tried to comfort, but it was true that something was coming closer, and-

And something burst through the wall.

It wasn’t a Pokémon. It was huge.

It was a gigantic drilling-machine, going through the wall and with no sign of stopping.



There’s two immediate ways out of its way. One would be immediately to the left. Pros include, short distance to get there and guaranteed out of the way. Cons, you have a very limited amount of time before the machine blocks the way and a failed attempt to get there could have dire consequences.

Second option, turn and run further down the cave. Pros; the machine is slow and you should be able to outrun it. Cons; the path is straight and you’ll have the machine pursuing you for a significant distance, don’t stumble. Then, there’s the third option, use whatever possible means to stop the giant drill before it engangers you. Fourth option, escape rope.

Now, each of the others is going to have their own immediate reaction, but to start with, what’s Erika’s?

❄Erika Olson❄

---

---

The hunt was on. Erika was excited to see what they would uncover... even though she wasn't going to get to keep a lot of it. Sure enough, they found a lot of Shiny Stones before finally finding a Fire Stone. It was then that Erika internally thought it would be very depressing if they found every other stone before finding her precious Dawn Stone. But Elana was here and they were in good hands, right? Nothing could go wrong, in fact...

"Oh huh." Erika muttered as every felt like it was shaking. Tara fluttered nervously, sensing that was something was happening. "Maybe it is an earthquake? Like an actual one, not a Pokemon doing it." She offered as a potential explanation. Only a rather strong Pokemon could pull off an earthquake like this, but that was also possible. Maybe if there was a trainer down here...

The wall before her burst and revealed the answer. Erika yelped seeing something so big and unexpected appear and it was still coming towards her and her friends! "R-ruuuun!" Erika yelled hopefully managing to call over the sound of the heavy machinery working. She and Tara turned in a hurry and began to run away from the machine having definitely panicked. Erika would glance behind and make sure the others were okay though!

"It's alright Miss Leila. It just means we'll have to try harder to solve this problem. As for what you said Miss Annica, you bring up a very good point. Let's see here..." Amelia said before bringing out her pokedex and going through it's functions for a few seconds before finding what she was looking for. "There are Poliwags on this route. It's the only pokemon that might been a Water Stone if one of them managed to evolve into a Poliwhirl. It would probably be interested in stealing Palpitoads. That seems to be the most likely suspect. But let's see if we can't narrow things down first."

Turning to Palpitoad, Amelia lowered the pokedex down to it's line of sight.
"Can you tell me if there are any pokemon like these that you have a rivalry with?" She asked it before flipping through the enties of the native pokemon, seeing it Palpitoad reacted to any of the pictures in a more hostile manner.

It was a win, a messy one, but a win nonetheless. Crocus had taken quite the beating and at this point a gentle breeze would had been enough to knock the poor little Bulbasaur out so Basil saw it fit to return it to its Pokeball. "You did great Crocus. Get some rest. He smiled at the Pokeball and watched as Lorette brought her Escavalier back into the fray. It had only taken slight damage from its previous bouts with Crocus and Roxanne and now with the Bulbasaur being to heavily damaged to be reliable in a fight, he'd have to change up strategies.

"Come on out, Cecil!" Basil tossed his starter's Pokeball and in a flash of light the Darumaka made its first ever gym debut. Since she was switched out in the middle of the Escavlier's attack she would most likely take the hit, but regardless if the attack landed or not, Basil's order would be the same.

"Cecil, use Incinerate on the battlefield! Light it up!" He knew that in terms of stats, that knightly Pokemon surpassed Cecil many times over, but not even that unit of a bug would be able to put up with an inferno for too long.

---

---

"Kirliaaa!" JoJo's glow had petered out after a brief little bit, the new evolution finally ringing in and appearing in full glory. Skylar grinning from ear-to-ear was enough to indicate how he felt regarding it. "So thats why you wanted to go a little more! Awesome, that oughtta help with the gym." Skylar pumped his fist in the air, Jojo spinning around to get closer to fist pump beside Skylar.

"How you feelin, little buddy?" Skylar asked his newly evolved friend, starting to walk towards the exit of the cave. The Kirlia responded with a simple nod, showing off a lot more confidence than before and, armed with this confidence, walked in front of Skylar with his head held high.

"Well alright. Next stop, the Raremine Gym." Skylar cracked his knuckles. The team seemed to be in good spirits already, so they didn't need to stop at the Pokemon Center first. Their eyes were set on the gym, and they were ready to give it their all yet again. Maybe it'd be like the Highhill Gym, just the gym leader going all out, or maybe Skylar'd have to fight some trainers first. Hopefully it'd be the former, since he didn't really think his team could get much stronger off of the Pokemon around here.

@Pirouette

‘… Tsk,’ Elana made a noise as she quickly returned Slurpuff to a Pokéball and started dashing after Erika, shuffling her great bag into her hands and sticking into her bag looking to get her hands on an appropriate item for this situation, which would be an Escape Rope. Still, she couldn’t use it with just herself…!

‘…!’ Ewan quickly grabbed Duessel and leapt aside, his instincts perhaps faster than those of his companions, and he leapt sideways into the way where they’d come from, to the left. He got into it, but that led to him being split off from the rest of them as the giant drill went past him. He quickly stood up and retrieved a couple Pokéballs…

‘WOA- THAT’S NOT ON THE ENCOUNTER-LIST!’ Joshua laughed, as if unbothered by the suddenly very perilous situation they’d found themselves in, gripping Mudkip and holding her onto his head as he ran with a wide smile along the underground corridor.

The three of them ran on, clearly faster than the giant drill, but hardly safe should any of them coincidentally stumble. However, after a good run the path turned right, and as they turned the giant drill did not. It carried on and slammed into the wall straight ahead. There, it stopped, emitting a loud sigh of smoke shooting out of its varying exhaust-pipes.

Ewan showed up, with a Psyduck, a Swinub, a Treecko and a Spearow all in position to attack the mechanical aggressor. Elana, also not appreciating the visitor, turned and held a Pokéball ready, albeit hadn’t thrown it yet. Joshua also spun around, though looked less startled about all of this.

A hatch suddenly shot open on the top of the machine.

‘Woh. We made it,’ said a surprisingly young boy, crawling out of the top of the giant mechanical machine. He had short brown hair, a giant green coat hanging like a cape around him, numerous mechanical gadgets wrapped onto his left arm, and tired brown eyes. Behind him skipped forth a couple purple-clad seemingly psychics that were helping pick up some very strange looking equipment from out of the machine to on top of it…



‘Right, let’s begin at once…’ the boy said, directing the device on his left arm in front of him and starting to turn a few screws…

‘Who are you supposed to be?’ Elana asked, a little miffed at being chased like that.

‘Oh, there’s people here…’ the boy said, looking down with tired eyes at them. ‘If you’d just be on your way, I’d very much appreciate it.’

‘You almost ran us over!’ Ewan told him, clearly also pretty upset about that.

‘Hm, the records said people rarely travel through these tunnels. How very unfortunate you must be. Well. Carry on,’ the boy said, turning around towards the machines that the psychics had picked out. Something with a screen. The boy opened a Pokéball, and a small, green-and-white humanoid Pokémon formed on top of the machine…



‘Don’t worry, my Pitri. We’ll find your item. Start the scan,’ the boy told his Kirlia.

‘Kirl!’ Pitri replied, holding its arms over its head, closing its eyes to focus Psychic power… and a dot appeared on the screen of the machine underneath.

‘Sir Julian! There’s… a single positive response in the entire mountain!’ one of the Psychics said.

‘Excellent. Then let’s go take it. I didn’t dig all the way from Mt. Edge to return empty-handed. Let’s crush this filthy mountain so I can be back home soon,’ the boy, Julian, told as he started to get down into the machine again.

‘Wait, you just DUG a tunnel from Mt. Edge to Mt. Strength?’ Joshua asked, leaning to peer in the direction the drill had come from. ‘Cool.’

‘Not cool,’ Elana grunted. ‘I got to collapse that tunnel before Psychic-types from Mt. Edge start invading, it’d cause havoc to the ecosystem of Mt. Strength…!’ she mentioned, before taking off towards where the drill had come from.

What does Erika take away from all this?

__________________________

@Joshua Tamashii
_{appropriate music}

‘Oh, that’d make sense,’ Leila said, hitting one hand into the other, thinking that was pretty clever. ‘So maybe it wasn’t any of us, after all. That’s a relief…’

Palpitoad looked curiously at the pictures that Amelia was showing her… but none really stuck. Palpitoad tilted its body to peer at the images, then shook its head at the question. That wasn’t the intended solution of this puzzle. Nice idea, though.

Some of the testimonies have been rewritten to include some of the new information.

What will Amelia do now?









Or she could leave.



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



__________________________


@hatakekuro

Basil returned Crocus, and sent out Cecil. Cecil immediately received the brunt of two giant lances as Escavalier hit against her with Fell Stinger. However, despite the stat-difference, Fell Stinger is a decently weak move and it’s Not Very Effective, meaning Cecil got out of the tussle with relatively little damage. Escavalier bounced a healthy distance back after the impact.

‘Heh, even a weak Bulbasaur is worth keeping around, huh?’ Lorette mused, her own tactic failing. ‘Very well. A fire-type, huh. Too bad Accelgor fainted. It knew Water Shuriken, after all,’ she continued, giggling a bit. ‘Okay, Escavalier! You’re probably going to faint now, but if you don’t, DOUBLE-EDGE!’ she commanded, and the Escavalier took off again! Using its own lances as stilts to lounge itself forward for a tackle…!

Then Basil made his command. ‘… Huh?’ Lorette made a confused sound.

Cecil obeyed the command, and blasted a burst of fire down into the wooden platform! Now, the platform had been constructed with the intention of violent battles taking place on these boards. They’d usually be able to take some heat just fine… but not when the attack was aimed directly at them! Incinerate burst into the wood, and because of what Incinerate does, the wooden plank was thoroughly burned through, creating a hole! Incinerate doesn’t light things on fire, it incinerates them, reducing it to ashes!

Then came Escavalier at full speed, intending to stick its lances into the floor and carry it straight through the smoke of the Fire-type move it had expected to hit it, pushing its lances down to fling itself in a destructive Double-Edge towards-!

SPLASH

-aaaaaaand Escavalier fell through the hole in the platform and into the waters beneath, as the entire wooden platform was situated on the pond inside the Gym. While the water wasn’t deep, Escavalier was a bug and rather heavy, and was flailing desperately beneath the surface. The forward speed had carried it underneath Cecil’s current position, under the wood, and it was having trouble finding its way back to the surface! It wiggled some time more…

… And Lorette stood up, raising a Pokéball and returning her Pokémon to its Pokéball.

‘… Whatever are you doing to my platform? It’ll take some doing replacing those, you know,’ she asked, though looking somewhat amused. ‘Oh, well. Guess that counts as Escavalier being defeated.’



‘Alright, then. Shuckle! You’re up!’ Lorette called, throwing her next Pokéball onto the field! Out from it came a small, red rock, with a strange yellow tentacle-like bug growing out of its various holes.



Lorette looked happily and expectantly at Basil, and so did Shuckle. Seems like she wasn’t going to give a command until he did.

First the Beedrill and now this? What the heck was with this Loony Tunes act? In hindsight, it really shouldn't have been surprising that the move Incinerate would incinerate the floorboards into ashes though that was good info to have. "Uh, that didn't go exactly how it did in my head." Basil admitted to Lorette.

He watched her throw in her next Pokemon and out came a strange looking creature in a red shell with yellow limbs. "Huh, that's new." The gym challenger pulled out his Pokedex and scanned the creature for its entry. So the short was that it was another bug-type with extremely high defensive stats just like her Escavalier though unlike it, from what he could tell this was not a Pokemon that could dish out heavy damage normally nor did it look like a speedster like her Accelgor with that body. That meant that it would use different means of defeating his team by taking advantage of its absurd defensive stats, meaning that Basil would have to use other means of taking it down.

He could send out Crocus and use Poison Powder and Leech Seed to bypass that Shuckle's defenses, but that Bulbasaur had already taken enough of a beating and he probably shouldn't keep destroying the battlefield. Actually, no one on his team could brute force it though... was it really necessary?

"Well, not much of a choice. Cecil, return." The Darumaka returned to her Pokeball in a beam of red light and he grabbed another from his belt. "Take the stage, Aria!" From this Pokeball, the pink puffball that was his Jigglypuff had taken center stage. It was very likely that Lorette would still not give her command until he did so if that was still the case Basil would order Aria to use Sing on the Shuckle.

@Gardevoiran

Skylar and his new evolved Pokémon headed back across the desert back to Raremine Town! From here, he wandered through a town that was recovering from some recent turmoil, some builders patching up some damaged buildings and scientists helping reconstruct here and there. All that aside, Skylar and his team were heading for one place and one place alone. The Pokémon Gym…

He found a huge gate, an arc held upon two pillars forming a place to walk through, and on the sign it said “Pokémon Gym” in large shiny letters, for those who can read. Except, the gate led straight out into the vast, sandy desert, from where Skylar had just come.

On the side stood a little sign, as proper for a Pokémon Gym, despite the clear lack of actual building.

Raremine Pokémon Gym - Minor League
Leader: Kristy
“The Desert Princess!”

Beside the sign stood a young man in glasses, who stepped forth just in time to greet Skylar as he arrived.

‘Why, hello there, newest champ-to-be! This is about the time most new challengers ask themselves “where’s the gym?”.’ he said, ready to be informative.



‘Now, first, let me give you an analysis. Kristy is a user of the Ground-type. They’re super-weak to electric types, so bring all your Pikachus! … Er, they’re strong against electric, poison, rock and steel-type Pokémon. They also make short work of water, grass and flying-type Pokémon, so better leave those at home! ... On the contrary, water and grass are pretty good against Ground! That aside, Kristy loves fighting in a sandstorm, so don’t bring goggles, the sand will ruin them! Oh, and rock- and steel-type Pokémon resist the sand, so bring lots of those! … True, but as I said, they’re weak to Ground-type, so, maybe not?’

‘Fuh, what are you even standing around telling trainers this for? Let new trainers figure out themselves what types work against each Gym Leader! That’s part of the fun!’ So said a red-haired woman that stood up from behind the Gym’s sign, smiling brightly, goggles on her head, a brown jacket over an orange suit with lots of equipment stashed into it. She’d been copying the Gym Guy’s voice in the middle of his analysis.



‘Just doing my duty, my lady,’ the Gym Guy bowed to her, and then stepped out of the way.

‘Hah,’ the woman made a dismissively amused noise, before looking to Skylar and smiling brightly. ‘Howdy~! I’m Kristy, Leader of Raremine Town Gym! I’m happy to see you’ve come to visit my Gym! Where’s my Gym, you ask? Well, all of Isson’s deserts are my Gym~!’ Kristy boasted as she gestured at the desert through the gate behind her.

‘So, have you come to challenge my gym? Are you prepared?’ Kristy asked.

This is where Skylar would be allowed to ask questions or the like.



__________________________


@hatakekuro

‘Oh,’ Lorette blinked a little at the Pokémon that was sent in. ‘Um, Safeguard,’ she quickly commanded with a calm voice with a touch of realization. Shuckle took a bit of a breath, and then a circle of protection emerged around Shuckle…

Lorette resumed smiling happily at Basil. Shuckle looking on as well.

Given what Jigglypuffs are famous for, this was a bit of an obvious choice.

What will Basil and Aria do now?

Well, so much for that. "Uh, sorry Aria. You'll have your chance later." Basil returned her back to her Pokeball, not without many protests and yelling for cutting her debut off so quickly, but this was not something she would be able to handle at the moment. So who exactly what could he do if he couldn't use status inflicting moves?

Basil stood here in thought, tapping his foot as he weighed his options. Roxanne would give out from the poison long before she could take the Shuckle down, and if he tossed out Crocus then they'd probably be in another game of switching Pokemon in and out of the battlefield considering that Lorette is all too aware of Leech Seed. In general almost anything he threw at the Pokemon would either be resisted or neutral against that thing's shell. It is certainly hard though it was not like its squishy looking limbs were able to take hits though all it had to do was duck for cover in its natural bunker and do whatever it had to do to outlast any attacks that were thrown at it so he was going to have to be a bit creative.

Well, what if he had a way to prevent that?

"Lupin, you're up!" Basil shouted as he tossed a Pokeball and out came his Sneasel baring its claws and a smirk as it looked at its opponent. "Okay Lupin, use Taunt."

The Sneasel would make an incredibly rude gesture with its fingers while sticking its tongue out at the Shuckle. "Snease, sneasle, snease!" For the sake of the RP, what he said would not be translated, but for the context Lupin was insulting the bug-type's mother very vulgarly and then would unceremoniously turned around and started shaking his butt at it.

Meanwhile, Basil was mortified at what his Pokemon was doing and simply shook his head. "That may be a little much..." Well, it probably was, but there was a point in doing this. The aim was to make the Shuckle so angry that it would act out on its own and make it hard for Lorette to order. If this worked, then there would be an opening to exploit.

@hatakekuro

On account of having been waiting for Basil's move, Lorette was at a disadvantage when it came to speed and was taken by surprise by the Sneasel and Taunt. Combine that with that Shuckle's a very slow Pokémon, Lupin managed to make his taunt unopposed.

Shuckle looked mortified, sliding its limbs back into its shell, looking extremely sad. Still, Taunt had the effect it would still have.

‘Oh, that puts me in a bind,’ Lorette remarked, bringing a hand up to her chin. ‘Oh, well. Rock Slide,’ she then commanded. Shuckle tensed up a bit, before a shower of rocks came down from above, pelting down over Lupin's half of the battlefield...!

Calling it a "Rock Slide" was a bit generous, with Shuckle's abysmal attack stats it was more of a "Pebble Slide". Still, there was a lot of the rocks, and could potentially be hard to dodge.

How will Basil and Lupin respond?