---

@Crimson Flame@Zanavy

---

Alicia was getting real tired of this guy's sass. She wasn't even going to comment on being called 'sus.' "I'm an experienced trainer and this is an unsupervised fire type. There's a valley of difference there." She said, despite quickly growing tired of the charade. At this point it might actually cause less of a fuss to thrash these two and move on. This wasn't like last time, she actually had a few more pokemon at her disposal now. This little shorty wasn't about to compromise her mission.

The grunt that accompanied her's Cramorant took a step towards the two and flapped its wings. Clearly it wasn't content with being ignored in this situation. Torracat similarly stepped forward. Clearly the two pokemon were more ready for a confrontation than their trainers.

---

@LuckyBlackCat@fer1323

---

The first grunt's Haunter barely managed to keep conscious after the vicious bite Arcanine delivered. It may not have fainted, but it certainly couldn't take another hit like that. The other grunt's Impidimp laughed wildly at the situation its ally was in, happily drinking in the annoyance of both grunts as they watched its antics. "Impidimp, stop screwing around and use bite on that Gothita!" The younger grunt shouted, causing the trickster to quit laughing and go on the attack itself. While the Reflect barrier weakened the impish pokemon, it didn't stop it entirely. "Haunter, use shadow ball on the Arcanine!" The other grunt shouted, only to see his pokemon stop short as the ghost flinched.

@Heckno12 @fer1323

While the imp mocked its barely-conscious ally, Lacey squeaked to cheer on Skoll, bending down and tapping him on the paw as if doing a fist bump. Staggering to her feet, Sophia smirked at the grunts and their Pokemon. "Heh, so much for teamwork." Oscar would probably say it was rich coming from her, but for all their bickering earlier, she couldn't deny they made a decent team right now. Their Pokemon certainly did.

The grin disappeared from her face when the little goblin, Impidimp, leapt forward. Reflect wasn't a perfect barrier, merely an energy field that dampened incoming physical attacks, and she looked on in shock as the Impidimp bit down on Lacey's arm. "Ah! Lacey!" With a squeal, the Gothita stumbled back as her opponent let go, but remained standing. Her Reflect and Skoll's Intimidate had offset the type advantage, but still, a dark move? Considering the purple mask, was the Impidimp a dark type?

At the other grunt's command for his Haunter to retaliate against Skoll, Sophia tensed, but no attack came. The ghost seemed too startled to move - an opening. "You've got this, Lacey!" Sophia called. "Take out that Haunter with Psybeam!" Lacey stared down the Haunter, shooting a multicoloured beam from her eyes. If Skoll's next attack was enough to knock out the Impidimp, that should turn the tables, or so Sophia could only hope.

@LuckyBlackCat

Alexis and Yuki expected the swarm to turn to them, but they didn’t expect Amber and her Pokémon to join in so suddenly. The Rockruff in particular jumped to take a gust attack that was headed in her direction. Their inclusion seemed to split the attention of the swarm. Still, there was still those in the swarm that prioritized Yuki over the new threat. One such a big-type made a Combee-line (and Alexis despises the fact that such a pun popped in her head) right for the Snorunt, mouths open to take a few bites.

“Double Team to dodge it!”, exclaimed Alexis.

Yuki complied and picked up as much speed as she could to make the afterimages. Unfortunately, with it being so sudden, she couldn’t execute it properly, and the Combee bit the Snorunt. Yuki yelped from the sudden pain while Alexis grit her teeth at what happened. She had planned on Yuki dodging the hit and gaining distance to hit the swarm again, but now it looks like they have to deal with this one in particular.

Throwing caution to the wind, the wannabe idol started running towards her Pokémon and sent out Amber.

“Amber! Go help the other pokemon with the swarm!”

The Eevee simply nodded and dashed over to Kyra’s side. She snickered at a handful of ways to help out, but decided to simply follow up Amber’s team. She’d simply follow and Tackle whatever target wouldn’t go down. Meanwhile, Alexis ran up to the combee that was currently gnawing on her Snorunt, and began attempting to pry the bug-type off with her own hands.

“Get. Off. Of. Yuki!!”

Alexis grunted between every word, using short bursts of strength with each pull. Now, Pokémon are generally considered stronger than humans, and Alexis was certainly no heavyweight champion, but thankfully the Combee was light enough for her to pull off if she pushed herself. As soon as she got the big-type off Yuki, she shouted.

“Powder Snow!”

Yuki complied and let out the attack again.





@Heckno12

Returning to the town was easy enough. Though Deneb had only ventured a short distance into the forest outside town, the place was still something that’s easy to get lost in. Luckily, he had not ventured so far as to not be able to backtrack. He had only caught one Pokémon, but one should be enough to handle the gym battle. The contest may be a different story. The only Pokémon on his team that he knew to be showy is Edea, while the other two he has yet to actually bond with. Speaking of whom, Edea was currently dancing about with imaginary maracas. Deneb had to confiscate them when the noise she was making with them started scaring Pokémon away while they were looking for a new member.

The two continued onward towards their intended destination, the pokemon center, when something caught Edea’s attention. When Deneb looked in the same direction, he spotted some people doing something near a Well. Usually, he wouldn’t bother people like them as they tend to be irrelevant to his goals, but with the recent attempted kidnapping still fresh in his memory, he could not help but feel as if this would not just get in his way, but also become a problem for others as well. With that in mind, he approached the group.

As he walked, he slipped out a pokeball and brought his Helioptile. Edea took the electric Pokémon abs had it follow her into a place to hide. Deneb’s face was still host to an emotionless expression, and his voice still lacked any major surge of emotion, but when he reached the suspicious group of individuals he spoke loud enough to hear.

“Tell me what you are doing.”

@OtomostheCrazy

"Good work Kyra, Smack Down again!" Amber called. "Larimar, another Rock Throw! Alma, Shadow Sneak!"

The rock attacks took down two more Combees, while Gabby stuck by Kyra's side, tackling the ones who dodged. Meanwhile, Alma snickered as her shadow turned into a large hand that swatted another bug aside.

"Whew... We've got this," Amber said, turning to Alexis. Her eyes went wide at the sight of the other girl rushing into the fray herself, trying to pry the female Combee off of Yuki with her bare hands. "Ah, careful! Alma, use that Shadow Sneak to help her out!" Combees were stronger than they looked, and even if humans could withstand a fair amount, they typically didn't endure attacks as well as Pokemon did. What if the bug turned round and injured Alexis?

Almandine extended the spectral hand towards the bee, but Alexis had already prized her off of the Snorunt. Right away, Yuki retaliated with Powder Snow, hitting the Combee full force.

"Beeeeee!" Well, the Combee hadn't expected this. If she hadn't been so stunned that the human herself, not just her Pokemon, had risen to her challenge, she may just have been able to dodge the blast. Instead, the stinging flurry sent her reeling back. Struggling to fly in the chill wind, she swayed in midair.

Her six eyes scanned the area as the Eevee brought down the last of the males. Either they were pathetic, or these two humans and their Pokemon were almost good, especially the girl in blue. She turned her gaze to Alexis. The other bees would be ok, considering all the berry trees around, and it wasn't like she needed them anyway. Instead of fighting back, she bobbed up and down in a nod, to tell Alexis she was something close to impressed.

If this girl fully got the hint, the Combee might even get a trainer out of this.

Oscar smiled as the haunter flinched and was unable to act to his trainer's orders. After the haunter is felled by Sophia's pokemon, Oscar orders Skoll to end the fight asap. With a sudden burst of speed as Skoll uses Extreme speed, Skoll slams his head into the imp pokemon "You have no where to go. Just give up and tell us you plans and you might get off easy" Oscar hopes the grunts are now reconsidering their position to give up the villainous team's plans.

---

@LuckyBlackCat@fer1323

---

As both of the grunts' pokemon fainted, the pair were visibly a bit less confident. "Y-you think we'd just tell you? What, ya think we're some Rocket Grunts that just signed on for a quick buck?" The younger grunt spluttered back, buying time as the older reached for something in his back pocket. "No, we're not gonna go down that easy and even if you manage to catch us..." The grunt trailed off as he looked back at his cohort to confirm that he'd stalled enough. The other responded by throwing a duo of pokeballs, two voltorbs emerged, one letting off a blinding flash as the other primed to use self destruct. The two grunts preemptively shielded their eyes as the two spheres went of and covered their retreat. The explosion likely wouldn't be enough to take anybody down, but it would have to do. They both had two more pokemon, but from that start it was clear the trainers would overpower them fairly easily if they just battled it out. Besides, they'd already done their job...if these two were to pursue them, the device would be safe.

---

@OtomostheCrazy

---

"Woah kid, let the adults do their jobs." The first grunt said, trying to just shoo the brat away. His partner was currently in the well releasing grimers to pollute the drinking supply. "Just working on the well, keeping the water quality where it belongs." The grunt then turned back to the well only to get a face full of Grimer as something launched the poison pokemon back out. After throwing the sludge pokemon off of him he peered in to only see the blue eyes of a slowpoke launching another grimer out, this time he managed to evade it. "You're kidding, now we've got a slowpoke infestation to deal with before we can get on with it...Of all the-" The grunt turned back to Deneb, realizing how all of this looked. "If you know what's good for you, you'll stay out of this."



"Another amnesiac in Vareena..." Savken's gruff voice muttered as he gave his Salamence a rough pat. He read the report that Saki had filed and the request for Ray's assistance, not that that layabout Ray was likely to lift a finger to do anything about it. No, he'd probably just keep playing his childish game of tag with his sister. There was little question, Team Noble had to have a base near Vareena...and with any luck there might even be somebody beyond the fodder grunts that didn't even know the basic details of Noble's plot.

Savkin would have to look into this personally, without relaying his intentions to the rest of the league. There was no time for bureaucratic process of demanding they authorize his investigation...and with any level of oversight he might be stopped from doing what he has to to bury Team Noble and whatever they're planning. No, this was something that needed a firm approach...a show of might.

@Heckno12 @fer1323

"What...?" At the explosion outside, Solanna turned from the contest organisers and hurried to the window. Right away, she recognised the two reeling trainers. "Ok, no way was that just some friendly sparring match," she called to her sisters. "Something's going down, let's go!"

She rushed through the hall, but as usual when she tried to get involved with such things these days, Lorraine called out. "Wait!" Biting back a sigh, Solanna looked over her shoulder as Lorraine stepped forward, one hand raised, that solemn expression on her face. "Look. I know you want to help. But someone's gotta prepare the contest, Hailey and I can deal with whatever shit's going on outside."

The laugh Solanna forced turned out more strained than intended. "No need to worry, I can handle it no problem. It's probably just some random delinquents anyway. But please, I've gotta do something, there are people in trouble, people I know!"

Lorraine gave a drawn out sigh. "Then by that same token, Hailey and I will be fine. You're the sunny one, you focus on the cheery stuff. I'll deal with the proverbial rain on these people's parade." Tension hung in the air like a brewing storm as words went unsaid. Both of them knew random delinquents were rare in Vareena. And both of them knew the real reason why intervening may be a bad idea. So many shady goings-on since that incident eighteen months ago. Goings-on Solanna couldn't look into without suffering for it, some kind of mental block getting in the way. She winced. Even thinking about it made a headache start welling up.

"Lani, Lori, please." A much softer voice piped up. Hailey inched over, hands clasped. "Let's, uh... Let's just be careful out there, ok? I'll help however I can. Just, please, don't bicker."

What Solanna hoped was a bright smile lit up her face. "Thanks, and yeah. C'mon Lori, what are we waiting for?" She threw open the doors and ran outside, Lorraine sticking by her side like a bodyguard, Hailey trailing behind them. "What happened just now?"

---

The blast sent Sophia tottering back. Shielding her eyes against the burst of light, she lost her balance and tumbled to the side. Her already nagging migraine spiked with each cough the smoke sent racking through her body.

"Lacey! Oscar! Y-You ok?" she spluttered, blinking away afterimages and staring around. The two grunts had fled the scene. "Where'd those no-goods go? Lacey, can you sense them nearby?" Lacey looked this way and that, ribbons twitching, before shaking her head.

Something, however, did catch the Gothita's attention. "Ita?" She ran to the shrubbery, peering at something inside.

"Hm?" Sophia crawled over. Before she could spot what was in there, a vaguely familiar voice drew her attention. Three women approached her and Oscar, one of them a certain energetic redhead she recognised. "Solanna!" The girl beside Solanna, the storm to her sun with her electric blue ponytail and black denim jacket, frowned and folded her arms as she took in the scene. From behind them, a pale, white-clad wisp of a girl shuffled forward.

"You're not hurt, are you?" She crouched, light blue hair hanging in her face, and helped Sophia up with the gentlest of touches.

Sophia leaned against a tree, grateful for the shade that made the day's brightness more bearable. "I'm fine." She looked over at Solanna. "There were these two sketchy guys though, they were putting something in the shrubbery, and the moment we went over, they battled us. We kicked their butts of course, but they got away."

@LuckyBlackCat

Alexis did not prefer getting involved. She aimed to be an idol among trainers. Running in and physically helping her Pokémon did not help her achieve that goal. She believed that any sensible trainer would allow the noticeably more capable Pokémon to hand fights with other Pokémon. If a normal trainer would do this, what sense does it make for an idol to deviate from it? Perhaps it was the stress that got her, or maybe all these inner feelings of uselessness beginning to bubble up.

If there was anything to gain from the past moment, however, it seems that it would be the leader’s respect. The Combee looked right at her and made a simple gesture in the air. The message was clear, and though Alexis didn’t understand why the Pokémon wanted this, she just did not care at the moment. She took out an empty pokeball, and threw it at the Combee.

“Pokeball, go!”

The capture device converted the Pokémon into energy and closed around it. The ball twitched a few moments until… Click! Combee was successfully caught!

Both Alexis and Yuki sighed in relief. The wannabe idol walked up the ball and picked it up. When she woke up this morning she was planning on simple training, but apparently being around the others means that random shenanigans were bound to head her way. She returned her remaining Pokémon, and put the poke balls away. She then turned to Amber.

“Why exactly were there wild Pokémon attacking?”, she asked, still exhausted from earlier.





@Heckno12

“Poison-type Pokémon…I see.”

A grimer being tossed out of the water system made their cover story useless. It also didn’t help that they threatened him immediately when it fell through. Deneb turned his head to the Grimer and just stared at it for a moment. Edea, knowing her trainer best, recognized it as him planning a way to subdue it in this afforded moment of inaction. She took initiative and whispered to Helioptile to prepare. Slowly, the electric Pokémon began to Charge.

Deneb returned his gaze to the adults. Their shenanigans will surely get in his way this time. He made his decision.

“You’ve been deemed an obstacle to my goal.”

Deneb took out his recently caught Sewaddle and told her to String Shot the adult humans to hinder and bind them. Though confused, she obeyed, expecting an explanation afterwards. At the same time, Edea had Helioptile made a move, and attack grimer with a charged Thundershock.

@OtomostheCrazy

"Huh." At the unexpected turn of events, Amber's eyebrows raised - things had ended much better than they'd started, with Alexis getting a new Pokemon out of this. "Well, Kyra here wanted to play, and they didn't." She rolled her eyes at the Rockruff. "Looks like things worked out for the best though. Hmm, it seems Combees really are drawn to strong leader figures. Makes sense, since they follow a Vespiquen in their natural habitat..."

A light tapping on her leg interrupted her hypothesis. She looked down at Larimar, who pointed to the unconscious Combees, some of whom were starting to stir. "Uh, let's head back to the gym before they come to." She started a brisk walk back down the path, her Pokemon in tow. The gym was nearer than the Pokemon centre, and they'd be able to get their teams healed up there. "I hope that girl's doing better." She bit the inside of her lip at the thought of how badly an encounter could go. She and Alexis really had been lucky.

@Heckno12@Zanavy

“Alright, I can see where this is going. Let’s just cut to the chase then. I was looking foward to having a battle today. I could use a warm-up.” Liam said with a smirk.

Tim however was not looking foward to a battle. “Do we have to?”Still, he couldn’t let Liam fight these two all by himself. So, with a sigh, he sent out Rocky. The puppy Pokemon growled in the face of the Cramorant and Torracat. Unlike his trainer, the Rockruff was itching for a battle. “Rocky, use Rock Throw!”

The rocks around Rocky’s neck glowed, and a rock appeared on Rocky’s tail. The puppy then flung the rock in the Cramorant’s direction.

“Primadonna! Use Water Gun on the Torracat!”

The Brionne clapped, and fired a jet of water out of her mouth.

Litleo ducked low to the ground as a battle began, shaking. Her instinct screamed to take cover in the bushes and wait for an opening, but the Torracat still guarded that advantage. Litleo was the one caught out in the open, surrounded by strangers, without a pack...

Try not to get caught, but if you do, I'll come help you out.

Litleo still shivered a bit as she stood up to her full height and took a fighting stance. She puffed out her chest and let out a bolstering roar. The Work Up would embolden her to fight more ferociously (hopefully...) but, more importantly, it would alert the human who caught her (...hopefully).

---

Hunk was the one to notice the sound, still below clear human detection at this distance but audible to Pokemon with keener senses. He alerted his trainer to the roar.

"Ohhh no," Ty uttered. He did not want to get involved in a big fight any more than his fire type. But there was no way he would leave his Pokemon hanging, especially a new one who had never even battled as a trained Pokemon. Ty considered for a few seconds and then released Reaper.

"Hey man I know it's a little crazy but I need to get somewhere fast 'cause our Litleo's in trouble and it might be Team Noble which would be extra bad can you fly me over there as fast as you can with like reasonable safety?"

Reaper, who up to this moment had not even been aware of a new Pokemon on the team, blinked blankly as he attempted to take in Ty's absolute spew of semi-panicking words. The Scyther frowned a little in concern but nodded. Ty returned Hunk and Medic to their Pokeballs as Reaper hovered into the air. The punk trainer briefly debated whether to hold onto Reaper's legs or have the Pokemon hold onto his arms, deciding on the former.

"That way," Ty pointed out."Toward the gym."

Reaper nodded and hovered a little higher, just high enough to avoid skimming any bushes or fences along the way. Bug-type and trainer began flying toward the gym. At this speed they might reach the battle site within a couple rounds of combat.

@Heckno12 @Crimson Flame

---

@Crimson Flame@Zanavy

---

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Alicia grunted in frustration as the trainers attacked. While it was likely she had the advantage in battle experience and pokemon strength, her accomplice certainly couldn't say the same as he just watched slackjawed as his Cramorant was clobbered by rocks. "Torracat, weaken that watergun with flamethrower!" Alicia shouted as the fire type's attack collided with the small torrent. It didn't completely stop the water type attack as the resulting steam and droplets of water still clearly hurt the feline, but it was better than taking it directly. "Now, hit that Brionne with Shadow Claw!"

Her ally's Cramorant managed to stand back up and unleash a water gun of its own back at the Rockruff that had just hit it. That type match up seemed to go both ways. Alicia idly touched a specific pokeball on her hip, an emergency measure that she was specifically ordered not to use frivolously...If this commotion got Saki's attention however, it would be their only way out. Of course, it was an option if they were cornered by these fledgling trainers too...just much harder to justify.

Of course, now that Litleo was making noise in the middle of the fray. That wasn't good, at this rate Alicia hoped that the gym leader was busy battling a challenger or something to keep her from hearing all the chaos.

---

@OtomostheCrazy

---

"Crap, what kind of kid just attacks out of the blue like this!?" The now revealed grunt shouted as he clumsily managed to pull out a pokeball and narrowly avoid getting roped up by a Sewaddle. "Pokemon battles are between pokemon ya little nutjob!"

Quickly noticing that one of the Grimer that had just been tossed out had been almost instantly subdued by a helioptile he cursed to himself. Not like those Grimer were prepared to battle regardless, but any help would have been nice since his partner was still AWOL in the well. "Fine, in that case..." The grunt retrieved a pokeball from his belt and let a voltorb out. "Voltorb jump towards the kid and use self destruct!" The grunt was well aware that the blast wouldn't do much in the way of damage as these voltorb were mostly meant to be used as distractions, but it would probably at least scare the young trainer a bit and give him a window to run...even if that meant abandoning his pal in the well.

"Minior, use tackle on that Voltorb!" A voice rang out as a small boulder-like pokemon collided with the electric type and sent it careening before it exploded. The fainted voltorb then harmlessly hit the grass a small distance away.





Rheese sprinted back towards Vareena...Though admittedly not terribly quickly given how sore he was still feeling, so it was more of an enthusiastic power-limp. All the same it didn't take very long to make it to town, and before he could even start looking for what was going on, he saw something that immediately caused a rising pressure in his head. He looked away before it could erupt into another headsplitting episode, but he could tell that the older guy by the well was definitely bad news. He managed to keep himself from thinking about it too hard, until he heard that same man yell for his voltorb to use self destruct. He felt his Minior let itself out of its pokeball and fly towards the battle at full speed. Unable to stop his pokemon's charge, he shouted at it to direct its assault.

"Minior, use tackle on that Voltorb!" He shouted, before hearing the voltorb explode slightly further away. Welp, he was in the battle now. He felt something at his feet, looking down carefully he spotted a slowpoke with an odd yellow spot on its head lightly biting his shoe before it suddenly looked up at him intently, startling him slightly before its psychic power quelled the pressure in his head temporarily. The Slowpoke's incredibly serious look suddenly faded back to the usual dopey one as it got back to assaulting his footwear.

Rheese ignored the ultimately harmless psychic type and focused back on the bigger situation. While he couldn't bring himself to look at the culprit, his pokemon didn't have that same dilemma. "Minior, back that kid up!" He said, further away than he'd like to be if it weren't for his current handicap.

@OtomostheCrazy

@LuckyBlackCat

After that whole event, it took a moment for Alexis to process Amber’s words. She wasn’t mad or dumbfounded, but she certainly was confused. Still, it wouldn’t take long for her to snap out of her processing state and ask, “Wait, your rockruff stirred a group of Combees in the middle of town because it was bored?”

Now she was dumbfounded. That sounded more like something Gabby would do, with the difference being she would instigate the swarm’s wrath as a form of entertainment rather than an attempt to play with them. She sighed as she followed along. Just thinking about it, Alexis would’ve probably gotten involved on the way regardless of Amber being there first. If she didn’t want to explain to the swarm that she captured their queen, she’s going to have to hurry along with Amber.

“So…Is there a new girl that joined us, or are you talking about some random sick kid?”

With how little Alexis actually hung around the others, it was becoming increasingly apparent that she didn’t get to know anyone. Some trainers she just hadn’t met yet, or if she had, she hadn’t had enough time to commit them to memory.





@Heckno12

To say that Deneb didn’t react when the Voltorb rolled up to him with the intention of exploding would be incorrect. Though it was subtle, Deneb did show a bit of surprise. Though the rest of his face hadn’t moved, his eyes had widened ever so slightly before Rheese’s Minior knocked the Voltorb out cold. Not all Voltorb self-destructs were dangerous, but Deneb certainly hadn’t wanted to find out how it felt to be a victim to one of them. His eyes settled back down the moment he saw how weak the Voltorb was, but the thought lingered in his head much longer than he wished.

He continued to have Sewaddle use string shot while Helioptile dealt with the Grimer, but Deneb failed to notice something major about his first Pokémon. He failed to notice what would happen if he was placed in danger before her own eyes.

Edea flew into a rage. There was no dancing or comedic movement. There was no shaking of maracas or improvised singing. At the moment there was an angry Maractus who was furiously using Mega Drain. The grunt was the intended target.

@OtomostheCrazy @Crimson Flame @Zanavy @Heckno12

"More like overexcited... Ah! Kyra, no!" And now the Rockruff was scampering after a Pidgey, which took to the air. "That's enough, come on back now." Amber held out the Pokeball, groaning when Kyra dodged the red beam several times. "So it's true. Rockruffs really do go through a rebellious phase." Reading about it was one thing, experiencing it firsthand was another.

At Alexis' question, Amber clenched her fists, the mental image of the unconscious girl returning. The world really was a dangerous place. "A girl passed out in the gym earlier, I don't know if you saw her. She'd had some kind of run in, looked pretty beat up."

She stopped right in front of the gym, staring. "What...?" A battle had broken out, Tim and Liam on one side, two rather infuriated-looking individuals on the other. Instantly recognising one of them as the shady woman from earlier, Amber tensed. Her fears that the threat wasn't yet gone had proven correct. "What's going on here?" While Amber ran to the side of the two boys, Kyra leapt into the fray, her barks considerably harsher than before as she faced the Torracat.

Litleo jumped at the sound of another Pokemon entering the fray, this one looking to be the same species as that other rocky canine. It was hard to tell who was friend or foe. But Litleo was able to keep at least two things straight: she wanted to get to the safety of the bushes, and the Torracat was an enemy Pokemon blocking the way.

As Kyra barked at Torracat, Litleo took the opportunity to fire a puff of Ember Torracat's way. Then the lion cub crouched, ready to dodge or run if necessary.

@LuckyBlackCat@Heckno12

It takes a moment or few of eye blinking and getting stable before Oscar gets stable enough to notice and recognize Solanna. After dusting off any debris on him and checking on Skoll to see minimal damage done to him. Oscar sighs and turns to the two female with a somber look."just doing a civic duty so to say. Something that others would say is reckless and dangerous but what I see as being proactice instead of reactive. "

Oscar then motions towards Sophia and huffs "I am told off for being in danger and such yet I don't look like I been through hell." Oscar goes to keep Skoll calm and not to run off after the grunts. Skoll does shoot a glare at Sophia. Not one of hate or anger but one of intense 'choose your words wisely'.

---

@Crimson Flame@LuckyBlackCat

---

"This is ridiculous! There's an endless stream of you damn weaklings." Alicia said frustrated. There wasn't any choice now, she'd have to use it...this was embarrassing. "Okay then, if you think numbers'll help I'll just have to show you how outmatched you really are!"

She watched the Litleo that had started all of this escape with a bit of mild annoyance. This whole situation could have been avoided if it hadn't shown up. She held up the marked pokeball to her face, a grim look overtaking her as she whispered to it. "Okay, just don't kill anybody...and preferably don't go berserk before I'm gone." She let out a small breath to calm herself. "Next time learn to mind your own business! Go, Whirlipede!" She shouted as she simultaneously motioned for her Torracat to get closer to her. The grunt with her looked at her with pure terror as he returned his Cramorant and started sprinting in the opposite direction. Good. She thought to herself as the Whirlipede left its pokeball. Less risk of a friendly casualty...now I just gotta find a good window to escape as well.

The bug pokemon looked around coldly at everyone around it. Anybody around could tell that something was off about the thing, the soulless look even gave Alicia chills as her Torracat positioned itself to defend her if this thing got out of control. "Alright Whirlipede, show these trainers...make them regret nosing into the business of Te-I mean....damnit just take them the hell out!" Alicia said with wavering conviction. With these damn abominations it felt like she was signing a death warrant for these trainers, but they'd left her with no choice. It was their own fault really, who the hell did they think they were? Yeah, they signed their own death warrants...she had nothing to feel guilty about. As the purple pokemon began to spin up ominously while narrowing its eyes at the pokemon in front of it, Alicia ran off towards the woods where the other grunt had gone.

With any luck, Whirlipede would take out those trainers and prevent anybody from checking for the pokeballs she'd set up in the bushes. It was dark perhaps, but thinking about it now was pointless. No way it'd return to its pokeball now that it had been set free.

---

@OtomostheCrazy

---

"Seriously? You had back up?" The grunt asked dumbfounded before he noticed the Maractus trying to attack him. This kid and his pokemon were psychos. "Fine, Drowsee protect me!" The grunt shouted in fear as he threw his pokeball between himself and the attack. The poor psychic type took the blow directly, and clearly didn't fare all that well. This was bad.

This should have been an easy job, just place the damn grimer in the well and go, unfortunately his stupid partner had probably been eaten by slowpokes. Ironic since the damn slob had always loved slopoketai-His train of thought was interrupted as he was hit from the side. His partner along with several more grimer had been tossed out of the well. At least the idiot hadn't been devoured. The grunt scrambled to his feet and delivered a swift kick to his ally's side to rouse the unconscious fool. "Get the hell up, we've got a situation." He said urgently as the unconscious one slowly started to try and stand. "Drowsee, use hypnosis on that Maractus...Grimers, if he's gonna use all his pokemon at the same time we might as well too. Get them!"

The other grunt stood up and looked hopelessly at one of his pokeballs. "Uh, dude, those slowpoke already knocked my pokemon out." He said, stepping backwards in preparation to make a run for it. This whole assignment had gone tits up in no time flat. The grimer hadn't even managed to touch the water. "Good luck!" He shouted as he frantically sprinted away. He wasn't about to be captured by some runt and an army of dumb ass slowpokes. He was gonna be sure to eat a few extra slowpoketail as soon as he got back to base out of spite.

"You bastard! Damn it all!" The first grunt shouted as his only ally fled. As angry as he was that he had just been abandoned, he was angrier that he hadn't been swift enough to ditch the other guy instead. He only had one option now, he'd have to ditch his Drowsee and the grimers if he wanted to have any chance at escape. He turned to flee only to see the other grunt sprawled out in the field with the Minior from before flying around as though it was dancing. Right...there were two trainers. He sighed and started running, his Drowsee too focused on using its current attack to even notice it was being abandoned. The grunt threw out a pokeball as the minior took notice of his mad dash. An Electrike emerged and ran alongside him for a moment. "Electrike, thunder wave that damn rock!" He shouted, paralyzing Minior in its tracks as he returned the electric pokemon and kept running, passing his former pal as he did so...served him right.



Rheese looked up to see his Minior hit the ground, he knew the pokemon wasn't hurt as its shell was still in tact, but he could hear the desperation in its cry as it tried to pick itself up in vain. He instinctively sprinted towards his downed pokemon, effortlessly getting his shoe out of the slowpoke's mouth as he ran. He managed to evade the grimer as they were approaching Deneb and his team, before long he was kneeling by the now seemingly helpless pokemon that had almost obliterated him many times. "Hey, it's alright little buddy."

Minior shot up into the air, making Rheese dodge him a single time before falling back down stunned by the paralysis. It immediately got back to letting out soft cries. "Yep, saw that coming. It's okay, I promise I'll get you to a pokemon center and get that taken care of asap." He cautiously patted the rock type, calming it down quite a bit. Now that those guys were dealt with he felt he could properly assess the situation and help out...and there were quite a few grimers backing up that Drowsee. He returned the calmed Minior to his ball and looked towards where the grunt that had escaped ran off too and cursed himself for being unable to chase after him. He turned towards Deneb and sent the rest of his own team out. "Hey, guy with the Maractus, I'll back you up!"

@LuckyBlackCat @Crimson Flame @Zanavy @Heckno12

Does nothing stay calm in this town?! As soon as she and Amber had made it to the gym again, they encountered two familiar individuals again, and the rockruff presumably trying to get into trouble again. At this point Alexis is expecting to run into those Team whatever guys AGAIN. Has she used up all her “again” uses for the day yet? Perhaps not, as she finds herself tempted to join in and help AGAIN as well, considering there were two angry strangers involved as well.

“Do I even want to know what’s happening right now?”, asked Alexis, a slight deadpan tone revealing a bit of fatigue from the events of the day.

While Amber rushed over to Tim and Liam, Alexis chose a calm stroll towards the general battle area, getting a better look at both parties… Yeah, she didn’t have any context to work with here.

“So, does anyone want to explain… any of this?”





@Heckno12

It seems there was no friendship between the criminals or even with their Pokémon, as the one Deneb had interacted with had chosen to abandon both his partner and his Drowsee. Deneb did nothing to stop him. He could do nothing, and there was nothing to gain by capturing the man. The partner-in-crime was alreadyunconscious, and the Grimer they were trying to use were outside of where they were intended to go. Capturing the fleeing man would be redundant. So it was that Deneb looked at the state of his Pokémon.

Edea, for all her fury and anger, was not able to fight off the effects of hypnosis. Try as she might, her eyelids grew heavy, and her body slacked, until she collapsed to the ground, asleep. Sewaddle was attempting to slow down the Grimers, and Helioptile continued to zap the poison-types with electricity. Knowing the weakness of both Psychic and Bug Pokémon, he immediately switched strategies.

“Sewaddle, focus on Drowsee and use Bug Bite.”

The Sewaddle, hesitating for a moment, stopped using stringshot and jumped towards the Drowsee. Simultaneously, Deneb returned Maractus to her ball, and looked to Rheese. The fellow trainer had momentarily gone to check on his paralyzed Pokémon. It seems that said Pokémon would be fine.

“Assistance is appreciated.”

@OtomostheCrazy @Crimson Flame @Heckno12

As soon as the Whirlipede appeared, Amber froze in place. Between the second grunt's reaction and the look of pure malice in the bug's eyes, she could tell it was no ordinary one.

"Quick, Alma, Fake Out!" she called, taking a step back as the Whirlipede began to spin like a wheel. If the move's stunning effect bought the group enough time, the only thing Amber could think to do was get help, fast. "Kyra, head into the gym and find Saki!" As a dual bug and poison type, the Whirlipede would have a double advantage against grass, but gym leaders knew how to cover weaknesses.

Almandine sprang forward and clapped shockwaves at the rogue Pokemon, yet Kyra, on the other hand, didn't heed her trainer's order. Instead, she ran to the side, her barks furious as she shot forth several orbs that turned into rocks, aiming to distract the Whirlipede. "Kyra, no!" The bottom of Amber's stomach seemed to drop. As much as she admired the Rockruff's protectiveness, it was all too likely none of the group's Pokemon could take on such an opponent.

Gritting her teeth, she grabbed a Pokeball. "Aeshna, hurry, get Saki!" The Yanma appeared in midair, darting inside the building right away in search of the gym leader.

---

@fer1323

Sophia gave a drawn-out huff. Classic Oscar, overconfident as ever, yet there was something undeniably admirable about his determination and sense of justice. "Even so, some people have," she replied, "so we can't let our guard down." She thought she saw Solanna give the slightest of winces, but now wasn't the time to press. "Yes we've got to do everything we can. But however much of a know it all you can be, you... You matter to people."

At a sudden cry from Lacey, she stared over at the shrubbery. "What did you find?" The Gothita, eyes glowing blue, used her psychic powers to carefully pull out what looked like a makeshift explosive device.

"We've gotta let the contest staff know!" Sophia made to sprint, but wasn't in any fit state to do so, ending up in a crouch on the ground. She groaned and closed her eyes, everything sounding distant as though she were about to pass out, but she heard the wispy girl's words through the haze.

"I'm on it."

Opening her eyes a fraction, she watched the white-clad form disappear into the contest hall. Ignoring Solanna and the blue-haired girl as they approached to check on her, she crawled towards two unconscious, soot-covered Voltorbs. "And these Voltorbs... We have to get them to a Pokemon centre."

@OtomostheCrazy@LuckyBlackCat@Heckno12

Liam was not in the least bit intimidated by the Whirlpede. “If you think I’m scared of bugs… I got news for ya luv… Primadonna slow it down with an icy wind”

Tim on the other hand wasn’t as confident as Liam was about the Whirlpede. “Um… something isn’t right about that…” He couldn’t figure out what it was that was wrong, but that Whirlpede definitely seemed a lot more vicious than normal.

His Rockruff picked up on that, and started growling at it. “Rocky no!” Tim immediately recalled his Pokémon, and ran after the other girl’s Yanma to fetch the Gym Leader. They would know what to do.

“Come guys. If we work together, we can defeat it with the power of friendship!” Liam cheered while pumping his fist in the air, and grinning ear to ear.