#About how I should go for Fletchling next

[gamenu]

I'm gonna go hunt for Shiny Smoliv!

Me: *takes two steps out from our house cause I felt like taking the long route*

'ight then!

[loupy-mongoose]

Question for loupy. What are some of the rare mons you have, besides the very obvious shiny mew.

Well, the obvious answer is that I’ve stockpiled a L O T of shinies over my years of Pokemoning. One of my favorites is a Fletchling that was shiny on the FIRST EGG—not even Masuda! I was just trying to hatch a Flame Body ‘mon for my bro. (Needless to say, he got the next one to hatch. XD)

There's also the Masuda-hunted Mist, a female Zoroark I hatched years ago. (Zorua has a 12.5 chance of being female, so it was a pleasant surprise~)

One of the rarest occurrences I’ve had is walking up to a Scyther outbreak in Legends Arceus, and I hear two shiny sparkles—one is a standard Scyther, and the other was an Alpha Kleavor. I named her Queen~

The Queen and her ward. :3 (This is a re-approach to get a good video, hence why I moved so carefully.)

On the left is a different Scyther, my loyal girl Petal who replaced one of my main playthrough team members. She's unrelated to this occurrence but made for a great photo op~ The one on the right is the Queen's ward. He doesn't get a name. X3

I've also been fortunate enough to randomly encounter several Shinies in the original odds of 1/8192, from before Gen 6, almost exclusively the result of training a Pokemon. As well as getting a few other shiny alphas, either from outbreaks or the static spawns. (Never got a random shiny Alpha spawn.)

But I think my most favorite shiny story is that of Sable the Dewott. She (yes, she) was a character that I made up but didn't do anything with way back when BW were in their early years. I can't say I forgot about her, but she didn't join my at-the-time roster of main characters. Well, a few years ago I decided to start a White Shiny Badge Quest, going for Oshawott because I adore Dewott's shiny. I started soft-resetting in both White and White 2, and roughly one week and six-thousand-someodd resets later, I got it.

I got her.

It wasn't just a shiny Oshawott. It was a shiny female Oshawott. Against the odds, my old character Sable had become a reality. She showed up in White 2, but with my brother's techy know-how, he transplanted her into my White file.

But oddly enough, that's not the end of her craziness, as I later managed to get ANOTHER FEMALE SHINY OSHAWOTT in Legends Arceus! I don't know why the games insist this ancient character of mine should exist against the odds twice, but I appreciate it, and relish having this story to tell! ^U^

[doggirldick]

since shiny pokemon are so easy to find in scarlet and violet i’ve got a little addicted to sorting through mass outbreaks each day and seeing what i can find. although, i think i find more random shiny pokemon that coincidentally happen to spawn near mass outbreaks than i do from the outbreaks themselves

anyway, i’ve hit the 30 mark and filled a box of shinies so here they are

well actually 31, i accidentally left my shiny magnemite in the wrong box and forgot about it but i took this screenshot a while ago and am away from my switch now. it should be between the second vespiquen and the gyarados.

ramble about how i found each one and my experiences below cut

lycanroc and venomoth were totally random shinies i stumbled into before getting the shiny charm. charcadet was the first one i hunted by making a sandwich after getting the shiny charm (everything after was with the shiny charm). 3 maschiffs (one of which i evolved into mabosstiff) were found during one attempt in hunting zorua with a sandwich as they’re dark type too.

glimmet was the first one from a mass outbreak. zorua was with a sandwich finally on the like 4th attempt (disguises itself in the wild so annoying to find). the 2 dunsparce were from one sandwich (one is a gift for a friend i’ll be giving away at some point). fletchling was a random find with only shiny charm. tadbulb was from a mass outbreak.

voltorb was a random find while working on a varoom mass oubreak. the first varoom is from that aforementioned outbreak. lokix was a random find near a revavroom oubreak. numel was a random find near a flittle outbreak. froslass was from an outbreak. both vespiquen are from the same outbreak.

magnemite was from an outbreak. gyarados was from an outbreak. skiploom was a random find near a drednaw outbreak. noibat was from an outbreak. second varoom was a random near a revavroom outbreak weirdly enough. revavroom was from that last outbreak.

last 6 were all found within a few hours not long ago: bombirdier from a mass outbreak. slowpoke 1 was in a mass outbreak but before defeating enough to increase the odds. raichu was a random with only shiny charm when returning to that slowpoke outbreak after leaving to restore pp (ofc i was autobattling for no pp cost but caseroya lake is full of veluza that keep forcing you into battles). slowpoke 2 was also found in that outbreak but only with the first boost to odds, before the second. dratini was found near the slowpoke outbreak in the lake (i thought it fled from me down into the water when i saw it but i could still target it down there). and finally, gastly was found near a flittle outbreak.

charcadet, numel, and slowpoke’s shiny forms are so similar to how they normally look, i would not have spotted them had it not been for the fact your pokemon will refuse to autobattle a shiny. in fact, the reaction is the same as if you try to send them somewhere they can’t reach which even may just be down to the way they move (gholdengo traverses water on a hoverboard with a large turn circle so it may refuse to fight something right next to it bc it can’t make the tight turn) so i had to attempt to autobattle the first slowpoke several times before believing it was bc it was shiny, and the second one i still wasn’t totally sure about so i gave a few attempts at autobattling. tadbulb, bombirdier, and gastly were also barely different, i only knew them bc i’d looked their shiny forms up in advance.

how the improved odds work: when shiny pokemon were first introduced in gen 2, the base chance was 1 in 8192. from gen 6, this was doubled to 1 in 4096. things that boost shiny odds add rerolls so the game will reroll a pokémon’s data if not shiny. the shiny charm will add 2 rerolls to all applicable pokemon so the overall chance becomes 3 in 4096. a lot of my shinies were found unintentionally on these odds.

as you defeat pokemon in a mass outbreaks, messages pop up, first telling you the number of pokemon is “starting to go down,” then the number “is definitely getting lower,” then that there aren’t many left from the original outbreak, then finally that the oubreak has “dispersed” indicating that the outbreak has ended and there will be no more spawns. if what i’ve read is true, there is one additional reroll for all pokemon in the outbreak after the first message and another after the second so adding to the rerolls from the shiny charm gets you up to 5 in 4096 at that point. these are the odds i use going for pokemon in mass outbreaks.

the trick is to defeat enough pokemon that you get the second message, look at all the spawns. if none are shiny, despawn them all then let new ones spawn such as by opening a picnic then closing again or running a certain distance away and returning, then let them back in. if you’re lucky, you’ll get an outbreak right next to a town and can use the fastest method of just walking in and out of town (used this for bombirdier, good shit 👍). sometimes, i will do this for ages and rng won’t be on my side and i’ll get board and just clear out the rest of the outbreak. sometimes i won’t be in the mood and just clear them out start to finish without respawning them but might find them anyway (how i found magnemite and the 2 slowpoke). once (with vespiquen) i respawned them until i found one and found a second while clearing out the rest of the outbreak.

for sandwiches, i use this guide:

the only problem with this, herba mystica are only acquired sometimes after beating 5 star and 6 star tera raids (slightly higher chance from 6 star). these are best done with teams online but they’re pretty tough, you need at least one person who rly knows what they’re doing and if anyone really doesn’t could screw it over for everyone else (the number of teammates i get with type advantages to the pokémon’s regular types and not the tera type is astonishing). and these things take some time so you could be sitting through 10 minutes including waiting for the games to sync and waiting for animations. only to lose bc you got partnered with an idiot or randomed into something you don’t have suitable pokemon for, or you could win and chances are you still won’t get any. so farming herba mystica gets a nope from me, i get it sometimes and use it rarely.

if you use it, make sure you turn off autosave and make a save before making the sandwich bc meal powers last 30 minutes and you certainly don’t wanna waste herba mystica on a failed attempt (or even worse, let the ingredients slide off and waste it on a failed sandwich). that being said, the odds for a shiny this gives are insanely good when used right.

encounter power level 3 is so potent, idk if you even can find any not of that type. i think sparkle power gives one additional reroll for every level so level 3 with the shiny charm is 6 in 4096 (3 in 2048) chance. but, while mass outbreaks are limited to small areas you have to to keep respawning, with sparkle power, you can run freely throughout the area where the pokemon you’re looking for spawns and if it’s an easy to spot one, you can just go nuts glancing at them all as you pass. this works so well, the only times it has failed for me is when hunting shiny zorua bc zorua (and zoroark), like ditto, take the form of other pokemon and those aren’t shiny (i think i heard anything any of them disguise as can be shiny or not but that’s rare enough it doesn’t matter) so your only choice is to autobattle until you find one that you pokemon refuses to fight bc they will still stop for a shiny zorua disguised as a non-shiny other pokemon. and even then, the first failed attempt got me 3 shiny maschiff, the odds are that good. also got 2 shiny dunsparce from hunting for one this way.

you could also combine the sandwich odds with a mass outbreak and shiny charm for 8 in 4096 (1 in 512) chance and i’ve no doubt this work be great but i’ve yet to get an outbreak of a pokemon i wanted a shiny of so badly of that i would use herba mystica.

[juncojuncojunco]

05/27-05/29/24 Beautiful beautiful 3 day 2 night trip on the enchanted valley trail. Forecasts looked great when I reserved my permit in April but I should know 45 day predictions don't last, lol. Despite getting rained on for 3 days I had a great time!!

Day 1 was very pleasant with only a few drizzles here and there, and I camped by a river with the greatest skipping rocks so I threw enough that my arm hurt for the rest of the trip... Day 2 was alllllll rain--woke up to rain, packed up my drenched tent which added probably another 2 lbs to my pack. This day took me from the midpoint of the trail to the end and I think is the better half--lots of forested meadows, flatter walking, rockier, with a few stream crossings where I was super thankful for my trekking poles and boots. Saw a bear and realized bears aren't so scary when they are just munching! The last logbridge to the valley was so fucking awesome--maybe a 50 ft drop to the river below and only railed on one side!! Coming upon the chalet was poetic it was smokey with mist, drizzling, and felt like it was how a rainforest was supposed to be seen. I do wish the rain let up for a bit so I could do more exploring but by day 2 the constant humidity had seeped through all my waterproof gear so I was happy to just cozy in my tent and read my book lol. I would love to hike this trail again even just to properly explore the valley next time. And the innumerable waterfalls... what!!

Day 3 was BRUTAL... 15 mile hike back to the trailhead. It felt like all the weight I ate off my backpack got added back with just rain. And for a few hours here and there it Rain rained and a perpetual drizzle carpeted the rest of the way. I made pretty good time for the first half but started losing steam after lunch and realizing there's still 10 miles to go through a trail that was getting muddier by the minute became a mental drag. The rain didn't ever bother me too much but the slippery squishy trail did, and also at this point everything was just perpetually damp lol. Sounds miserable now but overall was still in really high spirits I'm impressed w myself honestly! I'm not talking about the huge uphill at the last 2 miles tho

Didn't see many animals (really wanted to see elk) but I am happy with 2 bears and lots of pacific wren families with fletchlings practicing flying along the trail !

[silvermuffins]

Pokemon Scarlet liveblog!!! Part 5

I dunno if anyone's reading these but someday I might so we're still doing this.

now where was i? oh right. olives.

okay that's a weird bug....there's a little sprite of Flittle dancing around my screen....it relates to my camera positioning??? how do i get Rid of it

i am going to fly back to the school and show my dex to teacher and then fly back here to see if that fixes it

the flittle is still there at school. ....okay i THINK it's gone.

nope it's back when i go outside.....okay we're gonna save, close, and reopen!

there we go all better

you know, it'd be goofy if they like. Put a picture of Mew on the bottom of a truck model. Easter egg for those who could finagle a way to see it. Xylly the Kricketot has joined us.

Special tera Diglett! The fuck type is THAT? Fighting??? Dig is super effective...your hame is Hotdog and- that was rock. Huh!

fuck i keep tripping over Diglett as im trying to explore. ooh, found a Vespiquen, now I don't need to hunt for a female combee. You're Frank now, in lieu of other words.

Wanders about, exploring the orchard, kills a chewtle....ooh there's another special tera mon and it....is invisible. I can hear it sparkling. But I cannot....see it.

i fixed it. it's a Fletchling, fire tera....booooring you get that type anyway! Bronzor, tho, you're Dinnerplate. Finally got a Chewtle to name Faxly. Now we reach Cortondo!

We're gonna take a break for a minute to eat some punkin pie.

that turned into a break for the night. Back at it, now that England and the US have come in at a draw 0-0 but DAMN that was a good game.

Cortondo!

the usual shops....with a few new items! i should maybe doublecheck the stores in Artazon for different ingredients....

oh there's a really cool treehouse or something here. OH it's the arena.

man EVERY house here has a pool. okay quick artazon check then we return. ....alright i believe we just unlock additional stuff as we make progress. i do not have a flabebe to give this man.

aight let's tackle this gym. Nemona you're absolutely sneaking ahead of me just to play "wow weird coincidence" and we both know it. ....wait didn't you promise you'd battle me next time we met? now you're going back on it? we've only battled twice so far what's going on WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DID YOU DO WITH NEMONA

ooooh olive soccer ig. steamrolls by. throws the ball over a fence. time to destroy Katy. oh what a swetie she is...alas I am OP. ....oh i get it....she has a BUGBEAR. i...am not gonna get tooh yes i will. oh the buggy hat is so cute!

SHE GAVE ME CUPCAKES

i've seen this man at school! I have seen him in the art room specifically i think. the fuck you mean he's E4?! I wasn't sure we were doing that this gen!

two artists in one generation huh....looks something up rq....noppe

anyway. how to answer his question....

"All paths lead to the Great Crater of Paldea"

all paths lead to the great crater

ALL PATHS LEAD TO THE GREAT CRATER holy shit i have Fears

oh Nemona is the youngest Champion in history? time to steal that from her. ....sir this conversation has made me very uneasy.

anyway back to class. oh Salvatore is A Guy. Possibly the most guy ever. aaaa he said mata ne i have feelings unrelated to pokemon (sayounara, mata ne!)

hassel is great at asking questions that make me nervous and also i don't know why but I feel a great deal of concern for him? hm. HEY we have Penny in class instead of Nemona for this one?!

anyway friendship time. i love the teachers so much. awah, Miriam...

okay, now then...where to next....maybe off to Iono's town??? I think that will work. I'm trying, here. Anyway, Tripto the Magnemite. The hell's a Varoom and where do I get one?

aaaaa i Continue On im nearly to Iono's city. OH Pebbles is evolving....i'm not getting it on the field? this one has like a classic evolution background... Tinkatuff! Found an office worker who is letting himself act like a child to relieve work stress.....this feels like a cry for help....and a guy wanting to be like the wind which gives me mata ne-related feels. Those who know me well know what I mean.

Awright Levincia here we are! Ooh, Grimer. You'll be Bort. Hey, a Kirlia! idt I got a Ralts before but I'mma need two anyway! oh shit, oops. Right, gonna need some luck with a quick ball then. doot, your name is Duck. ROTOM you're gonna be Prodro.

The usual food shops...OH and a sushi place! Hat shop, shoe shop, are these gonna be all the standard accessory shops? ooh one is a bit higher end. Too rich for my blood. Oh, and a fancy restaut=rant. All the big cities are so big.

Running around Levincia's skyscrapers is uncomfy. I think it's because of all the capitalism.

Now the other side of the city....oooh, Chinese food place. Once again confirming that POkemon are dietary staples, with a pickled Toedscool dish.

I got a bag that looks like bones!!!

Now we head in to do this gym thing. Nemona I am going to steamroll you. She's got something called a Crocalor.... Croc. Calor is hot. Thaaat's a Starter. That animation....she can't control her Tera orb well? Almost looked scared of it for a second... ...Nemona. Nemona what would challenging me again literally right now change? It wasn't even close. Nemona I am begging you please stop assuming I want to just battle you 24/7 that's unhealthy.

Anyway let's go handle Iono.

WHY IS CLAVELL HERE

oh my god

y'know if i were a viewer i think iono's streams would bore or annoy me very quickly. thankfully i am neither! and these gym trainer battles are going to tell Iono exactly how I'm gonna beat her: mud shot spam.

Oh her Bellibolt is actually kinda scary idk what its ability does...and it's beefy, too. Okay, recalculate. That's a clean switch, Salt Cure will take it down while I revive Pebbles... Ooh, she has a Mismagius, huh? Those have levitate, right? That's fine, i have Smack Down. ...Oh. Oh Sotero can't take two hexes and won't outspeed...okay Jupe, take over, OH COME ON WHY IS HEX SO POWERFUL. Do I have NOTHING that can do this??? Maybe if I use Scoots or Daya... we're gonna try Scoots. Okay, Scoots can take multiple hexes.

That was annoying.

oh hey that's Miss First Champion, isn't it? Geeta! Chairwoman of the league...

The last League Chair i dealt with was a megalomaniac with a messiah complex, you know. Please don't be like him.

alright back to school, there's classes and probably friendship available....i oughta check for new sandwich ingredients and such, too!

i have midterms?!

doo de doo classes....oh hey Arven's in Art with me this time...oh so there IS a way to change a pokemon's tera type!

doing some friendship before the exams. awww Dendra.....and i just adore Saguaro....oh no he has other fans...oh no he felt pressured and went for the spicy sandwich...OH oh aaaaa i love this this is so cute. don't worry professor i am here for you!! i will protect you

who dat??? in Hassel's event???? she's dressed like a superhero....

okay! midterms!

back to cortondo after the literal blood sweat and tears poured into midterms on fani's part. we heading north now. And....wait the map says theres an eevee here somewhere

gave up on the eevee, found a Capsakid. gonna call you Choods.

wanders along.....man i thought i saw a person with a picnic table.....oh well i can BE the person with the picnic table.

whyyyyy do my sandwiches always have weird slopes that destroy my plan by yeeting my ingredients into the ether.

I FINALLY GOT AN EGG!

now there's a tera Buizel....ice type, I like it. Crit capture, you're Spink from now on!

ohhhh we gonna have to play dodgeball to get to the next titan. boy howdy i can see it from here.

made it up without even getting on Koraidon or getting hit once! Bombirdier? It's...it's a stork.....oh my god are the bombs babies

okay so it powered up and then i OHKO'd it....with Nuzzle. And then the moon went flying into place.

arven why do you hate koraidon so much??? oh wait, no, you're tsunning. !! Koraidon learned Surf! well, not the battle move. but i don't need to fear water now.

arven what is going on??? do you have miraidon or something???

DOG. HE HAS SICK DOG? or old dog.....oh no....baby....

oh no this is gonna be something like the family dog was more of a parent to him than his mom was....but the dog's old and he's scared and lonely.....and he resents Koraidon because mom's research kept her away. something like that????

dog is hurt oh no....oh no did KORAIDON hurt him???

;A; ARVEN, BABY.... WE'RE GONNA SAVE YOUR DOG

once again, sada....how do you KNOW

aha HERE'S flabebe. I need two of these. Names of Morley and Kad. wait, technically i don't need two, I realize as I throw a second ball and crit capture...

don't think i should jump off this cliff til koraidon can scale it but....i see another lid thing? in yellow this time...fuck it let's go see. This one has the ruinous sword.

oh shit, electric tera jolteon! I think i want that? ....EXCEPT IT'S LEVEL 50. I need to get out of here!

wheew. Got Boydey the Numel tho. Gonna get a Bombirdier, name it Pachetti. FUCK i muscle memory killed it. Will ned to find a new one.

The superhero clothes are back and on someone else, turns out they're for dragon tamers!

i think I am about done for the night. I accomplished a lot!

[prof-peach]

Has any wild pokemon came to your place to seek help, and if so what was it like?

Well yes actually, because of our location and the distance between us and johto, we get a lot of Pokemon who stop for a rest between land masses at our lab. If they come in injured from battle, or sick from bad weather on their travels, the other Pokemon that hang around the island will pick up on it, and direct them to one of the professors, usually whoever’s closest at the time.

We get an awful lot of water types as you’d expect but I don’t really deal with them, that’s Professor Grey’s area, he’s not nervous in water like I am so he’s able to give more accurate and effective care. I will help from time to time but only really on the little land dwelling ones. The oddest water type we had turn up was a lotad. Hear me out, we’re no where near Hoenn, like at all, we don’t get them in johto, at least not wild, and the ones we get given are Pokemon we know and have helped, so we knew it wasn’t one of those. This little thing washes up on the beach along the north side, and if you’ve read anything about the island before you’ll know the North is fenced off, a zone for Pokemon to go to get away from the public, and is generally quite hostile, and off limits to guests without explicit permission and a guide. So this Lotad is found, luckily by a reasonable middle aged Ursaring, and suddenly we get a knock on the door in the middle of the night, this big mountain of a bear Pokemon holding the smallest little lotad, the thing was full of seawater and had burns form the salt and mould forming. He spent a week and a half in the ICU with strict climate control and a course of medication tailored to his species, all the while we’re all scratching our heads about how he got to us. We’d had no visitors so he couldn’t be a stray or released Pokemon, the weather was good so no storm could have carried him to us, he was alone, no trainer, no friends, no family. Ships pass through but could he have jumped off and ended up with us? We all have our theories, I personally think he got carried a fair way from home by a flying Pokemon, and dropped by accident. Either way he’s since become the little champion of our care program, he’s recovered in leaps and bounds and lives a very comfortable life in th entropic house, in the indoor pools with some Relicanth and the other little lotads, a few surskit. Happy Pokemon for sure now, we’ve had a porygon translate what he has to say but he doesn’t remember anything before waking up in the labs care unit. We just count him as the luckiest Pokemon we know, considering the terrible shape he came to us in. Must have been floating around the ocean for days.

We also get a heap load of flying types that rest between locations during migration, some of those do seem to have the odd issue which we tend to, our favourites are the migrating Fletchling that fly on through for the winter, they give a fiery display, filling the sky with little embers. Sure, fire risk, but also consider this, beautiful? We have water Pokemon on standby during this time, and usually anything that catches is caught pretty quickly. I do find the flying types will return. When some come through, and we notice them and help where we can, they’ll eventually leave to continue their journey, and then a year later they come back again, this time with families, friends, some even bring their whole flock, just because we built some trust with them that one time. We have pidgeot that repeatedly return to the island, all because we’ve patched up like several members of their family, they’re regulars to us now, and even between seasons of migration, they’ll return to see if we can help, or offer information should they encounter issues. I must say once one knows about you, the rest do pretty fast. I will forever remember fondly, gardening in peace, not a single problem to be dealt with, and then the sky went black and I couldn’t see the ground anymore, because SO MANY murkrow had landed all at once, they blocked out the light, they covered every post, every piece of dirt, all by demolished the berries I’d been growing all season. Why you may ask? Because I had hatched one random egg I found on my travels, had no idea at the time what it was, and I carried this thing around with me everywhere. When it hatched it was a little Murkrow, a little different in appearance, with a striking flash of blue under his little wings. I gave the thing a good start and sent it on it’s way. No big deal.

Wrong.

This little one was a lost egg from a boss Honchkrow’s clutch, how did that big boss bird know it was his child? He was the start of the variation, the bright blue under his wings. So yeah, he told them all about us, and how to get to the island, and we ended up with a HUGE amount of them, trying to bring things to repay the debt. Some found shiny items, others berries, unusual mushrooms, neat looking twigs, bottle caps, pins, buttons. To this day some of those Pokemon still hang out here, kind of dug it enough to want to stick around I guess. We don’t mind, they’re actually really good natured, and helpful too!

We get the odd dragon fly by, alwasy alerts the island’s heavy hitters when one touches down. Recently we’ve had Garchomp breeding here, they seem to like the mountains, and our resident female was putting out her siren song for a mate all spring. Summer they paired up, laid eggs, now we have little Gibble running around somewhere safe. Last actual dragon type to stop in for some help was a rather thin and dull coloured looking Charizard, had flown too far, exerted itself too much, came crashing into the labs big front doors, nearly took a patient clean out, definetly needed to replace some tables after that. With some good dinners and a bit of TLC they got fat and strong again, and went on their way.

I think once you help out a few Pokemon, word spreads, we get a lot of unusual clients, most of which have stowed away on passing ships, coming to us for information, support, and care. For instance last week we had a Krabby who came in off a cargo ship, swam to the island, made its way to the lab, SAT IN THE WAITING ROOM, legit was happy to wait, all because he had a broken claw and couldn’t get it off to make way for a new one to regrow. We helped him out and he went on home, we got a ship to pull in to return him home luckily.

This week there’s been a Magnezone and a Jolteon magnetised together, they asked for a lift from a visiting trainer who obliged, they’ve since been seperated and sent on their way, back home safe to the wild. Happens from time to time. Who knows what next week will bring haha. Every days interesting here I must say that much.

[lunarnoona5342]

So I had a second attempt at a Pokémon X nuzlocke and beat it this time

For those who don't know, a nuzlocke is a self-enforced game mode of Pokémon where you can only catch the first Pokémon you encounter on a route, you must nickname them to encourage closeness, and if the Pokémon faint in battle, they are dead: you can no longer use them. I added an extra rule onto the route rule: I can catch the first Pokémon that comes from a rock smash on a route, since that's something that can rarely be done on routes anyway, and also I'm prone to killing Pokémon so I needed a fighting chance at this. With the rules sorted, we can move onto my second attempt at a nuzlocke (with my best friend Mar (@serpentine-fxrtune) beside me to help name my Pokémon and mock my dead ones with bonus friends Bread and Ariel (@catboy5000))

I played as a male named Takehiko because me, Mar, and a couple other friends have a Pokémon fan project thing going on between us and Takehiko is one of my characters who is Kalosian. When I was offered to be nicknamed Big T at the beginning of the game, I could not refuse. I picked Froakie to be my starter and already had naming issues, so I consulted Mar for a nickname. She suggested the French word for frog, and I just went with it because, yanno, Kalos is based on France. And so, I gained my first Pokémon, Grenouille. I go to route 2 and encounter the obligatory Pidgey (which doesn't count as my first encounter, I don't have any Pokéballs at this point) and sit through Serena teaching me to catch Pokémon (who btw I forgot existed in this game) by talking to Mar about something I remembered.

Me: I just wanna talk about SKZ's English names, specifically Changbin's name. Like it's normal, it's just Lewis, but CHAN TRIED TO CONVINCE HIM TO BE CALLED BARTHOLOMEW, THAT'S LIKE IF I TRIED TO GIVE BREAD AN ARABIC NAME AND CHOSE TO NAME HIM ABDUL RAHMAN, THAT'S NOT EASY TO SAY.

Me: Should I name my first Pokémon Bartholomew, for what Changbin could have been?

Mar, ever the enabler: Sure, I can't really stop you.

So I named the Weedle I caught Bartholomew, and proceeded into Santalune forest.

So we move on (and I'm just ignoring rival battles because they're just not it) and out to route 3, where I caught a Fletchling. Following on from my SKZ English names talk from earlier, I named the bird Sky, because Seungmin's English name is cute goddammit. So when I got to Santalune, I ran into a problem: I had no Pokémon that could be super effective against Viola. I head over to route 22 nearby after grabbing the roller skates to try and get Riolu for a first encounter. Instead of that, I got a Bunnelby.

Me: You are not Riolu... so you shall be named Not Riolu.

So instead of fretting over the type advantage Viola had on me, I chose to grind for higher levels to beat her Pokémon up with power instead; this is when the first casualty came in.  Sky, the poor child, got killed by a Riolu using counter because peck didn't do the job of making it faint. Sky was the first to join the graveyaed (yes this is how I spelled it in game). Sky, though you were technically not Seungmin since you were female, you will be missed.

Also forgot to mention: Batholomew is a female too. Moving on-

So after spending a long time grinding, being a bit more careful this time, I finally felt like I was ready for Viola, and I was. I swept the floor with her, Grenouille carrying the team as he was a higher level than the rest. Upon reaching Viola's sister, Alexa, before route 4, I got an exp share, and then she reminded me of what happened in my first attempt at the nuzlocke.

Me: *says a thing about something being sad*

Me and Mar, at the same time: Alexa, play Despacito.

Mar: Name the Pokémon you catch on this route Despacito.

Me: Okay *gets a Flabébé*

Future me: *pockets memory for future Flabébé*

On route 4, I encounter a Skitty, but as I mentioned earlier, I am prone to killing Pokémon and end up killing the Skitty before I could catch it, so I just make my way over to Lumiose to get a Kanto starter after beating up all the trainers on the route.

So this was my conversation with Mar about which Kanto starter to pick (I have a grudge against Ch*rmander okay), and through this I chose its name too: Zekrom 💙

So on route 5 I catch a Furfrou that I nicknamed Floof because it floof and made my way to Camphier, where I went off with Shauna to get the Poké flute to get rid of the Snorlax blocking route 7. I collect the item, and on the way back I catch an Oddish that Mar named Pea for me. I got rid of the Snorlax by running the moment I interact with it - there was no way I'd fight that thing. Onto route 7, where I go into the purple flowers in hopes I get a blue Flabébé, but instead I got an orange one. Regardless of the colour, it was gonna be called Despacito.

In the connecting cave, I catch a Zubat that I named Ciel because I wanted to honour Sky by naming a bat the same thing, just Italian. I move on to route 8, where I get Shelly the Bagon, Shinju the Cubone from the Glistening Cave, and Itzy the Amaura from the fossil I got. It was on the other side of route 8 where the first of 2 rock smash Pokémon emerge, and I'm not sorry for killing the Binacle, it was Dwebble or nothing. In the Twitter thread I forgot to mention that I also caught a Helioptile that I nicknamed Frilly on route 9, but enough of that, now to Grant, the gym that killed my first Pokémon X nuzlocke...

Grant scared me a lot because of how I've always struggled to beat him even when I played normally: he's way too strong to just be a second gym leader. However, thanks to way too much grinding, I was able to beat Grant without any casualties.

So I can't remember how it happened, but at some point in route 10, Shinju died, I can't remember what caused it but it happened and ig I wasn't sad enough about it to remember. On route 10 though, I did get a Snubbull that I named Berri (Mar wanted to name it Ugli but I said No.)

So skip over Geosenge and off to route 11 and Reflective Cave, where I got Zappy the Dedenne and I then killed a Roggenrola by accident because, despite its sturdy ability, it still got hurt by Despacito's rocky helmet and fainted. Unfortunately this is where I lost 2 Pokémon. Kumi died to a Wobuffet that, idk what it did since I wasn't looking at the screen, but I'm assuming Kumi just couldn't take the counter, and fell to the same fate Sky did. Then, Itzy died too, by means I can't remember, but tbh it's me I probably did a dumb type matchup.

Either way I started making Itzy jokes to ease the pain of losing 2 Pokémon consecutively, like "maybe she just wasn't Icy, just on fire all along", and Ariel goes "perhaps she was just a wannabe... 💔".

By this point, my team consisted of Grenouille the Greninja, Zekrom the Charmeleon, Frilly the Helioptile, Despacito the Floette, Pea the Gloom, and Not Lucario the Diggersby (I renamed him from Not Riolu since it evolved).

Eventually, I get to Shalour and get the Lucario from Korrina, who I appropriately named Not DiggersB (Not Diggersby didn't fit so I improvised), and replace Not Lucario. I beat her in battle (without trying either I hadn't noticed I won until I was talking to Korrina again).

I gave up my route 12 encounter to get the Lapras the Pokémon breeder gifts you at the beginning of the route if you speak to him, and Mar named him Lettuce (because iceberg lettuce), and quickly grab myself a Tentacool from Azure Bay that I named Booze because it's water poison. It's when I'm grinding on route 12 for Ramos where I get my biggest casualty so far: Zekrom. Zekrom, the fully evolved Charizard, ready to take on the world, got killed by a Miltank that survived 2 hits from Zekrom and was able to land a bide on him.

Mar asked about Zekrom earlier because I got mocked for his death, and idc about it now but like, it hurt when it happened (yes I did threaten murder but my threats are empty, I'm not edgy I just swear a lot).

So I went and got rid of the Pokémon population of route 12 before *almost* going to Ramos. I noticed that I could go to route 13 before battling him, and it was there I could get a Slugma from the second (and final) use of the rock smash rule I had in place.

*over call*

Me: I'm gonna go take a risk and hope that I can get a Slugma on route 13 using rock smash.

Mar: Slipknot?

Me: *laughing* No, SLUGMA.

Mar: Oh, well you're naming it Slipknot now.

Needless to say, I got very lucky and got a Slugma on first encounter, and named it Slipknot. Unfortunately for me, however, catching Slipknot meant even more grinding for levels. Luckily, Courmarine is where you can get a lucky egg, which gives the holder more exp from battles, and with the use of Pokémon Amie, Slipknot caught up in no time (and evolved into Magcargo). Tbh the thing that took more time was bringing up Slipknot's affection on Pokémon Amie since you literally can't pet Slugma, which eliminates the main way to gain affection. The amount of times I played Tile Puzzle and Head It was quite a lot (never liked Berry Picker, stressful).

So I beat Ramos after pulling a risky move to protect Slipknot from Gogoat's ground move by bringing out Lapras and using ice beam to beat it. I bring the lights back to Lumiose city and go to beat Clemont, where the next big casualty happens - Not DiggersB. I had overestimated Not DiggersB's defense and lost him to an Ampharos that used thunder punch a bit too hard. This was a really bad death since I had a whole ground type in my box just sitting, waiting to be used, but nooooo, I had to used the fighting steel type with bone rush.

Not Lucario, in revenge for his counterpart, destroys Clemont's team, and we're off to Laverre. On route 14 I immediately catch a better ground type (Not a Fish the Stunfisk) and Not Lucario is relegated to the box again, the dirty HM slave. This means more grinding, passing the lucky egg over to Not a Fish, more PokéAmie, and more destruction of the Pokémon population (while also tryna level up both Pea and Despacito enough to get giga drain and moonblast respectively before evolving them into Florges and Bellossom).

To explain Pea and Despacito quickly (and Zappy too), they only evolve into their final forms when they are met with a sun stone (for Bellossom specifically and Heliolisk) and shiny stone (for Florges). I did have a sun stone but used it to evolve Helioptile int Heliolisk so I had to wait until I got to Anistar to get another sun stone, and I only got a shiny stone at the end of route 13, so I saved it until Despacito reached the right level for moonblast, then evolved it (thank you Mar for being the one who knew this info, I'm actual shit at Pokémon).

Anyway, I make it to Laverre, beat Valerie (and almost lose Pea that battle gave me a heart attack), beat up team flare in the factory, get master ball and big nugget, blah blah blah, get better clothes for Big T (which isn't much better male clothes in Pokémon is shit). I get a Foongus on route 15, consult Mar on a name because, once again, naming issues, and she names it Amanita for reasons I've honestly forgotten, and go over to Dendemille, where I redeem heart scales for better moves for Grenouille and Slipknot, and beat up more team flare.

Before I make my way over to Anistar though, I quickly go to route 16 to collect an obligatory Pumpkaboo (that I called Jack). I did (or tried to do in some cases) Pokémon Sword runs for my part of the fan project's E4 and on every file, I've caught a Pumpkaboo so it's tradition.

On route 17 I failed miserably at trying to catch a Delibird, which I wasn't upset about. I use the place to grind a bit more before I make it to Anistar. I grab the sun stone there to finally evolve Pea and just completely destroy Olympia with Grenouille.

So the game's plot "thickens" (aka Lysandre outright says he's the one in charge of team flare) so I do my protag thing, saving the world, when I have to deal with the most heartbreaking and stupid death ever.

Xerneas: *appears*

Me: Okay just master ball it.

Me: *accidentally picks quick ball*

Me: it might be okay it's the first turn anyway-

Xerneas, not expecting to battle so had moonblast ready for fun:👁👄👁  *kills Grenouille*

Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

This genuinely hurt me so much I wanted to cry, I was so close to getting Grenouille through it all and he dies to a misclick?! Luckily I got Xerneas in a master ball immediately afterwards. Since it counted as it was the only Pokémon I got in Geosenge, I aptly named it "YOU KILLER".

So I grind a bit more for Xerneas and make my way over to Snowbelle. On route 18 I got a Durant that I named Ditant because I couldn't spell, then got a Sliggoo on route 19 while grabbing sludge bomb for Pea so that she, along with Despacito, can be called the fairy killer.

Despacito the Dragon killer and Pea the Fairy killer honestly sounds so intimidating until you find out they're just a big flower patch and a weed, but they are scary, and can and will kill you without hesitation. I make it to Snowbelle and have to make my way to the Pokémon Village to grab Wulfric to be swept by a heavy metal band, and get myself a Trevenant I named Tree on route 20, and a Zoruark, that immediately replaced YOU KILLER in my party, from the village, and I named him Nuh. Nuh is basically the Muslim name for Noah, as in Noah's Ark Noah, so I did a grammatical joke based on that.

Nuh's Ark = the ark that belongs to Nuh

Nuh's Ark = Nuh is (Zoro)Ark

So I spend my time on route 21 accidentally killing the Ursaring I could've had and then ridding the waters of Lombré and Floatzel for Nuh using Pea. If someone had told me at the beginning of my nuzlocke that my star Pokémon would be a Bellossom, I would've laughed. After a while though, I felt ready. Pea, Despacito, Lettuce, Not a Fish, Slipknot, and Nuh (who I got a heart scale for to learn foul play) were all ready to go down Victory Road and beat the Pokémon League. On the way, I caught a Lickitung, my final Pokémon, that I named Balloon.

(I did have to leave victory road a few times because there's bits where you need to use strength, so I had to fetch Not Lucario because there was no way I was teaching any of my party a HM move this late in the game other than Lettuce learning surf and waterfall).

Going up Victory Road was a breeze (minus the multiple encounters in the caves), and I quickly made my way over to the Pokémon League. I went in, after healing my Pokémon, with an abundant amount of full restores to use freely (I had like P300k the money wasn't going anywhere).

I took on Siebold first, since he's the poetic guy and I wanted to show off Takehiko's abysmal fashion to him first. Needless to say, Pea beat him to a pulp (with Lettuce coming in clutch for his Gyrados by using thunderbolt). Siebold was by far the easiest E4 member.

Next was Wikstrom, whose Probopass had always worried me. It had sturdy, so every time Not a Fish tried to beat it, it'd just survive. Eventually, Wikstrom ran out of full restores, leading to it's untimely demise. Slipknot and Not a Fish cleared out the rest of his team easily.

I took on Malva next, who I legit didn't care about, and just had Lettuce spam surf until I beat her. It worked, of course, so that meant I only had one more battle to go: Drasna the dragon lady who, fun fact, is related to Iris, and is also therefore related to Leon and Hop!

I already knew Drasna would start with Dragalge, a danger to my dragon killer, so I sent out Not a Fish first just to get rid of it. I then sent Despacito out for her Altaria and Noivern, of which Noivern was actually able to land hits on Despacito, getting her in the yellow. Luckily for me, I had Pea learn Dazzling Gleam just in case I needed it, so I switched out Despacito for Pea when Druddigon came out, just to protect my big flower. Pea quickly handed Druddigon its ass as she beat it up without a hitch, and with that, I had finished the E4.

When I was checking if I needed to use my not so abundant amount of ethers and elixirs on my Pokémon, I was glad to find that I really only had to use it for Not a Fish's earthquake: I didn't have to use many moves against the E4, and earthquake was only down because of Wikstrom.

With my Pokémon healed up and ready, Despacito leading the party, I was ready to take on Champion Diantha. Her Hawlucha was up first, of which Despacito beat using moonblast in one fell swoop. She then went to beat up her Tyrantrum, who also fainted to a moonblast. She brought out Amourous next, aka what Itzy could've been, and Despacito used petal blizzard to beat it. The Amourous survived but didn't cause problems. I went to use petal blizzard but Diantha switched out for her Goodra, whose attack got boosted thanks to the grass type move.

Unfortunately for Diantha though, Goodra was a dragon type, so that thing fainted immediately afterwards thanks, once again, to moonblast. She brings back Amourous, who finally faints after a second bout of petal blizzard, and next up is her Gourgeist. It's at this point I finally let Despacito rest, bringing out my newly acquired Nuh, who comes out disguised as Slipknot. Nuh beats the Gourgeist in one move, meaning that Nuh's illusion is still up. Diantha brings out her final Pokémon, Gardevoir, and the battle is almost over.

I think the funniest part of the entire game for me was messing around with Nuh, because when Gardevoir used a psychic move: "It doesn't affect Slipknot..." Which is very funny considering it SHOULD affect Slipknot, it just doesn't affect Nuh, who's pretending to be Slipknot. Nuh takes the opportunity and uses foul play (as Slipknot, which also looks very peculiar) to take down Diantha's Gardevoir, and with that, I had beaten the champion. The nuzlocke was over...

Or was it?

Me: *getting fussy because the other 4 Sycamore pupils were getting credit for me single-handedly beating team flare*

Mar: NOONA THERE'S STILL A BATTLE LEFT, YOU NEED TO BATTLE AZ!

Me: oH

So the nuzlocke was *almost* over.

AZ was very very easy, the only issue I had was Lettuce not being up first to beat his Torkoal. His Sigilyph and Golurk were both very easy to beat, and nothing else really happened in the battle. With that battle over I had truly beaten my second attempt at a Pokémon X nuzlocke.

If you read this far, congratulations! You have read the equivalent of 75 tweets in (possibly) one sitting! Twitter kept capping me off every 25 tweets, so now I understand why Twitter au writers don't post abundantly. This was honestly so much fun, even though I did grieve over my dead Pokémon.

I wanna thank Mar for sticking with me the whole way, even though I was such a nuisance for asking every single time, without fail, what beats poison type Pokémon whenever I encountered one. When I said I'm shit at Pokémon, I wasn't lying: I'm Very Bad™ at the game.

I also wanna thank Bread and Ariel for just popping in during my run every now and again, even if all you wanted to do was mock me for Zekrom's death (which btw I don't get why you're still holding that to me? I'm more shocked you're not talking bout Grenouille lmao).

Would also like to thank my team, Pea the Bellossom, Despacito the Florges, Not a Fish the Stunfisk, Slipknot the Magcargo, Lettuce the Lapras, and Nuh the Zoroark (who, despite being a super new addition, pulled his weight very well). I wouldn't've won of not for y'all  (Idc that they're fictional and can't read my thanks, I love them okay???).

Anywho, thank you for reading this if you chose to!

[zenfulmockingbird]

Spellbound ep.2: Corryvreckan Surprise

A Pokemon Journey. For most starter, this event helps us expand our horizon and allow us to see interesting sights. That what I trained for before meeting him. That why I prepared myself for the anything unexpected...but with even with all that, I was not prepare for what happened. The sun was shining that day as we started our Pokémon journey. We decided to look around for some Pokemon to join us. If only I knew what was going to happen to them. We met Balto again along with his mate Jenna. They told us that they wanted to come with us. At first, I thought Itzal was going to just take one, but I was surprised that he decided to take them both. Same for when we caught a two Zigzagoons and two Wingulls. Did he caught them because of he knew what was going to happen or was he going to be one of those trainers who catches whatever he sees. We met the gym leader Norman and Wally at Petalburg. Turn out Wally had an illness and was going to move away and came to gym leader for help in catching a Pokémon for him to take with Vendaturf Town, but Norman could not because he had a gym battle later on. Itzal offer to keep a close eye on Wally while he tried to capture one. Norman agreed to the arrangement and gave Wally a Zigzagoon. We looked around and manage to find a male Ralts name Odin and Wally caught him with no problem. I thought that would be the highlight of our start to our journey...Boy, how wrong I was. I do not know why it happened, but the Pokémon we caught; our allies... the transformed. At first, I thought they were evolving due to the familiar glow, but when it started, they didn't start to take on the shapes of their evolved form, instead they took on shapes of other Pokémon... Balto was no longer an alpha male Poochyena, but instead a tiny blue Taillow, Jenna became a gigantic metal titan Aggron, Carmelita became a Poochyena, while her brother Sly became a red and grey flying type Pokémon; Fletchling, and finally Waker Wingull became a Rotom, a living spark Pokémon... Thus, bringing us back to here. Standing in the middle of Petalburg Forest in a daze. “What just happened?” Jenna looked around in confusion, “Why does is everything smaller?” “I feel like I went through...” Balto froze “Why is my voice sound higher?” Itzal frantically pull out a mirror a showed them what they had become and let out a scream. “Why are we different species of Pokémon?” “Magic,” Itzal answered nervously, “But you have to believe me when I say I am not the one behind this. I was dumbfounded by his response “None of us were suspecting you till you opened your big mouth.” “Wait, wait, wait. Let me explain.” Jenna tap her feet “You got two minutes to explain.” “Okay,” Itzal took a deep breath “My dad’s side of the family has a curse dating way to a few years ago after the Kalos wars. The curse transforms Pokémon into a different being and we are not just talking about into different species. We’re talking about levels, we’re talking moves, we’re sex.” “Sex?” Balto stepped into a bush. Moment later he stepped out drained of all colors “my...my..my...” Jenna gaze at him with concern “Honey, what wrong?” “My dong is gone.” Itzal pulled out his Pokedex and started scanning everyone “Acordding to Pokedex, you’re now a lv.5 female Taillow. Jenna is now a lv.54 Aggron, sex still the same. Carmelita is now lv.2 male Poochynena, Sly is a lv.3 Fletchling, and Waker is.” “not having any of this.” We all looked at the Rotom in confusion “I joined this team in hope of becoming a Pelipper much quicker, not to become a floating power source.” “And didn’t sign up to end up with shlong,” Carmelita said before setting her gaze on me, “Also you listed everyone except for Manami. Why didn’t she transform?” That what caught my attention. I am the only one unaffected by this “...The wizard who cast this spell likes a challenge and keep the starter as is.” I felt no drop of confidence in those barren words. “Bull!” Waker shouted, spark flying from his body “You and she are in cahoots,” I was shocked by what he by his frightening claim. I was being falsely accused of being accomplice to causing what happened to them “Reverse this spell right now.” “I don’t know.” “Then,” Carmelita snagged her Poke Ball and snagged the Poke ball smashed it against the ledge “I’m leaving.” “Same,” Waker replied “I don’t want to do with anything with these bastards.” Carmelita grabbed the other Waker’s and destroyed it of them dashed, each one going into different directions. Not long after that Jenna and Alue followed them as well. Itzal was frozen like Deerling caught in a headlight. All of the Pokémon he caught had just up and left him. I called to him “Itzal?” “Let’s go.” I was taken back by what he said “Huh?” “They’re free to do whatever they want. I cannot make them do something they do not want to do.” He started to head deeper into the forest and yet despite the smile, I could sadness in his eyes. As we continued to trek the forest path we ran into a scientist. “Hello,” Scientist greeted us “Have you seen any Pokémon called Shroomish around here? I really love that Pokémon.” Itzal shook his head. “Blast. Still, I won't give up my search.” A thug that looked wear a white and blue striped shirt, black pants and bandana with a small white A on. In front of him was a Poochyena; growling ferociously at us. “I was going to ambush you,” the threatening look man groused “but you had to dawdle in Petalburg Woods forever didn't you? I got sick of waiting, so here I am! You! Devon researcher! Hand over those papers!” Itzal and I stepped in front of the scientist. “Oi, ye landlubber best get out of my way or I’ll have my mons mess you up.” “Bring it.” Itzal said. “Manami, use Water gun.” I fired jet stream of water at the Poochyena, causing it to be pushed back a little. The strange man growled in anger “No one crosses Team Aqua get any mercy, not even some guy and his reject Pokémon! Poochyena use howl.” Poochyena let out a courageous howl. “Use water gun again.” I launched another one at the target. I could tell from its heavy breathing that it was almost finished. “Sand attack,” the bite Pokémon kicked some dirt into my eyes. “Hahaha. That should slow you lot down enough for to turn the tides.” “Manami, focus and use water gun.” I nodded and focused on my sense. “Don’t see what good that will do ya. Finish it.” I could sense it. Poochyena charging toward me. I launched one last water gun and heard a yelp. Everything was silent and my heart was racing... I was nervous. The sand had blinded me and if they had something that could make my radar useless and if it is something, I’m weak against, I’ll be in trouble. “Damnit,” I heard a Poke ball recalling it, but it was also of something that I detected that was also making me feel uneasy I heard rapid footsteps getting farther and farther as our new guest got closer and closer I felt someone lifting me and water running down on my eyes. I looked in the direction it was coming from and saw that I was in Itzal's arm and behind him was Jenna and Balto. That why that man ran away. He saw Jenna and Balto. The scientist ran up, grabbed Itzal hand and shook “Thank you kind, sir. Take this.” He hands over a strange collar to Itzal “It an Exp share. Give this to your Pokémon and the EXP it earns will be shared in battle.” He flashed the scientist a coy grin “Thanks. So, why was that guy after you?” The man scratched his head for a moment before his pupils shrunk “I need to go.” “Wait. What going...” Before he could get a word out edge wise, the scientist dashed off, “I wonder what that was all about?” “I do not know, but there one question we could answer right now,” I looked at Jenna and Balto “Why are you two back? I thought you two left along with Carmelita and Waker.” Balto shook his head “No. We didn’t leave because of Itzal concealing this from us. Me and Jenna went after them to convince them to come back.” We were shocked. Itzal gathered his composure, “To comeback?” “Yes. We tried to convince them to comeback just in case you find a way to reverse, but they refused.” “It’s for the best. We cannot force them to come if they don’t want to.” “Then mind I we tagged along instead” we looked behind us and saw Zigzagoon and a Shroomish walking toward us. “Who are you two?” “Names Willy Wonka” the ZIgzagoon greeted us before pointing at the Mushroom Pokémon “and this girl right ahere is Yoko. We saw what a-happened and we got four word to say to ya.” Yoko replied, “We want to join.” Wonka flashed us a grin “Well it mighty interesting ta be a different Pokémon.” “I just want a stronger form,” Yoko chimed in “like really cool, like a Blaziken or Salamance.” “Okay but,” Itzal said “be warned. This curse if is unpredictable and you might not get what you want. Do you still want to join?" They both nodded their head in unison. Itzal pulled out two Poke ball and tossed them at Willy and Yoko. A red light enveloped them, and they were caught with no problem. A faint light surrounded their balls for a moment. Itzal walked over and picked up Willy Wonka's Poke ball. “First up, Willy.” Itzal gently tossed it in the air and white light shot out. Willy was no longer a Zigzagoon, a stripped Litleo. “A Litleo” Willy spoke “... and a mighty purdy girl by the sound of my voice. This will be an interesting ride.” “Next up Yoko.” Itzal called out Yoko and reveal that she has transformed into a Scatterbug. When Itzal showed her reflection, she was displeased by the result. “A Scatterbug,” Yoko griped “Why?” “It’s not that bad.” “My defense is weak as glass and my attack can't do shit. I wanted to become something stronger.” “Then hone the abilities” Balto answered “instead of whining about your form.” “Harsh, but Balto right,” I chimed in “A warrior use the tools they have on them.” Yoko let out a sigh “Fine... Maybe I can get some powerful moves in this form.’ “speaking form,” Willy spoke up “since I’m no longer a boy...” He looks at Itzal, “Am I girl now?” Itzal scanned Willy with his Pokedex, before nodding his head confirming her suspicions, “Well since I’m a girl now, best go by a new name. Call me Jane after Calamity Jane.” “Okay,” Itzal answered “Welcome to the team Jane.” “And what about me?” Yoko asked, “Is my gender the same or did I get rule 63.” Itzal checked “You’re the same gender.” He turned toward Balto “What about you? Do you want to go by a different name?” Balto shook his name. “Alright. Let us get on out of here and rest up at Petalbrug.” We all headed out the forest and back to Pokemon center. As we walked our way back, I could not help but feel sense of unease. Balto Poochynea turned into Hasty Aleu Tailow, Likes to fight, lv5 Jenna poochyena became Heavy Greta Aggron, Hardy, Proud of its power. lv. 54 Carmelita zigzagoon -> male Poochyana lv.2, Mild, Highly persistent. Sly Zigzagoon -> Passerouge, lv.3, quirky, Hates to lose. lv.1 Sparks Rotom was Waker Wingull lv.5 BAC Magikarp was Jetwave Wingull. Willy Wonka Zigzagoon became Jane Litleo (lv.5, docile, often lost in thoughts.) Shroomish became Yoko scatterbug (lv.2, Jolly, Very Finicky)

[pers-books]

Had an idea for a Berena fic which is canon compliant, but...

A week or so after Bernie goes to Kiev Mikey wanders onto AAU looking for 'the blonde job', and Serena's annoyed with him for showing up, until he reveals that the Fletchlings were expecting her to come over as she usually does on particular afternoons when her shifts allow (and when Raf and Fletch are working/otherwise busy). She'll spend time reading stories to Theo and Ella, playing football or video games with Mikey (video games? Serena says disbelievingly - she doesn't even know how to text!), and talking about medicine and 'girly' stuff with Evie.

Further questioning reveals that Bernie's been subtly encouraging Mikey into better behaviour - though he hasn't realised that; that she's fully taken Evie under her wing with regard to working towards a career in medicine (and that she is 'brilliant', according to Evie, at braiding her hair); and that the little ones love her 'voices' when she's reading to them, and that she willingly participates in their tea parties. Also that she cooks curry or frittata for them to eat, and lets Evie and Mikey help out.

And Serena's a bit surprised to discover that Bernie has a stronger maternal streak than she gives herself credit for. (A lie to herself that Serena has bought into, to her annoyance.) She's also annoyed af to discover that Bernie has such a domestic side to her, which Serena herself had never uncovered.

She fires a text off to Bernie, telling her off for not letting the Fletchlings know that she was going away and berating her for abandoning the kids. A few hours later she gets a text back saying nothing more than 'Evie knew', and is annoyed when Bernie ignores any subsequent texts.

The next day, Serena finds out from Fletch that Cameron's going to be helping out with looking after the Fletchlings in Bernie's absence, and he reveals to Serena that she volunteered to help out with the childcare because she didn't think that, at her age, Evie should have to shoulder all the responsibility for her siblings.  

(I don’t know if I’ll write this so if anyone else wants to, feel free!)

[bard-of-worlds]

The Beginning in Kalos 14

Lilith sighed as she walked through the castle, ever since she had returned from her mission to Kalos she had been missing her friends.  Thankful she had been able to dodge him the last few times she had attended court with Lady Camilla so there was that at least, but her cousin had picked up how she had been lately and had needled her about it but if she was honest about her feelings, then she missed those days of being with her friends, talking about fashion with Serena, teaching Bonnie how to fight and dance, debating Pokémon training tactics with Ash and helping Clemont with his inventions.  But when they returned to the Lumiose City she had to go home because of the threat, yes the…wait, this is….

 Snapping her eyes open she bolted upright throwing her hand across her mouth and noise and immediately activated an Aura skill to block out whatever was in the air.  Looking around she saw she was in a room and she noticed four things first, one; she was in a closed room with golden pollen or…scales dropping from a rotating fan, two; there were three other girls her age with her in the room on beds like the one she was on, three; the room had no windows and only one door and four there was a one way window to let people observe what was happening in the room she was in.  She reached up and caught a bit of the pollen and brought it to her hand as she caused her hand to glow blue and wasn’t surprised when she saw the pollen in her hand gained a golden glow.

 Alchemy, this was created with Alchemy.  I thought Nimue said Aura use had died out here in Kalos, but someone created or sold Dreamer’s Sand to these people.  Probably trying to break them as their fondest dreams are destroyed and all they have lefty is what they want them to have, servants then, but domestic or other?  Whatever I’m so helping Ash and the others learn that trick M’Lady taught me when they finally learn about Aura Users.  Lilith thought as she tried to remember what had happened to her. She looked at the other girls and noticed a few signs that two of them had been wearing well done makeup and the other had on stylish clothing that complimented her figure, with these factors the answer was clear.  She got off the bed and started to pat herself down, smiling when she that while she didn’t have her jacket and her whip, she did have her backup whip and her shoes.  She took of her right shoe and opened a hidden compartment and pulled out a multi tool.  Walking to the door she first unfurled her backup weapon from around her waist and started to pick the lock using her multi tool.  

 Hearing the bolt open she slowly opened the door and saw her main whip and her jacket in a room that had two doors across from each other and a few items that showed the girls in the room she had just left were trainers.  Donning her jacket and putting her backup whip away she picked up her whip and moved and pushed down a switch next to the window, smiling when she saw the pollen that was falling had stopped and looked towards the other door.

 “Okay girl, let’s take stock.  You were with Nimue, Serena and Bonnie.  You noticed you were being followed and Nimue got Bonnie….Serena!  She’s not here, so she has to be somewhere else, was she the target, they’d never use something like that if they knew I was active so she has to have been their target.  But why…question later, find her now.”  Lilith said as she looked at the other door and noticed hinges on her side.  Opening the door as quietly as she could, she peered out and saw that the hallway was empty, trying to hear anything but hearing only silence she moved into the hallway, activating Ghost Walker as she did so she could strike first against anyone she came across.  Ready or not, here I come.  Hope your ready scumbags.  She thought as she moved silently through down the hallway, trying to find her friend.

  Ash dropped the last Buzz Lord trainer in the hallway and looked at the trail he and his team had left behind them, moaning, paralyzed or knocked out gangers and their Pokémon littered the hallway and he gave a small sigh as he shook his head.  Why, oh why do people always choose the hard way, I mean just once I’d like to do this the easy way.  I mean all the times this played out before and they never went the easy option. Ash thought as he looked down the hallway, hoping to find some clue to where his friends were.

 A ganger on the floor snarled as he looked up from where Ash had dropped him and smirked as he reached for a weapon to strike at him with when suddenly he felt fur?  He looked at where his hand was to see Pikachu smiling cutely at him before he gained a savage grin on his face as the ganger paled.

 “PIKACHU!”  Pikachu exclaimed as he fried the ganger.  Ash looked back and shook his head with a sigh as he saw what Pikachu had done.  Froakie and Fletchling finished off their opponents and started to move back towards him, Froakie stopping at a partially open door and looked into it before it dropped back and quickly dashed to its trainer, pulling on Ash’s pants to get his attention.  Ash looked down and followed Froakie’s hand pointing at the door it had found.

 “What is it Froakie, did you find something?”  Ash asked as he walked to the door and opened it, staring with shock before his gaze went hard.  Ash’s eyes saw five girls cowling behind bars and saw three others chained up.  A bloody mattress was alongside the wall the door was on and Ash noticed a few stains that he didn’t want to identify. He moved towards the girls when he saw the ones on the ground move farther away from the cell door and stopped. He looked around and saw a ring of keys on a holder next to the door and walked back into the hallway and collected a few of the weapon the gangers had used and dropped them in front of the cell and threw the keys to the cowering figures.  They stared at him as he turned and walked to the doorway.

 “I’ll close the door; I knocked out the gangers so you should have no visitors.  If everything goes according to plan in a few hours at most the local law should be here, I would fort up in here if you don’t want to run for it.  Go, stay here and barricade the door, those are your choices, I can’t make it for you.” Ash said as he closed the door and walked down the hallway, stopping to give a savage kick to one of the gangers on the floor before he quickened his pace.  I have to find the girls before their put somewhere like that; I can only hope I find Serena and Lilly in time!   Ash thought as he stalked through the hallways.

 “Just when you think you reached the limits of the evil of humanity you seen something like that and you realize you haven’t even reached halfway down there yet, hu gang?”  Ash asked softly as he led the way down the hallway.  He had seen thieves, murders and people out to conquer the world, but why were the smaller groups that were always the sources of such vileness?

 “Pikachu.”

“Froakie.”

“Fletchling.”

 His Pokémon agreed as they followed his trainer.  Ash just let his thoughts run wild as he moved, stopping when he heard a commotion ahead of him.  Around the corner thundered ten gang members and 1 Heracross, 3 Pinsirs and 2 Beedrill.

 “I THOUGHT I HEARD SOMETHING!!  ALRIGHT BRAT! You’ve had a good run but I’d surrender if I were you and maybe we…won’t…kill?”  The leader trailed off as he saw the face Ash was making and the glint in his team’s eyes when they saw them.  He backed up into the squad he had lead and went white as

 “Oh, hello well timed targets, shall we get to it?”  Ash said as he smiled as Pikachu sparked, Froakie formed a water sphere and silvery crescents started to from by Fletchling’s wings.  The gangers started to pale as Ash and his team walked towards them, moving backwards as their own Pokémon started to cower behind their trainers even though they all outnumbered Ash and his team.

 “N n now just surrender and I promise we’ll let you go with no further problems, alright?”  The leader asked shakily as he looked at the monster that was stalking towards him with three Pokémon as backup.  Not even the boss on his worst day has this kind of presence, what did we do to make him so mad!  That was the only thing going through his head as he heard his men start to whimper.

 “Leave him for last; we can question him after we’re done.” Ash said before he and his team charged at the gangers.

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  Lilith moved down the hallway, hugging the wall as she did so that no one would bump into her, no matter who they were when people ran they usually ran down the center of the hallway to force others to the side, a lesson she had learned the hard way once or twice that her teacher had thankfully trained out of her.  One thing for sure, this always made it easy to find what was important in enemy buildings, just make a distraction and follow the runners.  Hearing a commotion ahead of her she saw a few trainers in green shepherding a few girls in maids outfits down the hallway.

 “Come on you idiot, we gotta get these dames to their rooms before we get back to the boss, the way that intruder has been going through us we have to hold him at the throne room.”   One of them snapped at the other as the girls followed obediently.

 “Think this is connected to the…what happened to the boys in the monitoring room?”  The other asked as he looked down the hallway for anything, not even seeing anything he moved on, Lilith moving silently behind them, just in range to hear them.  

 “No, the boss only gave the orders around the same time it happened; there is no way that the intruder is connected to that.” The replay caused Lilith to pause. What are you talking about boys, and can I use it?  Lilith mused before she heard the next words.

 “So far what the intruder is doing is knocking out and moving on, he isn’t killing anyone so I think there’s no way he has anything to do with the deaths of our guys, but maybe he destroyed the equipment.” The other nodded at what he heard and stared ahead of them.  Lilith stopped dead, someone had killed people and destroyed the room they had to monitor this place, so that was why she had escaped so easily.

 “To bad about it though, one of them owed me money, guess I’ll take it from his stash.”  His comment caused the other to give a laugh and a look of contempt.

 “He owed everyone money, I doubt you ever get paid.”  The only replay this gained was a glare as they moved, Lilith meanwhile stayed where she was, thinking about what she had overheard and panicking on the inside. An intruder that’s not killing, Ash it has to be Ash.  This is like when the boss destroyed that slaver base and left them alive, ‘Death is to light a sentence on such crimes, I want them to suffer before they go to judgment.’  Guess some things are a matter of blood, if I wasn’t already convinced about who he is.

 The two gripped at each other as they moved down the corridor, the girls following them oddly silent as they moved down the hallway until they reached a nondescript group of doors that the girls walked to, 5 to a room and after the last one closed the two turned to each other.

 “So back to the throne room or the other place?” The second one asked the first, prompting him to stare at him in a total dead look.

 “The other place in the basement stupid! Didn’t you hear him say to bring the blond to him there?”  The first asked exasperated with his friend.

 “Oh lay off me, you know I had the night shift. Say, did they tells us where they put her Pokémon and that spear thing she had?” The second asked causing to just move on ahead.  Lilith smiled, this was something she could use and maybe she could….

 “Of course they didn’t need to tell us!  It’s where they always put their possessions!” The first said with a snort.

 “Why we don’t sell their Pokémon I don’t know.” The second said with a huff.

 “Cause then we’d step on the toes of those people who deal in the black market.  Why won’t you just wakeup, it’s all hands on deck sot start thinking!”  The first said before he heard a thumping sound and turned to see the other one passed out on the floor.   While he looked around to find what had caused it something wrapped around his neck and he was pulled forward.  He stopped when a hand grabbed his neck and he saw Lilith smiling at him, her eyes dark.  He tried to breath and  

 “How about you tell me where my friend’s Pokémon and weapon is?  And maybe I won’t break your neck for being a part of this travesty?”  Lilith purred as she held him off the ground.  The ganger stared at her in total shock.

 “How’d you get up?  We take girls to Imitation and they stay asleep until we wake ‘em.” He wheezed.  Lilith tightened her grip and forced his eyes to meet hers and he started too sweat as he saw the look in her eyes.

 “Don’t think about that, think about what I want to know.”  Lilith said as she looked at her prisoner.  He gulped as he tried to think about what he could do to get her away from him.

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  Lilith giggled softly as she dashed down the hallway; she had knocked out the ganger she had interrogated and had been able to make it to where he had said and was carrying Serena’s naginata on her back and Fenniken’s Pokéball on her waist.   This is perfect, I have her weapon and her partner, now all I have to do is find Serena, we find Ash and break out of here and call the cops to shut this place down hard.  Lilith stopped when she saw three gangers charge down the hallway and smirked, jumping and willing her hands to glow black as she used another Aura Tech, she struck two of the three as she passed over their heads and as she landed she drew and struck out with her whip, knocking out the last ganger before she moved down the hallway.

 “But nothing says I can’t cause them some trouble before we escape.”  Lilith said with a giggle as she tried to find Serena and cause all the problems for the Buzz Lords she could before then.

  Ash stared down at the leader of the group he and his team had just curb stomped as Pikachu jumped down onto Ash’s shoulder and Froakie and Fletchling stood on either side of him as Ash stood over him.  The man was trembling, Pikachu had taken out most of the enemy’s Pokémon and knocked out most his group and Ash had dealt with the rest in minutes.

 “Now I know you have your reasons for doing this but really, do we have to do this?”  He pleaded as he looked up at Ash and prayed for mercy. Ash looked at him flatly and decided to hurry this along.  He had dealt with a lot of people like him on his journey, a show of force sometime broke people and they were quick to tell him what he asked of them.

 “Two girls were brought in earlier today, one was brought to General Initiation, the other was brought to your boss, where are they?”  Ash demanded flatly as he locked eyes with the person on the floor.

 “The black haired one was to be sent to General Initiation, it’s up a floor and towards the back, you need an an antidote for what is used on people brought there.   The other one the boss asked for, he has a room in the basement where he has people brought to him to to talk to.  They’re inb both of those two places or they’re in the throne room towards the center of the building. That’s all I know so can I go now, please?  And just me, you can do what you want to the others.”  He begged as Ash glared down at him.  The one thing Ash hated more than people who hurt others was someone who abandoned his own.

 “Pikachu, knock ’em out.” Ash said flatly, causing the guy to try and escape, only for Pikachu to shock him into unconscious.  Ash shook his head and moved down the corridor, Pikachu nudge the smoking body and shook his head before he followed after Ash as the others followed them.  After a while they reached a wide doorway with a plaque above it saying stage access. Opening the door he looked to see what looked like the side of a stage, thankfully no one around and a large throne in the center.  Ash looked at his team who nodded at him and they moved into the room, Fletchling going high and taking a circle of the whole room while Froakie stayed in the shadows and Pikachu stayed by Ash.  After a few minutes they gathered back together and went towards a door that had the word stairs above it.  

 “Lilly’s up and towards the back, Serena might be down.  Damn it, I can’t choose who to save, if I leave one of them alone then the other might get hurt.”  Ash snarled as he leaned against the wall.

 “You don’t need to save me Ash, I can save myself.”  A female voice said causing him to turn to see Lilith walk towards him with a smirk on her face and Serena’s naginata on her back.

 “Lilly, thank Arceus you’re okay!  But how’d you get away from them, are you okay?  The guy I talked to said you’d need an antidote do to what they used on people!” Ash said with relief that Lilly had gotten away.

 “I guess I have and immunity to whatever knocked us out.  I woke up before they brought me to wherever that was and I was able to find out that Serena was brought to their boss.  You go first and I’ll come down after, if we find a fork in the path we’ll take them both.”  Lilith said as she looked at door.

 “Follow me Lilly; Clemont should be here soon with the police before too long.  If we’re lucky we can save Serena and find a place to hold out until they get here.”  Ash said as he led the way down, Lilith followed a moment later, not letting her thoughts show on her face.  Great, just great.  It’s a good think I took that one’s short term memory when I questioned him.  Still I hope we can leave sooner than later after this, I so don’t want to answer any questions in an official interview.  Lilith thought as she followed after Ash.

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  “Why the hell did I want my armor to look like this again?  I had a reason for it but I just can’t remember it.” Rex muttered as he finished setting the armor on his right shoulder as the stood before his throne and wondered why he had commissioned such large spikes to be on his shoulders. He looked around and notice that only four gangers come when he called for all members to join him in his room, he would have wanted more of them but beggars can’t be choosers, he was just about to give a speech when a commotion to the front of the room caused him to look up and saw Serena being brought into the room by two more members.  He let his eyes wonder over her body and he had to admit that Ash had good taste.  He thought that he had seen Serena somewhere before but dismissed it as unimportant. Serena meanwhile glared at Rex as he released two Pokémon and picked up two lances.  The first he released was powerful looking dark green dragonfly Pokémon with four wings, two on each side and large red eyes.  The other was menacing looking humanoid hunched-over arthropod with a light purplish inner body and a silvery exoskeleton with a bright purple antennae converge forming a mask with its two small eyes. Below the neck are three pairs of arms, the two frontal pairs of arms are thin, each one tipped with a sharp, black claw. The rearmost pair of arms is the largest, and ends with two large, purple "hands" equipped with two large claws each.  Both moved to stand by their trainer and Serena choose that moment to speak up.

 “So what do you want from me? And where’s Lilly?”  Serena demanded as she struggled against the people holding her.  She was surprised when Rex started to laugh so hard he had to plant the lances into the ground to stay upright.  It actually took him a few minutes to catch his breath before he looked at her.

 “You? Nothing; you’re nobody, just bait for the person who beat Viola.  I was going to offer you as his own personal servant after I had you initiated but I think I’ll just beat him and force him to serve me that way instead.  Maybe I could use the both of you to reinforce your Initiation.  And the girl who was captured with you is having a wonderful nightmare that will end with her entering my service.”  Rex said after he stopped laughing.  Serena went pale when she heard why she had been captured before she went red in the face.

 “He’ll never work for you, and why’d you dress up then, to try to scare him?”  Serena demanded only for him to chuckle.  What’s his deal?  What the hell are they, the way he’s talking he’s more than a gang leader.  I have to find some way to escape from them, I just have to.  She thought eyed the two people holding her, trying to find a way to get her arms out of their grip.

 “No I got my armor on because your boyfriend is here and making a mess of my followers.  He’s already gone through at least a third of them already.”  Rex said causing Serena to stare at him.  She was so shocked that she stopped struggling. I knew Ash was strong but this strong?  He’s doing this because I was captured; he really lives the old man’s virtues, doesn’t he?  Serena thought as she looked at Rex’s two Pokémon.  She knew what the Yanmega was but the other was a total unknown, it wasn’t from Kanto or Kalos, so where the hell did he get it.  Rex followed her gaze and laughed at her look.

 “Don’t know what that one is, do you?  This is my Golisopod, my strongest partner and ace.  I can’t wait to beat that punk into the ground, that’ll take all the defiance out of him.”  Rex said with an evil grin on his face as Serena looked at him with a glare on her face. A commotion from the door to the room caused both of them to look as the body of one of the gangers crashed through the door, breaking it and through it stalked Ash holding his sword and shield in both hands with Pikachu on his shoulder, Froakie by his side, Fletchling flying through the door to hover above him as he looked around the room. He saw Serena being held and his glare centered on the two holding her, causing one of them to loosen his grip, something Serena noticed as she shifted a foot towards the other one.

 “Serena are you okay? “ Ash demanded as he looked around the room.  Rex looked at Ash with a smirk on his face.  This was perfect, he was strong, forceful and brave; a perfect second in command!  Now to get him to heel….

 “So we finally meet Ash Ketchum!  I am Rex Tristo, master of the Buzz Lords!  Our strength in unrivaled among all of Kalos but one thing we were lacking is someone who could strategize!  I had a basic plan for my goals, wondering where I could find someone who could shoulder this burden, and I have finally found him, you! I saw your match with that whore Viola the other day, with those skills added to the Buzz Lords, we will be unstoppable! Join me and together we will conquer this continent, bringing it under our power!  Serve me well and there is nothing I won’t give to you!”  Rex exclaimed as he gestured at Ash as the other gangers in the room looked at Ash, waiting for his reply.  Ash only snorted and shook his head and looked at Rex with such a look of competent that Rex was taken aback.

 “Man, you hear one would be conqueror, you’ve heard them all.  Still you are the only one who wanted me to join him.  So here’s my counter offer, surrender to the police and you’ll probably only get imprisonment for a while.”  Ash said, causing Rex to stare in shock before he went red in anger.  He couldn’t believe that Ash had actually refused him, more that

 “You pathetic fool! This base is so secret that the local law enforcement will never find us!  And if you think you can break out on your own with her, I’ll still have the other one!  So surrender before I do something to your friend that you’ll regret!”  Rex bellowed.  Ash merely smirked at him and stepped to the side before a whip shot from the door from the hallway the striking the one still holding Serena’s arm strongly.  It hit his hands and he reflexively let go of her, giving Serena the chance to grab the other one and throw him at one of the four other gangers and run towards Ash as her living missile brought both of them to the floor.

 “STOP HER!”  Rex bellowed, causing the gangers to start to move to grab her when an Ember attack shot from beyond the door way and hit one before another whip strike hit the other.  

 “Serena, catch!” A voice called before a long stick was towards Serena, she caught it without realizing it was her naginata, and she spun it around and slashed the blade down, scoring a hit on one of her pursers forcing the others back.  Lilith came running into the room and stood beside Serena; Fenniken then came charging towards her trainer, stopping when she was between Serena and Rex, snarling as she stared him down.  Serena looked at Lilith and smiled as Rex stared in shock at her.

 “You okay Serena?” Lilith asked as she watched the gang members start to draw out their weapons as Rex’s Pokémon started to stare down Ash’s.  Lilith looked at Rex and noticed that he had a look of confusion on his face at her presence but saw that while his Aura was active he wasn’t using it and seemed to have forgotten about it. Strange, why would he….oh great someone pulled off the old mind trick on him, I think Kalos just became more complicated.

 “LILLY, you’re okay!” Serena exclaimed with happiness as she realized who was next to her.  Lilith smirked and looked right at Rex before she replied.

 “It takes more than whatever they use to knock us out to keep me down for long!  And idiots like these guys always use the weak stuff.” Lilith smirked as Rex just stared.

 “I’ll still beat you all and then I’ll see how much of your skills are still there when I’m done Ash! And for the police, they’ll never find this place!  The people who do know where this base is are too involved with making money off of us to bother with something like justice!”  Rex declared only to be met with a look from Ash that shut him up.

 “Like my friend Clemont, who I told where you are and then went to tell Officer Jenny personally?” Ash asked with a smirk on his face as Rex went pale.  He did what.  No choice then, time to activate my contingency.

 “You made me do this, I didn’t want to.  Remember, this was because you forced me to do this.” Rex said as he pushed a button on his throne.  Ash looked up when they heard a large and savage looking shrill and then looked at Rex with a hard look on his face.

 “WHAT DID YOU DO?!” Ash demanded with a glare as cries started to echo down the hallway.  Rex only answered the glare with a smirk.

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 Glasses woke up and looked around, wondering how he’d gotten there before he remembered what had happened. He paled as he looked towards the theater and started to sweet as he saw the carnage on the inside, the people on the floor and the wrecking.  He was in such a state that he never even heard cars stop and people getting out of them. He never even noticed that people were walking towards him.

 “That brat with that Pikachu!  I can’t believe he did this.  This is bad, this is so bad.   If he’s strong enough to do this then the boss might do that, I gotta get outa here, the boss…Rex’ll kill me when he figures out I told that brat anything.”  Glasses muttered as he got up and backed away from the broken door.  

 “Rex, would that be Rex Tristo, the person who disappeared when he was passed over for Leadership of the Gym?”  A voice behind Glasses asked.  Glasses’s was so scared he never even noticed that someone had asked a question, he just answered as he looked at the broken door.

 “Yeah, you can’t go a day without hearing him talk how Viola stole it from him.  But we gotta move, we can’t be here if….someone….else?” Glasses trailed off as he realized someone was there and slowly turned his head and went white when he saw Officer Jenny, Clemont, Viola and a lot of police officers who were looking around at the scene.  Clemont grabbed Glasses and pulled him towards his face.

 “Where are the two girls that were brought here earlier?!”  He demanded as he glared at the gang member started to splutter.  The others looked at Clemont and Jenny nodded at two of her officers.

 “Inside!  But we gotta get outa here!  Rex has a contingency plan if things go belly up like this!  And it’s to cause enough destruction that he could take over!  A way to throw doubt on Viola’s eligibility to lead the gym and cause enough carnage that he could get away with killing her and her sister to ‘stop’ it.”  Glasses said as he tried to struggle out of Clemont’s grip as the others listened to what he said as the officers started to round up the gang members on the ground.

 “So Rex was responsible for the Buzz Lords, out of all the people it could have been I wouldn’t have chosen him as the one.  I mean I knew he hated me for taking what he considered his but all the crimes they’ve done, he always spoke about law and order, I just can’t see him being involved.” Viola said quietly as she stood with Jenny who nodded.  Some officers had come to Clemont and taken Glassess from him and was leading the ganger towards the vans.

 “I thought he had just gone to take over his family’s business.  But he’s been the leader of the Buzz Lords for the last few years? He wasn’t even on the radar of possibilities; no one even spoke his name as a possible.  He gave no impression that he would create some kind of gang because of his being passed over.  And he’s a member of the old nobility that used to rule around here two.”  Jenny mused as she watched the building with a critical eye, taking note of the wide windows on the front and the gargoyles above it.  If he is the boss I need to talk to a judge about a search warrant for his house in the residential section. This might be enough to put him away but if there’s any evidence there then the case would be even tighter.  Jenny thought as she looked over the front of the building, trying to see if anyone was looking at them from it. Viola frowned as she looked around and turned to Jenny.

 “Isn’t this the old dinner theater that went out of business a few years back, and then didn’t someone use it to run a counterfeit operation?”  Viola asked as she followed Jenny’s eyes. Jenny gave the area a once over and let her memory go back and realized that Viola was right about where they were.

 “Yeah, the rage they displayed when they resisted arrest, the damages it caused led to the whole neighborhood going out of business; I remember how a lot of them tried to stay open. Didn’t they all add the gargoyles on their roofs because they could open their mouths and drop things just for their going out of business party the neighborhood had to ‘really go out on a bang’ as one of them said?” Jenny asked as she started to feel like something was going to happen and looked around. Viola looked up and stared at the gargoyles, hoping the feeling she was getting was wrong.  What’s bothering me about those statues? What am I seeing that I can’t register, is it something about the size of the mouth… Wait, those mouths would be big enough for…. Viola went white as she figured out what her instincts were telling her.

 “Say Jenny, do you know how long a Pokémon can last in a Pokéball before they need to eat?”  Viola asked shakily as she looked upwards. Jenny looked at the gargoyles and noticed that the mouth seemed particularly larger and a different color from the rest of the statues.  Suddenly the mouths of the gargoyles opened and seven Pokéballs dropped from them and hit the ground.  From six of them came an even mix of Pinsirs and Scythers who looked at the humans around them hungrily, but the real problem was what came from the seventh ball. The Bug Pokémon that was released would normally be a large, moth-like Pokémon with four small feet, compound eyes and small four feet on its ‘chest’ but with white fuzz on its top and red horn-like structures on each side of its face this specimen with six orange wings with black spots of them, but the appearance of this one was anything but normal. Its right eye was a pale white and the horn on its right was smashed, its fuzz had scares of pale skin in random patterns and four balls of fire appeared around it as soon as it appeared. Viola stared in shock at the creature before them and whispered a single sentence, identifying just what was before them.

 “That’s a Volcarona; the sun Pokémon.”  This was the only thing she could say before the Volcarona gave a savage shrill and the other Bug types charged at the people in front of them as Volcarona breathed a blast of fire at them.

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   “What I did was release a few Pokémon I… prepared for this kind of situation, wild beasts that know only to kill; in fact I conditioned one especially for this.  I would hate to be your friend and whoever came with him; of course if no one is there they’ll just go into the town and find people there to kill.  So thank you Ash, the carnage will decide my fate one way or another!”  Rex said with a dark chuckle as Ash stared in total shock before he started to glare and grit his teeth.  He gripped his sword tighter and Pikachu started to look at the two Bug types and zeroed in on the white one, he would take that one down for his trainer.

 “Girls, I’m sorry but could you handle the others, I need to talk to this person for a while.”  Ash said as he walked towards Rex.  Serena and Lilith shared a look and nodded at each other and faced the four gangers in the room as two of them were helped to their feet.

 “We’ve got this Ash, you handle him!”Lilith called out as she stroke with her whip.   Golisopod saw Ash move towards its trainer and tried to stop him when a bolt of electricity shot between it and Ash, causing it to turn and look at Pikachu who stared it down as Froakie and Fletchling moved to back him up, only to stop when Pikachu raised his tail.

 “Pika! Pika Pikachu chu.” Pikachu ordered the others and locked eyes with Golisopod.

 “Froakie!” Froakie called out as it formed a water sphere and shot it at the Yanmega.  Yanmega hovered higher and fired silver crescents at Froakie, only for them to be intercepted by crescent blades of wind.

 “Fletchling!” Fletchling declared as it hovered above Froakie, daring Yanmega to attack them. Yanmega flew at them like a bullet when a few small orange sparks hit its right side and forced it down to the ground, burning it as well.

 “Fennekin!”  Fennekin declared as it joined the other two staring down Yanmega.

 Serena blocked a blow from one of the gangers with a club and spun her naginata around, slamming the blunt end of her weapon into his head, sending the ganger to the floor.   She had sent Fenniken to help Froakie and Fletchling when she realized the gangers didn’t have any Pokémon, why she didn’t know but she wasn’t about to look a gift Ponyta in the mouth.  One of the other three gangers charge at her with a hammer but a strike from Lilith’s whip scored a cut above his face that caused him to close his right eye and fall back with his hand over his wound. We’re a good team, she wounds em and I knock’em down.  All we have to do I last long enough for Ash to finish their leader.  Serena thought with a smirk as she looked at the other two gangers who still had weapons and frowned when she noticed that one of them was backing up towards a corner with a tapestry on it.

 Pikachu dodge a glowing purple stab from Golisopod’s right arm and spun around and hit it with its tail glowing white and striking Golisopod’s body, the blow sent it to its knees. Pikachu barely had a second before Golisopod spat a stream of brown sludge at him forcing him to dodge to the left as he tried to get behind it.

 While this was happening Ash had been trading blows with Rex, catching the spear trusts with his shield and sword and trying to use his mobility against Rex reach.  Rex stabbed forward with his right and Ash spun to the right and slashed down at the right lance, Rex twisting his arm upward, dodging Ash’s slash by mere centimeters.  Rex laughed as he moved backwards and grinned with a crazy edge to it as he looked at Ash.

 “You are strong as both a trainer and a warrior!  Once I beat you and bring you to my way of thinking you’ll led my forces to conquer!” Rex said with a crazed gleam in his eyes.

 “As if!”  Ash snarled as he moved in and slashed at Rex as he tried to get in closer. Rex just laughed and dashed backwards and grinned savagely.

 “You’d think so, but you won’t be the first trainer I beat then drafted them, FLASH!”  Rex roared startling Serena, but Ash, Pikachu and Lilith closed their eyes merely a second before Yanmega took action.

 “YANM!”  The Yanmega cried as its eyes released a blinding flash that stunned Froakie, Fenniken, Fletchling and Serena.  Rex looked on as his followers started to snicker, their boss flash strike strategy always worked.

 “Get them!”  Rex screamed as he moved forward, thrusting forward with his left lance as Golisopod moved to strike Pikachu as the gangers moved in.  Suddenly Lilith struck out with her whip, score blows that forced the gangers back while Pikachu dodge the blow from Golisopod and struck back with an electric bolt! Ash parred the blow from the lance and pressed forward, scoring a hit on Rex’s right arm that forced him to drop his left lance and grab the wound, blood coming from between his hands. Serena blinked her vision back and moved forward, spinning her naginata as she moved in with Lilith beside her

 “You don’t think you’re the first person to try and blind me, are you?”  Ash asked with a smirk as Rex stared at him before he released a roar and charge at Ash.  Ash dodged the blows as he moved backwards until he dashed in, blocked a blow from the remaining lance with his sword and bashed his shield against Rex’s face. Rex stumbled and grinned idiotically before he crumbled to the floor!

 “Yanmega!”  Rex’s Yanmega cried as it turned towards Ash, giving Froakie the chance to jump at it and slam a sphere of water against its right side the same second Fletchling sent two silver crescents of energy against its left side, the force of both attacks sent it to the floor!  Pikachu parried another purple blow from Golisopod with a white glowing tail before a blast of fire hit Golisopod’s back sending it stumbling forward.  Pikachu looked up and saw Fenniken glaring at Golisopod as Froakie and Fletchling surrounded the Bug-Type.  The Golisopod roared but blasts from the four Pokémon caused it to faint.

 Serena slammed the blunt end of her weapon down on the head of one the gangers as Lilith used her whip to pull one of them towards her to deliver a blow with her fist that knocked him out.  Serena looked towards Ash and smiled when she saw that he had knocked out Rex and turned when Lilith gave a sharp cry.

 “Where’s the other two!? They never got by us so where are they!?”  Lilith demanded as she looked around and Serena glanced around and noticed the tapestry on the wall was fluttering.  She clicked her tongue and gestured towards the tapestry when Lilith looked at her, receiving a nod and moving silently as their Pokémon and Ash moved towards them. Lilith raised her hand and held up three fingers and slowly lowered them until on the last she pulled the tapestry down, revealing a passage that slopped upwards.  

 “The other two must have escaped when Rex caused that flash.  You two go ahead, Froakie, Flechtling back them up.  Pikachu, with me, we’ll carry this one with us.”  Ash said as he gathered the tapestry.  Lilith shot a look at Serena and both girls nodded at each other.

 “I’ll help you wrap him up, you make sure no one surprises us Serena.”  Lilith said as she moved to help Ash as Serena took up a guard position with Fenniken standing next to her.

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 Clemont dove behind one of the buildings as a blast of fire hit where he had been standing as his Bunnelby threw blasts of mud at the Volcarona as the officers tried to handle the Pinsirs and Scythers as Jenny’s Manectric fired bolts of electricity at the Volcarona as they all tried to survive.  Clemont watched as the balls of fire intercepted the mud and electricity as the Volcarona fired streams of flame down at them, Viola and her Pokemon were doing what they could to keep it from sparking a fire on the buildings but it was a losing strategy, as soon as the inside of one of the buildings caught fire, it would be hard to stop it.

 “Yeah, we’re by the old dinner theater, that’s where their base was!  They’ve released a mad Volcarona with a pack of bipedal Bug Pokémon!  Get the Fire brigade on standby before you get over here! It’s gone mad!  I don’t like it but we might have to take it down preeminently!”  Viola was hollering into her Pokégear as she hid behind a building as her Vivillon hovered protectively above her as her Surskit fired bubbles at the one of the four fireballs, but the heat caused the water to evaporate before it reached the balls. Clemont looked at the wounds on Volcarona’s body and cursed as he looked at it.

 “This is insane!  What did he do to that Volcarona can’t be called civilized!  When I get my hands on him!”  Clemont snarled as he looked at the abused Pokémon.  Viola turned her ‘gear off and looked at Clemont with a dark look.

 “It wasn’t but I think it’s rabid, we don’t have a choice do we?”  Voila said as she looked at the Volcarona and Clemont sighed and nodded.

 “No, I don’t think we do.  Bunnelby, Mud Shot, aim for its left eye!”  Clemont commanded.  Bunnelby looked at is trainer and nodded and jumped out from behind the building, firing as it moved hoping to hit.  One shot of mud hit one of the balls of fire, causing an explosion that caused a splatter of flaming mud to hit the Volcarona’s good eye and it screamed in pain, the other two balls of fire moving erratically as it fought to stay in the air.

 “Vivillon, while it’s distracted, charge Solar Beam and fire at the right eye!”  Viola cried, Vivillon flew upwards and started to gather sunlight in a sphere above its head when one of the balls of fire shot at it and exploded when it hit the Pokémon!  Voila watched it fall to the ground and barely grabbed Vivillon’s Pokéball before Volcarona regained its barings and fired a blast of fire at the downed Bug type.

 “Vivillon return!” Voila cried, the beam hitting Vivillon seconds before the fire hit where it had crashed.  Clemont stared at where the fire had hit and looked at the Volcarona and realized something.  He wouldn’t he couldn’t.  But that’s the only thing that makes sense about this

 “It was trained to kill and only to kill.  A defeated opponent is only a target that can’t move to it.”  Clemont said with shock before he gained a glare that caused Voila to freeze for a second.   In Arceus name, what did Rex do it that thing?! What the hell was going through his head when he thought of this, did my becoming the Gym Leader really affect him or was he just good at hiding what kind of person he was? Voila stared at the Volcarona before she shook herself back to reality at the Volcarona screeched and two more balls of fire formed and started to orbit the Bug type.

 Bunnelby had moved back to hide with its trainer as Clemont looked at the fireballs as and scowled.  Those fireballs aren’t a normal move, what did he do to that Pokémon, how did he teach it to use them? Clemont’s thoughts ran in circles trying to figure out how he and Voila would survive when a pull on his pants from his Pokemon caused him to look down and give it an encouraging smile when he saw the worry on its face.

 “We’ll survive this partner, I promise.”  Clemont said right before one of the fireballs shot and hit one of the Pinsirs, barely missing the Police man who jumped backwards from trying to corral it.

  Darcy looked on from the top of a building away from the commotion with a frown on her face as she looked at the chaos Rex had unleashed.  She had to give him credit where it was due, he had hidden his final card very well, she hadn’t seen a single impression that he had a scorched earth policy in case things went away from him to the extent he would be captured. She looked towards her Zoroark and made a decision.

 “Looks like we need to get involved like that masked idiot does in Lumiose girl.  Go charge a good blast and when you’ve got a clear shot hit it in its head, than I want you to get out of there, and meet me at Rex’s place, we have to finish up dropping the last few pieces of the puzzle.”  Darcy said as her Zoroark shot her a look that made her trainer chuckle at her as she reached over and scratched its right ear.

 “Relax girl we’re far enough away and I’ll be heading to ground level and make for the town’s southern border.  Just dart in and strike and then get back to me and we go to Rex’s place to drop the last puzzle pieces.”  Darcy promised her Pokémon who nodded.  Zoroark turned and moved towards the edge of the roof and jumped to the next roof, running as soon as it landed, moving ever closer to the Volcarona as it gathered power.   Darcy looked on for a few seconds before she turned and ran for the fire escape, hoping to do what she said that she would be able to slip by the police.

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 Serena and Lilith came out into an alleyway behind a damaged building, looking around for anything that might attack them.  Ash and their Pokémon followed, Ash carrying Rex’s body wrapped in the tapestry.  Ash looked up and frowned when he noticed a glow farther back towards the right.  That was a long passage, we’ve probably moved from at least three miles from where the base is.  That over there, that has to be his contingency plan, I can’t let the girls get hurt and Lilly doesn’t have her team with her.  Froakie and Fletchling should stay here, if this scum gets away after what he did, he’ll be ever worse or have no limits on what he would do.

 “You two stay here; I’ll check and try to help out if it’s as bad as I think it is.  Froakie, Fletchling stay here and help keep that one locked down.”  Ash said as Pikachu jumped onto Ash’s shoulder before Ash moved towards the fire.

 “Ash, no you can’t go alone!” Serena said before Lilith grabbed her shoulder.  When Serena looked back at her Lilith only shook her head.

 “He and Pikachu have the experience to help deal with whatever this scum let loose and we have to watch him.”  Lilith said as Ash ran towards the light, praying that he would be okay.  Even if you not who I think you are Ash, you’re one of the good ones out here. You’d better be okay.  Lilith thought as she and Serena started to guard Rex.

  Ash ran and looked upwards, hoping that he wouldn’t see any fires on the buildings and that Serena and Lilly would be okay.  He looked up as he came towards where the sound was and saw Policemen being attacked by Bug Types, a Volcarona that looked abused rampaging and there was Clemont and Voila.

 Pikachu, get high up there and use Thunder!”  Ash commanded as Pikachu jumped off his shoulder and started to climb up a nearby pipe he jumped to.  As Pikachu moved upwards Ash raised his shield and moved towards Clemont.

 “Clemont, what’s happening!” Ash demanded as he huddled with Clemont and Voila.  They turned towards him in shock.

 “Ash! Wait, where are the girls!?”  Clemont demanded as soon as he saw him.  Ash pointed back the way he had come and smirked.

 “Back there keeping watch on the boss of these bastards.  And I really can’t wait to hear about what’ll happen to him for that.  Pikachu will attack from above; we just need to take this thing down.”  Ash said as he looked at the Volcarona as it screeched. Ash looked as a bolt of electricity hit the Volcarona. Volcarona screeched and two of the fireballs orbiting it flew towards where the blast had come from.  After the blast hit the roof another blast of electricity shot towards Volcarona but the last fireball intercepted it.  It screeched and another fireball formed when suddenly a blast hit the deadeye from the side, blasting apart its good eye and sending it to the ground where it whispered for a few seconds before going still as blood poured from the wound.  The other Bug types ran away, each of them running towards the outskirts.

 “All officers with ID end with even numbers, after them, don’t let them make it to the center of town!   All other go into the restaurant and start rounding up the Buzz Lords!”  Jenny called out as

 “Pikachu, find where that blast came from!  The girls are over there back about three miles behind a building with a broken red sign on a post.”  Ash called as he started to climb up a ladder, Jenny and Voila following him as Clemont ran towards the girls.  Pikachu jumped onto the building Ash was climbing and moved towards where the blast had come from and when he got onto the roof he started to sniff the air. Ash got onto the roof and moved towards Pikachu and helped Voila and Jenny to get onto the roof.  He saw Pikachu with his tail raised up and moved towards him, dropping besides him and looked at what he had found.

 “What is it?”  Voila asked as she and Jenny joined Ash and watched as he picked up some red fur and handed it to Jenny.

 “A Pokémon with red hair that could fire a Hyper Beam, afraid that doesn’t narrow down the lists down does it, and heck it could have been wild.”  Ash said as he walked back towards the roof’s edge.  

 Jenny looked at the fur and removed a small evidence bag and put it in it, before she looked towards the edge and saw police van’s coming towards the area, the reinforcements that she had called for cleanup, and beyond them were two fire trucks.  She watched as he started to climb down, Pikachu jumping onto Ash’s shoulder as he climbed.

 “You and the rest of your group are going to the hospital Mr. Ketchum, do you understand me!” Jenny called out as Voila went next. They never heard the patter of feet as something moved about the roof and jumped away.

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  A large helicopter flew through the skies as clouds moved above it.  In the cockpit of the helicopter a humanoid figure wearing a mask over its face and in a robe looked out the window and moved away, leaving the cockpit empty of anyone as it walked towards the hold.   Finally the figure reached a door and opened it and entered. Inside 6 three foot tall humanoid forms were being held up by scaffolding   descending from the ceiling of the room. At one of the humanoids a second figure in a robe and mask was finish manipulating something in the humanoid’s chest and turned to the figure that had just entered the room.

 “Final data-slave to Observer installation finished.  All mobile units ready for operation/LHT01.”  The second figure said robotically to the first.  The first looked over the figures and turned to the second.

 “Observer upgrades and installation of cleanup module finished to parameters?” The first enquired as it turned back to the second.

 “Affirmative, time to reach site less than 5 minutes.  All know local combatants loaded into hard drives of test units. Directives if trainers or others encountered included as per last revision of operation plan. ”The second robed figure said flatly as the helicopter started to slow down as they reached their target zone.   The helicopter slowed down and descended to hover above a clearing far from any human made structures.  As the helicopter hovered over the area six coverings opened on the underside, from which the six humanoids were lowered to the ground.  A shaft of moonlight caused the figures to be seen by anything that was watching.  The figures were robots that had a single camera lens on their head behind a glass visor that covered the top of their face while their bodies were colored a uniform grey.   They had normal looking arms with a box on the tops of them and four fingers in a cross formation with an opening in the center of both palms. Their legs had two wheels on both sides of them for a total of four and the front of their feet were a sharp blade. The robots dropped the last three feet to the ground and their camera lens started to pan back and forth until the six units started to charge into the woods. As the units charged off a metallic saucer detached from the side of the helicopter and flew off in the same direction as the units{[Observer]}, silently recording everything they did. In a room within the helicopter the vision of all six robots was up on six monitors as the two robbed figure watched in total silence as they recorded all the data.

 “So far real world data of unit performance follows projected values.  Data based on weapon performance only unknown factor.”  The second said as they watched the units move through the underbrush.

 “Real world combat data retrieval one of reasons for test.  Local life forms will test all parameters to necessary extent to allow for design limits to be shown.” The first observed as the units came upon their first targets, a wolf pack 15 strong eating the remains of a wild pig.  The monitors started to display bio data the sensor data from the Observer on the over watch.  

 “Life forms designation Canis lupus feeding on killed life form Sus scrofa, suggestion battle with emotional motivator.”  The second said flatly to the first.  The first looked at the data on the wolves and sent a command to the units in the field. The monitors cycled through the individual wolves and stopped on three pups that had been shielded from the sight of the camera by two of the wolves and the bio data on how healthy the whole pack was displayed alongside the pups. After a few minutes of looking over the data a wolf on the screen turned towards the camera and growled, causing the pack to look up from their meal and the one of them, the leader to stalk towards the units.

 “Affirmative, combat incentive approved.  Send directive to begin with motivational incentive on youngest target.”  The first said as a targeting icon highlighted one of the pups.

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The wolf leader growled at the units as the other members of the pack started to move from the kills to the sides of their leader, backing it up.  As it growled at the robots the front one raised one of its arms towards the pack.  Something passes by the leader’s muzzle a second before two of the pups cry out and starts to whine as the pack turns to the noise, see the smallest pup collapsed on the ground, a red hole in its head.  The leader stares as the two other pups start to nudge the third, before it bares its teeth and howled before it sprang at the units, half the pack following the leader with the rest running away, grabbing the two pups as they ran away from the battle.

 The leader charge alone at the one that had fired a shot as each of the other units found themselves under attack from two wolves each.  The Leader barreled into the unit that fired and pushed it to the ground, snapping at the face of the unit.  It moved its arms and grabbed the wolf, the wolf struggling to get at the head.  The unit tried to get the leader off it but the wolf used it front legs to keep the units arms down and kept trying to bit through the arm that had fired the shot that had killed one of its own.  The unit’s self-diagnostic showed that the arm was near the point of being torn off and choose an action that might have saved it. A micro explosion went off in its shoulder and was pushed off the main body, the wolf overextended itself and went lopsided, freeing the unit’s remaining arm and with a swift motion it grabbed the wolf’s head amd fired a point blank shot, killing the pack’s leader and looked toward the other units.  Two of the other units were down, one of them had its head torn off the body, and the other had its legs torn off and the last three the units were back to back, firing shots at the wolves as they circled the units, one of them was missing its right arm and all three had scratches and gorges on their bodies that sparked, showing internal circuits in places.  The unit raised its remaining arm and shot three quick shots, killing two of the wolves and wounding two more.  The wolves saw their leader was dead and dashed off in different directions disappearing from the sight of the units.  The other three units converged on the first and waited in a diamond formation looking out into the woods as their masters conversed.

 “Unit strength at 60%. Action choice limited to either continuing the test or retrieve units and return to base.   Test has shown upgrades needed to design, combat has not followed projected outcome.  Redesign of unit is recommended.”  The second figure stated to the first as they watched on the monitors, two of them black with their data source inactive.  The first robbed absorbed all the data coming in and noticed an alert from the Observer and made a decision.

 “The recovery of the test units was not prioritized as critical part of test, pushing design to limits is greatest priority.  Scanner data shows two high combat life forms moving towards battle site.   Test units are to attack with Alpha Strike and Observer unit is to fall back to medium range of data slave and return when unit strength drops to below 16%.”  The first ordered, causing the units to leave the kills in the clearing.  Orders sent the view screens on showed the units moving off into the woods, moving in the direction of what the Observer had detecting, the units preparing themselves for combat

 After the sounds of the units had died down; a bush by one of the dead pigs moved as a small looking Goblin got up and looked upon the carnage.  It had been hoping to grab something to bring back to its Sire and when it found the wolves feeding it had hoped just to get away alive. It looked at the dead wolves and moved towards the dead pup, looking it over and started to claw at the hole the unit’s shot had made, if it wanted to get the credit for the kills, then it {[Salvager]} needed to doctor what kills it brought back, not much but enough to make the others think that it had killed them.

 Broken Sting thundered through the woods as Dark Flare guarded their back as they moved towards where they had heard the howl from.  They had been looking for a place to spend the night when they had heard the howl and moved to investigate.  They had begun moving when they had heard it, they had run into the pack they thought it came from and anything that could cause the pack’s leader to howl like that had to be faced while it was hurt if, if the two of them waited for it to recover then they might be the ones who would be killed next!  When they came across part of the pack, they didn’t even reacting to their presence as they charged by, ignoring the wolves as they barreled past them.   Dark Flare saw something ahead of them and dodged to the left, an instant telling it to dodge something that hit a tree behind it, creating a circular indentation in the tree.   Four grey figures were revealed to the Chimera, one only had one arm and it was raised in a line with the damaged tree.  Dark Flare wasted no time and fired a blast of flame from its mouth at the figures, but the one with only one arm lunged to the side and aimed at Broken Sting, the others stopped moving after the flames hit.  Broken Sting wasted no time and fired two blasts of water from its claws at the grey figure and Dark Flare fired its own flames, joining the blast form Broken Sting, after they stopped firing they saw the figure was now nothing more than a mass of melted something that smelt unappetizing.  The two Chimera looked at the other three figures still not moving and Broken Sting poked the closest one, sending it backwards into the others, all of them falling to the ground.  Dark Flare looked at Broken Sting and both sent a feeling of confusion towards the other before they moved on.

 They finally reached a clearing with a dead pig and the corpses of two wolves.  Dark Flare looked at the ground and saw blood splatter on the ground and showed two sources of blood were dragged away into the woods away from where they had battled the grey figures. Dark Flare sent a feeling of confusion to Broken Sting, where was the leader, it hadn’t been with the others and it wasn’t here, so where was it? They looked around and turned Dark Flare motioned towards the wolves and Broken Sting sent a feeling of ‘no’ towards it, they would leave the wolves where they were, they had stayed behind to either avenge the source of the source of the blood on the ground so they would leave them where they had fallen.  As the two of them moved out of the clearing, Broken Sting grabbed the pig’s corpse as they passed, waste not wants not after all.

 After they had left the area Deadeye walked into the clearing from the direction of where it had been watching the battle the two Chimera had with the grey things.  The Flame Horn that its sire wanted dead had a good leader, but it was as weak as the fool Protector. But the grey things had caused a hole to form in a tree far away, another kind of those things the grey creatures where it had eaten the fruit had, something to look into.  Deadeye looked over the corpses and grinned, they had left such good food behind and it could use them, it walked towards the remaining wolf bodies and spat some of the black liquid onto one and took a bit from it, it sensed what the wolf could give it but choose to not change at all quickly consumed both corpses before it started to walk back towards its sire’s cave.  It would lose all the chances to kill its sire if it changed now but it would hunt down the rest of the wolves in the area in the future, it would take what it sensed from them latter.   Deadeye walked away from the clearing, never noticing while it had been eating that the Observer had been watching it before the Observer had left.

 The large helicopter moved off from where it had been hovering and started to move backwards on the course it had flown.  The Observer flew towards it and docked, within the craft the two figure were moving cataloging all the data.

 “Test unit current configuration is inefficient in current configuration.  Critical weakness identified, internal circuitry need to be protected from damage that breaches unit-armor.  Secondary weakness identified; close combat ability below projected values. Tertiary weakness, armor two weak to handle combat. Possible improvements; increase in movement abilities, increase in reaction time, close combat weapon, increase in armor strength or change material used. ” The second robbed figure said as the first stopped and looked over the data collected on the wolves. It looked at the wolf pack leader as it charged at the camera and went over the combat data and made a decision.

 “Possible weapon platform identified.  Test results to be logged and possible improvements to be planned on test unit for next live test.  We shall return to base to begin.”  The first robbed figure said as the helicopter traveled silently through the sky.

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Riley lead the way with his Lucario as the five of them moved down the mountain, Cameron was watching their back and Brock and Rosette were in the middle of the party as they moved as fast and as safely as they could.  So far they hadn’t been attacked by anything but so the mountain was silent so either the animals detected danger or they were all dead.  

 “We’ve got to find them soon!” Brock snarled as he looked over his shoulder as he followed the people who had saved him down the mountain.  The Chimera that had retreated still left a bitter taste in his mouth but he had to find Yuji, Kunz might have killed him by now.  And he was still feeling weak from whatever had happened to him earlier.  Looking at his waist he cursed that he had only brought three Pokémon with him, if he had only brought Crobat or Ludicolo with him, then he might be able to do more!

 “Don’t worry Brock, we’ll find them and get off this mountain, or at least we’ll set up camp somewhere where we can defend ourselves.”  Riley’s words caused him to look up and sigh.  When the four of them had left the campsite they had heard a few cries farther up the mountain,

 “It’s not just that, a hurricane is due to hit soon, within the next few days if we’re lucky, tomorrow if we’re not.”  Brock said as he navigated down the path, not noticing that Cameron had stopped and paled in horror.  

 “A hurricane, you went up here knowing something was wrong when a hurricane was coming?!”  He demanded as Brock nodded at him.  The other two were looking at him, waiting to hear why Brock had taken such a risk.

 “The number of Chimera was a surprise I admit; I thought at most it would be a small group of them. But the hurricane was why I’m here in the first place.”  Brock said as they walked towards a small forest on the mountain plateau.  

 “How so, what caused you to come up here?”  Rosette asked as she looked around for any sign of the Chimera that had attacked them had returned.

 “A spore is causing an outbreak among the Pokémon in Viridian City, wind patterns showed the source was up here.  I dealt with something like that before and the source was a Chimera that used them to hunt, so I thought it might have been something like that.  The wind was the only thing that could account for the wide spread infection and the fact that it was the worst near the mountains was the final point to it.  If we didn’t have a cure or eliminated the source before the hurricane hit the area, I don’t want to guess what could happen.”  Brock said grimly as they moved towards the trees.

 “How bad is the outbreak?” Rosette asked in worry her sister was in Viridian damn it!

 “It’s been debilitating so far, but so far it doesn’t seem to be terminal thankfully.   The symptoms are different for each species of Pokémon, but the one thing is that they can’t move because of how weak they are.  We found a Chimera that looked like it came from the same source as those things that attacked my camp before you arrived, and the same as what attacked your cabin Ms. Zargo.”  Brock explained before they heard something ahead of them.  

 “Incoming! Everyone get off the path!”  Riley bellowed as he grabbed Rosette and Cameron grabbed Brock and they jumped to the side out of view of anything coming at them while Lucario jumped into a tree and was ready to strike at anything.  After a few moments a rider on a Rapidash came into view that caused Brock to stiffen.

 “That’s Kunz, why is he alone?”  Brock asked with worry.  Cameron pulled out a Local Gear and pressed a button before he passed it to Brock gestured to him to speak into it.  Brock shot him a look and Cameron swiftly explained.

 “Master Riley has a throw away one set to broadcast; he just threw it to a bush near him.  This is and old trick we’ve used before to handle wild animals that we had to hunt, this way we can test just why he’s alone, trust us with this Brock.” Cameron whispered at him, Brock looked down at the Gear and made a decision.

 Kunz rode his Rapidash through the woods with no care to what might get in their way.  Already since he had left Yuji to his fate they had run down a few Pokémon, no doubt trying to escape the Chimera, now that had been pleasant.  Hopefully that Gym brat put up a long enough fight to buy me enough time to get away or those wild things will be enough to feed them.  If everything is working perfectly then she will be around here to get out of this nightmare mountain!

 “KUNZ, Where’s Yuji!” Brock’s voice came from a bush ahead and that brought a savage grin to his face.  So maybe I could handle Brock after all.  I always like it when I could finish them and watch their flesh burn to ashes.

 “Rapidash, Fire Blast! Full power at that bush; let’s roast him!”  He commanded with a cruel tone.  His Rapidash breathed a full stream of fire that had only just hit the bush before a ball of blue energy missed them by inches from above as a trainer glowing blue burst out of cover from the opposite direction and aimed an open hand at him and fired a blue sphere at him.  He hugged Rapidash’s neck, dodging the sphere and wincing when he felt something pass by his head, hearing the sound of a bullet hitting a tree to his side.  An ambush! They must have been with that failed Gym Leader!  And that one’s a wilder, I gotta get out of here and tell the others!  He thought with worry as he looked and noticed a Lucario in a tree lining up on him and his Pokémon.

 “Flame Charge, we’re out of here!”  Kun roared before flames envelope him and his Rapidash as they increased speed and blew past the area, dodging bullets and blasts of energy as they went.  Kunz let the flames die out before he looked back and snarled as he realized that Agalia had failed, and that a wilder was with Brock! He had to get back and worn report what had happened, the ability to use Aura can’t become basic knowledge, that would led to the downfall of humanity, that was against all that the Order had fought against for years, he wouldn’t fail!

 Brock looked where Kunz and Rapidash had speed off to and shook his head.  I had hoped they were wrong, but if I had called out to him he would had had his Pokémon attack me with lethal intent, and it obeyed without a thought! Just who the hell did Karin send up with us? Once was a surprise, but twice is enemy action.  I’m going to be looking over my shoulder for months.

 “So they were working together, and here I was hoping she was alone.”  Brock said as Cameron patted his shoulder.  Riley and Rosette came towards them.  Riley had a frown on his face and a resolute look on his face.

 “I’m sorry Brock, but I need to ask where those two came from and how they joined you’re expedition.” Riley said with a hard solemn voice.  Brock just sighed and looked at him, wondering if Riley and the others would believe who had sent them.  

 “They came on the recommendation of Karin of the Elite Four.  I know how hard that might be to believe….” Brock said only to stop when Riley started to shake his head with a scowl.

 “Not as hard as you’d believe Brock.  I’ll tell you why when we reach safety.  We need to find this Yuji is, but we can’t risk our safety we’ll keep looking but we have to get out of here alive, I’m sorry.”  Riley said with a hard look on his face.  Brock looked like he wanted to argue but he could only nodded at Riley’s words.

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 Yuji looked behind them as he and his Rhydon ran through the woods, they had left the clearing and he had been worried that some other group of those things would attack them.  So far they hadn’t been yet but he was had seen enough of them back at the cave that he was concerned that they might have sent another party after him.  He was worried about the way that explosion had happened after whatever or whoever had happened to kill the Chimera’s leader.  All he had to do was make it back to Brock and get off the mountain and tell the League to send in the Calvary.  All I have to do get this information and sample to back to the League, and then I’ll stay in Viridian and help defend the town against the Chimera up here.  There is no doubt in my mind that there is a connection to the outbreak with the Chimera here, I’ve seen at least four different variants of them so it’s not too far out there for the source to have been another strain we haven’t seen yet. And then there’s that bastard Kunz, why the hell did he do that!?  Who the hell does he work for that he had to kill me!  And how long will it be before they send more of themselves after us, are they trying to get that larger one somewhere safe first then they’ll come at use? What is that thing to them; listen to me, as if they can plan of all things!  ‘Chimera are nothing more than mad beasts waiting to be put down’ yeah right!  The way they fought in that clearing casts a lot of doubt on that fact!  Yuji thought with a snarl on his face as he led the way through the forest, hoping that any stray sound he heard wasn’t one of those things leading a group against them.

 Sounds ahead of them to the right caused him to signal his Rhydon to stop moving.   He moved as quietly as possible and stopped at a tree to sneak a look at and saw an unknown man in blue with a Lucario and gritted his teeth. Is he one of Kunz’s friends?  We haven’t seen anyone since we came up these mountains.  So who the hell is he?  Yuji gripped his mace and wondered if he should attack him when the bushes behind him moved and Brock led two more people out of it.  Yuji sighed with relief and cleared his throat loudly, causing Brock and the others to turn and see him.  Brock seemed to decompress a bit and looked relieved at seeing him

 “Yuji, thank Arceus your safe!  When we ran into Kunz I feared he’d killed you!” Brock exclaimed in happiness.

 “All he did was have his Combusken fire a blast above a cave and bring the mountain down on a group of Chimera that looked a lot like that corpse we found at the Cabin farther down the mountain!  We’ve got problems boss, these things have at least four variants, and one of them explodes when they die!”  Yuji said as he waved back towards

 “The campsite we were setting up was hit by a pack of them, made up of two variants, a few of those exploding ones leading at least five each of another variant.  After the last exploder was killed the others retreated and then Agalia tried to kill me.  She would’ve gotten away with it if these people hadn’t come across the campsite!” Brock said as he kept just why she had wanted him dead from Yuji.  He starred when Yuji’s Rhydon came into view, carrying its cargo.  Yuji saw what they were looking at and grinned at them.

 “Yeah, I got away but not before five of them started to chase us.  Fought our way to this clearing and the exploder held back and let the others attack us.  Something killed it while we were dealing with the other four.  This one was the most intact so we brought it back with us, figured that maybe you could learn from this like the other one.”  Yuji explained as he shrugged his shoulders with a smirk.  A loud explosion sounded father back in the woods caused them all to tense and group back to back, after a few seconds Riley move in the direction of the path Brock and Yuji had gone up to come onto the mountain’s plateau.

 “Whatever that was we should move, if we have a sample of the other attacker strain then we have to get back to Viridian, we have to at least get the head back; I assume the brain is still ‘good’?”  Riley asked Yuji as the other started to follow behind him.

 “Maybe, I stabbed it in the center of its head, fast and quick and partially so maybe it’ll be okay. And he’s right, we should leave this place, if that explosion is from a leader strain then any of the other things are no more then made animals now.”  Yuji said as he looked behind him, not noticing a branch high in a tree farther back moving up and down as if something had jumped off it.

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  Shadow had heard the same shrill and moved towards it through the trees as the others ran down the mountain.  If the Chimera had found the group he would fight them off until he was sure they could get away, if the Chimera were attacking one of the two Order members then he would kill them and let the Chimera have the corpses for a meal.  He jumped from tree to tree and stopped when he reached a clearing he stopped on the branch and looked down and swore in his mind at what he saw.

 A Nidorino stood in front of an Alpha with five Warriors spread out behind it.  He saw a crater behind the Nidorino with body parts from an Alpha nearby and an injured Nidorina was near the hole in the ground, trying to get back to her feet with one eye closed.  A Clefairy had its hands on the Nidorina, releasing multiple multicolored waves of energy into her as it watched Nidorino stare down the Chimera. He looked over the scene and saw the corpses of five other warriors and noticed at the Nidorino had a few marks on its body, taking a quick look at the Clefairy and noting the wounds on it he nodded as he realized what had happened.  So at least two parties of these things were here, if there strength was the same as the one that attacked Yuji then it was a leader and four soldiers each, what was the target, the one of them or the little one.  If it was the little one then these things are after a healing ability, that’s all kinds of bad for everyone around here.  Shadow thought as he looked at the battle and noticed one of the Warriors was backing up, seeming to retreat but from where Shadow was he saw a path around to hit the Clefairy from behind.  Time to step in.   He thought as the retreating Warrior had moved then feet from the confrontation between the Nidorino and Alpha and decided to intervene.

 “Noivern, Rattata GO! Noivern, Boomburst on the three Chimera near the one with the horn, Rattata Flame Charge on the one trying to escape!” Shadow barked as he released his two Pokémon and jumped upwards, throwing the Pokéballs towards the ground, releasing them and when he landed he threw two throwing knives at the Alpha.  Noivern’s ears glowed white and a blast of powerful sound waves were shot at the three Warriors, blowing them away from the Alpha and the!  At the same time Rattata charged at the other Warrior, its body being engulfed in flames as it charged and jumped at that the Warrior, the Warrior tried to dodge but Rattata charged through its right arm, severing it.  Nidorino had hardly been ideal, as the Alpha was stunned for a second it opened its mouth and fired a purple dart that shot at the Alpha, but the Alpha moved at the last second to the right but its left eye was hit!  As it looked around it noticed that the Boomburst had killed two of it subordinate and only had one arm left.  

 “KKKKRRR!”  It shrilled and charged away from the area, the surviving Chimera following behind it.  Shadow saw his two Pokémon were looking at the other Pokémon three in the clearing and saw the Nidorina moving to stand by the Nidorino as the Clefairy peaked at Shadow from behind the other two.  He gestured at his Pokemon and moved towards them, dropping three Heal Balls before the wild Pokemon.

 “Those three are Heal Balls, they’ll help you all heal and make it so I can carry you down the mountain easier.  Once you’ve healed up I’ll let you go or you can decide if you want to go back to the wild or stay with me and my friends.”  Shadow said as he stepped backwards to let them decide on their own.  He saw that the Nidorina and Clefairy were on the edge of doing so while the Nidorino didn’t trust him.  Nothing to do but to show them all why they can trust me.  Shadow thought as he undid some of his armor, revealing his bare hands and willed a purple glow form around it to the wild Pokémon’s shock. He clasped his hands together bowed to the three before he made a small vow.

 “I swear by my power and by my heart, I will release you three when you are healed once we are off this mountain range.”  He said solemnly.  The Nidornia nudge the Nidorino and when he turned to her she nodded at him before she walked and touch one of the balls, let it ‘capture’ her.  The Clefairy jumped and dashed towards another ball and as soon as it ‘captured’ it the Nidorino sighed and nodded at Shadow before it walked to the last ball.  As soon as the balls closed Shadow picked them up and put the three balls into pockets on his suit, until he held Nidorino’s ball in his hand.

 “Thank you for trusting me.” Shadow said as he put Nidorino away. He recalled Rattata and gestured for Noivern to get down so he could get on its back.  As Noivern took to the sky a crash to towards the mountain peak caught his attention, turning his head once Noivern started to hover he saw trees starting to fall in a line towards where he had left the expedition.

 Agalia breathed a little easier as her Pyroar started to move over level ground, grass underfoot as they left the rocky terrain of the mountains.  They hadn’t seen anything for the last few hours and soon they would get within range of a signal booster so she could send the signal to a Cleaner in Viridian to deal with the other members of the expedition.  It was too bad that I couldn’t handle that Gym Leader but I have to let the others know that a damned GUARDIAN is still alive!  I thought that the Order had killed off those heretics years ago!  We lost half our leadership and still one of them is alive!  Once milady Karin lets the others know her standing will rise higher than that whore and she’ll let us kill that pagan and executed her bastard spawn! And I will rise higher with her, eventual becoming one of the Lords as she rises to become the Empress!

 Agalia was so drunk on the future that she never noticed an Observer was following her ever since she had used her Fire Aura abilities.  As they passed the mouth of a side trail three figures in body suits on motorcycles raced after her.  One of them pushed a button on one of their bikes handle bars and a blast of electricity shot at Aracanine, but it jumped over a log in the path and the shot missed, hitting the log and destroying it with a boom!  

 Agalia turned her head at the sound and paled as she saw the group riding after them.  FUCK!! Who the hell are these bastards, a gang out for an easy score wouldn’t….what made that explosion just now?  Normal bikes don’t have weapons on them and they have no Pokémon out, so how?!  Agalia thought as she looked over her shoulder. She was shocked when she saw a bike fire a blast of electricity from the light on the front.

 “Pyroar; dodge to the left, now!”  Pyroar lunged to the left as another ball of electricity shot by them.  The bikers chased after Pyroar silently, and when it tried to go onto uneven ground to escape them the bikes speed up to decrease the distant between them as Pyroar thundered on, trying to get away from their pursers. As they dashed past trees and rocks she looked back and cursed as the bikers kept pace with them.  Who the hell are these scumbags!?  Where’d they get their transportation, was that an Elecro-Ball launcher?  Who are they to have tech like that!  Agalia thought as she tried to make as small a target as possible as more balls shot by her head as they tried to escaped the bikers.

 Suddenly a ball hit them from the front, shocking them and causing Pyroar’s legs to lock up and trip, throwing Agalia to the ground as the riders surrounded them,

 “So you got us into a battle, we’ll I won’t be easy prey! Burn them all, Turtonator!”  She roared as she released a large bipedal, turtle-like Pokémon with a spiny shell with fin-like projections on the shell and tail and had muted green skin on its head and limbs.  The bikers looked at her and drew forth black balls that they threw and released two Blastoise with metal spikes around the mouths of their canons and arms that ended in metal spears and a Golduck with reversed metal legs and large claws between its fingers on both hands.  Agalia looked at the Pokemon as her Pyroar tried to fight off the paralysis and while his trainer stared in shock. What the hell are these things, who are these bikers?  She took a step back as she looked at the creatures facing her as one of the Blastoise aimed one of its canon and shot a blast of water at Turtonator as the other one shot a pale blast of energy at Turtonator from its arms that froze the Fire Type in a block of ice.  Before she could react the Golduck was next to her and pierced her body with the claws and delivered a shock that knocked her out.  The Golduck moved towards Pyroar and repeated the action it had done, knocking out the Pokémon as one of the bikers moved and pulled out a small container and drew out two syringes that it injected first the trainer, then her Pokémon.  A large truck pulling a container with eight wheels came towards them and pulled up. From the truck four Machokes that seemed to be wearing armor on its limbs came and loaded up Agalia and her Pokémon into the truck and as the doors closed the bikers recalled their Pokémon and drove off, guarding the large truck as they moved into Johto.

 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

  The party had been moving towards the pathway Brock had lead his group up the mountain earlier, moving faster as they heard crashes in the distance.  Riley looked back and cursed when he saw a tree fall at the edge of their sight. If that’s another Chimera group like Kunz this situation is a lot worse than I thought. We have to get the Intel back to Viridian, it’s the closest city and the probably the swarms first target; we can’t let them face it without any warning.  Riley heard another tree fall and looked back, seeing another, closer tree fall onto another and push it down and Riley forced himself to speed up.

 “Brock, how far are we from the path you took to the plateau?!”  Riley demanded as they ran.  Brock looked around and then looked over his shoulder at Riley.

 “We’re almost there, a few more minutes and we made it!”  Brock called back as the sound of another tree falling reached the group. Riley looked back and thought he saw a flash of black at the edge of his vision and made a choice.  He stopped and drew forth a Pokéball and released his Lucario. When he heard the others stopping he turned and looked at them.

 “Keep moving, I’ll hold them off!  Cameron, get them out of here and watch the skies!”  Riley called and with a look of worry Cameron grabbed Brock and Yuji’s arms and pulled them towards the path.   Rosetta drew her guns and released her  Aracanine, moving to stand next to Riley who turned his head to shot her a questioning look, only for her to scoff.

 “I might not have been high up in the guards but I know tactics, we can hold them better as two and my guns could hit the leaders of these things, might take a few out and make it easier for us.”  Rosetta said as she aimed her guns into the trees and started to fire into the woods. An explosion a few seconds later a Warrior head flew through the air to land before them.  Riley looked at the head before he looked up and readied himself, forming a glow around his hands and feet as 4 Warriors charged at them from the woods.

 Brock looked behind him as the explosion, never stopping as Cameron pulled him along.

 “Come on Brock, Master can handle a few Bugs; we’ve got to get away so when those two fall back we don’t all die!”  Cameron said as he pulled Brock along, fighting to keep his face from showing how worried he was.  

 “What did he mean by watch the skies… tell me those things can’t fly!”  Yuji demanded as he followed after the other two.  Cameron gained slight winced before he replayed.

 “We’ve only come across one of them when the two of us rescued Rosette, so we don’t know how many of them there are.”  Cameron’s words caused Yuji to look behind him as they moved along, a feeling of worry in him as they moved.  It didn’t help that with every step, fading out and fading in second by second, he could feel something above them.  Yuji looked at Rhydon and noticed his Pokémon was on edge and was looking around.  He snapped his head towards a feeling ahead of them and blanched at what he saw.

 “Well there’s four of them ahead of us!”  Yuji said, causing Brock and to stop and look forward and saw four Chimera that looked like normal Warriors with only two legs and bee like wings{[Warriorfly]} hover in front of the path downward looking towards Viridian.  At Yuji’s cru]y caused them to turn and start to move towards them slowly.  Cameron reacted fast and released two Pokémon as he willed a blue glow to form around his hands

 “Ferrothorn, Lucario lets fight!  Ferrothorn stay back and protect the guy with the hammers, Yuji, I need you to back us up!”   Cameron said as his Lucario dashed and jumped at one of the Warriorfly and jumped at it, spinning as it did so to deal a devastating downward kick at its target, cracking the Winged Warrior’s head as it connected.  The other three Chimera flew upwards and started to fire Poison Needle attacks at the party, with Ferrothorn forming green screen the needles bounced off. Yuji saw the Chimera start to move towards the open air and cursed as he realized what they were doing, and then he realized how they were doing it.

 “There’s one of the leader strains around here, we need to find it!” Yuji called as he started looking around as Rhydon looked away from the Warriorfly and started to look for the Alpha leading the other Chimera.  Brock looked around as he held his hammers and cursed Agalia for her sneak attack, if he still had his team they could have helped out more. Suddenly something crashed into him and pushed him to the ground.  He looked up into the face of the Alpha and dropped his hammers to grab the Chimera’s arms to keep them from piercing his body.  As he struggled he saw Cameron move towards him when Yuji stopped him.

 “When those things die, they exploded, remember?!  We’ve got to get it away from Brock without killing it!”  Yuji said as he looked at Brock as he struggled with the Chimera.  Yeah, no kidding but that’s going to be harder than it looks!  I have to keep these stingers away from me and not die by killing this thing.  Brock thought as he tried to keep the Chimera from biting him.  None of them noticed that Brocks eyes started to release a brown glow before glowing rocks formed around his upper arms and hands, forming a hard covering around his hands and down a bit of the Chimera’s stingers. Brock’s eyes widened and as the Chimera tried to move at him closer to bit at him but the rocks covered limbs refused to move.  How the hell did that… did I do this?  Brock wondered as he looked at the rocks covering his arms and part of the Chimera’s stingers.

 “I’ll slice, you throw Noivern!”  A voice called out before something sliced through the arms of the Chimera and a black shape that flashed by over Brock’s head and grabbed the Alpha and threw it into the open air.  Before the Chimera could recover a knife hit its head and as it fell away it exploded. Brock was in shock as the rocks on his arms slowly dropped off as he looked up and saw a figure in a black covered bodysuit move his arm away from a throwing position and looked at him as his vision darkened.

  “Brock! Rhydon Stone Blast multiple targets, fire” Yuji cried as he and Cameron saw Brock collapse to the ground.  Rhydon roared and three rings of glowing white rocks formed around its body before the rocks shot at the flying Chimera, piercing the bodies of two of them and scaring the other two off.  Yuji turned to look at Brock and saw Lucario leap to land between Brock and the bodysuit wearing figure, Yuji moved to check on Brock’s health as Cameron moved to stand by his Lucario.  The figure raised its hands before it spoke

 “Don’t be too hasty, I’m a friend, who do you think killed the leader when they corned your friend in that clearing.”  The figure said as it drew a knife and showed it to them.  Yuji stared as he remembered what he found before he and his Rhydon left clearing with the remains in their possession.

 “You killed it, I never saw you, were you spying on me?!”  Yuji demanded as he looked at the man as the Noivern took flight and flew back towards Riley and Rosetta.  The figure moved after it before looking back at them over his shoulder.

 “Not on you, the one who abandoned you after he poked the Chimera, I followed you in case you needed help.  It’s a long story as to why and I’ll tell your group after Brock-san wakes up.  And you two stay here; he needs someone to watch him as he recovers so I’ll go help the other two.  And please, call me Shadow.”  The named Shadow said as he moved into the darkening gloom, Cameron and Yuji only looked at each other as Ferrothorn moved to stand by them.

  Riley bashed another Warrior as he looked at the battle.  Rosetta was still blast away, but has signaled that she only had a flew clips left, the first four Warriors had been dealt easily with then eight more had charged at them and then Arcanine had shot flames at one of them, but it missed and caused a wildfire to start, but thankfully that cut off anymore reinforcements but the wind would blow the smoke towards them soon.  All they had to do was survive the Warriors and hoped they could make it before the fire got them.  He threw himself to the sides as a Warrior jumped at where he was, missing him by inches. He looked at the battle, seeing Lucario using Bone Rush in both of its hands to bash Chimera while Rosetta shot at a Warrior tying to stab at Arcainine on the same side she was on and frowned for a second, he didn’t understand what he was seeing before he realized what the Chimera were trying to do.  He looked at Rosetta and cursed as he saw her dodged away from Arcainine before he called to her.

 “There’re trying to divide us!  Stay with your partner!  Lucario get to them!”  Rily’s call caused Rosetta to look at her partner and shot at a Chimera that tried to move between her and her Pokémon, blowing off the Warrior’s right lance at the shoulder.  Arcainine bit down the Warrior’s neck and threw the body at another Warrior before it fired a blast of fire at one more that was trying to charge its trainer, hitting it right in the face, destroying its eyes.  As it struggled and shook itself Riley jumped and sliced down with a right, cracking one of the lance of the blinded Warrior and jumped off it, landing next to Rosetta who shot the blinded Warrior, hitting it.

 “We haven’t taken out a single one of their leaders, how are they seeing this to command them?!” Rosetta snarled as she put one of her guns away to get a new clip into the other, firing as soon as it clicked in. She’s right, where are those things!?  Riley wondered as he looked around.  Two of the Warriors started to move towards them when two streaks flew past them and the two Warriors slumped to the ground!  He looked and Riley saw two throwing knives stuck in their foreheads, dripping their blood as the bodies lay there.  Riley stared as something jumped through the smoke as a Noivern suddenly appeared and sliced through two of the Warriors with white glowing wings.  Two explosions behind the fire proceeded the last two Warriors to start fighting each other before two knives hit them in the back of their heads as a figure in a black bodysuit landed before Riley and Rosetta.  As the Noivern made soft noises at its trainer, the figure reached over and rubbed its chin before recalling it to its Pokéball.

 “Thanks for all your hard work partner, you deserve a nice rest.”  The figure said as it looked at the Pokéball.  He looked at Riley and waited.

 “Who are you?” Rosetta demanded as the figure turned to look at her.

 “I’m called Shadow, and to make a long story short since we don’t have the time since one of those things leaders got away; I was up here spying on the two people with Brock-sans group who used Fire types.  I saved the other three from a leader that got by you two or was already there waiting. Currently Brock-san in unconscious and we should get out of there range, fast.”  Shadow said as Riley looked at him.  Rosetta looked like she would continue but Riley put a hand on her should, shaking his head when she turned to him.

 “Fine, once Brock’s up you will explain.”  Riley said as Shadow nodded and moved towards the trail down the mountain.

  Cameron looked up as Shadow walked back towards them with Riley, Rosetta and their Pokémon following Shadow.   Cameron started to speak but Riley held up a hand.

 “Our friend here told us what ambushed you, you did great Cameron.  Help me get Brock onto Aracinine and we can get off this mountain.”  Riley said as he moved towards Brock.  Cameron looked at Shadow before moving to help get Brock on the Fire type.

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  “At long last we’re departing on our maiden voyage; finally our future begins right now!”   Squall declared with a smile as he felt his ship move under its own power as they finally left dock.  He had to wait for the blockade that Lynda had caused but he would bring that up to her the next time he saw her.  He walked around his ship’s deck as he looked over the harbor; smiling as he listened to the engine’s growl as the ship sailed on.  It had taken years but they were finally under way!  He had chosen a small crew and everyone had to pull double shifts but it was this was all theirs!  All they had to do was make it to their destination and get another cargo and the wide ocean was theirs to explore.

 “You’re in a good mood Squall.”  A humorous sounding voice caused him to turn to see Doubar looking at him with a small smile on his face.

 “Why wouldn’t I brother, we’re finally underway, our destination isn’t too far that the time we weren’t sailing that we might still with time to spare, giving us a great reputation for our new lives!” Squall said with a laugh as he walked towards the bridge.

 “We’re carrying basic building material my friend, a simple government job that we only got because the other captains want cargos that make them profit, with all our expenses at the end we’ll probably have enough to pay the docking fees for a month and keep us feed while we look for a new cargo.” Doubar said as he looked at his captain who only laughed.

 “And what do we care for profit my friend?  We have the ocean and our ship, all we have to do is get enough money to survive and I’ll be happy!  And we’ll be free and away from everyone who wants to get us, so there’s that too my brother.”  Squall said as he looked over the harbor as the ship moved towards the mouth.  Doubar only shook his head before he released a sigh.

 “Of course you would. Anyway, its soup tonight so make sure your there so you can have something.  And your right, it’ll be good to get away from all the people we made mad when we made the money to get this ship of ours.”  Doubar said as he walked towards a door into the ship.  Squall looked at where he had gone for a few minutes before he walked towards the railings and looked over the harbor as he walked towards the stern.  I can’t deny that I’m happy we can finally leave that town.  The way lord Rodruss has been eying me ever since we caught those slavers, I just don’t like the way his eyes make me feel. Still, if I can keep sailing maybe I’ll find out who I am and where I come from. Squall thought as he stopped and looked over the water as he sighed.  He saw a three young boys sitting on a peer and thought back to his youth in the orphanage and how he’d always been drawn to the sea, how he always longed to be on the ocean.  He just sighed and turned towards the back towards the prow when he stopped and slowly turned and walked to the port side.  He had felt something on his back and once he stopped he locked eyes with his oldest foe, Francisco El Yutra who stood on the deck of his own ship.  He and Francisco had fought against each other since their first day of school, him an orphan who didn’t know his heritage and Francisco the grandson of a Lord who died fighting a Chimera.  It didn’t help that Frany has a sense of entitlement that everyone is just a stepping stone if they can help him and worth nothing if they stand against him or can’t help him.  The little brown nosier sure could suck up like the best of them.  Squall thought as he locked eyes with Francisco until his ship moved him beyond the edge of his vision and Francisco disappeared. Squall turned and walked towards the galley.

  Francisco watched as that orphan runt sailed away as he stood on his ship.   That fool had always a pain in his side, and the only one who bothered him more was that pirate bitch!  He snarled as he walked into his ship and saw the people working on it, when that old fool had handed him the papers for the ship he had invoked part of the insurance on it to give it a full overhaul before he took her out to sea.  And he needed to get something to handle that pirate bitch and get a crew with the right sensibilities and then he will start to build his power.  A cruel smirk grew on his face as he walked through the hallways; yes he just had to find the right crew members, people who weren’t like….

 “Mon Capitan, there you are!”  A cheerful voice came from behind him and caused him to gain a scowl on his face.  Out of all of them, why did this fat orphan fool stay, why couldn’t the right short stay instead. Francisco thought as he turned and faced the speaker.  A small roundish figure with blond hair and a mustache dressed in a black uniform with a black cap walked towards him with a smile on his face.  Demetrio was the only member of the crew that had stayed on when the ship had changed hands, even though he had strongly hinted that he wasn’t needed.  The man had stayed when all the others had left, citing loyalty to the ship and captain.  The fool had been moving about, collecting reports on the progress of the repairs and observing it.

 “The head says the engine should be fully installed by dusk, and the galley will be finished by tomorrow. They finished inspecting the bottom and there were no damages to repair, and the holds will be ready by the end of the current shift.  Should I go and set up notices or will you be going to the sailor’s union to interview crew candidates’ sir?”  Demetrio asked as he saluted Francisco as he stood at attention. Francisco merely glared at him and walked off, Demetrio following in his wake.

 “So what you’re saying is that we can leave port as soon as the day after tomorrow if we only had a crew ready?”  Francisco asked as he led the way towards the captain’s office.  Demetrio nodded as he followed his captain, then realizing he couldn’t be seen spoke up.

 “Yes Mon Capitan, but I think it might be a bit hard to find anyone who will want to go pirate hunting who haven’t signed up for service already, given the time of year.” Demetrio said, causing Francisco to stop for a second before he resumed walking as he realized it was the beginning of the school year and recent crack downs would have put the gangs into a ‘holding pattern’.  Where am I going to get the kind of people I want to serve on my ship?  This might be harder than I thought when I accepted this ship.  Dud the old man know this, was this a part of his plan? To see how I would handle this kind of hurdle? Francisco thought as he entered a bare office and sat behind a simple desk.  Demetrio stood at attention and look out the office’s only window before speaking.

 “Yes that’s true.  Put up a notice at the union and maybe we’ll get luck and get a large enough crew that we could leave port.   While you’re there look into any cargos or rumors that might spark that witch’s interest.  And get back before midnight, understand?”  Francisco commanded Demetrio saluting him before he turned and walked to the door, stopping as he opened it.

 “Did you see Señor Squall’s ship leave port Mon Capitan?  I don’t think a lot of people will be happy he won’t be around for the next city wide tournament, a few people spoke of wanting to try him for the title.”  Demetrio said with a cheerful tone of voice that caused Francisco to look up with a scowl.  He had lost against Squall in the last tournament and he had to admit the chance to take him down being gone was something else to be mad about.

 “Yes, yes, people won’t be happy that he won’t…..People won’t be happy. Don’t bother going to the union, I’ll tell you where to put up the posters tomorrow, go get dinner somewhere.” Francisco said as he leaned back as a grin formed on his face.   That brat has a habit of making enemies and he broke a few gangs here or there, I’m sure the remnants would be happy to sign up to take their trade out to see.  And there are a few individuals that escaped from him, and they could be quite a game changer if I’m able to get the right one or two.  That maker or that caster, then I might just….  Francisco’s thoughts trailed off as a savage grin formed on his face as he waved off Demetrio.

 Demetrio looked back at the ship and gained a savage grin on his face as he walked off.  It’s like mamma always said to me, ’there’s no fool like a prideful fool’.  I thought that I would have to dangle that idea for a few days before the idiota took the bait.  But I never thought that he’d let me handle the recruitment, that will make step two so much easier.  And now all I need to do is call on my own forces to crew and once that fool captures the sea witch and then kill them the both of them.  And then I’ll be one step closer to killing the lord of this city or taking over for him before the invasion. Demetrio thought as he walked towards a bar with a spring in his step.

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 “Must we put so much effort into just having supper with my father?”  Nudara asked as one of her maids finished touching up her make as another one brushed her hair.

 “My apology’s milady but we have our orders; your father wanted a trial run before the party.” One of the maids said as she moved away and let her see how she looked in the mirror.  Her hair was free and curled, while she had on golden lipstick and eye shadow.  Taken in with her golden dress she was sure she would sparkle.  Beside how dad likes to dress me up, most people wouldn’t think he has nothing more than a bad sense of style, if I didn’t know about his ‘side business’ I’d think he was just an eccentric.  She thought as she stood up and walked towards the dining room.  As she walked she eyed the Maids, noting the marks that identified them as Homunculus as she moved by and kept her expression blank as she moved, showing none of her feelings.

 She walked towards a door and two of the Maids opened the door to reveal a long room with a long rectangular table with a black tablecloth on it, she looked towards the far end and saw her father sitting at one of the only two chairs, a place set beside him for her.  She walked towards him and spun around when she reached him before sitting down.

 “You look marvelous my dear, I’m certain you’ll make a wonderful impression on sir Magnus at the party!”  Sadri Don Rodruss said as he raised a goblet in her direction before taking a deep sip. She smiled demurely before starting to eat as well.

 “Father, while I was coming into town I noticed the port was on lockdown, did something happen?”  She asked absentmindedly as she ate, keeping her face blank as she watched her father scowl out of the corner of her eyes.

 “Pay it no mind my dear, merely a problem with Nightsprout.  One of my ships was raided again and I had the port locked down to see if we could find any of her spies.  Nothing as usual, I’m at my wits end trying to find that witch!”  Sadri said as he fumed as he ate.

 “But did you have to invite him father, I thought after the last time Lady Camilla and her student came you wouldn’t invite him again?” Nudara asked point blank, causing her father to stare at his daughter for a few seconds before he realized who she meant.

 “Oh, him, I ran into him while I was talking with one of my customers and he learned of the party and told me right in front of my associate that he and his sister would be there, quite loudly in fact and to save my business I had to replay loudly that I will mark him down as coming. Quite shrewd of him I would say.” Sadri said with a sigh. Nudara kept her poker face on as she ate and noticed one of the new maids was bringing in a teapot that she poured into her father’s cup

 “I noticed a few new Homunculi around the garden; did you get a good deal on them?”  She asked as she cleaned her face.  Her father smiled and started to laugh a little.

 “Oh yes I did and I’m currently looking into if the creator will come to my employment, the products were quite good.”  He smiled, never noticing that his daughter’s eyes were locked on the maid for any kind of reaction to her father’s words.

 “Will anyone else of note be coming besides Lord Magnus him and his sister?”  Nudara asked as her father stood up and she followed his lead.

 “An associate who is a middleman between resource gathers near the Rest might be coming with his son. I say maybe because there was an…incident a few days ago.”  Sadri said with a slight frown.  At Nudara’s look he waved it off.

 “Pay it no mind, I’m told nothing has happened beyond the initial incident.  I want you to spend the next few days getting ready, I want you to make a good impression on Sir Magnus and whoever he brings with him, the prince is the target of the game now.”  Sadri said as he walked towards his office as Nudara curtsied to him and walked towards her room.  As she walked she kept a graceful smile on her face as she went over what she had learned from him.  New Homunculi and a possible event in the Rest, I think I might try the gossip circuit during the party and see if I can pick anything up.  I hope this party is as useful to my goals as I hope it will be.  

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 Jenny looked over the trucks to take the last of the evidence and captives back to the station. Ash and the others had left a few hours back and Voila had gone back to the gym, leaving her to handle the cleanup. She smirked when she realized that at least she could handle Rex’s interrogation after he woke up tomorrow personally.  All that was left was to handle the last few trucks and look over the base for anything else to charge   And that’s not counting the other various Bug type gangs and groups around the area; but if Rex was their overall leader then it might be worse before it gets better. But if they fight each other for power or position in their ‘new’ gang then it might be better or worse for the town. Jenny let her thoughts die out as she got onto her bike and drove off, the trucks following behind her, never noticing that the last one had veered off course or the drivers weren’t members of her station.

 “This is perfect Jess! We got away clean and this time they won’t try to go back to their trainers because they don’t have any!” James said as he drove the police van towards the western outskirts of the city.  It had been easy to knock out the drivers of the last truck and hide them away and quickly get into their cloths.  Now all they had to do was get back to where they stashed the next part of their plan and they were golden.

 “Yes and now all we have to do is dump this, transfer the eggs to our truck, get it to a city where we can sell it, put the eggs into stasis and send the key for them to the boss!” Jessie said with a laugh as she leaned back as Meowth chuckled as he leaned back against the seat as he looked forward and leaned his head back.

 “And the best thing was I never had to tell the cops about where the hideout was, but I’m wondering who sent in that Weavile in.”  Meowth said with as Jessie looked at him as James’s eyes widened as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

 “What Weavile, and you didn’t throw the rock!?”  Jessie demanded as Meowth just sighed and shook his head.  

 “Saw a Weavile get out of a vent on the station’s roof, then saw it throw a piece of meat up and swallow it, think it was an eye and I’m thinking human with the way they all poured out of the building before blondie tweep got there with the info.”  Meowth said with its arms crossed as Jessie looked at James who swallowed before forcing a smirk onto his face.

 “That’s worrying, but still, over 16 eggs to send to the boss, this is quite a feather in our caps chums!”  James said with a glance to Jessie and met her smirk with his own.  Jessie merely bit her thumb as they drove onward, her thoughts falling back to what Meowth had said.  An Ice-type as one of a Bug Gang? There’s no way in hell.  Why do I have a feeling this whole region is a lot more complicated than the boss thought it was?  She thought as they drove onward.

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 Ash walked through the hospital towards a computer room and slipped into it and plopped himself down on an empty chair and released a sigh.  Pikachu was having a snack with his other Pokémon and he had gotten away from the doctors while they were drawing blood from Serena after Lilly had kept them from getting any from her, something about how she’d never hear the end of it if her regular doctor found out.  She had consented to sending a blood sample sealed back to her home and promised to tell them to contact the hospital once the tests were done.  That had pacified the doctors and Ash had slipped away to contact his other friends, it was that time again to talk to his old companions. Login into the chatroom he noticed May and Dawn were already there and started to type.

WorldTraveler:  Hey guys!  How have you two been doing lately?  Say heard from Rockdoc or Depthlover lately, know if they’re going to miss our chat?

 PastSeaker:  Hey WorldTraveler, everything’s great!  I’m done with Unova circuit and got an internship with an archeologist!  She’s incredible and I can’t talk about too much but wow!  And no I haven’t heard from them since our last chat.

 PokeBaker:  The same, the Pokémon Fashion tour is over for the season and I’m currently relaxing on a cruise ship bound for Kalos!  A few months of traveling and quests before a show after something called the Pokémon Showcase Master Class happens.

 WorldTraveler: I’m in Kalos, Santalune City Hospital to be exact.  And there was another incident with a gang, again.

 PokeBaker:  Let me guess, they tried to recruit you, rob you or one of your current companying and got beaten down for their troubles.

 WorldTraveler: Yes and no. They kidnapped a friend of mine and someone else while the girls were out shopping.  They did so their leader could draw me in and recruit me to conquer this town.

 PastSeaker:  ‘Girls’ you say, what is there another member of the ‘My Bike was destroyed by Ash and Pikachu club?

 Ash gave a chuckle as he grinned sheepishly as if they could see him; he and Pikachu weren’t that bad about destroying bikers, were they?  Ash perked up when he noticed a popup saying DepthLover had loged in.  Great, now if only Brock would get here then this might be a normal day after that hell with those so called Lords! Ash thought with a smirk as he read Misty’s text.

 DepthLover:  Hello guys, how have you all been for the last month?

PokeBaker: hey DepthLover, WorldTraveler was just telling us how a FEMALE friend of his was kidnapped and he destroyed another gang to save her, say, have you heard from RockDock, there a reason he isn’t here?

 Ash just shook his head. Sometimes he had the hardest time understanding them.  So what if Serena was a girl, if she had been a boy he would have done the same thing. If anyone took any of his friends then he would have destroyed them all the same.  But I think she means something else for the others to pick up on, don’t know what but those three really get each other.  Ash thought as he tipped out his reply.

 WorldTraveler:  She wasn’t kidnapped alone, someone else was taken too and they attacked my friend twice already!  And yeah, where is RockDoc?

 PastSeaker:  Of course she wasn’t WorldTraveler, of course that makes is so much better.  So why’s she traveling with you, did you destroy her bike too?

 DepthLover:  What are the odds something like that would happen for a third time PastSeaker, twice was enough!  But I can’t believe that this happened over the last few days when at the same time what happened to me did to!  

 WorldTraveler:  No I didn’t!  She’s and old friend that lived in Pallet during the last Siege and moved to Kalos for her mom’s career after the Pokémon Racing circuit died!  And what happened to you and Rockdoc DepthLover?

 PastSeaker:  You still there, nothing happened on you end did it?

 DepthLover: Yeah, just getting my thoughts in order and I don’t mind guy.  So here it what happened to me, my sisters got me a surprise makeover when I thought it was just some pampering at a spay, found a girl under attack by three others who it seems were tortured to do so, discovered she was an orphan from an rather mercantile caretaker, took a field trip with the class whose teacher is one of my oldest friends and when we were there a swarm of Chimera of at least two kinds attack the whole beach, fought them off and got home to tell Jenny what happened.

  Ash had gone still as soon as he read Misty’s text before a glare appeared on his face. Chimera’s, always they turn up in the last places they should do.  How the hell did a force of Chimera make landfall near Cerulean?  Did anyone die or did they all escape.  Misty okay so they probably did.  Ash thought as his fingers moved across the keyboard even as other messages came up onto the screen.

 PastSeaker: Chimera, near your city, are you okay did everyone escape alive?

 PokeBaker:  Two kinds, were they different colors, any of them?

 WorldTraveler: A swarm attacked a beach, were you alone with the class or were others there to, I mean Chimera usually pick off loners.

 DepthLover: Now that you mention they were all black and what I could see they were all black and get this, they used steel barrels and the larger one the wreck of a car as armor.

 WorldTravelerPM- DepthLover: It wasn’t her was it Misty, don’t tell me that bitch was still free after all these years!

 DepthloverPM- WorldTraveler: Yeah, it was her.  Jenny told me they never published it because she got away, Jenny even thought she might have been in the Orange Islands, one of the smaller one with her ill-gotten profits.

 PastSeaker:  I don’t know how the League in Kanto is, but back home they would drag their feet a bit if Chimera attacked people away from the main cities, how much help do you expect?

 Depthlover: Not much really, I’m thinking about calling the LT for help and a certain person who travels with a rather large collection whose spending some time around here.  So you’re challenging the Kalos league? How’s it been there?

 WorldTraveler: Complicated. The people here defer to old nobles and give them preferential treatment and a new friend said some people still rule cities as Kings.  And the gang leader was one of them.  Thankfully it seems that the Gym cities put that treatment to the Gym leader so I expect that he’ll go away for a long time.  Escpecially given how abused that Volcarona was, scars and a dead eye not to mention its mental state.  They had to kill it.  And stop not telling us about Rockdock DepthLover

 Depthlover:  Fine I can’t keep it from you, there was an outbreak of a virus or a mold spore that he thought might be from a Chimera and he got together an expedition into the mountains to find the source, when he contacted me he said they were departing the next morning so there wasn’t enough time for me to get there.  

 Ash went still again as he started to pale.  A viral outbreak in Kanto and it might be from a Chimera, those were always the worst. Man oh man Viridian is in so much trouble!  I can’t believe….wait didn’t I hear that there’s a hurricane coming in when I left Kanto.  The only reason Brock would go up if its airborne then that means…MOM! Ash thought as he fanatily started to type away.

 WorldTraveler: If he went into the mountains then it must be airborne, DepthLover isn’t a hurricane due to hit the area in the next few days?

 Depthlover:  Yes there is.

 PastSeaker:  If the outbreak is airborne then it might hit Pallet! And being on a mountain during a hurricane, that’s crazy!

 Depthlover:  He said he’ll just do a quick survey and get down before it hits and he’s been gone a few days now.  We have to trust him to come back alive and that’s all.

 “Mr. Ketchum?”  Ash looked towards the voice and saw a doctor looking at him with a stern look.   He smiled sheepishly and gave a shaky smile.

 “Hey doc, did you need something?”  Ash asked as he looked at the doctor who responded with a glare of his own.

 “Yes I do.  You’re the only one of your party who hasn’t been examined yet and if you would sign out of whatever you’re doing and come this way, after that you can stay here tonight and can leave in the morning.” The doctor declared with a hard look, Ash only nodded and turned towards the screen and typed out a quick message.

 WorldTraveler: Sorry guys, the doctor wants to look over a few injuries I’d gotten during my raid, I see you all in a weak or so back here.

 Ash stepped away and followed the doctor out of the room.  Ash noticed phones against the wall and cleared his throat and gave the doctor a sheepish smile.

 “Mind if I stop and call home first, I learned something that I need to call home about and I don’t want my mom to see me as a mummy if you know what I mean.”  Ash asked the doctor who gave him a sharp glare.

 Ash walked towards one of the video-phones and smiled over his shoulder at the doctor who crossed his arms, Ash turned and moved to the phone and punched in his home number and waited for an answer.  A girl with brown hair in a bun answered the phone and gave a small smile to Ash.  Who the hell is this, where’s mom?!  Ash thought as a glare formed on his face as he looked at the phone.

 “Hello can i…”  The girl began before she stopped when she saw the glare on Ash’s face.

 “Who the heck are you and where’s my mom?”  Ash said darkly as the girl dropped her mouth open and seemed to shake a bit as Ash glared at her.   Finally the girl started to smile shakily at him and stammered out a reply.

 “You’re Ash?!  I’m Albia; the new worker, Delia’s been letting me crash here instead of the Pokémon Center.  You want your mom, just give me a second to go get her.”  Albia said as she dashed off.  A few seconds later Delia came in front of the phone, a smile on her face.

 “Ash!”  Delia said as soon as she saw her son.

 “Mom!  Are you okay, I heard there was an outbreak in Viridian and with the hurricane coming in.”  Ash said, causing Delia to start to giggle.

 “I’m fine Ash, really! There was a general warning about what’s happening in Viridian and we’ve all begun preparing to weather the hurricane once it makes landfall but its business as usual here.  Really….wait. Is that a hospital?  Ash Ketchum what have you done now Mister!”  Delia demanded, causing Ash to laugh sheepishly as he paled a bit.

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 Albia walked into the room she had been given and dropped on to the bed, holding herself as she shook. She hadn’t been so scared ever, not even when she was being hunted!  She thought she had experienced true fear then, but just a few words and a glare Ash had terrorized her completely!  And Ash’s glared had been a look of murder and carnage in his eyes, as if he could reach through the phone and grab her!  She had seen his battles in the Johto League Championship and with the way he had looked at her when she answered wondered if he had improved or if his opponent was just that good or if Ash’s luck was just that bad, if Ash was the same then how, just how he had lost the way he had.  

 “Maybe I should talk to Amanda about putting aside some money to buy a ticket or two so Delia can see Ash’s battle in Kalos Championship in person, because win or lose that will be one heck of a show.” Albia said out loud as she hugged the pillow.

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  “I think that’s everything I needed to do here.”  Darcy said as she clapped her gloved hands as she moved through the room and looked back over what she had added to the room; a dart board that flipped to a damaged picture of Viola there, a map of the town with notes on how to invade it here and to finish it up a doctored journal that had enough hatred and insults.

 “I think that the police should be here soon, so it’s time for us to leave, and please make us look like birds.”  Darcy said as she looked away from her work.  Walking towards a doorway onto a balcony she slipped though and into her Zoroak’s arms and it carried her away under a cloak. They stopped on a house a mile away and looked down at two Police cruisers moving up the street and Darcy smiled, bringing a hand to her face to hide a giggle as she used her other hand to rub Hypno’s Pokéball. The only way that they got here so soon was that the few triggers I dropped into the higher grunts went off, thanks partner.  Now all we have to do is report.  Darcy thought as she smirked.

 “If everything works out perfectly and they don’t deviate from what their orders are then I think that’s it then, now all we have to do is go back to back and get our next assignment.  The Reign of Rex Tristo is ended; have a wonderful hell Rex-boy!” Darcy said as Zoroak jumped to the next building and they moved towards the edge of town.

 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 Arbok and ‎Weezing moved through the underbrush, ‎Weezing turning in a circle as they moved, hoping that they weren’t being hunted by any of the local Chimera.  The pack had dispersed and most had moved on towards the mountains to the south while the two of them had moved towards Santalune City, hoping to use their past experiences as a way to get enough food so they could find a way back to Kanto and then Team Rocket and their trainers.  As they made it into the outskirts of Arbok stopped and sighed, causing Weezing to stop and look at its comrade.

 “Weez?”  Weezing asked as it hovered and waited.

 “Arbok bok.”  Arbok said causing Weezing to sigh as well.  The chance for the two of them to find a way back to their trainers was almost miniscule, but they had to try!

 “Weez zing!”  Weezing admonished its companying and Arbok just sighed and stuck its tongue out and then went still.  It turned its head and looked towards the wind its eyes starting to water.

 Weezing, weez…” Weezing trailed off when Arbok spoke next and went still as it felt hope.

 “Arbok?”  Arbok barely spoke before it shot off, Weezing trailing behind it as they moved between the decrepit buildings as Arbok speed up.  That scent Arbok had picked up had to have been her, it had to be!  

  Jessie moved the mask off her face as they looked over the truck they had bought earlier.  They had just finished putting a second coat on the truck and left the remains of the first coat they had put on the truck, leaving the waste from that for the police to find.    A classic strategy, leave traces for the person looking for you that lead to where you weren’t, basic really. She walked outside of the abandoned warehouse and looked over the police truck James was in the middle of dismantling and walked over to him.

 “Found anything useful in that thing?”  She asked when she reached him.  He looked up at her and just shook his head.

 “The positioning system is at least a few years old, we probably did them a favor when we took it from them, might force them to upgrade. The RAM is good as is the CPU, the engine now that’s a lot better than I thought it would be.  All in all a good haul, should I leave the positioning system or not?”  James asked as he looked at the truck in disgust at how low tech it was.  Jessie grinned as with this their next machine would be a bit under budget.

 “I’ll help you put the engine between the doors and the eggs. This way if the cops stop us they’ll think we’re just people bringing tech to a salvage yard.”  Jessie said before a commotion caused the two of them to look towards the noise. Jessie put her hands onto a dagger on her right leg as James raised moved his hand to his rapier before a serpentine form charge and pushed her to the floor.  

 Jessie blinked and saw an Arbok crying as it looked down at her.  Her eyes started to tear up as she reached a trembling hand and put in on the Pokémon’s hood and started to cry as well.  James moved towards her when suddenly something crashed into him and sent him to the floor next to Jessie.  He looked up to see a tearing Weezing and started to sniffle as hope blossomed in his heart.  Meowth meanwhile had just comeback from checking out the area and was eating a rat with his eyes closed as he walked towards them.

 “The area’s still secure guys, all we need to do is get outa here in the next hour or so and I think we’ll get away clean.  So how’s the truck Jamesy, anything….Arbok, Weezing, that you two?”  Meowth asked as he opened his eyes and saw the two Pokémon.  Once Jessie and James realized their hopes about who were in front of they continued to cry as they held them, and Meowth joined them and hugged all four of them.  He moved back, tears still flowing from his eyes and looked at the two Poison types.

 “Man, its great ta see the two of you, but what happened to those others you were guarding, what the heck are you doing in Kalos?” Meowth asked as he fought to get his emotions back under control.

 “Arbok. Arb bok Arbok.” Arbok said as its tears dried up and started to look proud as it spoke.

 “Weezing weez zing Weezing weez.”  Weezing said with an eye roll that caused Arbok to glare at it.

 “Really, that happened!?  Who the hell were those bastards, did ya ever find out….wait, why were didn’t the rangers move ya?!”  Meowth demanded as he gained a look of rage.

 “What happened to them Meowth?”  Jessie demanded as she looked at him as James frowned.

 “Yes chum, don’t keep the two of us wondering what happened to our partners!”  James cried out.

 “Cool ya jets, I’ll translate, was just taking it in. It ain’t good, that’s all I’ll say first.  What they told me was according ta them a few months after we split from each other the pack they were guarding was transferred by two Rangers to a swamp sanctuary that used to be nearby.  For a few years they had a good run, members of the packs joined up, evolved and had kids and generally had great lives.  About a year ago the packs started sensing something wrong with the water and about three months ago the prey started to taste bad.”  Meowth said with a glare.

 “’They tasted bad’, but their Poison types!”  James said as Jessie held Arbok as she looked at it.

 “Yeah, and I don’t have to tell you what that means for Poison types.  Humans had apparently dropped barrels of something or other in the swamp, the locals who were running it closed it down and they just left the animals and Pokémon to themselves.  After the local wildlife started to mutate the two of them called the pack together and decided that the best thing were for them all to split up.  A local unified pack sent some emissary’s to them and they think at least one of the groups went after them.  These two decided to find a way back to Kanto to find a way back to you.”  Meowth said as James and Jessie absorb what Meowth translated and started to grow angery as well.

 “Those Ranger brats never even kept an eye on you all?” Jessie snarled as James looked back towards where the two had come from.

 “A unified pack?  In the area?”  James’s words caused him and Jessie to shot each other a look, remembering a few other packs they had meet and fought.

 “Another reason to leave soon I’d say.”  Meowth said as Weezing and Arbok nodded.  Jessie smiled and looked the others before.

 “Well the gang’s back together then!  Let’s start dismantling this truck before we move out, Meowth your on overwatch.  We need to get our score to safety before we can try again to get Pikachu!”  Jessie said as James moved towards the truck with a smile on his face, Weezing following him as Arbok to up a guard position by Jessie as Meowth climbed the structure they were ussing.  With these two back with us it’ll be a lot easier to survive here.  I don’t like that a killer Pokemon infiltrated the station because of that gang, it doesn’t track with small gangs limited to a single city’s area.  I have a feeling we’re going to need these two before our time in this region is done. Jessie thought as she moved towards the truck they had transferred the eggs to.

[tightropenuzlocke]

Chapter Seven: This Is My Palace

They headed northwest up Route 6 the next day instead of continuing down Route 5, which meant Serena had lost not one, but two consecutive arguments—a miracle in and of itself. So instead of heading directly to Yantreizh or Relifac-le-Haut, they were detouring to Palais Chaydeuvre.

Xoana was practically vibrating, ready to shake apart at the seams. She hadn’t expected it, not after so long. Maybe it was everything else going on as well. It took all her strength to hold it in and chat normally to Aisling, Tierney, and Tracie.

The Pokemon were scattered high and low all around them, searching for something Félicité could use as a wand. By this time, all but Justine seemed to be taking her rejections with alacrity. After all, much depended on the soundness of her weapon, and the selection criteria were impossible to communicate to those outside her line.

Serena stared off at the scenery, pretending to watch her pokemon. Yet she didn’t even notice when Justine at last pried a branch from the bushes that gave Félicité pause. She twirled experimentally and sighted down its length. Justine stared back hopefully through the fork at the end, tail twitching with nerves. At length, Félicité sighed and stowed the branch in the thick fur by her hip. Even this somewhat half-hearted acceptance elicited a whine and wagging tail from Justine, but as before, her enthusiasm with a huff and the cold shoulder as Félicité stalked back to Serena’s side.

“Hey, she’s got a proper wand now!” Xoana prompted. “I can’t wait for her to use it in a real battle.”

“We’ll see how it performs,” Serena muttered, just as skeptical as her Braxien. Her quiet surliness was expected, but for once Xoana felt no obligation to do anything about it. Although, she did wonder if all of this had eroded Serena’s determination to apologize.

Then the Allée-Paradis opened up before them—every tree, hedge, and topiary perfectly shaped and manicured—every flagstone in its proper place. And beyond on either side, tall undulating fields of wheat just beginning to golden. Better than every photograph and painting because it was alive and breathing and she was part of it.

Xoana skipped ahead with a squeal and spun around under the branches. When it all finally stopped spinning, she found Aisling smiling broadly at her.

Heat flushed her face but it wasn’t all embarrassment this time. In fact, that was rather a small quotient. She skipped back to Aisling’s side and hooked their arms together so that they might process down the royal causeway like proper noble ladies.

Aisling looked down in surprise and then her smile split her face. She puffed up—not unlike her Fletchling brother—chest out and shoulders back. She placed her hand over one of Xoana’s and her smile turned more intimate, less like a billboard for the whole world to see. Xoana felt her eyelashes flutter.

And that was too much—too close to so many fantasies she’d had before. She slid her hand out from under Aisling’s and found something to mitigate it. She grabbed Serena’s passing arm and pulled her in too.

...

Maybe she’d had it right back at the lab—the way they both settled as soon as their arms linked. Or maybe Xoana was just trying to force Aisling and Serena to get along. She had to admit they were being pretty churlish, even if she’d never back down.

But then again, Serena had given in awfully quick last night. Tough to blame her. Aisling had almost found herself begging right alongside Xoana, except that she couldn’t give Serena the satisfaction—not yet anyway.

Aisling gestured grandly with her spare hand before putting it in her pocket. “Shall we?”

They started moving again and fell in step with each other. It was a beautiful day and things could be worse.

Xoana gasped when the perfectly cubic trees fell away and the palace itself stretched before them. Aisling smiled fondly for a moment only to notice her expression mirrored on Serena’s face. Hm, that was—she wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

“Wait, what’s that?”

Their heads snapped forward to look. There was an enormous furry mound where the main gate should have been.

They stopped in front of it and stared upward. A peaceful snoring filled the silence.

“What is a Snorlax doing here?” Serena asked. “Do you think it’s guarding the entrance?”

“It’s supposed to be open,” said Xoana, sinking.

“Bree, could you ask this mon what’s up?”

She nodded and went up to him. “Snorlax! Excuse me, Snorlax!” Bree called, vigorously shaking a paw twice the size of her head.

No reaction.

Tessa was next to try and climbed up on its stomach. When that didn’t work, Sprout started to tug on a leg with his vines. Some of the other pokemon started prodding and calling to it, all to no avail. Íde opened her mouth to torch one of its feet, forcing Aisling to reprimand again.

But after another ten minutes went by without success, Aisling began to think her Charmander had been right. Tessa had fallen asleep on the Snorlax’s stomach and Félicité looked ready to burst a vein trying to force psychic energy out of her new wand.  

Aisling stepped back a bit to evaluate their predicament. There was no way around it. The Snorlax was completely blocking the ornate, gilded gates and the adjacent wall ran the circumference of the palace and gardens. It was past opening according to the website, but the only soul around was the slumbering beast that blocked their path.

Xoana drooped.

“Alright, I’m going up,” Aisling declared.

“Wait, what—?” Tierney began, but by then Aisling was already clambering up the Snorlax’s side, pulling herself up by its fur.

The pokemon’s head rested against the gate, squishing its already squat neck into nonexistence. It snored, mouth open and drool dribbling out. It lacked front teeth to make room for the long tongue poking just past its lips, but it did have jutting canines as big as Aisling’s thumbs. Its breath smelled somewhat comfortingly of fermented plants, but only fools thought herbivores would pass up meat if given half a chance, or that only carnivores were dangerous.

Aisling stood slowly and carefully on its chest, taking half a step back from her first idea. It was then she saw two men and an impeccably groomed Furfrou running up to the gate from the other side.

“Are you a trainer?” the older of the two called, huffing from the exertion.

“Yeah!”

“Thank the gods!” He stooped to catch his breath.

“Could you help us dislodge this fellow?” The younger man asked for him. “He’s always trying to get in at night and we can’t get the gate open with him sleeping against it.”

“Sure. My friends and I can take care of it.”

Aisling squatted back down, grabbed the Snorlax by his chubby cheeks and shook.

“MY QUEEN!” her friends chorused in horror, but the Snorlax didn’t wake. Worth it.

Aisling delivered her verdict: “I think we’re just gonna have to attack it.”

“Seems rude to start a battle when he’s sleeping,” said Emer, though she didn’t sound firmly against it.

Aisling’s Croagunk croaked.

“You know Wake-Up Slap?” Said Bree. “Why didn’t you tell us before?”

Maeve trilled, throat sack bulging, and crossed her arms.

Bree scoffed. “I wouldn’t let that happen. Come on, I’ll go up with you.”

Aisling offered her hand and Maeve hopped from foot to foot for a moment before taking it, careful not to touch Aisling with her red finger. Aisling had forgotten that hazard. She should really be reading the pokedex entries more thoroughly.

Once the Quilladin and Croagunk were aboard, Aisling slid back off. Sprout grabbed Tessa with his vines and pulled her clear. Everyone was ready. Maeve looked around at their expectant faces and wrung her hands.

“Wake-Up Slap!” Aisling commanded.

Maeve squeezed her eyes shut and struck the Snorlax across the face. The slap resounded around the courtyard, bouncing off the palace walls and back.

Nothing… not even snoring. Then a rumbling began. Bree swept Maeve up over her head and scurried down as the rumble turned to roaring and the Snorlax scrabbled clumsily to his feet.

A combined cry rang out as the pokemon rushed him in a show of force and unity. Emer blasted him in the face with Water Gun and was rewarded for her smart strategy by being punted all the way to the bushes. Xoana cried out for her, but Aisling was confident the little Marill would bounce back, which she did a few moments later.

The Snorlax took a swipe at them all but Sprout and Bree grabbed his arm with their vines, halting him for a moment before he yanked and both were airborne. Bree used the momentum to swing around and kick him in the side while Sprout reeled in to attach himself firmly, taking advantage of the confusion to drain the Snorlax with Absorb.

Tierney’s Hawlucha came to the rescue at her call, plucking Sprout from the Snorlax’s arm before he could do it himself and thus clearing Spark for and electric attack. Félicité followed up with an Ember. The tip of her wand ignited as it was supposed to, but the fire started creeping down towards her hand and she was forced to stop.

The Snorlax swung but Laoch used Counter which made him stagger and Valériane followed with a Karate Chop to his shoulder.

“Ember, Íde!”

The Charmander released a blast that looked closer to Flamethrower.

“Gust, Finley!”

The Combee zipped behind Íde and stoked her teammate’s attack into a wall of fire that all had to shy away from. The Snorlax threw up an arm to shield his face and backed away. Maeve and Froabble kicked him in the side to steer him further and he broke into a run, shaking the ground as he retreated.

“Ha! Nice work all!” said Aisling.

She offered high-fives to her fellow trainers and Bree copied by offering the same to her teammates. Íde tapped her paw a bit grudgingly, but Maeve was enthusiastic. All seemed at least somewhat satisfied besides Félicité, who rubbed at her charred wand, and Justine, who drooped in embarrassment at having provided the faulty weapon.

“Thank you all, truly!” The older man declared, helping the younger to open the gate. “We usually have a pokeflute to deal with those brutes, but, ah…” He trailed off, brow furrowing, and the younger man stepped in.

“It’s currently on loan to Fort-de-Vanitas for an exhibition.”

“Right, yes! But let us move on to introductions. I am Baron Agreste, Caretaker of Palais Chaydeuvre, and this is my eldest son, Gabriel.” Baron made sense. They were both expensively dressed now that Aisling took a moment to notice them.

Xoana looked about ready to bow so Aisling stepped forward and offered her hand, giving each man a hearty shake. If they didn’t like it, they didn’t show it and greeted the rest the same.

“We really must repay you for the trouble. Would you all care for a tour?”

Xoana stifled a squeal.

“That’s awfully kind of you. We’d love one.”

It turned out Palais Chaydeuvre was a combination of traditional museum and historical site with some rooms featuring exhibitions of various kinds while others were preserved and restored to represent what the Palace was like when it was still the royal residence. It had the typical museum staff, but Baron Agreste and his family also lived there. Apparently they had been in charge of the palace’s upkeep since it was built, and this had somehow not changed when it was seized by the government of the people. His ancestors may have sided with the revolutionaries. That part was unclear.

Xoana was delighted the entire time and the baron was pleased to have someone so enthusiastic. His son disappeared, no doubt to do whatever the baron was meant to be doing while he escorted them around instead. The Furfrou was unbelievably bored and more than once tried to slip away only to be called back before she could get very far.

Serena said little, but she knew Xoana’s tastes well. More than once she pointed out something that had Xoana skipping over to look.

Tracie stopped in front of a painting and tilted her head. “What’s this?”

“That is thought to be the earliest depiction of mega evolution. For the longest time, no one knew what is was.” Aisling stopped to give it a closer look. A small human figure stood in the foreground holding something bright and shining aloft while behind them reared what might have been a huge and monstrous Gyarados with greatly exaggerated fins and red and black mixed in with the usual blue. “It was in one of the rarely used bedrooms and no one paid it any mind. But after mega evolution was discovered, a guest identified it and we had someone come in to evaluate it. Since moving it to public display, scientists and art historians the world over have come to see it.”

Age and abstraction made the confusion understandable, but it was still evocative somehow. That would be her one day—fist raised to the sky in exhilaration and defiance as unquenchable power flowed through her and an entire stadium roared her name.

Some of that same ambition must have tugged on Serena too, because was leaning over Aisling’s shoulder now and seemed not to notice.

“Ya’ see that, Comtesse?” Serena stiffened at how close Aisling’s voice was to her ear. “Coming here was in line with our program. We had a good battle to strengthen our teams and now we’re doing extra research on mega evolution.”

Serena retreated and crossed her arms but gave a huff that made Xoana smile.

...

Xoana didn’t want to leave the luxurious halls but it would have been a shame to come all this way and not see the famously beautiful palace gardens and grand sculpture work. And truth be told they were all growing tired of staring at things on walls and in glass cabinets and getting drowsy from the palace’s stuffy air.

The baron had left them before lunch, so they were free to wander as they pleased after. It was comfortably warm out and the light breeze smelled incredible. The lilacs must have been in bloom. Xoana sighed as they wandered across the bridge and stopped to look at the bronze Gyarados fountain in the middle of the lake.

Aisling offered her arm and Xoana nearly followed the urge to take it before the baron came running up. Aisling stretched expansively. Maybe she hadn’t meant to offer it?

It was difficult to understand much before he caught his breath, but Xoana soon puzzled out that he was pleading for their help finding his “lost” Furfrou. That seemed rather unlikely, but the poor old man appeared genuinely distressed and she agreed to look.

Justine had the best nose and seemed eager to be of use after the faulty wand business earlier, so they followed her lead around the gardens. Tierney got sidetracked capturing a lily Flabébé, but caught up with them before the scent trail lead them into the grand hedge maze.

“I think we should fan out, yeah?” said Tierney.

And so they did, though a bit reluctantly.

It took Xoana a little while to realize that it was Aisling twittering and not some bird. It was hard to whistle back through her smile, but she tried her best. Tierney was next to catch on, responding with a pretty good imitation of Valériane’s hoarse croaks after each of Xoana’s calls. Then Tracie followed, cooing like a Pidove. Finally Xoana heard Serena’s patented sigh from the hedge beside her followed by her best attempt at a Swanna’s trumpet.

Aisling cracked up and the rest of them folded like a house of cards. Even Serena chuckled quietly on the far side of the hedge.

It was then Xoana saw the Furfrou standing in the t-intersection in front of her, once flawless la reine trim covered in dirt and tangled with twigs and leaves. Xoana stopped and the Furfrou looked at her, eyes wide. She gave one swift tug but her long ear was snagged in the hedge. The Furfrou then held perfectly still.

“Found her!” Xoana yelled to the others. There were whoops and the patter of footsteps as they all attempted to converge. “Let me help you get out of—”

The Furfrou yanked herself free and bolted.

“Oh no, I scared her!”

“Nah,” said Froabble, already hopping after her.

“Then why did she run?” Xoana called after her pokemon.

Justine wriggled under the hedge separating them and took off running while Serena and her other pokemon’s footfalls doubled back.

“Wait!” Xoana called, joining the pursuit, the Furfrou kept running and they kept after her.

They all met Tierney and Laoch down a corner, but the Furfrou dove down another path between them. Next Tracie and Spark had her cut off, but the section was wide and the Furfrou rushed her. Tracie dove to the right, but the Furfrou zigzagged at the last moment and jumped clean over Spark to get away.

Tierney pulled Tracie up and they were right back in it. The Furfrou tried to make a turn but Aisling and Bree were there so she skidded with a startled yelp and hurdled down the straightaway, narrowly outpacing Bree’s vine lasso. Serena and Félicité almost had her, but she escaped once again, this time towards the outer part of the maze.

“Dammit!”

“Comtesse stay on her!” Xoana yelled. The pause gave the Furfrou a lead, but Serena and her three canines took off after her. Serena was by far the best runner in any case and Xoana was confident she would catch up. The rest of the pokemon had converged. “Valériane get us an aerial view!”  

“Finley you too!” Aisling called.

“Okay, we have to get her into the Chandelure quadrant,” Xoana told them. “It has the most dead ends and only five exits. My Queen, you skirt around the Delphox quadrant and try and flank her. Vicomtesse, same with the Pyroar quadrant. Baronne, take the middle path and I’ll take the hedgerow.”

They all split off again and Aisling offered her a little salute that did something to Moana’s chest as she rounded the corner. Moments later they were all out of sight. Xoana whistled and they all sounded off with their fake bird calls.

Their quarry was wily. She knew this maze like the top of her paw. But they had numbers and a strategy now. The Furfrou tried to hide in the Delphox quadrant but Aisling and Serena flushed her out. Next she took the diagonal to the Pyroar quadrant but Tierney and Tracie drove her away.

“Valériane says she’s headed towards the fountain,” Froabble informed her.

They were close and they booked it. Xoana could see the Furfrou coming but she wasn’t going to make it in time. She, Tessa and Sprout weren’t fast enough.

“Go Froabble! You can do it!”

The Froakie pulled ahead of her, a bright blue blur against the dull path.

“Water Pulse the fountain!”

He dove in and the water lit like a beacon. Xoana felt something warm and tingling and almost electric—something powerful—flow out of her and the water surged upward and spread. The Furfrou’s eyes widened in terror and her mouth gaped at the wall of water mounting above her. She turned sharply, spraying gravel, and fled into the Chandelure quadrant.

“YES!” Xoana cried with a jump as the water crashed back down. “She’s in!”

Froabble hopped back out of the fountain as a Frogadier and they high-fived as she ran past back into the maze. From their calls, everyone else had made it to one of the other entrances and it was time to close in.

The Furfrou went south first but Tracie and Tierney blocked her in. Aisling and her team had split and blocked all the west outlets, so she ran north only to be confronted by Serena. Her only remaining option was to run back towards Xoana, then turn down one of the dead ends to dodge Froabble’s leap.

Xoana chased her in and dove atop the Furfrou before she decided her plush coat could maybe make it through the hedges after all.

“I got her!”

Her friends cheered and the Furfrou groaned.

“Gods I’m so sorry!” Xoana told her, scrambling off the poor pokemon. “I wasn’t even thinking! We shouldn’t have been chasing you. Did I hurt you at all? I’m so sorry!”

The Furfrou picked herself up and grumbled.

“She’s okay,” said Froabble, hopping to Xoana’s side. “And she’s says we’re forgiven for catching her because that chase was the most fun she’s had in months.”

Xoana doubted him as the Furfrou sat tall and stiff as a guardian statue before her, but then her lips pealed back in a grin and the bedraggled ball and her tail wagged.

Sprout and Tessa finally caught up and the Teddiursa flopped down to catch her breath. They all laughed at that while they waited for the rest to find them.

...

Xoana was a little worried the baron would be angry with how filthy and bedraggled his refined companion had become—and how they’d been chasing her all around the maze like some kind of escaped convict—but he was simply overjoyed to have her back safe and thanked them all profusely for their trouble.

The Furfrou rolled her eyes and Xoana began to suspect firstly, that the baron couldn’t understand her, and secondly, that her sneaking off to be rowdy and get dirty was a somewhat regular occurrence.

“You know it is getting rather late and I feel simply terrible about enlisting you all twice in one day. What do you say to staying here for the night?”

“In the palace?” Xoana asked, certain she had somehow misunderstood.

“We have rooms set up for family visits and special events. There are plenty for each of you to have your own.”

Xoana actually felt faint and she might have wobbled because Aisling put her hand on the small of her back to steady her. Serena stepped up to answer for her.

“That’s so kind of you, Baron. We’d love to.”

“It’s the least I can do. There are fireworks after dinner to celebrate Fin-de-la-Tyrannie.” Xoana had completely forgotten that was today. “You can all watch from one of the private balconies. Once the visitors have gone, we’ll show you to your rooms.”

Xoana barely kept it together long enough for the baron and Furfrou to leave. Then she was bouncing up and down and hugging everyone and telling Froabble he was the best pokemon in the world.

...

The day really couldn’t have gone any better—ill-advised shenanigans included. Even after all the battling and running, Xoana was full to the brim. She was ready to do it all again right now, but part of what made it all so wonderful was that she couldn’t. So she swayed instead, hugging herself as twilight set in.

Aisling stepped out onto the balcony behind her and Xoana didn’t need to turn around to know she was smiling.

“I’m so excited! I haven’t seen many fireworks before.”

“Me neither,” said Aisling, coming to stand next to her by the railing.

“Today was amazing. I’m never going to forget it. We haven’t even seen these fireworks yet, but I know I’ll never forget them either. So thank you for everything you did to help make it so special.”

“It was my pleasure,” Aisling purred in one of her usual self-assured tones. Then she paused, shifted her weight, and leaned both arms on the balcony. When she spoke again, all trace of teasing, confidence, and irony was gone. “Thank you for inviting me along on this whole thing. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Xoana leaned on the balcony too, edged a little closer until they were almost touching.

“I’m glad you came.” Now that was bold and bordered on innuendo. Aisling bumped her shoulder and Xoana looked up at the sky to try and focus on something other than the warmth flaring up her side. “You add a lot to the group, something we were missing. I think we’ve all been having more fun with you. I know I have at least.” She was rambling now, but she didn’t dare stop. “You’re really something else, you know? That’s part of why this day was so incredible, and how I know the rest of it will be.”

Xoana looked down at their hands and saw Aisling’s reaching for hers. Her heart skipped a beat and the moment slowed.

Serena walked onto the balcony behind them. Xoana could pick out those footfalls anywhere. Aisling withdrew her hand and turned to slouch back against the railing.

“The Comtesse graces us with her presence.”

Serena snorted, but with less than her usual derision, and stood by the railing on Aisling’s other side. Despite everything, she’d had fun as well.

Xoana knit her fingers together and stared at them. Had Aisling really been about to make a move on her? Would she have gone through with it if Serena hadn’t shown up? Did Xoana want that?

She was chewing on the inside of her lip and sensation was leaving her fingers.

But how much of that was Aisling and how much was the want that had been aching in her for years? She’d wondered the same about Serena. She still doubted, even though she knew she shouldn’t.

“Ais—” Serena stopped herself, started over. Xoana glanced over, and Serena met her eyes instead of Aisling’s. “My Queen.” She blinked and shifted her focus to Aisling as she grunted to acknowledge she was listening. “I’m sorry for what I said about Dáire.”

Aisling’s face betrayed nothing, but her shoulders hunched and her knuckles strained on the railing.

“I truly didn’t mean to imply it was anything other than a tragic accident. I was shocked and spoke carelessly. I apologize and I will do my best to not be as insensitive in the future.”

Xoana thought she heard Aisling’s teeth grind, but a quiet thanks passed her lips.

They actually did it!

But after that there was stiff silence rather than catharsis. Maybe they weren’t ready yet, but at least they had tried. Xoana caught Serena glancing at her again. Maybe they had tried for her. They had both spent the day trying to make sure she was happy. The least she could do was try the same for them.
 She dug around for the joy and energy she’d been overflowing with only a few minutes ago and slid between them, putting her arms around both of their shoulders.

“Fireworks with friends is the best! Thank you both for today.” She gave their shoulders a squeeze and they smiled.

Then the first firework went up, making any further conversation impossible. Tierney and Tracie came running out to join them and they all watched together.

Xoana cheered and applauded and hopped up and down, pulling everyone into the excitement with her. She let the bright colors fill her vision and the sound fill her chest with its booming.

It really was beautiful, even if it was over a bit too soon.

[ask-de-writer]

FRIEND AND THE IMPERIAL EGGS : Part 5 of 7 : MLP Fan Fiction

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FRIEND AND THE IMPERIAL EGGS

A Daring Do tale

Part 5 of 7

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)  

8927 words

© 2020 by Glen Ten-Eyck Writing begun 05/13/16

All rights reserved.  This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.

This is a Fan Fiction based on My Little Pony.  Canterlot, Princess Luna and the name Daring Do are owned by Hasboro Inc.

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Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions, provided that such things are done without charge.  I will allow those who do commission art works to charge for their images.  

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fictions is actively encouraged.

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Grata entered Daring Do’s room in the Hospital Aerie #1.  Friend was serenely crooning to the Imperial eggs in her smaller nest, next to Daring Do’s hospital nest.  Daring Do looked up from preening one of the fletchling Eagles playing about on her coverlet.

Crest set into a Gryphon grin, she commented, “I am going to have to watch out about visiting too often.  It looks like Friend’s urge to take care of her nymphs is contagious!”

Nurse Grayyk’s crest popped up in a snicker.  She was dangling a strip of meat for one of the other chicks while denying, “It is not at all contagious.  This is part of the therapy!  We should treat more patients with young Eagles!”

Going serious, Grata spoke to Friend.  Friend might appear oblivious but Grata knew that she was paying attention to everything going on around her. “Friend, first you asked that we put news of our clutch into the Celebripony News.  Then you asked that we let that egg murdering monster, Baron Yoksonu, into the Emipre.  The Throne has trusted you. We would like to know why?”

Friend gently turned one of the Imperial eggs with her special claw as she replied softly, “I/we need prey.  Prey will help to heal Matunen, make nice healthy nymphs and I/we can eat what is left.”

Grata’s crest shot up in surprise!  “Are you risking our eggs?”

Friend looked up, eyes a serene green, like the tissue seeming magic surrounding her and the eggs.  “No, Grata.  Eggs are precious.  Your Eggs will be safe.”

Grata turned to Daring Do, eyes slitted in thought.  “Doctor Do, what do you know of all of this?”

Daring Do finished preening the one Eaglet and  was starting on another.  She looked up, failing miserably at looking innocent.  She said distastefully, “Friend and I have talked about Baron Yoksonu’s collection.  He came close to getting arrested several times while collecting and a few of the items in it are at the very edge of Equestrian law.

“He does not regard an egg as a being until the chick or whatever hatches.”

Crest set to dryly sarcastic, Grata nodded.  “Riiight.  Thus it makes perfect sense to invite him to the Empire, where most citizens come from eggs!”  Giving Daring Do the steely eye, she demanded, “What is it that you are NOT telling me?”

Nurse Grayyk filled in, “I overheard part of it that may be relevant.  Never forget that Friend is not simply a carnivore.  She is a predator.  A very good predator.

“She and Doctor Do have discussed the hunting strategies of many kinds of creatures.

“I suspect that Friend is hunting Baron Yoksonu.”

Grata turned her head to stare at Friend.  “Why not just have him picked up by Empire Police?  We know where he is.  We are tracking him most carefully.”

Quiet inside her soft cocoon of green magic, Friend carefully turned another egg a little.  “Matunen can explain better than I/we can.”

Daring Do nodded.  “Really, what crime has he done? He crossed the border illegally.  You can send him back.  That is about it.  He will keep trying, through other, more devious routes to get Gryphon eggs.

“If he comes here, the crime is a capital one.  Besides, Friend wants him.”

Grata nodded as she put it together.  “Eggs are precious.  Friend loves eggs.  He kills eggs.”

Glancing up, she saw a fang baring snarl on Friend’s usually serene face.

Her crest popped up into a grin.  “I see.  We are predators too.  I will inform my Sisters of the Throne of the true situation.  There are things that we can do to assist the hunt!”

////////////

Baron Yoksonu stepped to the solid stonework platform of the Imperial Aerie. He had a photography kit saddlebag, a modern magemirror image transfer camera on a sling over his neck, and a fashionable wide brim hat on his head.  In the hatband was a prominent Press Card for the Celebripony News.

He had a dry, brushed into the fur, mane and tail, dye job that darkened his natural colors a good bit.  The disguise included fur-weave cutie mark covers with a counterfeit camera over notepad mark.

He saw three Gryphons in regular military fatigues carefully going through the luggage of each pony or Gryphon debarking from the train.  The three were backed up by more guards, each carrying perfectly modern quickfire rifles and pistols.

He joined the line of those waiting for their luggage to be searched.  The Gryphon that he got politely requested, “Security has been tightened, Sir, ever since the recent civil war and now, the Imperial Clutch.  Please let me go through your things.”

He laid his saddle bag with photo kit on the inspection table.  He was just starting to ask, “Really, how much risk is …” when he noticed that two guards had him covered by their rifles.

The Gryphon going through his bags stated, “Your camera, Sir.  Any closed object that may harbor something dangerous must be opened for inspection.”

The Baron swallowed hard and nodded.  “I can see the necessity.  May I retract the pictures that I have take back into the roll so that they are not ruined?”

Politely still, the Gryphon agreed, “Yes, Sir.  You will remain covered until the camera is open. Since you are a reporter, I will let you know this.

“Just today, we have caught two small mage-grenades, four illegal guns and a vial of poisonous extract.  All hidden in one form or another of camera.”

The Baron did get the pictures retracted and the camera open for inspection.  The guns went back to port arms and he was waived through after the camera was done.

He was admitted to the tourist levels of the Imperial Aerie to find lodgings and a meal.

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[anistarrose]

Galar Region Map Analysis -Placing the trailer scenes

Let’s start with this segment, since it includes the apparent starting town:

The yellow-roofed house appears to be where the protagonist lives, and the red-roofed house seems to have the Fletchling weathervane from the intro of the trailer. It’s hard to see on the house itself on the map, but the windmill in the background provides another hint.

Fletchling in a beginning of the game cutscene? Kalos postgame confirmed

Putting the rest of the pictures under a cut, because it’s long.

Next, we have Route 1 and the town that it leads to. We can tell the Pikachu encounter is on that same route since the buildings in the background match (though who knows if there will actually be Pikachu on that route in the actual game).

Just beyond that first town is the purple house on the lake, with a small battlefield outside. There’s also a smaller house/shed across the lake that isn’t on the map.

This is just speculation, but I wonder if this is the professor’s lab. Another scene in the trailer shows the female protag in a very lab-like building, full of bookshelves, computers, and some sort of controlled environment, and then immediately cuts to right outside the purple house.

So not confirmed to be the lab, but it wouldn’t surprise me. I also could see the lab being the Fletchling weathervane building right next to the protagonist’s house.

Leading out of the red building in the first town is a set of train tracks, which eventually lead into a tunnel through a mountain. There are other potential locations for this scene, but it seems likely that this could be where the scene inside the mine takes place, thanks to the train tracks present inside that cave.

Or on the other hand, you could simply take a train through the mountain, since the building the tracks lead out of does look like it could be a station.

There’s one last detail I noticed about this part of the map: the road leading away from the protag’s house branches off in two different directions, one leading to Route 1 and the other towards what appears to be a forest with fog floating over it. 

That could be the same forest as this one, which we only glimpsed briefly in the trailer. The footage we have right now seems like it could come from a cutscene as we enter the area for the first time.

That’s everything of interest I can find for this section, so let’s move on to the next:

There’s some interesting stuff here, like the crumbling tower, the long bridge, and the red train station near the bottom that appears to match the station in the early town. Most prominent is the steampunk-looking city, which was featured in the starter reveal animation as well as several scenes in the trailer. Given how many cameos this town gets in the trailer, I’m guessing it’ll probably be the “mascot city” of Galar, much like Lumiose was for Kalos.

It looks like three different paths lead away from this city: one towards the brown mountains on the left, one towards the route in the middle of Galar with Stonehenge-like formations, and the last towards the green hills of the east. Both eventually reach towns that appear to have Gyms. 

This one, with the yellow fields surrounding it, got a lot of screentime in the trailer:

Based off the leaf symbol above the gym door and the general aesthetic of the town, I think it’s safe to call this a Grass-type gym.

We see this hill nearby the Grass gym town, which appears to depict a bipedal figure launching an attack. The town has a lot of Stonehenge-like rocks assembled into arches (seen in the map) and engraved with symbols (seen in the trailer), so it’ll probably have some plot importance.

This one didn’t get any shots in the trailer that I noticed, but between the color of the gym building and the apparent port theme of the town, I think it’s most likely a Water gym. There’s some striped awnings in the bottom left corner of the town, which could indicate a sort of marketplace where items are sold or moves are tutored. The boat at the dock might be able to take you somewhere in the postgame, especially since with the UK flipped upside down, that port isn’t too far from where Ireland should be.

These places didn’t get any distinctly identifiable appearances in the trailer either, and if I had to guess, I’d say it’s because a lot of plot stuff starts going down around here. We can spot at least two gyms: likely rock or ground for the brown building in the mountainous area, and possibly Poison or Psychic for the purple building in the mushroom area. (Or maybe Fairy, but that would feel like a bit of a rehash of Laverre City to me. Plus, the color would probably be pink in that case.)

We can also spot a couple different caves (including another featuring train tracks, in the bottom right) as well as one in the rocky area that seems to be beneath some sort of colorful... mural? My first impression was stained glass, but I’m not sure how that would work. On the rightmost side of the rocky area, there are three arch-shaped structures, and I’m not sure if they’re meant to resemble doors, faces, or something else entirely.

The gray-walled city has an interesting two-horned emblem on the front, which could be based off a new Pokemon. Too bad it’s not that detailed in the map.

Here we have the start of an extensive snowy area, featuring ice floes and some fairly fancy looking buildings that we see in the trailer:

If we look in the back of the map, we can make out another one of those gym buildings, which I’m just going to assume is Ice.

The last section of the map features a long icy stretch where it looks like the train track is still being laid, possibly serving as a barrier to block us from progressing in that direction until we beat whatever gym. The city is pretty clearly based of London, and you can make out Big Ben and the London Eye on the left side. 

That’s all I’ve noticed - tell me if I missed anything! I might do this again for future trailers, if people find this interesting.

[1wngdngl]

Pokemon Shield playthrough

I’ve been playing this game a lot since last night, and I still haven’t gotten on the train yet ;) I like to take games slowly to make sure I notice and experience everything along the way. It looks like the best way to share my game progress is through screenshots, so that’s what I’ll do. Cut for length and spoilers - I’ve been trying to avoid spoilers and leaks for the past couple weeks, so if you want to be able to experience the games fresh yourself, now might be a good time to click away. [This post covers up thru getting the Dynamax band]

I went ahead with the “standard” female character, but you can bet I’ll be customizing her as soon as I can. What’s with that knock-kneed stance, anyway? Pokemon trainers should stand strong and confident!

Chairman Rose greets us. Everyone online was guessing he’ll turn out to be evil or something. He certainly looks suspicious, doesn’t he?

And here comes the first surprise of the LP - a brand-new Pokemon, not even seen in trailers! (except for that fuzzy 1-frame image from a while back.) Its trunk looks kinda like a soup ladle. Maybe it’s a play on a teacup/teapot elephant? I wonder if it evolves...

Here’s Leon fighting an unknown trainer - maybe a Gym leader?

I really like the art style of the map - it’s so whimsical :)

The map also shows current weather for all locations. Look at all the different stuff going on in the Wild Area at the same time! I’ve been to the real England, and I don’t remember it having such extreme weather...

The map also has a few useful features, like displaying your next objective, and showing the facilities in a town (but only once you’ve been there yourself). The towns and such all have really interesting names that emulate that old English sound.

First thing I do when I gain control in a new Pokemon game? Change the battle style to “Set”. It seems more fair, plus it helps make the game just a bit more challenging.

I’m a little sad that the old option to change menu/text box borders seems to be forever abandoned, though... >.>

My house. It’s a pretty decent-sized place. We have a pet Munchlax and a few Budew outside. My character practices her whistling.

My mom. Or “mum” as the game calls her. The dialog is noticeably slanted toward a more British dialect - I wonder how they handled the accent in other languages?

Speaking of my mom, she seems rather big compared to me, doesn’t she? Quite a bit taller. I’m guessing my character is around 12 - when I was that age, I was the same height as my mom and done growing. Maybe they think people won’t believe this character is the mom’s child if she’s too tall?

Also, my dream is to one day have a /dad/ in a Pokemon game. Seriously, why does every other house I visit have a husband and wife, and my character is always stuck being the only child of a single parent? What if in one of these games, my dad was the champion or the evil team leader - how fun would that be?

My bedroom. The pink clock on the wall reminds me of one from a previous Pokemon game - was it ORAS that had those round clocks on the wall that you could set?

My first step on my journey. Looks like my mom spends every minute gardening - I guess the Budew help her?

Ah yes, every Pokemon game needs a “power of science” guy :)

Here’s another surprise - how many Pokemon games give you a fishing rod right at the start?! Usually you have to track down three different fisherman to get the three versions of the fishing rod. I’m also happy to see that Pokeballs have their own pocket again :)

The handy map tells us where to go next, with even a little picture of our destination.

The champion of Galar, of course, has a huge house.

Wow, a Purrloin! I forgot that they stood on two legs. I like its little bed.

Also, Leon’s family decorate their house mainly in trophies.

I guess this is Hop’s room - I like his artwork. I know Leon has a Charizard - does he have these other two Pokemon too, and that’s why Hop has posters of them?

Leon’s room is mostly a shrine to hats.

Speaking of Leon, he really knows how to play to the crowd ;)

So, some people are wondering if /Leon/ will turn out to be evil in the story. I didn’t really get that vibe from him. He seems like a genuinely nice guy, but he does seem like he has some worries on his mind, like his cheer is sometimes forced?

Maybe he actually hates the limelight and gets uncomfortable with attention? Maybe he’s secretly terminally ill? Maybe there’s some massive threat about to attack the Galar region? He seems really concerned with making sure that Galar has lots of strong trainers. Maybe he knows something about the legendaries?

Alternately, some people were saying that maybe Leon isn’t actually a great champion, and his fights are rigged in his favor by the chairman. /If/ that were the case, I bet that Leon is actually unhappy with that situation and wants to make the tournament more fair.

Or maybe everything in the game is exactly as it seems ;)

Nothing important here, I just like this screenshot. I wonder if Fletchling are native to Galar too?

My first Pokemon! (in this game, at least...) I picked Sobble because he’s the most endearing.

My first battle! I like how the interface is laid out, and how detailed the background is beyond the fighters - you can even see Leon standing there.

My Pokemon's details. I don’t play competitively so I don’t know if it’s a particular “good” Sobble. It seems like this species is a fast special-attacker, so I’ll have to keep that in mind.

The Slumbering Weald (my spellchecker doesn’t even recognize that word :) ) It’s very spooky and seclusive - and it’s right next to the starter town too! You’d think if it was really that dangerous, people would put up more than a flimsy wooden gate to keep trespassers out...Hop, of course, is an idiot and runs right into it; and I, the spineless protagonist, have no option to say no. >.>

My first wild encounter! This starts the trend I noticed all during the opening hours of this game - most of the wild Pokemon are brand-new, totally-unrevealed species. Like this squirrel thing. (Although some people guessed we would get a new squirrel based on that shirt design). I wonder if it evolves?

This part was actually pretty scary, with the Pokemon (I can’t remember its name...) suddenly appearing out of the fog. The Pokemon acted almost like a hologram in battle though - my attacks couldn’t touch it.

What if the twist is that the legendary wolf Pokemon are just illusions, perhaps even man-made ones created to keep intruders from discovering some secret in the forest?

Anyway, we escape from the situation perfectly fine, because of course we do ;)

I noticed that this particular generation gives you quite of a bit of money at the start, but I guess that’s because you encounter the first boutique so early. There’s a fair number of affordable options too. Some of these Pokemon shirts I wish were /real/ shirts.

My new look :) Mostly I just ditched the dress for jeans. This looks like a comfortable outfit, although that knapsack is a bit unwieldy.

We visit the professor’s lab. She has a lot of books, plants, and a tea set. I wonder if she ever has problems with Polteageist?

The new Pokemon center design. I love that the move deleter/relearner and nickname functions are all in one place - I always hated flying around the map trying to remember where they were.

That Pokemon behind the counter is another totally new one. Could this be a Galarian Audino?

Using mystery gift, I was able to get this “Gigantamax” Meowth. However, due to my rule of only using Gen 8 Pokemon, it’s just gonna chill out in the box >.>

Leon is very generous with Pokeballs. Even the items you find on the ground are generous, often containing 2 or 3 “copies” of an item when you check it out. Is that a new thing for Pokemon?

Here I battle my first trainer that isn’t named Hop. He has that squirrel shirt and is a total pushover.

Just chilling by the professor’s house. It looks like maybe you can only fish in fishing spots (those darker circles on the water), but at least you get your fishing pole right away.

Also, I discovered that while I could not sit on beds or chairs inside, I am able to sit on this bench :)

The way the Pokemon mill about in the tall grass is very interesting. Some will try to avoid you, others like this Yamper will chase after you. It makes the routes feel a lot more populated.

I guess this is Sonia’s room. It’s very pink. I wonder if she even /wants/ to do Pokemon research, or if she’d rather be a fashion designer or something.

The in-game time of day doesn’t seem to match up with the Switch system clock, at least not from what I’ve seen so far. For example, suddenly it is sunset and I catch a falling star. (look how the reflection in the water changes :) )

I haven’t decided yet if I want to buy the Switch online service, but in the meantime I decided to at least pick my profile picture. The icons you can choose from actually reveal quite a lot about the trainer classes and gyms that are in the game. For the first time ever, we have a Dark-type gym! Their logo is a sideways version of Team Yell’s logo - does that mean that Team Yell or Marnie is the Dark gym leader?

I spent a while catching Pokemon around the professor’s house. I can’t tell if I got every possible species without looking online, but I did build up a good roster.

I found it really cool how many new, surprising Pokemon showed up this early in the game. There’s the fox one (which is a Dark type and reminds me of Zoroark), the turtle one (which has got to be a pre-evolution of Dreadnaw, probably the 1st of 3 stages), the bird one (based on the “Rook” in its name and the fact that it learns Dark-type moves early, I’m guessing it’s a pre-evolution of Corviknight), and the bug one (can’t wait to see what its final stage looks like).

I went through the party to find the best Pokemon that fit my self-imposed rules (only new, Gen 8 Pokemon, no overlap of types). I know that this means I won’t be able to use Galarian forms or Gigantamaxes of old Pokemon, but just because I’m not using them in my main playthrough doesn’t mean I can’t catch them :)

Next time: I step onto the train and leave my home behind.

[lynnetendo]

What is the game“Detective Pikachu” about?

Hello! So this is going to be a long post.

Ever since the trailer was posted recently, I’ve seen a lot of reactions towards Detective Pikachu: The Movie. Most people know it’s based on the 2017 released 3DS game Detective Pikachu, few (of those) people have actually played it. I personally always understood why it was like that, but thought it was a pity because it’s filled with great details. Now my own opinion on the game aside, which is that I really love it, I felt like I should make an “extensive” info post on facts and things to know about the game! And I don’t care if this gets barely any notes - I just want to feel more peace knowing I tried explaining what the game is about! So here’s some facts, partially highlighting similarities and differences between game and (what we know of the) movie.

tl;dr In this post, I’ll explain what you should know about the game!

Premise

The very rough premise between the movie and the game seems exactly the same: A detective mystery in a world with Pokemon. (To unpromptedly point out a reason why I loved the game: There is a difference between the main games’ and lot of spinoffs’ setting, “Pokemon world”, and this game’s setting, “what a world much like ours would be like if it had actual Pokemon in it”.) Tim Goodman, young adult, comes to Ryme City after his father, Harry Goodman, went missing. His father was a detective last seen working on a tough case around Ryme City. But upon Tim’s arrival there he gets to know an odd Pikachu that only he is able to communicate with. They decide to team up, combining their wits to solve cases that slowly get them closer to the secret behind the case Harry has been last working on.

Gameplay

Here’s the reason I think only few people have played the game or the people who played it weren’t violently recommending it: The cases are VERY easy to solve and the gameplay is rather simple even when still subjectively fun. Complexity is, precisely, age-wise ranging to be fit for smart 10 year olds until interested 16-year olds. This comes from the story being too complex to follow for younger kids really, but the writing style and happenings in the story and the gameplay being too silly and straightforward for a majority of anyone older to enjoy. A specific target audience. It’s a detective game by nature: As Tim, accompanied or instructed by Pikachu, you usually run around in a certain location after having stumbled across a case, asking the people present at that place about hints, testimonies and other related things. Not only humans can be asked as witnesses, even and especially Pokemon too, just as much as humans. You also check out things in the area to collect hints.

Sometimes riddles have to be solved. The main gameplay revolves around working towards the answer to the big question of the case, like “Who was the culprit?”, by answering smaller questions leading to that, by finding evidence in things characters have said and things you’ve found. Rarely there’s simple quicktime events, for some reason, mostly in the middle of action cutscenes when a case isn’t done yet.

Simple facts about the game’s story

-Tim Goodman is actually a college student who also knows how to drive. (I felt like pointing this out. This dude looks like a lost 16 year old at the max.) -The story is 9 or so chapters long. In each a case is solved. -Literal only problem I had with the game: A major central story question was left open even until the very end. As in, not answered. (Still wondering whether the movie answers that and all related questions.) -Pikachu is the prominent main Pokemon role. Other Pokemon have side roles, some to a bigger degree than others, but Pikachu is very prominently the Spotlight Pokemon. -There’s a bunch of reoccurring important characters, such as friendly TV reporter Emilia Christie (who as far as I remember prominently is in every chapter?), levelheaded detective office boss Mike Baker, and others. -Only mild violence, as some age warnings say. Down to earth language. Zero murders, but themes like theft and more or less, vaguely, smuggling or black market.

Other facts about the game

-3D cartoon graphics overall. No dialogue sprites or 2D cutscenes or anything. -In general, it’s optically more bright and colorful rather than the opposite. (hint hint, the movie’s visuals are the COMPLETE opposite.) -Ryme City is the general location everything happens in and around, but the places specifically get rather diverse. You’ve got the city and the detective’s offices, sure, but there’s a park, a laboratory, a TV studio, an abandoned theme park, an island, and a cave, among other places. -The cases are pretty diverse too. -I feel like it’s important to highlight: Pokemon from all current 7 main gens make an appearance. Yes, indeed, Alola Pokemon are in there. On top of my mind I can think of a Mimikyu and a Brionne. (Ah yeah, there’s also Stufful for example.) But there’s Kalos pokemon like Fletchling and Phantump and Floette, Unova’s Trubbish and Chandelure and Solosis, Sinnoh’s Kricketune and Drifloon and Buneary, Hoenn’s Feebas and Metang and Tropius... and of course Johto and Kanto are there. Duh. This is just an excerpt - there’s honestly tons of Pokemon in there playing a role, even some unexpected ones.

-All cutscenes are fully (and nicely!) voiced, and what’s more, all Pokemon have voiced sounds even outside of them. For some reason the game has environmentally individual sound design in that regard, by which I mean that if you run with Tim next to a Pokemon, you’ll hear its sound louder than you would standing on the opposite side of the room. -This Pikachu is a coffee enthusiast (and as far as I remember a big cookie fan too). -This isn’t a game fact, but I don’t know why the Detective Pikachu amiibo is so huge. Someone please tell me.

Any other questions? Rambles? Definitely drop me a message!

[daisydoctor13]

Fic: We all will be together, if the Fates allow

Berena advent: Christmas with Jac

“Well, if you’re not doing anything else you should come along, even a Grinch like me knows it’s rubbish being alone on Christmas Day.” 

Serena had to admit things were bad if even Jac was telling her to be more sociable, so she acquiesced, agreeing to join her, Fletch and the Fletchlings, and Sacha, for dinner. Greta’s parents had returned and wanted to spend Christmas with their new grandchild before they jetted off abroad again, and Serena hadn’t wanted to impose. The house would be pretty crowded anyway. 

She wasn’t moping as such. She’d expected to be spending the day without Bernie, but now she wouldn’t even be talking to her. She’d decided a clean break was best, at least for a few weeks. Maybe in the new year they could get back in touch, try to find a tentative friendship, keep up to date with what was going on. 

At least with the offer of a loud, child-filled day, she wouldn’t end up downing a bottle of Shiraz and being tempted to leave a voicemail. 

Christmas day arrived and the delight of the children was infectious. Theo had taken a shine to Sacha, and was following him round wherever he went. Jac was busy in the kitchen, Fletch constantly offering to help and being turned down. 

It felt rather surreal to Serena, seeing Jac in her home, domestic but still maintaining that essential streak of sarcasm and disdain that made her who she was. It made serena's heart clench, knowing how she'd let Bernie go, without properly seeing her embed herself into that setting.

The kids started to grumble about hunger, asking when the food would be ready. Jac gave them a stern stare, answering merely "when I've finished cooking it."

Fletch piped up "Besides, not everyone's here yet." He was nudged in the ribs by Jac, and Serena wondered who they could be waiting for.

About half an hour later, the doorbell rang. Jac rolled her eyes with a muttered "Finally" and told Fletch to start sorting the kids out for dinner as she answered the door.

"Glad you could make it," she said dryly. "Go through."

Serena turned, expecting to be greeting Frieda or maybe Mo and Hector. Instead, she was faced with long limbs, flushed cheeks and a mop of blonde hair she would recognise anywhere.

"Bernie?"

"Hi," Bernie started, looking to say more but not finding her words.

Sacha cleared his throat, mumbled something about helping in the kitchen, and left the two of them alone.

"Why are you here? What- what about Nairobi?"

"Flights were cancelled and there weren't any more until the new year. Met Fletch in town and he invited me here for Christmas. Charlotte already had plans."

"Oh, right," she somehow felt deflated, knowing that Bernie was here as a last resort, not to see her in particular. Not that she had any right, she was the one that had finished things. "When are you heading back then?"

She attempted small talk, keep the conversation light when all she wanted to do was reach out, tuck the errant strand of hair behind her ear. Bernie did it herself, looking down as if she'd been caught out.

"I, uh. I'm not sure if I'm going to." She paused, considering her next words. "You made me consider what it was I really wanted. It seemed like fate that I couldn't fly, gave me time to think instead of just doing a typical 'throw myself into work to avoid what's really bothering me'."

Serena remained silent, at a loss for words herself. So Bernie was staying, but hadn't told her. What did that mean? That she wanted to start a settled life in England without Serena?

"Fletch didn't say you'd be here."

Did that mean she wouldn't have come if she'd known Serena was there? Her head felt fuzzy, not helped by the wine she'd already consumed. She still couldn't quite believe that Bernie was stood in front of her.

"Jason's with Greta's parents," was all she could manage. Bernie took a step back, shouldering her bag.

"Look, sorry this is awkward. I'll go."

"No, no. Stay. Please," she didn't know why. It was a bad idea but she was three glasses down and her heart was aching.

"I know you're not in the country for me, but i regret what I said. Seeing you today, I know that while I fell in love with the trauma surgeon, I want to fall in love with Bernie Wolfe - great auntie, pushing swings and putting the bins out in her slippers."

She edged closer, putting it all on the line. "I would understand if you said no, but maybe this was fate pushing us together."

Bernie closed the gap, tentatively linking their fingers. 

“I think it might have been,” 

Their lips met, hesitant but familiar. They didn’t notice Fletch and Jac watching with smug smiles. 

“Not sure what they mean about Fate, we got them in the same room.” 

@berenaadvent