Astoria - The Enchanted Forest

[Emp]

The Final Battle

Arc Angel: You draw toward the Gracious Orb’s glow like a moth to a flame and all of a sudden – you were reborn. Its touch was like turning the ignition on a rusty old pickup truck, the decaying network of veins and arteries beneath your ribcage combusting with life, bumping blood through your body for the first time in an eternity. And as the crystal slips away from your fingers the euphoric feeling dies with it, leaving you naked and frail. Your body starts to convulse as your nervous system deteriorates, your mind in such a state of shock you find it hard to think straight. Before the craving can drive you to madness the stifled choking of a hag inches from death coerces you out of oblivion for the time being. Your lapse in judgement had sealed her fate, and now it was down to you to save her. Fuelled with determination you brandish a chestnut sphere: your greatest weapon against the rising shadow. It slips out of your clutch and hurtles toward the earth, cracking open with a burst of light so bright it would draw all eyes back to the plinth. Light runs off his body like water, bringing shape to a gallant warrior, bent on one knee with its twin blades crossed. You blinking away the spots from your dilated pupils in efforts to get a better look into the soul of the grownup Valentine. His stance emanated incredible skill and power, his eyes serious and hardened as they swept tentatively across the mesa. You couldn’t help but feel overcome by nerves as his gaze locks onto yours like he was considering you. Who was this stranger? He didn’t inherit Lucius’s maniacal bearing. Perhaps the world he grew up in forced him to grow up too fast, and you can’t help but feel a pang of guilt for not being there for him. But with the ruckus erupting from the vale and the enemies afoot frozen in confusion the time to strike was now.

You channel your scattered thoughts into a game plan, concentrating on nothing else but the string of orders which felt more like a desperate plea for help. Valentine’s eyes flicker intensely and the sensation your thoughts were being penetrated takes over. You feel him delve a bit deeper than your immediate thoughts, no doubt probing your memory bank. Eyes smouldering with realisation he leaves an imprint of his own thoughts on his way out, his handsome voice filling you with hope and reassurance, ’Yes, my master.’ The words echo through your skull for a few seconds until he breaks the stare and homes in on the gallows ahead. Then time turned back to normal and several things happened at the same time... Gallade leaps from his crouch with tenacious speed, skirting lightfootedly down the edge of the plinth and kicking into air meters before the gallows. He hangs in the Night’s sky for a few moments, his twin blades combusting in darkness as he corkscrews toward the seer. Slashing the noose with one arm and seizing the gypsy’s cloak with the other he rolls onto the floor cradling the hag and gently resting her on the ground. Meanwhile all hell was breaking loose below. Hundreds of shadow monsters were roaring and stampeding under the plateau, a fifty foot cliff the only thing keeping them at bay. The aerial fleet weren’t as fazed by this problem as they rounded on Valentine like homing missiles. The dozen or so red eyes dance like a swarm of Vobeat against the black canvas of dusk, whisking away your false sense of security. Straining your eyes you’re able to make out Hydreigon, Salamence and Charizard with dozens more species veiled by the darkness. Their faces suddenly light up as Shadowy Fireballs spindle out of their mouths swelling in size. You feel powerless to help as the inferno rains down like a carpet bomb, the knight stood above the comatose gypsy and showing no signs of yielding.

Syrian’s twisted laughter is drowned out by the blazing firestorm which quickly consumes Valentine. The blue flames melt away at the rocks prolonging the internal torture, the fire dancing in the reflection of your glazed pupils. The ebbing cinders unveil nothing but charred terrain, belching with smoke and glowing red with heat. There was nothing. Not even a body to salvage. Before this has time to sink in a high pitch battle cry resonates across the valley, Syrian looking to the skies in confusion. The discord underneath your footing settles as a small streak of light emerges from the cliff tops above. The Shaymin was nothing but a blur as it cartwheeled through the air, prompting a bombardment of Shadowy Fireballs from the army which he dodged with ease. The flying beasts had broken off from the plateau now to annihilate the new threat, cutting off the critter’s flight path veering down like fighter jets as they all combust into a Shadow Blitz. The legendary Pokémon headed toward them, twisting through the tightest of openings and coming to a stop above. The Shadow Pokémon break out of their attacks, straining skyward until a bright Flare of green light blinds them. Suddenly a flurry of Seeds shower down like a meteor storm, peppering the convoy and putting an abrupt end to the dog fight as they career lifelessly into the vale. The grass type had only taken out a small division of the army, and whilst it’d cleared the skies it had a lot left to contend with. Another volley of attacks pierce through the sky proving nigh impossible to dodge, the terrier yelping as it’s clipped by half a Shadow Chill. A few cries of bewilderment draw your focus away from Shaymin however as Shadow Pokémon start dropping like flies below. Straining for a closer look you spot a thick of vines break out from the soil, snaring a Shadow Rhydon and pulling it away into the underbrush. One by one the soldiers were being taken out until they started firing aimlessly at the ground.

So much was happening at once you almost forget what you were here for until a low croak drags you back to your senses. Your eyes sweep back over the mesa. Syrian was watching his army fall with smouldering eyes, messaging the Griseous Orb which was pulsing wilder than ever. With such a strong hold you’d have to prize it from his dead body, an idea which seemed to win you over. You find the gypsy’s Dusknoir, who’d been locked in a body binding Shadow Hold. The toad was croaking frantically, resisting the urge for a swift kill when he’d promised himself he’d make this one hurt. With Valentine out of the fight so early there was nothing you could do to save the last remaining prisoner. Reaper was unresponsive, still out of action from your last living skirmish. Hope gives rise to panic and all you could do now was hope Iris could turn the tides of the battle before Giratina arrived...

’Over here’, a gentle whisper from inside your head rescues you from despair. It was Valentine! As though he’d embedded the coordinates in your brain you quickly turn your eastward and find the warrior latched onto the cliff face, his scarlet cloak billowing in the blustery winds. You could only guess he’d Teleported out of the blitzkrieg in the nick of time. He sends a subtle wink your way before vanishing into thin air. Your eyes dart around the skies, the warrior reappearing a stretch above the Shadow Toxicroak toad and breaking into a nosedive. The Gallade extends its swords, pivoting its waist forward and grappling the toad by surprise. With his feet wrapped around the enemy he kicks the Dusknoir free from the headlock, the reaper quickly recessing to the mountains to find his injured mistress. The tables had turned with the frog in your mercy. Valentine presses his swords against the Psycho’s slimy skin, Cutting off his head in one swift cross motion. As he breaks away from the decapitated amphibian you spot a glint of remorse in his eyes, only adding fuel to your burning desire to know more about his past. ’I didn’t think he’d croak that easily’, a small trace of his father’s humour softens the mood, the Gallade smirking toward you as you share a long exchange. Suddenly your smile falters as Syrian lets out a triumphant laugh.

“Everything is going according to plan”, he smiles to himself, “Waste your powers holding them off Iris. In a few more moments I won’t even need an army...” The shaman’s eyes stare jealously at the Griseous Orb, now flickering at blinding speed. With no one left to save you feel yourself relapsing into obsession, its allure growing stronger as its master drew nearer. He holds it over the valley again, allowing its yellow luminescence to break through the shadowy vale like a homing beacon. The renegade Pokémon would be here any second...

[jolteonjak]

What can I say other than "I'm sorry" for making you all wait so long? Anyway, here you go. Cele appears to be back, so I'll repost your last update in case you need it.

The Island

~Shaman River~

Mon1010: After a bit of searching the area in the woods, you thought you finally caught up to the thieving Teddiursa. Following it into an opening in a bush, you found, instead, a Linoone and her young Zigzagoon, each of the little ones suffering from burns. You saw the parent feeding them some Rawst Berries it found, but an accidental twig snap caused them to run off in fear. Suddenly you put two and two together; the Ursaring was burnt badly, as were the little Zigzagoon. In its haste, the Linoone left an extra Rawst Berry which you grabbed. A loud yell next invaded your thoughts, and ears.

Careful not to destroy their home, you exited the den of the Linoone; so you could go investigate the scream. As you ran, you happened to look up, and you noticed some smoke filling the sky in the distance, in the same direction too. You also could see something quickly glide by disappearing into the smoke. Your gaze is drawn back to earth, as Shaana tried to get your attention.

You stopped running and turned to her. She was floating over by a bush with a twig sticking out of it. Attached to the twig were long strands of copper hair. You wondered if it could belong to the Ursaring parent you're searching for. "POMMMMM!" Another screech broke your concentration. It was quite loud, so you figured you weren't too far away from its source. You continued your pursuit, and the area started to fill with smoke. The smoke became thicker and darker. Finally you discovered the source of the smoke, a tree with its trunk engulfed in flames.

Perched on a limb, you spotted a large purple creature with two tails, on each of those tails were the strangest looking hands you ever saw. The Ambipom was frantic, hopping about on the limb. Maybe it lived in the tree. Whatever the case, you watched Ambipom hop off the limb holding onto the limb with one of its tails. When it was near the ground, its tail let go of the limb; and it landed on the ground. The Long Tail Pokemon used its tails to begin flinging some sand at the blazing trunk, attacking the flames. It turned to look at the tree, and it was upset to see that most of the fire was still burning. Next, it began to concentrate, and you could see an orb form between its two little purple hands. The watery orb was fired at the tree, pulsing through the air. It landed at the base of the tree, where some of the water could splash up dousing more of the flames. Some of the water also saturated the ground around the tree. Ambipom braved the heat of the fire and got closer to begin slapping some of the mud that was created at the tree to smother even more of the flames.

You watched Ambipom working furiously to save its tree from being destroyed by the fire. It switched tactics again, using Sand Attack a few more times. The fire was slowly extinguishing, but it was only a matter of time before it would reignite though. With the fire beginning to die out, you started to hear some more commotion ahead of you. The noises sounded an awful lot like a certain Little Bear you've been following.

Out of the corner of its eye, Ambipom noticed Shaana hovering. It turned to look at you, giving you a look of fear. It jumped up and down waving its little purple arms. It then began to point at the tree with one of its tails. It also raised its arms to either side of its mouth and began to blow, like it was mimicking something. Ambipom was clearly trying to tell you something, but at the same time its tree was still on fire, but only slightly.

What will you do?

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~The Lakes~

TutorX: Success! Things seem to be working as you planned. You manage to trap that wily Qwilfish to a tree. Always resourceful, though, the Balloon is not completely defenseless as it fires off volleys of Pin Missiles.

The first wave speedily flies through the air heading in Zoomer's direction. Before you can react, it pelts your Ralts for some damage, which knocks him back about a yard. The second wave flies straight up in the air causing some leaves to fall off the tree Qwilfish is affixed to. As you react and order Zoomer to Teleport away, the third wave strikes him for more damage. Just in time, however, Zoomer avoids the fourth wave of the barrage of missiles. The missiles explode on the beach causing sand to scatter about. You and the injured boy aren't affected due to your make-shift shield from your bag. The last wave flies out over the lake and out of sight.

Zoomer reappears standing on the tied up Qwilfish. It struggles under weight a bit; but since it's bound to the tree, it can't shake Zoomer off. You and the boy watch from the sidelines and you see your Ralts falter a little. You check out the little boy to make sure his injury isn't getting any worse. You turn your attention back to the battle to see Zoomer's horn flashing its familiar signaling pattern. Next he fires a beam straight down striking the Balloon Pokemon at close range causing more damage than it usually would. Qwilfish, in response, begins to flail about successfully knocking Zoomer off. Next you notice something strange happening. A faint purple cloud eminates from Zoomer and slowly floats over to Qwilfish and dissipates shortly after. Zoomer winces and falls to one knee. He looks to be in pain.

You stand there momentarily confused. "Oh cool!" the boy yells out. "I think that was Ralts' Synchronize. Your Ralts may be poisoned from that Qwilfish's Poison Point ability." He thinks for a moment. "Too bad Qwilfish is a Poison type and can't be poisoned."

Focusing back on the battle, you see that Qwilfish has had enough of being tied to the tree. In an effort to free itself, Qwilfish fires water directly at the tree. The force from the water shot at the tree seems to be as strong as a gun, which pushes it away from the tree, barely, stretching the grass that binds it. Just as soon as Qwilfish finishes launching the Water Gun at the tree, it begins to launch missiles of pins. The combination of the stretched grass and the Pin Missiles is enough to tear through Qwilfish's binds, and the angry Balloon Pokemon is free. Its victory is shortlived, however, as a flashing beam from Zoomer's signaling horn slams it back into the same tree using up the rest of its Bug Energy. Once again, like before, Zoomer winces in pain from the poison streaming through its body.

What will you do?

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Eyrie Peak

~Adventure Path~

Celebii151: repost
The sudden appearance of a woman in a lab coat cancels your battle with the young Panpour. It seems you have unknowingly entered a research facility, and now its inhabitants surround you. The monkeys begin to close in on you as you begin to explain how you got there and that you were not sent by Team Plasma.

“There seems to be a glimmer of truth in what you say,” the researcher says. "Why just a very short time ago, a patch of the fence that was damaged was fixed and put back in place by some of our workers.” You offer her the Potion for Panpour. “Thank you. Is this a certified Pokemon potion?” She inspects the potion and sees the certification seal. “Splendid. Thanks again.” She begins to treat the young monkey and looks at you puzzled by all the monkey Pokemon. “My name is Astrid. As I said earlier, I am a researcher here. I can assure you that you haven’t entered the Mystic Jungle. We have captured some monkeys from the Monkey-Forts, however, to begin our studies. I cannot explain what it is we are studying for your own protection and ours and the Pokemon’s.”

Just then some of the Primeape tense their bodies. They begin to make short hops waving their arms over their heads and start to grunt softly. “I think we should continue this conversation somewhere indoors. These Primeape are getting a tad unruly at your presence in their play area,” Astrid warns. “Being cooped up while the fence was being repaired didn’t help matters either.” She slowly places the Panpour on the ground, and it immediately runs past you and up into its tree. "If you'll allow us to pass, we will all leave you alone," she says to all the monkeys, and a Pansage and Pansear both step aside creating an opening for you, Astrid, and Neptune. "Stay calm, Cele, and don't make eye contact with any of the Primape, you too Wartortle." She urges you start walking by the Grass Monkey and the High Temp Pokemon and she follows you. Once you're all sufficiently away from the monkeys, Astrid begins speaking, which causes you to exhale at last, "We should be far enough away. I apologize for that. We do not study any of the Primeape, mostly because they're quite fierce. Most of them are also parents to some of the Mankey, and they don't want to be separated from their young. And we wouldn't force them to be apart anyway. They actually serve as effective guards for the other monkeys. One of my associates witnessed one of them defending the monkeys from some of those Team Plasma agents last night, which caused extensive damage to that section of the fence you entered through. He says that was all from one Focus Punch."

As you both continue walking towards the research center, suddenly you hear a small explosion from ahead of you. "Dr. Astrid, come in!" you hear a voice which sounds understandably panicked. Astrid takes a walkie-talkie from her pocket and listens. "Team Plasma is back! They're attacking the East Wing! We need assistance immediately!"

"I'm on my way Joshua!" she responds. "If you truly aren't from Team Plasma, then please help us fight them off!" She reaches in one of the pockets of her lab coat and removes a Pokeball. She clicks the button to open it up, and a white flash of energy emerges. When the flash goes away you see three pairs of magnets attached to three shiny orbs of silver metal floating in the air. "Magneton, let's go!" The Magnet Pokemon nods and floats alongside Astrid. "We're not too far from the East Wing luckily. Please, will you help us?"

Well, will you?

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Charminions: The female Nidoran was proving her toughness to you. At the same time, Osage is also proving his toughness, able to completely defend from an attack while increasing his powers. The battle, though, is starting to show its effects on both participants. Pigkey, on the other hand, is in her own world trapped in her confusion.

Realizing you'll need the Mankey's help, you approach her and give her a smack hoping to relieve her of her confusion. You give the Pokemon their orders, and they prepare to attack. Osage breathes in air and shoots it at Nidoran. The air, now frosty from Osage's Ice-type body, strikes her for some strong damage. Pigkey next picks up a nearby stone. She throws it at Nidoran, hoping to smack her down. The rock knocks her on the side of her leg for some damage, though not as severe as if she were flying. Nidoran takes the opportunity to bow her head in preparation allowing her defense to raise a bit in the process.

Hoping to put an end to Nidoran's stat boosting, Osage rushes in raising his claw ready to strike little Poison Pin crushing her hopes of victory. The slash connected, but she remained focused on her current course. The attack was not without success however; for the recent boost in her defense was erased as quickly as it came. Pigkey, meanwhile, prepares what she hopes is a devastating attack. She swings her arm in a circular motion creating a mega force. Once she sees Osage strike and step back, she closes in ready to punch Nidoran. Unfortunately for Pigkey, she mega punches herself in the face and knocks herself to the ground. Nidoran watches her lucky break, and she begins to charge at Osage, head first. She bashes into the Sharp Claw Pokemon with her skull throwing him back a few yards.

This particular attack seems to made Nidoran quite proud of herself, because seeing Osage knocked back causes her to sing her favorite song out loud, very loudly. The notes soar through the air attacking all three of your hearing. You wonder what she is doing. Is she already starting to celebrate victory? All of a sudden it becomes clear. You hear, echoing through the trees, a reply of sorts. The song Nidoran was singing was being repeated by another, thus becoming a round. Pigkey stands up quickly looking around trying to pinpoint the source of the sound. It seems she needed a stronger smack to cure her confusion. Now she stands, battle ready, facing the direction of the second singer. What will you do?

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Myahoo: After helping one of the three injured Pidove escape the cave, you ventured further into the cave searching for the other two. As you continue, the noise from the battle up ahead got louder. At the entrance to the cave you peeked in to see a Staravia battling against an alternately colored Boldore. The Staravia seemed to have a slight upper hand on Boldore; however, typewise Boldore did. After being grazed by Boldore's Power Gem, it retaliated with a powerful Hidden Power attack. In the back corner you spotted the missing pair of Pidove huddling together in fear of the big rock. Suddenly you were spotted by the intrepid trainer battling the Ore Pokemon, and she could really use your help!

Concerned for the well-being of the Pidove, you decided to join the battle. Sizing up Boldore, you realized a head-to-head battle wouldn't suffice. After thinking for a moment, you gave your orders to Wildfire. He nodded, understanding your request; and began to scrape and burrow underground. Watching his progress, you thought to yourself this would take some time. You hobbled into the cavern and slowly hopped over next to the other trainer. "You're injured?" the trainer asked you. She was alternating between looking at you and watching the battle. "What happened?"

All of a sudden, in the middle of your explanation, Boldore began to blast some rocks towards you, the other trainer, and the cowering Pidove. "Pidove, scatter!" she yelled. "Wings, break up the rocks with Steel Wing!" The pair of Pidove took flight just as one of the rocks slams into the floor of the cavern. Just as they took off, two more rocks flew towards you. Suddenly Staravia speedily flew by you, with its wings glowing silver, to slice the rocks into pieces, just as they were about to hit you. "Now use Steel Wing on Boldore!" she exclaimed. Staravia set its course towards Boldore.

With the impending threat of the Rock Blast over, the girl looked at you once more. "I have some basic first aid knowledge. May I look at your injury? I may be able to help." She motioned for you to sit on a nearby rock. She listened to you explain what happened to your ankle and watched your facial expression as she touched the area. "Judging by what you've told me, I think it's a fair assumption that your ankle is not broken. That's a good thing since there are no hospitals in the area. Continue using that branch as a crutch, and when you get to a Pokemon Center, Nurse Joy can treat it better," she exclaimed. "My name is Chloe, by the way." Chloe turned back towards the battle to see how her Staravia was doing. Boldore was knocked back by Staravia's Steel Wing. "Good job Wings. Now use, wait, what the -" Chloe was interrupted by the ground beneath Boldore swelling and rumbling as Wildfire burst through completing his dig and striking the Ore Pokemon.

Before Boldore could react, Wildfire blew some dark smoke at it, effectively screening it from what they had planned next. "Is that Cyndaquil yours?" Chloe asked. "Excellent, Wings could use a rest. Roost for a little bit Wings!" she ordered. The Staravia lands next to its trainer, gladly welcoming a chance to rest up. Suddenly, rocks came blasting from the cloud of smoke in various directions. One of the rocks hit one of the Pidove, and it fell to the cavern floor stunned. The second landed next to its partner to be with it. Cyndaquil, meanwhile, began to channel any of the pain he felt and any of the suffering he endured recently into an attack. He leapt into the smoke using his the energy of that difficult dig to reverse his feelings of how this battle is going. While the attack was successful and super effective, Wildfire has not taken any damage yet; so the attack didn't cause much damage to Boldore.

"While we have some time," Chloe started looking at your ankle again, "let's get this bandaged up. I have some spare bandage with me, and I always carry a few scraps of tree bark that would make an excellent brace." Chloe rummaged through her backpack and got to work. She placed the bark on your ankle and said, "Please hold the bark here while I begin wrapping your ankle." Wildfire ran out of the smokescreen and back to your side.

He had not a moment to spare for the smokescreen was dispersed by sand. Looking at the, now, sand twister, you see Boldore upside-down spinning using the sand to attack the smoke. Wings immediately took flight. You, Chloe, and Wildfire were all startled by the Sand Attack; but you were able to shield your eyes from any of its effects. "Oh man, I really need to concentrate on your ankle for a moment," Chloe commented. Boldore noticed the two Pidove and began advancing towards them. "Wings! Protect the Pidove as best you can!"

For the time being, it seems it's up to you and Wildfire to keep the Boldore at bay. What will you do?

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OkikuMew: After hearing what Andersen had to say regarding his need for Apricorns, you graciously offer to go collect some for him. As you check your supplies and make a list, you suddenly begin to wonder what Posy Fields was like. "Sweet! ...Hmm, Andersen, before we go," you start to ask, "anything you could add about Posy Fields and picking the Apricorns? Like, I dunno... Dangerous Pokemon, a special way to pick the Apricorns?"

Andersen stops his work to think for a moment. "Let's see... When I spoke to some of the townsfolk when I first visited, they warned me that there are some trees which Flying Pokemon made nests in. Going near those trees angers the Pokemon, and they attack. I didn't have any problems myself when I was out there. Then again, I only picked from White Apricorn trees."

"As for picking Apricorns? Here is what you do," Andersen picks up one of the Apricorns. "Start at the top of the Apricorn and measure the length of your thumb," he demonstrates on the Apricorn. "Snip or cut there."

You nod understanding his instructions. Now that you're ready, you and Max approach the door.

"Hey, good luck out there," Andersen calls out to you. "Don't bite off more than you can chew!"

You begin your journey to Posy Field walking through the woods surrounding Andersen's cabin. Remembering the map, you consult it to make sure you were heading in the right direction. Soon enough, you find yourself back on the path you were originally on. The path slowly slopes upward, as you begin to ascend Eyrie Peak.

~Posy Fields~

Just like Andersen told you earlier, the journey to Posy Field did not take very long. Luckily the hike was uneventful with nothing much to see other than random Bug Pokemon going about their business.

As you survey the surroundings, you start looking for the Apricorn trees Andersen asked you to harvest. Initially you only see some Green Apricorn trees, but they aren't even ready for picking. You and Max decide that it may be best to follow that line of trees in case they lead you to some of the other types of trees. But first, you decide to take a short break and enjoy the scenery, which Posy Fields is known for. You feel a breeze around you containing a mixture of the scents of flowers and their berries. Max plays for a bit on the field, and in the distance you see some Butterfree and Beautifly amongst the many different patches of flowers.

After a few restful minutes you resume your mission. Max picks up a scent and scampers off along the grove of Apricorn trees. You follow eagerly hoping he caught the scent of Apricorns that he would have smelled back at Andersen's. You look up in the trees, as you follow, to make sure you don't miss any of the Apricorns he requested. The fruits of the trees still show to be immature Green Apricorns. As you keep up with your Poochyena, you eventually find a few trees that seem to lack any Apricorns, but Max keeps following the scent.

Just when you think you've lost your chance at finding any, the next trees you see appear to bear some Black Apricorns. Stopping to investigate, you try to remember how many Andersen needs. Do you remember how to tell if they're ready for picking? Do you also remember how he taught you to pick them? What will you do?



Special Instructions - In the next many updates that follow which pertain to collecting the Apricorns, you will be asked a series of questions regarding some/all of the Apricorns. Getting every question correct doesn't guarantee anything. It's a better way for me to decide what will happen in your story. Also keep in mind in some cases there may be more than one correct answer. Please post your answers along with your reply.

1. Using the main Pokemon game rules, name five non-legendary Pokemon that would have a difficult time escaping the confines of the Heavy Ball (given sufficient capture conditions - English or Japanese names preferred please).

2. Name five trainers from the main Pokemon games who would most benefit using Heavy Balls to capture Pokemon (English or Japanese names preferred please).

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The Mystic Jungle

~Forgotten Ruins~

Allishinca: After finding out the battle at the stadium was just an illusion, you listen to what the Guardian, Beheeyem, has to say. After hearing about the Grass Paradise and the challenge Beheeyem has for you, you're all too eager to try it out. You follow your instructions and exit the stadium, heading directly for the temple. Along the way, you and Pluto get a little competitive and race. As you climb to the top of the stairs, the two of you take a tumble and slide through the entrance.

As you both get on your feet again, you cautiously walk down the entrance hallway. There's a different feel to the temple, different than the stadium. The temple itself is pretty well taken care of, eons better than the condition of the stadium. From the looks of things, Beheeyem takes very good care of the temple it guards. The hallway ends and empties in a large circular room. The room looks as though most normal sized Pokemon could battle in it. Towards the center of the room, spaced about ten feet apart or so, you see two columns with unlit torches. The light from outside pours in from small dome-shaped windows at the very top of the walls on one side.

When you both step in the room, you suddenly hear first, "Welcome to my Temple Challenge!" Beheeyem appears between the two columns. A stone door slams shut behind you. "I am thrilled you could join me. You are the first in a good long time to enter the temple. I do hope I've tidied up to your liking. Now then, good luck on your first test." Beheeyem bows to you both and shimmers as it begins to teleport away. Beheeyem instantly reappears, "Oops. I forgot to give you the test. Silly me. I'd have been sitting at the next challenge for quite a length of time before I...where was I? Oh yes, the test. Please listen to the following riddle and identify the Pokemon:

With my developed ears,
I can superbly hear.
I have a poisonous horn,
So you'll do well to cause me no scorn.

"Please don't get this wrong. I shudder to think what could happen if you do. Oh wait; I already know. Just holler it out! Good luck!" Beheeyem disappeared in a snap, sounded like one too. How will you answer your challenge?

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~Waterfall Valley~

Myrrh: As your anger builds, you decide that it's time to go big with your attacks. Bringing out the big guns, you have Volts retaliate for that combo Surskit pulled off. Surskit, feeling proud of itself, skates back onto the pond. Volts starts things off by creating a bomb shaped like a seed. With some careful aiming, Volts launches the bomb at Surskit while it skates past both of you. The bomb smacks Surskit on its side and explodes on contact. Surskit is thrown across the pond and falls into the water.

Surskit is not out of it yet, though. All of a sudden you see the tip of its head poking through the water, speeding towards you. Surskit, using its agility, reaches the shore and runs out of the water. Volts takes this opportunity to strike, using his tail that's now as strong as iron. Unfortunately due to Surskit's increased speed, Volts completely misses and spins around in the air until he falls to the ground.

The Pond Skater stops running by the shore to catch its breath. This battle, so far, has caused Surskit to use much of its energy. Volts begins to charge at Surskit, his paws starting to glow a reddish-orange color. He leaps at Surskit and, using all of his fire energy to strike, swings his arms like an "X." The fiery "X" engulfs Surskit hitting it from the center, the crossfire. Luckily for you Volts escapes the usage of this high risk fire attack without taking much damage and without a burn on his paws. Unluckily for you, though, Surskit also escapes without a burn. The damage also appears to have been reduced, not only due to its typing but also because of being wet from previously using Water Sport. Surskit exacts its revenge by using its remaining ground energy to kick a glob of mud at Volts. The shot hits Volts's leg, effectively reducing his speed.

Surskit watches Volts now, preparing for whatever Volts throws at it next, breathing heavily now. What will you do?

[Myrrh]

~Waterfall Valley~

Myrrh: As your anger builds, you decide that it's time to go big with your attacks. Bringing out the big guns, you have Volts retaliate for that combo Surskit pulled off. Surskit, feeling proud of itself, skates back onto the pond. Volts starts things off by creating a bomb shaped like a seed. With some careful aiming, Volts launches the bomb at Surskit while it skates past both of you. The bomb smacks Surskit on its side and explodes on contact. Surskit is thrown across the pond and falls into the water.

Surskit is not out of it yet, though. All of a sudden you see the tip of its head poking through the water, speeding towards you. Surskit, using its agility, reaches the shore and runs out of the water. Volts takes this opportunity to strike, using his tail that's now as strong as iron. Unfortunately due to Surskit's increased speed, Volts completely misses and spins around in the air until he falls to the ground.

The Pond Skater stops running by the shore to catch its breath. This battle, so far, has caused Surskit to use much of its energy. Volts begins to charge at Surskit, his paws starting to glow a reddish-orange color. He leaps at Surskit and, using all of his fire energy to strike, swings his arms like an "X." The fiery "X" engulfs Surskit hitting it from the center, the crossfire. Luckily for you Volts escapes the usage of this high risk fire attack without taking much damage and without a burn on his paws. Unluckily for you, though, Surskit also escapes without a burn. The damage also appears to have been reduced, not only due to its typing but also because of being wet from previously using Water Sport. Surskit exacts its revenge by using its remaining ground energy to kick a glob of mud at Volts. The shot hits Volts's leg, effectively reducing his speed.

Surskit watches Volts now, preparing for whatever Volts throws at it next, breathing heavily now. What will you do?

The battle was still going, but it didn't seem to look that way for long. The fact that the Surskit still hadn't fallen and how Myrrh forgot about the Water Sport from earlier frustrated him a bit more, but he did notice that the bug was running out of gas, and that calmed him down a bit. Though seeing that Volt's biggest attacks didn't bring it down, he didn't think he should order him to try the same thing twice, fearing Surskit would know how to get around all of it. But there were still a few things Myrrh hasn't tried.

"Okay Volts, I don't think we need to do that much more to this thing. Try and bypass your lowered speed and its increased speed by using a Quick Attack. Then try to hit it while in Pursuit. These attacks are weak, but hopefully changing things up will catch it off guard and end this. And if you can try to dodge its attacks, you can't be very far from biting it either. Now go!"

[jolteonjak]

Posy Field

Jolteonjak –

Having successfully dealt with two of the three Beedrill blocking your way so their Berry-thieving friend could escape, you had one sticking around. Why it was trying to stall out for more time, you had no idea, but it did give you an opportunity to try some more flashy moves. At least, you’d try them after the Beedrill spit out fine silk threads. Lots of Strings Shot out at all of the Pokemon, each of them unable to shake off the silk, but at least it didn’t hamper their movement too much. Besides, Cyndaquil didn’t need to move around much to bring out his Icy Hidden Power and direct it towards Beedrill for some decent damage. Meanwhile, Teddiursa found your offer of a Pecha Berry too good to resist, and she enjoyed eating the toxin-curing fruit. She thanks your gesture of a sweet tasting berry with a cute smile as Numel Growls at the Beedrill, making it start to think a little more about getting away.

You then notice its antennae perk up and really start to panic. It deliberated about whether or not it should try and get the comatose Beedrill to safety, but once you started hearing more buzzing, you saw it flying away extremely quickly. More buzzing now… You turn around and barely avoid peeing in your own pants at the sight of a huge Beedrill swarm bearing down on your position, and fast. Of course the consensus is to turn tail and put as much distance between you and the swarm as much as possible, but as you look back, you can see a few of the Beedrill break away from the swarm and attack the two unconscious bees. Any attempt to try and stop them, of course, would not have been a good idea, so you, your Pokemon, and Teddiursa continue to flee. You run out into the meadow when you notice Teddiursa and your Numel lose their footing. Moreso this time, you, Cyndaquil, and even Heracross want to stop and help, but the swarm had already overtaken the two Pokemon, and your instincts overtake you and keep your legs moving as Cyndaquil and Heracross keep up with you as well. You run into another forested area, and soon you find yourself running into a tree buzzing with even more Beedrill, along with Weedle and Kakuna, and you could catch a glimpse of a man in his twenties in the middle of that swarm… {keep reading… =) }

Son_of_Shadows – {In the future, you'll want to link here if you plan on using those Potions of yours... =) }

You see the Beedrill feeding its queen some Berries, none of which were working, but at least they would sustain her until they got the one Berry that would cure her. Maybe, though, it wasn’t Berries that were needed, it was a Potion. Healing item in hand, you slowly stand up. Of course, the idea of a human being this close to the hive didn’t resonate all too well with most of the Beedrill there as they sound the alarm and close in on you. You were scared out of your wits, yet you stood there with your hands up, not doing anything but explain your purpose was to try and assist their queen. They were even more on edge about the idea of you doing something to Her Majesty, but after a few minutes of you not moving, they relax their stances and allow you to have an audience with her. You approach slowly, your legs trembling, showing you were as much afraid as the Beedrill were.

Finally, you came close enough to the queen, and the Beedrill from before recognizes you and slowly backs away from his queen, holding his stinger arm out toward you, daring you to try anything funny. You slowly kneel in front of the sick queen and carefully hold the Potion against the queen’s torso, your hands trembling before spraying the ointment. She buzzes in pain, and the guard Beedrill tense up once again. You close your eyes and tense up yourself, expecting a barrage of stings, but the Beedrill next to you buzzes some sort of message towards the other Beedrill, presumably a message that he believed you were only trying to help. They maintain their positions, and you look up and see that the queen is in better shape but still sick. But, by golly, your act of bravery/stupidity/charity wasn’t going to go unappreciated! Your friend gently lifts with his stingers a Pecha Berry from the pile of berries that you recognized was from the handful it was carrying earlier and raises it up towards you so you could take it. Still, if a Potion wasn’t going to cure her, what would?

Your thoughts are interrupted as you notice another Beedrill fly towards the hive. It looked like it had sustained a few battle scars, but what it battled, you weren’t quite sure. The injured Beedrill and the one you had met earlier start talking to each other, then to the queen. She weakly gives out some sort of command to the rest of the hive to prepare for a battle, and you see and hear the buzzing they make as they follow their sick queen. Then you hear more buzzing from out in the distance. Lots of buzzing. And screaming too. You first see a 16 year old boy with a Cyndaquil and a Heracross run up to the hive… behind them was a swarm of Beedrill slightly bigger than the swarm you were with… {keep reading… =) }

Jolteonjak & Son_of_Shadows –

Both of you suddenly realize what was happening: one Beedrill swarm had come to invade the other’s nest, and you and your Pokemon were about to be caught in the turmoil. You try your best to get yourselves out of the way of the clashing Beedrill, but a few seconds into watching the battle unfold, each of you see a certain group of Beedrill from the invading swarm that catches your interest. Why? Because they held captive a couple of noteworthy Pokemon; the Teddiursa that Chad had befriended was struggling to escape one Beedrill’s arms until another one held one of its stingers up to Teddiursa’s throat at which point she simply froze in fear, tears streaming down her cheeks, but she dare not cry and risk agitating her captors further. Another Beedrill held a barely conscious Karrablast whom Joshua recognized as the one he and Bishop battled earlier. Oh, but they weren’t the only things interesting about this group. Your attention soon focuses on one of the Beedrill whose body was green and black instead of yellow and black, her eyes being blue instead of red. Judging by the way she waved her stingers around, you could tell she was the queen of this swarm. Unfortunately, Chad is unable to find his Numel at this point and could only assume the Numb Pokemon was left where he fell after the bees were done with him. The Shiny Beedrill queen notices your presence and orders her attendants to give her some space while she wishes to have some fun with a few non-Beedrill opponents. Both of you now stand against this new queen, unknowingly defending the queen lying in sickness, her two attendants whom you had met earlier watching to see which side of the battle you would join, if any. All the while, skirmishes between the swarms take place in the surrounding areas.

For this special battle, both of you are allowed to have two Pokemon out at the same time and may call out two attacks per Pokemon per reply. However, Joltoenjak, Numel is currently rendered unavailable to you for this adventure. You may decide to continue using Cyndaquil and Heracross, or you may substitute either or both of them for other Pokemon in your active party. However, be advised that since Cyndaquil has not had time to heal, his energy and health will stay at what it was when your previous battle ended. He currently has below 50% energy, and his health remains at above 60%. Heracross, meanwhile, has full health and about 90% energy. Son_of_Shadows, if you decide to use Bishop again, he will have only gained about a fourth of his health and energy back… and if you recall, he came pretty darn close to losing all of his energy battling Karrablast. He would also sit at about 60% of his health.

So, what will Chad and Joshua do?

Ok, this is by far the stupidest thing you have ever done. You'll be stung to death in three. Two. One... was all he could think as he sprayed the potion against the Queen, especially as she recoiled from the sting of the ointment. Her reaction revealed that the potion certainly helped her with the symptoms, but whatever illness she was suffering from wasn't going anywhere fast. The Beedrill who had introduced him to the Queen now handed him a Pecha Berry in thanks for the effort. Well, it was all worth a shot. Still, he took pity on the queen bee, especially because this hive seemed so lost without her. But what could he possibly do? Fetch a Pokémon nurse was the most logical option, but who would be crazy enough to come out to a Beedrill hive... Apart from Joshua. Obviously.

Unfortunately as it happened, Joshua wasn't the only one who noticed how lost this hive seemed with its Queen weak. A battle-scarred Beedrill burst through the foliage, apparently to warn its brethren, but about what? Joshua didn't exactly speak bee. But the hive was suddenly all-at-arms, buzzing furiously, ready for action. But as the buzzing increased, Joshua could tell there was about to be a huge battle. Two Beedrill hives at war? Instinct said turn tail and run. But the Queen... His train of thought was interrupted (seemed to happen a lot to him) by screaming from the direction of the approaching buzzing. Some poor trainer seemed to be caught in the middle of all this along with Joshua - one with a Cyndaquil and Heracross. Battle raged, with Joshua barely dodging a misfired Twineedle attack. Yeesh. And then... "YOU!" The Karrablast from earlier today! "You have GOT to be joking!" he cried in disbelief. Karrablast was seemingly held captive by the invading hive, as was a Teddiursa, who seemed to recognise the younger trainer. For what purpose they were hostages, Joshua had no idea. Beedrills didn't commonly resort to negotiation in his experience. However, the hostage-bearing group also had a female Beedrill in authority, and a shiny one at that. Joshua's eyes widened - the only other Shiny he'd ever seen was his Magnemite. This was turning into quite a day. Obviously this was the Queen of the invading hive. And for whatever reason, she had her sights set on the trainers. If she was as powerful as she looked, this battle would be nasty. "Better get ready fella," he said to the other trainer, "This one won't go down without a real fight..."

Who to use? Bishop was still tired from his earlier battle, and Heat Wave could backfire hugely in this forest, not to mention the massive skirmish happening around him... Too much collateral. Livewire wouldn't be as useful out of the water, and Voltron and Poliwag were still in Daycare. Cloudy was currently being cared for by another trainer Joshua had met named Marion... He wondered how she was getting along. Erm, maybe not the time. That left Aegis and Steven. He pulled their Pokéballs from his pocket. "Aegis, Steven, time for battle!" The Squirtle and Munna appeared in two flashes of light, ready for action. "Steven, let's start strong - fire your Psybeam attack at the Beedrill Queen while Aegis sets up a Yawn. We'll put her to sleep to set up a stronger attack later! Then you should use Lucky Chant, Steven while Aegis Growls. That should strengthen our position enough for us to deal massive damage later." With that out of the way, he turned to the other trainer. "By the way, I'm Joshua. Pleasure. I suggest you follow suit here - strengthen our initial position, then we'll blast her in a minute or so, once she's sleeping from my Yawn attack."

OOC: I keep the Pecha Berry, right?

As Chad watched what would hopefully be the last round of battle with the Beedrill trio, he wondered for a moment whether he got a little overconfident by having Cyndaquil show off. He did this mostly because he'd heard talk of a Pokemon Contest being held in the future, so he wanted to start preparing. Whatever the case, it was all for naught because the Beedrill spoiled his plans by showering Cyndaquil, Numel, and Teddiursa with some of its String Shot; hereby hindering movement. At least he was able to take care of Teddiursa's poison with one of his Pecha Berries he thought to purchse beforehand.

All of a sudden, in the middle of the battle, the Beedrill became frightened and flew away extremely quickly. The buzzing, however, did not completely go away with it. Turning around behind him, Chad saw a large swarm of Beedrill. His eyes widened with panic, and his only instinct was to run! The Pokemon followed suit; but due to the String Shot, Numel and Teddiursa were both unable to keep up. Chad looked over his shoulder to see them both getting carried away by the new swarm. Enraged, he followed the thief, urging his remaining team members to keep up, completely oblivious to the idea of returning them all to their Pokeballs.

~~~

Chad, Cyndaquil, and Heracross finally caught up to the escaped Beedrill when it reached its hive. Shortly after, the other Beedrill arrived; and an all-out war erupted between the worker Beedrill. Chad noticed the Beedrill holding Teddiursa hostage, and he wanted to do his best to help her. She looked so scared. He took a brief moment to look around some more and noticed a few key points. He discovered another trainer was in the hive as well. 'Was he about to get caught up in this war with this other trainer?' he thought to himself. 'Whatever the case, at least he wasn't alone.' Another discovery was the strange Beedrill who seemed to be confronting the two trainers. This Beedrill had a different coloration than the others, green instead of yellow, blue eyes instead of red. 'Maybe this is the queen,' Chad thought. 'Surely these alternate colors are a sign of power.' Chad panicked at his final discovery; Numel was missing! He looked around more furiously for his own alternately-colored Pokemon. What happened to him? Did the other Beedrill drop him? Did they take him elsewhere? For the time being, he had to hope Numel could take care of himself. This Beedrill looked as though she wasn't going to go down easily.

"Where is my Numel?!" Chad yelled angrily. "It's bad enough that you kidnapped him and my new friend Teddiursa, but now you all lost him?" Chad yelled throughout the hive. He clearly was frustrated. "Oooh no!"

"All right Heracross," he had calmed down just a little, "you wanted a battle. Here you go. Dethrone this queen."

"Cu-ross," Heracross said cooly. His eyes lit up, and he immediately took a fighting stance.

"Cyndaquil, you better return and rest a little," Chad held out the Pokeball to recall his Fire Mouse. "I may need your firepower soon though." Chad wondered if Heracross could handle the battle by himself. In the meantime, he noticed the other trainer had called out two Pokemon of his own. Chad decided he would call on another of his Pokemon as well, just in case this queenie fought dirty. "Alright Wooper, time to shine!" He tossed the red and white Pokeball in the air to release a small, blue creature. Wooper looked around and saw countless numbers of Beedrill and one different colored one.

Wooper turned to Chad, "Woopa?" Wooper looked worried.

"I know this is our first battle together, but I know how tough you are. You'll be fine," Chad reassured Wooper. "You nearly took out Heracross before I caught you. This shouldn't be a problem." Wooper turned around and looked at Heracross. The Singlehorn looked down to Wooper, and they both nodded at each other.

Chad turned to the other trainer who had already given his orders. "By the way, I'm Joshua," the trainer said.

"I'm Chad," he replied nodding. "Nice to meet you, although I think I'd prefer other circumstances."

"Pleasure. I suggest you follow suit here - strengthen our initial position, then we'll blast her in a minute or so, once she's sleeping from my Yawn attack."

"Ok you two, these Beedrill kidnapped Numel and my new friend Teddiursa over there." Chad didn't see this, but this bit of information made his Pokemon more focused than before. "Let's work with Joshua, then we can save our friends. Heracross, see if you can get a Stone Edge in before the Yawn takes effect! Then follow up with Iron Defense! Wooper, double Tail Whip!"

'Please be ok Numel, wherever you are,' Chad thought to himself. He could already tell he was going to have a hard time concentrating on the battle.

Stats
OOC: Question - what is the floor of the hive like? Sand/ground? Hive material?

[OkikuMew]

Eyrie Peak

~Adventure Path~
OkikuMew: After hearing what Andersen had to say regarding his need for Apricorns, you graciously offer to go collect some for him. As you check your supplies and make a list, you suddenly begin to wonder what Posy Fields was like. "Sweet! ...Hmm, Andersen, before we go," you start to ask, "anything you could add about Posy Fields and picking the Apricorns? Like, I dunno... Dangerous Pokemon, a special way to pick the Apricorns?"

Andersen stops his work to think for a moment. "Let's see... When I spoke to some of the townsfolk when I first visited, they warned me that there are some trees which Flying Pokemon made nests in. Going near those trees angers the Pokemon, and they attack. I didn't have any problems myself when I was out there. Then again, I only picked from White Apricorn trees."

"As for picking Apricorns? Here is what you do," Andersen picks up one of the Apricorns. "Start at the top of the Apricorn and measure the length of your thumb," he demonstrates on the Apricorn. "Snip or cut there."

You nod understanding his instructions. Now that you're ready, you and Max approach the door.

"Hey, good luck out there," Andersen calls out to you. "Don't bite off more than you can chew!"

You begin your journey to Posy Field walking through the woods surrounding Andersen's cabin. Remembering the map, you consult it to make sure you were heading in the right direction. Soon enough, you find yourself back on the path you were originally on. The path slowly slopes upward, as you begin to ascend Eyrie Peak.

~Posy Fields~

Just like Andersen told you earlier, the journey to Posy Field did not take very long. Luckily the hike was uneventful with nothing much to see other than random Bug Pokemon going about their business.

As you survey the surroundings, you start looking for the Apricorn trees Andersen asked you to harvest. Initially you only see some Green Apricorn trees, but they aren't even ready for picking. You and Max decide that it may be best to follow that line of trees in case they lead you to some of the other types of trees. But first, you decide to take a short break and enjoy the scenery, which Posy Fields is known for. You feel a breeze around you containing a mixture of the scents of flowers and their berries. Max plays for a bit on the field, and in the distance you see some Butterfree and Beautifly amongst the many different patches of flowers.

After a few restful minutes you resume your mission. Max picks up a scent and scampers off along the grove of Apricorn trees. You follow eagerly hoping he caught the scent of Apricorns that he would have smelled back at Andersen's. You look up in the trees, as you follow, to make sure you don't miss any of the Apricorns he requested. The fruits of the trees still show to be immature Green Apricorns. As you keep up with your Poochyena, you eventually find a few trees that seem to lack any Apricorns, but Max keeps following the scent.

Just when you think you've lost your chance at finding any, the next trees you see appear to bear some Black Apricorns. Stopping to investigate, you try to remember how many Andersen needs. Do you remember how to tell if they're ready for picking? Do you also remember how he taught you to pick them? What will you do?



Special Instructions - In the next many updates that follow which pertain to collecting the Apricorns, you will be asked a series of questions regarding some/all of the Apricorns. Getting every question correct doesn't guarantee anything. It's a better way for me to decide what will happen in your story. Also keep in mind in some cases there may be more than one correct answer. Please post your answers along with your reply.

1. Using the main Pokemon game rules, name five non-legendary Pokemon that would have a difficult time escaping the confines of the Heavy Ball (given sufficient capture conditions - English or Japanese names preferred please).

2. Name five trainers from the main Pokemon games who would most benefit using Heavy Balls to capture Pokemon (English or Japanese names preferred please).

After looking for any apricorn plants, I finally see some of them... only to be all green, which are not a color which Andersen wanted. They all look kinda small, too. We take a small break to watch to pretty environment and watch the cute butterfly-ish Pokémon flying around, getting lunch out of some flowers' nectar. I am still bummed on how we can only find green apricorns.

"Well that sucks," I exclaim out of nowhere while still gazing off the trees. "Got any ideas where to find some we need, Max? ...Max?"

He was no longer by my side. Instead, he is running off through the trees!

"H-hey!" I scream out to him. "Wait up!"

I start following him, running myself as fast as I can (which I admit it's not very fast...), still keeping an eye around for other apricorn trees. Unfortunately, all of them have either small green apricorns or none of those special fruits. Ugh, I really feel we're not gonna find an...

Max loudly barks at me, making me lose my strain of thought. I look over him, and he was sitting down... right next to a bunch black Apricorn trees!

"O-oh my! Way to go Max!" I pump my arms up in joy. "Alright, now, time to get that stuff. Let's see.."

I open up the note I made earlier to check how many we need of those, which is... only three of them. Ok... I close my eyes, trying to remember all the information Andersen gave to me. I semi-consciously give a thumbs up, remembering his last tip.

"Start from the top, measure with your thumb, cut there," I say out loud to remember more easily.

Ok, what else... Oh, right! I almost forgot about that one: There's always only one Apricorn in every tree that should be ripe to pick from it. But... which one is that ripped Apricorn? I hold my head with one hand, trying to think of something that would give away that info. Well, since they're used to make pokéballs, they should logically be the exact size of one, if not bigger... It's still not 100% sure though... Of course, my Pokédex! It should have the information, Andersen mentioned that! I quickly whip it out of my backpack and look for the Apricorn info files, especially about their ripeness for Pokéball-making. After I look that up, I crack my fingers then put my hands on my hips.

"Alright, let's do this thing!"


Answers to special instructions:

1. Since Heavy Balls makes it easier to capture, well, heavy Pokémon, these are the top 5 heaviest non-legendary Pokémon in the game (and I made sure they're available in the wild in at least one game, just to be on the safe side) :

• Metagross
• Snorlax
• Steelix
• Wailord
• Aggron

2. Because of the Pokémon mentioned above (and others not mentioned), any Gym Leader from the games specialized in Steel, Rock and Ground types should benefit using the Heavy Ball, including those 5:

• Jasmine
• Brock
• Giovanni
• Roxanne
• Byron

[YDT]

What can I say other than "I'm sorry" for making you all wait so long? Anyway, here you go. Cele appears to be back, so I'll repost your last update in case you need it.

The Island

~The Lakes~

TutorX: Success! Things seem to be working as you planned. You manage to trap that wily Qwilfish to a tree. Always resourceful, though, the Balloon is not completely defenseless as it fires off volleys of Pin Missiles.

The first wave speedily flies through the air heading in Zoomer's direction. Before you can react, it pelts your Ralts for some damage, which knocks him back about a yard. The second wave flies straight up in the air causing some leaves to fall off the tree Qwilfish is affixed to. As you react and order Zoomer to Teleport away, the third wave strikes him for more damage. Just in time, however, Zoomer avoids the fourth wave of the barrage of missiles. The missiles explode on the beach causing sand to scatter about. You and the injured boy aren't affected due to your make-shift shield from your bag. The last wave flies out over the lake and out of sight.

Zoomer reappears standing on the tied up Qwilfish. It struggles under weight a bit; but since it's bound to the tree, it can't shake Zoomer off. You and the boy watch from the sidelines and you see your Ralts falter a little. You check out the little boy to make sure his injury isn't getting any worse. You turn your attention back to the battle to see Zoomer's horn flashing its familiar signaling pattern. Next he fires a beam straight down striking the Balloon Pokemon at close range causing more damage than it usually would. Qwilfish, in response, begins to flail about successfully knocking Zoomer off. Next you notice something strange happening. A faint purple cloud eminates from Zoomer and slowly floats over to Qwilfish and dissipates shortly after. Zoomer winces and falls to one knee. He looks to be in pain.

You stand there momentarily confused. "Oh cool!" the boy yells out. "I think that was Ralts' Synchronize. Your Ralts may be poisoned from that Qwilfish's Poison Point ability." He thinks for a moment. "Too bad Qwilfish is a Poison type and can't be poisoned."

Focusing back on the battle, you see that Qwilfish has had enough of being tied to the tree. In an effort to free itself, Qwilfish fires water directly at the tree. The force from the water shot at the tree seems to be as strong as a gun, which pushes it away from the tree, barely, stretching the grass that binds it. Just as soon as Qwilfish finishes launching the Water Gun at the tree, it begins to launch missiles of pins. The combination of the stretched grass and the Pin Missiles is enough to tear through Qwilfish's binds, and the angry Balloon Pokemon is free. Its victory is shortlived, however, as a flashing beam from Zoomer's signaling horn slams it back into the same tree using up the rest of its Bug Energy. Once again, like before, Zoomer winces in pain from the poison streaming through its body.

What will you do?]

"Zoomer you have gas powers?" Niles asked as the other boy explained that Zoomer's ability was activated. Zoomer is about to cry out in response, but cringes from the poison. Niles growls at his friend getting hurt. Suddenly the Qwilfish starting squirting water at the tree, the grass bindings start too loosen, but then it stopped. Niles smiled and started taunting the Qwilfish at its failed attempt to escape. It then let out another barrage of pins breaking through the netting. Niles frowned, but then Zoomer slammed the Qwilfish with another Signal beam.

"Good job, Zoomer!" Niles cheered, but Zoomer cringed again. Niles growled at the Qwilfish, this was all ITS fault! "Zoomer use Confusion to knock it into the tree. Then use a metronome, as it is recovering followed up by another Metronome!" Niles yelled angrily, while grinding his teeth. He just wanted this thing destroyed.

Stats

[allishinca]

Allishinca: After finding out the battle at the stadium was just an illusion, you listen to what the Guardian, Beheeyem, has to say. After hearing about the Grass Paradise and the challenge Beheeyem has for you, you're all too eager to try it out. You follow your instructions and exit the stadium, heading directly for the temple. Along the way, you and Pluto get a little competitive and race. As you climb to the top of the stairs, the two of you take a tumble and slide through the entrance.

As you both get on your feet again, you cautiously walk down the entrance hallway. There's a different feel to the temple, different than the stadium. The temple itself is pretty well taken care of, eons better than the condition of the stadium. From the looks of things, Beheeyem takes very good care of the temple it guards. The hallway ends and empties in a large circular room. The room looks as though most normal sized Pokemon could battle in it. Towards the center of the room, spaced about ten feet apart or so, you see two columns with unlit torches. The light from outside pours in from small dome-shaped windows at the very top of the walls on one side.

When you both step in the room, you suddenly hear first, "Welcome to my Temple Challenge!" Beheeyem appears between the two columns. A stone door slams shut behind you. "I am thrilled you could join me. You are the first in a good long time to enter the temple. I do hope I've tidied up to your liking. Now then, good luck on your first test." Beheeyem bows to you both and shimmers as it begins to teleport away. Beheeyem instantly reappears, "Oops. I forgot to give you the test. Silly me. I'd have been sitting at the next challenge for quite a length of time before I...where was I? Oh yes, the test. Please listen to the following riddle and identify the Pokemon:

With my developed ears,
I can superbly hear.
I have a poisonous horn,
So you'll do well to cause me no scorn.

"Please don't get this wrong. I shudder to think what could happen if you do. Oh wait; I already know. Just holler it out! Good luck!" Beheeyem disappeared in a snap, sounded like one too. How will you answer your challenge?

Alli and Pluto, after their embarrassing tumble over each other, slowly got to their feet. They nervously glanced at one another, then cautiously proceeded down the entrance hallway. Looking up at the walls, they noticed that the temple was in much better shape than the colosseum. Exiting the long pathway, Alli and Pluto stepped into a large circular space. Light filtered in from small dome-shaped windows that were located on the top of the wall. Alli gazed up at the windows placed so far above her, while Pluto eyed suspiciously the two columns in the center of the room. They were unlit torches, apparently there to light the room during the night. Pluto questioned if their placement was for some type of nefarious ritual. The area they found themselves in was large and spacious, as though it was planned for Pokemon battles.

"Welcome to my Temple Challenge," a booming voice shouts out. Alli jumped towards Pluto in her surprise, and as Pluto was far to small to be jumped on, he was consequential squished under Alli's superior weight. Beheeyem materialized between the two columns as Alli and Pluto untangled themselves for the second time, while they again picked themselves up off the floor. Just as they did so, a stone door slammed shut behind them, startling Alli, who managed to stay on her feet this time. "I am thrilled you could join me. You are the first in a good long time to enter the temple. I do hope I've tidied up to your liking. Now then, good luck on your first test." Beheeyem bowed politely, and slowly disappeared as it teleported away, leaving behind a very confused trainer and Pokemon.

"What do you suppose our first test is?," questioned Alli to Pluto.
Pluto stood on guard, ready for anything, when suddenly Beheeyem reappeared.

"Oops. I forgot to give you the test. Silly me. I have been sitting at the next challenge for quite a length of time before I… where was I? Oh yes, the test. Please listen to the following riddle and identify the Pokemon:

With my developed ears,
I can superbly hear.
I have a poisonous horn,
So you'll do well to cause me no scorn.

"Please don't get this wrong. I shudder to think what could happen if you do. Oh wait; I already know. Just holler it out! Good luck!" Beheeyem flickered out again and disappeared with a loud snapping noise.

"How can I answer if he's gone?" wondered Alli, who seemed oblivious to the danger of their situation and thought of their temple challenge as some sort of game. Pluto was taking this much more seriously, and sat down to think about the riddle. His reaction was not only due to the eminent danger that they found themselves in, but also of the possible prize. The greedy Sableye dreamed happily that at the end of their adventure would be a mountain of gold coins, all of which he could put into a spacious pockets- which, it should be noted, he did not have, but Pluto did not let reality get in the way of his wonderful fantasy. Alli, by contrast, was simply having fun and enjoying their experience.

Noticing her Sableye's serious demeanor, Alli followed Pluto's example and sat Indian style down by her partner. Whispering, Alli voiced her ideas:

"Rapidash has a horn, maybe that's it?" Pluto shook his head, and indicated that Rapidash did not have large ears.

"Hm, big ears, huh? Buneary has big ears!" Pluto shook his head again, and indicated the horn. "Oh, right."

The two of them pondered quietly, when suddenly Pluto arose and did a charade of a four-legged creature with a horn. "I already said Rapidash," mumbled Alli unhappily. Pluto sighed, and approached while pretending to headbutt her. Alli thought a bit harder, as Pluto got up and stroked his fur down his chest. "So it's purple like you, huh?" Pluto nodded that this was correct, and Alli returned this gesture with a smile.

Standing to her feet, Alli confidently spoke:
"I believe the answer to your riddle is a male Nidoran, Mr. Guardian, sir."
Alli and Pluto stood together in the temple room, awaiting a response.

Profile

[myahoo]

Eyrie Peak

~Adventure Path~

Myahoo: After helping one of the three injured Pidove escape the cave, you ventured further into the cave searching for the other two. As you continue, the noise from the battle up ahead got louder. At the entrance to the cave you peeked in to see a Staravia battling against an alternately colored Boldore. The Staravia seemed to have a slight upper hand on Boldore; however, typewise Boldore did. After being grazed by Boldore's Power Gem, it retaliated with a powerful Hidden Power attack. In the back corner you spotted the missing pair of Pidove huddling together in fear of the big rock. Suddenly you were spotted by the intrepid trainer battling the Ore Pokemon, and she could really use your help!

Concerned for the well-being of the Pidove, you decided to join the battle. Sizing up Boldore, you realized a head-to-head battle wouldn't suffice. After thinking for a moment, you gave your orders to Wildfire. He nodded, understanding your request; and began to scrape and burrow underground. Watching his progress, you thought to yourself this would take some time. You hobbled into the cavern and slowly hopped over next to the other trainer. "You're injured?" the trainer asked you. She was alternating between looking at you and watching the battle. "What happened?"

All of a sudden, in the middle of your explanation, Boldore began to blast some rocks towards you, the other trainer, and the cowering Pidove. "Pidove, scatter!" she yelled. "Wings, break up the rocks with Steel Wing!" The pair of Pidove took flight just as one of the rocks slams into the floor of the cavern. Just as they took off, two more rocks flew towards you. Suddenly Staravia speedily flew by you, with its wings glowing silver, to slice the rocks into pieces, just as they were about to hit you. "Now use Steel Wing on Boldore!" she exclaimed. Staravia set its course towards Boldore.

With the impending threat of the Rock Blast over, the girl looked at you once more. "I have some basic first aid knowledge. May I look at your injury? I may be able to help." She motioned for you to sit on a nearby rock. She listened to you explain what happened to your ankle and watched your facial expression as she touched the area. "Judging by what you've told me, I think it's a fair assumption that your ankle is not broken. That's a good thing since there are no hospitals in the area. Continue using that branch as a crutch, and when you get to a Pokemon Center, Nurse Joy can treat it better," she exclaimed. "My name is Chloe, by the way." Chloe turned back towards the battle to see how her Staravia was doing. Boldore was knocked back by Staravia's Steel Wing. "Good job Wings. Now use, wait, what the -" Chloe was interrupted by the ground beneath Boldore swelling and rumbling as Wildfire burst through completing his dig and striking the Ore Pokemon.

Before Boldore could react, Wildfire blew some dark smoke at it, effectively screening it from what they had planned next. "Is that Cyndaquil yours?" Chloe asked. "Excellent, Wings could use a rest. Roost for a little bit Wings!" she ordered. The Staravia lands next to its trainer, gladly welcoming a chance to rest up. Suddenly, rocks came blasting from the cloud of smoke in various directions. One of the rocks hit one of the Pidove, and it fell to the cavern floor stunned. The second landed next to its partner to be with it. Cyndaquil, meanwhile, began to channel any of the pain he felt and any of the suffering he endured recently into an attack. He leapt into the smoke using his the energy of that difficult dig to reverse his feelings of how this battle is going. While the attack was successful and super effective, Wildfire has not taken any damage yet; so the attack didn't cause much damage to Boldore.

"While we have some time," Chloe started looking at your ankle again, "let's get this bandaged up. I have some spare bandage with me, and I always carry a few scraps of tree bark that would make an excellent brace." Chloe rummaged through her backpack and got to work. She placed the bark on your ankle and said, "Please hold the bark here while I begin wrapping your ankle." Wildfire ran out of the smokescreen and back to your side.

He had not a moment to spare for the smokescreen was dispersed by sand. Looking at the, now, sand twister, you see Boldore upside-down spinning using the sand to attack the smoke. Wings immediately took flight. You, Chloe, and Wildfire were all startled by the Sand Attack; but you were able to shield your eyes from any of its effects. "Oh man, I really need to concentrate on your ankle for a moment," Chloe commented. Boldore noticed the two Pidove and began advancing towards them. "Wings! Protect the Pidove as best you can!"

For the time being, it seems it's up to you and Wildfire to keep the Boldore at bay. What will you do?

Melissa watched Wildfire's progress for a moment, before she realized that he could take a while to actually get onto the battlefield. She glanced towards the other trainer and, with a sigh, she levered herself up. Carefully making her way over to the other trainer, she was asked, "You're injured? What happened?"

The teen joined the other trainer in keeping an eye on the battle, while speaking. "I took a tumble down the side of a cliff and when I reached the bottom--" She broke off as the Boldore decided it was a great idea to attack the two trainers and Pidove, Blasting Rocks in their direction. Melissa ducked at the sight of a pair of rocks speeding towards her, her heart suddenly racing and cursing her wounded leg, but the Staravia was able to slice the rocks in time.

As the Bird Pokemon turned to attack the Boldore again, the other trainer said that she had some first aid knowledge and offered to help. Melissa nodded fervently at the offer and continued explaining, "At the bottom, I found out that my leg had hit a rock or something and it hurt to put any pressure or weight on it." She waited patiently as the other trainer examined her leg and she felt relief wash over her when it was declared 'not broken'.

"Nice to meet you, Chloe," the teen replied with a wry smile. "I'm Melissa."

When Chloe broke off in giving her orders to Wings, Melissa looked up at the battle again and grinned at the sight of her Cyndaquil bursting out of the ground. Her grin widened as he successfully Screened the Boldore's sight with Smoke and replied proudly to Chloe's question. "Yup." She winced when the Boldore started Blasting Rocks everywhere and hit the Pidove in a stroke of luck.

At Chloe's instructions, Melissa nodded and held the tree bark against her leg, glancing up as Wildfire came back to her side. "Nice job there, buddy," she told him and he grinned up at her. They both turned back to the Boldore, though, as the sound of Sand reached them and they shielded their eyes from the Attack on the Smokescreen.

"Oh man, I really need to concentrate on your ankle for a moment. Wings, protect the Pidove as best you can!"

With that statement from Chloe, Melissa knew she and Wildfire had been assigned the distraction job. The teen eyed their opponent and the surrounding cavern, noting the lake in particular. She glanced between the Boldore and the lake, wondering whether Wildfire could actually herd it in that direction without letting the Ore Pokemon know. Well, only one way to find out, she thought.

"Alright, Wildfire. We're gonna try to get that guy into the lake, alright?" she said to him as quietly as she could. She didn't know how well Boldore could hear and she wasn't going to take a chance. "So, use another Smokescreen and then use Extrasensory to toss it towards the lake, followed by a Naturepower from a different angle, but still in the same direction. Hopefully, it'll think we're just trying to knock it off balance or something. Got it?" He nodded and flared his fire, taking his own look at the battlefield, before nodding again and taking off. Melissa hoped the plan would work; otherwise, they'd probably just have to pound the Boldore down and, being a Rock type, that could take a while.

[Dark Searchman]

Okay, well, here's another update for those who think they deserve one and are likely right. I do have one item of housekeeping to take care of, though: I'm hereby dropping Flame Mistress due to inactivity, but should she reply to her current update in the future, I'll be glad to take her on again. This does NOT mean I'm opening her slot and taking someone else on; I'm lowering my cap so I don't get overwhelmed by uni AND have to deal with as many updates at once. With that, it is time to start the approach to a few climaxes here! =D

The Divine Woodland

Magus Falls

Kaisap112 –

You were not about to pass up a chance to chance to explore some hidden ruins with the strongest Gym Leader in all of Kanto, so you call upon Minori once again, this time to help you up the roaring Waterfall and into whatever tunnel Gary found behind it. While Minori wasn’t effortlessly climbing up the falls like you saw a certain powerful Blastoise do, he was climbing up them, and that’s what counted. You have it in your mind to reward him with some fish sometime, but then you see it. Yup, sure enough, you could barely see a cave behind the cascades, and, like all caves, it looked dark. That didn’t deter you though, and you had Minori power through the falls and into the tunnel- whoa, whoa, WHOA!! Ohhhhh, turns out this tunnel is an ancient waterslide! You scream and hang on tightly to your Seel for dear life as you shoot down the old chute in a matter of seconds… and then the twists and turns!!! This goes on for what seems like minutes to you, but finally, it looks like you’re at the end of the ride… which has A SPIKY WALL TO STOP YOU!!! CRUUUUUUUDDDD!!!!

What will Noriko do?

Eyrie Peak

Posy Field

Jolteonjak & Son_of_Shadows – {To answer Jolteonjak’s question: From what Chad and Joshua can figure out, the ground looks like normal dirt and soil, but they are likely standing right above a part of the residing Beedrill nest, the entrance being on the other side of the tree from where you are, which makes sense because that’s where the fiercest fighting between the two hives is. But should you wish to use Dig during this battle, just realize the resident hive probably won’t appreciate you digging your own tunnels through the nest. =P}

Both of you look forward to this battle against a Shiny Beedril with grim determination as you realize that there’s more than a hive at stake; your friends (and enemies, in Karrablast’s case) were also in danger of being a part of the invaders’ victory banquet. Have you ever seen anything get eaten by giant wasps? Nasty. Anyway, Joshua’s Pokemon of choice were his Squirtle, Aegis, who had helped put out a fire before and was still looking in tiptop shape (shell waxed and everything… aw, yeah!), and Steven, his Munna, the floating tapir looking at the battle with a healthy interest, and also Forewarning the team that this Beedrill was powerful enough to know Poison Jab. Chad decides to let his Heracross loose so he could get the battle he wanted, but instead of his somewhat tired Cyndaquil, he switches him out in favor of letting his Wooper have his first battle. And what a dangerous battle it could possibly will be!

Wait, “could possibly”? Scratch that, put in “will”… there, that’s better! This queen Bug starts off by attacking Steven, the most vulnerable and currently the most dangerous Pokemon out right now due to a type advantage. Before any of you can react she darts straight for the Munna and Bites him really hard. Steven squeals under the excruciating pain, having been dealt so much damage from one attack until he is let go, at which point you could see a nasty bite mark on his back. Heracross takes this as motivation. It was on. He gathers up half of his Rock energy for a Stone Edge attack, but the green Beedrill deftly dodged every rock being thrown at her. However, this did leave Aegis an opening, and the queen was going to pay for such an attack against Steven. He opens his mouth up very wide and Yawns out pink bubbles which force the queen to become drowsy…

But she’s not asleep yet! She goes in towards Steven once again, charging up her front stingers for a Twineedle lancing and once again gets major hits, and, even worse for Steven, gets lots of venom pumped into him and is left Badly Poisoned as a result… even already suffering from the effects of such poisoning. Steven finally gets a chance to retaliate, however, and unleashes a Psybeam on her which dealt some nice damage and looked like it was going to confuse her, but she was barely able to shake it off even in her drowsed state. It also didn’t help that Steven was hit in the behind by a stray needle thrown from somewhere in the air clashes. Meanwhile, Wooper sways his Tail from side to side, Whipping it in the Shiny Beedrill’s direction which causes her to consider Wooper as less of a threat and lower her defenses a little bit.

So as a result Wooper will not be targeted this turn, and, as the queen believes she sufficiently proved her point against Steven, she decides to select a different target, namely the puny insect who dared to throw Edged Stones against her. For that insolence, she tries punishing Heracross by Jabbing him full of Poison, but her reduced cognizance causes her to veer off her target for a moment and miss the stag beetle completely. This allows Heracross the opportunity to fortify himself with an Iron-clad Defense. Now if the Beedrill tries another Poison Jab, he’ll be ready! …Except he wasn’t ready to receive another stray attack from somewhere off to the left of him, but at least the Iron Defense was doing its job. Aegis is still enraged by such a heavy assault on Steven and Growls at the queen, warning her that if she goes near the Munna again, she would get it.

Well, instead of being intimidated by this, the queen bee simply ignores it and covers the area with Toxic Spikes and dares everyone on the ground to take another step. Steven then Chants a prayer for the team, wishing to Jirachi for Luck to be on their side. At least this would stop the queen from landing critical hits while Steven is still around, but thanks to the severe poisoning taking effect again, it didn’t look like he’d be around any longer than a turn. Wooper rounded it out once again by trying to distract the Beedrill with the same attack he used earlier, but while Whipping it around, his Tail made contact with the ground, and he winces in pain as the Poison now starts to course through his tail.

Steven now looks very sick and about to lose consciousness, whereas the rest of the trainers’ Pokemon looked to be pretty healthy, Wooper’s recent Poisoning aside. Queen Shiny also looked to be in great shape despite the Psybeam attack she took which was supposed to deal lots of damage, but she proved to be way more resilient than that. Everyone on both sides also looked pretty energetic except maybe for Heracross, who had just below 75% energy and down to half of his Rock energy left.

Sorry, SoS, but this Beedrill got really lucky hits against Steven plus type advantage! ^_^’ She was going to leave him for the rest of the round after Twineedle regardless, but both Poison chances for Twineedle succeeded, which, in my house rules for that particular attack, results in a Badly Poisoned status. …Well, good luck! ^_^’

What will Chad and Joshua do?

Garden of Iris

Rainbow Pool

Coolz8 – {I’m going to put you on notice that you need to put more effort into your replies, or you WILL be skipped. Five sentences is barely enough for me to work with. I’d like to know your character’s emotions behind your actions and the actions of others, maybe have Trick tell Torterra to watch where she’s going, or maybe give your character’s reaction to Vespiquen getting snacked on by Torterra. Maybe even throw in some character development, and who knows… I may just run with it. }

Leah pauses for a moment to catch her breath; she still suffers from her leg injury, and the pain is starting to get worse. She eventually nods, however, and calls out to her Torterra: “Torterra, please focus on the Combee now by using Crunch, then Stone Edge! We will deal with them, Frinth, so you can focus on Vespiquen!”

But before either of the Grass-types could act, the Combee all work to combine their efforts, and the Bug-types all Buzz harshly against both Pokemon, dealing tons of damage to both Trick and Torterra and lowering the giant tortoise’s Special Defense. They had to spend all of their Bug energy to do so, however, so you wouldn’t have to worry about that attack again. You did have to worry about Vespiquen and her Air Slash attack, but it would be against Torterra, and the searing line of wind crashes into the target and deals even more damage. Trick could see Vespiquen had turned her attention away from him, though, and gathers Fighting energy for a Rock Smash attack. Vespiquen turns around only to find herself punched in the face and her Defense suffering as a result. One of the Combee turns around out of concern for his queen, but that would prove to be a fatal mistake as the hungry jaws of Torterra close on him from behind, crush its body with a sickening Crunch, and swallow it down soon after. Good thing it wasn’t Trick on the receiving end of that!

With only three Combee left, they all try a Gust attack on the Torterra, and she takes more damage, starting to suffer from the pain of these attacks. Vespiquen planned on punishing Trick, however, for damaging Her Majesty’s beloved face, so her punishment? Stinging him, with lots of Poisonous barbs and dealing some decent damage, though the venom didn’t get inside, thankfully. Torterra’s next move would be to Edge up the Stones from the ground and surprise the four enemies. Two of the Combee are lucky the aim was off against them, but one Combee was easily battered and knocked up and instantly fell unconscious from the attack. Vespiquen didn’t fare much better, but she still barely survived the attack… only to see Trick’s Thundering fist Punch her lights out. The queen had finally been dethroned. Trick gains one level! The two remaining Combee are shocked and fly quickly over to their unconscious queen with Trick still standing by. Then a roar from off to the side makes you turn your head and gasp in horror.

Torterra was in a frenzy… A frenzy Overgrowing each second… She was charging straight at the unconscious Vespiquen… And Trick and the Combee! “No!! Torterra, please stop!!” Leah screams in terror. “The battle is over, we won! PLEASE STOOOOOP!!!” But Torterra wasn’t stopping, and Trick and the other Pokemon in her path were too battle weary to get out of the way!

What will Frinth do?

Dead Forest

Toxic Marsh

Ampharos_Dude –

This was an interesting encounter. A well known man in the Toxic Marsh had just saved you from an angry Toxicroak and had now requested your help for today’s jobs. Once you accepted, you shook hands as the Squirtleman said, “Hey, welcome to the Squirtle Team!” He then whooped before saying his tagline, “Re-ality, let’s go!” Louie returns Jell-O, his Duosion, and once you have Cherry strapped in y’all set for the truck. On the way, you bring up the idea of encountering the Grass-type turtle, Turtwig. “Well, maybe,” said Lou, a little skeptical. “Turtwig line’s a lot rarer than the Squirtle line ‘round here, but it could happen.”

You soon find yourself in front of the Squirtleman’s blue pickup truck, where an energetic Manectric suddenly jumps down from the back and straight towards Ronnie to be petted. “Attagirl! This is my Manectric, Poppy!” he introduces his Pokemon to you. “She likes new people, g’on, then!” Poppy approaches you and Cherry, does a sniff test for each of you and allows you to pet her too. However, Louie starts to get impatient and motions everyone to the truck. Once the group is on the road, Louie begins explaining the first nuisance call:

“Ol’ Man Riley’s been callin’ us ‘bout movement he n’is wife’ve been seein’ in their house, ‘n at night, they’ll hear scratchin’ noises all over the place. An’ when they wake up, they see their food’s been gone into and chewed up an’ all.”

“Lemme guess, we’ve got to round up these critters ‘fore Riley starts pullin’ the shotgun on ‘em,” Ronnie responds.

“That’s right,” confirmed Louie.

**********

It takes another 20 minutes of truck ride to get to the house in question, and Poppy certainly enjoyed having someone else with her in the back of the pickup, though Cherry thought of her as overwhelming at times. Ultimately, the truck pulls up to a rundown one-story home with the stereotypical old man and his wife sitting on their rocking chairs out on the porch. They continue to sit there as the group gets out. Ronnie orders Poppy to stay with the truck before you head up a couple of steps to greet the old couple on the porch.

“Yeah, so I hear you folks’ve got somethin’ in yer house, that right?” the Squirtleman asks.

Old Man Riley’s wife, Carla, explains: “Uh huh, we keep hearin’ somethin’ in our house at night, and it’s hard for us to get the sleep we need… well, it’s hard for me to get the sleep I need,” she quips, looking straight at her husband.

“Shut up, Carla,” the old man retorts in embarrassment.

Carla ignores him and continues: “Anyway, we hear scratches and things in the ceiling, and sometimes we’ll see something move by real fast before we can see what it is, and then sometimes when we wake up we’ll find our food’s been eaten from. I don’t know if its ghosts or whatnot, but we need help, we can’t live in our own home anymore!”

“I’d like to make it easier on ourselves ‘n just shoot everything, but she wants to give you folks a chance, so here you are,” Riley adds.

“Yup, here we are, this is re-ality, and we’ll take care of your house and what’s in it!” the Squirtleman promises. “Squirtle Team, let’s go!” he says with his trademark whoop.

You head inside, and the house looks pretty normal at first glance. There’s another rocking chair in the living room with a couch, a coffee table, and some shelves taking up the rest of the room, and off to the side, before the bedroom, are the stairs to the attic and the stairs to the basement, where you were told the food was kept. Ronnie turns to you and says, “Okay, newbie, we need to figure out where to start lookin’! Now if you were a critter that liked livin’ here, where’s the best place fer you to go?”

What is Shiro’s answer?


Missingno. Master –

With a backwoods lady and her trusty Garbodor bringing out their dueling gloves, they issue a challenge, and you accepted. You have Gemini wait for Teddie to gather some more trash to Stockpile into his already trash-filled body, then the two heads blow a Clear cloud of Smog straight into Teddie, resetting his defenses back to normal. Your Weezing then concentrates on trying to dodge Teddie’s next attack, which is a wide-range Spray of Acid. …Yeah, when it’s wide-ranged, it’s pretty hard to dodge. Well, that was a waste of energy, but Gemini also needed to make sure to negate the heavy drop to his precious Special Defenses with another cloud of Haze. Thing was, Teddie wasn’t going to go for a special move; he was about to go physical, and in the smoke Gemini wouldn’t see Teddie coming until he was already on top of him Body Slamming him down to the ground. When Teddie got back up, Gemini found it harder to rise, the entity of gas finding himself locked in Paralysis from time to time. The battle just barely started, and you already found yourself at a disadvantage!

And on top of all that, this lady decides to go rub it in! “Hah, y’all keep trying to deal with stat changes, ‘n you ain’t gonna go nowhere fast! Face it, you ain’t gonna prove yer a good Poison trainer like that!”
Makes your venomous blood boil… doesn’t it?

Sorry, but your ordering Gemini to dodge counts as a move, so Haze was the third move used, and Psybeam could not be used this round.

Having said that, what will Keith do?



The Burial Ground

Marion Ette –

You woke up to find Sangre unconscious and three ghosts, who happen to be sisters of those lunatic witches, in front of you. They are surprised to find that you can speak in the Shuppet language and react accordingly. “Wow, you can speak Shuppet?” asks the Gastly. “You’re a very talented lady! Maybe you’re the lady-”

“Doubt it,” the condescending Misdreavus interrupts. “She barely got away from our sisters, who knows what would’ve happened to her if we weren’t there?”

“Still,” the Haunter suddenly appears beside you, “it’s a rare gift for mortals to speak the language of spirits. And she looks to be very intelligent, so she might be able to speak our languages as well. I suppose it’s worth introducing ourselves then. I’m Rowena.”

“My name is Priscilla,” adds the Misdreavus.

“And I’m Katia!” the Gastly is last to introduce herself. “Nice you meet you.~!”

You then express gratitude for saving you from being another “sludge toy” of the sisters and ask how you might be able to repay them.

“Simple,” the Haunter replies, continuing to keep a straight face, “you just eliminate our sisters so that they don’t ever come back to this world. It’ll all be easier to explain, though, if we start from the beginning…”

And with that, the three ghosts use Hypnosis to take you from the cave back to the cemetery you escaped, the big difference being that the surrounding forests are much more lush and green, grass growing on the ground except where the headstones lay. Around the corner was a simple house with a woman and five girls outside it doing chores.

“Our mom was the caretaker of this cemetery 300 years ago,” Katia recounts to start. “Our dad…”

“He… was enlisted to the Astorian military before Katia was born,” Rowena finished bitterly. “None of us have seen him again, though he’s probably long since dead now.”

You could see the next few events transpire as Priscilla took her turn to continue: “So Mom ended up raising five girls all alone: Maura, Anastasia, and us. She was also a master of the lost art of necromancy, which she used to protect the cemetery from graverobbers. She also taught all of us how to use necromancy—that this particular burial ground had special properties that somehow enhanced necromancy—and our older sisters were the first ones of us to master it.”

“But then Mom had to visit her sister who was sick and dying and trusted us to look after the grounds,” Katia picked up the story, her normally cheerful looking grin starting to disappear. “That was when Maura and Anastasia started trying out spells they told us they were looking at when Mom was busy looking after the cemetery.” You could now see the two older sisters creating perfect human bodies out of seemingly nothing. “We knew something wasn’t right about these spells when they were using them; the plants started dying and the ground was getting all mushy and smelly. We tried telling them to stop, but they wouldn’t listen to us!” You could see tears starting to well up in Katia’s eyes. “We knew they were doing something bad, but they wouldn’t stop!”

“By the time Mother came home,” Rowena continued for her Gastly sister, “the land had become what you see it as now: swampy, desolate, and harsh. She knew what had happened: that our sisters had been using forbidden necromancy and that the damage caused was irreversible and unforgivable. So she gave up her life to seal their physical bodies away so they wouldn’t be able to use the forbidden magic anymore, but she also accidentally sealed our bodies as well. We all became Ghost Pokemon, unable to perform the magic the way humans could do it anymore.

“But the spell failed to stop Maura and Anastasia. Obsessed with power, they continued to research for decades, and we were powerless to stop them. Eventually, they became able to use Pokemon Necromancy—that is, they started to turn corpses into certain Poison-type Pokemon, and from what we’ve studied about Pokemon Necromancy it might be possible to create certain Ghost Pokemon as well. They’ve gotten stronger, human, not weaker! We’ve tried our best to become stronger so we can defeat them and seal their spirit bodies away too, but Giratina knows we’ve tried and still can’t get anywhere.”

The illusion ends and you find yourself back in the cave with Sangre still resting. “We can’t do it on our own, we know that now,” says Katia, who then floats right up to your face. “Please, we need your help! If you can understand Ghost Pokemon, you’ve gotta know that we’re suffering! Please say you’ll help us!”

“Calm down, Katia,” said Priscilla as she pushes the Gastly out of your face, “she’ll probably help us, she said she wanted to repay us, right?” The Misdreavus turns toward you. “Anyway, you’re what they call a ‘scientist’, right? We saw you bring in a bunch of tools and collect samples from the cemetery. We brought that stuff over to this cave, so maybe you can look at those samples and see something we don’t know about, and maybe then you’ll know what to do to stop Maura and Anastasia, right?”

“Hold on, Priscilla!” Rowena snaps at her sister. “We don’t know if she really is willing to help us, she has to tell us that herself!”

What will Marion do?

[Missingno. Master]

Missingno. Master –

With a backwoods lady and her trusty Garbodor bringing out their dueling gloves, they issue a challenge, and you accepted. You have Gemini wait for Teddie to gather some more trash to Stockpile into his already trash-filled body, then the two heads blow a Clear cloud of Smog straight into Teddie, resetting his defenses back to normal. Your Weezing then concentrates on trying to dodge Teddie’s next attack, which is a wide-range Spray of Acid. …Yeah, when it’s wide-ranged, it’s pretty hard to dodge. Well, that was a waste of energy, but Gemini also needed to make sure to negate the heavy drop to his precious Special Defenses with another cloud of Haze. Thing was, Teddie wasn’t going to go for a special move; he was about to go physical, and in the smoke Gemini wouldn’t see Teddie coming until he was already on top of him Body Slamming him down to the ground. When Teddie got back up, Gemini found it harder to rise, the entity of gas finding himself locked in Paralysis from time to time. The battle just barely started, and you already found yourself at a disadvantage!

And on top of all that, this lady decides to go rub it in! “Hah, y’all keep trying to deal with stat changes, ‘n you ain’t gonna go nowhere fast! Face it, you ain’t gonna prove yer a good Poison trainer like that!”
Makes your venomous blood boil… doesn’t it?

Sorry, but your ordering Gemini to dodge counts as a move, so Haze was the third move used, and Psybeam could not be used this round.

Having said that, what will Keith do?

Keith's eyes narrowed slightly at the lady's taunt, but wouldn't give in just yet. Things might not have gotten off to an ideal start, but many battles have started like that only to have things turn around at any point. And Keith intended to turn things around just as soon as possible.

"Well, don't you worry, 'cause me and Gemini, we're just getting started!" Keith called back.

"Weezing weez!" added Gemini's heads simultaneously, brimming with confidence in spite of the paralysis. Grinning at his starter's confidence, Keith turned his hat around. Granted, it was a cowboy hat, so it wasn't quite as significant as one might imagine, but damn it, he wasn't gonna let that bother him right now! He had a battle to win, his pride as a Poison-type trainer was at stake here!

"OK, Gemini, use your Rock Tomb attack now!" Keith called. "Then bring them down a notch with a pair of Psybeams!"

[Marion Ette]

Okay, well, here's another update for those who think they deserve one and are likely right. I do have one item of housekeeping to take care of, though: I'm hereby dropping Flame Mistress due to inactivity, but should she reply to her current update in the future, I'll be glad to take her on again. This does NOT mean I'm opening her slot and taking someone else on; I'm lowering my cap so I don't get overwhelmed by uni AND have to deal with as many updates at once. With that, it is time to start the approach to a few climaxes here! =D

Dead Forest

The Burial Ground

Marion Ette –

You woke up to find Sangre unconscious and three ghosts, who happen to be sisters of those lunatic witches, in front of you. They are surprised to find that you can speak in the Shuppet language and react accordingly. “Wow, you can speak Shuppet?” asks the Gastly. “You’re a very talented lady! Maybe you’re the lady-”

“Doubt it,” the condescending Misdreavus interrupts. “She barely got away from our sisters, who knows what would’ve happened to her if we weren’t there?”

“Still,” the Haunter suddenly appears beside you, “it’s a rare gift for mortals to speak the language of spirits. And she looks to be very intelligent, so she might be able to speak our languages as well. I suppose it’s worth introducing ourselves then. I’m Rowena.”

“My name is Priscilla,” adds the Misdreavus.

“And I’m Katia!” the Gastly is last to introduce herself. “Nice you meet you.~!”

You then express gratitude for saving you from being another “sludge toy” of the sisters and ask how you might be able to repay them.

“Simple,” the Haunter replies, continuing to keep a straight face, “you just eliminate our sisters so that they don’t ever come back to this world. It’ll all be easier to explain, though, if we start from the beginning…”

And with that, the three ghosts use Hypnosis to take you from the cave back to the cemetery you escaped, the big difference being that the surrounding forests are much more lush and green, grass growing on the ground except where the headstones lay. Around the corner was a simple house with a woman and five girls outside it doing chores.

“Our mom was the caretaker of this cemetery 300 years ago,” Katia recounts to start. “Our dad…”

“He… was enlisted to the Astorian military before Katia was born,” Rowena finished bitterly. “None of us have seen him again, though he’s probably long since dead now.”

You could see the next few events transpire as Priscilla took her turn to continue: “So Mom ended up raising five girls all alone: Maura, Anastasia, and us. She was also a master of the lost art of necromancy, which she used to protect the cemetery from graverobbers. She also taught all of us how to use necromancy—that this particular burial ground had special properties that somehow enhanced necromancy—and our older sisters were the first ones of us to master it.”

“But then Mom had to visit her sister who was sick and dying and trusted us to look after the grounds,” Katia picked up the story, her normally cheerful looking grin starting to disappear. “That was when Maura and Anastasia started trying out spells they told us they were looking at when Mom was busy looking after the cemetery.” You could now see the two older sisters creating perfect human bodies out of seemingly nothing. “We knew something wasn’t right about these spells when they were using them; the plants started dying and the ground was getting all mushy and smelly. We tried telling them to stop, but they wouldn’t listen to us!” You could see tears starting to well up in Katia’s eyes. “We knew they were doing something bad, but they wouldn’t stop!”

“By the time Mother came home,” Rowena continued for her Gastly sister, “the land had become what you see it as now: swampy, desolate, and harsh. She knew what had happened: that our sisters had been using forbidden necromancy and that the damage caused was irreversible and unforgivable. So she gave up her life to seal their physical bodies away so they wouldn’t be able to use the forbidden magic anymore, but she also accidentally sealed our bodies as well. We all became Ghost Pokemon, unable to perform the magic the way humans could do it anymore.

“But the spell failed to stop Maura and Anastasia. Obsessed with power, they continued to research for decades, and we were powerless to stop them. Eventually, they became able to use Pokemon Necromancy—that is, they started to turn corpses into certain Poison-type Pokemon, and from what we’ve studied about Pokemon Necromancy it might be possible to create certain Ghost Pokemon as well. They’ve gotten stronger, human, not weaker! We’ve tried our best to become stronger so we can defeat them and seal their spirit bodies away too, but Giratina knows we’ve tried and still can’t get anywhere.”

The illusion ends and you find yourself back in the cave with Sangre still resting. “We can’t do it on our own, we know that now,” says Katia, who then floats right up to your face. “Please, we need your help! If you can understand Ghost Pokemon, you’ve gotta know that we’re suffering! Please say you’ll help us!”

“Calm down, Katia,” said Priscilla as she pushes the Gastly out of your face, “she’ll probably help us, she said she wanted to repay us, right?” The Misdreavus turns toward you. “Anyway, you’re what they call a ‘scientist’, right? We saw you bring in a bunch of tools and collect samples from the cemetery. We brought that stuff over to this cave, so maybe you can look at those samples and see something we don’t know about, and maybe then you’ll know what to do to stop Maura and Anastasia, right?”

“Hold on, Priscilla!” Rowena snaps at her sister. “We don’t know if she really is willing to help us, she has to tell us that herself!”

What will Marion do?

The three sisters introduce themselves as Rowena, Priscilla and Katia. As if to confirm Rowena's suspicions that she can speak other ghost-type languages, she switches to Haunter for a moment. Haunter in particular was a fun language for Marion, as its distinctive lilt always sounded like laughter, even when communicating sadness. Though she had mastered the similar Gengar language at a young age, the accent for Gastly and Haunter took a bit of work on Marion's part. As a result, the language is not quite as pristine and fluid as Marion's Shuppet, suggesting slightly less proficiency, but she is still easily understood by those around her. A pleasure to meet you. You all have beautiful names, Marion says with a soft smile. When she asks about how she can repay the sisters for their help and kindness, Rowena does not hesitate with her clear, adamant request; eliminate their evil older sisters. To further elaborate on this request and the importance of it to the three siblings, the trio uses Hypnosis in order to show Marion what had transpired 300 years ago. Not only does Marion witness the events that transpired so many years in the past, but her heart also tingles with the emotions of the sisters, who most certainly feel heartbroken and betrayed by all that they have experienced. The spirits' older sisters had not only ignored their pleas to stop using their unnatural powers, but their deeds had also led to the suffering of these innocent beings... and rather than try to use their magic to right the wrongs they had committed and help their sisters, they only sought to make themselves more and more powerful! Minerva had hated these older sisters with such bitter veracity, and now it seemed like there were even more reasons for her to feel so strongly about them... Not only had they asked Minerva to turn on her beloved trainer, but these ghostly witches had turned their backs on their own family, as well. Betrayal of loved ones seemed to be a recurring theme with that pair...

As Marion listens to the three sisters, she also tries to process what is going on regarding the alteration of the environment in their tale. After all, she had initially came to the swamp with the question of how it had been transformed into its current state. Their story does answer why the Dead Forest has become such a horrific, desolate environment to some degree, but there were still a number of questions about the process by which the two older sisters had done such a thing. What spells exactly were they using? How did these spells create such drastic changes in the environment? Certainly, it would make sense to theorize that the spells drew life from the grass and trees in order to reanimate the dead, but why a poisonous swamp and not simply a lifeless desert? What about those spells had created such a poisonous, hostile atmosphere? Marion's head swims with questions, but she tries her best to hold them off in order to pay attention to the tale of the three sisters and their wayward older siblings.

Necromancy... Marion repeats the word in Shuppet language after she is shaken out of the hypnosis. You are saying that the soil may be the key to understanding your sisters' Pokemon Necromancy, and may reveal how to stop them for good? Marion tries to think about this for a moment, but suddenly finds the distressed Katia inches away from her face, pleading with her for help. Marion gives the Gastly a reassuring nod, even as Priscilla pushes her away. Of course I will do everything I can to help you! I have read about necromancy, to be sure, though I was told in university that there was no real proof of its existence. Marion grimaces. Seeing what your sisters have done with it, I hesitate to give them any reason to believe it does exist... but I will analyze those samples as best as I can for you. If you can lead me to where they are, I can inspect them... Tell me, is there anything in particular that I should be looking for? Marion pauses for a moment, as if to think about how to phrase her next question. Also, I was wondering about the nature of those spells your sisters used initially which caused such drastic changes in the environment... Do you know what made those spells have such strong and lasting effects? Knowing that might help me differentiate between the magic they were using then and the properties of the soil now that are being conducive to Pokemon Necromancy in particular.

[Son_of_Shadows]

Eyrie Peak

Posy Field

Jolteonjak & Son_of_Shadows – {To answer Jolteonjak’s question: From what Chad and Joshua can figure out, the ground looks like normal dirt and soil, but they are likely standing right above a part of the residing Beedrill nest, the entrance being on the other side of the tree from where you are, which makes sense because that’s where the fiercest fighting between the two hives is. But should you wish to use Dig during this battle, just realize the resident hive probably won’t appreciate you digging your own tunnels through the nest. =P}

Both of you look forward to this battle against a Shiny Beedril with grim determination as you realize that there’s more than a hive at stake; your friends (and enemies, in Karrablast’s case) were also in danger of being a part of the invaders’ victory banquet. Have you ever seen anything get eaten by giant wasps? Nasty. Anyway, Joshua’s Pokemon of choice were his Squirtle, Aegis, who had helped put out a fire before and was still looking in tiptop shape (shell waxed and everything… aw, yeah!), and Steven, his Munna, the floating tapir looking at the battle with a healthy interest, and also Forewarning the team that this Beedrill was powerful enough to know Poison Jab. Chad decides to let his Heracross loose so he could get the battle he wanted, but instead of his somewhat tired Cyndaquil, he switches him out in favor of letting his Wooper have his first battle. And what a dangerous battle it could possibly will be!

Wait, “could possibly”? Scratch that, put in “will”… there, that’s better! This queen Bug starts off by attacking Steven, the most vulnerable and currently the most dangerous Pokemon out right now due to a type advantage. Before any of you can react she darts straight for the Munna and Bites him really hard. Steven squeals under the excruciating pain, having been dealt so much damage from one attack until he is let go, at which point you could see a nasty bite mark on his back. Heracross takes this as motivation. It was on. He gathers up half of his Rock energy for a Stone Edge attack, but the green Beedrill deftly dodged every rock being thrown at her. However, this did leave Aegis an opening, and the queen was going to pay for such an attack against Steven. He opens his mouth up very wide and Yawns out pink bubbles which force the queen to become drowsy…

But she’s not asleep yet! She goes in towards Steven once again, charging up her front stingers for a Twineedle lancing and once again gets major hits, and, even worse for Steven, gets lots of venom pumped into him and is left Badly Poisoned as a result… even already suffering from the effects of such poisoning. Steven finally gets a chance to retaliate, however, and unleashes a Psybeam on her which dealt some nice damage and looked like it was going to confuse her, but she was barely able to shake it off even in her drowsed state. It also didn’t help that Steven was hit in the behind by a stray needle thrown from somewhere in the air clashes. Meanwhile, Wooper sways his Tail from side to side, Whipping it in the Shiny Beedrill’s direction which causes her to consider Wooper as less of a threat and lower her defenses a little bit.

So as a result Wooper will not be targeted this turn, and, as the queen believes she sufficiently proved her point against Steven, she decides to select a different target, namely the puny insect who dared to throw Edged Stones against her. For that insolence, she tries punishing Heracross by Jabbing him full of Poison, but her reduced cognizance causes her to veer off her target for a moment and miss the stag beetle completely. This allows Heracross the opportunity to fortify himself with an Iron-clad Defense. Now if the Beedrill tries another Poison Jab, he’ll be ready! …Except he wasn’t ready to receive another stray attack from somewhere off to the left of him, but at least the Iron Defense was doing its job. Aegis is still enraged by such a heavy assault on Steven and Growls at the queen, warning her that if she goes near the Munna again, she would get it.

Well, instead of being intimidated by this, the queen bee simply ignores it and covers the area with Toxic Spikes and dares everyone on the ground to take another step. Steven then Chants a prayer for the team, wishing to Jirachi for Luck to be on their side. At least this would stop the queen from landing critical hits while Steven is still around, but thanks to the severe poisoning taking effect again, it didn’t look like he’d be around any longer than a turn. Wooper rounded it out once again by trying to distract the Beedrill with the same attack he used earlier, but while Whipping it around, his Tail made contact with the ground, and he winces in pain as the Poison now starts to course through his tail.

Steven now looks very sick and about to lose consciousness, whereas the rest of the trainers’ Pokemon looked to be pretty healthy, Wooper’s recent Poisoning aside. Queen Shiny also looked to be in great shape despite the Psybeam attack she took which was supposed to deal lots of damage, but she proved to be way more resilient than that. Everyone on both sides also looked pretty energetic except maybe for Heracross, who had just below 75% energy and down to half of his Rock energy left.

Sorry, SoS, but this Beedrill got really lucky hits against Steven plus type advantage! ^_^’ She was going to leave him for the rest of the round after Twineedle regardless, but both Poison chances for Twineedle succeeded, which, in my house rules for that particular attack, results in a Badly Poisoned status. …Well, good luck! ^_^’

What will Chad and Joshua do?

The battle had just begun and was already looking horrible. Steven had taken massive damage from the Queen's onslaught and was poisoned to boot. He was fading fast. Fortunately, Joshua was clever, and worked at his best under pressure. And he had a secret weapon up his sleeve. He wasn't sure if he could do anything for Chad's Wooper, but for Steven (whose handy telepathy had let him know to watch out for the queen's Poison Jab attack, and he was sure to let Chad know about that too), he'd received a convenient Antidote not a moment ago.

"Steven, chow down on this!" he cried, throwing the Pecha Berry that he'd just gotten from the Beedrill in gratitude. That would take the poisoning right out and then he could heal himself with his Moonlight skill. Meanwhile, to prevent him getting beaten further, Aegis, Wooper and Heracross would have to help protect him. Fortunately, the Squirtle had just the move to get her attention. "Steven, fix yourself up with Moonlight, then rejoin the assault with another Psybeam. Aegis, it's time for our secret weapon - Chad, you're gonna love this, it's amazing - use Crossfire to hammer that bee, then hit her with a Muddy Water. Chad, can you help me protect Steven while he gets his strength back - we'll definitely need his Psybeams to win this battle. Unless you have any brighter ideas?"

[Coolz8]

Okay, well, here's another update for those who think they deserve one and are likely right. I do have one item of housekeeping to take care of, though: I'm hereby dropping Flame Mistress due to inactivity, but should she reply to her current update in the future, I'll be glad to take her on again. This does NOT mean I'm opening her slot and taking someone else on; I'm lowering my cap so I don't get overwhelmed by uni AND have to deal with as many updates at once. With that, it is time to start the approach to a few climaxes here! =D

Garden of Iris

Rainbow Pool

Coolz8 – {I’m going to put you on notice that you need to put more effort into your replies, or you WILL be skipped. Five sentences is barely enough for me to work with. I’d like to know your character’s emotions behind your actions and the actions of others, maybe have Trick tell Torterra to watch where she’s going, or maybe give your character’s reaction to Vespiquen getting snacked on by Torterra. Maybe even throw in some character development, and who knows… I may just run with it. }

Leah pauses for a moment to catch her breath; she still suffers from her leg injury, and the pain is starting to get worse. She eventually nods, however, and calls out to her Torterra: “Torterra, please focus on the Combee now by using Crunch, then Stone Edge! We will deal with them, Frinth, so you can focus on Vespiquen!”

But before either of the Grass-types could act, the Combee all work to combine their efforts, and the Bug-types all Buzz harshly against both Pokemon, dealing tons of damage to both Trick and Torterra and lowering the giant tortoise’s Special Defense. They had to spend all of their Bug energy to do so, however, so you wouldn’t have to worry about that attack again. You did have to worry about Vespiquen and her Air Slash attack, but it would be against Torterra, and the searing line of wind crashes into the target and deals even more damage. Trick could see Vespiquen had turned her attention away from him, though, and gathers Fighting energy for a Rock Smash attack. Vespiquen turns around only to find herself punched in the face and her Defense suffering as a result. One of the Combee turns around out of concern for his queen, but that would prove to be a fatal mistake as the hungry jaws of Torterra close on him from behind, crush its body with a sickening Crunch, and swallow it down soon after. Good thing it wasn’t Trick on the receiving end of that!

With only three Combee left, they all try a Gust attack on the Torterra, and she takes more damage, starting to suffer from the pain of these attacks. Vespiquen planned on punishing Trick, however, for damaging Her Majesty’s beloved face, so her punishment? Stinging him, with lots of Poisonous barbs and dealing some decent damage, though the venom didn’t get inside, thankfully. Torterra’s next move would be to Edge up the Stones from the ground and surprise the four enemies. Two of the Combee are lucky the aim was off against them, but one Combee was easily battered and knocked up and instantly fell unconscious from the attack. Vespiquen didn’t fare much better, but she still barely survived the attack… only to see Trick’s Thundering fist Punch her lights out. The queen had finally been dethroned. Trick gains one level! The two remaining Combee are shocked and fly quickly over to their unconscious queen with Trick still standing by. Then a roar from off to the side makes you turn your head and gasp in horror.

Torterra was in a frenzy… A frenzy Overgrowing each second… She was charging straight at the unconscious Vespiquen… And Trick and the Combee! “No!! Torterra, please stop!!” Leah screams in terror. “The battle is over, we won! PLEASE STOOOOOP!!!” But Torterra wasn’t stopping, and Trick and the other Pokemon in her path were too battle weary to get out of the way!

What will Frinth do?


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http://forums.upnetwork.net/showthread.php?t=4125

Trick is Now Level Nine!Last Level

Trick's determination and courage remained adamant, yet his owner's emotions started to whirl in a flurry. Frinth was in a panicked state, and so he grabbed Trick's pokeball to command, "Trick! Return!" Metal clicks as a bright flash of red light tries to beat Leah's torterra to Frinth's Trick, yet Trick's eyes simply glimmered as his vision blurred from fatigue. Trick forced himself to get up, and as the world slowed, adrenaline burst through both present. Frinth rushed toward Trick, and so did the other stride weakly toward him. Frinth let out a worried battlecry, negating the other sounds emitted from his surroundings, and Frinth tried to further extend his beam, while Trick tried to reach it. "Triiiiiiccckkk!!!" Frinth shouted.

And frinth continued to chase, as a memory came into view...

"Trick! Come here. I'd like you to meet Stellar and Aquia." Frinth greeted Trick. He only arrived from a golden city, only accessible through deep slumber or a portal he engineered yet consumed immeasurable amounts of uranium. The two girls were in golden thread, and Frinth's perspective seemed to have been captured by the one he called Aquia. Aquia simply knelt down to pick Trick up. Trick reluctantly submitted, and Aquia greeted him with a warm hug.

Frinth's memory ceased to permit reminisce, and sprinted faster toward Trick.

[kaisap112]

The Divine Woodland

Magus Falls

Kaisap112 –

You were not about to pass up a chance to chance to explore some hidden ruins with the strongest Gym Leader in all of Kanto, so you call upon Minori once again, this time to help you up the roaring Waterfall and into whatever tunnel Gary found behind it. While Minori wasn’t effortlessly climbing up the falls like you saw a certain powerful Blastoise do, he was climbing up them, and that’s what counted. You have it in your mind to reward him with some fish sometime, but then you see it. Yup, sure enough, you could barely see a cave behind the cascades, and, like all caves, it looked dark. That didn’t deter you though, and you had Minori power through the falls and into the tunnel- whoa, whoa, WHOA!! Ohhhhh, turns out this tunnel is an ancient waterslide! You scream and hang on tightly to your Seel for dear life as you shoot down the old chute in a matter of seconds… and then the twists and turns!!! This goes on for what seems like minutes to you, but finally, it looks like you’re at the end of the ride… which has A SPIKY WALL TO STOP YOU!!! CRUUUUUUUDDDD!!!!

What will Noriko do?

Intent on going after Gary, Noriko and Minori started going up the waterfall, slowly but surely. While inching up the waterfall Noriko couldn’t help but decide to increase Minori’s training immediately in case they’d have to move across bodies of water as much as they had been lately. Some fish for Minori would probably be in order once he’d get past the waterfall. Just as Noriko had finished that thought, she saw a glimpse of something behind the moving water. A cave, perhaps? Had Gary gone this way? She urged Minori to go through the falls and inside…

They didn’t have time to even gasp before the literal slide into the unknown began. Noriko shrieked as she and her Seel slid down the waterslide, perhaps caused by some odd development of nature. Right and left and right again, up and down, the slide seemed endless! After what seemed like a long time Noriko noticed the waterslide having settled into a straight line…with a wall of big, sharp spikes at the end of it. Wait, what? Noriko and Minori blinked once in unison, and then started screaming for their lives.

“Minori! Use Water Pulse to crush the spikes! HURRY!” The young trainer prayed to every deity she knew of that this would work and she'd live to see another day...

[Charminions]

Eyrie Peak

~Adventure Path~


Charminions: The female Nidoran was proving her toughness to you. At the same time, Osage is also proving his toughness, able to completely defend from an attack while increasing his powers. The battle, though, is starting to show its effects on both participants. Pigkey, on the other hand, is in her own world trapped in her confusion.

Realizing you'll need the Mankey's help, you approach her and give her a smack hoping to relieve her of her confusion. You give the Pokemon their orders, and they prepare to attack. Osage breathes in air and shoots it at Nidoran. The air, now frosty from Osage's Ice-type body, strikes her for some strong damage. Pigkey next picks up a nearby stone. She throws it at Nidoran, hoping to smack her down. The rock knocks her on the side of her leg for some damage, though not as severe as if she were flying. Nidoran takes the opportunity to bow her head in preparation allowing her defense to raise a bit in the process.

Hoping to put an end to Nidoran's stat boosting, Osage rushes in raising his claw ready to strike little Poison Pin crushing her hopes of victory. The slash connected, but she remained focused on her current course. The attack was not without success however; for the recent boost in her defense was erased as quickly as it came. Pigkey, meanwhile, prepares what she hopes is a devastating attack. She swings her arm in a circular motion creating a mega force. Once she sees Osage strike and step back, she closes in ready to punch Nidoran. Unfortunately for Pigkey, she mega punches herself in the face and knocks herself to the ground. Nidoran watches her lucky break, and she begins to charge at Osage, head first. She bashes into the Sharp Claw Pokemon with her skull throwing him back a few yards.

This particular attack seems to made Nidoran quite proud of herself, because seeing Osage knocked back causes her to sing her favorite song out loud, very loudly. The notes soar through the air attacking all three of your hearing. You wonder what she is doing. Is she already starting to celebrate victory? All of a sudden it becomes clear. You hear, echoing through the trees, a reply of sorts. The song Nidoran was singing was being repeated by another, thus becoming a round. Pigkey stands up quickly looking around trying to pinpoint the source of the sound. It seems she needed a stronger smack to cure her confusion. Now she stands, battle ready, facing the direction of the second singer. What will you do?

"Yeah, I definitely need Pigkey's help for this," Charm realizes, walking over to the Mankey before giving her a whack to the head. As he does this, Osage initiates his orders, breathing in deeply before releasing a chilling breathe of frost that hits its mark on the Nidoran (F). Pigkey finally does something, grabbing a nearby rock before chucking it at the Nidoran's leg for some damage. The Nidoran then proceeds to lower her head to do something. "Watch out, guys," Charm tries to warn them.

Osage quickly acts, however, rushing towards the Poison Pin Pokemon and slashing her for a crushing blow with his claw. "Nice one," Charm cheered on. Pigkey then continues the action, making her fist glow before swinging it at... herself. Charm facepalms at the occurance, "Thanks for the help," he says sarcastically. Nidoran takes this opportunity to strike, bashing into Osage with her head so hard that even Charm cringed. "Don't get cocky now," he stares down the wild Pokemon. But she was, and begins to sing to celebrate. Charm clasps his ears in pain as the song damages all three of them. "Oh f*," he yells as he tries to endure the pain. On the bright side, the pain shook Pigkey fully out of confusion... but the song is repeated once again from another source. "Damnit, there's another one now too?"

Pigkey stands back up and takes her stance against this new foe, while Osage rises up to face the already weakened Nidoran. "Let's finish this damaged one first. We don't have time to deal with another one of these menaces. Osage, use a Faint Attack on the weakened Nidoran. Pigkey, cover Osage's path and stop anybody from interrupting him with a Mega Punch. Then Osage, shoot an Ice Beam at the same target. Pigkey, finish with a Thunder Punch on the weakened Nidoran, unless the second one gets in your way.

[jolteonjak]

Chad watched the battle begin against Queen Beedrill. With a Psychic in the mix, she went right after him. On top of that, he was also poisoned badly! Joshua's Munna was certainly in bad shape. At least Joshua had a Pecha Berry for him. Seems like this is going to be a long battle. Chad looked at his pair of fighters. Wooper was able to go incognito with a successful Tail Whip, so he had a window of time to prepare. Heracross, on the other hand, went into battle guns ablazing. His first Stone Edge missed its mark. But luckily he was able to bolster his defenses.

"Focus a little more Heracross," Chad tried to reassure Heracross. "Don't lose your cool here!"

Chad heard Joshua issuing some orders another round of battle. "Steven fix yourself up with Moonlight, then rejoin the assault with another Psybeam. Aegis, it's time for our secret weapon. Chad, you're gonna love this, it's amazing." Chad turned towards Aegis to see what was going to happen next. "Use Crossfire to hammer that bee, then hit her with a Muddy Water."

"Chad, can you help me protect Steven while he gets his strength back?" Joshua asked. "We'll definitely need his Psybeams to win this battle. Unless you have any brighter ideas?"

Chad thought for a moment. "What do you think of Wooper using Scald?" he asked. "There's a chance for a burn. I just wonder if the water would reduce or remove the effects of Aegis' Yawn though. We can talk about that in a bit. For now, Wooper, Mimic Steven's Psybeam. We'll hold onto that for later. For now, use Ice Punch on the Queen while she isn't paying attention to you! Heracross, Iron Defense again and help us protect Steven. If Steven gets attacked again, use Aerial Ace! By the way, Joshua, does Aegis know Rapid Spin?"


Stats

OOC: SoS, I hope I got the names right. I also changed things up a little.

[Ampharos_Dude]

The Divine Woodland

Dead Forest

Toxic Marsh

Ampharos_Dude –

This was an interesting encounter. A well known man in the Toxic Marsh had just saved you from an angry Toxicroak and had now requested your help for today’s jobs. Once you accepted, you shook hands as the Squirtleman said, “Hey, welcome to the Squirtle Team!” He then whooped before saying his tagline, “Re-ality, let’s go!” Louie returns Jell-O, his Duosion, and once you have Cherry strapped in y’all set for the truck. On the way, you bring up the idea of encountering the Grass-type turtle, Turtwig. “Well, maybe,” said Lou, a little skeptical. “Turtwig line’s a lot rarer than the Squirtle line ‘round here, but it could happen.”

You soon find yourself in front of the Squirtleman’s blue pickup truck, where an energetic Manectric suddenly jumps down from the back and straight towards Ronnie to be petted. “Attagirl! This is my Manectric, Poppy!” he introduces his Pokemon to you. “She likes new people, g’on, then!” Poppy approaches you and Cherry, does a sniff test for each of you and allows you to pet her too. However, Louie starts to get impatient and motions everyone to the truck. Once the group is on the road, Louie begins explaining the first nuisance call:

“Ol’ Man Riley’s been callin’ us ‘bout movement he n’is wife’ve been seein’ in their house, ‘n at night, they’ll hear scratchin’ noises all over the place. An’ when they wake up, they see their food’s been gone into and chewed up an’ all.”

“Lemme guess, we’ve got to round up these critters ‘fore Riley starts pullin’ the shotgun on ‘em,” Ronnie responds.

“That’s right,” confirmed Louie.

**********

It takes another 20 minutes of truck ride to get to the house in question, and Poppy certainly enjoyed having someone else with her in the back of the pickup, though Cherry thought of her as overwhelming at times. Ultimately, the truck pulls up to a rundown one-story home with the stereotypical old man and his wife sitting on their rocking chairs out on the porch. They continue to sit there as the group gets out. Ronnie orders Poppy to stay with the truck before you head up a couple of steps to greet the old couple on the porch.

“Yeah, so I hear you folks’ve got somethin’ in yer house, that right?” the Squirtleman asks.

Old Man Riley’s wife, Carla, explains: “Uh huh, we keep hearin’ somethin’ in our house at night, and it’s hard for us to get the sleep we need… well, it’s hard for me to get the sleep I need,” she quips, looking straight at her husband.

“Shut up, Carla,” the old man retorts in embarrassment.

Carla ignores him and continues: “Anyway, we hear scratches and things in the ceiling, and sometimes we’ll see something move by real fast before we can see what it is, and then sometimes when we wake up we’ll find our food’s been eaten from. I don’t know if its ghosts or whatnot, but we need help, we can’t live in our own home anymore!”

“I’d like to make it easier on ourselves ‘n just shoot everything, but she wants to give you folks a chance, so here you are,” Riley adds.

“Yup, here we are, this is re-ality, and we’ll take care of your house and what’s in it!” the Squirtleman promises. “Squirtle Team, let’s go!” he says with his trademark whoop.

You head inside, and the house looks pretty normal at first glance. There’s another rocking chair in the living room with a couch, a coffee table, and some shelves taking up the rest of the room, and off to the side, before the bedroom, are the stairs to the attic and the stairs to the basement, where you were told the food was kept. Ronnie turns to you and says, “Okay, newbie, we need to figure out where to start lookin’! Now if you were a critter that liked livin’ here, where’s the best place fer you to go?”

What is Shiro’s answer?

After getting inside the truck and onto the road, Shiro decided to ask about the possibility of meeting a Turtwig, as it too, was a tortoise-like pokemon.
After Lou's spectical view on this matter, Shiro pondered it for a while, and decided that any of the three tortoise-like pokemon species were fine; Squirtle, Torkoal and Turtwig.

After meeting and getting introduced to Poppy the Manetric, who Shiro certainly liked more than Cherry did, they continued the trip. After a while, they arrived at the decided house, and went inside after Lou and Riley had gathered nugets of information.

Just as Shiro had inspected the room they arrived into, Riley turned towards him.
“Okay, newbie, we need to figure out where to start lookin’! Now if you were a critter that liked livin’ here, where’s the best place fer you to go?” He asked.
"Umm... Let's see..." Shiro pondered.
"If the pokemon we are after belong to the water-type as suspected, then they would probably hide in the basement, as it is the most moist place in this house, assuming they don't have mildew or something in there." He added, trying to sound as wise as possible.

[Dark Searchman]

Yay monthly updates! =D

The Divine Woodland

Magus Falls

Kaisap112 –

Slip and slides are fun… except when you’re about to DIE. That was the situation facing you: you were slipping and sliding, and then you saw the ride ended with a likely impalement if you didn’t do something. So… you did something! Well, Minori did something, at least; he gathered some Water energy and formed it into a ball between his flippers, then flung it towards the wall OF DEUM. To your surprise, not only do the spikes crumble under the intense Pulse of energy, but the entire wall falls apart! The attack also served to create a wave in your direction, slowing the two of you down until you come to a stop right where the wall used to be. Whew!

Now that you had a moment to catch your breath from the thrill ride you were able to look at the design of the ruins. The wall to your left had pictograms depicting some ancient culture’s lifestyle habits: farming, hunting, that sort of thing. Another wall piques your interest, though; it had an odd shape that was most prominent in the center of it. It looked like some sort of crescent with something sticking out in the middle… pretty weird. Suddenly, you spot a faint glimmer in the water near you, and you slowly walk in the knee-deep water so you could check it out. What was it? You carefully reach down into the water, making sure your clothes don’t get too wet as you do so, and you can’t believe your luck as you pick up an old coin. It had the same symbol as the one on the wall, so they were sure to be related. At the very least, you’d be able to get a nice chunk of change out of this Relic Copper (can be turned in for 1000 coins at the Coin Exchange)! Your Seel then claps in excitement for your find, which accidentally splashes water all over you. You laugh as you tell him to stop, his energy is pretty contagious!

“Noriko!?” That was Gary’s voice! You mount Minori again as his swimming in knee-deep water is slightly faster than you trudging through it, then head into the right corridor where you heard Gary’s voice, and it’s not long before you find him and his Blastoise trapped inside a stone cage. “Good, you’re okay! I was worried with the way you were screaming,” he says to you- Wait, what’s wrong with this picture? Oh yeah, Blastoise should be able to hose his way through pretty much any wall! Why not this one? “You’ve gotta help us,” he continued. “We’re trapped here; Blastoise’s attacks just bounce off of the wall from the inside! There’s a switch in that path to your left that’ll open this up and the way forward. Here, take this,” he says as he holds out his hand through one of the holes for you to grab the ring in it. (It looks a lot better than how it’s drawn, believe me! ^_^’) You notice the ring has the same symbol you’ve seen a couple of times now, and you notice the holes start to close as Gary answers your curiosity: “That symbol’s the one for the Lunar Magi, and this is their temple, so you’ll probably come across some puzzles that deal with the moon. Good luck!” And with that, the holes close completely.

What will Noriko do?

Eyrie Peak

Posy Field

Jolteonjak & Son_of_Shadows –

The Battle of the Hives continues, and Joshua found his Munna trying to stay in the battle, but even if Queen Shiny didn’t attack, Steven would likely fall due to getting poisoned. Hoping to at least stop the poison, Joshua gives Steven a Pecha Berry and crosses his fingers, hoping the other Pokemon can protect him from the green Beedrill’s attacks. She notices what is happening, however, and realizes what an early knockout could do to your morale. She tries to Pursue the chance, but Heracross is there to interfere and block the attack with his Iron Defense. Then Aegis is unexpectedly the first Pokemon to bring the heat and bathe his arms in flames. Queen Shiny could barely get away from Heracross only to get caught in the Crossfire taking some nice damage from that attack, but avoiding the burn. Aegis almost put too much into the attack, however, and barely avoided a burn of his own as he took some damage from the flames. He’s also fortunate enough to land back in his previous spot and avoid getting poisoned from the Toxic Spikes on the ground! Shame he couldn’t expect the stray Poison Sting from another Beedrill because that attack would poison him and begin to eat away at his health.

Then Queen Shiny completely succumbs to the effects of Yawn and slowly falls to the ground asleep. It looked like she’d be asleep for some time; this was a big break for you! Plenty of time for Wooper to recall how Steven did his Psybeam attack so he’d be able to Mimic the move later on, and plenty of time for Steven to eat the Pecha Berry and be cured of the poisoning. Wooper was a little jealous of Steven, however, since he still had to suffer through his poisoning. Suddenly, another stray Poison Sting attack nicks Steven in the side… and it unfortunately shoots more poison into his system than he is able to fight off and takes his consciousness away from him. Joshua tries to rush to his side, but a spare Beedrill guard was quicker and snatches him up, carrying him back to where Karrablast and Teddiursa were.

Now the stakes were even higher as Joshua’s Munna would also be a spoil of war if you and the Beedrill swarm lost here. Fortunately, the queen was still too busy with her afternoon nap to attack, so you had a chance to get a lot of solid hits in before she woke up. Heracross would start the onslaught by flying in for an Aerial Ace, dealing some nice damage to the Shiny Beedrill, but more importantly staying in the air where the Toxic Spikes can’t get to him. Then it’s Aegis to throw some Muddy Water at the queen, but wait… ohhhh oh man, Aegis doesn’t feel so good… You turn away in disgust as he tosses his cookies instead of a Muddy Water attack, feeling the poison get to him in that moment for some strange reason. The little Squirtle apologizes in embarrassment and is about to try and kick it away, but you stop him for your sake and everyone else’s. You also couldn’t help but feel for him as another stray Poison Sting attack hits him for some minor damage.

Thankfully, Queen Shiny isn’t awoken by this disturbing turn of events, so Wooper can try for an Ice Punch attack on her, but trying to punch something with a tail can be pretty difficult, so he only gets a small hit on her… it’s times like this when he wishes he were a Quagsire. It’s also times like this when he wishes he wasn’t poisoned because… yeah, he’s losing some more health to it.

Dang, that last round was pretty lackluster, you couldn’t capitalize on Beedrill’s nap as much as you wanted to, but, aside from Steven’s early exit from this battle and the Water Pokemon dealing with poison, your other Pokemon are still looking pretty well off, with energy reserves ranging from about 60-75% and health from 75-95%. Also, despite your mishaps, you’ve taken out a third of Queen Shiny’s total health, she was still sleeping—though you didn’t know for how much longer—and Joshua could still call on another Pokemon to help out the cause.

What will Chad and Joshua do?

Garden of Iris

Rainbow Pool

Coolz8 –

Time seemed to slow down in Trick’s moment of peril as you rush towards him trying to aim his Pokeball so he would be brought inside and safe. Your thoughts turn back to when you were in a city of gold, introducing your Treecko to a pair of girls, and you wish you could introduce him to more of them here in Fizzy Bubbles. However, the beam of red light is suddenly interrupted by Torterra running in front of you, and your mind tunes everything out—Trick’s labored breathing, the Combee’s frantic buzzing, Leah’s screaming and sobbing—and fears the worst as you yell out for your Treecko at the top of your lungs.

Suddenly, you see thick roots spontaneously sprout from under where Torterra just took a step and snare the 700 lb. tortoise, holding her in her tracks. As the Plants slowly squeeze the Frenzy out of Torterra, you are able to run ahead, scoop Trick up in your arms, and take him to safety before hugging him tightly. That was too close!
“So that Treecko was yours… I hope he’s all right…”

You look up to see an old man with a long beard holding a staff and riding atop a powerful-looking Venusaur; there’s the Pokemon that used Frenzy Plant on Torterra! “Grandpa…” you hear Leah say weakly between sobs.
“It’s all right, Leah, everyone is fine now, including Torterra. Venusaur just made sure she ran out of energy.”

“Saurrrr…” the Venusaur’s voice could be felt booming through the entire area. The old man then looks your way and says, “Thank you for being there for my granddaughter, young man. My name is Spenser, the Frontier Brain for the Battle Palace, and this is my trusty Venusaur.” Venusaur’s voice booms once again as he nods his head to greet you.

Your mind is barely able to process who this guy is when you hear a thrumming sound. You turn back to see Vespiquen looking straight at you. Trick seems nervous about this, but then the two Combee fly behind you and nod as though they were trying to push you closer to their queen. Everyone else watches with interest; it seems Vespiquen wants an audience with you. As you are pushed close enough to where you were two or three feet away from this queen, you could see she looked much more placid than when she was on a tirade. Oh, and then you hear more buzzing coming from the trees. MUCH more buzzing. About fifty Combee, including four females, arrive at the scene, ready to waste anyone who was even within thirty feet of the queen, but Vespiquen holds up her hand to stop them before getting up slowly and moving to the side to reveal your Pokeball… the one that held the female Combee you battled.
Spenser looks interested in this development and asks, “Hm, does that Pokeball have someone inside it?”

“It contains a female Combee that Frinth caught, grandpa,” Leah answers him.

“Hm, it makes sense now. It seems that Vespiquen is letting you have that Combee as a reward for your victory against her. Very interesting… I wouldn’t think that Vespiquen would give up one of her hivelings so easily, but maybe you don’t want her after all?”

What will Frinth do?

Dead Forest

Toxic Marsh

Ampharos_Dude –

In your first hands-on experience with the Squirtleman dealing with a nuisance call, he turns to you to see if you can figure out where the home invader(s) might be. Your response... puzzles the two hillbillies. “Wait, you still thinkin’ about them Squirtle?” asked Louie. “We’re dealin’ with other critters here, so you better stay focused! ‘N that goes double for you, Ronnie, we don’t want no foolin’ around here!”

“Well, I think he’s still got a point, Lou…” said Squirtleman, somewhat deep in thought. “These critters want to hole up somewhar right now, hide away from people. And in a hot day like this they want to go someplace cool and where they can easily get to the food, and where’s that? The basement!”

So down to the basement you go. It isn’t long before you find your first clues of what was here. Cherry suddenly jumps out of your arms and towards a footprint revealed by the spilled, half-eaten flour. “That’s a distinct print with the palm and the toes around it. Looks like we’re dealin’ with Zigzagoon!” the Squirtleman concludes.

“It’s recent too,” adds Louie, “so it might be close.”

Suddenly, Squirtleman looks above. “Whoa, there it is!”

You look up as well to see a furry brown and white raccoon sitting on the pipes, flour all over its face. It must have been hoping it wouldn’t be seen, well, that plan failed. Your heart then skips a beat as you felt two somethings quickly brush your leg, and it wasn’t long before Ronnie was hot in pursuit of some other raccoons. “Ronnie, wait up! The one on the pipes was still sitting there, like it figured nothing would reach it, which gave ample time for Louie to step out and close the door, leaving you and Cherry with the flour-faced Normal-type. “You keep that one busy, we’ll handle the other two!” As you hear the man’s footsteps fade, you find yourself staring up at a Zigzagoon with no intention of getting down anytime soon… you’d need to bring it down to your level somehow so it would be easier for you to face it in a battle.

What will Shiro do?


Missingno. Master –

As if the risk of being forced to leave Toxic Marsh if you lost to the trash-talking cowgirl with her trash-throwing Garbodor wasn’t enough, you had your pride as a Poison-type trainer on the line. If you lost to her, you feared you and Gemini wouldn’t hear the end of it. With that in mind, you turned your… cowboy hat around… (it really does work better with a cap) It was time to get serious. You could feel the already prevalent toxins assail your nose even further, and you could tell: it was about to get downright ugly.

“Well, well, y’all think you’re gonna stop us with’ose ‘Psycho-type’ attacks y’all got thar?” the lady sneered. “We’ll show y’all how Sally Bullwinkle and her Teddie bear’re more’n ready ‘gainst that! Teddie, git some Amnesia goin’, then Smack ‘em Down so he’s nice ‘n ready for’n Earthquake!”

And Teddie indeed boosts his Special Defenses by forgetting all his troubles, woes, and misery for a moment… yeah, I guess life is easy when you’re an Amnesiac! Gemini, on the other hand, stays focused and tries to encase the distracted Garbodor inside a Rock Tomb, but his aim is off slightly and he only manages to clip Teddie’s leg, though that is enough to reduce his Speed slightly. Teddie is still faster, however, and shoots one of the rocks conveniently placed at his feet out of his claw with such accuracy and speed that Gemini gets Smacked with it, then sent straight Down to the ground. Such a force negated whatever allowed Gemini to float around and stay Levitated in the air. Gemini tries to respond with a Psybeam, but he is unable to resist the paralysis enough to concentrate on anything else. Then you could see the Garbodor jumping straight up once again and landing back down on the mushy ground again, this time somehow able to Quake the Earth in this swampy terrain and force you and Gemini to feel the tremors, though your Poison-type Pokemon takes the brunt of the Ground-type attack and suffers some big damage. It’s a good thing Teddie had to use up ALL of his Ground energy to pull it off; otherwise, another Earthquake attack would likely have won it for them! Despite taking so much damage, your Weezing continues to focus as he’s able to launch a Psybeam this time, AND his aim is much more accurate, hitting Teddie right in the chest for some good damage, though no confusion resulted from it.

It seemed that in every way your opponent had the advantage—except for energy usage, in which case you could see Teddie starting to tire a little from using some high energy attacks; he was sitting at around 40% energy with 70% health, while your still paralyzed Weezing had less than 40% health and 60% energy—and Sally knew it. “Hah, I knew it, y’all’s got nothin’ when it comes to battlin’ like this! Teddie, Stockpile again, then Body Slam once more ‘fore we use our own ‘Psycho-type’ attack, Psychic, to finish ‘em off!”

What could Keith possibly do to turn this battle around?



The Burial Ground

Marion Ette –

Now that you had some historical background on Dead Forest, courtesy of three Ghost Pokemon who lived here as humans, it was now time to discover the science behind the “magic”. How exactly did the two sisters’ spells affect the forest so badly? And what was with all of the poison? You needed answers, and you would likely get them from the samples you collected.

“Sure, I can take you to where your tools are myself!” Priscilla says as her face lit up. She seemed pretty interested in how you would use such gadgets to look at your samples. And so, she leads you further into the cave, where you were assured your equipment was safe and sound; Katia was stopped by Rowena, indicating both the Gastly and the Haunter would keep watch and tend to Sangre. On the way, you asked if there was anything interesting she should look for. Priscilla had to think for a moment, but she eventually answered: “Well, it was really interesting, k? Since I’m a Misdreavus now, I can pass through walls and the ground, right? Okay, so I looked into the earth once, and I saw this weird stuff, like what you’ve got in your jars, right? Thing is, it moved right in front of my eyes… none of my other sisters were there, so there wasn’t any necromancy magic acting on it. It’s like it… moved on its own, k? Hard to believe, right?” You shaking your head with a grimace conveys your skepticism easily.

She then answers your next question with less of a pause: “Yes, well, we looked up the spell Maura and Anastasia were using, right, and from what we could figure out it takes a certain element from the soil—I think you mortals would call it ‘carbon’, right?—and uses that to create the vessel for the spirit you want to put into it. The problem is that it takes a huge amount of the substance in order for the spell to work, kay; we think the only reason this land isn’t completely devoid of life now is because it was so rich before it became corrupted like this.” OK, so that made sense to you; what didn’t make sense was how the sludge was able to move on its own, though, again, you’d need the samples to get anywhere in your research. Fortunately, Priscilla says, “Well, we’re here,” and you look with your flashlight to see that all your equipment was there, safe and sound and in good working order. It was time to begin your research! Or, I’m sorry… maybe you had more questions that needed answering?

What will Marion do?

[Missingno. Master]

Missingno. Master –

As if the risk of being forced to leave Toxic Marsh if you lost to the trash-talking cowgirl with her trash-throwing Garbodor wasn’t enough, you had your pride as a Poison-type trainer on the line. If you lost to her, you feared you and Gemini wouldn’t hear the end of it. With that in mind, you turned your… cowboy hat around… (it really does work better with a cap) It was time to get serious. You could feel the already prevalent toxins assail your nose even further, and you could tell: it was about to get downright ugly.

“Well, well, y’all think you’re gonna stop us with’ose ‘Psycho-type’ attacks y’all got thar?” the lady sneered. “We’ll show y’all how Sally Bullwinkle and her Teddie bear’re more’n ready ‘gainst that! Teddie, git some Amnesia goin’, then Smack ‘em Down so he’s nice ‘n ready for’n Earthquake!”

And Teddie indeed boosts his Special Defenses by forgetting all his troubles, woes, and misery for a moment… yeah, I guess life is easy when you’re an Amnesiac! Gemini, on the other hand, stays focused and tries to encase the distracted Garbodor inside a Rock Tomb, but his aim is off slightly and he only manages to clip Teddie’s leg, though that is enough to reduce his Speed slightly. Teddie is still faster, however, and shoots one of the rocks conveniently placed at his feet out of his claw with such accuracy and speed that Gemini gets Smacked with it, then sent straight Down to the ground. Such a force negated whatever allowed Gemini to float around and stay Levitated in the air. Gemini tries to respond with a Psybeam, but he is unable to resist the paralysis enough to concentrate on anything else. Then you could see the Garbodor jumping straight up once again and landing back down on the mushy ground again, this time somehow able to Quake the Earth in this swampy terrain and force you and Gemini to feel the tremors, though your Poison-type Pokemon takes the brunt of the Ground-type attack and suffers some big damage. It’s a good thing Teddie had to use up ALL of his Ground energy to pull it off; otherwise, another Earthquake attack would likely have won it for them! Despite taking so much damage, your Weezing continues to focus as he’s able to launch a Psybeam this time, AND his aim is much more accurate, hitting Teddie right in the chest for some good damage, though no confusion resulted from it.

It seemed that in every way your opponent had the advantage—except for energy usage, in which case you could see Teddie starting to tire a little from using some high energy attacks; he was sitting at around 40% energy with 70% health, while your still paralyzed Weezing had less than 40% health and 60% energy—and Sally knew it. “Hah, I knew it, y’all’s got nothin’ when it comes to battlin’ like this! Teddie, Stockpile again, then Body Slam once more ‘fore we use our own ‘Psycho-type’ attack, Psychic, to finish ‘em off!”

What could Keith possibly do to turn this battle around?

Things were not going well for Keith and Gemini. Not only had Teddie been able to make the Weezing susceptible to Earthquake, but the Garbodor was also gearing up to use Psychic.

"Oh, we got nothing, huh?" Keith called back bravely, though not really feeling as confident as he sounded. Gemini was at a distinct disadvantage, healthwise, and the paralysis wasn't helping. Keith then noticed how tired the Garbodor seemed to be getting, and realized he still had a way out of this.

"Gemini! SmokeScreen attack now!" Keith shouted. "Once Teddie gets close enough, Screech at him, then follow up with Rock Tomb! We can still win this!"

[Ampharos_Dude]

Dead Forest

Toxic Marsh

Ampharos_Dude –

In your first hands-on experience with the Squirtleman dealing with a nuisance call, he turns to you to see if you can figure out where the home invader(s) might be. Your response... puzzles the two hillbillies. “Wait, you still thinkin’ about them Squirtle?” asked Louie. “We’re dealin’ with other critters here, so you better stay focused! ‘N that goes double for you, Ronnie, we don’t want no foolin’ around here!”

“Well, I think he’s still got a point, Lou…” said Squirtleman, somewhat deep in thought. “These critters want to hole up somewhar right now, hide away from people. And in a hot day like this they want to go someplace cool and where they can easily get to the food, and where’s that? The basement!”

So down to the basement you go. It isn’t long before you find your first clues of what was here. Cherry suddenly jumps out of your arms and towards a footprint revealed by the spilled, half-eaten flour. “That’s a distinct print with the palm and the toes around it. Looks like we’re dealin’ with Zigzagoon!” the Squirtleman concludes.

“It’s recent too,” adds Louie, “so it might be close.”

Suddenly, Squirtleman looks above. “Whoa, there it is!”

You look up as well to see a furry brown and white raccoon sitting on the pipes, flour all over its face. It must have been hoping it wouldn’t be seen, well, that plan failed. Your heart then skips a beat as you felt two somethings quickly brush your leg, and it wasn’t long before Ronnie was hot in pursuit of some other raccoons. “Ronnie, wait up! The one on the pipes was still sitting there, like it figured nothing would reach it, which gave ample time for Louie to step out and close the door, leaving you and Cherry with the flour-faced Normal-type. “You keep that one busy, we’ll handle the other two!” As you hear the man’s footsteps fade, you find yourself staring up at a Zigzagoon with no intention of getting down anytime soon… you’d need to bring it down to your level somehow so it would be easier for you to face it in a battle.

What will Shiro do?

"Well, this is one tough puzzle..." Shiro thought to himself.
The Zigzagoon itself probably wasn't so much trouble itself, but getting it down from those pipes was.
"I wonder if the pokedex has anything useful for me this time?" He mumbled as he dug out his pokedex, and pointed the camera on it at the zigzagoon.

Zigzagoon, the Tinyraccoon Pokémon. It walks in zigzag fashion. It is good at finding items in the grass and even in the ground.

"Well now, that was helpful!" Shiro snorted in a sarcastic tone.
"Venipede and Cherubi! I choose you!" Shiro shouted and threw two pokeballs into the air. They both opened simultaneously, and let out a red light that accompanied the two pokemon to the floor.

"All right, you guys! Here's my plan." Shiro began to speak enthusiastically.
"First, Cherubi uses Tackle, and sends Venipede flying towards those pipes that Zigzagoon is sitting on. Just before Cherubi's attack hits, Venipede, use Defence Curl, and maintain it until you hit the pipes. That should knock that little fella down to our battleground!" Shiro stated, being fired up to try his plan.
With a wave of hand, Shiro started the plan, and could only wonder what the little raccoon would think of it...

[Monster Guy]

What can I say other than "I'm sorry" for making you all wait so long? Anyway, here you go. Cele appears to be back, so I'll repost your last update in case you need it.

The Island

~Shaman River~

Mon1010: After a bit of searching the area in the woods, you thought you finally caught up to the thieving Teddiursa. Following it into an opening in a bush, you found, instead, a Linoone and her young Zigzagoon, each of the little ones suffering from burns. You saw the parent feeding them some Rawst Berries it found, but an accidental twig snap caused them to run off in fear. Suddenly you put two and two together; the Ursaring was burnt badly, as were the little Zigzagoon. In its haste, the Linoone left an extra Rawst Berry which you grabbed. A loud yell next invaded your thoughts, and ears.

Careful not to destroy their home, you exited the den of the Linoone; so you could go investigate the scream. As you ran, you happened to look up, and you noticed some smoke filling the sky in the distance, in the same direction too. You also could see something quickly glide by disappearing into the smoke. Your gaze is drawn back to earth, as Shaana tried to get your attention.

You stopped running and turned to her. She was floating over by a bush with a twig sticking out of it. Attached to the twig were long strands of copper hair. You wondered if it could belong to the Ursaring parent you're searching for. "POMMMMM!" Another screech broke your concentration. It was quite loud, so you figured you weren't too far away from its source. You continued your pursuit, and the area started to fill with smoke. The smoke became thicker and darker. Finally you discovered the source of the smoke, a tree with its trunk engulfed in flames.

Perched on a limb, you spotted a large purple creature with two tails, on each of those tails were the strangest looking hands you ever saw. The Ambipom was frantic, hopping about on the limb. Maybe it lived in the tree. Whatever the case, you watched Ambipom hop off the limb holding onto the limb with one of its tails. When it was near the ground, its tail let go of the limb; and it landed on the ground. The Long Tail Pokemon used its tails to begin flinging some sand at the blazing trunk, attacking the flames. It turned to look at the tree, and it was upset to see that most of the fire was still burning. Next, it began to concentrate, and you could see an orb form between its two little purple hands. The watery orb was fired at the tree, pulsing through the air. It landed at the base of the tree, where some of the water could splash up dousing more of the flames. Some of the water also saturated the ground around the tree. Ambipom braved the heat of the fire and got closer to begin slapping some of the mud that was created at the tree to smother even more of the flames.

You watched Ambipom working furiously to save its tree from being destroyed by the fire. It switched tactics again, using Sand Attack a few more times. The fire was slowly extinguishing, but it was only a matter of time before it would reignite though. With the fire beginning to die out, you started to hear some more commotion ahead of you. The noises sounded an awful lot like a certain Little Bear you've been following.

Out of the corner of its eye, Ambipom noticed Shaana hovering. It turned to look at you, giving you a look of fear. It jumped up and down waving its little purple arms. It then began to point at the tree with one of its tails. It also raised its arms to either side of its mouth and began to blow, like it was mimicking something. Ambipom was clearly trying to tell you something, but at the same time its tree was still on fire, but only slightly.

What will you do?

Mon has finally updated something! =D

As Scott ran towards the source of the scream, he could see smoke burning in the distance. He also saw something glide into it, but he didn't really have too much time to think about time to think about that, as Shaana brought him out of his thoughts to get his attention.

She was hovering over a bush, with a twig sticking out of it. Attached to said twig were brown hairs that could've belonged to that Tediursa's parent. Then another scream, broke his concentration, this one was loud, and didn't sound like it was that far. As he got closer to the noise, the area became surrounded with thick dark smoke. Eventually, he came upon a burning tree. Becuase as always, when there's smoke, there's fire. An Ambipom nearby was using various attacks to try and put out out the flames, with little success.

Then the Ambipom looked to Shaana, and tried to tell her something. Scott couldn't speak Pokemon, so he didn't know what exactly was being said, or what it was asking Shaana to do, but judging by the purple monkey's body language and behavior, it was probably asking for help.

Damn, of all the times to not have a water Pokemon... Scott thought in frustration. "Shaana, if possible, use Barrier around the tree to keep this fire from getting any bigger while I think of something..." Scott said to his Pokemon while rubbing his temples.

[Trickster Zorua]

Astoria
The Enchanted Forest
The Enchanted Forest is a special place of magic and mystery. It is said this island was created by witches many centuries ago and that powerful magic still emanates from deep within the island itself. Stories abound of a race of magical beings who lived in harmony for many centuries before a great war erupted between good and evil forces which eventuated in the almost complete annihilation of all life in the vicinity. Those who survived are said to have exhausted the remainder of their magic casting regenerative spells upon the land before leaving Astoria to allow the island to rejuvenate itself. Now, centuries later, life has returned to the island. All but one area has flourished, Pokémon have returned, and humans have once again set foot upon its shores. The amazing regenerative powers of this island have led many an adventurer to enter the forest in hopes of unlocking the mysteries within, but few have ever returned. What has become of them is anyone's guess, but of those who have come back all appear to have sworn some kind of secret oath to never reveal anything of what they have learned. This air of secrecy has only served to make people more curious, however, and as a result tourism has flourished in recent years. People are now arriving by the dozen on a daily basis to inject this once tranquil forest with new and vibrant life. Whether the forest is welcoming of this change is another matter, though time will surely tell...

Dead Forest
Avoided like the plague, the Dead Forest stands out as being the most dangerous segment of the Island. Cursed by the malevolent Witchdoctors of the past, it was said they turned this once thriving paradise into a barren swamp. Deadly bugs and poisonous predators are known to inhabit this marshy area and poison seeps through the trees harming anyone or anything that touches them. Cast under the great shadow of Mt. Eyrie, only the brave dare enter this jagged terrain and not so many return.

The Pool of Illusion: A seemingly motionless, tranquil pool with ink black water. Crafted long ago by a group of malevolent witchdoctors, its purposes are still unknown. Rumour has it that if you stare deep into its ink black depths, grave consequences will occur.

A 13-year old boy called Kevinwanted to catch his second pokémon, with his best compangion, Mareep. The boy and his pokémon walked to a forest called the Enchanted Forest. He suddenly came to the entrace.
"Mareep, shall we go? I don't want to force you to go to it."
Mareep was scared but wanted to make her owner happy with a second pokémon, so she nodded yes.

"Mareep!" she said loud, while she was scared and shivering of the cold wind that came of the entrace of the forest.

When Kevin and Mareep goed in the forest, they came to a place with many roads to different places. And even one is from Celebi's Shrine! They were amazed by the beautiful nature around them, they saw much pokémon doing their usally tasks. Then Kevin wanted to decide which road they choose. Kevin was looking at the danger-level of them by guessing and seeing if there are dangerous pokémon that can defeat his only pokémon, Mareep. After some looking, Mareep noticed a shadow that runned at a road. Mareep tugged his trainer's pants and pointed with her tail at the shadow. He noticed it.

"Good work Mareep! Let's follow it!" said Kevin, and Mareep nodded. Mareepclimbed to her owner's head, sitting on it, and then Kevin ran to the shadow, then they finally arrive at the Pool of Illusion.

[Son_of_Shadows]

Eyrie Peak

Posy Field

Jolteonjak & Son_of_Shadows –

The Battle of the Hives continues, and Joshua found his Munna trying to stay in the battle, but even if Queen Shiny didn’t attack, Steven would likely fall due to getting poisoned. Hoping to at least stop the poison, Joshua gives Steven a Pecha Berry and crosses his fingers, hoping the other Pokemon can protect him from the green Beedrill’s attacks. She notices what is happening, however, and realizes what an early knockout could do to your morale. She tries to Pursue the chance, but Heracross is there to interfere and block the attack with his Iron Defense. Then Aegis is unexpectedly the first Pokemon to bring the heat and bathe his arms in flames. Queen Shiny could barely get away from Heracross only to get caught in the Crossfire taking some nice damage from that attack, but avoiding the burn. Aegis almost put too much into the attack, however, and barely avoided a burn of his own as he took some damage from the flames. He’s also fortunate enough to land back in his previous spot and avoid getting poisoned from the Toxic Spikes on the ground! Shame he couldn’t expect the stray Poison Sting from another Beedrill because that attack would poison him and begin to eat away at his health.

Then Queen Shiny completely succumbs to the effects of Yawn and slowly falls to the ground asleep. It looked like she’d be asleep for some time; this was a big break for you! Plenty of time for Wooper to recall how Steven did his Psybeam attack so he’d be able to Mimic the move later on, and plenty of time for Steven to eat the Pecha Berry and be cured of the poisoning. Wooper was a little jealous of Steven, however, since he still had to suffer through his poisoning. Suddenly, another stray Poison Sting attack nicks Steven in the side… and it unfortunately shoots more poison into his system than he is able to fight off and takes his consciousness away from him. Joshua tries to rush to his side, but a spare Beedrill guard was quicker and snatches him up, carrying him back to where Karrablast and Teddiursa were.

Now the stakes were even higher as Joshua’s Munna would also be a spoil of war if you and the Beedrill swarm lost here. Fortunately, the queen was still too busy with her afternoon nap to attack, so you had a chance to get a lot of solid hits in before she woke up. Heracross would start the onslaught by flying in for an Aerial Ace, dealing some nice damage to the Shiny Beedrill, but more importantly staying in the air where the Toxic Spikes can’t get to him. Then it’s Aegis to throw some Muddy Water at the queen, but wait… ohhhh oh man, Aegis doesn’t feel so good… You turn away in disgust as he tosses his cookies instead of a Muddy Water attack, feeling the poison get to him in that moment for some strange reason. The little Squirtle apologizes in embarrassment and is about to try and kick it away, but you stop him for your sake and everyone else’s. You also couldn’t help but feel for him as another stray Poison Sting attack hits him for some minor damage.

Thankfully, Queen Shiny isn’t awoken by this disturbing turn of events, so Wooper can try for an Ice Punch attack on her, but trying to punch something with a tail can be pretty difficult, so he only gets a small hit on her… it’s times like this when he wishes he were a Quagsire. It’s also times like this when he wishes he wasn’t poisoned because… yeah, he’s losing some more health to it.

Dang, that last round was pretty lackluster, you couldn’t capitalize on Beedrill’s nap as much as you wanted to, but, aside from Steven’s early exit from this battle and the Water Pokemon dealing with poison, your other Pokemon are still looking pretty well off, with energy reserves ranging from about 60-75% and health from 75-95%. Also, despite your mishaps, you’ve taken out a third of Queen Shiny’s total health, she was still sleeping—though you didn’t know for how much longer—and Joshua could still call on another Pokemon to help out the cause.

What will Chad and Joshua do?

Things quickly went from bad to worse, as per usual in Joshua's adventures. Even the Pecha Berry couldn't save Steven from a knockout, and before Joshua could get to him, another Beedrill had snatched him up. Great, first one of them took a potshot at Steven and Aegis (what a cheap shot) and now he was the spoils of war. Aegis also seemed badly affected by his poison. He'd thrown up rather than attacking, and now that he had been unable to help Steven... He felt like he was letting Joshua down. He tried to reassure him, but really, it had done no good.

Aegis. Named for the shield of Zeus - a weapon used to protect onself and others. And yet he had been unable to protect the Munna. His friend, his companion, his teammate. It burned inside the Squirtle, despite his usually relaxed nature. He would protect Steven, and he would protect his trainer too. And that meant defeating this Queen Beedrill. Was he strong enough? Perhaps not in his current form...

And so he began to glow bright white.

Joshua was taken aback. "Could it be...?" Aegis grew in size, his skin was turning a darker blue, and his ears became long and pointed. The most noticeable difference though, was the long, flowing tail that grew from his back end, which looked like the crashing foam of a wave. Aegis had evolved from a Squirtle into a Wartortle. Joshua laughed maniacally. He knew Aegis had been close to evolution, but he'd had no idea how close! "Aegis! You beauty! Oh man, we'll hug it out later, but for now, we have a job to do - catch!" called Joshua, throwing the Wartortle a second Pecha Berry from his bag.

He knew Aegis couldn't do it alone though, and reluctantly moved for a second Pokéball - Bishop was still tired, Cloudy was in the PC, and Voltron and Poliwag were still in Daycare. His only other Pokémon was Livewire the Stunfisk, who was vulnerable to the Toxic Spikes... But it was still his best shot. "Livewire, I choose you!" The dab appeared in a flash of light, next to Aegis, and was visibly shocked at his new appearance.

"Fisk-stu?!"

"War. Tort."

"... Get it together boys! Livewire, blast the queen Beedrill with your best Scald attack, and follow up with an Earth Power! Aegis, if you can go for another Crossfire, hit her with all you've got - if not, just try your Bite and Muddy Water attacks!"

[Coolz8]

Yay monthly updates! =D

Garden of Iris

Rainbow Pool

Coolz8 –

Time seemed to slow down in Trick’s moment of peril as you rush towards him trying to aim his Pokeball so he would be brought inside and safe. Your thoughts turn back to when you were in a city of gold, introducing your Treecko to a pair of girls, and you wish you could introduce him to more of them here in Fizzy Bubbles. However, the beam of red light is suddenly interrupted by Torterra running in front of you, and your mind tunes everything out—Trick’s labored breathing, the Combee’s frantic buzzing, Leah’s screaming and sobbing—and fears the worst as you yell out for your Treecko at the top of your lungs.

Suddenly, you see thick roots spontaneously sprout from under where Torterra just took a step and snare the 700 lb. tortoise, holding her in her tracks. As the Plants slowly squeeze the Frenzy out of Torterra, you are able to run ahead, scoop Trick up in your arms, and take him to safety before hugging him tightly. That was too close!
“So that Treecko was yours… I hope he’s all right…”

You look up to see an old man with a long beard holding a staff and riding atop a powerful-looking Venusaur; there’s the Pokemon that used Frenzy Plant on Torterra! “Grandpa…” you hear Leah say weakly between sobs.
“It’s all right, Leah, everyone is fine now, including Torterra. Venusaur just made sure she ran out of energy.”

“Saurrrr…” the Venusaur’s voice could be felt booming through the entire area. The old man then looks your way and says, “Thank you for being there for my granddaughter, young man. My name is Spenser, the Frontier Brain for the Battle Palace, and this is my trusty Venusaur.” Venusaur’s voice booms once again as he nods his head to greet you.

Your mind is barely able to process who this guy is when you hear a thrumming sound. You turn back to see Vespiquen looking straight at you. Trick seems nervous about this, but then the two Combee fly behind you and nod as though they were trying to push you closer to their queen. Everyone else watches with interest; it seems Vespiquen wants an audience with you. As you are pushed close enough to where you were two or three feet away from this queen, you could see she looked much more placid than when she was on a tirade. Oh, and then you hear more buzzing coming from the trees. MUCH more buzzing. About fifty Combee, including four females, arrive at the scene, ready to waste anyone who was even within thirty feet of the queen, but Vespiquen holds up her hand to stop them before getting up slowly and moving to the side to reveal your Pokeball… the one that held the female Combee you battled.
Spenser looks interested in this development and asks, “Hm, does that Pokeball have someone inside it?”

“It contains a female Combee that Frinth caught, grandpa,” Leah answers him.

“Hm, it makes sense now. It seems that Vespiquen is letting you have that Combee as a reward for your victory against her. Very interesting… I wouldn’t think that Vespiquen would give up one of her hivelings so easily, but maybe you don’t want her after all?”

What will Frinth do?

Frinth nurtured Trick as his strife-worn limbs hung in his own arms.

He looks back at him, and Trick had already drifted away to a slight nap. His breath fluctuating from fatigue as he rolled to one side. He looks at the elderly male who had beckoned his Venosaur to halt Leah's rogue torterra in it tracks. "Thank you..." was all Frinth managed to say as he remained speechless from this encounter.

He then paused to remember what Leah said as Frinth woke up in her lodge. He sent her a gaze of surprise, exclaiming subtly, "Didn't you say you lived alone? Well, that is... If this timeline has been consistent with my memory..."

He then turned to The elderly person and gave him a respectful gesture by kneeling and bowing his head gently. "I would take her as my own, and care for her as my second found friend. Thank you for guarding me me and Trick. I probably wouldn't be standing here if you hadn't gotten here in time."

[Dark Searchman]

Oooh, an extra helping of update! Hard to believe I'm that generous, huh? Just a reminder for combat rules: you can use up to two attacks per Pokemon per round, or if it's one on one you can use three attacks per round. Using an item counts as a move, but Pokemon will automatically use any items they hold without spending a move.

The Divine Woodland

Magus Falls

Kaisap112 – {Your update is here.}

Eyrie Peak

Adventure Path

Flame Mistress – {REPOST}

Now that Narcissa has had some time to recharge, you switch her in for Serafina and hope she can fly you out of this Onix’s sleeping area. It was definitely high enough for an Onix to stand in, so you mount Narcissa and have her take you up to the ceiling so you could get the best vantage point, and- Oh great, the big lug’s blocked the entrance too! Worse still, you couldn’t see any other tunnels in here; if this guy made any other tunnels, you would’ve seen them.

Now what? Sigh, sorry, I guess you’ve got no choice but to wait it out. So, Narcissa quietly brings you back down to the ground, outside of the Rock Snake’s coils, and the two of you just… wait. You wile away the time by watching your brand new Skarmory preen her metallic wings, give your other Pokemon’s Pokeballs a good cleaning, etc. Occasionally, you hear rocks scraping against each other, and you look up to see that Onix’s boulder body has shifted around, but it still doesn’t look like it’ll be waking up any time soon. Despite Narcissa’s getting bored and wanting to pick a fight with Onix, you manage to hold her back and let it have its beauty sleep; you learned your lesson from Narcissa herself. So… you keep waiting… and waiting… and waiting.

**********

Something rough brushes against your sleepy body, and you try to push it aside but find it unwilling to budge. This makes you slowly open your eyes from the good nap you had, and you wake up to find Onix’s face staring at you.

Wait, YOU WAKE UP TO FIND ONIX’S FACE STARING AT YOU!?!?!?

Not surprisingly, you scream in surprise and sit up with a jolt, and that’s what Narcissa wakes up to just now. She immediately jumps to your defense, squawking a warning to the resident of this cave, and this causes Onix to jump back in surprise itself. It seems pretty placid for an Onix; if you ask nicely, it might be willing to help you get out of the underground.

What will Charlotte do?


Posy Field

Jolteonjak & Son_of_Shadows – {Jolteonjak still needs to reply to the current update, which is here.}

Garden of Iris

Rainbow Pool

Coolz8 – {By the way, you need to claim Trick’s level-up in the reply he gained it and link to that post, not my update.}

As Trick takes a much needed rest after such a harrowing ordeal, you wonder what Palace Maven Spenser is doing out here; Leah said she lived alone, so what was going on?

“I do, but my grandfather visits from time to time,” Leah explains. “You see, some of the medicines I make are valuable and are very difficult to make anywhere else, particularly because they need the Rainbow Flower. Grandfather takes special care when delivering my medicines that I refuse to entrust them to anyone else. Oh, I almost forgot!” she suddenly says. “Please Vespiquen, I need those Rainbow Flowers in order to make an important medicine! You must understand, it helps save lives! Please…” she says as she drops to her hands and knees, either out of pain or out of pleading, or both maybe. Vespiquen looks at the young woman for a few moments, as if she was trying to see her intentions were truthful and honest. “Kin!” she motions towards the Combee servants behind her, and four of the Combee fly back, presumably to retrieve the flowers.
Meanwhile, Vespiquen’s offer of the female Combee you detained inside a Pokeball was too good to pass up for you. Leah then remarks, “Now that I think about it, that female Combee Frinth battled acted peculiarly, like it was disobeying Vespiquen…”

“Ah, now it all makes sense!” Spenser concludes. “I should explain: Vespiquen tend to keep any male Combee they birth within the hive, and they remain loyal to Vespiquen throughout their lives. However, female Combee may sometimes resist the collective lifestyle and are forced out of the hive in order for the Vespiquen to avoid rebellion and quash any would-be usurpers. Those female Combee usually move somewhere else and start new hives. Vespiquen probably realized Combee was starting to act independent of the hive’s will and that it was no longer worth trying to take her back. Besides that, she must also sense the love you have for your Treecko as much as I do and trusts you will raise her well.”

With this in mind, you are even more eager to accept the offer and take the Pokeball from Vespiquen’s hand. Perhaps with your help this Lv. 5 Female Combee will someday become an embodiment of royalty herself.

Suddenly, the four Combee return… not with flowers, but a multicolored syrupy substance inside a honeycomb. “What is this?” Leah asked, confused.

“I’m not sure,” Spenser replies, “but I think it might be some sort of honey made from the nectar of the Rainbow Flower!”

Leah walks over to the honey and takes a small sample. “Oh my, it tastes just like the Rainbow Flower! It must be Rainbow Honey! Come, Frinth, have a taste!”

You then dip a finger in it and taste it for yourself… Words could not describe the taste in your mouth at that moment. You instantly felt invigorated, and any pain you may have felt from the battle had already melted away. Then, it was Trick’s turn to taste it as you dip your finger again and let Trick suck on it. He instantly wakes up and coos happily before hugging you, knowing he had helped you win the battle.

“Grandfather, do you know what this means?” Leah asks Spenser. “I can improve my medicine and complete it much faster now that I have a purer form of the Rainbow Nectar!” Vespiquen then thrums something, which Spenser translates:

“That honey will be sufficient for your needs for a long while; should you need more in the future, come to us, and we will again provide you for what we deem is sufficient. We will guard the flowers and nurture them; after all, they are the means of supplying our hive with this honey.”

“Thank you so much!” Leah bows to Vespiquen before turning to you, “And thank you as well! Without you, I never would have been able to defeat the hive by myself. Grandfather, of course, would have been willing to help, but I didn’t know if he would come soon enough, so I thank you from the bottom of my heart!”

“Mm, you have indeed done admirably,” adds Spenser. “Should you challenge the Battle Frontier when your Pokemon are much stronger, I look forward to meeting you in battle.” You aren’t sure why, but you suddenly start to feel hazy, Spenser’s words becoming fainter, “I shall stay with Leah for a little while to make sure everything is taken care of for her, so you have no need to worry about her... Be safe in your journey…”

**********

You suddenly wake up in the exact spot you were when you were put to sleep by that Roselia. A dream? Possibly, one you could remember so vividly… but as you try to pick yourself up from off of the garden you realize your hand grasped a Pokeball, and it didn’t feel like it was Trick’s. It felt like it was… buzzing inside. Yes… it had that Combee you captured… So it wasn’t a dream after all… Then what was in your other hand? You bring that hand towards your face, and you saw a single flower… one that looked like it had 20-30 colors on it at once…

{Well, here marks the end of your adventure! At this point, I leave you to do whatever you want; you can just end it here, you can explore Rainbow Pool more, if you want, or you can post an intro to another area—make sure you wrap this adventure up in your reply, though. Also, please realize that if you want to continue, you may have to wait since Jolteonjak and I have other people waiting for their turn in Astoria. If you do leave, I just want to say thank you for being a consistent player and replying to every update I’ve posted so far! It was also a lot of fun seeing your character experience random memories, and I’m interested in what you’ll do with that in other adventures you have in the future.

Hm? What’s that, did I forget something? Oh yeah, your zone capture! Congratulations on your first one, dude, and a Combee at that! This now unlocks the Egg House for you; make sure that when you post to collect your first egg, you have a link to your reply to this update in which you claim your new Pokemon. On a similar note, make sure you claim your new Combee in your reply before adding it to your party. Thanks! =) }

Dead Forest

Toxic Marsh

Ampharos_Dude –

Your first… uh, real battle (you pretended that battle with the Toxicroak never happened) was starting out unconventionally since you had to first get your opponent off of its high ledge… or, well, pipes, in this case. So you needed an unconventional tactic to start off, and you got one! You bring out your Cherubi and Venipede, discuss the strategy, and now all you had to do was hope it paid off. Venipede starts by Curling up into a ball to Defend himself against Cherubi’s incoming Tackle attack. Cherubi then rams into the “ball” and sends Venipede flying, bouncing him off the wall and up to where the Zigzagoon was. However, the attack missed its mark, whizzing past the raccoon close enough to spook it, though it didn’t fall down just yet. Instead, he stood his ground and started Growling as a warning. Everyone’s Attack power suffered as they grew nervous, but Venipede was still bouncing around! This time, a lucky bounce sent him straight into Zigzagoon’s side, knocking it off the pipes and onto the floor! It didn’t do a whole lot of damage, but now your quarry was on your level where you and your Pokemon could battle it!

Meanwhile, you could hear some commotion coming from upstairs. Hm, sounds like Squirtleman and Louie have found the other Zigzagoon! You then pay particular attention to Louie’s next comment: “Ronnie, look out! The mom’s here!” Mom!? Crud. You were now pressured to finish up this battle before you came face to face with a Pokemon who would most likely rip you and your Pokemon apart for damaging her babies!

Fortunately, the mother was busy keeping the other two babies safe from the Squirtleman while you were down here, ALONE, with her third kid, but how long would that last?

What will Shiro do?


Missingno. Master –

Was this trash-talking girl and her trash-spewing Garbodor really giving you a run for their money? Dang, it sure looked like it, what with Gemini taking tons of damage and paralysis locking him up so he couldn’t respond to it, but at least all these attacks were starting to take a toll on Teddie’s energy. You decide to start playing a little more defensively so you could stand up to Teddie’s attacks and tire him out. Teddie begins the round, confident Gemini won’t be able to do anything other than sit there, so he takes the moment to Stockpile some more muck into his body. And indeed, Gemini sits there unable to do anything; despite his best efforts to get a Smokescreen going, the paralysis seems unwilling to let him prove his worth. It just didn’t trust him at the time. Now that Teddie had some more bulk to him, he jumps up again, though not as high as before, and his Body came crashing into Gemini again, Slamming the chances of you winning further into the ground while your Weezing found himself again paralyzed, unable to dodge the attack at all. But he does get off a Screech attack which hits Teddie close up and seriously lower his Defense. Now he was getting somewhere. But Teddie would quash that with a Psychic attack which, to your horror, lifted Gemini up then tossed him into a nearby tree, forcing him to grimace in pain from all the damage he was taking. Still, he would try to end the round on a somewhat positive note by attempting another Rock Tomb. But oh, not again, that paralysis was about to cost you the battle!

“SALLY!!” You suddenly hear a voice explode from behind your opponent, and you look past her to see an overweight man storming onto the scene, with the typical redneck style clothing of a large T-shirt and jeans, with a cap to match. “Dagnabit, daughter, what’d I tell you ‘bout usin’ Teddie to battle everybody ‘t crosses by our place wrong!?”

Sally was quickly losing the fire she had throughout the battle. “Only in dire need of emergency…” she says quietly.

“That’s darn right!! And now look, you’ve plumb worn out Teddie tryin’ to shake yer britches like one a them Aipom does! Y’all know we need you and him to be at yer top in case somethin’ bad happens; you’re the best battler of us, even me and ma, so we gots ta count on ya to come through if’n we need it!”

“Sorry, pa…”

“Now get yer butt on down into the house, supper’s gonna be ready in ten. An’ please… fer me… behave while yer cousin’s here,” he finished before turning to you. “Boy, I’m sorry fer my daughter’s bein’ brash an’ all, she tends to think she’s the best around these parts—which she might be—so she likes to flaunt that in front of total strangers, ‘specially if’n they got Poison-types like your Weezin’ thar. I’d like to make it up to ya, so yer welcome ta come stay with us for supper, if ya want. We can even help get your Weezin’ back ta full gas ‘n everything!”

What will Keith do?



The Burial Ground

Marion Ette – {Your update is here.}