[X] My Assistant

[Toogee]

Delayed

This trip is taking a tad longer than I thought. I know Furoh is a huge place, but when you need to get somewhere, the distance seems even larger. I’m not saying that I’m not enjoying it though. I’ve seen some pretty neat places on my journey.

A few days ago, Douken and I visited Loch Ranch, a huge place where your stored pokemon can roam outside. They had all kinds of habitats to suit every resident and even a hatchery. The Loch family was an amazing host. They’ll serve great food, and they’ll give you work if you decide to pay them back. We were picking up eggs to transport back to the hatchery, going to a couple of different habitats. We didn’t even get to the others before the day ended. It’s that huge!

There were a couple of things that surprised me during the visit. One was a visit from Justin. I met him back at Under Hill. He seemed to be in a rough patch when he arrived, but he was in good spirits when he was around...well, me. It’s a bit complicated…

That night, our second surprise came for a visit: a strange group of cultists calling themselves “Darkrai’s Disciples”. They were on some mission to set all the pokemon free and then started this big battle. Luckily, the pokemon had different plans and chased them off. The disturbances caused a tauros stampede that I happened to got stuck in. That’s when Fenrir came to the rescue. He evolved into an arcanine! He’s huge! In fact, he’s big enough to ride on, which makes traveling much easier.
After we departed, there was a snorlax pile-up on one of the roads and we had to find another route. That took a few days out of our journey. Right now, I’m typing this up from a rest stop. I think we’ll be heading out soon.

No more delays! Petropolis, here we come!

-Pan

One hour later…

A storm was coming…

Dark clouds were gathering in the distance. They rolled over each other like ocean waves turned by a tempest. Underneath the clouds, a giant waterfall of rain drops drenched the countryside. Streams of lightning leaped through the sky, illuminating the otherwise dark surroundings. This furious force of nature bellowed with a thousand beasts to let everyone in the vicinity know of its coming. Beautiful in appearance but terrible in power, the thunderstorm marched eastward across Furoh.

Far from its influence, Pan watched the storm through the lens of her camera. She sat upon her arcanine Fenrir, who was reasonably apprehensive of the drenching rainfall making its way towards them. Chi-Chi was the complete opposite: the increased electrical activity in the air made the squirrel pokemon far more active. She stood on her hind legs on top of the arcanine’s head, her cheeks starting to crackle with energy. Poor Lima, however, was clinging onto Pan’s stomach for dear life, terrified of the new sounds and flashes of light. The cleffa had never seen anything like this underground.

“Don’t worry about it. That storm’s still miles away.” The woman took a break from taking pictures in order to stroke the arcanine’s mane with one hand, while wrapping her other arm around her cleffa. Unlike the pokemon, Pan was both amazed and a bit disappointed. She loved being out here to witness this natural wonder, but that meant she would once again be delayed in arriving in Petropolis. There was no way they could travel through its fury.

Their only option would be to rest in a nearby city. This city was in no way a safe haven. It was a land poisoned by the buildup of pollution over the years. The majority of the city was ruled by rowdy gangs and packs of dark pokemon. There was only a fool’s chance that the lives of the remaining citizenry would ever improve, especially after recent events. Even then, the aforementioned citizenry consisted of outlaws, criminals, and outcasts, an unlikely bunch to start the rebirth of this once great city.

Pan and her pokemon stood at the crossroads: one path lead to Petropolis, while the other led to the dilapidated city of Lenoilia. She read from all sorts of travel guides to stay far away from this dangerous place, Furoh’s dark underbelly. She knew there was no choice, but that didn’t mean she had to make the decision alone.

Pan whistled loudly to signal her partner to come back down to earth. Douken Sota had been practicing flight upon his newest capture, a skarmory. So far, there had been more successes than failures, though those failures tend to leave more lasting marks in the form of cuts and bruises. Once Douken landed, Pan approached him and told him of the situation.

“Douken, we’re going to need to take shelter,” Pan said, turning her head to the god-forsaken city of Lenoilia.

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

Justin and Nate were met with a very similar introduction when they finally made it into the city. For the middle of the day, it was awful dark. Their first destination was, naturally, the nearest pokemon center since Justin's pokemon had taken some damage. There was a bar near where they came in, so they decided to ask there. Suspiciously looking at all the bikes outside, they entered. Why there were a bunch of bikes outside a bar in the middle of the day they had no idea.

It was quite the intimidating sight when they entered, but ever since Hitmontop evolved, he found it hard to fear for his own safety. There were about a dozen large men in leather sitting at the bar and throughout the tables. They walked over to the bar to ask the bartender, who was clearly one of them as well. "Hey man," Justin raised his head to the guy, "We're looking for a pokemon center."

"Why's that?" the biker nearest him asked, turning around on his bar stool. "You got injured pokemon? New in town?"

Justin's hand went down to his belt to cup Hitmontop's pokeball. "I don't think I was talking to you," he said, aggressively.

"You got quite a lip on you, boy," the man stood up, garnering the attention of the rest of the bar. His size was impressive, though it wasn't all muscle. He was quite overweight. "So, how 'bout them pokemon? Are they strong?"

"Oh yeah," Justin nodded. "But they're not for sale."

"No problem," the guy smiled, "I ain't got any extra money anyway."

"Well, I guess that explains why you're drinking pisswater," Justin nodded his head towards the man's beer."

The man wasted no time. He swung at Justin's face. Justin pushed the slow moving attack to the side with his left arm and countered with a jab to the man's face. He grunted as he took a few steps back and the entire bar stood up, prepared to retaliate.

"Yo, Justin, I don't think we were supposed to come here to start a fight,"

"I don't think we could have avoided it, Nate," Justin shook his head. "These guys runt he town."

"You're damn straight we do!" the same man walked forward, holding the other bikers back as he pulled out a pokemon. "This one's mine, boys,"

To Justin's relief, the man insisted on a one on one battle. He pulled out Hitmontop's pokeball, naturally, and stood back, arms crossed, as the fighting pokemon spun around on his head. The biker's pokemon was a very angry looking Grumpig. "Hitmontop, Detect!" he yelled as his opponent shouted, "War Pig, Psybeam!"

As Hitmontop spun around the attack, Justin followed up immediately. "Hitmontop, Sucker Punch!" he yelled, entirely aware Hitmontop did not know this move. When the fighting pokemon looked at Justin, somewhat confused, Justin just nodded. As Hitmontop spun towards War Pig, oblivious as to what he was going to do when he got there, the biker cursed and held his pokeball to his pokeball, preparing to call him back to avoid the powerful dark attack. "Now! Pursuit!" Justin yelled.

As War Pig was engulfed in the pokeball's light, Hitmontop charged in a powerful and dark force, pulling him out of the pokeball and throwing him on the ground. "Quick Attack!" Justin yelled. Before the biker could even issue another command, Hitmontop spun around yet again and landed a very precise attack, finishing him off.

The biker was angry. Calling back War Pig, he sent out his next pokemon, a Roserade. "Sweet Leaf!" he shouted, "Use Extrasensory!" Justin, simultaneously, told Hitmontop to use Detect, so he dodged the powerful psychic attack. This was bad news. Extrasensory would do a lot to Hitmontop, but he didn't have any other pokemon he could really use. Sudowoodo was out, Nincada was weak and so was Octillery. There was Pinsir, though. He rubbed Pinsir's pokeball on his belt, shaking his head in thought. If it came to that, he would go there, but it wasn't there yet. "Close Combat!" he yelled as the biker yelled "Toxic Spikes."

The biker seemed confused as Hitmontop charged in, fists and feet wailing all over the Roserade, who threw a few poison spikes over where Justin was standing. Even though Close Combat a fighting move, was weak to poison, it still did a hell of a lot of damage, though at the cost of Hitmontop being so close to his enemy that any hit would do fairly intense damage. The biker seemed upset that Justin did not switch out Hitmontop, which would have certainly made his toxic spikes more useful. "Stun-" he began, but Justin was faster. "Quick Attack!" It was enough to knock Sweet Leaf out.

Next up was "Iron Man!" the Forretress. "Let's see your attacks do any damage to him," he smiled. Justin kept having Hitmontop use Close Combat while Forretress continued laying down layers upon layers of Spikes and Toxic Spikes. Of course, he was taking minimal damage from Hitmontop's attacks, but added up, it was still significant. Perhaps of most concern to Justin was Hitmontop's weakening defenses. After a substantial amount of spikes were placed on the ground, Justin smiled and said, "Rapid Spin,"

The biker's face dropped as Hitmontop moved back to where the spikes were and spun around, kicking and punching the spikes all over the bar, but away from Justin's side of the field. He called back Hitmontop and sent out Pinsir to finish the job and maybe take the hits he was afraid to let Hitmontop take.

"Stop!" another man walked out from behind the biker Justin was fighting. "That Pinsir,"

Justin and Nate looked at each other and then back over at the man. "Hm?"

"This battle's over," the man said, motioning for the other biker to call back Forretress. "These two men need to see Burro."

"Not after a trip to the pokemon center," Justin insisted, knowing that at least one biker knew who he worked with.

"Fine," the man nodded. "After that,"

"We go see Burro," Justin nodded, with absolutely no idea who this Burro was.

So Justin and Nate were escorted through town by three bikers, who seemed to be keeping some sort of peace in town, even if it meant through intimidation and fear. They weren't there to judge, though, so they just kept walking until they got to the pokemon center. They went inside and even Nurse Joy looked terribly frightened by the sight. The three bikers sat on one of the couches off to the side while Justin and Nate handed over their pokemon. As they turned around to go sit at the couches, though, they heard the sound of motorcycles approaching quickly. Not too surprising, but it sounded like a lot. Justin went to the window to see none other than Pandora Gibbs and Douken Sota riding her Arcanine, Fenrir, towards the pokemon center, followed by more than a few men on motorcycles.

He turned back to the biker he was with, who stopped the fight, and said, "I need you to call off the guys chasing that man and woman out there," He then went to the door and opened it, standing out in front of the pokemon center, watching as they charged him. Then, the other biker walked out and stood next to Justin, holding his hand up to the bikers chasing behind Pan and Douken, telling them to slow down.