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Posted by: 2gamers Feb 5 2010, 01:51 PM

If there's bunnying, it was done with approval .

Posted by: Kalpha Feb 5 2010, 03:01 PM

Andrew quickly sneaked up inside the kitchen. The previous day was exhausting and so he overslept and missed breakfast. Icicle rolled after the teen and eventually slammed against the fridge, making a pot on top of it tip over and let a cookie fall down, right into the Spheal's mouth. The Pokemon seemed to enjoy this and repeated the process over and over until he was full.


Flick soon joined the group in the kitchen, trying to warn Andrew about something.


"Ssshh! Calm it, Flick! We can't be here so if we're caught they'll throw us out for sure! Now what's the matter?" asked Andrew with his mouth half filled with a toast. Flick began to peck his shirt to make the most obvious "Follow me" sign. Andrew understood the bird, grabbed his jacket and ran after it. The group eventually ended outside and Flick led them to a nearby tree in the middle of the plains.


"So is this what you wanted to sh-" the boy got interrupted by a sudden "Ziig!" which was replied to by the Taillow. "Oh I get it. Kan's stuck in a tree. Again." Andrew sighed before taking his jacket off and wrapping the other hand in bandages to prevent getting hurt while climbing the tree. He swiftly climbed it and reached the branch where Kan was.


"Now, now... How many times have I told you to be careful when climbing trees? Here, lets g-" the branch snapped and gravity did its job. Andrew returned Kan to her Nestball and braced for impact. However he didn't hit the floor at all. Something or someone grabbed him in mid-air and safely landed on the grass. The teen looked to the rest of his team and saw both the Taillow and Spheal ready for battle. With a confused look he faced his savior only to see a green eyed Absol standing right next to him.


"What?! You again? What are you here for this time?" Andrew took out his PokeNav and checked the time. "Gah! I should be in the rest stop right now! I don't have time for you now!" Andrew started his way back to the rest stop, completely missing the fact that the Absol was following him from behind.

Posted by: Moonlight Zelda Feb 5 2010, 04:57 PM

Diana sighed as she stretched her arms above her head, pausing to enjoy the gentle breeze that swept over the plains. Long grass waved with the wind, only a thin dirt trail cutting through the sea of green. The young woman smiled slightly as she brushed her dark onyx locks out of her eyes, allowing the gusts to move through them. “What do you think, Innes? Quite the change compared to Orre,” she commented, glancing down at the violet nidoran that was walking next to her.

“Nii, nido nido,” he responded enthusiastically, ears perking forward as he ‘spoke’. Still nibbling contentedly on a piece of the turf. Diana shook her head, but squatting briefly to remove the dandelion from between his teeth. He was certainly enjoying the vast differences, as the savannah pokemon had seen very little grass compared to this before coming to Furoh. She lightly ran a hand over the currently dulled pikes that ran along Innes’s back, before playfully rubbing around his horn.

A single sharp bark caused the duo to glance over, two more pokemon soon wading out of the grass taller than them. Actually, one pokemon doing the wading – The other was hanging from his neck. Kimball set the berries he was holding down after a moment, audibly sighing as he sat down on the path. “Pi pii pi?” the pichu asked, tilting her head as she finally let go. The blue and black riolu pup simply shook his head, before rolling one of the berries over to Innes. There were just enough for their group, apparently.

Diana chuckled softly at Lin’s bemused expression, before scooping both the lighthearted pichu and her currently wearied knight up as she stood. “We can snack when we get to the rest stop, guys. It’s not that far off,” the young woman pointed out, nodding to the differently colored lump in the distance. Kimball nodded after a moment, though was clearly flustered as he folded his arms across his chest. Lin simply reached over and ruffled his fur with her paw, earning a slight smile, before climbing onto her human’s shoulder.

Taking the cue to continue; Innes took the initiative to dash off ahead of them, making their presence fairly clear to the area’s inhabitants as he wove in and out of the grass. Kimball cocked his head, listening while his elder teammate insisted on frolicking during their spare time. His crimson gaze flicked upwards after a moment, briefly settling on the human’s deep cobalt eyes. Clearly thinking, but it was hard to say about what.

The young woman shifted her hold after a moment, so he could be more comfortable without having to return to his pokeball to rest. Allowing her thoughts to drift as she absentmindedly stepped around a dip in the trail, though evidently still paying heed to her surroundings. An offended exclamation was audible ahead as Innes accidentally barreled into a passing oddish, the pure poison type twitching an ear in surprise, before dipping his head in apology.

Posted by: 2gamers Feb 7 2010, 12:03 AM

While waiting for her friend to arrive, Pan looked at her Poketch. The map app showed that she wasn’t far from the Underground entrance. It would still be a good long walk before they reached their destination, but exercise was good, right? In the meantime, she walked off towards a picnic table a little away from the rest stop structure. There, Pan lay down upon the tabletop, watching the marshmallow clouds float above her.

“Look Chi-Chi! That one looks like Turnip.” She pointed out an ivysaur-shaped cloud to the pachirisu, who chuckled at the odd shape. Both laughed even harder as the cloud appeared to give an ugly look, just like the grumpy beast nearby. They kept cloud watching until the allure of sleep proved too much to resist any longer. The pachirisu settled inside Pan’s vest, while the young woman remained on her back, her knees piercing the sky.
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Turnip stood watch over his human, staring upon her resting face. As far as he was concerned, she was still the innocent little girl he met back in Celadon. As such, he would continue to protect her no matter what mischief she would no doubt walk into.

Turnip noticed Pan’s arm dangling off the edge of the picnic table. Using a gentle vine, the ivysaur set her arm across her stomach, being careful not to disturb her. Nodding at his success, Turnip circled around the table, only stopping to keep an eye on an approaching humanoid silhouette in the distance.
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Farther out, under the shelter of the rest stop, Fenrir watched as Turnip tended to his mistress. The growlithe reminisced of a time when he played with his old master. He remembered it well: a bright summer day, the purple snow-capped mountains in the background, and the sounds of a babbling brook nearby. At the time, none of that matter; he only had eyes for the redheaded boy running towards him, always smiling at the sight of the growlithe. They would spend hours chasing each other, hiking, or just laying around in a hammock as the boy read a story to Fenrir.

As evidenced by his graying fur, those days were a long time ago. Though his feelings for his missing master remained, Fenrir couldn’t help but to feel some generosity towards Pandora. After all, she was the one who allowed him to leave the alleyways of Barley to search for his old master. Her gentle touch was much appreciated, especially on his old bones.

Smoke escaped his nostrils as Fenrir scanned the horizon. His eyes also caught several shadows, one of which appeared all too familiar.

“Dang pup. I told him to stay with the others,” Fenrir growled, looking on at the absol approaching from behind a familiar human.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Feb 16 2010, 11:18 PM

Justin Smart was perhaps best described as an old man in the body of a young stud. Very serious, very cynical and always working. So naturally, he worried about what the hell he was going to do during his week paid vacation. Initially, staying at home and watching TV didn't seem so terrible, but he recalled becoming bored after a few hours on his single days off. He couldn't do that for a whole week without going crazy.

Tina, his girlfriend (whom he lived with in Petropolis), told him he should go on a pokemon adventure. "I'm not fifteen, Tina," he would have said if she wasn't an active pokemon trainer herself. Yes, Justin had a few pokemon, but they mostly just helped him with work. Well, Tyrogue did. Bonsly and Nincada tended to just take up space and so rarely saw the outside of their pokeballs.

"It'll be good for you to get some culture," she insisted. "You stay in Petropolis all the time, you forget about the beauty of the world."

"You're sayin' the construction site ain't beautiful?" Justin joked.

"Hey, it'll be good for your pokemon too, you know," she took another bite of her cereal. The two discussed this over, not breakfast, but dinner. Cereal for dinner is good too, especially when you don't make a ton of money.

"My pokemon are fine,"

"Are not," Tina laughed. "You know, I have to remind myself all the time that you even have a nincada. You know, your pokemon can be even more helpful if they're stronger, and they get stronger when you adventure with them. Imagine if Tyrogue were a hitmonchan."

Justin pretended like she had convinced him to go with logic, but really he just wanted her to stop nagging him about it, which he knew she'd continue to do until he agreed to go anyway. "Fine," he sighed. "That's a good point. You should be a lawyer."

"You're sweet," she blushed. He rolled his eyes.

So a few days later, it was time for his vacation. As per Tina's request, he had done some research on adventure type jobs out there on the market, which was surprisingly difficult to find considering how many people actually considered themselves pokemon trainers. Turns out, people tend to just meet up and do stuff without much planning. Didn't make much sense to Justin, but who was he to argue with what was clearly a good system?

It was strange when he had finally arrived at the rest stop where they were supposedly meeting. There was a girl there, resting on top of a table and a few pokemon watching her. There was a pachirisu with the girl and an ivysaur on the ground near the table. In the distance, he saw a growlithe looking somewhat anxious. Justin sighed when he realized he was probably going to be working with this girl, who kind of reminded him of Tina the way she trusted her safety to her pokemon. He wasn't much for an adult himself, but the thought of working with a bunch of kids and their pets made him shiver in a bad way. "Hopefully I'll at least find some cool stuff underground," he thought to himself making his way over to the girl and the ivysaur. He wasn't going to wake her up, and so decided to take a seat at a nearby bench until she woke up.

Posted by: 2gamers Feb 19 2010, 09:45 AM

Upon the arrival of Justin, Turnip kept watchful eyes on the young male. Though the stranger didn’t seem too interested in getting into trouble, the ivysaur knew better than to let down his guard in a new environment. When it came to Pan, Turnip was under constant vigilance…at least until Pan told him to back off.

Pan soon woke up, stretching her arms and legs as she sat up on the table. Chi-Chi stuck her head out of Pan’s vest, looking at the new arrival. Meanwhile, Pan stroked Turnip’s forehead to calm him down. She too looked upon Justin. He seemed to be a well-built man, certainly not a stranger to physical labor. Though he looked dressed for doing said labor, his face appeared as if he wasn’t sure what he was doing out here. Nonetheless, he seemed like a nice guy (not to mention a bit attractive), so she decided to strike a conversation.

“Sorry if Turnip caused you any trouble. He’s like that with anyone new,” she started, still petting the ivysaur. Turnip rolled his eyes; he didn’t need any apology for doing what needed to be done.

“So, what brings you way out in the middle of nowhere?” Pan smiled, waiting to hear a story from a fellow traveler.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Feb 19 2010, 01:56 PM

Justin couldn't help but chuckle as the ivysaur glared at him, trying to be threatening. No doubt, it could have done a number on him, but it was still a somewhat ridiculous sight, mostly because he thought ivysaur was one of the ugliest pokemon out there. That said, he had a nincada, so he wasn't discriminating against ugly pokemon or anything, it just looked kind of funny. He also wasn't threatened, because he had no intention of making a physical confrontation and so they wouldn't have a problem with each other.

“Sorry if Turnip caused you any trouble. He’s like that with anyone new,” the girl said when she woke up, petting the ivysaur. So its name was Turnip? He felt even more out of place as she actually named her pokemon. Justin's were just Tyrogue, Bonsly and Nincada. “So, what brings you way out in the middle of nowhere?”

Good question. Why the hell was he way out here? "Um, well," he stumbled along his explanation. "I'm lookin' for a group of kids who're supposedly goin' underground to look for treasures and stuff, see if I can join, and they're supposed to be meetin' here. You wouldn't happen to be part of that group wouldja?"

Posted by: 2gamers Feb 21 2010, 08:51 PM

Fenrir and Pivot quickly rejoined their human on the picnic table. The growlithe gave a passing sniff at the newcomer’s shoe before sitting upon the bench, while the baltoy circled the area before standing still beside the dog pokemon. They all watched as Pan talked to the man.

“Well, I haven’t seen anyone out here but me, so I’m guessing they haven’t arrived yet.” Pan was a little disappointed that Justin already had plans with another group, but perhaps she could steal him away for her own excursion. She could always use an extra pair of hands.

“Say, I’m actually heading to the Underground myself. I’m supposed to be gathering fossils for the Petropolis Museum. If you don’t have any set plans, you can tag along with me.”

She smiled, trying to be more inviting. Justin didn’t seem like someone who wanted to do things on the fly, especially if he already made plans prior to arriving. Pan was often quite the opposite; she tended to go with the flow no matter what came her way. They would certainly be interesting partners...

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Feb 21 2010, 11:05 PM

"Uh huh," Justin had an oddly confused look on his face. Was this girl coming onto him? What were the chances she was going underground too? Two meetings at the same rest stop for the same purpose? No, it couldn't be. "I don't wanna make any assumptions quite yet," he finally said, pulling out a small piece of paper from his right pocket. "Hold up,"

He read through it again to make sure he was in the right place. Then he looked around the rest area for any kind of location marker and, sure enough, he was supposed to be at a rest stop on the opposite side of Barley. "Petropolis, huh?" he looked up from his paper back to the girl. "I actually live there, just came up here for an underground adventure type thing, but my group is actually on the other side of Barley and I was s'posed to meet 'em there already. So like, if I wouldn't be too much of a bother, I wouldn't mind joinin' ya. Were you waitin' on anyone else?"

He noticed the growlithe sniffing around at his feet before climbing back up to the bench next to the girl, which made Justin crack a smile. Growlithe was certainly a cute pokemon. It was around that time that Justin noticed this girl was kind of cute too. Not in the same sense that the grolithe was or anything. But it didn't matter, because he was happily in a relationship. And, of course, by "happily" I mean they were living together and a breakup would be way too much of a hassle. "I'm Justin," he said before the girl could answer his question, and he shot his arm out to her, hoping she'd shake his hand. "By the way."

Posted by: 2gamers Feb 22 2010, 02:31 PM

“Welcome to the party, Justin,” Pan said, shaking his hand, “My name’s Pan. For the record, I’ll be in charge of the map.” She gave a slight laugh before answering his question.

“Actually, I am waiting for one other,” she continued, looking down the trails leading to the rest stop. “His name is Andrew,” she took a look at her Poketch, “and he’s apparently not much of an early bird. Of course, if anyone else happens to drop in, they’re welcome to tag along too.”

True it was still early, but Pan hoped that nothing happened to him. Andrew’s pokemon were fairly tough, so he wouldn’t be totally helpless. Perhaps he was already on his way, appearing at any moment. While they were waiting for Andrew to drop in, Pan thought this would be a good time to get to know the person that was already here. She turned back to Justin to continue the conversation.

“So you’re from Petropolis? What’s it like there? I haven’t been there myself.” Before being met by possible perplexed looks from her acquaintance, she clarified.

“Yeah, I know, I work for the museum and have yet to step foot in there once. Let’s just say it’s not part of the job description,” she said, smiling.

Posted by: Moonlight Zelda Feb 22 2010, 03:40 PM

A slight chuckle was audible from the young woman upon glancing down, noticing that Innes was still moping. It seemed that the oddish he’d run into had given him quite the earful. “Don’t worry, Innes. Just keep your eyes on where you’re running,” Diana said after a moment, shaking her head. He really was the spiting image of his namesake, when it came to how he acted.

The venom spiked gerbil glanced up in response, twitching a rabbit-like ear. A loud sigh was audible as he nodded, though now watching her and his two pokemon companions. Kimball, deciding to make the best of allowing himself to be carried for the last ten minuets; had adopted a meditative position, touching the tips of his forepaws together on his lap. Lin, on the other hand … Well, she was just Lin. The electric mouse was casually rotating her jade magatama, sitting on top of Diana’s head while watching the shine move.

Diana adjusted her arms as she continued, though picking up the pace some now that the rest stop wasn’t far. Lin, of course, did not miss the fact that others were out and about. A loud “Pii!” cut through their thoughts as the pichu promptly launched off of her, accidentally bouncing on the nidoran’s dulled spikes, and dashing over to the picnic tables.

The young woman groaned in response, before following her and Innes the rest of the way. Tall grass waved around her black jeans as she moved through it, though a startled bark caught her attention. Kimball flinched, before clapping a paw to his forehead, and hopping down next to Innes. The blue and black pup stumbled slightly, before righting himself. Embarrassment was clear in his façade, making it clear he’d gone quite deeply into meditation and ended up half numbing his body.

All conversation at the only occupied table came to an abrupt halt when Lin suddenly jumped onto it, holding up small blue flowers in greeting. The slightly confused stares of both a growlthie and ivysaur bore into her, not that the cuddle-bug cared. She promptly offered her little bouquet in greeting, making sure everyone knew just how “pi” the situation was. Diana sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck as she made her way over to them, admittedly a tad embarrassed as Lin continued talking.

“Eh … Sorry about this, I didn’t think Lin would keep interrupting people,” Diana offered by way of greeting, lowering her hand as her companion glanced up at her. The electric mouse simply cocked her head, before looking back at the duo.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Feb 22 2010, 08:06 PM

"I wasn't about to judge you," Justin laughed as Pan quickly pointed out what she perceived to be a flaw in her own story, but the man sitting across from her didn't much care. "So, what is it you do at the museum? Or I guess, not at. For. What do you do for the museum?"

And then another girl approached, following a Pichu who caught him by surprise with a few flowers. This girl was also surrounded by pokemon. Justin was starting to feel left out, seeing as how his pokemon were still in their balls around his belt. He wondered whether he should let them out and risk embarrassing himself even more considering he wouldn't have the first clue how to interact with them like pets rather than tools. Tyrogue and Bonsly usually just helped him out at work. He didn't even treat them like coworkers. At least they stayed fed.

"Uh," he voiced his confusion. "Nice to meet you? I'm Justin, and this here's Pan. What brings you around here if you don't mind my askin'?"

The two teenage girls, both of whom seemed particularly naive, actually started to make him feel uncomfortable. He wondered what Tina would think of him in this situation and hoped that this new girl, whose name he didn't yet know, had no intentions of joining up with a group of random strangers to dig through the underground. He also hoped that the aforementioned Andrew was dating Pan so that she would remain unavailable.

Posted by: 2gamers Feb 22 2010, 11:11 PM

Pan smiled after being asked about her job. She thought it was the best thing in the world and was always willing to share her experience.

“Well, my job is to look for hidden places around Furoh, whether they’re ancient ruins or undiscovered forests. I then get to take pictures and gather some samples to send back to the museum. It’s a great job, and since I come from Kanto, everything here is new to me, so it’s even better. I’ve been pretty successful already and I’ve only just arrived!”

Pan’s monologue was interrupted when a tiny pichu barged into the conversation. Her offer of blue flowers caught Pan and the rest of her pokemon by surprise. Chi-Chi crawled out of Pan’s vest to investigate Lin’s bouquet. She quickly stuck her face into the foliage, cried a loud “chi-chi”, and started rubbing cheeks with the pichu. A sign of affection among pachirisu, the act also exchanged electricity between the two, allowing the safe charging (or discharging) of electric power.

After smiling at the pair of electric rodents, Pan then looked at the trainer approaching the group. The slender girl bore long black hair; her own blue eyes looked back upon the two. She seemed to have felt awkward after her pichu’s behavior. Pan could understand; she had her own electric bundle of mischief to worry about. She also noticed her two other pokemon: a riolu and a male nidoran. The nidoran seemed a little upset about something, while the riolu looked thoroughly relaxed. This led to a question not about the new girl, but about Justin. Where were his pokemon? Perhaps he would reveal them after everything calmed down. Either that, or she would have to put him on the spot.

Pan waved at Diana after being introduced by Justin, awaiting the girl’s response. Perhaps she too was headed underground, or at least was willing to follow a couple of random strangers there…

Posted by: Moonlight Zelda Feb 23 2010, 11:37 AM

The young woman smiled at Lin’s and the pachirasu’s antics, before nodding. “My name is Diana,” she returned after a moment, before seating herself on Pan’s side of the table. “I’m not really doing anything in particular at the moment, other than getting the gist of Furoh. I’ve only recently arrived,” Diana added before the duo could comment, though patting the open spot next to her.

Kimball glanced up, before shrugging and joining them. Innes was hot on his heels, though he immediately engaged in a staring match with the ivysaur not far from the archeologist. “Well … You’ve already met Lin,” the young woman added, though a bit of embarrassment lingered in her tone. She shook her head when the said pichu promptly gave them a thumbs up sign, before motioning to her other two companions. “This is Kimball,” Diana murmured, nodding to him.

The knightly fighting type stood after a moment, sweeping into a low bow. After another few seconds of silence, a quiet but very unstable connection formed. “A pleasure you meet you, Lady Pan and Sir Justin,” Kimball said softly, before the mental connection snapped. He sighed audibly, making it clear he’d been hoping it’d last longer. The riolu then straightened, nodding to each of them.

“It’ll get stronger, the more you try,” she said in response to his apparent frustration, gently rubbing his fine blue and black pelt. Diana’s gaze wandered back to Innes after a moment, before resting her free hand on his still dulled spikes. “And this little guy is Innes. Don’t mind his surliness – He kind of got chewed out by an oddish earlier,” the young woman added, chuckling lightly when he promptly huffed at her.

She paused momentarily, noticing that Justin didn’t seem to have his partners out to get some fresh air. Her brow arched, before shrugging. They’d be sure to come out sooner or later. “What of you two? I don’t really have any specific agendas right now.”

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Feb 24 2010, 09:40 PM

Justin sort of laughed when the riolu bowed and apparently the nidoran got chewed out by an oddish? The whole situation was funny to Justin, since it reminded him of his girlfriend, Tina, who loved talking about her pokemon and having them play around in the apartment but it just felt so childish and immature. Well, she didn't work. She did, but not real work, not the kind of work Justin did. He felt like it turned him into a man, maybe a little bit before it should have.

"Well," he said, putting his hand around one of his pokeballs. "I believe we're about to go into the underground to search for some fossils for the Petropolis Museum. I don't guess you'd be interested in something like that?"

At that point, he was actually feeling quite anxious to let his pokemon out. He wasn't particularly proud of Nincada, but Tyrogue and Bonsly were pretty cool. He felt like he may have inadvertently invited Diana to join them in the underground. If that were the case, it would only be proper for him to bust out his pokemon anyway. Right?

Posted by: 2gamers Feb 24 2010, 11:20 PM

Pan nodded to the riolu after his brief mental message. After the events of Castle Vonmoto, she was no stranger of pokemon popping into her mind. In response, Pan left the table and knelt down to the riolu, scratching his chin.

“You’re quite the character,” Pan smiled. Chi-Chi used the opportunity to climb back into Pan’s vest, waving at the pichu below. Pan then looked back at her human companions.

“I guess it’s my turn for introductions,” she said, turning to her pokemon.

“This is Turnip,” Pan said as she petted the ivysaur’s forehead. Turnip took his eyes off the nidoran to enjoy the brief attention. “I think we’ve been together for…twelve years?” Turnip nodded in the affirmative as Pan moved on to the others.

“This is Pivot. He…she…it…um…Pivot is odd.” The baltoy did a full rotation as some sort of gesture towards the other organics.

“Fenrir here,” Pan continued, “is the newest to the team.” The growlithe stood still, his gaze to the horizon and looking as serious as a soldier ready for duty.

“He really likes it when I do this.” Pan then started scratching his right ear. Instantly, the old dog turned into an epileptic mess, drooling and thumping his right hind leg in excitement. When Pan stopped, he reverted back to his original position, perhaps attempting to recover his image.

“And of course, you’ve seen Chi-Chi.” Upon the mention of her name, the pachirisu looked up to her human and followed with a quiet “Chi-Chi”. Pan smiled, “Yep, that’s your name.”

Pan then turned to Justin, whose side was noticeably absent of pokemon. “Alright Justin, surely you’ve brought a few friends along. Let’s see them.”

Pan looked at him with eager eyes, wondering why he had kept them a secret this whole time.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Feb 25 2010, 12:34 AM

Well, it seemed Pan decided to change the subject to Justin's pokemon before Diana got a chance to accept or decline his somewhat reluctant invitation to join them. This seemed fair, introductions first, then business. Unfortunately, as he pulled out his first pokeball, Tyrogue's, he found his stories for all his pokemon were particularly lacking. It was like he was introducing a friend at a party to another friend, and he didn't know either of them very well at all. At least he knew everyone's names though.

"This is Tyrogue," he stated bluntly as the small fighter emerged from the pokeball. Justin stood up and walked over to the side of the table where the other two humans were. "He helps me out at my job. I do construction, by the way, and he's pretty good at lifting stuff. I never really gave him a name, always just sorta called him Tyrogue. My girlfriend, Tina, gave him to me a few weeks into my job when I told her they allowed us to use pokemon."

While he spoke, Tyrogue was just looking at him, curiously, as if waiting for a command. "It's alright, bud, you can say hi," he nodded towards the pokemon who immediately approached Kimball the riolu and just kind of looked at him curiously. "Yeah, so, that's Tyrogue. This is Bonsly."

He summoned Bonsly from his pokeball, and it stood straight up, almost like it was forcing itself to do so, while looking towards his trainer. "Tina gave him to me too, and he helps me out at work also." Tyrogue looked back at Bonsly and they had some sort of communication going on when the rocky tree type pokemon immediately sat down and relaxed, smiling in relief. Apparently they were happy to be able to just hang out outside of their pokeballs. This never even occurred to Justin. As he pulled out his third and final pokeball, however, he sighed. Nincada was not an impressive pokemon, in appearance, excitement or power. It was just a weird looking bug. Nevertheless...

"This is Nincada, no name for her either," he said. At least he knew she was a she. "I caught her kinda recently actually, so I don't know much about her." He said that as if he knew much about Tyrogue or Bonsly. As soon as she was free from her pokeball, unlike the other two, she immediately moved towards the nearest pokemon, which happened to be Lin, the pichu. After looking at it for a second or two, it moved on to Innes, then Kimball, then Turnip, then over to Pan's foot, then to Pivot, Fenrir, Bonsly, Diana and finally to Tyrogue. Exhausted, its legs gave out and it just fell to the ground. "And that's Nincada," he laughed. "I guess she's really social." Justin never really liked the Sorority girl types, and Nincada just reeked of those girls. Except for the part about looking good. Nincada wasn't an attractive pokemon.

Posted by: 2gamers Mar 4 2010, 10:07 PM

As Justin’s pokemon started getting used to their new surroundings, Pan watched the pokemon interact. She smiled as the nincada examined everything and everyone, not too different from her own baltoy.

“I see you don’t have names for them yet,” Pan said to Justin. “I guess you guys are still getting acquainted then. Now, let’s have a look at this nincada.”

Sensing the disappointment in Justin’s voice, Pan stood up from the table and knelt in front of the bug pokemon. She believed all pokemon had good qualities to them; no doubt the nincada was no different. Her eyes looked back into the bug’s kaleidoscope eyes and petted her head.

“Well, aside from being a bug type, these big front claws suggest some good ground capabilities. I don’t know if you need a good digger for your job, but Nincada is quite capable of doing such a task.”

Pan soon went off the topic of pokemon and back to Justin.

“So, a job and a girlfriend? And she let you take a vacation without her? Sounds like you’ve everything figured out.” Pan found such a trait admiring. Pan probably couldn’t tell anyone what she ultimately wanted, but this guy seemed to know himself pretty well.

After Justin responded, Pan began to notice that a lot of time had passed. It was getting time to head out. She turned to her new friends and announced the plan.

“Alright, I’m sure Andrew will find us eventually. Right now, it’s getting late, so I’d like to get going before the entire day is gone. Care to join me?”

As Pan gathered up her things and recalled her baltoy, she looked at the path ahead of them. The dirt road stretched along a seemingly endless plain. They weren’t particularly far from the underground entrance, but there was still plenty of walking. Then again, the trip was half the fun…

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Mar 6 2010, 06:04 PM

“So, a job and a girlfriend? And she let you take a vacation without her? Sounds like you’ve everything figured out.” Pan commented. He never really thought of himself as someone who had everything figured out. Planning wasn't quite his forte and even though he never actively sought out a different line of work, he sure as hell didn't want to be a construction worker all his life.

"I wish," he smiled and shook his head. Truth be told, part of the reason he agreed to take this vacation adventure type thing was to get away from Tina. He loved her, or at least he was pretty sure he did, but he'd never loved another woman before, and so it was really hard to be 100% sure. "I'm kinda just doing what I have to do as far as work, and what's life without someone you can trust?" He sighed when he actually thought about the things he could be doing instead of the things he had to be doing. To make matters worse, at the end of the week, he'd have to go back to Petropolis and work a bunch.

"So," he continued, trying to change the subject.

“Alright, I’m sure Andrew will find us eventually. Right now, it’s getting late, so I’d like to get going before the entire day is gone," Pan thankfully chimed in. "Care to join me?”

Justin smiled and nodded his head. "Let's do it," he said, pulling out his pokeballs and calling back Nincada, Tyrogue and Bonsly. "Diana, are you gonna come to? You did say you don't have any plans.."

Posted by: 2gamers Mar 8 2010, 08:33 AM

Whether Diana joined them or not, they were off. Turnip and Fenrir led the way, able to watch what lied ahead. Pan walked with Justin, walking at a normal pace to better enjoy the scenery. A calm wind blew over the rolling grasslands, which undulated into hills and valleys as far as the eye could see. In the distance, a flock of doduo ran across the waves of green, their cries seemingly echoed through the otherwise quiet air.

Pan stopped to take in the scene, preparing her camera at the same time. She focused on the doduo as they descended down a particularly large hill. With an audible click, she captured the moment forever for the entire world to see. Satisfied with the scene, she continued onward.

“Sure is nice outside,” Pan said to Justin. She heard from more than a few sources that Petropolis didn’t exactly have the clearest skies, so this could be quite the treat for him as well. Pan took in the free air as she waited for Justin’s commentary.

Eventually, they arrived at the gate of a large metal cage standing at the base of another nameless hill. The only other landmark around was a green sign one would see pointing to a nearby town. In this case, the town had the title of “Under Hill,” and the arrow pointed straight down.

“This must be an elevator,” Pan deduced as she went closer to investigate. The majority of the structure was made of metal grate, including the floor. As she stepped inside, she noticed that there was enough room inside to house a large group of people, though Pan decided to recall her ivysaur and growlithe. Judging from the metal bars hanging from the ceiling, she suspected they had to hang on for the ride.

After everyone stepped inside the cage, Pan saw a cable attached to the pulley system. Attached to it was a sign reading “Pull”. Pan grasped on to it with one hand while her other hand held on to the metal bar.

“Here goes nothing,” she said to the others as she pulled down shortly after.

The cage immediately lunged downward; Pan found herself hanging onto the metal bar with both her hands. Several lamps within the structure gave off a dim light, enough to make everyone visible. The metal grate below allowed air to quickly pass around them. As Chi-Chi looked down from Pan’s vest, the rushing air caught her lips, exposing the pachirisu’s buckteeth as she cried “Chiiiiiiii!” Pan’s hair was all over the place as she looked back at Justin, laughing the entire way down. This certainly ranked high in the best elevator she had ever taken.

Posted by: Kalpha Mar 8 2010, 04:15 PM

Andrew rushed back to the rest stop with Icicle on his arms the the rest of the crew following him, including the Absol from earlier adventures. After some tiring moments of running the rest stop could be seen from afar. Andrew sighed with a smile on his face before starting his way back once more.


"I am so late... Oh whatever, I better get moving and fast!" these were the thoughts that crossed the young boy's mind while his legs would carry him as fast as they could, making him reach the tables some moments later. However, Andrew slipped on the wet grass and fell right with his face on the ground. His Pokémon watched in embarrassment as he got up and whipped the dirt from his face, bursting into laughter moments after the spectacular fall.


"I haven't had a fall like this for some time now!" he laughed as he shook off the remaining dirt on his jacket. Looking around he found no-one except a lone Oddish enjoying the sunlight. As he looked around some more he saw a familiar face.


"..."


"..."


"You're still following me?" Andrew said to the Absol behind him who was looking directly at him and his Pokemon. "Either way, I'm looking for someone. Tag along if you want to, help me if you're feeling generous! Just try not to steal something for me this time.." Andrew took out his map to check on their destiny.


"What did Pan call that place again? Lumber Field? Boulder Hill?" the teen wondered for a second before noticing the name "UNDER HILL" on his map. He looked at it stupidly for not remembering such a simple name before he returned Icicle and Flick to their respective Pokeballs.


"Well, I can't return you since I don't really own you so you'll just have to follow me, OK?" the Absol nodded and followed the boy. It wasn't long until they reached a big metallic gate with a sign next to it indicating the town that Andrew was looking for. The boy tried to call it up but with no success.


"Looks like it's being used... Guess we'll have to wait then."

Posted by: Moonlight Zelda Mar 11 2010, 04:18 PM

Diana glanced over at Kimball, feeling her riolu companion nudging her arm as the others moved off. “What is it?” she queried, quirking a brow. He promptly jumped off the table, before pointing in the opposite direction. It looked like someone else was either late or lost. The young woman shrugged after a moment, before squatting briefly. Lagging had let Pan and Justin already leave, so it was clear she had to pick up the pace.

A smile played about her lips. The pace of her home region, more or less. “All right, guys - Time to go. Do you want to rest for now?”

Kimball cocked his head after a moment, before offering another bow and nodding. His paws were once again touched together in a meditative position. The riolu pup’s crimson eyes were already closed, apparently focusing on attaining the state of mind. He didn’t even twitch when Lin hugged him.

The pichu instead was the one to twitch an ear, clearly not having gotten to understand meditation yet. While he had done it every day since she’d been adopted into the family, it was a little strange to her still, since she preferred to explore. Lin glanced up at her, rubbing a small yellow paw against her forehead. Diana chuckled in response, before picking the little electric mouse up as she grabbed Kimball’s Friend and Innes’s Moon Ball.

Diana’s smile widened upon seeing that her venomous gerbil had fallen asleep next to the park bench, clearly having worn himself out frolicking earlier. Lin seemed to be the only one completely aware of her surroundings. “Okay, up we go, Lin,” the young woman said, holding out her arm. The little pichu immediately bounded up it, before sitting down on her shoulder as she returned both of her resting males back to their storage spheres.

“Pi pi pichu?”

The young woman promptly clapped her palm to her forehead upon noticing what Lin was holding, having been rummaging through the top of her backpack. Her jar of peanut butter. “Not now. Later, yes,” Diana sighed, shaking her head as she started after them. Lin settled back onto her shoulder as she moved into a jog after putting the jar back, happily observing her surroundings.



It wasn’t long before they came across the same person they’d seen earlier, a russet tressed young man. Maybe the Andrew that Pan had mentioned? It looked like he was waiting on the lift that cut into the ground, at least. Diana’s gaze trailed a little further down when she saw a flash of sleek white fur, framing a black face. Deep scarlet eyes briefly passed over her and Lin, before returning to the man.

An absol. Diana slipped her hands into the pockets of her jeans as she finished closing the distance between them, before nodding in greeting. “Hello,” she murmured, tone offhanded as she observed the Dark type. A mix of feline and canine, the Disaster Pokemon was pure elegance. Once again reminding her of why Dark and Psychics were one of her favorites. She smiled, before extending a hand towards it. Not close enough to touch, but close enough to let it get her scent easier. Diana lowered it after a moment, before stepping closer to the elevator shaft.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Mar 12 2010, 02:57 PM

Justin walked with his arms crossed, enjoying the scenery of the whole situation. He had sort of gotten used to the smog that blanketed Petropolis and had trained himself to never take deep breaths, even to yawn, and never breathe through his nose because it always smelled horrible. He didn't even notice it, but he was breathing deeply through his nose the whole walk over, not even thinking about the silence between him and Pan. She might as well have not been there.

“Sure is nice outside,” she said, snapping him back into reality. He chuckled at the fact that his mind had actually wandered off.

"Definitely," he said, moving his right hand to his chin where he rubbed his slight shadow. He noted in his mind that he needed to shave later that day. He also sort of smiled that of all things to talk about, the weather was actually a good subject, because of how nice it was, even though usually that subject was meant to break tension and force conversation. It didn't feel forced though.

On the walk over, they continued chatting. Justin tried not to talk about Tina so much, but it was difficult when the only two things in his life really were her and work. As with all women, he let her dominate the conversation.

This came to an abrupt halt, however, when they got to a cage type thing at the base of a hill.

“This must be an elevator,” Pan noted. Justin just nodded. It was definitely an elevator. "Here goes nothing," she added one everyone was inside the cage. In the distance, Justin could see the girl from earlier, Diana, had followed them, but the elevator already started moving.

"Was that-" but he was cut off as the elevator went into what might as well have been freefall. Justin's right hand's grip tightened around the bar of the cage and his left hand shot towards Pan's shoulder to help her (and admittedly, him) keep balance and not, you know, die. As they moved, though, Justin started to get actually angry. Why would they put such a ridiculous elevator here? Do these people have any idea how dangerous that is? What if they were an old couple or something and they didn't know about the rapid speed increase? This thing was a lawsuit waiting to happen, but he would probably forget about that anger the moment he stepped outside.

Posted by: 2gamers Mar 13 2010, 10:17 AM

As the elevator continued its descent, Pan looked towards Justin as he grabbed her shoulder. He seemed angry about something. She tapped the hand on her shoulder to get Justin’s attention.

“Hey!” Pan shouted over the turbulence. “Lighten up! It’s not everyday you get in one of these things!”

Pan was having the time of her life. She was determined to share that feeling with all her companions. She yelled out “WOO-HOO” and encouraged the young man to do the same. “Try it! Great stress reliever!”

Eventually, the elevator slowed to a stop at their destination. Pan led the way out, observing her surroundings. It appeared they were in a large cavern, though people populated this particular cave. Men and women were leaving and entering smaller caves carved into the walls. Some of these caves had addresses on them; others had signs indicating places of business. Each of the two walls was dedicated to either residential or business properties, so neither mixed with the other. The caves extended up to three stories, accessed via ramps carved into the cavern. The arrangement reminded Pan of an apartment building.

As Pan walked into the center of the town, Pan took note of the only standing structure around: a tin water tower. On the tower was the town’s name:

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Mar 13 2010, 12:10 PM

“Hey!” Pan shouted as she tapped Justin's hand, which was unconsciously gripping her shoulder. “Lighten up! It’s not everyday you get in one of these things!”

"Thank God," he said, softly enough so that no one could hear it over the falling elevator. It was also covered up by Pan's audible "woo ho" which caused him to chuckle just a little bit. It was cute how she wasn't worried for her life when one mess up in this elevator would surely kill everyone here except Justin's pokemon who were safely tucked away in their pokeballs. “Try it! Great stress reliever!”

"I don't have any stress to relieve," Justin claimed through gritted teeth as his grip around the cage tightened again. He began to brace himself for the inevitable crash landing, but was pleasantly surprised to feel the elevator actually slowing down at a fairly respectable pace. "This I can handle," he sighed once it stopped and the doors opened up.

The group walked out and they didn't really say anything to each other. It looked like a primitive group of cavemen lived here or something, but there was too much contemporary mixed in with the primitive. Justin didn't even notice the writing on the water tower (which was one of the things that kept reminding him that the caged elevator was not, in fact, The DeLorean, though he was fairly confident that 88 miles per hour was reached.)

“I think we should wait in there for the others,” Pan said, making her way towards a Pokemon Center. He agreed and was kind of excited to be indoors again. Moreover, he was not a regular to Pokemon Centers and, even in this situation, wouldn't be using it for its healing services. His pokemon were fine and rested. That said, he went ahead and sat down at one of the comfortable chairs near the computer center and picked up the best looking magazine..."Here we go," he smiled grabbing one about cars. He made an audible "Pfft," sound when he realized it was four months old.

“This place, it feels kinda crowded,” Pan said from the counter. “I like a backyard as much as the next girl, but it is also cozy. And it’s nice how everyone in town is practically your neighbor.”

"No one in this town is my neighbor," he laughed without looking back up at her. "Then again, I don't even like my neighbors, so," he shrugged while a smile on his face as he looked back up at her. His neighbors weren't that bad, but they were kids about his age and were always so noisy. They played loud music and one of the guys played guitar and practiced his terrible singing every night when Justin was trying to get to sleep since he, you know, had a job. "But I see what you mean," he added, making sure she knew he was just joking around.

Posted by: 2gamers Mar 14 2010, 10:23 PM

After a quick trip into the healing machine (the Vonmoto label on the side was far more visible after Pan’s latest adventure), the nurse handed over Pan’s team. As she released Chi-Chi, the pachirisu did a back flip on the counter before scurrying back into Pan’s vest.

Pan joined Justin on a comfy couch adjacent to his. The young man still seemed rather mysterious to her. Her curiosity egged her into learning more about Justin, but not before returning the favor. Luckily, her conversation starter was on the adjacent table.

She grabbed a recent issue of a science magazine with a familiar cover photo. It showcased the enormous tree nicknamed “The Wooden Skyscraper.” It was filled with pictures that brought back memories of Pan’s first Furoh adventure. It seemed like only yesterday that she was floating towards the bibarel dam, walking under the giant tree branches, and climbing through the inner sanctum towards the vespiqueen-beedril colony. She smiled as she turned to the picture of Chi-Chi’s excited smile.

Pan passed the magazine to Justin to get his interest.

“See this?” she started. “Those are my pictures. I was the first to find out where this tree was located. Now they have scientists studying the habitat to learn more.” She may have been bragging just a little, but it was hard not to show a little pride in one’s work.

“Best of all, I enjoy going around the country doing these things. Is there anything you enjoy, Justin?” It wasn’t the best of segways into a conversation, but it managed to get the job done.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Mar 15 2010, 12:45 PM

Justin tossed his magazine aside when Pan mentioned that she took the pictures in the one she showed him. "Wow," was all he could say after a few seconds of looking at the pictures. To him, it wasn't about the quality of the pictures. He had no conception of good from bad when it came to art. It was impressive because of the fact that it was published. She was accomplished, and he was excited for her so much so that it didn't even occur to him that he was jealous. "That's really cool."

She continued. “Best of all, I enjoy going around the country doing these things. Is there anything you enjoy, Justin?”

He kind of chuckled at her not so subtle way of keeping silence at bay. "I used to be really into sports," Justin nodded. "When I was in high school. But now I kinda just work. I'm either working, or at the gym or at home with Tina usually. Tina's my girlfriend, by the way. Not sure if I mentioned that. Anyway, I'm actually a pretty boring guy. I work 'cause I gotta and I chill when I can."

It was then that he thought about his hopes for his future. He didn't segway into it, but just blurted it out. "I really wanna be an architect. It's not really realistic, but that's what I want." He wondered when the enigmatic Andrew would show up. He also was fairly certain Diana was going to walk through that door very shortly, seeing as how he was pretty sure she followed Justin and Pan.

Posted by: 2gamers Mar 17 2010, 08:51 PM

“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Pan said, smiling. “Architect, huh? I don’t see why you couldn’t be one; you’re not exactly an old man. Plenty of time to go back to school.” Pan was pretty optimistic of Justin’s chances of going to college, so long as he really wanted it.

As Pan was talking to Justin, her poketch started to beep. She looked down to see an email alert and read the message. The message was from an automated service telling her she had a video call waiting for her. “Hold on. I’ve got to take this,” Pan said as she excused herself and headed straight for the computer room.

Pan quickly combed her hair with her fingers. Going through the freefall elevator did a number on her hairstyle; her old friend she was about to meet would certainly notice. She took a good look at herself through the reflection off the videophone, making sure there were no smudges on her face. Somewhat confident in her looks, Pan turned on the computer screen to reveal the caller.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Mar 18 2010, 12:03 AM

“Architect, huh? I don’t see why you couldn’t be one; you’re not exactly an old man. Plenty of time to go back to school.” Pan laughed optimistically. Justin cracked half a smile, but the idea was certainly more appealing in theory than in practice. He didn't really want to argue the logistics of it with her, which was fortunate, because she got a phone call and left the room on that cheery, hopeful note.

Of course, her upbeat attitude towards the future did nothing but bring him down further. It was nice that she believed in him so much without really knowing him, but the fact of the matter was that going back to school was damn near impossible for him. It would take him at least four years of school to get his Bachelor's, not to mention he didn't even have a high school diploma. So, he'd need to take whatever test Furoh required for the high school diploma substitute, get into a university, pay for four years of schooling, get decent enough grades to pass and, most importantly, spend a bunch of time doing it. He just didn't have that time given that he had to work to pay for food, rent and, if he decided to go through with it, tuition. School and work would conflict with each other too much, but if he wanted to go to school, he would have to keep working in order to pay the enormous amount of money tuition costs. It just wasn't doable.

On the note of things he wanted but things he'd never have, he picked up his car magazine and looked through it, imagining how cool it would be to drive around Petropolis in a black convertible, and thinking about all the modifications he'd do to make it his own. You know, if he had the money.

His imagination was interrupted when Pan came back, a pokeball in her hand. “Let’s go outside," she said, waving it. "I want to check out my friend’s pokemon,”

Justin nodded and stood up, dropping the magazine on the table where he found it. "Your friend sent you a pokemon on the comp-" he was cut off when she summoned it into the open area of the town. It was a giant pokemon, completely unfamiliar to Justin. Not to his surprise, it began moving around somewhat recklessly, causing the man to tense up and put his right hand on one of his pokeballs, but he knew that if it came down to it, none of his pokemon could take down that monster.

Pan called out to it, calling it Zulu. Justin wasn't sure if that was the species or just the name of the pokemon, but he wasn't going to bother himself with the details when he was worried about being trampled to death by a confused dinosaur pokemon. He began looking around the area at the people looking at it. They weren't quite as confused as Justin, but they were certainly concerned that Pan didn't have control over it. "Maybe you should get to know it out of town," Justin gulped, watching its tail to make sure he didn't accidentally get hit.

Posted by: 2gamers Mar 24 2010, 09:36 AM

“Oh, don’t worry; we’ve met before,” Pan assured Justin, reminded of her previous adventure in Castle Vonmoto. The rampardos finally laid eyes on the human pair, recognizing Pan as one of Darryn’s friends.

“Hi, Zulu,” Pan started, “Darryn said you could help us go through the tunnels. What do you say?”

The rampardos showed his agreement by embracing Pan, lifting her up in a big dino hug. Her feet dangled in the air as Zulu squeezed Pan tightly, though not enough to suffocate her. Not yet anyways.

“OK, you can put me down now,” Pan said, giving a slight laugh at Zulu’s sudden affection. The rampardos responded by putting the young woman back on her feet. Pan then started to scratch under Zulu’s chin, causing the dinosaur pokemon to purr in relaxation.

“I’m going to put you back in your pokeball so I can get supplies, but I’ll call you back out when we’re ready, alright?”

The rampardos was too busy purring to pay much attention to Pan’s question. She assumed he was listening and quickly absorbed Zulu back into his pokeball. She then turned to Justin.

“I need to rent a sleeping bag, perhaps pick up a few other things. After that, we’ll head out,” Pan said to Justin. “Hopefully, the others will have arrived by then,” she finished, heading for the camping store conveniently located next to the pokemon center.

The inside of the store wasn’t too different from other stores. In place of tile and stucco walls, however, were dirt floors and solid rock on all four sides. Stalactites were used to hang merchandise from the ceiling, though most of the items for sale were placed on shelves for easy access. Pan grabbed a purple sleeping bag, a box of granola bars, and a jar of peanut butter, though she was tempted to get a Digger Drill. Pan’s eyes sparkled at the shiny red finish and the large (and sharp) drill bit. It would have been awesome to feel the power vibrating through her, something that couldn’t be done with simple hand tools. However, looking for fossils and the like would require a more delicate touch, so she resisted the impulse buy and headed for the register. A swipe of her card ensured her purchases.

“I have enough digging tools for the both of us, so you don’t have to get your own,” Pan said to Justin, hoping to lighten his load of purchasing items.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Mar 28 2010, 11:21 AM

Justin simply followed Pan to the store, thankful that she put the beast back in its pokeball. It almost seemed negligent to allow pokemon like that outside in the middle of town. He based his shopping list on hers - Food and a sleeping bag, basically, except he already brought a whole bunch of snacks so he really just needed to get a sleeping bag, which was convenient, because he was running low on money.

He wasn't planning on doing all that much digging. In fact, he was more looking forward to having a battle with some cave dwelling pokemon, one that he could take preferably, but if something stronger came along, he was pretty confident in this "Zulu" pokemon, assuming Pan could control it.

“I have enough digging tools for the both of us, so you don’t have to get your own,” she said as she moved from the counter so Justin could buy his sleeping bag.

"I appreciate that," he smiled. "I don't really know what I'd be digging for anyway. I'm kinda just here to-" Why was he here? "Explore, maybe?"

"How are you paying?" the cashier asked with a detached sigh.

"Oh, uh, sorry," he replied pulling out his credit card. "There should be enough on there," he added as she swiped it. A few seconds of nervous praying seemed to help as the machine began printing a receipt. "Yess," he said under his breath as he took the card and the sleeping bag, which was going to get annoying carrying around, since it wouldn't fit in his backpack.

When they got out of the store, he pulled out one of his pokeballs with his left hand, as his right was carrying the bag, and summoned Tyrogue, who immediately began jumping up and down with excitement. "Hey bud," Justin leaned over to the fighting type. "You wanna hold this for me?" Tyrogue had a look of duty on his face as he reached up and was handed the sleeping bag.

"So," he continued to Pan, "Do we wait for your friend or should we just go? I'm not sure he's coming."

Posted by: Kalpha Mar 28 2010, 12:14 PM

The mechanism of the elevator started working, pulling the giant metal cage back up to the surface. Andrew just stood there and stretched his arms wondering why the Absol kept following him and most of all if it intended to become a new companion and team member. All these thoughts rushed through Andrew's mind before he got interrupted by a faint "Hello" from behind.


A young woman, about the same age as Pan, greeted Andrew but had her eyes focused on the Absol. She extended her hand close enough for the Absol to identify her by the scent before returning its attention back to the metal cage that was now open.


"Hey there" Andrew greeted the young woman "I'm Andrew, nice to meet you. I'm heading down to Under Hill, are you coming too?" Andrew said as he and the Absol walked inside the elevator, each step creating an echo down the pit.

Posted by: 2gamers Mar 29 2010, 01:12 PM

Pan was hoping the others would have caught up; she wanted to get started before the day was over. On the other hand, if they were coming, surely Pan and Justin wouldn’t be too far into the tunnels. Surely Andrew and Diana could find them.

“I say we get started,” Pan confirmed her decision to Justin. “If they’re right behind us, we shouldn’t get too far before they catch up,”

Pan led the way out of the town, passing an elder woman sweeping in front of the jewelry store. Her old brown eyes caught sight of the young adults starting their adventure, just like so many before them. She wiped her hand on the white apron covering her blue dress and waved back at the pair.

“You two be careful out there,” she said. “Don’t be afraid to turn around if you get lost.”

Pan turned to see the woman, her wavy blond hair graying with age. It was nice to get some friendly advice from the natives. She decided to take advantage of the woman’s kindness and continue the conversation.

“Anything we should know about?” Pan asked.

“Ah, you should be mindful of your surroundings,” the woman answered. “Cave-ins aren’t uncommon, some places are so deep it’s hard to breath, and I don’t have to tell you that this place is a maze with no clear end. Even the most experienced hikers have trouble with this place. Of course, everyone in Under Hill knows the tunnels like the back of our hands.”

As she held her hand up for emphasis, the old woman looked at the back of her hand, her eyes wide at the sight of new brown spots under her knuckles. She hid her hands in her pockets and continued.

“Just in case, take these,” she said as she handed Pan and Justin what appeared to be key chain souvenirs. The items depicted the scenic view of the town, with the words “Under Hill” printed on the bottom right corner.

“They’re tracking devices, in case search n’ rescue has to find you,” the woman remarked. “The mayor reckoned these would be more useful than postcards.”

“Thank you, Mrs…” Pan was appreciative of the woman’s generosity, though she wasn’t surewhy she was doing this when they didn’t even know each others’ names.

“Oh, just call me Jewel,” the woman replied. “Ironic, considering I’m the local jeweler.” Jewel chuckled at the coincidence.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Apr 2 2010, 08:50 PM

“I say we get started,” Pan confirmed her decision to Justin. “If they’re right behind us, we shouldn’t get too far before they catch up,”

"Sounds good," Justin nodded, looking towards the ridiculous excuse for an elevator, then down at Tyrogue, still obediently holding his sleeping bag. It suddenly hit him. "We're gonna be, like," he began, "Sleeping. Out there in the caves. Right?"

Before Pan could answer, an old lady, apparently a jeweler by the name of Jewel. She went on about how dangerous it was out in the underground, and graciously gave them some tracking devices, which Justin rolled his eyes at. He may not have been an expert on pokemon, but directions never gave him problems.

"Thank you, Jewel," Smart stood forward, nodding his head. "My name's Justin Smart and this is Pan, uh. Well, I just call her Pan. Ironic, considering she's-" he paused, looking to his right at Pan, trying to figure out some sort of pun to make with her name. "I got nothin'," he made an odd look with his face. "Oh! I'm not smart, though. So maybe that's ironic. I don't know. I never really knew what irony was."

Posted by: 2gamers Apr 3 2010, 09:01 AM

Pan playfully shoved Justin with her arm at his poor attempt at making a joke. She then addressed Jewel again as they set out.

“Don’t worry about us,” Pan said. “We have a guide,” she patted the pokeball containing the rampardos, “and I’m pretty good at finding my way around.”

“Not to mention the strapping young man beside you,” Jewel added. The old woman gave an audible “hee hee hee,” indicating a mischievous intent towards Justin. No one wanted to know what was going through Jewel’s mind.

Before things became weirder, Pan motioned for Justin to follow her out of the town. She waved back to Jewel, smiling as they passed under an arch reading “Welcome to Under Hill.” The pair disappeared into the darkness, not knowing what adventure awaited them.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At first, the tunnel appeared…well, Pan couldn’t tell what any of the Underground looked like. Everything was pitch black. With seeing near impossible, the sounds around the two seemed louder. From the scurrying of some unknown creature around their feet to the fluttering of wings above their heads, it was clear that there was some life within the Underground. Then, Pan had a bright idea. Literally.

“Chi-Chi, I need you to use Flash.”

The pachirisu quickly crawled out of Pan’s vest and onto her head. With a loud “Chi Chi!” the pokemon emitted a flash of light, revealing the surrounding environment around them. Several paras cried out their names, frightened by the sudden dispelling of the darkness. As they scurried off, a group of zubat flew overhead, going deeper into the tunnel system.

Pan and Justin were surrounded by solid rock. Both stalagmites and stalactites were prominent landscape features, while the sound of dripping water provided an ambient soundtrack. Up ahead, the tunnel split into two, both equally shrouded in darkness. Seeing that they needed to make a decision on which way to go, Pan quickly unleashed Zulu. She also brought Turnip out, in case they ran into something (or, heaven forbid, Zulu got out of hand).

“Alright Zulu,” Pan said to the rampardos, “We’re trying to find treasures hidden in the rock. Do you think you can help us?”

The rampardos roared in excitement, its voice echoing through the tunnels. The ivysaur winced; there was no telling what sort of pokemon his noise may have awakened. In contrast, Zulu hadn’t a care in the world, quickly marching towards the right path, singing happily.

While she was following, Pan pulled out her Explorer’s Kit from her backpack. As she attached it to her belt, she opened it up, revealing an assortment of digging tools as well as some sort of electronic device. She grabbed the device and showed it to Justin.

“This is a dowsing machine,” Pan said. “It can detect whether a wall is hollow in a certain place. Usually, that means there’s something hidden behind the rock.”

As she turned it on, the machine remained silent; there was nothing around their location. The group would have to continue deeper into the caverns…

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Apr 3 2010, 11:09 AM

Justin was grateful that Pan's pachirisu lit the cave up. It was a lot more effective than the flashlight Justin was attempting to use and, he assumed, wouldn't run out of batteries. He tensed up, however, when she used a different pokemon, Zulu. Not only did this beast intimidate the hell out of Justin, but its loud noises and reckless behavior were sure to attract one of those dangerous things Jewel hinted at.

It began to move towards the right path in the fork, which of course made Edgar want to take the left in order to ditch the hard headed pokemon and take the left path, but Pan insisted on following it to find treasure or something, and so Justin did as well. "I'm curious," he said as she turned on her dowsing machine. "How would Zulu know if this path has treasures buried in the walls. It just doesn't, like," he continued. "Well, like, you know what I mean? Like, does he smell it?"

As they continued walking, Justin ran his right fingers across the rock wall to his right, feeling the rocky texture as he went. He'd been in caves before, sure, but usually with groups of people rather than one other person and a virtual army of pokemon, the C.O. of which happened to be a deranged dinosaur.

Posted by: 2gamers Apr 4 2010, 01:45 PM

“I’m not sure how he knows,” Pan replied to Justin’s question. “My friend said Zulu came from underground tunnels just like these. Perhaps he’s doing this by memory-”

Suddenly, the rampardos randomly head butted the rock wall, as if the rocks looked at him funny. Pan jumped a bit at the randomness of the action, the crash of bone and rock echoing through the air. Zulu shouted in glee at the nice round impression embedded deep in the rock formation. The dinosaur pokemon continued on his way as if nothing was unusual. Turnip put his vines away, no longer seeing any danger from Zulu. The ivysaur did make a point to walk in front of the humans, keeping them (and Pan in particular) a safe distance away just in case.

As the group went deeper into the underground, Zulu continued to head butt the right side of the tunnel (for some reason, he had a preference for right). Eventually, Pan and Turnip became used to the suddenness of the action, not nearly as worried as they were earlier.

“Maybe he’s leaving a trail,” Pan said in an attempt to reassure Justin that Zulu wasn’t entirely out of control.

The rampardos then stopped moving forward, sniffing the air around him. As Zulu sat on the ground to rest, Pan’s dowsing machine suddenly started to beep. She looked at the screen to see many bright dots all around them.

“Jackpot,” Pan smiled as she grabbed a miniature pickax from her kit. She set the rest of her things on the ground and set out for a particular soft spot within the left wall. Pan carefully hit her tool upon the surface; it was very easy to lose the treasure during such digs. Her eyes shined as a green sheen revealed itself from the dull rock. After a few more strikes, Pan was able to pull out the object: a bright green sphere about 3 inches in diameter.

“Check it out,” she said to Justin, showing off her first find. “It’s not much, but at least we’re in the right place.”

Her back was towards the wall she was working on, so she did not notice the pair of eyes looking at her. To anyone who looked hard enough, one could see the outline of a geodude around the eyes. Looking even closer, one could see that it wasn’t the only one within the wall…

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Apr 4 2010, 07:50 PM

Justin's eyes naturally stayed on Zulu the entire walk (not that there was much else to look at in front of him) so when it stopped and threw itself into the wall, he anticipated the crash and the potential collapse of the cave based on the size of the pokemon. Just before the crash was heard, he instinctually threw his left hand towards Pan to keep her from moving forward. "Sorry," he said, weakly, once he noticed that he had touched her arm. "So," he continued. "Why's he, uhh,"

“Maybe he’s leaving a trail,” Pan noted, to which Justin nodded.

"I mean, I'd totally be willing to leave a trail of bread crumbs," he shrugged. "They have the advantage of not bringing the entire cave down on us." It was clear that he was scared of the situation. First of all, he wasn't comfortable around pokemon like Pan was. That said, he didn't trust Zulu for a second and he didn't know anything about the sturdiness of the cave where they traveled, and could say nothing towards its capacity to stand.

He thought about Tina for a few seconds.

"Doing okay, bud?" he interrupted himself by looking down at Tyrogue, still holding his sleeping bag. It nodded and gave the creepiest and cutest little smile you've ever seen.

“Jackpot!" Pan exclaimed as her machine started to beep. As if he wasn't already out of his sphere of understanding, this tiny girl pulled out a pickaxe and began hacking away at the wall (though admittedly with more grace). She revealed a small green sphere, which looked like it might fetch a good price to the right person, but he couldn't imagine who would pay for something like that.

“Check it out,” she said to Justin, showing off her first find. “It’s not much, but at least we’re in the right place.”

"I guess so?" he shrugged. He then noticed that Tyrogue had dropped the sleeping bag and was pushing Justin away from the wall Pan's back was up against. He had a lot of power for its size, but he couldn't actually move Justin. "What's going on?" he asked.

He was giving off a weird growl, like he was trying to be threatening to the wall. This caused Justin to laugh, at least until he noticed the multiple pairs of eyes on the wall. "Geodudes," he said. "Shit, there's a lot." Justin had a little bit of experience with geodudes. He knew about most of the common pokemon, enough at least to know that, unless startled, they would probably not attack. Of course, that being said, Zulu's continuous attack on the wall, composed partly of geodude, made Justin wonder just how agitated they were.

He also knew that, should they attack, Justin's pokemon were not strong enough to take them on. All of their attacks were weak, normal attacks which would have a difficult time breaking through the rocky exterior. He figured Pan's ivysaur could take them on should they start something. Moreover, a fight of this level would probably attract other pokemon in the area. Hopefully they wouldn't be rock types and Justin would be able to make himself useful. If he had to fight the geodudes, he figured Tyrogue could toss them around a little bit.

Posted by: 2gamers Apr 5 2010, 08:49 AM

Pan quickly stepped away from the wall when Justin noticed the geodudes around them. She stood at his side and counted the colony.

“There must at least a dozen here,” Pan said. She grabbed her camera and took a picture of the wall, making sure the flash was off. The last thing they needed was a big battle.

“I’m guessing the dowsing machine wasn’t detecting treasure but rather all of these geodude,” she remarked, looking around the tunnel to make sure there weren’t anymore. However, the attention given by the humans had piqued the interest of the bored rampardos. Pan didn’t need any warning from Justin to move back as Zulu examined the wall. She watched as Zulu sniffed around, searching for whatever the humans were examining. She also noticed Justin staring intently at the beast, waiting to make a run for it should Zulu turn on them. Pan nudged Justin’s arm to gain his attention.

“Hey,” she whispered, “have you ever seen the skull of a rampardos? It’s over a foot thick. It doesn’t leave much room for anything else. He might not notice anything at all.”

After a tense few seconds, the rampardos turned towards the humans, giving a funny-looking smile, as if he thought the humans were crazy.

“See? Nothing to worry about,” Pan smiled, reassuring Zulu, Justin, and herself that there was no reason to panic. The cave remained silent, save for the slight mumble of “dude?”

WHAM!

Zulu slammed his entire skull right into the wall, making a direct hit into one of the geodude. The rock pokemon fell out of his crevice, effectively knocked out from the attack. Just then, the rest of the geodude revealed themselves, each yelling “dude!” With their rock-hard arms, the geodude pushed against the wall, launching themselves onto the rampardos. Zulu became extremely agitated as the colony started grasping onto him, releasing a defiant roar. He started swinging his body around, launching a couple of the geodudes off of him. Unfortunately, the pokemon were heading right for Pan and Justin!

“Duck!” Pan cried, using her arm to push Justin downward, front first. She had no qualms about touching Justin for the sake of safety. Besides, that girlfriend of his would likely be more upset if he came back with a fractured skull. She noticed that the lighting had dimmed; Chi-Chi was hiding inside Pan’s vest for cover.

The cave echoed with the cracks of whips as both geodude landed harmlessly away from the humans. Turnip had his vines ready, acting as a goalie to deflect anymore geodude coming his way. It would be a little more difficult without proper lighting, however.

“Chi-Chi, we need you out here,” Pan asked, moving her arm off Justin in case they needed to roll out of the way. The pachirisu peeked her head out, but that was all that was needed to reveal her glowing cheeks.

“Turnip, you need to get those geodude off of Zulu before he gets angrier. Whatever you do, don’t hit him!”

She then turned to Justin in an attempt to calm him. No doubt he was regretting traveling with her, Pan thought.

“Just another day of work,” she said, giving off a meek smile in spite of the situation.

Posted by: Kalpha Apr 5 2010, 11:57 AM

Andrew pressed the button and the elevator started to move back into the depths of the earth. It started slowly and it began to gain speed, even reaching the same speed as a falling body. The teen was now grabbing the bar next to him with all him might while he let out some pretty bad words against the designers of that elevator. The Absol, however, stood perfectly still, eyes closed and calm as if it knew what was about to happen and remained that way until the elevator slowly stopped.


"Darn it! I am never EVER going inside that thing again in my life!" Andrew cursed as he got out of the elevator while he tried to put some parts of his hair back down. Only after that he noticed the wonder surrounding him. An entire town completely buried in the ground. There were barely any houses that stood outside in the open apart from some important buildings and a water tower with the name of the remotely located town. However he could recognize a pretty common building that every rookie trainer must know, the Pokecenter.


"Come on, lets go to the Pokecenter to get some info about the Underground and the town itself." the teen informed the Absol as they walked towards the Pokecenter. After entering Andrew took out his Pokeballs and placed them on the counter as the nurse approached and took them to the healing machine. He then directed to a nearby table with a sign reading "Maps of Under Hill and the Underground" and took a card for his PokeNav. After a beeping sound indicated that the transfer was complete he put back the card and collected his Pokeballs from the counter before leaving the building.


After his stop at the Pokecenter Andrew entered the next store to buy some supplies. There he got a rope, a small pickax and a flashlight to illuminate the darkness of the tunnels. When he reached the counter he took out the exact amount of money and headed for the tunnels but an old woman stopped him on his tracks.


"Hey, before you leave, those tunnels are a maze. Try not getting lost in there, kid. I hope you have a guide like those two who went past here a couple of minutes ago." the woman warned him before he dashed into the unknown.


"Thanks for the information but I'm pretty sure I can handle myself down there. Besides, I got some of the best guides with me!" Andrew smiled while he let out Kan who started sniffing the air around them. "She's got a pretty strong nose so I believe that she can find the way back up if we end up lost."


WHAM!


A loud noise came from the tunnels below that startled the Zigzagoon and the boy, the Absol remaining silent and calm as always. Andrew quickly thanked the old lady and rushed to the entrance of the mighty Underground.

Posted by: 2gamers Apr 10 2010, 11:11 AM

Luckily, Turnip didn’t have to try very hard to clean Zulu of the geodudes. The rampardos was doing a particularly good job at swinging the pokemon off. This allowed the ivysaur to stand back and continue to hit the rock pokemon with his vine whips.

The thrown pokemon resembled baseballs; some were thrown straight towards Turnip, while others curved, threatening the humans behind him. With one flick of his vines, the geodudes were stopped in midair, falling straight to the ground. Some were able to bounce away from the scene to avoid further pummeling.

It was when Justin’s tyrouge intervened that things started to get interesting. His claps and cries formed a beat, encouraging the Turnip to attack with the rhythm. Even Zulu was getting into the beat, calming down as he strutted his head back in forth.

*Clap Clap,* echoed through the tunnel as the tyrouge’s hands made impact.

*Whoosh Whoosh,* followed as the rampardos threw a couple of geodudes towards the ivysaur.

*Whip Whip,* Turnip’s vine whips cracked as they met with the hard surface of the rock pokemon.

The pattern continued until Zulu was cleaned of all geodude. All had one long gash spread diagonally across their bodies, yet another scar to remind them not to mess with high-level pokemon, especially when they find their groove.

With the pokemon cleared out, Zulu’s attitude changed from menacing beast to lazy dinosaur eager for an afternoon nap. The rampardos moved to the center of the tunnel, curled up into a ball on the floor, and immediately started to snore. If Pan wasn’t amazed by his strength, she certainly was with his ability to go into a deep sleep on a dime. As the creature’s snores started to echo through the caverns, the woman decided this would be the best opportunity to return Zulu back to his pokeball. She stood up from lying on the ground and retrieved the dinosaur pokemon.

“That went well,” Pan said to Justin. As she brushed herself off, she noticed that one of the geodudes left something behind. It was a circular object 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter with a hollow space in the middle, similar in shape to a donut. Closer inspection to the outer edge showed that it was not smooth in appearance; there were 28 sides along the edge of the “wheel”. Each side had a http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Unown_Notebook#Page_2 etched into the edge as well as into the side of the object. The artifact was made of tough gray stone; Pan recognized the material as everstone. Finally, a piece of old twine rope looped through the hole, forming a necklace. This was not something a geodude could have made, leading Pan to believe that there were more than fossils hiding within the Underground.

“Are these…Unown letters?” Pan recognized the shapes from her trip to Hoenn, but she was unable to decipher what each letter meant. She showed the object to Justin in hopes he recognized something on there. As they examined the object, Pan heard the approaching footsteps of a familiar face. She turned around to see that Andrew finally caught up to her.

“Bout time!” Pan exclaimed.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Apr 11 2010, 11:41 AM

Justin watched in awe as Zulu thrashed about, knocking geodudes all over the place and as Pan's ivysaur whipped them with its vines. They were no match for the duo. Wanting to be useful, he looked down at Tyrogue, who was eying down the geodudes, barely making it away from Zulu and the ivysaur.

"Go ahead," Justin said under his breath.

Excited, Tyrogue jumped into the fray, but not so close as to risk getting smashed by Zulu's rampage. He could hardly be considered useful. He chased down geodudes which were already retreating and did various attacks on them. One in particular was running away pretty quickly, so Tyrogue used Fake Out to jump in front of it and used a fake attack to just slow it down. Then it just tackled it to the ground and pinned it down. Once that was done, it was clear the geodude was knocked out.

After tossing a few of the rocks around the cave, Justin called out to him. "Why don't you help out Ivysaur?" He didn't actually remember that its name was Turnip. Tyrogue nodded and put his right fist into his left hand, then jumped up next to Turnip calling out and clapping its hands, trying to give the ivysaur some more confidence. Justin grinned as all the pokemon in the cave, even the geodudes somehow, sort of battled in sync. He was incredibly proud of Tyrogue for managing to actually be helpful against an army of geodudes.

Once that was done, Justin kneeled to Tyrogue and held up his right hand. Tyrogue excitedly met his right hand with a right hand of his own before running to grab the sleeping bag which he tossed aside.

“Are these…Unown letters?” Pan asked when Justin stood back up. He took a closer look at the object.

Justin just shook his head. "I don't know anything about 'em," he admitted. "They do look like letters, though. Are they spelling something?"

After looking at it for a little while longer, some kid approached. “Bout time!” Pan exclaimed, and Justin just crossed his arm while eying the kid up and down. He wondered what the age minimum was to work. This kid couldn't have been older than 14 years old. He didn't want to assume, though. Some people just look younger than they are.

"Hey," he said, uncrossing his arms and putting his right hand towards him. "Justin Smart. You must be Andrew?"

Posted by: Moonlight Zelda Apr 11 2010, 12:38 PM

Diana paused when she heard the elevator’s creaking box being reeling it back up, before straightening. It wasn’t long before a sturdy iron cage was in view, though clearly in need of some WD-40 from the amount of squeaking at the top. She shook her head after a moment, before adjusting her darkly colored backpack. "Hey there," the young man returned. "I'm Andrew, nice to meet you. I'm heading down to Under Hill, are you coming too?" Andrew added after a moment, he and the absol making their way into the cage as he pulled the door open. Each step was painfully obvious against the metal, echoing down the mineshaft.

“Yes, actually. I was invited by a girl named Pan to explore with her for a little while, but it looks like I’ve fallen behind,” Diana explained as she joined the duo, though plucking Lin off her shoulder, instead holding the pichu against her chest. Judging from how it had been hauled up, there was no telling how it’d go down. “My name is Diana, by the way,” she added as a nonchalant afterthought, briefly offering a hand to Andrew. She paused as she noticed the bright red button – The way down.

As soon as Andrew pushed it in, they immediately began to drop. Stale wind whipped past their faces and through their hair, the absol near them a blinding white flurry. They soon landed with a sturdy ‘thump’, all of them staggering now. Diana barely caught one of the bars as the iron cage proceeded to bounce twice from impact, before it finally fell still. She shook her head, sighing, as Andrew and his apparent partner slipped by her.

Lin, however, was clinging to her shirt for dear life. “It’s all right, little girl …” Diana said softly, gently stroking the terrified electric mouse’s fine pelt while detaching her paws from the material. “Maybe next time, if we leave this way, we’ll put you in your pokeball,” the young woman added, earning a quick nod from the pichu.



Diana paused as she finally caught up with Andrew, having had to sift through the area and people to find him. “Sorry I took so long,” she apologized, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck. The one good thing was that she’d at least acquired basic supplies, and was ready to go. Soon dashing after the duo, hoping to catch up to the others sometime in the near future. Berating herself for falling so far behind already, needless to say. With any fortune, they wouldn’t see her as one merely dragging them down.

Posted by: 2gamers Apr 14 2010, 08:28 AM

As Andrew approached the group Pan saw that Diana wasn’t far behind. She was glad the two had made it, and just in time. With the geodudes gone, everyone could start digging unimpeded. Seeing that Andrew had gathered his own tools, she offered to share her own with Diana.

“Diana, I have plenty of spares if you want to dig around,” Pan said as she gazed upon her dowsing machine. “While you’re doing that, you can also tell me where you’re from,” Pan smiled, eager to get to know her latest companion.

Even without the geodudes, the machine was still showing plenty of spots to investigate. Pan grabbed a piece of chalk from her explorer’s kit and started marking spots on the wall. These were spots where something was hidden; good starting spots for anyone ready to start digging. Pan took particular interest in a spot within the ground, the only one in this section of the tunnel. The machine indicated that there were two objects buried together in the same spot. Considering how deep the objects were, Pan decided she was going to need a bigger tool.

“Let’s go Pivot!” Pan said, unleashing the baltoy from its pokeball. The pokemon rotated as it examined its surroundings, eventually stopping to await orders from Pan. She excused herself to investigate the unique site.

“Pivot, I need you to use Rapid Spin on this spot right her,” she said, kneeling down to point out the spot. “Go right into the ground.”

The baltoy obliged and immediately started to spin. Its bottom half acted as a drill, digging straight into the ground. The tunnel filled with a drilling noise as Pivot sank deeper into the ground. Care would have to be taken to avoid damage to the objects below.

“That’s enough Pivot!” Pan shouted over the noise. She realized too late that the baltoy had reached the objects: two colored stones were flung out of the hole. Though Pan managed to catch the orange one, the blue one grazed her skull, just above her right eye. The surprise hit knocked Pan on her bottom, while the blue stone landed harmlessly on the ground, not a scratch on it.

“Oh, wow, that hurt” Pan said, flinching when she touched her latest bruise. A small cut appeared at the spot, followed by a brownish area surrounding the wound. She appeared slightly dazed, so she didn’t realize what exactly she found.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Apr 14 2010, 12:27 PM

"Hey, Diana, you made it!" Justin laughed as she noticed the girl approach the group. "Glad to see it."

When the group set up camp to start digging, Justin found himself without any digging tools. The walls were too rough for him to go digging himself, but he did have a pokemon apt at digging through things. For the first time in, well, ever, Nincada made herself useful as Justin released her from her pokeball. She immediately began pacing around the small cave very quickly.

"Hey," Justin said. "Hey. Hey! Nincanda!" Finally, she stopped running around and looked up at him. "I need you to dig through these walls, try to find me somethin' pretty for Tina, alright?" Nincada didn't even allow Justin to finish his sentence before she moved to the wall. She was no expert digger by any means, but she had sharp claws and an affinity for earth, so she managed to make a few tiny tunnels, but neglected to come up with anything exciting. Unless you count rocks.

That's when he noticed out of his peripheral vision that something crazy was going on to his left. When he looked over, he saw Pan fly back and two shiny stones fly out of a hole. She caught one, but another got her right in the face. He hurried over to her to make sure she was okay, but she got up and turned out to be barely grazed.

“Oh, wow, that hurt," she said nonchalantly as Justin simply shook his head and went to pick up the blue stone, which honestly looked like a sapphire, but already gemmed. It didn't make sense for something like it to be in a natural cave, but then he realized it was no sapphire. There was some sort of power emerging from it, but he couldn't explain it. "Looks like you found a couple of treasures," he said as he handed her the water stone. "Congrats."

Posted by: Moonlight Zelda Apr 14 2010, 10:07 PM

The dark haired young woman chuckled at their tones, before nodding in appreciation. “Couldn’t let all the fun start without me – I’ve already missed enough adventure,” she said, winking. Diana smiled when Lin gave them a thumbs-up sign, before casting Pan a questioning glance. It was clear the electric mouse wanted to play with or at least sit with Chi-Chi. “Thanks for letting me borrow these, though,” the young woman said, nodding again to Pan as she accepted the two variations of tools and the paintbrush.

As soon as she turned her back to Lin, however, the clear electric glow doubled. No doubt they’d linked paws. Diana shook her head, before turning back to the wall after glancing at Pan’s machine. According to its screen, there was one object buried in the wall. She tapped the steel pick against the wall steadily, until coming to a weak point. The young woman paused, before tapping Kimball’s Friend Ball.

He cocked his head as the bright red flash vanished, the blue and black dog pokemon almost blending in with the cave’s flickering shadows. Kimball paused upon noticing their surroundings, before giving the puppy semblance of a smile. It seemed the knightly fighting type enjoyed the occasional ‘hunt’ as well, even if for nothing more than a change of pace. “Want to lend a paw, Kimball?” Diana queried, smiling as he barked in response.

The fluttering of zubat wings followed not long after, the nocturnal winged creatures clearly going further down as his bark echoed through the tunnels. Kimball suddenly launched himself off the cave floor, the steel nub on the back of his paw connecting with the wall as he spun. A resounding crack met their ears, stone chips scattering the floor. He landed neatly next to her, staring at the sizable crack with satisfaction.

A solid swing quickly caused it to expand, before dirt suddenly began spraying their backs. Diana pivoted in time to see Pan get smacked upside the head with a glimmering stone. Ouch. She moved back a few steps to help the other woman up, as Justin handed her the other half of her efforts. It seemed to faintly glow blue, in contrast to the amber-bronze one in her hand. “I’d imagine that’ll leave a mark,” Diana commented as she offered a hand, seeing the already purpling scratch from the stone. “Congratulations, though,” she added, smiling.

Posted by: 2gamers Apr 15 2010, 09:18 PM

Pan was still a little confused when her friends started congratulating her. It wasn’t until she examined the stones in her hands that she knew the significance of the find. In her left hand, there was an orange stone warm to the touch with a blazing fire trapped inside. In the other, there was a clear blue stone cooling her hand with bubbles moving around in order to stay on top. As Turnip moved in to check on his human, she showed the pokemon her finds.

“Look,” she began, “Fire and water stones.”

The ivysaur was more concerned with the bruise on her forehead, but Pan pushed away the examining vines, assuring Turnip that she was fine. She took Diana’s hand and stood back up, brushing herself off.

“Thanks, guys,” she replied to Justin and Diana. She looked back at her dowsing machine; the many dots had disappeared, with just one in the distance.

“Looks like we need to keep moving,” Pan said, grabbing her things to prepare for the trail ahead. “Let’s head for this spot, then we can make camp for the night.”

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Apr 17 2010, 03:23 PM

Justin sighed as he looked to Diana and then Andrew, realizing that he was indeed the only person capable of giving her the boost she needed. "I, uh," he began, but finally just sighed. "Yeah, whatever." He got down on the ground in front of her and she cheerfully thanked him, climbing up onto his shoulders. He just shook his head and sighed as he stood up again, putting his hands on his shoulders, keeping Pan's feet stable on them as she stood up and was thankfully able to reach the location she needed.

"So, uh," he continued as she began drilling into the cave wall above him. "Ah, that's loud. Uh, yeah, so what do you guys do? Like, do you work? Go to school? Or what?" He realized his attempt at small talk would likely be very clearly nothing more than an attempt at awkward small talk. Justin already didn't like Andrew very much, and Diana seemed too...Teenagerish.

Posted by: Moonlight Zelda Apr 19 2010, 01:47 PM

Diana's gaze followed Pan and Justin as they went about their work, before shrugging and picking Chi-Chi and Lin up. The two electric rodents were soon comfortably nestled on her shoulder as she moved to lean against the wall, providing plenty of light for the duo. Standing near them certainly helped being able to hear Justin when Pan clicked on her drill, raining them with dust and rock chips.

The young woman shrugged at his questions, noticing his gaze had turned a bit condescending upon moving to her as he finished speaking. She could live with it if he didn't care much for her, it'd just make the trip seem far longer to all of them. "I have a part-time job at home in Orre, but most of the time do odd jobs on the side to supplement income. As I highly doubt I'm going to be battling my entire life, college is next on my agenda when I'm through exploring Furoh," the young woman said, glancing back over at him as she spoke. "In the meantime, though, I'm going to make the most of the situations I'll end up in. I don't plan on wasting a day that I'm here," Diana added, though extending an arm as Kimball glanced up at her, his crimson eyes pleading. She chuckled lightly, almost drowned out by the drill, as he jumped, catching it.

Kimball gladly let her finish helping him up, despite his usual tendencies. Even the knightly fighting type had the right to want attention, and to feel lonely. At times, though, she had to wonder if the dark intimidated him. Kimball tried so hard to hide what he feared and disliked, believing he had to live up to his eventual evolution's might. The blue and black pup no doubt upheld his honor, and then some.

Diana gently ran her hand along his soft pelt as stone chips continued to pelt them, though Lin and Chi-Chi had taken sanctuary on her other shoulder rather than ignoring them as the human and aura-pup were doing. She paused, glancing up when she heard a faint 'clink'. Dust stung her eyes, but it was clear that Pan had found something. The faint reverberation of zubats' echolocation drifted up the tunnels once more as she watched the other woman, curiosity piqued.

Posted by: 2gamers Apr 19 2010, 09:05 PM

“Thank you, Justin,” Pan replied gratefully, eager to find out what awaited her. “I promise it won’t be for too long.”

The first thing Pan did was to take off her boots, thinking her feet would be easier on Justin’s shoulders. She then grabbed a couple of tools from her explorer’s kit, one of which happened to be a portable drill. After attaching them to the belt loops of her shorts, Pan climbed up on the young man’s shoulders, her stance stabilized by his hands on her ankles. From this height, she could work comfortably and quickly.

Pan started by donning a pair of safety goggles and drilling lightly through the rocky exterior. She only needed to break up the tough portion; going too deep could damage the treasure underneath. Once that part was done, she switched off to a quieter instrument, the small pickax. She dug through the area carefully but quickly, all the while listening to the conversation below.

“Orre? That must have been a rough place growing up,” Pan said. She had never been to the country before, but from what she had heard, it was quite a wasteland, not to mention the “Cyphers” and shadow pokemon running about.

The conversation was interrupted by an audible “clink”. Pan smiled: an amber colored object came into view among the rock.

“Ooh, this looks like amber,” Pan said excitedly. She tossed her pickax to the ground (away from Justin’s feet); this required getting her hands dirty. Her hands were well within the wall, grasped firmly on the prize. Despite her grip, the treasure was still firmly in place, requiring Pan to start pulling. As she pulled harder and harder on the object, she wasn’t aware of the warning calls from her teammates. One final pull finally lodged the object free, with one major consequence.

“Got it- WOOOOAAAHHH!!” Pan started leaning back from the momentum of her pull, her hands still grasped to the amber object. Turnip rushed towards his human, but his vines would be useless in stopping her fall. Chi-Chi watched, her hands on her cheeks in shock, waiting for the outcome. Pivot simply watched; judging from the height, Pan would hardly suffer any serious damage, though she'd certainly be sore in the morning.
------------------------------------------------

While the group was occupied with Pan, the humans failed to see the new visitor in their midst. She was cute, about a foot tall, and had a little more than baby fat around her body. The pokemon saw the others fairly occupied, unaware of her presence. She turned to Pan’s unattended backpack and the slight hint of wrappers hiding inside. She licked her lips: wrappers almost always meant candy, one of her favorite delicacies.

“Cleffa Cleffa!” she cried, quickly running for the open backpack. Within seconds, the cleffa was inside, rummaging through the items for the delicious granola bars hiding within the plastic wrappers. All that could be seen from the outside was a backpack shaking and madly giggling in glee.

Posted by: Moonlight Zelda Apr 20 2010, 03:48 PM

“Orre? That must have been a rough place growing up,” Pan commented, as if intrigued as she dug her pickaxe into the wall, steadily working it around the object.

Diana shrugged one shoulder, half in agreement half brushing it off. “It had its times, yes. I grew up during both of the Cipher strikes, the most recent being roughly two years ago. All in all, though, Orre isn’t that bad with Cipher gone and Snagem out of business. Things were starting to look up for the entire region in general when I took the ship here, so there is some hope for the future,” the young woman said quietly, a small smile playing about her lips. The beeping of her P*DA, audible between each measured strike of the pickaxe, faintly drifted to her ears through the backpack, but was ignored for the time being. It’d have to wait until they were in a more appropriate area to read an email.

She paused when Lin hopped down her arm and onto the cave floor, darting towards Pan’s now wiggling backpack as the dual-lighting dimmed down with only Chi-Chi left providing it. Diana arched a brow, mildly bemused. The electric mouse poked the wiggling pack with one tiny paw, curious. Lin jumped back, uttering a startled squeak as static sparked at her cheeks, when it rocked towards her. The pichu looked back at the humans, waving her arms and pointing at the backpack, making sure everyone knew just how “Pi” the situation was again.

Innes’s Moon Ball suddenly clicked open, the poisonous gerbil rejoining the group as Kimball’s paw retracted from it. Heh. Probably a good idea to have him watch Lin for a little while, at least. Innes glanced up after a moment, his ears twitching back. Pink aura suddenly flared around the venom spiked pokemon, his weak Confusion appearing right next to his human. Briefly slowing Pan’s fall as she rocked back.

Diana lunged forward, ending up as cushioning for the other woman as a waterfall of loose dirt showered her and Justin. She stifled a cough with her forearm as she craned her neck to see Pan, before nodding gratefully to Innes as his maintained Confusion lightly nudged the other woman off her spine. “Are you all right?” the young woman asked hoarsely, pushing herself into a sitting position once Pan was upright again. Though all three of them were now smudged with brown all over, there was no denying that the archeologist-photographer had obtained her prize – While admittedly dirt clouded on the outside, the transparent amber sphere easily reflected the electric light.

Whatever Pan was about to say was suddenly cut off by an ear-piercing screech, the leathery flap of wings meeting them. An entire flock of the zubat they’d been hearing flooded the tunnel, all of the humans instinctively covering their faces to guard them from the barrage. Another burst of light caused Diana to drop her arm, stiffening somewhat as the flock began to disperse, allowing them to see properly again.

Several zubat had accidentally collided with Lin from lack of space, her small pouches automatically releasing large amounts of static. Just powerful enough to annoy the cave-bound avians. Lin certainly wasn’t strong enough to take on four at once – She was still a baby.

The young woman immediately pushed herself up, motioning Kimball and Innes forward. A sharp bark caused the highly irritated group to falter, a weak Thundershock suddenly striking one of Lin’s aggressors. “Try it again, Lin – It’s helping. Kimball, Innes, try to chase them away,” she said quickly, her tone pleading as she glanced at her male companions.

Kimball darted forward in a feinting Quick Attack, three of the four scattering in response to the blue streak that jumped between them. He jumped between the regrouping zubat again, this time knocking one off balance in mid-air as his paws touched the wall. The riolu launched himself back off the stone, before landing silently underneath the screeching echolocation.

Taking the initiative, Innes finished guiding them after their flock as a frightened squeak tore from the pichu again, small amounts of blood matting her pale yellow fur with each Leech Life. Lin’s small frame suddenly began glowing as a third Thundershock burst from her, yet still zapping herself as the fainting zubat fell onto and then off of Pan’s still wiggling backpack.

A small sigh escaped Diana’s lips as she slowly moved forward, gently scooping up the electric mouse. Lin’s trembling form still emitted small amounts of static as the young woman soothingly ran her hand down the pichu’s pelt, the young mouse pokemon burying her face in Diana’s shirt, small paws hanging onto it for dear life. “Sssh … It’s okay … You’re all right, Lin,” she whispered to her, continuing her soothing motions as she spoke. Oddly enough, the faint white-golden glow continued to emit from the pichu. It wasn’t long before the small injuries began to close, leaving only the spots of crimson as proof. The healing technique Wish, apparently ... Even so, it was clear that Lin’s first experience with battle wasn’t a good one.

Kimball and Innes soon appeared at her side, standing and sitting, but offering silent comfort in their presence. The pichu’s whimpering slowly reduced to occasional hiccups after a few minuets, Diana finally looking back to her human companions as a noise finally registered.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Apr 20 2010, 07:04 PM

Justin felt Pan begin to get a little eager as her weight shifted around amongst her feet. Clearly she found something, but as he looked up, he noticed her pulling with pretty good force. His grip on her would not help if she fell from the top, so he shouted. "Pan, slow d-" but it was too late. She pulled and fell straight back, her force bringing him down with her. Diana was heroic enough to cushion Pan's fall.

He got up and brushed the dirt off of himself. "That was-" he was interrupted yet again by the sound of flapping wings. "Gonna go out on a limb here and say that's not a good sound," he nodded casually, pulling out one of his pokeballs. He didn't pay attention to which one, but it happened to be Nincada's. He looked down at Tyrogue, who was out of his ball and had also heard the noise. He dropped the sleeping bag Justin told him to carry in preparation for the surely epic battle which was about to ensue.

Sure enough, a virtual army of zubats came flying by, and they did not lack hostility. Tyrogue immediately started jumping in the air, trying to attack the flying pokemon from the ground. Noticing that Diana was using all of her pokemon to defend, Justin decided to follow suit and summoned Nincada and Bonsly as well, respectively. Nincada's first response was similar to her previous first responses, which was to explore the ground around her. Bonsly just looked up at the zubats, which were tending to target the smaller pokemon and (though probably on accident) the people, likely just because they took up more space and the zubats were just flying into them. Justin had to frequently flail his arms to keep them out of his face.

He looked at the other pokemon and heard Diana call out commands, keeping her pokemon organized, and was immediately jealous of her management skills after looking back at his own pokemon, flailing uselessly around on the ground. Nincada was running around in a circle, Tyrogue was jumping in the air and Bonsly was just watching lazily. "God damn, will you guys try to do something?"

Tyrogue looked at Justin with a sort of confused look, like he was trying to do something but was failing. The other two didn't really pay attention. "Jeez," he sighed, smacking another zubat out of his face. "Why don't you like-" he didn't really know what to say. Finally, Tyrogue ran over to Bonsly and climbed up its rocky surface, standing on its green branch things. Then it jumped up and clapped its hands together. Though it did not make contact with any of the zubats, one of them fell from the sky and onto the ground, as if the noise from the clap had startled it. Nincada was quick to the scene, immediately gripping the fallen zubat's wings and scratching away.

"There you g-Ow!" Another zubat had accidentally hit itself against Justin's stomach, then continued flying around. As Tyrogue continued to pull zubats from higher up and allowing his teammates to wreck havoc, Justin couldn't help but be relieved that Zulu was in his pokeball where he couldn't go on another rampage.

Posted by: 2gamers Apr 23 2010, 01:29 PM

It was not lost on Pan that her fall was slower than what she expected. It seemed as if she was in a movie, particularly in one of the dramatic scenes where someone is falling towards their doom, the entire scene in slow motion. Like in most of the those movies (Pan always cried at the end of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcsYOMhNz4M), her fall was cushioned by Diana’s back. The impact was also lessened by whatever mysterious force was acting upon her.

As the cloud of dirt returned to the ground, Pan rolled off (not knowing the nidoran helped) and stood back up, brushing the dirt off of her clothes. She turned to Diana, who asked if she was all right. Of course, Pan was, but was Diana? A person falling on one’s back had to have hurt. Diana was lucky she could get up at all!

Chi-Chi abandoned Diana to avoid getting crushed when the woman dived to the ground. She quickly rejoined Pan, climbing up to her shoulder to observe the old amber within her hands. Turnip simply shook his head; Pan’s antics always seemed to get on his nerves.

Before Pan could answer Diana or even check on her prize, a group of zubat, evidently frightened by all the noise, rushed the group. Pan ducked to avoid impact, but was quick to get back up to order counterattacks.

“Ready for an electric swing, Chi-Chi?” Pan asked the pachirisu.

The tiny squirrel pokemon rubbed her hands maniacally, ready for a repeat of her performance back in Castle Vonmoto. This time, it was not Turnip that was doing the slinging; it was Pan! Grabbing onto Chi-Chi’s tail, she swung the pokemon over her head to charge her swing. Upon letting go, the pachirisu flew through the air, her Spark attack surrounding her with electricity. She flew right into the zubat colony, causing a significant number to fall back to the ground, while Chi-Chi performed a roll to safely land on the cave floor.

“Turnip, clean ‘em up! Pivot, psybeam the leftovers!”

The ivysaur rushed the fallen zubat, tackling them against the rock walls of the tunnel. He used his vines like a snowplow, sweeping up multiple fallen zubat aside. Meanwhile, the baltoy emitted what appeared to be psychedelic laser beams at the stragglers. The powerful attacks downed several zubat at once, especially when Pivot added a rapid spin to attack enemies from all sides.

Soon, the zubats retreated and/or were knocked out, leaving the tunnel quiet once more. Pan’s pokemon regrouped around her as she looked at her fellow human companions. Justin seemed to have discovered his team’s newfound fighting skills, while Diana was comforting her frightened pichu.

“Great job guys,” Pan congratulated her team. “I’ll get some food in a minute.”

She walked over to Diana to check on her situation, Chi-Chi climbing back into her vest. Seeing the pichu upset, Pan knelt down to Diana's level and instinctively scratched the back of her head for comfort. The pachirisu wanted a better look; she climbed out of Pan’s vest and onto Diana’s shoulder to get a look at Lin’s face. Chi-Chi then used her fingers to stretch her mouth out in an attempt to cheer Lin up.

“What happened?” Pan asked Diana.
-------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, Turnip and Pivot walked over to Pan’s backpack, still wiggling from before. Even the swarm of zubat did not coax the uninvited inhabitant out of its makeshift home. The ivysaur simply used his vines to hold the bag upside down and shake whatever was in there loose. Out popped a rather chubby cleffa, happily sucking on a granola bar. In addition, empty wrappers rained down onto the ground, the last remnants of Pan’s food supply. Everything else in the bag appeared OK, though had the cleffa been left to her devices, they too would have been missing.

The baby pokemon hardly noticed the others around her, content in munching on her 15th snack.

Posted by: Moonlight Zelda Apr 23 2010, 08:49 PM

Diana offered a small smile to Chi-Chi in thanks for her attempt, though sighing as she shook her head. “This was unfortunately Lin’s first battle, and needless to say it did not go well for her,” she murmured, though grateful that Lin had begun to calm down. The onyx tressed young woman continued to lightly run her hand along the young pichu’s back, but lightly ruffling Chi-Chi’s white and blue fur in thanks. It was clear the squirrel’s efforts were helping, as the electric mouse’s grip has loosened; now only leaning against her.

The young woman glanced over after a moment, her gaze briefly evaluating Justin’s and Pan’s companions. They seemed to be all right, at least. Most likely more experienced battlers, if anything. “It seems they’ve done well,” Diana commented as she nodded towards them, before slowly pushing herself up. She flinched, the mild adrenaline rush of the situation having already worn off, but bit back a grimace. There would be, without doubt, a sizeable and probably deep bruise across more than just her skin. Certainly more than enough reason to be grateful for Innes’s assistance, since the result could’ve been worse.

Steady crinkling of wrappers caused all of them to glance over at Pan’s backpack when Turnip decided it needed to be cleaned out, all of her supplies in the main part falling out in a jumbled heap. What appeared to be a pink fluff ball landed on the top, bouncing out with some type of food in its mouth. Lin, now sufficiently calmed, twitched an ear in surprise. Apparently curious, but not about to go down and investigate unlike usual. Still wary from her fresh encounter. It was understandable, nonetheless.

Adjusting her own backpack as she took a step forward, the cleffa finally took notice of its surroundings when Innes and Kimball bounded ahead. The venomous gerbil had a bit of a clumsy moment as he stepped on something that had rolled away from the pile; landing flat on his face, paws spread eagle. It just wasn’t his day.

Diana shook her head, before moving forward enough to stop next to Innes. He huffed again in irritation, the dulled ridges and spikes on his back sharpening with his self annoyance. Carefully avoiding them as not to accidentally poison herself, she lightly stroked his rabbit-like ears to placate him as Kimball quietly padded over to the cleffa. The aura pup knelt on one knee as to show no threat, holding out a paw towards the other young pokemon. Testing what it would do?

Posted by: 2gamers Apr 24 2010, 09:13 PM

“She probably just needs a few friendly battles to practice,” Pan replied, her fingers reaching under Lin’s chin. “Tell you what. Once we get camp set up, how about a practice match with Chi-Chi?”

After Diana commented on the performance of the other pokemon, she was about to answer Pan’s question as she attempted to stand up. This quickly revealed her sore back. Pan rose with her, holding her hands out in case she had to lend support. Though her companion tried to hide the pain, the flinch meant Diana didn’t escape her rescue attempt unscathed. Though Pan wasn’t feeling the effects at the moment, she new the same would be waiting for her in the morning.

Soon, everyone turned to see Turnip empty Pan’s backpack, revealing the cleffa inside. At first, Pan grew an excited smile; cleffa were rare sights even within the dark caves. Then she took a look at all the empty wrappers surrounding the little one. For once, Pan frowned, hitting her face with her right palm. It looked like her meager dinner was within the pokemon’s belly.

“There goes dinner,” Pan sighed. However, she wasn’t one to miss an opportunity. Catching a cleffa was certainly one of those opportunities.

As the cleffa investigated all the onlookers, taking brief interest in the Riolu’s outstretched hand. Seeing that there was no food in his hand, the pokemon turned her attention elsewhere, towards the sweet scent emanating from the ivysaur’s bulb. It sure smelled nice, and that pink bulb looked a lot like candy…

Turnip gave a quizzical look as the cleffa, who started to lick her lips. Was she going to eat Turnip? Sure her belly was full from all of Pan’s supplies.

“Canny!” the little one cried out. With surprising speed, the cleffa was climbing on top of the ivysaur, attempting to take a bite out of his petals. One of Turnip’s vines quickly wrapped around the cleffa’s waist. The other vine gave her a light spanking on her bottom. Once was enough to teach the cleffa not to eat something bigger than herself.

The poor star shape pokemon looked back at Turnip with teary eyes, as if her best friend (evidently, candy) had abandoned her on the side of the road. She gave everyone around her a similar look. Pan quickly lost the heart to finish the capture; she never had to deal with catching a little baby before.

“Oh…what do I do?” she asked her friends. The cleffa’s sniffles were on the verge of turning into sobs. Even Turnip had to look away at the pokemon’s sad state.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Apr 25 2010, 02:52 PM

Justin began rubbing the bruises all over his body from when the zubats had run into him. He was certainly relieved that they had moved on, thanks, in part at least, to his awesome team - Tyrogue mostly. He really handled the situation out there, better than Justin could, that's for sure.

"Tyrogue, you are just," he began, the pink fighter turning to look at him, a hopeful look on his face. "Such a badass."

An uncharacteristically cheerful expression overtook Tyrogue's face, but only for a few seconds, before he reverted back to his frat boy ways, jumping up and slapping Bonsly five on one of its green branch things. Bonsly looked surprised at the hit. Justin shrugged and called back Bonsly and Nincada into their respective pokeballs, but left Tyrogue out. Then, when Tyrogue went to lift Justin's sleeping bag, the human cut him off and picked it up himself. "You can rest, bud," he nodded, but Tyrogue shook his head, holding out his arms. "Alright," Justin shrugged, bending over to hand the bag to him.

“There goes dinner,” he heard Pan sigh behind him, so he turned to see a cleffa with a confused look on its face.

"Aren't those things supposed to be pretty rare?" he asked quietly, hoping not to scare it off. He didn't have any spare pokeballs himself, but seeing as Diana and Pan were both skilled pokemon trainers, he figured one of them came prepared with a pokeball. Indeed, he was right. Pan was prepared to catch it, but she seemed to feel sorry for the pokemon or something when it started to cry.

“Oh…what do I do?” Pan asked, like she didn't want to hurt it by catching it or something. Justin was pretty sure pokemon didn't hate being captured. Maybe they did, but once they become captured, they tended to like it, for the most part.

"Honestly, I'd just go for it," Justin said. "It'll be an easy catch, and you can probably get it to stop crying if it's actually under your control." More importantly, though, it would shut up.

Posted by: Tysm Apr 27 2010, 04:00 PM

While the others were busy minding their own business Andrew took the chance to relax a little. He found a nice spot and sat down, taking a sketchbook and an old pencil (showing signs of evident bites on the top) out of his backpack in the process and began his sketch. Some moments of scribbling later the sketch had now taken the form of a Golbat hanging from the ceiling.


Of course that being focused on his drawing at the time Andrew completely missed the fact that Pan was loosing her grip and only looked up when the young woman was already on the floor alongside with Diana and an old looking piece of amber. Before Andrew could even ask if any of them were okay the cave was swarmed with Zubats who didn't hesitate attacking whatever stood in front of them.


"Darn it!" the teenager cursed as he shook of a Zubat that had just bitten is arm. "Icicle, enough of this, lets go! Try to slow them out a little with your Power Snow!" the Spheal obeyed and a snowy gust was launched from his mouth, creating small ice shards on the Zubats' tails to add extra weight and slow them down. Meanwhile Andrew reached Flick's pokeball and released it giving it his next instructions:

"Flick, use Focus energy while Icicle slows them down! Kan, headbutt the falling Zubats to make sure they don't get away that easily!" the Zigzagoon quickly dashed around headbutting the Zubats as ordered while the Taillow focused its energy.

"Icicle, change that to a Water Gun! Flick, Quick Attack the airborne Zubats!" the Spheal's snowy breath was now changing into a small water blast that took out the already weakened Zubats from the previous Powder Snow while the tiny swallow Pokemon took out some of the flying ones with a boosted Quick Attack. However one Zubat actually made its way through the barrage of attacks and trying to use an Hypnosis attack on Andrew, only to be interrupted by the Absol. A bright flash sent the attack right back to the user and the Zubat fell on the ground, sleeping. It didn't take too long for the fight to finish since everyone did their best to stop the bat Pokemon on their tracks.


"Great job guys! Hopefully it won't be much 'til dinner!" the teenager smiled at his Pokemon, clearly proud of them for their hard work. "Now, about you..." he then turned to the Absol "I don't know what you really want to do but if you want to come with us I'll need to capture you." he informed the Absol who just went to Andrew's bag and took out the Luxury Ball previously bought in Barley.

"Guess that's a yes?" he said pointing the ball to the Absol. A strong light covered the disaster Pokemon and the ball shook once... twice... and finally the red light indicated that the capture was successful!

Posted by: 2gamers Apr 29 2010, 07:42 PM

…Cleff…Cleff…

CLEEEEEEEEFFFFFFFAAAAAAAAAAAAA…

The little cleffa wailed in displeasure, her cries echoing through the tunnels. Pivot zoomed away from the distressed pokemon, while Chi-Chi hid herself inside Pan’s vest, plugging her ears with her fingers. Pan cringed as the high-pitched screams reached her, covering her ears with her palms. She was starting to regret not reacting sooner.

Turnip, using his vines as earplugs, still stayed close to the cleffa. His past experiences with a certain mischievous rodent told him that there was only one way to calm such a situation. The ivysaur bent forward in a bow, aiming his fledgling flower towards the cleffa. Like a volcano spouting embers, Turnip unleashed a cloud of pollen into the air, engulfing the star shape pokemon. The cleffa breathed in the sleep powder; the tunnel immediately became silent. She sniffled a bit, but with a long yawn, the pokemon toppled over, fast asleep from the attack. Everyone took off his or her ear protection, relieved that the screaming had finally stopped.

Pan quietly approached the cleffa, pokeball in hand. The pokemon was lying on her back, arms and legs spread out in a start shape. Her silent snoring made her quite a cute sight. Not wanting to disrupt her nap, Pan simply pressed the button on the pokeball, allowing the red light to absorb the cleffa. The device hardly made a movement other than a click, signifying that the capture was a success.

“I think it’s about time to call it a day,” Pan said, thinking the cleffa. Sleeping didn’t sound like a bad idea at all. But first, Pan had to help Diana with her Pichu…

She released Fenrir to assist with the camp setup, then followed Diana to a clear spot.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

As the others were setting up camp, Pan and Diana were standing at the edge of the site. They watched as Chi-Chi and Lin were facing each other, ready for whatever commands would be issued.

“OK, this will be just for fun,” Pan assured the pokemon. Both pachirisu and pichu gave thumbs up to the humans to signify agreement.

“I think Lin should test her thundershock attack, while Chi-Chi uses quick attack to avoid getting hit,” she said to Diana. The woman agreed; it would be a good test of speed and accuracy for the young pokemon.

Both issued the orders, leaving the progress of the battle up to the pokemon.

“OMG!Lookatme!I’mgoingfasterthanasuperfastthing!” the pachirisu exclaimed as she quick attacked away from the pichu’s thundershock.

Chi-Chi wiggled her fingers and gave a mischievous smile; she was threatening a tickle attack. As the battle continued, the pachirisu came closer and closer, her laughter growing louder and louder.
------------------------------------------------------------------

Back at the camp, Turnip and Fenrir were making a fire to provide additional light in place of Chi-Chi. The ivysaur provided a pile of razor leaves, careful to shoot them towards the ground. The growlithe provided the fire, shooting an ember into the pile. Though these particular leaves were more resilient than traditional foliage, the fire would not last long without wood.

As the fire burned, both pokemon watched Pan laughed at Chi-Chi’s antics. Turnip nodded; it was good that she was in good spirits (as always). In contrast, the ivysaur didn’t like being underground, away from the sun and free air. Still, it was only for a little while; he was tough enough to take it for a few days.

Fenrir, however, was enjoying the pairs of pokemon and human enjoy their youth. He laid down near the dying campfire, brought back to times long gone.

Posted by: Moonlight Zelda Apr 30 2010, 12:20 PM

“True enough,” Diana returned, nodding in response. “If Chi-Chi is willing to help, that’d be nice,” the young woman added, gently petting Lin now. All of them promptly clapping their hands or paws over their ears at the star shape pokemon’s ear piercing wail, Innes forced to flatten his own ears in order to preserve them. Lin proceeded to bury her head in Diana’s shirt again, her paws holding her ears down while Kimball proceeded to plug his ears like Chi-Chi.

Fortunately, it didn’t last long as Turnip took the initiative to calm it down. Viridian green dust soon cloaked the pink fluffball, its wails slowly being reduced to mere hiccups as results when it began taking affect. It then slowly rocked over, soundly asleep. A short crimson flash briefly caught their attention, though the capture was fortunately lackluster as well.

The pichu let out a soft sigh after a moment, before hesitantly crawling onto Pan’s shoulder to sniff the cleffa’s pokeball. She twitched an ear after a moment, before hugging the electric squirrel next to her – Promptly resulting in Chi-Chi’s flash doubling the expended light again – and pointing at the ball. Now smiling, even. Probably seeing the cleffa as a new playmate.

“So, what are you going to name her?” Diana queried after a moment, though her ears admittedly were still ringing. She had no doubt the rest of them were feeling similar effects. The young woman lightly tapped Innes on the head after a moment, causing his ears to perk back up. “It’s all right, now,” she murmured, causing the venomous gerbil to sigh in relief and surprisingly nuzzle her. She quirked a brow, bemused, though appreciative. He hadn’t done that in quite some time. “… Thanks, Innes.”

They straightened after a moment, before they joined the others at the designated campsite for the night. Kimball and Innes decided to stay with the others and help, though in different ways. The nidoran’s weak Confusion managed to work the rare sight of a root out of the rocky ground, before tossing it on the fire while they went to find something else. Diana bit back a grimace as a bitter smell burst from the flames, causing all of them – People and pokemon alike – to start coughing and/or gagging from the heat-amplified stench.

The onyx tressed young woman dropped her backpack near the others, before quickly joining Pan several yards away. There was no denying their eyes were watering from it, though. Lin’s paws now covered her nose, shaking her head, before they finally dropped. A small sneeze came from the electric mouse, yellow sparks briefly lighting her pink cheek pouches. But, at Pan’s saying it was just a practice battle for fun; the young mouse pokemon promptly gave a thumbs-up sign in confirmation.

Posted by: 2gamers May 2 2010, 09:39 AM

Pan clapped as Lin regained her confidence in battling Chi-Chi. The pachirisu’s tactic of turning the battle into a game came through; she seemed to have a knack for instilling confidence in young pokemon. The improvement of the pichu’s thundershock attack was a testament to her skill as a teacher.

The smell emanating from the campfire became too strong to ignore. Chi-Chi was starting to cough from the stench, making it very difficult to continue battling. Even Pan had to hold her nose to keep from breathing the bitter air flowing through the tunnel. Meanwhile, Turnip and Fenrir moved away from the source to avoid getting overwhelmed. The ivysaur started to spray its sweet scent around the area to mask the stench.

“Pivot, mud-slap the fire!” Pan shouted as she coughed. The baltoy obliged, spinning rapidly and tilting to the side. This lowered its spinning arms to ground level, flinging dirt onto the burning bitter root. The fire finally died out, though the air still reeked of burning onions (albeit in a rose garden, courtesy of Turnip’s sweet scent). Nonetheless, the worse symptoms disappeared; Pan and Chi-Chi were no longer coughing.

“And the lesson here is,” Pan began, “don’t start burning anything you find.” She smiled; this would make a good story once the smell became only a memory.

She went towards her backpack to grab the only edible things remaining: two bags of sweet pokemon food. Using the granola bar wrappers as placemats, Pan poured piles of food for the pachirisu, ivysaur, and growlithe (Pivot was never able to eat). The human took a piece of the kibble and started to eye it hungrily. Her other pokemon didn’t seem to mind the stuff, so maybe it wasn’t as bad as she thought. Pan plopped the food into her mouth and started crunching. Her face scrunched up in disgust, as if she just took a bite out of a candied hot dog. She forced herself to swallow and quickly reached over for some water in an attempt to drown out the awful taste.

“Does anyone happen to have some extra human food lying around?” she asked her teammates. “This pokemon food is not going to cut it for me.” She was surprised she could even mention eating the stuff without gagging.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam May 2 2010, 12:04 PM

Justin backed away and forced his eyes closed as the cleffa screamed the most hideously obnoxious sound he'd ever heard in his life. He wanted to yell at it to just shut up, but something in the back of his mind told him it wouldn't help the situation at all. However, that "something" in the back of his mind's voice was not nearly as loud as the cleffa's yells, and was completely masked as a result.

"Oh my god, shut up!!" he yelled as Turnip fortunately put the thing to sleep. "Thank God," he exhaled.

Pan caught the thing, which was good, because it was clear she wanted to, so he was happy for her. When she mentioned setting up camp, he had Tyrogue lay down the sleeping bag and began scouting the area for fire materials. Rocks, rocks, rocks, fire, rock-Wait. There was already a fire?

It seemed Turnip and Fenrir had made a campfire using their special pokemon powers, something Justin didn't even consider. "Okay," he said, defeated, "Well, we still need some kind of-"

Diana's nidoran ran up to the fire with some sort of root in its mouth and dropped it into the flame. "Okay...Tyrogue," he said, looking to Tyrogue, who puffed out his chest and looked ready for anything. "Help me get some rocks so we can cont-What in the-"

That's when the smell hit him. He immediately began to cough, and looked up at Tyrogue, who continued standing tall, but with a single tear forming at his eye. "Someone put it out, holy shit!" he yelled, practically in the fetal position, holding his hands over his nose, but not wanting to breathe through his mouth either. He was seriously considering using one of his few bottles of water to just put it out and keep that damn root from burning any longer, but it just didn't seem worth it to do anything but hold himself and cry.

“Pivot, mud-slap the fire!” Pan shouted from a slight distance away. Her baltoy threw some mud onto the flames and, though the smell still existed, it began to die. Justin just fell back onto his sleeping bag and Tyrogue finally fell over onto his chest.

“And the lesson here is,” Pan said, “don’t start burning anything you find.”

"Hey, it wasn't me," he replied, not yet sitting up. "It was Diana's nidoran. And I think it probably barely understands the concept of things being combustible, which is impressive, but I don't think it really learned a lesson here. No offense, uh- Was it Kimball?"

There were so many names to learn, and he didn't really want to bother too much since he didn't really intend on hanging out with anyone here after this particular adventure. He had to go back to work, after all, unless he found something worth a lot of money down here. Of course, that possibility was always on the back of his mind, since he decided to go into the underground. Supposedly there were plenty of buried treasures down there, and the fact that Pan already found a few (none of which were shared, even though her partners had yet to find anything of value, something Justin had not mentioned, but that he was thinking about) just showed how common they were.

When Pan asked for some food, Justin sighed. "Sure," he said all cheerfully, "Because you don't have any food, and I do have some food, and I know you need food, I'll let you have some of mine, because I understand that you just got unlucky that the cleffa ate your food instead of mine, and so I think it's only right that we share food." He wondered how subtle he was being as he tossed her a granola bar.

Posted by: 2gamers May 6 2010, 09:46 PM

As Pan caught the granola bar, she was beginning to think that something was up. Justin sounded quite cheerful, perhaps a bit too cheerful. Throughout the trip, he seemed quite neutral; the sudden change in emotion, combined with the monologue on how Pan lost her food, made Pan wonder. Was he mad at her? She had offered to share her tools with everyone, and she kept a good attitude throughout the journey. Was it something else she did?

Rather than open the snack, Pan kept the granola bar in her hand and continued the conversation with Justin.

“Um, is something wrong?” Pan asked, looking rather concerned. “Because if you can’t spare food, that’s alright. I can manage.”

"Nothing at all," he nodded, opening up another granola bar and taking a bite. "You know, this is fun," he continued after swallowing his first bite. "Us all hanging out. Reminds me of this time I went fishing with some friends of mine. See, I'm pretty broke most of the time, so a friend of mine let me borrow his fishing rod and we all went fishing and, sure, we kept track of who caught what, but in the end, we cooked the fish and everyone ate. You know what I mean?"

He didn't want to overtly tell Pan that she needed to share her findings. In fact, if she were to offer, he would decline. He just didn't think it was right that she just assumed it was hers because she found it. As far as he was concerned, they were all down there together. Everything anyone found was everybody's.

“Wait, is this about treasure?” Pan looked back at Justin in disbelief. She was a smart girl, so it didn’t take long to make the connections between food, fish, and the finds of the day’s journey.

“Look, this isn’t my stuff to just give away,” she said, maintaining her calm demeanor after the suggestion of unfairness. “Whatever I find goes to the museum I work for. I’m doing my job.” She hoped that the mention of “job” would spark some understanding from the hard-working man.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam May 7 2010, 10:47 AM

"Clearly you don't understand my words!" Justin stood up and Tyrogue did the same, both looking quite angry, but Tyrogue clearly didn't understand why. "I'm just reminiscing on old times. You know how it goes. I'm gonna go dig some more, though, since I haven't found anything yet, and apparently the only thing that matters down here is who actually picks the perfect spot to start digging, otherwise you're shit outta luck, huh? It's cool. Hope you guys have a goodnight, though.

"Sincerely," he added, with extreme lack of sincerity, "Congratulations on your stones, your fossil and your rare pokemon. I just cannot express how happy I am for you."

He didn't wait for anyone to react or respond, but turned and began walking down the cave a little further, not looking back to see if anyone followed, but hoped no one did. He didn't grab any tools, but fully intended to have Nincada, Tyrogue and himself do all the digging by hand (or claw in Nincada's case).

Pan walked right after him, determined to figure out what was up. She tossed the granola bar back with his stuff as she increased her pace. Turnip saw the humans starting to argue and followed Pan, leaving the rest of his companions to their meals (after scarfing down the rest of his dinner of course).

“What happened?” She asked Justin as she trailed behind him. “We were getting along just fine! Why are you mad at me?” Pan was both exasperated and confused; she honestly couldn’t understand why he seemed so angry.

He sighed and turned around. "I don't know," he said, somewhat defeated. "I just, I'm really having a hard time looking at you right now. Could you just leave me alone and let me find something that will make me rich? Or at least a couple hundred bucks, I don't really care."

“Fine, don’t look at me. You don’t even have to stop working. But you will listen to what I have to say.” Pan was now fairly angry; a rare frown appeared on her face. Her arms were crossed under to her chest as she stopped behind Justin.

“I’m sorry you’ve had a rough life and that money hasn’t been easy to come by for you. But please don’t blame me for it!” Her voice was much louder than usual, echoing through the chamber. Realizing that the others could likely hear her, Pan clamed herself. She turned to her ivysaur and had a plan.

“Now, if you want help finding something,” Pan continued as her anger started to dissipate, “that I can do. Turnip, help Justin break through these walls. I’m going to get the tools.”

"No!" Justin put his foot down. "Keep your pokemon. Keep your tools. And don't you dare try to play like you know me, like you know what I've been though. This is not about you anymore. Just leave me the fuck alone and I'll handle this. And maybe I'll rejoin you in the morning. Okay?"

Pan shook her head in frustration. First, Justin complained how he didn’t get “his share” of treasure. Then, when she offered to help find more, he pushed her away again. Pan had enough arguing for the night; the trip along with the digging had worn her out well before the spat with Justin. She let him be and started walking back to camp, Turnip walking beside her. She was still mad at how things turned out, but hoped things would be better in the morning.

Posted by: 2gamers May 11 2010, 02:19 PM

Pan started setting up her sleeping bag next to the tunnel wall. She always liked sleeping next to something ever since she was little; the security assured her that she wouldn’t fall off the bed. Even on the ground (not to mention her age), this preference remained.

She didn’t take time to examine her finds. The argument with Justin actually made Pan feel bad about her successful day. She knew she shouldn’t feel this way; it wasn’t her fault that he couldn’t find anything. Nonetheless, she stuffed the evolution stones and the old amber into her backpack, leaving their examination for another day. She had kept the mysterious necklace upon her neck, mostly because she had forgotten it was there.

What she did not forget about was the large cleffa she had obtained. Knowing full well that the pokemon was sound asleep, she released her onto the sleeping bag. Sure enough, the cleffa was resting soundly upon her back. Only her slight breathing interrupted the moment. As Pan watched, she noticed that the pokemon was much bigger than she remembered. She was almost as wide as she was tall! This did not take away any of her cuteness though; Pan smiled as the cleffa curled up on her side, a soft “Clef” exiting her mouth. To the human, the pokemon resembled a lima bean in shape. To be fair, the shape was universal to most beans, but Pan had a preference to lima over all others.

“I think your name will be…Lima,” Pan whispered. Lima didn’t make much of a response, other than a slight sniffle of her nose.

As the rest of her team started to approach, Pan quickly returned Lima back to her pokeball. She did the same for Fenrir and Pivot, but Turnip insisted on staying out. Chi-Chi slipped into Pan’s vest for the night, waving a good night to her pichu pal.

“I think I’ll retire a bit early tonight,” she said to Diana and Andrew. She then slipped off her boots and laid herself on the sleeping bag.

As she stared up towards the stalactite-covered ceiling, Pan reflected upon the day’s events. The day turned out to be a good one, treasure-wise. She was sure Prof. Stone would be quite pleased, particularly with the fossil and the necklace. Pan was also fortunate to meet Diana. It would be nice if she could stick around a bit longer. As for Justin, Pan hoped his attitude would change by morning. If it didn’t, well, at least he’d be gone soon. Still, it’d be nice to mend bridges before then.

Hoping for a better tomorrow, Pan rolled over on her side and closed her eyes as she was whisked away by the Sandman.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam May 22 2010, 09:52 PM

(OOC: Moving on, I guess?)

Justin summoned Nincada from her ball. "Come on, girl," he said, trying to calm her down as she immediately began crawling around the floor and then up the wall a little bit. "Let's find us somethin' to make us rich." She didn't nod, but she might as well have, because she immediately began to obey. With incredible speed, she began digging tiny holes into the wall. He summoned Tyrogue to help her break through some of the tougher rocks, but Bonsly stayed tucked away in his pokeball.

So the three of them continued digging away. Tyrogue, closer to the ground, was punching through rocks. Justin, further up, was using all his might to pull some of the heavier rocks out of the wall, knowing that, as long as he didn't dig too far in, it wouldn't compromise the structure of the cave.

After about an hour of this, moving up and down the cave wall, he came to the realization that if he was going to find anything useful, he'd need Pan's device, and he was not about to ask her for that, not after all the stuff he said. Asking for it would necessitate an apology and that was just about the last thing he was about to do.

"Rogue," Tyrogue sighed, exhausted, punching the wall once again, his tiny fists beginning to bruise. Even the ever energetic Nincada found herself out of breath. Justin, too, was in no condition to keep at it, but he was in even less condition to give up.

"Fine," he said, pulling out their pokeballs. "I'll handle it myself." He recalled both of them into their balls and continued digging away at this wall until his arms completely gave out about an hour and a half later. It was at that point that he half lied down, half fell, and closed his eyes, enduring one of the worst nights of sleep he ever had. He fell immediately to sleep, thankfully, otherwise he'd probably have spent the time before sleep thinking about all the terrible things he said to Pan and actually start to regret some of them. Or worse, he'd start to justify them in his own mind and say worse, more personal, things to her when they met up in the morning. And if that night proved anything, it should have been that he needed her if he was going to accomplish anything here.

Posted by: 2gamers May 23 2010, 05:55 AM

As the night wore on, Turnip started growing weary. He had spent much of the night investigating suspicious shadows, walking the perimeter of the camp site, and making sure Pan was covered up in her sleeping bag. Chi-Chi’s cheeks provided a dim nightlight to keep the surroundings somewhat visible, but that would not be enough to keep the ivysaur awake. He decided to take a few minutes to nap in order to refresh himself.

And yet, Turnip had the feeling that he was being watched. He opened his eyes but saw no hint of another being. He went back to sleep, only to be interrupted again by some non-existent being staring at him. The ivysaur must have woken up five or six times before his face locked onto the black beady eyes of a mole pokemon.

“Diglett!”

Turnip jumped to his feet as the diglett sunk back into the ground, reappearing at the center of camp. The ivysaur followed, only to be met by two more of the pokemon. The trio of diglett grinned, but Turnip was not amused. These creatures had ruined his sleep and would likely keep doing so until he gave them a whipping. He wrapped his vines together into a club and took aim.

In a humorous game of “Whack-a-Mole,” the digletts ducked into the ground each time Turnip swung his club at them. The mole pokemon chuckled as the ivysaur grew frustrated with their antics. When all three disappeared, Turnip waited patiently for one of them to resurface. He would get them this time…

Everything changed when the ground trembled under Turnip’s feet. Hundreds upon hundreds of digletts emerged from the ground. From wall to wall, the colony was tightly packed together, forming a new floor upon their heads. At their mercy were Turnip, Pan, Diana, Justin, and the entire campsite. The digletts started moving through the tunnel with surprising speed, chanting as they went:

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam May 24 2010, 06:00 PM

"Son of a-" Justin heard himself say before he consciously knew he was saying it. He felt the unfamiliar and uncomfortably comfortable vibrations nuzzling against his collapsed body. The sound of the digletts were echoing all throughout the tunnels at that point, but it wasn't until their burrowing started to affect him physically that he woke up. His eyes were pushing shut but he kept them open as he stood, trying not to agitate the moving earth below him.

He had to think the situation through fully, which was made difficult by a combination of being barely awake and holding onto his balance to keep from falling over from the shaking ground beneath him. Were they hostile? Did he need to prepare to fight? That notion became immediately out of the question when he actually saw the Diglett Army rush through the cave. There had to have been hundreds. If they were hostile, he was dead, end of story. If they were not, however, his single priority was to keep them that way.

He didn't want to go back to Pan and the others. But he kind of did. But then again, he didn't. Maybe if he came back all heroically, he could skip the apology and go straight to "you're welcome." Realistically, though, what was he gonna do to be a hero? Fight off all the digletts? No.

In the end, the most reasonable path was to just tuck his tail between his legs and head back to camp, empty handed as he was. How he wanted to uncover some ancient pokemon fossil or a long buried nugget of gold, but in the end, he just had to accept that he was not destined for greatness or riches. Forever, he would be the guy who worked hard for little reward. There were no lucky breaks, not in the real world...Of pokemon.

When he got back to camp, maneuvering around the digletts, he looked up at Pan. The others were there as well, but only she got his eye contact. "Is everyone okay?" he asked, meekly.

Posted by: 2gamers May 24 2010, 08:04 PM

Pan turned her head around to see Justin fumbling towards her. He looked quite a bit dirtier than she last saw him; his hands were clearly stained with dirt. She didn’t bother to find out how his treasure hunt went. Last night’s argument wasn’t even on her mind at the moment. Right now, they were traveling on a magic carpet of diglett and Justin appeared all right.

“I think we’re OK…at the moment,” Pan replied to Justin. Her tone was a bit more serious than usual. The digletts were taking them through several turns, over hills, and down ramps that led deeper underground. She would have thought they were all on a slow roller coaster if it weren’t for lack of loops (thank goodness). More importantly though, Pan had no idea where they were going.

“Where are we going?” Pan thought to herself. Perhaps the digletts were aiding them, taking the group towards an exit. Maybe they acted as ancient tour guides, taking the humans to a bounty of undiscovered treasures. Or maybe the digletts were taking them to their colony, where they would tear the humans and pokemon to bits and pieces to feed to their young. As cool as it would be to see a diglett colony, Pan wasn’t quite ready to become someone’s dinner. She was pretty sure her friends felt the same way. Just then, their salvation appeared to their left. Another corridor opened up in an otherwise solid wall. It appeared the diglett were going to continue down the main path to destinations unknown. Pan figured they needed to get off before they became more lost than they already were. She pointed towards the opening to get everyone’s attention.

“I say we get off of this train ride,” Pan shouted to the others. She motioned for the others to follow her to the edge of the diglett army. Here they would be poised to jump off at a moment’s notice. As soon as the Diglett Express passed by the alternate path, Pan shouted “NOW” and leaped off.

“Woah!”
“Saur!”
“Pa!”

Pan and her pokemon jumped off the digletts, the human rolling onto the ground to prevent too much injury. She managed to land on her feet, but what she saw next caused her to stumble backwards and gasp in shock.

The face of the eruption pokemon Groudon stared down upon the group. Judging from the height the creature’s head from the ground, the monster must have been twelve feet high. Though the fearsome jaw remained closed, its eyes seemed directly fixed upon the humans and pokemon.

Chi-Chi’s lightened cheeks would soon reveal that Groudon was nothing more than a statue of a head delicately carved from the rock around it. But for a few seconds, the sight of it caused Pan to back away quickly to the others as Turnip took position in front.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam May 24 2010, 09:34 PM

As Pan answered, it seemed she was already heading his direction, allowing the mass of digletts to carry her. Justin decided to go with the flow as it were, and stopped resisting, allowing himself to be carried as well. "So I'm not sure we should just let them do whatever they want with us..." he said, but was sure no one heard over the quakes. Luckily, Pan seemed to be on the same page, however, as she suggested they hop off at the next turn, which the digletts were avoiding.

Justin joined her as she jumped and was immediately startled by the Groudon statue. Justin had, of course, heard of the legendary Groudon, but he also knew that the chances of it being in some cave underground in the middle of nowhere on this tiny continent were virtually nonexistent. It actually made him chuckle when Pan backed away from it slowly.

"No worries," he said, moving forward and knocking on its gigantic leg. "It's a fake." He looked back at her and found himself smiling as he looked at her while she came to the realization that she was not about to be killed by Groudon. Once he realized he was smiling like an idiot, he jerked his head away, forced a stern look on his face and blushed all at the same time. Surely the redness in his face detracted from the fake look of urgency and seriousness, but he didn't know he was blushing.

He rubbed the back of his neck. "So we should find a way out of here soonish."

Posted by: 2gamers May 25 2010, 08:23 AM

As Pan looked closely at the “creature,” she eventually saw the stone texture and stillness of the Groudon statue. Evidently, the incident at Castle Vonmoto made her rush to conclusions, though the adrenaline rush from jumping off the digletts probably didn’t help matters. Still, it looked almost lifelike: each groove was meticulously hand-carved seemingly eons ago. Those eyes continued to stare down upon the human visitors, as if waiting to come to life.

Pan also noticed Justin grinning from ear-to-ear at her reaction, as if trying to suppress outright laughter. He tried to keep his glee subdued, causing his face to blush a rose red. She walked towards him and playfully pushed Justin, their sides connecting.

“Oh, quiet you,” Pan replied to Justin’s chuckles, a smirk appearing on her face. Her focus then switched back towards the Groudon replica.

She grabbed her camera as she stood up to the beast, recording the find for the museum. A bright flash enveloped the corridor as she took a picture. As she examined the statue, Justin inquired about finding a way out of the tunnels.

“I think you’re right,” Pan replied. “This appears to be a dead end-”

Just then, her boot hit an object on the ground with a soft ‘clank’. Looking down, Pan saw what appeared to be a metal cap, its circumference equal to the length of her foot. She knelt down to examine the object, Turnip joining her. It was incredibly rusty, as if it had been sitting in the darkness for as long as the Groudon statue. The shape of the cap suggested that it was a cover that could be lifted. Pan grabbed the cap to reveal something that she hadn’t seen for years.

Three holes were unveiled: one large cone-shaped hole with two narrow slots at each side. Pan stared at the shapes, wondering if this was truly the same thing she saw years ago.

“I’ve seen something like this in Hoenn,” she told the others, s bit of excitement in her voice. “And if I’m right…”

She released Pivot from its pokeball to investigate the holes. The baltoy slipped into the cavities as if by instinct, the bottom half of its body completely hidden from view. She ordered a rapid spin attack, causing the baltoy to turn like a key in a lock. A loud click echoed through the chamber, quickly followed by the Groudon statue opening its mouth. The mouth dropped far past the jaw, straight towards the ground. Pan smiled as a dusty hallway appeared where the creature’s belly was. Curiosity took over as she delved into the new pathway, not even so much as addressing the others.

The hall led to a hidden room lined with clay pots. The pots were filled with various items: dried stalks of wheat, bundles of shriveled up fruit, and even gold nuggets were among the contents. Pan deduced that these served as some sort of sacrifices, but her attention was drawn to a particular wall. It depicted a story through a set of four panels arranged as if it were a small comic strip.

The first panel depicted a temple under a couple of clouds, with stick people carved around it. The engraving of Groudon lay peacefully below the temple. The second panel showed the people sacrificing a mareep, angering the Groudon. The third panel, set below the first, depicted the temple sinking into the ground below. Things appeared to have been set right in the fourth panel, where the people offer up crops and other items from the earth to please the eruption pokemon and keep the land fertile.

“Look at what we found,” Pan said to the others, eyes wide in amazement. “This looks like something from a long lost civilization, one that may predate the Founders!” Pan smiled widely; there were still undiscovered secrets within the world.

Suddenly, Pan’s attention went towards another wall, where the sounds of a construction zone emanated through the room. She didn’t know how she didn’t notice the sounds before, but clear as day, Pan could hear a jackhammer rumbling. Several construction workers were calling out to each other. The sounds were coming through a wall of loose stone bricks. Pan immediately pushed one of them out after examining the rest to make sure the wall didn’t collapse on top of them. Against Turnip’s vocal objections, Pan crawled through the new hole.

“I just want to see what’s going on. I’ll be in and out; I promise,” she replied to the ivysaur. She then reached her arm out to help Justin through; something told her she may need his expertise soon enough.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam May 25 2010, 12:15 PM

"Oh good idea," Justin thought to himself, sarcastically, as Pan walked straight into Groudon's mouth. "This probably leads to the exit. Maybe we'll even fi-What." He noticed the inside now. The place was gorgeous in a creepy sort of way. More importantly, his curiosity was sparked as he wondered how long this had been here and who else knew about it. Did they just discover a long lost civilization?

“This looks like something from a long lost civilization, one that may predate the Founders!” Pan seemed to say exactly what Justin was thinking. Moreover, whatever was left of his former anger of her slipped away as he secretly grabbed one of the golden nuggets from a pot and quietly put it in his bag. His heart was racing fast as he knew it was probably worth a couple thousand at least.

As they continued, the white noise in the background grew loud enough to be clear. There was construction going on not far from there. "Someone else is here," Justin said as they continued, the sound growing. He stood back as Pan took the initiative to push out a loose stone from a wall where they stood. She crawled through and held her hand out to him. He wasn't sure he'd fit, but he gave it a shot.

Success! His shirt ripped a little bit, and he knew his shoulders were gonna be bruised up pretty good from being forced through the hole, but it was alright. "Yeah, I think I'm gonna go with 'Ow!'"

Posted by: 2gamers May 25 2010, 04:32 PM

While Pan’s slim body was able to slip through the space, she underestimated the size of Justin by a good bit. His arms were like tree trunks! At one point, Pan had to use both her hands to pull him through. They succeeded in entering the room, though Justin seemed to have some pain in his shoulders.

“You all right?” Pan asked, instinctively grabbing both his shoulders. Quickly realizing the mistake, she pulled back and apologized.

“Sorry!” she said, but the apology was brief. As Turnip and Pivot were making their way through the hole, Pan saw what was causing all the noise.

The group happened to be in a huge rock quarry, around the size of a football field. Workers with yellow hardhats dotted the area; some were using shovels to dig while others were operating large bulldozers of various styles. Crews of machoke were carrying boxes to a large platform underneath a huge hole in the ceiling. The platform was part of a large elevator system not too different from the one Pan and co. used to access the Underground, though this one was meant to carry larger crowds and equipment. Pan wasn’t sure what to think: was this a part of the temple? Maybe it was an ancient village. She could spot several clay pots that hinted of more clues to a relation to the temple she left. If that were the case, what were these people doing here?

Pan was determined to find out.

“Come on. I want to go see what’s going on,” Pan said to the others. Turnip was not so thrilled by Pan’s escapades; he growled his discontent. He certainly didn’t like the idea of his human rushing haphazardly into a crowd of sweaty males.

“Hey, I haven’t found out what was going on yet,” Pan replied to the ivysaur. She then started moving down the ramps carved from the rock as she made her way down, her pokemon behind her (grudgingly in Turnip’s case).

As the humans and pokemon walked around the work zone, one of the hardhats stepped in front of them. The man was wearing a light blue long-sleeved shirt, a pair of jeans, and a yellow hard hat. According to his nametag, his name was Larry, he was a contractor, and he was quite a bit taller than either Pan or Justin (hence the name: Big Larry). Also, he seemed to have been working through much of the night: dark bags under his bloodshot eyes were quite clear.

“What do you think you kids are doing here?” Larry asked, sounding a bit displeased that he had visitors. “This isn’t a playground; this a work zone!”

Larry’s attitude was not enough to discourage Pan from inquiring about the site. She kept walking up to him.

“First of all, I’m not just some kid,” Pan replied, matching Larry’s attitude with her own. “I’m a researcher with the Petropolis museum. We just uncovered part of a temple back over there-”

“Before you go on,” Larry interrupted, “You’ll be glad to know that that museum you just mentioned is working with us to clear out all these artifacts so we can go on with our real job. We’re digging for water so that the happy little people on the surface won’t die of thirst. Is that a noble enough cause for you?! Now scram!”

With that, Larry didn’t even bother to see if Pan and Justin were leaving. Rather, he headed straight for the coffee pot, mumbling about “darn kids” and “deadlines”.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam May 25 2010, 05:29 PM

Larry, clearly very annoyed at the young people taking up his workspace, walked off. "I got this," Justin nodded to Pan and approached Big Larry.

"Are you the Foreman?" Justin asked. Larry turned around, a mug of coffee up to his face. He slowly lowered the pot and looked at Justin.

"That I am,"

"Good," Justin nodded. "Are you guys are contractors, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Then you know as well as I do that you are legally responsible for any historical sites you might come across. There are more artifacts on the other side of that wall. And we're not just talking about artifacts. Statues, wall paintings. They all need to be preserved. It doesn't matter if a museum in a different city agreed to buy some artifacts from you. You need government clearance on a federal level to continue further in this direction and I know damn well you don't have it." Larry's face was furious. "Maybe you do though. If you show me some clearance papers, I'd be more than happy to get out of your way."

Posted by: 2gamers May 25 2010, 10:43 PM

Larry was not only furious; he was a bit flabbergasted. This kid knew what he was talking about. His eyes widened as Justin went over the law as if he were reading it from a book. Rather than continue to yell at Justin, he took a deep breath and responded.

“I’ll go get you those papers,” Larry said calmly, though his voice was deeper than before, perhaps threatening. He then turned around and walked off to the other side of the work zone.

Pan came up from behind Justin, grabbing his arm to get his attention.

“Thanks, for whatever you just did,” Pan said. Justin seemed to have just the right words for getting to the contractor. Whether they would work or not remained to be seen; Pan was just glad he put in the effort.

Still, the one thing she couldn’t shake was the mention of the Petropolis Museum. She would have thought that the professor would have mentioned that another team was excavating a site somewhat close to her study. Perhaps it was a last minute dig? Her poketch revealed no new emails, which led her to believe that her status as intern meant she wasn’t privy to such information. That was even more puzzling, considering the things she discovered so far.

Before she could delve further into the mystery, the chamber filled with workers yelling in panic as they rushed to the opposite end of the site.

“Get out of the way!”
“It’s out of control!”
“I’m too old for this stuff!”

Several boxes flew through the air as a massive metallic gray behemoth plowed through several boxes. It ran with surprising speed on two large legs, each with a footprint that could easily fit over a human. Though it lacked any other appendages, it made up for it with a giant drill that took up much of the face of the mechanical monstrosity. There appeared to be some sort of windshield above the drill, but it wasn’t particularly visible. At 10 feet tall, it was quite a sight to see when it was performing its normal functions. At the moment however, it was nothing short of terrifying.

It was quite clear that this was no pokemon. This was a large bipedal mech, perhaps a robot. On top of that, it took aim at Justin and Pan, the drill spinning at full strength. Turnip was the first to take action; the ivysaur charged forward, dodging to the side at the last second. Now behind the creature, Turnip used his vines to grab a hold of the mech’s leg. He had absolutely on effect in slowing it down. The “drillbot” kept charging towards the pair.

Pan immediately ran as the drillbot descended upon them, its drill stabbing the ground the two were standing on moments before. While the mech was preoccupied, Pan directed Justin to hide behind the crate. She took a quick peak from behind the crate; Turnip was still away from the pointy end of the foe. Pan knew that wouldn’t last forever.

“We need a plan,” Pan said as she turned to Justin, worry in her eyes. She was really hoping he also had experience in stopping rampaging constriction robots.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam May 26 2010, 11:07 PM

Justin jumped out of the way and hid behind some boxes, shaking his head furiously as he did so. This was no accident. Clearly our Larry forgot to take his meds that morning or something and decided that the line between scaring some kids off and killing was much bigger than it, in fact, was.

Pan suggested that they come up with a plan. "No, you know what?" Justin stood up and walked out into the open, immediately attracting the attention of the machine and, more importantly, the man controlling it. "Fight fire with fire. And in this case, stupid with stupid. This isn't a robot and it's not malfunctioning. Larry!" he called out strongly, hiding his nervousness. His fists were balled up at his side. "What are you gonna do? Are you gonna kill me? Over a job? Do you think you're gonna get away with it?"

It began moving towards Justin. His fear intensified, but he stood strong. "I have an electric pokemon. You know what'll happen to you if it uses an electric attack on that machine?" He pulled out Tyrogue's pokeball, but the machine just sped up. Quickly, he summoned Tyrogue. "Fake Out," he said, taking a few steps back as his pokemon jumped up in front of the mech and punched at the cockpit. It obviously did no damage, but it stopped it in its tracks for a split second, enough time for Justin to make his way over to where Pan was hiding without Larry seeing.

"Their foreman is controlling it," he said. "I think he's inside the machine, otherwise Fake Out wouldn't have worked. If he goes too far, you might have to get your pachirisu to electrify it. That'll injure him pretty badly, though. I'm not sure if you're up for that."

Posted by: 2gamers May 27 2010, 07:09 AM

Pan watched as Justin left the safety of their hiding place to confront Larry face-to-face. She didn’t think it was a particularly good idea to taunt a seemingly crazy person, a thought made clear when the mech kept charging towards Justin. She kept watching from behind the crate as his tyrouge attacked the mech, allowing Justin to retreat back to the crate unnoticed.

Pan agreed with Justin on using Chi-Chi to stop Larry’s rampage, as did the pachirisu. Chi-Chi crawled out of Pan’s vest, ready to go on the attack.

“Trust me, he’s already gone too far,” Pan replied. She would feel more shocked if she weren't preoccupied with not getting killed. “We’ll need a bit of a distraction to create an opening for Chi-Chi.”

Pan grabbed two pokeballs from her belt. She immediately released her growlithe, but was a little hesitant to bring out the second pokemon. Their pokemon were quite small compared to the massive mech that was after them. They were going to need something bigger.

“Don’t fail me now Zulu,” Pan said as the rampardos appeared in a flash of red light. She was careful to release the pokemon some distance away, in case she needed time to recall him. As Pan walked up to Zulu, he remained in the position he was in the last time he made an appearance. The dinosaur pokemon was lying down, enjoying a nice nap on the ground.

“Zulu, we kind of need you right about now,” Pan pleaded. “There’s a guy inside this machine trying to come after us and it’d be really great if you’d stop him.”

The rampardos didn’t even budge. Apparently, his beauty sleep outweighed their lives by a significant amount. It looked like they were going to need a plan B.

As Pan walked back to Justin, she looked around at the surrounding area. The panicked workers had apparently left via the large elevator, leaving all of their equipment behind. This included several large bulldozers of various shapes and sizes.

“Do you think you can use one of those to fight him off?” Pan asked Justin.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to get an answer: Larry had drilled right through the crate they were hiding behind. Pan screamed in surprise, diving to the ground to avoid injury. The mech’s attention was now on the woman, stabbing the drill down to the spot she lied on. Luckily, Pan rolled out of the way in time to avoid getting skewered. This left the mech temporarily stuck as it struggled to regain position. It was just enough time…

“Chi-Chi, now!”

The pachirisu ran towards the machine, gathering electricity as she gathered speed. Finally, she tackled the mech’s leg with a spark attack. She ran back to Pan and awaited the results.

Much to their disappointment, the mech was back in standing position, moving towards Pan once more. Like a car in a lightning storm, the mech had insulated the driver from the electric attack. If the pachirisu were to have any effect on the machine, she would have to get inside and short-circuit it. If only they could get part of the steel coating torn off…

Pan stood up and began walking backwards as the machine kept coming towards her. Her pokemon rejoined with their human, Turnip having given up on slowing the mech down. Hopefully, the distraction would be enough for either Justin to get an opening or for Zulu to regain his senses.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam May 27 2010, 11:33 AM

Justin jumped back as the drill broke through their hiding spot. He tried to help as the machine stabbed towards Pan, but he had no idea what to do. Luckily, she dodged its attack and her pachirisu did the weakest little electric attack of all time, or at least it seemed that way at the time. The metal covering of the machine was protecting it from the shocks. If it were more powerful, it would be enough, but weak physical tackles like that would not break through. They needed to take it down from inside.

Luckily, these things weren't made for combat. Tools were all over the place. How he wanted to pick up a sledgehammer and just beat the crap out of the thing, but he knew that wouldn't do it. He needed a... Uh...

A wrench! Perfect. The idea came when he saw one lying on the ground not too far away from him, so he ran towards it and picked it up. "Tyrogue," he said to his pokemon, who was outside of his ball also hiding. "Fake it out again." He summoned Bonsly. "Bonsly, I need you to attack its legs right when Tyrogue fakes it out."

So the little bonsly waddled over to the machine as it charged Pan. Before it got to her, Tyrogue jumped in front of it, making a loud thud on the windshield. It wasn't nearly as effective as the first time, but it did garner some reaction from the mech. During that short time, Bonsly unleashed everything it had and tackled the thing's legs. That, paired with the flinch, provided just enough unsteadiness for it to stumble. It did not fall down all the way, but it did lower itself enough for Justin to jump onto its back.

He held onto a bar on a small door which was surely guarding all kinds of delicious wiring. It was locked shut, though, which is why it was fortunate he grabbed the wrench. They were tight, but Justin was strong. It didn't take two seconds from him to rip the first bolt from the door. The second one went down just as fast, providing Justin with ample time to open the door and look into the mess of wires. He reached his arm into it with full intention of ripping all the wires out simultaneously, but his excitement was his undoing as the machine's left arm reached back and hit him straight in the side of his head. Justin flew off the thing, completely losing consciousness.

In the very least, he had opened it up.

Posted by: 2gamers May 27 2010, 04:35 PM

“What are you doing?!” Pan said in utter shock as Justin climbed onto the rampaging mech. This was likely the second craziest thing she saw today. She smiled as he managed to unscrew one of the vulnerable doors off, but that smile quickly disappeared when the mech threw Justin off. He wasn’t getting up; was he all right?

The situation was desperate now; Justin needed help and Pan was next on Larry’s list. She turned to the other pokemon for aid.

“Everyone, I need you guys to get him back on the ground. Chi-Chi needs a chance to get inside and end this once and for all. Whatever you do, keep him away from us.”

Pan immediately ran to Justin to check his condition. It was then that the situation seemed to have become much worse. Justin was thrown into a resting Zulu, angering the dinosaur pokemon. The rampardos stood up, looking down on the human that slammed into him. Pan quickly stood between Zulu and Justin, tying in second place for craziest thing she saw today.

“Zulu, this isn’t Justin’s fault. That guy over there,” Pan pointed over to the mech, “hit you. He’s trying to hurt all of us.”

The rampardos looked back down at the humans, then back to the mech. He continued looking back and forth, trying to decipher how and who hit him. To Pan, it was a dangerous game of Russian Roulette, with a 50/50 shot of his decision ending very badly for her and Justin.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, Turnip and Fenrir were about to implement a plan against the metal menace. The ivysaur stood some distance behind the growlithe, his vines wrapped around the dog pokemon’s waist.

“This better work!” Turnip told the growlithe.

“Works in my head,” Fenrir replied. This did not make the ivysaur feel any more confident in the plan.

The growlithe began by running, the vines keeping him in place. Faster and faster he went; a fire was growing beneath his feet due to all the friction. Turnip could feel the heat licking at his vines, wincing as it came closer to burning the appendages.

“NOW!”

The ivysaur released the growlithe, much to his relief. Fenrir shot off like a rocket towards the mech. The flames quickly arched above the pokemon, forming a wheel. The time taken to charge the attack had created a more powerful maneuver. Fenrir charged at the underbelly of the enemy, just missing its right leg. The growlith stopped behind the mech, a little disappointed that he missed the intended target. Still the damage was enough to get the machine to lower, temporarily disabling its attack.

“Pa Chi-Chi!”

The pachirisu quickly dashed to the open panel, prepared to do her part in ending the madness. Like a rodent in a bird’s nest, she quickly started ravaging the wiring, causing the mech to begin malfunctioning. Finally, another spark attack from within seemed to have ended Larry’s brief reign of terror.

That was until the machine began making a whirling sound. It began to vibrate wildly, the drill spinning out of control. Chi-Chi quickly retreated out of the mech, warning the others of the danger it still posed.

“BoomBoomBoomBoom!” she cried repeatedly while frantically waving her arms. Though she spoke fast, the other pokemon certainly took the hint, heading back to their human to help them get away from impending doom.

WHAM!

The mech went flying halfway across the work zone as the rampardos’s head butt connected. Zulu watched with a satisfied grin as the machine landed with a thump, it’s drill causing it to dig deeper into the ground.

“We’ll meet you guys up there,” Pan said to the pokemon. She had Justin leaning onto her back, his left arm around the back of her neck. He was fairly heavy for her to carry, but with plenty of time, she could get back up the ramp.

Unfortunately, time was no longer on their side.

The mech had drilled so deep, it actually hit an underground well. A loud boom signaled that large amounts of water were spewing into the work zone. Pan looked behind her to see a huge geyser break through the ground. Even Zulu was frightened by the coming surge, quickly making his way the ramp. The other pokemon had to be told to haul buns up there.

“Everyone, get up there! Turnip, I need you to lift us up there. I don’t think I can get Justin up in time.”

Turnip acknowledged his human’s words and quickly raced up the ramp. As other pokemon followed, Pan struggled to drag the unconscious Justin back up to where they entered the area. It wasn’t long before the water had reached her knees. Luckily, Pan made it to the wall, where Turnips vines dangled in anticipation.

“Now Turnip!” Pan shouted.

The vines quickly wrapped around the pair, albeit in a somewhat awkward position. Pan was now face-to-face with Justin, the vines squeezing them close together. Her arms wrapped around his torso to stabilize him.

“Justin, wake up,” Pan called out to him, hoping he would break his unconscious streak. At the same time, they were slowly being pulled upward, though the ivysaur was struggling with all the weight. Fenrir and Chi-Chi assisted by pulling on one of the vines to speed up the process, leaving the other vine for other pokemon to help.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam May 28 2010, 04:46 PM

Justin started to hear sounds but they were muffled and blurry. So blurry, in fact, that he didn't even comprehend that it was his sight that was actually blurry, and not his hearing. Diction aside, he actually started to come to when Pan said his name.

His eyes opened up all the way and he forced himself to blink a few eyes to really figure the situation out. There was Pan, less than two inches from his face. And there was Pan's body, wrapped around his. And there were her ivysaur's vines, wrapped around the duo, pushing them awkwardly together and pulling them up. Below him was a geyser spewing out water at high pressure and he just remembered that there was a man controlling a machine trying to kill them.

"Hey," he finally said, putting his arms around her as well, but he didn't hold very tightly. The vines were gripping them pretty hard. "So I know this isn't the right time to bring this up. But I'm sorry. I'm sorry about being such a dick earlier and blaming you." He wasn't sorry for bringing it up. He did have a problem with the fact that she was keeping all the booty to herself, or sending it to her museum. Same thing in his eyes. But he was sorry about being so mean about it.

Looking up, he saw that the ivysaur was having problems pulling them up. Pan's pokemon were pulling one of the vines and Justin's Tyrogue was pulling the other. Bonsly was watching the ordeal, but his lack of arms made it difficult for him to help. If only Justin could help. He wanted to just climb up the vines, but he knew he'd pull Pan's ivysaur down and screw everybody over. Then a rare thing happened. He got an idea.

"Bonsly, stand in front of Ivysaur. Tyrogue, help make sure Ivysaur doesn't fall in. The rest of you guys, stop pulling on the vines and just make sure Ivysaur doesn't fall in, alright? We're climbing up." Bonsly, being a particularly heavy rock type, was able to keep Turnip in place with the help of the rest of the pokemon, even given that Justin was about 250 lbs and pulling himself up also meant pulling Turnip down. The combined weight and force of all the pokemon was more than enough to allow Justin to do that, though. And with Pan holding onto him, and the vines helping to keep them together, he was able to bring both of them up to the top.

Once he gripped the ledge of the ground above him Tyrogue released his hold on Bonsly and rushed to help pull Justin and Pan up. Once they were on solid ground again, Turnip released them and Justin got to his feet. He was still a little dizzy and so he did it slowly. "I, uh," he began. "So should we get outta here?"

Posted by: 2gamers May 28 2010, 10:30 PM

Pan was relieved when Justin finally came to. He seemed to have caught up with the situation quite quickly. A few moments later, he had his arms around her. Whether this was for added stability or for more comforting reasons, she could not say. If only Justin didn’t have a girlfriend, Pan would feel less guilty about their position.

She looked back at Justin as he started to apologize for last night.

“I’m sorry too,” she began. “Usually, I do these kind of things alone, so I never thought about sharing. If there’s a next time, try and bring it up before we start digging.”

After a brief pause to look at the rising waters below, Pan looked back and smiled.

“For the record though, I kinda saved your life, so I hope that makes up for it a little bit.”

She watched as Justin started ordering pokemon to hold Turnip down. Fenrir and Pivot planted themselves in front of the ivy saur’s feet, the baltoy digging into the ground for added support. Chi-Chi tried holding onto Turnip’s back leg, allowing most of the other pokemon to focus on the front. As Justin started to climb up the vines, Pan held on tighter to Justin’s torso, further compounding her guilt.

With everyone’s combined efforts, Justin and Pan made it to the top. The water’s rise began to slow, suggesting that the water would not follow them to the top. Pokemon reunited with their respective human, checking on his or her wounds. When Justin asked to head back, Pan was more than happy to follow suit.

“Please, after all this, I’d be more than happy to head back.”

It was then that Pan saw their beaten foe, Larry, lying unconscious on the other side of the ledge. Chi-Chi took the opportunity to jump onto the foe’s chest and perform a victory dance. She did several back flips as police sirens echoed from the temple entrance.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam May 29 2010, 12:20 PM

Once they were all safely out of the potential drowning situation, Justin's pokemon walked/waddled (Tyrogue and Bonsly, respectively - Nincada was still in her ball) over to his legs. "You guys were so awesome. Thanks for saving us." He held his fist out to Tyrogue, who followed suit by punching Justin's fist lightly. Then he rubbed the green branch things on Bonsly's head and turned to Pan.

"I appreciate you saving my life, Miss Pan," he said with a smile. "We're even." He didn't mention it, but he had also stolen a gold nugget from the historical landmark he was trying so hard to preserve. It was just one little piece though. Larry was trying to destroy the whole damn thing. So he didn't feel too bad. He did feel bad enough to not say anything at all to Pan.

She thankfully agreed about heading back, and they did so after some questioning and official nonsense. Lots of paper signing and Larry was going to jail. Hopefully the site would also be preserved.

Which brings us to breakfast at the Green Dragonite. He got himself a stack of three pancakes, plenty of bacon, scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage and a chicken fried steak with cream gravy. The man was hungry. He was perfectly willing to pay for the whole thing, especially given his newfound toy, but Pan insisted, and that worked for him. However, he still had to be polite about it.

"No," he said. "I can't let you pay for me. I got way too much food." She insisted and finally he allowed her to win. Not like he actually wanted to win that argument anyway.

"So," he continued before fully swallowing a mouthful of pancakes. "What's your plan now? Go back to Petropolis to turn in those artifacts you found? If so, we could probably head back together. That's where I live after all."

Posted by: 2gamers May 30 2010, 08:35 AM

“Actually, I’m staying in town to take care of a few things,” Pan replied to Justin. “I’ll turn the fossils in through the computer. From there, it all depends on what the professor wants me to do next.”

As her pokemon finished their meals, Pan returned all of them back into their pokeballs. She then released her new cleffa Lima and presented her with her own bowl of sliced mushrooms. Lima, however, was far more interested in the feast Justin had ordered for himself. The tiny creature started licking her lips at the sight of the meats and pancakes; she would have climbed across the table to them if it weren’t for Pan.

“No no, eat your own food,” she said, placing Lima into her lap. Though the cleffa obliged and started eating the food offered, she never took her eyes off of Justin’s plate. Luckily, the two were alone on the outside terrace, so the cleffa wouldn't go after other patrons' meals.

Lima was starting to like her new human. Of course, all it took was to offer her a good meal and she would have happily followed anyone, especially the man in front of her. All that yummy food…

Pan stared out towards the view. They were on the ground level of the town, so she had a good view of the busy activity around town, particularly those getting on and off the elevator.

“What about you?” Pan asked Justin. “I guess you have to get back soon. Let me know when; I’ll walk with you to the elevator.”

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam May 30 2010, 11:09 AM

"Not that soon," Justin replied, pulling his plate a little closer to himself. If the cleffa did happen to dart across the table towards his food, it was not like he was going to actually defend it. Pan paid for it, after all and smacking her new rare and fragile pokemon around was not a healthy way of saying "thank you,"

"I don't start back at work again until next week," The thought of it would have made him lose his appetite if he weren't so damn hungry. Like he'd been doing every few minutes since he grabbed the nugget, he let his fingers rest on it in his pocket, just to make sure it was still there. This would not be an effective ticket to living life unemployed, but maybe it could get him started on a better path, one that didn't require 55 hour workweeks. "But I'm thinking about putting in my two weeks notice anyway. Maybe I'll go back to school or something."

I'd be lying if I didn't say the "or something" Justin mentioned was professional thievery. Something so simple as grabbing something that didn't technically belong to him which was worth thousands? It made him giddy. And you do not want to see a large, muscular man giddy. Trust me. Especially when it comes to breaking the law. That was another thing he did not mention to Pan.

"Anyway," he continued, downing his last bit of steak, "I guess I should go back to get started on my new life, huh? I think I'm ready to head back."

They talked a little on the way back to the elevator, but it was pretty close to the Green Dragonite, so there wasn't much of it. When they did finally arrive, Justin held out his right hand. "I appreciate you letting me tag along, and saving my life. I hope I wasn't too useless in this whole ordeal."

"Anyway, it was really great to meet you. We should keep in touch?"

Posted by: 2gamers May 30 2010, 09:38 PM

After paying the bill, Pan walked with Justin to the elevator, her chubby cleffa tottering on her other side (she needed to start some sort of exercise regiment).

“Well, if nothing else, you at least have a good story to tell your girl back home,” Pan said. “And thank you for all of your help. If it weren’t for you jumping on that machine thing, I might have had a new hole in me.”

She laughed at what could have been a very serious injury. Needless to say, Justin played a big role in her adventure. This wasn’t even counting the time he helped her dig up the old amber.

“Cleffa Cleffa Cleffa!”

Lima felt that she wasn’t getting enough attention from the other humans. Pan picked her up, holding the pokemon in one arm. Rather than shake his hand, her other arm wrapped around Justin’s back in a “half-hug”. This also served to allow Pan to slip her e-mail and blog site into Justin’s pocket.

“Good luck on your school…or something,” Pan said smiling. “I really hope it works out.”

She stood for a while to watch Justin ascend back to the surface. Once he disappeared into the darkness, Pan turned her attention to Lima. The cleffa was busy sucking the last morsels of food from her fingers, only turning to Pan when the human held her with both hands.

“I think it’s time for you to meet the rest of the crew.”

The two headed for the pokemon center for a formal introduction to the team. Pan had a ton of other work to do: filling in the professor on her findings and the incident in the temple as well as return Zulu back to Darryn. After all of that was over, perhaps a nap was in order.

It had been a long couple of days.