Ampharos

((Well uh... I think I might be back...)) Locke looked at where Throh was directing him, and simply chuckled in response. "No silly! I'm not a Pokemon! I'm a trainer! I want to contain you in a small spherical capturing unit and make you fight for my own goals and entertainment! Doesn't that sound like fun!" Locke gave both fighting Pokemon a wide grin, but before either of them could respond, began talking again. "Just kidding! It's not really all that entertaining... Kidding again! You guys will really be- Oh the pumpkin thing's back! It's still as cute as ever!" "Gas... Gast?" I... What?

Revvy began to chuckle now, both at the Pumpkaboo's still ridiculous plan and the comment about Locke. "What? What' so funny? Stop leaving me out!" "Gastly Gast!" "Wha- bu- I do not! My hair doesn't even go down to my shoulders! I have facial hair!" Locke couldn't continue his rant on his masculinity, due to Vera practically launching into Locke. Slam was a pretty powerful, and even more powerful since it was a move of Sentret's type, so the Counter hit her pretty hard. So hard to the point she had been knocked out. "Aw crap... Come on Revvy!" Locke ran into the clearing with the Sawk and Throh, Revvy trailing behind, completely leaving the Pumpkaboo behind without another word. "Hey! You really hurt Vera! And- Ooohh... Fighting types? Would either of you like to join my team?" Locke's change of tone and subject was so sudden that it would have seemed like he had been trying to get the Pokemon on his team from the start.

Locke tilted his head at the Pumpkaboo's... words? "Revvy I uh... Couldn't understand that. Huh... That's never happened before. What did it say Revvy?" However, the Gastly was simply trying to inch away from the odd Pokemon. "Lyyyy..." I'd rather not... "Wait, what? You'd rather not do what? Revvy!" Vera seemed almost insulted at Sawk's motions. The Sentret, being quite oblivious to the obvious type disadvantage she had, jumped into the air and did a flip. As she did so, she brought her tail down to Slam the Sawk on it's head.

@@Vaporeon,@, @@Umbreon, Alery had listened intently to Falkner's words, and began thinking about what they could do with Ho-oh. Didn't the Pokemon have something to do with life and pure hearted people? What could a bunch of arsonists want with a Pokemon like that? Alery flinched slightly at the other trainer's mention of the Hoenn organizations, feeling a large pang of guilt, but showing nothing. At Falkner's proposition, Alery considered his options, and decided he'd go check it out. "I'll go to Ecruteak. Talking to Morty doesn't seem too difficult..." ((This is basically what I'm using to get out of going to Azalea town.))

((Dammit Leafeon! I said I didn't want to catch it! Stop making me regret that!)) Locke nearly had a heart attack at the Pumpkaboo's adorable advances, while Revvy just gave the Pokemon an odd look as it essentially just made contact with him, considering neither Pokemon had arms. Locke was making barely audible noises as he fussed over the adorableness of what was going on. He was so intent on just watching the incredibly cute Pokemon that it didn't even come across him then to try and capture it. Meanwhile, Vera watched intently as the fight went on. Oh! Maybe she could try and test her new attack on them! The Sentret smiled at the thought and scampered over to the Pokemon, attempting to request to spar with them. "Sen Sentret!"

@@Vaporeon,@@Umbreon, @, Alery quickly returned all his Pokemon and sighed after the man left, glad all of this was now over. For now, at least. Hearing the other trainer's inquiries, Alery felt the need to interrupt. "Um, I really don't mean to interrupt, but I'm quite surprised Sprout Tower's still even standing from how long this fire's been going and how fast and violently it's been spreading. It might, possibly be a good idea to move this conversation to the ground..."

Chapter 1 “Huh, that’s pretty interesting,” “Yea… Thanks for letting us stay here by the way… What did you say your name was again?” “Apollo, and don’t worry about it! Sometimes I could use a little company here.” Finley smiled at the Pikachu’s answer. The Sneasel sometimes doubted there were any good Pokemon left out there, but after stumbling onto Apollo’s hut, the Pikachu had greeted them with gusto and quickly invited them inside. “Woo!” The young Phantump sitting on the bench with Finley shouted out her agreement with Finley’s gratitude. Finley had just told Apollo why he had been wandering around in the first place, and he looked around the small house as Apollo went to make some poffin soup for them. Apollo was a kind, surprisingly young Pikachu who had distanced himself from civilization and had built a small hut for himself in the woods. Finley and Clarion had been cutting through the woods when they came across the hut. Finley jumped as he came back into focus to see Clarion trying to grab a very valuable looking statuette off of the end table near the bench. “Woo Woo!” she yelled defiantly as Finley pulled her away and onto his lap. “Heh, my little sister used to be like that. Had a lot of things go missing when she was littler.” Finley grew quiet at Apollo’s statement, and from the look on the Sneasel’s face, Apollo could tell it wasn’t something that should be asked about. Noticing Apollo’s gaze on him, Finley quickly flashed him a sheepish smile before turning away slightly. Finley quickly tried to shake the thoughts he had out of his mind, before Apollo tried to make some small talk. “So uh… Were you guys heading anywhere specific? Not many Pokemon come through these woods, and I honestly can’t remember what towns are around here.” “Oh we were heading over to Huckleberry Town from Mandarin City. Cutting through the woods was just a shortcut, at least according to the map I was following.” “Hm. What were you heading there for?” “Just to get something to eat. Restock our supplies. Maybe find a place to rest our heads for a day or two.” “Ah” There was a bit of an awkward silence as the two Pokemon ran out of things to say. The sweet, yet spicy aroma of the soup was filling the house, and Clarion was beginning to drool a bit. Apollo came over to them with two bowls, and set them on the table in front of their bench. “Wow Apollo, this smells awesome! Thanks again!” Apollo simply smiled as Finley dug in, and chuckled as Clarion inspected the food thoroughly. Eventually, the small Pokemon picked up the wooden spoon in the bowl and took a small sip. Judging from the look on the small Phantump’s face and how fast she began to consume the soup, the little Pokemon definitely liked it. “By Arceus’... This is even better than it smells!” “Woo Woo!” “Heh heh, thank you! Couple things I learned before I moved out here, which in turn gave me time to perfect all the recipes I was given!” “Wait, you have more awesome stuff like this!?” “Of course! And you guys are invited to stay as long as you want so I can-” Apollo suddenly stopped talking, ears twitching and an intent look on his face. This caused a worried look to creep onto Finley’s face. “Um… Is everything alright?” “No… I hear more Pokemon… You wouldn’t have happened to have anyone lagging behind…?” “No, sorry.” “That’s what I was afraid to hear… Maybe they’re just more wanderers?” By now, Finley was looking out the makeshift window of Apollo’s hut. A Poochyena, a Murkrow, and a Purrloin were making their way through the woods. Finley’s eyes grew wide, noticing the eyepatch over the Purrloin’s eye, the shiny coat of the Poochyena, and the wrapped wing of the Murkrow. “Those aren’t friendlies Apollo. Bring Clarion into the back room now.” “But shouldn't you both-” “No, they’ll pass through your house quickly, and you won’t make it out without a few injuries.” “How do you-” “I just know okay! So take Clarion in the back room, now!” Apollo quickly complied as Finley looked out the window once more. He gulped nervously, tugging at his tattered red scarf. After breathing out deeply, Finley walked outside while the trio was looking away. He didn’t want to alert them just yet about where he was. Once they got fairly close to the hut, he came out several feet behind them and got into a fighting stance. “Hey! Is this what you’re looking for?” The trio turned around quickly to see the Sneasel presenting himself, and holding his hand up. The Razor Claw welded onto one of his claws shined as the moonlight caught it. All three dark Pokemon had grins on their faces now, but the eyepatch-wearing Purrloin was the first to speak. “Thought you’d be harder to find ‘Finley’. That’s what you go by now right? What was so bad about-” “You don't need to ask questions Becquerel. We both know you always loved the sound of your own voice. How about you shut up so we can get this over with!” The grin on the Purrloin’s, now known to be named Becquerel, face seemed to disappear, an almost angry look replacing it. He looked back at the shiny Poochyena and flightless Murkrow, before nodding his head at Finley. “2 on 1? That’s not the way you usually do things Bec!” Finley swiftly rolled away from the Poochyena’s Bite and slashed the Murkrow with Metal Claws as he did so. The Poochyena quite literally ate the dirt in front of him at the misfire, and the Murkrow screeched and jumped back from Finley’s attack. Finley remained unscathed as the two Pokemon quickly regained their composure. Before the Murkrow could fully recover from the fast attack though, Finley suddenly rushed in and the dark bird took an Ice Punch right to the cheek. The super effective attack sent the Flying type back at Becquerel. The Purrloin cried out in outrage as the Poochyena was knocked back towards him as well, due to a spinning Slash from Finley. Becquerel had been about to attack Finley himself, but knowing the Sneasel’s reputation and being down two fighters, Becquerel simply cried in outrage before yelling at his team members to get up. “Don’t think this is the end! Next time it’ll be guys like Idris and Merek! There’ll only be a short lull before-” “I get it Becquerel. So leave. Now.” The Purrloin grew red in frustration before pompously turning around and strutting away as his team members limped after him. Finley sighed loudly as they left and rubbed the arm he had done most of the punching and slashing with, and hadn’t heard the front door of Apollo’s hut creak open. “Well you certainly made short work of them.” “Apollo!? I thought I told you to-” “Don’t worry, she’s fine. Her safety when she's with you is something to be debated.” “Apollo I can explain!” “Well my ears are open, and you don't have anywhere to go in a hurry. How about we have a little chat about what just happened?"

Locke stepped happily off the bridge as he looked around, the odd encounter not hindering Locke's excitement. He noticed a quite nice looking Pokemon near a pond and slowly walked over to it. "Aw! Aren't you the cutest little thing?" "Sen!" "Yes, even more than you, Vera." "...Sentret?" "Hmm... I don't know... It's a pretty close tie... Probably Clarion since- Hey I wasn't being literal! Anyway, let's check up on this cutie patootie... Blech! Don't ever let me say that again, Vera." Locke quickly checked his Pokedex for the very little information on the Pokemon. What it did give though, was the Pokemon's type. Which happened to be part Ghost. "No way! Don't look like much of one though... Not like it matters! Sorry Vera, but you won't do much against this thing!" Sen? Sentr-" Neglecting the fact that Vera knew Foresight, Locke sent out Revvy the Gastly, in case the Pokemon wasn't too friendly. Crossing her arms and huffing, despite just getting trained up to the skill level of Revvy, Vera began to wander away from Locke, towards a bit of a scuffle she heard.

Locke looked at where the trainer was pointing and then back at the trainer. "Are you saying I can- Oh! Oh, okay. Alright I'm going!" Locke inched away from the man who was trying to practically push him towards the exit and gave him a somewhat awkward smile as he made his way to Pinwheel Forest, adjusting his jacket collar as he went.

Alery was about halfway down the tower when he heard a fairly loud yell over the sound of fire violently crackling and wood creaking and crashing. Knowing full well that there was no way he could help the man now, Alery ran back up as fast as he could to the top of the tower, returning Crasher as to know wear the Pokemon out. Once at the top, Alery breathed the biggest sigh of relief he had ever breathed, even larger than the one he had breathed when he was kicked off of Magma. The Gym Leader was here! And he had grabbed the elder too! Oh this was going all too well for them! Alery planted a wide grin on his face before sending out his entire quickly growing team, which consisted of a Murkrow, a Rattata, his Buizel, and his highly trusted Growlithe. "Crasher and Abby! Aqua Jet and Pursuit the ghost thing! Walter and Vulcan, Quick Attack and Flame Wheel on the Mightyena!" Crasher and Walter took off at incredible speeds towards their respective targets, while Abby and Vulcan charged as fast as they could towards theirs. It looked like this grunt was hopelessly outmatched and outnumbered.

Christian means... well... Christian. In other translations it's also "Follower of Christ" or "Believer in Christ" which is hilariously ironic because I'm an athiest.

@@Leafeon, Locke looked at the black cars peculiarly before turning his gaze to the bored looking trainer. He raised his eyebrow at Vera, who just shrugged. "Sen sen!" "Wouldn't hurt to try... Uh, excuse me sir!" Locke began walking over to the boy. "You wouldn't, by any chance, happen to know what's going on?"

Bloosh. Monstercat Wednesday release. Oh yea, it's free to download btw.

"Oh... Oh! Oh marvelous! Yes! This is fantastic! And with at least two whole somewhat fairly credible sources! This is magnificent!" Wayward bounded over to the librarian, the stallion shooting a somewhat angry look at the volume of his voice, but Wayward payed no mind. He quickly checked out all three books and dashed out of the library. He didn't currently have anywhere to coop up to do his research, and he needed a cold drink from all his running. So naturally, he began making his way back to the coffee shop for a milkshake. On his way, he bumped into a pink maned mare he vaguely recognized and yelled a sorry over his shoulder as he continued towards the cafe. "Wayward Wander!" shouted Hush. "Are you doing-" But the stallion was already gone. Not even half an hour and he's already doing research on the area? Ugh! Why can't he just take a break!? Hush huffed angrily before continuing to wander the city. She had absolutely no idea what she wanted to do or get here! Meanwhile, Wayward had found his way to the cafe, panting, and quickly spread his books and the few things he had scribbled down on parchment, some even as he had been running, on the table. After ordering a milkshake, his eyes began to dart around the papers, and he occasionally scribbled a few things down. "Yes... Yes!" he muttered quietly, before scribbling a small diagram on his paper. He seemed to be very consumed in the work.

Alery raised his eyebrow at the trainer's proposal. It didn't seem very foolproof. "Uh.. Okay? Um, you guys stay here, I'll head to the bottom," he whispered to the other two trainers, before rushing back down the ladder with Crasher close at his heels. "Come on bud! We gotta move fast before he thinks of something else to do instead!" "Bui!" Alery and Crasher continued to race down to the bottom of Sprout Tower.

@,@@Vaporeon, Crasher barely dodged the Will o' Wisp, and just barely caught himself before falling into the fire around him. Alery rushed passed him as he got his bearings back, following that other girl that had come in here. Crasher hurried after Alery and the girl as they went to the top floor. "Give it up! You're outnumbered!" was the first thing the Buizel heard from his trainer as he came up. Alery saw no point in a fair fight, considering how serious this issue was.

@@Vaporeon,@, @@Umbreon, What the hell!? A Pokemon did this!? I've gotta stop it! "Crasher! Aqua Jet!" "Bui!" The Pokemon quickly became surrounded by water as it barreled towards the Fire type Pokemon. Alery wasn't sure if Crasher could handle this thing alone. It looked quite powerful, much stronger than Vulcan. He wanted to send out his Murkrow, since the Pokemon looked to be part Ghost as well, but the bird Pokemon certainly wouldn't do well in these conditions.

@@Vaporeon,@@Umbreon, Alery immediately staggered back outside from all the smoke, and was greeted with a wet cloth in his hands. "Oh uh... Thanks! I'll do everything I can!" Alery put the cloth over his mouth and nose before running back in. Actually seeing how bad it was inside gave even Crasher a new vigor to help these people. The duo chased after the sound of the Hoothoot, noticing another trainer who was not Abigail doing the same.

((Ah you know what, just ignore most of my last post. Too many things I had to change/Wanted to change. The only things I'm not mentioning again is Locke's acknowledgement of Cecil and the Center trip.)) Finally back to the docks of Virbank, Locke sighed in anticipation. Vera sat quietly on his shoulder, feeling powerful after learning how to use Slam (and not evolving), replacing Helping Hand with the move. Locke really didn't want to go on a boat, but he also didn't want to face Roxie again just yet. Locke also found out that Castelia's gym was a Bug Gym, which would be quite annoying with no type advantages. So Locke settled on heading over to Nacrene City, where they had a simple Normal Gym. Oddly enough, even after finding out this information, Locke still hadn't the faintest idea that Aspertia had a gym, but it wouldn't matter, since he would be attempting to get the exact same badge from Lenora. ----- After getting off the boat, and abruptly hurling into a nearby trash can, Locke quickly made his way to the gigantic structure that was the Skyarrow Bridge. Locke wasn't sure what was on the other side, but he attempted to cross the bridge anyway. ((Leaving it open in case there's an event you want to happen. If not, just assume Locke made it to the Pinwheel Forest.))

Locke flashed a smile at Cecil as he walked out, but sighed after he got outside. That had gone really poorly. Maybe some training would have done some good... Locke sighed again and walked towards the Pokemon Center. As he healed up Revvy and Vera, he looked at the entry for Sentret in the Pokedex and found that Vera was already extremely close to evolving! Maybe if he could find a slightly easier gym with no crazy Self-Destructing moves... But the next one was in Castelia City if memory served him correctly. Locke wasn't too keen on getting sea sick just yet. Oh! Maybe there were some trainers around that he could fight! Yea that'd be good! ------- After ending up back in Aspertia City, with a newly evolved Furret around his shoulders, Locke noticed something he hadn't seen earlier. "There's a gym here!?" "Fur Furrret..." "No I'm not from around here Vera thanks for finally catching on!" Shaking his head at the Pokemon's ignorance, Locke walked through the trainer school that had totally hid the gym from him earlier. Locke was thoroughly disappointed that the Leader was about to challenge a trainer, and another trainer was seemingly waiting as well. Hmm... I don't want to go back to Roxie just yet... And I think I can probably wait. Maybe. And I can maybe learn some of this guy's strategies as well while I wait! Ace!

@, Alery's eyes grew wide as he looked back at the tower. "There's an elderly person in there? Oh Arceus... Come on Crasher!" Alery took off as fast as he could towards the tower. He was going to be a hero. The savior of Violet City! The- Crasher hadn't followed him. The Buizel had simply sat down, barely stifling a yawn with his paw. Alery rushed back to the Water Pokemon and Abigail. "Crasher! Now's not the time! This is what I was talking about earlier! Come on!" The Buizel simply yawned again and squirted a bit of water in his trainer's face. Alery spluttered for a second, and after drying his face with his arm, he bent down to the Buizel's height. "Crasher. If you don't help me here, I'll never let you eat another berry or apricorn easily ever again. You'll have to go find the food yourself, and then I might hide it and make you look for them again. You wouldn't want that would you?" Alery raised his eyebrow as Crasher looked at him. He didn't really want to help, but if he didn't, then he'd have to work even more than he had to to get berries! Crasher slowly stood up, crossed his arms, and started walking over to the tower. A swift kick in the arse from Alery made him go a little faster. "Come on Abigail!" he shouted as he ran inside, much to the dismay of the other monks.

@,@@Umbreon, Alery was just now leaving the Center, his new Buizel walking lazily by his side, looking like it was about to sleep as Alery talked to it. "Alright Crasher if you're gonna be a part of my team there's a few things you gotta- Oh hey Abiga- Hey slow down! What's up?" Alery quickly answered his question after looking up over the tree line at all the smoke. He quickly looked around the corner to see the smoke coming out of the tower they had seen earlier. Where had all that smoke even come from that fast? "What's going on?"

Wayward's eyes shot open after an idea came to mind. Oh! There's gotta be a library around here! Maybe I could look up stuff about the town, or anything nearby! Brilliant! Quite literally jumping off the bench, he took off around the city until he came to a skidding halt in front of the library. He trotted quickly inside, and his jaw dropped at the sight. "Oh my... It's beautiful! The archaic design! The decay of the wood on the shelves! Cobwebs everywhere! Oh this is simply wonderful! You sir!" He pointed at librarian, who looked quite surprised to see tears welling up in this odd pony's eyes. "You've done.... a simply excellent job!" the pony managed to squeeze out between moments of complete happiness. Before the librarian pony could respond, he took off for the Non-fiction section, more specifically the section on Baltimare History. He looked through the same books that Glacier had, being just as disappointed as she had been, but began looking at other books that wouldn't catch the eye of someone looking just for titles that would immediately give the reader information. He grabbed a book called "The Hoof-Crush Mines" and had even gone to the fictional section to get a book called "Myths and Legends of Baltimare" and another called "The Secrets in Baltimare Woods", which had claimed to be based on a true story. Wayward cracked open the mine book first, and began thoroughly analyzing the information in the book.