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Blossom noticed and shooed the little bulbasaur to let it bound back into the foliage since it wasn't going to be used in the battle. It was rather eerie how he was acting but she felt a bit more secure about victory, Nick's mind was obviously not on the battle but...

"You sure?... Alright then. Go, Lilo! Magical leaf!" Blossom called out her Bellossom to do battle and watched to see what kind of strategy she would need to look out for from Nick.

The leaves were like little arboreal homing missiles. They didn't do as much damage as other moves but were impossible to dodge and as many trainers put it, really freaking annoying.





Nancy walked quickly through the woods with the sense that she should not be there. The woods were likely on fire if the smell was anything to go by. She didn't know about the Magmortar or the crowds but was drawing closer to the epicenter hoping to help put out the fire.*

Nancy saw the people and could not see a thing past the crowds. "Back into the woods Emerson, I think we need to go around..." Nancy ordered and went back into the tall grass with the Combusken trailing behind. Emerson sprung into action when Nancy yelped in pain.

The Deino had found the source of the smell and the blind pokemon had to find out what it was somehow so he tackled something before biting down and was chewing thoughtfully. It didn't taste like any food he'd had before... He didn't like the texture. It tasted like plants except with a sour taste he couldn't name. Oh, wait, he smelled blood! Blood meant meat! The Deino liked meat and so kept looking for the source, the scraped palm that Nancy had landed on.

Emerson kicked away the Deino that was chewing on Nancy's coat. It would have stopped anyway since it especially hated the residual taste of detergents in the fabric but the double kick stopped it quicker.

"Deino?!"
"All right Emerson, Let's see if we can catch it!"
"Combusken?!"
"Double kick again!"
"Dei?..."**

Emerson took down the Deino with a second double kick to get him away and tried via charades to tell Nancy that it was a bad idea to try to keep a Pokemon that thought you were delicious.

It did not work. The Pokeball gave a satisfying click to confirm that Nancy was the proud owner of a dragon.

"Yayayayayayaaay! Emerson! We've got a full team! Let's go tell Nick and see the Pokecenter!" Emerson didn't bother with the charades again but hoped that he could protect Nancy from what he now was calling the murderbeast. "Say, I think we should name him Clouseau!... I have no idea what kind of pokemon that was." Emerson facepalmed while Nancy pulled out her Pokedex.

Nick obviously was busy and she thought Nick would call her the moment he succeeded in getting the badge so Nancy ran to the Pokecenter first with her new find.

*Since a lot of people had fire types and accidents happened, it was commonly understood that trainers helped fix problems caused by other people's Pokemon. Near most routes there would be one or two people hanging around to help with a ground type move or a water gun to put out a fire among other examples.
** "Meat? Where's the meat?"
"You can't be serious!? He was trying to eat you!"
"Food?"

Blossom noticed. The gym leader snapped out an order "Incapacitate now!" The bellossom used stun powder blanketing the area in the tranquilizing powder. Blossom was counting on the chlorophyll ability to help Lilo take down the wooper before the plan was set in motion. The trainer was not dumb enough to come to the gym with a double weakness and no good strategy.


Nancy looked at the letter with suspicion. "What?! What happens if I lose?!" This whole thing seemed suspicious to Nancy. This guy was probably working for Gamma and she didn't like how far away she was from crowds and safety if this guy tried anything like theft but... what choice did she have? She knew the smart thing to do was walk away but what if he could tell her where Kujo was or had friends waiting to ambush her if she walked away? Emerson was not pleased either as Nancy pulled out a pokeball and glared at the mystery man.

"I've got so many questions right now. What, you've got laryngitis or what?!"




Speaking of Kujo, he was arguing with the Unown again in the forest uphill from the location of the odd confrontation. They'd told him the name of the next guardian and he'd promptly freaked out. "That cannot be right, I am not dragging my little sister into this! It's bad enough that you've got me traveling everywhere hiding from Team Gamma and my pokemon are heaven knows where and probably having a horrible time and besides that there is no way that my little sister fits that description and..."

Fury and big brother instinct kept fueling the very long rant from Kujo (Still in the cheesy samurai guise). He had thrown the scroll to the ground and the prophecy could be read from where he was standing.

The seeker shall recognize the second
The darkness shall claim the huntress
They will reveal the evil for what it is


Darkrai had been bored waiting for the Guardians to prove themselves as worthy of being heroes. Cresselia had been giving him the lecture but he was planning on maybe tracking down the teens again from earlier. Or maybe he could go talk to the Seeker! That would be great, he wanted to see the guy again anyway and ask if he'd given the prophecy to his Guardian yet.


(Oh yeah, forgot to mention it being sunny in the gym.... guess the weather effect should be ignored since you didn't know about it.)

(Oops. That's a lot of Pokemon actions to follow. Could you please post less at once in the future?)

Nancy relaxed visibly when she saw who it was. "Er, hey! Matt! I remember from when we met and um... why the hood? You nearly scared me to death!" Nancy's companion Emerson on the other hand wasn't nearly as relaxed. He still didn't trust this guy. Something was very very off. "He's kind of in the middle of a gym right now, he's going to call when he's done I think. It was rather nice of him to let me come with him, what with Gamma around things have been a bit more dangerous. Why didn't you just ask for a battle if you wanted one?"

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Blossom watched Lilo reel from the shock since it simply was terrible at jumping. Too bad the water had washed off the spores... Lilo was down on the ground but she yelled out "Sunny Day!" anyway.

Things got brighter and the water started evaporating but Lilo was still vulnerable. Blossom was getting ready to call out the Lilligant.

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Kujo was calming down simply because he had to breathe at some point when talking. Sheesh, you have a very narrow minded definition of dark. Dark type pokemon aren't necessarily evil you know, The psychic horde reassured him. You took that completely the wrong way and honestly she's going to be in danger but if you help then she'll have a Legend to help her out. Kujo still didn't look too convinced.

It was a critical hit! Lilo fainted.

"Lilo, return! Go ahead Faye, show him what you can do with a little bit of sun." The lilligant was a graceful thing and very good at evasion but with a lowered special attack stat. It did know solar beam and took aim at Monking before unleashing the power of the sun. Steam rose up from the ground as the light blazed its way across the gym floor.

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Nancy was speechless. Her and Emerson stared at the Gamma insignia. The combusken had been suspicious but he really hadn't seen that coming. In unison they looked at the letter. "...now what Emerson? I should tell Nick but..."

He'd threatened her pokemon. Nancy knew that with the Snag machine technology Team Gamma really could take away her friends. It was probably a trap but the wannabe detective wanted answers.

"What if we trap him Emerson?"
"Ken."
"You are right, that is a really dangerous idea but if I can find out where Kujo is... I guess we are going to Luna?" It was still a very bad idea and Nancy knew it.

Did this have something to do with why Nick was acting so oddly?

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Kujo was not buying it. "Look, can't Arceus just come in and fix things better than we can? Can't the Legends do this better without humans putting them in Pokeballs?"

Hello again♪ Darkrai chimed from the shade

"Oh no not you. No I haven't found out who your Guardian companion is supposed to be and we are busy!"

You are wondering why things need to be this way. You have your doubts and insecurities. You think the world doesn't need your sister to risk her life. Anyone could have been chosen but she was chosen because she is stronger than you think and trustworthy. Darkrai held up a hand when Kujo started vocalizing again. First, the prophecy is not pointless. The bond between people and pokemon needs to be tested and humans need to be found worthy of Arceus. Second, if Arceus stepped in that would be like using Lugia's Aeroblast to take out a baby rattata. It's overkill and humans don't remember the last time Arceus fixed everything for us. Ever hear of Kyrie? Kujo shook his head. It was an small continent and the evil too powerful for ordinary means of destruction. It sank very quickly. If Team Gamma's evil spreads too quickly we won't be able to take it down without massive casualties. As for what happens if we don't have everybody... I can show you.

Kujo started backing away from the Nightmare pokemon but was too slow as Darkrai grabbed his face and put him to sleep. There.

Was that necessary? the Unown asked as Kujo snored.
It was quicker than speeches. Nightmares are rather effective for instilling a sense of urgency and he needs a taste of what will happen to the world if he fails. Darkrai started digging through Kujo's backpack and found crackers for the wait.

(Could you keep the pokemon to two attacks a turn please? Like a thunderbolt and a double team or a water gun and a switch out some other combination.)

Nick was talking to a guy who was currently having nightmares courtesy of a certain pokemon. Darkrai munched on a cracker and said. "He's busy. Leave your name and number after the beep."

Hey, he's telling the truth. We can tell cause we are psychic. The Unown said feeling very proud of themselves. Normally they couldn't do much (Only secret power) but if you got over a hundred of them in one place then reality tended to go a little fuzzy around the edges.

Darkrai nodded. Well, I'm done with showing him visions of darkness. Hey. Wake up Seeker. One claw was used to prod Kujo awake who snapped upright with a scream which trailed off quickly. "Wha-!?"

The Unown filled him in.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou! I was so worried about them! Well... I guess I have another reason to go talk to Nancy. Are we starting the Guild of Older Brothers who Help Out Their Siblings Behind the Scenes or what?" Kujo finished. The terrible joke was an indicator that he was in a much better mood now.

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Faye danced gracefully out of the way but Assurance still hit. During the lock on she fired another Solarbeam then at the same time as the watered down mud bomb used Solarbeam again. Mud bomb and watergun didn't do much to grass pokemon but the Lilligant was nearly out. Blossom recalled the pokemon and sent out an ivysaur. "Vine whip Stitch."

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Nancy had started out with the plan of burning the letter but then she remembered that this was very important evidence. The girl spent half an hour (Much to Emerson's dismay) carefully analyzing

(I keep changing the colors of the different voices and stuff. Maybe I should just drop it. I adopted the colorful speech as a way to let people just skip over a lot of stuff...)

"Um, okay. These guys aren't very clear on the details of such things..."

Hey. You try predicting events four hundred years in the future sometime. The Unown said as Nick took the map. We don't exactly-hey. He didn't stick around for the answer! Darkrai was clapping enthusiastically

He's good at vanishing! That's a solid 9 out of 10.

Right, so what we were saying was that we think we mixed up him and his brother earlier. Also we just plain old gave him the wrong pieces.

"What?"

They look alike. See, we got this for him. We kinda mixed up the lines too. Kujo wasn't really listening, he was just contemplating banging his head on a tree to see if the headache would be a good way to take his mind off the sheer annoyance he felt right now.

The fifth shall find the seeker
The forest's protector shall rise again
It's purifying power must be called upon to return those who are lost. was the portion they had for him and yes, they had mixed up the lines.

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The little ivysaur was crushed by the rock blast and a little dazed afterwards but responded to the request from Blossom for leech seed. Rougge was going to have a hard time if the seeds hit even with iron defense. It had a lot higher HP than the ivysaur so Stitch would get a lot of HP from the attack which is exactly what Blossom was hoping for.

"Stitch move!.... awww." Blossom watched the ivysaur tumble past her and recalled it when it didn't get back up to continue. "I think you've earned the badge today. Congratulations! You didn't seem very focused today though. You need to clear up whatever problem you've got or you and your pokemon won't do so well." Blossom dug around in her pockets and pulled out a Grass Badge for Nick.

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Kujo was in the location where Nancy had been previously. Emphasis on the previously. "Okay, where is my sister now guys?"

She's here give or take an hour.

"Okay, can you tell me where she'll be in an hour according to your prophetic powers?"

You should really show more respect for them. Even if they are scatterbrained.

"I forgot you were still following me."

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Nancy returned to town and stopped at the Pokecenter. She was thinking about what to tell Nick. She was going to head off to Luna as soon as possible to check things out early and try to train her pokemon on the way but even if she did that, she didn't think she would be ready for whatever was coming. "So Emerson, if we start going to Luna we can be there a day early if I take the shortest routes on the way. That would let me train on the way a little and possibly get a look at the Town before confronting Matt... There's probably going to be a hideout there though so... argh! This is impossible!"

Nancy let out her pokemon and Brauner out to play and eat a bit of food while she waited outside the pokecenter for Nick to finish the gym. The Deino however was still thinking of food so she had a little one-on-one time with Emerson backing her up to explain to the Deino what was up.

"All right then, I'm your trainer now! Hope you like oranges. I'll train you and feed you if that's all right."
"*Munch* Dei?"*
"You will have some rules though. No biting me or the team..."
Explaining rules took a while but Emerson helped and Nancy let Clouseau smell everybody to get a scent. Clouseau was thrilled and bounded around like a puppy looking for more snacks. (He crashed a few times and bit Nancy again at some point.)

This new friendship was not enough to take away the gloom completely. Marple tried to help Nancy's mood by being absolutely adorable at her but even Clouseau felt something amiss.