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It happened to be the same Snover that they had first run across. And it wanted no more to do with Ryan and James, fleeing as fast as it's stumbling legs could carry it.

"Guess it wasn't ready for a rematch." Lillie comments.

"Guess not," Ryan says with a shrug.

Veronica waited until night time to carry along the safari area. The small eevee seemed unsure about the darkness of the night. Although Veronica only stood more confidently. "It's up to you, to get used to it." Veronica coldly said. She implied that the eevee could choose to adapt into the environment with her, or that perhaps this would be one of the last times she would need him. The cold breeze shoved them forward and they crossed towards the upper North. As easy as it was to avoid the wild encounters at first in the night, they had to go around more hidden places to find a pokemon.

We tried going the long way around, not wanting to invoke any sort of ire of that Pokemon. Probably in the grand scheme of things, any one of us could have took the bug on, but I didn't really want to risk complacency. Especially not after that Cufant. Unfortunately, leaving one by, we ended up coming across another one. "..." I looked back behind us, making sure that we didn't get cut off by the same one. Sure enough, it was a completely different one. "Uhhh..."

"Are you going to battle it?" Tristen asked.

"If we were a bit in fresher standings, perhaps. At the behest of the possibility that there are a bunch of Cutieflies around here, maybe Ribombees at worst case scenario, on top of the string of battles that we got in? No. I'd rather not be stormed with Stun Spore...let alone let Torchic get caught up in that." I said. "Let's just...go...this way..." I said, being cautious in keeping distance from the insect.

Roll the number above and discover a Fossilized Dino in the Lower North Wild Area.

Getting clear of the Cutiflies and the potential of getting Stun Spored behind us for the time being, I could only help but to give a hefty sigh of relief. On the flip side though, I had a pretty dire feeling of irony dealt upon me. We ended up having to break away our rotation strategy. We were pretty much going to fight everything under the sun, rack up the KOs and such in relative short order. That was probably in the grand scheme of things overly ambitious by us, at least by me for being most willing to go along with it. The plan was unraveling by things beyond our control.

I then perked up, looking about. I was pretty sure around this area was for certain where Articuno and the Bronzong clashed. I wasn't seeing any left over ice, however, not sure if the ice was cleaned out by the tournament organizers or if merely the weather might of finally gotten it to melt. The ground was pretty freakin' damp around here regardless though.

"What's wrong, Blizz?" Tristen asked.

"Nothing. Just thinking back to yesterday with that Bronzong." I said. "At any rate, I think this might be the upper limit before we find our way into the next zone so I think we may want to head off east in this area instead of more north." I said. "Just to be sure we combed this place as much as we can."

"Now that you bring it up, there seems to be something over that way; might be worth checking out." Freth said.

"Maybe more steel types like that Cufant?" Tristen suggested.

"Let alone hardy as that thing." I said. "Let's go."

We went off and started to follow the plains east, following the bridge path from the underside. As we continued along, we ended up finding something rather strange. A gray furry creature on hind legs, with a rather distinctive charm. "Is...is that a Meowth?" I asked, pulling out my SNAG to load up the dex once again.

"Not like any Meowth that I ever seen." Tristen said.

"Looks a lot more bloodthirsty than I would have imagined a Meowth being. And the charm is black as coal." Freth said. "No way that is a Meowth."

After some looking, I gave a look of bemusement. "That...is actually a Meowth. Your Galarian variant."

"Galar has a variant of Meowth too?" Tristen asked. "Why is it like that?"

"Well, Freth was right about one thing. It is perhaps the more savage of opposed its other cousins. And perhaps the toughest of them too. Bred to fight and fur like steel."

"You're kidding." Freth said.

"Uh, guys?" Tristen said, pointing towards the Meowth. We looked at the Pokemon, apparently looking dead at us, and claws out ready to attack. "I think it wants to fight."

"Alright." I stashed the SNAG. "Torchic." I sat the Torchic down on the ground and it rushed forward to confront the Meowth.

"You're going to capture it?" Freth asked.

"Don't know yet. Let's see what this guy got." I said.

The Meowth would waste no time, rushing after Torchic. It waved its claws in front of its face and reveal within its paws, metallic coins, black as the charm on its head. "Torchic! Watch it, that looks like Pay Day!" The Meowth tosses the coins at Torchic. Torchic ducked and weaved about as best as it could, but a couple of the coins managed hit its mark.

"Torrr!" Torchic cried out. That one hurt pretty badly.

"Torchic! Use Fire Pledge!" I called out. The Torchic would shake its head then unleashed a powerful plume of fire, driving the Meowth back in quite a hurry. "Yea, that steel typing kinda sucks for you, huh?"

The Meowth would extend its claws and screeched out, practically psyching itself up and focusing its prowess. "I think that might be a Hone Claws! Okay, yeah, no, Torchic! Use Feather Dance!" I called out. The Torchic let loose a hard flurry of orange feathers, pelting the Meowth with it. The Meowth swiped away at the attack, trying not to let anything hamper it. However, with the Torchic back on the attack, it decided to just go after the Torchic and attempted to take it out. With claws extended, the Meowth started to claw away furiously, swatting Torchic left and right. "Fury Swipes, typical Meowth MO, claw away until it submits..." I said. "Torchic you need to get out of that!" However I unfortunately noticed something else...those swipes were kind of cutting pretty deep, causing more damage to Torchic than I imagined it doing, even with Feather Dance considered. Something was happening that I might have overlooked. I had to get Torchic out of this mess.

"Torchic! Use another Fire Pledge!" I called out. In a desperate ploy, the Torchic unleashed another plume of flames upon the Meowth driving it back once again. Once the Meowth got clear, I noticed that Torchic wasn't doing too hot. "Oh great..." I said. The Meowth's claws started to get a silver sheen about it then started to make the rush for Torchic once more.

"Blizzard, its a Metal Claw!" Freth called to me. "Even Torchic wouldn't be able to stand to that with the damage its been taking so far!"

"I can see that! Torchic, use Detect!" I called out. As the Meowth came down with its Metal Claw attack, Torchic right at the last second managed to weave off to the side, averting the attack and managed to reposition itself in short order. "Torchic! Flame Charge!" I called out. The Torchic then started to lunge forth, its body engulfing in flames and smashed right into the Galarian Meowth, finally bringing it down. "...that...was close..." I said.

"Torrrr..." Torchic said, falling over backwards and laying there to catch his breath.

"Tell me about it."

"So...the variants are a bit more volitile around here. Good to know." Freth said.

"Volitile...yea, that's a word for it." I said.

"So, are you capturing it?" Tristen would bring up. I thought about it for a second then just shook my head. "Nah. Weavile and Zangoose already does what this thing seems to do. I don't think I'd need a third Pokemon like that."

"Yeeaah, but what about for now?" Freth spoke up.

"Do I want another Sigilyph or Golduck situation?" I asked.

"...do you?" Freth asked.

"No."


KOs
Blizzard w/ Torchic: 5
Tristen w/ Eevee: 4
Freth w/ Hitmonchan: 3, Captured: Cufant

After the hectic battle with the Galarian Meowth, I picked up Torchic and instead of letting it perch on my shoulder like I had been, considering the damage it had been taking, I instead opted to carry it. Torchic had been through a lot for a while, and that freakish Meowth was a bit much this go round; a hard contrast to incinerating Seedot earlier in the safari. All that left for the time being, barring Freth's suggesting for Hitmonchan to Drain Punch anything it was super effective against, was Eevee.

"We might just want to pick a spot to just take a break here, sit, rest, and probably plot out our next move." I said.

"There are some trees over that way we can probably sit under to catch a break." Freth said.

"Works for me." Tristen would speak up.

"At least that way, our Pokemon can catch a breather too." I said. We started to go towards the trees, we picked a nice shady one and was about to get comfortable about it. It wasn't going to be that comfortable.

"MON CHAN!" Hitmonchan's fist sparked and crackled with electricity and it went to punch an unexpected visitor. A Ekans was about to say "Hi", chances are in not an ideal way. With its ambush thwarted, it slithered away, as fast as it could.

"Thanks Hitmonchan." Freth said.

"Snakes. I think I want to move somewhere else." I said.

"As long as we don't find Seviper, we'd be fine." Freth said.

It would begin to drag on as she continued to wander the fields and other areas of this section, leaving Aria wondering where exactly the Pokemon were. She wasn't exactly able to put on a real show if there weren't any other Pokemon for her to comment on. All she was some small moments playing around with Billy to tide over whatever audience she had and it was unlikely that would last forever. Hopefully she would stumble onto something soon and be able to give the people some entertainment.

And as she was thinking this, a slightly strange piece of ground beneath her foot would give way and the world's ugliest bear trap would attempt to clamp down on her foot. Thankfully, her startled shout and immediate kick of her foot would save Aria from getting to experience the steel teeth clamping down on her leg. "What the hell was that!? What kind of Stunfisk do you people have around here!? Thing could've taken my leg off! These things need warning signs or a notice on the tourism site! And why couldn't they at least look a little better than a traditional Stunfisk. Thing looks like I burnt a pancake into my pan instead of just burning it and throwing it away." Aria exclaimed, slowly letting herself calm down as she watched the fish-like thing fall from where she had punted it towards. Taking another calming breath and scratching Billy under his chin, she would begin to look around again for another native Pokemon. Maybe something she felt like actually fighting this time, try and give a little show for the crowd?