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A town that is really windy. Hawke, the flying type master runs the gym here. This place has a runway not just for planes but for pokemon too. Lots of goods get transported from different regions.

(I am writing an excuse to write plot in a phone conversation.)

Getting through the routes was always annoying. There was first off, the trainers would challenge you to a battle every three steps and wild pokemon in the grass who would attack you if you so much as dared to touch so much as a blade of the tall grass. It was more difficult without a full team and people didn't realize she wasn't using Brauner since he wasn't her pokemon. Nancy decided to think positive though, she and her pokemon had so much more experience now. She felt that Shawn was close to evolving but she told the pokemon he could take his time since it was easier to pick him up when he was a Magikarp. She had just finished visiting the Pokecenter for healing and a room and went to the park. There was several things she wanted to do

1. Let her pokemon out to just play. There was even a pond for Shawn.
2. Call Nick and tell him about her findings. The articles on Orre were disturbing to say the least.
3. Cook lunch.

So Nancy took out her camping stove from her bag and dialed the number while stirring a delicious-smelling potato soup.

She kinda wondered what Nick had for a ring tone on his Xtransciever. Nancy liked her ringtone personally, it was the theme song from her favorite detective show.

What the pokemon were doing

Poirot (Still a lillipup) sniffed at the food as Nancy let the Xtransciever ring. "Does he have his phone off?..." She was going to give up soon because the potato soup was going to cool off too much if she took forever.

The girl let her mind wander, she had a team of five so far which was a really good team but Shawn wasn't much good for battles yet and she needed another type to help balance the team. A dragon type would be awesome but she knew they were rare and generally took a lot of work and she knew she wasn't the best trainer out there. Ground type maybe? Grass? Ghost? Psychic? Poirot was a pokemon with a good sense of smell for tracking down crooks, Shawn would be a great help when he evolved and could use fly, Thursday would be great for helping catch criminals with her spiderweb, and Emerson wasn't very specialized but he knew how to take care of himself in a battle and his fighting type was great against the dark types which criminals often favored.

Marple was still a baby but she'd done a little research on the togepi. The togepi were known basically stored happiness in her shell and share it with kind people but unkind people made togepi feel drained. Nancy realized she'd have to be careful not to take the little guy out too much when working against the criminal underworld but Marple was an evil detector! The evolved form, Togetic, was even better at detecting kindness in people. This was a valuable skill.

Of course sometimes the pokedex tended to outright lie about some pokemon but hey. Some of the books said the same thing.


Really she should have been worried that Team Gamma might try to track her down because of her connection to certain events. Nick too.

(Understandable. I'm starting midterms so yeah. I'm going to write in Hawke too because the Captain guy has Fire Emblem I believe.)

Nancy wondered why on earth no one was picking up then gave up because the soup was done. The discovery that Thursday had been eating energy from her XTransceiver went a long way towards explaining that.

"Bother. Thursday! I bought rechargable batteries for you! The Transceiver is off limits!"

Each of the group slurped happily on bowls of soup as Nancy thought through options. She figured it was time to challenge the gym anyway so she'd be able to recharge the transceiver then and send the emails asking about Snagem that she'd drafted. To her dismay, Emerson dumped the entire bottle of chili sauce in his soup as well which added more to her to-do list.
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The flying type gym was impressive! Trainers entering had to climb up a ladder to the catwalks above a safety net which was big enough for the entire gym and bird pokemon flittered from perch to perch around her. There were retractable skylights that stayed open except in case of rain and other such precipitation. Nancy realized that trainers were expected to get around using the rope swings and trapeze bars and folded up her trench coat.

Swinging from walkway to walkway was exhilarating and terrifying. Nan's shrill shriek pierced the ears of the first gym trainer as she teetered on the precipice and she grabbed Nan's wrist out of mercy. "Ready? I gotta weed out the weak trainers before they can challenge Hawke. You know the drill."
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Nan finally reached the other side of the gym after a few tumbles into the safety net below and realized she had beaten all the trainers but the gym leader. Poirot was finally a Herdier and the wannabe detective let her and the pokemon catch their breath in the bright and airy gym. "Ready guys?"

"Combusken."
"All right. That sounded like a yes. Let's go!"

Flying was always exhilirating and the gym leader wanted to build his own plane this year so he was reading an instruction manual. His brown hair was topped by aviator goggles naturally and he wore the classic aviator's apparel. A polite cough brought his attention away from the words and Hawke looked up from his book to see the girl. "Oh, ready? You better be prepared for the aerial onslaught you are about to receive. The first gym was a test to make sure trainers can do the basics but my gym is to pluck out the people who aren't serious."

"I understand sir. Rules? Also, I'm not using the Smeargle, he's not my pokemon unfortunately." Nan informed Hawke.
"Triple battle. You take down my three and you've earned the badge."
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The battle was ferocious. Hawke wasn't lying earlier and the Zubat, Skarmory, and Fearow were a fearsome team. Emerson had taken the Skarmory out easily but was then a target after poisoning and confusion from the Zubat. Marple had only been able to get in one yawn on the Fearow before she was taken out and Thursday had barely won with the help of Poirot who'd taken Marple's place. Nancy was delighted to get the Flying badge and tucked it in her badge book next to the fire badge before doing an excited dance- and nearly falling off the catwalk. The girl thanked Hawke and made a beeline for the Pokecenter.


Seeing her friend at the counter made Nancy's to-do list shorter. "Nick! I got the first two badges! Thursday barely took down that zubat but I got it! I've also got a lot to tell you about the investigation, I sent a typed copy of my notes to your email after trying to call you earlier." Brauner waved at Nick too as the nurse did her work on Nick's pokemon.

"I think that Gamma got a hold of some of the technology that that one team was using in Orre. They can't have it all though or we'd be hearing a lot more panic."




*"I am. But you look a little pale. Heights getting to you?"

Nancy had followed because she didn't have much else planned and traveling was always better with a friend. Nick had a much better time with the gym than she did and he had less pokemon! Emerson watched her take out her notebook where she'd drawn a messy scribble. (It was actually a map of her mental processes when working on the mystery. Did I ever mention that Nan wanted to be a detective?)

"Smeargle smeargle. Smeargle."*
"Ken! Combusken."


Nancy looked around and shrugged in reply to Nick. "That was amazing! I'm going to go through the gyms. I don't really know where to go to do more research anyway until I get a reply from the people I emailed. I emailed the mayor of Phenac City to see how to contact the guy who stopped Snagem... Until I get a new lead, can I travel with you? Safety in numbers and maybe I'll learn some stuff from you!"

Root Town was next in the circuit and since both of them had fire pokemon it would probably be easier.




*"Traveling with a friend is probably a good idea since Nancy isn't that good of a trainer yet and Team Gamma is probably mad at us now. Let's see if we can convince Nancy to tag along with Nick since they are both going through the gyms."
"That's a good idea! Though I do resent that you called Nancy a worse trainer."

(Isn't he already a Charmeleon?)

"All right, that'll be easier on the route and I bet there's going to be other trainers on the way. Is there a grocery store on the way out? Emerson drank the last of his Tabasco sauce..."

Nancy would prove to be good company even if she did tend to ramble a bit about anything remotely related to mysteries.

(Exit to root town thread?)