(PTA) Defiance of the Forgotten: Knights of Hoenn

[Esprit15]

Zoe looks at Catherine with a roll of the eyes, pulling out a flashlight. "Far more effective than aura, and able to be used by everyone."

[MichaelGoldclaw]

"Look, I didn't think we had one" Smarta- wait, you can read my mind.

[Esprit15]

"Yes, and it was common sense as a trainer to always be ready to travel, day or night."

[IrnBruAddict]

'Cute, but not quite that simple,' laughs Jack when he sees Zoe's flashlight. 'It's nice to be able to see with your little flashlight, but when you come across an opening with 3 cave mouths, which one are you going to take? And aura is nice to see through walls, but it's for finding ambushes, can't exactly sense non-living dangers like pitfalls. Better than being able to see would be a pokemon that can guide you in the dark. There are a couple that come to my mind, but forget about trying to use a bat. With how many Zubats there are in the cave, you'd have a hard time getting a bat to cross it's rivals territory, since each family has a different section of the cave. Instead, there are a couple of pokemon that come to mind that would get you through the dark caves ...'

Jack pulled out his pokedex, and ficked through it, before showing it to his cousin. John nodded in agreement. 'Aye, that'll likely do. Not sure if they want to spend time and pokeballs catching that. If it were me, I'd just climb the mountain, faster that way.'

'Either way, I'll go dig it out.' Jack lets himself up and goes into the back store.

' The Gym Leader's type? He's one o' those Dark type guys. Some boxer or martial artist or somethin', not got a great reputation, but I've no met the fellah so I'm not one to judge. If yer wantin' some Fairy types, you might be able to grab yourself one on the flower fields up the way, a little north-east of here. Just make sure you don't go messing up the flowers, the garden guardian will mess you up. And of course, you might run into a Carbink if you're lucky in the mountains.'

Jack tosses something through the air for Catherine to catch. It was a small hand sized device. It had 4 buttons on the face and an antena, and could be pulled out to reveal a little screen. 'If you're going hunting, you can catch yourself a guide while you're out there with one of those bad boys. Well, you'll also need pokeballs, but you know what I mean.'

[Esprit15]

"You don't have a map in there?"

[MesiDoomstalker]

It be safer to head over the mountains. At the very least, we can see our destination. And our own hands.

[IrnBruAddict]

John shakes his head. 'Sorry hen, but the only map of the caves,' he grabs Jack in a headlock and then taps the top of his head 'is in here. they wind up and down, and you try drawing a 3d map in 2 dimensions with only some paper, a pencil and the artistic skill of a drunken Smeargle. But I'll happily sell you a map of the mountain tops.'

[Esprit15]

Zoe sighs. "How much?"

[Aneurin]

Sayuri

" Thank you very much. But what exactly is it?" she asks, giving the strange object in Catherine's hands an inquisitive look. "And on the grounds that I don't much fancy buyin' climbin' equipment, and the caves bein' generally safer if we don't get lost, I'm in favour of the low road here. Although..." she hesitates. "I'm not a big fan of the idea of relyin' on a strange, untrained pokemon as a guide. Does rather seem like it's askin' for trouble,"

[IrnBruAddict]

John grins at Zoe. 'The map costs £500, and I'll sell you protective equipment for £2000 apiece. Rope is £50 and a grappling hook for only £25.'


Jack leans over and presses a couple buttons, and the device starts to emit a low pulsing hum sound, that seemed quite pleasant to listen to. 'It's a pokeradar, and it can help you locate rare or hard-to-find pokemon. And while I'd not normally suggest relying on a pokemon from the wild, I think this one will be super helpful.' He brings up an image on his pokedex. 'After all, you'll be hunting one of these. You find one of these, you can take the safer cave routes.'

Spoiler: Sayuri

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Sayuri recognises the pokemon as Audino, the hearing pokemon. It's famous both for being hunted by trainers when they want to get stronger, and for being extremely helpful when domesticates, with Unova using them instead of Chancey in Pokemon Centres. A little less known fact about them is they have excellent hearing, among the best in the pokemon world, and are said to have radar like hearing abilities. And of course, radar is how many pokemon navigate in the dark, most famously Zubats.

[Aneurin]

Sayuri

She peers at the 'dex picture, and nods to herself.

"Audino, huh? Now that you mention it, I guess it is a pretty obvious choice," Sayuri glances across at the others, and decides to forestall some questions; "Has really good hearin', better than zubat even. Can find their way by a sort of sonar thing, and I'll bet they know their way around those caves. Pretty friendly critters, too. Heard they use them instead of chansey over in Unova, though since I ain't been there that might be more gossip than truth," she gives a little shrug.

"Those pokeradar things sound pretty damn useful, though, I have to say. Does it do anythin' other than audino, and how much do you want for it? ...Oh, and I'll take a map too," Sayuri adds, fishing in her bag for her wallet. "Whether we go that way or not, I might want to head back some time. Besides, I sorta collect maps," she adds, looking faintly embarrassed.

[Esprit15]

"Nah, that looks about like what I've seen over there," Zoe says casually. "So do they live in the cave, or are we going to have to make a detour?"

[IrnBruAddict]

'Well it can help you find lots of rare pokemon, not just Audino, since it works by echo-location. But I don't think you can really but one, they are pretty rare. We have it for rescue work, so please don't think of taking my one.'

'Yeah, yah shouldn't be giving them a lend' says John, giving his cousin a nasty look.

'But I live to serve the customer!' declares Jack proudly. 'And if we do this, they'll be safer so we won't need to rescue them later. Sound business sense.'

'Not exactly sound on mah pockets, mind. Climbing gear would have got us a ton.'

Ignoring his business savvy partner, Jack explains to the group how to use it. 'You'll find an Audino in pretty much any grassy area. They are attracted to wounded pokemon as well as to the sound of the Pokeradar. And if you can, try for a more friendly capture. Never hurts.' He gives a wink. 'You can even try the flower beds if you want to kill two Spearow with one Hard Stone. Or just try it outside if you don't want to go that far.'

[Esprit15]

"Hm, shouldn't be too bad. We get to hunt for wilds in order to hunt for wilds. Seems like a sound plan."

[IrnBruAddict]

'Good luck and happy hunting,' wishes Jack, handing Sayuri one of the maps she wanted. 'The Flower garden is about 30 minutes from north east here. You'll spot it a mile away, and smell it from even further.'

[Esprit15]

"Sounds good. Come on, guys," Zoe says, heading out in the way indicated.

[IrnBruAddict]

After walking the directed path, the group comes across a small hill. Once they climbed over it, the flower garden was in sight.

To the east, a vast field of sunflowers lay spread out, about an acre across, standing tall and proud in regimented order, as if they were planted to be harvested. It would have been rather impressive, if not for the sight in the centre, totally eclipsing it.

The centre of the valley had a path leading through the sunflowers, and in the middle was a garden of colourful flowers, red and purple and blue in colour. Unlike the regimented look of the sunflowers surrounding them, these flower beds looked like someone was attempting to grow a botanical garden or something similar. The various flower beds had small paths leading through them, and in the very middle was a small mound where two trees stood.

Yep, this must be the right place.

[Esprit15]

"Alright, let's see if this thing works..." Zoe says, pulling out the device and trying to figure the thing out.

[Aneurin]

Sayuri

As she slaps the money for the map and food down, Sayuri fishes out a scrap of paper and scribbles down a few numbers.

"We'll drop the scanner off before before we move on, but just in case you need it in a hurry," she says, passing the note. "Give me a call and we can meet you part way,"

...

As the group nears the flower garden, Sayuri runs her eyes over it in amused surprise.

"Well, that's definitely impressive," she says after a few moments quiet contemplation, as she starts fishing in her bag for her camera. "You guys okay if I have a look at the garden bit in the middle?" she adds, with a nod towards the more brightly coloured bits in the middle. "I'm curious about that guardian Jack and John were tellin' us about,"

Spoiler

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Could've sworn I'd posted for this

Really sorry about that.