Divide and Conquer

We had two alerts at the same time, so we split up. Kirlia dropped Me, Sammy, Doom and Maelstrom in Brighton, while Ragnarok, Jonny and Don looked into the one in Cambridge. I'm sure they'll let you know how they got on, but this is me detailing the Brighton adventure.

Enjoy.

I still don't like teleporting, and felt a bit ill when we arrived, so I had some lemonade while the others looked round. It seems that a side effect of the shard is that I now gain some of the healing effects of water and soft drinks, etc. Who knows, maybe I'm becoming part Palkia? That could be useful.

Sammy pointed towards a street that sloped down towards the sea. 'I reckon it's over there'

We followed her gaze and saw a dark purple cloud looming over the seafront, with bolts of energy blasting from the roof of a building.

'You may be right.'

Off we ran. Quite a few people were giving us strange looks now, the number of people that can see the truth about what's happening keeps going up. More and more people knew that the butterfly fluttering along by my shoulder was far too big, and that my dog was considerably too blue.

We had got close enough to notice that the source of the energy was a figure standing on top of the roof, when they turned to see us. Letting out a yell, they gestured, and the purple cloud began to descend towards us. As it got closer, we saw it was in fact hundreds and hundreds of bats. Zubat, Golbat, Crobat, Woobat, Swoobat, all swooping down on us. And they were all surrounded by a dark, shadowy Aura.

'What the hell are those fluffy ones?!'

'Urgh am I the ONLY one here who's played Black and White?! They're Woobat and Swoobat. Psychic instead of Poison.'

'Right.'

'Got it.'

'Pfft, they don't look so tough...'

The swarm descended, blocking out the sky as they closed in. I gulped, and took a fortifying sip of Lemonade. Dratini poked his head out of my bag, and let out a squeak of terror.

Glaceon and Rattata took that as their signal. Shooting from my side and leaping from my shoulder, they dived into battle. I lost sight of Rattata almost immediately, his own purple lost amongst the see of purple bats. Glaceon was firing off Ice Beams, each one bringing a frozen bat crashing down, only to have it's space replaced by another enemy.

It had started. We followed their lead.

'Butterfree, Confusion! Chatot, use Fury Attack!'

'Gloom, Acid! Clefairy use Doubleslap!'

'Ok Squirtle, use Whirlpool!'

'You know what to do Bulbasaur. UNLEASH HELL!'

'Dratini-'

'tiiiiii!'

'Ok,ok, hang back for a bit. It's ok, you don't have to fight if you don't want to.'

I lifted my right arm, looking at Joltik. 'You ready?'

'Jolti!'

I pointed him at a group of bats. 'Spider web! Thunderwave! Screech!'

The web caught three, sending the bundle falling to the ground, two were struck by the thunderwave, and the cone of high-pitched sound that fired deep into the swarm hit them hard, causing it to rain bats. Being super vulnerable to sound worked out REALLY badly for them.

Clefairy kept having to jump to grab a low flying bat before using Double Slap, but Gloom seemed to be doing okay against a group of woobat. Bulbasaur had a constant stream of leaves flying from his bulb as his vines worked furiously, smacking foes hard as they tried to get near. Squirtle had at least seven trapped in a whirlpool, but there were just too many. We were slowly forced towards the beach, but looking up through a brief tunnel of clarity a screech attack got me, I saw the figure on the roof better. It was a young woman with silver hair, a black headband and uniform, and one of those flat fin things on her arm.

'Oh great, she's one of those.'

'Those what?'

'That woman on top of the building, she's got one of those fin things. Like that bloke we fought when you first showed up Doom. That explains the shadowy aura on the bats anyway.'

Doom scowled. 'Right, I'm stopping this at the source. Bulbasaur, hold them off with Rock Throw while I deal with this.'
'Oh come on Doom, you can't expect us to believe Bulbasaur knows-'
But Bulbasaur knew what he was doing. Vines spinning wildly, he began hurling as much pebbly beach as he could reach. Pebbles slammed into bats, knocking them from the sky and sending them crashing into each other, the ground, the sea, it was raining purple monsters.
'Huh. Nice going Bulbasaur.'
I was going to ask Butterfree to accompany Doom to make sure she got through ok, but I saw her poke one in the eyes and punch another in the face as she set off, so I figured she'd be ok.
The swarm was getting angrier now, and were swooping down to strike us. Maelstrom had his arms over his head in defence, so didn't see a crobat barrel into him from behind. He was knocked forwards, and toppled over the edge of one of the beaches curved banks. He slid down with the noise of a small avalanche. I tried to get down to help, but my path was immediately blocked.
'Screech!'
It wasn't enough. There were always more. I caught sight of Rattata in the distance, a fiery missile hitting foe after foe, and Glaceon catching six in a blast of Icy wind.
'Come on Dratini, please, we need you!'
Dratini poked his head out of my bag and looked up at the huge cloud of shadowy creature's and trembled, but at the sight of Butterfree being slashed at, and floating slowly to the ground, exhausted, he frowned.
'Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!'
I love Twister. It tore through the bats, gathering them up and sending them hurtling round and round the vortex, slamming into each other, pebbles, shards of ice, and Razor Leaves. But the twister was getting full, and there were still bats free, and coming for us.
'Quick! Boost it with Whirlpool!'
I looked round. Maelstrom had made it back up the slope. He smiled at me, rubbing an injured arm. 'You ok?'
'I will be.'
Squirtle's attack was merging with Dratini's, making it bigger, stronger. Now filled with water, the huge, twisting spout of water proceeded to suck in the remaining bats. We were just celebrating as it moved out to sea, taking them away, when our attention was drawn to a yell above us. We all gazed up at the roof the woman had been on. Doom had joined her now, and we all saw......what happened next. Basically, Doom was angry at the woman. The woman was angry at being disturbed. Fighting happened. The woman stumbled backwards. She ran out of roof. Screaming, she plummeted, but was consumed by glowing particles of pink light before she hit the ground.
That's about it really. Kirlia brought us back and we heard about what happened here while we were away. As will you, soon.

Happy New Year!

Hello again, and Happy New Year from all of VHS. Had a good Christmas? Let me fill you in on some of the stuff that happened to us....

Big news first. Remember AGES ago, Don was given an egg? Well, it FINALLY hatched! It hadn't done a lot of travelling, so I guess it took a long time to get enough steps clocked, but Don is now the proud carer of a Riolu! Still only level 1, and a little nervous, but very happy, and keen to join in all the action. Ragnarok's really jealous that Don, who has no knowledge on Gen 4 at all has such a rare Pokémon, but he's happy for him too.
We were decorating the base for Christmas, with the sounds of Slade filling the air, when I heard another voice joining in. I wandered past Bulbasaur, using vines to lift Pichu so he could put the star on the tree, ducked under a loop of tinsel being swept towards a wall by Butterfree and Pidgey, stepped over Squirtle, spinning across the floor, polishing it with Bubble, with Vaporeon washing away the soap, caught a Bauble thrown by Maelstrom, and chucked it to Sammy, who helped Gloom hang it on the tree. I asked if they knew who was singing, but they both shrugged. Making it outside, I saw Doom and Rag decorating the front of the old shop. Glaceon and Snover were on the roof, sending burst after burst of snow into the air, with Icy Wind spreading it out across the city, covering Cambridge in a soft blanket of snow. Rag looked over at me, and jerked a head at the roof opposite. 'You can hear him from inside then?'
I peered up, and saw the Chatot that had evaded us months ago, perching on the edge of the roof, doing it's best to learn the words and tunes coming from inside. The song changed to 'I believe in Father Christmas' as I watched, and Chatot started trying to learn that one, ignoring us completely. I grinned, and raised my right arm, aiming my wrist.
'What ARE you doing?' Doom had paused, halfway through helping Dratini and Flareon stick a reindeer motif to the window.
'Trying to catch Chatot. Always thought they were cool. Ready Joltik?'
'Jolti!'
'Thunder wave!'
Chatot was hit by the thin tendril of electricity, and froze, one wing half raised, beak open in song. looking round for the source of the trouble, it focused on us, and tried it's best to swoop down towards us, it rocked a couple of few times, until it pitched over the edge and plummeted towards us.
'Spider web!'
It was pinned to the wall, and we then hit it with leech life. The paralysis wore off, and it struggled inside the web, cutting itself free with beak and talons. I needed harder hitting moves, and fast. Dratini jumped at Chatot, wrapping himself round, using, well, Wrap. Chatot used Mirror Move, hitting Dratini with leech life, and he let go in surprise, but had managed some damage. Chatot started to fly off, but Dratini frowned, and let out a cry. A twister whirled into being around Chatot, and any attempt by him to escape was stopped by another Spiderweb from Joltik. Chatot couldn't break free while caught in the Twister, and was thrown back at us, skidding to a stop at my feet. I dropped a Pokéball, and it sprang open, pulling Chatot in. It rocked a few times, but Chatot was caught! Yay!

We invited Brock over between Christmas and New Year, and he told us that Blackmage had been to the museum, and spoken to one of the fossil experts, so there's a good chance that whatever was hidden inside the fossil he 'won' (stole), he's woken it up now. I still say it looked like a broken Dome fossil, but whatever...

Kirlia's getting really worried about the future we saw. I keep pointing out we have a lot of time to sort it out, because in that Jonny had a Blissey, and Happiny shows no signs of evolving yet, and we've clearly met far more legendaries by then, but she still keeps going off to talk to this Moira person all about it. Ah well, we're doing what we can.

Maelstrom now has access to the vast number of TM's and HM's at the base, so Squirtle DOES now know Whirlpool! Could prove very useful in future.

That'll do for now, have fun, and I'll try and update again soon!