Battling for Boulders

So, as promised, here's a summary of how everyone else did against Brock. He had his Chansey with him, and we had plenty of healing items, so we made sure Brock's team was fully restored before the next battle.

Ragnarok went after me, but he did a 3v3 too, so I'll save that for later.

I think I'll start with Sammy. Kirlia teleported her and Don in from their Universities (Sammy decided to switch to a different Uni, and Don's always gone to one a bit further off.) so they could get badges too. She decided to do a 1on1, sensibly enough, and so it was Sudowoodo vs Oddish. Clefairy cheered from the sidelines, and Oddish stumbled forwards, gazing up at Sudowoodo. Sammy started off with Poisonpowder, and Sudowoodo hit back, knocking Oddish to the floor. Sudowoodo was pulsing a faint purple, but wasn't suffering too much for now. Oddish got to it's feet, and used absorb, recovering some health. Oddish ran madly round the room, dodging Sudowoodo's hits, while making small streams of green orbs of health float between the two of them. As Sudowoodo managed a second hit, wincing from the poison now, Oddish started to glow, growing and changing until:
'Uuuuurgh, what the hell is that stink?!'
'Glooooooooom!' It had evolved! And, it turned out, learned Mega Drain.A much larger stream of bubbles shot from Sudowoodo, sending it crashing to the floor.
'Hooray! We did it!'
'Gloom!'
'Congratulations, on your victory and your new Gloom. Here's your Badge.'

Thanking Brock, Sammy picked up Gloom and turned round to see us all holding our noses. 'What? What's wrong?'
'That smell....'
'What are you talking about? I like it.'
'Then you're one in a thousand, and certainly the only person here.'
'Oh be like that then! Gloom, Use Sweet scent, then return to your ball.'
'Glooooooom'
'Thanks.'

Next up: Doom. She wanted to take on all three, but as she only had Bulbasaur, Brock insisted on a 1 on 1. Fool. If he'd used Crobat and Croagunk too, he might actually have lasted more than thirty seconds. This was without a doubt, the quickest match I have ever seen. Bulbasaur and Sudowoodo took there positions. Sudowoodo leapt into the air, and Doom yelled 'Unleash Hell!'. Leaves filled the room, obscuring everything from vision. When they died down, Sudowoodo was exactly where he had been, poised in the air, with a look of complete shock on his face. He crashed to the floor, swirly eyed, and Doom grinned at Brock. 'Now give me my damn Badge.'

Don actually lost his 1v1 first time round due to an unlucky miss and some incredible speed from Sudowoodo, but he taught Hitmonchan Brick Break and came back for another go, resulting in a win for them.

Brock actually requested Jonny's Onix as an opponent, because of his love for them, but that ended badly for him. I'm trying to think of a technical term for Onix's most effective move, but basically, It just landed on him. The building shook, and Sudowoodo had sustained damage already. He didn't get up.

All right, time for Ragnarok. Brock sent Sudowoodo out first again, and Rag sent out Snover. Snover started off with Razor leaf, landing a glancing blow. Sudowoodo struck back, hitting hard. Snover used Ingrain to recover, but this meant he couldn't move from his spot, allowing Sudowoodo to launch a fierce attack, hitting again and again. As soon as Ingrain finished, Rag withdrew him, and sent out Charmeleon. Charmeleon used Metal claw, ducking and dodging Sudowoodo's blows, but suffered a direct hit whenever he got too close. Wincing from the Hammer Arms, Charmeleon didn't see the Double Edge, and was thrown across the room. Sudowoodo was struggling. He'd taken recoil damage, and Snover and Charmeleon had scored some good hits. They both ran at each other again, slamming into each other. When the dust cleared, Sudowoodo was on the ground, swirly eyed, and Charmeleon was hunched over, looking woozy. But he was standing.
Brock sent out Crobat next, and Rag swapped Charmeleon and Snover back. Snover managed to hit first, with an Ice shard to Crobat's wing. Using Ice Shard again, Snover was hit by Wing Attack, toppling over. 2 each left.
Pichu wandered out, and when ragnarok gave him a few words of encouragement, he clenched his paws into tiny fists, put a sort of frowny squint look on his face, and strode forwards. He used Charm, Tail Whip and Sweet Kiss, and when Crobat swooped down at him, he grabbed onto a wing, and used Thundershock. Again and again, while Crobat desperately tried to shake him off, but in the end he sank to the floor, and was defeated.
Brock sent out Croagunk, and Pichu stared as he advanced. He started to tremble, but attempted a charm. He followed it with Sweet kiss, be he missed. Croagunk tapped him lightly on the head, fingertips glowing purple. Pichu wobbled, and his lip started to quiver. He had a scuff mark on his cheek, and was throbbing faintly purple. Croagunk suddenly leapt into the air, his whole arm glowing. Rag was yelling advice to Pichu, but he was rooted to the spot in terror. Croagunk was shooting down towards Pichu, his arm was an inches from him-
Claws, glowing with a metallic shine, caught Croagunk's attack an inch from Pichu's nose. A look of complete shock crossed his face. Pichu, face scrunched up, opened one eye, saw the attack, and promptly fell backwards.
Charmeleon threw Croagunk across the room, and gestured, wincing, for Pichu to get back. Pichu ran for cover, peering out from behind Rag's legs, hugging him tightly.
Croagunk got up, looked round, and saw Charmeleon, giving him a curious and angry look. Then he saw Pichu, and stepped in his direction.
In a blur of red, Charmeleon was upon him. Croagunk tried to retaliate, but he couldn't get a move in. Without a word, I handed Rag a peach, and we all, Brock included, continued to just stare at the scuffle, Rag picking up Pichu and feeding him the fruit almost without noticing he was doing it.
Croagunk shot from the cloud of dust that had risen, landing a few feet away and sliding across the floor, coming to a stop in front of Rag. Pichu, happily munching his peach and no longer poisoned, leapt from Rag's arms. He clapped hard as Charmeleon emerged from the dust, cradling his left claw. He smiled at Pichu, and then collapsed. Pichu gasped, and then pouted, looking furious, and stormed up to Croagunk, whose eyelids were flickering, half closed. As a finger twitched, Pichu blew a raspberry at him, kicking him hard, before losing his balance and falling hard. Croagunk's head slumped, his eyes going swirly.

Dragon took a moment to regain his composure. 'Croagunk and Charmeleon are unable to battle. As the only remaining member of the battle, Pichu is the winner. Ragnarok wins!'

Brock was beaming, coming over to shake Rag's hand and heal Croagunk. 'The bond between your Pichu and Charmeleon is clearly incredibly strong. It's an honour to present you with your badge.'

So there you go. That's everyone. Brock's trying to find out if any of his friends have come through aswell, but he's promised to help us if he can.

Good Friends with Brock. So many cool things have happened since this shard business started. I hope it never ends, I really do.

SUCH A COOL DAY!

I loved Sunday, I really did. As you know, we've been training for a while now, but we don't really have a lot to show for it. I mean yes, we have been successfully holding back the apocalyptic destruction of two worlds by calming/beating/dealing with the more dangerous collision events, but we didn't really have something to show for it. (Not even that fossil! Damn you Blackmage!) Until now.

Today, however, was the day that somebody new came through from the other world. Somebody we recognised very well. Brock.

There we were, waiting to see what would come through this time, and a sudden jab of tingling feeling in the shard tells me it's about to happen. A flash of purple light and and an explosion threw us backwards, which turned out to be good, because this meant we weren't crushed by the rockslide that burst from the light. Clouds of dust filled the field. I looked up to see a silhouette staggering out from behind a boulder, coughing. As it became clear who it was, most of us gasped, and I heard 'Oh my god!...' No way......' from behind me. I was just speechless. Brock looked round at all of us, and then behind him at the rubble. He turned back to us, looking a bit awkward. 'Sorry, but can anyone tell me what just happened?'

When we all regained our composure, and Bulbasaur had cured Brock of his sudden bout of lovesickness upon seeing Sammy and Doom, we explained everything, helped him settle in, showed him Cambridge (He loves the area by the fitzwilliam museum, it's a lot like Pewter City apparently) and generally sorted him out. I still have no idea how we're going to cover up the rockslide blocking the entrance to a cave from another world in the middle of a Cambridge field, but we'll think of something. Turn it into a hill? Meh.

Of course, once he was feeling better, we asked him if he happened to have any badges with him. Luckily, he apparently always has some with him, so we invited him over to challenge him for them. I know that we're in our own world, and these badges may serve no actual purpose here, but let's be honest, you'd just want them anyway, wouldn't you?

We've started making a sort of Gym/Battle area, somewhere to have proper sized battles without destroying the shop, by extending the basement. Thanks to quite a lot of digging, both with TMs and shovels, it now represents a medium sized cave, which suited Brock fine.

'Do you want a one on one with my rock type, or a bigger battle with multiple types?'
'Can I do the bigger battle?'
'3 on 3 ok?'
'Fine by me.'
Dragon offered to referee the battle, and we began. Brock sent out Sudowoodo, and I sent out Rattata.

'Hammer Arm!'

'Dodge it and use Iron tail!
Rattata darted round as as Sudowoodo slammed a glowing arm into the floor. He jumped up, a metallic shine passing over his body as he whipped round, striking hard with his tail. Sudowoodo winced, falling backwards, but regained his balance quickly and ran forwards, mimicing Iron tail. Rattata was aiming a Super Fang, but got slammed by the mimic, flying through the air. Hurtling towards a wall, he pushed off from it, fangs bared. Sudowoodo struck the floor, sending shards of rock into the air. Rattata leapt from one to the other, but mistimed a jump and fell, hitting one on the way down. Landing near Sudowoodo, he did Superfang again, biting him on the foot. Sudowoodo hopped around wildly, while Rattata shook his head. Biting rock may not have been the best idea. Brock withdrew Sudowoodo and sent out Crobat. Rattata still looked a bit woozy the jarring feel in his teeth, so Glaceon leapt in, keen to battle a Gym Leader at last. Crobat ducked a dived a lot at first, but Icy wind slowed him enough for Glaceon to land a direct hit with Ice Beam. Crobat was failing but landed a supersonic, confusing Glaceon. Brock withdrew Crobat and sent out Croagunk. I had another excited fan moment then, because I always liked Croagunk. He was just so cool. Not so much now though. Seeming completely unconcerned by his new and bizarre surroundings (Although to be fair, we basically just in a cave bit at the moment like I said) he padded slowly forwards towards Glaceon, who was shaking his head madly, trying to free himself of confusion. I called out, trying to help, but Glaceon was determined to keep fighting, and jumped at Croagunk. And missed completely. Croagunk calmy hit out with a brick break. This time Glaceon agreed with my idea of withdrawing, and Butterfree was keen to join in. My first three. Seemed right.
'Ok Butterfree, let's see if we can speed this up a bit, shall we? Psybeam!'
'Fre-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-ee!'
Croagunk, suddenly moving with impressive speed, dodged the attack, leaping towards butterfree, fingertips glowing. Butterfree, of course, can fly, so he just rose higher, causing Croagunk to crash into a wall. Butterfree let off another Psybeam while he was stuck. And another one. Croagunk freed himself from the wall, staggering, and fell over, swirly-eyed. Yay!

Out came Crobat again. Butterfree avenged Glaceon by getting in with Supersonic first. Then another Psybeam. Glaceon had caused enough damage to Crobat that this was too much, and he was out too. But then Sudowoodo came back out and Butterfree into the floor, then the wall. Double Edge finished Butterfree off, and I caught him as he fell. Rattata snarled at Sudowoodo. He want to finish what he started, and charged. Dodging every blow, he shot up Sudowoodo's arm and hit him hard with an iron tail. Sudowoodo staggered back, swiping at Rattata, but he was too quick. He lashed out with another Iron tail, and finished him off with Quick Attack. Brock had lost, and was impressed with our Skill!

Oh yeah, and one more thing. THE BOULDER BADGE IS MINE!

This has got really long, so I'll sum up how everybody else did in another post. Bye for now!

Turns out there really WAS some treasure...

It's lucky all we've had to deal with recently have been stardard uneventful waves of monsters, this cave is taking ages to finish. This should be it now though.





So, everyone wakes up in the cave, and we notice that the strangely marked starters and the shadowy figure have gone, along with a big chunk of all our memories.


'Well, I think that settles it. I'm pretty sure we just met...but did we? I could have sworn someone was here....'


'What are on about T?'


'I......don't know'


Of course, thanks to Porygon, we've worked out that the Palkia shard had weakened the wipe's effect on me, so I had some very vague recollections, but we had no idea at the time, so nobody knew what the hell I was on about.


'Bulbasaur's been fighting. What's going on? And who's this guy?'


'Yeah, my guys look like they've had a battle, and my leg really hurts. You ok Pichu?'


'chuuuuuu...'


'I am Blackmage, and I want my treasure!'


'Why am I surrounded by Clefairy? Oooh, I'm being hugged!'


'Where's Onix? His ball is empty...'


'Oooow, my head........'





Blackmage had sent out Scyther, and was getting to his feet as Scyther explored the back of the cave.I started to get up too, but found Blackmage and Metang looming over me.


'Nobody move until Scyther completes his search. Everybody just behave and stay still.'


'I want to stand up, and we have more of a right to be here! Why shouldn't we look for treasure too?'


'Because it's mine. Metang, Take down!'


'Rattata, Quick Attack!'


The two crashed into each other, bouncing off, Metang wobbling in the air and Ratta skidding to a halt. I scanned Metang with my DSDex and grimaced. 'We need to hit hard Rattata, before he has a chance to pull out a big move, he's a few levels higher. Super Fang!'


'Ratta!'


Rattata leapt, and his fangs started to glow, and became huge, striking Metang on the head.


'No! Metal Claw!'


Metang slashed upwards, catching Rattata in mid-air, catching him on the cheek. He winced, landing on the floor snarling.


'oooh, bad move, you've angered him. You doing ok?'


'Raaa!'


'Alrighty then. Use quick attack to get on top of Metang!'


Rattat shot off a streak of purple rage. Dodging Metang's furious swipes, he sped up one an arm, coming to a stop in the middle of Metang's flat top.'


'Finish this. Flame wheel!'


Just like on Flareon's back, Rattata used his Flame Wheel like a Hamster wheel, not moving from his spot as he ran, fire enveloping him, being pounded into Metang, who started to quiver, squirming as he tried to swat Rattata off. Blackmage looked furious.


'Stop that! I don't know how, but I'm pretty sure that's cheating!'


The flame started to die down but Rattata just started up again, a look of glee on his face.


'Yeah, he doesn't like it when people manage to hit him. And you hurt Butterfree, he's mad about that too.'


Scyther suddenly let out a cry, holding up a lump of rock with something embedded in it.


'Aha! The fossil is mine! You lose!'


'Oh, THAT'S what you were looking for? I thought you meant gold or something. That looks damaged.'


'It's an entirely new fossil! Who knows what it might become!'


'It looks like a Dome fossil with a bit missing...'


'Well it isn't! It's entirely new!'


We were interrupted by Metang. Fainting. Rattata leapt off, gave a smug nod, and climbed up to my shoulder.


'Damn you! You will pay for this! All of you! Snorunt use Flash!'


By the time we were done blinking rapidly and everything came back into focus, he was gone, although we could hear footsteps hurriedly receding down one of the tunnels.


We all looked at each other, unsure what to say. Well, Doom had afew words to say, but I won't repeat them. Or what Rag called him.





After that, we the Onix staircase up to the surface, and Kirlia took us home.





Oh yeah, the Clefairy that was hugging Sammy has come with her. Welcome to the team!

Blog assist protocol re-engaged.

DESCRAMBLING OF DATA COMPLETE. ALL USEABLE DATA NOW RECOVERED. ESTIMATE OF SCRAMBLED DATA RECOVERED: 36%. AVAILABLE DATA SHOWS CAUSE OF SCRAMBLE 94% LIKELY A CONFLICT OF OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE ENERGY RESULTING IN PARTIAL DESTRUCTION OF DATA.
READY TO COMPLETE REPORT.


CONVERTING AUDIO DATA:
'Ragnarok! What's going on!?'
'How the HELL should I know!? Get me down!'
'Ok, ok, we're thinking!'
'Urgh, you people are clearly idiots. See the blue energy surrounding him? That's psychic energy. You need Dark, Ghost, or Bug energy to stop it. Morons. Now how did you get here first, and have you stolen my treasure?!'

'Show off. And no we haven't. Right, which moves the best?'
'Who IS that guy?'
'I am Blackmage, treasurehunter and all round Awesome trainer. Who are you?'
'I'm Doom, and I can tell we aren't going to get on at all. Bulbasaaaaur!'
'Ok, ready Rag? I'm afraid our best bet is probably Bite.'
'Whatever it takes, this feels awful!'
'Here we go then. Rattata, use Bite! But try to be gentle?'
'Ratta!'
'Ow!'

PSYCHIC ENERGY NEGATED. FRIEND UNIT RAGNAROK RESTORED TO GROUND.

CONVERTING AUDIO DATA:


'Owww! Again!'
'Sorry! Let me help you up.'

'Ta'
'Unleash Hell!'
'Where's Jonny?'
'Looking for a quick way out. Onix is going to help us leave through a hole they think they've found in the roof. He'd only been gone a couple of minutes, and then up I went!'
'Scyther! Attack!'

PROGRESS OF TUNNEL ENTRANCE 2 CLEARANCE BY FRIEND UNITS DON AND POCKET.MONSTER.HITMONCHAN REACHES100%. ATTENTION OF ALL UNITS IS DRAWN TO RAISED AREA OF FLOOR BY INCREASE IN PSYCHIC ENERGY. ALL DATA ON AREA MEASUREMENTS LOST.
CONVERTING AUDIO DATA:

'What's over there? Rag, can you see something in the shadows?'
'Yeah, and it's getting closer. I knew there was something weird going on in here.'
'Oh yeah, that reminds me, amongst all the stuff my DSDex keeps giving us, have you noticed any bells, or silver feathers?'
'No, why?'
'.....It doesn't matter.'
'Vine Whip!'
'Aerial Ace!'
'Oh, you mean like for L'
'Stop the battle.'
'Who said that? No I will not! Want us to unleash Hell on you too? we'll do it!'
'Oh shut up! I think a greater treasure than I could possibly have imagined may be about to reveal itself!'
'Hey guys! The rocks out of the way, Sammy's just making sure all the clefairy are ok, then she- oh.'
'Halt. You are all disturbing the plan.'

'Oh god, I knew it. I know who that is. And we are in deep trouble.'
'T, what are on about?'
'Don't you see? The remote cave, the raised area in the middle? That's like the game. And from the film we have strangely strong versions of the three starters, with weird markings on them...'
'Of course, this is a lot like-'
'Right, Onix has found us a nice back exit, he's set himself in position so when when you're-Oh, hi everybody. Who's the guy in the hat? And what on earth is going on over there?'
'Ok, and march! Hey everybody, who's that? Oi! You, shadowy monster! Stop right there! I've got a very angry group of fairies here, and they want a word or two with y- Oh hell!'

ENEMY UNIT TAGGED AS 'Shadowy monster' ADVANCES. PSYCHIC ENERGY OF LEVEL GROUP 50+ RELEASED FROM ENEMY UNIT. ALL FRIEND UNITS AND ENEMY UNIT BLACKMAGE HELD BY ENERGY.

RETRIEVABLE DATA STOPS HERE FOR PERIODS OF 2.7 HOURS. REMAINING SCRAMBLED DATA INSUFFICIENT FOR TIME PERIOD LOST. ESTIMATE SCRAMBLED DATA ACCOUNTS FOR 36% OF LOST TIME PERIOD. SEARCHING MEMORY BACK UP FOR DATA ON REMAINING 64% OF MISSING TIME...................................

ERROR 404: MEMORY NOT FOUND

ATTEMPTING RECOVERY........

MOVE.RECOVER FAILED TO RESTORE MISSING MEMORY FILES. WILL BEGIN FULL REBOOT IN ATTEMPT TO RECOVER DATA SHORTLY. RETURNING TO DATA REPORT.

ALL UNITS AWAKE WITHIN CHAMBER. ALL ANOMALY UNITS NOW ABSENT.

Thanks Porygon, I think I can take it from here. Thank you for doing your best to fill in the gap.

UNDERSTOOD. GRATITUDE ACKNOWLEDGED. RETURNING TO DICTATION CONVERSION.

Cool thanks. Well, there you go, now we have some idea what went on in the middle. This is really long now, so I'll post the little bit that happened afterwards separately.

Blog assist protocol engaged.

I'm having to rely on Porygon on some of this, so I'm dictating it so he can fill in the gaps. A lot of what happened in the cave is fairly hazy, but I'll do my best...

Right, where did I leave it? Oh yeah, the Wall of Snorunt.
I decided to just take the Ash approach to it, and ran straight at. In response, every single version of Snorunt used Icy wind. It slammed into me, throwing me backwards, sending me crashing into Don.

'Oowwwwwwwww........you ok?'
'....I'm cold.......really, really, cold....'
'You NEVER get cold.'
'....there's a lot of Ice.....'
'Fair point'

We got up to have another go. Hitmonchan charged forwards, striking a Snorunt, causing it to flicker and disappear. The rest of the wall launched another Icy wind, but Glaceon got in the way, absorbing most of the blast with only minor damage. Rattata started tackling fake Snorunts, destroying them, searching for the real one.
Scyther was getting to it's feet, but Butterfree was holding it off while we assaulted the wall. Don was edging round the side of the cave, trying to sneak up without being attacked. It didn't work.




'Right, that does it!'




I released Dratini, who trembled at the sight of so many Ice types, but I pointed out that only one of them was real. 'Help us clear the path would you? Use twister!'




'Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!'




The twister tore into the wall, sending Snorunts flying everywhere, flickering out of existence as they went. Soon, there was just one left, spinning madly in the center of the attack. It was dumped on the cave floor, and stumbled around looking dazed.




'It's dizzy! Quick!'




Everyone sprang forwards, but with a cry of 'eeeeeeeeeeeeeee' Butterfree soared over my head, before tumbling to earth. I ran to catch it, and saw Scyther shoot past, rescue Snorunt from Rattata, Glaceon and Hitmonchan, and speed off into the depths of the tunnel.




I gave Butterfree some berries, and we set off in pursuit. The tunnel wasn't anything very special, but I remember looking into the waterfall chamber before we followed Scyther.




The only entrance to the inner part of the cave to have existed before all this, it's a medium sized chamber with glittering walls, a massive waterfall, and a waterway leading deeper into the cave. We stood there, listening to the rushing water, and it felt as if, underneath, music was playing, like the cave was working to somesort of rythm. Glaceon tugged my shirt, pulling my away towards the tunnels.




'yeah yeah, I know, we're going.'




That cave felt...magical, like there was more to it, if only we knew how to find it. I'll never forget that place. It was beautiful.




Anyway, plot. The tunnel was fairly uneventful, or at least I don't remember anything really happening, but this is where it starts to get a bit hazy. I do remember coming to a crossroads, and seeing a trail of leaves on the floor for as far as I could see to left and right. One was embedded in the cave wall, and somebody had written: 'Passages twisty. We went left. Doom and Sammy.' but with an arrow for the left. Later, we came to another crossroads, again with a trail of leaves, this time telling us they'd been going the other way.





At this point all I can really remember is a yell, and us running, but it's really blurry. Don can't remember this at all, so I hope Porygon can fill in some gaps for us:





ACCESSING BACK UP OF DATA RETRIEVED WHILE EXPLORING SMOO.CAVE. THE PHONE OF FRIEND UNIT TEMPEST WAS USED AS TEMPORARY HOST AREA OF POCKET.MONSTER.PORYGON DURING PERIOD OF DATA RETRIEVAL.


REPLAYING FILE FROM MOST NEAREST RELEVANT SAVE.


CURRENT DISTANCE INTO TUNNEL:1783.4M. FRIEND UNITS TEMPEST AND DON PROGRESS IS HALTED BY WILD ENEMY UNITS POCKET.MONSTER.GEODUDE AND POCKET.MONSTER.ZUBAT. RESULT OF BATTLE IS 2-0 TO FRIEND UNITS. 3.2 SECONDS AFTER BATTLE FRIEND UNITS AND MYSELF HEAR A FRIEND UNIT CALLING OUT. VOICE PATTERN MATCHES THAT OF RAGNAROK AND OSCILLATION SUGGESTS THE EMOTION KNOWN AS FEAR. OUR SPEED OF PROGRESS INCREASES BY 47% AS WE SEEK OUT FRIEND UNIT RAGNAROK. 43.9M ON WE ARE JOINED BY FRIEND UNIT DOOM. FRIEND UNIT TEMPEST REQUESTS KNOWLEDGE OF FRIEND UNIT SAMMY. CONVERTING AUDIO DATA:

'Doom! What's going on? Where's Sammy?'
'Tempest! Don! Sammy's fine, we found this chamber with a big lump of rock in it, looked like a Meteor or something, and loads of Clefairy were dancing round it, except one was off at the side injured. Sammy's healing and caring for it, but we found out it got hurt going down this one passage they're all scared of. We wanted to help, but there's a massive boulder in the way now. Bulbasaur and Oddish hardly even dent it, so it'll take too long. We think it's one of those rocks you have to use strength on, so I came to find Happiny or Hitmonchan.'
'Oh yeah, Black and white have HUGE rocks. Grass might have trouble with those.'
'Well we'd be happy to help, wouldn't we?'
'Chan!'
'Aaaahhh!'
'Oh yeah! Did you see Rag anywhere on your way?'
'No, but he sounds close. Let's go!'

WE RESUME OUR INCREASED SPEED PROGRESS. AFTER 32.3M TUNNEL ENDS. A CAVERN APPROX 37X46X68M ALLOWING FOR UNEVEN SURFACE OF WALLS. 8.6M LEFT A TUNNEL ENTRANCE IS BLOCKED BY AN APPROX 2X2X2M BOULDER. FRIEND UNITS DON AND POCKET.MONSTER.HITMONCHAN ADVANCE TO MOVE BOULDER. 10.7M AHEAD FRIEND UNIT RAGNAROK IS FLOATING 2.3M IN THE AIR IN A BLUE AURA. FRIEND UNITS POCKET.MONSTER.CHARMELEON .SNOVER AND .PICHU AND BEING HELD CAPTIVE BY ENEMY UNITS. SCANS DETECT MARKINGS AND GENETIC MAKE UP DIFFERENT FROM THE NORMAL OF THE SPECIES IN QUESTION. FILED AS ANOMALY.SPECIES. ENEMY UNITS ANOMALY.IVYSAUR ANOMALY.CHARMELEON AND ANOMALY.WARTORTLE NOTICE US. ANOMALY.IVYSAUR RELEASES FRIEND UNIT POCKET.MONSTER.PICHU AND ADVANCES ON US. SOUND DATA RECIEVED FROM 3.4M RIGHT. ENEMY UNIT BLACKMAGE AND ENEMY UNIT POCKET.MONSTER.METANG ENTER FROM TUNNEL ENTRANCE 5. CONVERTING AUDIO DATA:
'What?! How did you get here before me! Damn those Zubat!'
DATA BECOMES SCRAMBLED FROM THIS POINT. DESCRAMBLING IN PROGRESS. POSTING CURRENT DATA INCASE OF MEMORY FAILURE.

Scotland: the Cave.

Right, I'll finally get round to telling you about Scotland. You know how I told you about the odd report coming in from further and further away, and how the cracks were spreading from our base because it's the weakest/most active point? Well, we got an alert that there'd been a major outbreak up in Scotland, so Kirlia took us all up there, as 'Dragon' had offered to look after the eevees.
I don't like teleporting, it turns out. It's a very weird feeling. Doom's getting used to it, and Sammy loves it, but it just feels wrong to me. Rag says you get used to it, but I'm not sure I will.....
'So where exactly are we?' asked Doom as I was skimming the details on the DSDex's screen.
'Let's see' said Don, looking round in all four directions. 'We have mountains, mountains, mountains, and ooh, cliffs.'
'It's the cliffs we want' I called as the wind started to pick up. 'There should be a cave under them.'
We passed a large information board, and Jonny stopped to read it. 'We're in Durness, near a place called smoo-Aha!-cave! Smoo CAVE.'
I grinned at him. 'Durness? Wow, we're really far up then. Those cliffs are the top of Scotland. Only part further north than us is John O Groats.'
Rag was reading a smaller sign at the entrance to a long winding footpath down to the beach.
'Says here that Smoo means cave. They called it Cave cave?'
'Maybe it's particularly cavey?' Doom sighed and set off down the footpath. 'You people are slowing me down. I'm off to fight monsters!'
We raced after her, and found her peering into a huge opening in the cliff face. Further in, we could see several passages leading into darkness.
'So, which do we go for?'
'Well, the only one on the map is the big one on the right, it leads to the waterfall chamber. All the others are new....'
'Aha! new and spooky it is! Divide and conquer seems best. Coming Sammy?'
'Sounds good.'
Doom and Sammy strode off down the left passage, and Ragnarok and Jonny took the next one along, which left me and Don with the rightmost unknown passage. We started to head into the cave, but stopped at a call from behind us.
'Excuse me, I think you'll find that passage is mine.'
We turned round to see a guy standing the flat top of a silver Metang with golden spikes. It was floating towards us with a menacing look in it's eyes. The guy's face was hidden in shadow under a wide brimmed hat, and he had his hands tucked into the pockets of a large grey coat.
'Sorry guys, but I need you to back off that passageway. It's treasures are mine.'
Don started to laugh. 'So, you want to claim something we're about to explore as yours, and that's the attitude you take? Sorry, I don't exactly feel helpful just now.'
I was more interested in more mysterious elements. 'Treasures? Are you guessing, or do you know for a fact? And who the hell are you anyway?'
'Call me Blackmage. Yes, I know for a fact there are treasures in there. To be specific, a treasure. One I want very much. Which means you'll have to move.'
He pulled out both hands and released a Scyther and a Snorunt. Snorunt shot past us, and Blackmage glided gently towards the cave entrance, calling out lazily 'Keep them busy.'
Scyther raised a (What ARE they, anyway? Blades? Sickles?) ...implement and charged at us. I extended my right arm, pointing Joltik at it. 'Spider web!'
Joltik sprayed a large web of sticky threads at Scyther, who waved his sickle? at it, reducing it to tatters in the air.
'Huh, should have seen that coming.'
'Yup.'
We dodged as it swiped at us, and Glaceon shot ice in it's face. I shouted for Rattata to do a Flame Wheel, and a direct hit in the back knocked Scyther to the floor. We ran on, Don releasing Hitmonchan as he went, but we stopped short at the sight before us.
Blackmage had just called out 'Double team!' and his Snorunt was multiplying, over and over again, forming a row. The next set of Snorunt flipped themselves upside down, tessalating perfectly with the first lot, this kept going at a phenominal rate, and Blackmage laughed, still visible through a gap. 'Nice try, but I'm afraid I've won. I doubt very much you'll get past....The Wall of Snorunt!'
He was obscured from view by the replicating Snorunt still laughing triumphantly.
We had no idea who this guy was, but we had a job to do, and he was fighting us. If it was a battle he wanted, a battle he'd get!

Turns out, he's already level 12.

I know I've been slow finishing off what happened at the chilli fiesta, but we had a bit of trouble up in Scotland, so I haven't had time. I'll try and get this out of the way quickly, so we can move on.

Right, a summary of the situation. Rag had just fallen from a tree that had suddenly come through from the other universe, I was still recovering from the most recent surge of power from my shoulder, Doom had run off to help Sammy fight the latest wave of crazed wild creatures, a Heracross was about to divebomb me and Rag, and a Joltik had just attached itself to my wrist.

'Why is there a Joltik on your wrist?'
'I honestly have no ideAH!'
I dived out of the way as Heracross streaked past, right through the space I'd been occupying moments before.
We ran for cover under the pillared section, yelling instructions to Charmeleon and Butterfree as we went. With Ember and Gust chasing after Heracross, I risked a look at my wrist. The Joltik seemed to be trembling, casting frightened looks at our attacker.
'Oh, I see, he's scared. He must think I can protect him.'
It was at this point that Joltik's mother chose to attack us. I assume she thought we were trying to steal her child. Whatever her motives, we found ourselves assaulted by electricity and a hailstorm of needles. Joltik was hissing at her frantically, but we fled, with arms over our heads. I couldn't attack Galvantula, she wasn't to blame, she was just being a mum.
We made our way to the girls, and saw that they were in engaged in a battle with a swarm of Beedrill, a Tangela and a group of Sunflora.
'Typical' I groaned. 'There are ALWAYS Wasps here.'
'Get over here!' yelled Sammy. 'We don't exactly have a type advantage!'
'Pfft, advantages are for wimps.' Doom smiled. 'Vine Whip!'
Bulbasaur's vine lashed out at alarming speed, striking Beedrill in the head, leaving them dazed.
'You DO have an advantage! Sunflora and Tangela are pure Grass type!'
Sammy broke into a smaile 'Duh! Oddish! Acid!'
She laughed as Tangela was sent reeling, but Sunflora's head was beginning to glow gold.
'Oh hell, we do NOT want a solarbeam! Glaceon!''
Glaceon nodded, sending a blast of Ice at Sunflora, partially encasing it.
Rag dodged another dive from Heracross, while calling commands to his team. Pichu looked a little scared, then put on a frown and strode forwards. Admittingly, he mostly still just looked adorable, but it was clear he meant business. He strode forwards, and grinned sweetly, with a blush in his cheeks and a spark in his tail. He swayed from side to side, smiling up at the bugs. As soon as they were distracted, Snover hit them with icy wind, blowing them towards the ground, where Charmeleon assaulted them with fire based attacks.
I looked at the Heracross. He was too high, there's no way Rattata could get him from here. I held up a hand, and Rattat shot to the end of it, as high as he could get. Butterfree swooped past, scooping him up, and taking him way above us, into the sky. 'Drop down with Flamewheel!'
'Butterfree let go, and with a cry of 'Rataaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!' A tiny ball of fiery destruction hurtled towards Heracross, striking him hard. Angered, he charged, horn down. I glanced round, checking everyone else was alright, I led it away from them as fast as I could, back towards the pillars, and turned to put my arms up to protect myself.
'Tiii!'
I'd almost forgotten about Joltik. I couldn't put him in danger. I quickly turned my back to sheild him, and waited for the hit to land.
Instead I heard a yell and a thump. I turned, cautiously, and saw Heracross on the ground, with Galvantula standing on it. She and Joltik exchanged hurried words, and then she jerked her head, signaling for us to move.
'Really? You're ok with me now?'
She nodded.
'Thank you.'
We ran back to the others, narrowly missing a stray poison sting from a beedrill. One was coming for us, and everyone was busy. We were on our own.
'Jolti!'
'You want to fight?'
'Jolti!'
'Ok! Let's do this!'
I thought quickly. What helpful moves might Joltik know, no matter what his level something low down his list. Think! Off in the distance, I saw Doom smack away a Beedrill coming at her from the side, and Rag grabbing one by it's leg and slamming it into another.
I pointed my wrist at the Beedrill. 'Joltik! Thunderwave!'
A ripple of electricity shot from Joltik, paralyzing our attacker. I knocked it to the ground, and moved on to another.
So, pretty soon we all dealt with everyone, and we'd managed to keep the whole thing far enough away from the fiesta for it to be noticed too much, and Kirlia dealt with anyone who had.
Joltik has decided to join me, so say hello to our newest member!
Right, scotland asap!