Adventure Thread - Group B

The Pokemon Center takes the Meowth to go get a flea bath and escorts Jane elsewhere to do the same. After a few hours, it's all settled. Jane is informed that both she and the abandoned Meowth are now parasite free and completely healthy. It seems some bad seed just up and left their Meowth on that bench as every so often some kind soul brings it in thinking its a Wild. The tricky part is, it's technically still owned, so a poke ball wouldn't work on it by default. However, recent changes in laws allow for ownership to be transferred by the Pokemon Center employees to (in this case) Jane. Then she can just recall it into a Poke Ball and take it home with her.

While Jane was being de-flea'd, they also cleaned her hoodie and cat-hat. They've been washed and sprayed so they're good to go.

Sam's sweet smelling scent attracts a lone Pikachu. It spies Mawile and approaches warily, low to the ground, and ready to bolt away at a moment's notice.

Jane's Ranch

Only a ranch in the most technical of terms, it was clear that the small compound was quite new. While several poké-pens and shelter existed the main human habitat was still under construction. Thanks to the rapid speed of the Pokémon Construction Company one could almost guess what shape and colour the house would eventually have (mostly because there were a barrel labelled 'red' and 'don't eat the paint' next to the entrance).

Jane herself could be found wrapped in a blanket and sitting next to a small campfire in the middle of the courtyard. It looks quite cosy - good thing it isn't raining right now though. She has a small pile of Shards next to her and she appears to be carving them into smaller pieces and puzzling those pieces together into a multi-coloured sphere, with the help of some art n craft supplies. Her Flareon is out, occasionally trying to nibble on the shards but always pushed away just at the last moment. Eventually the Fire pokémon notices that they have guests and hops forward to greet them and Jane looks up.

"Oh hi!" she smiles. "I hope finding your way wasn't a bother! And good morning to you too!"

The next morning Lowell spent some time training with his pokemon then headed to the local mart to seach for a Metal Coat for Axel.

Afterwards he made his way towards Jane's ranch, waving as he entered. 

"Mornin' girls. How'd your yesterday go?" 

"I'd love to dwell on yesterday, actually. I need more of yesterday. Yesterday was a good day for making money and winning battles, yes sir" Lowell said as he made himself comfortable somewhere.

"Well, I have to give Axel the Metal Coat I just bought so that he evolves into a Scizor. After that? A planning session sounds great"

"We took a lot of good notes yesterday. I didn't share yesterday, but I can tutor any moves that I record in my logs. If there's a move you want to learn that one of our other Pokémon already knows, I can transfer the knowledge between them with some training."

Song sat near the fire with the murkrow and infernape near her, having just returned from their scavenging. She looked at what Jane was tinkering with. "Those are pretty." The dark bird hopped a few stepped toward the shiny crystals but didn't attempt to snag one... yet.

"My goal at the moment is to earn enough money for a flight license and catch a few of my team members up in strength before heading to another city for a badge." The girl seemed in no real rush, preferring the methodical approach.

"...do they at least give you some extra-special prize if you beat the mother-daughter combo? Because otherwise that just sounds like masochism" Lowell said. He dropped to the ground and sat cross-legged, releasing his armaldo who got comfortable to the youth's left.

"I might hold off on the evolution until I have better options to deal with fire. Kiva and Clair are already pretty vulnerable to it and all, and Jamke here plus my Masquerain can only do so much. But there really aren't many bug-types that deal well with fire, so I might have to end up raising another Surskit"

He shrugged before returning to the topic at hand.

"Going at the Gatekeeper today and clearing that sounds like a fairly decent plan, honestly. Then maybe looking for a set of wilds to strengthen our teams for the match-up. The whole thing sounds like an attrition battle which I don't think favors you particularly A, what with psychics not often being too bulky. No clue about Jane's team, but I'd like having another effective attacking option even if my pokemon's neutral attacks are still plenty strong."

"This is a gym, so if you don't beat the leader you've essentially failed. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the gauntlet of trainers fought recklessly simply to damage your psychics and make the leader's time easier. I'd expect some Pangoro or Scrafty too which, while I'm sure you have answers to Dark-types, could stop the momentum of your steamroll"

Lowell then pulled out a small booklet where he had notes about his plans for the different bad matchup gyms that Bug had.

"Bug doesn't do much to many types, but it's pretty good defensively against Fighting. Axel and Cozette, which are part flying, give me some fairly decent match-ups and Stefan doesn't do resists because of his ability. Kiva knows Psychic too so I'd say offensively I'm not in the worst of shapes. And the fact that they're bugs means that I have no Pokemon weak to fighting on my team at the moment"

He looked thoughtful for a second or two before continuing his answer.

"On the wilds front, the common Kanto bugs are actually pretty fantastic against fighting. Butterfree is a flying-type while Venomoth and Beedrill are Poison-types, so one of them has an offensive advantage while the other two end up being rather bulky on the defensive end. My biggest struggle is probably gonna be the inevitable fire/fighting, and I think that's gonna be this guy's job"

He pat his Armaldo's head, earning a chittering sound in response.

"Getting him was a stroke of luck but he's really helped round up my team. Even then, though, I'm often trying to create mismatches to get on even footing. Bug's offensive problems don't make my life any easier"