Starlight: Redshift

by the-pieman

Chapter 66

After our chance to recover our mental and physical energy we head up the stairs. I know that I saw something about there being battles, but so far there haven’t been any. Also, I can’t recall how many floors there are to this. It is good to know that we can continue without needing to start all over if we need to leave.

Upon reaching the next floor, I see that it’s another ‘labyrinth’ setup, but this time with an open room, and floor tiles edged with glowing lines. There’s one ‘entrance’, but there doesn’t seem to be anything blocking us from just walking across the area to the door on the other side. There isn’t even the gleam that glass would give from the hard, flourescent lights.

Guessing it’s a tile puzzle. One of those spinny, ‘you keep moving until we say you can stop’ things. Great. Without a bird’s-eye view of the place it’s gonna be difficult if that’s the case.

I go to step over one of the glowing li- “Sonofabitch my nose!” I grab said part of my face as I realize that it’s actually an invisible wall puzzle. Probably more tricks to it than that but seriously... ow!

“What? How’d you hurt yourself?” Twilight asks, looking more curious than concerned, and Rarity is similar.

I sigh. “Invisible barrier of some kind.” I knock against the air where I got hurt. The place I ‘knock’ against gives a gentle ‘whoosh’ noise, and I see faint ripples of distorted air move outward, quickly lost in the generally bland decor on this level, probably a purposeful choice.

Twilight goes to inspect it but comes back more confused. “I can’t figure out what kind of spell this is... Wait, is this that... what was that phrase you used?”

I frown. “Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

“Yeah, that... but it isn’t indistinguishable, so it’s not that advanced, right?”

“Considering that whatever counterspell you can pull out of your ass won’t do jack. I’d say that’s advanced enough.” Twilight mumbles something, still inspecting the wall, along with Rarity. I trust her eyes more than Twilight.”What do you think? Is there some sort of chink in it that reveals where a wall is?”

Rarity looks down, then steps confidently forward, bypassing the barrier entirely. Looking down, I see that there’s a gap in the colored lines on the floor, like a corridor lit by landing lights. I fight back the urge to face-palm, seeing as how I’d already looked at and discounted the lights as decorations. Still, this is Rarity’s kind of challenge. There’s only about enough room for one human to walk comfortably in the ‘corridor’, and maybe enough room for two ponies if they were really snuggly about it, and willing to half carry one of them.

“So... I say Rarity takes point. I’m clearly not that good at finding invisible stuff.”

Rarity and Twilight both crack smiles at my choice of words, and I roll my eyes.

Rarity turns and takes another step but gasps as she begins to turn. A moment into the turn, and I realize, she’s not turning, the floor under her is turning, and she’s not facing to the right of where she’d been facing, and the lines on the floor indicate that she’s in a straightaway section, and no longer lined up with the entrance. In fact, the entrance is now closed off from the rest of the maze.

“Well... uh...” Twilight seems at a loss. I’m no better really. “So how do we know which way to go if we can’t see the walls and if we get turned around?”

I think for a moment and ponder what could be done. I recall Rarity having used Glorious, maybe... I toss out Chantlette and explain the situation.

If the ability ‘Super Luck’ can activate outside of battle this might be easier than just blind guesses.

Chantlette looks up at me, then gives the most adorable little shrug, before walking the edge of the line of lights, before turning back to me and shaking her head. Evidently, once someone’s in, they have to stay in.

I thank Chantlette for trying anyways and return her. Gloom might be able to spread acid or spores on the walls so we could see them, but that would risk it hitting us and I doubt that would be very healthy... They probably have a kinetic immunity deal and Geodude punching it would do nothing...

Geistowl wouldn’t do so well here, its wingspan too big to fit comfortably. Litwick can use smog but that runs the same risk as Gloom and Gulpar is definitely too big for a space like this. He’d have to straighten out like an unbending stick and that would be pretty unhelpful.

“Anyone have a pokémon that could help? Something with Foresight would probably be the ultimate cheat.” The two shake their heads, not sure what pokémon could be used. I mean, I know just about every pokémon we have like the back of my hand, but I guess they don’t.

“Darlings, I’m going to try going to the next corridor over, and see what happens.” Rarity says, and begins to walk towards the next tile. Unable to think of any better ideas I just stay back and watch the ground Rarity walks on very carefully so as to not miss anything.

As soon as she steps onto the next tile over, this one a different color and an elbow turn section, the tile rotates ninety degrees, just like the one before, this time resulting her being aligned with the first piece still and a new piece, which is a + intersection.

I walk up behind Rarity and realize that the elbow had rotated with her, cutting us off. Twilight starts freaking out but I calm her down after a bit of time. “She’s fine, we’re fine, we just need to stick closer together before stepping on a tile. Rares, try stepping off that curved tile you’re on now and turn it until it connects to us again.”

She tries, but it seems the tiles don’t move exactly the way I expect them to, and that is made pretty much impossible given her options, permanently separating us until it becomes ‘our’ turn. Meaning I have to just sit and watch.

Rarity begins moving from tile to tile, considering each one carefully, with the occasional comment from Twilight and I, until we can’t see which tile type she’s on. There’s only four variations of tile, thankfully, or this’d be really complex, but she gets close to the other end... before rotating a corner piece wrong, and getting stuck. A loud, harsh ‘wrong’ buzzer blares in the room, and the tiles all light up as a straight-line corridor facing back to us. Rarity follows it along and steps back into the entrance area, and the maze resets, though the entrance is in a new place, and the first actual tile is a T-shape, not a | piece.

I for one, greatly miss my powers. if I still had them, I’d be able to just walk through these walls, but in my ‘impotent’ state there’s little I can do. “So, does Rarity give it another shot, or should we do our best to stick together?”

“I’m not sure Anthony...” Twilight says. “These halls are so small there’s not much room for us to walk together...”

“Well, it’s either we try anyways or we go one at a time.”

“Uh... well...” Twilight seems to have a hard time coming up with a solution. But I get one.

“You said size spells are simple, right?”

“What does that have to do with-”

“Shrink us. We’ll be small enough to fit in one place at a time”

“It... doesn’t quite work like that, actually. I can’t just... remove mass so...”

I sigh. “Fine, then we go one at a time.”

“At least not without a template. Size is a branch of transformation, so I could feasibly turn us into something smaller as opposed to outright shrinking us.”

I shrug and take out Litwick.”

“Do it, then. Litwick can be your template.”

Twilight thinks for a minute. “Well, I’ve obviously never tried it with a pokémon but, I can try.” in a flash, Twilight and Rarity are back to ponies, and Twi’s horn lights up. “Okay, just need to concentrate.”

A beam of magic hits Litwick and then it splits off and hits me and the girls. Changing like this is not entirely comfortable. I’m reminded of the depiction in Animorphs where not everything changes at once and so it’s very strange, especially where internal parts are concerned but when it’s over I look down at myself and note that I no longer have feet but a sort of cup-like object. But it’s apparently part of my body as I can’t hop out of it or take it off like it was a pair of pants.. And very tiny hands.

“I think it worked.”

“Yeah, we look like Litwick. Uh... mostly.” I look over at Twilight, who appears to be a deep purple Litwick with bright, lavender flame.

Rarity seems to be a white, flower-shaped candle with a wide base and a purple flame. In any case, my Litwick comes over and hugs me. “You’re so cute like this!” she says.

Wait.

“You serious? We can talk to Pokemon like this? How the heck does that work?”

Litwick shrugs, but can’t keep the big, goofy grin off her face. It’s a lot more... natural, and less ‘so cute Imma die’ than when I’m bigger than her.

“Anyways, I guess we can try this.”

“Uh... there may be a small problem.” Twilight says. “We changed mass, and pretty drastically at that. We may not be heavy enough for the tiles to recognize as a full-sized person.”

I think for a moment. “Well, if all four of us jump on it, the combined weight and force should be enough to simulate a light footfall. Like a small child at least.”

Head-bobs all around answer me, and we make our way to the maze.

I figured it must be pretty weird to walk around without feet, and I’m proven right. But at least I’ve a flat bottom so I’m not falling over. It’s just a very odd sensation. “Jeez Litwick, how do you handle... hopping around like... this all the time?”

“Uh, ‘cuz that’s how I move?” she says, shrugging mid-hop as she goes.

Yeah, probably like metaphorically riding a bike to her. It takes a while of hopping around and some light general conversation to pass the time, as well as a few failures, but we eventually manage to figure out the puzzle and we’re all out of the maze, and together no less.

“Alright, this is miles better than being a pony, but I’m not a fan of being stepped on so...”

“It’ll last for another few hours.” Twilight says, shrugging her tiny arms.

I let out a heavy sigh. “Great.” With that, I hop up the stairs to the next floor, needing some assistance along the way.

Eventually we get to the top of the stairs and enter the next room. I’m way out of breath from all the hopping and climbing. That said, it makes it clear that Litwick do breathe. In fact, this spell would be very helpful in learning all kinds of things about various pokémon.

I flop onto the top step and heave out a tired. “Finally...”

When I look up I see Litwick and a giant, furry leg. I look up at Twilight confusedly. “I thought you said it was another hour!”

Twilight shrugs, grinning slightly.

“I hate you so much...” Rarity chuckles, commenting that they know I don’t mean it., but right now I kind of do. “Fine, just make me human again.”

“Actually I can undo the spell, but I’d need a template to do a human, so you do have to wait a bit longer. We can carry you though!”

“I hate magic...”

The next floor up is rather different, and Twilight and Rarity quickly duck back down. There’s three trainers standing in the room, and what I can now tell are probably the spin-panels from the games on the floor, judging by all the arrows and knee-high blocks on the ground. Each trainer is standing on a gray tile, with a gray tile near them, or in front of them, and the gray tiles also make up the normal floor. And going off the shininess of the white sections, I’m guessing they’re super-slick to make the whole thing work.

Still a Litwick, I hop onto one of the first spinny panels. Might as well get this over with. I must admit though... as frustrating as the puzzles are in the games, the whole spinning thing is actually pretty fun, and strangely doesn’t make me even slightly dizzy.

After a bit of time, I finally stop at... a small group of gray tiles, surrounded mostly by incoming arrows, though there’s two outbound tiles as well. One thing I’ve noticed is that there’s some purple-colored arrow tiles standing out among the green arrows. I kinda want to figure out what they do, but none are in my immediate paths right now, I think.

I take another randomly selected tile. I figure it’s no problem really. The worst that would happen is getting sent back and these puzzles always have a way to leave if you get stuck. Maybe that’s the purple arrows.

A spin across the tile later, and I almost trip on the next set of tiles, causing me to begin toppling... only to get caught by a slim arm. “Woah, there! Hey little guy, what’re you doing here on your own?” I look up and see a young woman’s face, smiling down at me.

She has nice, auburn hair and deep purple eyes. Not too animeish but enough to stand out. Her outfit is what I suppose could be called a battle skirt, with some nice flower designs. Then I recall she’s somehow holding me in a hand. Oh right, still a Litwick. Oh well. I look back to the entrance and call out for them to follow, speaking the native tongue of my current form.

Twilight and Rarity step out into view and, Litwick riding on Twi’s back, waves to me. I wave back and ask her to ask Twilight when it’ll wear off at this point.

Litwick pokes at Twilight, and talks animatedly, but Twilight just gives me a shrug and a smile. Meanwhile, the young lady holding me gives an immediate squeal of joy that would normally hurt my ears, but isn’t actually too bad in my current state. “They’re so cuu~uute!” she says, looking literally starry-eyed, and the other trainers in the room turn to look.

I pause for a bit, realizing that none of them know how I got here. I think on how they could get here when my choices were complete random chance, but I get an idea. I signal for Twilight to teleport everyone over here to me.

The girls talk to each other in hushed voices, as the lady holding me whispers down, “Are they your friends, little guy?”

I give a nod and a small hop to indicate that she guessed right. I then make a motion to suggest putting me down. Luckily she interprets it well enough that I’m put down on the ground gently. I look up at her, smiling down at me and manage to note that she’d be about my height, maybe a bit taller when I’m human.

After a few moments, Twilight lights her horn up, drawing another squeal of joy from the woman, and some gasps from the other two trainers, and both ponies and my pokémon appear ont eh tiles with me, though it’s a little crowded.

“Now?” I ask Twilight, and Litwick relays. Twilight thinks for a minute then nods. Her horn lights up and the next thing I know I’m back up to full size. “Whoo... that puzzle downstairs sucks when you aren’t tiny...”

Jaws drop all around us, including the woman I’m now just a few curly hairs shorter than.

“Yeah, I know, quite the doozy of a room you got up here too. So, do we battle or are you here for some other reason?”

“Uh- buh- uh-” she just sorta stammers for a few moments, eyes anime wide and completely confused.

A guy across the room calls out, “Are you all pokémon still, or...?”

I wave back. “Nah, I’m the only natural-born human in this little gang. It’s okay to use pokémon tricks like that on puzzles, right?”

“Uh... I don’t think it’s been said you can’t...” the guy says, still on the other side of the room.

“Ah, good, we’ve been using tricks like that most of the way here. Well, mainly these two.” I indicate Twilight and Rarity as I recall Litwick to her ball. One day I’ll have to ask them what it’s like in there... “So, we battle now, right?”

The girl blushes. “Uh, r-right. Uhm... gimme a sec...” she says, stumbling a bit on her words as she pulls out a remote. All the white and arrow tiles nearby flip over to gray, giving us room to spread out. “Uh, are those your first pokémon you’re going to use?” she asks.

“Nah, I got others. Not as flashy, but still pretty tough.” I take out Geodude’s pokéball and toss it between my hands a few times. “So, what’s your pick? I know mine.”

She nods, “Right, right.” she pulls her own pokéball out. “One pokémon each?” she asks.

“Sounds fair.” I toss out Geodude who looks around at the puzzle room but he focuses on the woman in front of us when he sees the ball in her hand. “Ready buddy?”

I get an affirmative nod and we await the reveal of her pokémon of choice.

She smiles and tosses out a pokémon I recognize, but also see has a new coloration pattern. the Vulpix shakes itself off. “Piii~iix!” it chirrups, sitting back to look at me, tails swishing slightly. It has a grey, black, cream, and brown coloration, mostly gray, but otherwise looks pretty normal.

Well, cool coat or not it’s still a Fire type and that gives me a huge advantage right off the bat. I have Geodude start with a “Magnitude!”

The fox pokémon is nimble though, and jumps over what would have been a solid six.

“Alright, Fire Spin to keep him in place!” the other trainer calls, and the Vulpix responds immediately, the flames notably hotter than normal, reaching a much brighter yellow, rather than red, and I can feel them from a good six feet away.

Geodude is literally solid as rock and takes the heat like a champ. Judging by the way the Vulpix likes to move around, that Speed should be taken down a notch. Luckily, Geodude is pretty high level and knows a variety of moves, including “Bulldoze!”

Geodude dashes forward similar to a Rollout but with less spinning and the Vulpix once again makes a quick jump over Geodude, just as I planned. “Smack Down!”

The Vulpix dodges as the girl calls for Confuse Ray, and calls immediately after that to follow up with Will-O-Wisp, and both an orb of fire and that eerie ghost-light orb begin to head for Geodude, but they split up and head for him from opposite sides, catching both Geodude and I off-guard. I didn’t even know you could direct those moves like that, let alone at the same time.

Gotta think fast. Geodude can’t jump like that Vulpix and if left and right aren’t- Down! “Dig!”

Putting the TM to use, Geodude goes to burrow through the tiled floor, when he slams his fist down, though, the tile simply flips over, and he drops under. Huh, guess the tower owner saw that eventuality coming... or had to replace a lot of tiles already.

Both of the orbs smash into each other just above the tile that had flipped over barely a moment later, obliterating each other. The Vulpix begins to look around with wide eyes. “Keep calm, use Dig, too!” she calls, and the Vulpix visibly relaxes and dives under a panel, barely avoiding Geodude popping up behind it.

“Magnitude!” Now that it’s underground those jumps are impossible!

Geodude slams his fists down, and a ripple of tiles jumps up for a moment, followed by a hollow ‘thunk’ as the Vulpix hits the underside of one. A moment later, and the Vulpix bursts out of the tile behind Geodude, slamming into him, though it looks like the Vulpix has taken quite a beating, and is standing shakily but determined at the girl’s feet, still trying to maintain a battle-ready posture.

That said, it made a mistake taking on a Rock type with a physical attack, especially when your best-known stat is Special attacks. I call for a Defense Curl, to prepare against another dig attack

“Alright Vulpix, now for your trump card, use Energy Ball!” she calls, as Geodude completes his orders, the little fox pokémon summoning a ball of green energy over its tails and launching it at the presently curled and immobile Geodude, though to his credit, he’s already uncurling to try dodging.

My pokémon is smashed back by the attack, but seems to shrug it off, for the most part, and I call for a Rock Throw before the Vulpix can fire again.

Geodude reaches under a panel and snatches up a decently-sized rock and chucks it at the Vulpix, who is knocked down and out by the attack, the girl sighing and recalling her pokémon.

I give Geodude a high five which hurts my hand a bit considering it’s like slapping a solid rock, but I grin and bear it as I recall him. “Like I said: Not too flashy but far from chumps.”

“Well, you did great!” she says, smiling at me. I like her smile. “Here, I have one part of the Secret Code for this floor.” she says, taking my hand and pulling out a marker, writing down three digits down, before writing below that another set of nine numbers. Once she’s gotten me back on the normal panels, she hits the remote again, and the floor sets itself back to the spin-maze again. “You gotta beat the other two if you want the rest of the code.” she says.

I grin, pretty sure I can take the other two. “The only problem will be getting to them, believe you me. I’ll have that booty before you know it.”

Not sure if she got the double entendre there but luckily she just waves it off as me having an odd way of speaking or something like that.

Two spins on the tiles later, and I think I’ve got a clear shot lined up to get to the guy who’d asked if I was a pokémon earlier.

I take a step and wait for the spinning but not dizzying trip to end though I’m on the path to a purple tile. At least that’s what I could tell from the arrows before stepping back onto the puzzle. I cringe, preparing to be warped back to the entrance... but I just spin right over it, the arrow flipping to face the opposite direction.

Oh, so that’s what that does, good. Though I think the girls will likely have to keep teleporting to me, there’s no other way for them to really follow me. Unless they think it’s cheating too much and demand they take their own turns.

Thankfully, I’m not really susceptible to all this spinning, or I’d be dizzy beyond belief. I land on some gray tiles, and a very young girl, just barely ten, is waiting on the panels for me. “Hiya! You ready to battle, or do you wanna skip out on the Secret Prize?” she asks.

“Like I’d miss the chance to get free stuff.” I take out another ball, this time Geistowl’s. I toss it in the air, but not actually throwing it, as I wait for the rules of the fight to be decided. “I’m guessing since this is the second match we use two pokémon?”

“Sure, if you’d like. We each have three pokémon, so it’s really up to you.” she says, and tosses out... a Togepi, who has pentagonal shapes on its shell instead of triangles. Huh. Same colors, though.

I nod and toss out Geistowl. “We can do three if that’s what it takes to get that code.”

“Nah, we can do two, then Greg can do three.” she says, and giggles. “We gonna battle or what, mister?”

“Aerial Ace!” Geistowl gives a haunting shriek, but makes no other sound as she soars up and dives down at the Togepi. For this to be so far into the tower, I expect the Togepi to have something special about it, so I decide to stick with a move that can’t miss.

“Metronome!” As a first move, child?! Are you nuts?!

The little Togepi waves it fingers, and a shimmering barrier surrounds the pokémon and Geistowl just phases through the little egg.

“Bu-... wha-?” What was that? It couldn’t have been substitute, and I can’t think of another move that... oh this is one lucky girl... I steel myself and start to think of a strategy that can beat randomness... “You’re pretty risky, Lucky Girl.”

The girl just giggles and calls for Metronome again. Once more, the Togepi trills and gleefully waves its arms, a burning kanji streaking out at the now-terrified Geistowl, who gets slammed by the Fire Blast attack. Two perfectly useful moves in a row from Metronome? There’s gotta be something funky here.

I think of one way to get at the baby fairy type though. “Shadow Sneak!”

The girl goes to call for Metronome again, but Geistowl’s intimidating dive-bombing scares the Togepi senseless, making it run for its trainer as the ghostly attack strikes the little pokémon’s shadow and sends it skittering across the floor, now crying and wavings its feet and arms in distress. The panicked trilling of the Togepi actually does kinda hurt me emotionally, but I don’t think it’s a pokémon move.

Or it could be Fake Tears, who knows what this thing can pull out of it’s shell. I order a follow up with Peck, a lighter attack just in case.

The Togepi screams in fear, and the girl returns the pokémon before Geistowl’s attack lands. she holds her pokéball, looking like she’s about to cry as well. I, uh, might’ve gotten a little carried away there.

“Hey... I just... I figured we were playing for keeps this far up the tower... and you using Metronome like that is-”

“Big meanie!” the girl yells, and tosses out an Ultra Ball. A massive, gargantuan really, stony pokémon lands on the floor, the thud hard enough to knock me from my feet. And the Gigalith looking down at me doesn’t look happy its trainer is crying.

I consider Geistowl’s options and figure making her go against a heavyweight Rock type won’t be a smart plan so I go with “Gloom! Mega Drain!”

Gloom immediately set about draining the Gigalith, who just gives an enraged roar as the little orbs of life-essence drain from it. “Use Return!” she shouts, and the entirety of the pokémon’s body begins to gain an off-white glow, the power concentrating into the stony giant’s crystalline growths.

“Giga...” the pokémon begins, before launching itself at Gloom, who looks panicked at the nigh-unto-six-hundred-pounds of stone and rock charging her. “Liiiith!” comes the finisher, and I’m honestly afraid for a few moments that my pokémon has just been turned into fertilizer, until the Gigalith climbs off, revealing a very battered, but still conscious Gloom, though she seems really shaken.

This girl just went from lucky to powerhouse. Time for me to do the opposite. “Gloom, Lucky Chant!”

Gloom begins the chant, and the girl shouts for a Heavy Slam, and I can only hope the luck increase can help me dodge this.

“Gloom, get out of there, and use Sleep Powder!” If this thing can’t move it’s incredible weight around, I stand a chance yet.

Gloom spins as she dodges, leaving a cloud of Sleep Powder where she was standing, which the steely-colored Gigalith lands directly in, getting a facefull of the stuff. The Gigalith looks surprised, blinks twice, then crashes to the floor, completely asleep. I breath a sigh of relief.

I smirk at the girl. “You wanna call this now, or keep going? I’ve still got both Gloom and Geistowl, and your only one left is sawing logs like no tomorrow.”

“Nooo! Wake up! Wake up, Giggles!” the little girl yells, running over and trying to pick up the gigantic rock pokémon herself. There couldn’t be more drama in this moment if the pokémon had died, rather than merely fell asleep. It’s even still snoring, loudly, so it’s definitely not dead.

I walk up to the girl and pat her on the shoulder. “Chill, he’ll be peachy as soon as he wakes up. No real harm done.”

“But I dun wanna lose!” she says, tears streaming down her face.

“You were given a code to give to anyone who beats you, right?”

She nods her head sadly, and digs in a pocket sullenly, before tossing me a small business card with three more alphanumeric symbols on it.

I take the card and, pairing it with what I have on my hand, I’ve got two-thirds of the code. I step onto the next spinning tile. If I’m right, that purple tile is still flipped, which means if I can get to it it’ll take me in a new direction. I look around for a route that leads up to the tile but, finding none from my current position, I head for another randomly chosen tile.

Luck has proven to be on my side so far and even when it wasn’t I turned things around. Maybe this puzzle will be easy. If it is... maybe the prize sucks. That would be a bummer.

Two more purple arrows later and I’m stuck in a triple-loop for half a minute, before finally coming to rest at the exit. Given that the exit was accessed via a purple arrow, I can go right back into the puzzle.

I want that prize, so I decide to head back and take a different path. Hopefully, one that takes me to the final guy, Greg I think the little girl said.

Two more tries later, and I’m stuck in a corner. the only way off it leads to a purple arrow that I already know will currently take me to the exit... wait, I can send Twilight over, if she’ll teleport to me and go first.

“Hey Twilight, over here, I need some help with this one.” I call to the pony, who are still getting the interested looks from the trainers in the room, probably wondering what kind of Pokemon they are.

Twilight teleports over, having already tried getting around and needed a few moments to get her eyes to stop rolling like they were googly eyes. She smiles up at me, apparently keeping her ability to speak on the down-low in this room full of trainers.

“You go, then I’ll go. It’ll take you to the exit, but it’ll take me to the next guy if I go after. Hopefully. Then we can get that prize. She nods and steps onto the tiles, though I’m wondering why she gets so dizzy but I don’t. Maybe it’s motion sickness or something.

Immediately after her, I step forward and am whisked away, spinning through the other side of the loop, and ending up just a straight-line path to Greg, who looks like a fairly stereotypical ‘neckbeard’ type. Notably overweight, wearing a button-up shirt that could be used to make a tent, and sitting in a folding chair instead of standing like the ladies. I really hope he isn’t one of those mean sorts of larger people.

I prefer jolly-fat to nasty-fat. Well, Golden Rule and all. I wave to him and give him a warm greeting. “Hey there, you’re certainly hard to get to. Bet you’re worth the trouble.”

“Nah, you just took the wrong turn back there. Clever use of your pokémon... you wouldn’t be willing to trade one, wouldja?” he asks, grinning broadly. Jolly-fat, thank goodness.

I think about it, but I guess I can’t just trade Twilight away, no matter what I might get in return. I mean, she’s still my friend and all, even if a little bit of a headache. “Nah, I’m pretty happy with my team. Can’t really think of any trades that could improve it. But hey, we all have those pokémon we just can’t let go, you know?”

He nods sadly. “Ah well... as you might’ve guessed, I’m more of a collector than a trainer, but I do my part. Bad knees kinda eliminated the ‘climb mountains and swim the rivers and lakes’ part of the adventuring thing.” he explains, and pulls out a pokéball.

“Collector huh? Well let’s see what kind of neat stuff you have. Three on three?”

“Yup! Let’s start off with you, Meowth!” he yells, letting out the most heart-rendingly adorable Meowth I’ve ever seen. That’s just not playing fair, I can’t attack something that cute!

“Mewth?” the Meowth even sounds like a kitten!

“Omigosh where did you get that!?” I ask. “It’s adorable! What breed is that?”

“It’s a Munchkin breed. And yeah, that’s my little princess. She’s actually not very good at battling, but she’s a great conversation opener.” Greg says. “They’re msotly bred for contests and the like, but it’s hard to get any, because the ‘normal’-” he says the word with actual air quotes from his fingers, “-genes are more dominant, and any sort of inbreeding, even for specific traits is highly illegal. And a pedigree is an absolute must if you get one of these cuties.” he says, the Meowth giving another cutesy ‘Mewth!’ when she recognizes she’s being talked about.

“Wow... I don’t really have any special-bred pokémon. Well, I have one but he’s in the box. My breeder friend is still a beginner but I think she has real talent. She might be able to get me one of those munchkin things. Hey, can I pet it, later?”

“You can right now. If you’re willing to show me your pokémon, I’ll show you mine, and we can call this a ‘peaceable resolution.’” he suggests. Given how dainty this Meowth looks compared to normal, I’m inclined to agree.

“Sure! This one I got way under the waters of Great Barrier.” I toss out Gulpar who bursts out swimming in place. “I actually ran into a Krakinos down there, but was too scared to try catching it.” I rub my hands together nervously. “I... kinda panicked when it grabbed the rent-a-sub.”

Greg goggles at the thought. “Wow! Those are seriously impressive pokémon. And your Gulpar is pretty neat looking too. Can you get ‘im to open wide for me? I wanna see what type of spotting he’s got.”

I nod. “Yeah, sure. Gulpar?” My pokémon opens it’s mouth wide enough for me to see into. “I use this as a scare tactic. It works on most wild pokémon. Helps out when my less sturdy team members are in need of a Pokemon Center.”

“Very nice. Looks like an Orion subspecies. See, you can identify the constellation pretty clearly from here.” Greg says, pointing it out. Seeing as how I’ve never been one to stare into the mouth of a predator capable of swallowing a school bus whole, it’s a new thing indeed, and I’d never even thought to check until now. Sure enough, there’s a pretty clear recreation of the constellation Orion, and the starry night sky around it. Why on earth would a deep, deep-sea pokémon like this have a constellation pattern in its mouth?

“Kinda strange when you think about it, but it’s really cool!” I agree with Greg. “Oh and I think you might want to see my starter.”

“Sure, sure. What’d ya get? A Charmander? Treecko? A Piplup?” Greg asks, sounding genuinely curious.

I chuckle. “I’m not your run-of-the-mill trainer. I don’t take handouts when it comes to pokémon.” I hold up Geodude’s premiere ball. “First catch, and I didn’t even have a pokémon to battle with at the time.” I swear I’ve been waiting ages to brag about my first capture also being my first pokémon. “Got him shortly after I got my license.” I toss out the Geodude and, like me when I first saw Geodude, Greg notes the more smooth edges on Geodude, indicating an adult, just one that hasn’t evolved yet.

“Yeah, and I’ve been making sure to pass around TMs to my party. He knows Rock Smash and Dig.”

“Very nice. Here, lemme show you my Golem.” he says, and fishes around in his bag for the pokéball, tossing it out. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but seeing something that literally made Rarity gasp loud enough to be heard from across the room was not it.

A huge, solid ball of spiky gemstone crystals stands in front of me, shining like polished amethyst.

“Dude, that’s amazing! Where’d you get that, a volcanic area?”

“Nah, it’s all in what they feed on. Just like with Onix, if you feed them enough gemstone-based foods, they’ll start to exhibit it. Most of Kanto, Johto, and Kroel are grantie and limestone, though, with very few gemstone deposits, so these guys are pretty rare. Otaria is lucky in that one of its mountains is basically the world’s largest geode thanks to one of our legendary pokémon doing something to it. That’s been mined for decades, and there’s still enough to go around for the pokémon.”

“Wow, I need to see that! So I could get Geodude to look like that if I feed him gems? Wonder what would happen if I fed him a Fire Stone?” I jokingly suggest. “Probably nothing.”

“Oh yeah, but you wouldn’t want to waste your elemental stones like that anyways; even with our rich deposits of gemstones, elementally charged stones are pretty rare. Except Thunderstones, which which you can find in the caves below galore.”

“Geez, thanks for the tip. I’ll admit I don’t have many interesting stories to go with my pokémon though. Geodude and Gulpar are exceptions of course but some of my captures went pretty normally. Though Carvanha I snagged when she was too full to fight back after her school ate a wailmer.”

“Yeah, they tend to do that. Hey, why don’t you show me that one you said was in your box?” Greg asks.

“I don’t have a way to switch out pokémon that I know of. I’ve been mainly using the consoles at Pokemon Centers. Is there , Idunno, a PC app for the éTech?”

“What? No, you can just use the one at the exit. Here, lemme turn off the slip-tiles.” Greg pulls out a remote and hits a button, all the white and arrow tiles flip over to reveal gray tiles.

I thank Greg and rush over to the exit which does indeed have a console for me to use. I swap out Gloom for Bellsprout and head back over to Greg, holding up the Great ball. “This contains the best Bellsprout you’ve ever seen.” I toss out the Grass type and it gives its stem-chest a thump.

Greg leans forward to offer his hand to Bellsprout, who hops up. He looks the pokémon over. “Oh, my, you’re a rare example, indeed! Who’d you commission to get him? There’s no way someone would just part with one like this without promising to, first.”

“Yeah, apparently this guy was abandoned because some high and mighty breeder figured a Bellsprout with a Hardy nature was beneath him. So I was walking through the forest on my way here and ran into him and he certainly gave me a run for my money trying to catch him.”

“What?! That’s an outrage! Hardy may not be the best nature for a Bellsprout, but that’s no reason to just... toss one out! Ooh, I hope you find his original trainer once this guy’s reached his peak, and you can really show that turd what’s what.”

“You bet I will, but you gotta respect someone who can get their hands on a level nineteen Bellsprout that can use Solarbeam. Well, respect him until you kick his ass.”

He nods, reaching for another item from his bag, pulling out a candy bar and offering it to Bellsprout, who looks utterly delighted. A torn wrapper later, and Bellsprout is happily mouth-plugged with half the candy bar still sticking out.

“Hah, little guy’s got a sweet tooth too. Guess trainers and their pokémon do tend to resemble each other.” I laugh, and Greg laughs as well. “So I’ll be honest, I’m actually not native to Otaria, and since coming here I’ve seen some really interesting pokémon. Specifically variations on ones I know already. Like this gigantic Heracross, or a Gardevoir wearing a tunic instead of a dress. Is that just a special thing in Otaria, or have I just had a bad eye until now?”

“Just a bad eye, man. All pokémon have some degree of variation - didja just think they were all the same?” Greg gives a laugh. “That said, Otaria has some variations that are only found here, just like Kanto and Hoenn, and all the others.” he says.

“Speaking of, where’d you get all your Pokemon? Like, what sorts of regions have you been to? Sure you may have a bad knee but you can always take a plane, or a boat, right?”

“Oof, nah. I do a lot of overseas trading via the ‘net, and some stuff around here. I can’t travel ‘cuz of a heart problem; too high altitude and it gives out, and on the ocean there’s too little help if something goes bad. Thankfully, here in Crevasse Village, there’s actually a heart specialist that lives here, or else I’d have to live in someplace like Rustoil.”

Yeesh.” I say, sighing. “Well here’s an idea! I’m going to be sightseeing all over the world. Let’s swap numbers and I can send you pictures and such, we can talk about whatever cool pokémon we come across.”

“Sure! That’s pretty cool of ya, man.” he passes me his number and vice versa.

I thank Greg for his time and I’m about to leave but he stops me long enough to give me the code. “Oh man, thanks, I almost forgot about the prize!”

I thank Greg again and, getting back onto the puzzle, eventually make my way to the exit after a few mistakes. I check my grade, recalling I was too... Litwick-y to check it last room.

Time To Completion: 6:55
Floor grade: 51%
Avg Grade: 55%

And it seems that’s our group score, since it’s not even giving Twilight’s and Rarity’s numbers, probably assuming that they ‘left’ since they’re in their pony forms right now. Speaking of, the stairwell is out of sight of both floors, so they can transform back into humans if they wanted.

Oh well, I guess that solves that. I plug in the code for my prize and await the little capsule, hoping for something like a Magnet or a Poison Barb.

The tray opens, and shows another item capsule, this time containing... Five Ultraballs! Yes! That’s awesome! Now I can catch some pretty high-level pokémon. Much happier with my prize this time, I walk up the stairs and, once the girls are back to humans, we approach the next floor.

Comments

[SilentMech]

I am reminded of the old MK friendship "fatalities" with that last battle.

[Booster Spice]

Well the percentage completion for the tower in itself is a puzzle, so you cant get an idea how many floors there are. The next puzzles are bad enough playing from top down on a console, but I can only imagine just how hard a spinning slider puzzle is in first person if you cant see the corner arrows or glimps them if they are the Labyrinth class variable ones as you pass.

Something to consider for path finding and maze generation algorithms, put in a set of entry and exit conditions, pause points etc then generate various networks and select the one you like.

Nice to see the trainers interacting, with their own lives, instead of just beeing the poor sod stood in the middle of nowhere at all times day and night with just two lines to say.

If the girl likes booty, is she like that one in the Space Centre who likes five at a time, hence the Balls?

[Spirit of Harmony]

I may just be unobservant, but when did Ghowl evolve into Geistowl? Like, what chapter?