Chapter 67
This floor, number six going by the number on the ground, looks different from the others, being extremely high-tech looking, with a series of evenly-spaced pillars, a line of blue light tracing between some. The light is red, and many of the pillar’s toppers seem to be mirrors and the like, and have grip pads and what looks like Lazy-Susan style spinners on them, letting them be rotated. honestly, it looks like a gigantic, puzzle-style game of Lazer Chess.
Okay, this might be hard without a bird’s-eye-view...
I go up to one of the first turning pieces and see that, as expected, some can’t be moved. There’s also a single pedestal with a blue base and a little computer screen, unpowered, on it, and one that’s red, and both have sensors on them. I think the red one is for finishing the floor, and the blue is for the secret prize.
I walk around the room, studying the different ‘pieces’ of the puzzle. Rarity has a good eye, this might be her kind of thing. Or Twilight’s, hard to tell really. “So what do you think? Think we can get the prize?” I’m pretty certain I can get to the exit alone but I want more prizes.
Twilight looks it all over, looking confused. “I have no idea how this is supposed to work.” she admits, looking utterly baffled, while Rarity looks contemplative.
This actually confuses me. “Come on Twilight, you can’t be serious that you’ve never seen a laser array before. It’s like a circuit.” I push the piece with a button on it and it shoots out a laser, at which point I move to one of the turn-y ones and move the laser around the room. “You just have to complete the circuit.”
“So... it’s a circuit using a laser? Interesting... how does the system know when the path is complete, or that it’s the right path?” she asks, examining one of the pylons.
“These sensors. They’re like eyes. They activate when the laser hits them. But since there’s nothing for them to ‘look at’ then they’re off. Our job is to bounce the light from the laser around the room using mirrors and make the laser hit the consoles here. It’s a light-based puzzle.” I stand up and look around the room. “As for the right path... well, usually these puzzles are built with only one solution. You get one laser and only so many mirrors after all.”
Twilight nods. “Well, what kind of output do you use to measure your laser light emissions? The one’s I’ve used are all magic based, but you said none of this would be, so I assume there’s different units involved.”
“It’s in the name laser, of course.” I explain, eyeing Twilight oddly. “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. It’s measured by light level or how bright it is. Watts of electricity and such.”
“Watts, huh? Interesting...” she continues to examine the pylons and the beam itself, evidently more interested in their design than the puzzle.
Rarity steps forward and motions me over. “Anthony, every one of these mirrors is angled precisely, and the arches are all perpendicular... but is it possible to rotate them halfway between the right-angle points?”
“Let’s find out.” I grab one of the pieces and try turning it part way, but once it starts rotating, I can’t stop it from finishing until it clicks into the new position. So much for that, but it was worth a try. “Guess not. So we have to somehow make the laser hit this blue panel and the red one at the same time with just right angles and perp. Angles... This is gonna take a bit of thinking...”
“As in... perpendicular, right?” Rarity asks?”
“Yeah, that’s a thing I do, make shorthand in speech.” I go up to one of the mirrors and aim my finger from it to another mirror to predict where the laser would point after that. “Obviously the first one will be used, but I’m willing to bet some of these are dummy pieces, they work, but aren’t part of the solution.”
Twilight is still looking over the mechanics, though is getting adventurous. “Don’t take panels off, Twi. You break it you buy it and we don’t have that kind of money.”
Actually, if I win a few battles, we might but we’d be flat broke after. And if Rarity can get more gems from Equestria maybe our money troubles are yesterday... But still. “Just leave it alone and help us figure this out. I’ll buy you a smaller version of this. They sell them at game shops.”
Twilight more or less ignores me, but at least she’s not taking apart the pylons to look at their mechanisms anymore. The main light enters from the ceiling and hits a mirror angled to make it level with the ground. Twisting a few of the pylons leads to me getting the laser to go through an arch, where I run into a... peculiar result. The arch apparently has some sort of screen or something, because the laser changed colors going through it. Instead of red, it’s now green, and I’m afraid this puzzle may require some color-matching on top of the already difficult maze.
“The guy who built this sure knows how to make ‘em good, huh.” I say to nobody in particular as I move to the arch and turn it around a few times. I already tried sliding a few of the pylons around but they’re all mounted to the floor, which does relieve some of the puzzle’s difficulty.
The arch itself rotates, but now the laser doesn’t go through it at all, just lights up the side of the frame. Now I need to figure out what the other arches do to the laser beam. Especially since I see one or two that look like the angled mirrors, but neither has a backing.
Likely how the beam is supposed to split. Twilight, not entirely satisfied with her now-halted exploration comes over to help solve the puzzle. I look around the room and try to... wait. “Hey Rares, can you make a drawing of this place? Make a sort of top-down view of it?”
Rarity nods, and hips out her éTech, to work on it. Meanwhile, I rotate a few pylons to direct the laser through one of the backless, angled arches. This time the laser splits, one red and the other purple, and I sigh, still going nowhere just yet.
Still... “That answers the question of coloration. Red clearly open the door, but you need to make it blue to get the prize...”
“And Since purple is in blue’s spectrum, we just need to aim the purple laser through another arch to make it blue.” Twilight continues my thought.
“And since one is already being used to make the light purple, we can’t shift that without coming up with a way to redirect the laser to hit it at a different angle.” I add on.
Twilight just nods while Rarity looks a tiny bit lost. Guess circuitry was never really her thing. Still, I’ve messed with this sort of thing before on a smaller scale. It’s just daunting with how big it is.
A few more twistings later, and we’ve gotten the beam to turn orange instead, but is just a few rows over from the blue sensor pylon, while the red beam is not quite at the red one.
At least that reduces the options of which arches the purple has to go through. Orange isn’t even in the cold spectrum. That said... if I put it through the arch that turned the red one green...
Half a dozen twists and some help from Rarity later, it’s going through the green arch... and is green now.
I sigh heavily. “Well, back to square one, but at least now we know initial color doesn’t change the outcome. We can just shoot the red one through arches until we find the blue one.”
“This is a little over my head now...” Rarity admits. “Even with this drawing, I can’t make heads or tails of it.”
Twilight comforts her friend. “Don’t worry, circuitry has a steep learning curve. Even I’m a bit stumped now.”
I nod and begin my search for the blue-shift arch. It takes a very convoluted setup and the red beam is no longer even close to the red sensor, but I now have a single blue beam. “Progress!” I half yell-half sigh.
Rarity and Twilight look up from their éTechs, which they’ve been browsing for... for... I have no idea how long I’ve been at this, but I’m getting hungry.
I note that Twilight left me a few packs of trail mix so I munch on that. Eventually I’m tired of all this and just solve the puzzle, opening the door only.
Twilight looks a bit shocked at how easily I did it. “But... I thought...”
I sigh. “I don’t want the prize anymore, let’s just go.”
“Okay, but how did you get it so quickly?”
“Whaddya mean? I figured out the red-only path like, ten minutes ago. I thought you had as well.”
“Uh, well, no I was working on getting the blue one. And I think I have it.”
“Ah. Well, show me what you got then.”
Twilight walks over and twists several of the pylons, and they quickly match up. However we all stand there, waiting for something to happen, once the blue beam is on the pylon. After nearly a minute, I check it over, and it’s even the same shade of blue.
“They have to be lit up with the right colors at the same time!” I moan. Then I’m struck by an idea looking at the path Twilight made. An idea bursts through my head and I’ve already solved it in my mind. “Twilight, you’re a genius!”
I go over to where the red beam is split up and turn one of the arches around so the laser goes through it. Okay, step back, maybe I still have it. Come on... I readjust the beam a bit and eventually, through a complex workaround, manage to get the laser to aim at both panels with the right colors. Instantly, the panel at the base of the blue pylon lights up with a blue checkmark, and I hear a vending-machine-like clunk near the door.
“We’re geniuses.” Twilight says, smiling. Rarity sighs a tired sigh and heads for the door.
Twilight and I go over to get our gold sta- our prize and celebrate our intelligence. Huh, it’s not a gold star, but rather a gold nugget. Nice.
That’d definitely be enough to get Twi and me a laser chess set. “Alright, now let’s see how we did...”
Apparently, this one is pass or fail, with an added 10% over, meaning we’re sitting pretty at over 60% for the whole tower.
“We’re doing pretty well I’d say.” The girls agree and we move onto the next floor. As smart as I feel now for solving that, I’m hoping the next challenge is physical...
The next floor is larger than the previous floors, and has a small card table and two people sitting at it. A large pokeball on the floor and the markings on it means this is meant as a battle floor. A stand with six pokeballs faces me, labeled ‘rentals’.
Well, not something I’m a stranger to. I grab the six balls and figure looking over them is allowed. I toss them out one by one and I see I’m getting...
A Sandshrew, a Machoke, a pokemon that looks like a chimney-sweep I think I’ve seen before, a Cacturne, a Clefairy, and a Castform.
I grin. I can make this work. I approach the table, where the two trainers are getting up. “So is this a double battle too, or do you guys take turns?”
“Actually, this one’s a test of your pokemon knowledge in battle.” the guy says, the girl sweeping up the cards form the table and settling them into the card box I presume they came from.
“And how do I earn the floor prize? The main challenge alone will be cake, believe me.”
“Oh, ace each test without losing a single pokemon.” The guy clarifies. “You do that, you get past and get the prize, but you only need to pass four of the tests to move on upstairs. Only one of you has to take the tests.”
I look at the girls. “Give me five minutes. This won’t take long.”
“Pride cometh before the fall.” the man warns.
I just raise an eyebrow and grin.
The first challenge is facing an Empoleon who uses Hydro Cannon, which Sandshrew is my pokemon for, using Dig to evade the attack and smashing it for Super Effective damage.
“C’mon, a child could do this!”
“That’s the idea, buddy. This is an all-ages attraction, y’know.” the guy retorts.
The next one is similar, Machoke using Endure to survive Hyper Beams spammed by a Gyrados, then retaliating with Thunderpunch.
The next one, for the ‘Swifpuff’ as it’s called, the pokemon apparently learns plenty of fire moves, which are used to thaw and attack after being hit repeatedly by a move that apparently has a 100% freeze chance, but doesn’t do damage.
Even with a movepool I’m not familiar with, this is going easily. Eventually it’s down to the last matchup and, the last pokemon standing is my rental Cacturne.
“Pride cometh before the fall...” I quote the man from earlier and pull my hat over my eyes for dramatic lighting on my face. “But have I fallen?” Twi and Rarity roll their eyes as they head for the door, me staying back to get my prize. “It is kind of refreshing to have an easy puzzle after the one downstairs though.”
The guy laughs. “Yeah, but some people find that easy, and this challenging. Anyways, here’s your prize.” He hands me a CD case, with a TM inside. “Recycle, in case you’re wondering. It’s a good move, allowing pokemon to reconstruct used items. Good paired with a pokemon with traits to use human-made items.” the guy suggests.
“Or using Fling or Natural Gift more than once.” I nod.
“Huh, don’t know about Fling, since, y’know, the item’s thrown, but yeah, sounds like you know what it does.”
I take the TM, telling him to ‘Recycle’ the case, and follow the girls, only stopping to check my overall grade. I may also get the password for this floor in the next room. I could use a lunch break.
But first, one more puzzle. We walk into the room and hear the sounds of something... whirring? Clicking? Something extremely mechanical is going on, and we get to see the end of the room apparently rearranging, because a series of panels has just retracted in the walls, leaving it looking like a large, Gym-grade battle stadium, with a layer of dirt and grass, and trees, though there’s some pretty visible edges in the ground where the individual pieces are apparently separated between uses. Standing opposite us is a man in a fancy suit, and two people dressed nicely, but not as much as the middle guy, who is smiling.
“Greetings all, and welcome to the last part of the tower. I’m the proprietor, Nicholas Puzzel. And yes, that’s my real name.” The man doffs his hat in a bow, before standing straight again. “So, first off, how have you enjoyed the tower so far?”
“Some were pretty difficult.” I admit, “But others were way too simple. Except for the ‘floor is lava’ room. That one scaled up pretty quickly.”
“Ah, yes. There were a few different versions of that floor; I’m still trying to get the setup just right. Anyways, on to this tricky setup! This, you see, will be a rotation battle... but as you might guess from me having my assistants here, it won’t be the usual sort, but will also have rotating trainers. More than that, any rotation of pokemon will result in their trainers rotating control in the opposite direction.”
“So if I start with my pokemon, then if I switch to her pokemon...” I say, pointing at Twilight. “She will be the active trainer.” I say, pointing to Rarity.
“Yes, indeed! Now, obviously, I have a bit of an advantage, as my assistants and I have done this quite a bit. As such, your team will be allowed three paused rotations, wherein you may take as much time as you’d like switching, and wherein neither side may perform moves.”
“Sounds fair.” I say. “Alright girls, let’s show this guy we can be a team. All of us.”
Twilight and Rarity nod, and I turn back to Nicholas. “I suppose we each get six pokemon so that each person gets a turn to show off each pokemon?”
“Three to a team, actually, so choose your pokemon wisely. You have sixty seconds to decide which pokemon to send out.” he says, putting his hands behind his back and waiting patiently as a timer shows up on a wall, digitally counting down.
I already know who I’m picking, one who’ll be able to react accordingly and is very versatile. Time for Bellsprout to shine. I turn to the girls and ask what they’ll be using.
Rarity chooses Freyjaloof, and Twilight is having a hard time deciding.
“Come on Sparkle, thirty seconds!”
“Uh, Uhm... Pignite!”
And the buzzer sounds.
Nicholas nods and reaches for a pokeball, which each of his assistants do in perfect unison, each throwing a ball and striking a team pose in the process. My team isn’t nearly as flashy, we all just chuck out our pokemon, Bellsprout taking pride of place.
I nod to Rarity to my left , then Twi to my right.
“Let’s get this started!” I toss out Bellsprout and explain the situation to him. “Think you’re fine with this? Switching out at the drop of a hat?”
Bellsprout nods. “Bell!” My pokemon gets into a ‘battle ready’ stance. To either side, I hear Rarity and Twilight giving their own pokemon encouragement, when something strikes me. I don’t think any of these pokemon have even met, let alone fought together before. This could get... interesting.
But the battle has already started and it’s too late to switch over to Geodude so... Bellsprout and I take our positions while everyone else does the same and I take a deep breath before watching Nicholas and his groupies introduce their pokemon.
Nicholas throws out a Maskary, his assistants throwing out a crested, black Dodrio and a... Is that a Great-Ball-themed Voltorb?
Dude, if they come in ‘Repeat Ball’ I have got to get me one of those! Though this one’s ‘eyebrows’ make it look really pissed off.
Well, no time like the present. I note that the Maskary is, from my research, a Dark and Ghost type I think. Well, might as well go with a basic move for now, pull a surprise technique later for a late-game shock.
“Acid!” The move results in a flow of the gooey fluid streaking towards the Maskary, who dodges, And is instructed to reply with Scary Face, which the Maskary does gleefully, the lights darkening for a moment with the force of presence the masked pokemon puts forth. Bellsprout shudders and stalls.
Hmm... well, at least it’s not ‘running scared’ level of fear so I think once the move ends we’ll be ready for a counterattack. That said... I decide since it’s my turn, I can take a moment to look around the room, specifically the ceiling.
The vaulted arches going high into the ceiling are set up with some kind of hologram of the daytime sky, clouds going by at time-lapse speed, which is kinda cool, but also a bit disorienting to look at.
Still, the arches would allow Bellsprout a vantage point similar to the trees. But I’m not sure I want to test it just yet... I still want to save Bellsprout’s real talent for later. Don’t play your trump card on turn one and all.
I decide to have Bellsprout go with a Vine Whip. The Maskary is fast, but so are the vines.
Nicholas calls for Mimic, and Maskary grapples Bellsprouts vines with four of its arms, resulting in a tangled mess of limbs and greenery.
“Bullet Seed while it’s stuck to you!” Bellsprout unleashes a veritable bullet hell upon the Maskary, not letting up after a single attack cycle. The Maskary cries out, until Nicholas calls for it to use Shadow Claw and tear the vines off.
A blur of violence and shredded greenery, and his Maskary is free of Bellsprout’s entangling grasp, as well as giving a four-armed cycle of slashing strikes at my pokemon.
Damn, that’s a good trick, but I’m not out of moves. “Freyjaloof!” I switch positions with Twilight and Rarity’s pokemon steps up while I tend to Bellsprout.
My pokemon has several gashes weeping a clear, runny sap, but still has fire in his eyes. He’s shaking a bit, but apparently still has some fight in him. Dunno what that other trainer was thinking. A Hardy Bellsprout is the shit! Little guy’s got stamina for days.
Twilight seems totally new to Freyjaloof though, as am I, so I don’t really know what it can do, just that it’s a Fairy type of some kind.
Twilight’s pulled out her éTech, though, and is consulting it, calling for a Misty Terrain, and fog rolls in from the sides of the arena, just about waist height... which is high enough that Freyjaloof is hidden in the mist. Maskary, on the other hand, is looking around, and Nicholas is nodding appreciatively. “Are you ready to restart the match?” he calls, and Twilight nods. “Good, then I’m switching, too.” he says, and rotates out for the Dodrio, all three crested heads peering into the mist, one of them tracking something through the thick, low-lying fog.
I have no idea what Twilight has planned but since I’ve switched out and got Pignite up if she switches to me... I think... hold on, no it’d be Rarity, I’ve still got Bellsprout. Luckily, he’s still in it.
Twilight begins to call for Low Sweep attacks, tripping the normally fast bird pokemon and sending it crashing to the floor, where Twilight calls for Bite attacks, the assistant opposite her calling for Pecks and Fury Attacks. Honestly, though, it’s hard to tell who has the upper hand here, as the mist is still obscuring everything.
The worst part about the rotation is that until Twilight swaps to me, I can’t do anything, not even heal Bellsprout. That command is up to her.
After about half a minute, the mist begins to clear, The dodrio almost literally... no, completely literally tied in knots, while Freyjaloof licks its paws atop the knocked-out bird. Damn, Rarity’s got a fighter, finally. Still, that leaves us with two to go.
The other assistant swaps in, with the voltorb, who crackles and grumbles at Freyjaloof, and Twilight calls for another swap, this time to Rarity and Pignite.
I just hope Rarity knows what Pignite can do. I know Rarity’s battle style is more like putting on a show, not brute force, Pignite’s speciality.
Guess this is pretty difficult, moreso than I initially planned.
Rarity furrows her brows, calls for the match to begin, and has Pignite use Ember. A good start, but against a Voltorb?
The assistant calls for a dodge, and the Voltorb goes straight up to do it, sparking yellow. I didn’t even know they could jump! Odd... but I guess balls bounce after all... Speaking of, that’s a move that if used, would put Pignite in the yellow right away.
Voltorb then goes for a Spark, Rarity calling for him to ‘just punch it!’ and Pignite using Arm Thrust. The blow knocks the floating Voltorb away.
Well... that’s certainly out of character for her but... it works so no complaints just... ‘punch it’? What kind of command is that!?
Pignite gets into a ‘tough guy’ stance, and snorts a bit of flame out his nose, as the Voltorb is instructed to use Rollout, spinning down from its high seat in the air at Twilight’s pokemon. Rarity calls for another punch, but this time the Voltorb just smashes Pignite flat down, likely just from momentum, and begins circling for another go. How the hell is a Voltorb flying, anyways?
Nevertheless it’s apparently a legal move otherwise this place would have been under the League’s boot a while ago so... I let it slide and figure I’ll ask how later.
Rarity looks pretty frustrated with it, as well, and calls for Pignite to grab the Voltorb. I close my eyes and rub my temple, recalling exactly what would follow. I just use my éTech to silently send a message to Rarity telling her to cover her nose if she doesn’t like the smell of bacon.
Rarity looks confused as her pocket buzzes, and she barely misses the call for Selfdestruct, which throws Pignite back pretty hard. The porcine pokemon tries to sit up, but collapses, while the Voltorb looks absolutely cooked, but happy.
Smug sonofabitch... Well, looks like Pignite is out of the match, leaving us with two pokemon, one badly hurt, and Nicholas with his Maskary all alone. I think we can pull this off.
Nicholas rotates back into the fore, and Rarity looks between Twilight and I, expression asking which of us to go up.
I French-point to Twilight, indicating she should use Bellsprout. He’s got some fight left and I’m guessing he’s wanting to get it out before this is all over. Besides, otherwise it’s me and Freyjaloof and I know nothing about them.
Twilight takes the fore again, and Freyjaloof pads forward with her, giving a haughty ‘Free-yow’ at the Maskary that leers at us.
Wait, I thought Twi would have... Oh, right, we rotate opposite. Damnit, oh well, Bellsprout will be able to handle whatever’s left of the Ghost type... right?
Rarity’s pokemon stands steady as the Maskary uses Night Shade, though Twilight flinches at the move, before calling for a Bite attack. The cat-like pokemon lunges forward to strike, but neither of us expected for the return shot to be Psybeam, which knocks back Freyjaloof. Rarity’s pokemon gives a pained meow, then faints. Looks like I’m up. With Bellsprout. I call for the match to start, but my first motion is...
“I’ll use a Super Potion.” It’s my last healing item, but that nugget should be able to buy me ten more at least so I’m not afraid to use it. With Bellsprout back up to full health, at least back in the green judging by the mostly-closed wounds, he’s ready for a second round... and he looks as fired up as a plant can be without bursting into flames. “Alright, your move, Nick.”
Nicholas nods, smiling, and calls for Double Team first thing. As a series of duplicates appears to fill the area, Bellsprout and I try to spot the real one in the fakes.
Then I get an idea. It’s by far one of the least effective, but would certainly get the job done. “Bullet Seed. Spray and pray!”
Bellsprout nods and begins to go nuts, firing a bullet precisely at each copy, the shots going right through all of them.
Wait, all of them?
Neither of us are on guard when Nick calls for an Astonish, and the Maskary lunges from behind me at Bellsprout, startling my pokemon into ceasing his attack, followed by another Shadow Claw. Nick calls for a Shadow Punch next, and I know it won’t miss, but maybe there is something I can do about it when it arrives. The Maskary gets ready to plunge its four hands into little pools of darkness at its base, and I recall what Bellsprout did with Aerial Ace back in the forest, barely getting scratched. “Zip line!”
Bellsprout gets the idea and snags a nearby tree’s branch, pulling itself quickly out of the way of a torrent of four Punches in a row, getting nothing more than grazes from two of them.
“Solar Beam!”
Bellsprout puts its little leaves to the sky, artificial sunlight streaming down to collect at the front of its bulb, the Maskary getting ready to try another Astonish. I can only hope Bellsprout doesn’t flinch...
Bellsprout takes the hit, but finishes collecting sunlight, turning instantly and unleashing it on the Maskary point-blank, throwing it into another tree on the opposite side of the stadium, where it retreats into its mask and refuses to move. Nicholas recalls his pokemon and nods. “Excellent job, trainers!” he calls, holding his arms wide and beaming at all three of us.
I recall Bellsprout, who is pumping his leaves in the air like fists, in a victory dance. “All it takes is a good mind for your team... and a good team to fall back on.” I say, giving Twi and Rares a thumbs up each. “Granted I was totally lost on how I’d fight with Freyjaloof, and I suppose I just got lucky it never happened.”
Rarity sighs. “I really wasn’t ready to command Pignite, though. Sorry for that, Twilight.”
Twilight just shrugs. “It’s no problem, Rarity.”
“Yeah, we won, so we can leave and head to the Pokemon Center... feeling proud that we managed to do this entire puzzle house in one go. Speaking of, what’s our final grade?”
Nicholas pulls up a screen from a wrist-mounted gadget. “Just shy of seventy percent. You missed a few of the secret prizes, but that’s all extra. Just remember, if you’d like to give a try at the tower again, feel free to, though the layout will randomize each time you arrive. Oh, and here’s your prizes!” he says, hitting a button, and three tubes with item capsules rise out of the ground. “Each of these has a ticket worth 5000
at any pokemart, or can be used to get a free bike, ferry pass, or SkyPass at their associated vending locations.” he explains.
Considering how expensive Bikes tend to be, I guess the others must be pretty expensive normally.
“Dunno about these two.” I say, referring to the girls. “But I’m getting a bike for sure. It’ll help with travelling a lot.”
Nicholas nods. “A good choice, though I’d suggest also thinking about getting a Ferry Pass at some point; there’s several islands you can’t go to without one, and they’re normally 30,000 each.”
My mouth hangs open. “That’s... a lot of cash...” I rethink the bike option now. “Well, unless we all get bikes, I guess that would be the most economic of us...”
“And if I get some more gems from home, we should be able to afford some bikes.” Rarity says. “It really is astonishing how much they go for around here. They’re found so easily.”
“Bikes’re about the same.” Nicholas clarifies.
Right, they’d have to be otherwise the bikes would be a bad deal. Still, they would certainly help with travelling... “How about we hold onto these and decide later?” The girls nod, also unsure of how to spend our limited-availability fortunes.
“Well, I hope you return sometime, or at least recommend us to other travellers!” Nicholas says, smiling and bowing again, before pointing us towards the exit. “By the way, there’s a recovery machine installed in the wall, by the door, in case you’d like to heal up before you head out.”
We thank the strange, but nice man and heal our teams up and everyone is ready to go. I sigh as we exit out into the village again. “About seventy. That’s a B, and a B is passing.”
“I’d still like to try again to get a 100...” Twilight says. “Uh, after lunch, all that puzzle solving has made me hungry.”
Rarity and I agree and we decide to look for a place to eat. Given that we are now on the top floor of the village, there’s likely more impressive places to eat than that tiny stall of a tea shop. It was cozy and quaint but a little... little.
Up here, I can see things in all directions, a network of ropes, vines, chains, and other assorted bindings obscuring the depths below. I can see a couple of the buildings sticking out of the mesh of securement points. One of them’s gotta be a restaurant or something.
“I dunno about you girls, but I’d be up for some Cuban.”
The girls just stare at me. “I’m actually kind of hungry actually.” Twilight says and I facepalm.
“Cuban, as in Cuban food.”
“Ohhhh... what’s that?”
“Food. From Cuba.” Gettin’ real tired of this ‘foreign to humans’ thing.
Twilight and Rarity give ‘ahs’ and ‘now I get it’ type comments. Rolling my eyes, I ask Rarity for directions to the nearest food place of any kind, as I doubt there’s a decent place with a specific type of food other than, maybe, burgers around here. And now that she knows what goes into them, Rarity has sworn off burgers, as well as ramen.
Vegans... ruining everyone’s fun. Don’t they realize there’s a place for all of God’s creatures right next to the mashed potatoes?
Personal views aside, we make our way towards a place that apparently specializes in a vegetarian palate, though it doesn’t allow pokemon to be out of their balls in the restaurant.
Fair enough I suppose. We head for there and sit down. I’ve never been much for salads, raw veggies being my least favorite in general. Luckily they have some things I’ll take, but mostly on the dessert menu. Thinking it over, I decide we did well enough on the tower to congratulate ourselves a little.
I get some vegan pizza, the only thing on the menu that actually sounds edible, and the girls try to order flowers again. The waiter seems a bit quizzical at ‘Daisy sandwiches.’
I sigh and say they’ll want a Caesar salad each. Tofu is edible, even if I don’t like it.
The food turns out decent, the pizza actually not being half bad. Turns out, it was vegetarian, not vegan, so there was plenty of cheese on it.
The salads went over as I expected for them. They say it tastes a little processed. I don’t get it, it’s raw cabbage and leafy stuff, you don’t process that. But whatever. After we’ve eaten and are energized again, we decide to go sightseeing. “So what’s the first landmark on the top layer?”
“Well, there’s a natural history museum, a sightseeing point that goes from up top to the bottom - oh, but you wouldn’t like it, it’s meant for staring into the gorge below - and there’s also a SkyLine tram system - oh, it uses one of those SkyPasses that Mr. Puzzel mentioned.”
I shudder at the idea of looking down into the void from this high. “And where does the SkyLine go? A lower layer?”
“Actually, it connects the sides of the chasm, and offers a ride into the depths. Apparently, it leads all the way into a disused mine, which is now an attraction of its own, and a set of natural caves, which are apparently ‘Trainer Certified’.”
“Huh, well then, I’m still not sure about using our passes on the SkyLine. Bikes would certainly help anywhere there’s a road.”
“I would like to know more about what each of them are good for. What exactly is a SkyPass used for, and how often are Ferry Passes useful?” Twilight asks.
“Well, I’m not sure.” I admit. “I know that ferry or plane, and likely SkyLine, are the only ways to get to other regions. It’s all water out there between each one.”
“Ah, I see... well, should we be going to other Regions often?” she asks.
“No, but it would certainly be nice, just going through different regions, seeing what’s there. Maybe making a few challenges to see what trainers from other places are like.”
Rarity nods. “It would be rather nice to see other region’s contests.”
“And seeing what their technology and culture looks like!” Twilight adds in.
“Yeah, so when we’re done with the league here and Rarity’s got a few ribbons, we’ll probably check out other regions.” The other two nod and agree, but we still need to figure out what we’re doing for the day. It’s only a little after noon, maybe 2pm, even though it feels like we’ve been in there for days.
“Well we could always look for a battle. Likely that there are plenty of electric and Flying type specialists out here.”
“Yes, but perhaps we’d find more in that cave system. There’s other ways to get down there, the SkyLine simply takes us there the easy way.” Rarity says.
“Well, if we wanted to take easy ways, we wouldn’t have gone through the forest. So why don’t we check out the caves?”
The other two agree, and we head off to find the way down. However, it’s less than ideal.
“C’mon, Anthony, it’s even got a guard rail!” Twilight says, shaking the wooden rail. I can hear it creak. The floor is made of wood, too! And it’s slick! And there’s nothing under us except a terrifying abyss of darkness and hopelessness and darkness that’ll consume our souls and drag us forever away!
“How about we instead find some stairs, huh? I mean, we could just walk down some stairs rather than take this obvious deathtrap.”
“Dear, these are the stairs,” Rarity admonishes, “It’s this or the SkyLine.”
“Fine, we take the stairs...”
Twilight turns to Rarity. “That was surprisingly easy. He’s so conservative with money it overrides his fears.”
“One of us needs to know how to budget or we’d be broke by day one.” I say as I begin my slow, careful walk down the steps, staying as close to the middle as possible, avoiding the sides.
Twilight rolls her eyes, thinking I can’t see her. Either way, we make our way four hairpin switchbacks that leaves a solid lump of abject, existential terror sitting in my gut, until we get to the entrance of the cave, where there’s a large signboard with some rules and notes on it.
Welcome to Shockpoint Caves!
These caves are full of powerful electromagnetic stones, many of which have been active for millennia!Science is still working to understand the exact workings of these powerful stones, though it’s notable that many sections of these caves are capable of natural levitation, electrical discharge, and other amazing things! Some of the larger sections of the caves are completely disconnected from the surrounding rock, held in place by magnetic crystals!
Notice: If you’re bringing any Electric, Steel, or gemstone-based Rock type pokemon into these caves, be warned that they may have odd effects while inside of the caves! While there have been no dangerous effects recorded, it is still a possibility, so have your Pokeballs and recovery items on hand!
Notice: Wild pokemon abound in these caves, and they are allowed to be caught. However, keep in mind they are still wild pokemon, so don’t expect them to act like a trained pokemon. Children are advised to remain near parents or guardian pokemon at all times during your excursion.Thank you,
The Otari Ranger Corps.
“Well, we’ve been through worse, right?”
Twilight nods. Rarity thinks to herself for a moment while nodding, then speaks up, “Do you think there’s going to be any of those pokemon we met in that first cave, Anthony? I can’t remember what you called them, it was something-eye, I remember that much.”
“Sableye. They eat gems as I explained, but it’s possible that there might be some that get a taste for charged rocks. If there aren’t though then it’s highly unlikely.”
“Well, I hope we do, I’m sure they’d look fabulous... unless these charged stones aren’t nice-looking, and that’d be a shame.”
“Only one way to find out.” I say, walking into the caves. “We might even find some Electrike. They’re small and pretty cute if a bit rambunctious. It’s all the electricity in their fur. Makes them move real fast.”
“That sounds like Pinkie Pie... but electrified.”
“Nah, not that rambunctious, they just have some literal extra energy. Also they have a tendency to bite.” I take out my éTech to use as a flashlight, expecting it to be really dark.
The first thirty feet of pitch-black tunnel seems to prove me right, twisting and turning until we come to a stony doorframe, with a strong gold and blue light shining through it. A cautious peep around the corner reveals that there’s a crystalline stone glowing a cool cyan blue and floating ten feet above the ground in the center of the next room, streaks of yellow lightning circling it like the electrons of a molecule model.
I take the opportunity to snag a picture. “Send this to Celly, bet she’s never seen anything like this in her several billion years.”
“I don’t think it’d fit through the portal.” Twilight whispers.
I expect a comment from Rarity, but she’s not behind us, instead slowly walking towards the twenty-foot-tall gemstone, a hand outstretched. Given that there’s bolts of lightning as big around as my head circling that thing, that seems like a terrible idea.
“Uh, Rarity, what are you doing? That’s raw electricity, you know that, right?”
She doesn’t seem to hear me, and she’s about to walk right into a veritable ring of continuous discharge.
I run forward and tackle her to the ground before she gets too close to the electricity.
I end up getting a little scraped from the sliding impact but it’s tolerable. What isn’t tolerable is, “Are you nuts? Those are literal beams of death flying around!”
Rarity shakes her head, putting a hand to her face, looking rather dazed. “Ooh, what- why are we on the ground? I thought we were-” she cuts off as she looks at the crystal above us and I see her eyes go wide, pupils expanding like that shark in Finding Nemo when he smelled blood.
I give Rarity a quick and not very gentle smack. Not enough to hurt but enough to get her attention. “You touch that thing and you’re as fried as that cow you ate a few weeks ago.”
Rarity doesn’t seem to hear me, which is frustrating, as I’m right in contact-conduction range, and she’s trying to reach for it. I think it’s a bad idea for Rarity to stay in this room, but I don’t want to give up on this trip. She’s pretty light, so I think I can get her to the next room if I move fast.
With a sigh, I throw her over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry, one of the few tricks I mastered before leaving the scouts, and lead us away. I sigh and just groan, “Women...”
I quickly drop her in the next room, where she does the ‘headache and confusion’ routine again. Thankfully, the crystals in this cave are much less impressive, and give much more even lighting, rather than ‘pulsing death-lights’.
I hand my éTech to Twilight. “Looks like we’ll just have to show her the picture, because letting her see it in person seems a bad idea.”
Twilight nods. “Yeah, I think that was a bad case of Cutie Mark Destiny Syndrome kicking in. It can sometimes get bad, even when transfigured like this.”
“Like what kind of bad? I doubt it usually leads ponies to their deaths.”
Twilight looks nervously away and rubs the back of her neck in a tic I know rather well.
I sigh. “Right, those times when you freak out? Are you sure it’s that and not just a thousand grams of neuroses in your bloodstream?”
“No, just about any pony can succumb if presented with a strong enough object or event that ties to their cutie-mark closely. Such as, for example, Rarity coming across something unique and beautiful she’s never seen the like of before.”
“Strange.” I say with a grin. “She never acted that way when she met me.”
“Obviously.” Twilight says, nodding. “Now when she first met Prince Blueblood, before she found out what he’s like... well, she put up with some things that’d normally make her go berserk.”
“Like what? Did he hold his fork wrong?” I ask, mockingly.
“No!” Rarity yells. “He... he... he was a completely self-centered, absolutely selfish...” She pauses looking for the right word.
“Prick?” I suggest.
“I don’t even know what that means, but I doubt it’s bad enough.”
“Aquaman?” I suggest again.
“He was an asshole!” Rarity shouts, loud enough for some of the electricity in the room to stop and be like ‘whut?’
“Uh huh...” I nod a touch nervously, because I saw about half her hair spring out of place at the outburst. “Anyways, same rules apply as before. Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints. And I do mean touch nothing. That’s not me being bossy that’s me being protective.”
“Then I’d hate to see what you being bossy is like.” Twilight mutters.
“Just follow me and keep your hands to yourself. If Rarity zombifies again, just drag her out of the room.”
Twilight nods. “Alright. Oh, should we have our pokemon out already?” Twilight asks.
“Not a requirement, but it would be useful I suppose.” I take out my Premiere Ball and send out Geodude. A Ground type should be a huge advantage against any Rock or Electric types.
And sure enough, I hear a cry... and it sounds like an Aron, actually. Now that’d be a good addition to any of our teams! I immediately begin looking around for where the sound came from, the noise of static electricity hiding echoes well. However, it sounds like it came from a bit above me, and I scramble onto a ledge to look around. After a moment, I hear something... further above me?
Spinning around and looking up, I see an Aron walking across a wall like a spider, little arcs of electricity connecting it to the wall whenever it steps away, and moving towards a little blue crystal about half a foot from my head.
That is amazing!
I watch as it goes for the crystal, likely to eat it. It’s a neat trick but I doubt it could do it anywhere but these caves, so taking it out of here would likely remove the trait that made it cool in the first place. But it’s still an Aron.
“No fair!” I hear Twilight call from below. “You got Bellsprout Rarity got Clefairy... I haven’t gotten one yet!”
“All’s fair in love and war.” I call back as I climb up onto the ledge fully.
“This is neither, it’s pokemon!” She says and tries to climb up onto the ledge with me, not being as athletic. I sigh and pull her up. It’s either that or push her off and I’m not that obsessive about having this Aron.
“Fine, but you only get one try.”
“I only need one.”
We turn back towards the Aron, and see that it’s sitting, mostly upside down, happily munching on the blue crystal, and I notice that part of its shell is similarly blue. Also that an eating Aron is adorable as hell.
“Me first, I saw it first.” I claim and return Geodude, taking out Bellsprout. “Vine Whip, pull it down to us!”
Bellsprout nods and lashes out, snagging the almost-finished Aron, tugging it off the wall... only for it to develop a bright blue chain of electricity that drags it back to the wall, bringing a very surprised Bellsprout with it, leaving my pokemon dangling and panicking as the Aron, now stuck by its back to the wall and effectively turtled.
It’s a like the Three Stooges, Pokemon edition.
I decide to just use a ball, and throw it at the Aron, where it falls to the ground at my feet before shaking with the Aron’s resistance.
Another shake, then the pokeball cracks in half as the Aron pops out, a single tear running down its cheek as it sees that the crystal it was eating is powder on the floor, before glaring at me and Bellsprout, who has landed in front of me.
Twilight steps in front of me. “That was your try, now it’s my turn!” To her credit, she sends out Spheal, a good matchup against an Aron.
The Aron puts up a leg, as if telling her to wait, before dashing forward and tackling Bellsprout hard, barely missing my leg, before beginning to swipe with sharpened legs.
“Bellsprout, Petal Dance.” I call as I get up, avoiding the next swipe. Bellsprout nods and begins to let loose with a torrent of green ‘petals’ and begins whipping them around the area, striking the Aron before it does another slamming tackle, mashing Bellsprout into a wall, doing it again before snorting and nodding at Bellsprout’s fainted body.
And as the Aron turns to me it gets a jet of water in the face from Spheal. “You already had your turn. Besides, it looks like it doesn’t even like you, so you can’t be its trainer.”
The Aron turns towards the Spheal that struck it, and makes another charge, this time with the intent of striking the water-ice type, looking utterly pissed. Twilight’s Spheal is knocked across the room, though it evidently didn’t take much damage, judging by the faint ‘wee!’ coming from it.
“Come on, Bellsprout gets mashed, Spheal gets a ride? Like that’s fair.”
“All’s fair in love and war.” Twilight says, mocking me from earlier.
“You’re finally getting snarky, and I’m not enjoying it as much as I’d hoped.”
Twilight doesn’t answer me as she calls for another attack, the Aron doing pretty well against the water-type, but finally seems to be collapsing. If Spheal hadn’t been, well, a pokemon used to getting headbutted around by its family, it probably would’ve been in more trouble, and Twilight makes the capture.
I sigh, relenting the victory to her as the ball is digistructed to the PC.
“Fine, you have a new pokemon, happy?”
“Very!” Twilight says beaming.
“Great, then you can let your good mood catch you on your way down.” I say as I get down from the ledge, and tap my foot waiting for Twilight to make the jump. She scowls at me, and climbs down awkwardly.
“Graceful as fuck.” I comment sarcastically.
“Shut up. I spent my time improving my brain rather than my muscles.”
“So did I.”
“Whatever...”
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Wow... Anthony really pissed off that Aron. Also, Rarity almost found out what it's like to be a bug in a bug zapper.
Laser grid puzzle, except with colour shifter as well? Holy crud but that reminds me of that one where one rotater is a double sided mirror so you have to bend the beam two ways with the single point. Even trying, with an overhead view, to trace teh beams back from the target, ray tracing style, I had to ive up and grab the walkthrough.
Really nice expansion to the Puzzle House though, wonder if he will end up scaling the puzzles in difficulty and giving option to bypass or try next floor so even a beginner can get to meet him at the top? Or was that bit never seen because Antony got through each floor?
Im thinking, three passes possible, but only one human, and two endurance entities of reduced size? Be intresting to see if Twilight and Rarity would fit in the carry panniers of a touring bike, letting them have the Ferry and Sky passes as ewll, or is that abusing the system a little too much?
Id have thought if the first power gem was surrounded by such a charge, there would be at least a light barrier around it or even tape on the floor for Industrial Death Area Keep Clear? Suprising Rarity didnt end up getting sucked onto th thing it was glowing that much. Hate to see what happens when she enters the Cancun Geode, with pure crystals 50 foot high and 8 foot accross.
This was kind of... anyways, that personality of Anthony threw me off. I thought he wasn't that invested in the Aron, like he said before. He just got harsh real quick.
6958893
What, me, the guy making the pokemon for this region might be a HALO nerd too? *Nervously hides HALO toys* 'Course not, that'd be silly!
7074814
The remixes for ORAS were amazing, yes.
7074864
That's alright, there's a lot.
7074921
Your starter, whichever it may be, can carry you far. Make sure you have at least one pokemon able to learn decent fire or fighting moves, as that'll help you clear multiple gyms in addition to giving you a leg up against the Champion.
7076490
And yes, Significant gave me the idea for the sub designs, modified for tourist purposes, of course.
Quantum, pie, you guys should get an artist to make a map of the region. I'd love to see a visual representation of what your guys world looks like
7480639 Now there's an idea. Know any good artists?
7482585 afraid not. Wish I could help but you and quantum are like the only people I talk to online
7482585 sorry man but you and quantum are pretty much the only people I talk to online. You could try doing a blog post. See if any of your followers do. If that doesn't work you could try getting in contact with one of the group's making fan games. Most of them have here own maps. Something like the pokemon uranium group.
7487403 Aren't they taken down?
7490444 oh...Well the artist is still taking in air so... and there are other groups...Sorry man I wish I could help more
7490594 No problem. Besides, I was thinking of actually commissioning some stuff from Megasweet. Obviously it would be SFW, I just really like her style for humanized ponies. It would be perfect for Redshift.
7491549 cool
7492915 I'd also be interested in what her vision of Anthony is. I leave him mostly nondescript so people can draw their own image of him, but getting to see those interpretations would be fun.