Pokemon Hopes & Dreams: Sinnoh Beginnings

"Really, you sure you can take this guy on?" Cynthia asked you straight, but after your resolve became clear she said "I mean, I was gonna say you're technically a Starting Trainer... but it's not like I've been battling that much longer. Okay, let's take this creep down!".

The two of you starting heading to the upper floors. Your Turtwig Foster having been in battle quite a bit lately, you tried to get some training for your newly caught Ralts Gehry, Starly Saarinen, and Vulpix Barma, the last one catching Cynthia's eye.

"Oh, is that a Variant Form?" she spoke up, before explaining "Ah, even Pokémon within a single species can change depending on their environment, like I've read up on a few Pokemon here in Sinnoh that who've adapted differently to its environment. Given we're in a graveyard, they say that a Sinnoese Banette is part Fairy type and can stack multiple other Banette within itself. Eh heh, we'd probably be trounced if we ran into one though".

The Gastly, Zubat and Woobat so far were easy pickings, so Cynthia then felt the need to go on about something else "A stronger than usual Pokemon reminds me, it used to be that Trainers in Sinnoh would undertake a 'Trial Challenge' where they'd battle sacred, more powerful 'Totem Pokemon'. The League has made all the Trials defunct, but I can't help wonder, could this Tower have originally been built by the 'people here before us' as a Trial?".

She looked back at you "Well, I think it's fascinating, anyway. Oh wait, you've certainly got more than two pokemon with you now... er, guess now definitely wouldn't be the best time, but how 'bout we work out when we're gonna have that battle, hmm?"

[ ] As soon as we've dealt with Team Romantic here.
[ ] Once we've reached Hearthome.
[ ] Once we've healed at Hearthome.
[ ] Once I'm ready to move on from Hearthome.
[ ] Write-in

The topmost chamber saw the mist that had been slowly filling the floors above suddenly turn into full-blown fog, you could hardly see anything in here! But the prodigy Cynthia proved resourceful again, as she whipped out some sort of, er, delivery app you guessed on some weird watch she had, which suddenly called forth a little orange ghost-like Pokemon, which promptly took the form of a fan in Cynthia's hand to blow all the fog away.

"Ah, this here is the Electric/Ghost Rotom. It's not one of my own Pokemon though, but rather with the Internet now being a thing, people have been setting up PokeRentals online, guess you've already heard we can store Pokemon in computers, right? Anyway, the main Rental is Rotom due to its versatility and computer-friendliness, which is great for traversing Sinnoh-" Cynthia started to ramble on, but a figure emerging out of the fog promptly cut her off.

"Oh the conveniences of modern technology!" snarled this figure in an almost sing-song way. The parting fog showed him to be a slender, lanky man with messy brown hair over his eyes, wearing a dark-red coat with white ruffles and gold epaulets, and carrying a polished violin in his hands. "Of course, with the power to clear any boundary with ease, where's that sense of wonder of what could be over the next hill? When all dreams have been made reality, what is there left?".

He twitchingly served around "Oh right, I should introduce myself, shouldn't I? You may call me Thurston, Admin of Team Romantic. Now, I understand you've been giving my subordinates a spot of trouble downstairs, hmm?".

Cynthia tried to laugh "What can I say, we living in the modern world have some benefit over people stuck in ivory castles," her voice then darkened "Why the hell are you going to send a plague of Ghosts to innocent people? I've studied the older tales my whole life myself, yet I wouldn't dare do anything like this".

"That's because you lack vision," Thurston smirked at her, before giggling "Or maybe you're just too afraid? You sure ae spoiled though, if you've studied folklore then you should know Ghost Pokémon roaming the streets at night, ready to spirit any stray human away, was just what life was like back in the day. And I think your safe, dispassionate generation ought to honour its ancestors' memory for once".

Cynthia by this point could only sigh and turn to you "Sheesh, no getting through to this guy, huh? Okay pretty-boy, take this!" she raised her voice on sending out Chimchar.

"Two against one, huh?" Thurston chuckled, before he sent out both the note-shaped parrot Chatot and the stringed insect Kricketune "Very well, I'm not about to let my virtuoso performance be put out of tune by a couple of plebeians".

[ ] Send out Foster (Turtwig) and turtle up
[ ] Send out Gehry (Ralts) and befuddle them
[ ] Send out Saarinen (Starly) and hit fast and hopefully hard
[ ] Send out Barma (Alolan Vulpix) and bring down the temperature
[ ] Write-in

Closing the vote right here for, uh, fairly clear reasons.

Sending out Saarinen, your Starly dashed up at Thurston's Chatot. But whereas you Starly tried to fly into the enemy directly, his Chatot was keeping its distance, seeming to have a ranged attack planned.

Sensing what may've been coming up, you yelled out to Saarinen to dodge, her hurriedly flapping her wings as she tried to change course mid-flight. It wasn't enough time though to get out of the way of a sudden sonic blast shot forth by Chatot's cry, which for the parrot's frame had a shocking intensity, sending your Starly hurtling backwards till she hit a gravestone. You even Cynthia's Chimchar clutching its ears due to the sheer noise.

That Kricketune, its arm-blades drawn, let out a battle cry of its own and tried to strike Saarinen while she was down, but your bird proved resilient enough to hop back up, then peck at the Kricketune from above. The Kricketune then just slashed up at Saarinen, launching her upwards this time with more oomph than any standard Bug move should have.

"That Chatot must already know Hyper Voice," Cynthia muttered, her leg starting to quiver "And looks like he's got Technician on his Kricketune".

"Hmhm, well what did you expect from no less than an Admin?" Thurston just chuckled.

Cynthia's Chimchar was promptly on that Kricketune with a sizzling Ember ball, which was able to keep it from juggling your Saarinen with its bug blades. Saarinen, finally having a gap in which to strike, flew straight down at the Kricketune and crashed into it, leaving it reeling from a flier on one side and fire on the other.
Chatot however simply launched another 'Hyper Voice' scream at your Pokémon, with you pointing to your Starly to hide between cover this time. That only did so much good, as the grave she hid behind was blown clean apart by Chatot's piercing squawk.

Saarinen however took advantage of this, by blowing the rubble back with a gust of wind from its wings. The Chatot was now too far back to be in range, but the stone-strewn gust was still able to hit Kricketune directly, sending it spinning into a daze. Another ember from Chimchar was all it took to send the stringed bug spiralling out of commission.

As a blank-faced Thurston was forced to recall his Kricketune back into its ball, Cynthia's Chimchar rose up to be engulfed in a gleaming light, which cleared to show it had evolved into the larger, blue-ringed Monferno. meanwhile, you looked down at Saarinen, her cheerfully chirping for victory, while still keeping your eye on that Chatot.

But as Thurston, his violin having screeched to a discordant halt, was about to reach for his next PokeBall, a deep chill came down through the still air. "Chatot, Defog" he hissed back at his still-out Pokémon, but when its beating wings cleared the fog back away, his and your eyes could then see a flock of Ghost Pokemon, Gastly, Haunter, Misdreavus, Mismagius, Duskull, circling around you.

While you were quaking in your boots at the thought of being swarmed in shadows, Cynthia... just laughed. "What else did you expect, Admin? You were trying to release all these Ghosts onto the nearby town, so surely you would've known that starting a battle here and casually knocking down graves would, well, certainly get their attention" she then surmised.

Thurston, getting increasingly shaky around the gradually approaching ghosts, their gazes fixed on him, looked about ready snarl something vicious at you.
Before he could though, Cynthia turned to you and quickly said "Think it's about time we got off the stage, Evelyn", as she pulled out what you recognised as something called an Escape Rope. Calling Saarinen back into her ball, you grabbed onto Cynthia and then felt the whole world collapse into a dizzying blur, as the cold top floor of the Lost Tower was wiped away to be replaced with the setting sun of Route 209.


As you shook your head to get your senses back to normal, Cynthia said to you "Not sure how long those ghosts will be able to hold him, especially since those two weren't his only Pokémon, but at least he won't be in any hurry to mess with the Lost Tower anytime soon".
"Oh, you're curious about that watch I used to call the Rental Rotom?" she picked up on, holding said watch out in front of you "It's the newly released 'Poketch', well that's what the guy who sold it to me called it. Having Internet connectivity, he boasted that it may even rival the PokeGear some day. At the time I bought it to humour him, his small business seemed to be struggling, but it's been pretty useful for me so far. You'll have to trek all the way to Jubilife if you want one though".

That done with, at least for now, you started walking your way down towards Hearthome, trying to get back into your regular step. You didn't see too much of note on the rest of the route, you did run into a Youngster with a Buneary and Shinx, but you won against him soon enough.
Probably what most stood out to you, was the stone circle reduced to rubble that Cynthia was there to tell you was "The Hallowed Tower, or what remains of it anyway. It's supposed to be a holy sealing ground for wicked spirits, perhaps it was even used as part of hat old Trial I talked about. Well, I can't make too much out from this inscription, guess we'll have to come back some other time".

You nodded, though looking at the illegible writing on the 'tower', you could make out some sort of slot, whose shape happened to remind you of an item you'd heard about in the Underground: the Odd Keystone. But yeah, getting to Hearthome you figured should probably take priority right now.



And Wow! Once you finally reached Hearthome, the place immediately stood out to you as being way bigger than Solaceon, and it still wasn't the biggest city in Sinnoh. Your mind started racing with possible things to do, places to go, such as:

[ ] This 'Contest Hall' you'd heard about, like the League it's also something new to Sinnoh.
[ ] Amity Square, a relaxing place that sounded like a good idea after that ordeal with Team Romantic.
[ ] The Pokémon Fan Club, I mean you sure were a Fan!
[ ] What looked like some computer place, an 'internet café'? You thought you could see an Eevee through the window.
[ ] A looming cathedral, solemn in contrast to the rest of the city's peaceful vibe.
[ ] The local library, which most towns in Sinnoh had, though the one all the way in Canalave was biggest by far.
[ ] Just get to the Pokemon Centre before anything first.
[ ] Write-in.

(QM's Note: While there'll be a clear winner, other places in Hearthome can be visited afterwards if they get enough votes. Didn't put the Gym as I doubt you'd want to go straight there first thing.)