Alright, I'll be calling the vote here. It looks like Team Rocket has quite a bad day with 14 of their 18 Pokemon immediately fainting when a preteen sends out a Forretress to just explode in their faces. Of those present, only D gets a chance to try and get away, and while she does do a lot better than expected, she does end up being caught off guard when Violet's Umbreon decides to pull out the big guns and just use a Hyper Beam to the face while coordinating with Starmie to prevent an intercept from D's Nidoking. V on the other hand is not so good at dodging and just falls flat on her face trying to avoid Magneton.
Umbreon using Hyper Beam did mean that Willow wasn't able to pile drive D sadly. She was about to do so if Umbreon missed.
Round 1 Chansey: Chansey used Protect (DC1: Autosucess). Chansey protected herself and Forretress
Round 1 D: D returned Golbat, Houndoom, Nidoking, and Jolteon to their Pokeballs.
Round 1 V's Golbat: V's Golbat focused on avoiding the incoming attack.
Round 1 Forretress: Forretress used Self Destruct (DC1: 56). All Grunt Pokemon fainted! Forretress lost 99% of her HP (1%).
V's Golbat: Golbat attempted to mitigate the damage (DC45: 5). V's Golbat fainted!
V's Houndoom: Houndoom attempted to mitigate the damage (DC100: 88). V's Houndoom fainted!
V's Nidoqueen: Nidoqueen attempted to mitigate the damage (DC95: 12). V's Nidoqueen fainted!
V's Pikachu: Pikachu attempted to mitigate the damage (DC95: 12). V's Pikachu fainted!
V's Wobbuffet: Wobbuffet attempted to mitigate the damage (DC90: 58). Wobbuffet fainted!
*Forretress improved Self Destruct to B- from B--*
*Chansey improved Protect to C++ from C+*
Violet sent out Dragonair, Magneton, and Umbreon
Willow sent out Starmie, Umbreon, Bronzor, and Heracross
D sent out Golbat, Houndoom, Nidoking, and Jolteon
D: (DC60: 86). D avoids Dragonair's Wrap and begins scaling the outcropping rapidly.
D: (DC70: 100). D avoids Willow's Umbreon's Quick Attack and continues scaling the outcropping.
D: (DC85: 86). D avoids Heracross' Aerial Ace and continues scaling the outcropping.
D: (DC65: 63). Violet's Umbreon uses Hyper Beam which Nidoking attempts to step in front of.
Starmie: (DC15: 57). Nidoking is intercepted by Starmie's Hydro Pump and Nidoking faints.
D is hit by Umbreon's Hyper Beam and faints.
V: (DC85: 8) Magneton uses Thunder Shock. V is hit and is paralyzed.
Scheduled vote count started by Daemon Hunter on Sep 6, 2024 at 8:38 PM, finished with 16 posts and 8 votes.
[X] Deploy Forretress and Chansey - Of the trainers present, only D has the reaction times needed to properly respond to a sudden self-destruct. Having Chansey use Protect can help ensure it goes off properly.
Violet's Umbreon decides to pull out the big guns and just use a Hyper Beam to the face while coordinating with Starmie to prevent an intercept from D's Nidoking
You know, I think a lot of trainers would consider hyperbeam overkill for a fleeing trainer, I also think violet is going to congratulate Umbreon for his initiate and accuracy.
also damn
D: (DC60: 86). D avoids Dragonair's Wrap and begins scaling the outcropping rapidly.
D: (DC70: 100). D avoids Willow's Umbreon's Quick Attack and continues scaling the outcropping.
D: (DC85: 86). D avoids Heracross' Aerial Ace and continues scaling the outcropping.
D: (DC65: 63). Violet's Umbreon uses Hyper Beam which Nidoking attempts to step in front of.
Starmie: (DC15: 57). Nidoking is intercepted by Starmie's Hydro Pump and Nidoking faints.
if D had gotten away I would not even be mad, that lunatic would have earned it.
You know, I think a lot of trainers would consider hyperbeam overkill for a fleeing trainer, I also think violet is going to congratulate Umbreon for his initiate and accuracy
[X] Deploy Forretress and Chansey - Of the trainers present, only D has the reaction times needed to properly respond to a sudden self-destruct. Having Chansey use Protect can help ensure it goes off properly.
Violet threw a set of two Pokeballs over the lip of the outcropping before beginning to climb over it alongside Willow. A feral grin formed on her face as Forretress and Chansey appeared in front of 5 Rockets and 18 Pokemon, both of them already in the process of using their moves.
The only one to react fast enough to do anything was D, who was already in motion before Forretress' Pokeball had opened. Rapidly juggling her Pokeballs, she returned all of them before sprinting for the cliff face.
"Forretress," Violet spoke for the sake of appearance rather than actually ordering the Bagworm Pokemon. "Remove them."
A thunderous explosion echoed through the mountains, a rolling sound that heralded the defeat of 14 Pokemon. A cloud of dust rose into the air, only broken by D breaking through the edge of the cloud and nearing Violet and Willow. "Why is it you again?!" The Rocket said with a snarl, causing a trill of fear to crawl up Violet's spine. Barely managing to stop herself from stepping backward out of reflex, Violet instead unleashed every one of her Pokemon. Next to her, Willow did the same.
In a feat of acrobatics more fitting for a Pokemon, D dove between Dragonair and Bronzor. Deftly avoiding the former's attempt to wrap his coils around her, the Rocket rolled to her feet before beginning to rapidly scale the same outcropping that took Violet and Willow nearly 10 minutes to climb. "Umbreon!" Willow shouted, "Stop her!"
Willow's Umbreon went from standing still to a dead sprint within an instant. Using Quick Attack, the Moonlight Pokemon darted forward in a perfectly aimed attack to where D should have been. However, the Rocket abruptly kicked off the outcropping, giving her just enough leverage to use her other leg to divert Umbreon's attack into the wall. "Heracross!" Willow called out as Violet took a moment to assess the situation.
Bronzor was preparing a ranged psychic attack at the moment, although his focus was on V the other conscious Rocket. Spotting the sprinting individual, Violet narrowed her eyes. "Magneton, Thunder Shock." A burst of lightning flowed from Pokemon to human, and V let out a shrill shriek as the attack struck her. "Good aim," Violet stated approvingly as Magneton hummed in contentment. It seemed that some humans were acceptable targets.
Violet's Umbreon meanwhile was in the middle of an animated discussion with Starmie who appeared to be listening intently. Deciding not to intervene in that, as it appeared to involve the two attempting to coordinate a set of attacks, Violet turned back towards D as she attempted to decide if Chansey could help. Before being utterly surprised by the sight in front of her.
Willow had started following D down the cliff, taking a pathway that was somehow more aggressive than the Rocket's. While the acrobatics involved weren't as impressive, where Willow lacked skill she made up for in pure speed. It seems that some of the training her Pokemon did had worn off on her.
Having already scaled a third of the outcropping, D was leaping from foothold to foothold when Heracross made his move. Using his wings to dive towards the Rocket, he quickly closed the gap only for D to whisper a curse and step into empty air. With too much momentum built up to make that drastic of a course correction, Heracross was forced to slow down and land on the cliff face while D used one arm to release all her Pokemon and the other to slow her descent.
"Scatter you little shits," the Rocket growled over a well-hidden tone of endearment. "Nidoking, you're my shield."
The Drill Pokemon roared before looking up, eyes narrowing as Umbreon charged his Hyper Beam. Positioning himself to guard D as she ran, Nidoking was certain they would manage to escape. Then he was struck by a Hydro Pump from Starmie, the super effective move taking him by surprise and causing him to faint. And without the guard at her back, Umbreon had a clear shot. However, he did have to adjust his aim when D attempted to backflip over the beam.
D's other three Pokemon briefly hesitated before Golbat took charge and ordered them to stick to the plan. Having managed to gain enough distance, they were free to run into the forest.
Willow meanwhile reached the bottom of the cliff and huffed. Looking up at Violet's Umbreon she shook her head in a mixture of approval and disappointment. "I wanted to be the one to catch her," she pouted.
Violet gave her an amused expression before turning to Umbreon. "Well done Umbreon."
Using their rope to tie up the captives, Violet and Willow were forced to wait a few hours before the authorities could arrive. And during that time, the Rockets slowly began to wake up. "Don't you idiots dare say a word," V snarled with vitriol. "If you had just shut up and done what you were told we would have been gone days ago."
"I told you to set a lookout," one of the grunts replied with a thunderous expression. "Look at what happened cause of that. We got jumped by two preteens!"
"Like anyone would listen to someone still stuck as a grunt at 30," D snarked, causing the grunt's expression to fall. "Congrats, you had one good idea. Tell me, who was it that said we didn't need a backup team?"
"Well-" One of the other grunts spoke up only for all three of the others to turn towards them.
"Shut up!" They said simultaneously as Violet and Willow turned towards each other, a silent conversation occurring between the two as they witnessed the Rockets turn on each other.
"We wouldn't have needed backup if we had a lookout," the grunt redirected the conversation back to D and V.
V snorted at that, "Sure…" she drawled. "You think we could have managed that fight if one of us had been patrolling?"
The grunt opened his mouth before pausing. "Maybe?"
"I'm teaching everyone Protect after this," D growled under her breath, stealing a wary glance at Forretress who returned it with a happy smile.
"Why is it always you?" V directed towards Violet. "Did no one teach you to mind your own business?"
"She'd need friends for that," D said maliciously, clearly trying to hurt her emotionally.
"As if the two of you know about friendship," Willow growled. "I can guarantee the other three Rockets will turn on you the moment you're in prison."
V snorted. "Not if they know what's good for them." She directed a glance towards the grunt that she had been arguing with who returned the glance with a snarl.
"You all really need to learn to shut up," said the third grunt who hadn't said a word until now. "Because of your big mouths, they know we fought something."
"Someone," the second grunt corrected. "Something implies it was a Pokemon, not a group of trainers."
The third grunt gave the second grunt a murderous expression that Violet wondered if they learned from Mean Look. "I was trying to misdirect them, you idiot!"
"Can you hit him for me?" D directed towards Willow almost pleadingly. "I'll be nice to your friend next time we fight if you do."
For a moment, Willow appeared tempted before Violet gave her a look.
The 30th Week, Pick 2
Pokemon Actions
[] Train with your Pokemon - All of your Pokemon are skilled in battle with unique skills, but they can see some improvements through practice.
[] Spend Time with your Pokemon - Now that you're back in your home city, it may be nice to spend some time at the beach where you met Dragonair.
[] Buy and Use TMs/HMs - You're a big enough trainer to afford TMs and HMs for your Pokemon. You should take advantage of it when you can.
[] Train with Willow- While it would be nontraditional to train with your rival, both of you have unique skill sets that could complement each other.
Battling Actions
[] Challenge New Trainers - Now that you and your Pokemon have developed, fighting a few trainers in rapid succession would be easy.
[] Challenge an Experienced Trainer - Some trainers in the area have two badges, beating them may be a good experience.
[] Challenge the Celadon Gym - While this would normally take longer, you are skilled enough to take on the gym with ease. Willow is doing the same thing this week.
Exploration Actions
[] See the Sights Inside the City - There are several interesting attractions in Celadon although you have seen many of them before. Still, it may be fun to revisit them.
[] Explore Unorthodox Locations - Celadon City has a lot that you can explore, some of them have been on your list to visit for years. Try and explore them.
Traveling Actions (Must be taken either this turn or the next)
[-] Leave the City - It's about time you decided to head out. There are a few cities that you want to travel to. Not to mention quite a few adventures to have. Opens travel sub-vote.
Social Actions (For socials, it's assumed you keep up a basic level of contact through text, choosing a social means I write it up)
[] Spend Time with Your Parents - Your parents do expect you to spend some time with them while you're here. You should do so at some point.
[] Check on Team Rocket - You're a bit curious as to what Team Rocket was up to. You should be able to ask Officer Jenny thanks to your participation in battles against the Team.
[-] Call Tetsuya - Currently Tetsuya is in the wilderness and out of contact.
Round 1 Chansey: Chansey used Protect (DC1: Autosucess). Chansey protected herself and Forretress
Round 1 D: D returned Golbat, Houndoom, Nidoking, and Jolteon to their Pokeballs.
Round 1 V's Golbat: V's Golbat focused on avoiding the incoming attack.
Round 1 Forretress: Forretress used Self Destruct (DC1: 56). All Grunt Pokemon fainted! Forretress lost 99% of her HP (1%).
V's Golbat: Golbat attempted to mitigate the damage (DC45: 5). V's Golbat fainted!
V's Houndoom: Houndoom attempted to mitigate the damage (DC100: 88). V's Houndoom fainted!
V's Nidoqueen: Nidoqueen attempted to mitigate the damage (DC95: 12). V's Nidoqueen fainted!
V's Pikachu: Pikachu attempted to mitigate the damage (DC95: 12). V's Pikachu fainted!
V's Wobbuffet: Wobbuffet attempted to mitigate the damage (DC90: 58). Wobbuffet fainted!
*Forretress improved Self Destruct to B- from B--*
*Chansey improved Protect to C++ from C+*
Violet sent out Dragonair, Magneton, and Umbreon
Willow sent out Starmie, Umbreon, Bronzor, and Heracross
D sent out Golbat, Houndoom, Nidoking, and Jolteon
D: (DC60: 86). D avoids Dragonair's Wrap and begins scaling the outcropping rapidly.
D: (DC70: 100). D avoids Willow's Umbreon's Quick Attack and continues scaling the outcropping.
D: (DC85: 86). D avoids Heracross' Aerial Ace and continues scaling the outcropping.
D: (DC65: 63). Violet's Umbreon uses Hyper Beam which Nidoking attempts to step in front of.
Starmie: (DC15: 57). Nidoking is intercepted by Starmie's Hydro Pump and Nidoking faints.
D is hit by Umbreon's Hyper Beam and faints.
V: (DC85: 8) Magneton uses Thunder Shock. V is hit and is paralyzed.
I really enjoy the two bullying the Rockets, such a fun experience for the two to bond over!
I say D is really good dodging all those attacks, almost escaped, can't help but think she would be better off as a Pokemon Ranger.
So are we not going to check out what's the Rockets hunting as I don't see that choice anywhere, I assuming they lose the battle or the Pokemon fled deeper in the caves?
I doubt its Regirock or another region legendary Pokemon.
[X] Check on Team Rocket - You're a bit curious as to what Team Rocket was up to. You should be able to ask Officer Jenny thanks to your participation in battles against the Team.
[X] Spend Time with your Pokemon - Now that you're back in your home city, it may be nice to spend some time at the beach where you met Dragonair.
[X] Train with Willow- While it would be nontraditional to train with your rival, both of you have unique skill sets that could complement each other.
[X] Check on Team Rocket - You're a bit curious as to what Team Rocket was up to. You should be able to ask Officer Jenny thanks to your participation in battles against the Team.
[X] Challenge the Celadon Gym - While this would normally take longer, you are skilled enough to take on the gym with ease. Willow is doing the same thing this week.
[X] Spend Time with your Pokemon - Now that you're back in your home city, it may be nice to spend some time at the beach where you met Dragonair.
I would like to get through this gym relatively quickly so that we can meet back up with Tetsuya and it'd be nice to introduce most of our Pokemon to the place we grew up in.
I really enjoy the two bullying the Rockets, such a fun experience for the two to bond over!
I say D is really good dodging all those attacks, almost escaped, can't help but think she would be better off as a Pokemon Ranger.
So are we not going to check out what's the Rockets hunting as I don't see that choice anywhere, I assuming they lose the battle or the Pokemon fled deeper in the caves?
I doubt its Regirock or another region legendary Pokemon.
For that, the main issue is you don't know what you're looking for and the area you'd be searching in is both large and hard to travel. Which means that it'd be extremely unlikely to find anything.
Makes it all the more hilarious that she keeps getting Forretress'd out of basically nowhere, though. Makes for a great nemesis.
Incidentally, how old are Violet and Willow? I just clocked that they've been getting called pre-teens the last few updates, but Violet's face-claim doesn't really track with that.
[X] Train with Willow- While it would be nontraditional to train with your rival, both of you have unique skill sets that could complement each other.
[X] Spend Time with your Pokemon - Now that you're back in your home city, it may be nice to spend some time at the beach where you met Dragonair.
Incidentally, how old are Violet and Willow? I just clocked that they've been getting called pre-teens the last few updates, but Violet's face-claim doesn't really track with that.
Generally I've been intentionally vague with their ages, but I tend to imagine them as 13-15. The Rockets just tend to lump young trainers in that age group into the pre-teen group thanks to them having bad experiences with 10 year old trainers.
[X] Spend Time with your Pokemon - Now that you're back in your home city, it may be nice to spend some time at the beach where you met Dragonair.
[X] Check on Team Rocket - You're a bit curious as to what Team Rocket was up to. You should be able to ask Officer Jenny thanks to your participation in battles against the Team.
[X] Train with Willow- While it would be nontraditional to train with your rival, both of you have unique skill sets that could complement each other.
[X] Challenge the Celadon Gym - While this would normally take longer, you are skilled enough to take on the gym with ease. Willow is doing the same thing this week.
We'll fight alongside Willow more often, so we should train our Pokémon to cooperate like they were doing just now.
[X] Spend Time with your Pokemon - Now that you're back in your home city, it may be nice to spend some time at the beach where you met Dragonair.
[X] Spend Time with Your Parents - Your parents do expect you to spend some time with them while you're here. You should do so at some point.
[X] Spend Time with your Pokemon - Now that you're back in your home city, it may be nice to spend some time at the beach where you met Dragonair.
[X] Train with Willow- While it would be nontraditional to train with your rival, both of you have unique skill sets that could complement each other.
[X] Check on Team Rocket - You're a bit curious as to what Team Rocket was up to. You should be able to ask Officer Jenny thanks to your participation in battles against the Team.
Alright, I'll be calling the vote here. Spending time with Pokemon wins while the other is tied between training with Willow and Checking on Team Rocket.
1 - Training with Willow 2 - Checking on Team Rocket
Scheduled vote count started by Daemon Hunter on Sep 9, 2024 at 9:30 PM, finished with 12 posts and 8 votes.
[X] Spend Time with your Pokemon - Now that you're back in your home city, it may be nice to spend some time at the beach where you met Dragonair.
[X] Check on Team Rocket - You're a bit curious as to what Team Rocket was up to. You should be able to ask Officer Jenny thanks to your participation in battles against the Team.
[X] Challenge the Celadon Gym - While this would normally take longer, you are skilled enough to take on the gym with ease. Willow is doing the same thing this week.
[X] Spend Time with your Pokemon - Now that you're back in your home city, it may be nice to spend some time at the beach where you met Dragonair.
[X] Check on Team Rocket - You're a bit curious as to what Team Rocket was up to. You should be able to ask Officer Jenny thanks to your participation in battles against the Team.
After a few hours of waiting, a group of 5 individuals from Celadon City arrived to pick up the Rockets. Led by Officer Jenny, they asked a few questions on how Violet and Willow defeated them as well as if they knew what the criminals had planned. Without much knowledge, the two girls simply mentioned that the grunts admitted to fighting other unknown trainers and that they had seemingly accomplished their objectives.
The rest of the trip to Celadon City was far less interesting as Officer Jenny offered to drive them the rest of the way. Willow looked at Violet, clearly interested in the officer. After spending a second to think it over, Violet nodded her head giving her rival approval to agree for both of them.
"That was wild, huh?" Willow broke the silence a few minutes into the drive. Sitting in the backseat of the squad car, Violet noticed Officer Jenny's eyes flicker towards the rearview mirror before subtly pretending not to pay attention. "I mean, taking out 14 Pokemon in one move, that's crazy."
Violet gave a smile at that, subconsciously moving her hand towards Forretress' Pokeball. "Team Rocket isn't the most professional group out there," she quipped.
"Tell me about it," Willow replied. "They spend the entire time arguing, it's like they've never worked together."
Officer Jenny briefly looked at the two through the mirror, clearly having more information on the topic. Catching Violet's eyes looking at the mirror, the head of Celadon's police force added her thoughts to the conversation. "That's because they haven't, this was a group of two cells operating together."
"D-do you know what they were doing?" Violet hesitantly asked, curious about what the Rockets were up to.
The police officer frowned in thought, debating whether or not to tell them. In the end, a combination of factors seemed to make her decision for her as she began to explain. "How much do you know about the Teams?"
"They're regional criminal groups, right?" Willow replied. "Team Rocket is in Kanto and Johto, and other regions have their own Teams to deal with."
"While Team Rocket is in Kanto and Johto, the groups often disagree." Officer Jenny began to explain. "There's still tensions between the regions after the war 15 years ago, and some of that bleeds into the Teams."
"W-was it an in-internal conflict?" Violet asked, trying to fit the pieces into place.
"It's what we suspect," confirmed Officer Jenny. "The Kanto branch was pretty surprised that Lieutenant Surge's gym was attacked, and according to Gym Leader Giovanni, it seems the Johto branch organized it. One of his attendants was able to find a temporary base in the mountains with signs of battle."
At the mention of Giovanni, Willow grumbled. "Is that why his gym is always closed?"
"He's rather busy," quipped the officer with a slight smile on her lips. "He's one of the few gym leaders to get actionable intelligence on Team Rocket. Even Sabrina has struggled with that."
"She's still way cooler than him."
Officer Jenny let out a laugh, "I won't deny that."
"S-so, it was an ego thing?" Violet asked, thinking that there was something more to this than just ego. "I-it seems short-sighted."
"There's very few members of Team Rocket that think long-term," the officer began to clarify. "It's difficult to improve or rise through the ranks, with openings only opening due to arrests. The most likely reason for this was the Kanto branch being annoyed at the Johto branch muscling in." Nonetheless, as she spoke, Officer Jenny began to frown at the explanation growing less and less convincing to her.
"I-is that what you think?" Violet directly asked, causing an expression of surprise to cross the officer's face.
She glanced in the mirror, an approving look crossing her face. "You're surprisingly observant." Officer Jenny commented. "I've talked to some of my family, and I'm not so sure it was as simple as Giovanni thinks. Why would the Johto Team be acting in Kanto when they have so many issues at home? The trainers there aren't weak by any means and have been giving Team Rocket all sorts of problems recently."
"It would be strange," Willow added with a thoughtful look on her face. "Maybe it was another Team?"
"That's what I suspect," Officer Jenny said, hiding an expression of worry well. "And we already have our hands full with Team Rocket."
As they continued to drive towards Celadon City, the two trainers continued to converse with Officer Jenny and learned a good bit about how Team Rocket operated. The organization seemingly had a diverse set of revenues thanks to its large variety of cells. Gambling and white-collar crime were their most lucrative sources of revenue, although both Violet and Willow felt their eyes glaze over when Officer Jenny began to explain the intricacies of tax evasion. Thankfully the officer noticed this and switched to talking about what the Team spent money on.
It was mainly absurdly complex projects and acquisitions, with the temporary conquest of Silph Co being one of them. While they were defeated by a single young trainer, they had managed to download all technical data related to Pokeballs and were using it for nefarious purposes that Officer Jenny refused to discuss. Additionally, they used to have a massive budget for attempting to capture or locate the Legendary Pokemon Mew before abruptly canceling the program. The League also suspected a notable sum of money was spent on shadow training schools for some of their operatives, with D and V being suspected graduates of the program along with the more infamous duo of Jessie and James.
The last major topic covered how Team Rocket managed to be so secretive yet large in scale, a topic which Officer Jenny admitted greatly frustrated the League. Multiple gym leaders had attempted to root out the team in the past, with only Sabrina and Giovanni having any measure of success. Seemingly able to operate with full knowledge of what the Pokemon League's covert groups were doing, espionage and counter-terrorism activity against Team Rocket had proven nearly impossible. A few gym leaders had even shifted towards a more reflexive approach, ceding the initiative to Team Rocket but preparing notable forces to respond. While a few, namely Surge, Sabrina, and Giovanni had been arguing against this, the lack of success of their approach had allowed it to grow more and more popular over time.
From there, the conversation began to shift once more, this time to Willow asking Officer Jenny about what the Jenny family was like, causing her to begin playing coy. Realizing that the officer was about to begin teasing the two of them with misleading answers, Violet began to plan her outing with her Pokemon.
So Giovanni is almost certainly still Team Rocket's leader in this continuity. What about Surge and Sabrina, though? Sabrina didn't seem like the type, from Violet's perceptiveness and what we saw of her PoV, so she could just be getting her unusual effectiveness from her psychic powers. Surge also didn't seem quite as assholish as some of his worst iterations, so it could just be his war experience that makes him so effective, but we also didn't get to know him nearly as well...
Also, surprise Jessie and James mention! It doesn't exactly sound like the anime continuity, I don't think they were ever quite famous like that, but maybe some version of Ash is still running around?
