Jake♫ // |Kinder| @ Cherrygrove City

At the PokémonCenter, there is a girl who sits in one of the couches and steals glances at you as you heal your pokémon up. Not glances of interest really. Rather angry glances.

As you leave the PokémonCenter and go out onto the street, someone suddenly jumps you from behind. You stumble and can't get them off or get your pokémon to act to help you... but then the attacker suddenly runs off. Turning around, you see that it was the girl from inside the building. She runs north towards Route 30.

After only a short matter of time, you realize that your newly obtained PokéGear is gone. The angered girl... She must have stolen it!

OOC: You may design the girl and decide if she is a player or some kind of NPC thief, bugged or not. Note that you may also REFUSE this quest and carry on as if this text never happened!

Retro Bug // Fara O'Shay + Skymin // BiRDiE @ Unknown Shore

As the duo take their first steps over the digital border that separates Route 31 from Violet City, you experience your first major glitch in Monster Art Online. Before you can really understand what happened, it is not the street of Violet City that you put your front foot down on. You are now standing on a cliff, feeling the wind in your hair and smelling the salty sea air around you as you look down and hear waves crash against stone. Behind you, a thick forest begins, mixed with more cliffs and rocks. In the far distance to your right, a long beach can be seen and there also seem to be the silhouettes of buildings.

You have seemingly glitchfully been teleported to a place that definitively is not Violet City. To top it all off, there lies a POKéMON EGG on the cliff in front of the two of you, and it seems to be alone and abandoned. The egg is dark gray with a matt texture. What will Birdie and Fara do?

OOC: If you try to approach the beach or buildings, please end a post somewhere there and let me tell you what place it really is :> Also, you may certainly REFUSE this turn of events and simply keep posting as if it didn't happen.

​

machomuu // Fel

When you walk with the girl through the darkness towards the depths of the Dark Cave, you suddenly see an opening. It seems like it wasn't impossible at all in this game to reach the other side of the cave without HMs, if you really tried!
​

Route 45/46

Route 45 and 46 go between Blackthorn City in the north and route 29 in the south. However, the way north is too steep and mountainous for you to be able to cross safely at this point in MAO. You can, however, travel south and reach the first route through a gate building.

The landscape is very rocky and it feels like you are going sideways down from a mountain, which you pretty much are. The route is also very dry, the most desert-like route found in Johto. At the junction where route 46 begins, there is a Pokémon Center with hot springs for weary travelers. There are also relatively many stones and items glimmering at you from various odd places in the route, such as stuck in trees or high up on cliffs. However, you lack the necessary skills and professions at this point to be able to extract or retrieve these items.


Special quest givers:

There are quest givers, but your pokémon are not nearly strong enough at this point to be able to finish the quests without whiting out. As such, the quest givers won't even give you any quests in this area.


Wild pokémon:

BiRDiE // ???
Birdie recieved no answer from her companion due to the fact when they stepped over the imaginary line into Violet City, they were met with not the expected traditional style Japanese city of Violet City, boasting popular areas such as Sprout Tower and the Violet City Pokémon gym, but a sudden gush of wind as they stood at the edge of a cliff.

"Whoa!" Birdie stepped back, his feet resting on the grassy cliff and not back on the tiled floor of the passageway. He pushed his glasses up his nose so they didn't blow away (they wouldn't, but it sure felt like it) and quickly scanned the area. Did they go back in time? Wait, Violet City wasn't anywhere near the bay, not as far as Sophie knew. There was a dense forest behind them and the wind up here no longer smelt like smoke, but of sea water. The waves could be heard from below, crashing on the cliff and a beach, as well as a small town could be seen in the distance. Whatever the case, this was definitely not Violet City.

"Where are...?" Birdie's eyes also caught something odd. In the grass, closer towards the edge of the cliff lay a large and curious stone. It wasn't far away and one step was enough to get close enough to touch it, which he did. It was smooth and grey, and when he picked it up and held it firmly in his hands, was not heavy at all. In fact, was it a stone? It felt and was shaped more like... an egg!

"Um... Fara? Do you know where we are?"​

Supplies fully stocked and Growlithe at full health, Aertio headed out and onto Route Thirty. The sun now hung lower in the sky as the pair made their way up the route blazingly. With all the grass and bug type Pokemon showing up from between the branches and crawling through tall grass, Growlithe merely cast them aside hurling balls of Ember in their direction. If it wasn't a game, the two would have had a trail of dead bodies rather than rapidly disappearing pixels behind them. Regardless, Aertio continued on, shouting in triumph as Growlithe downed yet another Ledyba here, Spinarak there. They were half way through the route and Growlithe was already up two levels, yet starting to get restless.

"Come one boy, let's take a break." Growlithe barked happily as Aertio lay his bag down on the soft grass next to the pristine lake. While in the game, they didn't need to eat, but people ate purely out of custom and habit. Placing several pellets of PokeFood on the ground for Growlithe, Aertio helped himself to a single Rice Ball, munching on the compacted rice.

For all the hassle the game now put him in, it was only in this instance in which he sat down and had a look at the world he now resided in that he began to feel a pang of regret for not noticing this side of the game. Once finished, he fished for the Rod in his backpack, pulling it out and assembling it till the now sat in his lap.

"Shall we see what this does?" He asked the Growlithe who barked happily.

Not one usually patient enough, Aertio soon found that fishing in the game was a lot quicker than it had been back in the real world. Within moments he felt a tug at the lure and began pulling and reeling in his first catch. Flopping and splashing haphazardly, the Magikcarp would not let go of the line until Growlithe stepped in, biting the fish as his small teeth tried to penetrate it's thick outer shell.

It only took a couple of bites before the red fish Pokemon soon disintegrated into a stream of pixels. Laughing in victory, Aertio again cast his hook into the pristine blue water again, waiting for the lure to bob in the water. Something definitely snagged when the lure went into the water suddenly, Aertio almost taken off of his feet. Reeling the catch in, Aertio was surprised to see, not a red Magicarp splash onto shore, but some blue-green frog-baby Pokemon.

"Growlithe, Bite!" He yelled as Growlithe surged forward, burying it's jaw into the soft flesh of the tadpole Pokemon.

Angrily, the Poliway let loose a jet of bubbles, exploding into Grolithe's eyes causing the dog Pokemon to let go yelping. "Ember" Aertio called, whooping as Grolithe buried the Poliwag in a conflagration of fire, but his victory was short lived when it emerged relatively unscathed and even angrier. Yet again it let loose a blast of bubbles, drenching Growlithe who seemed to be taking massive damage from it.

"Bite, Growlithe," after learning from a valuable mistake, Aertio gave up on the thought of burning the Poliwag and, instead, decided to use bite to hopefully come out of this battle alive. Again and again, Aertio yelled for Growlithe to bite the Poliwag, while in response, it continued to soak Growlithe in layers of bubbles. The fight seemed to go neither way until Aertio saw Poliwag's eyes glow as the Pokemon hypnotised his Growlithe.

"No!" Aertio yelled, but it was too late, Growlithe slumped to the ground, snoring loudly while the Poliwag jumped eratically, flailing in the air in some sort of victory dance. Grabbing an item from his bag, he tossed it at the Poliwag, intending to injure the Pokemon, hoping to give him some time to administer the Awakening to Growlithe.

In the background, Aertio heard a 'click' as he sprayed Growlithe first with an Awakening, then next with a Potion. Turning around, at first he thought the Poliwag had returned to the lake, but on closer inspection, where the Poliwag had stood was a small, round red ball. Picking it up, he soon recognised the Pokeball engraved with a small 'A' below its button; it was definitely his.

Pocketing the ball, he re-administered another Potion to Growlithe before they set out for the next leg of their journey up to Route 31 then across to Violet City.

Two trainers and a field full of grass and bug typed Pokemon later, Aertio found himself and Growlithe on Route 31, sky blackened by smoke and fire dancing on the treetops in the wind. He watched up ahead as another Player walked through the conflagration and into the cave beyond. Without thinking, Aertio ran forward, following the other Player into the darkness of the cave beyond. Amongst the fluttering and screeching of Zubat and rolling Geodude, he could vaguely hear a pair of voices ahead.

"Hello?" He called out tentatively.​

The view of the city was astonishing to Fara as she hadn't expected the city to look this wonderful. Fara blinked and when she opened her eyes she noticed that they were no longer in Violet City... What was going on? She wasn't sure if this was some new addition to the game because this most certainly didn't happen when Amell played SoulSilver. Birdie and herself were now standing on a cliff, a cliff that seemed to be nowhere near Violet City. Fara peered below only to see that their were strong waves crashing into the cliff that they were now standing on.

Around them were different landscapes, a beach in one direction while a forest type place in another. Fara racked her mind, she wanted to know how they had gotten here and when could they get back to Violet City. She had to be the first to beat Faulkner, if she let someone else do it they would receive all the credit and Fara would get none. Plus, people were probably forgetting about The Slayer, she needed to plant rumors in the players minds once more. She turned around to speak to Birdie after hearing his question when she saw what he held in his hand, a PokeEgg! How did Birdie get that before she did? No matter, she'd simply take it.

"Wow, let me see!" Instead of waiting for her partner to hand over the gray egg Fara tugged it out of his hands, he didn't seem to want to let go. That was a problem but she would do something about that because in the end the egg would be hers no matter what. "I say we go to the beach, there seems to be at least buildings!"

Without waiting another moment Fara twirled around and headed toward the beach with the PokeEgg in her hands. Her head started to fill with thoughts on what exactly this egg contained, what if it was something bad? This game had just taken them to some uncharted place that wasn't, to Amell's recollection of the Johto region, in the actual games. Also, if they ended up at the beach Fara would be given the chance to catch some water type Pokemon that she wanted to round out her team. Playfully she began tossing the egg up and down, a little higher each time, what would Birdie do if she pretended to drop it? She assured herself that it would be quite the reaction to see and wanted to test it out at a later date.​

BiRDiE // ???
Fara seemed to have grown into a habit of not answering any of Birdie's perfectly reasonable questions, though that might be because she didn't know. When she turned to face him, her eyes went straight to his hands. Or more specifically, the egg in his hands.

"Wow, let me see!" she didn't let him pass it to her, instead yanking it out of his hands. Birdie was reluctant but released his grip. If she wanted to see, why didn't she just look? He made a face but remained silent. The Sophie inside Birdie felt uncomfortable with how Fara seemed to hold it. Maybe it was her maternal instincts or maybe it was because he felt that because a more selfish reason of 'finders keepers'. "I say we go to the beach, there seems to be at least buildings!"

"I guess," he said, following her down, keeping his eyes at his feet (and precariously at the edge of the cliff). Would the beach have water type Pokémon? If Sophie could recall from the games correctly, only deep sand held Pokémon, and even then, they were Ground types. If they wanted Water types, they would need to go into the water. Birdie hadn't tried that as part of the game mechanics yet, even though he had spent a week in Cherrygrove, which was right next to the water. Could players swim?

His eyes raised from his shoes as they crunched uncomfortably in the sand to his companion, whose actions made his stomach lurch almost immediately. Wh-what was she doing!? What if the egg was important?! He opened his mouth and closed it a few times, finding words to tell her to kindly stop. Then, she started tossing it higher. Instintively, Birdie rushed forward and grabbed the egg in midair before Fara could catch it again.

"Wh-what are you doing!?" Birdie held the egg close to his chest. It wasn't damaged in the slightest, but what if she dropped it? The sand is soft but who knew how fragile these eggs were. What if premature Pokémon eggs were toxic and killed them both? What if it had some kind of reviving item inside it? What if it was the key to winning the game? "What if this is important? There might be life in here. You might have broken it..."​

Retro Bug // Fara O'Shay + Skymin // BiRDiE @ Unknown Shore

"Halt!" a voice suddenly calls out to Fara and Birdie. Someone is running towards them in the sand, seemingly coming from the buildings in the distance. He is rather strangely dressed, with a purple suit and a white sort of mantle over his back... Don't the players recognize him from somewhere? He throws a pokéball in front of himself and an Electrode materializes halfway to the two players.


"Where did you find that pokémon egg?" the man asks, coming to a stop at a distance of half a gym arena from Fara and Birdie. "I claim it! I'm collecting pokémon, and there is a pokémon in there for sure! Give it to me, or battle me for it!"

The man looks rather flustered. Electrode's body sparkled with electric elemental energy, making fine sand fly up around it, and its eyes narrowed while its mouth smiled wider. How will Fara and Birdie react?

​

|Kinder| → Cherrygrove City, Route 30 *image removed* *image removed*

After getting his Pokémon back from Nurse Joy, Geoff did what he finally longed to do: He pulled out his new Pokégear, turned on the radio, and kicked back with some music. In a game that has become about survival, Geoff wouldn't normally do a side-quest like this, but when it involved music, it was completely necessary. He could let time pass by for who-knows-how-long listening to music, and disturbing him while he was listening was a hard task to accomplish.

As Geoff was listening he turned his attention to a girl sitting on a couch across the room from him. He wasn't sure if she was an NPC or not, but he was receiving dirty glances from her. Although she was sitting she seemed relatively short, and probably around 14 or 15 years old. She had a salmon colored blouse on, with a red skirt, and from his judgement 3 inch high heels. Probably not the best footwear for travelling the region, so it made no sense that it could be an actual player. Her green eyes were piercing Geoff's as he looked over to her, and it just seemed cold.

He couldn't take being glared at any longer, he had to get back out into the field and get to Violet City. Sitting here wasn't going to be of any help, and he could listen to music as he walked anyways. He made his way back to the entrance of Route 30, and before he could start back out there, he felt a sharp, shooting pain in his ears.

"OWWW!!" Geoff screamed. Someone ripped the headphones out of his ears. As he turned around to see who did it, there was no one there. "What the hell, who could have --" Geoff started, but as he turned back forward he saw that girl from the Pokémon Center, only now she had Geoff's Pokégear in hand as she ran onto Route 30! "Get back here!" Geoff screamed, but to no avail. His only option was to chase after her.

Thank for Geoff, those high heel were slowing her down, so he could catch up quickly. They reached the fork in the road, where he grabbed her shoulder and turned her around. She still had that glare in her eye, and Geoff didn't like it. He looked her up and down, and realized that she was definitely older than he perceived; at least 16 years old, maybe even 17 or 18.

"Let go of me!" she yelled at him. "This belongs to me now!"

"And you think I'm going to just let you steal the ONE thing in this game that makes me happy? I don't think so," Geoff replied. At this point he knew where this was going, and for her sake he hoped that she was an NPC character. The only thing was, Geoff couldn't handle taking someone else's life, even if it meant him living. No turning on the HUD he supposed, he couldn't deal with the guilt if she really was real.

"Alright |Kinder|, I, Felicity, challenge you!" she ordered as she threw a Pokéball. When the white light finally materialized, a little green and yellow monkey materialized from the ball. "Alright, I'm ready with Pansage, what do you have to offer me?"

Geoff looked at his two Pokéballs. Both Hoothoot and Snorunt would do well here, but Hoothoot would resist any potential grass-typed attacks that the grass monkey had. "Alright, let's go Hoothoot!" Geoff cried as he threw Hoothoot's Pokéball into the air. As Hoothoot emerged, it u-turned onto Geoff's shoulder, getting a good view of his opponent.

"Hoot! Hoo Hoo!" Hoothoot cried. Geoff could see the excitement in his eyes, and he knew he made a good choice, even if he hadn't battled with him yet. He was about to give him a little pep talk for his first battle, but apparently Felicity had other things in mind.

"Vine Whip, and draw it close to you!" she ordered Pansage. It obliged, and vines were quickly wrapped around Hoothoot, and it was dragged off of Geoff's shoulder. It kept getting pulled closer and closer, when Geoff had an idea.

"Use that momentum! Charge towards it using your Tackle attack!" Hoothoot nodded, and as Pansage pulled it closer, Hoothoot used it's own force on it, making him charge at Pansage much faster than it was expecting. The look of surprise popped up in it's eyes, and Hoothoot hit it right in the gut with his Tackle. Hoothoot was released from the vines as Pansaged tumbled over backwards, but it was quickly back up on its feet.

Felicity didn't look happy, as she stomped on the ground and broke her right heel. "Look what you made me do! This is not okay! Pansage, Lick that stupid bird!"

This made Geoff smirk. He knew exactly what was going to come of that attack, although she clearly didn't. He decided to do something that both Hoothoot and Felicity were more than likely to question, but he was fully confident. "Hoothoot, just hold your ground."

Hoothoot turned his head around, giving Geoff questioning eyes. "Hoot?" he exclaimed in a worried tone, but Geoff just nodded, and Hoothoot trusted him. Pansage crept closer and closer, and opened his mouth wide for it's Lick attack. It's tongue made direct contact with Hoothoot, but as expected, Geoff smirked and was ready for his next move.

"Ghost moves don't work on a part normal-type like Hoothoot here!" He explained. "Now Hoothoot, use a Peck attack on its tongue while it's still out of it's mouth!"

"Hoo hoo!" Hoothoot replied as it started Pecking away at the poor Pansage. Flying-typed moves are already super-effective on grass types, but doing the attack on its tongue was almost adding insult to injury.

"Scratch!" Felicity called out. Geoff was expecting Pansage to be stuck where it was, but it's claws were raised up into the air and it slashed Hoothoot right across the face, knocking it backwards into a nearby tree. It was an unexpected counter-attack, but Geoff should have realized it could do something when the only thing he was attacking was the Pansage's tongue.

"Are you okay Hoothoot?" Geoff asked, as Hoothoot pulled itself back onto one foot to stand ready for another round of attacks. "Hoot!" he replied, and Geoff knew it was going to be okay. That Pansage had taken more blows than Hoothoot had, and it was looking tired, as it was breathing heavily as it was hunched over.

Geoff looked over to Felicity, as he knew this battle was coming to an end. He noticed that on her side she had more Pokéballs, which meant that knocking out Pansage wouldn't mean her whiting out if she was a real person. It was the one inevitability that had to happen at some point, but Geoff didn't want to deal with it now.

"How about this --" He started. "Winner of the battle between Hoothoot and Pansage gets the Pokégear, and then it's over. That way no one whites out."

Felicity's eyes changed suddenly. Instead of being that glare that never left her eyes as she battle fiercely, it turned to a calmer, almost more understanding look. At this point, Geoff knew, even without turning on his HUD, that she had to be real. An NPC wouldn't flinch at that offer, as losing didn't have any real implications for them. "Deal. Now Pansage Vine Whip!"

Geoff was almost lost in the moment, but the battle call brought him right back in. "Dodge it in the air Hoothoot, then charge with Tackle!" Hoothoot obeyed swiftly, flying in the air over the vine's that were extending from Pansage, and charged it head-on, knocking it into the road sign at the fork to Mr. Pokémon's house. Pansage was down for the count, and both Geoff and Felicity knew it.

"Alright, you win," Felicity stated as she returned Pansage to it's Pokéball. She walked over to Geoff with the Pokégear in hand, and returned it to him. "I'm sorry I took it in the first place, I was upset when I returned the egg to the Mayor I didn't receive the Pokégear. I guess I had to talk to her first to receive it, and I just really wanted one."

Geoff sympathized with her. He knew the feeling of wanting the same thing so bad, but he got lucky in getting the quest first, and when he did he was a bulldozer getting it. "It's okay, I was the same way when I got the quest in the first place. We can listen to it for awhile if you want to?"

Felicity nodded, and the two of them sat down at the base of a tree listening to whatever stations they could find, with Hoothoot perched above them on a branch. They talked about music for a good hour, both the music that appeared in the game, and the music in the real world. They didn't share a large amount of overlapping interests, but artists like Jason Mraz were common ground for the two of them.

After the hour Felicity stood back up, breaking the heel on her left shoe on purpose, and laughed. "Might as well be even, right?" Geoff chuckled at this, and nodded in agreement. "By the way, my real name is Felicity too, what about you?"

"I'm Geoff. Being called |Kinder| is still kind of weird to me, but I guess I should get used to it since that's all people really see unless they get to know each other like we are."

"Well Geoff, this is farewell for now. But I'm going to see you again," Felicity said with a smile as she ran off back to Cherrygrove City to heal Pansage.

Geoff didn't have time to reply, but he had a smile on his face. It was nice having human contact again after all this time. He was sure should would pop back up somewhere, but who knows how soon? He watched her run into the distance until her figure disappeared into the horizon, and Geoff made his way back foward, with Hoothoot sitting back on his shoulder again.

"You know, if we're going to spend this much time together you should probably have a name," He started. "Then again, so should Snorunt." As Geoff pondered names, one obvious one came for Hoothoot. "Alright, you're going to be called Gaebora. How does that sound to you?" Geoff asked the little owl, who chirped happily at the name. He guessed it was a keeper. He couldn't figure out one for Snorunt yet, but he had an entire journey to do so.

Continuing down Route 30 using the left path, he expected to see the route riddled with a few trainers like in Gold and Silver, but there was nothing there. Then he noticed smoke billowing in the clouds above him, and as he got closer to the entrance of Route 31, and entire fire.

"Well, that's not good..."


​

Luxanna's Log #8 & a ½

"What if this is important? There might be life in here. You might have broken it..." Birdie whined as he snatched Fara's egg out of midair before she had a chance to catch it once more.

Fara couldn't help but have a fit of laughter, even to the point where she bent over while she hugged her sides, while looking at Birdie's face. He was concern over a single PokeEgg was just too much for her, they hadn't even beaten the first gym leader, why on earth would the game give them something of such importance now, of all times? The impressive thing was that he actually took the egg from her, Fara wasn't the least bit worried because it was her egg no matter who held it now.

"Good idea, hold my egg for me, you're such a gentlemen," Her voice sounded sincere as she delivered her message as she continued to walk after her momentary stop.

"Halt!" A called out voice, which startled Fara.

Fara swung her head around to see a silhouette of a man running across the sand toward the duo. Instinctively Fara walked backwards toward Birdie and stood in front of him as if she were a guard that would protect him from whatever this mysterious wo/man wanted. She wasn't sure if it was a NPC or not and Fara didn't want to risk the chance of it being a true threat. When the man came closer Amell recognized that character from someone, Crystal, but didn't exactly remember what importance he had in the game or what his name was in the game.

"Where did you find that pokémon egg?" After the man spoke Fara noticed the gym arena that was in front of them, how very convenient that just happened to be there. "I claim it! I'm collecting pokémon, and there is a pokémon in there for sure! Give it to me, or battle me for it!"

"Birdie, listen to me closely," Whispered Fara to her companion she didn't want to risk the purple suit guy listening to their conversation. At this point Fara's face had turned complelely solemn, she wasn't going to lose her egg to any Trainer/NPC in this game. The only thing is that Birdie could wander off and find himself back in Violet City without her or worse someone else in the game and what if she never saw him again? "You are to flee, go towards the building, anywhere but here. I'll stall this guy. Now, go!"

"B-but--" Birdie exchanged looks with both Fara and the purple clad gentleman, who Sophie recognised very much so. Being a Pokémon fanatic, she knew this was rare Pokémon hunter and Suicune lover, Eusine. As far as she remembered, he was stupid, but determined. He felt his heart jump in his chest and started to step back towards the way they came.

"You want to know what I collect?" Fara smirked at her opponent, all she had was a Geodude that would help her against his Electrode and who else knew what other Pokemon he had inside of that suit. "Nothing, because that's what people leave when they're whited-out!"

The purple clad man's face grew frustrated. "But what will you do if I do... THIS!" he said and suddenly called out a second pokémon, effectively making it a double battle and forcing either Fara to release a second pokémon or Birdie to join in a tag battle. The second pokémon was a Girafarig who materalized right next to Electrode and let out a rather nasty howl. How do giraffes even sound? Certainly not like this.

At the sight of a second Pokémon, Birdie stopped dead. What would happen if... they were stronger than Fara thought? Sure, she had three Pokémon now but they were still all very young. Swallowing hard, he trudged back, holding the egg tightly to his chest. With his other hand, he tugged at Todo's PokéBall and held it in his hand. He also had his Berry Brewing (if only he had a bottle to make that dumb potion) and the healing berries the Alchemist had given him earlier.

He would not let his friend risk her life like this. Plus, he felt a little bit sick of being useless.

"Please Fara, let me help," he said, holding up his PokéBall.

When Birdie did that, Eusine's face suddenly lost its frustrated flavor and turned bleak. "Ah! You are too strong for me!" he exclaimed and fell down on his knees in the sand all of a sudden, almost sobbing. His Electrode and Girafarig turned around to look at him, Electrode with a face of slight disgust and Girafarig with a look of pity.

"I should have known this act of threatening would be futile. Forgive me, my friends," he said, turning to his pokémon with a snot hanging from his nose. He looked rather devastated now.

"Of course it was!" Her voice filled with false confidence that Girafarig had her just a tiny bit worried. Fara arched her left eyebrow at the man, what was going on here?

"Uh... You see..." he then continued, after having blown his nose into his mantle, "Trainers end up here now and then. And all of the seem to find an egg. And I am a pokémon collector. Pokémon eggs are precious to me. I cannot completely explain why... But I just need to try and get my hands on them. But I don't want to battle you because something tells me it will be awful. I am just so... So..." Electrode rolls over to Eusine and nudges him to get up as he once again blows his nose into the before-white mantle. "Thank you," the man says hastily to the pokémon.

"So lame?" Fara offered up. Here she thought that she was actually going to experience a Trainer battle. She grabbed onto Birdie's arm and started to walk toward the buildings they had previously seen. Somehow there had to be a way back to Violet City so that they could challenge Faulkner, well, Fara could she wasn't quite sure what Birdie was going to do. This Eusine mentioned something about Trainers ending up here, perhaps he knew where they were and how to get back to Violet City. "Anyway, we'll be on our way, but you can tell me where we are?"

Eusine seemed to have finished sobbing for now he stood straight up with only a little sigh coming from him.

"Yes, I can because I am allowed to be here while you are just some players who ended up here prematurely." Way to break the 4th wall, Eusine? "You are on the coast just north of Cianwood City."

He returned the Girafarig and the battle layout changed back into a single battle with just his Electrode being called forth. That is, if anyone should bother looking in menus while battling. But no one in MAO really does since voice commands are implemented well enough to make it feel like the players really are authentic pokémon trainers in a living world.

The purple man continues in a muttering voice. "But I am still an artificial Game Master who has decency enough to teleport you back to where you should be instead of letting you run along here."

His tone got more serious, but his face still wore a slightly disappointed look. His craze for rare pokémon seemed to extend to more than just Suicune in this game. He seemed to pull up some kind of menu in front of him, but it was invisible to Fara and Birdie... Only one kind of menu in this game is completely invisible, while normal menus can just blur out information for onlookers. A GM menu!

Just like the one that professor Elm back in New Bark Town could not manage to bring up, leading to his frustration over not being able to help players after the lockdown.

Before Birdie or Fara could do anything more, Eusine had clicked on something in the menu. The environment changed. The sounds of the ocean and the strong seaside sun disappeared. They were back in Violet City, right in the spot where their foot should have landed in the step that glitched them away in the first place.

Cianwood City...​

@ Everyone

In all the Pokémon Centers across Johto, and on every PokéGear where trainers can read updated server news, an interesting offer comes up.

There is a player in Violet City called Melkor who says that he has experienced several very strange bugs and glitches to MAO. There is something wrong with the game, besides it trying to kill them and not letting them log out. And he is determined to find a way to exploit these bugs to win the game more easily.

His main point is that players have tried going solo for too long now. They need to start working together in a more organized way. He is calling any trainer who has experienced a glitch of some kind to join him in the front yard of the Sprout Tower at noon tomorrow (tuesday IC). Trainers who have not experienced glitches or bugs but feel confident that their skills might help are also welcome.

He is going to form a guild. A guild of pokémon trainers. Together, they will train and help each other traverse the routes and defeat the gym leaders and villains on their way.

Melkor has two trusted friends with him on this idea already. One is called Viking and is a rather awkward guy, the other is called Fraud and is a rather bitter girl. Still, Melker's friendly and confident persona should make up for them.

Miss Doronjo // Luxanna + Fuyu // Ange Lumis + Jake♫ // |Kinder|

As if right on cue, glitches befall some of those in Route 31 who have not yet seen any...

Under the feet of Lux, something suddenly starts trembling. The ground erupts and a pokémon climbs up. It looks angered and confused and it is clear that it should not be there. If you have played a pokémon game, you know that this is a legendary from Hoenn. Even in MAO, it would be strange to find it in Johto.


Ange and Kinder might see this from a distance. The Registeel starts moving towards Lux, waving its arms.


((OOC: Note that you may not bunny the Registeel. It is a GM controlled character.))
​

|Kinder| → Route 31 *image removed* *image removed*

The black clouds were billowing high into the sky, and it almost felt like it was getting hotter. Gaebora was becoming a bit uneasy as they continued to walk towards where Dark Cave's entrance always was on Route 31. It was clear what the problem was as the approached closer: A wall of flames was blocking the path towards Violet City. There were trainers trying to use their water Pokémon to put out the flames, but it was to no avail. Nothing was putting the flames down, even with their combined efforts.

Geoff didn't want to get too close yet. He knew he needed to continue forward, but he didn't want to risk his Pokémon or his own life. It was a rare selfish moment for Geoff, but when it was a life or death situation he wasn't in the same mindset of putting everyone before himself. He'd contribute if they couldn't get it down, but until then he was willing to take a step back.

There were trainers gathered outside of what appeared to be Dark Cave as well. For what Geoff could figure out, it appeared there was a glitch in the game with the cave. Traditionally you would need flash to travel over to Route 46, but players are getting through easily right now, as the cave doesn't seem to be dark, nor is there anything blocking the way that would require Strength to move. Geoff didn't like this, but it was only a minor thing that might be nothing but helpful for him.

Then it hit. It felt like an earthquake. Something was up, and Geoff knew it. Gaebora wasn't feeling happy either. Geoff returned him to his Pokéball, so if something was happening at least he would be safe in there. Geoff turned around to see girl who looked like she had been knocked off her balace from the tremor. Heck, it even looked like the tremor had it's epicenter right at her feet. She was of medium height, and had white and red hair. Strange hair colors, but hey, it WAS a Pokémon game.

The last thing that Geoff expected happened though: something crawled out from the ground that the tremor caused. Definitely not something that would normally occur in a Pokémon game. It was weird though, as Geoff could recognize what was emerging: it had a metallic appearance, and it was shades of gray. It had seven red dots for a face, as well as semi-skinny arms, but a very dense and sturdy body.

Geoff approached the scene, to at least try to help out the mystery trainer. It was clear she wasn't an NPC from her reactions. The only thing going through Geoff's head though, was not one of trying to be helpful. All he could think of was why a Registeel would be in Johto, and why was it even programmed into this part of the game? Something wasn't right.

​

Luxanna's Log #9 & a ½

Class-53XLU-Itemfinder

The pokéball bounced on Registeel's head and the pokémon began turning red, as they do when they are about to get sucked into a pokéball.

But then, it seemed like Registeel decided that it was so very wrong to get caught. So the red glow disappeared and the pokéball bounced back down onto the ground - and even broke!

Now a bit confused, the large legendary stopped waving his arms around and looked at the two trainers in front of him. He took aim at the approaching Kinder, by letting huge images of crosshairs fly through the air to encircle the boy for a moment before they dissipated. But a strange sensation should come over the target by now, as if it just knew that it had been Locked On. "It" now being Kinder.

Oh my. Knowing anything about Registeel should make being Locked On by it a horrifying thought. What if a Zap Cannon came next? How to survive this?​