(Reboot) Pokemon: Beyond the Tall Grass

Loka looked out the corner of her eyes, making sure that the others where still here.

"Is it still here?" she said looking at her hand. The game of Voltorb Flip had quickly turned into a game of black-jack, and the two looked ready to talk business as they played.

"Yeah it's still there. Empty, but still there."

"Did you keep my stuff hidden?"

"...Most of it. You know how wanderers can be, accidentally finding stuff out, and such. Come back after hours and I'll let you in."

Loka sighed, more passively playing the card game. She'd have to find a way to ditch the group for an hour or so to retrieve her stuff. 

"Also..." she flipped her two opening card over, revealing them to the small crowd who gasped lightly. "Black-Jack."


As Decoda walked around to figure out what to do next, he notices a poster is pulling away from the wall. Under it, he can catch a glimpse of a metal panel.

Catia watches Loka and the man she was playing cards with for a little while before she thinks for a second and gets an idea. Getting up and holding Fox carefully so as to not disturb the little fire foxes sleep, she walks over and buys about 50 coins to play for a bit before walking over to Loka's table and smiling politely at the man she was playing with. "Excuse me mister, can I give this a try? I've never been to a game corner before." She asks cutely, lying a tad bit considering that she would occasionally play the roulette table game in Mauville when her mom and her went to get any real groceries. She had seen black jack before but had never really played it before.

Loka got up to Catia sit down. Riley smirked and shuffled the cards.

"Why don't we start with Voltorb flip, if you've never played the big games. Don't want you losing all you have~"

"Riles, let the lady play a round if she wants to!"

"Grrr... Don't call me that! You know I hate it. My answer is still no. What kind of gentleman would I be if I swindled coins off a young lady?"

Loka sat back down and rolled her eyes. "Doesn't stop you any other time..." She looked at Catia and smiled a bit. "I tried!"

Catia shakes her head. "It's fine. But I never said anything about being inexperienced." She sits down and shifts Fox in her arms so that she was comfortable before smiling at Riley. "Start me off easy okay? I'm a bit rusty with my Voltorb flipping game." She tell him with a smile.

The red head adjusted his cap as he spots the poster peeling off the wall.  Mudkip cocked its head at its trainer, wondering what he was staring at.  He strode up closer to get a better look at the metal behind it.

"Is this a piece of the wall, or a door?" he mumbled to himself, gently touching the wrinkly paper covering the smooth metal.

He wanted to rip the whole thing off to find out, but didn't want to get caught and kicked out.  He looked around, trying to find cameras, employees, or anybody else that could rat him out.  Mudkip helped out by staying quiet.

Cerise found himself by the slot machine after Decoda had given him some game coins to work with. He took a breath before sitting down to try his luck. Chespin squatted on the floor next to him. "Here we go..."

Riley smirked and dealt the board, placing the blue flags next to Catia. He tipped his hat and nodded to Catia.

"Whenever you're ready.~"

She made quick work of the first board, looking proud. Wordlessly, Riley set up level two. This one took a bit longer, but Catia managed to beat it as well.

"Well look at you, You might just win!"

Catia simply smiled, and adjusted Fox slightly. She was ready for level three. Riley sensed this, and fixed up level three. Loka watched his hand movements, and smirked when she saw him break pattern. She wondered if Catia would be able to see it. As the last card was placed, Catia began placing the flags, but slower. She knew that if she won, she would move on. If she lost, she would simply lose what she put in for this round. She would still have round 1 and 2 earnings. She went to place a flag but paused, biting her lip slightly. Slowly, she lowered the last flag and looked up at Riley.

"Show 'em." she spoke.

Riley nodded and began flipping the cards. All was good until he got to the card she hesitated on. He flipped it; it was a three pointer card. He looked at Caita.

"Nice work on the first two, but looks like your luck ran out on the third. You get to keep your Round one and Two earning, but lose your Round three." he says, handing her 400$.


As Decoda looked about, he saw that there was no one paying attention to him. The cameras were focused on the Prize counter, and the Employers were tending to customers. As he messed with the poster, it fell away from the wall a bit more, revealing a button. Would he press it?


Cerise plopped in the first coin and pulled the Lever, crossing his fingers. First spin, he got a payout of 30 coins! Will he continue?

Catia smiles and takes the money from Riley before getting up and turning to Loka. "Still wanna talk or no? Fox is still sleeping so I don't need to feed her." She asks her.

"Is this good...?" He muttered to himself softly as he scooped up all of the coins. Chespin shrugged at Cerise before yawning. He looked around, seeing Loka and Catia at a table, probably gambling. He couldn't see Decoda, though... The trainer shrugged before putting more coins in the machine to try his luck again.

Surprised by the lack of attention he was getting from this very odd situation, Decoda looked down at Mudkip, then back at the button before him.  He decided to press the button down hard without another word.

Loka led Catia away from the noise of the Machines before dawning a serious look.

"Where did you get that Vulpix? It should be with it's mother! Did you raid?!" She questioned. She spoke in a hushed tone in order to not wake the sleeping pokemon. She then sighed and took a breath. "I ain't gonna tell ya to put it back, seeing that it's taken to ya. And it looks like you'll be a decent mother to it, but Please tell me you didn't raid to get it..."



Three Pikachus lined up on Cerise's machine. Another 30 coins fell into the small basin. So far, so good.


The wall fell back, and the floor flipped up, throwing Decoda into a secret area. He was met with a long hallway, dimly lit. However, there was still enough light to see where he's going.

Catia grew immediately angry when Loka had suggested that she had raided a nest to get Fox. "For your information a boy gave her to me. Said that he's found her wandering around by herself. He....he told me that it needed someone to mother it and....well I couldn't just say no! She's defenseless without someone else to take care of her." She defends herself in a hushed tone, not wanting to wake Fox. She took a deep breath and calmed herself a bit before smiling gently at the sleeping Fox in her arms. "She's just a baby Loka. To put it back without her having any way to take care of herself would be the quickest way to starve a Pokemon I've ever heard of." She finishes.

Loka sighed in relief when she heard Catia didn't raid. The boy was questionable, though...

"Well... That's good to hear. I know quite a bit about fire types, so if ya need help, don't hesitate to ask, k?"

She and Catia started walking back towards the Voltorb Flip tables, when Loka finally asked.

"So this boy, What he look like? Ya get his name? Is he cute?" She smiled a bit, nudging Catia's shoulder gently.

With a quick yelp, Decoda and Mudkip were flung into the dimly lit hallway.  The teen grabbed onto the wall to keep himself from falling over flat on his face, but the Pokemon unfortunately kissed the ground.  It picked itself up, and began yipping wildly in anger until its wide mouth was covered with a human hand.  Decoda shushed the little creature.

"Keep it down.  You don't know what could be down this way...  Come on."

He picked up the little blue mudfish in his arms and started to walk down the hall, certainly knowing he wouldn't be able to turn back.  He wasn't scared, but didn't want to be cut off from his friends for too long, even if he knew they had Loka on their side to help them if they needed anything.  The hall looked long, so he slowed his pace to save energy.

'What's with this place?  I remember reading about casinos once being popular businesses for mobs, but that was a long time ago.  I can't imagine anything like that happening today...' he thought.  Then he recalled what the Professor said; the rebellious teams!  Could it be them?!

Catia smirked at Loka, having been around the block with secrets at least a couple of times before. "Wouldn't you like to know. But I will tell you this, he was very good at playing cat and mouse." She answers Loka slyly. It wasn't necessarily a lie, but she certainly wasn't going to give Loka the while truth about her encounter with Wes. A cute boy like that deserves to be kept a secret to herself. She returns to smiling gently. "And thank you, I appreciate your understanding." She tells her.

"Cool!" Cerise grinned. It seemed he was doing pretty well! He paused a moment, wondering how much the prizes could be before placing more coins into the slot. This would probably be his last time before he would go to see the prize list.

Loka nodded and sat back down at the Table. Before she told Riley to deal up again, she looked up at Catia. The Dark trainer had a gentle smile on her face; a rare look.

"Be careful with the guys, Catia. I... I don't wanna see ya get hurt or nothin'..."



As Decoda made his way slowly down the dimly lit hall, the held the scent of old paper, and expired chemicals, once dangerous to breathe, but now harmless. The hall twisted and turned, loose floorboards creaking genly under the teen's weight. Most of the doors had fallen off their hinges, leaving several rooms accessible. A small noice could be heard, but is would be difficult to locate.



The machine whirred and lit up as Cerise spun the slots again. What happened before him made his heart almost stop.

7 7 7
 
Cerise had hit the jackpot! 600 coins spilled out of the machine as buzzers went off and lights blinked rapidly. People looked over, and clapped for him; not many people came in and hit the jackpot!

Catia gives Loka a look of surprise.  "What do you mean by tha-" Catia was cut off by the sound of Cerise winning the jackpot over on his end of the Game Corner, the loud noises and sounds waking Fox from her slumber and making her shiver and mew in fright.  Catia gently strokes her fur and coos to calm her down, the fire fox only snuggling deeper into Catia's chest and flattening its ears.  She turns to Loka.  "I think I'll just leave now before she gets scared anymore than she already is.  I'm going to go back to the tree and relax for a while.  See you at the Pokemon center later okay?"  She tells her before leaving the Game Corner and going back to where everything seemed to be eventful but peaceful.  Upon reaching the tree where she met Wes and Loka, she sat down next to the gnarled roots of the big tree and pulled out the bottle of food for Fox and filled the bottle with some water from her own water bottle.  She sighs in relaxation as she feeds Fox the liquid food from the bottle, unsure of how she'd react.

Loka wanted to tell Catia what she meant, but Cerise's jackpot and Fox waking up distracted the other girl. As Catia walked out, Loka simply nodded and sighed again.

"See ya then, I guess..."


Fox sniffed the lip of the bottle for a few seconds before sticking her tongue out at the bottle. She tasted the food and looked at Catia, then began to drink the liquid mixture quite hungrily. As she drank, she she purred softly, content. 

After the little vulpine pokemon was full, she climbed out of Catia's arms and began wandering around, but never too far from the girl. After a bit it sniffed at her trainer;s backpack, and began gnawing on the edge of the journal Wes had given her.

Catia giggled and pulled out the journal from her backpack before gently picking Fox up and setting her down in her lap. "You can't eat this silly. But I did want to read a little bit more of this thing." She tells her, petting Fox softly. Opening the journal again, Catia begins to read the journal.

(OOC: Got a 4 this time.)

Wrinkling his forehead in disdain once his nose picked up the strange scents and ears the curious sounds, Decoda continued onward.  He slowly entered a sneaking stance to try and mute the creaks of his steps.  It didn't exactly help.

'Now I know for sure this isn't a normal mob.  It has to deal with the rouge teams, I'm positive', he thought strongly, a little nervous now.

The teen didn't want to at first, but finally decided he should look into these rooms.  Mudkip huffed confidently in his arms, preparing for its trainer to enter the first room available.  He carefully peeked his head around the open doorway, letting only the top half of his head (up to his eyes).  He scanned the room carefully.

Fox climber up into her lap as Catia opened to a random page in the journal and began to read;

Finally got on the boat back to Hoenn. People stare a lot... Guess it's because I've chosen to dawn a similar look to my trusted Houndoom. These's a lot of water. I never really like the ocean, but hey; gotta get home somehow. Also, I forgot that the port was in Mauville... I can see the workers on the docks as we approach; My dad is among them... I really hope he doesn't see me; he isn't exactly the... most forgiving of me right now.

------

Ok, so thankfully he didn't see me. I rented a Gogoat and made my way to Foretree, so see if maybe Wes had returned home. It doesn't look like he's been home since we blew up CIPHER. Now gonna head to Lavaridge. It's gonna be a long walk, seeing as the Gogoats don't have a route to get there, at least not yet.



Decoda looked into the first room; It was mostly empty except for a long table, some overturned chairs, and a Super Potion laying to the table. Old, faded papers lay scattered across the floor, too damaged to read. There were also some old books laying here and there. The sound could be heard again, but it didn't seem like it was coming from this room.

Mudkip and Decoda sighed in relief at the same instance.  Good thing no one was here, but the noise was still active.  Feeling no guilt whatsoever, Decoda entered completely and snatched up the Super Potion, shoving it into his pocket.

'Handy', he thought with a light smile.

Though the idea that a Super Potion of all things - something notably used to heal injured Pokemon after a fight - was on the table next to older looking furniture, books and papers, told him that there was clearly someone or something lurking here long after this place had already served its purpose.  He left this room, a creeping chill forcing the hairs on the back of his head and neck to stand up.  He then tried the next room in line, peering in the same as before.

Decoda walked across the hall to the right a bit to get to the next room. This room seemed to be an old break room. A dusty sofa sat against one wall, while there was an old, dirty kitchen area. A scorched pool table sat in the middle, a pool stick snapped in half and some of the balls cracked. The felt on the table was peeling, and the wood was rotting. It gave off a musty smell. There din't seem to be any useful items laying around.

Catia smiles and pets Fox's head after reading the page in the journal. Of course, now that the journal was involving Wes, she had to continue reading so long as she was alone. She flips the pages and searches for another page to read.

(OOC: I got a 10 this time for the journal.)