QUEST 001: Cable Troubles [Ryusuke]

the things that you might like don't grow inside of me

To be completely honest with himself? Ryusuke wasn't entirely sure how he had ended up in Lacaille.

Eridani City had been an easy enough one to explain as the closest port facing Hoenn. Nothing overly complicated or unusual about that, but Ryusuke had noticed rather quickly after making landfall that Stellara was one of the larger regions he could've traveled to. Ryusuke had seen maps of Kanto and Johto for an idea of how large other regions were, he had family out there so it wasn't that out of place to look at. And Hoenn? He'd traveled over most of that, but Stellara very easily rivaled the tropical region for sheer size. Close enough that he'd never reach any of the other cities in a reasonable amount of time without transport, and there were enough cities that it was no easy matter picking where to start or why. Ryusuke simply didn't know Stellara like he did Hoenn, and he didn't have time to learn about each and every city before visiting them.

So, he'd done what his mother and father supposedly had when visiting new regions. Hop a bus, see where it went.

Maybe not the best idea in hindsight.

Still, there were worse places that he and Treecko could've ended up. Lacaille was surprisingly clean as far as cities went, actually closer to Verdanturf for air quality, and if they had to be stranded anywhere it was as good a place as any. The Pokemon Center had put them up for the night, and now it was just a matter of making back the money they'd spent getting there. Battling trainers might've been the funner option for prize money, but at the same time Ryusuke didn't like the idea of being stuck in any one place for too long. Thankfully there were enough job postings in the Center that they had plenty of options.

Treecko clinging to Ryusuke's shoulder, the trainer finally reached the rooftop doorway of the place they were supposed to be meeting the other trainer on this job. Opening the door, Ryusuke's first thought as a blast of wind hit was that he was glad to be wearing his usual black travel clothes and more notably the crimson coat over them to act as a wind breaker of sorts.

"Mr. Harlan..?" Ryusuke called out, voice slightly raised against the wind and gloved hand doing what it could to keep his hair from blowing back into his face. At first glance the only other individual present wasn't the man who'd posted the job opening at all, but rather a far younger individual. Still older than Ryusuke himself at a glance, but that wasn't saying much given his rather short stature.

"You here for the job, too?" Ryusuke called out, stepping away from the door and Treecko squirming under his coat to avoid the wind, head eventually popping back out to observe the other trainer from over Ryusuke's shoulder.

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the things that you might like don't grow inside of me

That... really wasn't what Ryusuke had bargained for when he'd taken the job, and both he and Treecko simply blinked as the older trainer pulled the note they'd spoken of from their pocket. Ryusuke hadn't spent much time in what most might've called a workforce, sure, but he knew enough to know that you generally tried to be specific when you left a job for someone else. Details were important, especially if you wanted something done right but didn't have the time to do it yourself. All the more so when a job like this came along.

"Hold on, he didn't say at all?" Ryusuke responded, expression still one of surprise as he moved to the edge of the building, gaze following the cables to where they disappeared over the edge. A few of the resident Pidove shifted in response to the intrusion, beady little eyes following the trainer as he approached, but none of them actually took off as Treecko stared right back. At a glance, though, Ryusuke didn't know what else to look for - they were the only other Pokemon up here. At the same time, though, they weren't really near the cables, either, nor did they look like they'd disturbed what was up there on the roof.

As easy at it would've been to simply scare off every Pokemon they could find near the cables, something told Ryusuke it wasn't going to be that simple. Assuming that he was even up for it in the first place, too. One thing that had been drilled into him growing up? If you didn't need to, don't disturb something that belongs where it is. More often than not that was just asking for additional problems, and it could quickly become as case of "if it isn't broken, don't fix it". As the other trainer introduced themselves, however, the blond's attention was pulled back to his immediate surroundings and the rooftop itself.

"Uh- yeah. Ryusuke. You're not? Last time I saw Minun was back around Slateport, they don't really show up anywhere else last I'd checked." Ryusuke responded, his eyes settling on the Electric type sitting on Senri's shoulder and seemingly much more comfortable with the cold and wind than Treecko was.

"Is that the plan, then? It shouldn't take too long if we check in with the receptionist's desk up front. Might be a bit of a climb but it's quicker than searching the building, and it's not like we've got all day to guess which Pokemon should and shouldn't be near the power lines." Ryusuke responded, trying to rationalize the best course of action. Honestly, he did want to get paid so he could move onto the next city when he felt like it, but at the same time he didn't want to spend the entire day doing this. If he had that kind of time he may as well have been battling other trainers for chump change and prize money. it would've taken about as long, and at least Treecko would've gotten a bit more practice in on top of a work out.

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the things that you might like don't grow inside of me

In a rush or not, that didn't change the fact that it was hardly a fair situation for those being hired, namely them. Eyes still on the Pidove himself, Ryusuke was well aware of the immediate options present. First and the safest? Follow all of the power lines and try to figure out which Pokemon were responsible for the problem. Not the greatest solution in that it was likely to take all day, and they'd need to keep at it even after scaring off what looked like the problem just in case it wasn't or there were other Pokemon involved that they hadn't found yet. Not a great plan, especially since it had the potential of scaring off more beneficial Pokemon and those that might have done nothing wrong, nevermind the safety risks that came from messing with the power lines without knowing what they were doing. Ryusuke himself had a couple of metal limbs - not that either Senri or their employer knew - and there were a number of ways for that to go very wrong very quickly.

And that was just the best option.

Senri's comments about Sinnoh and his own place of origin were largely missed by Ryusuke as the blond became more focused on their options and potential fixes for the problem at hand, although the more he thought the less he liked what he was able to come up with. There was a vague acknowledgement at the back of the trainer's mind that Senri seemed to like the idea of going down to the receptionist's desk to find the guy who'd hired them and deal with the problem at its source, but that was cut short by a sudden shift in the older trainer's attention. His own gaze shifting away from the Flying types at the edge of the roof to find the disturbance, Ryusuke paused as he saw the Minun down on the roof itself, ear to the cold surface. Something had definitely gotten its attention, although what it was the blond could only begin to guess. There were a lot of things on the floors below them, all making what was probably a great deal of noise for a Pokemon with such sensitive hearing. Senri seemed to have at least the same, vague understanding that Ryusuke himself often got from Treecko, though, although the words spoken weren't ones he particularly liked.

"Hold a second, 'under' the roof? That's not going to be easy to reach." Ryusuke said, stepping back towards the Minun and kneeling down to get a different view of the rooftop around them. All fairly solid looking, and even as Treecko hopped down onto the surface and began wandering on his own it wasn't something Ryusuke could see them poking through without causing a lot of damage.

"I don't disagree but that's not going to be easy to deal with if you're right. If there are Pokemon in the building's walls and ceilings they could've gotten in anywhere, we could spend days trying to figure out how they got in and that'd just be the start."

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the things that you might like don't grow inside of me

"I guess?" Ryusuke responded, doing the best he could to hide a dubious expression from the other trainer. At best that sounded an awful lot like what Ryusuke had heard in school when the other students didn't want to do something. Find a technicality, say they did the job and get passing marks albeit often at the ire of the teacher in question. More often than not, though, it just created more trouble than it was worth. Yes, Senri was right in that they weren't equipped to handle a job as big as this was turning out to be - it was something you hired professionals for, not a couple of passing trainers. If there was an infestation you not only needed to clear it out but plug up the hole they entered through, otherwise the Pokemon in question would just find their way back into the building and set up shop again. And if there was an infestation chances were that there wasn't much the two of them could do about it. Treecko could handle himself just fine in one on one fights but Froakie was brand new. As for Charmander... setting fires inside the building's walls didn't seem like a particularly good idea, even if Froakie was on hand to put them out.

Frankly speaking it didn't feel like there were any good options here. Ryusuke didn't like the idea of leaving a job half finished, but at the same time Senri's plan made a lot of sense and banked on what happened if it was too big a job for the two of them. Their employer probably wasn't going to be happy but it wasn't like Ryusuke didn't have other ways to acquire money for traveling... just options that didn't appeal to him or would take far longer.

At that moment Senri's own Pokemon would call out to its trainer, though, drawing the attention of everyone on the roof. Moving to follow Senri over to his partner, a quick glance off to the side would confirm that Treecko was also making his way across the roof towards the Electric type. Right next to the Minun was a crack in the roof's concrete edge, big enough for a small Pokemon to easily squeeze into. Something that only further strengthened Ryusuke's misgivings about the whole problem - if something happened to their Pokemon in there it wouldn't be easy for their trainers to reach them, and the hole was small. Even if Ryusuke wanted to there was no chance that Charmander would fit in with his comparatively bulky frame.

"Better than anything I can think of, at least. I've got at least two Pokemon I can send in, though. Considering that we don't know how big the problem is it's probably a good idea to send in a team, not just one or two on their own." Ryusuke replied, eying the hole with no small degree of apprehension. What Senri did in that regard was his own choice - as far as Ryusuke went, though, the blond would step back and pull a single Pokeball from his belt, popping the capsule open with a button press. A moment later a small blue amphibian would solidify on the roof next to Treecko. While the Wood Gecko would only give a glance of acknowledgement before stepping towards his trainer, the look from the Froakie was clearly one of annoyance - fair fight or not, the Water type was still sore over their initial battle and his rather quick loss to the Grass Pokemon.

"Don't take chances if you don't have to. Problem's too big, you get out of there. Pretty sure you've been listening and already know the rest. Froakie, follow his lead. Don't get separated." Ryusuke said, kneeling down as close as he could to Treecko and Froakie's eye level. Not, however, just for show. As he did so the blond was fishing around in his pocket for something, a moment later pulling out his PokeNav which was then handed to the Wood Gecko. After doing so, Ryusuke then turned his attention back to Senri.

"Do you have a Nav? PokeGear? Anything along those lines? Most PokeNav have a GPS system in them, this way we should be able to keep track of them if we have to."

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the things that you might like don't grow inside of me

Oh, Ryusuke knew exactly what Senri meant by that. Truth be told the idea of a cramped space didn't bother the trainer in the traditional sense - Treecko as a whole had pretty much be born to fight in such environments, with Grovyle having a reputation for being nigh uncatchable if it managed to get into densely wooded areas with spaces too small to directly follow. The idea of combat in such locations didn't overly concern him at all under normal circumstances. That said, the statement applied to Treecko on his own. A potentially bigger problem, though, was the Minun. Electric type moves generally didn't play nice. They were prone to doing odd things depending on the types of material around the user and the conductivity of said material, and more often than not you couldn't aim them properly. Such moves didn't discriminate, and in a closed space they were liable to hit everyone, ally or foe.

"Yeah. Got lucky right off the docks, found him in Eridani." Ryusuke replied, standing up and glancing up to Senri as he commented on the Water type. That... was potentially problem number two. Treecko was most definitely a Pokemon that Ryusuke trusted to get jobs done, trusted as much as he trusted himself. There had never been an occasion where the Grass type had let him down, and he could trust the Wood Gecko to be rational when it counted. Froakie... was a different story entirely. Rash and impulsive if their first meeting was anything to go by, the frog still seemed to hold a grudge against Treecko for that fight and if the Minun used a dangerous move he'd be the one hit the hardest. Given the Pokemon's ego, though, that could go one of two ways. Either the Pokemon would do his best to get the assigned job done in an attempt to impress and show up Treecko... or he'd go full on Leeroy Jenkins... in an attempt to impress and show up Treecko. More than anything Ryusuke was hoping on and banking on the former.

Not that he was going to say anything about that. If it became a problem Treecko would handle it, and this guy seemed to trust his Minun in the same way. Enough that Ryusuke wasn't expecting complications on that front, at least.

"And yeah, that'll do just fine." Ryusuke replied, eyes snapping to the PokeGear as Senri pulled the device out. It was well used and a bit clunkier than the electronic made my Devon - most Silph products tended to be with an emphasis on rugged design over functionality - but it would do. Briefly taking the offered device from Senri, the blond would spend a few seconds learning the menus before manually entering his own device's information and switching over to the map screen. With both electronics so close to one another it was hard to tell which was which, but Ryusuke was hoping that would change in a few minutes. Handing the device back to its original owner, Ryusuke started moving over to sit beside the door leading to the floor below.

This was Treecko and Froakie's show now.

With Froakie still glowering and Treecko's attention firmly on the Minun, both Pokemon moved to follow the third party member as it gave out a cry and moved to enter the hole. While it jumped down, though, both of Ryusuke's Pokemon would take a calmer and more methodical approach as their adhesive finger pads allowed them to casually crawl down the inner walls opposite one another, neither opting to touch the much filthier "floor" beneath them. As Minun repeatedly kept glancing back to check it would find both Froakie and Treecko just behind it, neither attempting to pass the Electric type or otherwise risk crowding it - Treecko more out of respect, however, while Froakie was simply far more wary of the possibility of pissing off a Pokemon well suited to fighting him. The growing stench of rot, however, didn't go unnoticed by either the Grass or Water type, either. With the Minun nearly toppling over a blind drop ahead, however, Treecko nearly jumped down to help pull the other Hoenn Pokemon back up before seeing that Hikaru had it handled. Finally crawling up to be corner to corner with Senri's partner, the Wood Gecko would halt there, peering down into the black. Several more seconds would pass before Froakie was the first to finally act.

("Wimps.") Bounding past Hikaru's left side, the Water type would practically jump head first into the black pit, grabbing the sides to slow his descent before finally reaching the bottom - not long after Treecko would follow him, albeit taking a far more controlled approach and merely climbing down. While somewhat irritated by the Wood Gecko's apparent babysitting, Froakie was more concerned by the intensity of the smell from before. It was nearly unbearable at the bottom of the shaft, the sickly sweet and sour smell of something rotting so strong that it made the Pokemon's eyes water. While Treecko seemed largely unaffected bar mild discomfort, however, his reaction was one of tension. It was something he'd smelled before, back in Hoenn, and while it'd been almost a year since then....

("Nope.") The instant the Grass type saw something moving in the darkness ahead of him Treecko did the only immediately reasonable thing that came to mind, jumping high to grip the wall behind him and scrambling back up towards Hikaru at a speed most wouldn't think possible for a Pokemon his size. Froakie, seeing that as a victory, initially stayed to fire a blast of frothy Bubble into the shifting mass - confidence that quickly disappeared when a sticky dark liquid that smelled strongly of rot barely missed him to splash across the wall Treecko had just gone up. Finally taking a cue from his elder, both Pokemon would scramble up and over the edge where Hikaru was waiting before continuing past the Pokemon and right back the way they came. Were Hikaru not to pick up on the hint the strong smell from before would practically overflow from the shaft, accompanied by the growing sound of gurgling as the creature at the bottom began to follow those who had disturbed it.

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the things that you might like don't grow inside of me

Rolling his neck a bit to work out the stiffness from more or less sitting against a concrete surface, Ryusuke didn't have much of a reply for Senri. Given that he'd grown up in Lilycove - a very similar city to Eridani - the blond hadn't been at all surprised by the number of Pokemon present. If anything Ryusuke had a feeling that he'd likely passed more than just the ones he'd seen. Wingull were always going to be present at port cities whenever they were present in a region, and the water was almost always going to be teeming with Tentacool and Magikarp. Beyond that, though, most Pokemon were surprisingly hardy and adaptable, a fact that frankly made Team Aqua's tagline a relatively ridiculous one. No better or worse than Magma's, but anyone who'd lived in a city was going to be well aware that it wasn't a barren concrete jungle. Pokemon tended to be nearly as prolific as people were in such environments, if not more so in the case of certain Pokemon like Pidgey and Pidove.

Really, it was something that made the question of exactly what they were looking for in this building's walls a largely academic one. If it was a space that provided shelter and comfort it was all but inevitable that something was going to move in. The answer to that, though, was one soon answered only a handful of minutes later as Treecko and Froakie both came scrambling out of the hole, both clearly nervous as they took defensive stances a handful of meters away from the opening and facing it. Following both of Ryusuke's Pokemon was Senri's Minun, though, along with a disturbingly familiar smell.

".... oh. Oh, that's not good." Ryusuke muttered, mostly as a thought spoken aloud to himself than anything worth replying to. He remembered the smell that followed the three Pokemon up quite well, and as the blond stood up from where he'd been sitting a mass of purple sludge would erupt from the small hole that their companions had evacuated from. Under normal circumstances it was something that the three of them should've been able to handle alone well enough, but as Froakie let loose a condensed stream of froth to blast the emerging Grimer it didn't slow it down at all. Quite the opposite, in fact, as sludge continued to pour forth from the hole to finally congeal into a mass nearly the size of its evolved form - it took nearly ten seconds for Ryusuke to register that it was not in fact a Muk. Given the Pokemon's sheer size, though, it wasn't something to be taken lightly and there was a bad feeling forming in the pit of the trainer's stomach that had nothing to do with the smell the Grimer was giving off. Hand momentarily dropping to Charmander's Pokeball, Ryusuke was tempted to try and add an additional bit of firepower to the mix before remembering that all the Fire type brought to the table would involved getting it too close for the Minun to safely attack.

Not a good match up.

With Froakie's Bubble seeming to do little more than piss the Grimer off, the Pokemon now practically quivering with rage, Treecko would take half a step forward before throwing something at the larger Pokemon. Flying from his hand to land on Grimer's gelatinous surface, the seed began to slowly sink in before vines suddenly burst forth and began to crawl over the Poison type's body, embedding themselves in the sludge and forming a cage around it. Hopefully enough to impede the Pokemon's movement, but if not it would at least wear it down over time.

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the things that you might like don't grow inside of me

"Guessing you've only seen Grimer in books? Hard to really describe the smell unless you've seen one in person." Ryusuke said, his own nose wrinkling in response to the offensive stench the Poison type gave off while throwing a sidewards glance to Senri. His reaction was very much the same one that the blond first had when he'd encountered them trying to find a way around the desert that occupied much of Hoenn's central landmass. Thankfully they weren't exactly fast, though, and while they generally had good aim and the possibility of Poison Gas was definitely something to consider it wasn't all that difficult to outrun them. In fact that was exactly what Ryusuke would've suggested right now were their job not to deal with the thing - unfortunately, however, things were a bit more complicated. What did he remember about them aside from that? Slow, Poison type, abilities were either Stench, Sticky Hold or Poison Touch if they were really unlucky. It wasn't something you could figure out at a glance, though, and that was the entire reason he'd avoided using Charmander. Relatively resistant to special attacks, though, which was one of the things that made dealing with them problematic. Either wear them down through attrition which was a losing battle when poison was a factor, or try and go for the physical blows that they couldn't take as well and risk getting poisoned by their ability. Neither option was a particularly good one, and the latter got even worse if they had Acid Armor.

His earlier question to Senri only was given more ground to stand on as the trainer ordered his Pokemon to use Spark, however, not only earning the young man a look from his Minun but a dubious glance from Ryusuke as well.

"Yeah, probably not the best idea. Three potential abilities but this gets ugly fast if it has Poison Touch. If we can we should keep the fight at a safe distance." Ryusuke continued, although as he looked back at the Grimer there were other thoughts coming to mind. Where the hell had this thing come from in the first place? Given Lacaille's eco-friendly laws there shouldn't have been nearly enough waste for a Grimer to form, nevermind one this big. The only reason they formed at all in Hoenn was because of the toxic fumes that the volcanic activity pushed to the surface, and at least there they had a purpose and made Fiery Tunnel safe enough for trainers to traverse by absorbing toxins out of the air, almost like natural filters. But here? Frankly it didn't make any sense.

With Senri's next order to Minun, however, both Froakie and Treecko would immediately move to put distance between themselves and their temporary team mate. Thankfully Froakie's earlier Bubble attacks only helped in that regard, the wet surfaces around the Grimer and the suds covering its body drawing in the excess electricity as a grounding point. That, however, only served to make the thing even angrier. Struggling and tearing at the thick vines impeding its movement, a few would be torn free only for the plant covering the living sludge to grow even more tendrils, all of which were slowly draining energy and giving it to Treecko. With Senri giving the same order again, however, the Grimer would pause for the briefest of moments to glare the Minun down, using Disable to preemptively cancel Hikaru's next use of Discharge. Surging against its bonds again, Grimer would cough up another mass of Sludge, the vile liquid spraying over the rooftop. Standing his ground, Froakie would blast the toxic liquid back with another use of Bubble while Treecko merely fell back with several hops, watchful eyes observing the feral Pokemon and watching for any potential openings as Leech Seed did its work.

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