indigo_league | Cara Liss' Wild Ride Continues....

Cara Liss' Wild Ride Continues....

After a month of hard work finding the missing parts to Cara Liss' wrecked machine... and helping her assemble said machine... and feeding her and keeping her sheltered, plus the whole lot of you... while assisting the Ginkgo Guild in all of their various missions out of gratitude, guilt, and/or the goodness of your hearts... all without getting murked by a Murkrow and becoming the first transplant ever to actually die that anyone knows of.... uh, where was this going again?

Oh, right! After a month of work! The machine is (mostly) intact and everything is (almost) in place for Cara Liss to fire that sucker up and ~~go further into the past~~ take everyone home!

Mostly. Almost.

Some parts are still missing.

But! As a result of all that hard work and re-inventing showers and surviving without even any real coffee... everyone is much better at roughing it, including the part where Pokemon partners have grown stronger alongside their new human friends! Heartwarming, really. Hopefully that warm heart will keep you plenty cosy, because Ginter and his crew have a chilling proposition for you.

It seems (he says, sounding very weary indeed) that the last four parts have been sighted in the Alabaster Icelands. He (and everyone else, frankly) had been hoping to avoid the risks, but the fastest way to get ahold of those parts and get you home is to send the lot of you out to search.

The final mission.

Semi-final mission. Cara Liss butts in to correct him.

She intends to take her machine to the Temple of Arceus in the Coronet Highlands in order to activate it. That’s the actual final mission.

Okay. So. Semi-final mission. Three parts. One massive tundra.

A whole lot of time travellers.

Get to it!

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Remember: no one character or group of characters is going to save the day here. Coordination and teamwork are key, but solo action is still contribution, and will be counted.

So think of what strategies or skills your character might offer, however useful... or useless! Feel free to get up to hijinks if you want. This is for FUN, folks.

Get creative--or don't, there's no wrong answers!

The first part is in the mountain territory of a ferocious Alpha Garchomp. The massive Dragon has inexplicably taken to guarding this twisted hunk of circuitry, and is not interested in playing swapsies.

You must engage in battle to retrieve this part!

Riz doesn't have the best pokemon for this battle, but also, he wants to fight.

He'll be showing up with a Hisui Voltorb and a Hisui Sneasel. He'll have two different strategies for battling, depending on if he is fighting alone at the moment, or if he's got back-up.

strategy #1

It needs to be mentioned that Hisui Voltorb can barely do anything against Garchomp. Unfortunately, the big brute is immune to electric attacks. So, he'll be depending on Loggy's Tackle and Energy Ball to do some damage and lower Garchomp's special defence. Once Loggy runs out of ~~spellslots~~ PP, or if it gets low in HP, he'll recall him and switch to Hisui Sneasel.

He'll have Ezka use Sword's Dance to up her attack, and then Rock Smash to deal damage and hopefully be able to lower Garchomp's defence. Once she runs out of that, it's onto Quick Attack and Slash. Unfortunately, Hisui Sneasel is weak to ground moves, and Garchomp has several of those. Once Ezka's HP is dropping, Riz will have her use Sword's Dance once more (unless her attack is still boosted) and then use Close Combat to deal a lot of damage. This also lowers his Sneasel's defence, which is why he'll use it as a last resort until she goes down.

Once Sneasel is down, he'll bring his Voltorb back out and have him deal some final big damage with Self Destruct. And then he's gonna fucking motor on out there.

Strategy #2

This is the strategy he'll employ if he is fighting alongside someone. As mentioned, Riz's pokemon don't have super effective moves against Garchomp. So if he is fighting with someone who can really deal damage to Garchomp, he'll try and become the meat shield to his best abilities.

He'll have both his pokemon use their best moves to try and keep Garchomp's attention on them. And not just that, he'll instruct them to attack in the most showy way possible, so they'll draw any attacks their way. Both Hisui Voltorb and Hisui Sneasel are quicker pokemon than Garchomp, so hopefully, they'll be able to dodge some of its hard-hitting moves, while another pokemon can sneak-attack it from behind.

He'll throw rocks at Garchomp himself if he has to! Though he hopes not cause that thing looks like it can eat him.

Shrike's pokemon isn't the best-suited for this fight, however, the kid has something else he can contribute: strategy. Assuming whoever else is participating is willing to listen to the weird, shy kid with a hood obscuring his face, there's two possible strategies he'd propose:

1. If the group has at least one pokemon capable of status effect moves, particularly any that can immobilize the opponent, this is what the fight would revolve around. Basically, keeping the Grachomp pinned down as much as possible by spamming those attacks as needed, and using the other fighter(s) to help keep it distracted so it doesn't attack the one doing it.

The second part of this would be using attacks that inflict damage over time; if it's possible to stack them from multiple sources, even better. This is to ensure that if any fighter needs to take a break and heal, that damage will still getting inflicted.

The third and final part is that the attacker(s) would hit that alpha with everything they've got. This should help contribute to the bit in the first part of the plan of preventing the Garchomp from attacking the 'mon that's keeping it asleep/stunned/whatever, while the fact that it's being immobilized will allow the attackers more leeway to dodge and retreat as needed.

2. If the group does not have any pokemon capable of using status moves, then Shrike would propose plan B. A rotation would be established of the available pokemon as to which should be trying to draw the Garchomp's attention at what time. Ideally, there'd be at least three, but it could work with as few as two. The idea being that they will each take turns drawing aggro, provoking the Garchomp to attack or even give chase, and allowing the others time to attack or recover as needed.

Once this cycle is established, the fight basically goes the same as in the first plan, just with much less margin for error as nothing's slowing the Garchomp down. As such, Shrike would recommend spacing the various 'mons out as much as they can while still doing damage, so that the Garchomp is forced to actually move a bit when changing targets. This is the more coordination-heavy strategy but doesn't have any specific requirements for movesets.

Regardless of what ends up being done, Shrike will help as much as possible with his Hisui Samurott. Its attacks will be strictly neutral against Garchomp, but with Swords Dance as well as moves with high critical chance or the ability to inflict a continued damaging effect, there's still a good amount of raw power to be brought to bear.

Perhaps luckily, Bucciarati has at least one Pokemon that's actually pretty good for this fight!

... But it's a Togepi. Oh, well. You work with what you have, right? It's not the only Pokemon he's bringing along, obviously, but he'll be leading with the Togepi.

Ideally, he'll be working with others, but his strategy will remain more or less the same either way. Melograno opening up with Yawn to put the Garchomp to sleep, before starting in on alternating between Charm to lower the alpha Pokemon's attack and Calm Mind to boost the Togepi's special attack and defense. Yawn will be used again when necessary... because when Melograno's special attack is at its peak, the Togepi will be unleashing as many Moonblasts as he can fire off. And when he runs out of Moonblast, Fairy Wind. Melograno will keep using Yawn until that runs out of PP, then he'll swap over to... Lovely Kiss. Confusion time! He also will use Life Dew to keep his own and allies' HP up.

Once the Togepi is close to fainting, though, Bucciarati will order a Baton Pass, to switch Melograno with his Hisuian Lilligant, Angelica. Not quite as effective as the Togepi, but Grass-type and Fighting-type moves at least hit for neutral damage. The Lilligant will open with a Victory Dance. She'll also throw in a Leech Seed at the start, just to ensure a steady drain of HP. From there, a Sunny Day to increase her own speed. There will be copious use of Sleep Powder to make sure the Garchomp is incapacitated as often as possible. As far as offense goes, Angelica will be relying on Leaf Blade, Rock Smash, and Magical Leaf primarily, but she'll be using Drain Punch, Giga Drain, and Mega Drain if her HP gets low. She'll refresh Sunny Day as needed (especially since it'll boost Synthesis, which Bucciarati will also be having her use when necessary), and if she runs out of PP on Sleep Powder, she will swap over to Stun Spore.

Hopefully, with the help of others, that'll be enough to defeat the Alpha Garchomp!

(He does have a Hisuian Typhlosion as well that he will have with him, but if Bucciarati's forced to use Zenzero, it'll mostly be for keeping attention off of better attackers.)

Togepi is actually perfect because that was Shrike's Johto starter! So he's quite familiar with its moveset and how to take advantage of those status moves. :)

Excellent! Bucciarati will be happy to listen to Shrike for strategy guidance!

Fuck it, Kimmuriel's had enough sneaking around. Let's do some fighting, he wants to see (metaphorical) blood. He's got three Pokemon and he's a team player so here we go.

His Glalie will be supporting Bucciarati's Melograno (and later, Angelica) by pelting the Garchomp with every ice attack possible. Kimmuriel will instruct her to circle around in order to keep hitting it from a different angle than Bucciarati's Pokemon would. Many of Glalie's attacks have a chance of freezing or flinching an opponent so hopefully some of them will actually immobilize the Garchomp for a bit so everyone else can pile on more damage and/or more status effects as necessary.

For his other two, Gliscor and Sneasel, he'll instruct them to coordinate their attacks with Riz and Shrike's Pokemon, alternating on and off and moving into spots that the Garchomp hasn't covered. They don't have moves that can really do a lot of damage to this Pokemon, but they've been trained to hit and run and by god they will do that until they have to withdraw.

Hermione has been working hard training her pokemon, so she's confident in their abilities, and feels that she and her pokemon can provide decent support to other trainers for this fight.

Her strategy is based around a group of trainers working together to take this thing out, so Dio, her Overqwil, is kicking it off by spraying spikes around the Garchomp in the hope it'll step on them when distracted during a fight. Dio is then going to be hitting the Garchop with Barb Barrage in an attempt to poison it. Once its (hopefully) poisoned, Dio will switch between Water Pulse and Dark Pulse for chip damage. She'll be watching carefully for ground moves coming her way, which she's weak to, and hopefully either dodging or blocking them in time with her own moves.

In the meantime, Veronice the Sliggoo will start by aiming an Acid Spray at the Garchomp to lower its special defense, then immediately switch to Acid Armor and Shelter to increase her defense, particularly since the two dragons can do some serious damage to each other. Once she's got her defense in place, Veronice will be going for some super effective Dragon Pulse attacks, and more Shelter moves if the Garchop starts targeting her more.

Finally, Lutrine, Hermione's Floatzel, will be going in full charge with Swift attacks to ensure that her attacks will never miss. She's fast too, so she'll have more success dodging the Garchomp's attacks while still firing off her own.

All of Hermione's pokemon are aiming to deal ranged attacks - they don't want to get too close to that behemoth!

A Pearl Clan scout suspects she saw one of the missing parts deep in the underground caverns of ice. Unfortunately, those caverns are a frosty, slip-slidey labyrinth. One inhabited by Bergmite, various stray ghosts... and a pack of Zoroark!

The Zoroark don't appear to care much about the part, but they do not welcome intruders.... how you approach this one is up to you. Maybe you can fight them, maybe you can sneak past then. Maybe you can convince one or two of them that all you want is the part?

I think Astrid would try and be somewhat stealthy about this, and step away to catch a Zorua before approaching the pack of Zoroark. Hopefully one of their own kind - well, a kid - would be able to slink past and grab the part without suspicion.

There is absolutely space here for a group effort; perhaps with distracting or battling some of the pack, or trying to negotiate. The sneaky approach would be her contribution!

Mayhaps Riku's Zoroark can help, too. A duo of Zorua and Zoroark might seem more convincing and less threatening, as Riku's idea was to have his 'mon try and mediate and communicate on behalf of any trainers around.

Riku, having trained his starter Zorua to a Zoroark, feels this is a good opportunity to put that training to the test. He'll send his Zoroark in first in hopes that he can communicate with the wild pack and explain the situation- that they just want to take the part and go.

Vierna's not going after the part directly - she figures that dividing the pack's attention will make it easier for others to stealth in and find it, so she and her Samurott are going to be harrying the Zoroark pack to draw their attention away from anyone taking the sneaky route.

~~crashes in rapidly after running home from the plane-~~

So...GHOSTS. As we know, Ghosts Dig Emporio. Who knows how much that applies here. I'm sure they're at least liable to squint in his direction, at this strange spooky child who has long since attained his destined revenge, before nodding in quiet approval.

As it is Emporio isn't one to exactly RELY on that advantage, but he also knows that Zoroark?? Biiiiig dog-type mons. They have strong sniffers! So he's going to sloooooowly approach, and make sure he doesn't look like a threat, but that he doesn't look like an easy mark either. He's not enemy, but he's not food either! He doesn't really have a zoroark/zorua of his own to play communication here after all.

Great news for...everyone else being sneaky? This is probably a pretty good distraction. Even if it'll probably end in someone (he is someone) getting kidnapped by large spooky foxes.

REMEMBER HIM FONDLY EVERYONE.................

More seriously- and to the point- the hope is that while everyone's contributions of fellow pokemon help ease the situation, we can at least have someone who can better make use of communication channels to get close and give everyone a good judgement call. If everyone can come on over and make a trade for that part in the end, it works out great right?

Edited (it ate my bottom bit u-u) 2022-08-02 23:34 (UTC)

Aymeric has a "phobia" of Zorua and Zoroark so of course this is where he'll end up. He's got his own little Zorua behind him, decked lavishly with pilfered bits from around the camp and Aymeric's own tent. Nothing inherently valuable, mostly just tossed out pieces of metal and things that glitter.

He's going to attempt to negotiate, offering some of the Zorua's lavish "jewelry" for the part. Even Zorua seems to be going along with it. Kind of. She's a little remiss about giving up some of her shinies but Aymeric promised her even more goodies back home. And sweets. She does like sweets.

Well.

This one is weird.

There's a regular old Blissey running around with one of the parts. She doesn't seem hostile. In fact, trying to battle her makes her run away immediately. So, that strategy is out.

I mean, theoretically, everyone COULD just mob her and beat her up for it, but... wow. No. Don't do that. Try something else.

Doppio and his lone, still-unevolved Happiny aren't going to be of any help in battle... but a Blissey? Perhaps that's what they're best equipped to deal with.

Doppio's idea is to ~~hope the Blissey takes pity on a couple of helpless pink kids~~ approach with no harmful intent and ask nicely. That's it. If anybody wants to piggyback off of this, feel free!

So! Minfilia! While she does not have her Blessing nor Echo, she STILL has a way with Pokemon due to her being able to use skills which were only amplified by the Echo. So. After making sure she's nice and warm, and with her Machoke standing by to prevent people from fighting - Minfilia will offer Blissey a gift. After Doppio has asked nicely.

An Oval Stone. (She likely brought this AFTER learning that there was a Blissey who had a part. Using most of the money she earned over this month...) She hopes that the gift is enough to help, at least, allow the Blissey to hand over the part.

In other words.

Armin is going to try and appeal to Blissey's kind nature. It is a pokemon who likes healing others, right? Then, perhaps it will be willing to trade the part for medicine.

So, first things first, Armin is going to go all around camp and talk to as many people as he can to ask them for any medicine they would be willing to part with/see if they are willing to help collect some more. He'll also spend any money he still has left over buying Jubilife Muffins (the cheapest, and therefore, financially best investment). All the gathered medicine will be put aside into a big basket for carrying.

A second thing he'll try to do (though he might not be succesful at this) is find someone in camp who has a psychic pokemon. Hopefully they'll be willing to help out. What Armin hopes is that the psychic pokemon will be able to translate what they are saying to poke-speak (and vice versa) so he can have a conversation with Blissey.

So, all of those preparations complete, he'll set out with his basket of medicine, and try and approach Blissey in the most none-threatening manner possible (and look, he's a round coconut boy, okay. He's the definition of non-threatening) and try and open some dialogue, explain to her what they need the part for, and try and convince her to trade it for the gathered medicine. He'll probably end up talking about their own time, and the pokemon and friends they want to return to. No idea if Blissey will be able to understand all that, but he has to try!

Since Angel doesn't have a lot of medical supplies, given she hasn't strayed too far from the camp, there's not much to hand over in that regard. She does, however, have a lot of charm, and will begin working to convince some folks around the camp to hand over spare fabrics so she can cut them into bandages. She's helping!

This is the only one Radley feels confident in trying. He would be happy to come with Doppio and try to talk with the Blissey too, maybe let Lily play with her, and even sing to the Blissey, maybe suggest they do a mini performance together for fun if the Blissey would like a little company for a couple of hours.

Fluttershy would like to come along to try to help get the part from Blissey. Since she's able to communicate with Pokemon, she might be able to help translate between Blissey and Doppio, and try to reassure Blissey that they don't want to harm her.

Shinobu is another one in the "ask nicely" crowd, since he can also communicate with pokemon. His strategy is to explain what the part is for ("to help them go home") and then ask her if there's anything she might want in place of the part, and then get that thing (and maybe a few extra treats) to offer in trade.

Alternatively, he could potentially distract her by offering to draw her, letting someone else sneak the part away while she's posing... although that assumes she wouldn't want to be drawn with the part. But hey, maybe she'll accept the drawing in trade for the part afterwards?

Blissey is, in all honesty, probably the one and only quest that Eri should be getting involved in. Nevermind why the small child is anywhere near the Icelands, she has her ways. ~~She snuck along.~~

Eri being the tiny age of 7 has no better ideas than to just... ask nicely! Which means that she'll be joining everyone in that crowd. Can Eri's supreme adorableness win the Blissey over? Could anyone EVER say no to this face? ~~The correct answer is "no".~~

Armin seems to have a great idea with trading and appealing to Blissey's nature as a healer. In addition to trying to ask others for spare products, she'll also be asking a few folks to room together for the last few days, for the sake of tearing down some of the canvas tents and turning them into additional bandages.

Several trips will be made to collect water, so she can boil and purify it as best as possible, then disinfect the fabric as well. Who knows if Blissey knows how to use bandages but... it's the thought that counts, right?

(Also sorry about stealing the tents, Ginkgo Guild)

Romelle is definitely on board with others in regards to the idea of a trade and brings along anything that she has that might be appealing to trade for the part with. Probably things like berries, or medicinal leeks, things like that. She doesn't have an egg or Oval Stone, but maybe an apricorn if Blissy likes roundish things?

The final part was spotted from the sky by one of the Wardens... apparently it's lodged in the ice on the back of a wandering Alpha Avalugg.

Unfortunately, this means someone (or ideally many someones) need to either chase down and stop this unstoppable, immovable Pokemon in its tracks or redirect it someplace where it can be... er... okay, well, okay, just climbing on its back isn't going to work, and the ice up there is cartoonishly slippery, and the part itself is stuck...

This one is hard! Time to get creative.

Edited 2022-07-31 13:28 (UTC)

Rei is not certain how to help with this, but she did formerly pilot a giant sentient monster/robot, so how different could piloting a giant iceberg be?

Oh, very, probably. So she will assist any recovery efforts with her fire pokemon, aiming to soften the ice so they can just slide the part out. Somehow.

Is it a terrible idea to send a Bug/Flying Pokémon to deal with a massive, rocky bloc of ice? Why, yes it is!

Is that going to stop Ash from trying? No.

His Scyther will fly in and just... try to pull the part out from above without attracting the Avalugg's attention, with strict orders to get the hell away if it sees him. It is very likely that no one involved will enjoy the experience.

Narancia's going to have his relatively new Heracross fly up and start trying to pull the piece out of the ice using its horn as a lever. If needed, the Heracross can break off a bit of the ice with her fighting type moves to try and make this easier.

Kaiba offers his Mothim, who will not be engaging directly! Instead he fires String Shot on the Avalugg's back, to make a sticky landing pad for anyone trying to remove the part.

As for getting them off the sticky pad...he has a Sliggoo to attempt Water Pulse, and a Ponyta to try Ember if that doesn't work.

Allura's going to be pulling distraction duty. She'll be using her Quilava and Arcanine to steer the Avalugg towards Kaiba's Mothim, then to keep its attention with Rock attacks while the others work to extract the piece.

Assisting with the use of "Big Spheal" technique!

... it's just a larger sized Spheal and Shiro chucking either snowballs or using Rollout depending on who it is. To help Allura's Quilava and Arcanine herd the big guy.

Luisa will try to assist with keeping the Alpha Avalugg distracted so other people's Pokemon can try to reach the part in its back. She also has a Scyther that can also try to help fly up and either assist other airborne Pokemon or try to reach the part too.

Keith will be using Sneasel to distract and herd the Avalugg into place in order to give everyone a shot at getting on the back for that part. His Growlithe will also assist with that until such time as Avalugg is in place, then Scyther will lift Growlithe to the Avalugg's back. Using the sticky pad from Kaiba's Mothim for help, Growlithe will then try to soften the ice around the part so people can grab it. As for Keith, he'll be working to keep Avalugg in place as well by throwing snowballs, sticky globs, rotten apricorns, and mudballs as needed until he runs out.

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Cara Liss' Wild Ride Continues....

Parts Search!

Part #1: Alpha Garchomp

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Part #2: Pack of Zoroark

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I'VE BEEN WAITING SO LONG FOR THIS

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Part #3: Blissey

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Part #4: Alpha Avalugg

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