(( Yes, I would like to name him Bufoon.))

" Nice Shot, Bufoon, Use scratch!" Fire attacks won't work well agaisnt his Torkoal, I have to make him use only normal type attacks

{Zak}

((You guys make the choices, not me. I just paint the scenary.))

Thanks to the great archaeological find ten years ago by a young man, Fallarbor has quickly grown from a small town in the middle of nowhere to the nations quickest growing city. Plently of businesses, malls, theaters, and other shops have set up here and the population has increased more than ten fold.

Nothing interesting is being talked about around the pokemon center, just trainers whining about this or that. The only thing interesting is a poster that tells about tours through the archaeological remains that made Fallarbor famous.

Whether you want to go on them or keep on moving through is up to you.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

{Tom}

Treeclimber pops out of his pokeball and sprays a green flame at the kecleon. The kecleon is hit but she still stands. However, when she tries to shake it off, she realizes that she can't move. She's the one who is now paralyzed.

The next move is yours.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

{Steven}

((Ok, your call. I'll change it to Bufoon. Also, I'm not sure what you want Bufoon to do. Are you telling him to scratch? I'll edit this when you reply.))

Dusk approached the most calm-looking worker and asked him about Robert. "Do you happen to know a Robert who's supposed to be here?"

"Treeclimber,don't faint it! That's the most nasty paralyzation I've ever seen."
Tom goes and soothes the Kecleon, hoiping it would decide to join his team out of greatfulness.

Zak, bored by everyone, gets his pokemon and leaves. He heads east, to the Soot Fields.

"Maybe I can find a good pokemon battle here," he thought.

{Dusk}

"You mean Pobhill?" The man asks. "Sure, he's the guy on that cliff that hangs over the mouth of the volcano. See him? He's the guy in the red construction hat.

"Becareful, though. We're doing some excavating to try and get something uncovered in the base that those Magmas used."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

{Tom}

Treeclimber pauses, as does the kecleon. Both are unfamiliar with the practice of healing a pokemon before it is part of your team or has helped you already in some way.

The kecleon believes this to be some unusual trap and tries to leave. But is paralyzed and can't move. The question now is, what will you do? You don't have any items that can heal paralysis and you are at the halfway point between Verdanturf and Mauville.

The next move is yours.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

{Zak}

In the Soot Fields, you find it much harder to see things. The roads have protective covers over them, but you are in the tall grass looking for pokemon. What you can make out is a small group of sandshrew to your right, about 25 yards away, and a lone spinda trotting along about 30 yards in front of you.

If none of these appeal to you, you can look around a little more. If you don't want to, you can always do something else.

Dusk approached "Robert". "Um... I got a...." Dusk explaned everything that had happened. "And well they told me that I needed to see you. So um... what's with all this?"

"Kecleon,don't worry.I'd never hurt you.Just let me take you to Mauville because your paralyzation looks very bad."Tom said,worried that it would try to go running in the wild with that horrible condition,endagering itself.

((Since when were sandshrew in the soot fields? I only remember spinda, slugma, and skarmory))

Zak headed over to watch the Sandshrew. He pulls out a pokeball, and releases Caterpie. Zak whispers instructions

"Caterpie, I want you to get some battle practice in. Use Tackle on one of the lead ones, then String Shot it. If you get into trouble, call out, and Bellsprout will take your place. Got it? Good, go get'em!"

"Thank you. I think I know where he went." said Richard. He walked out of the room and studied the road map.

(What are the difficulty rules? I know the tougher you act, the tougher your opponents, travels, challenges, all that stuff. But is there anything else?)
Whoa. For all the harm it gave to my Houndour, I must admit, I respect her!
"Ready, Cerebrus? Let's show her what we got! Arc Flamethrower! Sacrifice range for extra power!" *Making sure Cerebrus can see both me and the Machop, I again sweep my hand in a 90 degree arc, with the Machop at the center. If I'm still close, I'm jumping back behind Cerebrus as I'm giving the command.*

{Dusk}

Robert, a tall, black man with a crew-cut and a muscular frame, calls out to everyone and tells them its quiting time. They all look curiously at each other, but he says that the machines are tapped out and they will be refueled over the weekend.

"...and since there's nothing else we can do until we get the feul, take the rest of the day off!"

His crew seems satisfied with that answer and depart for their homes.

"Now that there is no one else near. I'll explain. As you may have guessed, I am more than a mere employee of the Hoenn government. What you probably have not guessed is what we are doing here."

He then leads you down a portible elevator to the level where all the machines are. What you see before you is probably the most advanced construction equipment known to the common man and some that isn't. However, this is nothing compared to the sheer presence of what the machines are around. They are around a large, 15' tall, at least 7' wide, metal door with a Team Magma insignia extruding from the center.

((Robert has been added to the NPC list.))
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

{Tom}

((You need to work on your punctuation. Spaces go after commas and periods.))

The kecleon ponders for a moment and realizes that you are sincere. After all, you have more pokemon and she is paralyzed. She nods her head and shows you that she is ok with you carrying her to Mauville.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

{Zak}

((It's been ten years. They've migrated a little.))

Caterpie nods its head and charges in to battle. It knocks one of the sandshrew down and shoots its string shot at it. The sandshrew looks to its comrades for help, but they are too busy laughing at it for getting blind-sided by a caterpie to help.

It gets angry and starts scratching at Caterpie.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

{Richard}

The map shows a few interesting places. There are residential and business spots here and there, but there are a few key places that seem more likely. First is the sewege treatment plant. Second, there's the space station. Third, there's the main docks of the island. Finally, the fourth one is the Mossdeep gym.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

{Luxina}

((That's all there is to them.))

Cerberus sees you this time and does as you command. The fire arc shoots and gets the machop right in the center. Looks like the fire burned her. She's on her last leg, if you don't catch her now, Cerberus will feel the wrath of her guts ability.

I give a beaming smile and a nod of approval at Cerebrus. "Great attack, Cerebrus!" I then focus on the Machop and throw a pokeball at her.

{Luxina}

((The machop is a she, fyi.))

The ball goes, 'click'. Congradulations, a successful capture. Nickname her if you'd like. Otherwise, continue with your adventure.

You now have three options. One is, take a look at what the machops were looking at, its ok since the ground has cooled by now. Second, go on to Lavaridge. The thrid, do something else.

Alright, I edited the last reply to show that the Machop is female.

*Turns to Cerebrus* "I would like to get to Lavaridge soon. Our healing supply has run low. I need to stock up on supplies for the challenges we're sure to face ahead. After I stock up, I'll find you a stronger Machop."

I'm going to check out what the Machops were looking at.

{Luxina}

As you approach where they were all looking, you see a large stone tablet with a long statement carved into it. It reads as follows:

We, the surviving members of squad 526, the final free members of Team Magma, do swear, by the names we sign in blood on this day, that we shall one day return to our former head quarters and use the weapon that our former leader Maxie Lanson was not able to use before his death. We will use it to rebuild the great Team Magma and build for Hoenn the future it deserves.

We swear by the fire we use to open up our skin to let the blood flow onto this tablet. We swear by the rock on which this oath is written. Finally, we swear by the earth that this oath will be buried into. On these things, we swear that Team Magma will rise again and fulfill its destiny.

For Groudon. For Team Magma. For the Earth.

By now, the blood has faded off to the point that you'd never really know if it was ever there. However, if you were to look below where the names probably would have been signed, you'll see a triangle that's pointing down. Within the triangle are three equally sized horizontal lines in a vertical column.

This seems like something big. Cerberus looks at you confused and scared, hoping you have the answer to this. What to do next is up to you.

Alright Daveshn, I'll play your game. In addition, I'll PM this to you so you don't miss it.

Ralph Powalski
•Appearance: Short- just over 5'7, with a rather weak build. Long red hair, and very dark eyes. His clothing, too, is often quite dark; ranging from black to dark shades of red.
•History: Was swayed by Maxie's speeching, and at a young age actually joined team magma and became a lowly grunt. Barely four months after he joined, team magma fell, and so he's been left to putter around with no real purpose. Recently, however, it seems magma has been appearing more and more in rumors and the thoughts of the people; maybe it's time for the grand uprising again!
•Age and gender: 23 and Male
•Pokemon:
Species---------Nickname----------Egg Move
Kecleon(M)_____Chili_________Magic Coat

•Current Items: Lum berry x3, Superpotion
•Current Location: East Lilycove City
•Other: Fancies himself a master thief.

Richard began thinking hard. "Hmm, I think he'd go to the space station!" said Richard, hoping he was right. He ran over to the space station and openned the door.

"Magam's hideot? How could this be so close to the volcano crater?!?"

(Is it just me, or does the Magma symbol sound like a slightly altered version of the alchemy symbol for Earth?)
*I read the statement, looking closely for any inscriptions on the tablet*
"This is a blood oath, Cerebrus. I've read about these - A person or group of people quite literally swear on their lives that they will take a particular action, and use their blood to seal the pact. Now what else is on this tablet....."

((Ugh, what a day at work.))

{Ralph}

((Ralph Powalski has been added to the RPer list. Welcome aboard Banov.))

It is the late afternoon at your place and Chili is anctious for some action. He's been waiting for you to start his training agains so you two can be ready when/if Team Magma rises again.

The city itself is a large and peaceful metropolis, but that doesn't mean there isn't any where a trainer can go to get a workout. The beaches on the west side are usually a good hangout place for trainers, as well as outside the contest halls, which is where imaginative coordinators look to get a warm-up before the contests start. Then again, you could head to the safari zone where you are now allowed to battle the pokemon before you catch them, for a slightly higher entrence fee of corse.

Leaving the city and traveling out to the fields will put you in contact with wild pokemon and wandering trainers. Although, you could always do something else.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

{Richard}

What you find in the space station isn't the man with the spinarak, but rather other people in similar uniforms rumaging through the place. In front and to the left, you see a trio of scientists tied up and gagged. They are being held by a man in a uniform who has a kadabra at his side.

One of the people spots you entering and throws out a pokeball, it is a pidgey. The others turn to you and pay you no more attention since their leader, the man with the kadabra tells the grunt with the pidgey to take care of you and not let you escape.

Will you flee, fight, or do something else?
----------------------------------------------------------------------

{Dusk}

"This isn't the hideout per se." Robert says. "The majority of the hideout is further down those tunnels." He says as he points to his left.

"This is something the Hoenn government found accidentally when they were going through the Magma HQ seven years ago. They kept it a secret for obvious reasons and were just about to pullout and announce that they had discovered it when Roxanne's nosepass felt something big and metal with its magnet pull ability." He then points to the opposite side of the volcano where you see a pile of rocks over 20 feet high and so long you couldn't even begin to guess.

"That is how much rock we have had to dig through to find this door. Obviously, it's something Maxie wanted no one to know about. Which leaves us several questions. First, what's behind here? Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza are all accounted for and resting again, this time, under close watch of every government on the planet. Second, how could it help them? There was a month long period between the end of the G.K.R. battle in Sootopolis and Maxie's death in combat against Hoenn operatives where he could have used whatever's here. So why didn't he? It's not like he would have forgotten about this."

He then takes a deep sigh. "The third and final is how do we get to it? There seems to be several ingravings here for Magma emblems. But it seems that they need to be special ones. We've found small amounts of circuitry in these indentations and a code-key pad. So now we need to find the right emblems and learn the code."

He then looks at you and smiles. "And that, Dusk, is where you come in."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

{Luxina}

((You mean the triangle or the 'M'. Cause the triangle is just something I made up. Also, sorry for how short this post will be for you, but there's nothing else there.))

You find nothing else on the tablet except for a few insignificant bump and cuts that were probably caused by erosion. Where to go next and what to do is up to you.

"What am I suposed to do? Find the emblems? And do you have any idea who my black mailer is? I demabd anwsers!"

"Caterpie!" I yell. "Keep up the stringshot as long as you can. Once its completely tied up, Tackle it like crazy!"

((lol being blindsided by a Caterpie))

"Go, Bolt!" shouted Richard, throwing Bolts pokeball. "shock the pidgey with electricity!"

(The Triangle. In alchemy, Earth is a downward triangle with a horizonal line drawn in it's middle, Air is an upward triangle with a horizonal line in it's middle, Water is a downward triangle, and Fire is an upward triangle. I just found the simularity astounding.)

"Hmm. The triangle points down. I assume that refers to the Earth. The three lines are horizonal and stacked togather, apart from each other. Layers in the Earth, perhaps? Or transitions of a plan? Or what if the lines are something traveling downwards? Drilling deep into the Earth? Might this be related to the noises I've heard at Mount Chimmey, and the unusual concentration of people there? Well, I'll check that out later. My first priority is Lavaridge."

I turn towards the pathway to Lavaridge.