[Game] Lord Windos' PokeRole Adventure: Celadon City Vandel

[Dragonstrike]

+ 2 XP for well constructed memory, and introducing an interesting character after hinting at them several times in the story.

This time it only took a couple minutes for the Merchant to get back to you, and their next message was a lot more to the point/concise:

"Roger that, Reiner! Hehahehahehahe, if I knew that axing that bastard would leave with the penthouse suite of the A.V. , I'd might have charged ya a bit more than half a sack of tokens to hunt them down for ya and the little miss, but oh well, that for not doing a full background check of the bastard first before I raided him! As for the ring, can't say much since I only got a small peek at it and didn't get it checked, but based on the color/size of band, I'd say that's about 4-6 grams of 18-20 kart Iron Defense Forged Rose Gold, then the Ruby alone is large and at least 3 Karts and looks mostly natural, factor in the custom design and personalization and retail price......low ball number I got is about $7500 Poke on the ring as a whole, $3100 on the Ruby, $3700 on the gold, and the rest due to design. So, that decide anything for ya?

[Well, glad you liked it, because this memory game isn't over quite yet!]

Back to 4 years ago...

"Well, look who the cat dragged in.  Took ya long enough.  No offense, Sneasel, but you were practically dragging him."

"Are you really going to call me slow when I bolted as soon as Lucy perched?"

"Yes, because every second counts right now.  Do you WANT to get caught sneaking into the most sacred shrine in this city?"

"Then let's get going already instead of criticizing me for something I can't help."

Lucy smirks from her perch on Taylor's shoulder, as she often does whenever Taylor finds something amusing.

...and then Taylor's instantly scrambled down the ladder swiftly and silently, with Reiner and Sneasal following soon after.  (Seadra got to use the underwater entrance)

Dragon's Den Infiltration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go7C4E9KEiU

"Welcome to the Dragon's Den, Reiner.  Bet you've never seen anything quite like it before, have you?"

It's a MASSIVE underground cavern, with a lake covering about 90% of the space.  Seadra surfaces near the ladder.  And in the middle of the underground lake...

...the Dragon Shrine.  The Elders' meeting hall, and the building where they keep Blackthorn's most valuable treasures and pokemon.  Including the shed scales of Johto's dragons.

Seadra had shed one such scale last week.  For most Dragon Tamers, that would indicate their pokemon was ready to finally evolve.  But the Elders...they took the scale from Reiner.  He'd only had it for a day, been waiting for Taylor to show up so he could evolve Seadra...the Elders got there first...

...so it was time to steal that scale back.

"Impressive or not, we're here for a job, Taylor.  Let's focus."

"Hehehe.  Good focus.  Alright, Jeff, you're next up.  We need your help to get past that whirlpool blockading the entrance.  Lucy, watch our backs."

What follows is another Seadra surfacing...except this one's purple in color.  And sparkling.  How he manages to remain almost invisible while underwater is completely beyond Reiner...and his scale had also been snatched by the Elders.  Jeff had shed his scale first (it was purple and sparkling!  It was difficult trying to keep Sneasel from snatching it), and Taylor had loaned it to Reiner so he could examine and admire it for a little bit.  Seadra had shed hers the next day, and the Elders had found both before he could tell Taylor...

The travel through the Den itself is rather uneventful, thankfully.

Upon reaching the whirlpool, Jeff gives Taylor a nod, and uses the HM Whirlpool to disperse the swirling water that the Elders created using Yawn from one of their Kingdra.  They'd put that back as they left the Shrine, after they'd evolved their Seadra into Kingdra...

The Dragon Shrine is an imposing building.  While it can be reached without dispersing the Whirlpool, there's no back entrance.  The back porch is purely for ceremonial purposes, as well as holding battles.  And the walls of the building are reinforced with thick dragon scales to prevent intruders from breaking in.

And now Reiner, Taylor, and their pokemon are standing (or floating) in front of the main entrance.

"Alright, this is it...now we just have to find the dragon's treasure hoard..."

"They're in there somewhere, the scales...let's do this."

And they enter the shrine, leaving their seahorses to keep watch outdoors while their smaller, non-aquatic friends come with them.

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It takes some time to find it, since it's located in the deepest, most heavily guarded and fortified part of the Shrine...but when they do, Sneasel's eyes widen and light up as soon as he picks the lock on the door (using his claws) and opens it.

Of course, he sees the pair of Dragon Scales almost immediately, sitting on a pedestal as they are...but there's all SORTS of valuable and shiny items in that room...and he bolts before Reiner can stop him.

"Sneasel, no!  You're going to wake..."

But Taylor's warning is too late.  What Sneasel didn't spot was the Dragonite hiding among the gold pile, his tail wrapped around the pedestal with the Scales.  But not just any Dragonite...

The head Elder's Extreme Speed Dragonite.

Almost instantly, Sneasel is pinned, the large dragon standing on his arm, almost breaking it with his weight.  One good press, and...

...he stops when he looks to see who the intruders are.  Reiner, he wasn't surprised to see.  That girl though...his eyes narrow when he looks at her and the yellow pokemon perched on her shoulder.

"Reiner...leave the room."

"What?!  What do you mean, leave the room?!  You stupid Dragonite, I'm going to..."

"Reiner, I said leave the room.  I'll handle this.  Trust me."

Reiner looks rather dumbstruck by that whiplash.  Taylor NEVER raised her voice.  Ever.

...he quietly backs off and closes the door...'Dang it, Taylor, I know you're good at what you do, but you're REALLY pushing your luck here if you think you can take a Dragonite alone...'

15 minutes later, Taylor exits the room.

...with both Dragon Scales and Sneasel...

...but Lucy isn't perched on her shoulder.

"Taylor, where's Lucy?"

Taylor shakes her head.  "Don't worry about that, Reiner.  We have the scales, Sneasel is fine...let's get out of here.  I don't want to be here when the head Elder shows up."

And she starts running away from the treasure room as fast as she can, stopping only to turn to Reiner and say, "Well, you coming or not?  We have Seadra to evolve, don't we?"

'Mew' snaps out of the memory again when the phone buzzes with another incoming text.  Dang it...dang it dang it dang it...he didn't want to think about this.  Why was he remembering all this NOW of all times?!  Gah...he needs to distract himself from all this...he didn't want to think about Taylor, Lucy, Jeff...good thing these texts are a convenient method of doing so...

"I wasn't expecting to get as much as I did out of him either.  Let's just leave it at that for now. And yeah, that guesstimate's interested me just enough.  I could definitely get some good use out of that Uber Capsule, and I'd be foolish not to take such a good deal, right?  I'll have Mew meet ya out front with the ring and funds when ya get here.  Need to restock on X items too.  Going to need 2 X Attacks [$500], 2 X Defenses [$550], and 1 X Speed [$175]."