CH44 (105), Exploring the Beach

After lunch, I told everyone that they could do what they want as long as they didn't stray too far from the rest of us. I mentioned to Xatu and Pidgey that I might later need their help for a bit. Everyone expressed their understanding and they started to split up.

Mothra and Butterfree just moved around the vegetation-filled part of the beach. Seb and Gaia moved towards the sandier area while still staying in sight. Nyx and Teddiursa just strolled around curious about the new place we were going to stay at for a while.

Pidgey was following the two from the air, while occasionally landing on a branch or Teddiursa's head, which did make me chuckle with how funny it looked. My boy Xatu decided to just chill and found himself a comfy spot not far from where he previously was.

Now, this just left QueenBee and OptimusPrime, ....ahem, LackeyPrime. The two were actually approaching me and a moment later I found out why. Apparently, QueenBee preferred to return to my space and LackeyPrime followed her as a faithful lackey should.

After fulfilling their request I observed my Pokemon for a while to make sure everything was okay and that the few wild Pokemon I could see left them to their devices. Satisfied with that being the case, I started thinking about what I should start with.

During my survey atop the cliff I got to roughly observe the whole beach and it could be divided into 3 areas/parts. Starting from the foot of the cliff the first third of the beach had a lot of vegetation with some medium- and large-sized rocks here and there.

From what I could tell, since I was currently standing on that part, the ground was comprised of regular if not pretty soft earth. After that came the second third of the beach which could be seen as the transition zone between the first and last third of the beach.

Here, the vegetation started to get sparse and the ground turned sandier the closer one got to the final area. After that came the final third of the beach that compromised mostly of sand with the rare patch of vegetation or rock here and there. This one was the part of the beach closest to the sea.

After mulling over my options for a while I decided to start at the beginning, which was the side of the cliff. I was going to walk along the bottom of the cliff and check if there were any caves, while also keeping an eye out for anything useful.

Any caves that I found would be marked on my mental map. Then I would do a brief check before leaving the investigation to once I was done exploring the beach. After I made my decision, I called over Xatu and Pidgey.

"Alright, I plan to check out the cliff and I want your help." I began once they had arrived in front of me. The two were listening and agreed, but I could tell that they wanted to get back to what they were doing a bit as well.

"Here's what I want you to do. I want you to fly along the cliff a few times at different heights to check if there are any cave openings. With your flying speed and Keen Eye it shouldn't take you too long to finish." From their deadpan look, I would say they did not seem to think that my witty wordplay was funny.

'Tch, tough crowd.' I thought before I went on.

"Once you're done, come to me and tell me what you found. After that, you can go back to doing what you want." I finished and they agreed.

"Try not to provoke the Pokemon nesting/resting on the cliff," I added before they took off.

I had seen and could still see that Wingull, Spearow, Pidgey, and Taillow had made nests on the side of the cliff. Wingull were the most abundant followed by Spearow, while Pidgey had the fewest number from what I had seen until now.

Now one could wonder why I did not keep one of my Pokemon around as a safety precaution. Simple, I was confident that could keep myself safe long enough for my Pokemon to come to my side. As long as my attacker was not too strong, above the bronze stage, I could defend myself using my aura and psychic abilities.

Anyway, since I went down the cliff right after reaching the western end of the beach, I only had to walk in one direction, the east, to check this side of the cliff. So, I made my way east while carefully checking the cliff to see if there were any cave openings or any openings in general.

Just 5 minutes later I made my first discovery, a relatively small hole in the wall. The hole was a bit larger than 30 cm but I couldn't fit in even if I tried to since it was not wide enough for me to crawl through.

My guess was that it was made by some Diglett, which did not mean that the Pokemon currently living there had to be one if there was one living there. Ekans or some other small Pokemon could be staying there as well, even if it would be tight even for them.

After probing the opening with my abilities I was unable to detect any living being inside, so I continued my walk. Not even 2 minutes later I saw a Diglett burrow up, but it got startled when it discovered me and went back underground. I checked its status when I saw it and simply let it leave after seeing its potential.

'Species: Diglett

Gender: Male

Type: Ground

Potential: Orange

Stage: Iron-stage (low)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Sand Veil

Talents: None

Affinities: Ground'

Well, seeing it this close to the previous hole in the cliff answered the question I had concerning its origin. Just a few minutes later Xatu and Pidgey came back. From what they told me they found no cave openings and the only holes in the wall were too small for nearly any Pokemon to fit in.

Xatut told me that he had no problems during his search, but apparently, a Spearow tried to harass Pidgey. She kicked his ass a bit because he would not leave her alone, and Xatu had to intervene to placate the situation. According to him, Jedi Master Xatu went all '*hand swipe*' "you do not want to escalate the situation" on them, which solved the issue.

That was totally what he told me. So, after I praised them for a job well done they went back to the others and I resumed my search. While I was doing my thing I saw a few Wingull and Spearow flying around or resting in nests, and I kept checking those that were close enough to fall under my range.

Unfortunately, the best among those only had yellow potential, so I ignored them. I saw an oran berry tree or two as well as a Lotad that was ambling through the vegetation. It briefly froze when our gazes met but just went on with its business when it saw that I decided to ignore it, which I did because it only had deep red potential.

About 20 minutes after that I found another hole like the first one, that I had classified as Diglett Tunnel, and this time I managed to find a Diglett inside during my probing. The last time I forgot to do this, but this time I used my psychic abilities, mostly telekinesis with a touch of telepathy, to check how a Diglett's lower body looked.

*pfft* "Hahaha" *pfft*

I couldn't stop myself from laughing at what I had found. It was honestly both a bit sad and cute, its lower body I mean. Well, Diglett did have arms and legs, after all. They just were hopelessly small, and I am talking about T-Rex arms level small.

The sound I made while laughing startled the Diglett and it hurried away. I let it escape for the usual reason. It took me another half an hour to reach what I estimated to be the halfway point. I had seen a few Rattata and a Sentret during this time as well as two more oran berry trees.

Just as I checked my watch and noted that it took me 1.5 hours to reach this point I saw Mothra and Butterfree flying over. It turned out they had enough for now and wanted to return to their place, so I took them into my space. Once I did that I resumed checking the cliff. I reckoned that if I took just as long to cover the second half as I did the first, then I would be finished right around the time to return home.

Anyway, just a few minutes in I saw another berry tree, this one being a sitrus berry tree. It grew closer to the cliff than the others did, and while gazing at it I stumbled on something. This caused me to come face-to-face with Gaia, and I am not talking about my Nidorina.

I was slightly peeved and hearing some Spearow as well as Wingull laughing, most likely about me, did not help. I was about to kick what I thought to be the rock that made me stumble but managed to stop myself in time when I noticed that it wasn't a stone at all. No, it turned out to be a Shuckle, and while I did not particularly like the species I decided against kicking it.

After I calmed down a bit, I thought that it kinda made sense for me to stumble upon one of these near a berry tree, since they're known to hang out near those. Additionally, this area was pretty good for them since it had soft earth and sand it could hide in and enough food to eat. The semi-isolation from the inland was a small bonus as well.

Despite my slight bias against the species I checked up its status to see if it was worth catching, and fortunately got disappointed.

'Species: Shuckle

Gender: Female

Type: Bug, Rock

Potential: Light Yellow

Stage: Iron-stage (mid)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Sturdy

Talents: None

Affinities: Bug, Rock'

The poor thing did not leave its shell the whole time, so I used my telekinesis to softly move it beside the tree trunk and continued on my way after dusting off my clothes. Some twenty minutes later I came across a slightly different hole than the Diglett one and upon probing it I saw an Ekans inside.

I don't know how it did but it seemed to have felt my probe and did not like me snooping, because it came out slightly angry for being disturbed in its own home. The good thing was that I would have no problem handling or because frankly, I was stronger than it was, but I didn't want to hurt it since it was kinda my fault.

'Species: Ekans

Gender: Male

Type: Poison

Potential: Deep Orange

Stage: Iron-stage (high)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Shed Skin

Talents: None

Affinities: Poison'

Once it came out of the hole and stared at me, I tried to radiate calmness and regret. It seemed to calm down a bit after that but from what I could feel was still slightly peeved.

"I'm sorry to have bothered you. I'll give you a leppa berry and we'll forget this ever happened." I showed it a leppa berry that I took out of my bag.

When it looked like Ekans was still going to attack me, I decided to forgo the diplomatic approach and used my telekinesis to pressure it a bit.

"Look, I am sorry okay, just take the berry and go back inside. Alright?" I waved the berry in my hand to emphasize my point and I could feel that Ekans finally gave up attacking me.

It nodded, and I floated the berry to it before I released it from my telekinesis but kept up my probe. Ekans swallowed the berry, threw me a last look, and went back into its home. I kept up checking the entrance to see if it would return but it didn't, so I went on my way once more.

I saw a Yanma pass by, which made me remember the one with the ancient gene that slipped through my fingers, but this one was a dud. At least I knew that there were most likely a few Yanma visiting this place on occasion.

It was 30 minutes later that I came across a cave opening that was 1 m high. I did not even need to investigate it, because a few Marill were standing at the entrance. What I did do was to smile and wave at them in a friendly manner, while checking their potential.

The Marill waved back and one of the smaller ones used a weak Water Gun to make my hair wet. The taller one scolded the little guy who just laughed and I waved them off showing that I was not angry at the prank. The bigger Marill nodded thankfully and I resumed my walk. The Marill were not bad with 3 of them having deep orange potential, while the little one had light yellow potential, but that was not good enough for me.

It took me another 30 minutes to reach the eastern end of the beach and I did not find any other holes in the cliff after the one with the Marill. I did see some wild Pokemon but none of them stood out positively.

Now that I had finished checking this part of the cliff, only the sides on the east and west were missing since the beach was surrounded by the cliff except for the front, where the sea was. However, it was time for me to go back home so I would have to postpone that to tomorrow.

I called out to Xatu hoping he would hear me and he did, so I had him teleport me to the others. The moment I was beside them I greeted them and asked them about what they did while was busy. Nyx and Teddiursa were the most animated while retelling the things they had seen and done.

I had to laugh a bit at their over-enthusiastic behavior. Once everyone was done I recalled them except for Xatu and we returned home.

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