CH20 (81), Route 4 (1)

It has been 3 days since I have resumed my trip towards the coast after we heard that the case on Route 4 had been solved, and during this time I have managed to cover half the distance towards the next milestone of my journey, Leaf City.

Leaf City is the next Tier 5 city on Route 4, after Honey City, on the way to Viridian City. The distance between Honey City and Leaf City is around 300 km and during the last 3 days, I had already left 150 km behind me.

Like always I kept Nyx, my Eevee, Xatu, and Butterfree outside their balls to accompany me while walking as well as a safety measure.

The others were chilling inside my space since I did not want to keep them in their balls if they didn't want or have to. Anyway, my guys and gal were happy that we could start going out again, so they were really active during our trips.

Thanks to that we managed to find 4 more new useful materials. The first one was found by Xatu on our first day. It was a Psychic Seed, that he felt about halfway through the day.

'Name: Psychic Seed

Type: Psychic

Class: E

Uses: It's a seed, that has absorbed psionic energy from the environment.

Contains psionic energy and can be used as a supplement to help psychic-type Pokemon. When consumed while under the effect of Psychic Terrain, then the consumer receives a temporary boost in their Energy Density.

The second item was discovered by none other than Nyx. On the second day during one of her check-ups on shrubs she believes could be interesting, she actually managed to find something.

'Name: Balanced Root

Type: Neutral

Class: E

Uses: It's a root, that is saturated in neutral energy.

Contains neutral energy and can be used as a supplement to help normal-type Pokemon.'

I was actually curious how that root came to be and expanded the description of the material since I generally made the observe screen only show the important bit.

'Name: Balanced Root

Type: Neutral

Class: E

Uses: It's a root, that is saturated in neutral energy from a plant that has somehow absorbed too much neutral energy. The plant concentrates the excess energy, it can not convert or contain inside a part of its roots, which then gets separated from the main root to prevent the plant from getting overloaded.

Contains neutral energy and can be used as a supplement to help normal-type Pokemon.'

It was interesting to know, and it showed how resilient plants were. Some even had a function like lizards that separated their tails to escape dangerous situations.

The third and fourth materials were found on the third day, which was yesterday, by Butterfree and Nyx respectively. Butterfree found a Sweet Leaf.

'Name: Sweet Leaf

Type: Plant

Class: E

Uses: It's a leaf, that is really sweet.

Can be used as a supplement and as food. It gives the taste of nearly everything a sweet tone. Can give a little temporary energy boost, which helps the consumer to stay active.'

As for Nyx, she found a Moon's Buttercup.

'Name: Moon's Buttercup

Type: Plant

Class: E

Uses: It's a flower, that has absorbed lunar energy.

Can be used as a supplement and contains lunar energy. Pokemon that prefer the night can make the most of this flower.'

Besides those materials, nothing new was found. The Pokemon I saw were still of the same variety and none of the ones I bothered to check had any good potential. Don't get me wrong I still check every single Pokemon I encounter, but only those of the species I find interesting enough.

I had actually stopped checking out every Caterpie, Weedle, Rattata, Sentret, or Paras I encountered. There were too many of them, and nearly none of them had any decent potential, so I decided to ignore them. In case I want any of them in the future I could check out the stores.

The same could naturally be done for all Pokemon, but it was more of a balance of interest, time, and encounter rate that led me to that decision.

Anyway, where was I? Today, is the fourth day since I restarted my trips, and half of the day is already over.

We just finished our lunch and are resuming our walk. 10 minutes later I notice some traces 10 meters from my current path, that were different from those of the Pokemon we had encountered until now. Curious about which Pokemon they belonged to, and excited to see something different, I went up to check them out.

After the novelty of walking outside passes, all that walking can get a bit monotonous, and if not for the occasional trainer battle, or new discovery, I would have probably been bored. So, things like these traces were welcome distractions for me.

From what I could make out, the traces were caused by a bipedal Pokemon, since there was always a single pair of footprints. The depth of the footprint tells me that the owner does not belong to the super-heavy or heavyweight class, so Pokemon like Snorlax can be excluded.

Our current location excludes a large number of options, like Rhydon or Golem. Only Pokemon living in or near forests, as well Pokemon living on plains should be around, so Pokemon like Nidoking, or Primeape are possible.

Or at least they would have been, if not for the shape of the footprint.

The footprint shows that the owner has a three-nailed foot shape, so Nidoking, with his single-nailed foot, or Primeape with his two-toed foot get eliminated as well.

That leaves us with Kangaskhan, Scyther, Pinsir, and Ursaring. I removed Teddiursa because the footprint is too large to belong to one. The form of the foot and position of the nails allows us to exclude Pinsir from the suspect list as well. Wait, Kangaskhan can be removed as well since the middle nail of Kangaskhan is generally longer than the two outer nails, which is not the case here.

That leaves me with Scyther and Ursaring as the most likely candidates, at least of the Pokemon that are common near areas like these in Kanto. Now I am currently leaning more towards Scyther since their feet are wider than those of Ursaring, and these prints fit that category, but the difference is not large enough to be sure.

So, I need additional information before I can come to a conclusion. Let's check for other traces along the path the footprints left behind. In case it is a Scyther, there should be some cut marks somewhere along the way, left behind by its sickles.

If it's an Ursaring, then there would be some claw marks along the way. At least, I am guessing that they left behind some other traces. I am pretty sure the Pokemon is alone, or at least it was alone when it was here.

There is no second set of footprints, so as long as the second Pokemon did not keep stepping on the exact same place as the first, then the Pokemon is alone. That does not mean that it is not part of a group, just that it's walking around on its own.

I follow the footprints for around 200 meters until the first useful clue turns up. Up to this point, the Pokemon had an obstruction-free path, but here it encountered some vegetation that hampered its road. It cleaned up the obstructions, and after checking the broken branches that were left behind, I can exclude Scyther.

The reason for this is pretty simple. If the Pokemon had been a Scyther, then the breaking point of the leftover branches would be smooth, since it would have used its sickle arms to cut them apart. That is not the case here, the braces that I just checked looked more like they were slashed apart by claws, which points to Ursaring.

Now the question is do I keep following the tracks left behind what is most likely an Ursaring. Ultimately, I decide to follow them, because of a few reasons. First of all, we are still on Route 4 so the Ursaring should be below the gold stage. Since the strongest Pokemon on the routes are generally kept below the gold stage.

Since it is at most at the (high) silver stage, I should have no problem escaping it if it proves too strong for us, which would include everything above the (low) silver stage. If we are strong enough to beat it and its potential is good enough, I plan to capture it.

Even if it is too strong, it could lead me to other Ursaring or even a few Teddiursa. So, I decide to keep following the traces. I follow the tracks while keeping the sounds I make to a minimum, and for the next 20 minutes, I discover a few more traces that make me sure that it is an Ursaring that I am following.

The occasional markings I see lead me to the conclusion that it is marking its territory, so I begin to believe that it is relatively new to the area. Another 15 minutes later I hear some sounds in front of me and all of us make maximum effort to be quiet and inconspicuous.

Then I see it less than a hundred meters in front of me. It is actually an Ursaring, so my conclusion turned out to be right. Since I want to know how strong it is, I recall my Pokemon except for Xatu. I tell him to stay put and quietly approach the Ursaring. Once I am near enough, I use my telekinesis to check its status.

Unfortunately, at least for me, the Ursaring notices my action, more like it feels my telekinesis coming in contact with its body. It warily looks around and manages to spot me. Seeing that I have been spotted, I run towards Xatu and tell him to Teleport us away, which he promptly does.

The last thing I see before being teleported is Ursaring launching a Hyperbeam. Once I see that I am at the entrance of Honey City, I check the status screen of the Ursaring I tactically retreated from and promptly plop to the ground trembling a bit.

I have never been so grateful to have a Pokemon that knew Teleport, or that could have ended really badly. The reason for my slight panic is what I have seen of Ursaring's status.

'Species: Ursaring

Gender: Male

Type: Normal

Potential: Green

Stage: Gold-stage (low)'

All I could think once I saw that was 'thank everything that is holy that I ran away the moment it discovered me'. The second thing I do is face-palming because I remember that I could have entered my space if I had recalled Xatu beforehand as well, but because of my excitement, I had forgotten that that was an option.

I wait there for 1 hour just talking with Xatu before I decide to return to the place we saw the Ursaring. This should give the Ursaring enough time to calm down and leave the area. Once Xatu teleports me back to the place I look around.

As I assumed the Ursaring is no longer around, but the area itself is a bit destroyed. I could see the traces left behind by the Hyperbeam the Ursaring fired at me, and some destroyed trees, that it probably destroyed in anger when it saw me escape.

The reason I returned to this place is that I plan to follow its tracks once more. I know that I have no chance to do anything to the Ursaring itself, but I am hoping that by following its tracks, I will be able to find its home. There I hope to find some Teddiursa or some weaker Ursaring.

In case I get detected, I plan to hide inside my space this time, so I recall Xatu. After that, I start to follow Ursaring's tracks once more. After following the track for more than an hour, I finally arrive at its home. I make sure to keep quiet because I can see the Ursaring resting there and it is not alone.

-----------------------------

***A Big Thank You to Steven Wagy for becoming a Patron***

Advertising plug-in:

Help me stay motivated.

patreo*n/Azrail93