For a moment, you fear you made a mistake by showing an excited dog two small, bouncing rabbits. The Growlithe chases after the pair, even before Seymour is done talking. The Laconneys have to jump all over to avoid the pooch, Lackey even seeking refuge on Jake, who find himself chased by the Growlithe too.

It's a good thing Jake is used to running away, as he's able to keep out of the dog's reach long enough for it to lose interest. Panting, it just lies down in the shade of the nearest tree to take a nap.

Jake decided to take the opportunity of the soon-to-be napping Growlithe to broker a deal. Crawling over to it on all fours, he reached for a pokeball and showed it to the dog while talking in a measured calm voice,
"Hey there buddy, do you want to take a rest in here? That way we can play together where ever we go."

You're not sure if the puppy understood you or not, but after giving the ball a sniff, it hits it with it's paw, and vanishes inside. After a few shakes, the ball locks, giving you a new pokémon.

After all that, you think you have enough time to get back into town before sunset.

"Looks like you have a new buddy!" Seymour commented after Jakey caught the Growlithe. "Got a name picket out for it?"

He looked to the sky to gauge the time, then checked the actual time on his pokedex. "I guess we should be heading back to town, huh?" He returned Locke to his pokeball then walked back over to Stoutland again. "What do you think boy? Think you could bring us back before you head home? Of course, you are welcome to keep traveling with us too, if you would prefer." He held out an empty ball to the Stoutland, much like Jakey had to the Growlithe. Although he was much more certain the Stoutland knew exactly what he meant, unlike the little fire pup. "No pressure though. I know you like the rodeo."

Stoutland just huffs and looks away, ignoring the ball, but offering his saddle for you to climb on.

Back in town, you try a restaurant promising 'genuine Hoenn recipes'... After eating, Seymour is convinced there sign must have had a typo, because he doesn't recall seeing such food back home.

His sentiments are echoed by a bearded man at another table. "Arr... still can't get the sauce right." He pays his bill, picks up a sailor's coatand leaves to the sound of alternating footstep, and the clop of a wooden peg leg.

With an empty evening ahead of you, you consider what to do.

Seymour was not surprised by the Stoutland's reaction. As much as he would have loved to have a new friend join his party (especially one that could give them rides), he understood the big dog already had a home here and loved giving rides to all the tourists. Back in town he made sure to give Stoutland a tasty treat as a thank you before sending it on its way.

After a... disappointing dinner, Seymour turned to Jakey after the sailor exited. "I bet that guy has a lot of stories to tell," he commented. "What should we do now? Go train a bit? Get some early sleep and head out early tomorrow morning? See what that pirate-sailor-guy is all about?" It was clear by Seymour's tone that he didn't really have a preference.

"Oh! And remind me to retrieve Lotad before we go to sleep tonight."

Jake didn't pay much attention to the sailor in the restaurant, and he didn't notice the inauthenticity of the food he was eating. Nevertheless, the idea of tracking down the sailor was not a bad idea, it was just like an investigation, and who knows,
"Maybe the pirate smuggled the pokemon poison in! We should definitely go find him!"

It was... unlikely, but the idea was a highly entertaining one.

Following the man is quite an easy task, as he's completely unaware of your tailing. Although... you can't help but notice someone else seems to be tailing him. It takes you a bit of time to get a good look, but the way the hoodie-wearing couple is trying to keep their distance from the sailor makes it look like... well, you two, to be honest.

You try your best to stay out of their sight, as the sailor makes his way to one of the few docks of the town. This one boast a sign announcing "Dread Pirate Joe's Boat Tour". As walks past it, the other stalkers suddenly run toward him, and push him off the dock in an abrupt splash!

The two run off, leaving a piece of paper on the dock. Looking at it, you recognize Sanford's electoral poster, though with a big "WE KNOW" scribbled on it. "What the b... blub... help!"

Seymour didn't hesitate to act, even though it meant "blowing their cover." Not that they really had much reason to remain undercover anyway. Unfortunately he hadn't yet retrieved Lotad, so his only water pokemon was the newly hatched Mantyke. "Turbo! Someone's in trouble! Help keep him from sinking under!" Hopefully Turbo could act as a handy paddle board if nothing else.

Even as his pokemon was attempting to help, a part of Seymour's mind couldn't help but wonder about the whole campaign poster thing. A second poster left behind at a second crime scene? What exactly was going on in this town?

Turbo does a good job of supporting the man, giving him a chance to get his bearings and calm down. With a bit of work, his soaked clothes slowing him down, he makes his way to a small ladder to get back on the dock.

"Tarnation... what was that!?" The man tries to shake the water off of him, without much luck. "Argh... Thanks for the help, lad. I be the Dread Pirate Joe. These scallywags almost sent me to Davey Jones' locker." It's pretty hard to take the 'dread' part when Joe is still dripping all over the dock, but he does his best to keep up his role.

Despite Jake being concerned when the man was pushed into the water, he could not help but laugh that the whole thing happened,
"Oh man, they got you GOOD, but really what was that for? A dread pirate makes some enemies. Yarr? Joe is a pretty tough name. Are you still doing any night boat tours tonight? I know my water-type pokemon might want to go for a swim along side a boat!"

Jake also picked up the poster and looked at it, showing it to Joe with a confused look on his face,
"What's all this about anyway?"

"Ai, they must be after me treasure. Alas, it's too late for me to show it to ya, as the sun would set before we reach it." He waves to his ship, a modified fishing barge. Rather than a typical hold, it has a seating area with a glass bottom to see underwater.

"Ya seem to have foreign accent kids, where are ya from?" Joe ask, before looking at the paper Jake hands him. His smile melts as soon as he sees what's written on it.

Seymour let Turbo enjoy a moment splashing in the water as they helped Joe recover from his quick dip into the sea. Almost without thinking, Seymour answered the man's question. "I'm from Hoenn myself. Near Lilycove City. Ever been there?"

He noted Joe's melting smile when the pirate looked at the poster. "Yeah, what is that all about?" he asked, echoing Jake's question.

"It's..." He looks at both of you. "Hoenn, you said? A nice place, I've heard..." You notice his fake accent is gone.

He looks around a bit, then signals you to climb aboard his ship, and into his cabin. Inside, you see a bunch of memorabilia from Hoenn, Kanto, Johto... a few seems to come from father still. And by the looks of it, they're not local reproductions.

"Here, have a seat." He clears out a small bench of it's DVDs (mostly bootlegs) and foreign magazines, one of them boasting an interview with Galar's champion Leon. "Galar... their league is really impressive. But I like Hoenn better. Much better cuisine..." He shuffles about, avoiding your gaze while he tries to put a bit of order in his fanboy room of anything not Cadien.

Jake piped in when he saw something of Kanto in the boat,
"Yeah! I am from Kanto! Not from a port city or anything though, so I never learned to swim like you though. Lots of this stuff looks real cool, I wish I had a boat where I could go all around collecting all sorts of cool stuff. Even better if I had a pirate crew to help out!"

Jake was momentarily overwhelmed by all the cool stuff in the living area to remember to press the guy about the poster.

"Yes, it's... neat." He sits on his bed, looking at the poster. "...It's also contraband... the government has a tight grip on what's allowed to come into the country, and it takes a lot to get approval. All these knick knacks are just not worth the bribes it would take to get in, so the only way to bring them in is by smuggling..."

"Smuggling?" Seymour asked, surprised. Well, not that surprised. "Does that have anything to do with why you were just shoved into the water?"

"Seeing who's got the contacts out of the country, and who takes care of distributing it..." He nods to Sandford's poster. "It's a pretty clear message that someone wants to sink us..."

The silence is heavy, with the waves hitting the ship the only sound around you. "I should call him... they'll probably go after him next. If they haven't already..."

Jake remained silent, waiting for the pirate to say more... until the sailor mentioned another person,
"Why do people care about a bunch of harmless collectables? Or were you also getting other stuff in that is not just cool stuff? Anyway, we got pokemon, we can protect people who need protecting... and fight people who need fighting!"

Jake felt bad for the old pirate, it seemed like the guy just wants to be free to do what he wants and the dumb laws keep getting in his way. Then again, this guy might be smuggling in the berserk potion that caused the rhyhorn to charge him. Jake didn't know what to think yet, so he decided to listen before jumping to conclusions, for once.

"Probably a good idea to call him though," Seymour replied to Joe. "Faulkner, do you think it was the same people who made trouble at the rodeo earlier today?" So far Seymour was starting to think that Windzall was pretty on top, but had a really seedy underbelly. Like a rose full of sharp thorns.

Seymour was starting to think he may not want to stay here much longer. If Jakey wanted to stay and fight, that was fine, but things were starting to get a bit too serious for his own tastes...

Joe shrugs at Jake's question. "The souvenirs are usually ignored. The mags and movies tend to need a bribe to pass. They don't like it when people learn about other countries..."

"What's that about the rodeo?" he ask at Seymour's comment.

Seymour went ahead and explained. "We went to the rodeo this morning and a Rhyhorn went berserk. It was drugged. We found a Theodore Sanford campaign poster at the scene." He didn't feel their subsequent investigation was worth mentioning just yet.

Joe looks surprised at that. "Drugged? That's... no, as much as Sanford and Jenkins hate each others, they'd never get pokémons involved..." He suddenly looks worried. "You don't think Jenkins is blaming Sanford for this, right? Cause if he did, he might attack anything else Sanford is involved with... like the smuggling..."

Looking pale, Joe grabs his phone. "I need to call Sanford."

Jake rummaged around, looking through all the knick-knacks out of curiosity as to what the pirate had collected, he wasn't planning on stealing though. He did remember one thing and piped in as Joe got on the phone with Sanford,
"Oh yeah, the drugs were from Kanto, I don't know if they were smuggled, there was mail stuff that looked pretty official on it."