After the commute with his new buddy, Jake was curious to see what all pokemon the farmer raised. He was a bit disappointed to see just wooloo and mareep, but since the farmer was helping out, he didn't feel comfortable interrogating him about his lack of poke-diversity. Rather, he feigned being impressed by the farm,
"Woah there, that's a lot of farming! Must be tough work? Any other pokemon around giving all your pokemon trouble?"

He did his best to make small talk as they prepared to clean up and treat the absol.

Seymour helped with the baths as best he could. He gently scrubbed the leas clean from their fur and made sure they were warm and dry afterward. He held the Absol he was caring for in his lap as he fed it the sugary pokemeal that had been prepared. He made sure to feed it slowly so that it would not upset its digestion by eating too fast. Once its tummy was full, he stroked its head until it fell to sleep. He then let it rest with its siblings and went to get further instruction from the farmer.

"Hopefully they will feel better when they wake up. Is there a place nearby that we can stay?" He looked around at the farm as if he expected to spot a hotel behind the barn or something. "Or maybe a good place to set up a tent? We were out searching for Shinx and Pollywags today, so a night under the stars is something we were prepared for already. And if there is any way I can help repay your assistance, just let me know. Maybe there are some chores I can help with? I am sure the pokemon on my team would be willing to help out as well. We are just glad that those Absol got the help they needed."

"A spot to stay? Well, if you're ready to spend the night, you can stay in the barn. There's plenty of space in the loft, and hay's softer than the ground." He shows you the ladder, and you can set your sleeping bags on the hay bales.

Coming back outside, you see Laura helping Brand make a small straw nest for the Absol. Once they're done, she says "I'll have to get going... I need to return to our dig site. I hope I'll find someone there to fix Rex's ball. I'll come back tomorrow morning, alright?"

"Sure, those kids'll need a good night's sleep anyway. In the meantime, there's a little something you could do for me. You said you were looking for Shinx?" You watch Laura leave on Rex, as Brand leads you into the field.

After wishing Laura good luck, Seymour followed Brand into the field to help with whatever it was he needed help with. "Yeah, we were looking for Shinx. Or Poliwag. There is someone who will trade me a Tropius for one of those. Although a Shinx would also be cool to have as a partner too. Do you have a Shinx problem or something?" Seymour was curious what task they were going to try and complete.

"'Fraid so. There's always a few pokemon that attack my flock from time to time. The Mareeps got enough juice to deal with most problems, and my Ampharos is tough enough to handle the rest..." He sighs, as he points at a spot with freshly moved earth. "But then that hot-head went and chassed a diglet, only to stumble into it's hole and break a leg. Now he's stuck in the pokemon center until he's healed."

Walking a bit longer, he shows you small set of paw prints. "And now I've go a Luxio leading a small pack of Shinx harassing my livestock. So, if you want a Shinx, well, this is a good place to find one!"

Jake wasn't sure about trading a shinx, but catching one for himself would be cool. Then he would have three dark type pokemon... maybe it was better to be a dark-type trainer than a water-type trainer. In any case, he voiced his support for the plan,
"Yeah, you point, I catch!  Do they come around at night, should we do a stake-out?"

"You'll need a stake-out. They've come out both during the day and the night."

Jake rubbed in chin in an exaggerated display of thought. A stake-out was a bit of an ambush and a bit of a waiting game. He was good enough at the ambushing part, but less good at the waiting part. That, and they needed some more information to launch a successful ambush,
"Great! This should be fun." Jake chimed as he tried to think of the pieces they needed to succeed.
"Do you have any good beverages other than milk... like some juice? Being outside for a long time is thirsty work. Might also want to take a look around the property to see where we can hide with good view of the flock. If you have an idea of where they come from, that would be useful too. Maybe we can hide in the top of the barn? We'd need to get down quick... or have a way to slow them down. Maybe duder can pretend to be a rock in the field, so he can engage them while we get down?"

After rambling his bit of the plan, he turned to Seymour to see if the smarter of the two of them could organize Jake's words into a coherent plot.

Rolling with Jakey's plan, Seymour added a few suggestions of his own. "I'm not sure about sitting atop the barn myself, but I do like the idea of Duder pretending to be a rock in the field. Maybe Malley can do the same. Heck, we could have a bunch of pokemon stationed in different spots as lookouts. My Shroomish and Roggenrolla can probably blend in with the scenery pretty well too. And I bet your Bandicoon would be able to stay out of sight easily enough. He seemed pretty good at hiding when we first met him." Seymour thought for a moment more, then added, "I bet we could get my Shedinja and your Farfetch'd to patrol around a bit too. They could either spot the targets outright, or keep an eye out for a signal from our other spies. Think that could work?"

You take a moment to walk around the field, to get an idea of the general setup. Brand hasn't been able to follow the Shinx's tracks. While you look around and make your plan, he left for the house (to the left of the map above) to get you something to eat and drink.

"You know, the more I look around the area, the more I think maybe Malley should mingle among the flock. It can be our eyes on the inside," he said with a smile. "I think Captain Lombre could probably hide in that little stream too. Underwater somewhere just atop that waterfall. What do you think, Falkner?"

---

Seymour will probably keep lookout near the barn, unless Jakey has a better spot for him. This is what I am think of for the placement of my pokemon:
Lombre - hides in the water atop the waterfall
Shroomish - hides in the foliage near the top left
Dunsparce - hides near the little structure on the bottom left
Roggenrolla - hides by the structure on the right
Ditto - mingles among the sheep-mons
Shedinja - floats around looking for signs of the Shinx or a signal that one of my other pokemon has spotted it.

"Yeah! Skipper can also hang out in the water. We just gotta be a bit careful because shinx are shockers!"

Jake will try to get on top of the barn.

Marshtomp - Gettin' muddy with it on the north leg of the stream
Farfech'd - Perched on the back-side of the barn (facing the house)
Growlithe - chilling ontop of the barn with Jake
Larfae - Hangs out in the tree in the top right
Bandicoon - Jake just tells bandicoon to hide anywhere it feels like
Geodude - Pretends to be a rock in dead center

After a nice meal of home cooked burgers, you take your positions to watch over the flock. Jake climbs on top of the barn with no issue, and has a great view of the field.

The afternoon paces slowly, giving you a chance to relax... until you both spot shimmering strings floating out of the tree Larfae hid in. You can't spot anything else strange where you are, and it doesn't seem Corium noticed anything either.

What do you do?

"Hey Falkner. You seeing this? What are those strands? Is your Larfae doing something? Or should we be worried about a wild Spinarak attack or something?" Since it was Jakey's pokemon in potential danger, he would let him choose what he thought was the best course of action. But of course all of Seymour's pokemon would be ready and willing to help if Jakey was in need of their skills.

Jake seemed more curious than concerned,
"Looks just like a string shot, maybe it saw something... or it is just wrapping itself up."

Still, it would be good to get a better idea of what was going on, so he turned to face the back of the barn where Fetcher was perched,
"Hey, do a quick runaround the north and come to me directly if you see something suspicious, else just go back to the perch."

Fetcher salutes, and flies over to Fairy's tree. As you watch, you can see some movement, and the tree seems to shake a bit. Fetcher moves close, before turning around in a panic to hover in front of Jake. He alternates between shaking his leek toward the tree, and batting his wings to stay in the air.

Jake sported a quizzical look as he made his way down to ground, retracting growler as he went.
"Hey, Seymour, I'll check it out. You can stay here or come with."

Jake then entered stealth mode. He let fetcher keep watch where he had been perching and lowered his body into a crouch as he swiftly and silently made his way to the tree to investigate. For safety purposes, he kept growler's pokeball in his hand, ready to release if something spooked him.

Seymour nodded, but did not follow. "You got this," he whispered. He kept an eye on Jakey's progress from by the barn, ready to rush over if he needed help. But he had every confidence that Jakey could handle the problem on his own unless it was something truly surprising.

Jake makes his way down the side of the barn, and crosses the field toward the tree. As you get close, you sees Fairy getting tossed into the air, apparently injured. Around the base of the tree is a whole pack of Shinx, seemingly intent on beating up the poor bug.

On seeing fairy getting tossed in the air, Jake opted to reveal himself... and growler,
"Use roar!" Jake sharply cried, trying to scatter a bit of the crowd of shinx. He doubted they would be held at bay for long. However, Jake figured his voice would attract his own pokemon and notify Seymour that something was up.

Upon hearing Jake order a Roar, Seymour figured the situation might be a little bit more serious than he originally thought. He called out to his Shedinja, "Corium, we better go check out what is happening over there. I'll meet you over there." He still figured Jakey could handle it, but he still wanted to get closer in case his friend wanted some assistance.

As Jake watches, Fairy does her best to cling to a branch, as the Shinx jumps and try to bite her. Growler's Roar sends many of them running, but the rest just turn to face the new challenge.

At Seymour's signal, Corium moves down to join his trainer. Looking at the rest of the surrounding pokemons, Jake's team doesn't seem too worried about the screaming. Instead, they follow the flock, as they cross over the bridge to be away from the noise.

When he noticed that the pokemon causing trouble were some of the Shinx they had been looking for, Seymour got excited. "Hope you don't mind me joining in to try and catch one of them," he said to Jakey. "I'll go try to help shield the flock."

Then, to his Shedinja, he instructed, "Corium, use your confuse ray on the Shinx heading toward the flock. Malley! Transform into Growler and try to Roar some of them away again." His Ditto should have still been somewhere among the sheep-mons in disguise. After giving his instructions, Seymour tossed a pokeball at the Shinx that appeared to be the weakest and most distracted. If he could catch one right away, it would be one less for them to ward off.

---

Seymour: giving instruction and throwing a pokeball at a Shinx.
Malley: Transforming into Growlith and roaring at the Shinx heading toward the flock.
Corium: using confuse ray on the Shinx approaching the flock.

Jake didn't seem to mind Seymour trying to catch the shinx as well. Then again, Jake seemed to be occupied with his plan -- if you could call it a plan.
"Duder! Get over here!" Jake called as he dug his heels into the ground, then he called out to his pokemon already present,
"Fairy, use crystal swipe on anyone that gets near you, and growler, use flame wheel straight ahead! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH"

Jake finished with his own primal roar as he charged directly into the remaining group of Shinx. He wasn't aiming to tackle one, but rather to charge his way to where fairy was... any shinx standing between him and his glass bug, he didn't hesitate to try and shove them out of the way.

Growler charges through the Shinx, forcing them to jump aside or stumble away. It didn't do much to the pack, but it did create a path for Jake to run through, letting him reach Fairy's tree. But after you pass, the Shinx's tails starts to glow, and the whole area is filled with electrical sparks. Growler shakes a bit from the shocks, but doesn't seem too injured by the energy.

As Seymour throws a ball into the pack, Malley tries to scare more Shinx away, but it seems they're not focused on it enough to notice. Instead, it draws the attention of a Luxio, who jumps out of the bushes, growling menacingly as electricity runs over it's body.

No wounds on anyone. Seymour's pokeball locks in on one of the Shinx.