The employees frown. "Is that true?"

Phoebe nods. "Yeah, these guys are creeps who wanted me to steal something for them!"

"Wait... a guy with a Chikorita? He's with the hotel's nurse. I'll call up the cops on the landline."

"That is a good idea. The sooner they can get here, the better. I should note though that I never actually witnessed the guy with the Chikorita do anything bad. But Team Gaia all wear the same type of uniform, and their organization does some truly horrendous stuff. This is not my first run-in with them, unfortunately."

Error: Out of range.

"For now, you should probably go back to your room. The police will probably want to talk to you when they get here."

Seymour nodded in agreement. "That is probably a good idea. I need to change out of these wet clothes anyway. And we have another friend we are waiting to hear back from." If Phoebe didn't have anything else to do or say, he would walk with her back to their room to wait for Jakey and/or the police.

A sopping wet Jake also headed back to their room with a face that was a mix of annoyance and disappointment. The source of which immediately became evident as he opened his mouth,
"The stupid pokedex couldn't even ID the pokemon!  I slapped it a couple times to get it working, and when I was doing that, the stupid pokemon went and snatched the stupid amulet. Whatever, I was hoping I could sell that for good money."
Jake then pulled the sheets off of his bed and used them to help dry himself from the rain he had found himself in following the mystery pokemon.
"Any better news from you? Hopefully the Gaia losers weren't as crafty as that pokemon."

Jake thought about showing Seymour the image of the mystery pokemon, but realized he needed to review the photo first... the photo might also include the mystery man!

"That is... unfortunate," Seymour replied to Jakey when he mentioned the amulet was taken. "But no, the Team Gaia members were not very crafty. The authorities have been called and will probably stop by to get our side of the story." It didn't even really occur to Seymour that Jakey may not want to deal with officers of the law.

One of the hotel's employee leads you to your room, promising that the light should come back soon.

It take about fifteen minutes for the cop to knock at your door, accompanied by a woman's voice. "Mister... Seymour and Falkner? I'm officer Stewart, of APD. Could I have a word with you?"

Jake actually didn't mind talking to the police so long as he was not a suspect. And even when he was a suspect, it could be fun to lie to the authorities. He had just gotten himself mostly dried when the police came knocking.  Bedsheet still on his head from drying his hair, he opened the door and let Steward in,
"No problemo, so long as you don't bring the rain in. Its nasty out there."

The officer, a green-haired woman, steps into the room. "Good evening. I understand two of you are trainers? Could I have a look at your pokedex while you tell me what happened?"

Jake nodded as she greeted them, but then crossed his arms when she asked to look at the pokedex. He was not sure exactly what the rules were about their pokedexs... so he tried to play the military and the police against each other,
"When we got here, we were told y'all had stuff in our pokedex so you could check on us whenever. So if you can't do that, then you don't got clearance to look at them at all, sorry, that's the rules. Ask the military if you have any questions about that. I can tell you what happened though."

Jake wasn't sure how much he trusted the police in this town. Seemed if town was under the grip of Team Gaia, it would be this hippy-town. One more reason to get out.

Seymour was a bit surprised by Jakey's reaction at first, but quickly realized he shouldn't have been. He actually probably should have expected Jakey to be paranoid of authority figures of the law by now.

Seymour himself felt obligated to comply, but still held off on handing over his Pokedex. It didn't hurt to be at least slightly paranoid considering their current circumstances. "Could we at least see your own identification first? You know, in case there are Team Gaia members running around in disguise?" He doubted that was the case here, but still checked to make sure the officer was appropriately drenched for someone who had come in from the storm outside. Even with an umbrella, a person would still get at least a little wet.

The officer raises and eyebrow, before pulling out her own pokedex. The design is somewhat different, seemingly made to be tougher than the sleek design of yours. Pressing a button, the screen displays the officer's ID.

Lorraine Stewart
Officer         APD
Badge no. 4137
_{Lorraine Stewart}
^{Authorized by Argenvers Police Department}

Once you've had the chance to look at it, she places it back in her uniform's pocket. The storm knocked down our local Wi-Fi tower, so we're unable to remotely access your pokedex at the moment. Hence the need for me to verify them manually."

Jake relaxed slightly. I guess that made sense. He wasn't totally sure what wi-fi was, but Seymour probably did.  In any case, he heard enough to hand over his pokedex,
"With Team Gaia running around, you can never be too careful."

He went on to describe most of the events. He figured that the officer did her due diligence in questioning others, so he limited the amount of lying. The only part he omitted was his rendezvous with the mysterious man, instead opting to explain the same story he gave Seymour, the weird pokemon snatched it when Jake was trying to catch it.

Satisfied, Seymour handed over his Pokedex as well and recounted his own side of the story. When he was done, he asked Officer Stewart, "So why do you think Team Gaia is here? What was that thing they wanted? And what was that pokemon we saw but couldn't identify?" There were so many questions and so few answers.

The officer shrugs as she fiddles with Jake's pokedex. "The probably thought your friend got her hands on something they tried smuggling. Sounds like an historical artifact of some sort. As for the..."

She pauses and frowns as she looks at the device. She quickly grabs her own pokedex, holding both close. "Scanning... pokemon not native to Cadien. Please conn..." She closes off her pokedex, suddenly looking worried. "Excuse me, I need to verify somethin."

She hands Jake his pokedex back before leaving. You can see she was looking at the unknown pokemon you glimpsed.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:11, Mon 29 Aug 2022.

Jake did his best to cover up his nerves when the officer was looking at the pokedex, but his concern creeped through when she said she needed to verify something. After getting his pokedex back, a smug smirk crossed his face. He showed the pokedex with the picture of the unknown pokemon to Seymour.
"Wow, that pokemon must really be a spook if just seeing it gave her such a fright."

He wasn't sure what to do next...
"So... should we try to hear what she is verifying... just wait... or..."

Jake trailed off. He wanted to get confirmation of who he was actually working for, but even if they overhear her conversation, he may still not get a straight answer.

"I guess so..." Phoebe says. Looking at Jake's dex, she adds "I guess she's more worried about that pokemon than that... artifact? What's an artifact, anyway?"

"An artifact is an old, usually important, item. That must be why Team Gaia wanted it. The question is why is it important?" Seymour shrugged since he didn't have any theories. Then he continued, "But yeah, she definitely seems more concerned about the pokemon. If it isn't from this region, I wonder what region it is from. And how it got here." Cadien was notoriously strict with its boarders.

In the end, Seymour decided to let Jakey decide if he wanted to try overhearing or not. He himself plans on flat out asking afterward, but there was no guarantee he would get a truthful answer.

Jake cracked open the door to see if the woman was just talking in the hallway. If she was, he'd try to eavesdrop. If she were not chatting in the hallway, he would just close the door and be a good boy.

It's a bit hard to heard, but you can just make out...

"I heard of those from my cousin. He said they only live in the Kaskade region. How did it get here?"

"Do you think it has to do with the APB we got?"

"It must be..."

The officer and her companion walk away before you can hear the rest.

Jake relayed what he heard, followed by,
"Know anything about that region? Any big cities in that area?"

He wasn't sure what an APB was, so he also asked about that,
"Y'all know what an APB is?"

Seymour rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I know APB means all-points bulletin. It is an alert for law enforcement over a wide area. I don't know if I know a whole lot about the Kaskade region though..." He shared what he could recall with Jakey.

"At any rate, it sounds like whatever is going on probably isn't only happening in one location."

---

How much do I know about the Kaskade region?

"So... it's a foreign pokemon? And they were on the look out for something like that?"

As you ponder over this, the light finally returns, though you still hear rumbling of thunder outside.

OOC: The Kaskade region is almost on the other side of the world, on the same continent as Unova, though on the opposite end. On the Earth, it would be the equivalent of the Pacific North-West of the US.

Unless you want to try to sneak outside to spy on the cops, or something along those lines, we can skip to the next morning.

The next morning, you check out of your room, without meeting the cops again. What they saw on your pokedex must have shaken them enough that they had other things than you to worry about. The hotel employees also seem a bit concern, but it's hard to blame them, considering the damage that happened last night. And with the new morning, you're ready to head out to your next challenge.

On Route 104.

By the way, now that your pokedex have a net connection again, you can learn more about Kaskade and Umbralu with a Google search. Because of course I didn't come up with the two myself.