Jake seemed impressed by the numbers on the screen. Using math to determine a location was pretty cool! He continued to monitor his pokemon's progress back to his location, but moreso turned his attention to Seymour's quandary. He was not sure what was happening exactly, so he stayed quiet for the time being.

IN THE SWAMP

The Politoed realizes he's surrounded, yet not being attacked. It takes some times, but the Politoed seems to calm down enough that Skipper can approach it without being attacked.
Feefee gathers up the three pokéballs Joan had. Two of them are empty, while the third releases a  Corphish who seems quite confused at Feefee and Bandy's presence. It's not hostile at least.
Bandy turns the pages as you command her. Thankfully, the camera has a good enough resolution for you to make out the words, and you manage to find a good image of the plant you need.


IN THE BADLANDS

With Fetcher strung up on Growler's back, your team seems like it will have no trouble making their way back to where you are.  It doesn't seem like you'll have much to do now...
Until the lieutenant speaks up. "Since your team seems to be done, I can split Seymour's team with you so you can both assist them in searching the plant," he suggests.

"Oh yeah, the plant. I mean, the dead guy PROBABLY wasn't controlling the mega-mon. Do you happen to have some healing bits to get fetcher up and adam? I always run low on that. Gotta get new digs."

Jake was glad to just have control over his own pokemon going forward. Most of the time, he didn't have much idea what to do with glade or glumpy.

Seymour made sure to take a screenshot of the relevant page in the book so that he and Jakey would have it for reference, then said, "Alright, let's get everyone searching, pronto."

When it was time to give control of Jakey's pokemon back to their master, Seymour couldn't help but feel a bit relieved. Being responsible for someone else's pokemon was even more stressful than he had bargained for. Especially when controlling six all at the same time.

He sent Marigold to search along the water's edge since she would have a lot of trouble on land. He sent Jett and Jett-Malley to search further out since they could both move pretty fast. Especially if they made the journey in the water before exiting to the land for their search.

The lieutenant transfers Feefee, Bandy, and Skipper back to Jake.

Since FeeFee and Skipper have Hitch a Ride, do you want them to grab on to Jett and Malley?

That's fine, so long as they can all still spread out a bit to search different areas.

Jake doesn't seem to care as much about this new mission. It sounded like Seymour already found something, so he doubted that they would find anything new. He gave his pokemon a loose mandate to scout the area, and he just kept an eye on the screens as he did some squats to keep limber.

Finding a plant in a swamp sounds easy... but it's pretty much the embodiment of finding a needle in a haystack. That explains why that woman couldn't find anything. Thankfully, with eight pokemon searching, you're able to cover more ground.

After a while, you notice Jett's feed shaking, as he looks into a clearing. On one of the rocks, you spot a small patch of the flower you seek. But as Jett moves closer, he suddenly jumps aside as what looked like a puddle in the shade suddenly rises, revealing itself to be a big Swalot.

OOC: Jake, Feefee had followed Jett, though she's some distance away right now.

A Swalot appeared? Seymour didn't have time to determine if it was friendly or not. They needed those flowers ASAP! That said, full-on aggression may not be necessary. "Jett, Fake it Out, then grab some flowers and Quick Attack outta there back to the cabin. Via the water if able." Jett was faster in water than on land.

"Everyone else, Jet found the flowers. Converge on his position for backup if necessary." Of course the orders only went to Malley and Marigold, but he said his thoughts aloud to help Jakey make informed decisions of his own.

---

Jett will use Fake Out on the Swalot, then grab flowers and try to escape using Quick Attack for speed.

"Aw nuts, a big boy!" Jake considered also ordering FeeFee to grab the flowers, but he didn't want to risk Feefee getting to close to the poison type, so he settled for a status move,
"Feefee, use confuse ray. We just need to distract it."

As for the other pokemon... Jake didn't really care too much at the moment. They were probably too far to do anything, and he wanted to focus on dealing with the hostile pokemon and the flowers rather than relaying positional data to his other 'mons. He nevertheless did inform them that they found the flowers and so they could group up at the cabin again.

Jett briefly stuns the large pokemon with a slap... but finds his hand sticking to the Swalot's body. By the time he frees himself, the Swalot has recovered, and 'stands' as tall as it can... before falling over on Jett.

As your pokemon struggles to get out, Feefee gets close enough to hit the Swalot with his ray, confusing it, and giving Jett a bit of time to free himself, but he's no closer to getting the flower...

Jake 'Hmmms.' The confusion should give one of them a chance to get the flowers if they both go in. Maybe they will both make it. Jake decided to risk exposing Feefee,
"Alright Feefee, avoid the big fella, use minimize, get the flowers, and skedaddle back to the cabin ASAP."

"Jett!" exclaimed Seymour when his pokemon disappeared underneath the Swalot. Luckily Jakey's quick thinking had helped his pokemon get free again.

"That was close. Try to keep your distance from here on out. Use Aqua Jet!" If Jett could keep the Swalot distracted, Feefee could focus on those flowers.

Jett keeps the Swalot's attention on himself, despite not doing a lot of damage. It's hard to judge through the camera, though it looks like the confusion hit the Swalot worse than usual. He seems to be wavering, and looking a little sick... before you heard a loud "BLUERG!" A stream of fluid spews from the Swalot's mouth, covering the camera's view.

Looking at Jake's monitor, you see Jett is covered in the thick fluid, though still attacking the Swalot. The distraction is enough for Feefee to grab the flower, and run off toward the cabin.

"Jett, we got what we came for. Disengage and fall back to the water. Swim away and wash off all that gunk if you can. Everyone else, regroup at the cabin." Now that he had given his orders, he needed to figure out how to use those flowers to cure the old woman. Or at least keep her alive until medical help arrived.

With Feefee flying away, Jett swiftly dive underwater, and easily escapes the blob pokémon's chase. When they rejoin at the cabin, they find the door is still open, and the woman is laying on her side.

You have the flower, what do you do now?

Seymour consulted the screenshot he took of the book page with the flower depiction. He then did his best to direct his pokemon how to properly administer the flower to the woman. Hopefully it would do the trick to ease her ailment, but didn't feel to great about the odds. Neither he nor his pokemon were trained medical professionals. Still, they had to try.

According to the book, it seems the flower needs to be brewed like tea, then given to the victim to drink. Looking through Juan's bag, Bandy find a set of metal plates, bowls, and mug. And Jett has no trouble providing the water.

There's just one problem. She doesn't seem to have a lighter.

"Dang it. No way to start a fire," commented Seymour. He thought for a moment, then remembered one of Feefee's abilities.

To his Ditto, he said, "Malley, do you and Feefee think you could use Incinerate to try and start a fire? Outside. We do not want to accidentally start the cabin on fire." If they succeeded, Seymour would attempt to walk Jett through the brewing instructions.

The place is so wet, starting a fire is pretty difficult. Fortunately, Incinerate is especially good at burning up plants, so the team manages to make a fire hot enough to heat up the water. The sequence of actions to prepare the medicine is complex, but you have enough pokemon with skilled hands to manage, with close supervision.

With the tea brewed, your team gets the unconscious woman to drink it, slowly. It's hard to tell how much of an effect it has, but you think she's breathing more easily.

The lieutenant nods. "It seems she's stable. Hopefully, she'll be able to hold on until our team reaches her."

Seymour nodded to the lieutenant. "I really hope so."

To his pokemon, he said, "Alright Malley, Jett, and Marigold. Great job. I am proud of you all. It seems the worst is over. Now we just need to wait for the medical professionals to arrive. While we wait, let's set up a loose perimeter to make sure no wild pokemon or other Team Gaia members arrive to interfere. And when we finally meet back up, everyone is definitely getting a treat or two!"

After about half an hour, a woman in uniform arrive, on the back of a Braviary. "Major Kaufman," she says, saluting the muscular men directing the operations. "Here's the three pokéballs the suspect had. Two are confirmed to be holding her pokémon. The third on is registered to her, but empty."

The Major takes the ball from the woman, nodding. "Let's hope we're right then..." As you watch, he brings out a Bouffalant, rides it toward the river. The giant Omastar is still sitting there, occasionally tossing rocks at the various SPT pokémon surrounding it (from a mostly safe distance). It seems their strategy was to just attack the Omastar from the back if it tried leaving the river, luring it back in the middle.

Reaching the line, the Major commands the rest of the SPT to give him cover, as he gets close enough to use the pokeball. The Omastar starts glowing red, though it looks less... stable than the usual recall of pokémon. Still, the giant beast vanishes, causing the Lieutenant to breath a sigh of relief. "Looks like that did it. Time to wrap up." Turning to you, he adds "Your pokémon are on their way back on a helicopter. We'll give you a lift to Vinmur, you deserve some rest after all this."

"Thanks," replied Seymour. "I am just glad we could keep the Omistar from continuing its rampage of destruction. And glad that we kept that lady from dying, of course." Seymour shuddered when he thought about how bad that would have been.

When the pokemon returned by helicopter, Seymour rushed over to meet them as soon as it was safe to do so. He scooped up Marigold in his arms and gave the Magikarp a big hug even as the rest of his legged pokemon huddled around him and did the same. "I am so proud of all of you. You did so well today!" He looked over at Jakey's Feefee, Bandy, and Skipper. "You three were awesome too. Great job!"

Jake gave a thumbs up to all involved.
"Wow, we solved a mystery, but it didn't become a murder mystery at least. Well, except for the dead guy I found. I am pretty sure the pokemon did it, but I am still a bit skeptical. Might have been an elaborate cover-up."

Jake confidently retracted his pokemon into their balls after individually congratulating each of them. He then sat by the side of the road with a sigh. Tracking all the individual cameras was tiring in a way somehow more intense than going for a run! He was kinda thankful for the offer of a ride but,
"Too bad we weren't able to get everyone else moving across the river. Well, they didn't help out as much as us, so we DO kinda deserve it."


//Hand still having some issues, but I wanna post. That and I don't think typing messes with it too much (Crosses fingers)

You spot the team Jake controlled returning. Well, you spot Growler first. As she gets closer, she seems... bigger than when you sent her out... Bigger than you, in fact, as you look up at a happy looking Arcanine.

The lieutenant looks at your canine. "Looks like that Omastar wasn't the only one to grow..."

Level up time!

Glumpy's Att increases to High
Locke's SpD increases to Above Average
Malley's Def increases to Average
Jett's HP and Def both increase to High
Marigold gains a new ability! Choose between Decoy and Simple
 - Decoy (Once per fight, can force all nearby opponents to target the user, while gaining +2 Eva for the turn)
 - Simple (When user's stats are modified, double the value of the modification)
Glade learns Take Down
Take Down Normal P High -2 User takes Low damage recoil

Bandy's SpD increases to High
Fairy's SpD increases to High, and his Speed increases to Below Average
Feefee's HP increases to High
Fletcher's HP increases to High
Skipper's Att increases to Awesome
and finally...
Growler has evolved into Arcanine! Her Speed increases to Awesome, and she learns Flame Burst
Flame Burst Fire S Ab. Av 0 Has a Very Unlikely chance to Wound target's allies

We'll be continuing next week, as you arrive in Vinmur.