"Okay, looks like we have new targets behind the door?" guessed Seymour. He then suggested, "I think we should try to do the same as last time. Locke will try to hypnotize any humans. You guys focus on any Pokemon. Locke will join in if he manages to lull the humans to sleep." If that all sounded good, Seymour was ready to enact the plan immediately.

Jake let Seymour handle completing the rest of the sweep, but with more and more of the building secured, he did offer a bit of assistance,
"If things get dire, we can get growler involved I don't want to leave the evidence unattended for too long in case there are anyone hiding that we missed."

Gengar opens the door, and you spot two guys dressed as cooks crouching in the corner. They hold up their hands as Locke's light exposes them, and it doesn't take long to hypnotize them.

Noticing a corridor on the side, Jodie sends her Corvi to check it out. "It looks like a food storage. Hey Jake, do you want my fletchinder to switch place with your arcanine? She'd be better at sniffing out anyone who's hiding."

Jake nodded to Jodie,
"That checks out. Growler, you may have heard the lady. Odor sleuth identify where people or pokemon are hiding! Don't barge in though, just sniff out their location so we can come up with a strategy for entry and quick victory!"

Jake then turned to Seymour,
"Unless you want help on your room sweep."

"Identifying where people and Pokemon are hiding will be extremely helpful for the room sweeps, so just keep doing what you were planning on doing. Locke, be ready to hypnotize anyone Growler finds. You are doing fantastic."

Seymour kept a close eye on Locke's camera in case any last-second orders were needed. He occasionally glanced at Malley's screen too. "Everything still okay outside too, Malley?"

Malley looks around the court, showing that it's still empty. After switching place, Growler starts sniffing around the storage area. It doesn't take her long before she growls at a large box, with a few rolls of paper towels scattered around it.

After a loud bark, the top of the box opens, and the person inside raises their hands. The moment their head is visible, they're hit by Locke's hypnosis, knocking him out.

With the storage cleared, you go on to check the kitchen, though you only find a few wild Joltik making their way out by the oven's range hood. The dining area is also empty, as are the bathrooms and all the closets you can see.

"It seems like we may have found everyone," Seymour said, hesitantly. "I suggest we double check everywhere first though. And keep an eye out for any attic access, basement stairways, or other hidden compartments."

---

GM, what else do we need to do in order to complete the gym challenge?

Jake nodded,
"Alright, one more sweep for Growler. And Growler can also search for more illicit... chemicals?  Food? Whatever might be suspicious."

Growler finds plenty of food, as expected from a restaurant, but she also digs out a bag of green herbs hidden behind a box of Tamato berries.

Searching a bit more, you find a trapdoor accessing the roof, but no sign of basement. Thanks to Gengar's peeking, you can confirm that there's no hidden compartments in the building. After you've verified every wall, Sidney turns to Kaufman. "That's it, we checked everything we could in there."

"Alright. Call your team back and take a breather while we compile your results."

He walks away from you, Jodie sighs. "Welp, I think that went well... But was the guy really supposed to get poisoned like that?"

After giving Growler her due compliments, Jake shrugged to Jodie's concern,
"Any time you have a human involved directly in a conflict involving pokemon that can happen. Like, bandy could have messed up the guy she was tangling with if she weren't careful. One of my friends back home once got their leg messed up bad by a growler chasing her down."

Jake did his own internal calculus,
"I think we did pretty good. No real structural damage, and the trainer getting caught in his own pokemon's move probably won't count too much against us since you quickly took action to help him. Its not like we smoked the whole joint with poison spores to get them out in the open, and I've heard of cops doing that before. I think we captured everyone and made sure the stuff inside wasn't chucked out or anything."


Given they had used the technology before, Jake didn't learn as much about that as much as how even a relatively harmless takedown of a trainer can still be dangerous during a battle situation. If they had to do anything like this in the future, maybe it would be best to avoid targeting the trainer until their pokemon has been neutralized. Probably in the time between a pokemon's KO and the trainer recalling them into the pokeball. Then again, a pokemon could create a smokescreen to effect an escape from 'authorities' (in this case being himself). Heck, maybe the purple fog was an attempt at exactly that -- blocking view so the trainer could escape. Jake doubted the veracity of that claim, but it was still technically a possibility. After thinking about it in those terms, he felt more comfortable about a pass.

"Yeah, there was very little we could have done to prevent the poison cloud, and we did as much as we could to mitigate it once we saw what was happening. I don't think it would be counted against us, but I guess we will need to wait and see." Seymour thought their team had done pretty well, but he had also never done a challenge like this before. So he was quite nervous as they waited for the results.

He congratulated Malley, Locke, and the other Pokemon on a job well done while they all rested. Even if their team failed to obtain a badge, he felt all of their Pokemon performed fantastically in the challenge.

The Major returns pretty quickly. "Yeah, that poison cloud was a mistake from our guy. The rookie didn't think about how bad ventilation can get inside a tight building." Shaking his head, he opens a metal case, revealing four badges. "Either way, your quick action in securing him earned your the Urban Badge. Good job, deputies."


OOC: Level up time!

Bandy increases her HP to Above Average

Growler increases her Defense to Exceptional

Locke increases his HP to High, and learns Ice Punch
Ice Punch      Ice       P    High     0    Causes Freeze on a 1

Malley increases it's SpD to Exceptional


And the two of you can increase one of your stats by a rank, and pick one of these strengths:

- Parkour: You know the secrets of urban shortcuts. You get a +2 to any chase or race you do in a city.

- Hide and Seek Expert: There are plenty of places to hide in artificial environment, and you know how to find them. You get a +2 to search through a room, or to hide in one.

- Bouncing Bullets: When you're fighting inside buildings, you can have your pokemon bounce their ranged attacks to hit foes behind cover, though at -2 to hit.


This message was last edited by the GM at 18:14, Wed 03 Apr.

Seymour caught himself breathing a sigh of relief when they were all handed their badges. He was pretty sure they would earn them, but also felt like this was the badge where he was the least certain of their success. "Congratulations everyone!" he said to his teammates and their pokemon. "We did it!"

"Sidney, Jodie, if you guys ever want to meet up later and do a bit of training, feel free to get in touch. I'll get you my contact information. You guys are talented trainers. And I can tell that you really care for your pokemon." Seymour looked to Jakey in case Jakey had anything else he would like to add before they continued on. Seymour was excited to tell Phoebe they had gained another badge!

---

I chose to increase Seymour's IQ again, and picked up the "Hide and Seek Expert" strength.

After hearing the news, Jake offered a celebratory high five to all.
"Nailed it!"

Jake nodded as Seymour offered their contact info around. More contacts in his phone was never a bad thing. He then looked to the major with a smarmy smile,
"Is a celebratory meal in order for us fine deputies?"

_________________________________________

Increased strength to high (Flex), and parkour (no surprises there)

The Major grins. "Sure! Hey, turn the power back on!" He shouts to one of his assistant. And with that, he walks into the small restaurant you've explored through your pokemon's cameras, as it's electrical lighting turns back on.

One of the guys you found in the food storage walks past you, saying "It'll take a time to get the oven going, so grab yourselves while you wait. The soda machine has tokens in it's return slot."

Sidney frowns, taking a look at the side of the building. "So... the power cable we cut was a prop?"

"It used to be the power plug for the building, but some of the ways people cut it was pretty messy, and I don't like waiting too long for my burger. So instead we setup an underground connection, and just set a kill-switch through the roof wire."

Seymour listened with interest as the discussion turned to the nitty gritty details behind the scenes of the challenge. He grabbed a few snacks as they waited for things to get cooked, and Seymour absorbed as many scraps of knowledge as he could about the gym challenge. "Were there any parts of the mission that we missed? Or areas where we could have done better?" He didn't want to pester the gym leader, but when else would they get the chance to get this kind of feedback about their strategies and tactics?

"Well, the main thing that hurt you was the lack of moves to disable the trainers. That slowed you down, as well as the technical mistake when Gengar passed through the door. But otherwise, you were very thorough. And you avoided a common mistake by securing the non-trainers on the scene instead of letting them go."

Jake grinned as the power flicked back on. They'd definitely done this sort of drill for a while, so pulling back the curtain to see how he artifice worked was pretty cool. He let Seymour do most of the talking while he helped himself to a soda and waited for the food.
"Mmm, yeah, the Gengar bit was embarrassing. And it was stressful to see Bandy wrapped up with the trainer. Got any favorite moves for taking down trainers without risk of harm?"

He took a sip, then clarified,
"Well, outside of poison-type and psychic type moves. I don't really have a focus on them in my team, but we sometimes run into issues like team friggin gaia and I don't want to rough them up too bad, just lock them down until y'all can show and deal with them for realisies."

"Anything that puts to sleep, like Spore, or that paralyses, like Thunder Wave, are good bets. But for less obvious ones, some of the simplest attacks are handy. Like repeated String Shots, or using Vine Whip or Wrap to hold them in place."

"Those are some good ideas," said Seymour. He would keep those moves in mind if they ever got into a situation where enemies needed to be neutralized but not injured. Which seemed fairly likely to happen at some point considering how many run-ins they have had with Team Gaia.

"Are there any moves you know of that seem like they would be helpful, but actually should be avoided?" Fire Spin was the first one that came to Seymour's mind. At a glance, trapping someone in the middle of a ring of fire might not seem like a bad move, but the potential for serious injury was probably way too high. And using that move indoors would probably be ten times worse, unless you were actively trying to burn the place down.

Jake nodded along to Seymour's question.

"Whirlpool." One of the 'restaurant employees' says, as he brings your food. "Trust me, almost drowning in sink water is NOT fun."

"Never got over that, did you?" The Major shakes his head, trying to hide a smile. "But seriously... fighting moves should be avoided as much as possible. They're all based on raw strength, and pound for pound, pokemons are a lot stronger than humans. Even a well-trained pokemon holding back could end up severely injuring a resisting human."

Jake didn't hesitate to bite down on the burger. Directing pokemon from a distance was hungry work! After digesting both the food and the information, he figured he could ask some additional questions to the major,
"So, any interesting news from around here? Other than giga pokemon rampaging and destroying bridges?"

"Good thinking," Seymour said to Jakey. Then, to to the major he added, "Have you guys been having trouble with Team Gaia in this area as well? My Locke was a rescue from one of their schemes, so seeing their plans thwarted brings me joy."

The Major shakes his head. "Not after that bridge stunt. We learned where one of their camp is from the woman you found, and we'll be raiding it soon. Plus, they wouldn't dare try anything in town these days, we pumped up security a lot because of the concert."

"What about the report from Boonwagen?" One of the other officers says. "Apparently, some trainers spotted hunting parties while crossing the mountains. They kinda stood out because they chose tie-dye instead of camo clothing."