"Alright." Lucas nods in unison as Julian's pokemon goes airborne. Patiently he'd wait alongside Julian for the signal.

Minutes later a shrill shriek from the flygon catches his attention in a heartbeat. His head whips upward to look at the mystic pokemon. As three more shrieks would follow so would his gaze at their scout. "Split up" he says, his words falling flat as the ginger already began to do so. "Go go go!" He then cries towards his Kabutops, right arm repeatedly waving to the closest point. The fossil pokemon races through the snow as it breaks off from its trainer, making its way towards the intruders.

Kabutops finds a single grunt, the newest member to the gang tasked with carrying the bags for the fossils. Two duffel bags are held by each arm as they struggle through the undergrowth, bags getting caught on stray branches. White light ripples over its prehistoric shell, charging an attack. Moments later a ball of white light flies through the air, colliding with a tree. The wood cracks and splinters as it crashes down, the immense sound carries itself through the forest. It lands squarely atop the grunt with the duffel bags, pinning them to the ground. They cry out in pain. Several of their bones are broken. Getting out on their own was impossible, the tree pinning their arms down and back.

One gang member down.

Lucas and Glaceon find themselves at the farthest end of the camp, two grunts waiting for them. Their pokemon had already began making their way towards the tents, archaeologists ran out of them in a fright. A Seismitoad sprays acid at one tent, melting through the fabrics while threatening to drip onto the fossils. Alongside it a torterra too broke through tents, razor sharp leaves cutting through their fabric with ease. "Blizzard there!" Lucas shouts out, pointing towards the tent with acid melting away at it. The blizzard collides with the tent, halting the acid's erosion. "Now there!" This time he points towards torterra, a prime target for his ice type. Frost from the artificial blizzard creeps over the giant's body, covering it in seconds. It was now little more than an ice statue.

"Man just get the fossils already!" One grunt calls to the other as he rushes towards the tents torn open by torterra. They weren't giving up yet. "Seismitoad hydro pump that nerd!" A jet of water hurtles through the air towards the ice type and its trainer. They didn't think it'd knock out the duo. Instead hoping it'd buy enough time to grab some fossils and escape.

---

4/5 @knowles

Lucas' eyes are wide open as he hears a voice beside him. He's like a deerling in the headlights. Face flush as he closes the magazine shut between both hands. "Uh huh, me neither." Gingerly he places the magazine back in the rack, his face still crimson. Both hands rest on the plastic border ends of the rack holding the magazines upright.

"It's a, it's worth a try" Lucas says to the blonde. His head turning towards him with the latter half of the sentence. That was one way to solve the conundrum that was the lack of options for quality reading. "What kind of high end stuff you looking for?" He poses a question for the gym leader. Hoping to glean information. He sounded like he knew a thing or two. "Like uh asteroids or stars?" He expands on his earlier inquiry in an attempt to move past the poor ad placement that plagued him. Tossing out some of the few "space terms" he knows. If they could even be called that.

Lucas pulls away from the rack, hands falling to his side as he awaits the stranger's response. He hoped that whatever he'd say wouldn't completely fly over his head.

---

get better reading material gilbert smh Alexei Ivanov

"Well, that was a one off" his voice was somber. "No one expected what would happen." He didn't push the topic of Regirock's temple any farther, that was enough for one day.

"Huh?" Lucas turns to look back at Priam as he asks about his past. The espeon beside Priam little more than a crutch "No, not really. Well a little bit actually, few years back. Been working in my spare time even the last few years." He pauses for a moment as the boy stutters. "You worried?" He turns his attention back ahead, mindful of rocks and ice patches scattered along the ground. Whatever happened down here was up to how they handled it, how they chose to react. As long as they didn't rush into anything without thinking first Lucas thought they'd be fine. There was no regirock down here to throw things off course.

"Depends. A lot of stuff goes into museums, and deserves to. Ownership is a tricky thing I'm not too sure about. I have bought a few things that did manage to be sold at auction. A few coins here and there, a vase, and even a bracelet." As the words came out of his mouth he had second thoughts about mentioning the relics to the boy. But dismisses them. Conrad was a young boy still in high school, not some rocket grunt or beast that'd want to steal his collection. "Stuff like crowns pop up too, though I've always been outbid on those." He thought back to those crowded nights where numbers flew through the air.

As the ground levels out he finds himself in what appears to be a room, mostly barren. Shining his flashlight ahead he found that there was no end in sight. Conrad looks to him for answers, but Lucas has none. Moving ahead all he can do is hope something catches his eye.

"Watch out for any crevices in the wall, they might have something." Caves were a good place to hide wealth, or in one instance in Alola makeshift graveyards.

---

5/5 priam conrad

"I can see that." Lucas says as he turns his attention back to Julian. One can only assume that they weren't named the "Poachyenas" for nothing. He thought it could also simply be a play on the word poochyena, and the fact that they poach. The reasoning for the name didn't matter to the scientist much. He honestly thought it quite childish. Crafted to help make the group memorable, an implication that their actions could not.

At the suggestion of freezing the poachers he nods. “Uh huh, yeah yeah, I can see that working.” He mulled the idea over in his head. “What if they attack multiple spots? They make a distraction in one spot then strike another. We need to cover the most ground, don’t you think?” Eyes wander as he talks, falling upon the flygon. He looks back up at the sky, then back to the flygon. “Or or, we have your flygon in the sky with you watching for movement. Then we direct our attention wherever there’s poachers. They’ll probably be looking to hit where we’re farthest from.”

---

3/5 @knowles

“Well” he was cut off before he could get past one word. His face contorts, he didn’t like being interrupted. How to be polite wasn’t taught to children these days apparently. It’d been drilled into him as a boy, lest he be punished.

“Hmmm.” He thinks for a moment as the topic of salaries was brought up. “Well kinda, sorta, not really. Also hard to find a job.” A blunt response, straight to the point. When you looked at it that way being an archaeologist sucked. Feet slipping on an ice patch he missed Lucas’ arm shoots out, grabbing onto Kabutops for support. He narrowly avoids the fall.

“Ya got a lot of paperwork too.” As the words fall out of his mouth he realizes that he’s painting a very unappealing picture of archaeologists. “They do get to see ancient ruins before anyone else, just like Regirock’s temple. Regirock was found inside too even!” There’s excitement in his voice, forced excitement. Many casualties happened as a result of the temple. People and pokemon both lost their lives. In an attempt to keep the atmosphere pleasant he neglected to mention these facts.

---

4/5 priam conrad

male / sap sipper
vine whip / horn leech / take down / seed bomb

---

cait alfric

A skiddo crosses his path, an unlikely sight in this weather and ecosystem. Lucas is all too familiar with them, a popular pokemon among traveling trainers. They were a mountain pokemon, not something common to the plains. Digging through his pocket he retrieves a pokeball, releasing its contents within seconds. A beautiful alolan ninetales appears, it too a unique pokemon in these parts. Its tails unfurl and wave from side to side as it watches the skiddo calmly. Holding back from the prey till given a command.

"Go." As the words left his mouth wind began to pick up around him at an amazing pace. Falling snow blocked out the shining sun as a BLIZZARD broke out. The skiddo is confused, it doesn't know what's going on. It'd been sunny only a few moments ago. It wants its mother.

The winds lash out at the grass type, draining its body of warmth and feeling. Eventually the wind dies down and snowflakes cease falling as its cries fade away. Lucas looks out towards the body, still and covered in a layer of snow. He throws a pokeball.

---

catching @santaclaus

The silence of the route was broken as Lucas heard squawking. Immediately his head turns towards the direction of the sound. At the edge of the treeline he spots a doduo. One head turned to the other, sleeping head. The squawking woke it in no time, as he saw first hand. Confusion is written across the bird pokemon’s face, eyes darting around the route. This wasn’t where it’d fallen asleep.

Both heads awake now he watches as the bird pokemon trots out of the forest. As soon as the two heads spot the scientist they break out into a run. The doduo races across the route at sixty miles per hour, to the astonishment of Lucas. He didn’t even get a chance to contemplate whether he wanted to confront the pokemon before it left his life as fast as it had come in.

---

skipping @santaclaus

The wind bites at Lucas’ face as he makes his way across the snow covered landscape. If he had been here only a few months prior it would be alive with sounds and pokemon, but not now. It was dead silent that Saturday morning, not a person or pokemon in sight. Even on this cold day the sun shawn bright however, brighter than it had in weeks. Inviting people to bask in its warmth. What a cruel joke mother nature was playing. It was also one of the coldest days it’d been in weeks.

He pulls each glove firmly, trying to cover the sliver of skin they’d left uncovered. Susceptible to the cold. If he had to be out here he was at least going to ensure he was as warm as possible.

---

@santaclaus

Ehhh I'm taking that Bastiodon

I like this timeline tbh

"Basically, sure."

A smile pulls at the edges of Lucas' mouth as the boy answers him. He found the reply of rebellion something he might've said at that age. "Articuno eh?" His face breaks into a smile as he chuckles heartily. Articuno, flying in these tunnels? If it was anything like he'd read it'd be clipping its wings left and right in these caverns. But he could only guess at the wingspan of such a pokemon. The entire idea was humorous.

"Lucas, I'm a scientist, not a geologist though." Light from his flashlight shines through several ice stalagmites dangling from the ceiling. They're a beautiful teal hue. "Do some stuff with genes mostly, like with pokeballs. Make it so your espeon doesn't come out looking like mush when you release it, like a ditto." He wildly exaggerates the dangers of faulty pokeballs, hoping to mess with the boy's head.

The ground begins to slope downwards as the party makes their way deeper. Ice patches dot the tunnel floors. Light reflects off them, outlining their presence. "So you like myths Conrad?" The name sounded odd to Lucas as he said it aloud. "Like the legendary birds. You planning on becoming an archaeologist?" He was hoping the boy would take the path he hadn't walked in life. Hoping that someone followed their dreams.

---

3/5 priam conrad