Part 20: Day 7 - Thunderwave Cave

Thank you for agreeing to escort me!

It's our pleasure, uh, ZeeToo.

Oh, I cannot wait to be united with my darling Hankosha!

Is something wrong, Sheldon?

Wha? Uhh, it's nothing. (Except I can't tell if our client's the bride or the groom...)



Well, that was easy. Excuse me, are you, um, BklynBruzer?

That's me. Who wants to know?

Mister KataraniSword sent us to--

What?! You know where he is? Take me there, now!

Whoa, take it easy! We'll send you right to him.



He was sure in a hurry to see his friend!

Uhh, yeah. 'Friend'. Sure.



Hello there! Did you bring the Cheri Berry I wanted?

We sure did, miss Nohtenki!

Ah, good, good. With this wild Nidoran around, better safe than sorry, what? See me back in town for your reward.

Whoa, look out! That Rattata's waking up!



Whoa whoa whoa hey! All right, all right, I give already!

Hey, he's not crazy!

Do I look crazy to you? You're the ones who busted in on me while I was havin' a nap and started beatin' the crap outta me!

Sorry. We thought you were one of the mean Pokémon.

Eh, I guess it's an easy mistake to make. Those nutjobs are everywhere these days. Just beatin' up anybody you see's a good way to turn inna wanna them, though.

I'm really sorry...

Whoa whoa whoa, easy on the waterworks, pal. I forgive ya already, gods!

Well, we're sorry to disturb you. We'll leave you to your nap.

Hang on a sec. You're wanna those, whaddayacallem, rescue teams, arencha?

...yes. We're Team Hugs!

...Team Hugs, huh?

...He picked the name.

Eh, I've heard worse. Listen, this place is gettin' a little inconducive to pleasant rest of late, capiche? You guys got a better place to stay, maybe I can, ya know, help ya out a bit. Whaddaya say?

What do you think, Jake?

...

Jake?

Hey, what's with the goofy whoa whoa whoa bad touch! Personal space!



Nicodemus (Rattata, #019) is hugged! Pokémon hugged: 10. (Thanks, Phelix (art) and serewit (name)!)

Welcome to Team Hugs!

Is he always like this?

Pretty much.



Two things to note here. One is that Nicodemus--

Hey, call me Nicky! Only my mom calls me Nicodemus!

--has both abilities a Rattata can have in the mainline Pokémon games instead of having just one or the other. The other is that one of those abilities is Run Away. If he gets badly hurt, he'll panic and run off, which can lead to trouble. We'll have to keep an eye on him. He comes with Tail Whip and Tackle; we turn the former off.



Ah good, you made it! Thanks for coming. Have you got what I asked for?

Here you go! One Oran Berry, right to your door.

Or lack thereof. You'll get paid when I get back to town. Thanks!

Hey, that was easy! I shoulda got into this racket sooner.



ZeeToo, my love!

Hankosha, darling! So long have I dreamed of seeing your face, and now that moment has arrived!

Let us retire to my burrow and speak of our wedding!

Oh, I could want nothing more! Thank you, Team Hugs! You have made me the happiest Minun on earth!

Yes, thank you all! We shall be certain to invite you to the wedding!



Hey, Sheldon?

Yeah, Jake?

Um... which one of them was the girl?

...now that you mention it... I... don't... know.

(Thanks, Desty!)

What, are you two blind? Obviously the-- whoa look out, wild Elekid on the loose!



...oh, my aching head...

Hey, he snapped out of it!

Hey, where am I? What's going on?

You don't remember? You'd gone wild and attacked us.

Yeah... yeah, I remember now. Man, I was messed up.

Are you okay now?

A little tender, but I'm all right. Thanks for snapping me out of it. Hey, who are you guys?

I'm Jake, and this is Sheldon, and--

--Nicky. Pleased ta meetcha.

We're a rescue team.

Team Hugs!

Rescue team, huh? I've heard of those. Hey, don't suppose you've got room for one more? If I hang out here by myself, I might go nuts again.

Of course! Welcome to Team Hugs!



Edison (Elekid, #239) is hugged! Pokémon hugged: 11. (Thanks, Phelix!)

Oof! You've got a hug like an Ursaring, Jake! Right, let's get outta here.

We've got one last stop to make, actually, and then we can head back. What's your name, anyway?

Call me Edison. Let's get this party started!

Edison comes with Leer and Quick Attack. Quick Attack, as we've seen, can hit up to two squares away, while Leer is another useless debuff which we tell him not to use.

The next GIF is pretty long, but I'll sum up the important bits after.



Note that Sheldon's new move, Water Gun, has the property 'cuts corners'. As we see here, moves like Bubble, which have the property 'straight line', can go around corners, but normally moves that have the property 'foe in front' can't. That is to say, if you want to attack an enemy to the southeast, the spaces to your south and east must not have walls. Water Gun avoids this, which is handy.

Note also me getting rid of Brick Break for Water Gun instead of replacing, say, Withdraw.



Are you Angela? We're here to rescue you.

Oh, thank goodness! I thought I'd never get out of here. Is Phony all right?

He's just fine. In fact, he sent us to find you!

What a relief! Come here, you.



Angela (Mawile, #303) is hugged! Pokémon hugged: 12. (Thanks, Phelix!)

Heh. That's the first time I've seen somebody else start it.

Hooray!



I guess we'll look around for anything else somebody dropped and head out of here.

Whoa, a wild Electrode! Taaaake this!



Good work, Jake! That Dig TM really came in handy! Now let's get out of here.

Whoa, look out! Here comes another Elekid, and he looks out of it!

Taaaake...



...that! Hey, Sheldon, I'm getting good at this!

...Sheldon? What's wrong?

What's wrong? Hey, pal, while you were busy makin' like a Diglett, that Elekid punched me in the face so hard my grandmother got ugly!

Oh no! Are you okay?

Do I look okay to you?

Uh, actually... you kinda do.

...yeah, well, you got lucky, pal. I know how to roll with a punch. You wanna be the leader of this team, you don't duck out when some guy with extendo-arms comes calling, capiche?

That was close. If we hadn't had a Revive Seed, we would have lost Nicodemus in a really stupid way. Live and learn.

That's enough excitement for one day. Let's get out of here.

...okay. Sorry, Nicky.



Our rewards for today's adventure?

KataraniSword and BklynBruzer took time out of their busy pummeling schedule to give us a white gummi, ten Gravelerocks, and a Cheri Berry. This last item was one more than our toolbox could hold, so it, and the rest of our rewards, were sent automatically to storage.

Nohtenki rewarded us generously for the Cheri Berry, with 200 Poké and a Gold Ribbon. Gold Ribbons fetch a high price at the shop, but are otherwise useless.

Frankomatic gave us 200 Poké and ten Corsola Twigs in return for the Oran Berry. Corsola Twigs are similar to Gravelerocks. The disadvantage is that they only fly in a straight line and are stopped by obstacles; the advantage is that their damage scales up as our stats do.

ZeeToo and Hankosha give us 400 Poké and a One-Room Orb for our trouble. The One-Room Orb destroys all the walls on the current floor of the dungeon, making it much easier to collect the items-- and, of course, much easier for enemies to reach you. I'll show this off on our next outing; it's a fun item to find.

Finally, Phelix's team of Phony and Angela reward us with 200 Poké and the Return TM. In the mainline games, Return does increasing damage as the Pokémon's happiness increases; in PMD, it's based instead on the IQ stat.



Team Hugs's newest members:

Next time on Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: the evil team of evil gets up to more of that evil! Or something.