Once I let them down, the Spoink did not start bouncing ahead to lead the way but bounced in place instead. They looked at each other before turning to me with curious/questioning looks. The yellow one then inquired curiously if I was not going to capture them, which caught me a bit off guard, but showed how convinced/eager the two Spoink were to join me; Or more like how eager they were about the idea of improving their physical/heart condition. I was not sure if I should call them overly naive little piggies or not, but I could at least kind of understand their eagerness and enthusiasm.
The naive part was so easily believing that I could help or that I was truly planning or capable of researching the issue. At least that was until I remembered that we had talked mentally, which made it easier to discern truth from falsehood, while I was blanketing them with my aura to show my sincerity, which added another layer of assurance to my words. That I was genuinely interested in the issue and was planning to see if I could resolve it made the whole thing only more convincing since no deceit had to be hidden.
Regardless, since the two Spoink were so eager I saw no reason to refuse, so I took out two PokeBalls before telling them that I had been planning to capture them together with the others that we were going to convince to show my sincerity. Spoink nodded at that, which was funny to watch since it was easy to overlook as they bounced in place, before shaking his head. He shared that it was better for me to capture them first to discourage their elders from preventing me from doing so later on. This way they would have already joined me and I would not have to worry about losing out entirely if their drove leaders chose to pull a runner or forbid its members from joining our noble cause.
This explained why they wanted to be captured, and showed that I had won over the little piggies a 100%, though the fact that they considered the latter two options a possibility made me wonder how high my chances of getting more Spoink for Utopia among their group were. That reminded me, I had not asked them about the size and strength of their group so I rectified that. Spoink replied without hesitation, sharing that their drove/group had 67 more Spoink along with 4 Grumpig of which 2 shared the leadership of the drove. According to the Spoink, their leaders were as strong as the ghost that forced them to Bounce into me/us.
Hades/Gegnar rose from my shadow when they mentioned him and gave them a cheery wave while laughing, causing the Spoink to flinch and jump back a few times in fright before they caught themselves and remembered that I had told them that Hades belonged to my group. They bounced back and even gave Hades a glare, which looked more cute than threatening, before telling me to go ahead and capture them. I chuckled a bit at the whole byplay before lobbing a Pokeball each at the two Spoink. They were drawn into the balls and since neither resisted, the process succeeded nearly instantly.
I called the Spoink out again right after and tucked their balls away for now before asking them to lead the way to their tribe. The Spoink told me to follow before they began to hop ahead. They were moving quite fast, so I speed walked after them, though I did not forget to utilize my bonds to alert Horus/Xatu and the others that I was on the move. They would be able to find me as long as they followed the draw of our bond, but this way they knew that they would not be able to find me if they went down the previous route. Once that was done, I began to think about the details Spoink had shared as I continued to follow after them.
It appeared that Spoink considered it possible that the leaders of their group would ignore what they saw as the chance for all Spoink, which indicated that they did not trust the Grumpig to treat the issue with as much importance as they did. That could be because they instinctively thought that Grumpig, who no longer had to deal with the issue, would not care as much about it, at least not enough to chase after a mere prospect; One without any guarantees at that. Well, that, or they simply did not trust their Grumpig leaders implicitly for whatever reason. I was hoping that it was the former rather than the latter since things would be easier for us if that was the case.
It took us close to 10 minutes before we reached a patch with a whole lot of bouncing little piggies spread all around. My gaze was drawn to the 4 Grumpig who stood up in alert when they saw us step onto the scene right after the two Spoink, and they acted without hesitation as soon as they noticed us. All four Grumpig lit up in a pinkish light and used their psychic powers to levitate every present Spoink to their side, including the two that I had captured. They moved the Spoink, except for the two that had joined me, behind them, and once they did that, two of them kept their gaze trained on me/us, while the other two began to speak to my Spoink, who they had moved to their side instead of behind them for obvious reasons.
I did not mind their apparent distrust/hostility toward me. I could tell from the way they acted the way they did without any hesitation, that there was at least no doubt that the Grumpig definitely valued the safety of the Spoink, which was good since it implied that Spoink's earlier worry was due to the possibility that Grumpig would be less interested in an elusive cure rather than anything the Grumpig did to cause distrust. With that assurance, I spread my aura and broadcasted my words over public telepathy rather than vocalizing them to show my truthfulness. I told them that the Spoink had no doubt told the other Grumpig why I had come, but still shared my interest in finding a solution to the physical flaw of Spoink which required the cooperation of various Spoink.
The Spoink watching from behind stirred at my words, showing that my little piggies were not the only ones easily moved by my proclamation. The Grumpig on the other hand showed no outward reaction, though I could feel interest and distrust in equal measure through my aura/emotion senses. That was the kind of reaction I had expected in the first place even when I broached the subject with the Spoink, so their reaction was not a problem. I used my aura and psychic powers to briefly bare myself open for full scrutiny and told them that I could guarantee that I would treat any Spoink that joined me with care, ensuring their physical as well as mental needs/health and that none would be in mortal danger during the study.
I obviously did not need to bare myself open like that but I was honestly not worried about them using the chance to do anything against me other than verifying my truthfulness since I was more than competent/strong enough to delay the psychic invasion of psychics of their level, even if more than one of them acted in concert, and that was all I needed to do for Mothra/Butterfree to take them down hard. That she stared at them while I did that, her air/aura showing that she was a serious threat if she had to be, was also a reason I dared to do what I did. After the display I put on, the Grumpig inclined their heads in respect before addressing me through public telepathy as well.
They declared that they acknowledged my purpose but did not see why they should allow more members of their drove to join me other than the 2 that I had already recruited, though I had a feeling they meant something along the lines of poached/tricked instead. Nonetheless, this part was one that I was the most adept in, so I directly began to make them an offer to ensure that their contribution to the wellbeing and future of all Spoink was well rewarded. I brought out a bunch of Mago, Sitrus, Tamato, and Payapa Berries before levitating them all over to the Grumpig to try. They obviously recognized the Sitrus Berries but looked at the others in curiosity, so I told them that these were berries that psychic types tended to like and that they were good for them in the long term if consumed regularly.
I had to respect the fact that the two leaders bit into the berries without hesitation after I said that, obviously to test the veracity of my claim, and as they did that I told them that I would plant a Sitrus Berry tree for every Spoink that qualified for my endeavor and joined me. I would also plant an additional Mago Berry tree for every third Spoink that joined, a Tamato Berry tree for every fifth, and a Payapa Berry tree for every tenth Spoink that joined. I chose to go with that arrangement because I doubted that the Grumpig would allow me to recruit as many Spoink as I could otherwise since my lowered standard at deep orange meant that there was a good chance that up to 40%, maybe more, could fulfill my recruitment criteria if their group was decent enough.
I doubted that even my offer would convince them to let me go that far, but I was hopeful that it would let me go for at least 10, possibly 20 Spoink. I silently watched as the leaders passed berries to the other two Grumpig before they "silently" discussed my offer. While they did that the jumping Spoink behind them excitedly talked to the two I already caught. A few minutes later the Grumpig told me that I could examine the Spoink and that they would decide how many would be allowed to contribute to the grand study after I found out how many of them managed to qualify in the first place.
I nodded at that and asked the Spoink to line up, which they happily did, so it only took a few moments before I had a line of bouncing Spoink in front of me. I began to examine/Observe them one by one, and the result was similar to what I expected, though the addition of two light green Spoink was a welcome but unexpected surprise. Overall, 35 of the wild 67 Spoink had potential at or above deep orange, which was slightly more than 52% of the total. Out of those, a mere 2 had light green potential, while only 3 had deep yellow potential, and even that was actually not a bad turnout even if we went with my usual preferential recruitment condition of deep yellow lower limit.
Anyway, after I honestly told the Grumpig that 35 Spoink met my requirements without going into detail about what those conditions were, they looked at each other before telling me that they could allow me to recruit 20 of those, which was a pleasant development. I naturally tried to add the 2 light green and 3 deep yellow Spoink along with the other higher potential ones to my recruits, but I hit a snag there since the Grumpig seemed to know that some of those had very good prospects, which was why they rejected their recruitment. Thankfully their understanding was limited, so I still managed to take away one of the light green and deep yellow Spoink, in addition to 2 light yellow Spoink, which was around 40% of my initial target.
Nonetheless, that was already pretty good and I was happy enough that the Grumpig missed one of the light green and deep yellow Spoink despite having spent years with them. After once more being very thankful for my decision to add Observe to my wishes, I brought out the promised berry trees before I began to ball the Spoink I selected. After I was done capturing the Spoink, I put away the Pokeballs before helping the Grumpig transplant them to a spot/area of their choice. 32 trees was not a small number and the Grumpig chose to separate them into 4 groups/clusters instead of planting them all together.
Once the after-trade bonus service was complete, I moved on to the reason I stayed to help. I inquired of the Grumpig if they could lead or point me to the closest Spinda or Spoink groups living around here.
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