As we moved toward Fallabor City, we kept an eye out for any signs of Spinda and Spoink. Other than dealing with the occasional blind wild Pokemon that failed to recognize Mt.Coronet, our journey was rather peaceful. The occasional daredevil that thought it was a good idea to attack a group that had a Nidoking/Seb and Nidoqueen/Gaia in it added a bit of color to our travels. Honestly, I could understand ignoring the little Butterfree/Mothra lounging on my head since she was not showing her prowess/stage, but even if Seb and Gaia were concealing their prowess as well, they were still fully evolved Pokemon, so seeing Pokemon like Zigzagoon, Poochyena, and Taillow dare to attack us was funny due to how silly it felt.
Nonetheless, every time that happened I brought a junior out of the Utopia Sect to teach these blind rouge cultivators a lesson, though I had them stay their hands once they had won and not send the blind ones to join their ancestors since I could feel that the little ones only aimed to steal my space bag and escape, presumably to get some fasting pellets. Jokes aside, I was pretty sure that the little daredevils only wanted to steal some food, which was why I let things be after Squirtle, Larvitar, Beldum, or Vendrak/Salandit had beaten them up.
While I usually healed the wild Pokemon my side beat up after a challenge, I did not bother doing so this time around to teach these guys and gals a lesson about recklessly attacking a group like ours and leaving themselves to their/our mercy. I was pretty sure that at least some people/Pokemon would not have bothered staying their hands, especially since they unlike me would most likely not have had a way to determine the assailant's true intentions. Being beaten by us and left in a heap should suffice to teach them a lesson, assuming that they did not get taken advantage of, though usually once we had walked a bit away from the beaten Pokemon another one from the same species would rush over and drag their beaten friend away.
As for those who did something like this without backup or some form of backup plan? Well, that was part of the cycle of life and their luck. Regardless, their reckless behavior had one good part; As soon as the first Taillow dove down, aiming for my shoulder, I could not help but feel a bit happy since the presence of Taillow indicated that there was no ashfall around the area. When the sky remained clear for over an hour while two more Taillow tried their luck at different points, I was sure that my previous prayers had been answered. No ashfall meant that I stood a chance of coming across Spoink while we were traveling, even if we had no such luck during the past hour.
Heck, forget the more elusive Spoink, we had not seen a Spinda either. All we came across until now aside from the daring species trio of Zigzagoon, Poochyena, and Taillow were Wurmple and the occasional Beautifly or Dustox that flitted past the trees around us. While I ignored those, I did capture all Wurmple we met on the way since those could contribute to the Pinkan Project. Honestly, seeing how I failed to spot even one member of the two Pokemon species I was looking after an hour, I felt kind of regretful that I had registered for my Gym Challenge on Arcday. I should have registered for Mewday or Giratiday instead since that would have given me more time to properly search through at least a part of the route to Fallabor City instead of walking it down in a straight fashion like I was doing now.
If my luck did not turn around soon to provide me enough Spinda and Spoink to satisfy my appetite; Wait, that sounded wrong like I wanted to eat those little psychic piglets and teddy bears. My thirst for them,…, ok, that sounded just as wrong. If my wish for a good amount of Spinda and Spoink to join Utopia could not be fulfilled by the time we made it to Fallabor City, I would need to head back out here first to look for more instead of heading for the Meteor Falls. While I wanted the Bagon and Beldum that lived around those parts exponentially more than I wanted the Spinda or Spoink, I knew that finding and capturing those would be much much harder, so dealing with the easier target first made sense.
Well, at least that was what I thought on the issue. I was aware that even if I used my privileges to acquire the right to explore the Meteor Falls and the Mount Chimney Mountain Range without restriction, finding and entering the Bagon or Beldum habitats was easier said than done. Whether I would be able to get my hands on them even if I managed to find the habitats was another issue entirely. I was not exchanging one for merits after all but trying to catch them in the wild so I would have to deal with their tribe's protection if I wanted their young. That sounded shady as well, but it was how the Pokemon world worked.
It may sound absurd, but I even harbored a teeny tiny bit of very extraordinary hope that I might be able to successfully convince one of the tribes, or a part of one, to migrate to Utopia; If I managed to find them in the first place that was. While there was a chance that a request/offer like that could be met with ridicule or taken as an insult, leading to a violent reaction from the other side, I still thought that it was worth at least an attempt. I would just have to wait until I had gotten what I wanted first, namely the Bagon and/or Beldum/Metang, before presenting the larger group/whole the offer to join Utopia.
Regardless, big fantastical dreams aside, I decided to raise my chances of finding Spinda and Spoink while still maintaining our current travel route. For that, I called out Hera/Pidgeot, Horus/Xatu, Moka/Crobat, Shino/Yanmega, Saphira/Altaria, and Fortuna/Togekiss to enlist their help. The first four being at the dark gold stage were free to fly around on their own to keep an eye out to see if they could spot any Spinda or Spoink, but Fortuna, who I only added to the mix due to the lucky opportunities her fortune might bring, needed an escort, which was where Saphira came in.
Even though Saphira was "only" at the (high) gold stage, she was strong enough to protect Fortuna long enough against anyone below the platinum stage for us to come to their help. Not that many Pokemon capable of flight would consider attacking a Togekiss for no reason due to the aura and ambiance the species as one of the world/nature's darlings gave off. Anyway, once I told them what I wanted them to do, the fliers determined among themselves which way to go, with Fortuna being granted first choice before they all took off while we continued walking ahead.
The funny thing was that we had barely walked for a minute when Fortuna and Saphira came flying. As it turned out a pair of Spoink had been bouncing around just a few kilometers to our southwest, which was the direction Fortuna chose. They had spotted the jumping Spoink as they were in the process of flying further out. Once they saw not one but two Spoink, they did not bother going down to engage them but directly came flying back to inform me without alerting the Spoink of their presence. I praised Fortuna and Saphira for doing such a great job. I then turned to the Nido duo and gave them a heads-up before moving them to Utopia.
With them taken care of, I jumped onto Saphira's back and told the lucky duo to take me to the Spoink. Less than half a minute later, Saphira stopped flying forward and we began to hover in place. Looking down I saw two Spoink playing with each other, throwing a berry between them using their psychic power and before catching it with the same. I just watched them play like that for close to a minute, and from my observation, I was pretty sure that their game also had an interference factor where they tried to stop the other from catching the thrown berry with their psychic powers.
It was a great way to train the power and the control they had over their psychic energy, and we had a pretty much identical game we used, though we had moved on to using sand to increase the difficulty. Witnessing a game like this being played by two wild Spoink just went to show that there were smart people or Pokemon everywhere. It was when one of the Spoink finally failed to catch the berry letting it fall to the ground, leading to the winning Spoink to happily take ahold of it before eating it that I decided that it was time to make our move.
Teleport was usually not a move/ability that the Spoink line learned intrinsically, but them being psychic types I did not exclude the possibility that they might have learned it the hard way, so I sent Hades/Gengar ahead and let him use Mean Look on both Spoink to prevent them from pulling a fast one on us. The Spoink predictably panicked at Hades' appearance and they attempted to quite literally Bounce away, but all that did was catapult them into our direction as we descended.
We saw their startled looks when their attempt to escape a Gengar brought them in front of an Altaria and a Togekiss, and even though I found it rather amusing, I still blanketed them in a calming and friendly aura before catching them with telekinesis while initiating a telepathy connection to prevent them from panicking too much since I was genuinely worried that they might suffer a panic/heart attack. Once the Spoink felt the telepathic connection they went from startled and panicked to shocked and curious, which was a good start. Since they were psychic types, I decided to be frank with them.
I directly told them that I specifically searched for them or rather for Spoink, because I was interested in the jumping heart issue they were having and I was curious to see if I could help them overcome the problem. I first felt their curiosity grow before it got replaced by panic, and realizing what most likely caused them to panic like that, I mentally assured them that I could guarantee that no Spoink would die in the process before revealing that I was a certified Professor. Well, a Junior Professor but a Professor nonetheless. That in combination with my aura blanketing them while radiating that I was being honest managed to calm them down again.
They were intrigued by what I said, so I told them that I was seriously looking into solutions but that I needed the help/reference of quite a few Spoink to research and verify the issues as well as possible solution ideas that I had. I also made sure to add that any Spoink that joined would get to live in an excellent environment/habitat with their safety and meals guaranteed, though I added that I had certain qualification requirements of the Spoink that could participate to ensure the best results of my research which would require me to examine them first.
The Spoink now convinced that I meant what I said and definitely interested told me to go ahead and examine them to see if they could join. I had already Observed them while we were talking so I knew that one of them barely passed the lower limit I set for Spoink, which was deep orange, while the other had yellow potential. Still, to keep up appearances, I still levitated them into my hands to physically examine them on top of probing their bodies with my aura. After spending a minute on each Spoink I declared that they were qualified to join. I could feel their relief at that followed by joy, and I had to smile at the fact that the first part of my plan was complete.
The reason I spent so much effort on the little Spoink was that I was going to enlist their help in hopefully finding more Spoink without having to look for them. There was a good chance that the two Spoink belonged to a larger group, and I directly asked them if that was the case. I was quite happy when they confirmed that that was the case, so I asked them if they could lead me to the rest of their group so that I could see if I could find more Spoink that qualified for OUR crucial undertaking. They barely hesitated for a moment before agreeing, so I had Saphira finally bring us down so that the Spoink could lead us to their home.
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