CH231 (845), Something Like That Happened?

That Whiscash interlude delayed our departure by about 20 minutes, and funnily enough, dealing with Whiscash itself made up less than a minute of that. It was dealing with the thankful Marill and Azumarill that took the most time. Still, we did eventually depart, and looking back on that whole experience, I could not help but take note of one thing. 

I had to be more mindful of my wording and how it could be interpreted in the given situation, especially when I gave short orders. Had I worded my order differently instead of telling her to be quick and not play around, Mothra might not have killed Whiscash. It was likely that those words in combination with the story Azumarill told us had given Mothra the impression that I wanted her to get rid of Whiscash John Wick-style.

I naturally did not blame Mothra for misunderstanding me, but I made a mental note to be more careful in the future. Adding a simple "I want to check it" or "I want to capture it" would have sufficed to tell Mothra that I wanted her to subdue Whiscash after all. Anyway, after we left the hidden chamber, I brought out Nyx/Umbreon as well as Thor/Raichu again, and they complained about me not letting them out earlier with the Marill group.

I honestly told them that I had been worried that they would scare the Marill and later on did not find an opportune moment to let them out. Still, they got to see what happened through the livestream like everyone else in Utopia, so it was not like they missed anything. That had them grumble that it was not the same, which was true to a certain degree, but they stopped complaining, which was enough for me.

Since we had finished the exploration of the first area, I did not bother stopping for anything and directly led my group toward the bridge that led to the next area of the main chamber/space. There were no Pokemon on the bridge, so we passed it without stopping, though I did keep an eye on my steps to get a better idea of how long the bridge was.

I initially thought that it was 30 to 40 meters long, but apparently, it was closer to 28 meters, which was not too far off from 30, so I was actually close to my lowest estimation. Either way, it took me less than half a minute to cross the roughly 5-meter-wide bridge, and the only Pokemon I saw during those moments were the five Zubat that passed above us. Lucky for them, they did not attempt to shit on us since that would have ended badly, for them. 

Regardless, we made it to the reverse L-shaped platform across the bridge. The platform was on the same level as the entrance platform, and the only way to continue exploring the rest of the space was to eventually go down the semi-natural steps that led one to the large venue connected with the stream produced by the second/larger waterfall. Actually, calling those steps the only way was not really right. Unlike the games, nothing was stopping me from going over the edges after all.

The stream and the rock platform below were both just a 9 to 10-meter jump away, maybe 12 to 13 meters if we stretched it, but not more than that. Either way, such a distance was no problem for me, especially since I could just levitate down. In fact, even a normie could easily deal with such a height using a rope, as long as they found a safe place to secure it. The presence of an existing way to go up and down just made that unneeded, and everyone subconsciously chose to use that instead of jumping or climbing around even if it took some extra steps to reach the stairs.

Still, since my goal was exploration and not speed, I did not take the short cut, but explored the entire platform, starting from the stairless shorter/lower part of the reverse L. Walking around the entirety of the platform took us close to 45 minutes, and there was honestly nothing that stood out to me compared to the entrance platform. Well, actually, I saw no Paras on this side of the bridge, so maybe that, but other than that the Pokemon on both sides mirrored each other.

Given the bridge that was no surprise, though that had me wondering why I had seen no Paras. Maybe the Rangers stopped them from crossing the bridge, or none of them bothered staying here when they could move to wider platforms closer to the stream. It was also possible that they did not like this part since there were less shady areas protected from the lights set up by the alliance. Even though they were part grass type, mushrooms grew best in a dim light environment, so that was actually a valid argument.

Anyway, it was already close to 7 p.m. at this point so I decided to pause our exploration and call it a day. The lights set up by the alliance had already begun to dim, and I was sure that they would be reduced to a minimum glow within an hour before eventually being turned off completely, leaving only the luminous moss to light up some parts of the giant room/space. This was done to stimulate the day cycle outside, and because it was a proven fact that keeping the light on 24/7 messed with the cave dwellers.

That bit of trivia aside, I went to one of the boulder formations I saw during my earlier walk. I felt that it was the best place to enter Utopia and later leave the place without attracting too much attention. However, before I moved us to Utopia, I took a look at my phone to see if I had any reception since that could go either way due to us being inside a cave. I knew that I wouldn't get any signal in the deeper parts with layers and layers of rock and other minerals in the way, but I was hopeful that this place was close enough to the outside for me to get a signal.

Thankfully, my phone showed two bars, which was enough for me to call Professor Oak. I wanted to call him and ask him if he knew about Jeff. Had there been no signal I would have had to leave the cave before entering Utopia, but since that was not the case, I directly brought us in. I opened a little portal to ensure that my phone had a signal before I called the professor. The phone rang for at least half a minute, without anyone picking up. Just as I was contemplating if I should hang up and try again later, the call connected and I heard the Professor wishing me a good evening.

After returning his greeting, I went straight to the reason I called. I told him about my random meeting with a Veteran Master Class trainer called Jeff at the entrance of the Meteor Falls, who claimed to be a Super Elite because he was only registered as an Elite with the alliance. I was naturally curious if Professor Oak knew who Jeff was, so I asked if he had heard about him and if I had to worry about the guy. Well, it turned out that he did know Jeff.

Professor Oak shared that he was one of the few people still around who knew/remembered Jeff and his story as it was. He assured me that I did not have to worry about Jeff posing any threat to me or anyone else unless they happened to be causing a mess in front of him. Professor Oak gave Jeff the good guy card and added that he had pretty much become a standard recluse. I could practically hear his disappointment when he mentioned the last bit.

It was obvious that there was more to the story than Jeff had shared, which was fair considering we had just randomly met and were pretty much strangers. Still, considering that the guy was close to becoming a Legend(ary Master), I could not help but be somewhat curious about Jeff's past, so I asked the professor if he could share with me what was up with Jeff and his attitude toward the alliance('s ranking system).

There was a moment of silence following my question before the professor released a sigh and began sharing Jeff's story. It turned out that Jeff's past was much more impressive than I expected. According to the Professor, Jeff was the reason why the alliance was still as "clean" as it was right now, or rather he was the trigger that caused Professor Oak to step back in and clean up before choosing to stay somewhat involved to ensure that things remained that way.

The whole thing began before Jeff was even born. The Professor after having founded the alliance and led it for around three centuries, decided that the foundation had settled and that the alliance could work just as well without him having to take charge. Hence, he retired and left the whole thing to his successors so that he could focus on studying Pokemon.

He literally washed his hands off the alliance and ignored everything to focus on his work. From what he said things went well for a few centuries, but at some point the good old human factor (greed and so on) began to encroach on the alliance's inner workings. The further away from Kanto and the northern continent, where he was spending most of his time, the faster things went bad.

Jeff, who was apparently born in the late 900s, came in at a time when the alliance as a whole had become rather cumbersome, though it was still not as bad in Kanto and the north. Unfortunately for Jeff, he had been born in Orre where things had developed the worst way. The majority of alliance personnel there had turned the situation from the alliance (personnel) working for the populace to the populace working/being exploited by the alliance (personnel).

From Professor Oak's description, Jeff's growth from childhood to adulthood and beyond that pretty much followed the underdog liberation protagonist template. He endured the situation and bid his time as he continued to develop/get stronger for nearly 100 years until he eventually was strong enough to start fighting back, which was once his Pokemon allowed him to fight Ace and then quickly Elite Class trainers. He avoided the Champions and kept attacking every other corrupt leader.

His actions and their impacts reached a point where even Professor Oak, who was still immersed in his research, caught wind of the events happening across the pond. Until then he had only been superficially following the alliance's development, and since the local one was mostly fine he had not bothered with it since he saw it as something the people had to learn to deal with themselves.

I could hear his chagrin when he mentioned that part, and I was sure that he was blaming himself for not taking a deeper look into the happenings. He said that as soon as he heard about Jeff, he went to Orre to see what was happening over there and he then learned what had happened with the Orre part of the alliance. He admitted that he was very angry with what he found and got even angrier when he discovered that the alliance offices in many other regions had become decadent as well, even if not to the same degree as in Orre.

What followed was him taking Jeff along as he quickly traveled through Orre taking down every corrupt leader, before putting Jeff in charge of looking for good/qualified people to take office to replace the corrupt ones. Meanwhile, the professor mobilized his friends and went on to do a grand cleanup/purge, which was followed up with some additional reforms to prevent a repeat of this mess. While the old regulations had slowed things down enough that it took a few centuries for things to reach this level, that was not good enough for the professor.

Not only did he push through the reforms, but he also made sure to keep an eye on things and be more active/involved afterward even if he did not retake the position of president. He kept his part brief, but he mentioned that I had probably not heard about it because it happened nearly 2000 years ago and did not impact our area as much, so one would have to actually look into specific history books to find any information on the events/period.

Anyway, Jeff registered as an Elite during his assignment but did not go anywhere near an alliance office after that. The professor sounded regretful when he mentioned that he had tried to recruit Jeff since he recognized how talented he was but Jeff refused and became a recluse who preferred to stay in the wild most of the time. He also mentioned that he tried to keep tabs on Jeff and knew that he had become a master, but had not registered him as such in respect of Jeff's personal wishes.

The professor was rather surprised when I chose to share that Jeff had told me that he was close to reaching the Legend(ary Master) standard Pokemon-wise, but he seemed happy for Jeff.

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