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Delilah was the first of the two to join in the fray, commanding her Sylphyne, Chanel, to use Leech Seed on the opposing PKMN while it was vulnerable from its use of Ceremony. Chanel's attack scored a hit, and Oberest winced as a little of its health was drained by the parasitic plant growing from the seed. Sampson soon followed, "Patroclus, Metal Sound now! Follow it up with Iron Defense!" The robotic PKMN screamed an appalling metallic yell at the wood king, lowering its Special Defenses and then proceeded to boost its own Defense. "What else are we supposed to do?" Sampson questioned, "Our PKMN are so much weaker, we can only just chip away at its health. Tell Dusclops to do...something!!!"

Sampson had just risen through the rubble on top of him and was in too severe a state of shock to really comprehend what the man had just said. All he had seen was that Delilah had somehow miraculously managed to avoid any debris from hitting her fragile female form, which amazed the young man. He then turned his gaze toward the darkly clothed man and saw him point toward some sort of cave-like feature behind him and then stumble through the door--or what was left of it at least--on the other side of the room. Not able to express how much he did not want to follow in the footsteps of that guy, he climbed over the pile of crumbled cement and steel to where Delilah was standing, untouched by any of it.

"Delilah, are you all right? No fainting, we have to get out of here, or they will come catch us and put us back. And I am pretty sure neither one of us wants to have our PKMN taken from us again..." It was at that moment Sampson realized that he had not recalled his Alphabot, and, for a time whose number seemed like infinity for the day, panic set in.

"Patroclus! Where are you???!?" Sampson screamed for his robot companion everywhere around the debris and started digging through it near where he had last seen his floating partner. Alf aalfa *beep* came from behind the desperately searching trainer. Sampson whipped around to meet the face-screen of Patroclus and, simultaneously to letting out a sigh of relief, wrapped the little robot in a constricting bear hug. (What'd you expect him to do? The guy is a hugger, he's trigger-happy with them.) Noticing that Patroclus had once again been adorning himself with parts of machinery he had found, Sampson laughed at his companion's fascination and recalled it to its pokeball.

"Now, Delilah, do you want to go first into the pitch-black tunnel or do you want me to?" While he thought he had made a joke, he unknowingly had provoked his travelling companion's fear of darkness.

"Huh huh," she nervously laughed, "No, no. You first!" The young man quit his laughing, finally recognizing the inappropriateness of it in the situation and lead the way. The girl was not far behind him, she had actually raced up to hold his guiding hand through the nightmarishly dark shadows that hopefully led to their freedom. However, once they had gotten used to the darkness and realized what they were doing, both Sampson and Delilah began to blush; neither one able to tell that the other was feeling the same thing.

Sampson and Delilah walked into one of Bastion's "Town Squares" on the opposite side of the city than they had previously entered. Delilah's eyes opened wide when she saw her favorite fashion boutique outlet, and she dragged Sampson in to watch her try on dresses and outfits. In and out of the fitting room she went, trying on outfit after outfit after outfit for what seemed like an eternity to the young man. He would either nod his head signifying a "yes" or shake it signifying a "no." Eventually it turned into him reluctantly giving a head movement in an arbitrary direction, and Delilah making her own determination on the outfit's worthiness. Finally, after a time they made their way to the cash register and Delilah purchased one new outfit that she rushed to put on. When she changed, she walked out to Sampson--who did notice how good she looked in her new cutoff jean shorts, shimmel-style white tanktop and pink high-top sneakers--and gave him a big hug for going shopping with her, which he appreciated. Now that they had moved on, Sampson was more upbeat about their excursion. It was much more positive to their earlier experiences of that day, which was nice for both of them, though mainly for her. It was then that Delilah noticed her favorite ice cream shop and dragged Sampson in for another ridiculous experience, even though this genre of shopping appealed more to him. Eventually they left there, too, but this process continued for two to three hours and it was almost mid-day. (Their adventures in Team Shadow's hideout were in the wee hours of the morning because of the time lost while they were unconscious)

"Oh my gosh!" Delilah screamed jubilantly.

"Oh, Lord, not again, Delilah," Sampson unhappily responded.

"No, silly, you're gonna like this one! Just look!" The young man took heed of her recommendation and shifted his gaze toward the store in question, only to recognize that it was, in fact, a TM store.

"FINALLY! I've been waiting for so long to browse one of these places for something practical to improve my PKMN for battle!" He couldn't have been more excited, except that he paused right before they walked in the door. Sampson suddenly flashed back to their kidnapping by Team Shadow at the first TM store and decided that he would have a contingency plan this time. He released Neo from his pokeball and instructed him that if anyone tried to attack either of the trainers when they walked in, that he should rip them to shreds, figuratively of course. The duo cautiously entered the store and, thankfully, no one was standing there suspiciously ready to mug and kidnap them.

"Welcome, children," greeted a squinty-eyed man behind a counter containing many disc-like objects of assorted color, "To the Bastion TM Depot. How may I help you today?" The young man's lips parted to reveal an enormous grin, and he engaged the man in a conversation about his inventory of TM's, which ones were priced at what levels and what may be the most useful in battle. This conversation continued for twenty some-odd minutes until Sampson finally picked out a TM he wanted and purchased it. During this time, Delilah had been randomly searching through the stacks of battle magazines and other memorabilia, narrowly avoiding knocking over a case of CDs containing "pump up tracks" for battles.

"I'll take X-Scissor, Substitute and Drain Punch, sir," requested the young man. The transaction moved forward normally, and the squinty salesman gave Sampson a bag containing his goods, as well as a free T-shirt with the store's logo on it that the salesman had "thrown in for free" with the purchase. Immediately after receiving his merchandise, the young man went about teaching X-Scissor to Neo, who excelled at the steps and advanced through them very quickly, until Sampson's Pokedex uttered the phrase, "Congratulations! Your Zangoose has been taught X-Scissor."

"All right," exclaimed the young man, "This ought to be great to use against Bastion's Gym Leader. You said Old Woman Shada told you he was a Grass-type specialist, right?" This question was aimed at Delilah, who had actually paid attention to their host's ramblings.

"Yeah," she replied, "That's what she said. Can we go challenge him already? I'm getting anxious!" Sheesh, there's no need to be so impatient about it. After all, YOU are the one who made us go shopping all day, Sampson silently commented on her hurriedness. He went back into the store to ask directions to Calleo's Gym, and the man wrote some down for him on a sticky-note. The two trainers then began their trek through the city to find the Bastion Gym, but the salesman's handwriting was chickenscratch and nearly unintelligible, so they took many a wrong turn and kept ending up in front of this run-down old greenhouse that was completely overgrown with vines and other kinds of foliage. Eventually, Delilah got so frustrated that she went up and knocked on the door of the place.

Sampson laughed at her absurdity, but when the door opened he reacted by running and casting her aside, out of the way of whatever danger he anticipated was on the other side, "Delilah, watch out!"

"Ow!!!" she yelled as she collided with the ground, and then they both looked inside to the realm behind the door.......

In the spirit of chivalry, Sampson spoke up, "She will be; ladies first. After that, if you don't mind, I would love to have the privilege, sir." Sampson was confused by the man, who seemed to be both in contrast to the foliage around him and a part of it. Puzzling though it was, it intrigued him. In a similar state of confusion--but at Sampson's gesture, not the man--Delilah stood semi-dumbfounded before stepping into the Trainer's box in front of her and squeezing out a meek "thank you" in the young man's direction. It was then that he stopped, not sure what to do during the battle. He had two choices: 1) sit down, enjoy the match and strategize or 2) go out and explore the city a bit more, unhindered by his female companion. He chose the latter option and told the battlers that he would be back soon enough prior to wishing them both the best of luck.

((In your next few posts, would you mind sort of summarizing her Gym Battle? Sorry for the inconvenience, Decku. If you don't mind, then her information is on the same Trainer Post as mine on page 3 of the topic. If you would rather not and would prefer a full battle, then I could do that I suppose. However, there would be an additional full battle after that, so pick your poison. Sampson, in the meantime, is going to adventure through the notorious Bastion Backalleys. (X ))

((Deal. Thanks for that, though! This is a one-post account of Sampson's little adventure and return to the Gym.))

Upon leaving the Gym, the young man had decided to explore the part of the city opposite where he had come from. On his way here, he had been to a mall and traversed some neighborhoods, but he had not seen the infmaous "Bastion Backalleys." So he resolved to go see that scene.

20 minutes later, Sampson was convinced he was in that very place. Everywhere around him was dark, even though the clock on his Pokedex said it was only 3:15 in the afternoon. There were shady characters everywhere, so Sampson sought refuge in a nearby building, which turned out to be a pub. The security men learned that this man was not 21 and promptly threw him out of the bar. He skidded and rolled headlong into a food stand, causing the owner to yell at him in rough, broken English complete with a thick accent from somewhere (the young man could not tell where, but apologized regardless). As he stood up, a shadowy blur approached the stand, stole a bin of the owner's fruit from the food stand and ran off. "LOOK WHOT JOU DOON!! NAW ZAT MOY FRUT HAS IS TAIKGAUN!" The salesman cursed at Sampson, who was already running after the crook, compelled by his strong sense of morals. The chase went on for 12 some-odd minutes, ducking into abandoned buildings, avoiding crowded streets and sleazy merchants, dodging obstacles strewn behind the crook and ducking around seemingly endless corners until the crook was trapped in a dead-end alley. Wait Sampson pondered the situation, pausing for a mental pant It doesn't even notice me here.. What is it doing with the fruit? The crook seemed to be feeding the fruit to something wrapped in a blanket at the alley's end.

It was when the woman turned around that she saw Sampson and freaked out, "Wha--Who are you? Don't come any closer! Stay. Right. There..." She grabbed the bundle and tried to sprint past Sampson, who caught her by the cloak which had first obscured her. However, before he could begin to lecture/chastise the woman, the bundle fell open, revealing the smallest Pandough Sampson believed there had ever been. "It's just a baby," she said, "I was trying to help it because its trainer and mother had abandoned it. It pained me to see it like that, so I caught it myself and am raising it. Sampson felt terrible, and he let the woman go. He had a choice to make: would he take the fruit and let the PKMN starve or let them go and have the salesman's business hurt? After a little mental debate on the issue, Sampson figured out what he was going to do. As he turned down the alley to leave the woman and her PKMN there, she called for him to wait and then gave him a Great Ball, presumably that she had stolen, but he dared not ask. He thanked her, but she stopped him and thanked him, before embracing him and heading back down the alley.

Sampson arrived at the man's food stand and told him sadly that he couldn't catch the crook. The fruit vendor cursed again, but Sampson merely laughed. "FY LOFF JOU?" He questioned the young man. Sampson then reached into his wallet and paid the man for all the fruit he had lost. This left Sampson nigh bankrupt but sated his moral sense and his personal "obligation" toward PKMN. The young man smiled as he strolled through the rest of the Backalleys and back in the direction of the Gym, feeling at ease because of the knowledge that he had nothing for any pickpocket to steal.

He opened the Gym door to find Delilah, waiting, who sprung up, "Sampson! I did it! I finally did it! It took me three tries, but I got my second Gym Badge!!!"

"Congratulations," he replied, "Well done! Must have been all that training you did with me." He smiled at his jest toward the girl. She hit him, and he laughed in reply. Then, Calleo emerged from a thicket of bushes that seemingly moved out of his much like saloon doors seem to swing open. "Am I on time, sir? Can I still challenge the Gym?"

Snowyd, what's that? Taking advantage of the lull between the first call out and the beginning of the battle, Sampson pulled out his Pokedex and the plant PKMN's data flashed up on the screen, revealing that it was a Grass/Ice-type. Grass and Ice are weak against Steel, so I know just who I'm starting with... "Come on out, Patroclus!" the young man yelled his battle cry as he summoned the robot PKMN from its Pokeball, "Now use Iron Defense!" The Alphabot tightened itself up as a metal sheen washed over its body, sharply raising its Defense stat.