642: Bucking the Treasure Trend!
Dodgy Synopsis
|
648: Toreja Hanta - Baku to Yajiron!
|
Today finds the twerps on the ferry heading to Lily of the Valley Island. Ash is excited about the opportunity to finally be in the Sinnoh League, while Piplup is excited to see a ball rolling along the deck. It rushes down the deck after the ball and rams straight into a Baltoy, whose trainer - an angry looking teen with fierce red hair and yellow highlights - angrily snaps at Dawn and Piplup for rushing into his Baltoy. Dawn does apologise, sighing that Piplup gets..... "eager".... and telling it to say sorry. Now that he's gotten what he wants, the boy seems bemused that they would apologise at all, and tells them not to worry about it. He introduces himself as Buck and asks them if they are going to Lily of the Valley Island for a vacation, and when they tell him they're going to the Sinnoh League Championships he remarks that he "thinks" he has heard of that, giving Ash a heart attack. So why is HE going there? Because he's hunting treasure, that's why! He's....
He explains that his Baltoy can find hidden treasure, overheard by the ship's waiters and janitorial staff as they bring along drinks and swab the deck. The blue and red haired waiters and the short furry midget Janitor seem VERY interested in the concept of a Pokémon that can locate treasure. Though, to be fair, shouldn't that be of interest to EVERYBODY?
Buck explains that he became a treasure hunter when he and Baltoy accidentally discovered a sunken shipwreck..... and by he and Baltoy he means Baltoy, and by him being a treasure hunter he means he goes where Baltoy tells him too. Except as he soon reveals, Baltoy will frequently bring him to treasure locations where the treasure has already been looted. However, that sunken ship might have had no treasure, but it did have a treasure map! He shows the children he only just met 5 minutes ago his treasure map detailing the exact location of the treasure buried on Dandelion Island, while the janitor and waiters all hover about listening in.
No wonder people always get to the treasure ahead of him!
On the back of the map are a series of symbols that indicate where the treasure should be, and Brock checks his PokeNav and notes there is nothing recorded as being there but a forest. Team Rocket head away after taking notes, while Brock notes that there are also a lot of Pokémon images on the map and he's not sure what that means. The twerps note all the various types of the Pokémon, which include a Solrock and Lunatone, but none of them understand what exactly the purpose of the symbols is. Buck asks if they want to help him find the treasure, and since the ferry will be stopping there to resupply, they can take the time to help him and then continue on towards Lily of the Valley Island.
After reaching the port, the twerps head up on the path dictated by the map, Piplup taking the lead and walking straight into an explosion. Voltorb come rolling in before the twerps and begin suicide bombing the twerps, as apparently the super secret code of the map has been broken - the Voltorb symbols on the map indicate.... VOLTORBS! Pikachu thunderbolts the suicidal Pokémon and they take off, but their next path is blocked by Pinecos, and Buck guesses the Pokémon were left there in order to operate as living, breathing, perpetually reproducing traps. Luckily they can use their own Pokémon type advantages to overcome the traps as forewarned by the maps, and they head off again. Elsewhere, Team Rocket are advancing on with only the sketchy knowledge from their brief eavesdropping of Buck and the twerps. Jesse is convinced that the Voltorbs will be a happy welcoming party, but is quickly disabused of the notion. Luckily for them, a lifetime of getting blasted off again has given them a built in tolerance and all the explosions do little more than puff up their hair a bit.
The twerps reach a river and Piplup again bounces ahead over stepping stones, reaching the other side and landing on top of a Vileplume's head. It is seem blasting up into the air and crashing back down, and the Vileplume and Gloom begin blasting Acid at the twerps (not that kind of acid), so Ash has Infernape use Flamethrower to scare them away and clear the path, leaving none of them the worse for wear.... other than Piplup of course.
Brock spoonfeeds it some medicine and it recovers enough to once again try to rush ahead overenthusiastically. Meanwhile, Team Rocket have outrun the Voltorb, but run straight into the Pineco, which begin exploding again from up in the treetops.
Piplup has brought the twerps to a number of tunnel entrances in the map, and Piplup wants to lead them through the first it gets to. They're not certain though, and Buck has Baltoy use its Ability to lead them on to a different tunnel, a depressed Piplup waddling on behind them. Team Rocket, on the other hand, have located the Vileplume and use a unique method to get by them, having Seviper zip through and send all the Pokémon spinning about crazily as they hoof it through as fast as they possibly can.
Inside the tunnel, Graveler's come rolling down towards them, and brave little Piplup decides to step up to the plate and stop them. Unfortunately, despite the type advantage, it can only stop one of them, and the rest crash into it and knock it back into Dawn's hands. The rest knock them back and they fall over the side into an abyss, crashing to what would kill or brutally cripple ordinary people but only slightly dazes the twerps. When they come back to their senses, though, they discover Buck, Baltoy AND Piplup have disappeared. A Golem comes rolling in, a Pokémon that was not on the map, and they call out Gible to deal with it, beating on the Pokémon that actually made zero threatening gestures towards them and sending it scampering in a panic.
But with Graveler scared off, they're left wondering how to find Piplup... and Gible has an idea! Dawn freaks out and squeaks at Ash to stop him, but it's too late, Gible unhinges it's freakish jaw and lets loose a ball of energy which lifts up and then meanders on down the path, followed by a small explosion and a frantic squeaking. They head to the source of the noise and find a very disgruntled Piplup and a confused Buck, but Gible's plan worked, the insane little mindless landshark actually IS capable of thinking!
Team Rocket have reached a network of tunnel entrances inside the tunnel itself and Meowth chooses an entrance at random and begins climbing it.... only he's climbing up the face of an Onix! And before you know it, they're blasting off again!
The twerps spot light at the end of the tunnel and rush outside, discovering ancient ruins that don't appear on Brock's PokeNav despite being fully visible from the air. Ancient symbols are etched into the ruins, and Baltoy floats over a triangular one, but Buck and the twerps are no closer to figuring out what it means when Team Rocket return, coming at the ruins from the air (told you they were visible from above!) and throwing bombs at the twerps while Buck tries to figure out who they are.
"Isn't the way we swoop in sublime!?!"
"On the wind!"
"Past the stars!"
"In our prime!"
"Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace!"
"Dashing hope, putting fear in its place."
"A rose by any other name is just as sweet."
"When everything's worse, our work is complete."
"Jesse."
"And James."
"Meowth's da name!"
"Putting you do-gooders in their place!"
"We're Team Rocket!"
"In your face!" they all finish together.
They declare the treasure is theirs, but Buck angrily points out they found it first and that makes it theirs.... all of them disregarding that NOBODY has actually found it yet (not to mention the treasure itself was stolen by pirates in the first place!). Meowth places a foot on the triangle as he mocks the twerps and the symbols on the ruins glow bright and a giant square of light appears and from it emerges....
Claydol!?!
EVERYBODY is surprised, is Claydol the treasure? Jesse thinks it is worth a lot, while Dawn notices that the symbols on Claydol are the same as those on the ruins, and Buck guesses that it is guarding the treasure. Jesse and James decide to send in Seviper and Carnivine in to fight the enormous and evidently ancient living magic doll monster because that's going to work out well. Even they know it's bad news, as they sit sweating facing the monstrosity that dodges their first attack and then spins towards them, running right into them and sending them blasting off again.
It then turns it's eternal 360 degree vision onto them and prepares to attack, easily blocking Piplup's brave and proud attack and blasting it back easily. They all rush over the side of the ruins down the stairs, and Ash tries to fight Claydol with Torterra, but to much the same effect. Buck has a brilliant plan though, his tiny Baltoy is a much smaller and less powerful pre-evolved version of the giant ancient guardian monstrosity so surely it will be able to defeat it!
It tries a Shadow Ball which... does nothing, and gets blasted with energy attacks that knock it backwards. Buck tells it to keep it up though, and it shifts into a Gyro-Ball Attack, spinning towards and around Claydol in an effort to disorient a Pokémon that.... can see in 360 degrees. Happily Baltoy DOES have superior speed and it able to score a number of direct attacks with Gyro-Ball, and then a Solar Beam actually penetrates Claydol's Light Screen and leaves it open to another Gyro Ball Attack that CRASHES DIRECTLY INTO IT'S HEAD AND DRIVES IT INTO THE GROUND!
Fucking OUCH!
Buck throws a Pokeball and captures Claydol (which is knocked out and technically should NOT be captureable!), and as he celebrates with the Pokeball, a stone in the ground lifts up and opens with a shining light to reveal.... crummy old clay pottery!
The twerps are horribly disappointed but Buck is utterly enthralled, settling down with the pots and gasping over it all, telling them that analysing the clay will tell him which region the pottery originally comes from and the condition is of museum quality! You see his "treasure hunting" is actually his desire to be an archaeologist, and this is exactly the type of treasure he has been after all this time!
That's... that's wonderful and to his credit for sure, but.... it might have been nice if he'd mentioned this to the twerps earlier. Gathering up the pottery, they return to the ferry where Buck says his goodbyes, and the twerps return on their way to Lily of the Valley Island. As Buck waves goodbye and Ash considers the upcoming Sinnoh League, we're all left to ponder another unanswered question. Sure the pottery is worth something from an archaeological standpoint NOW, but..... what the hell kind of pirates would steal and hide inside a giant super-protected set of ruins freshly made clay pottery?
| BEST QUOTES |
|
