Episode 2

Season Four

Presenter: Time was against Electrike. Time is against us all. Only one has all the time in the world, and that’s the PokéMole.

Day Four

Presenter: During the night, the remaining nine contestants were given an early morning wake up call by the Battle Frontier Police Force. They were all taken away in disbelief and thrown into jail, but as they wake up, they soon realise it is all a part of their next challenge.

Presenter: Good morning contestants, I have to say my night was probably a damn sight more comfortable than yours. Anyway, you might have realised by now that it’s time for today’s challenge: it’s called Just A Load Of Numbers, and is worth 15,000 to you if you succeed. You currently all reside in your own private prison cell, which can be opened by keying in a number in the keypad on your wall. You can work out your key number by solving the equation given on the back wall of your cell, for example your equation might say “Fourteen to the power two minus (((ten to the power two) times two) minus nine)”, in which case you solve the equation, key the figure into your keypad and the door will open. If eight of you can escape from your cells then we’ll add 15,000 to the prize fund. There is of course, a catch. Your only source of light in this dark room will three lights on the wall – for every incorrect answer that anyone of you gives, one of these lights will be extinguished. Three incorrect answers equals three lights extinguished, and the challenge is over. Any questions?

Absol: Has Electrike actually gone or is he waiting behind a wall somewhere in some sort of Big Brother-esque twist?

Presenter: I’m afraid that information is given on a strictly need-to-know basis.

Nosepass: We need to know.

Octillery: We had nightmares.

Presenter: No, he’s not. Any real questions? No? We shall begin then.

Presenter: All of the equations are revealed and the challenge begins. Every contestant actually has exactly the same equation, and nothing was ever said to them banning them from conferring with each other, but will any of them actually realise this? The equation they have to solve is:

Just two minutes later, Nosepass once again makes her way to the door, and this time keys in a number, to be greeted by another small explosion on the wall, plunging the room into semi-darkness. There is now no more room for error, but with only one of Absol and Nosepass needing to escape, there is still hope for the contestants. This hope is realised when, just the one minute later, a nervous Absol walks over to her door and cringes after keying in her code, only to be greeted with her door swinging over. The challenge has just about been won.

Presenter: Well contestants, eight of you have escaped and I can still see you, meaning the challenge has been passed. Congratulations to all of you, the prize fund has now risen to 35,000. What is interesting however, is that for those of you who escaped, you all felt confident enough to cheer, yet none of you ever decided to go and help your fellow contestants with their equations. None of you decided to point out that every single equation for every single one of you appeared to be the same, despite no equation being more than ten feet away from you. Still, why brood over the negatives? 35,000 is yours, and you have a nice little break from the action now – I won’t be needing you until tomorrow night, where I’ll see you outside the hotel. Maybe it would be wise for you to all get some sleep – if money was awarded for looking like you’d been dragged through a hedge backwards by a Rayquaza you’d have earned a fortune by now. Goodbye.

Absol: Although he was my prime suspect, I can’t hide my delight that Electrike has gone. Another possible suspect I noticed today was Nosepass – he blew one of the lights and still didn’t escape.

Hitmonchan: Vigoroth did nothing to clear my suspicions today, but did nothing to ease them either.

Hitmonlee: I’ve always considered myself to be quite good at maths, so I still can’t believe I rushed into making a mistake. Suspicion for me has to fall on Lairon for being the first out and setting the tone for the rest of us by refusing to help anybody else.

Ivysaur: Octillery had a quiet day today, possibly because of a busy first episode?

Lairon: Togetic looked disappointed when she came out of her cell today. Could it be because she fears she’s given herself away already?

Nosepass: I hate Togetic’s attitude – she seems to expect us all to like her despite causing us to fail two challenges in Episode One. I can’t stand her.

Octillery: Electrike is no longer my main suspect.

Togetic: Nobody wants to sit near me, nobody wants to talk to me, nobody wants to help me. Nothing.

Vigoroth: I can’t believe they woke me up all prepared for something big and then shut me into a tiny space. I was so bored. The maths made matters ten times worse. I took my time and did myself proud though.

Day 5

Presenter: As Day 5 draws to a close, the contestants gather outside their hotel where they are taken to a deserted cliff top, the destination for their next challenge, and arguably one of the hardest ever.

Presenter: Contestants, welcome to what can best be described as the middle of nowhere. We are on a deserted cliff top at the very edge of the boundaries of the Battle Frontier. Now as you can now doubt see, it is very dark and very windy up here – it is considered to be one of the most isolated places in Hoenn. As can you also no doubt see, some strange person has set up a tent here. Now, you may be wondering; who on earth would be foolish enough to spend the night out here? The answer is you lot. This challenge is called Braving The Elements. If each of you can spend the night inside this tent, you’ll earn another 20,000 for the prize fund. However, it’s not as easy as that. The Weather Institution has kindly loaned up out a team of Castform, who shall be supplying you with an interesting variety of weather patterns throughout the night. I shall also leave you with this mobile phone – if any one of you wants to leave before the end of the night, simply ring me. We’ll come and pick that particular contestant up, and you’ll be able to spend the night back in your warm, comfy hotel. Of course, nobody else will be able to leave the tent and there will be no money added to the prize fund, but is that a sacrifice you think to be worthwhile? I’ll leave the choice to you. Sleep well.

Hitmonlee: Nobody is considering using the phone, right?

Absol: Well, erm…

Hitmonlee: Right?

Absol: No…

Hitmonlee: Well I say we dismantle it then. That way nobody can be tempted to lose us the challenge. We’ll keep this part and can somebody else throw this away?

Togetic: I could do that…

Octillery: Did you hear something?

Togetic: Oh just give it here…

Presenter: And so the contestants have disposed of one half of the phone, preventing anybody from losing them the challenge. Unless one of them walks anyway, of course. As it stands though, all nine contestants take to their bed for the night. And what a long night it’s going to be.

The contestants are given an initial half an hour to “bed themselves in”. During this half an hour all nine contestants seem to be fine and settling down for the night, despite the howling winds. It is then that Lairon stumbles upon a diary hidden inside one of the supplied pillows; it belongs to the PokéMole:

PokéMole: First episode out the way and a near perfect record; shame my plan didn’t work in the Battle Dome. Still, I’m all prepared for tonight’s early start. I knew from the start Electrike would be the first to be eliminated; he spent too little time concentrating and too much time chasing the ladies.

Presenter: Time to have some fun. The group of Castform collectively gather near the tent and all use Rain Dance. The contestants very soon notice the change in the weather.

Lairon: Can you hear something?

Octillery: Sounds like rain… ooh, let’s go outside and play in it!

Nosepass: You must be joking.

Hitmonchan: There’s no need to go outside for the rain anyway.

Lairon: Why’s that?

Hitmonchan: The rain’s coming inside to meet us. Look.

Presenter: Lo and behold, the roof of the tent appears to have a hole in it. Shame.

Octillery: Yay! Water!

Absol: Yeah, let’s be positive! Lovely, wet, cold, dirty water pouring down on us… we’re going to die!

Hitmonlee: Erm, right. They’re just testing our resolve. It’ll finish in a few minutes.

Presenter: An hour later…

Vigoroth: It’s been a very long few minutes.

Presenter: After another twenty minutes, the rain finally stops, and the contestants once again try to settle down for the night. An hour later, all contestants bar Octillery and Vigoroth are asleep. Time for the Castform to use Hail.

Vigoroth: What’s that noise?

Octillery: More rain! More rain!

Hitmonlee: What are you two shouting about?

Vigoroth: It’s starting to rain again…

Octillery: I like it.

Hitmonlee: There’s lumps of ice falling through the hole… that’s not rain, it’s hail.

Octillery: I don’t like it.

Togetic: Ouch!

Vigoroth: Yes?

Togetic: The hail is falling on top of me and it hurts! Ouch!

Vigoroth: Nobody else is whinging about it.

Togetic: Nobody else is sleeping directly underneath the hole. Argh! I’ve had enough. Give me that half of the phone.

Hitmonchan: Well, you can have it but it’s useless without the other half. Unless you want to go out in the hail and hurt yourself even more by trying to find it.

Presenter: But at that, Togetic pulls the second half of the phone out of her bag.

Ivysaur: You said you’d thrown that away!

Togetic: Well yes and I was intending to but this thing happened you see, and well after that I thought it might be better if this thing meant the thing the phone was kept and erm…yeah.

Hitmonlee: You lying little barstool.

Hitmonchan: What?

Hitmonlee: That’s the closest to swearing we’re allowed to go.

Ivysaur: Haven’t you lost us enough challenges already Togetic? The whole challenge is about survival and endurance. Surely you can at least try?

Togetic: Oh, yes, erm okay, have the phone… Ow!

Presenter: And with that the contestants settle down once again, albeit with periodic screams of pain from Togetic. After two whole hours, the hail finally stops and the contestants settle down once again. But a few minutes later, the atmosphere gets a little… sandy.

Hitmonlee: There’s a sandstorm going on out there now.

Togetic: Oh I do like to be beside the seaside, oh I do like to be beside the sea…

Hitmonchan: I’m going to Thunderpunch your lights out in a minute.

Presenter: Funny you should mention thunder…

Absol: That Sandstorm finished pretty quickly.

Vigoroth: Ooh, pretty flash.

Absol: Lightning? Lightning?!? Argh! We’re all going to die! Where’s that phone? I want the phone! Sod you lot, give me the phone!

Hitmonchan: Yes, we love you two.

Ivysaur: Come on Absol, be brave. Do it for the team.

Presenter: And with that, the Castform depart and we leave the contestants to remain paranoid for the final half until sunrise. None of them sleep a wink, but have passed the challenge.

Presenter: So, congratulations are in order. You’ll passed the challenge and the prize fund is now at 55,000. It doesn’t look like many of you got much sleep last night, which is a great shame, since I’d like to see you all outside the Battle Factory in two hours time. Ta ra.

Absol: Nosepass did nothing to alarm me overnight but I still have that little inkling about him.

Hitmonchan: Vigoroth seemed to be trying to take control of the group at times today. I have to wonder about Octillery’s half-hearted attempt to leave the tent though.

Hitmonlee: I was glad we all got the chance to watch each other last night, although since most of us were trying to sleep for the duration of it I didn’t learn that much.

Ivysaur: I can’t see how anyone could sabotage last night’s challenge without actually using the phone, which in the end, nobody did.

Lairon: How can I not continue to suspect Togetic after she refused to chuck away the phone?

Nosepass: “Sod you, give me the phone?” Maybe I’ve overlooked Absol a bit too much.

Octillery: I’m still clueless – I guess spending all night with everybody was a good chance to learn more about your suspects, and I have to look at Togetic for refusing to throw away the second half of the phone.

Togetic: I’m tired.

Vigoroth: I’m not even tired!

Day Six

Presenter: With the exception of Vigoroth, the knackered contestants arrive at the Battle Factory, completely unready for another battle. Tough.

Presenter: Welcome to your last challenge before the second elimination, simply called Battle Factory. It’s worth 20,000 to you if you pass, and it’s dead, dead simple really. We have nine opponents waiting to battle against you. Before the next one appears, we’ll tell you a little bit about them, and ask you all to nominate one contestant to battle against them. Defeat all nine opponents and you’ll receive the 20,000. Let’s jump straight into it; your first opponent is a rock type, with a battle style of “free spirited and unrestrained”. Choose your battler.

Presenter: The contestants decide on Ivysaur.

Presenter: Ivysaur, you will now battle against an Onix. You may enter the battlefield and start your battle.

Presenter: The battle begins. Onix leaps straight in and uses Dragonbreath. Ivysaur is quick to dodge however, and uses Giga Drain which lands a direct hit. Onix tries to retaliate with Slam, but Ivysaur once again dodges and starts to charge up a Solarbeam. Onix uses Iron Tail, and although scores a hefty direct hit, Ivysaur releases the Solarbeam just before being hit, knocking out Onix. One down, eight to go.

Presenter: Good start. Next we have a normal type, with a battle style of “flexibility adaptable to the situation”. Choose your battler.

Presenter: The contestants decide on Hitmonchan.

Presenter: Hitmonchan, you shall be battling a Castform. Please head to the battlefield.

Presenter: Hitmonchan starts the battle off with a Mach Punch. Castform takes a very bad hit, and surprisingly has to fight to say in the battle. Castform then uses Sunny Day. The sun comes out and Castform changes into its fire form. However, Hitmonchan uses Sky Uppercut, knocking out Castform.

Presenter: Two out of two. Next we have a water type, with a battle style of “impossible to predict”. Choose your battler.

Presenter: The contestants decide on Vigoroth.

Presenter: Vigoroth, you shall be battling a Kingler. Please head to the battlefield.

Presenter: Kingler starts off the battle by using Stomp. Vigoroth goes down, but bounces straight back by using Slash, which hits Kingler. Kingler reacts by using Crabhammer, which also hits, leaving Vigoroth to react with Faint Attack. Kingler takes a bad hit, but still battles on and uses Reversal, which due to Kingler’s weak state, issues a bad hit to Vigoroth and knocks him out. The challenge has been lost.

Presenter: Oh dear. Vigoroth has lost and so the challenge has been lost. The prize fund, for now, remains at 55,000. What is interesting, is that none of you paid heed to my warning of a few days ago about jumping to conclusions – at no point did I say that each of you may only battle the once. Ivysaur, having had a type advantage against Kingler, would have been the perfect contestant for that last battle, yet in jumping to conclusions once again, you narrowed down your options. You must learn not to jump to conclusions, or else these next few weeks will seem even harder than they should be. I’ll see you at the elimination later.

Elimination

Presenter: The nine remaining contestants have once again taken a ten question quiz about the identity of the PokéMole – the exception being Togetic, who after earning herself an elimination during Episode One, is taking her first quiz. Whoever scores the lowest will now be leaving the game immediately. Interestingly, in the room of the quiz behind each contestant, a giant crossword hung on the wall:

Presenter: All feeling nervous? It’s a feeling you’ll get used to. Good luck to all, goodbye to one.