Tia visits the Safari Zone and has an interesting experience.
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Participating in a Safari Game was a very interesting experience.
It felt curiously refreshing to just catch Pokemon simply with bait and rocks, and not have to think about how to catch a Pokemon while it ran away, or exploded, or chased you to the ends of the earth.
It wasn’t much different from catching them stealthily using Berries or rice cakes, which Tia sometimes did, but in the Safari Zone, at least there was some sort of supervision or guarantee of safety.
And there were Pokemon here that you just could not find anywhere else.
The last time she had been in a Safari Zone, she was ten years old, and on a field trip to the Hoenn Safari Zone, she had caught her first Pokemon, Natu. The Natu, Naito, had gone on to become her best partner. Tia wondered if she would find equally as exotic Pokemon here.
The grass rustled, and a Rhyhorn showed up. Tia smiled, and threw a piece of bait toward it. The Rhyhorn began to eat it, and was immediately interrupted by another Rhyhorn, who tried to fight for it.
Tia laughed. “Don’t worry, there’s plenty more where that came from!” She threw another piece of bait at the Rhyhorn.
Another Rhyhorn appeared, followed by a fourth, and they joined the commotion.
“Uh…” She threw more bait, hoping the fighting would break up now that there was more food to go around.
More Rhyhorn began to appear and eat the bait, and argue with the other Rhyhorn already there.
“Aww, come on, guys…” Tia threw some more bait. “Sharing is caring!” She reached into the bait bag again and came up empty.
The Rhyhorn herd looked toward her and began to move closer.
“Uh, oh…” Tia slowly backed away.
The Rhyhorn herd came closer and began to run toward her.
Tia turned around and started running. “Oh, come ON!” she shouted.
A while later, Tia exited the Safari Zone gate, exhausted, and dragged herself over to the reception desk.
The receptionist handed over a tray of 30 Safari Balls. “Did you get a good haul?” she asked, “Looks like you did!”
Tia mumbled something in return, staring at the Safari Balls in exasperation. 30 Rhyhorns. What was she going to do with 30 Rhyhorns? Well, data was data, she reasoned.
At the Fuchsia Pokemon Center, she finished scanning all 30 Safari Balls for capture data.
Rhyhorn x 30
Levels 28-30
Gender: Male/Female
Average Capture Rate: 1.47
Tia sighed. She had enough data to confirm the Safari Ball’s catch rate, but needed to catch the other Safari Zone Pokemon for Pokedex data. She had to go back.
This time, she was avoiding the Rhyhorns.
In the original Pokemon Crystal, the Safari Zone is closed. However, it's open and expanded in the Crystal Clear rom hack, and thus is open in this story!