Yuri sat and watched as the girl decided to train her Azurill. In his observation he learned a few things: the Azurill was named Nana and was presumably female, Nana knew bubble and muddy water, the latter likely being an egg move, route 1 had Rattata and Plusle in it, and that Nana was almost as disobedient as Ellie. Almost. After a failed battle against a Plusle which resulted with Nana bursting into tears, her trainer finally left. Finally. I thought she would never leave. While Yuri had nothing against the girl, Ellie liked her too much for him to be able to train while she was around. With her gone, though, this area of route 1 was ideally empty. He could have tried training further in, but he didn't want to have Ellie battling for her first time so far away from a pokemon center.
Now was the perfect time to train and Yuri couldn't afford to waste a moment of it knowing that all those trainers in front of the lab would be here any minute now so he immediately jumped out of the bush and released Ellie from her ball. As soon as she was out, Ellie looked around for the girl from before only to find, much to her disappointment, that she was gone. Instead of moping, though, she just decided to look for something else interesting. Yuri wondered just how seriously she was capable of taking anything. "Alright," he started. "Let's try out some moves before you actually do battle." Ellie didn't seem to give any indication that she was listening, something at which Yuri rolled his eyes. He snapped a few times to get her attention, but it was to no avail. Yuri pointed at a nearby tree and said, "Hey, how about tackle?" Suddenly, Ellie shifted from her curious stupor and flung herself without warning straight into Yuri's gut, knocking him down flat. As Yuri rolled around on the ground, winded and gasping for air, Ellie hopped on top of him and smiled at him. So strong it's scary! He looked at her as she decided to just lay down on him, now sniffing at his face with her trunk. He tried to speak, but struggled to get the breath to do so. "O-ow, wha...what are you...smiling about?" She inched forward and just nuzzled against his face a moment in response before letting out a simple "Phan!" Yuri stared at his Phanpy unsure of how to react to that before simply bursting into laughter. A slightly painful one considering how much his gut was hurting right now but still a pure laugh that was full of joy. He didn't exactly get what triggered it or many of the details behind it, but he knew that he was definitely having fun. I guess there are some things that you just have to experience for yourself, like raising a pokemon. Maybe being a trainer won't be so bad.
When Yuri stopped laughing, he realized the absurdity of the situation; laughing to himself like an idiot after being assaulted. He tried to move Ellie off him so he could get up, but the little one-foot-tall pokemon was heavier than him! Fortunately, she was round enough that after some effort he managed to roll her off of him. Getting up and dusting himself off, Yuri couldn't help but look back down at the little blue creature and smile. Yuri felt good inside when she seemed to smile back. Immediately after, Ellie returned to her state of "ignore Yuri and just wander around until I find something fun to do". Well, it was nice while it lasted... Next, Yuri contemplated trying out another move. He didn't want to risk getting hit by an ice shard attack, so there was only one move left. "Okay, let's try odor sleuth!" He shut his eyes and readied himself for whatever it was Ellie was going to do, but nothing happened. Once he opened them, he saw that Ellie was wandering off again, this time in the direction of Aurora Town! He suddenly remembered that odor sleuth involved tracking a scent, and that scent probably belonged to the only other person Ellie knew (sort of); Nana's trainer. Yuri groaned and just returned her to her ball, not wanting to deal with chasing her down.
Done practicing moves for now, Yuri decided to go deeper into the route and sit down on a nearby rock to take a short rest. Now seemed like a good time to go over what he had learned about Ellie concerning battling. First: she was quite physically strong, although it might just be that Yuri is merely that light and weak. Second: while she disobeys just about every order he gives her, attacks seem to register. Unfortunately, the target of said attack appears to be entirely up to her. Third: she was very heavy. Studies showed that the heaviest pokemon were either rock type, steel type, or were capable of taking many hits. Knowing that Ellie was neither of the former, Yuri decided it was safe to assume the latter applied to her. That didn't mean he could afford to be careless in battle, though.
Yuri decided that he had done enough battle-related things for now and instead took off his backpack and set it in front of himself. After rummaging through the various things cluttering the inside, he finally found his portable folding work table and the latest thing he had been working on along with several tools. Currently, Yuri was working on a sort of "inverse ball capsule", something that would be placed inside a pokeball that would alter the simulated environment inside the ball for the pokemon it housed. Sure, you could go and buy a luxury ball or something, but with this you could choose how you wanted it to be changed. The problem was in making sure that the device didn't interfere with the basic functions of the ball itself, what with going on the interior of it. Another problem was that he was unable to see the environment itself to record the changes and had to work based solely on his calculations. As a trainer, now he could catch a pokemon to use as a test subject. The issue with that was that it would have to be intelligent enough to be able to accurately report the changes to him. He started thinking of what sorts of pokemon he could catch for that purpose, but knew that he didn't know enough about what resided on this route for that sort of thinking to be fruitful. Regardless, he would need to complete a prototype anyway before he could do any sort of testing. Yuri pulled out a notebook from his pack and flipped it open to a page full of calculations, tables and diagrams. He needed to be cautious because the slightest error could cause serious harm to the pokemon once it was inside the pokeball.
***
Yuri worked for quite a while and was so completely absorbed in it that he didn't notice anything going on around him. When he finally felt that he had worked enough for now, he put his things away and stretched. "Ahh, nothing like working to make a man feel refreshed!" Feeling good, Yuri looked around at his surroundings. He finally felt like he could appreciate fresh air. After a quick mental rundown of his progress Yuri realized that he needed more resources, so he decided to head back to town and buy some at the mart. The moment he turned to head back, though, he saw a multitude of figures coming his way. It seemed everyone decided it was time to start their journeys at the same time! Yuri didn't want to risk passing them, especially on a route where he was prone to being challenged to a battle, so he instead started running deeper into the route. He had to get off the path so nobody would follow him.
He had to move fast before anyone took notice of him and decided to come up to him. Yuri hurriedly decided to rush into some nearby trees and ran through the thick wooded area, not paying attention to where he was going. All he wanted was to get back to simple solitude. He could feel his heart rate rising. Not good, at this rate he'll... Yuri's thoughts were interrupted by him tripping over a tree root and tumbling into a small clearing. He groaned tried to regain his bearings when he felt something under him. He managed to sit up after a little and looked down to see a small group of baby Rattata that he had fallen on top of. Fortunately, he wasn't heavy enough to do any actual damage to them. Looking around, he saw an immense number of other Rattata peering at him from the surrounding woods. If he had to guess, he had stumbled upon a colony of Rattata and when he landed, these little ones here didn't scatter fast enough. Considering the fact that he just landed on Rattata children, there would obviously be Rattata parents that would...Oh no... As soon as the revelation hit, a pair of Raticate leapt at him quickly followed by what seemed like the entire colony (but probably not). So this is why nobody leaves the path! Yuri quickly jumped to his feet and fled, powered by fear. He ran and ran, and finally managed to make it out of the woods, but in his brief moment of relief he slowed and was jumped on by a horde of Rattata. It looked looked like none of the Raticate left the woods, a place where catching them would be impossible for anyone besides an expert trainer to catch.
Yuri screamed as he was scratched and tackled by the large group, one of them even biting him. "GAAAAAH!" Those giant teeth definitely weren't just for show. Yuri struggled against them for a brief moment until he suddenly blacked out.
Koukan awoke, as usual, being used as a punching bag. This time, though, he was also being used to file down teeth. It seemed his alter had managed to get himself mauled by Rattata this time. Lucky me... The pain from most of it was nothing compared to the what he used to take on a daily basis, but massive chompers like those were new. Maybe he'd end up like a sort of pain connoisseur, sampling different types of pain from all over the world. heh, that'd be the day... First things first, though, he needed to get these damn rats off of him. Koukan stood up and pulled the rodents from his body before grabbing a nearby stick to defend himself with. This change in demeanor made the Rattata more cautious. They moved to surround him then leapt at him in a group, but Koukan was ready for them. With impeccable timing, he swung the stick and struck a multitude of the ones in front of him, shouting "Home run!" as he did so. Immediately afterwards, he jumped to the side to avoid the attacks from the ones behind him. Without waiting for them to act again, he started beating down the nearest rats with the stick. The Rattata soon realized that this boy was very dangerous and fled, leaving the ones too injured to follow. "Heh, that'll show you," he said with a satisfied grin.
With that done with, Koukan took a look at his surroundings. Trees, grass, and pokemon all over the place...must be a route. Did that spineless jerk finally get the balls to start a journey? He reasoned that if he was on a journey, he must have pokemon. After a very brief search, he found a single pokeball in his pocket. Unfortunately, the ball had one of those damn locks on it. Damn it, that kid just wants to make my life a living hell at every single turn. Koukan was fiddled with the lock a little before giving up. He couldn't guess any of the code sequences at home, so how would he guess this one? He held up the ball and stared at it. I bet this thing doesn't listen to him one bit. The thought made him chuckle a bit. He briefly considered torching his bag and tossing out his pokemon, but they shared the same body. Doing that would probably lead to Yuri getting himself killed at some point since he would be without his only means of defense, and Koukan didn't like the idea of dying.
Then, he looked at the fallen rats beneath him. If Yuri wouldn't let him use his pokemon, maybe he could catch one of his own. It shouldn't be too hard to find a way to hide it from the kid. Koukan reached into Yuri's bag (which was full of so much damn junk) and pulled out a pokeball which he promptly tossed at the nearest Rattata only to have it bounce off the thing. Koukan scowled. Figures... He had read once that a fainted pokemon couldn't be caught but he couldn't believe it. Seeing it now, it was probably to keep people like him who beat pokemon with sticks from getting them easily. Realizing that this wouldn't work, he had to think of another option. After scanning the area, he found a large path one way that probably led to a town, and in that path were a bunch of other kids. They could probably catch him a pokemon!
Koukan considered using the "cute little kid who can't catch anything" approach, but Yuri was anything but cute. Maybe they'd take pity on him for looking so small and helpless though. That wouldn't work anyway because if they didn't recognize him as a kid who got a starter from the lab, they'd recognize him as a kid who was just beating up some Rattata with a stick. Thus, the only plausible way seemed to be the fix-all solution of using force. Koukan picked up a bigger stick than the one he'd used against the Rattata and walked in the direction of town, ignoring the trainers around him.
Lately, Koukan had been able to last for longer periods of time before being switched back. Hopefully, he'd be able to last until he could get his own pokemon. While he walked, stick resting on his shoulder, he noticed a lot of the trainers walking in pairs. Boy-girl pairs thus far. He probably didn't want to take on two people at once without his own pokemon. There was one girl that was alone, but she had a Cacnea that looked like a nasty brawler. He could probably take 'em, but the others in the route would notice. He sighed disappointedly and decided to walk back into town instead.
Koukan saw the town and noticed a sign that said "Aurora Town". Aurora Town? Just where the hell am I? There was a nearby pokemon center that would probably have some answers. Once inside though, he found something else that was interesting. There was a girl there who had a Plusle with her, so she was clearly another one of the trainers. A town map nearby said that they were in the region of Celestia (wherever that was), but he didn't care about that anymore. This girl didn't have any trainers near her, nor would she have been able to see him beating the rats, but he couldn't just attack her here in the middle of a pokemon center. He suddenly had an idea. Koukan walked up to her and put on the most innocent face he could muster. "Umm...ah...excuse me miss," he started, tugging lightly on her jacket while looking down shyly for effect. "I found something big in the woods and I don't know what it is. Can you come and see it? Maybe a grown-up like you knows what it is." Koukan's plan was to lead her to someplace secluded before making his request. If she refused, that's what the stick was for.
