Ultima Cup IC (T)

The crackle of leaves under foot and the random trip over an exposed, twisted tree root alerted Rachel to the fact that she was now within in a forest. The air here was fresher too and the noise was more like home. The wind rustling through the trees leaves.,The occasional, relaxed call of a Pokémon hidden somewhere in the canopy above relaxed her. It was nice, a decent changed from what had happened just that morning.

So many people had rushed to challenge the weakness opponent they could find, and naturally, Rachel had managed to find herself at the sharp end of many tongues.
She had won of course, but after finally managing to sneak away from the rampaging thunder of trampling feet, to somewhere quiet where the red headed girl could think, she was tired. She daren't even think about how her Pokémon were feeling either.

Hanging her head slightly , the girl let out a long and heavy sigh, thankful for the quiet which had now settled around her. Fleck, her oldest and dearest of pokemon, a rather large and sleek Raichu clutched to her side, every now and then using his long tail to push or pull his blind master out of the way of hanging branches and roots.
The pair had both seen better days, but at least they hadn't been knocked out of the competition yet, which was apparently surprising to everyone whom stumbled across the blind girl.

True, this arena wasn't exactly the first place people would have thought to have found Rachel Hurst, renowned Pokémon whispered. But then, Rachel had a habit of doing things which people didn't expect her to do.

As she walked on, she tugged as the bell around her neck which jingled merrily at her touch, it's gentle sound ringing out against the bar like structures of the trees around her.

"Any idea where we are fleck?" she asked, her soft voice, asked in a low tone, as she placed a flumbing hand onto her companions head. A small, low shock, tingling across her skin from her hand answered her question .
"that's a no then yeah?" she asked, a small, joking smile settling across her lips as she walked on. "well I guess this is going to be an interesting next few hours. But lets just focus on somewhere we can go rest ok?"

At this a stronger, longer pulse shivered up her arm and the girl nodded.
"lead the way then fleck. You're my eyes remember?"

Walking through the forest, Steve was exhausted. Tessy, his Salamence accompanied him and even though he could have easily sat on it's back and flown to the Resort Area, Steve wanted to save Tessy's energy for anymore battles.

He was surprised by the fact that so many people had challenged him, thinking that he was a easy trainer to defeat. All of them learnt that Steve Mckenzie could not be so easily defeated. He smiled to himself and walked further on. All of a sudden he heard a hissing sound and what should he see but a large bolt of thunder coming towards Tessy.

Tessy dodged the bolt and Steve moved aside.Looking ahead he saw a girl with a Raichu standing guard in front of her. When Steve looked at the girl more closely, he saw that she was blind. He made a sign to the Raichu, that he meant no harm and approached the girl.

Arcanine was exhausted from the brief but fierce skirmish between it and Luxray and just couldn't manage to avoid the powerful electric attack this time. Arcanine let out a fierce roar of defiance as the attack hit it, one thing people were quick to learn about this fire-type was that it had a personality to match it's typing - fiery and proud. It fought against the surging current that assaulted it being pushed backwards, the ground at his feat tearing up and fracturing from the force of the attack, but Arcanine would not let itself fall down if it could muster the energy. The attack ceased as Arcanine reached a point near to Tobias, panting and sore but on its feet... not to say that it hadn't taken huge amounts of damage.

Despite the dire straights he was in Tobias found himself beaming like a madman, he couldn't wipe the smile from his face. He took battling seriously but he loved the sport, or the art, so much that hardcore battles like this ferocious two-pokemon war just made him go nuts with delight and adrenaline. His heart was thundering with anticipation of the end-game.
"All or nothing Kaia" he laughed, then he seemed to shift to a more serious persona as he got ready to finish the battle "this is our end-game, neither of our pokemon has much left... ExtremeSpeed!" Arcanine lunged at the lion-like pokemon in a blurry whirlwind of motion ramming it hard and sending it skidding across the battlefield
"Now Flamethrower!" the most powerful torrent of fire yet burst from the fanged maw of the striped pokemon and streamed towards its opponent as it prepared to launch an attack of its own".

Rachel frozen when Fleck let out a low rumble purr out over his tongue. It was a sign to her that something was going on, something or someone was close by and like always, the sleek pokemon would amuse the worst.

She felt his tail stiffen around her wrist, tightening its hold protectively around her small form.

"what's going on bud?" Rachel asked quietly, allowing her hand to once again fumble across the pokemon until her finger tips found the small tuff of fur on top of the pokemons head. Here she rubbed her finger tips into the soft fur, trying to relax her companion as he continued to growl. The static charge now building up along his body, so much so that the small constant charge slowly slipped up and over her arm.

When Fleck didn't relax, Rachel sighed and then turned to her own senses to try and figure out what was going on. Breathing in, she couldn't really make anything out over the scent of fresh garlic which was growing somewhere close by which clogged her nose in heavy drifts of spiced air.

It wasn't until she focused on her hearing that the red headed girl picked up, just above Flecks low growl, the gentle thump of footsteps approaching slowly.

A small smile now played across the girl's lips, her stance relaxing as she once again pulled her fingers through her pokemon's fur.

"hush fleck. They mean no harm." That was clear enough in the way they walked, it was relaxed, gentle and slightly clumsy. The way people walked when relaxed not looking for a fight.

"erm hello?" Rachel then asked, trying to turn her face in the direction in which the footsteps sounds where coming from. "whose there?"

"That's an nice Raichu you have over there. I like the look on it's face.'' said Steve.

Seeing her face Steve immediately saw how much hardships she had gone through just because of a small disability. ''I haven't seen a lot of pokemon with such a determined look on it's face.''

Shaking her hand he said''The name's Steven Mckenzie but you can just call me Steve.''

"Steve" Rachel replied as she felt someone grasp her hand in a confident hand shake. "Nice name. nice to meet ya!" she grinned, which lead to fleck relaxing slightly. If Rachel smiled then it meant that she wasn't in danger just yet, so with this in mind the Raichu relaxed, though he kept one eye on their new company.

" the names Rachel" the blind girl replied still smiling before she nodded at Steve's further comment about Fleck, before chuckling lightly. "Determined, is a nice way to put" she laughed. "Yeah Flecks been with me a long time, so he can be a little protective." She grinned before the girl then quickly sobered.

"you aren't here to make a challenge right?" Rachel then asked, a nervous tone taking control of her voice. She couldn't handle another battle, the others had already drained her of all energy and she didn't want to push her pokemon any further than they had already been.

Steve was surprised when that the girl asked whether he had come to make a challenge. He said "Nah" trying to sound as relaxed as he could.

"Where are you headin ? I'm looking for the Resort Area. You want to come along?" he said.