Pokemon: A Fresh Start

[romdinner]

Chapter 1 - Part II
"Uninvited guests"
-Blackthorn City-
​

Night had fallen onto the peaceful town of Blackthorn. Outside the wind was blowing slowly through the leaves of the trees that filled the city. Despite its rustic, yet charming appearance Blackthorn city was known for another thing apart from being the Dragon City….it was the best place to see the stars during a clear sky. However the inside of the pokemon center wasn't so peaceful as outside. Someone was running on the upper corridors of the Pokemon center. Lily was in her room giving Clover some pokefood that she bought from an old lady while she was waiting for Clover to heal up at the center. " Ok I'm gonna go take a shower while you eat up. " she said heading towards the bathroom. Just as she touched the doorknob to the bathroom she heard somebody running on her corridor. " Damn kids…can't help it tough I was the same…" she giggled and entered. She turned on the shower and enjoyed a good and relaxing shower.

Meanwhile outside her room a teenager about 18 along with his pokemon, a Ralts, was being chased by a bunch of girls through the whole center. "Always the same, right Knight?" " Well master after so many times I got used to it. " the Ralts replied using telepathy. " Sorry! But I have an idea." He said taking Ralts in his hand and hiding behind a big plant. The girls that were chasing him passed him without noticing. " Good thing that's over." " Master I don't.." "Just let me take my breath". " But MASTER!!!! They have turned back. " the Ralts said seeing as the girl noticed that they were gone and turned back spotting them. " Oh crap!!!" he said picking Ralts once again and running away. "I've got another plan!!!" "Hope this one will work master. " The boy took a corner and entered the first room he set eyes on. He closed the door behind him just in time to escape the fan girls. "This one worked like a charm." " Not necessarily master." The Ralts said. The boy turned towards the pokemon which had he's eyes covered with his hands. The boy turned in the direction Ralts was and saw a girl that had a towel wrapped around her coming out of the bathroom. It was Lily and when the boy turned she noticed them. But before she could do something Clover shot some web on the boy's face to couldn't see Lily. The girl ran inside the bathroom. " You pervert!! Get out of my room!! " " I would but I can't." "Don't care. I want you out of my room when I get out. " she said furiously. Lily quickly got dressed and put her hair in two ponytails. She exited and saw that the boy was still in her room sitting on the chair.

"Are you deaf or something?" she said annoyed.

"Not that I know of but as I said I really can't get out right now. "

"And why not? "

"Well let's just say I tend to attract girls without wanting to." He said with a bored tone. It was true that he looked very good but Lily wasn't the girl who went for looks only. Lily took a better look at him. He had spiky black hair with blue sky eyes and white skin. He was well-built for a boy his age wearing a green T-shirt that had a tiny leaf on the top left side of it, a pair of blue jeans with a black belt on which had his pokeballs and a pair of red trainers ( Arcanine trademark ). He also had a necklace around his neck.

"Oh so you're the cocky playboy type then." She said crossing her arms.

"Master isn't like THAT!!!" the little Ralts shouted.

"He sure acts that…..wait you talk!!!!" she replied amazed.

"Wait you can talk with Knight!!!" he replied more shocked that Lily.

"Yes!?!?!" she said still shocked.

"Interesting." He said getting up. " Ralts can only talk telepathically with me….you're the first one who can hear him." He said getting closer to Lily. " But it doesn't surprise me…you're also the first girl who hasn't fallen for me at my sight. " lifting his hand an going through her hair.

"Hand off lover-boy!!!." Pushing his hand away. " I can't imagine who would fall for you! You're not even my type. "

"Ah my heart has been shattered my dear maiden." He said taking her hand and kneeling in front of her. Clover was sitting there with sharp eyes like a watch dog that was ready to attack at any moment. " But putting aside the jokes thanks for letting me stay here until the girls leave."

"I never said that you're free to stay." She said teasingly.

"Master let me speak with her." Ralts said bouncing off the chair and in front of Lily. " Please excuse out intrusion and rudeness but we really had no other option. I'm Knight and this here is my master Xander Soulester. I apologize again on behalf of both me and my trainer but could you please bare with us for another hour or so until the waves calm down."

"Well I guess you couldn't harm anyone. But I'm doing this for you and not" turned towards Xander "HIM". She then sat down on her bed next to Clover which cuddled in her arms.

"Thank you for your kindness." The pokemon said then turned towards Xander used Confusion to make him bow. "You thank her too." "If I must. I thank you for your kindness my lady." Then he got up and sat in the chair again. "And you're name is?"

"Lillian Blackstar….but I prefer Lily, and this here is Clover my partner." Clover turned away not to look at Xander. " Oh and he likes you." She said sarcastically.

"Very funny." He responded. "I could say the same thing about Knight and You leaving aside the sarcasm. As I said earlier you're the first one beside me who can communicate with Knight here. As a matter of fact why not ask Knight." The little pokemon walked up to his trainer and climber on his shoulder and whispered something in his ear. " I see. Well surprisingly I think the same way." He said with a smile on his face that was very warming and kind. Sakura saw it but didn't say a thing.

"So what is it then?"

"Well that's for me to know and you to find out." He teased her.

"Says the one that depends of my room."

"What do you inquire?"

"Well let just say." She said getting up and walking towards the door. " I have my ways. " opening it. " Girls!!! Xander is…" but she was pulled back in by Xander.

"Ok, ok I get it. Just step away from the door. "

"Glad I made myself clear!" she said being all just a big smile, Clover sharing the same felling as her trainer.

"OK why not make a deal….seeing as both of us are trainers why not settle this with a battle. So if you win I'll tell you what Knight said."

"And if not?" she said suspiciously.

"If not…..then you'll have to treat me to an ice cream."

"Hmmm deal!!" she agreed looking at Clover confident. "Sewaddle!!!" he said then pointing at the clock. " Oh right Clover." Then turned to Xander. " You're time's up so if you please, I want to get some rest."

Xander peeked through the door and then stepped outside. " Seeing as the coast is clear we'll head to our room as well. Thanks and see you tomorrow in front of the center." Then he closed the door.

"Finnaly! Come Clover let's get some sleep."

Xander and Ralts were walking down the corridor to their room. "So what do you think master? " " Of Lily? Well I think you already know." " True. She really knows how to get what she wants. " " Hey wise guy, she has to win first. " " True again. But Master was really funny when she threatened to call the girls. " "So you're siding with here then. " he said joking. " Only in this situations. Master will always be master."

....To be continued….
Stay tuned to "Pokemon: A Fresh Start" to see the outcome of the fierce battle.
​

 

[{Swan}]

@Romdinner - This could really use a "to be continued". (; But really it was a fun post, and I can't wait to see more of Xander and Lily!

 

[RevelationLugia]

Akira stepped forward into the Ice Path. He was ever so slightly agitated. According to the map on the PokéPad, this tunnel was the only way to reach Route 44 from Blackthorn – if only he had a Pokémon that could fly, that would have made the journey /much/ easier.

It wasn't just the cold that bothered him, it was the fact that he was denied a short ride through the /other/ tunnel that had vehicles move through it occasionally. Surely there should have been a tram or something that would ferry aspiring trainers through to the other side. But…no matter.

Upon entering the tunnel, he was glad to feel the pads below his shoes that were there to prevent those, like himself, who weren't used to the icy terrain. Akira sighed, there certainly wouldn't be any bird Pokémon living in a /cave/ of all places.

The tunnel was long and Akira quickly grew bored. If I can just make it through here—

His thought process was interrupted as a high pitched screeching sound echoed through the cave. Ahead of him there was a Zubat which was flying around in a circle angrily. Apparently his mere presence had agitated the bat-like Pokémon. So much for the main path being the safe route.

Without hesitation, Akira reached into his jacket and pulled out the Pokéball that contained Drifloon. "Come on out buddy!"

The Zubat didn't look like the most formidable of foes, but Akira knew it best not to underestimate a Pokémon that he had never before encountered. Unfortunately, it got the first move in; the Zubat latched onto Drifloon and began to drain the purple balloon Pokémon's energy. Akira gasped. "Fight it off Drifloon! Use Acrobatics!"

Drifloon took this opportunity to show off what she had learned in the first battle in the Dragon's Den. In one graceful twist, she hurled the Zubat into the ceiling of the bright tunnel. The opposing Pokémon let out another screech and spiraled about, disoriented.

"Great job! Now one more time!"

Drifloon did not make the same mistake as it had in the battle against the Axew. This time, she did not turn back to acknowledge her trainer's compliment, but instead swerved through the cold air, once again knocking the Zubat aside. If the bat Pokémon had used the Leech Life attack earlier, it may have been able to withstand Drifloon's assault, fortunately it didn't.

With that, Akira returned Drifloon and hurried forward, eager to get out of this icy place and out into the warm sun. He wasn't sure why he hadn't tried capturing a Pokémon yet. Perhaps he was just picky or maybe just waiting until something just /felt/ right. Little did he know that there was indeed a flying-type Pokémon that lived within the Ice Path. Maybe if he hadn't been so eager to get out, he would have stumbled across it.

Drifloon's great…but I need capture something else soon.

 

[{Swan}]

@Wonderfulpat - "weren't very chill" pun intended xD I laughed at the Zubats too, really this was a nice intro-post, and I especially enjoyed how your described the scenery of the Ice Path. And a mysterious occurance too! I'll have to eagerly wait for your next post to find out what that was all about!

EDIT:

Sheesh you guys need to stop posting while I'm GMing xD

@RevelationsLugia - That was a good battle, and I like that you mention that it's a learning process for both Pokemon and trainer.

Drifloon grew to lv. 8

 

[moon]

chapter 2 - part I
Ashton Elden

Ice Path​

"It's... cold!" Ashton said, shuddering and gritting his teeth as he stepped inside the long cave after Rebecca.

"Of course! Why did you think it was called the Ice Path?"

They had gone together back to the pokémon center after their battle and got Rattata and Aipom healed up. Aipom's tail was still a bit sore, but able to do everything she wanted to do with it again. When the trainers had found out that both of them were going in the same direction from Blackthorn, Rebecca thought it ridiculous that they would travel alone. And so they didn't. It was not as if Ashton could properly read a map either... Aipom sat, as always, on Ashton's shoulder now. And she was just as malcontent about the coldness as her trainer.

"Aipom!" she complained.

"No can do," Ashton said, pouting. "Lemme see if I've got another shirt to put on in here..."

He stopped just inside the cave opening and rummaged through his large backpack.

"You're a trainer who's got enough sense to pack things before they leave home!" Rebecca said cheerfully. "That's good."

"Haven't you?" Ashton said as he put on an extra, black sweater as well as a silver scarf that he thought he'd never ever put on. He quickly changed his mind though and handed the scarf to Aipom, who put it many rounds around her neck and purred happily.

"Of course I have! I even have a warm jacket, in case you didn't notice," Rebecca said, showing the dark blue thing off in front of him. She still had her light dress underneath it though, but Ashton noticed that she had put on some kind of trousers on her legs... no, leggings they were called? He shook his head. Since when did he stare at girls' legs? He blushed.

"Oh, I'm not that pretty, am I?" Rebecca giggled and winked at him.

"Not at all!" Ashton hastily said. Rebecca's grin faded. "Uh, I mean, of course you do, yes! But... um..."

But Rebecca wasn't the type to get easily angered or hurt. She laughed it away and motioned for them to keep going into the cave.

The path was well lit up, better than the Dragon's Den actually. The floor was clad in some kind of material that was rather nice and stable to walk on. Ashton tried putting his feet outside the pads and instantly slipped and almost fell over.

"Hey, these anti-slip pads are here for a reason!" Rebecca told him.

"Oh..." Ashton said and kept going. On the anti-slip pads. It was a rather boring walk, he thought. "Aren't there any pokémon here?"

"Probably. I haven't really walked here in order to search for wild pokémon before though..."

"But we are now, aren't we?" The boy lit up and started looking in every direction to spy something... anything. Nothing.

"It's probably like in Dragon's Den," he mumbled to Aipom and looked to the side. "The pokémon are hiding in those side-tunnels.

"Oh, don't go in there. There aren't any anti-slip pads there... Ashton?" Rebecca said when he didn't answer. She turned around to see him skid over to the other side of the cave and enter a dark side tunnel.

"Ashton!"

The blonde boy giggled in unison with the monkey on his shoulder as he snuck around just outside of the reach of the lanterns. He walked through the darkness and neither he nor Aipom was afraid this time, because he saw a light at the end of the tunnel. They came out in a big cave with ice on every wall and holes in the ceiling here and there. Daylight slipped through them and made the ice sparkle in a blue way down in the cave around them. "Whoa..." Ashton said, his eyes glimmering as well. "Totally worth it. Now, I wonder what pokémon live here?"

He carefully skid across the room, it was more fun than it was hard, and searched closely with his eyes. Eventually, he spotted something. "Look, Aipom!" he said and pointed as he came to a stop by skidding towards and hitting a large stone. He was looking at a group of small cone shaped pokémon that sat in a group together and seemed to be generally chatting. He pulled up the PokéPad, which told him that they were Snorunt. "Awesome!" he said. "But they look a bit small and weak."

He skid on across the floor to another side of the room where there were a lot of cliffs. There, he found some pokémon looking like brown tufts of hair sneaking around on the floor. Swinub, they were called. "Ice and ground? Cool combo! But they are quite small and... strange, aren't they?" Aipom nodded thoughtfully. She didn't want just any teammates, now did she?

"Ashton!" a voice came and made Ashton slip and fall over, hitting the ice hard with his elbows.

"Owch..."

"There you are! If we're gonna travel together, you can't just run off from me, hey?" Rebecca said as she was just about to step out onto the most slippery part of the floor...

"Wait!" Ashton called out and lashed forth. The result was that both the girl and the boy skid across the room, the girl screaming as she did, and missed each other by a meter before hitting the wall on the other side and thus coming to a stop. A loud bang was heard when the girl did so.

"Uh, are you okay?" Ashton called from his side of the cave.

"No! This is terrible, how are we supposed to get out?"

"By skidding on the ice, of course. It's easy, just..." Ashton showed her by skidding once, twice over two parts of the floor to reach the tunnel which they had come from. "Come on now!" he said.

Rebecca swallowed and pushed herself away from the icy wall to pick up speed. But she had pushed herself in an odd direction and ended up further away from the tunnel.

"No, go that way now, and then that way!" Ashton pointed and called out to her.

"What way?" Rebecca yelled as she tried again and ended up among the Snorunts, who curiously came close and poked her where she had fell over in the snow. "Eek! Get off me!"

Ashton couldn't help laughing, earning an angry stare from Rebecca. "Sorry. It's just... I don't really understand how you can think it's difficult," he said scratching the back of his head.

Rebecca sighed, still laying down. As she was, she looked up at the ceiling. "There is something in the ceiling..." she said.

"Of course, they are called holes, maybe you have heard of them?" Ashton said sarcastically. Aipom laughed.

"No... not holes. Creatures. Lots of them. So many... They look creepy!"

"Since when are you afraid of creepy creatures? You own a rat."

"Look!"

Maybe it was that last yell that woke them up from their slumber. One Zubat started flapping its wings and detached from the ice ceiling where it had been hanging. That woke the ones around it up, and they in turn woke the rest up. Soon, the ice couldn't be seen anymore. The air above them in the cave was just a blur of dark purple wings and a strange, high pitched noise.

Rebecca put her hands over her ears and yelped, and the Snorunts formed a tight clump with each other behind her, as to shield off the irritating sound.

"What's that?" Ashton yelled.

"Zubat!" Rebecca answered him, before a swarm of them soared right past her and went straight for Ashton.

His turn to gulp now. Aipom brought him down by grabbing his leg with her tail and pulling, and the Zubats barely missed him as they flew by, through the tunnel.

"Phew... thanks, pal!" Ashton said and patted Aipom.

"That's not all of them!" Rebecca called out. She had gotten back onto the ice and skid across the room... once again in the wrong direction. A lot of Zubats were still hovering in circles above her.

"Don't worry, we'll get them off you!" Ashton said, having an idea. "Deino, help out!"

He held out Deino's pokéball and the dark dragon materialized on the snow beside them. It immediately tried to bite Aipom's tail, but earned a light whip from it instead. 'Know your place!' Aipom's look would have told him, if he had had eyes to see with.

"Deino, fire your Dragon Rage at the swarm of Zubats!"

Deino obliged, having no better thing to do at the moment, and some of the Zubats were hit by the crackling, blue beam of energy. They fell down but went up again, soaring towards the boy and the pokémon on the ground instead of over the girl.

"Lure all of them over here!" Ashton said, smiling adventurously. He wasn't afraid of some tiny bats. Deino didn't seem to understand. It started trying to bite the Zubats that had reached them. "No, I mean, use Dragon Rage on the swarm over there again!"

Deino did so, and more Zubats left Rebecca alone. Finally, all of them were hovering Ashton instead, and Rebecca got up from where she had been sitting on the ice.

"Do you hear something strange?" Ashton asked, suddenly noticing that he was feeling slightly nauseus. He looked down and saw that Aipom wasn't feeling well either.

"It's the Sonic Waves!" Rebecca said. "Chase them away, they are making your hearing and balance system go wacko!"

"Deino..." Ashton said, turning to his second pokémon. Apparently, Deino wasn't badly affected. "Use Thunder Fang!"

This time, there was nothing to stop the attack from working. Deino had already been snapping for Zubats for a while. Now he charged up his fangs with the mysterious power that he as an unusual Deino had gotten from birth, he aimed... and he struck the closest Zubat with a shocking Thunder Fang. It hurt in several ways and was critically effective on the poor bats. Those who weren't directly hit felt the electrical sparks fly through the air and moved away, and those who weren't even close sensed the others moving away and moved away as well. The result was that the swarm of Zubats soon stormed out through the tunnel and finally left the humans alone.

The nausea left Ashton and Aipom almost immediately. "Ah... that wasn't so hard was it?" the boy asked his pokémon, who rolled her eyes. "And you, you're so strong! Like a real dragon!" Ashton said, turning to Deino. Deino actually seemed to hear what Ashton said for once.

"Deiii!" it said and snapped with his jaws... in the air. Maybe it had started to learn its lesson?

"But, what is that?" Ashton asked, seeing Deino had one of his paws standing on top of something. Something moving. "A Zubat! The one you bit with Thunder Fang?"

Deino waved its tiny tail quickly. It must be waiting for some kind of praise for catching a prey. "Like some kind of a dog," Ashton remarked. The Zubat was struggling to get free. Ashton smiled. "It's already weak. Let's catch it!"

Deino stepped back and the shocked and ruffled up Zubat took to the sky. But it didn't go far before it dove back down again, straight for Deino. "Wow, it's a battle between a dragon and a bat!" Ashton cheered. "Come on, Deino! Dragon Rage!"

Deino shot out his blast of energy but missed the Zubat, who zoomed in and hit Deino's back while glowing in a mysteriously red color. Ashton almost instinctively reached for his PokéPad this time. It was a bit slower than usual in the coldness of the cave, but so were his fingers. "Leech Seed? Its draining your energy, Deino!" Ashton said, but Deino didn't seem to be able to shake it off. His energy was dropping for every second Zubat sat there.

"Grr..." Ashton was out of options. But Aipom dashed forward and jumped up in front of Zubat with a scream that even made Ashton jump. Zubat flinched and let go of Deino's skin. Two bitmarks were seen where it had been! The PokéPad enlightened Ashton on the nature of Aipom's new tactic. It was called Astonish and was a well known attack. "Great work, Aipom!"

Zubat flapped its wings back up into the air. "You think you'll be safer up there? Wrong. Aipom, Bounce!" Ashton laughed.

Aipom snickered and bounced up even higher than she had done when battling Rebecca's Rattata. She reached the ceiling and pushed herself from it with her powerful tail, adjusting her aim and speeding up her downfall even more. Zubat didn't stand a chance. It was struck by Aipom's aerial tackle and crushed on the ground in the snow. After this, it could really be said to have passed out.

"Hah! Great job, Aipom!" Ashton said and high-fived her tail without thinking. Well, that could actually merit a high five.

He was just about to take out an empty pokéball when a voice reached him. "Ashton... could you please help me out of here now?" He dropped the pokéball and didn't even notice that it landed right on the Zubat...

"Oh crap!" He'd forgotten about Rebecca, who was still sitting in a corner, freezing and shaking by now. He quickly skid over the glass-like floor to her with Aipom, leaving Deino on the snow at the tunnel. "Sorry, sorry..." he said, blushing as he reached her.

She took his hand, and that made him blush even more at first. Then he felt how cold she was and forgot all about being nervous around girls. "Rebecca, are you alright?"

"Yes... just a bit cold," she replied drowzily.

"No, stay awake, I'll push you in the right direction and we'll be out of here in no time!"

He got up and dragged her up with him. Then he turned his face back towards Deino and the tunnel, and was horribly startled.

What was now facing him, floating in the air, was not a Zubat. It was a giant face shaped like a snowflake, with glowing lights for eyes coming from the darkness inside it... and strange icicle chains hanging from what looked like a mouth. It felt like seeing a scary ghost.

Aipom screamed and hid behind Ashton's head. Rebecca was too drowsy to notice and Ashton just blinked. "I'm not scared of you," he then said, giving the floating snowflake a grim look. With the hand not holding Rebecca up, he reached for his PokéPad again. "Really useful thing, this..." he mumbled as the machine identified the pokémon in front of him. "Cryogonal."

"Cryooo!" the pokémon hissed with a rather deep voice.

"What do you want? I've battle enough, you know, and my... uh, this girl here is not feeling well. We're just leaving!"

With that, Ashton took his eyes off the scary face and skid across the ice floor. It was a bit trickier when he had to hold the almost limp Rebecca up as well. He continuously missed the snowy shore where Deino stood and barked at him. He was growing impatient and angry. "Why is this so hard?" Rebecca didn't answer him, and that made him endlessly worried. He was starting to grow very cold as well. He already couldn't feel his fingers or toes at all. This was... maybe not very good. He tightened his grip on the girl and pushed them away from yet another wall... and stopped. In the middle of the icy floor. He hadn't pushed hard enough, not counting with the extra weight. He tried to take a step forward, but slipped and almost fell over again. Rebecca mumbled something.

"I won't give up!" Ashton said, feeling his lips go numb as well and having trouble pronounceating every word right.

Then, Cryogonal appeared in front of him again. "Cryogon?" it said with a remarkably soft voice.

"Help..." Ashton said. That was all that was needed. Cryogonal came closer, unfortunately oozing cold air over the already cold humans and Aipom, who was spasmodically holding on to Ashton's neck. But the wild pokémon pushed them on the icy floor... pushed them all the way until the slow Ashton could feel snow under him again.

A wet and warm sensation came over his face as Deino licked him all over it. "Aren't you going to bite me..." Ashton mumbled. Then things went black without a warning. He was scared. But then he wasn't. It was just black.

- - -

Mmm... warm. Ashton opened his eyes and looked into a fire. He was warm again, laying in his sleeping bag. But there was still snow underneath.

"You're awake," a voice came. A rather old man was sitting beside him at the fire.

"Yes..." Then, he remembered what had happened, and darted up from the sleeping bag. "Rebecca! Aipom!"

"Calm down, lad. They are fine, see?" the man said and pointed across the fire. On the other side, Rebecca was sleeping peacefully with a soft smile on her face in her own sleeping bag. Rattata was curled up on top of her. When Ashton turned to his side, he saw Deino sleeping as well, snoring loudly, and Aipom was curled up on his back.

He let out a huge breath. What a crude adventure... "Who are you?" he asked after sitting down again.

"I'm Gorlo. I just happened to pass by when a Cryogonal and a Deino came out of a side-tunnel, carrying several fainted humans. Of course I had to help and warm you up again. You are at the middle of the road now, lad. At the healing station of Ice Path."

Ashton shook his head. He was still feeling strange in his legs and hands. Cold wasn't a nice thing.

"Where did that Cryogonal come from?" he asked.

"Oh, they live here. Spooky beings, but quite hearty if you get to know them. They have warm hearts, despite them radiating coldness. This one... seems to have taken a liking to you."

Ashton raised an eyebrow, but followed Gorlo's gaze and turned around. He was once again met with a large, glowing face. "Cryoo!"

"Ah!" he said, falling backwards down on the sleeping bag. "What do you want?!"

"Isn't it obvious?" the old man laughed. "Cryogonal clearly wants to take care of you."

Ashton blinked and looked at the pokémon in front of him. Its glowing eyes didn't look that cold after all... "You want to come with me?" he asked it, and god a heavy nod in response. "Well... that was the easiest pokémon caught so far," the boy said and grinned contentedly.

"Do you really think so, lad?" Gorlo said seriously. "You almost died in that ice cave. If Cryogonal hadn't saved you and if I hadn't passed by..."

Ashton nodded quickly. He didn't want to think about that. He looked back at Rebecca. To think that their simple trip through the beautiful Ice Path had taken such a dramatic turn... He had a lot to be thankful for, and patted Cryogonal appreciatively. But he quickly withdrew his hand with a yelp and stuck it close to the fire. "It burns!" he said.

"Of course. They are made of ice, after all. They give you a cold burn if you touch them."

"Cozy," Ashton muttered. But still, being so helpful, the pokémon would surely be good to have on the team. "So, if you really want to be my pokémon, come into the pokéball," he said and stretched out a hand with an empty one, just touching Cryogonal's body, activating the pokéball...



((OOC: Sorry for not having a battle against Cryogonal. I was planning to, but then I though this was better for the story. So I'm hoping to catch 2 pokémon in this long post... at the point where Ashton "drops" the pokéball onto Zubat, that's the first capture attempt. If you approve of it, then Deino will just have brought back the new pokéball with him :]
Also, I'd like to wish for a male Zubat.. Thanks beforehand~))

 

[{Swan}]

RHCP - Wow, that was a really good post. The battle was, again, very creative and making great use of the surroundings, and I really like the interaction between Ashton and Rebecca. Not to mention that awkward Ashton is quite adorable. With this post you really do deserve to catch 2 Pokemon, although Cryogonal will be a low level because it wasn't battle. But really, it was an awesome read.

Aipom grw to lv. 10!
Deino grew to lv. 9 and learned Bite!
Ashton caught a lv. 6 male Zubat!
Ashton caught a lv. 3 genderless Cryogonal

[[I'll edit everthing in the OOC in the morning, right now it's crashing time.]]

 

[Groc]

Moe prepares to set out in the morning, double-checking his supplies. "Right! That should do it. Ready, Cyndaquil?" The small rodent clings to Moe's shoulder, letting out an excited squeak. "Quil!" "Alright, then, let's go. Ice Path, here we come!" The two take the main road out of town, taking one last look at the rustic community. "First time outside of the city, Cyndy?" "Quil..." "Ah, don't be nervous! We're partners now, you and I. What's the worst that could happen?" "...Quil?" "I know, I shouldn't have said that. Bad luck and all that. Sorry."

They enter the cave, Moe taking a moment to examine the floor and ceilings. "Well that's interesting. Rubber mats and ceiling torches to help people along. I guess this is the main path through, then. Or we could check out a side passage. Now that's where adventure lies, eh Cyndy?" They go to the first tunnel leading off the main path, a dark passage on the left. "Um, Cyndaquil? How about a light?" Cyndaquil jumps down, the flames on his back flaring to life. The orange lights reflect off the smooth icy walls of the tunnel, lighting the way far ahead of the two. "Ha! Fancy that! This whole cave seems designed to reflect and carry light through entire passages. The smallest light source is enough to guide you. Let's take a look, shall we?"

Moe and Cyndaquil start down the tunnel, noticing a gradual downward shift in the floor. As they round a corner, they find themselves in a massive underground cave, the floor sparkling with ice, and the ceiling letting in natural sunlight from various holes. "This floor seems a bit dodgy, let me test it first." Moe carefully steps onto the ice, but finds it stable. "No problem! Just walk across it like a normal-" Moe turns back to Cyndaquil, losing his balance as he does. He tries to brace himself, taking a step back, but slides a few feet backwards before falling. "Woopwoopwoopwoop woop woop woop...!" He slides into a snowdrift, climbing back to his feet. If Cyndaquil had eyebrows, one would be raised right now. "Right! *a-hem* That was... interesting! Ha! Rather fun, actually! Cyndy! Slide on over here! Now let's see... To get to that area over there, we need to..." Moe plans his path as Cyndaquil skates across the ice, sliding on one leg with his arms above his head, then switching to the other leg. He gracefully skates over the ice and comes to a stop in front of Moe. "...Little show-off." "Quil!" Cyndaquil grins, laughing a little.

They make it off the ice without falling any more, heading deeper into the cave. The tunnel grows darker as they move out of the large cavern, forcing Cyndaquil to relight his fire. The tunnel branches off again, so Moe decided to head left. "When in doubt, go left. It's usually the right way. Don't know why, but it's worked pretty well for me so far." In this case, it leads them to another frozen floor. Moe stops, examining the floor. "Well that's interesting. That last ice patch was smooth as glass, and this one seems a bit more... cracked. And look at all the rocks and whatnot on it. I wonder what did all this?" Cyndaquil nervously looks around, tugging at Moe's sleeve. "Hm? What is it, Cyndy?" Cyndaquil points to the roof, where dozens of Zubat sleep, hanging from the ceiling. "Oh! Fancy th- uh, fancy that." He lowers his voice. "Looks like we've found a Zubat nesting ground. Let's turn back, shall we?"

As they turn around, a large mouth greets them as a larger Bat swoops overhead. The Golbat ignores them, flying through a hole in the roof and outside. "What was that thing!?" The Zubat stir at Moe's words, some of them turning their eyeless faces toward the two. "Ah. Oops?" Four Zubat drop from the ceiling, flying circles around the two. "Cyndy, use a Smokescreen!" Cyndaquil's back flares to life, oily black smoke filling the air around them. Moe grabs him and dashes back into the tunnel, not stopping until back at the intersection. He looks back over his shoulder, but nothing comes through the dark cloud. "Oh good. We lost them. No offence, but four on one isn't good odds." Moe scratches the back of his neck, suddenly getting a bad feeling. His hand makes contact with something furry, and a quiet chirp comes from it. "Cyndy? Don't panic, but I'm going to put you down. Tell me if there's something on my back, please?" Moe turns around, showing Cyndaquil his back and the Zubat clinging to it. It chirps again, grinning wickedly.

Moe doesn't take it well. "Cyndaquil! Get it off! I don't know how it got there but GET IT OFF!" Cyndaquil leaps into action, Tackling the Zubat. The bat lets go and flaps upward at the last second, causing Cyndaquil to hit Moe squarely between the shoulders. Moe falls face-first to the ground, Cyndaquil standing on him apologetically. "Quil?" "Yes, I'm alright. Fan-bloody-tastic, really. Would you kindly Tackle that thing?!" Cyndaquil salutes, leaping at the Zubat, which had drifted closer.

Cyndaquil rams his shoulder into Zubat's jaw, but is met with fangs as Zubat latches on with Leech Life. Cyndaquil cries out in pain as Zubat drinks his blood. "Tackle it! Ram it into the wall, like with Dratini!" Zubat doesn't like that idea, letting go and flying out of reach. It lets out a loud shriek, sending Supersonic waves at Cyndaquil. Cyndaquil staggers back, but isn't hurt. "Clever girl," muses Moe. "Use Leer until she gets down here!" Cyndaquil tries to Leer, but his brain is a little wibbly at the moment, and somehow confuses the signals for Leer with the signal for walk, and he trips on his own feet, smacking his face into the floor. Zubat actually laughs, a high-pitched squeaking sound as she circles down for another Leech Life. Cyndaquil stands up in time for Zubat to bite onto his neck, draining more blood. She cackles again, detaching as Cyndaquil feebly swipes at her. Back at full strength, she swoops at Moe, squeaking at him. Moe stumbles back, falling to the ground. He rummages through his blazer, finding what he was looking for: a Potion. He jumps up, spraying the healing liquid over Cyndaquil. "Two can play this game. You wanna play rough, little batty-bat? Fine. Let's get dangerous!"

Zubat has had her fun, and considers going back to her nest for a nap, when a rock bounces off the back of her head. She does a perfect 180 in midair, hovering in place while she glares at Moe. "Huh. So it is possible to glare without a face. Interesting. Any other parlor tricks?" Zubat dives straight at Moe, unleashing a Supersonic at him. He ducks his head, covering his ears, revealing Cyndaquil clinging to his back, crackling with electricity. Zubat tries to brake, but Cyndaquil unleashes his Wild Charge, using Moe as a springboard and grappling with the bat in midair. They both crash to the ground, with Zubat on the bottom. Cyndaquil rises to avoid her teeth, but Zubat steps back, cradling her left wing with her right. She squeaks angrily, hopping forward to try and bite Cyndaquiil to drain more blood. She doesn't get the chance, as Moe takes aim and strikes her in the mouth with an empty Pokeball. She is turned into energy and sucked inside, the ball bouncing once as it hits the floor. "This is what happens when you toy with a Trainer and his partner." The ball shakes furiously, Cyndaquil glaring at it as it does.

 

[{Swan}]

@Wonderfulpat - Another great battle! And I enjoyed the prelude with the Zubat as well.

Eevee grew to lv. 10!
Henry caught a lv. 5 male Sneasel!

@Godzil - Wonderful post, I really really liked the jostling with the Zubat, you portrayed her so nicely and I'll look forward to seeing her more often.

Cindaquil grew to lv. 8!
Moe caught a lv. 6 female Zubat!

 

[TiTaN.JuStIn]

Chapter 1: Blackthorn city and the Dragon's Den

It took Richard to walk about 3 minutes before he arrived at the entrance to the den. To cross the lake, he had to go through the long bridge, which was quite surprising. When he arrived to the den, he examined the entrance. A rocky cave with lights coming from the dark place. Richard shivered a bit then looked at his pokemon. Twinleaf was squealing excitedly, eyes sparkling with happiness and curiosity. Richard was only able to blink before the happy pokemon dashed towards the dark cave.

"Hey, wait up!" – Richard cried as he followed the turtwig. Thanks to the lanterns on the ceiling, he was able to make the shape of a turtle ahead of him, running fast. Richard started to pant as the run went for about 30 seconds. He then stopped to take a break and fell down. This was the time to examine his surroundings. Around him were rocky walls with small boulders around him. Richard managed to look at the stalactites and the stalagmites, which were creamy brown. He stood up and went towards the wall. Curiously, he touched the wall with his bare hands. The wall wasn't smooth, which explained that this was a naturally made cave. Richard heard from his friends that some people made caves or tunnels on purpose, and usually the wall was smooth and clean. But this was a dusty and dirty wall.

Richard went away from the wall and looked around him once more. There was now sign of Twinleaf, but he saw a bright light coming from the left, which Richard thought was the entrance he came from. To the right a man was standing lonely, hands stuffed on his pockets. He was wearing something, which was similar to an outfit researchers wear when they are on a field research. It looked quite similar to the lab coat the sandy-haired guy moments ago was wearing. Richard approached the man, his steps ringing quite loudly. The man turned his head to notice me.

"Hello! Are you here for the first time?" – he asked.

"Yes, I am." – replied Richard. Then he asked: "Why are you standing here?"

"I need to make sure nobody enters the Dragon's Den deeper then they should." – replied the man solemnly.

"Really? But why?" – Richard asked more curiously.

"The dragons deeper are more strong and dangerous. We're still exploring the Den a bit more, so you'll need to wait till you're stronger or the research is finished" – the man explained friendly.

"Yeah, right. Thanks for the info. By the way, have you see a turtwig running past?" – Richard suddenly said, remembering about his pokemon.

"I saw a turtwig running left from here seconds ago. Was it yours? Cause if it is, then you should be careful. There are wild pokemon here, who can attack you if they think you're a threat." – the man said with a serious look.

"Okay. Thanks again. Have a good-"

Richard couldn't finish this sentence. He felt something strike him on the shoulder and he fell back. Stunned for a bit, Richard's vision was a bit blurry and his shoulder hurt. He blinked a few times before his vision cleared. Right in front of his eyes was a squealing turtwig, who was laughing happily at his success of ambushing his own trainer.

"Hey! Twinleaf! Oh, come here you turtle!" – Richard cried as he ran again towards the running turtle. He followed the turtle, who turned his course a lot every time a fork appeared. Richard chased Twinleaf for 30 more seconds before the turtwig suddenly halted. Richard looked up and saw a rocky wall right in front of him. There was no way to go further.

"I guess you're caught, Twinleaf!" – Richard said as he picked up the turtle and tickled it. Twinleaf laughed a bit before he froze in alert. He said a quiet 'Twig' before he jumped from his trainer's clasps and faced the way they came from. Richard then heard some growling sounds from there. He quietly said: "Okay. You're ready for your first battle, Twinleaf?"

"Twig." – came a solid reply from the pokemon. Before the fight, Richard took out his Pokepad and examined his pokemon with it. The device buzzed a bit before it showed some information about his pokemon. Richard skipped the unnecessary part and stopped at the moves list. He found out that Twinleaf actually knows Energy Ball, Withdraw and Tackle.

Richard looked back at the source of the growling sound. He heard faint footsteps until he heard an angry cry:

"Bagon!"

Then out of the shadows jumped a small pokemon the size of Twinleaf. It had light blue reptilian skin and clumsy feet and paws with intimidating sharp claws. It also had a round muzzle with sharp fangs and a round white shell on its head. Richard had the PokePad with him and faced it at the angry pokemon to record some details. After a second passed, a page appeared on the screen, revealing the pokemon's information. It was a bagon, a Dragon-type pokemon.

"Wait. I didn't know bagons could appear this often. From my school lessons, I remember they were quite rare. Then why?" – Richard wondered until he heard an impatient cry from Twinleaf, who was glaring at the bagon with his green eyes.

"Sorry, Twinleaf. Do Energy Ball." – Richard said. The turtle lunged an opened his mouth. He then cried and closed its eyes. Richard saw as the turtle concentrated his energy into a ball as fast as he could. Richard was worried that the bagon would already make a move before he could shoot the energy ball. Apparently, he was right. The bagon growled more until he charged towards Twinleaf with speed. Richard saw in horror as the dragon opened its mouth to reveal its growing and glowing teeth. Come on, Twinleaf! Just a bit more! Richard thought. Already the energy ball was appearing on Twinleaf's mouth, growing inches in seconds. But the bagon was also getting close on Twinleaf. 10 feet were left. 8 feet. 6. 4. Then the pokemon jumped.

"Twig!" – came a large cry from Twinleaf before he shot the energy ball the size of a soccer ball towards the dragon. Unfortunately for the dragon, he was in mid-air and he collided with ball. It exploded and the bagon was blasted because of the impact. It rolled on the floor then stood up. Suddenly, its eyes turned red and a loud roar came from the small pokemon. Richard covered his eyes because of the loudness and yelled at the same time: "Quick! Twinleaf, do Withdraw before it's too late!"

The turtle backed up a bit. Richard didn't know if his pokemon heard him. He thought that Twinleaf didn't listen. The bagon was already charging again, this time faster than the last time. Thankfully, it seemed like the turtwig heard his owner's message and started to fall back and hide in his shell. The bagon then jumped again and bit one the exposed front leg of Twinleaf. The turtle screamed in pain as the dragon sunk its long teeth at the pokemon. Richard was worried again. Judging by the face of his pokemon, this was going to turn out to be bad. He took a breath.

"Twinleaf! Try to get him off! Then try to tackle him as hard as possible." – Richard said. He saw as his pokemon shook his limb wildly until the dragon let go and faced Twinleaf again, growling. Twinleaf's leg was bleeding, but he still stood firmly to Richard's relief. Then as he was told, the turtwig charged at the growling pokemon and slammed it. The bagon was dazed for a bit then snapped back. Richard was shocked again when suddenly the dragon's face changed into a more angry face. Richard already covered his ears before he could hear the large roar of a enraged pokemon. But to Richard's surprise, it looked weaker now.

"Twinleaf! Withdraw now and retaliate later with Energy Ball! And try to aim at its face!" – Richard ordered. The pokemon nodded and replied with a quiet "Twig". Then it again backed off and partly covered its body with its shell. The bagon charged again, its teeth flashing bright. Richard closed his eyes when the bagon jumped towards the turtwig. He didn't want to see his pokemon suffering. But he didn't hear a cry of his pokemon. He slowly opened his eyes and was shocked at the scenery. Twinleaf was still standing, one eye closed. For what Richard didn't know. Maybe because of fear. Maybe because of pain. But something strange was that the bagon hanging loose on his pokemon, its teeth stuck at the turtwig's shell. Richard couldn't help but giggle when he heard the dragon whimper. He then asked his pokemon: "Please, Twinleaf. Help him with a tackle. Maybe towards the wall."

Twinleaf nodded and charged at a fast pace towards the rocky wall. The bagon whimpered even more, but it couldn't release itself. Twinleaf just dashed towards the wall and slammed shell first at the wall. Richard shrugged a bit when he saw the bagon crash its head at the wall. It was released from Twinleaf's shell, with one tooth still stuck at the turtle's shell. It was dazed now.

"Before he can recover, finish him with energy ball!" – Richard asked Twinleaf. The turtle nodded, as if he liked the choice, and formed an energy ball in its mouth. Its eyes were again closed to concentrate the energy as fast as possible. After 5 seconds, the turtle shot the ball as hard as possible at the dragon. An explosion occurred, with a dust cloud forming and covering Richard's vision. When the fog died down, he saw bagon, still conscious, but lying on the floor. Richard was now excited. This was his first battle with his new pokemon. He looked at Twinleaf, who was squealing excitedly, even though his limb was bleeding a bit because of the bite.

"Wow, Twinleaf! Congrats! This is your first victory." – Richard praised his pokemon, who even squealed more and jumped towards his trainer's embrace. Richard fell down again and laughed with his pokemon, rolling on the floor and tickling his pokemon. He then quickly stood up, not forgetting about the almost fainted pokemon.

He quickly took out one of the empty pokeballs Professor Sequoia gave and threw it towards the bagon. The ball hit the bagon's head and opened itself, turning the weak pokemon into a beam of light and sucking it inside. Richard crossed his fingers and mumbled: "Please. Anybody, who can see me, help me catch this pokemon."



(OOC: The final word is a message to somebody... Ehem. Enough said.)

 

[{Swan}]

@TJ - Great post, I really liked the interactions between Twinleaf and Richard, and the battle was very well-done. I guess this somebody will aid the capture (;

Twinleaf grew to lv. 6!
Richard caught a lv. 4 female Bagon!

 

[moon]

chapter 2 - Ice Path
Ashton Elden

part II​

When Rebecca woke up, she was laying by a fire with Rattata staring at her an inch from her face. She shrugged and sat up, to find Ashton and his pokémon on the other side of the fire. There was something unusual about him though... wait, there were four pokémon there. Aipom was sitting in his lap, Deino was laying beside him, chewing on some snow... but above Ashton's head a giant Cryogonal was hovering around, waving its icicle chains, and close to Deino a Zubat was fluttering, seemingly trying to annoy the dragon on purpose, making it chop after the flying pokémon instead of eating snow. The whole scene was topped of by Ashton sat cross legged, flipping through something on his PokéPad. When he saw that Rebecca was up, he startled and then smiled nervously.

"Hi!" he said. "Finally you're alive!"

"I was dead?"

"No! Not at all! Well, almost..."

"I was?!?"

"No, you were frozen. I mean, cold, you were cold. And I fainted on the ice and Cryogonal here helped out..." he waved his hand in the ice pokémon's direction and Cryogonal let out a hearty 'hurrr'-noise, "... and I kind of caught Zubat when chasing the swarm away from you earlier. So we got out fine."

Rebecca tried to remember or understand what had really happened. "Oh," Ashton added. "There was this man also, Gorlo. He lit the fire for us and brought Deino and Cryogonal here. We're at the pokémon healing station in the middle of Ice Path." He nodded to something behind him, and Rebecca could see a machine etched into the wall some 10 meters away. It was partly covered by snow, but it had a touch screen that was blipping with lights so it seemed to be working.

"So you've got some new team members," Rebecca said calmly and smiled at them.

"Yeah... sorry, do you want to catch something as well?"

"Maybe. Maybe some other time. Right now I want to get away from everything cold... no offense. Cryogonal."

"Cryo, naal," the pokémon said, as if it meant 'none taken!'.

They eventually made some food, realizing it was almost lunch the day after they had left Blackthorn already. Ashton did his best to make Zubat and Cryogonal enjoy the special dragon and normal type food, and surely it went down and didn't come up again at least.

After that, they kept going through the Ice Path, hoping that it would soon end and let them come out into the warm outdoors of Johto. They went on for a while, until Ashton got bored.

"I'm bored," he let the world know.

"Last time you were bored, we almost died. Can't you just keep walking now?"

"I'm cold," he pouted.

Rebecca was usually patient and happy, but this coldness made her less cheerful and Ashton were stepping on her nerves. She was about to say something nasty, when Ashton said: "Hey, I know! Let's battle!"

"You really want to stay in here even longer than necessary?"

"No... let's battle while we move towards the end of Ice Path!" Ashton explained eagerly. "The rules are, you have to keep moving no matter what attack the opponent throws at you."

"Maybe... that sounds like fun, actually," Rebecca said, and smiled again.

"Yeah! So who will you use?" Ashton asked, thinking about his own options. All his pokémon were in their pokéballs on his belt now, to make them less cold.

Rebecca seemed to have done the same. "Rattata wasn't liking the cold here too much... but a Teddiursa can probably take it, his fur being so thick!" she concluded. "Go!"

Teddiursa appeared between them, as perky as ever. "Alright, then I'll use Cryogonal!" Ashton said and let his newest pokémon out. It soared above him, smiling... at least Ashton thought it was smiling. "Come on!"

The boy and the snowflake started running but the girl and the bear weren't far behind. "Haha, we're leading!" Ashton laughed.

"Oh, it's a race, is it? Theo, Covet!"

Teddiursa moved closer to Cryogonal, who took one peek at the teddy and then suddenly slowed down a little. "What are you doing?" Ashton asked, irritated.

"Now, Lick!" Rebecca said, running past him. Teddiursa suddenly was close enough to Cryogonal to reach it when it jumped up, and it licked the snow pokémon and then fell down onto the anti-slip pad again and resumed running. Cryogonal shuddered and fell still for a second before starting to move again.

"Yeah, that was yucky, but why do you care so much?" Ashton asked it, running beside it. They were way behind now.

Rebecca glanced over her shoulder with a smug smile and replied: "Covet allows the attacker to move closer to the foe without it expecting anything, and Lick seems to have paralyzed your pokémon!"

Ashton went red faced. "And I thought you'd be faster than a Teddiursa since you're levitating..."

Cryogonal would have blushed if it hadn't been made of ice.

"But we won't let that take us down! I did read up on stuff when you were fast asleep, you know!" he called out to his opponent. Then he gave an order that Rebecca didn't hear. Suddenly, Teddiursa tripped and fell flat on its face to the ground.

"Wha-"

"Haha!" Ashton laughed and flashed by her with Cryogonal hovering around him. "I used Bind! This pokémon has long chains of ice that it uses to catch its prey!"

"Arrgh, Theo, get up!" Teddiursa obeyed, a wild look on its face. "Run close and use Scratch!" Teddiursa sped up and came close to Cryogonal, jumping up and Scratching it on its back. Cryogonal turned around.

"Ice Shard!" Ashton said, and a couple of ice shard suddenly appeared in front of it and flew towards the Teddiursa. It hit right on spot since the bear was so close. It fell down.

Then, Cryogonal slowed down again, shuddering. Ashton knew it was the paralysis affecting it. When he had looked up things in the PokéPad earlier, he had among other things noticed that Cryogonal's level was much lower than the level of his other pokémon, and probably lower than Rebecca's too. It was getting weak, while Teddiursa still seemed to have power left. They had to end this quickly.

"Cryo, Bind!" The pokémon obliged and flung its ice chains towards the teddy just as it got up, binding it so that it couldn't move its arms and try to Scratch the chains off. "Now, Ice Shard!" Shards once again formed in front of Cryogonal's face and shot off towards the bear. Since it was held still by the chains, they struck right on. Rather quickly, the Teddiursa had fainted, and the ice pokémon finally let it go.

Rebecca returned it to its pokéball with a not so happy face. "That last was a little mean, don't you think?" she said. "It was supposed to be a playful match."

"Sorry..." Ashton said, scratching the back of his head and feeling rather guilty now. Cryogonal soared over to him, looking proud. "I just... well, I wanted to win of course, but... Hm, I mean I didn't want my pokémon to lose, and it was getting weak so... well, of course I..."

"Ah, forget it. Theo can take a beating, he'll be fine once we reach a pokémon center," Rebecca said, waving the whole thing away. "You know what? I can see light at the end of the tunnel."

Ashton followed her gaze and saw it too. They had soon reached the end of this winterland!

 

[TiTaN.JuStIn]

Chapter 1: Blackthorn city and the Dragon's Den



The pokeball shook 3 times before a "click" was sounded, indicating that the pokemon was caught. Richard went towards the ball and picked it up. At first, he wondered if he could release this pokemon just to interact with it a bit and he decided that he should. He pressed the button on the pokeball, which shot a white beam. It soon materialized into a bagon, who was standing weakly and glaring at Richard.

"Hey there." – Richard said. But the bagon only turned its head away, snorting. Richard felt bad. He didn't think that this pokemon would be so negative towards him. He slowly approached the dragon and sat down. Richard gently moved his hand touched the pokemon's head. At first it flinched, but when Richard started to pet it, bagon leaned towards the head and closed its eyes, enjoying the gentle touch. Richard smiled. This was the reaction he expected. He slowly took out his PokePad and looked at the previously recorded data of the bagon again. He noticed that it was a female, and she knew moves like Endure, Rage and Bite.

Richard put his PokePad back to his backpack and looked at the bagon. It still looked tired, but at least it stared at Richard with uncertainty, not with anger.

"So, you're in my unlucky team." – Richard said and smiled. The bagon just nodded, though Richard noticed that a smile was now appearing in the pokemon's face. He asked: "Can I name you so that it would be easier to call you?"

The bagon slowly nodded its head, more curiously this time. Richard turned around and saw Twinleaf trying to get the bagon's missing tooth out from his shell. Laughing he approached Twinleaf and pulled the tooth out from the turtle's shell, who squealed in pain a bit after that. Staring at the tooth he pulled out, he thought of a name for his new bagon. But he didn't know how the pokemon would react to this. Trying to look confident, he looked at the bagon and asked:

"Can I name you Dragontooth?"

The bagon looked down, as if thinking about the name. Richard liked this name, but he didn't want the pokemon to be offended. "It's a nice name." – he said. Then he added: "Don't think that I got this name by pulling off your tooth from Twinleaf's shell."

Richard was surprised when the bagon chuckled a bit and then looked at Richard. "Bagon!" – it said happily and nodded. Richard smiled again. He had two pokemon now. And he could train them well. His smile faded when he turned around. He forgot about Twinleaf's injury, which was sustained during the fight against Dragontooth. He was shocked when he saw Twinleaf whimpering and sniffing his injury.

"Oh, Twinleaf. We should get you back right now." – Richard hurriedly said. He grabbed Dragontooth's pokeball and pressed the button. It shot a red beam, which was aimed at the bagon's belly, turning it into a ray of red light. The light was sucked into the pokeball entirely and was gone in 3 seconds. Then Richard picked Twinleaf up and rushed back. He had to get his pokemon back to the pokecenter as fast as possible. The problem was how was he going to go back to where he came from?

"Shoot!" – Richard said loudly. He looked around. The way was divided into three roads: the left one, the middle one and the right one. I can't stand here and choose what road should I take! – he thought. He quickly went through the middle road and continued. Richard could see no brighter light in the distance. He started panicking a bit. He looked around again. There were so many ways around him. Richard felt like his head was spinning. To the right? To the left? Go back? Go forward?

Then Richard saw a figure in the distance. He looked carefully. At first it seemed like a man standing on the wall, looking down at the rock floor. When Richard went closer to the figure's direction, he recognized this person. He quickly ran towards the figure. After some running, Richard arrived at the place. He turned to the man.

This man was the same person Richard met some moments ago. He remembered that this person was one of Professor Sequoia's assistants, who was ordered to keep people out from the deeper places of the Dragon's Den.

"Hello, I'm back." – Richard said, breathing hard.

"Hold you breath." – the man suggested. He looked at Richard with concern. "What happened?"

"I need to get to the PokeCenter. My turtwig is injured." – Richard replied with grief.

"Here. Let me take care of him." – the man offered. Richard gave his pokemon to thw man without thinking. He watched as the assistant slowly took out a vial from his coat. It looked like a spraying can, with blue liquid inside it. Richard saw the man spray the liquid at Twinleaf's leg. At first he thought this man was kidding until he remembered what this person was using. What kind of trainer I am, who doesn't even know what a potion is? He watched with surprise as his pokemon's wounds slowly closed and his eyes regaining its happiness. After the wound was fully treated, Twinleaf jumped from the man's arms and ran straight towards me. This time Richard met him with a warm hug and held him for some time. Then he put him back to the ground.

"Thank you. How can I repay you?" – Richard said, grateful for this person's generosity.

The man just stood there for a bit, thinking about Richard's question. Then he smiled and said: "How about a battle? I was so bored standing here and doing nothing."

"Okay." – Richard agreed and added: "But I also have a bagon who's also injured."

"I'll heal him too." – the man offered.

Richard was happy to see a stranger help him and his pokemon. He looked with gratitude as the man sprayed the Potion at Dragontooth, who seemed to regain her energy.

After Dragontooth's recover, Richard went to the one end of the small passage while the other man stood at the other end.

"Savior first." – Richard said. The man smiled and threw a pokeball.

"Go, Dratini!" – he cried as the ball opened and out from it came a pokemon Richard only heard. It was a pokemon with a serpent-like body and tail. It had a round mouth and black eyes. It also had fins on his head, and its whole body was dark blue, with the belly part white. Richard quickly took out his PokePad and scanned the pokemon. He found out that this was Dratini, an another dragon-type pokemon. Richard quickly thought who should he use. He wanted to experiment with his new pokemon, but at the same time strengthen his older pokemon.

"How many pokemon do you have?" – Richard asked the man. He needed to know how many battles he would have.

"Only two. No more, no less." – the assistant replied, putting his coat straight.

"All right. Time to rock, Dragontooth." – Richard said as he threw the pokeball which contained his new bagon. The ball shot the white light, which materialized into a small blue bagon. "Bagon!" – Dragontooth roared and faced her opponent.

"Dragontooth, Bite." – Richard commanded. Thankfully, his pokemon responded with a 'Gon' and ran towards the snake-like pokemon. Richard wondered a bit. At critical situations he could try Endure, but the real problem was from the opponent's pokemon. When he checked the PokePad, he found out that his opponent knows Thunder Wave, a move that could paralyze a pokemon for some decent time. I'll need to get rid of his Dratini as fast as possible. The faster, the better. – Richard thought. He saw as Dragontooth charged at the dratini with glowing fangs.

"Dratini, Thunder Wave!" – Richard heard from his opponent.

"NO! Dragontooth, don't stop! Just charge at him!" – Richard suggested. He thought that with the charging speed, the move would miss. But that was Richard's expectations. What happened was something Richard didn't like. He saw as the dratini shot a thunder wave at his bagon, which successfully hit him. Richard watched in shock as Dragontooth stopped for a moment and didn't move, electricity coming out from her body.

"Dragontooth! Try to Bite!" – Richard said. He despaired at this. He expected that Dragontooth's charge would make the move miss, but it didn't prevent it. Richard looked at his bagon again. Dragontooth was now moving, but more slower than usual. She suddenly started to charge again, her teeth growing. Richard watched as his pokemon jumped towards the Dratini. The opponent's pokemon was faster and avoided the attack, making Dragontooth crash at the wall. Richard didn't like it. He couldn't win this match. He looked down.

But then he heard something strange. He heard a familiar sound from his bagon. It was the roar Dragontooth emitted during their first battle. Richard regained hope. His pokemon was now enraged.

"All right. Use Bite again!" – Richard ordered. He looked at his bagon, who was now moving faster than his last charge. He heard the opponent order his pokemon to use Leer, but Richard thought that this was useless. 'An enraged pokemon can be dangerous.' – was going to be his motto from now on.

Richard smiled as his dragon jumped at the dratini and bit hard at the body. The dratini screamed in pain and slithered away from Dragontooth. It looked weaker now, its eyes looking drowsy and full of pain. But his pokemon's situation wasn't better. His bagon was also quite tired, her face bruised, electricity still coming out of her body.

"Dratini, use Wrap!" – Richard heard as the serpent-like pokemon slithered towards his pokemon and wrapped around his pokemon. Dragontooth screamed in pain, her eyes closed and her mouth open. Her face was full of pain. She was suffering. Richard couldn't stand this. He just wanted to give up. But he couldn't battle gyms like that. He had to be tough.

"Dragontooth, Endure!" – Richard said. Responding to his command, Richard saw Dragontooth suddenly glowing with a strange blue light. The dratini didn't change its actions and kept tightening the coils on Dragontooth. Mysteriously, Richard's bagon was still conscious. More of all, her paralysis was gone, which gave an advantage to Richard. He smiled now. Luck hasn't abandoned him yet.

"Dragontooth, get out of there and get Enraged!" – Richard commanded, putting a great intonation at the word 'Enraged'. He watched his pokemon slip out of the serpent's grip and roar really loud, indicating that Richard's pokemon was now angry. Richard looked at his opponent. The assistant was now panicking, ordering his dratini quickly to use Leer.

"Dragontooth, retaliate with Bite!" – Richard ordered one last time. Richard saw his pokemon now charge again, anger on her now red eyes. Richard shivered a bit when he looked at the eyes. These eyes were full of hatred, jealousy, anger. But these eyes were his pokemon's. Richard watched his enraged pokemon do a one last and strong bite at the opponent's dratini, who fainted at the strong power. Richard didn't smile this time. Rage was a good move, but who would have thought it could turn one's pokemon into a fighting machine?

 

[{Swan}]

@RHCP - Oooh I really like the idea of a racing-battle, and you did it very well.

Cryogonal grew to lv. 5!

EDIT:

@TJ - Great use of the move Rage, and I like the questionableness of it all. I also have to say that I like the nicknames you chose, they make the Pokemon sound that much more impressive.

Bagon (Dragontooth) grew to lv. 7!

 

[romdinner]

Chapter 1 - Part III
" The burst of a rival"
-Blackthorn City-
​

Lilt slept like a log that night but even so she got up early to get ready for the match with Xander. She packed her things as she decided that after the battle she would leave the town and head towards the Ice Path so after a nice breakfast with Clover she went in the main lobby of the center and waited at one of the tables. Time passed and Xander was still nowhere in sight. Lily was throwing Clover's pokeball on the table and Clover would play with it for a while then bring it back to Lily.
"Guess who?" somebody said behind Lily as her eyes got covered by a pair of hands.

"The most perverted person I know." Lily joked knowing it was Xander.

"Still upset about last night I see."

"You almost saw me naked." The girl said turning red.

"Do not worry miss Lily I assure you that we didn't see anything, I personally checked his taught to make sure. " Knight said popping from behind Xander.

"Good to know Knight. I can't believe that you belong to this person. "

"Well I wondered as well at first but if you will get to know Xander you will see that he's more than he just shows."

"Leaving me out of the conversation are we? I believe we have a battle to attend."

"Oh being jealous already! Well we'd better go then." She teased him taking Clover on her shoulder and heading for the exit.

The weather was sunny, and mostly clear, a few clouds being seen in the far distance. Xander and Lily made their way towards the back of the center where a battlefield had been built to help trainers with their training. " Seeing as you just started I think a one on one battle is the best option for us. "

"Agreed." Lily said taking her position in one part of the field. " The last pokemon standing is the winner and we'll judge for ourselves."

"Exactly. Now that the formalities have been done let's get on with it. Knight I think you can handle this." "I'll do my very best master."

"I'm going with Clover. " the girl said. " Not that I have another option. " she taught.

"Ladies first so make your move."

"Don't mind if I do. Clover run and Tackle him hard." Clover started running towards Ralts but surprisingly Xander was calm as ever. Just as Clover was about to hit Knight Xander told it to use teleport and evade. Knight appeared a few feet away from Clover and was smiling cheerfully.

"Were you aiming at Knight? Look his over there! " he said with an ironic tone towards hid pokemon who was waving at Lily.

"Now you're a comedian. Clover follow him everywhere until you hit him." Clover followed the instruction and ran once again towards Ralts, but the result was the same. Ralts kept disappearing just in the last minute before Clover could land his attack. Clover was running all over the place trying to hit its target, making the dust lift into the air. Just then Xander realized that the whole filled was clouded by dust. " Perfect. Now Clover just like in the cave!" the bug pokemon used its String Shot to get up in a nearby tree and was scanning the area for Ralts. He spotted the shady figure of Ralts in the sand and jumped into a Tackle towards it. Ralts was blown away just as the sand settled down.

"Nice move. Never would have thought of it." he said surprised by Lily's strategy to counter Knight's Teleport attack.

"Just a little something we picked yesterday." Lily was a fast learner and always uses enemies strategies to her advantage and tries to learn them.

"Ok enough with the warm up then. Knight Confusion."

"Right away master." Knight's lifted his hands as his eyes turned blue. Sewaddle was lifted and trapped in a psychic wave. Clover was in pain and could free itself as hard as it tried to.

" Brute force isn't enough here." She thought. " Then we'll just have to stop the source." She shouted the last part. " Clover use String Shot on Ralts." Clover spit out a long silky thread than covered Ralts up like a mummy leaving him motionless. " Now use Bug Bite while he can't move." The girl said as Clover was freed from the Confusion and landed. The bug pokemon went straight for Knight chomping him all around , shredding the threads at the same time.

"Knight now you can move again. Jump out of its mouth. " Ralts somehow freed himself out of Colver's grip and jumped in front of Xander. "Another good move on your end. But let's see how you handle this. " Knight Shadow Sneak!" Ralts started to go down into its own shadow , fading away and then used the shadow to move as quick as ever and went into Clover's shadow. Clover was looking puzzled in every direction for Ralts. Ralts emerged from Clover's shadow and struck in in the back sending him flying into a tree then sliding down onto the ground. " Now Knight once again! " Ralts had once again disappeared into the shadow realm.

"Clover pay attention, he'll surely struck from a shadow once again, either yours or the ones surrounding you." Clover understood and was looking caution everywhere. Just then Ralts burst out of the shadow of the tree that he had hit a few seconds ago. " Now Clover evade it then Tackle." Clover jumped over Ralts just in time to evade the attack and dropped into a Tackle ramming Ralts to the ground.

"Knight are you alright? " "Of course sir. There's still some left in me to fight. " Knight said getting up and brushing itself. " Glad to know that champ. Then let's use formation Growl. " " Great minds think alike." Ralts said with a confident smile on his face. Ralts used Double team to surround Clover then started moving as fast as it could around the bug pokemon. " Now finish it!" Xander yelled. Lily feared that Ralts would launch a powerful attack but to her surprise all the Ralts started to use Growl on Clover.

"This was you're great plan? To easy!" the girl said grinning. " Clover use String Shot as a whip and spin to destroy the clones." The little critter did as it had been told. It shot out a silky strand of silk and started spinning around knocking every clone until it hit the real Knight.

"While not landing any attack I just assured my victory my dear Lily. Growl reduces the power of the enemies attack power by one stage but multiply that by the number of Knights that growled and means…"

"That my attack is sharply lowered." The girl said in horror.

"Exactly! Now let's see what you do now."

"Well you may have stopped our physical attacks but we still have our special ones. Clover Energy Ball! " the big ball of energy hit Knight and blasted it away.

"True again but you won't be so lucky next time. As long as Knight knows Confusion we won't let another attack hit."

" Energy Ball again!" Lily said ignoring his threat.

"Suit yourself! Confusion!" he said towards Ralts who just got up again. He stopped the ball in mid air. " Now send it back at full force."

"Clover we'll have to take a risk here. Can you trust me? " "Sewaddle!!" the pokemon cried confident. The Energy ball was heading towards Clover and just as it was a few feet away from him Lily shouted. " Now use String Shot to use Knight as a shield." Clover shot the silky web and pulled the psychic pokemon in front of him just in time to use him as cover. The blast sent them both flying into the ground filling the surrounding area near them with dust. Lily and Xander were waiting anxiously for the dust to clear and when it finally did they found out that both pokemon were knocked out. Both went to pick up their pokemon and carried them into the center so they could be healed.

"Nice match , never expected you to beat even my first strategy, but countered everything I threw at you."

"Well you weren't so bad yourself." The girl said smiling at him. It was the first time Xander saw a pure smile out of her.

"You should use it more often."

"Hmm what?" she said confused.

"Your smile, it suits you better." He said making Lily blush, but she was save by the fact that the nurse came and brought Clover and Knight back.

"Good to see you too are ok. You did and awesome job back there Clover." She said as the pokemon jumped on her head being overjoyed to see her trainer.

"Perfect as always Knight."

" You spoil me master."

The two walked out of the center and were heading towards the outskirts of the town. " Towards the Ice path I presume?"the boy asked as they were just a few minutes away from the path.

"Yes I plan to find a new friend to add to our team."

" I see. Oh I forgot our battle ended in a draw. "

" Well yes, captain obvious."

" Well that means we both win."

" Master than that means you have to tell miss Lily what I said earlier."

"Yes indeed."

"You're right. So you can begin anytime you like." But she didn't see that the boy had already ran way ahead of her and was already at the entrance to the Ice path. " Hey!!! You promised."

"Well you'll just have to wait for another time." Then headed into the cave.

"That guy really gets on my nerves!!!" the girl said furiously. Clover agreeing with every word she said.

After a few minutes they also reached the Ice path and Lily was checking her backpack to see if she packed everything she needed. " Potions, food, blankets, Clover having a piece of paper, PokePad…….Clover!!! What are you doing in the bag?!?" Sewaddle cried showing the piece of paper to Lily. "What do you have there?" she said picking the paper and starting to read it:

" Dear Lily,

If you are reading this then it means that you either won or it was a draw. You are probably pissed at the moment but the cold climate of the cave will do you wonders. Have a nice trip!!!

Xander

PS: Knight said that the reason he speaks to you is that he thinks you're pretty and are different ( in a good way ) that any other girl. "

 

[{Swan}]

@Romdinner - Now why do I think we'll see those two again? Another great battle post, the growl stategy was just right clever, as was your way of using string shot, really well done!

Sewaddle (Clover) grew to lv. 11!

 

[{Swan}]

@Wonderfulpat - A good post! It's nice to see Felix fitting in so well with the team.

Sneasel (Felix) grew to lv. 7!

 

[TiTaN.JuStIn]

Chapter 1: Blackthorn city and the Dragon's Den​

"Dratini, return!" – Richard's opponent said as he took out his fainted pokemon's pokeball and pressed the button on it to return his pokemon.

"You did good." – he complimented Richard, who replied with a smile: "It's nothing. That was just pure luck."

"Then I guess this is beginner's luck. Let's see if you can handle this one." – the assistant said with a grin. He took out an another pokeball and pressed the button, releasing his second pokemon. Richard saw the light materialize into a pokemon he recognized from his biology lessons. It was small dragon that had a dark blue hard scale and a red belly. The most noticeable part was his teeth, which were really sharp like Carvanha's or Sharpedo's.

"Wow. You have a Gible?" – Richard said as he scanned the pokemon with his PokePad. He knew that this pokemon could turn into one of the strongest pokemon Richard has heard from his friends' rumors. He always wished to have these 5 pokemon: Charizard, Lucario, Garchomp, Gallade and Alakazam. Some of these 5 he has seen, some of them he only heard. But he only had one of them, Salamander, his Charizard.

But it didn't matter which pokemon he had. If he could raise them well, he would have really strong pokemon, no matter what species there are. He even knew that an ordinary pokemon could beat a legendary pokemon with training and teamwork. He knew that his pokemon also deserve to be strong.

Richard looked at the Gible. It looked strong and fast, possibly stronger than both of his pokemon. But that was only his imaginations. He could be wrong. To first test this pokemon's strength, he decided to keep fighting with his Bagon, Dragontooth. Richard turned to see his pokemon. She only had some bruises from her clash with the Dratini, and she was still standing. But she was breathing heavily and looked like she was going to faint at any moment. Richard closed his eyes and thought to himself. I won't let her faint. Never.

"Can you still fight, Dragontooth?" – Richard asked calmly.

"Bagon!"- was the firm answer from his pokemon.

"Good! Let's start with Bite." – Richard said. The bagon started to charge again, its teeth growing rapidly and shining brightly. Richard thought for a bit. Did this gible have a special attack? Or maybe something else?

"Gible, use Sand Attack!" – his opponent commanded. I'm in trouble! Richard thought. He watched in shock as the Gible threw dust at Dragontooth's eyes rapidly. He saw his pokemon scream and cover his eyes with his hands mid-way. But somehow his pokemon was able to jump towards the right direction. She slammed the Gible instead of biting it, and both of them flew towards the wall because of the impact. A cloud of dust exploded and the battlefield was covered for some seconds. Richard clenched his fists. His pokemon had to be conscious. He was surprised when the cloud disappeared and there right in front of him were both pokemon, glaring at each other. They both were still standing, but it looked like the Gible had the advantage. Richard decided to change the tactics.

"Dragontooth!" – he called his pokemon. The Bagon turned her head at him, eyes fierce. "Let's stop for now, okay? Return here for now. You're in bad condition right now." – Richard slowly explained. But his Bagon quickly shook her head, saying a strong "Bagon!" at her owner.

"Dragontooth, I don't want you to fight." – Richard said, more firmly this time. " I can't afford to see you faint. Please, let Twinleaf take care of this battle for you." – Richard pleaded. The bagon tilted her head for a while, eyes still looking angry. Few seconds passed, then suddenly Dragontooth's eyes suddenly changed back to her normal black eyes and made a cheerful sound. She limped back towards her owner. Richard smiled.

"Your time to shine, Twinleaf." – he said as he heard a happy "Twig!" from his Turtwig. He met Dragontooth with a cheerful sound and they both high-fived, indicating that the pokemon were switched.

"Wait. Come back, Gible." – Richard's opponent suddenly said. He watched in wonder as the pokemon trotted back to its owner with a curious look. Not until he was surprised of his opponent's strategy. The man took out a small blue berry from his coat and gave it to the pokemon. The pokemon happily took it and quickly gobbled it. It then returned to its post, making a silly battle stance. Richard face palmed himself. How come I didn't think of buying and using items during the battle? Richard regretted.

"Did you feed her an Oran Berry?" – Richard asked, to make sure he knew it was the right berry.

"Yes, I did. Now, should we continue?" – the man suggested, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, sure." – Richard replied. He looked at the Gible. It now looked more healthy than before, which was the effect from the Oran Berry its trainer gave to it. This was going to be a trouble. We'll need to do a defensive strategy.

"Twinleaf, Energy Ball." – Richard ordered. His turtwig replied with a quiet 'Twig' then closed his eyes to concentrate on making a ball of energy. "Gible, tackle him now! Don't let him make the Energy Ball!" – was his opponent's turn. Richard saw the pokemon charge towards Twinleaf with speed. Richard prayed that his pokemon made the ball just in time. But the distance was already shortened to 10 feet. Then a second later, the Gible dashed harder and strongly slammed the turtle with its body. Twinleaf, because of the impact, flew far from the spot. But the surprising thing was it shot the half-made Energy Ball midair towards the distracted Gible. The ball exploded and the Gible slid for decent 3 feet, its eyes covered with its arms.

Richard was even more surprised when he saw his turtle summersault in the air and land on its feet. His mouth opened wide. "Twinleaf! Why didn't you tell me you were a stunt?" – Richard asked with a teasing tone. His opponent chuckled a bit at Richard's remark, breaking the tension between them. A second passed before both of them started to concentrate at the battle again.

"Gible, Sand Attack!" – Richard's opponent ordered. The pokemon started to spray dust at Twinleaf. But Richard already knew the strategy for this attack.

"Twinleaf, Withdraw now!" – Richard ordered. He smiled as his pokemon started to back off and hide its head in the shell. The sand only landed at the Turtwig's shell, not damaging the target's eyes. "Quickly! Retaliate with Tackle while the opponent's distracted." – Richard commanded. He watched his Turtwig dash with great speed and making a strong cry during the run. Then the pokemon slammed its body at the Gible, sending it flying towards the wall. Now the finishing move.

"Twinleaf, Energy Ball!" – Richard said loudly. The Turtwig closed its eyes once more to make the ball of energy as quickly as possible. Seconds passed and it was almost done before the rubbles started to move. Out from the broken rocks came out an angry Gible, its eyes red with anger. But it couldn't even manage to blink before a loud cry of 'Twig' came form the opposite side and an energy ball flew towards the pokemon. The ball just exploded, covering the wholde battlefield in smoke. It slowly unveiled, revealing a fainted Gible, who made a small and weak cry.

"Wow, you did it, team!" – Richard praised his pokemons. Both Twinleaf and Dragontooth made a triumphant cry and dashed towards Richard. They both jumped at the same time, crashing at Richard and making him fall down once again. The man smiled as he saw Richard being tickled by his own pokemon and laughing.

Richard then stood up and walked towards the man.

"That was a nice battle, sir." – Richard said.

"Yeah. I'll need to take care of my pokemon a lot more, I think." – the man on the lab coat said with a weak smile.

"It's okay. I think the beginner's luck is still working. It was just not your day, I think." – Richard said, trying to cheer up his opponent a bit.

"All right. I hope you'll succeed in your journey. And maybe we will meet again." – the researcher said.

"Right. Thank you for the battle. Hope I'll see you again." – Richard said, as he was about to leave. But the man grabbed his hand and stopped him.

"Take this. Buy something nice for your pokemon."- The man said as he handed golden coins to Richard. Richard was happy, and immediately received the prize. He bid a farewell and started to walk away. Then he stopped and asked loudly to let the man hear him:

"By the way, what's your name?"

"Call me Dan. Good luck." – the man said.

"You too. Stay safe." – Richard said as he headed towards the entrance of the den with his two pokemon. And so the first chapter of Richard's journey came to an end.

 

[Groc]

Moe picks up his Pokeball, now containing his Zubat. His PokePad updates itself with her information, which Moe checks as he picks Cyndaquil up. "Huh. She fought really hard. She's pretty beat up, Cyndy. You're a tough little one." "Quil!" Cyndaquil chirps proudly as they head down the right passage. "Now, according to this map, which I didn't even know my PokePad had, look at it! Shows the cave and everything! Right, uh, according to the map, there should be a check-in station about halfway through this cave. We can get you both healed up there."

The tunnel opens into another large chamber, also covered in ice. After a bit of navigation (Moe miraculously managing to stay upright while crossing the frictionless ice), they find themselves in another tunnel. This in turn leads them to another large chamber, with rough rock walls and a second floor above them. "Huh. It says the healing station should be right here. But I don't-" He looks up at the second floor, a bright red Pokeball logo just visible. "-see it. How do we get up there?" Moe searches around for a while, eventually finsding a ladder. After more sliding puzzles, he finally reaches it, climbing up to the main path. The check-in station isn't too complex, but he can only heal one Pokemon at a time. He heals Zubat first, placing her ball inside the machine.

After healing Zubat, he puts Cyndaquil in his ball to be healed. He summons Zubat from her ball, curious about her. She emerges in the air, flying around Moe in a circle. "Hello, Zubat! I'm your new partner. The one you latched onto back in the tunnel?" Zubat chirps indignantly, still flying circles around Moe. Moe stops turning to watch her, as he's getting dizzy. He stands still and talks to her. "Aw, don't give me that. We're supposed to be friends. I healed you up and everything!" Zubat growls angrily, her circle becoming more erratic as she flaps angrily. "Oh, I see. You're mad about the whole rock thing, aren't you? I am sorry about that, and I promise I will not do it again. We can be friends, right?" Zubat hovers in front of Moe, her brow furrowed in thought. She finally squeaks, as if saying, "If I have to. I guess."

"Great! Come here, give me a hug!" Zubat raises an eyebrow, quite impressive since she doesn't have eyes. "I like hugs! Every member of my team gets a hug when we become friends." Zubat does a backwards loop, gaining some altitude before diving toward Moe. She crashes into his shoulder, her tiny feet scrabbling for purchase and he gently wraps her in his arms. "Aw, see? That was fun. We can get along! You need to work on your flight, though." She nips at his chin, and he lets her go. She lands on his shoulder, keeping close to stay warm. A soft *ding!*, similar to a kitchen timer, goes off as Cyndaquil finishes healing. Moe grabs his ball, placing it in his jacket. "I'll give you a rest, Cyndy. I'd like to spend time with our ditzy little friend."

They head down the path, keeping to the main road for the most part. Moe checks his PokePad map a few times, stopping at one of the tunnels. "Huh. That's odd. This tunnel isn't on the map." The tunnel is lit faintly by reflected light, so Moe decides to check it out. "After all, we're on an adventure, right Ditzy?" Zubat squeaks questioningly at the name. "Well, because of how you fly. You're always going in circles, or bobbing up and down, and you have crashed into me twice since I met you. I think it's cute! You're my little Ditzy Derpy Flappity Bat! Or Ditzy for short." Ditzy suppresses her laughter at her partner's silly idea, but accepts it. The tunnel suddenly opens up into a small chamber, the floor covered in ice, with a small bench carved out of ice in the center. A red backpack sits on the bench, and a small tunnel is on the other side of the room. "Huh. Fancy that! I wonder who built this? And why isn't it on the map? I wonder who the bag belongs to." Moe skates over to the bench, Ditzy flying above his head.

"The bag belongs to me!" He hears a voice from the other tunnel, and a small Dark Pokemon leaps out, landing on the ice. It bares wickedly sharp claws, grinning as it stares down Moe. "Oh. Well! That's interesting!"

TO BE CONTINUED...

 

[{Swan}]

@TJ - Another wonderful battle, you have a great way of personifying the Pokemon to really stand out, and it makes reading your posts that much better,

Dragontooth grew to lv. 9
Twinleaf grew to lv. 8!

@Godzil - I neglected to tell you this earlier, but I really like how you included the sliding puzzles from the games, it's a nice detail. "Ditzy Derpy Flappity Bat" this is just pure win xD I really liked this interaction post, and now I'm curious as to what the end was all about.

 

[Groc]

"I wonder who the bag belongs to." Moe skates over to the bench, Ditzy flying above his head.

"The bag belongs to me!" He hears a voice from the other tunnel, and a small Dark Pokemon leaps out, landing on the ice. It bares wickedly sharp claws, grinning as it stares down Moe. "Oh. Well! That's interesting!" He checks his PokePad. "A Sneasel, is it? Wait. Who said that?"

"I did." The source of the voice steps out of the small tunnel. It is a girl about Moe's age. She's about a foot shorter than him, wearing blue jeans, black boots, an orange t-shirt, and a green jacket. She has black hair, reaching her shoulders, and green eyes. "That's my bag. My Pokemon will fight to defend it!"

"Oh! Sorry, my mistake. If it's yours, I'll just leave it and go back-" "Stop talking! I have been in this cave for TWO DAYS waiting for someone to show up. We're having this battle, whether you want it or not!" The girl slides across the ice, stopping herself before she crashes into the bench. Moe nods slowly, realizing there's no escape. "Seems like an odd way to spend your time. Just hanging out in one place, waiting for someone to happen by? It's a bit silly, isn't it?" The girl glares, then sighs. "Yes, but I honestly thought I would get more results. I caught a few Pokemon, though. So it was worth it in the end. And now, we fight! Sneasel, you're up first!"

"What, here?" Sneasel leaps forward, his claws allowing him to grip the ice easily. Ditzy swoops forward, hovering in front of Moe. "Right! Ditzy, start things off with Supersonic!" "Sneasel, Scratch!" Sneasel jumps forward, scratching Ditzy's face. "Ditzy! You alright?" "You named your Zubat Ditzy?" Ditzy shakes off the attack, then lets out a series of high-pitched squeaks, the soundwaves ringing in Sneasel's ears. He holds his ears in annoyance, then pain, as the ringing gets worse. "Minor inconvenience! Scratch it again, like we've been doing in training!" Sneasel shakes his head, leaping forward again. Ditzy barely manages to dodge, flapping her wings furiously. "Use your Leech Life!" Ditzy swoops down, latching onto Sneasel's arm and draining some blood, healing her wounds a little in the process. Sneasel winces in pain, the attack particularly rough on him. "It's not going anywhere! Scratch it!" Sneasel swings with full force, his claws glinting in the light, digging into the skin of his own face. His ears are still ringing, and the brainwaves still a bit confused. "Keep at it, Ditzy! His sweet blood is yours for the drinking!" Ditzy happily drains more blood from the Sneasel, her wounds now fully healed.

The girl is a bit upset. "Okay, this is annoying! Sneasel, Taunt Ditzy!" She says "Ditzy" with a mocking tone, insulting the name. Sneasel nods, having shaken off the confusion. He shakes Ditzy off his arm, then makes a series of rude gestures and faces, presumably insulting her in PokeSpeak while doing so. This angers the small bat, who flies toward Sneasel, fangs bared. "No, Ditzy, he's just trying to annoy you! Give him another blast of the 'sonic!" Ditzy ignores Moe, taking a Scratch to the face for her troubles. It hits hard, knocking her out of the air. "Haha! The tables have been turned! Another Scratch should finish her off! Make it a good one, Sneasel!" Sneasel grins, crouching as Ditzy flaps back into the air. Sneasel leaps, Scratching her exposed stomach. Ditzy is knocked back, falling backwards.

"No! Ditzy, are you al-" Ditzy uses the momentum to execute an aerial backflip, swooping straight at Sneasel and latching onto his neck. She bites into him, Leeching as much Life as she can. She flaps back, reinvigorated, as Sneasel drops to one knee. "-right? You are!" "What? How? None of the other Zubats were this tough!" "Then that was your mistake!" Moe is full of energy now, happy that Ditzy's alright. "You compare her to any of the other Zubat in this cave? She is more than that! She's my partner, and together we're more skilled and powerful than any wild Pokemon or lone human! That's teamwork! That's friendship! THIS IS LEECH LIFE!" Ditzy swoops in for one last bite, draining Sneasel of the strength to even stand. The girl is shocked, returning her weakened Pokemon to his ball. "That something you practiced? You really believe in that 'power of friendship' nonsense?" "Well... I..." Moe is suddenly embarassed, realizing what he said, and how loud he had been. "I was sort of... swept up in the moment, and-" "Never mind, it's fine. That was actually fun. And now I've battled someone, so I can leave. I've kept my promise to myself. Besides. My Sneasel really should see a nurse about all that blood loss."

She grabs her bag off the bench, sliding past Moe to the main tunnel. Ditzy lands on Moe's shoulder, tired and a little sore still. "Wait! I never got your name." The girl stops, grinning. "It's Kerri. I'm a Trainer from Mahogany." She starts walking away again. "Don't you want to know my name?" "Not really." She never even stops walking. "See you around. Or not." Moe is left standing there, replaying the events in his head. "Well! That was... an experience. You doing okay, Ditzy?" Ditzy squeaks, leaning against Moe's head. "Right! Let's head on then, shall we? I think we can take the main tunnel all the way to the end, and be out of here before nightfall." Moe checks his PokePad map as he talks, and as such slips on the ice, falling onto his back. "Woop woop!" Ditzy takes to the air as he falls, hovering over his prone form, fighting back laughter. She succeeds in reducing it to a snicker instead.