Starting in Saffron // A Gray Journey

[Garouga! Bare Your Fangs!]

"I'm off, too. No point in waiting around for no reason." Silver took a few steps back, then turned and headed down a back alley. Instead of going for the Pokemon Center, he headed for a hotel on the southernmost row of buildings. It was a long walk, but Silver didn't mind at all. Then, something in his brain snapped together, and he turned and ran backwards.

"Oh crap, I forgot Eevee!"

Afterwards...
Silver stretched out on his bed and stared at the ceiling. Eevee curled up on a pillow and looked where Silver was looking. Eevee gave up after seeing the ceiling was all the same. Silver just smiled and pointed out the small window to his left. His gaze never changed.

"The world is bigger than I thought, partner...Out there, I will have many options. Many choices. I guess I'd better start making them now." With a loud sigh, Silver closed his eyes and thought of his beloved pack of Houndours in Celadon. Within a few minutes, he was fast asleep. Eevee nodded shortly after, then yawned and closed his eyes, too.

 

[JustOneMember]

OOC: Uhh... Am I in or not? >.>

 

[YoshiRiRu]

Slash wouldn't speak the rest of the night. Julian sat on the bed and tried to coax the pokemon into revealing it's feelings, but the proud sand mouse would do no such thing.

<It's nothing. I just got out of hand.> he would say. After what seemed like years, Julian gave up trying. He released all his pokemon to be fed. Sitting in his room, muching pokemon food, like a huge family. Slash was not hostile to anyone, nor was he antisocial. He seemed the same as always, just if you looked carefully, you could see a hint of somber behind his sunshades.

Julian left the room and walked down the stairs. He kicked his baseball bag. The season was over, and everything was going to slow down a lot. Julian always had boring summers. While all of his friends went off to exotic places like Cinnabar and Olivine, and big cities like Goldenrod, he was stuck in Saffron. He sat down on the sofa, and relaxed. The cool couch felt good on his back. As he laid in the chair, he almost dozed off to sleep. Before he was allowed to do so, however, he heard rustling and bustling coming from upstairs. Walking upstairs, Julian saw Karen rummaging through her things.

"What's the rush, sis?" Julian inquired.

"DIdn't you hear?" Karen snapped crossly.

"I'm going to camp for a couple months in the summer." Karen continued, and went back to packing her things.

"I'm leaving tommorow. We tried to tell you this morning, but you were too much in a hurry." the girl finished in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Camp?" The term was almost foreign to him. Nobody in his family ever went to camp. At this, Karen went off into another portion of the house. Julian walked into his room, and looked at his pokemon. All of them were asleep. Julian took their lead, and did the same. Possibly.. he could go somewhere.. he had nearly forgotten about Slash, who seemed to be missing from the pile of pokemon.

 

[DININI]

"Nidoking poison sting!"
"Pika,dodge!""good!" "Now,thundershock!" Pika hitted Nidoking…But Nidoking took a little damage!
"Huh? What's going on?"
"This is my NidoKing's Power!" "Now,IRON TALE!"
"Pika ! Quick,Return!" " Go Poli!" Nidoikng's iron tale hitted poli.Poli's hp: 50%
"Hahahaha! A Pathetic Poliwhirl!HAHAHAHAHAH"
"Poli Now! Double Slap!

 

[Gray]

(Yeah, i guess you're in, but try and be a bit more descriptive. You too DININI. Thanks.)

Gray watched as the group slowly dissapeared until only he was left. Chu started to bounce up and down, sending off slight sparks as it began to rain. He thought of going home at first, but decided against it. He then thought of going to the gym, but Kotoko stayed there now, and he didn't want to intrude on her new home. Instead, he began to walk towards the south gate, ready to head off for Vermillion. He was just about to enter the gate house when he remembered that he hadn't healed his pokemon since his gym batte. He turned around and started to make his way towards the pokemon center. Chu sat down on his shoulder, still sparking slightly. Apparently he was mimicking the Magneton that the girl owned.

-"Why are we going to Vermillion?"-

"'Cause we're leaving Kanto. I wanna go see Aunt Rika in Olivine City for some training. I hate to admit it, but we're slipping. That last bettle with Kotoko was hard, and i only just won it. She's three years younger than me, and she nearly beat me. I guess that's why she was chosen to be the gym leader. Anyway, we're leaving for Johto as soon as we get to Vermillion. Just stopping off at the center first."

Gray continued to walk down the road leading to the pokemon center while Chu asked questions about what they were going to do for training, and also about what Olivine City was like.

 

[JustOneMember]

* Ben yawns and half-closes his eyes as he's walking down the concrete streets of Saffron City. He looks from side to side, looking for something interesting to get rid of his boredom. He sighs, seeing as there's nothing much to do today. "Ugh..." He sits down on a bench nearby and looks up into the sky. And... SPLAT. "Aw! What the-" He wipes his forehead, and a gooey white substance is in his hand. "...freakin' birds..." He gets up and moves to a tree. Hhehehehehe. *

 

[YoshiRiRu]

*CRASH* A huge roar of thunder awoke Julian with a start. Looking out his window, he saw that it had begun to rain. Not hard, by Saffron standards, but enough to get it wet outside. All of his pokemon were fully accustomed to the rain, as he was. He looked around at all his sleeping partners. Ash, Lash, Splash, Flash, Clash...

"Hey.. where's Slash?" A wave of horror exploded throughout Julian. He stood up, almost yelling.

"Hey, guys, get up!" His friends all woke up groggily, except for Splash, who snored on. Ash growled gruffly, and blew a small flame at the duck. Splash squawked loudly and sat up, rubbing his scorched bottom.

"You guys, where's Slash?" Nobody could tell him. Everyone said that he was there when they all fell asleep. Even Splash, the mute Psyduck couldn't recall.

"He's gone." Julian said in a depressed tone. He sat down on his bed, head in hands. Everyone was miserable. Splash began to wail in sorrow, and everyone was melancholy. Except for Ash. He spoke up loudly, in a confident voice.

<Commander, don't give up hope! He can't be far. We'll find him.> Julian sighed.

"He doesn't want anything to do with us. You know how proud he is."

<Nonsense!> barked the growlithe.

<I agree, Julian.> Clash spoke up quietly. <We need to find him. He's part of the team.>

Flash put in his 2 cents too. <Are you really going to give up on him like that?>

Lash too, added his opinion. <Let's go. We don't have time to sit around feeling sorry for ourselves. Slash can't stand the rain - he cant have gone far.>

Splash sqawked loudly, and leaped up onto the bed, threatening Julian in baby talk. Julian looked up from his bed, and nodded.

"Well, let's go then." He still had his doubts, but everyone was right - he couldn't take a chance at not being able to get him back. Not bothering to put on a jacket, he and his friends rushed down the stairs, and into the pouring rain. They all split up, and began to search the suburb in which they resided.

After twenty minutes of searching, everyone was cold, and wet, and beginning to lose heart. They had combed every part of the neighborhood...or so they thought. Julian heard the flapping of wings, and Flash descended in front of him, an urgent look on his face.

<Get on. Quick.> Flash spoke with control, but had a note of serious urgency in his voice. Julian leapt onto the pokemon, and they took off. As they tore through the city skies, it began to rain harder. Flash was an expert flyer, but even in this condition, he found himself wavering. Eventually, they landed near a dark alley. Ash, Clash, and Lash were desperately protecting something from a pack of hungry Ariados. Although they were fighting hard, his team was losing against the unending swarm. Julian wasted no time.

"Flash, we don't have time to fight these guys! Whirlwind!" Flash obeyed, and a gust of wind erupted from the powerful pokemon's defined wings. The spiders that weren't blown away scampered. Julian rushed between his pokemon, and found an injured Slash, being tended to by a determined Splash. Without speaking, Julian picked up his friend, hopped onto Flash, and headed for the Pokemon center, his team taking the streets to meet him there.

OOC: Phew. Big post0rz.

 

[JustOneMember]

* Suddenly, rain began to fall. Ben blinked, and his eye got wide as a splash of the crystal-clear rain hit his eye. "Eh? Aw..." CRRACK! Thunder ripped through the sky. "...Darn. Man, I've got to get home. Tauros! Go!" The bull pokemon burst out of it's Pokeball and snorted. 'Eh? ...You need a ride don'tcha?' Ben replied, "Yeah. Sure do. But hurry, this may get bad." Ben hopped onto the Tauros, giddyap'd, and Tauros began galloping towards the south, the direction of home. *

 

[Loki]

Karen looked up as the roar of thunder resounded in the near empty pokemon center. There were a few trainers lounging around for the night, and a few nightly emergencies, but Karen was simply there. Too stiff to be lounging, and no emergencies. She hated thunder.

Not enough to start yelling and screaming, but enough to become uncomfortable with herself. All of her pokemon were asleep in their pokeballs, on the belt she'd abandoned in her plain room. All except Hitmontop, who'd accompanied her in the lounge, disliking the sound of thunder himself. Each flash of lightning and each roll of thunder made him jump, ever so slightly and soon it became a regular medley. Crack. Jump. Boom. Twitch. Crack. Jump.

Karen counted how many pokeballs and greatballs she had with her. She couldn't afford to waste her only ultra ball on a Haunter, or Gastly. Too expensive for that. But she found herself skipping numbers with each shattering rumble. She blinked as she stared at the pokeballs laying lifeless on the coffee table in front of her. Sighing, she leaned back and examined her surroundings. Cool trainers in one corner, smiling and looking very imposing with their perfect hair and features. Super Nerds in the other, talking in amazingly nasally voices and some wearing glasses and some wearing odd ties.

She would've joined in on the Karate and Crush group having a few spars in the corner to her left, but she was tired of fighting for now, but she noticed them eyeing her, wondering why a girl with a Hitmontop wasn't sparring. Karen found her mind wandering, to things she didn't feel like remembering. The time she'd fallen off of Blaine's massive Arcanine, the time she fought Chuck and was punched sky high...stupid rain.

A tall and muscled man who went shirtless wearing clean white karate pants with a long black belt to hold them up stood with arms folded before a little girl, crumpled on the floor. Rain pounded down, as the two had been sparring for many hours, and the light drizzle had turned into a pouring rain, with thunder, and lightning. Her long chocolate hair was pulled back into a pony tail and held back by a red hair tie, she wore a pair of white karate pants, almost identical to the man's, but held up by a red belt instead of black. Her top consisted of a white sleeveless cross collar top, with bandages up her arms that were staining red. The man's slick black hair gave way to a moustache and he barked,

"Get up!"

The girl struggled to get up, making the little cuts on her arms seem like deep gashes "I'm trying!" She replied, thouraghly agitated that the man standing untouch before her was being so pushy.

"If you can use that tone with me, you're obviously not trying hard enough!" He narrowed his eyes and waited impatiently for the girl to get up "We've gone more then halfway through your training program, and you're still crumbling at the sight of me."

It was only now that Karen figured out that that fight was immensely unfair. She was merely 10, while Chuck was ripped with muscles, at the prime of his life, when he was almost unsurpassable by anyone but the man Bruno who she'd heard much about. But looking back, it was not a spar, like she'd thought. It was an endurance run. That was why it took about a day for Chuck to be satisfied, and that was why he picked a day that was sure to rain. It had still impacted Karen enough to hate rain. Chuck was sure not to leave any scars on his students, not even from accidental scrapes that had nothing to do with his school. Nothing but the rain could remind Karen of that stupid day when she was pounded into the ground over and over again.

 

[YoshiRiRu]

*BAM!* Julian kicked the door open, and walked in at a steady stride, cradling a crumpled form in his arms. Soon after, a trail of pokemon followed him.
Count them,

1.. A growlithe.
2.. A crobat.
3.. A psyduck.
4.. A medicham.
5.. A sneasel.

All trailing in after Julian in a somber march. The boy strode to the counter, showing the nurse the bundle of something in his arms. The bundle was Slash. Torn, beaten, bleeding, barely alive. His tender sunglasses were cracked, and his white pupil stared eerily out into space. The nurse didn't say a word, but took the bundle into the back room. With a word of consolation to Julian, she joined her fellow nurses in the operation room. Julian stepped back, and sat on one of the sofas. His pokemon crowded around him, conversing. Julian was barely listening, but he heard bits and pieces, things like

<If Slash doesn't make it, Julian's gonna flip..> and <I hope Slash is going to be alright..>

Everyone was worried, but Julian most of all. The boy sat up and leaned his head against the glass window, looking out into the darkness of the storm. It seemed the perfect night for something extremely bad to happen. He didn't want to think about it. A flash of lightning made him jump. He put his head back down, and sighed.

A younger Julian stood at the bow of a boat. The immense cruise ship bore the proud title of the "S.S. Elixer." He stood and watched the sea with a less beat up Slash. Julian's red hair, which was longer then, blew in the sea breeze. <Careful, Julian. Don't choke on your hair..> Slash joked, with a grin. Julian aimed a kick at the pokemon, which it nimbly dodged. "Alright, clown. Let's hit the sack. I'm tired."

As they headed down the deck, it began to rain. Within a minute, it had began to pour. "Bad omen.." a passing sailor remarked gloomily. "A sudden storm brings bad luck to sailors.." the man remarked darkly. Julian looked uneasily at Slash. <Hey, bro. Don't worry. This ship is completely safe. I know you, uh.. can't really swim too well.. but.. uh..> "Argh, just shut up." snapped Julian hastily. He hated to admit that he was scared of the water, but with his mother lost at sea, he couldn't help but be a little shaky...

Julian snapped out of it. He shook his head, and looked at the door to the emergency room. No sign of movement. He perched a pillow at his side, and leaned on it, numbly awaiting his friend's destiny.

EDIT: As a sudden change of plans, apparantly I'm leaving town this afternoon and coming back sunday afternoon (3-4 PST) So, uh, don't expect posts from me until then.

 

[Pikachus_Paw]

(Sorry guys...My mother sot of banned me from the computer for awhile...And I may only come during to weekends so...yeah...I'm really sorry and if it is necessary to have me kicked out, I guess I do deserve that...Will post in a short while after I finished reading.)

 

[Gray]

Gray, unlike many of his fellow pokemon trainers, didn't mind the rain. In fact, he welcomed it. He enjoyed the feeling of water pouring over him, drenching his hair, which alwayss looked better when wet, and made him peaceful. His pokemon likewise enjoyed the rain, playing in the puddles and drinking what little water they could get into their mouths. Flaria was the only exception, a fire pokemon being the main reason, but she hapilly rested in her pokeball asleep. Gray strolled along the road, not hurrying at all to get out of the rain. His dark brown sleevless jacket was soaked, but he didn't care, and his pokemon were having a good time running around. He had released all of them, and kept their empty pokeballs on his belt.

He eventually got to the pokemon center and entered through the door, letting in a blast of sharp cold wind and a blinding flash of lightning before the doors closed and the dulled down roar of thunder was heard. He looked around the lobby and saw several groups of trainers hanging out, getting out of the storm or staying for the night. Gray noticed the girl he had seen earlier standing alone away from the other groups, although this time she had a hitmontop with her instead of a magneton. He also thought he recognized a boy from earlier as well, and remembered seeing a Sandslash that preferred to wear sunglasses, but he saw no such pokemon when he entered. Gray walked up to the desk and waited for one of the various and extremley similar nurses to join him.

"Hi, i'd like to heal my pokemon please."

"Sure thing. If you would please have the pokemon you would like to heal follow me. Thank you."

"Tsuno, Espii and Aeroa follow the nurse. Rest of you return to your pokeballs."

Gray returned all the other pokemon, including Chu, and went to sit down at the waiting area. It would tak about half an hour to heal the three pokemon, so he decided to read a rogue pokemon magazine that had found its way to the luxurious sofas in the large sectioned off area he was in. A few areas were also in there, but most were asleep, and it was quieter than the lobby wehere some of the trainers were sparring.

 

[Gray]

((Oh, PP, you are not gonna be kicked out just becasue you can't get on as often. I only kick people for breaking the rules or generally being annoying. So you are safe. :) ))

 

[Loki]

OOC: Lot's of double posts my friends. =_=

IC: Karen looked up, seeing both baseball boy and one of the other boys, who hadn't specified any particular interests. Gray, was his name...or at least, best of Karen's guess. Hitmontop blinked awake, and groggily looked at the newcomers. Baseball boy had all of his pokemon out, and Hitmontop clutched Karen's arm like a baby pokemon.

"Top! Top Hitmontop!" It mumbled in a high voice, staring around with wide eyes at all the new pokemon. A deep rumble was heard as Hitmontop tightened his grip around his trainer's arm, Karen patting his head in comfort as he asked her something she couldn't understand. Not without Splice around. But just by a wild guess, she knew what he was saying by his wild acting motions.

"They're sleeping Hitmontop, don't bother them." Karen said as gently as she could muster, "You should go to sleep too. You need the rest for tomorrow."

With watery eyes Hitmontop settled into Karen's lap, still blinking as he forced his eyes shut, but jumped with every crack of thunder. It would be a long night for the both of them.

 

[Garouga! Bare Your Fangs!]

OOC: I've been kinda busy, myself. Theatre production auditions at school.

<We don't have the money to go to Hoenn...> Silver gave a telepathic sigh as he and Eevee walked the streets of Saffron yet again.

<Whose fault is that?> Silver gave Eevee a sharp look, and it just smiled back at him. Silver sighed out loud, and stopped in his tracks. The streets weren't filled with busy people as they had been before. They were nearly empty.

<No performing; it's a school day. No one's here.> Eevee grinned wider as Silver sat on the curb with his head in his hands.

<I love these days!> Eevee stood on it's back legs and walked back and forth, like a person who just got use of their legs back. Silver didn't look up. He just stared at the cracks in the pavement.

 

[YoshiRiRu]

OOC: Rar. I is tay baxx0rz.


IC: A flash of lightning lit up the Pokemon center lobby. Julian stood up and began to pace furiously.

What was taking so long?

He brushed the red hair out of his worried face, and sat down again. Lash put his claw on Julian's arm.

<Worrying won't make it go any faster. Just calm down.>

"It's not that easy." Julian fumed.

<I know, kid. I know. Try.> The boy stood up, and walked to the counter. Meekly, he called for a nurse.

"Excuse me, nurse." A perky young woman with pink hair popped up from behind the counter.

"Yes?" she inquired brightly.

"Ma'am, my Sandslash. Will he be alright?" The nurse's expression darkened a bit.

"Was that your Sandslash? ...I don't know. It was a very serious injury. You'll have to stay overnight, I'm afraid. We're doing everything we can. I'd like to ask you calm down.. Perhaps mingle with some of the other trainers?" She suggested lightly.

Julian turned away, dissapointed. It was going to be a long, hard, night. Looking around the room, he saw some familiar faces. It was 2 of those trainers he had met earlier. Offhand, he spotted Magneton girl..

Karen, I think it was.

And out of the corner of his other eye, he spotted the other one, Gray. He was sitting by himself, reading a magazine.

Julian decided against visiting either of them. He didn't want any problems with Magneton girl, and Gray seemed to be indulged in his reading. Julian walked back to his little table in the center of the waiting room, and buried his head in his hands one more, letting out a groan of sorrow. A whole night. His pokemon were almost all asleep, except for Splash, who was sitting by himself, looking at a magazine. Of course, he couldn't read, but the young pokemon found it amusing to look at the pictures. Occasionally, he would grab a nearby pencil, or pen, and draw moustaches on particular people, or pokemon. Eventually, however, he became bored of this task, and climbed into Julian's lap. Yet another brilliant flash of bright lightning startled the small Psyduck, who crawled deeper into Julian's arms, shivering with fear. Looking out the window, he noticed that it was still pouring outside. He groaned again, and leaned back into his chair, his eyes resting.

 

[Garouga! Bare Your Fangs!]

<I smell hot dogs!> Eevee smiled and pointed to a cart, where swirls of steam rose from the front part. A big hot dog was painted on the side.

<No.>

<But-->

<NO!> Silver hated yelling at his Pokemon, telepathically or vocally. To him, only bad trainers did that because they had no control. Those Pokemon were the ones who begged for freedom and meant it. Just the thought of that made Silver sad.

"Arcanine, I need tracking help." Silver tapped the button on a PokeBall, and his largest dog Pokemon appeared. It did a sort of bow by stretching forward on it's front paws, then sat down. The few people who passed by stared in awe.

<Sniff out the Pokemon Center. I need directions out of here.> Arcanine nodded and rose it's head. In the rain, it looked majestic. It's nose twitched a few times, then it walked away. Silver and Eevee followed, and were led to a big red and white building with a P on it. Silver entered, with Arcanine right behind him.

<You could have just walked around.> Eevee looked a bit mad that Silver didn't track it himself, or even look for it.

<Arcanine can sense danger better than me. I don't know about you, but I wanna be safe right now.> Silver looked around for any signs of crazed Pokemon, or even crazed trainers.

<Hey Sil, isn't that the Magneton girl from before?> Silver's head whipped around, causing his neck to crack a little. Sure enough, the same girl from before was there. He also spotted the baseball guy and the other, silent one. They all seemed to be waiting on their Pokemon. Arcanine stepped out of the doorway to let some people pass, and Silver followed. After apologizing, he let down his hood and shook any water out of his hair.

<You DO take after my kind...> Eevee laughed telepathically at Arcanine's words, and Silver did so more sarcastically. Then, he returned his Pokemon and picked up Eevee. Then, he walked up to the counter and placed his PokeBalls in a tray. Eevee leaped on the counter and sat beside the tray. One of the many Nurse Joys in the world took both of them, leaving Silver feeling very alone.

"Oh crap, I didn't ask for directions..." He slapped himself on the head, then sat down in one of the empty chairs.

 

[Loki]

Karen sighed, stroking Hitmontop's head gently as the pokemon shivered. Hitmontop was always the brunt of his two brother's teases and jokes, mainly because he was the youngest, and his species altogether was from a different region then his er- half brothers. He was the youngest out of all the pokemon on Karen's team, and still had childish phobia's, like this one.

CRACK

Hitmontop wrung the loose baggy cargo pants Karen wore between his two sphere's called hands. He was uttering the unique part of his name over and over again in what Karen guessed was a comforting word, that was quite working.

"Top, top, top, top..." Hitmontop continued before Karen got slightly sick of the sound- not to mention annoyed, but she'd never show that to Hitmontop, who got even the slightest bit of respect from no one he traveled with but Karen. He longed for a real mom, but Karen would only stoop to a lullaby in somewhere not so public. His own pathetic attempt at a lullaby was not succeeding. Still, his trainers soft strokes were if anything, slightly comforting. The dry, and sardonic Alakazam had always told him that Karen's only soft side was reserved for pokemon, and pokemon alone.

"Top?" Hitmontop asked, craning his sight toward Karen in his frozen fear "Hitmon, Hitmontop?"

Karen smiled, slightly saddened when she whispered to him, "I'm sorry, but I can't understand a word you're saying. Sleep. It'll clear your head." She urged, and Hitmontop sighed, slightly annoyed with his trainer's disability to understand his words. Whether the bond was strong or not, his trainer's immense stubborness made her convinced that no ordinary trainer could understand pokemon without telepathy, or something of the sort. And so his attempts to sleep continued, fruitlessly of course.

 

[YoshiRiRu]

Splash became restless. The small pokemon rocked back and forth on Julian's lap, waiting. When the boy fell asleep, Splash took his chance. The pokemon leaped off his lap, and began to wander the pokemon center.

Looking around, he spotted a pokemon that he had seen earlier. As he recalled, it was spinning around on his head. Splash found this hilarious. Like a small child, he dashed towards the large top-like thing with his arms outstretched, babbling in his baby talk. At about this time, Julian's eyes snapped open.

Looking on his lap, he noticed the abscence of a certain duck. He quickly spotted the pokemon gleefully sprinting towards Magneton girl.

"Oh, no.." he grumbled, standing up, and dashing after his pokemon. Splash reached the pokemon and to tug on it heartily, imitating the spinning motion it had seen before, trying to get it to join him. Julian reached Splash, and scooped him up with one arm.

"Sorry about that." Julian muttered to Karen, starting to carry the baby pokemon away. Splash stretched his arms out, reaching for the top, a tormented expression on his face. Then the tears came, and Splash began to wail. Julian flinched, and turned around. Splash was desperately trying to reach Hitmontop. Splash wriggled and squirmed against Julian's weight, all the while wailing as loud as he could.

Trainers from around the center began to stare at Julian, and eventually Splash slipped out of his grasp, and resumed amusing himself with trying to convince Hitmontop to begin it's constant spinning; completely content. Pretty soon, he had begun to imitate the maneuver once again, got dizzy, and fell down, squawking with pleasure.

 

[Garouga! Bare Your Fangs!]

OOC: This is kind of a filler post.

IC: Silver let his eyelids drop like a bag of rocks. All of the noises and smells of the Pokemon Center disappeared. Soon, he was standing in a dark room with a spotlight illuminating a door. As he turned the handle, Silver remembered he was sleeping and could wake up if things got bad. The doorway was a very bright white, and Silver stepped in.

Silver is in a large, grassy field laying against the only tree. A few bikers ride by, and Eevee yawns at them. One gets enraged and stops, tossing a PokeBall. A Tropius is revealed in a flash of red light. Silver sighs and tosses out Houndour without getting up. Tropius gives a laugh-like noise and takes to the air. Houndour runs towards the tree, jumping and pushing himself off the tree with his back legs. A large ball of fire erupts from it's mouth, roasting Tropius where it flew. The Pokemon falls with a large thump. Silver just claps and finally gets up. The biker already has released a second Pokemon, Altaria.

"Houndour, go for a rotating Headbutt!" Houndour repeats it's tree push, heading straight for Altaria. It's back leg kicks in the air, and it rotates into a swirl of black. The attack strikes Altaria in the chest, but it seems unaffected.

"Altaria, use Dragon Dance!" Houndour stares at Silver while Altaria powers up. Silver just grins.

"Rotating Headbutt! With a firey touch!" Houndour does his swirling technique again, this time disappearing in a swirl of fire. Altaria flies out of the way and knocks Houndour into the ground. Silver sighs and returns his Pokemon. Arcanine is chosen next, and it roars. Altaria flinches, but soon shakes it's head and lands.

"Flame Wheel!" Arcanine sat down and howled as a streak of fire circled it. The streak grows thicker and gets higher, then arches back and heads for Altaria. The biker was quck to react and calls for an Aerial Ace. Arcanine sidesteps as Altaria sweeps by, and pounces on it's back. Altaria pulls up, but Arcanine pushes it back down. Altaria digs into the dirt head-first, and gets up shakily.

"That's a smart dog!" The biker swears and returns his Pokemon, taking off down Cycling Road as fast as he can. Silver just lays back down under the tree, stroking Arcanine. Eevee yawns again.