Johto's New League [PG-15]

Zeph. - Oh god, I laughed so hard when dunsparce landed on Karp xD Actually, that's just where the laughing started, that was a great post, quite seriously!

Shark Bate who is now Karp grew to lv. 16 and learned Tackle!
Pigman Pete grew to lv. 14 and learned Mud Slap!

Chapter 1.5 ~ Karvinne And The Balloon

Maya wasn't sure to 100 % of where she was going, since she had been hitch-hiking her way to New Bark by boat from south of Goldenrod instead of walking the long way. She guessed she could follow the signs towards the next town or route though. She spotted a sign when she left New Bark Town, saying "East for New Bark Town, west for Route 1". It was new and shiny, looking very much like it didn't fit where it was placed. Maya guessed the president had made sure to put it there to promote New Bark. The rest of the area on route 1 looked quite tragic.

These parts of Johto had seen their share of the war, being so close to Kanto. The road was still broken in places, and for some reason, there was a lot of cliffs and rubble here and there. Where did that come from? To the north, on her right side, she could spot mountains in the distant sky. Maybe some bombing had made rubble go all the way here? She shuddered at the thought.

Living in Goldenrod, she had noticed the war. Her father had even been fighting in it, leaving their mother to care for them alone... a bit like she had left them when the war was over. Maya shook her head and kept walking. No, it wasn't at all the same. And she wouldn't even think of that now. She threw a quick look at the golden bracelet on her right arm. Mother...

Then she remembered that she wasn't alone now. She peeked down at the pokéball on her belt, and grabbed it. Time to meet her serious companion. She had already thought of a name. Deathstare! It would fit his dark demeanor and dangerous claws. Full of suspension, she sent him out.

What erupted from the pokéball and quickly grew larger until it was about the height just above Maya's knees, wasn't dark. It looked like a rainbow. It was almost as if the dark clouds in the sky gave up a scream of fright and left to let a small beam of sunlight shine through and bounce infinite times onto the pokémon before Maya's eyes. Well, she wasn't sure it was a pokémon. Her mind didn't really function right now. It was... a girl's toy. Or a weirdly shaped, poppy colored balloon; she wasn't completely sure of it.

"Sneeaseel!" the pokémon said, raised its indeed long and big claws towards the sky and giving Maya the biggest smile its little mouth could upbring.

"Nu-uh," Maya said. "Listen, you... I don't really know what you are, but you aint no Sneasel!"

The pokémon lowered its arms and looked questioningly at her. Without taking her stare of the colorful abomination on the ground, Maya reached for her pokédex and made it point directly at him. Text popped up onto the screen and a monotone voice began reading it aloud. Maya quickly shut off the volume. How annoying. She read the text by herself and was forced to realize that the thing before her really was a Sneasel. Only, something called a "shiny" one.

The creature was pink. The fur on its whole body was completely, brightly pink. The feather things on its ear and its tail, which was supposed to be darkly cerise, were brightly yellow and the tiny mark on its forehead, which was normally darkly yellow, was now a baby blue shade. All wrong, Maya thought. There was certainly something very wrong with this creature. Poor thing. Some genes must have had a party with a little too much to drink when he was born.

For a moment, the wind of awkwardness swept through route 1, and then Maya cleared her throat and was about to say something. But she was interrupted by a high pitched squeaking noise.

"Awiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiih! Is that what I think it is? Is that, is that, is that a shiny pokémon?" something said and swished past Maya from the west too fast for her to register any kind of appearance. When she spun around, she saw a girl with giant glasses and her bubblegum pink hair in two pigtails sitting on the ground beside Sneasel (or whatever the thing really was) and staring at it with an smile on her huge open mouth. Her hair was actually the same color as Sneasel's fur.

Sneasel blinked, looked at Maya and then back at the other girl. "Snea," he said.

"Aaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! It is!!!" the girl said and seemed to be on her way to burst into a thousand bubbles of excitement.

"Excuse me, madam," Maya said, wrinkling her eyebrows. "May I ask what you're doing?"

"Oh, sorry!" the girl said and stood up, reaching out her hand towards Maya. Standing up, she was actually just as tall as Maya was. "I am Karvinne, pokémon expert and collector!"

"Really now?" Maya said slowly as she shook Karvinne's eager hand. "I'm Maya. Pleased to, uh, let you see my Sneasel."

Dang, now she had called it a Sneasel openly. And the little creature had noticed it. His eyes were shining up towards her, touched by her admittance.

"Where did you get it?" Karvinne said, suddenly pulling out an electronical notebook. It was a decimeter wide pad with a touchscreen and a pencil fastened at its side. Karvinne now took it and was prepared to write something.

"Well, the president and professor Acacia gave it to me just now..."

Karvinne dropped the pencil, and her jaw. "The president? You are... you are one of the chosen!"

Maya could almost kill own her ears for allowing those cliché words to enter into her brain.

"I guess," she said. Then she tried to shake off her bitterness and be a bit nicer. "So, what brings you here?"

"Never mind me! Where are you going? Are you any good yet?"

"Good? At what?"

"Battling, of course!" Karvinne said loudly and rolled her eyes. "That's what trainers do!" She stared at Maya with her enlarged eyes through the glasses.

"Well... I haven't tried yet," Maya admitted and smiled excusingly. Then she glanced at Sneasel, who seemed to like Karvinne, for it was looking up at her with big eyes.

"Aaah, let me try you out! Pleeeeeeeeeease!"

"You?"

"Of course! I'm usually not catching pokémon for myself, I'm catching them and sending them to my employer back in Olivine, but still, I keep several pokémon on me at almost all times!"

"Alright," Maya said, actually feeling a slight rush inside at the thought of battling. This was what she would have to do for quite a while now. But... wait. Would she have to fight with... the balloon thing?

"Sneea," it said and tilted its head a little.

"Kawaiiiiiiiii!" Karvinne bursted out.

"Alright, alright! We'll fight you," Maya said, mostly to get the other girl to stop.

"You're on!" Karvinne said and backed up quite a long bit on the road. "You do know how battles work, do you?"

"Well... the pokémon attack each other..."

"You tell the pokémon what to do! You're the brain, the pokémon is the muscle!"

"But I don't know what he can do!"

"Hm..." Karvinne thought for a moment, but then spotted the pokédex in Maya's hand. "Ah! A pokédex! Those are wonderful equipment! It can tell you almost anything about your pokémon. Just browse the menus to find Sneasel's attacks."

Maya did so and eventually found them. "Now what?"

"Now... Sentret enters the stage!" Karvinne said and threw a pokéball into the air. It popped open, and a rabbit looking pokémon with a long, round tail came out. Maya had met those before; it was cute. "And you begin," Karvinne added. "Try it!"

Sneasel too position in front of Maya. It seemed like it had received at least some basic training. His vacant smile from before was gone and replaced with some kind of gleeful sneer. Well, at least he might have the behavior of a real Sneasel, Maya thought. Even if he did lack the colors.

"Ok... use Scratch!"

Sneasel shot forward, readying its sharp claws. It ran rather fast towards the Sentret, who didn't look very tough. Maybe it had only recently been caught by Karvinne? But it obeyed her orders.

"Sentret, Defense Curl!" Karvinne shouted, and her pokémon immediately curled up into a hard ball.

Sneasel's claw reeked the ball, but seemed to do minor damage. Apparently, Sentret's defense was raised when it used Defense Curl. No sh*t, sherlock, Maya said to herself. She would remember that, though.

"Now, Sentret, Quick Attack!" Karvinne ordered.

Sentret unfolded itself and shot towards Sneasel at greater speed than Sneasel had been coming at it. The quick tackle hit Sneasel without failure. He tumbled around and squeaked a little. "Sneasel!" Maya found herself calling out. Dang, now it really was official. But he got up, only a little hurt.

"Sneasel," Maya said, giving up on calling him balloon in her thoughts. "Run towards Sentret and use Leer!"

She wasn't sure it would work, but the pink pokémon carried out her orders. The Sentret hesitated for a moment, and that was what Maya had been planning. "Now, use Bite!"

"Sentret, Defense Curl again!" Karvinne ordered, looking a bit more serious now. Could that mean Maya was good?

Sneasel took a leap and came down upon the re-curled up Sentret with teeth almost vibrating from a dark power. The power of the dark-type attacks. He buried his small fangs into Sentret's fur... for a moment longer... And then Sentret unfolded itself again, whimpering.

"Don't give up, use Scratch!" Karvinne ordered. Sentret shot up and barely hit Sneasel in its face. "Aha, you want to play hard to get? Sentret, Foresight!"

Sentret calmed iself and gathered the power of the attack, which would enable it to predict Sneasel's moves and hit it more easily. Maya didn't know that was how Foresight worked. She simply noticed that Sentret wasn't hurting Sneasel and decided that would mean it was doing something even worse and more tricky. So she would do something similar.

"Sneasel, Taunt!"

Sneasel stuck out his paw and pointed... ouch. He gave Sentret the finger. Sentret lost all its focus. How the hell did Sneasel dare to do something like that to it?

"No, Sentret!" Karvinne shouted, but Sentret's Foresight was broken and it dashed forward for a Scratch attack.

"Now, focus and Scratch it before it reaches you!" Maya called out, followed by Sneasel charging forward again as well.

The two pokémon met in the middle... they passed each other with the noise of claws against skin... they landed, and Sentret fell to the ground. Passed out. Sneasel was tired, but still standing. Sneasel had won because its arm was longer than Sentret's!

"I don't believe it," Karvinne said.

"I'm sorry-" Maya began.

"Amazing!! You are super awesome! And your shiny Sneasel is spectacular!!!! You won!"

Maya sighed but smiled. "Thank you," she said as Karvinne returned Sentret to its pokéball. Maya looked at Sneasel, who looked back at her. The questioning smile was back. Maya smiled wider and nodded at him. He shone up and raised his pink arms towards the sky again. And this time, a beam of sunlight really did shine through and hit him. He almost seemed to be glittering in the light. What a pokémon.

"So, where are you going now? Cherrygrove?" Karvinne asked, walking up to Maya.

"I guess so. I should be... training more. And taking on gym leaders. So Cherrygrove might be the right direction now?"

"Cool, then you should just follow this route. It'll take you there if you keep walking!" Karvinne said, gave Maya a little pat on her back, gave Sneasel a pat on his head, and started walking off in the opposite direction.

"Wait a minute, aren't you coming with me?" Maya shouted after her.

"Nope, I'm off to New Bark. Got a mission!" Karvinne said... and then she was too far away to be heard any longer.

Maya watched her disappear. Sneasel walked up to her and tugged her leg. "What?" Maya said instantly. She sat down. "You are pink."

"Snea."

"With yellow feathers."

"Sel."

"Well... I guess you are kind of cute. At least my sisters are gonna love you big time," Maya said, wrinkled eyebrows but a slight smile on her big lips. Sneasel looked content enough with that.

"I'm calling you Balloon though."

"Snea!"

"Ok, ok... how about Parade?"

"Sel?"

"You somehow remind me of figure in a parade I've been to once..."

Sneasel seemed to ponder the name for a moment. Maya wasn't sure she liked it herself. But she couldn't go around calling him Sneasel, could she? That would be like calling her Human. Come over here, Human! Nice to meet you, Human!

Sneasel finally nodded, and suddenly put on his gleeful sneer again. He looked a lot more confident with that than with the vacant smile.

"Fine then! Come on, Parade, let's go to Cherrygrove!"

Parade jumped up, paws in the air, ready to take on the world... and then it started raining. They were lucky Maya's raincoat was big enough to cover them both, somewhat.


((OOC: Ugh... I couldn't stop myself. I was going to make a short post but x_x Also, I'm planning for Karvinne to be somewhat recurring, if that's ok.

And, this shows the danger of writing out too much personality in the SU. I think I want to make Maya a bit more sarcastic rather than cheery and burly. We'll see.))

RHCP - A rainbow, oh how very appropriate xD And I like the mention of the advanced technology, you're really doing a great job with the setting!

Sneasel (Parade) grew to lv. 9 and learned Quick Attack!

((OOC: Thanks ^^ Yeah, rainbow and parade, we're kinda hinting something here xD ))

Chapter 1.5 part 2 ~ Rain And More Balloons

For some reason, Maya actually liked rain. When it was raining, people couldn't go about in their usual clothes without getting soaked or dirty. They had to shield themselves. Everybody curled up under whatever they could reach. Everybody out on the roads became the same; huddling creatures on the earth. Nobody cared about who had the most money... unless, of course, you could afford a micro folded umbrella to carry in your pocket instead of dragging a huge normal one along with you, or a car to travel in and hide from the rain in at the same time... There weren't many cars in Johto nowadays. Had there ever been? Not that Maya was old enough to drive one anyway.

Parade had at first been bounding along between her feet. When that got too annoying, he had been told to walk behind her instead and hold the raincoat up above himself. When that became too annoying as well, Maya had simply returned him to his pokéball and placed it in its spot at her belt. He shouldn't complain, it was probably warm and cozy in there.

She started to wonder how far away Cherrygrove could really be, when she heard a noise. A tiny, squeaking noise. She immediately assumed it was a pokémon - all pokémon seemed to be squeaking around here - and turned around to try and spot it. There it was, lying on the ground beside the road a little ways ahead. She walked faster to get to it, pulling up her pokédex. It told her it was a young Hoppip. Great, another pink pokémon...

When Maya reached it, she expected it to run away or start a fight... but the ball like creature simply lay there on its belly, getting pounded by the rain. The long leaves on its head hung gloomily to the sides of the body. Yeah, something was wrong here. Maya's motherly instincts kicked in.

She carefully wrapped her hands around the Hoppip. It squeaked faintly as she picked it up, unbuttoned her raincoat a little and shielded the poor thing from the rain. Its eyes were closed. This was one fevrish pokémon. How come? What had happened to it? Maya decided to try and get to Cherrygrove as fast as she could. The city probably had a pokémon center, just like Goldenrod had.

After walking through the hard rain with Hoppip for only a couple of minutes, she spotted something up ahead, a tiny stone throw from the road. A tent. And light coming from inside it. Perfect!

She made her way there and was about to knock, when she realized you couldn't really knock on a tent.

"Hello? Is anybody in there?" she said instead.

Her words were instantly followed by a loud growl and a loud tweeting noise that sounded anything but friendly. Two pokémon stormed out of the tent and ran her over. She screamed a little and dropped Hoppip, and the pink ball bounced once on the ground before coming to a rest on its belly again.

Maya looked up and saw that one of the pokémon was an angry looking Spearow. The other one, she didn't recognize but soon got a hint about what it could be.

"Hey, Drilbur! Spearow! Who was it?" a guy's voice said before he came out of the tent. He was a teenager with black hair and warm clothing on. He didn't seem to want to exit the tent, just peek out from it, and Maya could understand him, feeling the rain pour in on her top from her unbuttoned raincoat.

"I'm Maya! I'm a pokémon trainer! I've got a hurt pokémon here... can we come in and get shelter from the rain in your tent?" she asked as seriously as she could muster in her awkward position on the ground.

The boy saw her and then spotted Hoppip. His eyes widened and he nodded quickly. "Sure. Retreat!" he added and made Spearow and Drilbur go back into their pokéballs.

Maya picked the soaked Hoppip up and made her way inside the tent, taking off the coat as she did so. The tent was large enough for both of them to fit, but more pokémon should probably not be taken out of their pokéballs right now.

"What has happened to it?" the boy asked her, poking Hoppip as Maya tried to dry it with a towel from her backpack. "Were you battling?"

"No. It's not my pokémon."

"You just found it?" the boy said disbelievingly. "Whoa, it must have been really hurt. Hoppips are usually very shy, I've noticed."

Maya looked up at him. He was kind to welcome her into his tent ((OOC: That sounded dirty)) but he hadn't introduced himself yet. He seemed to understand her look though.

"Oh, I'm Mark by the way," he said. "I'm a trainer too, I guess. I'm traveling, trying to spot all kinds of pokémon in Johto." He seemed kind of proud over having a goal. Maya guessed she had a goal as well... even if she didn't really understand it yet.

"I see. Nice to meet you Mark. And thank you," Maya said.

"Ah, it's nothing."

Hoppip opened its eyes. It looked up at Maya and met her gaze, and seemed scared. It started twitching in her hands, even though the action apparently hurt it.

"Stop that!"

"I told you they are shy," Mark said. "Wait, here."

He reached into his own bag and held forth two berries to Maya. "What's that?" Maya asked.

"You've never seen berries before?"

"Well, I guess. Not just that kind."

"They should make Hoppip feel better."

"Alright," Maya said, taking the berries. She tried to get Hoppip to eat one, and after a few moments, it did so. The effect was visible after just a minute. Hoppip was feeling more lively. Maya fed it the second berry as well, and Hoppip was now looking quite energic. It wasn't scared anymore, rather happy.

"Oh, listen," Mark said, looking to the tent's roof. "I think the rain has stopped."

They crawled out of the tent and found out that he was right.

"Great, I can continue!" Mark said and packed up his tent. It was automated and took little time. Afterwards, he fastened it onto the side of his bag and was ready to go.

"Will you keep the Hoppip?" he asked Maya.

"I don't know... I haven't really caught it."

Hoppip jumped out of her arms and fluttered around in the air for a while. It was extremely light; Maya suspected its body was filled with air or something. It was much more like a balloon than Parade was.

"Well, catch it then!" Mark suggested.

"But I just healed it? I can't just battle it again, can I? That would be downright mean!" Maya said, slightly disturbed.

"Maybe you won't have to battle it now. Try to call on it and we'll see."

"See what?"

"Well... see when I caught one of my pokémon, a Rattata, I didn't really battle it either. I watched as another trainer battled it but decided it wasn't worth catching and just left it there by the roadside. So I took it with me and healed it... pretty much like you did now! And it started to like me. Now, Raticate is my buddy."

"It even evolved?" Maya said, eyes widening.

"Yeah. I just caught it by letting it touch the pokéball by itself. It was Raticate's choice."

The Hoppip was floating away. Maya hesitated, but called out: "Hoppip! Come back, please!"

First, nothing happened. Then it turned around and came floating back. Maya's lips grew a smile.

"See?" Mark said. "Although, many Hoppips can't really control where they are floating so maybe that was just pure luck..."

"Don't ruin the moment," Maya said darkly.

"Sorry, sorry!" Mark said nervously but laughed a little. "Well, I should be going. I wish you luck with Hoppip and all. Hope to see you again somewhere!"

"Same, it was nice to meet you," Maya said and watched him go.

Then she looked back at Hoppip, who was floating around above her head. "So... are you my pokémon?" she asked it. It didn't reply.

Maya raised one eyebrow, picked up one empty pokéball from her backpack and raised her hand into the sky. Towards Hoppip. If it chose to float close enough to touch the ball and get caught... then it was her pokémon. If not? Well, then at least she had helped a soul in need today.


((OOC: I'm thinking, you decide if Hoppip touches the ball or not. Same effect as when the pokéball stops shaking or pops open in normal captures, right? ^^ ))

RHCP - Nice post, I really liked the interaction with Mark and with the Hippop. It's quite alright if you catch a Pokemon like this although its level will be lower.

Congratulations, Maya caught a lv. 3 female Hoppip!

Chapter 2 ~ Splash!

It was evening when Maya reached the pokémon center in Cherrygrove City. She was very tired from walking all day; she was used to standing up and working in the flower shop for whole days, but this trip from one town to another was exhausting in a very different way. She stumbled down onto a sofa in the lobby and simply sat there for a couple of minutes, resting her feet. Her recently so brightly white shoes were now slightly gray from dried mud and sand. She had been lucky enough for the rain not to start again until she got inside the pokémon center though. Now she could hear raindrops starting to knock on the glass door and windows. Maya might have exaggerated her love for rain a bit, she thought after today. Well, at least rain was still beautiful as long as you were inside.

There were a few other people in the lobby, most of them coming or going, but some sitting together in a sofa or at a table, chatting friendly with each other. Maya overheard a conversation between two young trainers close by. They were apparently native to Cherrygrove and had only one pokémon each. One of them had a Hoppip, just like Maya had.

That reminded her: she had to make sure they were healthy. The pokémon centers had incredible technology for healing and resting pokémon quickly. Maya had heard about it but didn't really understand why they could heal pokémon so quickly but not humans. Sure, there were advanced machinery nowadays that could heal broken bones in days, but broken pokémon bones could be healed in minutes. It probably had to do with the strange energy all pokémon possessed. The energy that allowed them their elemental and seemingly magical powers.

Maya walked up to the counter and immediately was greeted by the kind looking nurse there. She accepted Maya's two full pokéballs and told her to wait a couple of minutes. Maya decided to look around the pokémon center in the meantime.

She found a corridor with a sign saying "Beds For Trainers". She guessed pokémon trainers could sleep there when they were on their journey. Good idea! She probably should use that opportunity.

When her pokémon were healed, she spoke with the nurse and got the key to a room. She went there and closed the door behind her, locking, before she threw her backpack onto the floor and jumped onto the bed. Aaah, soft sheets... she would sleep very well tonight. And...

She sat up straight and took out the two pokéballs from her white leather belt. She had been told pokémon slept and rested well inside their pokéballs, but she actually wanted to meet them now. She sent them both out from their balls and let them land on the bed beside her.

Parade materialized first. He stretched his beclawed arms towards the roof and greeted Maya with a sneer. "Snea," he said.

"Hi," Maya said. "I hope you're not feeling too energetic now, because we are going to bed."

Then Hoppip materialized beside Parade. He was at first a bit surprised. The pink ball looked up at him with a happy smile. Then Parade seemed to notice that Hoppip was pink as well. At last! He wasn't alone being pink in the world. Completely overjoyed by this, Parade suddenly squeezed Hoppip into a big hug. Hoppip gave Maya a surprised look, but then accepted the fact that she seemed to be well-liked. And just like that, her nickname came to Maya like a lightning bolt from a clear sky. Well, not really.

"Balloon," she said. "That's your nickname now. Do you like it?"

Hoppip happily floated up into the air. Sneasel put his arms up and jumped around on the bed, happily. Maya watched the duo with mixed feelings. Sure she was happy with having two happy pokémon, but weren't they a bit too extremely happy? They were like two delirious kids.

The commotion was thwarted by a loud growling noise. From Parade's stomach. "Oh, you are hungry!" Maya exclaimed. Her words were followed by another rumble from her own belly. "Ooops, me too. I guess we forgot about dinner. Well, it's not too late. Let's go downstairs and try to find something!"

She brought Balloon and Parade with her and found a small cafeteria in the pokémon center. It would do. Thank lord she didn't have to go outside to find food, Maya thought as they ate and watched the rain pour down outside the large glass walls.

((OOC: Is it ok to put a cafeteria inside a pokémon center? I figured, since they heal and sleep there, it would make sense to at least have something like it.))

Afterwards, all three of them were so tired that they floated upstairs (well, Balloon was the only one really floating, but) and fell asleep without brushing their teeth (well, Maya would be the only one doing it normally, but).


The next day, the sun shone again. Not a cloud in the sky. Wonderful. Maya and her pokémon awoke, had some breakfast in the cafeteria and went outside to explore Cherrygrove. There was quite a lot people outdoors; the city was very different from the gloomy New Bark. There was a market going on, and Maya had to strain herself to not buy any of the gorgeous fake jewelry that was being sold. It wasn't even expensive. But in the end, to not burst like a volcano, she bought something. A flashlight. It was the tiniest piece of machinery, and the man she bought it from even showed her how to fasten it onto the watch on her left wrist. Now, with the click of a finger (from her right hand), she could have a strong light flashing up a dark area, while taking up no real space at all. Nifty. It didn't cost too much... anyways, Maya decided it was worth it.

Continuing her walk through the town, Parade bounding after her and Balloon settling herself casually on her shoulder or on top of her head now and then, Maya reached the beach. It wasn't the most beautiful beach she had ever seen; it was a bit rocky and occasionally littered with drift wood. But it was still the sea, and here she felt a connection with her hometown of Goldenrod. Not that the sea was very prominent near Goldenrod, but still. Maybe because she had gotten here by boat.

As she and Parade walked on the beach, they met an old man. He was sitting on a rock with a shining, new fishing rod in his hands. He threw it out into the calm waves and waited patiently. Maya thought she might as well be nice and asked him if he had had any luck yet.

"Not yet," he answered. "But it's a new Good Rod, it should work fine. The fish are probably just a bit drowzy this warm day."

Maya decided to leave him to his doings, but he started to talk with her a bit more. She felt rude to not stay and listen, so she sat herself down onto another rock and did listen. He told her about the war. He had been fighting in it. Just like Maya's father! Maybe they knew each other? Though this man was older than he was. Not that age mattered in this matter, though. The fisherman told her about Cherrygrove and how lucky the town had been to escape the most of the warring that hit New Bark and some other places. The war had really been ugly.

"Do you remember it?" he asked Maya.

"Well... I do," Maya replied truthfully. She did. But she didn't really want to. She was a bit uncomfortable with the old man speaking about it as if it was a story from a book, something that happened to someone else or was made up. This had happened to them. It wasn't just a story.

The fisherman was happy that Johto was free from Kanto's "tyranny". Maya couldn't agree more. She had never even for a second pondered in what ways the "tyranny" had really manifested itself. How things had really been. She just went along with what her father and most people she knew had taught her. Why wouldn't she?

"Ah. Well let us hope something like that will not befall our beautiful Johto again," the fisherman said and looked at his bobber in the water. All this time, it hadn't moved an inch. "Not a pokémon to be found here in these waters today," he muttered.

"Too bad," Maya said, a bit happy that the man seemed to be done talking. But at the same time, it had been a bit interesting to hear about it all...

"Do you like to fish?" the man asked her and glanced at her with his bearded face.

"Eh, I haven't really tried."

"Never? That's strange! Then you must try it! It's relaxing, mentally healing and exciting at the same time."

"But I don't have a rod," Maya said.

"Hm. Well, luckily for you, I've got a spare one. As a thanks for hearing me ramble about all those old memories, you can have my Old Rod! I won't need it anymore, since I've got this Good Rod now."

Maya said thanks and accepted the gift. It looked quite shabby, but his new rod didn't seem to work either...

"Now, why don't you try it? I could give you some tips on how to use it."

"Well... alright."

The old man instructed Maya in how to throw it properly, and on her first try she actually got it almost as far out as his bobber was. Then she waited. Parade lazily sat down in the sand beside her and Balloon settled herself on top of Maya's head, to not float away in the sea breeze.

"It can take hours," the fisherman said as Maya's patience was growing old after a few seconds. She was usually pretty patient, but this... this wasn't really what Maya would call fun.

"But today the fish aren't really biti-"

"I GOT SOMETHING!" Maya shouted as she felt the line tug.

The fisherman nearly fell off his rock in disbelief. This fishing newbie got something that fast with his Old Rod?? Well... "Pull!" he shouted at her. And she pulled.

Flying out of the water came a Magikarp. Maya had pulled it right towards them. The fisherman took a leap to the right, and so did Parade. But Balloon and Maya took the full hit of what had turned into some kind of Tackle from the red fish. After the hit, the Magikarp landed on the ground and fluttered around pathetically.

"Eh," Maya said, looking at it. "Am I supposed to eat that, then?"

"God, no!" the fisherman said. "Not a Magikarp. Aren't you a trainer? Why not battle it and catch it?"

"Eh," Maya said again. "Is it really... fightable?"

Suddenly, Balloon took a leap off Maya's head and fluttered down towards the karp. Oh my, Maya thought. She's going to battle it!

Magikarp noticed the Hoppip and loaded up an attack. It took the tiniest of leaps... and flapped around its whole body like crazy for a second. Maya blinked. It had momentarily looked like the karp was high on something, or as if it had suddenly waved in a weird way towards Balloon. "Was that... an attack?" she asked the fisherman as the fish landed in the sand again.

"I believe it is a move called Splash," he said.

Balloon came closer to Magikarp and loaded an attack of her own... she flapped her tail and arms and spun around in the air for a second. Then it was over. Maya dropped her jaw. What the...

"Was that the same attack?" she asked.

"I believe so," the fisherman said and chuckled a little.

"But... what does it do?"

She answered her own question by pulling out her pokédex from her pocket and looking up Hoppip's attacks. Splash, Synthesis, Confusion. Splash did... practically nothing. It was, at most, a display of power. She lowered the pokédex and watched as both pokémon in the sand did one Splash each again. What power? Her face grew incredibly bitter, and as she heard Parade stifle a laugh, her eyes shot darts down at him until he shut up.

"This... is not ok," she said, trying to stay calm. The calmness broke one second later: "I won't fight a pokémon battle like this! Balloon, use Confusion!"

Balloon gave her a glance, as if she wasn't sure on how to use that move. The Magikarp gave the Hoppip an angry face and... did another Splash.

"Come on, Balloon, try it!" Maya pleaded.

Balloon seemed to giggle, as if it suddenly found out how to go about the attack. She closed her eyes, and just as Magikarp tensed its muscles for another tough and menacing looking Splash... Balloon's eyes opened. Magikarp felt a weird sting, originating somewhere inside its brain. It quickly spread throughout its flobbery body and made it feel... nauseous? It still performed the Splash, but accidentally flapped its tail a little too strongly, hitting a hard rock with it. Ouch! The strange feeling kept spreading and the fish felt really dizzy.

"Wow, you actually made something happen!" Maya called out happily. "Great, Balloon!"

"Hoppip!" Balloon said proudly, but Magikarp was still there. It was trying to do yet another Splash.

Balloon closed her eyes again, and when she opened them, Magikarp gasped (if fish can gasp...) and somehow shot himself one meter into the air with his tail fin. He landed on top of some craggy rocks and gasped again. Ouch. He stopped flapping his fins. Oouch...

"That's it?" Maya said.

"So it would seem," the fisherman said, having watched it all from some distance. "They aren't exactly known for being tough. Are you going to catch it?"

Maya looked at the poor, red fish on the rocky sand. She walked up to it, grabbed it in its tail fin and gently put it back into the water. The Magikarp came to, and looked up at Maya. "No," she said. "Good work, Balloon, but this Magikarp will probably be better of in the big sea than traveling the land with us."

Magikarp seemed overwhelmed by Maya's non-rudeness and if it hadn't already been in the water, tears would probably have flooded its eyes.

"Oh, for crying out loud..." Maya said. But the Magikarp and Balloon waved at each other with a Splash one last time, and the fish was gone into the depths of the sea.

RHCP - Oh look, Balloon made a friend! Well sort of xD Anyway it's completely fine to have a cafetaria in the Center, the structures are yours to imagine any ways that you like. Well, ways that are still physically plausible of course.

Hoppip(Balloon) grew to lv. 6!

[OOC]
Seems it takes me a while to write posts of this size, but it's not like I don't have free time. >.>

I apparently like the idea of starting from the beginning, because I wrote a bit towards that effect.

Hope I got Grey and Acacia fairly accurately.

[IC]
Chapter 1 - New Bark

Maria looked behind her, before setting out. To the east the light of the setting sun had cast light through the trees, on to the enormous wall. It reminded her very much of the dam, at home. But this was not an island; it was a town on the edge of a man-made bay. Of course, getting from one to the other had been a rather interesting experience.

She was surprised when she checked her email, only to find there was one from the government. She didn't check her email often. Like most machines, the computer was one she had minimal association with. From what the email said, if she didn't respond within the next two days, a letter would come by post. Two days out of fourteen, that is. After discussing it with her parents, everyone was in agreement. She must go, and she would ride on the boat of a family friend.

She rarely had the opportunity to ride a boat up the lock, and found it an interesting experience. They moved into a small canal, had massive door close behind them, then spent about five minutes rising, slowly, to ocean level. The sea was quite a sight. Maria had only seen it once before, as a child, and it was still surprising, just how far it extended. It was a marvelous combination of blues, blacks, whites, and greens, all mixing and swirling. The others on the boat were both men; a father and son, who had a family business that required they trade in Goldenrod. To get there, they first moved south, then east. She knew that this was to avoid the whirlpools to the north-east. She grew up hearing stories of the islands that lay, submerged beneath them, tearing apart the natural currents of the ocean.

After arriving in Goldenrod, she followed what road there was to Violet, and further, down through Cherrygrove. She ended up in New Bark, in what she thought was rather a timely fashion, considering she only had a simple Town Map, and had walked such a ridiculous distance. She was perfectly capable outdoors, and everyone who knew her was aware of this.

So, she had made it to New Bark, not far from sunset. Given the town's size, it did not take her long to find the old Laboratory. It was another place that she had heard old stories of, and new ones of its present decrepitude. After everything she'd seen on her trip, it seemed like most of Johto was repairing itself from such a state. The lab summed it up quite nicely. The place was cluttered, and filthy; boxes were everywhere, from what seemed like a variety of time periods, given the dust. Machines were also running, with arcane images on their screens, and apparently no one around to interpret. She was greeted by a man in a lab coat, and led to a back room, where she was surprised to see the President of Johto. He was standing next to a woman in a lab coat, that Maria didn't recognize.

Grey greeted her with ostensible warmth. Maria was a little paranoid about the way people projected themselves, and both sub- and consciously labeled their presentations as such, by default. He held out his hand, which reminded Maria of the men from her parents' dojo, who were far more likely to offer her a hand than other men were. Shaking his hand was not like shaking theirs, however. While they used it to feel out her strength, Grey seemed to use it to feel out her mind.

"Good to see you made it, at last." Maria felt more than a little annoyance there, but brushed it off. She had practiced hiding her thoughts. "We were beginning to think you'd got lost on the way."

"But now we remember how rude it is to assume such things of people," the woman behind him chimed in. Woah, Maria thought, she must have some serious job security. A tension filled the room, that was almost visible in the air. But the President, as expected, knew how to deal with awkward moments.

"Maria, this is Professor Acacia, who will be giving you your starter. We've picked it out especially for you." This last bit, he said with a satisfied smile. That smile seemed sincere, or at least a part of it did.

The Professor walked over to what was likely the only neat part of the whole building: a large-ish, polished, metal table. It seemed like the table would have fit in nicely, if the building was cleaner, but for now, it contrasted with everything else, in such a way that Maria couldn't decide whether it was fitting, or gaudy. The dark skinned woman grabbed one of the pokeballs off of the table, out of a small stand, with the word Electrike written on it. She also grabbed a touch-screen devise, and held out one in each hand. Maria responded by grabbing one in each hand; the ball, smoothly, and the devise, clumsily.

"Now, this isn't quite the starter we would traditionally give someone, nor is this the most up to date pokedex-" Acacia paused on the President's quiet throat-clearing, then continued, as if it hadn't happened. "But our traditional, powerful starters are extinct."

Grey seemed to tolerate her statement, and Maria suspected it was because she hadn't elaborated on the pokedex.

"Well," he said, "I hope you're ready to start your journey!"

Maria had little desire to spend any more time in the room, so she said some awkward goodbyes, and was led back out by the man who'd led her in. When she was finally out of the building, she pulled a few lung-fulls of cold air, before looking at the wall to the east. It was dappled with reds, pinks, golds, and blues, from the setting sun's light, filtering through the trees. It was about as tall as Cianwood's wall. She thought of home for a moment, then sighed.

"Mandatory participation...."

As she neared the edge of town, it occurred to her that she ought to let out her pokemon. She did as she'd seen trainers do, and was greeted with a bright, but muted, light. Something not entirely unlike vapor came out of the ball, and formed almost immediately into a small pokemon. It's looks gave Maria pause. Green and yellow, it was a small creature, with looks somewhere between a cat's and a dog's. It looked at her, innocently, for a moment.

Isn't that a little too cu-

Her thoughts were interrupted by the little thing letting out something between a howl and a meow. All of Maria's processes stopped, briefly. She felt her face moving, and repressed it, looking around herself, as if a child about to steal something. When she realized that no one was looking, something odd happened to her face. It twisted, into somewhere around <3 . She regained her senses when she caught something of a sly expression on the pokemon's face. She picked it up by the scruff of it's neck, and looked it in the eye, very serious.

"You cannot, do that in public."

The electrike simply stuck its tongue out, and looked off to its left, innocent again. They retained their poses for a moment, until she spoke again.

With a reddening face, she said, "Kitty... you look like a kitty, more than a puppy...."

The pokemon returned his gaze to her with what she could now tell was a grin.

MMGiru - "Feel out her mind" I like that, it has a certain poetic value to it. Also I really do love how you portrayed both Gray and Acacia, and more importantly their relation to one antoher, you really did that perfectly!

Congratulations, Maria received an Elektrike, Pokedex and Pokeballs!

[OOC]
When I re-read this, the battle feels short, but I've written it, and I like at least the idea, if not the detail. Also, I have to catch up.

I was also wondering about nocturnal pokemon. I guess that sentence there could work as a question to that effect, even without this ridiculous one following it.

[IC]


Chapter 1.5... ish - Route 29



She hadn't put the electrike back in the ball she'd received it in. She reasoned that there would rarely be people here to see her react, if it did anything terribly adorable. Or, if he did anything adorable, given that she knew he was male, now. It didn't take particularly long for her to notice, while she was holding him up in the air. They were walking along the route she had come through, from Cherrygrove. It was night, and she could hear owls hooting... or what she assumed were owls. There weren't any in Cianwood, and she didn't know if there was anything else that made the sounds she'd heard on TV.

Maria liked nights away from civilization, and there was almost none of the light pollution that she'd seen around Goldenrod, here. This was about the time that she stepped on a particularly loud twig. She looked at the ground, and saw that there were a number of them, all quite dry, lying around the area. The electrike with her had noticed as well, and had apparently noticed much more, in the dark. It was looking out, towards a patch of grass with something she first registered as a ball sitting on a pedestal. But after a moment, she could see it was more like a large squirrel, sitting on it's tail. It moved when Maria looked at it, and began to make a loud screeching noise, that sounded a bit like it was saying "sen" rapidly. All around it, the grass rustled, before four more of the things rose up.

The only thing Maria felt from the squirrels, was not concern, but a barely manageable desire to snuggle. Her new companion apparently had different thoughts on them. He looked at her for a moment, at which point she could almost feel his grin, then stretched his legs and back. The squirrels held fast, despite the Electrike's menacingly cat-like display. Maria realized that she had a way of getting a better grasp of the situation, despite how much she might dislike the method. She pulled the pokedex from her pocket, and instantly found disdain for it. It took her too long to find the power button, for her liking. When it came on, she pointed it in the general direction of the squirrels, only to find that it could see in the dark much better than she could. After a moment, it identified them as Sentret, and helpfully pointed out that they never slept alone, always having one of their number keep watch.

"Just for kicks," she said, while moving the camera to the electrike, who responded with a smirk. The pokedex cheerfully told her his type and moveset. She spent a moment cursing, while trying to navigate the devise, before finally being able to look at what his moves did. Before reading, she looked back at the sentrets. Still there, at attention. She went back to the screen and read for a short while. Electrike interrupted her thoughts with one of those "e'lek" meows.

"Alright, alright. All of them?"

He gave her a smile ripe with menacing intent. He turned the same smile back on the sentrets, while a crackling sound, and many tiny sparks of light seemed to move through his fur.

"Blast all of them with Thunder Wave, then?" she put forward, calmly.

He apparently agreed, because he pumped out two little bolts of electricity, that each hit one of the sentrets. Before he could fire a third, the other three were on him. He was apparently so invested in preparing the attack, that he let one of them hit him. When he fired the blast at his successful attacker, with glee on his face, Maria decided that maybe it wasn't an accident. The hit sentret fell on its back, helplessly, and Electrike moved to face the other two. They made sure of each others' locations, and attacked. The cat darted forward, between them, and let them hit each other, then fired off his electricity at both of them.

As a firm believer in using your opponent's attacks against them, Maria was pleased. While finishing the second attack, though, he was hit in the back, by one of the two he had initially hit. When he turned around to reciprocate, he saw that it was now curled into a ball. He paused, and while Maria began to voice it, he fired "Swift!" Several little stars appeared around him, before white beams fired from each. None of them missed, and none of them seemed at all affected by what Maria had heard the pokedex call out; "Defense Curl." The sentret made a little grunt, before it stopped doing everything but breathing. When he looked around, Electrike had just enough time to see another sentret tackling him.

It was after that, that Maria realized her kitten may have been a bit overconfident. It did not take this tackle well, panting hard after he got up. She was beginning to consider pulling him out, when another sentret moved in for attack. The one that had just hit him was on the ground, apparently in the same pain the shock had caused him. For this sentret, Electrike stood his ground, and fired another few Swift beams at it. The sentret kept going, though, and they both went tumbling. After a moment, Electrike lifted its head and looked at the downed sentret that had just hit it. A couple more stars appeared around his head, and let loose two beams, before he passed out. As one of the other sentrets moved to tackle him once more, Electrike dispersed into a mist of light, which then stretched its way back to Maria's hand, where there was a pokeball.

She surveyed the area. Two unconscious sentrets. One of them, she knew Electrike had knocked out. The other might have been knocked out by either its own tackle, or him. She looked at the ball in her hand, and sighed. One of the up sentrets started making little squeaks at her, so she gave the most withering glare she could muster at such a cute creature, and spoke.

"I wouldn't try it, if I were you, squirrel."

Maria turned, and continued heading back to Cherrygrove. She could make her way through these woods without a pokemon's help. Though... she found herself wanting to see her kitty healthy, again.

Celeste Ingerfield - Chapter 3.5​

Finally, the Poké Ball stopped shaking. Selly had caught the Spinarak.

"Yay, it stopped!" She cheered and picked it up. "I caught a Pokémon! I caught a Pokémon!" She chanted while dancing around. "I'm gonna name you Smiley Face!"

"Ahem." The man cleared his throat, trying to get her attention.

"Err, yeah..." She slowly turned back around. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to mess up your Berries! Honest!" She frantically waved her arms, which didn't really help at all. "I was really hungry, and they looked so good!"

"Well, they are my pride and joy. I work hard to keep them well maintained." He explained. "I had to specially import loamy soil for my garden!"

"D-drif..." Bubblegum cringed in pain.

"Oh no, Bubblegum!" Selly rushed over to the Drifloon. "What's wrong?"

"That Spinarak you caught must have poisoned it."

"Poisoned? Will she be okay?" She began to panic.

"Don't worry! It's just a status condition, it's not permanent!" He tried to calm her down. "A Pecha Berry can cure it." Picking up one of the pink berries that were lying on the ground, he gave it to Bubblegum.

Bubblegum quickly scarfed down the Berry, practically swallowing it whole. She immediately brightened up. "Drifloon!"

"That's so cool!" Selly was in awe. "I didn't know Berries could do stuff like that!"

"Berries are amazing! They aren't just some snack, you know? They are packed full of different vitamins and minerals to help out Pokémon!" He seemed much different than before. It was as if Selly had triggered a switch inside of him. You could practically see the sparkles in his eyes. "Oh sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Herman, the Berry expert."

"I'm Selly!" She greeted, happy that she seemed to be off the hook.

...

"So, you're a new Pokémon trainer, eh?" Frank asked Selly. They were inside the cabin. Selly was still hungry, so he gave her some of his food to keep her from eating all of his Berries.

"Yep! Just started today!" She took another bite of the noodles. "I'm heading up to Violet City now."

"Violet City, eh? Are you planning on fighting the gym leader?" He asked curiously.

"Mmm hmm." She nodded, chewing her food.

"With your team so far, it might be a bit difficult." He said, looking at the Pokémon, who were also eating.

"Narak!" Smiley Face made an angry face at him, feeling insulted. Bubblegum just continued to eat the Pokémon food.

"Why? I think they're great!" Despite only having them for a short time, she still felt pretty confident.

"Well, they probably need some more training. The Gym Leader is pretty tough, you know. And you don't have a good counter for Flying-types."

"Could you battle me then?" She asked. "You know more about this than me."

"Me?" He scratched the back of his head. "It's been a while since I had a battle. My skills are kind of rusty."

"Come on, please? I want my Pokémon to be super awesome!" She begged.

After some thought, he gave in. "Oh, alright. I don't have a Flying-type, so you can't practice with those. But, you'll get more battle experience at least."

"Yay! Let's go, let's go!" She grabbed her Pokémon away from their meals, and headed outside.

Frank followed behind, though he became slightly hesitant while he was out there. Being too far from the comfort of his house made him nervous. "Let's just battle here. No need to go too far."

She shrugged. "Okay." She wanted to go to the field further down the route, but it wasn't that important.

"Alright then, let's see if I'm still any good." He pulled out a Poké Ball. "Go, Lotad!"

"Tad." The Pokémon burst from the Ball and landed with a thud. He was a plumper than most, but Selly couldn't tell.

"Okay, I'll use Smiley Face!" She tossed the Poké Ball in the air, and the Spinarak popped out.

"Rak!" Smiley Face had a smug grin all over his abdomen. He stared down the Lotad, who happened to be spacing out.

"You can go first." Frank offered.

"Okay!" She looked up the Spinarak's moves on her Pokédex. "Smiley Face, use Constrict!"

"Spin!" He shot out threads of web at the Lotad, who was now all wrapped up.

"Lotad use Absorb!" Frank commanded.

"Looo!" He released a beam of red energy from the leaf on his head. It hit Smiley Face and drained a bit of his health.

"Come on, you can do it, Smiley Face! String Shot!" She shouted with encouragement.

He shot even more web at the Lotad, at this point, he was starting to look like a mummy. His facial expression, however, remained the same. The blank stare was a little bit unnerving.

"Now, Poison Sting!" She pointed her finger dramatically towards the wrapped up Lotad.

"Raak!" Smiley Face pounced on top of Lotad, and bit him with his venomous fangs.

"Lotad, use Natural Gift!" He enjoyed this move.

"Tad." Now with a dopey grin, he began to glow red. Suddenly, a pillar of fire engulfed them.

"Woah!" Selly was shocked and in awe. "How did he do that?"

Frank grinned with pride. "Natural Gift. My favorite move. It uses the power of the Berry the Pokémon is holding. Lotad had a Cherri Berry."

"Wow, so Berries can even do that?"

"Yes, aren't they amazing!"

Of course, because of this attack, Smiley Face was totally fried, and most of the web burnt off of the Lotad.

"Smiley Face!" She ran over to him. "Are you okay, little guy?" He was all wiped out from that attack.

"Maybe you should use your Drifloon now." He suggested.

"Alright. Return, Smiley Face." She called her Spinarak back into his Poké Ball. She held out Bubblegum's Ball. "Your turn!"

"Floon!" Bubblegum looked at the Lotad, who was staring at her with a blank look. She backed away slowly.

"Use Astonish!" Selly called out. No escape for this Drifloon.

"Drif... looooooon!" She hesitantly began, then screeched out her Astonish.

"You use Astonish as well!" Frank shouted.

"Looooooooooooootad!" He countered back with an Astonish of his own. And both moves happened around the same time, which drowned out all of the other sounds, and effectively scared off any watching critter.

Since, in the end, Bubblegum seemed to have taken more damage from Astonish than Lotad, it was time for Plan B. Which probably should have been Plan A, since it is the move that ends in a knockout most of the time.

"Now for your finishing move! Weather Ball!"

Buubblegum built up the ball of air and energy, then released it at the Lotad. However, it was still standing.

"Aww, but that always works!" She complained, but the Lotad did look visibly worn out. The long battle had gotten to him.

"Get some health back with Absorb, Lotad." Frank knew the Lotad would faint soon, but decided to keep the battle going for as long as he could.

Lotad shot the red beam at Drifloon, and zapped some of her health. He looked a bit better now, but not by too much.

"Now..." She wasn't quite sure what move should be next. "Astonish, again!"

"Loon!" She let out another loud cry at the Lotad. He twitched, then fell over. He was knocked out.

"...That's it?" She stared at the Lotad for a moment. "Uh, yay, I won!" She cheered, though it did feel anti-climactic.

"Good job, Selly." Frank smiled. "Here, I'll heal your Pokémon for you. You should get going pretty soon if you want to make it to Violet City before it's too dark."

"Thanks, Frank!" She giggled at the unintentional rhyme.

(OOC: Lotad doesn't learn Natural Gift until level 15, but it was the lowest I could find. Then again, it is a TM in Gen IV. Again, hope this post is okay!)

Chapter 3 ~ Bubbles and Taunts

Maya had left Cherrygrove behind and begun traveling route 30 north. She was feeling quite cheerful this day and nothing could possibly bring her down! The sun was shining down on her and on the dense forest to her left. A mountainside was towering up somewhere on her right.

After a while walking, she spotted a tiny lake. Ah, it looked like a little swim would be perfect here! Maya made sure nobody was looking, then she got in behind a rock and got ready to change into swimsuit. But something caught her attention before she had begun undressing. There was some kind of commotion on the other side of the... well, it could just as well be called a pond.

There were a bunch of pokémon looking like blue balls. Maya read from her pokédex that they were called Poliwag. A bunch of them were in the water, watching two Poliwags standing on dry land. One of them was shouting and seemed to be boasting. What was it doing? Maya crept closer, carefully. As she did, she saw the demeanor of the other Poliwag on land. It was standing straight up, face stern. Not reacting to the other one's blabbering.

It almost seemed like the smaller Poliwag was trying to rally the others... against the bigger one? Oh, maybe the bigger, stern one, was the leader and the smaller Poliwag was trying to challenge it for the title of leader for this group! How cute, Maya was thinking, hiding behind a bush.

The next moment, things weren't as cute anymore. The smaller Poliwag shot a spray of water around the bigger one. A display of power? Maya's pokédex told her it was a move called Water Sport. Then the smaller Poliwag shot big bubbles towards the bigger one. An attack called Bubble. The bubbles hit the bigger Poliwag and burst, seemingly quite harmful. But the bigger Poliwag stood its ground and endured. Then it fired its own Water Sport, drenching a large area around the other Poliwag. And then came its bubbles. They knocked the other Poliwag over and back into the pond. The victorious Poliwag still hadn't said anything, just done its attacks. The other Poliwags cheered for it and laughed at the challenger, who swam away down into the pond.

Maya got an idea. Maybe she should try to capture the little Poliwag who had lost? She could take care of it and make sure it got stronger! She made her way to the other side of the pond and found the little Poliwag sitting on a stone, brooding.

"Poliwag!" Maya said, and startled the little fellow. It jumped up and stared at Maya. "Let me capture you! Together we can work to become stronger."

The Poliwag began screaming, instantly alerting the others to Maya's presence. Maya sighed and called out Parade. He jumped out from the pokéball in a weird glimmering way and raised his hands towards the sky in his usual gesture. Then he put on his gleeful sneer.

"Quick, before the other Poliwags come," Maya told him. "Use Quick Attack!"

The colorful Sneasel nodded and shot away towards the little Poliwag with great speed... but not speedy enough. Suddenly, something came in the way and took the hit for the smaller Poliwag. Or rather blocked it completely. Parade bounced back and landed stumblingly in the shallow water. "What?" Maya said.

It was the bigger Poliwag. The leader. It seemed like, even though the smaller Poliwag had challenged him, it was still part of the group and the leader must protect the group. The smaller Poliwag sort of confirmed Maya's idea by looking up happily, almost tearful, at the leader.

"Well, if that's how you like it..." Maya grunted, then smiled. "Then we will battle you instead."

The leader took a little leap and blew big bubbles in a foamy spray towards Parade. "Parade, use Quick Attack to evade them!" Maya shouted, and Parade just had time to comply.

Parade ran up onto the shore, and the Poliwag followed, by landing there as well. "Now, Parade, Leer!"

The shiny Sneasel's sneer grew even larger and its eyes grew bigger, as it said something. It was mocking Poliwag for something!

But... Poliwag seemed untouched. Its stern face was as untouchable as ever. "Aargh, what a strong foe," Maya sighed.

Then, the Poliwag did say: "Poli," and the whirls on its belly started to spin. Maya couldn't take her eyes off it at first... then she realized what was about to happen, and snapped out of it. Parade wasn't as lucky.

The other Poliwags were in the pond and cheered their leader on, as Parade got more and more drowzy. Finally, he fell over, but Maya was there to catch him in time. "Parade, snap out of it!" she said. He didn't listen and his eyes were drooping. "No, you DON'T!" Maya said and slapped him lightly. He came back to life, blinking.

When he realized Maya had slapped him, he shot up and started to yell at her. "Shut up, I was only helping you. You fell victim to a Hypnosis attack!" Maya said, and Parade raised an eyebrow. Then he remembered Poliwag. It had begun to walk back towards the pond.

"We're not done yet, Poliwag!" Maya shouted and made it turn around. Its eyes narrowed.

"And we're not gonna fall for that belly trick again. Parade, use Taunt!"

The leer hadn't been working, but Parade's taunt was something special. Hard to resist. Parade gave Poliwag the finger. Poliwag gasped and growled. It had worked. Weird, Maya thought.

Poliwag shot towards Parade in some sort of spontaneous tackle. Parade jumped forward as well, and raised his claws for a Scratch. Parade's attack seemed much more effective, as he managed to twist his body in the air and only get a little bump from the Poliwag. But Poliwag got a nice long scratch on its back. Now it was agitated.

"Good work, Parade!" Maya said cheerfully. "Let's show 'em who's the boss!"

Parade landed and made a stylish bow towards Maya and then towards the group of Poliwags in the pond. The Poliwags seemed to have had enough, watching their leader being battled. The smaller Poliwag from before started to shout again, and suddenly they were all charging up onto land towards Parade. He gasped!

But the bigger Poliwag jumped in between them, and halted the group. They were looking questioningly at him. He told them something, in the language of Poliwags of course, and they seemed to understand, reluctantly. They walked back down into the pond and disappeared. All but one Poliwag, who couldn't seem to obey. It stayed at the shoreline, hesitantly.

"The leader told them... that this was his battle and not theirs, didn't he?" Maya said slowly.

Parade nodded. It apparently understood Poliwagish. Maybe pokémon language was universal. The leader turned back towards Parade and gave Maya a dark glare; it understood that she was behind Parade's doings. It looked at her as if it wanted to say: "This is where the real battle begins."

"Hell no," Maya said promptly. "We'll take you down in a sec, you just wait. Parade, use Bite!"

Parade ran forward to reach Poliwag with his teeth, which was getting loaded up on dark energy. But Poliwag had other plans. It breathed in and blew even bigger bubbles than before towards Parade, who stopped dead in his tracks, unsure of how to tackle them. He knew they'd hurt.

"Parade, don't be a wuss! Use your Bite to pop a Bubble!" Maya said, surprised by her own inventiveness.

Parade sneered and burrowed his fangs into the first Bubble to meet him. It popped, but it did hurt him. "Ah, maybe that was a bit too close... Use Scratch on the bubbles instead!"

The bubbles were coming in faster now and several had already hit Parade. It looked like they really hurt when popping against his skin. But he readied his claws and began cutting his way towards Poliwag. It worked! Doing much less damage to Parade's paws than it had done to his head when he bit a bubble.

Poliwag had been blowing bubbles constantly for a while, but it seemed like it had to rest now... but Parade was closing in! Something unusual struck the leader of the Poliwag pond. Panic. He used Water Sport and managed to make Parade slip on the wet ground and fall on his nose only one meter before reaching the blue pokémon. Poliwag let out a breath.

"Parade, are you ok?" Maya yelled and dared to come closer to the battle. Parade replied with growling and getting up, even though he was a bit shaky. Poliwag stared at him and started to back away. "No, come back! Parade, use Scratch on Poliwag now!"

And this time, the long claws of the Sneasel finally reached Poliwag's skin. He scratched the blue pokémon over and over and it couldn't really escape, until it blew one, big bubble and pushed Parade back a couple of meters with it.

"Parade, try Leer again!" Maya shouted, almost standing beside them now. Parade gave Poliwag a new leering sneer, and by now Poliwag's demeanor had been dismantled enough for the attack to work. The blue pokémon gasped and backed away a little.

"Finish it with Quick Attack, now!" Maya said and realized that she was smiling. This was... exciting!

Before Poliwag could get back on track, Parade was gone from his position and reappeared in front of the leader of the pond, tackling it with a speedy bump from his body. Poliwag fell over, tumbled around for a short distance, and lay still.

Maya found herself breathing rather fast. Parade was of course breathing even faster. But now it was over. "We... we won!" Maya said, and was for some reason even happier than when they had won against the pokémon collector Karvinne.

"Sneaseeel!" Parade said and raised his arms towards the sky in a victorious pose.

Then they saw the smaller Poliwag run up from the pond and up to its leader. It tried to get it to stand. The larger Poliwag managed to stand, barely, but pushed away the smaller one with its tail. Both the small Poliwag, Maya and Parade were surprised. What did that mean?

Poliwag didn't say anything. It simply gave the smaller one a long stare, full of respect and... something else. Then it nodded. The smaller one seemed to come to an understanding. It knew what its leader meant. Maya could only guess... maybe the big one had decided that it had lost rightfully, and would now give the title of pond leader to the smaller one?

The small Poliwag bowed to the other one, turned and dove down into the pond. And it was gone. The Poliwag still on land looked at Maya and closed its eyes, trembling. It was weak now. "What are you doing?" Maya asked.

Parade pulled her leg. He poked his own pokéball to get her to understand. "Aha!" Maya said. She quickly pulled out an empty pokéball from her backpack and threw it towards the Poliwag. I guess you know too that I did defeat you rightfully, she thought as the ball flew through the air.


((OOC: I just love writing up battles with unusual strategics. Makes the whole thing feel much more vivid than the games do! Just wait for the gym leader battles... ))

MMGiru - I didn't notice any similarities with the battle at all so don't worry about it and I like how you describe the Pokedex.

Elektrike grew to lv. 9 and learned Leer!

PsychoJigglypuff - It's quite alright, I understand why you wanted to have him use Natural Gift, and I'm alright with bending the laws a bit for the sake of creativity, at least for NPC's sakes. In any case I'm still in love with Selly, she's so very cute!

Spinarak (Smiley Face) grew to lv. 10!
Bubblegum grew to lv. 12 and learned Gust!


RHCP - Wow, that was one great battle, epic you could probabley call it! I love how you portrayed the Poliwag and their community and I don't think I've said this yet but I do love how Parade gives the finger in his taunt xD Definitely looking forward to those gym battles!

Congratulations, Maya caught a lv. 8 male Poliwag with the eggmove Bubblebeam!

Chapter Five
Violet City
Gym Battle
Number of Posts: 1-2​

Violet City is a relatively isolated community, being entirely surrounded by trees. It has been left mostly untouched by the war as it's a place with absolutely no strategic value and as such has only sustained minor damage from stray bombings which have already been mostly cleared up. You'll mostly find a more traditional populace here which is mimicked in the style of building, the cownjewel of which is the grand pagoda in the north of the town.


Pokémon Center

Pokemon Centers provide you with a warm bed. Rest for the night or heal up your Pokémon here. They also have a lobby with chairs and tables and a coffee/tea machine for waiting while the Nurses revitalize your Pokémon.


The Sprout Tower:

The Sprout Tower is the pride and joy of Violet City. True to the city's name it bears deep purple roofs and holds a gently swaying pillar in the center. However considering the age of the tower, being several centuries old at the least, the Violet City panel had decided to close all floors but the bottom one from visitors a few years before the war began. Only the tower's monks are allowed to walk the upper floors.

It's been a long-standing tradition for new trainers to prove themselves by challenging the Tower Elder to a battle. Although the recent lack of trainers has hindered the tradition somewhat you may still decide to honor the tradition if it's something you've heard of and wish to do. If you ask one of the monks overseeing the few visitors on the bottom floor (Johto's seclusion from the rest of the world and the post-war scenario prevent most tourists from coming, but the citizen of Violet themselves still often visit the tower) to battle the Elder he will get him for you.

The battle will take place on the bridge between the town and the tower, which is about ten meters long and three meters wide. Once again this battle is optional and requires a separate post from the actual Gym battle.


Elder Chen:




Bellsprout


Level: 14
Type: Grass/Poison
Moves: Vine Whip, Growth, Wrap, Sleep Powder, Weather Ball
Rarity: Common


After the defeat Elder Chen will give you a TM that is compatible with the Pokémon to defeat his Bellsprout, keep that in mind as you battle him. I will choose which TM it is so either don't have your character know or ask me ahead.


The Gym:



Violet's Gym building echoes the whole town's colour and structure themes. The battle area has no roof and is instead simply a battlefield surrounded with a double-pagoda will with a large gate in front. The pagoda is deep purple to echo the Sprout Tower, although it should be relatively obious that the Gym was built around 15 years ago instead of several centuries ago. The challenger and the gym leader both stand on platforms opposite each other that are raised about one and a half meter above to ground, to suit the flying type of the leader.


The leader herself is Falkner's niece who inherited every bit of the talent that he had. In the time of the seven year period of recovery after the war she had been training under her uncle as well as with the monks in the Sprout Tower (though unofficially, as she wasn't supposed to be allowed up there) and is a master of both the art of patience as that of battling.


After the battle she will give you the TM40: Aerial Ace along with the Zephyr Badge.


Leader Aderyn



Pidove


Level: 14
Type: Normal/Flying
Ability: Big Pecks
Moves: Gust, Growl, Leer, Quick Attack, Air Cutter, Aerial Ace


Murkrow


Level: 17
Type: Dark/Flying
Ability: Insomnia
Moves: Peck, Astonish, Pursuit, Haze, Wing Attack, Screech, Aerial Ace

-

[OOC]
I write these in notepad, so I have to italicize, bold, and correct mah spellin' in these windows. Also, notepad does some weird thing, where it turns auto line breaks into return, when you save. So... I guess, ignore that, if I missed a spot.


-----------------------Edit-------------------------
Just pointing out that I've made some more name-related corrections.
-----------------------Edit-------------------------


[IC]




Chapter 2 - Cherrygrove



It was quite late, when the offensively challenging pokedex in Maria's pocket vibrated and sang a brief tune. She had never been comfortable with cellphones, and things in her pockets generally didn't vibrate of their own will. It was a little alarming when this long tradition was broken. When she pulled it out, the screen was lit, and had a picture of Professor Acacia on it. Underneath this, was a text box. As Maria began to read it, the screen went black.

Infernal devise!

She tapped the physical button on the side that appeared to be the top. The same screen appeared, with what took her a moment to realize was a slide bar, on the bottom. She pulled the virtual slider to the side opposite its starting point. The background had changed back to the menu she was slightly familiar with, while the message, and Acacia's image, remained in the foreground.

It read, "Maria, it's a bit late at this point, but I've just realized that I forgot to give you my number, and the pokeballs that President Gray
provided for you. Tomorrow morning, I'll send one of my aides out with the pokeballs. He'll be waiting at the Cherrygrove Pokemon Center. Also, you can use this message to register my number."

Maria spent a few moments searching the screen for a way to register the number, before finding it. She didn't know how often she would use it, but she felt it was good to have. It occurred to her, suddenly, that she might want to add her home number to its registry. Just as she managed to figure out how to enter a number manually, she was interrupted.

"Maria Black; your Pokemon is fully healed."

She got up, and looked around the PokeCenter lobby. It was quite a friendly place, with a lot of warm reds, pinks, yellows, and so forth. All colors that were almost, but not quite, fleshy. The nurse at the counter seemed to share this design belief, as her hair was a bright pink.

As she handed Maria the ball, the nurse said, "We hope to see you again!"

Why would you say that? Maria thought, absentmindedly. After a few seconds, the nurse spoke again, this time holding her hair with a slightly pained expression.

"Is something wrong?"

Maria was jarred out of her thoughts. She had a thing for dyed hair, but had been slowly deciding that this was not the right shade of pink.

"I'm sorry."

With no more than that, she left. The "Beds for Trainers" sign had not gone unnoticed, but she still went outside, back the edges of Route 29. She cleared away some of the alien rocks that plagued this route, set up her camp (for all that a sleeping bag and some rope encircling it on the ground were, in this warm, wet climate), and thought about letting Electrike out of it's ball. Whenever she'd seen someone let a pokemon out of its ball, it had been awake. Well... accept for one particularly embarrassing occasion. She remembered being told once, that a pokeball was a place where pokemon slept. Now, she couldn't decide whether or not that was just an explanation for a child. It seemed valid enough, so she went with the assumption it was, and proceeded to sleep.

When she woke the next morning, she spent a minute trying to de-grog. When she failed, she looked around her, then let out Electrike, and proceeded to snuggle it.

"Good morning, kitty-kitty!"

She set him down in front of her, and he proceeded to... bark a "trike" sound, and wag his tail.

"Wait just a minute, now...." She snatched him up, and looked him in the eye for a moment, before he proceeded to lick her nose. His tongue had the wetness of a dog's, but the hooks of a cat's. Cuteness overpowered, and she looked behind her, before snuggling the little green thing again.

Eventually, she made her way back to the Cherrygrove PokeCenter, but found that the aid she was looking for was not there yet. She left, and headed towards the coast. She hadn't spent enough time here to notice on her trip in, but this place was almost entirely intact. Nothing like any of the other towns she'd passed through. When she reached the coast, she saw an old man fishing. He was grumbling something, from which Maria gathered that ever since some girl came by, he hadn't been able to catch any fish. When he noticed her watching, he thought for a moment, then called her over.

"Do you fish?" He asked.

"It's been a while, but yes I enj-"

"Good," he cut her off, handing the very nice, seemingly new, rod to her. "Try and see if you can catch anything."

He watched, with a fell eagerness, as she cast the line and waited. While they waited, he began to talk about the war, though she felt his heart was much more in watching the line. Strangely, the longer they waited, the happier he got. Eventually, Maria decided it was time to head back to the PokeCenter. She handed the old man the rod.

"I'm sorry, I've never fished in salt water before."

He took the rod from her with relish, and she began to suspect that she was being used to justify his not catching things.

"Perfectly alright miss. You must be from inland, then?"

"Cianwood, actually." More than a little darkness was in her voice, there. The old fisherman didn't notice, though.

"Really? Well you must try fishing in the ocean! I went there some time ago. Marvelous coasts, with the only interruption being the occasional shuckle."

When was this exactly?

"Hey, I've got an idea!" He seemed to be looking at her for the first time yet. "How about you take one of my old rods? They still work fine for some pokemon."

Maria didn't respond immediately, so he walked to a small house, a little further inland. He came out with a rather aged looking rod, that had been taken apart to be compact.

"You know... I think this is the very one I used on Cianwood's coast. I was there with my wife...."

He went deafly silent, for the first time. There was not even the aura he'd given off while she was fishing. Maria took the rod, and thanked the old man. She was glad to have cast a line again, but more glad to be leaving.

When Maria got back to the clinic, and asked about the aide, she was told he hadn't arrived yet. After waiting for a few minutes, she headed back out to Route 29, to find some berries for her and Electrike. The ones she found weren't particularly satisfying to her, but Electrike liked them just fine. He even did a cute little nibble, when he knew she was looking.

When they were heading back to the Center, Maria heard her name called. She turned around, to see a man in a lab coat jogging after her.

"Sorry I'm so late," he said, without panting at all. "I've just been waiting for an opportunity to get away."

When Maria said nothing, he held out a bag he'd had slung over his shoulder. She took it, and looked inside. There were far more pokeballs than she felt she would ever need. When she placed the bag in her duffle, the man spoke again.

"So you know how to catch pokemon, right." There was something hopeful in his voice.

"Yes." In truth, she assumed that you do much the same as pulling a captured pokemon into its ball. She really just didn't want to say it all out. She paused and thought, for a moment, though.

"Hey... could we battle?"

The young man looked at her quizzically for a moment, before responding. "I really don't want to be gone for too long. You see, I have a sort of visitor and-"

"Hey, give 'er a battle, Freddie."

The face of the aide, Freddie, grew stony, before he turned around. There was a man, about the same age as him standing there. Age was about the only thing he seemed to have in common with the researcher, though. While Freddie was clean, well dressed, and well-kempt, this other was dirty, and wore only some worn carpenter jeans with four bulging pockets, and what looked like... yes... it was a tattered blanket, wrapped around his shoulders. While Freddie was clean shaven, with short black hair, this other person had a beard to be reckoned with, and long, curly, very-dark, brown hair on his head; both of which had premature lines of gray thru-out. He had a grin on a weathered face, that reminded Maria rather of Electrike's.

"Greg, how exactly did you find me?" The icy-ness in the aide's voice caused Maria to look back at him. He was visibly upset.

In a childish, sing-song voice, Greg responded, "Acacia told me. She was pretty upset, Freddie. You should apologize for whatever you did."

"I apologized within the minute you showed up at the lab," Freddie responded, "And I need you to stop hitting on my boss. I like this job, but she's so distracted... this is not the first time I've had to come out here and deliver what she and Gray forgot to."

"What, so you're saying it's working?"

"Stop twisting my words."

Maria got the distinct impression that the vagrant was trying to get a rise out of the researcher. She was getting bored of the game, though, and decided to remind them she was here.

"I could battle him, if you don't want to do it."

The two men looked at her. Freddie wore a pained expression, and Greg flashed a grin with surprisingly clean teeth. They looked at each other for a moment, keeping those expressions, after which Freddie facepalmed. He drew back the right side of his lab coat, to reveal three pokeballs, and pulled one out.

"Alright, I haven't had time to train this little guy yet."

"That's the spirit, Froderick," his filthy visitor chimed in.

Freddie released his pokemon, which appeared to be a little brown teddybear. Maria froze. Adorable. Greg's voice chimed in, this time with the tiniest trace of stern-ness.

"Ready... fight!"

Acacia's aide was not about to let his frustration go to waste, it seemed, as he immediately commanded the bear.

"Teddiursa: Leer."

The little bear's face suddenly took on a very serious look, and it gazed at Electrike with much distaste. Electrike's response was simple enough. Waiting until his trainer started to say it, he let out a "Thunder Wave." Freddie had already reached into his bag, though, and threw a berry to Teddiursa, which had just enough time to eat it. After he gulped it down, Electrike tackled him.

"Fury Swipes," Freddie called out. The bear responded, with none of the stiffness that the sentrets had shown.

"Give it another Thunder Wave, Electrike."

The teddiursa only got a few scratches in, before Electrike gave it a little jolt. Electrike was hurt much more than Maria would have expected, but now he was the one standing properly. Maria noticed Freddie reach into his bag again, and it struck her.

"Swift!" The green dog/cat stood still, and a number of flat, white, star-shaped lights appeared around him, pointed at the little bear. Suddenly, several violent beams of light blasted out, retaining the shape of the stars. All of them hit the bear, square in the chest. It toppled over, adorably.

"Teddiursa," said Freddie, while holding out another berry.

"Pommel it." Pretty far from honorable, but Maria wasn't about to pass up the chance to win.

Around Electrike, more Swift stars appeared, then unloaded light. He had plenty of time to keep pumping out light, as the little bear was kept pinned down. By the time it manage to get up, it was just about out ready to fall over again. It head taken way more punishment than Electrike, or than Maria suspected Electrike could have. Electrike fired one final blast, of five stars, and Teddiursa fell over. It turned into red light, as Freddie retreated it.

Freddie himself was looking much calmer now, and Maria saw that Greg now had a satisfied smirk on his face.

"That's enough for today," Freddie said. "Acacia's going to kill me if I don't get back by noon."

He turned to Maria and wished her good luck. She thanked him, and the two men made their way back to New Bark. Freddie was slouched, while Greg pulled his blanket tightly around himself. As they walked away, Maria picked up a little of their conversation.

"Mustang and Callisto are gonna flip when they hear you let their kid lose his first fight." Greg let out a maniacal giggle.

Slouching further, Freddie said, "Why don't you actually do some work, for once."

"Froderick, I'm hurt. You know very well I have an important job."

Angrily, Freddie shouted, "You're living proof that having a job and working are not the same thing! And nobody get's the Froderick reference!"

Eyebrows raised, Maria shook her head, and walked to the PokeCenter once more.

Chapter 3 ~ Bugs and Berries

It was getting late. The sun had already went down. "Brr," Maya said to herself as she was walking alone on the road north. Parade, Balloon and the newly captured Poliwag which Maya had dubbed Clown. It didn't really seem like a fitting name, since Clown was everything else but cheerful and jokingly. He hardly spoke at all, and his face didn't seem to ever lose that stern look. It was as if he took everything with extreme seriousness and couldn't allow himself to smile or let down his guard ever. Maybe that was why Maya hadn't been able to resist giving him that name. Or maybe she was hoping it would make him loosen up a bit eventually.

Up ahead, Maya spotted a little house. Had she reached Violet town already? No, she couldn't have. And no, when she got closer, she saw that it was a lonely house, some ways from the road. Surrounding it were a garden of... berry trees? She was getting a bit hungry. Those berries looked ripe. Having worked in the flower shop for several years, Maya knew about that. She quickly moved to the trees and stretched out a hand to pick one... but hesitated. Maybe these berry trees did belong to whoever lived inside the house? She glanced at the building. Oh, there was actually a light coming from the windows. But... these berries. He wouldn't need all of them, would he? The battle inside her between what was right and what was the most effective raged for a moment. Until she was interrupted by a sharp voice!

"You there! What do you think you are doing?"

Maya jumped and looked around into the emerging darkness. No one had come out from the house. But a girl was walking up to it, fast. When she stepped into the light from the windows, Maya recognized her. "Karvinne!" she exclaimed.

"Oh?" the pink haired girl corrected her glasses a bit and furrowed her eyebrows. "Well, Maya! Glad to see you've gotten this far so quickly!"

"Nice to see you again," Maya said and walked up to the other girl. "What are you doing here?"

"I finished my errand in New Bark, so now I'm going north to catch some pokémon I didn't manage to find last time I was here. Plus, I've got an order for a certain pokémon who isn't always the easiest one to handle!"

Maya thought it sounded interesting. Karvinne's job sure was special. Maya wished she had had a job that stimulating as well. But...

"May I ask, how old are you really?" Maya said.

"Oh? I've recently turned seventeen!" Karvinne responded, smiling broadly. "I've been working for my employer for the last two years, and it's been great!"

So, she was a bit older than Maya. "I see," she said, still smiling but a bit more faintly. Well, not that age mattered. Maya was grown-up enough for many things.

"By the way, what were you going to do with the hermit's berries?" Karvinne suddenly said, looking a bit more serious.

Maya laughed nervously. "Eh, well... there were so many berries so I figured I could just take some-"

"Oh, naughty girl! You can't just take something belonging to someone else!"

"It's not like there was a sign or anything!"

Karvinne lowered her eyebrows and pointed at a sign on the house. Maya's eyes followed and read: THE BERRY TREES ARE OFF LIMIT! GO HOME! She raised an eyebrow. "Cheerful type living here?"

"He's a hermit," Karvinne said, as if that explained it all.

"How do you know?"

Just then, the door to the house opened up. A rough looking man stood in the doorway, giving the girls one dark look. His eyes were so small that they seemed to want to disappear into his head, and his nostrils were large, round and clearly visible, tiny hairs and all. Maya couldn't help feeling a bit scared. But the man turned his gaze to Karvinne and sighed.

"Oh, it's you," he said.

"Hi there, mr Hermit!" Karvinne said lightly and waved happily at him. "Say, can we come in and stay for the night? I'll show you my new pokémon!"

The hermit grunted and went back inside the house, without closing the door. "Yay!", Karvinne said. "That means yes."

Maya blinked, in the way she felt she often did these days, and followed the hyper girl inside. It was pretty small, but the house had a few rooms. One held a table and some kitchen appliances, as well as a TV even tinier than the one Maya's siblings were glued to back in Goldenrod. Another room held three small beds. Maya guessed he was used to travelers seeking shelter. Poor hermit, wanting to live alone but getting pestered by trainers and the like. Well, she'd leave early the next morning, she promised herself.

The hermit didn't give them any food; he didn't even bid them to taste a berry. He seemed very protective of those trees... But Karvinne did show him her pokémon, and for a moment, the rough man lightened up a bit and almost smiled. He seemed genuinely interested. Karvinne still had the Sentret from before. But now she also sported a creepy Spinarak, a menacing Pineco and an energetic Ledyba. Maya was surprised to hear that Karvinne had caught them all in route 30 today. She really was a professional.

When they went to bed, taking one bed each in the extra room, they talked for a full hour before falling asleep. When Karvinne heard that Maya hadn't been traveling at all before, she told her about her hometown of Cerulean back in Kanto. It was apparently beautiful and very dear to Karvinne. Maya got a weird lump in her stomach when she heard that Karvinne was born in Kanto though, even though the pink haired girl had been living in Johto for the most part of her life. She knew she was overreacting; it didn't make sense to dislike or feel nervous around a person just because that person was born in the wrong place. No, Karvinne was good. Not a bad Kanto person.


The next morning, they ate their own breakfast and left the hermit. Karvinne cheerfully said goodbye, but he merely grunted before walking out to his berry trees and starting to poke around with them. Maya sighed. There were so many different kinds of pokémon in the world.

"So, Maya," Karvinne said when they hadn't even been walking north for a minute. "Haven't you caught any new pokémon?"

"Oh, right. I'll show you," Maya said and sent out all her pokémon.

Parade emerged with a flair and stretched his arms up in the sky. Balloon immediately floated upwards, until Maya grabbed her tail to keep her with them. And Clown... well, he didn't run away at least. He simply stood there, letting his stern eyes wander between the humans.

"Oh, they are wonderful!" Karvinne exclaimed and hugged the Hoppip, who chirped contentedly in response.

Maya got an idea. "Say, do you want to battle again?"

"Hmm. I guess it wouldn't hurt!"

Well, not us, only the pokémon, Maya thought.

They placed themselves on a fair distance from each other, the grass beside the road being their battlefield. "One pokémon or all three of yours?" Karvinne asked.

"Well..." Maya glanced at her pokémon. "Maybe we'll start with one on one and see how things go?"

"Can't go worse than last time for me," Karvinne joked and sent out a pokémon. "Go, Ledyba!"

The bug materialized and buzzed up into the sky. It could fly, Maya noted. Her pokémon couldn't. Well, unless you counted Balloon... But they did have a way to reach flying opponents. "Clown! I choose you!"

Even Karvinne could see that the blue pokémon rolled its eyes at the name. But he moved forward and stood facing Ledyba eagerly. He had accepted that he was Maya's pokémon now; she had defeated him in a fair battle.

"This time, I make the first move," Karvinne said, smiling. "Ledyba, use Tackle!"

The ladybug pokémon dove towards the tadpole. "Clown, stop the attack with your Bubblebeam!" Maya shouted.

Clown nodded, as to confirm that he had heard her order, and then took a giant breath. But he was too slow. Ledyba reached him and tackled him hard. The blue pokémon tumbled backwards. "Clown!! Can you stand?"

The Poliwag grunted, but got up. "Aargh, we have to work on our speed," Maya said, fists clenched. "But now Ledyba is flying in the other direction, hit it with Bubblebeam now!"

Clown nodded again and took a faster breath this time. Ledyba glanced over its shoulder only to see a fast beam of smaller bubbles coming towards it. It gasped but didn't have time to evade it. The bubble jet stream hit the bug like fire from a machine gun, and the pokémon fell to the ground. It still got up though.

"Strong attack you've got there! Ledyba, Supersonic!" Karvinne said.

Maya didn't know what would come next. But she soon saw it. Or rather, heard it. As Ledyba opened its mouth, a horrible sound was heard. Maya unintentionally clenched her hands over her ears to shut out the weird sound that was almost too high pitched to hear but way to intense to ignore. Clown did even worse; he looked seriously confused.

"Great, Ledyba!" Karvinne said, standing on the right side of the attacker, where the soundwaves weren't at all that intense. "Now, finish it with a Tackle!"

Ledyba didn't fly anymore, but jumped forward, curling up to tackle the tadpole. But Clown wasn't standing up straightly anymore due to its confusion, and thanks to luck, it cringed to the side just when Ledyba came tackling. The bug flew right past it and bit the dust in the ground.

"Clown! Snap out of it, you... you ball!" Maya shouted. "We can use tricks too, I've seen you work your Hypnosis on Parade. Use Hypnosis on Ledyba now!"

Clown strained himself, but Ledyba got up and faced him for another tackle. Then, Clown's will broke through his confusion and the pattern on his belly started to swirl. Ledyba couldn't help getting hypnotized rather quickly.

"Oh, no!" Karvinne called out. Her pokémon drooped to the side and was about to fall over, half asleep...

"And now WE finish it with Bubblebeam! Come on, Clown!"

After a nod, Clown inhaled and blew a strong jet of bubbles straight at the bug on the ground. Neither Clown nor Maya had thought about the fact that Clown was facing Maya at the moment, which meant the bubblebeam now propelled Ledyba in the direction of the dark skinned girl.

Maya let out a yelp as she realized this, and tried to jump away. Balloon was drifting around above the battlefield but Parade made a move to jump in between Maya and the Ledyba. But he was too late. The ladybug pokémon ran into Maya's stomach and made them both tumble backwards, scraping Maya's neat bottom on the ground, giving her at least one fat grass mark on her shorts. And a few bruises.

"Oh my! Maya, are you alright?" Karvinne said as she ran up to the girl under the Ledyba in the grass.

"Ouch... yeah, I think so," Maya said after a few moments. The Ledyba didn't do as well though. It was knocked out cold.

"I won again?" Maya said faintly as she lifted the pokémon up and let Karvinne send it back into its pokéball. Clown came walking up to them, having gotten his stern glare back.

"Seems like it! Congratulations! And don't look so surprised, it's a mighty Poliwag you've got there. Though it seems a little... well, not really a happy fellow?"

Maya laughed as Karvinne and Parade helped her up on her feet. "Yeah, he's just like that." She faced the blue pokémon. "Thanks, you were great," she said, but only got the same look back. "Oh, well," she added.

"So, should we keep going north? Ledyba can rest in its pokéball, and when we stop to rest our legs and eat, I'll feed it some berries that will make it feel better. Your Poliwag can have some too, if he wants," Karvinne suggested as they started walking again.

Maya retreated Clown but let Parade and Balloon stay out of their pokéballs. "What, you got berries from the hermit? Why didn't I get any? Aww..."

The sun calmly shone down on the two girls and the pokémon who continued onwards on their journeys.

MMGito - Wonderful post! I really must compliment you on decribing the setting perfectly and also on giving any character an interesting side to them. I wonder if we're going to see Freddie and Greg again, I am so very curious about the latter now!

Elektrike grew to lv. 12 and learned Howl!

RHCP - You as well have a talent of making the characters really come to life as well as the setting. Oooh I'm so lucky to have roleplayers like ALL of you! Ahum, anyway xD Great post!

Poliwag (Clown) grew to lv. 11 and learned Water Gun!

Chapter 3 - Route 30




Set_Variable T = "Current Time"


Here she was again, reflecting on how she'd ended up in a particular scenario, far from home. Admittedly, this scenario was rather different from yesterday's sunset. Through inexplicable winds, Maria looked around her and her electrike, at the army of pokemon. Poliwag, Zigzagoon, and Pidgey; each were numbered at more than twenty, and they were all incredibly... cute... and angry-looking.


Goto T - 4:00


When Maria had returned to the Cherrygrove PokeCenter after battling Freddie, the nurse was a little put off. She explained to the girl that it would be better to buy some potions, than to rely on PokeCenters all the time. In kind, Maria explained that she didn't have that kind of money. The nurse thought on this a moment.

"Did you just start training?" She asked.

"Yes."

The nurse's expression changed. It was serious, quite suddenly.

"You're one of the new, registered trainers, then? The ones handpicked by the government?"

Maria took a moment to respond, unable to figure out the change.

"Hmm...." The pink one thought again. "Well, I guess I should point out that there are berries that heal pokemon. There are some growing just out on 29, there."

Berries, on 29.... "Oh, we ate some of those. He even made sure I saw him do that little nibble...."

She trailed off, while her eyes widened, her face reddened, and she was overwhelmed with a sudden desire to silence the nurse, lest the woman yell her secret to the heavens. Her fears were confirmed, when the pink-haired veterinarian giggled.

"Well, given what I've seen from all of you so far, it seems this new generation isn't lacking in tenderness."

This was the first time in her journey that Maria thought of the others that were chosen.


Goto T - 2:20


Maria and Electrike walked along the treeline, out of Cherrygrove. The healing berries had given her an idea, for which she'd gone to pick more off the bushes on 29. By the time she made it to the edge of Route 30, more than an hour and a half had passed. Something about the thought of competitors made her blood flow properly. She began to feel as if she was preparing for a difficult fight, which, she supposed, she was. Her martial arts instincts, and training, kicked in. There were two things she needed to do now, and she knew what they were. She needed to know more about pokemon battles, and practice them. Reluctantly, she pulled out her pokedex. After a moment of fiddling, she found her way back to the observation function. She tried pointing it at Electrike, and the devise reproduced the same screen she'd seen the day before. This time she looked at more, though. It displayed far more than name and moveset.

Maria eventually grew nauseous, and had to stop reading, for the time being. She admitted, though, that the devise was very informative. One of

the things it told her was a common name for the Electrike species: "Lightning Pokemon." The pokedex also depicted it's next stage, Manetric: "Discharge Pokemon."

So Electrike will double in size? she thought. Oh, but then he wouldn't be an electrike anymore.

She thought for a moment, then spoke to her pokemon.

"If your name's going to change, shouldn't we just sort that out right now?"

Electrike didn't look at her, but simply replied, "eeh." From the tone and context, Maria gathered that was something like an electrike's equivalence of "meh." He was walking like a dog, for the time being.

"Well, we could sort of cut to the chase, and call you Manetric."

The pokemon gave her a fairly derisive look, and said, "E-lec-trike."

"Fine; it was just a thought." She had another, though, and put it forward. "I quite like the name Lightning. Has some menace, doesn't it?"

At the word "Lightning" the electrike's ears perked up, in a particularly canine fashion. After a moment's thought, he barked "trike" several times. His acceptance of the name was not lost on Maria.

"Lightning it is, then."

They were coming up on something between a pond and a small lake. It wasn't 30 meters to the other side, at its widest, and it was somewhere around 40 at maximum length. The side nearest the road was mostly clean, which eventually joined with the large circle of surface-plant-free depths. Around the edges not bordering the road, something like grass grew above the water's surface. Some immensely cute over-large tadpoles appeared to be playing at war in this area. That side of the pond had grass, rather than sand on this one, on the ground around it. There was a small area of nearly flat land beyond, which abruptly rose into the hills, and then mountains, that were visible to the east and north.

Maria returned her gaze to the pokemon playing on the other side. The idea she'd had earlier was to use those healing berries, and spend the journey to Violet City training. She called out to the Poliwags, that were apparently play-battling.

"Which of you want a real challenge, rather than fighting your weak friends?" That seemed to do the trick. Each of them started speeding into the water, towards her.

"Ready, Lightning?"

The fur on the green dog/cat went a-crackling, as it'd done with the pack of sentrets. The grin was the same, as well; but Maria felt more power coming from him than before. After all, that's what happened when pokemon won battles, right? As he prepared for the attack, Maria pulled the pokedex from her pocket. She looked at the pond before bringing it out of standby. They wanted to wait until the poliwags were close enough to crawl out of the water. Maria had just enough time to bring up the observation function before she had called a command.

"Thunder Wave," was calmly and coolly announced, and with significantly more fervor, unleashed. The whole crowd of tadpoles was hit in one blast, albeit a much thinned out blast. They were slowed, but only a couple were stopped, and momentum carried them forward.

On his own, Lightning fired another round. This one stopped a few more. The third round stopped the rest. He promptly blasted each one with swift.

"Well..." Maria began, a little surprised, "that can't have been very fun for anyone involved."

Lightning gave her a grin that said she was mistaken.


Goto T - 1:00


"Well, that was more lively than the poliwags, at least." Maria threw a berry while making the comment, both of which Lightning snapped up.

Around them, lay four unconscious zigzagoons. One had escaped. The battle itself had, indeed, been more lively than the destruction of the tadpoles.

It had begun much the same way as last time. Maria taunted them, and Lightning let loose some Thunder Waves. These were fast, though, and he only hit one of them. The other four rushed him. He managed to dodge one of their tackles, but another hit him. The last one let loose a little growl, that almost got a pokeball thrown at it. Lightning rolled the raccoon off of him, shocked the one that had missed, and got in a Tackle/Tackle collision with the one that used Growl. Both physical attacks seemed to do a pretty minimal amount of damage. But Lightning had time to fire off Swift. This did much more damage than his Tackle had. It was then that Maria noticed the first one that had got hit had escaped. Lightning finished off the others in the amount of time that had already passed, but took a bit of damage in the process.

Thus the berry pass. Maria was beginning to suspect that pokemon got stronger slower and slower.


Goto T - 0:10


The pre-amble to the last battle was likely the least effective training. Maria had passed up a number of zigzagoons on the way here, and was considering just making a flat-out run to Violet. When she heard a noise to the west, she looked, and saw a flock of birds coming out of the trees. The pokedex, that she was now keeping in her left back pocket, because the camera peaked just over the top, said they were "Pidgey." Suddenly, she got an idea. Surely Flying pokemon would be harder to fight than ones on land or in water. She pointed at them.

"Wanna try those?"

Lightning looked at the bird pokemon, and evil grew upon his face. He loosed a howl, and sparks lit his fur.

"Thunder Wave." She pointed at them again, for a wholly satisfying dramatic effect.

A bolt of electricity flew out of the electrike, and hit one of the birds, just under fifteen meters above. It slowed, and began to tumble, retaining enough lift to fall slowly. The others noticed, and seemed to decide that it was safer to fly faster. Lightning gave a meow, apparently deciding that a cat theme would be more appropriate. He fired several more Thunder Waves into the flock, landing only one more hit.

The first pidgey to have been hit managed to get a good landing in a tree, then taking a moment to right itself. Immediately after it settled, it was hit with Swift, and knocked it off the branch. Lightning produced a smirk when it didn't get up. Maria didn't want to watch any more. It was obvious that there would be no real competition here, and painful to see something fall in such an apparently painful manner.

"Stop, evildoers!" The shout was in a familiar voice, and when she looked she saw someone who, based on looks, she would usually have assumed was homeless. In fact, Maria wasn't sure if the filthy, bearded man was homeless, but she was curious to know what Greg was doing here. He looked exactly as she'd seen him before, right down to the grin that he spoke through.

"Nah, I'm just messin' with ya. But ya won't get a good fight from small groups o' wild pokemon. 'F yer headin' fer Violet, then the gym'll be too easy too, given yer friend's electric."

"You're using a different accent." While usually quiet, Maria was glad to get a word in against the man.

"Ah, you caught that! I like to mix it up, since I can pull it off."

"Why are you here, exactly?" She still hadn't had that bit answered.

"Ouch," he said, mock pain included. "You sound like Freddie. Truthfully, I left 'cause he's jealous o' my natural skill with the ladies, and I couldn't bear to put him through any more heartache over such matters."

Maria took another look at him. This time, she saw more about him. He was tanned, like her, but had visibly stronger skin. A number of small scars covered his arms and torso, which had a decent amount of muscle, itself. There was a bit of hair, though, which Maria found rather unpleasant to look at. What was interesting was that despite his age, plenty of it was graying. She'd noticed some on his head, of course, but it really struck when seen at such an undesirable distance. He also wore no shoes. This Maria couldn't fathom, beyond anything else, short of his identity. Shoes were a necessity for long periods outdoors, which is clearly somewhere he'd spent some time. He was waiting for her to speak, with a bemused look.

"Why are you following me?"

"Well, I missed the other chosen kids, and I basically knew where you were. Say..." he paused... "I don't suppose you know what the purpose of this trip is?"

"I really can't help you." Maria had the distinct impression that this person wasn't bumbling around, as Freddie's remarks had implied. But it was true that she wasn't sure as to the purpose of her journey.

"Hmm. Well, you see kid, the gym challenge is traditionally to see what trainers can become the Champion of a region. Of course, it's also for money, but I'd be way excited about there being a new Johto Champion." Something about him changed, before his next comment. "Not entirely sure I can trust Gray to do that, is all."

Maria tried to read him for the moment the change occurred, but he reverted to silliness before she could make anything out.

"I did think of a good challenge for you, though." Greg turned, and looked around them, after which Maria instantly realized the current situation. There were wild pokemon surrounding them. All of the species she and Lightning had attacked. There had to be more than sixty there. There was also a strange wind, for some reason. She had her back to Greg when he swore loudly.

"They found me. I laid this out, and he's gonna ruin it." The sound of a pokeball opening could be heard behind Maria, and she turned to look.

"Tell him I've gone to work." The pokeball had let loose a yellow and brown biped, who looked rather irritated that his mustache was being blown about by the increasing wind. Greg tapped the shoulder of the fox pokemon twice, before they both disappeared instantly. Maria didn't need to hear the pokedex tell her what it was. She'd seen an Alakazam before. Seen one wipe out every trainer in the Cianwood Gym in one go, when she was a young girl. Of course, that was led by a completely different trainer.

She suddenly remembered her current situation. Surrounded by angry cuddlies that all wanted to kill her. Far too many for Lightning to fight off, she picked him up, and withdrew him into his pokeball. She was planning out her escape route when she finally noticed that the crowd's attention had focused up above. At last, she saw the source of the ridiculous wind. A large... pokemon, was flying, on wings of grass above her. It was lowering more or less smoothly, and she saw that there was a man on top of it. A rather large, portly man. When he was low enough, he offered his hand, which Maria took, gratefully. He lifted her with infinite gentleness, onto the back of a pokemon not unlike a dinosaur, with giant leaves for wings.

"Let's get these back to their natural habitat, shall we? Whirlwind, Francis." The pokemon, who Maria's pokedex helpfully pointed out was a Tropius, let out what was easily the most powerful force of wind Maria had ever seen. The ground below was clear of all the pokemon that had previously stood there, and a rather large amount of itself. After this, they landed peacefully, and the large man helped Maria dismount with the same care which he'd applied to her climbing up. When he himself dismounted, she got a better look at him.

He was long past middle-age. He wore a very nice brown suit, and had goggles strapped around his neck. He had the wrinkles that come from years of laughter emanating from his eyes, and wispy white hair on top of his head. He turned to Maria and had a big, warm smile on his face.

"My dear, am I to understand that young Mister Greagor... Teleported, when he saw me?"

"Yes, and he said to tell you that he'd gone to work." She tried to say it as gently as possible, for what seemed like a nice old man.

He sighed, and said, "Thank you for relaying, young miss. Dexter, call Phoebe."

Maria realized that she must've looked quite concerned, because the old man pulled something like a plug out of his ear and explained.

"Sorry, dear, I forgot you don't have these models. I was speaking to my pokedex. Oh, no, not you Phoebe. There's a nice young girl here, who Greagor was accompanying." He climbed back up onto the Tropius, with surprising apparent ease. "Found him? Dear me, I should say you'll have found him in a few moments."

As the old man rode off, to the West, Maria found herself entirely flabbergasted. For the second time in one day, she had become incredibly confused by the circumstances surrounding Greg.

Chapter 4 ~ Confusingly Feeling Alive

Maya and Karvinne arrived at Karvinne's destination early in the afternoon. It was... a pitch black dark cave. Maya took one step inside, then decided Karvinne was crazy.

"Why would you want to go in here?"

"Oh, there are many pokémon inside that I haven't caught yet!" Karvinne said, bristling with excitement, and walked straight past Maya inside.

She turned on a flashlight and tried to see her surroundings. Maya didn't really see where she was going. Suddenly, she heard Karvinne gasp.

"What is it?"

"Look, over there!"

The pink haired girl pointed with the flashlight, to reveal a strange looking stone... no, wait. "That's... not a stone, is it?"

"No, it's a Bronzor!"

"What's a Bronzor?"

"Oh, use your pokédex, will you?" Karvinne responded impatiently.

Maya obliged and pointed the black box toward the Bronzor. The pokédex informed her that it was a psychic and steel pokémon, and rather rare at that.

"I'm going to catch one!"

"With your Ledyba, or what?" Maya shot out before she could stop herself.

Karvinne gave her an angry grin but then seemed to stop to think. "Now that you mention it... I don't think I have a pokémon that can fight it successfully. What about you?"

"Me!"

"Yes, you and Sneasel or Poliwag can probably fight it without problems! And then I can catch it? See it as your pay for me fixing shelter for the night for you!"

"Aak.... well, alright," Maya said. Hmpf, I would have done it anway, she then thought, sending out Parade. He came out from the pokéball and raised... raced back behind Maya's legs.

"Oh, what now? Don't tell me you're afraid of darkness. You're supposed to be a Dark pokémon!"

"Snea..." Parade gave in and moved forward. He didn't really know towards what, though. His vision in darkness was great, he just didn't see anything up ahead.

"It's gone," Karvinne said.

"What is?"

"The Bronzor, of course."

But it wasn't. A strange sound was heard to the left of the pink haired girl, and something shot forward out of the darkness and made her fall over and scream. The flashlight fell to the ground and stupidly lit up a big cliff in front of itself.

"KARVINNE!!?" Maya shouted, finding herself in complete darkness.

"I'm here! Aaah! It's the Bronzor!"

"Parade, Quick Attack!" Maya commanded, hoping she was right when assuming he could see better than she could.

Parade flew past Karvinne and tackled the Bronzor with blinding speed. The big, floating steel flake wobbled backwards in the air... but wasn't very hurt.

"Did it work?" Maya's voice came floating.

"What did work? I can't see anything! Grab the flashlight already!" Karvinne shouted back.

Parade shook his head and sighed at the blind humans. Then, Bronzor came back. It lit up its eyes, closed them... and when it opened them, they shone brightly in a purple color and he gave the Sneasel a deathstare as it sent out its magically mental powers at it in a Confusion.

Maya stumbled towards the flashlight, only to realize Karvinne had dropped it downwards somehow; it lay on a cliff more than a meter down above some kind of... rift. Maya shuddered and backed away again.

"Maya, something is happening... Bronzor is attacking Sneasel!"

Maya spun back but didn't know what to... wait! The nifty thing she had bought at the market in Cherrygrove! She pushed the little button on her watch, and a light almost brighter than the flashlight's lit up the area. Wonderful! And then she saw Parade. Not wonderful!

Bronzor was using a mental attack on him. Parade stood completely still. Then Bronzor moved forward for a Tackle.

"Nooo, Parade!"

But things weren't what they looked like. Just before the Tackle hit, Parade's face turned into a mean grin. The Bronzor was surprised, but couldn't stop its momentum. Parade took a leap, evaded the metal flake as it came flying, and gave it a strong, good Scratch on the back, sending the Bronzor down into the rocky floor.

Maya walked up to Karvinne and helped her up. "What just happened?" she asked the older girl.

"Of course, why didn't I think of that!" Karvinne said, smiling now. "Sneasel is a Dark type. They are highly resistant towards mental manipulation! A weak psychic pokémon like this low level Bronzor couldn't even touch Sneasel with its Confusion!"

So that's how it is? Maya thought and turned back to the pokémon. Parade's pink fur glittered in her watchlight ((OOC: I'll just call it that xD)) and he blinked at her, happily, and then stared at the Bronzor, who just got up into the air again. It hovered eerily before them.

"Alright then! Parade, use Scratch!"

Parade jumped up and struck with its strong claws, but Bronzor was very much prepared this time. It mimicked Parade's evasion from its own Tackle, and simply spun to the side to avoid this Scratch. But it hadn't fully understood that its mental abilities didn't bite the Sneasel yet. It tried another Confusion, its eyes beginning to glow.

"Ain't gonna work!" Maya said, grinning similarly to her Sneasel. "Parade, Leer!"

Parade gave the purple-eyed Bronzor an intimidating stare, which cut the psychic type short, surprising it. "Great!" Maya called out. "Another Leer! And... dive down to evade that Tackle!" she added when she saw the Bronzor coming in again.

Parade tried to do as she said, but got hit in the head by the Tackle. He shook his head but managed to jump upwards instead, when Bronzor came in for yet another Tackle. It seemed to have finally understood that Confusion wouldn't work.

"Great! And keep Leering it!" Maya shouted, shaking her fist in the air.

"What are you thinking?" Karvinne asked.

"What do you think? That thing's defenses are as high as they get, so we'll have to lower it!"

"Why not shift to Poliwag?"

Maya's eyes grew stern. "Parade can do this."

Karvinne wrinkled her eyebrows and looked back at the battle, lit up by Maya's left hand.

Parade kept throwing powerful leering glances towards Bronzor, who got more and more agitated, but at the same time more and more unsure of itself, as the Dark pokémon managed to evade most of its Tackles. But Parade was getting tired, Maya noticed suddenly.

"It's time, use Quick Attack now!"

"Seeel!" Parade shouted and made a quick move, ending with an impact that threw the Bronzor into a rock. It... shuddered on the ground for a while before getting up! They had managed to lower the defenses!

"Great! Again!"

Parade assembled power to make another quick attack... but got captivated by Bronzor's eyes. They were so... intriguing. So... so very...

He was sleeping, standing up, before he knew it.

"What? Parade, what are you-"

"It's a Hypnosis!" Karvinne yelled, yanking Maya's arm and pointing at the steel pokémon.

"Not again," Maya grunted. "I hate that attack!" She contemplated about what to do. Would Parade get angry if she switched him out? Probably not. He was asleep.

"Fine then," she said, not really happy about it. "Parade, come back."

The pokémon minimized and got sucked into its pokéball. Then, Maya grabbed another pokéball from her belt and sent a pokémon out. "Balloon!"

"Wait, no, what? Has that pokémon even got attacks?" Karvinne said sceptically.

"Oh yes. We'll give Bronzor a taste of its own medicine! Balloon, you ready?"

The Hoppip took a leap into the air and hung there as she happily tweeted down to her trainer.

The Bronzor didn't seem to mind the change in opponents. It shot into the sky to Tackle the Hoppip. Quickly, Maya shouted: "Balloon, Confusion!"

"It knows Confusion?" Karvinne said, surprised.

Balloon concentrated on the bronze flake closing in, closed her eyes, and opened them just as it was about to hit her. A mental shock flew into the equivalence to Bronzor's brain, and he started wobbling. Spinning. He missed the Hoppip by a centimeter, and flew straight up into the roof of the cave, unable to stop spinning.

"Ouch, must have hurt even a steel pokémon, that!" Karvinne said. "Impressing!"

Maya smiled. "Great, Balloon! That's what we have to do! Use the surroundings to our advantage!"

The Bronzor didn't give up just yet, even though it was starting to look roughed up. It came back... but didn't use Confusion. Maybe it thought, since Sneasel was immune to it, that Hoppip was immune to mental powers as well? So much better for them!

"Balloon, let's finish this! Position yourself beneath Bronzor!"

Balloon only thought for a second before it understood what its trainer was thinking... Or maybe it simply followed orders without thinking. The Bronzor came in, downwards, for another Tackle.

"Balloon, Confusion, now!"

"Hooop!" she said as she closed her eyes and carried out the order. Bronzor graced her, before feeling a horrible sensation of being blinded. What was this? The next thing it noticed, it was crashing down into the rocky ground, making not a few cracks in the floor. But something also cracked inside the pokémon at the powerful impact. Too much... It fainted.

Maya pointed her watchlight towards the crash site. Bronzor lay still, a cloud of dust above it. She exhaled and formed a smile on her lips.

"Whoooooooohooooooo!" came Karvinne's obvious shout. "You beat it!"

"Good work, Balloon," Maya said, patting her as she came floating in the air. She had taken some damage from the last Tackle, but not seriously much. She settled herself on top of Maya's head.

"I almost feel bad for catching it now," Karvinne said, holding an empty pokéball in her hand. "Are you sure you don't want it for your team? It would make a great fighter, I think!"

Maya put her hand on top of Parade's pokéball, wondering if he had awaken by now. "No," she said. "I don't need it."

She watched as the Bronzor got sucked into the pokéball and got caught by the pokémon collector Karvinne. Good fight, Maya thought. That's what this is about, at least for her. Fighting and feeling alive.

MMGiru - Another great post with even more mystery surrounding this Greg. I really liked how you put in a different format, it really mixes things up a beat for the reader and I like that, and the timer and control were really useful, I just liked that xD

Elektrike (Lightning) grew to lv. 15!

RHCP - Spectacular fight! Really great use of the surroundings also that was just an awesome read!

Parade grew to lv. 11 and learned Screech!
Balloon grew to lv. 9 and learned Tail Whip!

Chapter 4 - Route 31



- Onix -



Loud. The onix couldn't seem to get any sleep today. He'd already scared off some small children, after they had rudely woke him. It was not a pleasant use of effort, and he'd retreated further into the tunnels, but he'd bought himself some peace and quiet.

"Yes, it says that this creature has resistance to all of your attacks. It would be ideal for training." The voice was a human's, naturally. Onix couldn't seem to escape their pestering ways.

"Whatever, let's get with the killing." The other voice was a pokemon, and a tiny one, at that. The great stone snake slowly opened his eyes, to see what sorts of creatures could possibly deign to challenge him.

There were only two, from which he gathered that they were the two speakers. One was a human, that seemed a little older than the ones he'd just run off. He couldn't really tell, with humans. The pokemon was as small as it's voice implied, which was minuscule, to Onix's thinking. A small green creature, with a particularly unpleasant expression on it's face.

"You're back to meowing, now?"

Of course, thought the Onix. Humans can't understand pokemon, can they? It's face was lit up by something it held in it's hand, not that an onix would need such light to see it, especially in his own cave. He had no patience for intruders, though. After opening his mouth, he let out a Screech that had scared off many human children before. The results were plain enough; they were rattled by the volume of his technique. He closed his eyes, and set his head back down. They would leave now, surely.

"Lightning, try Swift." This human was beginning to try Onix's patience.

"Here we go!" sang the little green one. It was a second before Onix felt the thing's attack make contact. But he felt it, far more than he expected. The nerve of this tiny fiend, to use non-physical attacks against him! Pleased with the fact that he still had a type resistance, Onix opened his eyes, and raised his head for attack. The opposing pokemon was already charging another of its foul groups of star-beams. Lightning unleashed them, but didn't manage to slow Onix from Tackling it into a wall. It wasn't until after Onix pulled away from the wall, that he realized just how much damage he'd sustained. This was why he hated non-physical attackers. He looked at the electrike he'd crushed... which was already standing up, with more stars around its head, and a fair amount of violence on its face. Suddenly, white light was in his eyes, then....



- Lightning -



"You know, for everything that the pokedex said about it's defense..." said Maria, pausing to hand Lightning a berry, before continuing, "if you bypass that, it can't really take any punishment. Or deliver any, for that matter."

After gulping down his treat, he gave her an evil giggle. The onix he had defeated lay on the floor; an enormous body of unconscious stone. Maria looked around the cave, so far as her pokedex's light was cast, which was not far. Lightning took a moment to do the same. This was simply the way they'd come to follow the onix's tail, but the room itself was a sort of intersection of tunnels. Different ones led off in directions from which they'd not come.

He heard Maria say, "Which one did we use to get in here?" Lightning responded with a smirk, that she likely wouldn't see. So far, he'd been traveling with this person because she was fun to tease, she was right determined to get in battles, and he didn't really have much of a choice. But he couldn't rationalize an animal with such a poor range of light-levels it could see in, and not even the sense of smell to find the way it came from. He sniffed his way out, and barked.

"Follow me." After waiting for her to see him, he lead the way through the tunnel they'd entered through. It seemed a good enough time to practice getting static to spark in his fur. This was a hobby he'd had since birth, or very near it. His father, a manetric, had said it was a good thing for one of their kind to do. He'd told Lightning that it would become very important to be able to have a large amount of electricity stocked, for use at will. When he got the sparks going bright, light danced on the floor around him. Silly human girl should be able to see him, at least.

A few minutes later, they'd made it back into the sunlight, much to his eyes' dismay. When they had settled, he could see the way they had come from. About ten meters south from the cave mouth, there was a dip of about three. To the west, there was a smaller, and more subtle slope, which rose back up, to not quite the height they stood. In the distance, that way, there were two humans approaching. To the north of that slope, there was a pond. Maria began walking that way, and spoke.

"Well, we might as well get this gym over with, if there are stronger ones after."

Lightning didn't care what they fought, so long as they did fight, and he won. After a minute's walking, they met up with the two people who'd been walking their way. Two children, of different ages. One, male it seemed, was scarcely younger than Maria. The other, which Lightning thought might be female, was even younger. He looked at Maria, given this was her species. She appeared to consider something, before deciding to speak to the other humans.

"Can either of you battle?" Lightning was liking this girl's spirit more and more.

The boy looked at Maria in a clearly desiring sort of fashion, and thought for a moment. The girl, on the other hand, spoke right up.

"How good are you?" Deadly serious look on this girl's face, there was. Furrowed brow, and what not. Lightning looked at his trainer, and could see she was holding back the urge to cuddle this tiny, adorable creature. He let out a little meow, and she gave him a murderous stare, before returning her gaze to the others.

"I just beat an onix in that cave, with pretty minimal difficulty. Well," she paused, indicating Lightning, "he beat it, really."

"Glad we've got that straightened out," he said. Of course, they couldn't understand him, but got the general idea.

"So you caught an onix with that?" the boy asked, in a conversational sort of way.

That he was hiding something was not lost on her, it seemed. She thought, then answered curtly.

"I didn't see any reason to catch it." This seemed to give the boy an idea.

Barely managing to restrain a grin, he said, "Well, if you're so strong, why don't we battle?"

He took a pokeball out of his pocket, and a sort of almost-liquid/gas red light came out. The light finally settled upon the shape of something like a flat, yellow and blue snake. It had a dispassionate look on its face, and Lightning expected very little enjoyment of the fight on its part. He heard Maria's pokedex call out "Dunsparce."

"Alright, then let's start-" The boy's shout cut Maria off.

"Dunsparce, Yawn!" In response to this, the flat snake looked at Lightning for a moment, then let out a great Yawn.

"Sorry, fella," it said, in a depressed sort of way. Lightning had to stop and think, for a moment. Sorry? He had never heard anyone apologize for attacking him before. He yawned too, and decided to think on this idea for a minute more. Not too long; just a little while....



- The Boy -



"Yes! Dunsparce, use Rollout, while it's asleep!" He was excited, and he didn't care! His plan was coming to fruition. In a moment, this girl would realize his strength, and she would beg to be his girlfriend! Dunsparce was not quick about his job. He spent a good half minute getting four hits in on the strange green and yellow dog/cat. When it was clear that the opponent wasn't getting up, he stopped. The girl withdrew her pokemon, and he withdrew his. He just barely registered his sister saying that he had cheated. He heard what the girl said, though.

"No, it's a valid strategy, and I clearly need to learn to defend against it."

Success! She was falling into the palm of his hand, now. With his new victory in mind, and surely on his prize's, the boy strutted up to her.

"You did a good job, but you've still got a lot to-" Mistake. He had put his arm over her shoulder while talking. Then she grabbed it, and the whole world went spinning....



- Maria -



The boy, that had recently been flipped over Maria's shoulder, was lying on the ground, thoroughly unconscious. It was a technique she had used before. A flip for opponents that grappled from the front, over the shoulder. She had reacted instantly, using same hand he did, to pull his arm from behind her, and swing him in a devastating arc. Suddenly, Maria remembered that his little sister was standing there, and looked at her.

"I'm going to have to carry him to town, aren't I?"



[OOC]
Maria, victorious!