Instinct [Teen 16+]

No matter how far we come, no matter how much time goes by, no matter how civilized we think we are there is always a beast inside waiting to come out. Our primal side is what drives us. It guides our basic actions, the ones we must do to survive. What happens when that primal side is the only thing guiding us though? Forget your conscience, your morality, your humanity and what's left? A monster so ancient we have almost forgotten it existed.

That's not what they said when you signed up for this project. Sliph Co. has been working on creating a device to allow everyday people to perfectly understand their pokemon and any pokemon, and now they needed some people to test it. It was good pay and seemed like a simple task, which it was, to start. The device itself could be likened to a large bracelet or bracer, but there was a small interface on it to calibrate the device. The devices, which were nicknamed 'Pokebracers', were capable of holding six pokemon similar to a pokeball, but along with being able to send out the pokemon it would partially combine the pokemon and their trainer on a mental level. The two beings could think as one. That was only the start though.

Three months into testing Sliph Co. upgraded the 'Pokebracers' to combine the trainer and pokemon even further. The trainers would acquire certain traits from the pokemon and even use some of their moves. It was groundbreaking, but also terrifying. There were some moral implications being debated. They were moving into rather dangerous territory here. Still they pressed on. With the 'Pokebracers' fully functional Sliph Co. went into its final stage of development. The 'Pokebracers' were mass produced and stored to prepare for distribution in the future, but these 'Pokebracers' were based on the original model. They couldn't combine people and pokemon on a physical level. In thanks for your assistance in testing you were allowed to keep your special 'Pokebracer'.

There was a catch though. You could only keep it if you challenged the Kanto league. Sliph had already organized it all. The gym leaders and elite four were willing to cooperate with the project, and had set aside a few new rules and standards to fit the new league.

1. Gyms can be challenged in any order, and their teams will be based on the strength and prowess of the opponent.

2. Trainers may merge with their pokemon to battle, but only with one of their pokemon per battle for safety reasons.

3. Trainers can only merge at the point when a pokemon would be sent out, not in the middle of battle.

With your new connection with your pokemon are you ready to take the challenge? Are you willing to trust your instinct and that of your pokemon?

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"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH… oh thought I was gonna… AHHHHACHHOOOOOOOO!!!!" I sneezed a spray of fire launched from my mouth as I did so.

I had been trying to do some target practice in the lab before we left for the league. I had been part of this project involving the combination of humans and pokemon to enable us to better understand one another. The results were amazing. I was able to fully merge with my pokemon not only on a mental level, but a physical one as well. We were able to become one. Thusly also allowing me to sneeze fire. I sheepishly backed off a I realized I covered the wall in flaming snot, thank god it happened in the hazard room.

"I suck at this." I mumbled.

'No you don't.' a voice echoed in my head.

That was Raizer, my Cyndaquil. I was merged with him at the moment and thusly his mind was merged with mine. He was my closest friend, but this did take things to a whole new level on closeness.

'You just need more practice and a bit more control. Fire is very unwieldy.' Raizer said.

"Yeah I know, but this really is crazy sometimes. I'm breathing fire!" I replied to him with thoughts.

'Meh its not that crazy. I mean think about it all sorts of pokemon can do it why not people?' Raizer asked.

"uhm…cause we are people. We don't exactly have a type or anything." I said rolling my eyes, "Come on we better go. The Sliph guys want us to try and take on the league, and we haven't got time to waste."

I pressed some buttons on my black Pokebracer and reverted to human form. I took the elevator down to the lobby then headed outside.

"I'll see you in a bit Raizer." I said starting to walk down the street.

'Take your time. I…. AHHHHHHH ACHOOOOO!!! Great now I'm sneezing!' Raizer shouted.

The sun reflected off of the sunglasses of a young lad laying down on a grassy patch. The young adult took some time to rest in the shade of the tree. His eyes affixed to the sky and the clouds that drifted by, which were tinted dark brown through his glasses. He turned his eyes down to look at the bracer that he had on his wrist. An absolutely marvelous piece of technology, sure to revolutionise the way people would interact with their pokémon. That he had basically been aiding in the creation of something so significant, was something that still hadn't fully dawned on him.

His Shroomish, named Alnitak, stood by his side, seeming ever so distracted by her surroundings. His eyes flicked to the side to look at her, and he smiled. He and Alnitak had been best friends ever since she hatched when he was still ten. He could hardly remember the last time he had actually kept her inside a pokéball. The two had always understood each other, and shared a deep bond, but with the pokébracer device, it only got even better, as it could literally connect his mind with those of his pokémon.

"I think we should get ready to go soon, Alnitak" he said, before sitting up, "We've a league to take on after all, eh?"

Alnitak looked up at her trainer and nodded in agreement. "Sure, that seems like a good idea," she said.

He felt a jolt of excitement everytime he got reminded again just how powerful the pokébracer was in connecting trainer and pokémon. The two could understand one another clearly, and could communicate on a level he had never before deemed possible. It was a wonderfully new experience to him, and like a kid who just got a new toy, he was delighted to find new things to explore and do, as new worlds were now within reach. He guessed it was something that remains in any person, no matter how old they are, the thrill of finding something you've never got to see or do before, of new possibilities that make you want to explore to find all of them. A smirk formed on his face.

"Right, let's see where our first stop should be," he said, as he rummaged through his bag to find the map. He found it and unfolded it, the kanto region showing up with all the routes, towns, cities, forests and other places of interest labelled accordingly. He ran a finger over the piece of paper to the city they were currently at: Saffron city. "Right, if we go north, we could go to Cerulean city, and start there. Alternatively, we could hit south and go to Vermillion city, and meet up with the family there too."

The lad thought about it deeply, stroking his tufty goatee. Sure, that didn't help him think better, but at least he'd look philosophical while doing it, and it just felt so wonderfully fuzzy anyway. Really, there were so many places he'd want to go to, he didn't know what to choose first.

He looked up and noticed one of his colleagues walking past. He didn't really have much contact with a lot of the other trainers who had signed up to participate in the project. They all seemed very eager about the entire pokébracer thing, just like him. Hmm, wasn't his name...

"Hey, you're Seph, right?" he asked, greeting the trainer, who was also wearing the noticeable pokébracer.

((Seph speach=light red, Seph thought=dark red, Raizer though= dark gray, Raizer speach= light gray.))

"huh… oh… yeah that'd be me. You need something?" I said surprised by the older boy.

I had thought I was the going to be the first one to get moving, but I guess not. Well maybe still, this guy was just lounging around while I was still trying to get somewhere. Maybe he wasn't going to be rushing off for the league like I figured everyone would be.

'…Come on Seph what we stopping for? We have ground to cover.' Raizer asked.

'Well I'd like to get going, but someone is talking to me. Trust me I'd like to be on the move again too.' I replied silently.

"You're another tester right? Er… Sorry… I'm not good at names, and to be honest I was always busy during the testing. So uh you know mine, but what's yours?" I asked rather sheepishly.

'If this goes on too much longer I will start burning stuff.' Raizer mumbled.

"Shh you... I'm sorry I don't mean to be rude, but my pokemon are a bit antsy. They really wanna get moving. I'm heading for Celadon if you want to catch me there, but for now I think I need to get going. Uh... bye..." I said then continued walking.

With Saffron surrounded by four towns three of them with gyms I had my pick of where to go. After looking into the gym leader's type choices I decided to head for celadon. Erika use grass types which would be weak to both Raizer and Isaac. We could easily make it through their gym and get a good head start as well. Best part, it was the closest. I could be there by the afternoon. We would get this challenge done in no time and then do as we wished. Too bad I didn't know what we wanted to do after this.

'Hey Raizer. What should we do after the league?' I asked via thought.

'Aren't you getting ahead of yourself?' He replied the same way.

'well…I don't know. I… we just never have a plan for the future, and I kind of want to be ready for it.' I said.

'…You're getting nervous again. Don't worry we'll figure something out.' Raizer comforted me.

'Alright. We'll just see what comes our way.' I ended the conversation.

We continued on towards the western gate in silence. There wasn't much to say I guess. Having gotten out onto the route I decided I'd let Raizer out. After all what's the point of being able to understand your pokemon if you don't get to hang out with them. Raizer shot out of the poke bracer and landed beside me.

"Oh boy its good to be out." Raizer said stretching his muscles.

To anyone else he sounded like a normal Cyndaquil, but I was still mentally merged with him so we could understand one another.

"I'm sure it is, but didn't you just say I could take my time?" I asked.

"Meh in or out. I'm good either way. Lets just get moving." Raizer shrugged.

The two of us meandered along the short route. In the distance we could actually see the Celadon skyline. Though I kept looking around at the fields around us. A couple of trees and shrubs here and there. Nothing special. Having gone a ways I was surprised we hadn't seen another trainer, and then we did. A random dude a little further up on the route saw us coming and waved us down.

"I spy a trainer. Lets roll!" He yelled throwing out a poke ball.

Out of it burst a round pokemon that looked like a bigger poke ball.

"Vollllll Twarorb." It whirled.

"Oh boy…" I sighed.

"Let's get this over with." Raizer chuckled.

Out first battle, or at least our first one while mentally merged and not in the labs. We stepped off the path a few meters and positioned ourselves. Raizer stood steady and the flame on his back burned its unusual blue. I tried to keep calm and focused, but I was getting really anxious. I wasn't sure of anything. I knew I never could be, but I had to be confident in myself and in Raizer. Together we could do this.

"Raizer we've got this. Tear it up with crush claw!" I ordered.

Raizer smirked as he charged towards the other trainer's pokemon. As he ran his claws grew and became super sharp. Raizer leapt into the air at the last moment and smashed his claws downward raking them across the Voltorbs face. I had checked my pokedex while he was charging, and had identified the pokemon as Voltorb. It was a pure electric type, and normally an even match with neither side having a type advantage, but Raizer had some tricks up his sleeve. We'd make this easy.

((sorry EG, but when I saw you were off I decided to go with a post I had planned out before, and just built it off my previous post.))

"Well, my name..." he could barely bring in a word or the kid left. "...is Nick..." he was quite surprised really about how quickly he left. He said he could be found at Celadon city though. He began to ponder about that as an option.

"Well, Celadon city, might be the right idea," he said, thinking deeply about whether it was such a great idea to start there. Well, at least he knew that that was where one of the silph co. volunteers was headed. But he didn't have any pokémon that could give him an edge over the gym leader there, who specialised in grass types.

Given that he only had Alnitak and Baloney, it didn't seem that it would be the best choice to go there. He could however search for an addition to his team on the road there.

"Well, what do you think?" he asked Alnitak, "Celadon city will be a nice place to begin, don't you think?"

The Shroomish nodded, "I am fine with it if you are fine with it, Nick."

Nick supposed that answer would suffice, given how timid and reserved she normally was, this was basically her way of saying she'd absolutely love to go there.

"Right, we're gonna need to prepare for a tough challenge if we're going to Celadon city, and we might expand on our team too while we are at it," Nick said. He began to walk in the same direction he saw Seph heading. Westwards, to Celadon city. Alnitak kept walking along beside him.

The two eventually left the city. The urban landscape turning first to the sub-urban dwellings before turning to a vegetated landscape. They were out on route 7 now. The sounds of Pidgey singings beginning to overtake the sounds of smelly automobiles accelarating, speeding and braking.

Seph was likely far ahead of them already. He was very much in a hurry it seemed. He said his pokémon were getting impatient as well. Where the other testers would be heading, he didn't know. Part of him felt he'd soon be overtaken by a horde of trainers carrying the same pokébracers any minute now, as was what happened when one were always more excited about the journey itself than the destination everyone else always focused on.

"I think we should try to see if there's any other pokémon around," Nick said. He knew he'd need more than the two pokémon he currently had to defeat Erika, the gym leader of that city. He peeled his eyes and looked out for any possible pokémon to be seen.

"Voltorb use spark!" The other trainer commanded.

Spinning around until he was only a blur the Voltorb began to charge up power then it rushed towards Raizer.

"Counter with a point blank ember!" I responded.

As the Voltorb crashed into Raizer he unleashed a burst of fire from his mouth. The attack covered the foe's face in flames. The Voltorb retreated, but it's attack had still done its job. Raizer shivered feeling the electricity flow through his body. I could feel it too. This was one of the things I never understood about pokemon. How could they take such hits and keep on going? Why couldn't my father.? He had thousands of volts go through him and he was left paralyzed permanently from the waist down. It was no where near as bad, but I felt his pain then.

"Raizer time to under mine our foe." I yelled.

"You got it!" Raizer roared.

In a fury of claws Raizer tore through the ground and disappeared into the earth. He ripped through the ground behind the Voltorb and jabbed a claw into its back. The Voltorb skidded across the field and fell into the same hole Raizer dug.

"I think your pokemon is done." I said.

"…yeah we've rolled over…" The trainer said returning his pokemon.

He tried to give me a couple bucks since I won, but I refused the money. I didn't want anything to do with this guy. Sure there was nothing wrong with him to most people, but he just didn't seem to be in it. He seemed like a joke. He had one weak pokemon, he made stupid quips, and he instantly was worried about paying me. He wasn't even a real trainer. To be a trainer you have to actually help your pokemon grow and care about their growth not just the battles.

"Yeeaaah!" said Cielo. He finally went out of silph and into whatever city was outside it. "hmm.... I can't seem to remember what the heck this town is called..." thought Ciello. "Ahh, I think it's called Lavender, or is it Saffron. I recall Lavender not being in Kanto, so it's Saffron then!"

His pokemon were hanging comfortably from his back, both being light enough for him to carry. "Were out of silph, but now we have to challenge the pokemon league in Kanto.... Well, beats doin' nothin'." said Nebbia, not sure if he could actually beat the league, even with Tempesta and possibly fusing with Leone.

"Cheer up old pal, we just gonna beat the heck out of the gym leaders, we gonna make 'em regret challenging us!!" supported Tempesta.

"Aww... that would be nice... but one thing though, we're the ones challenging them, they're comfy right where they are right now." replied Nebbia.

Leone decided to do some battle practice in a fused state, so he went outside the city. He fused with Nebbia, as he was weaker, physically.

His fused state was a flashy one but it reduced his height, making him look like he was 5 years old again. Tempesta chuckled, every single time he saw the transformation, it made him want to laugh his brains out. The previously good-in-a-fight Leone is now a shorty brat. How hilarious it is to him.

But despite this Leone's fighting abilities are still top grade. He tried it out fighting a Machop ( Heck knows how it got there... ), and he beat it with only hand to hand fighting. so he decided that, for now, the fused state had a good amount of fighting capabilities. He went on for target Practice. He shot little pulses of darkness at specific targets. as soon as he was satisfied, he defused.

His steps took him to a route to Celadon, a nearby town with a huuuge shopping mall and a gym. His urge and hunger for battle made him want to challenge the gym. But soon concluded that he wasn't ready so he went to train first.

Ariadne smiled to herself as she left Silph Co. In order to keep her Pokebracer she had to challenge the Pokemon League. I'll show them. Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I can't succeed she thought her smile turning into a frown at the thought of her family but she quickly shook those thoughts away. She planned on challenging the gym here in Saffron first. Sabrina had psychic types and psychic type moves didn't affect Hajime. To make it better Psychic types were weak to dark types like Hajime. "So what are we doing first?" a voice broke through her thoughts.

Looking down Ariadne smiled and picked up Hajime. "we're gonna Challenge Sabrina since we have a type advantage and then we're gonna head North to Cerulean City where Akira will have the type advantage" she said happily as Hajime purred when he was picked up.

"Sounds like a plan, those Psychic types won't stand a chance against me" he said smugly.

"Don't get ahead of yourself Hajime, her Pokemon could know moves that are a type other than Psychic like normal, but either way the odds will hopefully be in our favor" she said walking toward the Saffron Gym.

(Colored speech only applies in the fused form. Crimson for Nebbia, Light Blue for Leone and Indigo for Nebbia)



"Oh me.... I probably shouldn't challenge the gym right now should I?" said
Leone, asking Nebbia.

"Naww.... I don't think you should..... Not now at least...." replied Nebbia using telepathy. Then he continued, "Maybe ya should train in these parts..... I mean it ain't half bad...."

"True!" Said Leone.

"And the terrain SHOULD help us get used to different places. Up 'till now all the places that we've been training in are just flat ground." added Nebbia.

Leone could take about 1-3 fusions. The fusion drains on his energy so he prefers to use it as a last resort. Or training, whichever works. This time he fused with Tempesta. The climate was rather cold for Leone, so he benefited from the fact that Tempesta's fused state radiated a little heat.

At the time, Leone had two ways to use his fusion with Tempesta, he could stand on all four legs or stand up normally. His control over the quadrupedal way of standing was terrible, he would fall over ten times in one short dash. So he decided to do some control training.

Leone asked Nebbia to make some obstacles and distractions.

"y'know Leo, you'll fall down more than ever now.............. Nebbia's got the best way of disturbing I know.. And I know a lot 'bout disturbing." commented the growlithe. Part of the control of the form was Tempesta's, so he could at least tutor him how to properly sprint and dash on all fours.

" Yeah, Yeah. So, I'll start now, 'kay!!"

Tempesta was just about to say, "no don't start" when it ended in something like a "No, do- Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!"


Leone started dashing across the route like a freakin' madman. He was observing Tempesta's dash in silph, and he tried to copy it. It was a wonder.
Nebbia fired Dark Pulses, it hit Leone on several occasions, and on those times Tempesta's voice would ring like a bell in Leone's head, saying things like, " Faster man, faster!" or, "You a slugma??? this ain't no walk in the freakin' park man!" or the weirdest one, "Hello, this the slowpoke packing service? I think I got one right here for y'all."

"Stop screaming you little tiger or lion or doggy or whatever the heck you are, I got it! Nebbia's dark pulse is crazy fast! How am I supposed to dodge it?" Leone lost it, he didn't know what the heck he was supposed to do. In a panic, he said,"Tempesta, you take control, I'm gonna crash at this rate man!"

At that word, Tempesta took control of the body, god knows how though.
He dashed around all the dark pulses Nebbia was firing and burned Nebbia with a little ember.

Nebbia frowned.

Leone defused and sat down. his stomach growled like a little Groudon or somthin'

He grabbed a bag he was carrying before, and he ate some food inside it.

Nick checked his surroundings. There sure were a lot of wild pokémon around on this route. Though none particularly grabbed his interest. He was almost forgetting what his purpose was on this route, as he just aimlessly wandered about, indulging himself in the sounds of nature. He snapped out of it eventually. "gotta focus, man, gotta focus."

"Uhm, Nick? Everything okay?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry about that Alnitak. Short concentration span, you know."

He tried to get his attention back on what he was doing. Finding a new pokémon to add to the team. He looked around carefully, but he mostly saw pokémon that were very common around the area. Pidgey, Rattata, and the occasional Spearow; those kind of pokémon. He needed a pokémon of which he knew would give him just that edge over Erika. A fire-type of some sorts. Just perhaps he could find a...

"Vul!"

Vulpix, bingo.

"Right, Alnitak, I need you to stay back. You'll likely not be able to take her on."

Alnitak understood immediately. Of course, she wouldn't last more than a minute against a fire pokémon like Vulpix. Nick pressed a few buttons on his pokébracer, which ended the mental connection between him and Alnitak. Her chattering now turning into the same incohesive "shroo shroo"s as he had always known. He then sent out his Rattata, Baloney.

"Right, Baloney! Let's go get that Vulpix!" Nick said. He used his control panel to switch his connection to Baloney.

"'sup, man? We gonna beat the Vulpix pulp or what?"

"No, just weaken her so we can catch her."

"Right, by your orders," Baloney said. The Rattata jumped up and snatched Nick's sunglasses to put on himself. It was a habit Nick had to get used to at first but gradually, it became something that was just common to him. The cheeky Rattata always had these kind of habits.

"Alright, Baloney, get her with a quick attack!"

Baloney was on it as quick as the wind, dashing forward at lightning speed and hitting the Vulpix before it could react to the charging Rattata. The Vulpix got knocked down by the Rattata who bounced off her and got into position again. The Vulpix stood up, clearly infuriated by the attacking Rattata. "Vuuulpix!" The vixen pokémon blew out hot flames. The Ember attack hit Baloney full on.

"Ow, bloody hell!" Nick yelled in pain. Being mentally connected to Baloney meant feeling the same pain as he did right there. It felt like he had just burned his hand on something that came fresh out of the oven, but now over nearly all of his body. "Baloney! You okay?"

Baloney coughed, he clearly suffered from burn wounds from that attack. "That was one tough ember," he said, struggling onto his feet. The grass around him was turned brown, small fires appearing on it.

"Right, just hang on there, we need to lay one more quick attack on her and we'll get her."

Baloney got up with little trouble. He didn't seem too much bothered by the attack anymore as he began sprinting towards the Vulpix to lay down one more quick attack on her.

Once more, the Vulpix was knocked back, and this time, she was starting to struggle getting up. This was Nick's chance. He grabbed a pokéball from his pocket and threw it at the Vulpix while she was down. The Vulpix turning into a red energy beam that was then directed to the red and white ball. The button on the pokéball was red, and the ball began to wiggle around. Nick's fingers were crossed as he kept his eyes on the button. All he needed was it to turn red so he could be sure the capture was a success. Then there it was, the button turned from its hot red colour to the plain white again, signifying the successful catch.

He was overjoyed by this. He ran to the pokéball lying on the grass and picked it up. He held it in the air triumphantly. "Haha, welcome to the team, Vulpix! I'm gonna need to name you though." Nick said, and he began to ponder.

He realised that thusfar, he had named his pokémon after special events that made their entrance to the team unique. Of course, Alnitak was named after a star, as she was born at night. And Baloney, the sandwich thief. He had come to realise, this Vulpix was the first time his encounter with a pokémon he wanted to capture was sought out on purpose. Now it was difficult for him to name her.

"Well, I'll think of something." He just said with a shrug, "Good job by the way, Baloney." The Rattata smiled and handed him back his sunglasses. "Right-o, dude," the Rattata said. Nick put his sunglasses back on. He could definitely feel they were very warm from the ember attack, but he was glad enough they survived at least. "I'll need to get ya to a pokémon centre soon though, both you and the Vulpix here."

I wandered on down the route a bit more, and then just stopped. I looked around and saw a stump a few feet off the path. I sat down on it, and held my head in my hands. I let a grumbled sigh and looked up at the sky.

"Raizer what the hell are we doing?" I mumbled.

'uhm… at the moment nothing. You're sitting on a stump.' Raizer asked rather confused.

"No… I mean what are we doing overall. What is it that we're trying to accomplish? Why do we do this?" I replied moderately irked.

'Seph what are you talking about!? You know what we're doing. We're taking on the league. We're gonna win it so we can keep the poke bracer.' Raizer said trying to figure out my thoughts.

"I know that, but… what's the point to this all. I just can't wrap my head around all of this. Why is it that they want us to do this? They've been testing the device for over a year. why make us test it more? Is the pokemon league really that special? How is it that certain trainers are set apart from others? There has to be more to it then skill and power. What makes them so special?" I ranted.

'…Wait a second I see where this is going! Seph do you honestly think that you can't do this because of your past? Do you honestly believe that you aren't just as good as them? Seph get over it!' Raizer yelled.

Raizer burst out of my pokebracer, and glared up at me. At first I saw anger, but then I just saw pity and disgust. Raizer shook his head dejectedly.

"I am getting sick and tired of this Seph! Every other second you are moping around and feeling sorry for yourself, and it is pathetic! You keep focusing so much on the past that you refuse to look towards the future. I've sat by since we've met, but now I'm putting my foot down! Seph you are an amazing trainer, and you can really go places if you would just pick yourself up for once and get moving! I've stood by and watched you beat yourself up, and I just can't watch it anymore. Seph do you think that me or Isaac would be here if you weren't an amazing trainer and friend? Or did you just think that we just stuck around because you caught us? We both trust you and believe in you, but how can we keep doing that if you don't." Raizer growled and yelled.

I had never seen him like this. Sure he got angry from time to time, but nothing like this. He was furious, but it was all rooted in his disappointment with me. His anger wasn't directed at me, but rather at my view of myself. Wasn't it true though? I came from a horrible past, and now I had to get past that and the league. How was I supposed to do that? I barely even got here.

"What do you expect me to think?" I managed.

"I expect you to think that we have just as much a chance as anyone. Yes, I understand it was hard back then, but this is now and now you have me and Isaac. We can do this Seph, but not without you." Raizer sighed.

"I am trying… its just… I've been afraid to let you guys down. Bad things always keep happening to me, and I'm always powerless against them. I couldn't stand letting you guys down." I admitted.

(OOC: Long post :3 and from now on Hajime's speech will be this color mental speech be this color italicized. Akira's speech will be this color Mental speech will be this color italicized)


Ariadne smiled as she walked up to the gym, she brushed a strand of her light blue hair out of her face. She smoothed down her white over-skirt and the skirt of her black dress with one hand before setting Hajime down. "Need to return you for now Hajime but we'll battle soon" she said pressing a button on her Pokebracer returning her Purrloin. Taking a deep breath she walked into the gym just as Hajime spoke through their mental connection.

"don't be nervous, we'll do fine"

"thanks Hajime" she smiled and entered the gym. After looking around she saw a woman with black hair dressed in a pink tank top, white pants with a black belt, pink flat shoes, and bracelets on her wrists that were black and green. "excuse me, are you Sabrina?"

"Yes, I'm Sabrina gym leader of the Saffron city gym, your one of the kids involved in Silph Co's project aren't you? What's your name?"

"Ariadne, it's great to meet you, and yes I'm part of the project"

"alright then, choose which Pokemon your going to merge with and lets get started" Sabrina said going to the other side of the battlefield sending out an Abra.

Ariadne nodded and took her place on her side of the battlefield, pressing a few buttons on her Pokebracer Ariadne's blue hair changed to purple and a scar formed over her left eye as their color changed from blue to black. Her fingernails turned into claws and she grew her Purrloin's ears and tail. "I'm ready when you are" Hajime said to her.

Sabrina acted first telling her Abra to use Teleport and Ariadne looked around spotting the Abra as it appeared behind her. Acting quickly Ariadne/Hajime sent a dark ball at Abra using Shadow ball. With no cover for the Abra to go behind the attack hit it right in the face. Immedietly after Sabrina told Abra to Teleport again and Ariadne saw the Abra appear in front of Sabrina. The Abra used Psychic and Ariadne didn't even try to dodge the attack a smirk forming on her face as the attack did no damage at all. Acting quickly Ariadne moved forward disappearing from view for a second and fading back into view in front of Abra slashing with her claws using faint attack jumping back as the Abra fainted and was returned. "Abra was the Easy one Ariadne, Mr. Mime won't be so easy" Sabrina said calling out Mr. Mime.

Before Ariadne could do anything Sabrina gave a command and pain flared up making Ariadne cry out and Hajime hiss in her mind. Mr. Mime smacked her across the face with Double Slap hitting her not once but three times in her dazed state. Wincing in pain Ariadne lashed out with her claws with Fury Swipes being lucky enough to get two hits in. Standing back up Sabrina had Mr. Mime use Mimic and Ariadne was hit back with Fury Swipes wincing more in pain as a scratch appeared on her cheek.

Ariadne growled making Mr. Mime step back and narrowed her eyes before hitting the Mr. Mime with Shadow Ball seeing it get weaker as well. Mr. Mime used Mimic again sending a Shadow Ball right back at Ariadne making her cry out again her vision was starting to get a bit blurry but she would not give up. She would keep fighting until she couldn't stand. Springing into action Ariadne hit Mr. Mime with Fury swipes hitting one time before right away attacking with Faint attack. Fading from view Ariadne moved behind Mr. Mime and swung her attack just as Sabrina told Mr. Mime to use Mimic yet again. Mr. Mime hit Ariadne with Fury swipe once seconds before she hit with Faint attack.

Ariadne whimpered in pain hearing Hajime whimper in her head and her knees buckled. But to her luck Mr. Mime fell first making Ariadne the winner. Pressing the button on her Pokebracer as the battle was declared over Ariadne and Hajime un-merged and she fell to her knees panting several scratches on her face as her features returned to normal.

Ariadne heard footsteps and then a hand was extended down to help her up. Looking up she saw Sabrina standing over her with a smile on her face. "Great Battle, you deserve this win Ariadne"

Ariadne smiled and accepted the hand up wincing a bit. "Thank you Sabrina" she said happily as Hajime spoke through their mental link. "I told you we could do it"

"That you did Hajime" Ariadne replied mentally before hearing Sabrina say "and here is the Marsh badge." she said handing over the circular golden badge. "I wish you luck on the rest of your journey" Sabrina said before leaving to heal her Pokemon.

Ariadne put the badge in her badge case and left the gym as a new voice entered her thoughts. "What now Ari?" Akira's voice rang through her head.

"Lets head toward Cerulean City. We'll have to camp on the route, should make it there tomorrow" Ariadne smiled before letting both Akira and Hajime out. Akira right away climbed to her shoulder and Hajime stuck by her legs as they went toward the entrance to Route 5.

Leone was happily cowing down on a sandwich he prepared at Silph, the service there ain't half bad...

Celadon was an exquisite town with a casino and the largest market anywhere in Kanto, but it didn't seem to catch his eye.
Leone never liked shopping much, it was a complete bother to him.

"Ahhh..... Why is Celadon sooooo far way..... This route seems to go on until forever..." complained Leone.

"Yeah, as if. you traveled through Johto and found it easy, you a crazy madman or sumthin'?" Said Tempesta. Of course, Leone had no idea what Tempesta was saying until Nebbia said what Tempesta had said in his place through telepathy.


"Yeah... Let's just... um..... continue walking, okay?" stuttered Leone.

Strangely, the fusion didn't take a huge toll as it usually would have that time, maybe it's because he wasn't in battle. From Silph, Leone brought quite the number of supplies, some potions, a map, a LOT of food and drinks, some antidotes, 4 pokeballs, and some clothes. Enough for about a week, he supposed.

He was walking as leisurely as ever, when a wild Meowth scratched his face. "Oww.... what the hell whassat for huh?" complained Leone.

A loud "bam" resounded through the whole route. Tempesta took it as a challenge and slammed his body hard against the Meowth.
Nebbia told Leone a few days prior to their departure to not help Tempesta in battle against wild pokemon.

The meowth tried to scratch Tempesta but he hid behind the trees as he fired little bursts of embers. The meowth was angered, terribly.

"That's it!!!" cried the Meowth.

The meowth jumped up and bit Tempesta's hind legs. It bled out. Tempesta retaliated and kicked the meowth's face. He continued to turn to the injured meowth and hit it with a potent and powerful Flare Blitz. The meowth was thrown like a doll and flew some 3-4 meters away.

Finally, it had enough. It lashed out in fury by biting Tempesta's tail and scratching his back. It then continued with punishment. The impact of the move nearly knocked out Tempesta, in fact, it gave him enough damage to make him faint in another hit. But he persisted and finished of the meowth. Tempesta used roar to scare the meowth away before hitting it with a constant stream of embers. He sped up and cut of the meowth to bite one of it's legs. The meowth cried in pain. He finally finished the job with a powerful flare blitz.

The battle was won, but a fire started in the grass nearby.

"Whoa..... quick, put out the fire Nebbia, use your fake tears to produce the water!" ordered Leone.

After some 30 minutes of the silly tear producing, they put out the fire.

"…Let us down? Seph we could never win a single badge and you wouldn't have let us down. The only time you do is when you lose hope. There is something right there that you can change. It is completely your choice to beat yourself up like this. You want to never let us down? Then pick yourself up and lets get going." Raizer encouraged me.

"It… it is my choice isn't it. My past did put me where I am, but I'm the one who made me who I am. Would you seriously not be disappointed though? I mean would you really not care if we never got anywhere?" I said.

"Of course not, and I have two reasons why. One, at least we'd be trying. Two, we are going to win! Seph we'll do whatever it takes and we'll make it to the top. We will make your brother proud. We'll make your dad and mom proud too! But before we can do that you just gotta get up and keep on walking. Come on Seph its time to make a stand!" Raizer yelled, but now much more positively.

"Alright then! Lets do this. We will take on the league and we will show them that we are more then our pasts. We'll show them we are who we choose to be." I shouted jumping to my feet.

Raizer shouted encouragingly. He was glowing. No literally he was glowing. Raizer was completely white and giving off more light then the sun. I shielded my eyes and looked away. When I noticed the light faded away I looked back to Raizer. Instead of my little cyndaquil I saw a confident and strong Quilava.

"Raizer! You evolved! H…how? We've been trying to get you to evolve for a while, and you never could even with the battling. How did this work then." I asked.

"…uhm…I don't exactly know… maybe all I needed was for you to finally have some confidence in us. See Seph all you need is a bit of faith. Together we can do this. We will never know the future, but we'll be ready for it." Raizer replied, "Now lets move!"

The two of use sprinted off down the route. We matched each others pace and just kept going. We were going to do this. Win or lose we were taking on the league and we were not going easy on them.

Nick had called Baloney back. He figured that after a good job, he deserved a bit of rest. Luckily, the ember didn't cause him any significant burn damage, which would have called for immediate attention at a pokémon centre. The beam of energy coming from the pokébracer, which then called the Rattata back. The data of the newly-caught Vulpix had also been added to the pokébracer, whose display showed a wide array of statistics.

He switched a few buttons around, returning the mental connection to Alnitak, who got to spectate the battle taking place moments earlier. "Well, that definitely went well, didn't it?" Nick asked his friend. Alnitak nodded in agreement. "Thought of a name for her yet?" she asked, to which Nick shook his head. "No, can't think of one yet. But we still got plenty of time, right?" he said, "It's just that I've realised. There was always some special event that occured whenever I got my pokémon, and that was how I came up with these names."

The Shroomish nodded. She knew very well what her name meant. She could remember when Nick pointed the star out in the night sky. Ever since then, it was her favourite star, like a luckbringer to her.

"Well, the thing is. This is the first time I can't come up with anything. It's the first time I sought her out on purpose, which is why there's nothing good to name her I guess," Nick shrugged. He hoped that perhaps Shroomish could give him her insight on this.

"Well, there's a reason for any meeting between two individuals, right?" the Shroomish asked, "So why did you think you chose Vulpix?"

"Because I wanted to stand a chance against Erika?"

"Well, you could name her Chance then, right?"

Nick thought it over, but then he realised the brilliance of that idea. "That's actually a great name. Thanks, Alnitak. You really helped me out there," he said. Alnitak responded with a light blush. "You're welcome, Nick," Alnitak replied.

"Well, Chance it is," Nick said, and smiled. He realised it was time to continue the journey to Celadon city. He knew he still had a long ways to go, and the chance that he'd have to camp out on this route for the night before he would reach his next stop was quite high. He couldn't think of a better place to pitch his tent and rest for the night though. He was away from the city, at least, with nature all around him, and plenty of beautiful pokémon to sight.

He could recognise most of the pokémon he saw on his journeys. A lot of them were common to the area, and some were more peculiar. He practically grew up amongst all different kinds of pokémon, some exotic, coming from wonderful places away from Kanto. His father, a pokémon breeder, had a bit of a knack for finding the most foreign pokémon he could find, and without that, he would likely never have had Alnitak, and most certainly would he have never been out here, trying to take on the league, and so living out his dream as a pokémon trainer.

He indulged himself in his daydreams again. His mind replaying his dearest memories. He wandered forward as though strolling through a wonderfully serene park with scented flowers left and right in blindingly vivid colours. Everytime he'd take his breath, he'd smell the wonderful sweet aroma of these plants. His direct journey to Celadon was little to pay attention to. He could essentially walk there in a straight line. Perhaps if he could just-

"Bloody hell!"

Nick felt a stinging pain in his face as he was abruptly torn out of his daydream. In all of his inability to pay attention, he couldn't even notice the tree right in front of him untill he walked into it.

"Nick, are you okay?"

"Sorry, I am doing fine," Nick said. He rubbed his aching nose, "Need to concentrate. Gotta watch where I am going."

Kyni Opila
(Bzzt talking. Bzzt talking through the mental link. Bat talking. Bat talking through the mental link.)

It was late morning and the streets were bustling in Saffron City with late workers. If it was this crowded in Saffron with only people who've overslept, then just imagine how claustrophobic one would feel during rush hour. In a room somewhere in the city, Kyni was having a tough time waking up, and Bzzt was having a tough time waking her up. "C'mon Kyni!" Bzzt yelled and burst out of the Pokébracer. Shooting out a couple of sparks, she glared at Kyni rolling over to face her.

Kyni was struggling to lift her eyelids. "What time is it?" she asked drowsily. The Voltorb alarm clock on the side of her bed beeped once, signaling the hour changing. "Ten o'clock sharp," Bzzt responded, obviously annoyed, "Wake up or else I'll have to force you up. And you know that that can seriously annoy everyone else in the building!"

"I'm up! I'm up!" Kyni suddenly sat up in her bed. Returning Bzzt, she walked into the bathroom to get ready. Ten minutes later, she was combing her hair and getting irritated at a single strand of the greenish brown nest sticking up out of place. In her frustration, she chucked the comb at the wall, then walked down the stairs and out of the building.

"So where do you want to go?" asked Bzzt as Kyni grabbed an apple from her pack. Biting into the apple, Kyni unintelligently said, "What?"

"Today's the day when we start the challenge of the League remember?" Kyni could feel Bzzt getting more irritated. She had completely forgotten about this and felt sort of bad about it.

"Would you like to fight Sabrina here?" Kyni asked, but Bat interrupted before Bzzt could respond. "No! I'm a Poison type remember? You should know your type match-ups."

"Sorry," Kyni apologized sheepishly. She was walking towards the northern side of town and asked, "How about Cerulean?"

Bzzt immediately responded, "Sure! I'd love to go there!" Bat was less enthusiastic, but agreed to go as well.

"Well, that settles it!" Kyni decreed, "Off to Cerulean we go! But it's so far away..." She reached the gate and stared at it for a bit. Adventures, thought Kyni, are not for me. But I signed up for this, and I should keep going. Besides, I owe it to Bzzt and Bat. I admit I haven't been the best trainer and friend, but I'm hoping to change that. She took a deep breath and stepped out of Saffron to start her adventure in the outside world.

It was late afternoon when we made it into the city. Having left early in the morning I was a bit disappointed we took so long. Either way we were there. Celadon, home of Kanto's largest shopping mall and more importantly Erika's gym, here we would prove not only to the league but to ourselves we were serious about this. That I was serious about this. I was still anxious and my stomach was in knots despite having only gotten to the city. All those terrible thoughts were rushing back in. All those 'What ifs' that could freeze me on the spot. What chance did we stand? Sure I had planned ahead with type advantages, but this was a pro trainer.

"Seph you're shaking. Don't go backing out now. If anything losing will just make us better for the next time." Raizer said.

"I won't, but don't say I didn't warn you if this goes south." I muttered.
We headed towards the southern side of the city where the gym was. Every step made me even more nervous. By the time I was there I was on the verge of a panic attack. I grabbed the door handle and pulled it open. I walked in at a steady and slow pace. There was a small foyer inside, and a receptionist to organize Erika's battles and keep things in line. I crossed the room and introduced myself;

"Seph Taylers, I'm here for the Sliph .co league challenge."

"Pokemon levels? Badges?" The receptionist asked.

"nineteen and fifteen. No badges." I replied.

"Alright head on in. Erika will be waiting." She said then pointed to the door on her left.

I nodded thanks, and headed over. I pushed open the door and entered a giant greenhouse. In the center was a battlefield pristine and empty. I stepped up to the challenger's side, and waited there shaking with anxiety. Erika entered the room from the opposite side, and stood at her spot.

"Hello there Seph. Are you excited for this? I am you're the first trainer I get to fight who has a pokebracer. It must be amazing to connect with your pokemon like you can." Erika said.

"It's pretty cool. Little nervous to be honest. First gym leader I get to fight." I admitted.

"Well then a first time for both of us. I wish you luck Seph." Erika said.

"Yeah… I'm gonna need it." I mumbled.

"I as gym leader accept your challenge. Let's hope for a good battle. Go Bellsprout." Erika declared.

She threw out her pokeball and out shot her Bellsprout. The thing was rather small with a thin stem for a body and a little bell shaped flower for a head. A hard target possibly. I readied my pokebracer and selected Isaac. We'd start with him and then have Raizer for back up.

Celadon's skyline was unmistakeable to Nick now. He had to be getting close to the next city now. It had taken him for what seemed like ages to get a good view of how far he had to go, and it seemed that it wouldn't be too far untill he'd get there. He was surprised he hadn't found any other silph co. trainer up this route. Of course, Seph was way ahead of him, but he didn't notice anybody passing him by. At least, none whom he noticed.

He thought it would have been hilarious to find all of the silph co. volunteers already in Celadon by the time he'd get there, and he'd make himself look like a dim-witted fool as always.

He hoped to find a pokémon centre to rest his newly acquired team member. Chance had taken quite a bit of damage from having been weakened by Baloney, and he'd rather have his pokémon be all up and ready once things would get serious at the gym.

"Hey there! Where do you think you're going?"
"Oh, bugger, I don't really have time for this. I need to get to-"
"Come on, you know you can't refuse a battle with a trainer."

The young trainer looked very energetic, hyperactive if he could say so, and he obviously wasn't going to leave an opportunity for a battle be. Nick had little choice then. Even though, with both Baloney and Chance already having had a tough fight behind them, he'd have to accept the challenging youngster.

"Alright then. One battle."
"One."
"Yes."

The young trainer agreed with that. He got a pokéball out of his pocket. "I choose you, Meowth!" He threw it onto the field and the small cat pokémon with its recognisable coin on his forehead came out of it. It let out a sharp-sounding 'meow', a battle-ready expression was clearly readable on the Meowth's face.

Nick nodded to Alnitak. "Alright then. Go get him Alnitak," he said. The Shroomish obliged, getting onto the battlefield and facing the Meowth for the battle to begin.

"Alnitak! Use tackle!"
"Quick, Meowth! Scratch!"

The Meowth reacted with lightning-fast speed. Much faster than Alnitak could. The Meowth's sharp claws slashed at the Shroomish's face. Causing a searing pain to her, which Nick could feel just as well too.

"Come on, Alnitak!"

The Shroomish got to strike back at the Meowth. She slammed her body against the cat pokémon and knocked it back hard. Nick smiled. Alnitak was a tough lass, and he knew she could take more than just a few hits before she'd be unable to fight any longer.

The Meowth got up, however, and the youngster shouted the new orders for the Meowth already. The cat ran up to the Shroomish and bared its sharp teeth before biting her viciously.

"Bloody hell, Alnitak, try to shake him off ya!" Nick ordered. Alnitak shoved the Meowth away from her. She wasn't looking all too well now. "Use absorb!"

Alnitak used her absorb attack on the Meowth. The energy from the Meowth was quite literally being sucked away and directed to Alnitak. Her wounds began to restore as she was being replenished. "This is going very well, Alnitak, you just keep on fighting like this!"

"Come on Meowth! Use Fury Swipes!" the youngster said. He wasn't going to give up easy either. The Meowth ran up and began furiously slashing at the Shroomish in rapid succession.

"Alnitak! Stun spore, quick!" Nick shouted, hoping that it would stop the Meowth from its furious attacks on her. Alnitak shot out a cloud of spores which slowly descended over the battlefield. The Meowth stopped moving, the spores making him unable to control his movements to attack again.

"That's it Alnitak! Now finish it with one more tackle!" Nick said. The Shroomish seemed not affected by her own spores and she slammed her body into the paralysed Meowth, who was defenseless. He fell to the ground, knocked out.

"Good job, Alnitak!"
"Ah, you did good, Meowth. Come back," the young trainer said, as he returned his pokémon to his pokéball, "That was a good battle. You're good."
"Yeah, it was, and thank you. I never got your name though."
"George."
"Mine's Nick."

The young trainer smiled and offered a handshake. Nick accepted and extended his hand too.

"Wait, is that a pokébracer?"
"Why, yeah, it is."
"Those are awesome. I've heard of them. Aren't they some completely new thing?"
"Yup. I got this because I've tested it with Silph co."
"Wow, right on, man."

Nick and the trainer exchanged a few words with each other, untill the two set on different paths. Nick went further down the road to Celadon city, and George went the opposite way to Saffron city.

After a long days walk, they reached Celadon and ate dinner. Leone was so sleepy he fell asleep near a tree. Tempesta and Nebbia followed.

The next day, they were charged up and ready to fight. Of course they ate breakfast first. But thye went to the gym shortly afterwards.

I headed back to the pokemon center that night, and thebattle replayed over and over again in my head. Even through to the next day Icouldn't stop thinking about it. I looked back over every second…

I sent out Isaac to start, and it took off from there. Mystout little bird hopped about on one leg then took to the air, and moved in.

"Alright then time to prove we are the ones who define whatwe can do." I declared, "Isaac start with hypnosis."

Isaac's eyes glowed purple and pulsing aura wafted towardsbellsprout, but far too slow. Bellsprout jumped back away from the attack andthen rushed back to attack. Erika ordered a vine whip, and Bellspout delivered.It sprinted up to Isaac. Despite Isaac's attempts to fly out of reach thebellsprout leapt up and slammed Isaac to the ground. My hoothoot cawed it aggravation.The little grass type was packing a punch.

"Alright Isaac let's make this count. Foresight thenhypnosis." I shouted.

The combo would make it much easier to hit our evasive foe.Isaac focused in on bellspout and his eyes glowed blue. Then right after hiseyes turned purple and blasted hypnosis towards bellsprout. This time the attackconsumed the grass type and left it lying asleep on the ground.

"Perfect, now use peck." I commanded.

Isaac rushed in and smashed his beak into the bellsprout. Hebattered the grass type with three solid hits before it got back up. These gympokemon definitely were strong. The bellsprout grabbed on tightly to Isaacwrapping its stem around him, and then tried to crush him. Isaac wriggledaround despite the crippling attack, but couldn't free himself.

"Isaac, faint attack." I yelled.

Isaac stopped struggling then faded away. He vanished andbellsprout stopped its wrap attack due to its target seeming to have teleportedaway. Isaac reappeared a moment later where he had just been. The attack hadonly hid him for the moment, but it was all we needed.

"Come on Isaac finish this with fly." I ordered.

Isaac climbed higher into the air and far out of thebellsprout reach then dive bombed back down crashing full speed into it.Bellsprout crumpled to the ground having been hit so hard from above. It wasout cold, and Isaac was doing relatively well.

"I'll admit I expected this would be so hard." I joked.

"Well I hope you know it gets harder." Erika repliedselecting her second pokemon.

(part 2 will come later. Btw it's a flashback so the gym isopen.)

Alnitak impatiently waited by Nick, inside of the tent that they had to sleep in out on route 7. Her trainer still seemed fast asleep, even though it was long day already. She gave him a soft nudge, hoping he would respond to it. "No, mom, 5 more minutes. I promise," he murmured and he rolled onto his other side, facing his back to the Shroomish, who sighed exasperatedly and without further ado, jumped onto him to provoke a better reaction.

Nick was ripped away from his sleep from that. His eyes opening widely from being startled by the Shroomish's attempt to wake him up. "Gee, well, good morning, Alnitak." he said, as he looked up to see his Shroomish. He sat up and huggled her.

"Shroo. Shroo."

Nick gave her a gesture to wait just a minute. He took a look at his pokébracer and made sure everything was running. He pressed around on some of the buttons to re-connect himself mentally to Alnitak.

"You're very hard to wake up," Alnitak said. This time it was comprehendable to Nick. A chuckle escaped him and he nodded in agreement. "Yeah, hehe," he rubbed his eyes, and recuperated from the sudden waking up by his pokémon. "We should try to prepare ourselves and go to Celadon city. Wonder what restaurants they have there," Nick said, his focus now shifting to some good breakfast. Celadon city wasn't very far away, and he'd prefer to have his starting meal of the day in the city.
--
Celadon city seemed like a wonderful place. It was bustling, and full of life. There were more than enough places where he could eat. A casual one that served a decent array of breakfast options piqued his interest, and he took a spot there at a table in front of the establishment. The establishment was very much geared for travelling trainers. Also serving typical pokéfood for a trainer's companions. He called out his other two pokémon, Baloney and Chance, and along with Alnitak were given a dish of pokéfood to munch on.

Nick ordered himself some pancakes and a glass of orange juice. It was just the best way for him to start another day. He watched his pokémon as they ate and made small chat with each other, though he could only understand Alnitak's end of the conversation. That was one disadvantage of only being able to be mentally connected with one pokémon. He wouldn't know what conversations between two pokémon were like. He couldn't complain though. He knew how much effort the people at Silph co. already had to put into their work just to have it be able to connect to one pokémon.

The Vulpix scoffed at Baloney. She wasn't all too happy about having lost to him, and having been captured, and she was not afraid to show it. Alnitak sheepishly watched on as Chance and Baloney argued. However, Baloney barely could fit a word in between the angry tirades of the Vulpix, and he just stared at her with a comically confused look. "Oh, dear. Alnitak, what are they doing?" Nick asked bemusedly. "You should probably step in," Alnitak responded to Nick, as she painfully looked at the verbal slaughtering occuring before her.

Nick wanted to know how serious it was. He switched his mental connection to Chance the Vulpix to get some overview of what was going on. "So don't touch me again, you smelly rat!" That was the single sentence Nick could catch of the conversation before he stepped in. "Hey, Chance, what are you doing?"

The Vulpix didn't expect that the trainer could even understand her. She was startled as she heard his response, but regained her composure again and shot a glare at Nick. "I am expressing my complete frustration about having been attacked by a random bypassing trainer and then being caught! That's what!" she viciously spat out.

She then continued to aim her rantings to Nick who, with the same confounded look as Baloney, quietly turned away, shutting off the mental connection between himself and Chance and went back to connecting himself with Alnitak. He spoke nothing for a few seconds. Just sheepishly listening to the angry Vulpix still continuing her vicious verbal attacks, even though he couldn't understand her anymore. "I am going to have my work cut out with her," he said.