While Rick would normally consider this the jackpot, as he was stricken with the chance to go and capture a Fully grown Weaville and a Sawsbuck, the situation did not look favorable to him this time around. Looking at his Slugma, he could see that it was panting with exhaustion, not to mention the hail was coming down hard and making it troublesome for him to concentrate in during this battle. Looking over at the two Pokemon, they certainly looked like they were more preoccupied with seeing to the crippled Sneasel than Rick himself, so it look favorable for both of them for the fight to end before it began. Pulling out Slugma's Pokeball, he returned him and tucked away his and the deerling's poke ball, backing away slowly, his hands up to show he wash;t going to try any funny business.

After clearing a little distance, Rick made his way through the path, getting back on the main road and heading straight for Petalburg. The hail was settling down by the time he had gotten into town and Rick was ready to relax after his long and arduous journey. The Nurse Joy was nice enough to heal his Pokemon, so he was left to relax in the lounge while he waited for Slugma to heal up. He was a little worried about the guy, as the two of them had been battling quite a bit since the left the Professor's laboratory.

After giving up his Slugma to nurse joy, Rick sat down and diverted his attention to his first caught Pokemon, a baby Delibird. Rick was not pleased with the useless addition to his team, but he figured that he might as well get to know it while he could. The Pokemon was known for being rather cute and mischievous. Maybe he could use it as an intelligence agent, rather than as a battler.

Opening the Pokeball, Rick was astounded to find the baby Delibird latching on to his face the minute he released it. Then Rick remembered the events that took place during its capture: the sneasel had thrown an Egg at the Pokeball, which proceeded to hatch right before getting captured in its place. The baby, having seen nothing before its capture, had yet to imprint, so it made sense that the Pokeball had become its secondary egg, imprinting on the first person it saw when it was released, which by all accounts would have been Rick.

Pulling the baby chick off of his face, rick sat the baby bird in front of him as he looked it over, trying to figuring out what to do with it. As he looked it over, he noticed that the baby bird was imitating his gestures. At first it was cute, but it got old very fast. Deciding to deal with the rest of the bird problem later, Rick returned the Delibird to its Pokeball and went over to the check out counter to receive his Slugma, fuly healed from battle.

After that, Rick went out to the Gym of Norman, one of the most professional gym leaders around, master of Normal Pokemon and one of the few Gym Leaders Rick felt he could trust. not only was the man a well respected member of the Pokemon community, he was experienced, professional, and incredibly skilled. He also was good friends with Proffessor Birch, so he was sure that he would be able to help him out on this situation.

Leaving the Pokemon center, Rick made his way around the block to head over to the Petalburg Gym. Strangely enough, the gym was in operation at this time, so he was able to get through the lounge. Inside there were a punk trainer telling Rick that if he wanted to challenge the Gym Leader, he would need to beat them first. "Look, I don't want to fight the Leader, I just need to talk to him." "Well too bad, cause all who want to get through those doors need to get through me first." Pulling out his Pokeball, he sent out a Slakoth, which was proceeding to take a nap on he ground. Figuring that this would be the fastest way, Rick reached for Slugma, but his hand nocked the one holding Delibird instead.

The little scamp jumped out, laughing in mid air as it began to play. The trainer just looked at the tiny creature and began laughing at how weak it was. It was especially humiliating when the Delibird began shadowboxing, as if it knew how to fight. It was adorable. But then the unexpected happened: Delibird manifested two Presents and hurled them at the guy's Slakoth. Taken aback by the sudden shift in attack, and completely underestimating Rick's Delibird, the blasts hit the poor Slakoth square in the face, nocking it clean out.

The trainer tried to remedy this with his Zigzagoon, which charged and tackled Delibird before she could through her Present at him. The tackle hit her square in the gut, almost nocking her out. Luckily for her though, she had Vital Spirit, which saved her by an inch of her life. The Present dropped right in front of Delibird also and the blast, instead of dealing the final blow to her, healed her of her injuries, and allowing her to throw two more volleys of Present at the Zigzagoon, nocking it out as well.

The punk was about to pull put his third Pokemon, when Norman stepped into the room, hearing about the ruckus that the punk was causing. He apologized to Rick, saying that the punk had been kicked out of his gym for the third time and that he was having a lot of trouble getting him to leave him alone. Rick said it was nothing and bent over to check on Delibird, who was panting but still trying to put up a strong face. "Heheh, don't worry little guy, you showed them who's boss. Now, let's go talk to the nice Gym Leader."

Following Norman to his office, he pulled out the Burst stone and explained what had happened to his brother and what Birch had told him about it. "Birch explained to me that the process to use Burst is incredibly dangerous and life threatening to those that weren't experienced and strong both Mentally, Emotionally, and Physically. I'm certainly very smart, having graduated the top of my class, and I'm not one too loose in to my emotions, but what I do lack is experience and Physical training. I figured that a person such as yourself would be skilled in both regions and would be willing to train me. I need to know the secret to Burst if I am going to uncover the secrets of Team Gaia and my brother's death."

but Norman couldn't help him in this case. He explained that the task of training for Burst would take the same amount of time as it would to be the Pokemon Master and that he was too busy right now to personally train anyone. He was too busy running his gym and he didn't have the time.

Figuring he should go now, Rick left the gym, heading out to go do some more training. He had to walk a bit, as the town wasn't exactly a few yards in distance. There were homes and plenty of men and women to fill them in as well. But the people were kind and social and gave him directions when he needed them, and to be honest, he needed them a lot. But sure enough, he had made his way out of town, and the cold air covering the beach hit him like a hornets nest. The weather this week had been a cruel mistress, giving him snow and chills and ice galore.

Taking out the pokeball holding the Deerling, Rick decided to try his hand at using a truly wild Pokemon. The Pokemon was young, so it wasn't going to be significantly as hard as one would expect, but still hard enough. The Pokemon was still grumpy about being taken away from its friends and family, but it wasn't about to run off, which was a plus.

Rick first tried to coax it with a few treats, but eventually guessed that the best way for them to bond would be for them to have a Pokemon battle with a wild one. And sure enough there was a spheal rolling in from the waves. Rick gave his command to initiate the battle with the spheal and the Deerling reluctantly complied, jumping in to do battle. "First use Grasswhistle to put it to sleep, and then..." but before his command could be finished, the Spheal had already begun to fire volleys of Water gun at them, soaking the white sand as his Deerling made it a work out trying to dodge the shots. Hiei tried to guide it properly, but the Deerling was moving well before he could give it a command on where to dodge.

As the Deerling successfully dodged the fifth volley of water gun, it wasn't prepared for the trap that had been laid out for him. The Spheal began to spray a Powder Snow over the area that the Deerling was going to land, freezing the water on the sand, causing Deerling to slip right onto its side. The Spheal was then prepared to fire another shot of Powder Snow, so Rick had to think fast. "Deerling! Use Sand Attack! Then follow up with Grasswhistle!" Able to give his command this time, Deerling kicked the sand right into the Spheal's eyes, making it fire the snow in a completely different location. It then became victim to the soothing music of the Grasswhistle coming from the Deerling as it tried to stand, avoiding the frozen areas as it could try.

It then leaped through the air, giving the Spheal a good Double-Kick with its rear legs when it landed and turned its body. Rick then sent out a Pokeball, hoping to catch the sleeping spheal before it woke up. The creature went in, and the ball began to shake.

Sara Lain With flower girl Selena
Sara and Selena walked through the forest, having left an hour after eating. Selena walked with Nincada at her side because she refused to return him. Both of Sara's Pokemon had tired themselves out and were resting in their pokeballs. Selena was excited, "So where are we going first?!"

Sara sighed, "We are going to Rustboro, to see the first gym leader." She was somewhat excited to see her mother, and more specifically to show her Orrie and Poliwag. "That's where my mother lives."

Selena smilled and they continued walking, Selena cooing and baby-speaking Nincada. Sara felt a rather sickening feeling though. Something she felt, but wasn't sure of. "Have you ever been into the city?"

"No, my mother and I have always stayed in the woods. She says it's much safer there." Sara thought about how dangerous Orre was, and to be honest Rustboro seemed relatively safe.

"Well I suppose that is true." She said. They began exiting the forest, and as they got out, Sara's heart skipped a beat. Ahead of her, there stood the decimated city of Rustboro. Selena stopped her cooing and looked as well. "No, no, no." Sara panted.

"Maybe they--" But Sara already took off, Selena watched as Sara ran away toward the city. "Sara wait!" She yelled.

But Sara ignored her, faster and faster. "Please no." She cried. Sara's eyes were red, blurry, and stinging. When she got to her mothers apartment building she dropped to her knees. The whole building was collapsed, and since her mother never left the building, there was no way she survived. She began throwing rubble away, digging at the debris, cutting her hand on glass from windows and heirlooms.

Selena stood over her, "Sara..." She said softly, "You're going to hurt yourself..." But the vain words never reached Sara. Blood was dripping out of the cuts on her hands, while tears did little to wash it off the concrete. Selena put her arm over Sara's shoulders, and lifted her up. She turned Sara toward her, with sympathy in her eyes and looked at Sara's face.

Sara looked hopeless, her eyes were glossy and empty. Tear streaks ran down her face, and dirt and debris had found its home caked into them. Sara cried so much that she could barely breathe.

As far as Sara was concerned, she was now an orphan.

Rick called out for Deerling to get some distance as soon as the Pokeball froze, leaving him one pokeball less than he had before. Both Rick and Deerling had to duck out of the way as shots of ice-cold snow came flying their way. The area was hard to maneuver, but it wasn't impossible, and Deerling were great at dealing with tough terrain, as they lived in many different climates and under many many different weather patterns. Deerling leaped over the third volley of Powder snow and proceeded to double kick the Speal once more, leaving it quite low on health. If there was a scale, it would say that the Spheal was in the red, ripe for the picking. But just to be safe, Rick had Deerling get up after taking the Water Gun to the face and use Tackle, nocking the Speal away from the beach and onto the dry road. Still asleep, Rick threw another Pokeball, hoping to catch this guy this time.

HOENN HISTORY THINGY

Brought to you by the nun. Which nun, you ask? NUN OF YOUR BUSINESS!​

It was a long time ago... so long, in fact, that no one actually cares remembers. They say that Hoenn was created along with all the other regions because of Groudon and Kyogre moving the lands and seas. But... then what? There are no traces showing that anything interesting actually happened here. No manuscripts. No cave drawings. Nothing at all, almost as if they didn't want us to know what happen. But Hoenn is boring, right? There can't be much to it... Right?

However, after a very extensive search for said traces, something was finally found inside of Rusturf Tunnel. It was a small gem, that could be held inside of one's hand, a gem with what seemed to be a Pokemon inside of it. The species was later found to be a Boldore, a rather common Pokemon of the Unova region.

Some time later, underwater, several writings were found embossed in walls all around. All of them written in Braille. Most of them talk about Regirock, Regice and Registeel, the legendary golems of the Hoenn region... but some of them don't....

After a while, a theory was created, a theory that, despite explaining some stuff, remains as nothing but a suggestion:

• These "gems" go by another name in a very distant land: "Burst Hearts". They have an apparently simple purpose that seem to be from before the time of the Pokéball: they allow their bearers to fuse with the Pokemon contained in them.

• The engravings speak of a group of people that used their Burst Hearts to help those in need. At the same time, there were people who thought that they had to control those who didn't have said gems.

• These engravings then state that both groups split, with those that fought for justice staying, and those who shared different ideals going to a far away land. Nothing else is known about those who departed the land of Hoenn.

• As for the others, not much is known about them, except that they had descendants that somehow didn't continue with their Burst Warrior Legacy with the advent of Pokéballs.

Some people believed in this theory. One in particular got his hands on the gem, and nearly died in an attempt to fuse with the Boldore inside. Regardless, his experience drove others to find other Burst Hearts and attempt fusing with them. From these people, several ones shared the same ideal of controlling the masses, and so came to be known the organization we know as Team Gaia. They began with petty crimes, like stealing and the sort, but they've recently started attacking cities in their attempts to gain control over the region. They've taken over Rustboro City and burned it to the ground, searching for a relic that the Devon Corporation's been bragging about called the "Compass of Light". With it, Team Gaia is able to track Burst Hearts all over the region, and they'll stop at nothing to get it.

XOXO
gossip girl The nun :D​

BURSTing into Life​

---

What you may, must and can't do:

• You must traverse the route (the nun commands you to).
• You may catch Pokemon (but not as much as you would like to; plenty are still hiding).
• You may fight the Burst Warriors. You. Will. Die. No exceptions.
• You can't exit the Route once you've entered. (Plot devices, suckahs.)
• You may challenge Roxanne for your first badge. However, she may be busy, and you may not be able to find her, because at the time of this chapter's release, she has caved herself, an innocent trainer, and four members of Team Gaia in Rusturf Tunnel.

Picking up the failed Pokeball, Rick sighed, disappointed that he hasn't been having the best luck with what he wanted to capture, but greatful all the same that he at least had something that he could use. Figuring that he was going to need to rest up, Rick pulled out Deerling's Pokeball and returned it, putting it away for safe keeping. He looked off to the distance, estimating a good hour walk down the beech before he could make it to the woods. With the long distance awaiting and the depression of the sun, Rick took a turn-around and made his way over to Petalburg again. The long walk would take forever to make in the night and he didn't feel comfortable having a Lava slug walking in front of him in a dense woodland area.

Making his way quickly through the town, Rick watched as shops began to close and street lights flickered on. It was getting to be dark and no body seemed to want to be out late tonight. Rick made his way through the streets until he ended up at the door to the Pokemon center, ready to pack it in for the day. That is, until a punk slammed the door open, pinning Rick between it and the wall behind him. This was going to be irritable, but he was willing to shrug it off so that he could finally get some sleep. That is, until the punk saw him and grabbed him by the arm, his eyes were very angry and he looked like he was ready to start a fight.

And it turned out, Rick should take his intuition and drown it in the waters of Route 104 because the punk was now challenging him to a battle since according to some weird twist of ancient traditions, if you get caught in the path of an angry punk, you end up having to fight him to defend your pride. Looking inside of the open door, he saw a punk girl, hair pink and pulled in a mohawk and a chain hanging from her nose to her ear. Rick realized that these two must have been an item before she broke it off with him and sent him hurling towards him in a fit of rage. So Rick pulled out his own healthy Pokemon, Slugma, and prepared to do battle with the punk who wanted to prove his testosterone.

The punk pulled out his own Pokemon, a Wingull, and prepared to do battle with Rick and his Magma slug. the Punk started things off with a water gun, but Rick had predicted such an obvious move and had Slugma use Flame Charge to dodge it. He then had Slugma try to finish the charge at the bird, but thankfully it had a few braincells more than its master, as it took off to dodge Slugma. So to deal with the new height, Rick had Slugma use its incredibly hot body to melt its way through the earth and carve out a chunk of rock. Waiting for the perfect moment, Rick gave the signal and Slugma shot its back up, shooting the rock up at the enemy bird. As the bird began to fall, Slugma then poured Smog over it, poisoning it and knocking it out.

The punk gave a few swears and cries of anguish, which attracted the attention of the punk girl. They both turned their heads to see her giggling at the punk's failure despite having an obvious type advantage. Rick had to admit that he found this girl quite fetching if it weren't for the piercing, but he turned his attention back to the punk who had pulled out his second Pokeball. Releasing it, he revealed his secondary guy, a Surskit, which looked to be freshly caught with a weak move pool. Sadly, its low level did not neglect to prevent its still incredibly high speed, as it began to run circles around Slugma. They began to race around the street, which was pretty much black except for the lone street lamp and Slugma's own body light.

After a few Flame Charges, Slugma was finally able to keep up with the Surskit, but it was still unable to catch it. But Rick and Slugma's eyes still caught now and then and Rick was able to signal to Slugma to lead the Surskit to the hole they had previous dug during their fight with the Wingull. The Surskit had been having a lot of fun just running the track that it failed to listen to any of the punk's commands. Rick was right in guessing that it was a recently caught Pokemon and that the trainer didn't really have its trust or approval yet. So when the surskit fell into the whole, it didn't even expect the flame covered Slugma to leap out of the air and land in the hole, smothering the water/bug with his fire and magma.

Pulling out of the hole, the punk pulled his Surskit out and returned it. "THAT"S IT! I'm through with this. Prepare to face my trump card you punk!"

"You're the punk my friend, not me." Slugma looked ready to take on one more challenge, but only one more challenge. So it was good that the guy only had one Pokemon at his disposal, not another afterwards.

the punk released his third pokemon, a Snover. And with that, both the punk girl and Rick could do nothing but laugh at it all. The idiot punk had just sent a pokemon with both type weaknesses to Slugma's ONE type. It was like asking to be handed to loosing side of the bet. Rick told Slugma to use Ember, preparing to win this fight, but then the unexpected happened. "SNOVER! Use Rain Dance!" And the Snover began to do his little jig and rain began to fall from the black sky, putting out the fire in their Ember attack. All of their Fire attacks had been neutralized. But they still had an advantage. The Snover didn't know that many moves, which said that it was a low level Pokemon still. All it looked like it could do was Razor Leave and Powder Snow. Both of which weren't effective at all against Slugma's fiery body. The punk seemed to have enough though, as he ordered his Pokemon to use a Skull Bash. A pretty powerful move, had it actually hit. But as soon as the Snover got even the slightest bit close to him, Slugma poured the Smog on him, poisoning him and nocking him out in one move.

With his last Pokemon defeated, the Punk was depressed. So Rick decided to give him some pointers. "You did well in your last fight, for a beginner. Your Snover wasn't born with its famous Snow Warning Ability, so you used Rain Dance instead to provide protection against your guy's severe weakness to fire moves. But your skill stopped there. You tried to win a fight solely on type advantage in the first bit, and then you used a Pokemon you had just caught. None of your three Pokemon were of the proper level to fight, so it was like sending children to do battle with adults. Beaf up your team and try to get more moves on your team and you'll do much better. Do some schooling on what beats what and try to show what was your talent lies in." With his third and final victory done, Rick finally turned in for the night, docking his Pokemon in the center, and napped for the rest of the night.

The next day, Rick collected the rest of his Pokemon and saw a welcome party waiting for him outside. "Please don't tell me you guys are planning on fighting me are you?" They weren't. They were the punk from earlier and his gang. They told him that they would be training to get stronger until one day they finally defeat him. Rick gave them a smile and told them not to get in his way while he traveled. Heading out to route 104 to continue his quest.

As he made his way through the road alongside the beach, Rick stopped, realizing that he was being followed. Turning around, he saw the punk girl trying to find a place to hide in the open road. She looked different, her nose piercing was gone and her hair was now down and inside a hat. It was a fedora, which was cute in its own way. "What are you doing?" "I'm following you now." "Following?" "Yep, I'm a leach Trainer. I find capable trainers that are heading where I want to go and I study them as they fight. Once I get better than the trainer I'm following, I ditch them for a new trainer to follow" "Whatever you do, I suggest you don't get to close to me. I'm dealing with some dangerous forces right now." "Oh, I'm more than capable of protecting myself. I just want to study what you can do."

Leaving her to her own devices, Rick departed down the road, listening and answering any questions she had. Most of them revolved around his age and why he was taking his journey at such a late one. She seemed to find it funny that he went to school, and studied Pokemon instead of battled them. He dismissed her jests and came to a relaxed point when they were in the woods. Battling would soon commence within the forrest, which meant that the girl would shut up and watch him battle instead of ask him questions all the time.

As they walked through the woods, Rick decided that today would be best for training his Delibird. The little guy was getting tougher, but he was still too weak to be of any real use in the rest of the world. There were a bunch of Wurmples all over the forest, and every one of them wanted a piece of action with the little bird. Thankfully enough, the girl was not frightened by the worms, which saved him a lot of trouble as he walked through the forrest. Delibird didn't seem to min the girl and she seemed to love the little guy, cuddling with him whenever she got the chance. There were quite a few battles, with three of them happening all at once and none of them being a trouble. Delibird's Present attack was incredibly powerful, though there was the odd occasion of his attack healing all of the wounds previously inflicted instead of injuring them. After a significantly long walk, Rick sat down and they had lunch. Rick was prepared to bring out his own meal, but the girl instead pulled out a meal for them both.

"You don't have to do this." "If I'm going to be learning from you, I might as well pay in whatever way I can, and I'm much too young to do anything else." This was obviously wrong, as the girl looked older than he was, but he wasn't interested anyway. She poured him some soup and them handed him some sliced sandwiches with the CRUST cut off. She even had a bowl of pokemon food ready for Delibird. "My name is Carol, in case you were wondering." Rick apologized for not asking sooner, but she put it away. Carol, it seemed, was an eager Pokemon trainer, hoping to be the best, but she had been so pathetic during her past adventures as a preteen that she decided that she needed to learn from others before she could challenge the best. It looked like a sound argument, but he was still annoyed that he had to deal with her himself.

"Carol. I'm not some hotshot looking to be the very best. I'm on a research mission, trying to piece together whatever I can find about Team Gaia and these gemstones they have called Burst Hearts." He pulled out the gemstone and showed it to her, putting it back in his pocket before getting up. "Sooner or Later, Gaia is going to catch wind of my research and they are going to try and get rid of me. I can't have casualties in this." "Hey, I'm not weak anymore. I've trained under a lot of pretty strong guys. And if what you're saying is true, then you are going to need a body guard. Someone to protect you from these guys."

Rick let her words go and just let her follow like before. Soon though, Rick's face paled. "We've been waisting our time." "What do you mean?" "It'll take us at least 10 hours for a normal trainer to get from Petalburg to Rustboro. We left the center at 7 am. We've had at least 5 fights now and it is noon now. We've been on the road for five hours now and we aren't even half way there. We need to.. OOPH" Rck fell over, tripping on a Shroomish that was underneath him. "How cute, the little guy likes you." Sure enough, the Mushroom pokemon was now cuddling with his leg.

"Strange, Shroomish are pretty defensive Pokemon. They aren't one to just come willingly to humans." Then Delibird came crawling down him and began chatting with the shroomish. After a few exchanges in Poke-talk, how Rick wished they could crack the secret language, Delibird seemed to freak, and the Shroomish ran off, taking Delibird with it. Carol and Rick began to follow after then, wondering what they were going to find. Sadly, it wasn't a pleasant sight.

"Rick? How long has he been there?" "I'd say a few weeks? Maybe three. Poor soul must have been poisoned by a wild shroomish." "What makes you think it wasn't this guy?" "Look at the way it is treating the guy. This Shroomish was probably his. And remember when i fell over it? Shroomish have a tendency to spray poisonous spores when they are threatened. So even if it didn't through them out of shick, I had skin contact with it. This Shroomish has the Poison Heal ability, not the Effect Spore. It was a kind of evolution they picked up to keep themselves strong enough to handle their more well known varient. Poor little guy. He's been too accustomed to human existence. I don't know if he'll adjust back in time to be able to protect himself. Hopefully he'll be able to hide and feed on solar rays until he can protect himself." Turning to leave, he stopped when the Shroomish began to nudge his leg, gesturing to his master. "I'm sorry little guy. I can't save your master. He's dead." there was no doubting that, as his body had been eaten by Dustoxes and his blood drunk by Beautiflies. There was nothing for them to do. They didn't even have the equipment to give him a proper burial.

Carol started to cry, as did Delibird and the Shroomish. Unable to handle the sorrow around him, Rick pulled out a fresh Pokeball and placed it in front of the little guy. "Look. I may not be the same as your previous master, and this might be a hard time in your life, but I do promise that I won't be leaving you any time soon if you choose me. I may not look it, but I'm a very strong trainer." After that, Delibird stepped in to give his few words, giving a glorious recommendation of his mommy/father/trainer. Rick hoped that the shroomish would come with them, otherwise he wasn't sure what was to become of the little guy.

The Shroomish looked like he was willing to go with Rick, which was great, but it didn't look like he could find his Pokeball anywhere. Carol seemed to good at keeping the Shroomish and Delibird entertained while he looked around. He didn't feel right looking over the dead trainer's body, but he did anyway, careful to avoid any areas that looked like they had spores on them. The rest of his Pokeballs were empty, and none of them were registered with a Pokemon already, so he decided to take a look inside his pouch. There weren't any Antidotes, figures as much, but he did have an unused Potion, which would be good help later on in case they got in trouble in the woods.

Taking a few large, but broken branches off the ground, Rick proceeded to cover the body, paying his respects to the dead. But then Rick got to realizing about the logic of finding branches, with leaves as healthy as these, just laying on the ground. And also, some of the areas on his body didn't look like they were made from decay, but rather, there were a lot of slice marks. Almost as if something had been eating his body a little while ago before the two of them had met up with it. And the wounds with the bite marks were small, but still bleeding, which told him that the bite marks were made very recently.

Seeing a bunch of broken twigs around them, Rick gulped when he saw that they were not alone like they had thought. Looking up at tree tops, he gulped, as a flock of Dustoxes were perched right above then, unmoving and waiting for the right moment. Rick began to walk back to Carol very slowly, making sure as to not look suspicious towards the Dustox. Making his way next to her, he nudged her elbow, pointing up to show her the Dustox, hoping she didn't make a scene. She gave a yelp, but he caught her mouth in time to keep her voice down so that they didn't alert the Dustox.

Backing up, they each grabbed one of the little guys at their feet, taking a few steps back before turning around to run! Unfortunately, they were not alone anywhere they tried to go, as right behind them was a badly injured Wurmple. Rick recognized it from the number of Wurmple they had fought a few hours ago, so he knew that the little guy had a grudge against him. He made a small smile, hoping to make ease with the Wurmple, though sadly it too had a smile, a nasty, malicious smile. It sprayed a String Shot right at Carol, catching her ankle and pulling her down, nocking her head against a root.

She went under fast and Rick had to pull her out, kicking the Wurmple aside to stop it from shooting him. The Wurmple gave a cry, alerting the Dustox to their attention and the swarm came down on them. This made Rick gulp, as six fully evolved Dustoxes were bursting from the trees, all crying out words that seemed to scare Delibird and Shroomish. The two hid behind Rick, and Rick didn't deny the fear, as he himself was shacking. He pulled out Slugma's Pokeball, preparing to fight them. He couldn't outrun them all while carrying Carol on his back, so he had to stand his ground, releasing Slugma and giving out orders.

He could probably get them all with a swarm of Ember from Slugma, but he couldn't risk hitting the trees. He didn't want to start a fire, and the only reason he was even letting Slugma out was because they were on a dirt road now. Giving the order for a Barrage of Rock Throws, Slugma went underground, digging pits and shooting the large rocks above him. The rocks each hit one or two, but as soon as the Rock was shrugged off the Dustox, they were up again. There was also too many to hit all at once, and he himself was taking a lot of Confusion attacks since Slugma was underground a lot.

Slugma was slowing down, but the Dustox were taking turns, resting while the others took their place. They needed to deal with them each before the attacks were recovered from, which meant they were going to need another attacker. But before he could ask, Delibird threw a very Large Present down on one of the fallen Dustoxes, putting it out for good. The sudden arrival of Delibir was enough to get Slugma back in the game, and the two were in synch. Slugma pinned them down with Rock Throw and Delibird finished them with Present before any of them could get up again.

As the last lay down on the ground, they were finally done with them all, Slugma looked exhausted though, as did Delibird. Even Rick was on his knees by the final round, having taken a few Gust attacks and Confusions during the battle. The battle was severe, but he wasn't done yet, as he pulled out his Pokeballs to return Delibird and Slugma now that they were done. The battle was over, but Rick still needed to find Shroomish's Pokeball before he could call it a day. Looking around in the foliage, he found one of the Dustoxes, pinned under a rock, with something shiny next to it.

It was the Pokeball, with SHROOMISH written right on it as well, sitting right next to the unconscious Dustox. Picking it up, he dropped down next to the Shroomish, showing him the Pokeball, which told him that it was time to go back in.

Sara with Flower Girl Selena
Sara stopped crying and just glared at the rubble. She felt plenty of anger rising within her. "Sara..." Selena said softly, "We should see nurse joy about your hands." Sara looked down at her hands, bloodied and scarred. She didn't feel the pain yet, though it was creeping in.

"We came here to avoid violence." Sara said, "We were threatened to leave Orre, they said it was safer here." She continued looking at her hands. She had punched concrete so hard she needed stitches. This pain was different though. The cuts were not deep enough for stitches, though somehow they looked like the worst wounds in the world. "I have no way to tell my father either. He will never know what happened." She clenched her teeth.

"Maybe we should go back to my home..." Selena said sympathetically, "I think my mother would be glad to take you in..."

"You can go home. It's probably too dangerous now anyways." The monotone, anger filled, growling in the way Sara spoke frightened Selena. "I'm going to get revenge. I'm going to find out why this happened. Then make them regret doing it."

Selena squirmed, she couldn't just let Sara do that, Sara would die. But she was too scared to say no, and there was nothing Selena coud say that would change Sara's mind. "T-then I'll help you." Sara looked Selena in the eye. It was a cold stare, and words didn't have to be said that Sara wasn't in the mood for jokes. "Y-yea, I know every plant, pokemon, and city in Hoenn I could help you get around a-and stay alive without money if you need t-to." Selena couldn't stop shivering.

Sara's glare was still stone cold, though outloud she said, "Fine. Do you know how to fight?" Selena shook her head, "I figured." But Sara knew she would probably need a guide, and a companion. "Then you better be one hell of a trainer." She looked down at her hands. The pain was now rising, and tears accumulated in her eyes. "L-let's go see a nurse." She said shakily.

(You SONNOFA*****!!!)


The fearsome opponent emerged from the trees. "LOTAD!" It gave a fearsome roar. The rain was pouring down, and Gio was terrified. He produced Howler's pokeball from his belt and tossed him out. Even the fearsome hyena pokemon feared this horrifying monster. To make matters even worse, Slow Ride was playing in the background! The bane to all metalheads!

Gio packed his headphones away and looked to Howler. "Listen to me buddy, this thing is pret-ty damn terrifying." The Poochyena nodded, terrified out of his mind. "We can't let it beat us. It's the first test that we've come to." They both managed to steel their nerves and turned to face the menacing beast. "I CAN DEFEAT YOU AND YOUR CRAPPY TASTE IN MUSIC!" He earned another roar from Brotad and a small snarl from Howler. He ignored both. "YOU HAVE NOTHING ON ME! HOWLER, USE POISON FANG!" Howler rushed forth and lurched forward with his purple tinted fangs, but Brotad just moved out of the way swiftly. The rain was making it faster! "TRY AGAIN!" The Poochyena managed to sink its teeth into Brotad. It roared it pain. It was poisoned, but poison wasn't going to stop this crappy-music-loving freak of nature! He slammed his head into Howler. Zen Headbutt wasn't supposed to work on dark types, but it DID! Howler was sent flying. "NO! IMPOSSIBLE! KEEP UP WITH POISON FANG!" The Poochyena charged forth and tried to bite, but the Lotad just matched with its own improvised bite. The impact was so great that an explosion occured. Both pokemon emerged from the smoke, but Brotad was just a little fazed. Nothing could defeat this beast of nature! He had to try now! Gio tossed a pokeball and hoped for the best.