Jane had pondered going back home and asking her family members about Mr. Pokémon, but she hated the thought of retracing her footsteps backwards on the journey already - she wanted to move on forward! Therefore, she didn't even notice the other trainers who were walking around New Bark, investigating at the same time she was. From the laboratory, she walked straight on towards Route 29 just in time to miss Serene arriving at the lab.
The music now in her ears was fitting for her first steps onto a new road.
"Okay, let's see if we can find any trainers here who know who Mr. Pokémon is and where he is!" Jane said enthusiastically as they started walking on the straight route, the houses of New Bark steadily becoming distant behind them. Cyn walked beside his trainer, outside of his pokéball. Jane felt more comfortable with not being alone, mostly because New Bark was so creepy. She missed the old, nice, friendly town... Not that the people there had been overly friendly towards her. Not the girls, at least. She scoffed at the memory of her classmates. The guys had been much better, at least some of them. Oh, how people would judge others... Had they nothing better to do?
Suddenly, Jane walked straight into a large shrubbery. She had been too deep in thought and not looked where she was going. Cyn sighed behind her.
"Oh. Well, we'll go around this!" Jane said and started looking at its sides. But the shrubbery was strangely wide. Large, even. More of a group of stubborn little trees than a shrubbery, really. There wasn't really a way around. Jane scratched her head.
"Maybe I can climb through it?" The bush stood in the middle of the road, so she had to get past it somehow. But to no avail; the shubbery/tree/bush thing was unbeatable. A pouting Jane had to give up at last and take a few steps back.
Then, suddenly... "I've got it! Cyn!"
Her pokémon looked up with one eyebrow raised. "Burn the bush to the ground with a fire attack, so we can get through!"
Cyn just looked at her, without moving a muscle. "What's wrong?" Jane asked and scratched her head again. After a few moments of Cyn puffing his back with flames without attacking, realization struck her. "You don't know any fire type moves. You don't... Know any..." She facepalmed. A fire pokémon who didn't know any fire moves. That was so useful! Not. And she somehow doubted that his psychic type move would have an effect on a bush.
They had to find a long way around it. Into the tall grass they went.
The sun stood high on the sky now; it was midday. Jane and Cyn carried on through the tall grass, Jane mostly sour but Cyn on his alert... And that's when the first wild pokémon appeared.
A Sentret jumped up and flew towards Jane all of a sudden. She yelped and jumped to the side, but the Sentret would still hit her with its Tackle-
Cyn was there in time. His Tackle met Sentret's and both pokémon bounced back down onto the ground.
"A battle! Against a wild pokémon? Hey, Sentret, why would you attack me like that? I'm just walking here!" Jane said, arms crossed.
The Sentret growled and took a protective pose. "Oh... Maybe we disturbed your nest or something? Sorry, we were just looking for a way around-"
Sentret attacked again, this time directly towards Cyn. Thankfully, Jane had spent some time trying to remember what she knew that she knew about fire types and Cyndaquil specifically, and written this into her PokéGear over the last minutes, and was even holding the PokéGear in her hand now. Even without it, she remembered a good move almost instantly. "Dodge, and use Smokescreen!"
Cyn just flipped itself backwards, narrowly escaping the Tackle when Sentret landed. Then, the Cyndaquil fired up its back with flames and made a black cloud of smoke spread out around them. Jane stepped back to not be enveloped by it. "Where are you? Cyn! If you can hear me, use... Use Extrasensory!"
Apparently, Cyn could see through the smoke, because the next blink of an eye, Sentret was thrown out from the smoke cloud and disappeared with a welp into the tall grass. Beaten and chased away. The smoke quickly dissipated now, and Cyn walked up to his trainer as if nothing had happened.
"That's so cool, Cyn!" Jane commended and patted him on his head. Something he didn't quite like, but wasn't going to object to. "We'll win anything with that attack!"
Jane soon realized though, that Sentret had been easy to beat just because of its low level. It had been Lv 2 while Cyn was several levels higher already. Sure, Extrasensory was a strong move, but if they would meet a pokémon of equal strength... They might have to rely on luck and skill as well as pure strength. Jane was a bit worried.
They met another Rattata, also low leveled, before they found the road again. Jane was immensely relieved; she had been afraid that they had gotten lost! But it wasn't more than a quarter of an hour's walk before they encountered another, just as impassable bush standing in their way. They would simply have to go around that as well. The grass here was even taller...
And before too long, a bird pokémon attacked them from out of nowhere. It was a Hoothoot, which Jane easily recognized. Lv 5. Cyn struggled, as Hoothoot could fly above his Smokescreen and thus not get trapped. Leer didn't seem to do much to lower the bird's defenses either. In the end, it became a game of Tackles, in which Cyn was getting awfully tired very soon.
"This isn't looking good," Jane realized. "Cyn, come on, let's flee!" She picked her pokémon up and started running - but Hoothoot was running after her! She jumped over rocks and holes in the ground, Hoothoot just flew above them. She tried changing her direction in the grass, but Hoothoot easily followed in the air. It was so close now, close with its sharp beak and claws and... Where was that road?
"Augh!" Jane stumbled on yet another rock, and this time she fell forward. Cyn flew out of her arms and tumbled into the grass beside her. Luckily, she had fallen just before Hoothoot dove for them, so the Tackle missed.
But Jane had also dropped something else. The pokéball she had found at professor Elm's laboratory! It jumped on the ground once, twice, while Jane's cyan eyes looked on. And then it opened up, and surprised the girl hugely.
A pokémon appeared, shaped like a blue ball with a tail, and immediately looked around itself to try and grasp the situation. It's name was Madeline, but of course Jane didn't know that yet. To her, it looked only like a Tympole.
Madeline saw the surprised girl in front of her, out of breath. She saw the injured pokémon beside her, a fire type without fire. And she saw the bird in the sky who with a menacing look came around to attack them again. Yeah, she gathered a good enough picture of the situation to know what to do now.
With only a flick of the large tail, Tympole bounced once, twice before it made a huge leap up in the air, shocking the bird enough to make it halt its attack for a moment. In mid-air, Tympole flashed a smile towards her opponent before she opened up her mouth and fired Bubbles at it. They hit the already weakened Hoothoot and made it flutter and fall towards the ground. But there, Cyn was waiting for it with revenge gleaming in his eyes. He hadn't gotten a good opportunity to fire up his Extrasensory in this battle yet, but now was the perfect-
Or maybe not? Hoothoot was flutteringly falling towards him. A Tackle would be enough. He didn't have to go all out every time. This would be enough. He jumped up and Tackled the bird, making it shoot down into the taller grass some ways away. Not to be heard of again. Done and done.
Jane sat up on her knees, still thankfully covered and protected by her outfit, and looked at the two pokémon before her. Cyn had no fire on his back, and he stood still but his gaze was fixed on the water pokémon that landed only a couple of meters away and soon jumped up to him.
Madeline asked if Cyn was okay. Yeah, he was okay, he said. Who was she, then? She was a pokémon who belonged to a little girl. Or at least she had liked to think that she belonged to that girl. Cyn said that he too belonged to a girl, and motioned towards Jane. His girl was a bit loco, but as good as any, he supposed. Madeline said that she was happy for him. She asked if he knew where her girl was? No, he hadn't seen her. But Johto was really strange; New Bark apparently didn't look anything like her trainer had last seen it. Maybe Tympole should just come with them for now. Madeline looked worried, but then nodded. Maybe she should just do that. For now. She wouldn't know what else to do, anyways. Okay, Cyn said. They had agreed. They were partners now, then. Okay.
Jane blinked. The two pokémon made a lot of noises for a minute and she couldn't help just sitting there and watch. It was so strange to see; she fiddled with her PokéGear to try and find some kind of recording feature. Before she could find one though, the two pokémon marched up to her and looked expectantly at her. At least Tympole did.
"You... Did you just come out from the pokeball I found?" Jane asked her. She nodded. "So are you... Like, my pokémon now?" Tympole nodded again. "Okay then! Swell! You'll be Tym!"
Tympole's smile faded a little. She already had a name, and it was Madeline... She wasn't sure if she could adapt a new one just like that. She would surely have difficulties with it, at least. She had been Madeline for so long already, so many lonely-
"Let's go!" Jane said and suddenly returned Cyn to his pokéball and lifted up Tym in her arms. Tym wasn't used to being carried this high up; her other girl was much shorter. "Cyn is a bit weak now, so he'll have to rest inside his pokéball. You'll keep me company instead, won't you?"
Madeline... No, Tym agreed. This could work. She and her partner pokémon and her new human girl. This would work.
They had only been walking for another minute or so before they found the road again. Jane almost kissed it, so happy was she. Now she hoped that no more impenetrable bushes would line their path. Alas, only half an hour of walking later, that was the case. Yet. Another. Bush. She sat down and moaned for a while, in disgruntlement. Tym watched her, slightly confused.
"We'll simply have to go around... Again," Jane said weakly and got up. The sun was still high up, so at least she wouldn't have to worry about things getting dark anytime soon.
A little walk from the road here, there was another strange bush though. Not blocking any path, but standing there in the grass nonetheless. No, it was more like a tree. On it grew two colorful fruits. "Only two?" Jane wondered as she stepped out into the tall grass to reach for them. One was blue and the other was green. She thought hard, but couldn't figure out what the green one was. The blue, however, she recognized now. And it was just what she needed!
She picked the blue berry and took out Cyn's pokéball, calling him out into her arms directly. He raised an eyebrow at her, as if wondering why she would disturb his healing process so soon. "Eat this!" Jane said and practically shoved the large berry in his face. He stopped her with his little arms, but smelled the berry carefully.
Tym jumped over to them, a bit reluctant to bounce on her own in the tall grass. She wasn't scared, but encountering another feisty wild pokémon wouldn't be optimal at the moment.
Cyn took a bite, and after only seconds, his demeanor loosened up a bit. He ate the rest of the berry quickly. Jane smiled and held him closely. "Oran berry. Healing powers, especially for pokémon! I'll have to research why and how at some point. Gotta write that down."
She let the now refreshed Cyndaquil down into the grass again, while she fiddled with her PokéGear. Tym was happy that he felt better, but Cyn was on his guard. Didn't she hear something? Hear what? Something in the tall grass... No, in the air above it? Another Hoothoot? No, this was not the sound of wings. Something else... Something was coming towards them, and Jane didn't notice.
Cyn and Tym exchanged looks. They would have to defend their trainer. On one, two, three... JUMP! Cyndaquil took off with whatever power he had in his legs, and Tym used Bounce to get up high above the tall grass and face their new opponent who was a-
"Hoppip?" Jane suddenly said, looking up in the nick of time.
A pink blob with the largest of smiles came slowly tumbling towards her in the sunlight. Tym and Cyn halted their attacks out of pure surprise that it was such a harmless looking pokémon coming towards them, and almost bumped into each other instead, before they got back down onto the ground again.
Indeed, for the first time that day, they encountered a wild pokémon who didn't look like it wanted to kill them. What would become of this?