[PKMN FULL] TRAINERS (IC)

Groc · Dec 6, 2019

Vera Hill
Chapter 3 - Rocky Road
Route 9, May 22nd

After leaving the Gym, Vera headed east out of the city. Cerulean was apparently in a valley of some kind, because this road was also mountainous and sloped upwards. No cliffs to scale, though, so at least it had that going for it.

Vera was carrying Sapphire again, the little cat purring happily as Vera scratched behind her ears. Vera smiled as she looked at her, glad that she wasn't too hurt after this morning's... incident...

She held Sapphire out, looking at her with eyes that burned with determination. Sapphire tilted her head in mild annoyance and curiosity. "We're not going to get blindsided like that again, are we? From now on, it's constant vigilance, and picking our battles wisely, and-"

"Row!" She was interrupted by a shrill screech, making her stumble back and drop Sapphire. The Meowth yelped in indignant surprise, but landed on all fours. The source of the screech turned out to be a tiny bird, one with a sharp, hooked beak and a nasty look in its eye.

Sapphy gave Vera a look that seemed to say 'What were you just saying about vigilance?' Vera couldn't decide whether to scowl or pout, so just ended up frowning. "Don't give me that... We just found a perfect chance to try out your ice breath." She grinned darkly, rubbing her hands together in anticipation. Sapphy chuckled eagerly, turning back to Spearow.

Spearow glared at Sapphy (or Leered, according to the Pokedex), its eyes glowing red. A faint red outline appeared around Sapphire, but she stood up on her hind legs, exhaling a blast of freezing fog that washed over Spearow. The little bird hopped into the air in surprise as frost coated its feathers.

"Haha, yes!" Vera pointed at Spearow dramatically, a wicked gleam in her eye. "Bite it!" Sapphy pounced on the bird, sinking her teeth into the ruff of feathers around its neck. Spearow squawked, frantically flapping its wings and squirming free of her grip. Sapphire let it go, her eyes never leaving it as it jerkily flew away.

"Aw, it got away!" Vera clasped her hands close to her head in mock distress. Sapphire licked her paw and started grooming her ears. Vera gave her a moment to finish before picking her up again. "This route will be child's play! Let's head off the beaten path and see what we find..."

Leaving the path took Vera into the foothills. It was still early afternoon, so the sun was shining brightly and making the rocks warm. When given the chance, Vera went around the rocks and bushes, preferring to avoid them rather than clamber over them.

She was investigating just such a rock when she noticed a gap between two stones. It appeared to be a small nest of some sort, where a Pokemon might be able to hide. Looking around the area, she found a long, forked stick, taking it back to the rocks. She crouched down beside the hole and started poking around inside it. "I wonder what kind of adorable, furry creature is hiding in here."

There was a sharp hiss that made Vera freeze, and a low rattle that made her shiver. Something lashed out from the hole, breaking the stick she was holding and knocking her onto her butt. A scaly purple head poked out of the hole, golden eyes standing out vividly. The snake darted from cover, coiling in on itself until it sat like a spring, the yellow tail shaking and rattling. Vera screamed in terror, having accidentally awakened some sort of demon from her worst nightmares, which now stared at her with unblinking eyes.

Sapphire rushed to her pet human's defense, hissing and spitting at the snake. It turned toward her, tongue flicking out rapidly. That was too much for Vera, who scooted backwards until she could get her feet under her and run. She didn't get very far, slipping on some loose gravel and falling down, tumbling through some bushes. Thankfully they weren't thorn bushes, but the branches still scratched her face and left her clothes dusty.

Crashing through the bush disturbed a pair of Pokemon that had been chewing on the leaves. They leaped from the bush, startling Vera as she tried to process what they were. "Wha- oh, they're small... little rabbits? Fur... soft fur..."

The darker one lowered its head, pointing an impressive horn at Vera, while the lighter one bristled, showing its fur was actually sharp quills. Vera rolled to her feet to get away from them. "Spikes! Not soft, pointy, full of toxins and pain!"

Sapphire meowed, still facing off against an Ekans that was mad that Vera woke it up, while the two Nidorans were angry at her for disturbing their meal. With immense trepidation, she took a couple steps toward Sapphire, putting herself in the middle of three angry Poison Pokemon. She sent out Leo and Bonnie to face the Nidorans. Surrounded by her team, she felt... not confident, but she needed to be strong to lead them. "Okay..." she let out a little whine before steeling her resolve. "Let's do this."

"Sapphire, use Icy Wind! Bonnie, Bone Club on the male! Leo, Confusion on the other!" She turned her head only, to keep her balance as she had to rapidly switch perspective from one fight to another.

Sapphire breathed her frigid fog at Ekans, whose tail rattled in agitation as the cold gripped it. It lunged at her, grabbing her leg in its mouth and Wrapping around her body. She screeched as it tightened, squeezing her.

Leo's eyes glowed blue, and a similar glow surrounded the female Nidoran. She was lifted off her feet even as her male counterpart rushed forward, tossed back by Leo's psychic power. She shook it off, charging at Leo and leaping, twisting in midair and hitting him with both back feet, one in the mouth and one in the eye.

The male Nidoran charged Bonnie, lowering his head and pointing his horn at her. She put her club in the way, taking the brunt of the blow on her weapon. She pushed him back, smacking him in the jaw with the bone.

Distracted by Sapphire's predicament, Vera issued her commands. "Try to break free! Bite it! Bonnie, Leo, same tricks, but switch targets!"

Sapphire bit down as hard as she could, causing Ekans to hiss sharply. It opened its mouth and a pair of fangs flipped out, making Vera scream and look away. Ekans bit Sapphire with Poison Sting, but luckily the poison didn't take hold of her. Ekans tightened again, and Sapphire let out a pained growl.

Leo turned to the male Nidoran, which was staggered from taking a club to the face. His eyes glowed as he targeted Nidoran with his power, pulling it toward himself rather than blasting it back. Nidoran was dragged across the ground, getting whiplash from being jerked so quickly in the opposite direction. The female rushed to his side, Growling a warning at Bonnie and Leo to stay away from her man. Bonnie came at her from the side, bringing her club down on Nidoran's head and knocking her senseless.

With both Nidorans dealt with, Vera turned her attention to Ekans, recalling Sapphire to her ball as Leo and Bonnie took her place. Bonnie got up close and personal, while Leo hung back a step. "Bonnie, use your club! Leo, blast it with your mind bullets!"

Ekans was faster, and lunged at Bonnie, biting down on her club and trying to Wrap around her. Before it could start constricting, Leo grabbed it in his telekinesis and blasted it away from Bonnie. Knowing that it was outmatched, it slithered away to the safety of a different rock.

Leo and Bonnie cheered, looking at Vera happily. She didn't waste a second, running full speed back the way they'd came. "I wanna go back to the pa-ha-hath!" She cried, Bonnie and Leo racing to catch up with her.

QueenNothing · Dec 6, 2019

Chapter 2
May 22nd, Wednesday, Morning

It had been a long past few days for Gwen. Even though she finally started her lifelong dream of going on a journey to collect gym badges and fight and catch all kinds of new Pokemon, she couldn't shake off how tired she was feeling. A lot had happened and it was a bit much to take in; She received her first Pokemon, a Vulpix she nicknamed "Pix"( Inspired by the name her sister gave her Krookodile), somehow had came across an Axew which she named "Tusk", and most recently adopted a Pikachu which she called "Custard", which she chose because of the affection Alolan Raichu have for pancakes and sweet things in general.

Even with how tired she was feeling, Gwen decided to stroll through Cerulean just to have something to do, since being cramped up at Cape College for so long gave her a desire to see the world, and more mundanely she also thought it might be a good idea to buy some healing items before heading out to Route 9. This was not a Hardline destination for her though, so the girl was aimlessly lagging through the streets of Cerulean City and eventually found herself in a very old part of the city. Just like the buildings here, the residents of this particular area were just as old, and usually preferred to stay inside making it feel vacant.

As Gwen was mindlessly strolling with her mind just as lost as her body, she found herself tripping over something.

"For Arceus' sake who the f-" She interrupted herself when she turned around to see what exactly it was she tripped over. Whatever it was it had blue scales and covered with areas of black feathers and in place of where one might expect heads to be what it instead had resembled Scizor claws.

"Oh my Arceus..." Gwen whispered to herself "Is that...a Hydreigon? But what is it doing here...?"

The Hydreigon let out a whimper and Gwen realized there was no time to ask questions. "Oh no it's hurt!" She said with genuine sadness in her voice. To her few things were as upsetting as seeing a Pokemon in pain like this, especially one that was unattended. "There has to be something in my bag I can help with!"

As Gwen was rummaging through her bag she was obvious to the approaching footsteps behind her. "Arceus, am I a dumbass" the voice behind her said. She turned around to see the voice belonged to a figure cloaking himself in a large black cape and his eyes covered by a mask. His hair was black and very long, on one side anyways as he had the other side of his head shaved. "Took me forever to get this thing down and when I do I realize I'm out of dark balls. Track down some cohorts to borrow some, think 'Nobody ever leaves their houses anyways' and of course I'm wrong. Not a problem for me though". The masked man pulls a black pokeball out of his cape, probably one of the dark balls he was talking about.

Gwen shot up, impulsively throwing out a pokeball, summoning Tusk to her side. "Kew Kew!" He let out very confidently.

The masked man laugh a little. "Piece of damn cake", laughing to himself as he casually tossed a dark balls, letting out a demon looking creature with long black hair. Gwen, having extensive knowledge of Pokemon, immediately recognized it.

"M..M..Morgrem!" Gwen stuttered "W..well that's nothing!" She said in an attempt to hide her nervousness at the situation "Tusk, use scratch!" Tusk ran up to Morgrem bearing his claws.

"Fake out" The Masked Man let out. As Tusk got closer to Morgrem, Morgrem beared a very nasty smile, and quickly disappeared. Them just as quickly as he disappeared, he reappeared right in front of Tusk and bopped him right on the forehead, pushing Tusk down.

"Play Rough" Morgrem then grabbed Tusk off the ground, threw him up in the air and as he was falling to the ground, the gremlin Pokemon kept repeatedly slapping Tusk's cheeks, alternating between hands. This was enough to cause Tusk to faint.

"Hah...right..." Gwen had never felt this level of defeat before "Fairies against dragons...I should have known..." Gwen had returned Tusk to his pokeball. "P..Pix come out"

The masked man seemed unamused by Pix's entrance. "This was fun at first but now your just waisting my damn time, but I can't just leave you here. Play Rough."

Morgrem was running toward Pix, and Gwen knowing well what happened to Tusk let out a "Pix, quick attack!" This led to Pix swiftly charging her body into Morgrem, getting some damage on him, but was not enough to stop his Play Rough attack on Pix. While Pix was still standing, she was just barely doing so. Gwen thought it was smart to switch her out for Custard and did so.

When Custard made her entrance and saw Morgrem, she immediately hid behind Gwen due to her timid nature. "Pathetic" The Masked Man laughed "Your fucking mouse is your last resort and she can't even hold her ground" The Masked man let out a very similar smile to the one his Morgrem was making as he fought Tusk "Play Rough"

As before, Morgrem grabbed Custard but as he did Gwen shouted "Custard, thunder wave!" causing Custard to let out a small electric pulse. Morgrem did not handle the attack very well, and this was evident by how he was not very lively as he was before.

"Shit, I can't believe you got me with damn thunder wave" The masked man was visibly furious from this "Every damn time it's always thunder wave, EVERY DAMN TIME ITS ALWAYS FUCKING THUNDER WAVE" He shouted as he was stomping his foot on the ground. At this point Gwen was suddenly less terrified and was just starring, baffled by someone she assumed was an adult, or at least someone older than her, was throwing a full blown tantrum.

"THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS WHEN YOU'RE JUST BETTER[\B] THAN YOUR OPPONENT AND THEY PULL OUT SOME CHEAP SHIT LIKE THUNDER WAVE MAKING YOU SLOWER RUINING EVERYTHING MOTHER F-"

"HEY!" A voice from above the two called out which appeared to be from a dragon shaped Pokemon descending "The old people living here called and they have a problem with your language!"

"Damnit" the masked man sneered "Morgrem, substitute!" A burst of smoke popped up, and in the place of the masked man and his Pokemon, two dolls took their places-One a Nickit doll and the other an Impidimp doll. The Pokemon, now clearly a Noivern, had landed on the ground and a young woman mounting them hoped off.

"Shoot they got away" she said as she was dismounting from her Pokemon right before her attention shifted fully to the Hydreigon on the ground, attending to it "Oh my Arceus! I'm so glad the missing Hydreigon is here!" Gwen slowly approached the young woman nervously to thank her.

"O-Oh thank you so much for helping me! I don't know what I'd do without you!" The young woman turned around and when she got a glimpse of Gwen she was starring at her for what felt like a full minute.

"I'm sorry, I know I have more important things to ask right now but has anyone told you that you look and even sound like Jennifer Alanis?"

Aquacorde · Dec 6, 2019

Casey Holt

Wednesday, 22 May 2019
MIdday • Day 3
East Side of Cerulean

3-01.
groundwork

They've said goodbye to Kel and are halfway to Cerulean's eastern exit when Casey pauses to return Charmander to his PokéBall. He pockets it and pulls Buneary off his shoulder. She growls at him and tries to wriggle out of his grip, but he keeps his hands under her arms and his face just out of reach. She eventually communicates her surrender by going limp.

"You can't do that," he says. She tilts her head, eyes narrowed. "You can't just stop listenin'. Especially in a battle!"

Buneary huffs at him and starts pushing at his hands. "Stop it." She pauses and looks at him suspiciously.

"I'm your trainer, so I gotta look out for you, right? But I can't just go in and uh, punch out a Pokémon or anything. The only way I can help you is by telling you what's going on. But there's no time for that in a battle. So what I gotta do is tell you what to do."

Buneary crosses her arms, but seems to be considering his words. That's something, at least. "I'd prefer if you did everything I told you to, but right now I just want you to promise to listen. Okay?"

Buneary hesitates. Casey holds his breath.

She nods.

"Awesome! See, now we'll do much better!"

He cuddles her, perhaps with a bit too much enthusiasm. She smacks him chin with an ear. "Ow," he complains. It doesn't really hurt. "Fine, get back up there."

Buneary settles herself back onto his shoulder as Casey, energized by way of accomplishing something, jogs on toward Route Nine.

Casey's Party

Charmander lv13 • Buneary lv9

Other Things

Anna's Additional Characters

QueenNothing · Dec 6, 2019

Hearing the name of Gwen's beloved sister come out of the mouth of a stranger gave the girl feelings of excitement, that her sister's name was so well known despite the peak of her popularity was years ago before she even attended Cape College "Heh, well I guess I do kind of look like her" she let out proudly "Being her younger sister and all. My name is Gwen, Gwen Alanis."

"Oh" the young woman let out, a bit confused "I thought her family lived in Unova?"

"Wait...do you actually know Jenny? I just thought you were a fan?"

The young woman let out a little laugh "Oh yeah, we go way back. Jenny was a rival of mine when we were teenagers and later on we were...g-girlf..."" the young woman hesitated to finish her sentence. Gwen, meanwhile, was shocked to here somebody she just met refer to her sister as "Jenny", something only she called her sister.

"Thats not important, whats important is what happened here" The stranger said to change the subject "My name is Sasha, Cerulean City gym trainer. The people living here called the gym since they aren't very keen on police. Please tell me what you saw and more importantly why did you not call the police or even the gym when you saw the Hydreigon?"

Spoiler:

"Its just whenever I see a Pokemon in danger I just NEED to help it, and the urge to help it out just kind of overtook any sense of reason I had beyond that..."

Sasha sighed "Thats very kind of you but this isn't a Rattata or a Caterpie. This is a Hydreigon, and there are trainers who are trained for this kind of stuff. Please if you ever see something like this again call a gym or the police" Sasha pulled a notepad out of her back pocket "Now please tell me about the person you fled."

Gwen went over everything about the masked man with Sasha, from his attitude to his Morgrem to his temper tantrum and Sasha was writing everything down. "I see" Sasha closed her notepad and put it back in her pocket "Well I'll half to tell the gym and the police about this myself. That's all I really need from you, so you can go now, however there have been multiple sightings of masked people and rouge dragons, so keep an eye out and remember what to do when you see one."

"O-oh, do you need help with the Hydrei-" Gwen half-whispered while pointing at the dragon Pokemon

"Nah I got this" Sasha sent out a Dragonite as if this was something she did regularly "Hey Dragonite, I need you to bring Hydreigon back to the gym" The Dragonite simply nodded in response, and with ease had picked up the dark dragon type, holding it over his shoulder, then walking back to the gym.

Sasha then mounted on her Noivern, about to take off but stopped herself "Oh one more thing Gwen; Hows Jenny doing these days? Still winning tournaments?"

"O-oh, well she...hasn't won any in a few years and h-honestly she's been a little depressed lately."

"Darn, thats too bad" Sasha reached her hand into her pocket, and then handed 2,000 pokedollars to Gwen "Next time you're in Saffron go buy her some Charmeleon Cookies and say it was from me. Nice seeing you!" She said before taking off on her Noivern.

Gwen was astounded; How did Sasha know her big sister loved those cookies so much? And why did she refer to her as "Jenny"? Are rivals usually this close?

After those two encounters Gwen decided she was energized again. She headed to the nearest pokemart to stock up on healing items and then set out for Route 9.

QueenNothing · Dec 7, 2019

Chapter 3
May 22nd, Noon

Not too far off from Cerulean City laid Route 9, a long and windy road and all roads needed to start somewhere which is where Gwen found herself. It was a sunny May day, which for most people would have been great-But not for Gwen who hated sunny weather as the Sun always got in her eyes (Ironic that her first Pokemon had Drought). She preferred the fall for its clouded skies but unfortunately not much could be done about that, at least not with her current Pokemon. All she could do was travel to wherever she may find herself. At the very least she could observe the wild life here, such as the Wingulls and Pelippers soaring in the air while Seakings and Seadras swam through sea visible from the route-but she didn't see any Pokemon on the ground. This didn't bother her so much, as the sight of any Pokemon got her spirits up after a crushing defeat by the hands of a masked man.

Further along the road more Pokemon on the land started appearing, namely Rattatas, Zigzagoons, and Spearows. None of these were Pokemon that were particularly interesting to her, especially after seeing a Hydreigon just this morning. However, some common Pokemon were around that had caught Gwen's interest, those being Nidoran of both variants and Ekans.

"Poison types!" She exclaimed "Next time I see that Morgrem bastard a poison type should make him cry!" After looking around she laid her eyes on an Ekans slithering around in the grass.

"Alright Tusk, help me out!" and quickly after Tusk popped out letting out a singular "Kew!" with his chest puffed out. This caught the attention of the snake Pokemon, who in retaliation let out a hiss. This hiss was enough to put Tusk in his place, with less confidence behind his chest puffing.

"Damn, Intimidate huh? Well thats not gonna stop us, Tusk, bite em!" Tusk leaped forward and bit down on Ekans' neck. This hardly scratched Ekans and in fact, seemed to help her out as she used this opportunity to wrap her body around Tusk. "Gah! Uh, scratch Ekans!" Gwen panicked, and so was Tusk while he was frantically scratching the Ekans-again doing very little. Ekans then gave the Axew a dirty look, causing him to lose even more confidence.

"Jeez, for a rare Pokemon you sure do have some awful luck huh?" Gwen complained while returning Tusk to his pokeball. "Custard, get out here!"

Custard's entrance was less enthusiastic than Tusk's, but seeing Ekans she thought it'd be a more fair fight than Morgrem-That was until Ekans gave Custard a similar look she gave Tusk, making Custard not so sure about this fight.

"Custard, don't worry! Leer won't work against your attacks" Gwen cheered "Now hit em with thunder shock!"

"P-Pika!" Not moving from her position, Custard blasted lightning from her cheeks at the snake Pokemon, doing some decent damage to her. Ekans shot out a dart-shaped projectile from her mouth, hitting Custard but doing minimal visible damage. Gwne laughed "Poison sting doesn't do shit" Immediately after uttering those words, Custard fell down and Gwen checked on her. Custard was still conscious, but just barely.

"Way to jinx myself-you've been poisoned. But you did a good job still so I'll let Tusk do the rest" Gwen returned Custard to her pokeball and sent Tusk back out in her place. With the stat changes reset, Tusk, louder than ever, let out another single "KEW"

"Tusk, scratch!" Tusk ran up to the Ekans and scratched her right in the face, which did significantly more damage than previous attacks from Tusk- a critical hit. Gwen saw this as a perfect opportunity to throw a poke ball and took advantage of that, tossing the ball directly at the Pokemon's face. The ball was shaking and each shake of the pokeball caused Gwen to spike in energy-but after three shakes, the ball made a clicking noise, and Gwen jumped up in glee.

"YEAHEHA! THAT MORGREM BASTARD WON'T KNOW WHAT'LL HIT HIM NEXT TIME!" Gwen ran up to her newest catch, and enthusiastically picked up the pokeball. "Sorry for that last scratch, but you were a real bitch to catch. But I think you'll be a good addition to the team, Ekans. But just calling you by your species would be lame-I think the name Jess suits you."

budube · Dec 7, 2019

Bruno Dillinger
May 22, Wednesday

Chapter 3, Part 1: Deborah

Afternoon, Cerulean Outskirts

"Helloooo!" the girl answered the call. It was her, indeed. Ten years being friends, he could recognize Deborah's voice easily. He called her to see if she was okay, considering the chaotic state of the city. Thankfully it sounded as if she was doing good.

"Thank god you're fine…! Because you are fine, right?" he asked, just to confirm his own thoughts.

"Yeah, I think so. I had a fun, weird day today." she said. "I tried to catch a two headed Pokémon that wanted to eat me and almost got arrested, you?"

Bruno sighed. Recognizing her voice was something but her definition of fun will continue to be a mystery for him, probably for the rest of his days. "... I found a Hidden Grotto, battled a Shiftry from a very angry guy that was stealing a Pokémon and Gospel almost got blown away." he added.

"Cool!" an awkward silence flooded the conversation. Deborah's cheerfulness faded away quickly and her tone changed into that of embarrassment "Uh, I mean… not cool as in cool, but still cool…! Err… well, you know what I mean!"

"Yeah… " he murmured as he thought of a way to change the subject "Where are you right now?"

"Cerulean. Got lost."

"You know you have a map too, don't you?"

Deborah laughed. "Maps are for the weak!" Bruno sighed "And well, I think I want to stay here a bit more time. Maybe get something from that place Buoy Kid talked about yesterday, I don't know."

"I was totally sure that you would find this city boring."

"Oh, I did!" She confirmed "But there is good food here! Once I'm done eating, I'm leaving."

"Be careful with the dragons, please… "

"Uh, sure… Don't worry about that! Nothing can beat Dukko, Pancho and The Squad's marvelous combination!"

He sighed again, he didn't know how many times he had sighed during this entire conversation. "That's not what I meant…" sigh. "Forget it, just don't do anything stupidly risky." He added in a low voice.

"But there's no fun in that!"

"Deborah!"

The girl laughed, but she was also clearly annoyed "Don't call me that! You know I don't like you to call me that way!" She said in a hostile tone.

"I just find it weird calling you 'Debbie', I don't think I can do that anytime soon."

"Well, you should get used to— Oh!" She exclaimed surprised, regaining her usual, loud cheerfulness. "I need to go! I think I just found the place Buoy Kid was talking about!"

"Be careful."

"You too! B—" she hung up before she could finish her "Bye", but that was just like her.

His relationship with Deborah was… strange. On the one hand, he found her annoying and too much of a troublemaker, but on the other hand she was the person he trusted the most and Bruno didn't know how he would overcome many of his fears without her. But just as he needed her to overcome his fears, she needed a voice of reason as well and that was his role here; she would get in trouble all the time and be risky just for the sake of being risky, and that wasn't a good thing considering how clumsy she was at times, but for some reason she didn't seem to get badly hurt for it. She was the total opposite of Bruno. She was lively, she was strong, she was fearless. Bruno himself didn't know exactly why she decided to become a trainer, but he was sure that she would do it well.

Following Hoshi's previous advice, the boy took Artemis outside her Pokéball and let her sleep inside his hood, he told her that she could sleep there as long as she kept her arms away from his hair. Bruno continued walking the rocky roads of Route 9. He had avoided every Wild Pokémon and Trainer he spotted, while trying to stay on road, he just wanted to get out of this route as soon as possible because he didn't like the idea of hiking under the strong sun.

Eleanor · Dec 8, 2019

The missing link
🍀🍀🍀
Arianne Chandler - Cerulean City - Day 3 - May 22^nd

♫ - Sum 41 - Pieces
Her Pokégear proudly displayed "11 am" after surviving, unscathed, many tumbles and hits. But that's all it could really do: tell the time, show the town map, let Arianne call her contacts. The girl had no time, no opportunity, to gather evidence of what she'd witnessed. When she got back to the cop, all she had was her words and her wounded Pokémon.

Growlithe was able to spot his owner quite easily and direct the girl towards him. She in turn had used a Potion on the Fire type, to let him recover from Drapion's hit. The cop hadn't moved much at all from where he was before, making it easier for Arianne to find him again. The two could easily battle for the gloomiest face tournament, though: as much as the cop was upset with himself for not stopping the criminal he was after and getting a random girl into this, such girl was equally sad for failing her task.

Let's be real, Arianne didn't know what the masked girl's true objective was. Maybe she was part of a rebellious group fighting to change a corrupt system (classic book trope!), but that was way too optimistic for a girl with such a cruel attitude. And she was literally stealing a Pokémon belonging to the gym. As if, whatever this team of masked people was striving for, it wanted to be perceived as the most evil there was.

After explaining everything to the cop, Arianne let him register her number, just in case. She could still be useful for the investigations, after all. Just like the trainer heard before in the Pokémon Center, the cop confirmed that there were in fact many Dragon types roaming the city. Most of them were already dealt with, or stolen by these evil people, but a few were still around and - because of them - people had to be careful when outside.

Seeing as she was quite late on her plan for the day, and her Pineco was still… well, fainted, Arianne decided to go back to the Pokémon Center and have lunch nearby. When she approached the counter though, it was easy to see for the nurse that she'd lost some of her enthusiasm.

Already knowing that Cerulean Gym was not suited for beginner trainers, she decided to just skip her visit there. She would have bought some supplies for the evening and ran straight for Route 9.
Given what happened that morning, following the Professor's advice and training along the way was the best course of action. Arianne needed to get stronger without getting too much in trouble if she wanted Destiny to carry her where she wanted.

And the missing link is… winning battles.

When Arianne headed towards Route 9, her shadow was already starting to grow in length. Her backpack was now full with fresh food, berries, and some basic caving equipment. Oh, and a sleeping bag, because apparently she would have needed it for sure! The whole area was more mountainous, and less populated.

Arianne decided not to fight trainers until she was certain of getting close to Rock Tunnel by the evening. Plus, if she interpreted that right, Ralph must have been ahead of her already! She tried to gather her forces, trying not to mind the lingering pain from Drapion's claws, as she left the Goodbye sign of Cerulean City behind her.

Groc · Dec 8, 2019

Vera Hill
Chapter 3 - Pop Rock
Route 9, May 22nd

Every good feeling Vera had felt for this road dried up around the time rocks started appearing in the road. She had tried to avoid them, but what had once been a smooth road was now more of a hiking trail, and the slopes up and down were starting to make her legs sore.

And then she came to the first cliff. A helpful sign informed her that these ledges were perfectly safe, only a five foot drop to continue on the road. Vera didn't trust it, but the road had gained walls at some point, and the only way to proceed was to play mountaineer, it seemed.

Sapphire, getting impatient, jumped off of Vera's shoulder, landing gracefully by her feet. She smiled her smug cat smile up at Vera, as if saying See, I just dropped 5 feet. So can you. Vera crouched by the edge of the cliff, looking nervously at the ground below. "Okay, I can do this. Just a hop... skip... and a JUMP!"

She cast herself from the cliff, her knees buckling upon impact and pitching her forward. She landed on her face, her exasperated sigh and tired sobs muffled by the dirt. "Ugghh-huh-huh-huh... I hate this..."

She felt Sapphire lick her cheek, the tongue warm and smooth. She pushed the Pokemon aside grumpily. "What did I tell you about... wait." Sapphire was a cat. Her tongue was always rough. Which meant...

Vera pushed herself up, seeing a small brown wolf sitting in front of her. It barked happily, tongue lolling from its mouth. Sapphire meowed angrily from atop the ledge, leaping to Vera's aid. She hissed at Rockruff, her fur bristling.

Vera got to her feet, wiping her face with her sleeve. "Okay, gross... but it's so cute! Who's an adorable little puppy? You are! Yes you are!"

Rockruff barked happily, spinning in a circle and wagging his tail. Sapphy looked at Vera in disgust. Vera was suddenly ready for a fight, her determined smile returning. "Sapphire, we're going to catch this puppy! Use Icy Wind!"

Sapphire didn't like the reason, but was happy to attack the dog. She exhaled a stream of cold air, making Rockruff shiver and whine as frost coated his fur. He swiped a paw through the dirt, kicking sand back at Sapphire.

"Wow, he really doesn't like ice." Vera mused, pulling out a Pokeball. "Go for a Scratch, Sapphire." Sapphire rolled her eyes in disdain, preferring to avoid physical attacks, but did as instructed. Rockruff barely seemed to feel it, apparently having some tough skin under that fluffy fur. Rockruff responded by Biting Sapphy, which earned Vera a stern glare from the cat.

"That ought to be enough. Hey, Rockruff! Fetch!" She threw the Pokeball, which Rockruff eagerly tried to catch. It sucked him up, shook once, and clicked shut. Vera blinked in surprise. "Normally that takes longer. I guess he really wanted to come with us!" She called Rockruff back out, and he panted happily at the sight of her, wagging his tail.

She reached out to pet him, and he kept trying to lick her hand. She finally managed to get under his chin, and he stopped to let her scratch there. "You're going to need a name, but I'm terrible at clever nicknames. The only rock I can think of right now is 'igneous', so I'm going to call you Iggy. How's that sound?"

Iggy barked twice, smiling his doggy grin. Vera shrugged, figuring that meant yes. "Works for me. Potions for each of you, then you're on deck, Iggy. Lead the way out of here."

Sapphire pouted about not being able to ride on Vera's shoulder, but was too proud to actually mope about it, returning to her ball with dignity.

As it turned out, just because Iggy was local didn't mean he knew where he was going. He kept chasing after noises or jumping off ledges, and Vera was getting exhausted trying to keep up with him. At one point, he saw a Rattata run across the road and chased after it. Vera tried to grab him, but accidentally kicked a rock in the road, tripping and falling over.

"Gasp! Are you okay, lady?"

Vera growled in frustration. "No! I keep tripping over these stupid rocks! I've stubbed so many toes. And broken one... I think..." It took her a moment to realize she was actually talking to someone else, and she blushed red when she noticed a large man standing over her.

"Here, allow me to help you up." He was taller than Vera, with dark skin and eyes, and his beard had more salt than pepper. Still, he was quite muscular, and carried a large staff and several packs. He offered her a hand, which Vera reluctantly accepted.

The man pulled Vera to her feet, steadying her as she recovered her balance. "There you go. My name is Dusty. If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing so far out here, Miss...?"

"Hill. Vera Hill." Vera looked for Iggy, who was sitting at her feet, wagging his tail. When he noticed Vera looking at him, he rubbed his head against her leg, the rocks in his ruff snagging at her jeans. "I'm on a Pokemon journey, and the Professor said the main road was 'too boring' and 'the easy way', that only the most daring of travelers took this road. It's supposed to take me to Lavender Town."

Dusty nodded sagely. "Indeed, this path can be treacherous to first time Hikers. Not dangerous, especially not with a Pokemon Center just outside the entrance to Rock Tunnel, but you can certainly consider yourself daring for traveling it, Lady Vera!"

Vera's temper flared, and she wanted to yell at this man. "Well, I don't care about daring! Daring, my probably BROKEN foot!" She snapped. "I just want to get out of these stupid hills and away from all these rocks!" Iggy flinched at her tone, whimpering a little. Vera was surprised by her actions, crouching to comfort the puppy.

Dusty took her outburst in stride, stroking his beard in thought. "I understand your frustration, Lady Vera. The mountains aren't meant for everyone, and not everyone is meant for the mountains."

Vera would normally snark at something like that, thinking those two were the same thing, but she didn't want to be rude, especially if she wanted his help.

Dusty thumped his staff against the ground. "But take heart! You're on the right track if you're looking for Rock Tunnel! Don't let the ledges and slopes confuse you. They make this road a bit of a maze, but there is definitely a way through. Just keep heading east."

"Oh... thank you, Dusty." Vera started walking again, stopping when Dusty raised one giant hand.

"Just one thing, Lady Vera. You seem to be a bit light on supplies. Are you sure you brought enough to make this journey?"

Vera looked at her backpack. It had served her well at the college, and had been sufficient so far. "I... think so? I bought some medicine and Pokeballs in Cerulean City."

"Hmmm..." Dusty squinted at her bag, making Vera a little uncomfortable. She was about to say something when he leaned back, shaking his head. "No, I don't think you know what you're getting into. Medicines and Pokeballs are all well and good, but you're not just going on a Pokemon journey, you're going on a Pokemon journey."

Vera quirked an eyebrow, again thinking those two were the same thing, but before she could comment, Dusty pulled off his backpack, untying one of the smaller packs strapped to the side. "Here, consider this a gift, to make the mountains more bearable for you."

The pack had seemed small on him, but it was wider than Vera was, dwarfing her previous bag. It was lighter than she thought, but heavier than she'd hoped. "What's in here, bricks?"

"Don't be silly, Lady Vera!" Dusty laughed, then suddenly grew serious. "Bricks have no nutritional value." Vera glanced over at Iggy, who seemed similarly confused. Dusty kept talking, jovial again.

"I use that pack to carry extra rations! Dried fruit, jerky, mixed nuts, some candy, an extra blanket, and of course, WATER! You should always bring water with you on a hike. I personally carry canned foods as well, but none in that pack. So be sure to stock up when you get to the Pokemon Center. If you have to camp over night, you'll want more than just trail mix for dinner. And breakfast!"

Vera attached her regular bag to the side of the pack, adjusting the weight to sit more comfortably on her shoulders. "Um... thank you again, Dusty. What do I owe you for this?"

Dusty laughed, clapping a hand on Vera's shoulder. She felt her knees buckle under the impact, but managed to stay standing. "Nothing at all! Like I said, it's a gift! I just hate to leave a Lady stranded out of her element like this. You'll do great things, I'm sure of it. Just not out here, in the mountains."

Vera felt both inspired and insulted at the same time, so she just started walking, Iggy at her heels. Dusty waved at her as she walked, then returned to the mountains from whence he came.

WizardOfOdd · Dec 9, 2019

Richard Wolstenholme
Route 9
May 22^nd, Afternoon

Chapter 3-1
Rock n' Roadblock

"Shock Wave to my heart and you're to blame~ Darling, you give Raichu a bad name~"

"Aw, come on Keith not Bon Jon Bovine again. Please, there must be some other songs from different singers you could sing." Richard's tone grew a bit sharper than usual, as he was sick hearing the same song from the same artist again and again over all the time they've spent together.

"What? You dare to diss The Outback Superstar!? you've got some nerve, Pal. Just wait until I sing 'Turboblaze of Glory'.

Just as Keith was about to open his mouth, Richard blocked it with his hand. "You should know that I love Jon Bovine, Keith… it's just that because you sing it so often, I'm currently sick of it, okay? Why don't you sing something from The What? or The Spinning Boulder? Or you could sing '21st Century Scizor Man' by Queen Scarlet, please?" Richard smiling widely, with his eyes appeared to plead Keith to either change song that he was going to sing, or not singing at all.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll change the song, I'll singing 'Bad Drugs' instead."

"Damn it, Keith! That's still a Jon Bovine song!"

Just as Richard about to kick Keith in the calf as he usually does, a Hiker and his daughter came to them.

The Hiker came close and then whispered at both of them while telling his daughter to wait. "Uh, excuse me, you two. Can you spare me a little bit of your time? You see, my daughter and I were walking down this path and I suddenly have this sudden urge to show me how great I am… Sorry, but could you both become my opponent, please? Hahaha." The laughter uttered from the hiker's mouth annoyed both men who were standing very close with the hiker.

Richard and Keith asked for some time among themselves to do a discussion about this, the hiker accepted and both of them talked with each other about what should they do about this request.

"Hey Richard, I don't know if we can even beat this man. I mean, he has the impression of a veteran hiker, I bet his Pokemon is also high leveled." Keith whispered Richard about his assessment.

"Not to mention, we have to reach the Rock Tunnel entrance before sundown… Maybe, I was too stupid to believe that Picnicker who said the trip could be done in a day. I mean we don't even have a sleeping bag right now, we should have refused to follow his advice." Richard shook his head.

As both of them started to walk back to where the father-daughter pair were, Keith and Richard overheard the conversation the hiker was having with his daughter.
"Papa… When are you going to show me your strength?" The daughter asked enthusiastically, she was jumping a few times holding her enthusiasm in check.

"Haha, please wait, honey. The big brothers over there are finishing their business first." The Hiker raised her daughter in the air and spun her around, which prompted his daughter to laugh at the action.

Both Keith and Richard stopped in their tracks, looking at each other before both finally broke out a sigh. They wanted to arrive as fast as possible sure, but looking at the hiker's daughter made them think twice before refusing.

"Um… Mister? We accept your challenge." Richard hesitantly told the hiker.

"Great! Hahaha." The man laughed loudly while holding his belly. "Well, let's make this a handicap match then, maybe you could beat me that way."

"But Father, I want to fight too, Please?" The daughter tugged his father's jacket sleeve while begging to be able to participate in the battle.

"I can't do that Mary… You know that… Okay fine then, honey. But you can only use Wingull, okay?" The Hiker finally gave in when his daughter gazed at him with her puppy eyes.

"Yay!" She jumped around once more, looking very happy that she was allowed to participate in a Pokemon battle.

"Sorry about that Kids, you could use all of the Pokemon you have to beat me since It's going to be unfair otherwise." The hiker seemed to boast his Pokemon's power, which made Keith and Richard gulped before continuing.

The battlefield was then set, an empty field with several ledges surrounding parts of the battlefield.

"Well, I hope I won't regret this. Go, Eileen!" Richard called out his Pokemon to the battlefield, hoping that Eileen could at least faint the Wingull.

"Me too. Go, Kallavan!" Keith followed suit and called out his Deino to the field.

With Mary's Wingull already out on the field, both Richard and Keith was waiting with suspense on what Pokemon will her father call out to the field.

"Go, Rhydon!" Rhydon came out from his ball, it intimidated both Keith and Richard due to its size difference with their Pokemon.

"God… Please have mercy on us," Keith muttered, hopeless with the situation on hand.

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Continued in part 3-2
Rocky Horror Show

Juno · Dec 11, 2019

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Chapter Navigation:

2-4: Jordan From Celadon

Pokémon

2-4: Jordan From Celadon // May 22nd, Early Morning

Mistaking Jordan's false bravado for genuine heroism, Spirit leapt off his shoulder and charged forward, bone club at the ready.

"Wait, actually-"

Cursing under his breath, Jordan followed his Pokémon. As he approached to catch up, he could see the man's eyes behind the mask. They were blue. Eerily pale. Cold. He studied Jordan's face, then shifted his gaze onto the small Cubone beside him. Perhaps more important than that, though, Jordan and Spirit finally got a good look at the Glalie with him up close. Oh, nope, nope, nope. Jordan thought to himself. Why did I do that?! He glanced down. Spirit was still acting tough, but he seemed to have picked up on the energy that Jordan didn't actually know what he was doing, and seemed less confident now.

A muffled voice came from behind the mask, drawing their attention back to the man. "And who might you be?" he asked softly.

Maybe it was his simpler upbringing, maybe he was just being stupid, but Jordan was used to answering questions in a very straightforward manner, and instead of saying... literally anything else, he reflexively blurted out, "Jordan... From Celadon," before he could stop himself.

"Jordan, from Celadon," the man repeated mockingly. "I have also... visited that area before for business. Lot of farming land, yes? You do look like a farm boy."

Jordan wasn't sure if that was meant to be an insult or not, so he gave a half-shrug half nod. When he failed to contribute more to the conversation, the man simply nodded at his Glalie. Before either Jordan or Spirit could react, it closed in on the wounded Dragon Pokémon, and with a final shriek, the Dragonair was left unconscious.

"To answer your question from earlier, Jordan from Celadon, I-" the man produced a dark, round object from his pocket, and smoothly tossed it at the unconscious Pokémon, who disappeared into it in a flash of red light without resistance. "Will be taking this Dragonair with me now. And you should be minding your own business."

There were quite a few questions running through Jordan's mind, like who this man was, why was he doing this, or what kind of Poké Ball he had just used that seemed to be capable of capturing trainer-owned Pokémon, and likely a gym trainer-owned Pokémon, at that. He knew from the pamphlets he read earlier, that the symbol meant the Pokémon had belonged to this gym.

Alas, what came out of Jordan's mouth was "...oh". He hadn't really planned past his initial outburst, if that could be called a plan at all, but just as the man had pocketed the Poké Ball and turned to leave with his Pokémon, a small, white object shot past Jordan with a whoosh and smacked the Glalie on its head, before zooming back in his direction.

The Glalie stopped following his trainer. He turned around to face Jordan. No, he wasn't looking at Jordan... he was looking at Spirit. With his bone club in hand, it was pretty obvious what happened. Ah, Jordan thought to himself. I see. We're in trouble.

Suddenly, he was reminded of the stupid Pokédex's poorly-timed outburst from earlier. After immobilizing its foe in ice, this Pokémon enjoys eating it in leisurely fashion...

"I uh- you're right... sir," Jordan stammered, motioning for the scrappy little Cubone to follow him before he could do anything else to piss them off. "I think we will be minding our own business now. Goodbye!"

Jordan turned to leave. He got several paces ahead, but froze when he heard the man's voice again.

"Wait."

He held his breath, but the air grew colder. He could feel the Glalie's presence right behind him.

"I think he's hungry."

"Wh-" Jordan turned around to see the Glalie no more than two feet away from him. The unsettling smile was still on its large, spherical face.

"Mean Look."

The Glalie turned its attention away from Jordan, and cast a dark, arresting look towards Spirit. The Cubone shivered, both from the cold air emanating from the creature in front of him, and its menacing glare. He was locked in place, unable to leave the fight.

"You amuse me, Jordan from Celadon. If you want to leave, you'll have to fight us."

No way! Jordan thought. The Glalie was clearly very experienced in battle, and terrifying. Mostly terrifying. And Spirit, well... This wasn't a fair fight at all. But it was clear the man didn't intend to let them leave until Jordan agreed to battle. Or feed his Glalie. Jordan swallowed hard.

"Alright, Spirit, two can play that game! Leer back at him!"

The Cubone was still shaken with fear, but he did his best to listen. He steadied himself and took a step forward, throwing a sharp glare at his opponent. The Glalie barely flinched.

The man chuckled. "How adorable. Icicle Spear."

Glalie opened its mouth to reveal sharp the icicles forming inside.

Jordan's eyes widened. "Spirit, get away!"

With a toss of its head, the spears came out flying one by one towards the Cubone. He scurried to put some distance between them, and managed to swiftly block most of the shards, smashing the projectiles like glass when they came in contact with his club. He glanced back proudly at his trainer and gave him a "did you see that?" kind of look, but before Jordan could cheer him on, an icicle smacked him square in the back of Spirit's head, and shattered against his skull helmet. Jordan gasped, but the Cubone managed to draw himself back up.

"Hey, that's the spirit! Throw your Bone Club at him!"

Equally amused by his trainer's pun, Spirit brandished his club with zeal and charged forward, lobbing it at Glalie like a boomerang. His target was large, and not particularly quick, so he successfully landed the blow. It barely looked like a scratch was made on its giant, icy body, but Spirit still looked pleased.

"Hah! I do like the energy of that one. But we'll be finishing this with a..."

The mysterious man's voice trailed off as his attention turned to the surrounding lights, causing Jordan to glance around as well. One by one, the lights in the courtyard started coming on, signalling that the real trainers of the gym would be filing in shortly.

"You're lucky, kid. I think we will have to finish this some other day." As the man recalled his Pokémon, Spirit seemed to be released from the spell of Glalie's Mean Look. The man scaled one of the fences opposing the gym with surprising speed, and just like that, he was gone.

Seconds later, a pretty brunette trainer with brilliant green eyes stepped out into the courtyard. She was accompanied by a Sliggoo, and she eyed Jordan suspiciously as she approached. Jordan blushed, but smiled awkwardly at her.

"Uh, 'morning, miss. I'm Jordan from Celadon, and I'd like to report a crime."

Pokémon on hand:

Cubone // Spirit

Leer
Growl
Bone Club

Resting at the Pokémon Center: Tangela & Hop

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moon · Dec 12, 2019

Ralph

Cerulean City, Wednesday May 22nd, noon

The trainer who arrived wasn't Hoshi himself, interestingly. Perhaps he was too busy with all these other dragons running loose closer to the city core. It was instead a younger woman, with hair like a messy jungle and eyes almost black like deep wells.

She arrived very suddenly, landing in the grass in front of the group of trainer and pokémon, descending on the back of a quite large, very powerful looking pokémon that Ralph easily recognized as a Flygon. It wasn't seen too often in competitions, but it was quite popular as a favorite among kids and aspiring trainers.

"Hi!" the jungle said, winking her deep wells at the girl with the pink dreads. "You've been lucky!"

Ralph blinked back and put her hands on her slim hips. "Have I? This is lucky? I'm not sure I want to know what's normally going on in the gym then."

The woman laughed and walked up to Dragonite, who was conscious by now but had stayed put quite grumbling in his horizontal position.

"You ran into Hoshi's star, huh?"

"Yeah," Ralph said and looked over at Sandsy. They cemented her next words with a fistbump: "I guess we're stronger than we thought!"

The jungle head laughed again, but it didn't sound very nice in Ralph's ears.

"Oh honey. If things were as they normally are at the gym, you wouldn't have stood a chance! Even without Hoshi's orders to direct Dragonite. This fellow had a bit of a stomach sickness yesterday and was weak and on meds still today. You've basically been fighting a zombie!"

While Ralph struggled to reply or react to that, the gym trainer pulled up a fancy looking pokéball and returned the sick dragon to it.

"That's it. Fancy a ride back into town?"

Ralph had a growing feeling that she didn't really fancy anything at all with this person.

"No thanks, we're fine," she just said shortly, hands back on her hips.

Jungle shrugged. "Suit yourself! Oh right, Hoshi did ask me to give you this as a thanks, actually!"

She walked up to Ralph and put a small item in her hand. It was a Technical Machine! Not only could those be quite useful, but also mighty expensive. And this particular move it contained was very interesting.

"Bye now, and thanks again for battling our sickling!" Jungle said with one last wink and terrible laughter before she ascended again.

Ralph returned all of her pokémon to their balls as she started walking all the way back to the pokémon center on foot. The journey is the goal...

WizardOfOdd · Dec 12, 2019

Richard Wolstenholme
Route 9
May 22^nd, Afternoon

Chapter 3-2
Rocky Horror Show

"I hope I don't swallow another loss, that Rhydon is going to be tough to beat." Richard clenched his right hand.

"But there's two of us here... Well, there's also two on that side, but that kid isn't an experienced trainer. So I think we could dispatch the Wingull easily." Keith tried to assure Richard, even if his own face was showing uncertainty.

"Ah well… What the hell did I dream until I end up in this spot." Richard's day was definitely far from smooth sailing, he almost got killed by an Electrode, got beaten by Keith, and now he had to beat a Rhydon far powerful than his and Keith's Pokemon combined. He frowned at the fact that this could be his third defeat in a row in a single day.

"If you're not going to take initiative, Kids, then let me. Rhydon, Rock Blast!"
Rhydon sent multiple small rocks flying at Eileen and Kallavan, both only able to barely dodged the attack.

"Yikes, this is bad… Eileen, Thunder Shock at Wingull!"

Eileen shot out a bolt of small lightning against the Wingull, however, the lightning changed direction suddenly, like it was pulled by something until it was redirected to Rhydon's Horn.

"Bad luck for you kid, but my Rhydon's ability is Lightning Rod, good luck in trying to hit the Wingull. Rhydon, Horn Attack!"

"Kallavan, dodge!"

Kallavan managed to dodge the Drill Pokemon, but the attack destroyed a big rock near him with ease, the power of Rhydon shocked Keith.

"Damn it, we can't play the chasing game or we're eventually done for. Do something, Richard!" Keith desperately called out Richard.

"I'm trying okay, hard to hit a flying Pokemon without a long-range attack!"

Eileen was only able to dodge the attack thrown against her instead of retaliating due to the Lightning Rod ability Rhydon has, she was only barely able to keep dodging Wingull's barrage of Water Gun.

"Shoot! I have plan Keith, but you have to shot the Wingull using your Dragon Breath!" Richard panicked, but he tried to find a solution in the midst of the panic both he and Keith felt.

"Are you kidding me!? It's hard for Kallavan to maintain concentration against two enemies at once, you…" Keith was about to shout once more at Richard, but Richard's gaze was showing that he was totally serious about the plan. "Damn it! Fine, but make it count, Pal. Kallavan, Dragon Breath at Wingull!"
Wingull with its speed managed to dodge the blue flames spouted by the Irate Pokemon, however, it was now in an enraged which was the reason it then decided to make a charge ahead against Kallavan.

"Wingull, Wait!" Mary was confused as to why Wingull was acting on its own.

"Sorry, Mary… Clip her down Eileen, Quick Attack!" Eileen ran at the wall using Quick Attack before intercepting the swooping bird Pokemon, catching it in mid-air which rendered the Seagull Pokemon immobile.

"Follow up with Thunder Shock!" Eileen emitted lightning bolt that surrounded her and the Wingull, knocking the Wingull out with the type advantage she has over it.

"No, Wingull!" Mary ran towards the Wingull, halting the battle and stopping Rhydon who was going to take advantage of Kallavan's divided attention.

"It's going to be alright Honey, your Wingull is fine. We will bring it to the Pokemon Center later." The hiker assured his daughter. After she moved out of the way, the father bowed slightly.

"Sorry Kids, as you can see my daughter hasn't been able to control Wingull perfectly since she is still very young. But… on the other hand." The hiker smiled widely which elicit anxiousness from both Keith and Richard.

"I could go all out! Hahaha. Rhydon, Dig!" Rhydon burrowed its way at the ground, which confused two of the Pokemon on the field.

"Now, Drill Run!" Suddenly the ground beneath Kallavan collapsed as Rhydon emerges from beneath in a high-speed rotation akin to a drill. Kallavan was thrown into the air.

"Follow up, Hammer Arm!" Rhydon's arm glowed white while it smashed the airborne Kallavan into the ground, immediately knocking him out of the battle.

"Yikes… This is going to be a massacre." Richard was expecting the hiker to be a strong opponent, but not that strong. He was unsure about the idea of winning the battle against the powerful Rhydon.

Richard was awakened from his deep thoughts by a sudden tap in the shoulder by Keith. "Richard… There's no way we'll be able to knock the Rhydon out with brute force… But, there's one last strategy worth trying." Keith was visibly trying hard to keep his smile.

"Which is?" Richard was surprised that Keith still has a strategy in this situation. However, he was all ears to any solution feasible enough to be the Rhydon.

"Remember the mixed martial arts fight we watched last month? Hotei versus Toshi for the Heavyweight Championship? Let's just use that strategy…"

"What!? That's it! Keith, you're a genius!"

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Continued in part 3-3
Risky Gambit

budube · Dec 14, 2019

Bruno Dillinger
May 22, Wednesday

Chapter 3, Part 2: Weird

Afternoon, Route 9 - Western Half

The sun hit strong and the heat was horrible. Bruno had a bottle of cold water in his right hand but it didn't seem to do the entire thing for him. To make everything worse, his bag was quite heavy with all the food he bought at Cerulean plus his sleeping bag. He couldn't even take off his hoodie because Artemis would get angry at him, and boy, was it bad when that happened!

He hadn't moved his eyes away from the map during all his walk unless it was to drink some water, and that costed him a few bruises and scratches on his legs. According to his map he hadn't even walked past one third of the route and he was already tired, he was thinking on stopping and rest for some minutes but-

"Excuse me…"

"What the-!" the boy jumped and fell on his back the moment he felt a hand on his left shoulder. In front of him there was a girl, shorter and younger than him or maybe the same age, with dark, short hair. She was wearing an orange t-shirt, green pants with shoulder straps and an also green bandana around her neck. She was also holding a red Skitty in her arms.

"Oh, sorry for- Ow, ow, ow! Don't do that!" she exclaimed as her Skitty nibbled the arm holding it. The picnicker put her Pokémon down and Skitty started jumping at her legs while swinging its fluffy tail. The girl sighed. "Whatever… My- my name is Kate, uh, Katherine Musso…"

"H-Hi… Bruno."

"Are you a C-Cape student by any chance?"

"... Yes."

"Oh, so you're just passing by!" she suddenly seemed to be more excited.

"Yes."

"Great!" the picnicker smiled. "Um, you know, it's… it's rare to see someone with two Pokémon outside their Pokéballs." she continued as if she felt she was meant to say something.

"Two Pokémon?" Bruno looked confused but suddenly felt is if everything went falling down for him. "Oh no."

"Wh-what's wrong?"

Bruno looked behind him. Artemis was on the ground "Oh no."
… awake "Oh no."
… and slowly standing up. "Oh no."
Bruno took her on his arms in order to stop her from attacking Katherine, but she was clearly angry at the girl.

"Oh, it's a Fomantis! How cute!" she was thrilled and moved her hand trying to pet her "What's its na-? Eek!" Katherine jumped back, quickly retiring her hand the moment Artemis hissed at her "I... don't think it likes me."

"She… doesn't like to be woken up. Her name is Artemis"

"What about the other one?"

"Who?" the girl pointed at Bruno's right side. There was a yellow Spoink bouncing besides him, apparently just minding its own business, except that… Spoink weren't yellow. "It's… not mine." he said confused. He started thinking that the sun was playing a trick on his eyes because Skitty weren't red either but on the other hand, Artemis looked the right colors.

"Really? It looked like it." she said tilting her head sideways. "It was following you."

Bruno raised his eyebrows "I didn't know that…" he answered at the need of saying something.

He was trying to process everything that was happening: First a total stranger suddenly appeared behind him with a red Skitty to talk to him and then she pointed out that he had an also weird colored Wild Pokémon following him as if it was his. It didn't make any sense! But he was too tired to even think straight about this. Bruno only wanted to get to the Pokémon Center or someplace where the sun didn't hit too hard as fast as possible, so the only think he could do was rush this and ask her: "Is something wrong?"

"Uh, no, no!" she answered in a trembling voice and smiled nervously. "Well, yes…! You see, I-I'm lost." she confessed, obviously embarrassed and avoiding any possible eye contact with Bruno. "I was… with another group of kids around here somewhere, but I walked away and can't find the way back."

"Do you… need help with finding your camp?"

"Yeah… if you don't mind, of course…! I don't want to be a bother either."

"Uh, no. Don't worry." he answered immediately without really thinking about the answer. "Fool! You lost your chance escape!", he thought to himself after suddenly realizing that he ruined his plans.

She obviously had the same communication problems he had, so knowing that, he couldn't really leave her alone, even if he really wanted to keep going. The best thing he could do now, is hope that her camp thing was somewhere near the path he was taking because he didn't like the idea of backtracking, specially after falling with many of the ledges and rocks back there.

Bruno sat on a nearby ledge looking at his map, with Artemis over his shoulders looking open-eyed at Kate. The girl followed him, but sat far away from Bruno, getting closer to him only when Artemis hid inside her trainer's hood to sleep again. Skitty and Spoink stayed behind the kids.

"What are you doing?"

"Searching." the map showed three different spots that could be used for camping. Reaching none of those spots meant backtracking, though, thankfully. One of them was at the eastern half of the route, so Bruno discarded it. The other two spots were close to where the two kids were standing, but still not that close, how did she even manage to get that far from her camp and still don't look really tired? "Is your camp somewhere around these two places?"

"Hmm, this one… I think!" she answered pointing at the southern spot, humming for some seconds as if she was insecure about it but confirmed it in the end.

"Okay, then…" he said, as if wanting to add something, but he didn't know what.

Silence from her part too.

"Well…"

"You know- oh, sorry. What's wrong?" Katherine accidentally interrupted.

"No, nothing. Continue."

"I mean, you really don't have to come with me if you don't want to." she said, avoiding eye contact again "I really, really don't want to be a bother and delay your… You know."

"I'm going that way too, so…"

"Oh, uh… Fine!" she chuckled "Uh… do we…?"

"… Sure. Let's go."

WizardOfOdd · Dec 15, 2019

Richard Wolstenholme
Route 9
May 22^nd, Afternoon

Chapter 3-3
Risky Gambit

"Well, duh. You know, it doesn't hurt if you would praise me more, Richard." Keith nudged Arthur using his left elbow.

"Not if you're going to sing another Jon Bovine song… Anyway, shall we?" Arthur tried to keep Keith's concentration on the battle.

"Yeah, yeah. Go, Hans!" Keith called out his Zubat to the field.

"Took you kids, long enough. Anyway, you two sure you're going to use Zubat? Cause all I see are two Pokemon with type disadvantages against me." The hiker raised both of his eyebrows, unsure of what the kids were trying to do against a much powerful threat.

"Don't worry mister, we got this in the bag. Richard!"

"Aye aye. Eileen, Quick Attack!"

"Well, I'm looking forward to what could you bring to this battle. Rhydon, Hammer Arm!"

Rhydon's right arm turned white once more as it dropped the said arm towards the dashing Mouse Pokemon.

"Eileen, dodge!" Eileen slid through between Rhydon's legs using her speed and with that, she managed to dodge the Hammer Arm.

"Good job. Hans, Supersonic!" The Bat Pokemon flew through the air shooting sound waves toward the Rhydon which was still looking below its legs. As soon as the Rhydon look forward, it was too late to dodge. Rhydon started to sway left and right as the Confused effect took its toll on Rhydon.

"Eileen, change course! Quick Attack then Double Kick on Rhydon's right knee joint!"

"Hans, follow suit! Absorb on Rhydon's right kneecap!"

Eileen immediately turned and used Quick Attack towards the Rhydon's right knee, before she used the momentum to kick the knee joint hard using Double Kick. Hans followed suit after Eileen's attack, shooting the red beams toward the target.

"Whoa, I never expected you two will do that. Although, will you able to whittle down Rhydon's right leg before he snapped out of it?"

"Let's see about that!" Richard tried to show hardened resolve, however, deep beneath that facade, he was surer of the hiker's victory than his own.

Richard and Keith repeated the attacking sequence twice. And twice also the tactics worked like a charm. It definitely looked like the sequences they did create damage on the Rhydon's knee area. However. It didn't look enough at all to topple the Rhydon who was still able to stand normally.

"Ah, damn it! Should we change tactics now, Richard?" Keith expressed his worries at the bleak situation.

"Too late to turn back now, Keith. Let's just hope for the best."

Keith nodded, and with that, the plan continued. Eileen managed to slide through Rhydon's legs to prepare using the Quick Attack and Double Hit combination.

Just as the strategy was about to be applied once more, the hiker started to laugh very loudly, scaring the pair of friends into thinking they were the only sane person left.

"Don't get the wrong idea kids, look at Rhydon closely."

As the pair refocused their gaze at Rhydon, they realized that Rhydon was already had already returned to normal.

"Yep, time to get serious! Rhydon, Rock Throw! Hooraahh!"

Brown energy materialized from Rhydon's right arm, it turned into a big rock that the Rhydon threw in a high speed toward Hans that was flying toward Rhydon. It was a direct hit and one so powerful that Hans was immediately retired from the battle.

"Shoot… Eileen take this opportunity and use Double Kick!"

Eileen launched herself towards the Rhydon, but just as the attack was about to connect the Drill Pokemon lifted his right leg.

"Now, Stomp!"

Rhydon stomped down hard to the ground, cracking it and seemingly flattened Eileen in the process.

"Eileen!" Richard wailed at his partner's direction.

"It's all over now! Hammer Arm!"

Rhydon jumped before dropping his arm which shined bright white down with his entire body. The momentum of Rhydon's fall added more momentum on the Hammer Arm, causing the nearby area to slightly shake.

"Pi...ka…" Eileen could only mutter a bit of growl before she passed out due to the sheer damage it took.

The battlefield turned eerily silent as two Pokemon was taken out in less than one minute, Richard could only stand motionless as the tables were suddenly turned against him and Keith.

The hiker adjusted his hat as he opened his mouth.

"Welcome to the real trainers' world, Kids."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Continued in part 3-4
Resolve

Juno · Dec 17, 2019

[a id]menu5[/a id]

background art cred

3-1: The Casey-ness

Pokédex

3-1: The Casey-ness // May 22nd; Afternoon
JP ft. Casey Holt

Clean clothes? Check. Camping gear? Check. Canned provisions? Check. Tangela, Hop and Spirit? Check, check and check.

Jordan went down his list of things to pack as he rounded up his Pokemon and gear, and they also stopped by a few shops in Cerulean before heading out for some last-minute food and supplies they'll need for the road ahead as they prepared to move on. The last couple hours had been a whirlwind of mayhem - he must have spent at least two hours being interrogated by the Dragon trainers about the masked man that attacked, and then by the police again when they arrived on scene. Finally, they let him and Spirit return to the Pokemon Center to rest and heal up, but not before taking down his contact information in case they needed to contact him again.

By the time they were fully ready to leave it was almost noon. As he stood by the exit into Route 9, he looked back into the city one last time. So long, Cerulean, he thought to himself. I'll be back one day!

The road was less green than he preferred, but he really enjoyed how quiet it was compared to the city. Aside from the events of that morning, Jordan really did enjoy his time in Cerulean. It just felt right to be back out in nature, though. He closed his eyes, taking in the fresh air and ambient sounds.

"JORDAN!"

The peace was short-lived. In the distance, a loud but familiar nuisance interrupted his thoughts. It had been an exhausting morning, and Jordan really wanted a few moments of calm. He had even returned Hop and Spirit to their Poké Balls for a moment and just kept Tangela by his side. He loved all his Pokémon, but the small ones could be a handful to look after. He squeezed his eyes together harder. Maybe… if I just keep standing here… he'll keep walking…

"Hey Jordan! You about to leave? Let's go together!"

Doesn't seem like that's happening. Good try, though. He didn't have to look to know who was behind him, but Jordan sighed and opened his eyes anyway.

"If you could lower the volume and Casey-ness just a little, yes, lead the way."

"Woohoo!" Casey did not, in fact, lower his volume nor Casey-ness, and instead punched the air in excitement. The motion dislodged the Buneary on his shoulder, who smacked him for it. Undeterred, he breezed past Jordan and marched toward an apparently random trailhead. Jordan followed with reluctance, but lit up when he noticed Buneary.

"Hey, what a cute little guy," he beamed, reaching out to pet her as he caught up to Casey. "What's your na-argh!" A spring-loaded ear caught him in the act.

"She's a girl! And uh, doesn't like people much. I caught her on our first day!" Buneary bopped him on the head again. "Ow. I don't think she likes when I say I caught her. It's not like you chose to come with, though," Casey reminded her. Buneary huffed at him.

Jordan chuckled nervously, making a mental note to stay out of Buneary's reach. This thing had a temper. Still cute, though. "Well, my bad, hope you can forgive me." he said to her, before turning back to Casey. "And I hope the rest of our Pokemon will get along too, huh, Case?"

Tangela had been watching the interaction curiously from the other side of Jordan, but at the mention of "rest of our Pokemon", she took that as her cue to enter the conversation and sidled between the boys, waiting for her introduction. Casey casually edged a bit further away.

"Oh! This is the Pokemon I got from Professor Palm. Always knew I would pick a Grass starter. And I definitely made the right choice with her." He reached down and gave her a pat on her viney head. Tangela looked pleased with his praise, and her gaze flicked upwards briefly towards Casey and Buneary, watching their reaction to his words. Buneary regarded her coolly.

"You get along good with her, huh?" Casey asked lightly, not meeting the Pokémon's eyes. "I hope she's okay with Fire-types! I picked Charmander for my first one."

Casey was being a little strange all of a sudden, Jordan thought. He had known the boy long enough to sense something wasn't right, but shrugged it off for the time being. Casey wasn't really one to keep quiet if something was bugging him so if he was bothered enough, Jordan was sure he would hear about it.

"Mhmm, she's been really great. Helps me keep track of my other Pokemon when they're out, too." he gushed, patting the two Poke Balls attached to his belt. "Can I see Charmander later? We haven't really encountered any Fire-types yet. Won't be letting her fight any if I can help it, but I'm sure they can be good friends."

"For sure, yeah! Hey, we could train them all together! What other ones do you have?"

"Caught a Pidgey on my first day, and adopted a Cubone when I was in Cerulean. I think he's different though, like, special. The lady at the rescue center told me he's actually from another region, says he'll evolve into a Fire-and-Ghost-type, so that's pretty cool!" Jordan paused, and scratched his head. "Well, that might not be so cool for you, but…"

Casey slumped over dramatically, ignoring the shove to the cheek as Buneary scrambled for balance. "Why do all my friends have to have Ghost-types…"

Jordan clapped a hand on his back. "Sorry, bud. He's pretty cute right now though, maybe you can befriend him before he evolves, and later on he can help you get over your weird hang-up."

"Self-preservation is not weird," Casey insisted.

Jordan grinned and shrugged. "Whatever you say. Hey, why are you walking so fast, anyway? Do you even know where we're going?" Tangela had picked up the pace to keep up with Casey, and Jordan reached out to steady her as she almost tripped over her vines. "And you are gonna need a haircut soon," Jordan told her privately. Tangela slinked away from him. She wasn't eager to sit through one.

"We're going east, that's all we need to know!"

"I think we need to know a little more than that..."

"We'll check the map when we get lost! That's what they're for, right?" Casey hopped up onto a ledge that was definitely not part of any path and pointed his walking stick toward the horizon. "Let's go find stuff!"

"Stuff?"

"Pokémon! Berries! Flowers! Cool rocks!" Expansive, swooping gestures punctuated his points. "We could find anything out here in the wilderness! And you aren't gonna find more of your Grass-types by stickin' to a well-worn path, are ya?"

Jordan shook his head, but he was smiling. He sighed, and climbed up with him. "You don't know that… but I suppose it doesn't hurt to explore a little."

Pokédex

Pokemon on hand:

Tangela // "Tangles"

Ingrain
Constrict
Absorb
Vine Whip
Sleep Powder

Pidgey // Hop

Tackle
Sand Attack
Gust

Cubone // Spirit

Leer
Growl
Bone Club

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Aquacorde · Dec 17, 2019

Casey Holt & Jordan Springs

Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Midday • Day 3
Route 9

3-03.
you could be my luck

Their route is haphazard at best. Marked trails appear seemingly at random but the boys don't stay with them for long. Shallow ledges are navigated with ease and boulders are clambered over with little trouble, except for the time Casey chooses to answer a call from a rather precarious position. He can only imagine what conclusions Bruno must be drawing. Though maybe he doesn't notice. He seems a bit rattled. All three of them are, after being attacked by what is obviously a real actual group of organized criminals. As far as Casey can tell, his encounter was the least scary. And he fainted! Despite that definitely being more about the Ghost-types than the criminals, the point stands in his mind.

They are watched from a distance as they help each other up steeper climbs and skid down divets. Wild Pokémon find it easy to stay out of the way, since the boys don't bother to lowering voices or lightening footsteps. Sheer cliff faces turn them around a few times, but keeping due east is always easy in the afternoon. They just put their backs to the sun and hike in as straight a line as possible. Climbing around is a lot of work, though, and even their near-boundless energy is wavering by the time they get to a weird maze of rocky outcroppings. Squeezing through the gaps between cliffs is a complete success as soon as they remember to take their backpacks off. It's definitely not an actual path, but they push forward regardless.

They don't truly realize how high they've climbed until they shimmy through one last passage and find themselves on a wide, grassy plateau.

"Whoa!" Casey wanders the edge of the plateau. The view is amazing, he can see for actual miles! Jordan grabs Casey by the arm and pulls him back a few steps. The drop isn't too horrifying, but it still wouldn't be a nice fall. "Watch it! Told you not to go so fast."

A cool breeze fans Casey's face and he rounds on Jordan with a grin. "Hey, let's take a break here!"

The summer sun sketches details in gleaming highlights and strong shadows across the peaks and valleys ahead. Jordan admires the view. "Yeah, this is a good spot to stop for now."

Casey's backpack is off and he's pulling out snacks as soon as the words leave Jordan's mouth. Still have a decent amount of water, berries are… not as squashed as I thought, trail mix, where- oh, found it. He settles down with legs crossed and hands a few berries to Buneary, who refuses to be grateful for them. "We could train here, too! It's big enough, right?"

"Oh, yeah. We can let 'em all run around!" Jordan drops his backpack to the ground as well, and pulls both Poke Balls off his belt, letting out Hop and Spirit. Tangela excitedly reunites with them. The journey up was long, difficult and lonely. Jordan and Casey chatted the whole way, and Buneary did not seem to want to play with her.

Jordan's team distracts Casey almost enough to make him forget to let Charmander out. Almost. He clicks the release on the PokéBall and Charmander is immediately moving, dashing on all fours around the little group gathered near Jordan. Casey sticks Buneary between himself and others. Tangela hasn't touched him so far, but… And that Cubone, Jordan said…

"Are you sure that guy's gonna be a Ghost? He looks just like any other Cubone t'me."

"I mean, I don't think he's gonna turn incorporeal and steal your body or whatever, if that's what you're thinking, but he better! Otherwise the name 'Spirit' won't fit as well." Spirit stops sniffing Charmander upon hearing his name, and dashes back to Jordan.

Casey eyes Cubone suspiciously even as Charmander follows his new friend. "'Don't think' means you don't know."

The rest of the statement filters into his brain a little slower. "Spirit… You gave him a nickname?"

"Yeah!" Jordan picks up the Cubone and holds it up to Casey's face. Casey involuntarily grimaces. "C'mon, Spirit's cute, right?"

"Bein' cute isn't grounds for trustin' anyone!" Casey sighs. "But yeah. Fine. He's cute."

Jordan smiles smugly and puts down the Pokemon. "Anyway, yeah, I've been trying to give them all cute names. Like… come here, Hop!" he motions for the Pidgey to move closer, and he happily obliges, bouncing over merrily with Tangela by his side. "I'm… sure you might be able to guess why," he says hesitantly.

"Making fun of the disabled?" Casey's brain-to-mouth filter fails to engage and he winces at his own words.

"Wh- no!" Jordan scoops up Hop and defensively holds him to his chest. "I didn't know, okay… just… thought he liked jumping around and stuff. And he does! But there's… definitely something else preventing him from flying properly. Nurse says he'll be fine though, just gotta slowly build up that strength in his wing again."

"How're you supposed to do that? Can he even battle?"

'Well… the nurse said to let him move around lots while wearing this guard, but not to throw him in any more battles. But she meant like, real battles, you know?" Hop clicks his beak angrily, protesting that sentiment. "I'm sorry! You know what I meant! I know you did great on the bridge, but we can't push it. I'm sure some friendly sparring would be helpful, though."

Casey flashes a grin. "We can do that!" Buneary hits him in the kneecap, so he corrects to: "Okay, Charmander can do that. You should train though! You've almost been knocked out way too much. You only got out of those battles conscious 'cause you got saved right after enduring a hit."

Buneary huffs at the scolding, but the lack of physical retaliation implies acknowledgement of the issue. He's sure it's still going to be a while before she actually takes advice rather than simply listens. But that was all he asked of her earlier, so...

"Y-yeah! We can all help each other out, right?" Jordan smiles at Buneary as he squats down to meet her at eye level, promptly remembers that's probably not a good idea, and swiftly backs up. Buneary seems to approve of his behavior.

"Oh! Before I forget," he shifts Hop's weight into one arm and gestures with his free hand towards his backpack, still lying on the ground where he dropped it earlier. "Casey, can you get my scissors? It's in the-"

Casey's already moving. "Like you need to tell me where you keep stuff." Rather than walk five feet, he flops onto the ground and rolls himself over to the backpack. Lazily, he unzips a pocket without looking and flings the scissors in Jordan's general direction. Jordan's eyes widen and he nearly fumbles both the scissors and the Pidgey.

"W- hey, watch it, man!" he huffs, setting down Hop gently. "Not sure if you were trying to kill me or my Pokemon."

"What did you want me to do, walk it over to you? You can catch." Beneath his nonchalance, Casey decides he's not going to throw scissors anymore. "What'd you want it for, anyway?"

"Just don't- mm, nevermind." Common sense escapes Casey sometimes, and Jordan decides not to finish his sentence. "Anyway! Ah- Tangela, quit hiding, you know what needs to happen," He reaches behind a cluster of boulders and drags out a reluctant seventy-pound pile of blue vines. Sitting himself down on one of the lower rocks, Jordan spins her around to face him. "Time for a haircut! Wanna help, Case?" He holds up two of her longer vines and wiggles them in his friend's direction.

"Uh?" Casey rolls onto his stomach and props himself on his elbows. "You're cutting-? Nope. No way."

"Aw, come on, why not? Jeez, Tangles, look at this mess. No wonder you were tripping so much on the way up..." Jordan tugs on a few overgrown sections and grimaces to himself. Tangela notices and shoots him a dirty look.

"She doesn't look happy about it, and I'm not gonna get close to somethin' that can tie me up and leave me to die." That lack of filter really isn't doing him any favors today.

Tangela and her trainer exchange a puzzled glance. Jordan shrugs. "Well, suit yourself, but-" he then makes a point of pulling out one of the longer vines, and snips off the section cleanly. "It doesn't actually hurt her or anything, she just hates sitting still for long." He casually tosses the cut tendril in Casey's direction. Casey yelps and scrambles sideways.

"It's- it's not really- can she still control that?"

Jordan snips off a few other sections and nods with a straight face. "Little known fact, Tangela are also part Ghost-type. These are her phantom limbs."

"Fuck you," Casey says sullenly. Jordan bursts out laughing. Casey sidles back over to the offcut and prods it with the toe of his boot. It doesn't move any more than he causes it to.

Jordan manhandles the reluctant Tangela as he rotates her left and right, cutting off any extra bits that are long enough to fall straight and touch the ground. Casey continues to eye them suspiciously, but inches toward them whenever Tangela is turned away.

"There we go… all done! See, that wasn't so bad, right?" Jordan directs his question at both the now-perfectly-round Pokemon, who shakes her feet in both directions, and the somewhat-less-skittish Casey, who shakes his head as if to clear it.

"She hasn't tied me up yet, so yeah. Fine. It's fine." Casey braves the last few feet, finally making it within arm's reach of his friend. Not that he started out very far away. "Don't let her do it."

Jordan motions for Tangela to go play with the other Pokemon and puts his free arm around Casey's shoulder. He is still holding some plant cuttings, which dangle near Casey's arm. "Not interested in bondage, are we?"

Casey splutters at him and realizes he can't think of a retaliation. Instead, he snatches the cuttings and throws them off the plateau. Silence reigns for a moment as they watch the vines bounce sadly down the mountain.

Jordan peers down. "Welp. Plenty more where that came from. So, what's next?" He plops himself down and dangles his feet off the edge. Casey joins him, utterly defeated for the moment.

Casey's Party

Charmander lv13 • Buneary lv9

Other Things

Anna's Additional Characters

Aquacorde · Dec 19, 2019

Casey Holt & Jordan Springs

Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Midday • Day 3
Route 9

3-04.
bring it on / you know i'm not afraid

"So, what's next?" Jordan plops himself down and dangles his feet off the edge. Casey joins him, utterly defeated for the moment.

"We could do some training! It's a nice place for it."

"Sure is!" Jordan glances behind him. Spirit appears to be gleefully chasing Charmander with the ear of corn he'd insisted Jordan buy at the market stall. Charmander is pretending to be terribly, terribly afraid. "Looks like they're at it already… well. They're doing something."

Casey turns to watch as well. "Charmander!" Charmander veers toward him, Spirit on his heels. "Y'wanna train?"

Charmander cheers, as the Cubone finally taps him on the shoulder with his vegetable-club. Charmander's subsequent collapse is extremely drawn out and ridiculous.

Jordan shakes his head, laughing. "He's your Pokemon, alright."

"I'll get you into theater after we graduate," Casey assures, casually flipping Jordan off. Charmander perks up at this promise. "For now though, let's bulk up!"

"Alrighty!" Jordan scrambles up and Spirit scurries back to his side. "And is that your weapon of choice?" The Cubone nods solemnly. "Very good."

"Hey, time to get up!" Charmander bounds to his feet, twirling his stick. He's not quite as graceful with it as Kel is with their fan, but he keeps a grip on it as he shifts into a battle-ready stance.

"Fancy," Jordan observes. "Okay, Spirit, show 'em what you're made of! Give him your biggest Growl!"

The tiny Cubone sprints forward and lets out a surprisingly loud, but somewhat high-pitched noise. Charmander tries to cover his ears and bonks himself in the head with his stick. Casey stifles a laugh. "Growl back!"

Charmander's growl is lower in pitch, but he doesn't manage to match Spirit's volume. Spirit twitches slightly, but holds his ground.

"Alright! Give him ah- Bone Club?" Jordan scratches his head at his Pokemon's odd choice of weapon, but doesn't question it. At least the real bone club is still tucked safely in his backpack. With both hands, Spirit takes his ear of corn and swings it, perhaps a bit too vigorously, at Charmander.

"You can copy that, too!" Casey cheers. Charmander swings his stick overhand to catch the ear of corn as it comes in, driving it into the ground with a crack. The Cubone picks up the two halves of his prized ear and glares at Charmander, before looking to Jordan for instruction.

"Ah." Jordan isn't sure if he should laugh or not at his Pokemon's attachment to this vegetable, but tries to give Spirit a reassuring smile. "Well, buddy, those things aren't exactly built to last." He jogs over to his bag and pulls out the Pokemon's original club, patting him on the back. "Here, try again with this. We can… throw a little salt on those and grill it up later, okay?"

Spirit picks up his club, and, incensed by his loss, rushes at Charmander a bit more aggressively. This time, the attack lands. Charmander reels back and catches himself with his tail before swinging again. Their weapons meet in the air, and both Pokemon push back with all their strength. Another resounding crack and it's Charmander's stick that snaps, the sudden lack of resistance making him fall face-first into Spirit's club. Casey quickly changes tactics- he's not about to let Charmander dive headfirst into theatrics as well.

"Get out of reach and use Ember!"

Charmander dashes away on all fours and begins his circling, spitting Embers at Spirit's feet as he goes. The Cubone yelps and dances around, but can't avoid all the little flames.

"Hit him back with a Leer!"

"Smokescreen!"

Still a little upset, Spirit has no trouble mustering up an icy look, shooting it Charmander's way. The lizard recoils even as he exhales a thick black cloud to float between them. Charmander darts forward to where he remembers Spirit being even as the smoke is swept up by the cool wind, aiming to land a Scratch on his opponent.

"Okay, Spirit, time to- uh, Casey?" Jordan blinks a few times to make sure the smoke wasn't playing tricks on his vision, but they definitely had… more company than before. As the black cloud completely dissipates, he makes out the figures more clearly. "Guys, stop! Casey, behind you!"

Casey whips his head around and is confronted by budding chaos. Buneary, who had been minding her own business next to the discarded backpacks, is surrounded by Skiddo. An entire herd of Skiddo. He turns fully and catches more picking their way up onto the plateau. Buneary is already occupying three of them with quick blows to noses, but there's a lot more than three to deal with. Casey's shoving his way into the crowd, shouting commands to Buneary when two Skiddo bound away dragging the boys' bags, scattering the contents across the plateau. The rest quickly become fascinated by the trail and follow after, knocking Casey to the ground.

Casey's Party

Charmander lv13 • Buneary lv9

Other Things

Anna's Additional Characters

moon · Dec 21, 2019

Ralph

Cerulean City, Wednesday May 22nd, early afternoon

It is past lunch time, and Ralph has fed herself as well as her pokémon and is currently planning her future via the PokéGear map function. It would be so easy to just head south on the big road to Saffron... But nope, Rock Tunnel is what's decreed by Palm. Ralph sighs and pouts. Sandsy notices, and pokes Ralph's leg. She relents, and bends down, while tucking the PokéGear back away.

"You'll probably thrive in those tunnels, won't you?" she tells him as she scratches him behind an ear. He seems to enjoy the affection, but being Sandsy, he doesn't show it more than through a tiny hrrm and contentedly closed eyes.

"But the bugs probably won't. They're not cave-mons," Ralph continues and lets her gaze wander to them where they sit next to their emptied food bowls; she brought six of them, as she can only ever carry six pokémon at once, and currently of course only four of them are actively used at once.

Softy's eyes still glimmer whenever she looks at the Kakuna, but he stands motionlessly with a stern gaze and hardly reacts to her attention. He doesn't seem entirely comfortable. His trainer supposes that he would rather get this cocoon state over with and become a dangerbug already. But how can she help him with that? Can he still fight when being so... stationary? And if he doesn't fight, can he still get the experience he needs to evolve?

Perhaps if they go to the gym to spar again?

Thinking about the gym brings up the face of the jungle haired woman in Ralph's mind again. Ugh, no thanks. No more dragon gym for now.

So then she'll need somebody else to do some friendly sparring with. Someone like... Ari? She pulls up the PokéGear again. Ari's Squirtle can probably give the Kakuna a good run without going too far.

She's this close to pushing to dial Ari's number, when a familiar voice calls her in real life instead.

"Ralph! You didn't get very far, haha."

Ralph stands up straight so abruptly that her pastel purple dreadlocks spin around and slam into her shoulder. "Mont- Aberdeen!" she says. This boy. Why does he keep finding her? "Are you following me?" she says with a frown.

"I suppose yes, since we're taking the same route according to professor Palm's instructions," the boy replies with a wink as he comes to stand next to her.

"I sure don't run into others as much as you."

"Ah, that must just be fate then!" he says, and she can tell he would like to fire off another wink, but chooses to roll her own eyes and look away before she has to see it. "How's your icy Sandshrew?" he continues as if she hadn't reacted.

"She's well," Ralph says and nods in Coldy's direction.

The Alolan pokémon has only just meticously finished eating her food, much more slowly than everybody else. She looks up at the mention of her, but doesn't do much else.

"Good to hear! My Grimer is well too, but she's a bit annoying to keep outside of the pokéball, haha. Don't say it when she hears, but she really... Stinks."

Ralph can't help but snorting and smiling at that. "I can imagine! No offense, of course."

Then she leans her head to the side. Yeah, Aberdeen would do as well, she didn't need Ari specifically.

"Deen," she says, and he again seems to listen extra carefully when that nickname is used. "Would you mind having a small practice battle with me? Nothing harsh, just... my Kakuna is really feeling on edge and I think some sparring would make him feel better."

"Oh!" Aberdeen's eyes twinkle as he leans down to Edgy's level. "Of course! That sounds like so much fun! We haven't battled since the farm, and that wasn't even with this dude, was it?"

"The farm was just yesterday, it wasn't that long ago..." Ralph says, shaking her head.

The practice battle takes place in a park in the eastern edge of the city. They don't want to disturb anyone in more populated areas, but also not go too far from the pokémon center in case they need to heal up after. Aberdeen decides to use Grimer for this, as it's actually her very first battle together with him. He says he suspects her to be a veteran battler though, and not go all out recklessly against the Kakuna!

However, after a few rounds of Pound against Edgy who stands still on the grassy battlefield and keeps using Harden, it is clear that the Kakuna is able to take quite a beating without breaking a sweat. Its defenses are sky high, apparently, in contrast to when it was a wee Weedle. Ralph gives Aberdeen permission to go out a bit harder. Grimer smiles a creepy smile and obliges.

A Bite attack with slimy teeth strikes the yellow bug, who finally seems affected by the assault. He twitches, and lets out a small groan.

"Are you sure you want to battle with him?" Aberdeen asks with an eyebrow raised high.

"I... I don't know," Ralph admits, sighing. "He doesn't seem to want to do anything until he evolves, really..."

"Kakuna! I know you think you're useless in your current form, but you're wrong!" Aberdeen then calls out all of a sudden.

This makes Grimer back off for a moment, and makes the Kakuna freeze (even more than it already did by default). It seems the other trainer has hit a sensitive spot with his words. Ralph isn't sure what to say to that, so she just looks from the boy to the bug back and forth in anticipation.

"You can't just sit around and wait for evolution," Deen continues fiercely. "I've read things and seen things on TV, and it all makes it seem like pokémon need to make an effort and believe in themselves in order to evolve. You need to understand that you're great the way you are now - you don't need to evolve in order to be a cool pokémon! Not even if you're a cocoon!"

As if wanting to tell the boy to shut up, the Kakuna suddenly makes a movement. It springs up, taking a leap nobody understands how it produced, and lands directly on the mushy Grimer, rear end first.

"Poison Sting?" Ralph asks, trying to catch up with the situation.

"Ahah! Is that all you can do?" Aberdeen laughs, but he doesn't actually sound spiteful. Ralph finds herself watching him more than the battle at this point. "Grimer is a poison type though, you can't inflict a bad status on her! Grimer, use Mud-Slap!"

Mostly unaffected by the physical attack, Grimer backs off more, and launches a shove of mud from the lawn into Kakuna's face. It topples the bug over, making it lie flat on the ground and wobbling for a moment in frustration.

"Edgy!" Ralph calls out.

"Things aren't looking too good for team Kakuna right now," Aberdeen sing-songed. "Grimer, Bite again!"

The sludge pokémon moves closer for another attack, and Edgy just keeps wobbling in the grass. It is easy to tell that he is starting to lose what boost of confidence he might have gained before. Ralph has to be the one to give it back to him, hasn't she?

"Edgy! String Shot!"

Edgy, being the way he is, always with a delay in between order and execution, doesn't fire the attack off in time. Grimer reaches him and bends down for a Bite...

"Bug Bite!" Ralph calls out, even though she is convinced there is no way he'll pull that move off any quicker than the String Shot one.

Again, it's unclear how it happens, but Kakuna counters the move with something akin to a bite, a peck, a sharp nod. Bite clashes with Bite, fangs of power and fangs of muddy bone. In the commotion, the Kakuna is turned upright again, and the Grimer accidentally fires off what is quite likely Poison Gas. Both trainers keep their distance as they try to assess the damage done to each side.

"Well, Grimer is starting to get tired," Aberdeen says, but a satisfied grin plays on his features.

"Edgy just seems fired up," Ralph says honestly.

"Great! Maybe that means he believes me?"

The gas seems to be dissipating, so Ralph walks up closer to her pokémon. His thick, yellow skin is glistening, almost glowing.

"Maybe," Ralph says. "Shall we continue, then?"

"I don't think we need to," Deen says, throwing one of his annoying winks at her while he returns Grimer and affectionately pats her pokéball without putting it away. "I'd better be going anyways! It'll already be hard to reach Rock Tunnel's entrance before nightfall.

"What, is it really that long?" Ralph says bluntly.

"It really is! It's recommended you leave before noon if you're gonna make it to the pokémon center by the caves just in time for bed."

Ralph processes this information for a while. She hasn't planned on camping out on this route - it is one thing to camp out for one night when going from Cape College to Cerulean, but on the way to Rock Tunnel? It will be some time until she reaches Lavender on the other side... And quite rough, potentially.

So, she really should have left earlier already.

"Shoot," she says, followed by some swearing under her breath as she returns Sandsy, Softy and Coldy to their pokéballs from where they have been watching the battle (nervously in Softy's case). She then turns back to Aberdeen and reluctantly extends a hand. "Want to join troops then? Go together onto the route?"

"Oh, I'd love to! Except I've already decided to join forces with some other trainers for this stretch! They told me they didn't want even more people to come along. Sorry, Ralph!" Deen says, but doesn't look overly sorry really.

Popular bastard, Ralph thinks, and can't really tell if he's being fake and wants her to feel bad, or genuinely doesn't think it's something Ralph should feel bad about missing out on.

"That's fine," she says and picks the somewhat heavy Kakuna up from the ground. He's almost vibrating as he breathes, and is quite warm to the touch. "I'm not obsessed with company anyways, was just, you know, convenience. Thinking."

"Sorry," Aberdeen repeats. "But hey! See you in the tunnel maybe?"

And then, he departs, a carefree bounce in his step.

Ralph returns to the pokémon center once more to ensure that Edgy is feeling alright. He isn't evolving yet. Perhaps it's just too much to hope for, that even a bug pokémon will evolve twice in one day. She won't rush him. At least he seems to have realized that he is still battle worthy in his current state.

Thanks, Deen, she forces herself to think.

budube · Dec 21, 2019

Bruno Dillinger
May 22, Wednesday

Chapter 3, Part 3: Bumblebeehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojvldIzbaMo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojvldIzbaMo

Afternoon, Route 9

The two kids walked side-by-side, but maintaining some distance between them. Skitty took the lead on its own and Artemis was not even moving inside the hood.

"Hey, where are you from?" the girl asked suddenly.

"Saffron."

"That's great! I'm from Fuchsia."

Bruno nodded, and then: silence. The few dialogues they had were those vague questions about each other and Bruno giving vague directions. Katherine was as shy as him, but Bruno felt as if she was still better at starting conversations than him… although those conversations didn't even last a minute.

Each path they took didn't really look different one another. All the ledges looked the same, and Bruno dared to say that all the rocks looked the same too, but they were following the map, they should be okay… except that they weren't following the map anymore. Bruno was too tired to even understand the map and Katherine was just following him without knowing where they were either.

"Can we stop for a minute?"

"Thank you!" he thought to himself.

"S-sorry… but I'm a little tired."

"It's fine."

Both kids sat in front of a boulder, big enough to protect them from the sun. Skitty went back to its trainer and moved its head around Katherine's hand to be petted, and Artemis was now sleeping in Bruno's arms.

"Why did you decide to become a trainer?"

"I…" what could he answer here, honestly? He didn't really know what to say. "I don't know. I like Pokémon, I guess." that was a lie, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Oh…" No, she definitely found out.

"You… are not a trainer, right?"

"No… I-I mean, yes! But I'm from the Safari Academy."

"You don't look like it." he answered. Katherine looked confused at that remark, but not as much as Bruno. He heard a lot of things about Safari trainers, and 'cute, friendly girls that didn't mind Cape trainers at all' was nothing but the complete opposite, yet there she was, sitting with him in the middle of the route. "I mean… from what I've heard from…"

"Yeah… I think I know what you're talking about… Can't say you're--"

Katherine's sentence was interrupted by a sudden series of boings coming from the slope they had just walked across. The same Spoink from before appeared once more, apparently more tired than both kids were. Skitty, now over its trainer's lap raised its head and started moving its tail; after that reaction, Katherine held it tight and started petting it, trying to calm it down.

"Has that Spoink been following you this whole time?"

"Us. Seems like it."

"Aren't you going to catch it?"

"I don't know." Bruno said shaking his head. "I can't say I'm really interested in training a Spoink."

"Most people would try to catch it after seeing the color, but that's a valid point, I guess…"

"Was that your starter?" he asked after another long pause.

"No." she answered and kept quiet for a while. "I rescued Muffin a while back. I want to take her to Fuchsia, but I can't now… you know, the whole journey thing and everything. She doesn't seem to like being inside a Pokéball, which is dangerous because she doesn't know how to fight either."

"Why not take her to your Professor?"

The girl grimaced. "I… prefer taking care of her myself. You know, as a pet."

Katherine apparently didn't like Psychic types, so she was trying to avoid that Spoink, but she also said it could be a good Pokémon for Bruno. It was her, though the one who chose a name for it: 'Bumblebee', because of its colors, but it was not a bug… and couldn't even fly, but Bruno liked the name anyways and Spoink did too, apparently.

"Shall we continue?" Bruno asked as he started to get up. The girl only, nodded.

The moment Katherine put Muffin on the ground to get up, the red cat pounced at Bumblebee. She was not after the Pokémon itself, but after the black pearl over its head.

"Muffin, no!" The pearl went rolling down the road, and Muffin followed it running as fast as possible with Bumblebee bouncing behind her. Katherine ran behind the Psychic type and Bruno, having no other choice, followed her. To make everything worse, the path they were taking now was the slope they had previously climbed.

Juno · Dec 22, 2019

[a id]menu6[/a id]

background art cred
(couldn't find Skiddo art on
rocky terrain but this'll do)

3-2: Playtime

Pokédex

3-2: Playtime // May 22nd; Midday

"Jordan! The bags!" he heard Casey call out.

Jordan hastily sent Spirit in to help, who was attempting to chase away one of Skiddo that still had the handle of Jordan's bag between its teeth. Clubbing at the ankles of the Pokemon, he managed to get it to drop the bag, but not before completely emptying it of its contents. In the distance, a Skiddo seemed to have made off with half an ear of corn, which stole the Cubone's attention, and he prioritized chasing after that over staying with his trainer.

"Hey, no, wait! I need you here!" Jordan cursed under his breath, but was a bit too preoccupied to run after him. The Skiddo pranced around him as he frantically tried to retrieve as many of the supplies scattered around him as he could. One of them bumped and knocked loose a boulder that a certain Pidgey had been napping on, and he squawked loudly, startled by the chaos he found himself in the middle of.

"Hop!" Jordan yelled out, relieved. He scanned the plateau, for the rest of his Pokemon but was interrupted by a swift kick to the shin, as a Skiddo pushed him out of the way to get into Casey's bag. "Oh, you-!"

He sighed. Jordan was still worried for his Pokemon, but he would have to find them later. For now… "Hop, watch out!" He snapped his attention back to the battlefield around him, and the Pidgey swiftly jumped out of the way of one of the Skiddo on his command. "Tackle!" With a running start, Hop managed to knock one away from him, but not very far. Jordan looked around for his friend, and caught a glimpse of Casey, who seemed to be leading the Skiddo off the plateau. Well, "leading" is putting it mildly, but the shoves seemed effective, so Jordan figured he would do the same. He was having a lot less luck with "his" herd, since they all seemed to be having too much fun trashing their supplies, and he could not move them close enough to the edge of the plateau himself. He needed to take their attention off their new toys. Or maybe, if they couldn't see the toys…

"Hop, Sand Attack!" With his good wing, Hop made large, sweeping motions against the dusty ground of the plateau. Before long, all Jordan could make out was a large cloud of dust and pebbles, and the bleats of protest sounded like they were successful in disrupting the Skiddos' playtime. They bumbled about and knocked into each other, and took advantage of this chaos by having Hop repeatedly "herd" them to one side of the plateau.

As the dust went away, so did the Skiddos' short-lived interest in their campsite, and they scampered off, no doubt to find some other hikers or picnickers to harass. Jordan caught his breath and picked up Hop. "Nice work," he smiled. The Pokemon cooed, and ruffled his feathers. Now, where are the rest of my Pokemon?

He wandered back in the direction he first split up with Spirit. Now that the chaos had more or less settled, he could see some of the "blind spots" between tall rocks and the like more clearly, and he could see the little Cubone jumping up and down in one such area. "Spirit! You had me so worried, what are you-"

As he and Hop approached, they were greeted by an unexpected scene. Tangela was here as well… and so was one of the Skiddo. It sort of looked like they were fighting at first, and that Tangela had wrangled this Pokemon, but as he looked a little closer, they all looked… happy? Like, really happy. The Skiddo was jumping around with Tangela on its back, who had her vines wrapped around its horns for support. Jordan noted that Spirit had retrieved his corn, albeit with a bite taken out of it, and was seemingly cheering them on. The bits of leaves stuck to him suggested he had also been given a ride earlier.

"Hey guys… what's going on…?" Jordan was not sure how to react. Upon hearing his voice, Tangela climbed off. With Spirit at her heel, she grabbed Jordan's hand with a vine and pulled him towards the Skiddo. His Pokemon danced around them excitedly.

"What? No! We're not keeping it. These things are trouble. You saw what they did! Spirit, look-" Jordan waved the bitten corn at his Cubone, but was ignored. Spirit tapped Tangela, and she promptly lifted him up onto the Skiddo, who gleefully pranced around with him on its back.

Jordan watched the three of them jump around, and even Hop looked like he wanted to play with them. Jordan took a deep breath. "Unbelievable," he muttered to himself. "I can't believe I'm about to do this." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Poke Ball.

Pokédex

Pokemon on hand:

Tangela // "Tangles"

Ingrain
Constrict
Absorb
Vine Whip
Sleep Powder

Pidgey // Hop

Tackle
Sand Attack
Gust

Cubone // Spirit

Leer
Growl
Bone Club

Skiddo

Tackle
Growth
Vine Whip
Tail Whip

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