[PKMN FULL] (IC) Crossroads ; A Johto Story - ACT I

Sarah
Fennekin grew to lv 16 and is ready to evolve into Braixen!
Poliwag grew to lv 15 and learned Double Slap!

"What exactly are we looking for?" Vincent said, following Aberdeen's self righteous lead. Obviously, the answer was Melody, but he hoped Aberdeen was not going to try to be sarcastic with his far blunter tongue. Vincent was the one with the wit and the ability to talk with the best of them. It was years of practice that allowed him to hone that craft. Aberdeen was younger, naive and reeked with...weakness. It was all Vincent could muster in his hardened mind.

"I mean, we are blinder than bats in here," he finally said. "We are better off telling the guides and getting some police or someone in here." Vincent's suggestion was earnest, but he had a feeling Aberdeen was going to protest. The kid did it before. "And it's not because I'm scared. It's because that is what smart people would do."

Ab still held his grumpy Honedge in front of him like an eerie torch, Blossom walking nervously so close to his feet that he almost stumbled over her now and then. At Vincent's words, he glanced back.

"It might take a while to get back and make guards come down here. Melody just disappeared and we didn't see any hole in the ground or anything..." Suddenly, he raised an eyebrow thoughtfully. "Maybe she really, really needed to pee and ran off without telling us because it was embarrassing? Uh, no, wait, she would probably have replied when we called out for her," he added quickly, shaking his head.

"Nah, she's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. She'd run off and do something dumb without telling us squat," Vincent said, almost trying to reassure Aberdeen. He yawned and stretched a bit. "She'll pop out eventually, but at least you are admitting that I could be right. It's about damn time ya know?" Vincent leered with a large smirk painted across his face, gloating in his empty victory.

"You really like being right, don't you?" Ab asked with a crooked smile. It seemed like, in this matter, him and Vincent couldn't be more different. Aberdeen had never really tried to fight to be 'right' about things. Maybe he should start? It seemed to make Vincent feel pretty good.

Vincent nodded with his face twisted in thought. "I guess I do. Then again, I have yet to really be wrong about anything. If you went through what I had to go through, you'd learn you were right or you were done. There was no in between," Vincent answered, offering more information than he intended. "Anyway, we ain't getting anywhere wandering in circles. Let's circle back. Maybe she turned up at the entrance. Or she's being stupid and looking for us."

Aberdeen found himself wondering what the other guy meant by those words. But he just sighed. "Don't call her stupid," he muttered, but turned around as to show he agreed on Vincent's plan.

He quickly spun around again though, having seen something in the corner of his eye. Blossom froze and hid behind Aberdeen's legs. "Something moved at the end of the corridor! Did you see that, Honedge?"

"What are you on about? I didn't see anything," Vincent dismissed Aberdeen. He was probably being paranoid. The kid clearly had a knack for it. Vincent dropped his own Honedge out of its ball, allowing Excalibur to float around next to Ab's Honedge. If Aberdeen happened to be right about something, he wouldn't let him steal the opportunity to gloat.

Seeing that Vincent let his own pokémon out, Ab nodded and dashed towards the corner in front of them. As he turned around it, he saw yet another corridor, but this one with glimpses of light coming in from holes in the roof. And right in front of him, startled by suddenly being discovered for spying, stood a pokémon looking like it was wearing a hat and a paint brush.

Vincent followed quickly behind, but Ab's sudden stop hardly impeded the movement of Vincent as he plowed right through the smaller boy without much difficulty. Vincent collasped to the ground, laying all over Aberdeen, who couldn't help letting out an involuntary scream again. Recollecting himself, Vincent perked his head up a tad and noticed the strange little Pokemon standing above them.

"What the heck are you?" Hardly budging and half suffocating Aberdeen, Vincent reached into his pocket and pulled out his Pokedex. "Smeargle? Ew. That Pokemon seems about as useful as a Chespin."

Finally struggling loose from underneath the bigger guy, with a little help from Blossom, Aberdeen ignored the comment about his starter pokémon and slumped against the wall panting just as the Smeargle began to sort of shout violently at Vincent, waving his tail about like a weapon in his hand.

"It was spying on us!" Aberdeen said. "Running ahead of us behind the corners. You..." He pointed at the wild pokémon accusingly. "You saw where Melody went, didn't you? Our friend, a girl!"

"You do realize that it can't answer you right? All it can say is its name," Vincent reminded Aberdeen. "It's not like it's going to speak to us in human speak or whatever. It's a dumb Pokemon."

Aberdeen's Honedge was now hovering in the air above her 'trainer' and at Vincent's words she narrowed one of her eyes at the older boy, clearly in disgust. Surprisingly, the Smeargle just started to laugh.

Vincent motioned for Excalibur to attack the Smeargle with his hands and the ghost Pokemon made a bold lunge for the strange Pokemon that Aberdeen so foolishly tried to talk to. The Smeargle nimbly dodged the rushed attack and bolted away from the two trainers.

"Hey. Get back here! My...friend here has some questions!" Vincent rolled off the ground and chased down the wild Pokemon, yelling vulgar insults as he jetted down the dark corridors, barely keeping the Smeargle within his vision. Aberdeen and the Chikorita followed, the female Honedge buzzing after them in the air.

Farther in the ruins, things were so dreadfully quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Melody had not budged a singe inch since she became the prisoner of the Smeargle horde. She simply sat their, tails wrapped around her body and mouth with wide eyes at the threat of having a new makeup job applied to her face. The silence of the winding halls was brought to an end however, at the sound of small, pattering feet.

Melody looked up just in time to see another Smeargle running towards her and the rest of the horde. A rather panicked expression graced its features, as it quickly skidded to a stop before its allies and began to point wildly behind it. Melody glanced up in the direction the Smeargle was pointing, a happy grunt escaping her tail-covered lips as she spotted Aberdeen, Blossom, and Vincent all running into the area. She began to squirm and fidget wildly, trying her best to get the attention of the boys and her Chikorita.

"What's going on?" Ab exclaimed, at first only seeing the many Smeargle giving him scared or angry stares and shaking their tails at the intruders. But then he spotted the prisoner. "Melody! Are you alright?"

Melody merely gave Aberdeen a small, slightly annoyed glance. She was being held prisoner by wild Smeargle, threatened by their paint-tipped tails, and she couldn't even speak. The girl honestly wondered why her new friend would even ask such a question.

Two Smeargle with blue tails started moving towards him, and as if it had become a reflex, or at least instinct now, Aberdeen reached for the pokéballs at his belt and let all of his pokémon out. Chespin, Whismur and Pidgey materialized in the small space on the dusty floor between the boy and the oncoming pokémon, making the two Smeargle hesitate. Pidgey scoffed at the horde around them, Whismur started shivering at the sight, and Chespin assessed the situation and put on a goofy smile as if he was unphased by the fact that they faced an army of paintbrushes. Meanwhile, Honedge still lurked behind the humans, not sure if she should turn and abandon this crazy group when she had the chance, or stay and watch things unfold.

"Nice group of friends you've made, Melody." Vincent wasn't too pleased with the fact that a horde of Smeargle had captured Melody or the fact they bothered to defend their idol. He wasn't about to complain though. After all, now he could fight his way through them. Vincent followed Ab's lead and released his other Pokemon with Hanzo and Brian joining Exaclibur.

"Brian, use Sand attack! Hanzo, Water Pulse! And Exaclibur, Metal Sound!"

"Wait, don't attack!" Ab called out. "We should talk to them first!"

But Brian send a massive wave of sand at the horde of Smeargle in general, filling the whole area with sand. Hanzo fired it's Water Pulse into the center of the cloud, hoping to hit something. Meanwhile, the freshest catch in his Honedge, used Metal Sound to weaken any survivors for Vincent's next attack.

Aberdeen sighed. And here he had been called rash. Vincent could be so careless it made Aberdeen angry, he was starting to realize. Well, better let that anger fuel him if fighting their way out of this was what they needed to do.

However, it was none of the two boys Pokémon that attacked next. Rather it was the familiar, yet angry sounding chirps that echoed into the room that grabbed Melody's, as well as several of the Smeargle's, attention. Little Blossom was clearly not pleased with the state that her trainer was in, and clearly she was not about to sit on the sidelines when Melody needed her most! In an angry fury, the little Chikorita bounced forward, sending a blast of familiar, razor sharp, leaves swriling into the fray of the Smeargle horde.

Melody's eyes widened at the display. The girl had never seen her Chikorita so worked up before! Slowly glancing to her sides, she noticed that the two Smeargle which held her seemed a bit... distracted by the display before them. A small smile graced Melody's wrapped lips.

"Alright... Time for me to get in on some of the action too..." the girl thought.

She began to squirm ever so slightly in the tails which held her, managing to get one of her hands to make it to her belt where her Pokéballs were resting. Taking hold of one of the balls, Melody managed to slip it out to the ground, which caused the Taillow resting inside to be freed. Needless to say, this caused the Smeargle around her to return their focus to the girl, but by this point it was too late. Melody managed to wriggle about more, slipping past the tail which had been wrapped around her mouth.

"Hawk! Help me out of this mess with Steel Wing!" the girl managed to shout.

Hawk squawked in agreement. The bird began to sore overhead, before quickly diving towards the Smeargles which held Melody prisoner. The Taillow's wing began to shine, as if it was made from a solid sheet of metal, before he slammed it into both of the Smeargle's heads, one right after the other. This caused the grip the wild Pokémon had on Melody to loosen considerably. With one more struggle, the girl managed to break free of the tails completely.

Meanwhile, Aberdeen hadn't even noticed that Melody had freed herself. Smeargle were throwing themselves at Vincent and his gang, and Ab was determined to keep focused and not get overwhelmed.

"Pidgey, keep them at a distance with Gust!"

Just as the closest Smeargle leaped up, Pidgey's Gust forced two of them back down onto the ground. A third broke through and threw itself over Chespin though. Aberdeen stood only a meter away from his pokémon, and his first instinct was to kick off the Smeargle himself. Luckily, he didn't do that though.

"Chespin, Bite!"

Darkly teeth in the midst of the struggling ball of fur that was Chespin and Smeargle bit down onto the long paintbrush tail and made the wild pokémon squeal and release the grass type.

Suddenly, Whismur bumped into Aberdeen's leg from behind. Ab turned around and realized that Whismur had stopped two Smeargle by Astonishing them on his own accord. Giving a quick pet on the head to his little bunny, Ab quickly spun around again and saw Pidgey struggling with the two Smeargle she had blown away earlier.

"Pidgey, confuse them with Sand Attack!" Aberdeen called out, having seen the move being effective on them when used by Vincent earlier.

Pidgey obeyed and managed to splash sand from the floor up into the face of Chespin's opponent as well. That gave Chespin a great opportunity to lift the wild pokémon up in one leg with Vine Whip and slam it into the other two.

But Whismur was squeaking and tugging the leg of Aberdeen's trousers, making him turn his attention back to that side again. Four Smeargle were now approaching that way. Too much, Aberdeen found himself thinking. They are too many. Unless he used Uproar now, which might be a really bad idea considering Melody and Vincent and their pokémon being near as well, plus the building around them being really unstable... Pidgey hovered anxiously above his head and Chespin and Whismur backed closer to their trainer as the wild pokémon kept forcing them into a corner, some with grins on their faces and the paintbrush tails swinging threateningly.

"Vincent!" Aberdeen called out, but when he really looked out over the gloomy room they were in, he spotted another figure standing on top of some rubble, clearly not being captured. At least not anymore. "Melody!"

Aberdeen's murmurs were basically muffled as far as Vincent was concerned. He was caught in the heat of battle with the Smeargles surrounding him. He figured they did not enjoy that he barged right in and attacked them without a second thought. Not that he was complaining. Vincent continued with this very basic but seemingly effective strategy. Exaclibur continued to barrage the Smeargles as they approached. The ear grating sound waves punctured their ears, weakening them as they crowded Vincent and his team. As the Smeargles wavered in their attacks and their defenses down, Brian then buffeted them with Sand attacks, further confusing them. Any stragglers that came through the cloud of sand and dirt were pelted by Hanzo's pinpoint Water Pulses and Bubbles, having already felt the wrath of the others. One by one, the Smeargles fell. The metal sounds grow louder and louder as Exaclibur grow progressively angry in the battle. Brian's wings fluttered furiously as he kicked up enough sand to fill the entire caverns. Hanzo shot down Smeargle after Smeargle as they dove through the clouds to pin down Vincent and his team of warriors. Vincent was pleased with the teamwork that his three Pokemon displayed, but the waves of Pokemon seemed endless as Smeargle after Smeargle emerged through the defenses that Vincent and his team mocked up in a few short minutes. Despite his confidence brimming, Vincent could sense the fatigue of his Pokemon as they stood their ground.

Damn it. This is getting frustrating, Vincent mentally noted. I'm tempted to kick my way through them and get the hell out of here. Vincent looked around for a way out, hoping to find some beacon of hope. However, what he found instead was Melody standing on some rubble, somehow having freed herself. "That's our chance, guys!" He called out to his team. "Hanzo! Brian! Make a path for us!" The two Pokemon nodded at each other, as the two friends went in sync. Hanzo used a quick attack to shift from his defensive stance near Vincent to slicing through a few Smeargle to take the lead. Brian followed suit, mimicking the frog Pokemon with his own winged variant of the Quick Attack. He kept a few feet back, giving Hanzo much needed back up in case any Smeargle dared ruin their advance. Vincent took a few strides to hang back, ducking and diving through the crowd of Smeargle as Hanzo and Brian knocked any daring Smeargles back into the arms of their follow Pokemon. Exaclibur silently floated behind them, echoing the Metal Sounds of earlier to keep the bulk of the Smeargle army at bay.

Vincent panted as he finally reached Melody. "We're getting out of here! Now!"

Not to be outdone by Vincent's own team, Hawk and Blossom did their part to work together and aid in the rescue of their trainer. Hawk continued to swoop down, slamming Steel Wing after Steel Wing into various Smeargles that happened to be scattered about the room. Blossom on the other hand tagged right behind Vincent as the boy made his way towards Melody. The little Chikorita acted as if she was some sort of bodyguard for the boy, eventually charging ahead of him to tackle any members of the Smeargle horde that tried to jump out and get in his way.

Melody smiled brightly at the sight. The girl hopped off the the pile of rubble and quickly, not to mention surprisingly, hugged Vincent tightly. Vincent was caught completely offguard, but did little to push the girl off. All he found himself doing was raise an eyebrow and held his arms awkwardly in the air, looking for something to distract himself from the whole display.

"I... I'm so totally sorry! I dunno what even happened! One minute I was following behind you guys and then the next these Pokémon grabbed hold of me and drug me off! I tried to get free so I could get back, but... but..." Melody began to ramble. Her cheeks quickly blushed as she realized she was still holding onto Vincent. The girl quickly released her grasp around the boy and looked away, a deep blush gracing her cheeks. "Um... T-That is, um... Thanks for helpin' me, Vinny... I was... really, really scared..."

The familiar chirping of Blossom caught Melody's attention. The girl looked down at her Chikorita, who beamed proudly. Clearly the little grass-type was proud of the work she had done in aiding the boys in finding her trainer. Melody smiled at the sight, bending down to pet her gently on the head.

"Good work, Blossom... I knew I could count on ya," Melody told the Chikorita with a small, sincere smile.

"Well, if we are done being all sappy and stuff, we need to get out of here. I'm tired of fighting these dumbass Pokemon and their paintbrushes," Vincent urged Melody.

Melody nodded and together with Vincent and Blossom, she began to make an escape back towards Aberdeen and the rest of their Pokémon. However, that's when it appeared. The chaos of the room quickly fell into complete silence. All the Smeargles of the horde which had yet to be taken out fell quiet, the Pokémon all turning and staring with what seemed to be awe on their usually dopey looking faces.

Before them stood... another Smeargle. However, there was something different about this one. For starters, it looked to be a bit taller than those who were already gathered in the room. The tip of its tail was dipped in a reddish colored paint. Its body had several scratches and scars, decorating the Smeargle as if it were some kind of high ranking warrior.

Melody gave the Smeargle a curious glance, before looking over at Vincent. "Um... Is that supposed to be an important one or somethin'? It seems kind of odd they just all... got quiet when that one showed up."

"He doesn't look that tough," Vincent smirked. "I take it as if I beat him up then I can get out of this dump." Vincent cracked his knuckles and snapped his neck back in place. "Brian. Knock it out with quick attack!" The Pidgey swooped in and dived directly at the Smeargle boss, aiming for an even quicker finish.

"Hawk! Follow through with a Quick Attack too!" Melody called out.

Hawk swooped down as orded, following behind Vincent's Pidgey in an attempt to completely overpower the Pokémon. The Smeargle seemed to remain perfectly calm, however. It took hold of its tail, pointing it forward at the two bird Pokémon before suddenly an electrifying blast of lightning shot forth from the tip. The bolt quickly zapped its way towards Brian and Hawk, clashing with both of the birds to give them both the shock of their lives!

"Hawk!" Melody cried out as both the birds began to fall from the sky towards the ground below. The girl quickly took her Tailow's Pokéball, withdrawing him just in time before he would have hit the hard floor of the ruins. "How did it do that? I didn't think Smeargle was an electric type!"

Vincent felt his teeth grind as he silently withdrew the defeated Pidgey, following Melody's lead. "I take it Smeargles can copy moves or something." Vincent looked at Excalibur and Hanzo. "We are going to need a plan."

All the wild Smeargle had turned their attention to the larger one, including the ones that had been cornering Aberdeen. Looking to his side, Ab realized that if he was really quiet, he could sneak away and reach the way they had come. He could escape!

Of course, he would never do that when his buddies (or whatever Vincent could be called) were still in trouble here. So instead, he decided it was time for the plan he had scrapped earlier. Hopefully it would yield more useful chaos than deal damage to themselves.

Bending down carefully, he whispered in Whismur's ear: "Uproar, buddy."

All the nerves that had kept the bunny shaking for the last couple of minutes were now rapidly released into one critical attack. With only Chespin and Aberdeen covering their ears in time, and Pidgey doing what she could to motion to Honedge to fly up and away from the horrible, resonating screeches that the tiny creature gave out, the scene was suddenly turned upside down.

The Smeargles all began to squirm and fidget as the loud, wailing, screeching Whismur began to unleash his ear-destroying, sound-based attack. Aberdeen looked quickly at the different parts of the scene in front of him. The wild pokémon were confused, but so were likely Vincent and Melody too, if not in pain even. Well, probably. The good thing was that nobody was really prepared for any kind of attack right now. But Aberdeen had pokémon who were.

Honedge seemed annoyed rather than hurt, where she and Pidgey hovered in the air close to the ceiling. How rude of the human boy to release something like this all of a sudden! But what had annoyed her the most ever since she entered the room silently behind the rash boy and his companions was the fact that a horde, a full horde of Smeargle were nesting so close to what she had previously called her own territory. Well, she still called it her own territory. She was just in a pretty peculiar situation right now, with this boy and his magic sphere and all. The only thing she was clear of at this point was that the Whismur deserved a distinct slap later, and that the big fat Smeargle towering over the other two humans deserved a distinct slap right now.

As Whismur's uproar finally began to fade, the large Smeargle was visibly angry compared to its composed demeanor earlier, but just as it recovered, something hit it hard in the back of its head. It stumbled forward, half stunned from surprise. Behind it, an angry Honedge whirred in the air after a well aimed Tackle.

"AB! Next time you do something like that, warn me!" Vincent roared in the general direction at Aberdeen, his ears ringing. Unable to gauge the volume of his voice only added to the anger that seethed from his voice. Hanzo also leered at Aberdeen, clearly not pleased with the young boy and cotninuing to be in sync with his trainer as always. Both shook their heads and unclogged their ears and glared at the Smeargle boss, gauging the field.

Melody cupped her hands with her ears. She was grateful... and slightly annoyed at the same time. At the very least, Aberdeen had managed to get the Smeargle king's attention off of Blossom, Vincent, and herself. Taking note of this turn of events, the girl glanced down at her daze Chikorita, gently tapping her shoulder to try and get her attention.

"E-Easy, Blossom..." Melody whispered, still feeling as if she had a slight ringing noise in her ears. "I know you're a bit... well, probably a lot annoyed right now. "But this is the moment we need! Go in there and charge that Smeargle with all you got!"

Blossom shook her head, manaing to regain her most of hercomposure before chirping in agreement with Melody's command. The Chikorita began to dash forward, clearly taking advantage of the distracted state of all the Smeargle. However as Blossom dashed forward, Melody began to notice something... different about the Chikorita.

"Is she... Why is she glowin' like that?" Melody wondered.

Her eyes went wide as a bright light errupted forth, completely engulfing Blossom as she moved. The light began to slowly grow bigger, causing Melody to shield her eyes. Then, almost as soon as it had started, the light faded. Slowly, Melody lowered her arm, gasping at the sight of a larger, unknown Pokémon slamming her body into the Smeargle king with great power.

From his corner of the hall, Aberdeen witnessed the event and understood exactly what was happening at last. The smeargle around him were unsure of whether to focus on their suddenly happy enemy or glance nervously back at their king.

"W-What... What is that?" Melody whispered, staring at the Pokémon in wonder. "Wait, where's... is that... Blossom?!"

Upon hearing her name, Blossom slowly looked up and smiled proudly at Melody. She took a small step forward, turning her back to the Smeargle king to give her trainer a special little pose, as if showing off the fact that she had not only managed to deal a rather nasty blow to the leader of the Smeargle horde, but she had managed to do with class by evolving!

"...Oh... my... GAWD! THIS IS SO COOL!" Melody practically shouted in amazement.

The Smeargle king regained it's composure soon enough, picking itself off the ground and leering at the evolved Blossom with disdain. It's red painted tail glowed and glowed, gaining more and more power with each passing second. There was a fiery aura around. Vincent almost immediately figured out what it was doing. So it can copy moves. And it knows Blossom's weakness. Just like it did with Brian and her bird thing. Vincent wasn't exactly sure what to do for a brief second, but it dawned on him. It's a foolish slip up on Vincent's part to be fair. Then again, it was a long day. Hanzo was a water type. He could easily deflect this attack and soften up the Smeargle for Blossom, the now much stronger Pokemon, to finish off the Pokemon. Vincent didn't like that fact. He'd have to train much harder to regain his pride.

"Hanzo? Where did you go?" Vincent looked around his feet and couldn't find his Pokemon. Vincent was worried. Did the same thing happen to Hanzo that happened to Melody? No. Hanzo wasn't stupid. Did he get beat? No. Hanzo was tougher than that. The Smeargle's attack flourished in a bright flame. It was ready to launch. Blossom wasn't going to dodge that. The Smeargle took aim with what appear to be some sort of small fire blast. But then, a bright flash of light seemed to strike the Smeargle with blinding speed and accuracy. The Smeargle went down on the ground, it's body limp on the ground before sitting up dazed and bruised. Looming over the Smeargle and then looking back at Vincent was a taller, thinner and more refined frog-like Pokemon.

"Hanzo?" The Pokemon nodded and copied Vincent's intense smirk. Vincent looked over at Melody. "Looks like Hanzo copied your little trick."

"Well, I always heard it was better to be a leader, Vinny!" Melody replied. The girl felt a lot more confident about their situation now. With both Hanzo and Blossom being evolved, there was no way that they were going to lose against the Smeargle king and its horde now. She returned her focus to her Bayleef, giving the Pokémon a broad smile. "Alright, Blossom! It's time to finish this thing! Blast it with your Razor Leaf!"

Blossom jumped back, smiling widely as she did so. The leaves around her neck began to spin around quickly, before they flew of in a furious storm. They cut straight towards the over-sized Smeargle, slicing at him with the same, razor-sharp edges as always!

Aberdeen's Honedge was still there in the heat of things and decided that the evolved pokémon wouldn't have all the fun for themselves. She let out an ear-piercing sound that sounded a bit like a metallic version of Whismur's trademark attack, but of course it was much more elegant. Metal Sound didn't hurt everyone in the room, but was directed at the largest Smeargle and the minions around him, making him much less defensive against the next oncoming attack.

"Let's finish this then! Hanzo, use Water Pulse!" Vincent yelled seeing that the Smeargle was taken aback from Blossom's flurry and Honedge's noises. Hanzo charged up energy in his mouth and launched an aquatic pulse of energy, colliding with the Smeargle launching into the cavern walls. Despite the fury of the battle around them, the room for a moment fell silent.

The Smeargle king stood no chance against the combined attack. And when he fell, so did apparently the spirit of the rest of the horde. In the nick of time, Aberdeen would have said. Chespin, Whismur and Pidgey had kept trying to hold back the Smeargle with various attacks, but all of them had ended up tied with tails over their mouths to prevent them from calling out for help. Not that the war-blinded Vincent and Melody would have listened to their cries anyways, Aberdeen thought as they were finally released now when the wild Smeargle instead hurried to their leader's side and carried him away through some other corridor. The humans and their pokémon were now alone in the room at last.

The three trainers made their way back to the entrance of the ruins, where they were met by security guards and an endlessly worried tour guide who talked incoherently all the way back to the museum at the edge of the Alph area. There though, he went away for a minute and then came back, shoving glittering, colorful stones in each of Vincent's, Aberdeen's and Melody's hands. Apparently they were valuable and he wanted to give them to the trainers as a reward for helping him finding the tour group again... And also sort of to bribe them into not telling the rest of the world how dangerous the ruins could actually be.

Vincent stashed the stone in his bag, content to look at his loot later. He shrugged, waved a bye/thank you to the tour guide, essentially accepting the bribe with no questions. Vincent forced a handshake with Aberdeen, somewhat thanking him for the help in the caves (as much as he didn't enjoy the small boy's company) and made his way south to the next route. After all, he was in a rush to get nowhere.

You guys farmed Smeargle as if they were Goblins in Diablo II :p Sure, they were lv 12 and you guys were closer to lv 15 most of the time, but just know that I won't always give levels for each pokémon you claim to plow down like that :] And don't ask how Napoleon got a level. He watched it all very closely from his pokéball or something, yes yes.

Aberdeen
Chespin grew to lv 17!
Pidgey grew to lv 16!
Whismur grew to lv 16!
Honedge grew to lv 12!

Melody
Blossom grew to lv 18 and wants to learn Reflect! Forget an old move?
Napoleon grew to lv 16!
Hawk grew to lv 15 and learned Wing Attack!

Vincent
Hanzo grew to lv 18!
Brian grew to lv 16!
Excalibur grew to lv 13 and learned Pursuit!

Sarah and Christina - Ruins of Alph​

After Christina had said goodbye to Blaine, she stretched her arms out over her head, glancing a little upwards at the still rumbling, dark clouds above with a light frown on her lips. "It's probably going to rain soon... come on Sindy, we better hurry if we wanna stay dry."

Sindy, nodding her head softly, began waddling faster, half-running towards the museum building coming up about five minutes away. However, as Christina began picking up the pace, she blinked a little and looked over to the left. It looked like... a shoe? A pair of shoes in fact.

Widening her eyes slowly, she turned and ran over towards the large boulder with Sindy suddenly turning around to follow her trainer with a confused squeak. As Christina rounded the rock, she gasped, seeing the young girl laying on the ground. Hurrying over, she knelt down by her side, gently gripping her shoulders and giving the girl a light shake. "H-hey! Hey, are you okay? Say something!"

Sarah's eyes opened slowly and she let out a light groan as she was being shook. Her eyes continued to open slowly before they shot open once she remembered what had happened. She lunged forward and looked all around but her attackers were nowhere to be found. She let out a small sigh of relief when she couldn't see the goons anymore but her eyes lit up like fire when she remembered what they had done.

She shook her head free of these thoughts and looked over at the girl who had shaken her awake. She looked to be about the same age as Sarah perhaps a bit older, she had long red hair and a belt which sported several Poke balls. She was definitely a trainer, although the small Cyndaquil which was beside her was a dead giveaway. She blinked her eyes several times in order to regain her vision as quickly as she could. Her breathing was slow and heavy, she had to try and catch her breath again before she attempted to do anything else. She took a few more breaths before she spoke in a soft yet out of breath tone.

"Thanks for helping me. Do you have any idea how long I've been out for?"

Looking rather worried with the girl who'd just woken up, Christina smiled lightly, shaking her head. "I don't really know, I only just came walking past and saw you. Are you alright? What happened?"

Sarah's eyes widened when she heard that Christina had only just gotten here. She quickly reached down and checked to make sure her Poke balls were still there, those goons could have snatched them once Sarah hit the ground. Luckily both of them were still there and see cracked a smile and puffed out her cheeks once she seen them. She turned back to Christina, still as breathless as before and started to explain the scenario.

"Well I was just visiting the museum because I was curious to see what was there. So after I'd finished in there I noticed two shady looking people hiding behind this rock over here so I ran over and confronted them. Turns out they had a bunch of stolen stuff from the museum and they were trying to take off with it. We ended up in a Pokémon battle which I would have won until one of them had their Koffing use poison gas … on me! I fell to the ground, my vision was blurry and my breathing was heavy, there wasn't much I could do. Soon after I just faded to black and next thing I know I'm being woken up by you. Quite an ordeal huh? It's too bad those crooks got away."

Sarah's vision and normal rate of breathing began to slowly return. She continued to blink her eyes and take deep breaths in an attempt to regain her composure.

"Poison gas?" Christina replied, her eyes wide. Sindy was stood next to the other girl, looking rather worried up at her while gently nudging the leg with her side. Christina's brows furrowed worriedly, folding her arms across her chest. "And some goons who stole a lot of stuff... right. Well, I'm glad you seem to be okay, but maybe you should head to the museum or the nearby Center further down the route and make sure you're alright. Do you have a Pokégear? Might want to report it to the police."

She paused before smiling at the girl again, offering her hand. "I'm Christina, by the way."

Sarah smiled and lifted her hand off the ground in order to meet Christina's. With a heave Christina raised herself onto her feet before pulling Sarah up onto hers. "Thanks!" Sarah said before she lowered her head and dusted her now dirty clothes in an attempt to make them less filthy. She let out a small sigh when she saw that the dirt on her clothes wasn't moving an inch. She stopped this futile effort and raised her head back up towards Christina.

"Maybe I should go to the Pokémon Center. I gotta see if I can get a change of clothes somewhere. What are you planning on doing Christina?"

"I think I'm gonna wait and see if it's actually going to rain. It looks a bit uncertain, but I don't really have a jacket or anything." The red-headed girl tilted her head back and glanced up at the darkened skies, wrinkling her nose a little before looking back down at Sarah with a smile.

"In either case, it's good to see you're alright. Are you gonna be okay on your own?"

"I should be, as long as nothing happens to me on the way of course" Sarah replied as she let out a small giggle. The weather was getting considerably worse as time progressed, it's a shame she didn't have a jacket either. As much as she was enjoying some company for once, they would soon have to part ways. Sarah needed to clean herself up as well as heal her damaged Pokémon and Christina sounded like she's gonna wait around the ruins to avoid being caught in the rain, smart move … but one that Sarah couldn't undertake at this moment.

"Yeah, no worries. Someone back in the town said the center isn't far off, it's just south past the lake." Christina commented, glancing along the route swerving through the ruined buildings towards the south, where the forest began once again. Turning to the blonde girl, Chris smiled and nodded firmly. "Well, in either case, it was nice meeting you Sarah. I hope we can meet up again sometime when things are less... you know, rainy and busy." She offered the girl a grin before making her way towards the museum as she turned and gave her a wave, the Cyndaquil scurrying after her trainer with a squeak. "See you around Sarah!"

"See you around Christina! Thanks again!" Sarah shouted as she watched her rescuer run off towards the museum. Sarah let out a sigh and then a groan, her clothes were dirty, her vision still wasn't perfect and the sky was still darkened with black clouds. She made sure that everything which she had previously was still there as well as checking her Poke balls a second time before lazily jogging towards the exit of the Alph Ruins and towards the Violet City Pokémon Center.

If it wasn't for that girl who knows how much longer I would have stayed knocked out for. I owe her one, hopefully I get to see her again so I pay her back thought Sarah as she continued to jog along.

Christina had mentioned going to the police and reporting those crooks which attacked her ... but that wasn't going to happen at all. Sarah wanted revenge and the frown which appeared on her forehead was a clear indication of this as she exited the Alph Ruins and headed towards Violet City.

Sarah dashed all the back to Violet City and entered into the Pokémon Center that was there. She rushed up to the desk and started to talk to the nurse behind the counter. After a brief exchange, Sarah handed over her Poke balls and was told that there would be a change of clothes for her in one of the small rooms that the Pokémon Center used to treat injured trainers. She headed down a small hall and headed into one of the rooms, closing the door behind her.

A brief while later the door swung open and Sarah emerged with a new set of clothes on. They didn't fit her exactly, they were just ever so slightly too big but they would have to do for now. She came back up the hall and she approached the front desk once again. The nurse smiled at her and handed Sarah back her Poke balls. The nurse insisted that she leave her dirty clothes here and that they would send it back home for her to be cleaned. Agreeing Sarah handed over the dirty clothes and he thanked the nurse, even giving her some money for the new clothes before she turned on her heel and walked outside the Pokémon Center.

The inevitable rain storm had finally arrived and it was spitting down throughout the town. The rain along with the dark clouds made for a very depressing, dull setting. It probably wasn't a great idea to try and head to the next city right now but Sarah decided to chance it. It was starting to get dark, she probably wouldn't make it in time but a little camping never hurt anyone. She used to do it all the time with her father when she was just a little girl. Sarah took off her jacket and threw it over her head and started to run out of the town.

This is a really stupid idea! I'm gonna get soaked thought Sarah as she legged it towards the town exit. I have to try and catch up with them goons from the Ruins though. I am not letting them get away.

Not too far away from her, Aberdeen wasn't exactly pleased with the rain, but he also wasn't going to complain. Heading out in the early evening onto a supposedly long road south after a thunderstorm when light rain and increasing wind danced around him was exactly the kind of risk he set out on this journey to expose himself to. Unfortunately, his pokémon weren't as accepting as he was and even Honedge had craved to get inside her pokéball after only minutes on the road. So Aberdeen walked the sandy road himself, hood up over his normally wild brown hair which was now a bit wet already. He would need to get a proper raincoat, he realized. Not that it would fit in his bag. Perhaps he'd just have to risk getting a cold as well. Oh well.

He kept to the road, but glanced sideways now and then at the tall grass lining the path. Wild pokémon weren't affected much by this gentle rain, so they were still roaming about, sometimes stopping to look and take a sniff at the human walking on the road. Carefully, cautiously.

And Aberdeen did have an urge to try and battle some of them. Getting Honedge onto his team had been thrilling somehow. He wanted even more pokémon. Partners, friends, battlemates. He was convinced that his adventure would be infinitely better with loads of interesting pokémon around him than if he traveled alone.

Just as he stopped and grabbed one of the occupied pokéballs on his belt, ready to step off the road after all and crawl closer to a group of pokémon playing close to the trees of a nearby forest... Someone crashed into him from behind.

Sarah was knocked to the ground and the coat protecting her hair flew off and landed a few feet away from her. She adjusted her vision and seen that she had knocked into a boy. Her clumsiness along with the fact that she wasn't even looking where she was going meant that this was all Sarah's fault.

I hope he's okay …. You know, he isn't half bad looking thought Sarah as she continued to look at the boy from the ground. She shook her head free of these thoughts before she spoke in a low, gentle tone.

"I'm really sorry. Are you okay?"

Aberdeen tried to shake some mud off his pants and then looked at the person who had knocked him over. It was just a girl. At least it wasn't a dangerous wild pokémon!

"Yeah, no worries," he said with a smile of his own. "I was already wet from the rain so what's a bit of mud! Here," he added and reached out a hand to help her up. "I was just thinking of going out into the tall grass to find some pokémon but it was probably a bad idea in this weather so maybe it's a good thing you ran into me and stopped me!"

Sarah reached up and met Aberdeen's hand and heaved herself up of the ground. She started to dust herself off as best she could and tried to make herself look somewhat presentable, a difficult task given the current situation she found herself in.

She half expected the boy to be livid about the fact that Sarah knocked into him but he seemed rather pleasant, he actually didn't seem to mind at all. Sarah finished dusting herself off before she straightened herself up and looked over at Aberdeen.

"Looking for some Pokémon in this weather seems like a bad idea alright. Any idea where we can get some shelter" Sarah quizzed as she smiled at Aberdeen, trying her best to shield herself from the rain at the same time.

Ab looked around but scrunched up his face. "Nah... Don't seem to be much else than open road and grass and cliffs here. Besides, I gotta get going south before it gets too dark. I'm on a journey, you see. And a little rain doesn't scare me." He smiled at Sarah. "I'm Aberdeen, by the way. I'm just guessing that you are traveling too? Since this isn't exactly the place to wander out casually to on a rainy evening."

"Yeah, I'm travelling as well, with my Pokémon of course and I gotta head south too, although I don't think I'll make it to the next city in time. Looks like I'll be camping out" Sarah replied with a smile.

"And as for the rain. The only harm it does me, is that it messes up my hair." She added with a small chuckle as she pushed her now soaking wet fringe to the side.

He's pretty cute, friendly too … Come on stop thinking like that Sarah! Focus! Stop getting distracted, we have to find those crooks from the museum.

Aberdeen blinked away some raindrops and watched her for a second. She hadn't introduced herself back, so perhaps she was the reserved kind. But she talked and giggled like a very friendly person. Ab suddenly got an urge to find out more about her, because the way through which he could do that coincided with another thing he itched to do right now...

"So, if you are a trainer... Let's have a little battle!" he suggested in an eager tone. "Right here, right now. The only harm the rain does is that it messes up our hair, right?" he added with a wink.

Sarah looked at Aberdeen with a puzzled look. He certainly wasn't shy about asking a stranger for a battle that's for sure. Sarah blinked for a few seconds before a cheeky smile appeared on her face.

"A battle? Okay then. First of all though, how many Pokémon do you have? I only have two."

Aberdeen found himself counting on his finger for a moment. "Uh... Four. I have four pokémon! I'm not that great though so don't worry, but we can use only one or two if you like."

"Now why would I go ahead and give you an advantage like that? Pick two Pokémon and let's keep it fair," Sarah replied as she winked at Aberdeen with a smile.

"Of course," Ab shrugged and glanced around them on the dirt road. There weren't any other travelers in sight. "Right here's good enough, right? We can send out our pokémon at the same time to make things extra fair!"

"Sounds good" Sarah said as she reached down and unclipped two Poke balls from her belt. She smiled down at them before tossing the two spheres onto the ground, revealing her Fennekin and a Poliwag which stood poised for battle.

"So let's see what you got, Aberdeen!"

She sent out both her pokémon at once? That wasn't what he meant. But Aberdeen shrugged and unclipped two of this own pokéballs from his belt. A Honedge and Chespin came out, the former buzzing in annoyance at the rain and the latter opening up his toothy mouth to catch raindrops happily.

"I meant that we would pick our pokémon and send it out at the same time so that no one could pick theirs with a type advantage in mind," Aberdeen clarified and scratched the back of his head. "Now that's kind of hard to avoid. But since I'm the challenger, I'll pick pokémon first. Honedge, I choose you!"

Chespin backed up to stand behind his trainer's feet while Honedge pulled her blade from the sheath in a battle ready stance in the air in front of him.

That's a strange looking Pokémon, I've never seen one of those before thought Sarah as she looked towards the floating Sword.

"I think I'll go with Poliwag for this one" said Sarah as she looked over at Ab. Fennekin took a few steps back and snuggled up to Sarah's feet while Poliwag stood inside the makeshift arena, ready for the battle which was about to commence.

Sarah looked over at Ab once again but this time she clenched her fist tight. Clenching her fist was a habit that she had gotten into because of her father. He used to do it when he battled and she now followed suit.

"I hope your ready Aberdeen, cause I'm not gonna go easy on you!" shouted Sarah.

"Okay," Aberdeen shrugged with a smile, not really worried. "Honedge, use that cool Swords Dance!"

Honedge glared at him, still a bit angry that she would have to take orders. But then her eye rolled and the other one that was facing Poliwag sharpened as she started whirling the sheath around her while waving her blade mysteriously up and down in the rainy wind. A strange gleam came from the pokémon. Aberdeen figured that must be the move powering her up.

What kinda command was that? "cool Swords Dance". This guy doesn't seem too worried about this battle. thought Sarah as she watched the Honedge dance from side to side in the rain.

"Poliwag use hypnosis!" shouted Sarah before the small Pokémon closed its eyes and small circular wave's started to appear from the swirl on its belly. The waves lazily floated towards Honedge on the other side of the field. Sarah waited anxiously for Ab's response. Time to see if he's taking this seriously or not.

As the waves hit Honedge, she stopped her twirling dance and blinked as if shocked. Then her eyelids slowly started drooping... until Aberdeen smacked her back into an awakened state with his voice.

"Oi! You are a ghost sword! How can ghosts or swords even fall asleep?" his sharp voice rang through the light rain.

Honedge shook her head and blinked several times. Right. True that. No time for sleeping. The rest of the waves bounced off her steel blade.

"That's more like it," Aberdeen nodded. "Now make use of that dance. Fury Cutter!"

The sword pokémon now lunged forward through the air to reach the water pokémon with a swift and almost careful swing of her blade.

The swift swing of Honedge's blade came swooping down and slashed Poliwag right across the center of his body breaking the Pokémon's concentration and also knocking it over.

What?! That move should have worked. At least it always has in the past. Maybe this guy is better than I thought ... either way I gotta get an attack in now

"Poliwag! Let's go. Use Water Gun" The small tadpole pokémon got back up onto his feet before firing a solid stream of water towards the Honedge.

It hit straight on and almost knocked Honedge's sheath out of her textile arm... or whatever her piece of cloth should be referred to. The force of the stream had also blistered her a bit, and despite having rain all around her already, it didn't hurt any less.

"Wow, that was powerful!" Aberdeen commended. "You'll have to be swifter. Keep going!"

Honedge didn't waste any more time glaring at her opponent and already before Ab had said the command she was heading forward again, this time swinging her blade with a bit more force, spurred on by the power of the Swords Dance.

The attack once again hit Poliwag, although this time with a lot more force. The little pokémon was swept right off his feet and launched much further back this time. Sarah gritted her teeth and watched her poor pokémon struggle to raise itself back up. Poliwag stood up but it was clear to see that the attack had taken its toll.

"Poliwag, don't give up on me now. I know you still have some fight left in you. Attack with Water Gun one more time"

Poliwag positioned himself back into the field and locked its sights on Honedge. He frowned before shooting another solid stream of water towards Honedge.

Again, Honedge had the will and guts to take the attack straight on. Unfortunately, she didn't have the power to withstand the blistering water. When the attack subsided, Aberdeen found his pokémon swaying in the air before plumping down onto the wet ground.

"Oh no," he said and walked up to her. He carefully slid her blade back into the sheath she still clasped hard with her blue cloth. "Well, we've gotta work a bit on your speed I think. But you were really cool indeed with that Sword Dance!" he said and stroke Honedge gently with a smile before sending her back inside her pokéball and stepping back to Chespin.

"That was my newest pokémon," he shrugged. "She's pretty cool though, isn't she?"

"You're telling me! I've never even seen that pokémon before, so yeah she's definitely pretty cool" Sarah said as she smiled over at Ab.

Looks like the next pokémon is gonna be his Chespin. That adorable little thing! It's just so cute. Sarah mumbled to herself with her grin widening as the thoughts passed through her mind.

She looked down at Poliwag and could see that he was clearly hurt. It was probably wise to switch out here but Poliwag still had some fight left and could inflict some quick damage before Ab's grass type knocks him out. That quick damage would definitely soften up Chespin for Fennekin.

"I assume you're going with your Chespin now then?" Sarah shouted across to Ab.

"Yeah, that's the plan. He's my first pokémon. And he fights... a bit differently from Honedge," Ab replied and shot a smile down at Chespin, who winked back, both of them remembering the odd battle at Violet gym. "You're not keeping Poliwag in battle, are you?" he then added towards Sarah, an eyebrow raised.

"Hmm, maybe I shouldn't. He's pretty beat up. Maybe I should retreat him yeah." Sarah replied as she reached down and grabbed Poliwag's poke ball from her belt. She shot the beam of red light towards Poliwag which retracted him back into the poke ball. She smiled for a second before she clipped the ball back onto her belt.

"Alright Fennekin, you're up. So then … my first pokemon against your first pokemon. Let's do this Aberdeen."

Fennekin let out a little squeak before it skipped away from Sarah's feet and headed onto the battlefield. Sarah had to redeem herself after that humiliating defeat at the hands of team rocket. Her father would be most unimpressed if he knew that she let herself get defeated like that. She would have to get stronger in order to take them on again, and her training started here ... with Ab.

Aberdeen thought about how to do this for a moment. Attack head on and try to defeat the fox before it blew fire? Or go the slow and steady and trickier way. As he thought that, a smile crept onto his face. As if it even was a choice. One option was much more fun than the other. Besides, the rain made the grass pokémon feel eager while it might dull Fennekin's will over time.

"Chespin... Try avoiding any fire, okay?" he said before calling out the first order, curious about how Sarah would handle it. "Use Leech Seed!"

Chespin quickly shot out glowing seeds from his mouth which flew towards the Fennekin in the rain, ready to latch onto its fur and bind in with its energy sucking powers.

"Quick Fennekin, burn those seeds before they hit you. Use Ember" shouted Sarah as the seeds raced towards the pokémon.

Fennekin lowered herself down and growled before releasing a stream of fire from her mouth. The fire soared across the field and made contact with the seeds in the middle. The contact resulted in a small ball of fire being created in the center between the two pokémon. The small ball erupted launching heat all across the field. It wasn't anything major, just a small increase in heat for a few seconds before the weather carried it away.

Chespin smiled wider, challengingly. A smart opponent, eh?

"Okay, different strategy," Aberdeen decided. "Rollout!"

Chespin obeyed immediately, as usual, and curled up into a ball with his thick back skin facing outwards. The jump he took just before helped him build up speed as he rolled quickly towards Fennekin on the dirty road.

But only a second later, Aberdeen shouted something else: "Turn left!"

Again, Chespin obeyed without question, albeit desperately trying to figure out his trainer's plan as he kept rolling in a circle around the fox instead. But aberdeen smiled broadly. "Just like that, keep going!"

Hmm … what's he playing at? Why didn't he just hit Fennekin straight on with that Rollout? thought Sarah as she watched Chespin circle around Fennekin like a hungry vulture circles around its prey.

"Nothing else for it. Fennekin, time to heat things up with Flame Charge!" she shouted as she continued to watch Chespin roll around and around.

Fennekin once again lowered herself down before her body was coated with a layer of flames. Chespin was moving fast, there was no guarantee that this attack would hit but it was worth a shot at least. Fennekin watched Chespin circle around her several times before she lunged forward.

Despite Chespin's speed at this point, the attack hit and knocked him back and made him hit a tree close to the road. He bounced back and up into the air, but Aberdeen could see the trail of smoke behind him and the slightly burnt skin, and frowned. Clever moves or not, Chespin was still a rather fragile grass pokémon when faced with someone who could summon fire. They would have to be swift.

Almost running closer to the battle himself in an urge to stand with his pokémon, Aberdeeen shouted: "Strike Fennekin with Rollout!"

Chespin still had focus and like any pokémon used to using the Rollout move, he could manuever well enough. The spinning, slightly fizzing ball of spiky skin came tumbling down towards Fennekin from above.

Chespin landed straight down on top of Fennekin which knocked the poor pokémon down onto the ground with the force from the attack. The small fox pokémon slowly raised herself back onto her feet before waiting for Sarah's command. Rollout had landed a mighty hit on Fennekin, the pokémon's heavy breathing and struggle to remain upright was a clear indication of this. Weakness to fire or not, Chespin was strong and so was his trainer Ab. These guys weren't messing around, Sarah's previous thought about Ab not taking the battle seriously was soon retracted.

"Just hang in there Fennekin! Use Ember" shouted Sarah as she clenched her fist even tighter.

Her eyes light up with passion as she watched Fennekin fire the stream of flames towards Chespin who was now back on Ab's side of the field. It was one thing to lose a battle but to lose two in a row was something she would be deeply upset over, not to mention her father as well.

"Keep rolling, straight ahead!" Aberdeen shouted almost immediately, his usual cheerful demeanor suddenly gone. The words he had learned at the trainer academy and violet gym echoed in him. He had to try to win. Regardless if he succeeded or not.

Chespin really wanted to hold up and breathe, but once again he loyally obeyed and rolled to face the Ember head-on. The Rollout attack shot through the scorching flames, heading straight for the fox again.

"NO!" shouted Sarah as Chespin came flying through the flames parting them in half and headed straight for Fennekin.

"Dodge it Fennekin" she added as fast as she could but alas it was too late. Chespin came crashing into Fennekin with a lot more force this time and knocked the little fox back to Sarah's feet. The little fox lay there motionless. Fennekin was knocked out … Aberdeen was the winner.

"No … " Sarah muttered as she reached down and pulled Fennekin's poke ball off her belt before shooting the red beam at her which returned her back inside the ball.

She could feel her eyes welling up a she held Fennekin's ball in her hand. She placed the ball back on her belt and put on a brave face as she raised her head up and looked over at Ab. She had lost … twice in a row. She felt so embarrassed, what would her father say if he saw this? She swallowed a lump in her throat and tried to keep the tears at bay.

But on the other side of the field, a Chespin in pain stumbled backwards before it finally fell down and became silent. Aberdeen rushed up to him.

"Chespin... Oh, fire's too much for you still. Don't worry pal. You did great in battle." He sent the little creature back into its pokéball before standing up and smiling with a sigh at Sarah, whisking away some annoying drops falling from his fringe.

"That was fun!" he said to her. "Seems it's a draw between Fennekin and Chespin... But since your Poliwag knocked out my Honedge, I suppose we could call you the actual winner! How about that, eh?"

He beamed towards her, admittedly feeling a little sting from not having bested this trainer with Chespin nor Honedge. But he wasn't going to let that put him down. He never did.

Ab's Chespin fainted … it was a draw. Sarah looked on in shock as Ab returned Chespin to his ball. A draw was certainly better than losing. She quickly dried her eyes as best she could, hoping that Ab didn't notice her.

To her surprise Ab actually classed her as the winner because of Poliwag knocking out his Honedge. She had completely forgotten, Poliwag was still able to battle, he was weak sure but he could still stand on two feet. Sarah couldn't help but smile as she walked over towards Ab. Both of them we're now soaking at this point. It mattered little to Sarah though, she just had the best battle in ages so she wasn't too worried about the rain.

She walked up and stood in front of Ab before speaking. Her eyes faintly glistening from the tears previously, she just hoped he wouldn't pay attention to that.

"Thank you Aberdeen. That was the best battle I've had yet. You fought well and it's kind of you to say that I'm the victor but I just don't feel right accepting that. Sure Poliwag can still battle but I think I'm gonna go ahead and call it a draw. You fought well if not better than me, if it wasn't for Fennekin I would have lost that battle for sure. Thank you. So ... I guess this is where we part ways?"

Aberdeen watched the girl without saying anything for a few seconds, then nodded, still with a kind smile. "Okay then. A draw it is. And yeah... I suppose. But before you go..." He let out a little laugh. "What's your name?"

"My name? Oh I didn't tell you my name. Silly me. I'm Sarah. Maybe I'll meet you again someday, Aberdeen? Then we can battle again, but we'll be ready for each other," Sarah replied with a smile but also shying away due to embarrassment of forgetting to tell Ab her name.

"Sarah!" Aberdeen said, as if tasting the name. "I like it! We'll definitely meet again. Thanks again for the battle, Sarah!"

And with one last bright smile and shake of his rain-wet head, he pulled his hood back up and left the road to go east. But this time it wasn't to find a wild pokémon to battle. It was getting darker and he'd better find some place to put up his tent before he couldn't see anything at all.

Sarah watched Ab drift further into the distance before she herself decided to head south. Heading south would take her to the next gym and hopefully she'd get a lead on her attackers at the museum there. She looked up to the sky, made sure she had her pokémon with her before she started jogging south.

-----------------
Sarah pressed a button on her watch and a blue police phonebox started to slowly appear in front of her. It was of course the Tardis! She jumped into the Tardis and slowly started to fade away. She and her pokémon headed off on their next adventure, what time period? No-one knows yet. Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z ...

Blaine: Crazy Fishermen!​

With the approaching dark clouds quickly gathering over the route Blaine had been doing his best to hurry along and get to the next town. However his map app showed that they were still some distance away. On checking the time to arrive he could only groan. He was going to get wet, that was it. He was going to get VERY wet. Thankfully as he ran along he did catch sight of what appeared to be a small shack. In fact, as he got closer he realized that he was on one end of a bridge. The red planks were already starting to be splattered by the rain drops and Blaine was already feeling the back of his shirt starting to get rather wet. He made a beeline to the small building and saw that it had a edging around the roof that would give him a bit of solace from the rain thankfully enough.

For Derpy he was playing around in the cool atmosphere… if playing meant rolling eagerly into the wet mud that was forming around him and completely coating his green body in the thick gunk. Even worse was when the water type began to make his way over to him.

"Hey, stay back!" Blaine said as he backed away, "Don't you DARE give me that look!"

The totodile's eyes glittered more and then… he pounced! He ended up smacking into the wall where he left a large muddy imprint on it. "TOTO!" The totodile wasn't that easily swayed out of his current activity as he began chasing his trainer around the shack. Blaine had longer legs and thus could, theoretically at least, be able to outpace Derpy quite easily. That wasn't the case at all as Derpy was bundled with energy and he jumped up and clung to his trainer's back.

"Come on Derpy!" Blaine protested as the water type rubbed himself against the fabric before dropping off and went to stand back in the rain. Blaine just groaned as he felt the cool wetness of the mud sinking past his clothes. He shuddered and found he had no choice now as he went out to the rain and tried to use that at least to clean off his clothing. Of course, as he stepped out it was only natural that he would end up bumping into someone, and that someone happened to be a middle aged man who had a fishing rod slung over one shoulder and wore a shirt that had all sorts of fish related stuff attached to it. He wasn't sure what most of it meant, but there were small plastic fish, some hooks, and other similar items clinging to it as he even had a hat with hooks that hung from the edges of it.

"Ah, another trainer coming through huh?" He asked with a cheery smile.

Blaine nodded at the question, "Yeah… don't trainers come through here?" He asked.

"They do, lots of them." The man said, "The name's Ellwood and most trainers pass us by. You see, we offer a challenge to trainers. Think you can take on a challenge?"

Blaine was about to speak when Derpy jumped up before him, gurgling wildly.

Ellwood chuckled, "Seems that you have one mon who is interested. The challenge is more along a marathon in a way. The rest of the guys are ahead on the bridge. I won't tell you how many, but we are lean and mean! We won't be pushovers to any trainer taking the challenge. If you can beat all of us, then you'll be getting… THIS!" He held out the rod he had slung over his shoulder, "This, my boy, is an old rod. This will help you actually fish out pokemon from lakes and most of those mon you can't find on dry land!"

Blaine looked down at Derpy who was happily nodding his head up and down at the idea, "Uh… sure." He said. "I can take your challenge."

"Excellent!" Ellwood said as he flashed a thumbs up at Blaine. "let me just get the boys set up. In about a minute or two head across the bridge and the challenge shall begin! Oh, when you start the challenge you can't back off and, say, head to a pokemon center mid challenge. You must complete it all in one go, else you'll have to restart right from the beginning! And to properly demonstrate your ability to take care of water type pokemon you'll only be allowed to use water types in this challenge." Ellwood headed across the bridge, his figure soon disappearing thanks to the heavy downpour now coming down.

Blaine took that minute of preparation to quickly head back under shelter as Derpy followed. "So… I can only use you then." Derpy seemed to take that idea very well as he jumped about happily. Blaine chuckled softly and looked over at the bridge that was sill covered in rain, "Hopefully this will clear the drizzle up." He said. "I don't think getting a cold out here would be good for our progress."

Derpy gurgled a bit and jumped about wildly on his feet, no doubt eager to begin. The rain still hadn't let up when a bell rang out. "Okay kid! We're ready for ya!"

Blaine made his way out as the rain pelted his clothes. Derpy danced about happily as they got onto the bridge. The wood creaked under Blaine's shoes as he found the first fisherman waiting. This one had a strange hat that had a kind of umbrella on the top, "Hey there kid. You ready to see what water types can do?"

Blaine blinked and looked down at Derpy, "I've seen quite a bit already with this guy."

The man smirked and pulled out a ball, "I'll only be using one pokemon. Come on out wooper!"

A strange blue creature appeared and Blaine pointed his dex at it, "Wooper. This Pokémon lives in cold water. It will leave the water to search for food when it gets cold outside." His dex buzzed out loud as Blaine nodded, "Alright… water type and a ground type. Alright Derpy, start off with a leer!" Derpy's eyes glowed red as he stared right at the wooper, and right on cue the mud fish shuddered, curling up a bit as it backed away.

"Wooper don't fall for that! Go for a water gun!" The wooper opened his mouth as he shot out a stream of water at the totodile, the effect wasn't that great as it was already raining and the water just caused Derpy to blink.

"Derpy, go for a bite attack!" The totodile cried out as he rushed forward and titled his head as his jaws snapped around the wooper's own head and using the strength in his neck, he lifted his foe up into the air. The wooper frantically flailed its tail and feet around. Derpy shook his head left and right, releasing his foe as he swung his head. The wooper sailed through the air and crashed into the water.

"Wooper, mud shot!" Blaine's opponent cried out. Out from the water the wooper jumped out, and at the apex of its jump it slapped out a ball of mud it had managed to gather on its tail tip. It threw the mud right at Derpy and the totodile cried out in surprise. He managed to veer his head so that the sticky substance instead struck him along the neck, but it still caused him to stumble back a bit.

"Derpy, another bite!"

The totodile charged forth and grasped his jaws around the wooper, this time with the wooper becoming slack in the large jaws. Derpy let him go and began to dance around happily. The fisherman withdrew his mud fish and pointed on ahead, "There are two more opponents for you, but with such a strong totodile I think you won't really have a challenge."

Blaine nodded, "Uh, thanks." He said as he made his way along, Derpy happily skipping alongside him. It wasn't long before his next opponent came into view. This fisherman was letting the rain pour all over him as he smirked at Blaine, "Well you'll be my opponent huh? You don't look that tough to me. Let's get started boy! Go Magikarp!"

The fisherman threw his ball forth as a red fish splashed about on the deck. "Magikarp. It is virtually worthless in terms of both power and speed. It is the most weak and pathetic Pokémon in the world."

Blaine blinked and looked at the fish that flopped about. "Uh… Derpy go up and bite it?"

Derpy calmly bit into the fish as he held it up and shook his jaws left and right.

"Magikarp splash him back!" The fisherman cried out.

The fish splashed uselessly in the totodile's jaws and it seemed that little effort caused it to faint quickly. Derpy dropped his foe as the man sighed, "This always happens." He muttered to himself. "Just… go on. One day he'll be a Gyrados… ONE DAY!"

Blaine quickly hurried along as his last opponent was waiting right near the edge of the bridge. The man casually tossed a pokeball up and down, "So you got through the others alright, but this time you're going against me! I won't be an easy cakewalk boy!"

Derpy narrowed his eyes as he growled softly. The man laughed at that, "Well your mon is ready for some action! Let the balls roll then!" The man threw out his ball as a large ball like fish appeared. "Qwilfish. The small spikes covering its body developed from scales. They inject a toxin that causes fainting."

Derpy growled as the qwilfish puffed up to try and intimidate the totodile. Derpy just gnashed his teeth as the fisherman held out a hand, "Qwilfish start out with Spikes!"

"Derpy go for a Leer!"

The qwilfish took in a deep breath and spat out several spikes that clattered on the bridge. No doubt those were obstacles clearly to slow down Derpy, but Blaine was suddenly hit with an idea. "Derpy, use water gun and wash them away!" The totodile opened his mouth as a stream of water splashed against the spikes. Some managed to be washed off and into the water below while others stubbornly stuck on. At the very least it had cleared up some room, but it had also opened Derpy up for a clear attack.

"Now poison sting!" The qwilfish took in a deep breath and spat out a purple thorn like substance that flew and pierced Derpy's chest. Depry was quick to pull it out and toss it aside as the fisherman smirked, "It might not have poisoned him now, but soon your totodile will become poisoned."

"We'll see about that. Depry, scary face!"

The totodile's eyes flashed as he puffed out his chest and glared down at the qwilfish, his eyes glowing a deep red as he parted his jaws to show off his teeth. The qwilfish wiggled on back a bit from the frightful sight. "Another poison sting!" The fisherman shouted out. The qwilfish shook its head and gathered the nerve to shoot another sharp projectile at the totodile, this one sticking into his hand. Derpy once more pulled it out, but as he did he grimaced and doubled over. "Totooo…" He groaned out as he gripped his stomach in pain.

"Ha! Poisoned him finally! Now we just have to wait out for the poison to finally cause him to faint!"

Derpy gritted his teeth and without wasting any time he rushed forth as his jaws clamped around the qwilfish as he swung his jaws about. He slammed his adversary onto the wooden dock but the fish puffed up in his mouth. Derpy let go and coughed a bit as some blood dribbled out from his jaw. If he had been mad before he was now furious as he let out an angry cry.

"Now we're getting started! Qwilfish use minimize!" The fish wiggled about on the wood as he suddenly began to shrink down! He steadily decreased until he was three-fourths of his original size. That did nothing to impress Derpy as he once more grabbed hold of the fish in his jaws despite his own bloodied tongue. He whipped his head about and let go as the fish slapped against the wooden planks.

"Another minimize!" The fish was now half its original size and as Derpy tried to grab it in his jaws again it actually managed to dive off to the side. Derpy gripped his chest in pain and stumbled a bit as the poison took its toll on him. "Minimize again!" The fish was now visible, but still rather small as it easily rolled away from Derpy's jaws as the attempt to bite missed completely. Derpy doubled over in pain as he began to wheeze a bit.

"Poison is quite a stubborn condition. I think your totodile will be going down soon."

Blaine glanced at Derpy. He was getting rather weak and as Derpy tried to get up he almost stumbled. Blaine looked back down as his dex as he brought up Derpy's moves and hastily scrolled through them. Well… there was one move that could help.

"Derpy! Rage!" Derpy's eyes flashed as he growled angrily and ran to the qwilfish, yet again doing his best to hit it. His kicks ended up missing and even a tail sweep completely missed as the puffer fish chuckled at the miserable attack. "Okay qwilfish, poison sting again!"

A purple spike flew out and stabbed into Derpy's chest. The totodile groaned loudly and doubled over, a bit of sweat working along down his face as he huffed loudly. It was plain obvious that Derpy was in trouble. The totodile weakly opened his jaws as a water gun shot out, though this too missed the qwilfish as finally the poisoned mon seemed to have enough. He fell onto the wooden planks with a dull thud and just lay there.

"Well, your mon wasn't enough." The fisherman stated, about to return his qwilfish when the totodile began to slowly push himself up. The water type gasped as he shakily moved his two arms to achieve just a bit of lift, only to have them fall underneath and cause his jaw to slam against the planks. He gritted his teeth though as he managed to lift his head up slowly, once more setting his hands down as he began to push his chest up. His body shook with each centimeter that he rose, but he still kept at it. He managed to finally get onto his knees, pausing as he took in shaky breaths. Blaine watched on as the totodile's knees buckles, slowly unfolding as he placed his feet down. He had to keep one hand down on the planks to keep his balance as he straightened his back a bit and softly huffed.

The fisherman chuckled, "Well, your mon doesn't like giving up." Derpy's head slowly turned up as he huffed a bit louder, the effort clearly draining him. "Well, he is quite the stubborn one. Haven't seen that spirit in quite some time."

Derpy just kept on huffing as the man nodded, "Well… I think your totodile should try and gain some more experience. He goes in with all power. As a trainer you need to also be the brains, see what is happening and act accordingly. There's still time in the day so you can busy yourself with some wild battles." He patted his rod, "As for me I'll be going fishing."

As he began to make his way Derpy tried to follow, only to collapse on his chest. "Easy…" Blaine said as he picked up his totodile. I have some potions. Let's heal you up first. Don't worry, we'll get him next time."

Derpy gurgled angrily as he closed his eyes wearily.

After a rather peaceful night's sleep, the rays of the early morning sun began to beam down on the small camp of Melody and Vincent. With a small yawn and stretch, the short girl began to stir, slowly sitting up with a small smile taking to her lips. She had slept amazingly well despite sleeping outside with no sleeping bag or an actual pillow aside from Blossom. The trainer figured that it must have had something to do with how exhausting the events at the ruins must have been.

Quietly, so as not to disturb Vincent or any of their Pokémon who were still sleeping, the girl decided to take a small walk over to a nearby lake she had spotted when she, Blossom, Hawk, and Napoleon had been gathering firewood the previous night. Upon reaching the lakebed, she knelt down scooped some of the water out and into her cupped hands, before splashing it on her face.

"I wonder if I can get Vinny to come here with our Pokémon..." she mused quietly to herself. "It's really nice here, and I bet Hanzo and Napoleon would love to go for a swim..."

The thought of such activities caused a wider smile to come to Melody's face. They were already getting close to Azalea Town anyways. She was sure that her friend would not mind taking one more small detour along the way. Getting quite excited at the prospect, Melody quickly rose back to her feet and made her way back to the campsite. Just as she expected, all of them were still sleeping peacefully at the campsite. In fact, neither Vincent or their four Pokémon had even stirred since she left.

"Wait.... Four...?" Melody questioned. She stepped out from the bushes and began to look around carefully.

Blossom was still snoozing peacefully in the grass. Hawk and Brian were both roosted in branches of the trees surrounding their encampment. Hanzo was laying right beside Vincent... But Excalibur and Napoleon were nowhere to be found.

"Napoleon...? Napoleon?!" Melody called out. She began to scramble around the campsite, looking behind some of the trees and in the bushes to see if maybe the Buizel had moved at some point during the night. However no matter where she looked, he just could not be found. Melody felt her stomach getting nauseous with worry as she quickly made her way to Vincent, shaking the boy lightly. "Vinny... Vinny, wake up!"

"Five more minutes...buzz off," Vincent said rolling away from Melody and burrowing himself deeper into the dirt to catch a few more precious minutes of sleep. The ground was cold and even if the fire dead, there was little heat to be gained from it. In other words, his sleep wasn't much of a rest and he needed whatever he could get. Melody's call for him to rise was barely more than a muffle to him and he figured in his half dazed state that anything she needed was barely important. The girl needed to figure things out herself and finding breakfast or whatever impending need she needed would be good experience for the road.

Melody did not give up though. In fact, Vincent's comment before rolling away only seemed to make the situation more tense for the girl. She began to shake the boy harder, trying again to rouse him from his sleep. "Vincent, please! Wake up!"

She hasn't called me Vincent since the first time she said my name. A strange detail to pick up on, but enough to get Vincent to slowly rise from his uncomfortable bed. Sitting up, Vincent cracked a number of his joints, stretching out the kinks before leaping up to his feet. The campsite looked...empty, but then again the fact the sun was up possibly just illuminated the true emptiness that he claimed the previous night. He stomped out the coals from the firing before whistling. Brian stirred awake and flew to Vincent's shoulder and Hanzo immediately forced himself away as if leaving a meditative state. "Oh right, Exaclibur doesn't know that sign," he said facepalming himself. Vincent shook his head around the camp. "That's strange, where did he go?"

"That's what I was trying to tell you!" Melody exclaimed, a very desperate look on her face as she spoke. The incerase in volume of her voice seemed to be enough to stir Blossom and Hawk from their sleep as well. The Bayleef slowly made her way over towards Melody while Hawk flew down from the branch he had been pirtched on and landed on the grass-type's back. "I can't find him or Napoleon! I looked all over the place, neither one of them are anywhere!"

The girl was practically shaking as she spoke, her heart was racing with fear in regards to where Napoleon could be. She looked around one more time, making sure she did not somehow over look the Buizel before looking back up at Vincent. It was a long shot, but she felt she had to ask.

"Vinny, please! Did you remember maybe seeing him go somewhere last night?" she asked quickly.

"Nah. I went to bed soon after you did," Vincent replied shrugging his shoulders and looking for his own Pokemon. Unlike Melody, he wasn't panicking. From what he expericenced, panic did not solve much. If anything, it made matters worse. It was best to let things play out. Sure, the heart racing and all the energy that anxiety can stir something up...but that only really helped when the cops were chasing you or you got into a scrap with a bigger guy. "Let's not panic, okay?" Vincent said with a gesture, finding himself patting Melody on the head like he did to Blossom. "I'm sure they just went off somewhere. Exaclibur is a recent capture, so he's probably not used to having a owner yet. And Napoleon is a bit of rebel ain't he? Maybe he's just wandering around and hunting or something."

Melody nodded, trying her best to calm herself. What the boy had said was true. Napoleon had always seemed to have his own way of thinking for the most part, battles included at times. Blossom and Hawk both seemed to pick up on Melody's concern, though. Blossom slowly walked forward, nuzzling against the trainer in an attempt to calm her down, while Hawk landed on Melody's shoulder and gave small, chirp and nod as if he was agreeing with Vincent.

"O-Okay... S-So, what do we do?" Melody asked. "Do we wait on them or look for them?"

Vincent's once confident expression became twisted before showing an almost equally lost expression as Melody's. "That's a good question," he admitted. He mused upon the question for a bit, looking around the campsite. "Let's look around for anything that gives a clue on what they are doing. Then we can try answering your question again."

Vincent motioned to his Pokemon (believing that Melody's Pokemon cared little for him, especially the Bayleef) and briefly whispered to them about his plan and the type of things he was looking for. Vincent was mostly walking around the perimeter of the campsite, looking for where Napoloen may have went, hoping for a trail. His Honedge would be harder to track after all, being that the Pokemon floats around. Brian would flutter over with random sticks and such, but Vincent would keep smiling and waving him off, applauding the effort but not the result. Hanzo, in turn, brought nothing useful because Hanzo, like Vincent, was not a masterful tracker. No, they specialized in running away from the problem.

Melody continued to look around the campsite and the surrounding area for anything she may have missed in her panic. The girl was still very on edge, completely worked over with concern for her missing Buizel. However, the girl also knew she needed to try and remain calm. She knew that Vincent was right in the fact that getting worked up was not the best method for handling this, especially with Hawk and Blossom probably being a bit worried or concerned for their missing friend as well.

For the first time in a while, Melody was absolutely silent, focusing heavily on the task at hand. In fact, the girl was only stirred from her focus when Hawk suddenly began to flap his wings wildly. Melody gasped in surprise as the Taillow took off of her shoulder, quickly flapping to a nearby branch and pointing at it with his small beak. Curiously, Melody made her way over towards the suddenly energetic bird, wondering what in the world had gotten him so worked up so quickly.

"What is it, Hawk? What did you find?" Melody asked. The bird chirped and just motioned his head down towards the low hanging branch. The trainer followed his gaze, her eyes widening at the small, yet noticable piece of black fabric that was hanging from it. Melody was not exactly an ace detective, but she could tell that the fabric looked as if it was from something... or rather someone, who hads gotten snagged while passing through. "I wonder if this has anything to do with Napoleon being missing... We should probably take it with us as a clue... Good eyes, Hawk!"

"Hey! Melody! Come here for a second," Vincent yelled out to the other person in the camp. As she drew closer, he rose from a crouching position. He dusted off a hat from some sort, looking it over from several angles. Despite the dirt cacked on to it, the black color was unmistaken and a red "R" was embroided on the front. "You recognize this hat at all? I've never seen it before." Vincent tossed it over to her and gave Melody a shot at identifying it.

Melody caught the hat and quickly glanced over at it. There was something that was very familiar about it. She had the feeling that she had actually seen this sort of hat not that long ago, in fact. As she examined the hat for another moment, she felt Blossom nudge up against her. Melody turned to the Bayleef, wondering if something was bugging her, or if perhaps she had chanced upon seeing the missing Buizel and Honedge. Instead, she noticed a rather... anxious looking expression on Blossom's face.

"What's up, Blossom...? Is something wrong?" the female trainer asked.

The Bayleef used her vines to quickly point at the hat in Melody's hands. The trainer did not seem to follow what the grass-type was actually trying to tell her, much to her own and Blossom's dismay. The Bayleef huffed a bit in frustration, before using her vines to point at the hat again and then towards Hawk. As she pointed towards the Taillow, that's when it all suddenly clicked for the girl.

"...Oh, crap... I do know this hat!" Melody suddenly exclaimed. "This is the same sort of hat that that Pokémon thief we battled was wearing back on Route 31!"

"A theif?" Vincent asked. "So you are saying our Pokemon were stolen? By the same guy who wore this hat?" He didn't enjoy jumping to the conclusion by it seemed like that is what Melody was daring to suggest. Without intending to, Vincent felt himself clenching his fist in anger. No only because one of his stuff was stolen, but because the guy left evidence. Had he never stolen something before. A clumsy job. No respect for the art.

"No... Well, maybe..." Melody mused. "Um, I think there's more than one of them... That guy who wore a hat like this. He said he was in some group called um... Team... Bucket...? No, no... Team Rocker...? Um... Geeze, what did he say they were called again?"

"Team Rocket..." Vincent grunted. "I..." He paused. "Let's get moving. They can't be too far. At least we know what to look for."

"Oh, yeah! That was them!" Melody exclaimed. "Wait, have you met them too, Vinny?"

"No," Vincent said, shaking his head and returning to his bag. He stuffed anything he took out back in violently. A grimace was painted across his face, one of intense anger but also of focus. He made his way to the edge of the camp and looked back at Melody, with Brian flying above him and Hanzo at his side. "But I plan on it now."

Blaine - A second chance! Aim higher Derpy! Blaine's new philosophy!​

"Hey, no need to be so down." Once more Blaine sought shelter underneath one of the jutting roofs that belonged to the fishermen, "I healed you all up! How about we try again?"

The Totodile snorted as he angrily crossed his arms and stared blankly ahead. "Oh come on, don't be that way." He patted Derpy on the head, "How about we go out and find a wild to battle? We can work on some techniques while we train and then we'll come back and throw that stupid fish out of the water!" He smirked, "What do you say?"

The Totodile was silent for a moment before jumping up and giving his trainer a hug. Blaine chuckled a bit, confused as to how such a strange pokemon could still hug another. "Okay, we have to find another pokemon to battle first. We'll go around, find some other pokemon that can straighten out our strategy and we can take another crack at that qwilfish."

The Totodile nodded a bit and gave a happy lick to Blaine's shirt as he jumped out of his arms and landed safely onto the ground. Blaine straightened his back as he glanced around the area, "Well, given that it's raining I doubt many pokemon will be out and about, but you never know until you try right? Let's explore then. Can't be too hard in the rain… I hope."

Derpy gurgled a bit as he pointed out with a hand and jumped about in the air. "Alright, that way we'll go then."

So off the two went. Given that it was raining EVERYWHERE they didn't find much in terms of variety. The only pokemon out on the land right now seemed to be Woopers… who of course were water types and therefore were more than happy to just sit down in the rain. They were also a bit on the… well he didn't want to sound rude, but they were a bit lacking in brain cells. They of course fought back, but they didn't seem to try and dodge Derpy's attacks. It wasn't as if the qwilfish would just stay in one place and look at Derpy with soul-less eyes. It was as the two went through some tall grass that Blaine suddenly heard a loud hissing noise. He paused dead in his tracks and glanced about, "Derpy… did you hear that?"

The hissing got a bit louder as Derpy growled right on back. The hissing stopped for a moment before suddenly a figure stood up from the grass. Well, not really stand, more like rise up as this pokemon happened to be a snake like creature. Blaine whipped out his dex as he glanced down at the description. "Ekans, poison type… eats the eggs of bird pokemon too. Alright Derpy this is the poison type we've been looking for! Go in and use a Aqua Jet!"

Derpy's body was quickly coated in water as the Totodile flew out and smacked right into his opponent, but now that he was in close proximity the ekans opened its jaws and sunk its fangs into Derpy's shoulder. The Totodile squirmed about angrily as the ekans dug in deeper and so Derpy returned the favor. He opened his jaws wide and snapped them around the ekans' neck. The snake's eyes widened and it quickly let go of Derpy as it whipped its head back and forth in a desperate effort to throw the totodile off. Derpy managed to stay glued on for a bit before his jaws were forced free from all the thrashing and he went sailing back, his back nailing into a tree trunk.

The totodile grunted from not only the pain, but from the poison coursing through his body. The ekans readied its body and leapt right at Derpy, intending to bit him once more. The totodile waited patiently before ducking down and letting the snake slam right into the tree. "Derpy, water gun!"

The totodile hopped into the air as he sprayed out a load of water at his foe. It not only brought damage, but the force of the water helped to send Derpy back a bit so he could gain some distance from the snake. The ekans didn't look so hot now, but it still reared up and began racing toward the totodile. Derpy just smirked as the snake came closer and closer. Water surrounded his body and he flew right at his foe. The ekans was caught off guard by the sudden attack and Derpy hit him right in the head as he sailed on past and skidded to a halt on the ground.

Derpy panted as he gripped his shoulder in a bit of pain. Blaine nodded, "Most of the pokemon here seem to be a bit weak. Still, at least we can fight through a poisoned status now. I have an idea for a strategy when we tackle that qwilfish, but lets heal you up."

~~~~

"Ah, I see your back… and with a cover huh?"

Blaine had managed to find a broken off piece of tree bark that he was now using to cover his head as best as he could from the rain, but it really didn't matter considering that he was thoroughly soaked now.

"Yeah, and we're here for a rematch!" He said as Derpy stomped up and gurgled in a challenging way.

"Heh, I see." The fisherman tossed his pokeball up and down before throwing it out. The qwilfish gurgled as the man nodded, "Let's see how well you fare this time then. Qwilfish start out with minimize!"

"Derpy, go with a leer!"

As the fish once more began to shrink Derpy cast a glare right at the fish. His opponent shuddered as Blaine was quick to set up another order, "Go for another leer!"

"Qwilfish, minimize again!"

As the fish shrunk again it also happened to glance at Derpy's leer. It seemed to be a constant cycle at this point, and Blaine wanted to make sure that the qwilfish's defense was lowered as far as possible. It was necessary for his strategy to work. "Another leer!"

"Qwilfish lets go ahead and poison that dile. Poison sting!"

The qwilfish took in a deep breath and shot out a purple barb that struck Derpy in the chest. Derpy gritted his teeth as he had to abandon his leer to rip the barb out. Thankfully it didn't seem to poison Derpy this time. "Derpy use scary face!"

"Heh, you think leer can help? Qwilfish use harden!"

Derpy smirked as he puffed out his chest and lowered his face to the qwilfish. He opened his mouth wide and showed off his teeth. Qwilfish was noticeably disturbed, but it still flexed its small body.

"Use bite now Derpy!"

"Minimize again!"

Thanks to the decreased speed Derpy was able to open his jaws and grabbed the qwilfish in them, shaking his jaws about and then spitting out the fish.

The qwilfish retaliated by shrinking even more, now at half size. Blaine knew that he would have to press his advantage at this point. If the qwilfish increased its defense or shrunt more it would end up being bad news. "Derpy, another bite!"

"Qwilfish use another harden!"

Thanks to Derpy's increased speed he managed to reach down and snap his jaws… unfortunately he missed the qwilfish entirely as his opponents defense rose once more.

Derpy growled in annoyance and lurched forward again, this time managed to snap his jaws around the fish. "Poison sting!" His opponent called out and with the fish in Derpy's mouth it was quiet easy to hit the water type. Derpy spat him out as he reeled over a bit, glaring right at the now smug fish.

The funny thing was that even though Derpy was now poisoned his opponent was hurting far more. The fish looked battered enough and it would probably take another attack or two to really get him out of the game. Of course… that would depend on if Derpy could ACTUALLY hit him. It seemed that no matter what attack Blaine called out the stupid qwilfish managed to dodge every single one! It didn't help that the figherman had him minimize to become as small as possible. With the downpour of rain even Blaine was having a hard time keeping an eye on the fish.

All of the running around Derpy was doing didn't help his poisoned status and finally there was a lucky hit. The qwilfish went flying as Derpy snarled angrily. A soft thud was heard as it fell on the wooden planks and ceased moving. Derpy, naturally, let out a loud war cry as the fisherman withdrew his fish and nodded, "You did good. Heh, haven't had a battle like that in some time." He grabbed the pole he had placed off to the side and tossed it to Blaine, "Have fun fishing kid. Simply lay your line in the water and tug it up once the bobble on the end bounces. If you get some bait you'll do even better!"

Blaine nodded wearily as he sneezed. "Oh… great." He rubbed at his nose, "I have to run now. Catch you around." He couldn't help but sneeze again as he made his way past with Derpy hopping alongside next to him. The two made some headway, as the rain FINALLY passed through. Still, Blaine was left as a shivering wreck. His clothing was drying up thanks to the wind that passed through, but at the same time it caused him to shiver.

With the winds blowing through Blaine managed to make it to a set of trees and pressed his back against them. "If only I had caught a fire type." He muttered to himself as he leaned against the tree trunk. Derpy sat on down next to him and just looked up at him with bright eyes. Then… Blaine went to sleep.

~~~~~

He definitely remembered that when he had started going to sleep that he hadn't heard any screams of terror or such. He had been pretty sure that he had been alone too… except for Derpy of course, so of course he awoke in a sweat he heard screams and a cry nearby followed by a very recognizable growl of a Totodile. He could hear footsteps quickly fading away as he glanced around. He must have fallen into a very deep sleep cause he could see his various pokeballs scattered along the ground. He quickly began to collect them up as he coughed a bit, already regretting staying so long out in the rain.

He paused however as he only saw four balls there. He quickly glanced around for the fifth one when he saw Derpy. His Totodile was standing there, and if Blaine had seen him in, say, a city he would have thought that he had played in red paint. As the red liquid dripped from his jaws Blaine quickly realized that it wasn't paint at all. Derpy stared silently at him as he glanced over at the bushes next to him. Blaine could see a red puddle starting to seep out from it and almost got onto his feet, but Derpy stepped forward. He held out a hand and solemnly shook his head. Blaine found himself slowly sitting back on down as a small whimper was heard from the other side.

Derpy glanced over and held up a finger to Blaine as he disappeared behind the bushes.

"O-OH no… no stay back! We weren't going to hurt the kid! Promise! No… Arceus help me! MAM-" The sentence remained unfinished as Blaine heard a sound that was a cross between a crunch, a snap, and a munch. Derpy reappeared, waving happily as he trotted on over and sat down against the tree trunk. Blaine glanced over at the growing red puddle and shifted his body along the trunk to make sure he avoided it. He pulled out his dex and glanced over the pokemon list. He knew there was a function to list his current pokemon and as he scanned it he realized his unown was missing.

Blaine stared back at the red puddle and down at his pokedex again, letting the knowledge that a pokemon had been stolen from him sink in gently. He too leaned against the tree, looked up at the night sky and spoke softly. "Good boy, Derpy."

Melody
Blossom grew to lv 19!
Hawk grew to lv 17!

Vincent
Hanzo grew to lv 19!
Brian grew to lv 18 and learned Whirlwind!

Aberdeen
Hero grew to lv 14!
Chocolate grew to lv 19!
Whismur grew to lv 17!

Sarah
Poliwag grew to lv 16!
Fennekin grew to lv 17 and wants to learn Psybeam! Forget an old move? (and is still ready to evolve into Braixen!)

Christina
Sindy grew to lv 20!

Blaine
Derpy grew to lv 22 and wants to learn Ice Fang and Flail! Forget one or two old moves?