Pokémon: Kanto's Rebirth [T] [IC]

moon · Jul 8, 2012

FORD K N O X

→ viridian city

Ford finally entered his hometown and the thing on top of his list of many things to do was FOOD. EAT. FOOD. He therefore went straight home and into the kitchen, putting an old sausage laying around into his mouth before his nanny walked into the room and yelled with surprise. Ford looked up and realized that it wasn't him that his old babysitter was surprised at seeing: it was the mouse sitting on the kitchen table, chewing on her precious flowers.

"No, down! Bad Pikachu!" Ford said, pushing Pikachu down back to the floor. "No pokémon on top of tables," he told him. "Not even humans go there, you know."

"Young master Ford, are you back so soon? What is the meaning of this... vermin?" nanny asked, clearly not approving of his choice of pokémon.

"She means no offense," he quickly said to Pikachu who had begun frowning, before turning back to the aging lady. "It's my new partner pokémon, Pikachu. Say, is it lunch time soon?"

He had missed lunch, nanny informed him sternly, but she still cooked up some leftovers for him to munch down happily before leaving the house again. Filling his weary stomach up had made him think more clearly; he really didn't want to run into his brother yet. What if he had gotten a pokémon today as well and was very strong with a full team already? Then again... Burt wasn't really bright enough to pull that off in only half a day. But Ford hadn't really pulled much off either. He had only caught one additional pokémon beside his starter and that was a tiny bird. Albeit strong.

He ventured to the pokémon center and convinced the surprisingly unwilling Pikachu to return to his pokéball and be taken into custody by the nurses along with Pidgey. He already knew it was free for all people who owned pokémon. Taxes paid as well as donated money from big pokémon companies. The basic health of pokémon was too important to demand money for. If he had wanted to stay the night in the center though, he would have to show the license from professor Oak in order to get a room for free; for most trainers it cost money. Luckily, tonight he would probably be sleeping in his own bed. While the pokémon were being healed, Ford sat down on a couch in the big bright lobby and opened Pestify.

Sagittarius: Home, sweet home.
Virgo: I'm glad you made it through the first part :)
Cancer: I'm amazed you made it through the first door
Sagittarius: Hi Agnes! I mean Virgo. You're not on often!
Sagittarius: ha, ha.
Cancer: I hope you didn't catch a Nidoran or something, they suck and definitely won't get stronger as they grow
Sagittarius: So, I should have gotten a Nidoran.
Virgo: I know, there's just so much else to do. and Nidoran are nice, but did you capture something else, then?
Sagittarius: A Pidgey! Male. A proud one, or at least really feisty.
Virgo: oh, that's good :) make sure to check its wings now and then so the feathers are all right. and with your Pikachu, make sure to give its cheeks a good rub once in a while so that they don't get too exerted when it charges energy.
Cancer: a Pidgey, omg you really are dumb!
Sagittarius: So, Pidgey was a good capture too?
Cancer: I mean, you don't even,
Cancer: whatever

The nurse called on Ford, so he stepped up to the counter and received both his pokéballs back. Two pokémon. He had no idea if that was decent or bad or even good for having only traveled between two towns on a journey like this. According to Gemini, he shouldn't capture just any pokémon that came his way. Leo was of the same opinion... sort of. But different. Agnes - no, Virgo, of course - would probably want him to capture everything just to have many types to study. She was crazy about pokémon biology. Maybe now that he owned some pokémon of his own he could start to understand her fascination.

Well. He had some other things to take care of in Viridian before the day was over. Walking out of the pokémon center, he thought about his options. He already knew that the gym leader had resigned some time ago so there was no point in going there to attempt to battle for a badge. Not that he would be good enough for that anyways, without advice from... maybe from Scorpio and Gemini.

Speaking of his friends... there were some friends in Viridian that weren't part of Pestify. His old best friend, for example. Will probably deserved a visit now that Ford finally had gotten a pokémon of his own. They hadn't talked as much over the last year; not since the people on Pestify took up more and more of his focus rather than real friends. Will perhaps wasn't as computer nerdy as Ford and the others, but he was very knowledgeable in other ways.

It was decided. Taking Pikachu and Pidgey out of their pokéballs as he walked north with Will's street as the destination, he thought he could get to know the newbie before introducing him to his older acquaintances. Pikachu came out and greeted his trainer with a smile. Pidgey was startled over suddenly coming out into the real world after having been in the pokéball for so many minutes. It flapped its wings and stayed airborne some meter above Ford's head as they walked, and at least it didn't seem to try to flee. It was an effect of the mechanism of the pokéball, Ford knew that he had heard one of his friends preach. Pokémon were pacified and less eager to run away when captured in a pokéball than if it's captured by a net or some other means. But it also meant that the person who captured it has an obligation to care for the pokémon. As soon as a pokémon is captured, a relationship with mutual obligations is formed, no matter if the pokémon really agrees to it or not. Ford glanced sideways at both his pokémon. Maybe that was why starter pokémon were a bit special to trainers; they hadn't captured them on their own, most of the times. Same thing with traded or gifted pokémon. Oh yeah, it was Virgo who had told him all this, already before she joined Pestify. Of course it was her.

"Feeling better?" Ford asked the bird with an attempt at a smile. The claws still looked dangerously sharp underneath all those feathers.

Pidgey chirped in reply. Not really happily, but as if it was keeping a watchful eye on its trainer and still hadn't really decided whether or not to go along with all this. Pikachu smiled friendly up at it but Pidgey wasn't sure if it made it feel better or worse. Still, it followed Ford all the way to Will's house. Before the boy entered, he returned Pidgey to its pokéball, thinking it could be bad to have a bird flying around inside.

Will was the one who answered the doorbell and opened. A boy with the same age and height and eye color as Ford but infinitely more blonde in the hair and with countless freckles strewn all over his skin.

"Hi!" Ford said with a big smile, just like in the old days.

It took a moment before Will found words to reply. "Ford... hi!" He smiled weakly. "What are you doing here?"

"I miss you," Ford said. Then he went red. That wasn't what he had meant to say! He came to show off his Pikachu and ask how Will was and just generally talk... but it was true, he realized. "I'm sorry for having been... an alien. A ghost. Or something like that."

To his relief, Will just smiled and even laughed. "I missed you too! But don't worry... it was my fault too. I mean, I got tangled up in all this business..."

"Business? What business?" Ford inquired and forgot all about bragging about his pokémon. He followed an excited Will inside the house, the still unintroduced Pikachu calmly following the humans.

Ford had played in this house when he was younger so he knew his way around. Will led him through the house out into the backyard though. There, a new building stood, with piles of metal and scrap laying around. Suspecting things, Ford followed his old friend further until they entered the building. Machines were lined up against the walls and stood on tables in the middle of the single big room. Small mechanics and huge stuff alike. Pikachu seemed to like all the electric stuff and started snuggling up against a bunch of wires at the far end of the room.

"Whoa... what is all this? I knew you liked experimenting and building stuff but this looks like-"

"It's my garage. I am building stuff here. Stuff that other people request me to do. Companies, even! I'm an inventor, you see!" Will's eyes beamed as he waved his arms around pointing at his amazing inventions. He clearly sought approval by his dearly missed friend.

Ford wasn't thinking about what Will felt, though. He was all snared up in awe. "You are.... you are just awesome. Completely, friggin awesome." Was all he could say in the end. That seemed to be enough for Will, who let out a relieved laugh.

"So, you're a trainer now, I see?" he then said, pointing at the bundle of wires that now seemed to snuggle up to a smiling and slightly crackling Pikachu on the floor.

"Yes, I got that fellow just this morning," Ford said and motioned for Pikachu to leave Will's stuff alone. The mouse reluctantly obeyed and found a little robot on a table to poke at instead.

The boys talked about pokémon for a while and Ford even showed Pidgey to Will. Then, Will's father - who had the largest mustache Ford had probably ever seen - barged into the shed. Sorry. The garage I mean.

"Will! The monkeys escaped!"

Will got to his feet and immediately walked up to his dad. "When? How?"

"The fire type burned a hole in your fireproof bars," the father sighed. "I told you it would be better to keep them in their pokéballs."

"Oh... we'll have to find them! Ford?" Will said and Ford stood up as well, Pidgey and Pikachu sitting on the table by his side.

"Yes? We're going out to find some monkeys? I'll help!" Ford said and earned pleased looks from Will and his father before the father took off to search the streets for the rascals.

"We'll search the countryside. It's more likely that they've gone that way since our house lies just on the edge of the forest," Will said as they walked to the far side of the garden and out through a little gate there. Their house really was on the northern edge of Viridian City.

"Pidgey, will you look from above?" Ford asked the bird, who was hovering right next to his head. Pidgey glared at him for a moment, but then nodded and took off. "Thanks! Look for three... uh, what are we looking for exactly?"

"Pansear, Panpour and Pansage. Three monkeys, each with different elemental powers. They... they have different colors as well."

"Right, you hear that, Pidgey?" Ford called up. The bird nodded again and took off towards the wilderness in the afternoon sun. The boys set off as well, but on foot with Pikachu jumping in front of them, using its fine sense of smell to try to get a trace of the escapees.

"Why were you having monkeys within bars anyways?" Ford asked.

"They were used in an experiment I did yesterday. And nothing mean!" Will added when he saw Ford frowning. "I'm not an evil scientist."

"Yet," Ford grinned.

"Haha... I'll never even become a good one. Anyways, I was trying to harness their elemental powers and turn them into usable energy. That way, we could have pokémon other than electrical ones, supplying us with energy on the go!"

"Sounds pretty cool," Ford admitted. "Did it work?"

"Not really..." Will sighed.

Pikachu stopped, almost making Ford trip over him. "I think he's onto something!" Will said.

"Really?" Ford remarked cynically, dragged himself up from the grass and looked in Pikachu's direction. He was staring into the beginnings of the darkest forest known in Kanto: Viridian Forest. Well, it wasn't really the deep forest itself. It was the southernmost and pretty light and loose edge of it, which was running alongside Route 2 in the west. Still, probably a dreamland for monkeys and like a highway for them to hop and throw themselves into the real Viridian Forest. Where they weren't likely to be found by Ford and Will any day soon.

"Oh, man..." Will said with worry. "And I was just borrowing them."

Pikachu sniffed around but seemed to have lost track of the monkeys as soon as the large trees started to pop up. They couldn't follow the trail any further. What a disaster. If not...

A bright, clear chirping noise reached their ears and they looked up. It was Pidgey! And it wasn't alone. As if it had grabbed hold of the little bird's claws, a red pokémon was hanging from them, making flight difficult. Right when Pidgey was above the boys' heads, it toppled over and circled rapidly downwards in a jumble of feathers and red hair. Ford jumped out of the way and one second later Pidgey and a monkey pokémon broke loose from each other and stood with piercing stares there.

"It's Pansear! Maybe that means that Pansage and Panpour are nearby as well, because I think they were friends," Will said and looked around.

He was right; from some branches on the closest tree, a green and a blue head peeked out. Pikachu wasted no time in jumping up towards them and shocking them with a Thunder Wave. Both monkeys were struck and fell down from the tree. Luckily their bodies were fairly light and they weren't too high up so the fall didn't hurt hem much.

"Great Pikachu!" Will said with a smile and returned the monkeys to their pokéballs that he had been carrying in his pockets. He then turned around and tried to return Pansear as well, but the pokémon jumped away, evading the red return beam. "Seems like we need to calm this one down too," Will said, scratching his head.

"Let Pidgey do it?" Ford suggested, pointing at how the two pokémon currently exchanged menacing growls and chirps in the grass between the boys.

"If you think it can do it, sure!" Will said, taking a few steps back. Pikachu did so too, sitting down to watch the imminent battle.

"Well... we can try," Ford muttered under his breath. "Pidgey, Sand Attack!"

The bird used its favorite move but Pansear counter attacked by dodging to the side and then flinging its hand towards the bird, releasing a handful of flames as it did so. The flames didn't reach far but burned one of Pidgey's wings a little.

"Ah! Are you ok?"

"I think you should counterattack and worry later..." Will suggested carefully, pointing meaningfully at the monkey who was already throwing another set of small flames at Pidgey.

"Gust!" Ford called out and Pidgey dodged the flames by jumping up into the air. Then it flapped its wings, sending a strong gust of wind at Pansear and making it do a somersault backwards, involuntarily.

"Now, Tackle while it's caught off guard!" Ford said, almost stepping close into the battle himself.

Pidgey chirped and tackled Pansear before it had climbed back up onto its feet. But the monkey grabbed hold of one of Pidgey's wings and hindered it from flying away! As it flapped around on the ground, Pansear stuck out its tongue and Licked the wing with one hard stroke. Then it released the grip on the wing. Pidgey stumbled away, unable to get back up into the sky. The second time this day that his wings got paralyzed!

"What happened? That monkey got toxic saliva?!"

"They have some attack... when they do that, yeah," Will said, clutching his head between his hands in worry now. Pikachu still sat with a calm smile at his side, until Ford's words made him sharpen up.

"This isn't a regulated battle, so anything goes. Pikachu, Thundershock!" were the words and Pikachu wasted no time, as usual. He leaped up and took aim at the confused monkey, who suddenly took on an angered face again and started swinging its hand to throw another set of flames at its new opponent. But Pikachu was faster and the bolt of lightning hit the monkey before its own attack was thrown.

"Quick Attack!" Ford shouted and Pikachu, now smiling widely with open mouth, increased its speed and rammed the monkey, making it faint.

"We... won," Ford panted.

"Ford..." Will said, walking up to him with the pokéball in his hand.

"Oh, yeah. Return him now!"

Will did so and Ford returned Pidgey as well to let it rest instead of hopping with one wing all the way back. Then they started walking home. Will was awfully silent.

"Aren't you glad we found them so soon?" Ford finally asked, when they were almost back inside the garden.

"Very!" Will replied. "It's just... I watched you battling. It was certainly..." He looked like he couldn't find the right words.

"I was bad, wasn't I," Ford chuckled.

"No, no, the opposite!" Will said seriously, surprising his black haired friend. "You stepped into the battle as if you couldn't bear standing on the side just watching your pokémon fight. And, and, you really felt the moves and attacks without thinking to much before giving orders. I could see that! It was really amazing. I didn't know that pokémon training would come so naturally to you, Ford."

Ford was stunned as they walked back to the broken bars in the garden and found Will's father there. He was good at being a trainer? He hadn't realized. He really hadn't noticed. Then again, he hadn't compared himself to others yet. Maybe Will had been watching more local trainers go about than Ford had, and knew what he was talking about. Or maybe Will was just trying to be nice. Either way, Ford was feeling pretty good about himself from that.

Will explained how they had found and recaptured the monkeys and then he handed all three over to his father for safekeeping. But one of the balls sprung open before the father could grab it. Out of it came the Pansear. It shook its head, met Ford's gaze and ran up to him, grabbing his leg.

"What... what is it doing? Didn't I just beat it?" Ford asked, very confused.

Pikachu said something to it, and it smiled and seemed to fiercely say something back. Whatever it was, it made Pikachu smile; not in the usual vacant way but in the way he did when he was about to enter a battle. But he looked up at Ford and nodded.

"It seems like it likes you," Will said. "I don't understand either."

"It doesn't matter. You have to transfer the pokémon back to Cerulean City," Will's father sighed.

"Wait! Maybe Pansear can be with Ford for just a while longer?" Will said with plea in his eyes as he looked up at his father.

"What? Will, you don't have to-"

"Look at it!" Will said. Ford did so; the monkey really seemed to not want to part with Ford.

His father sighed anew. "Very well. You will travel through Cerulean at some point on your journey. Might as well... but it's on your conscience, boy!" he said to Will.

"You couldn't possibly ask-" Ford began.

"Of course! Deal, then! Send Panpour and Pansage now and say that Pansear has chosen to go on an adventure before it comes home!" Will said happily. His father nodded and went inside the house. "Then, you should have this," Will then continued and gave Ford the new pokéball.

Ford looked down on the calm Pikachu and the determined Pansear. What was it with him and capturing pokémon beginning with the letter 'P' ?

A few hours later, Ford was laying in his bed. He had met his dad, Kid Knox, and been forced to show his pokémon and tell him about what he'd been doing up to now. Of course, dad wouldn't remember much of it in the morning but he still made a point of conversing with his sons on a daily basis. Even if he had been gone working - or whatever rap artists did - most of the day. And still, no sign of Burt Knox. Ford's older brother had left just an hour after Ford had, he learned from nanny and dad. Where or exactly why, he hadn't let them know.

Virgo: and that's why you shouldn't leave your Magby out in the rain.
Leo: that wasn't a happy ending!!
Virgo: sorry, Lisa :(
Sagittarius: I thought we weren't going to use real names here?
Gemini: thank you for saying that, sagittarius, it was going on my nerves.
Virgo: Ford! did you get any more pokemon today? :)
Gemini: hey...
Gemini: you don't listen, do you?
Sagittarius: Actually, yes. A Pansear! I wanted to ask you something about it. I battled it and it should belong to someone else since I didn't capture it myself. But it broke out of its pokeball shortly afterwards and clung to my leg like a crying child. Only it was more, like, happy. Why didn't it, like, hate me?
Gemini: and please don't start to talk like Capricorn! do I have to start to make smiley faces to make my point clear here?
Leo: I know why!!
Virgo: some pokemon appreciate strong opponents and respect them more if they get defeated. maybe that's what Pansear thinks?
Sagittarius: Yeah... sounds definitely plausible. Thanks, Agnes!
Gemini: I give up :[

Ford lay in his bed and thought about it for a moment. Pokémon respecting him for beating them? And he wasn't even Pansear's real owner. Or was he? He had Pansear's pokéball. As long as the pokémon went along with it... maybe that was what counted.

There was something else, though.

Virgo: and that's why you shouldn't leave your Smoochum out in the sun.
Gemini: whoa
Leo: you're not good at story telling..
Virgo: sorry, Lisa :(
Sagittarius: There was something else. We're not full yet, are we?
Sagittarius: I mean, the Zodiac.
Gemini: not completely. do you mean that you have a worthy participator?
Virgo: there should be some spot left. who? :)
Sagittarius: You wouldn't know him, but I think he could take up Tauros. I really want him to.
Sagittarius: He's a friend of mine. Old one. Good one. And smart.
Gemini: smart people, yes please.
Gemini: but seriously, give me some details and I'll do a check on him.
Leo: checks are creepy. who checked you out before you joined, Connor?
Gemini: if you don't follow the rules better, the Leo spot will soon be open as well.
Virgo: be nice, guys. he can't do that, Leo, don't worry. but a new face sounds good!
Sagittarius: I'll talk to him about it in the morning.

((OOC: Will's father is a man living in a house, so I think it's ok to get the Pansear this way, don't you think? ;) ))

Gandhi Savage · Jul 8, 2012

@Fuyu&Starsprite: Very good ending, really enjoyed it and hope you two battle together again!

@Red: That was an incredible post, really love Ford as a character, great asset to the roleplay. And Pikachu playing in the wires? Cuteness overload. And that was a great way to get Pansear!

moon · Jul 8, 2012

((OOC: Thanks! :D))

FORD K N O X

→ viridian city

The second day of Ford Knox's pokémon journey started with a gray sky, full of clouds. Ugly words flew mutteringly through his mouth as he got out of bed and got ready for the day. Pikachu had been sleeping peacefully at the foot of the bed, but now yawned and watched his trainer go about. The second last thing Ford did before leaving his room was making sure he had all necessary things in his bag and the pokédex and smartphone in the front pockets of his black jeans. The very last thing he did was opening Pestify. Immediately messages came up that had been sent privately to him while he was asleep.

Aquarius: Sagittarius, greetings.
Aquarius: answer if you are there, please.
Aquarius: I see that you are going to bed early.
Aquarius: anyways;
Aquarius: it befalls me to wish you good luck on your journey but enlighten you of the fact that the chance of it being more successful than the journey of another one of our fellow Zodiacs are so slim that they nearly diminish out of existence as soon as anyone's thoughts dare touch them.
Aquarius: the chances, that is.

That was sent in the very middle of the night. What was Aquarius thinking?

Sagittarius: what
Aquarius: good morning!
Aquarius: as I said, good luck. but not as good luck as some other luck.
Sagittarius: Haven't you even been asleep tonight?
Aquarius: nonsense. so, will you continue traveling immediately?
Sagittarius: Wait, just explain first. Do you mean someone else among us is becoming a pokemon trainer?
Aquarius: good lord. your brain functions aren't as high as your school teachers care to pretend, are they?
Sagittarius: Was that some lame attempt of insulting me?
Aquarius: let us just pretend that these words were never spoken
Sagittarius: Well, technically they were written, so
Aquarius: and instead look forward. what pokemon might you want to capture in viridian forest?
Sagittarius: Something tells me you are up to something fishy.
Aquarius: how dare you! I am nobler than you could ever hope to become, if you even married the king of sinnoh.
Sagittarius: Yeah. And I need breakfast. Bye!

Honestly, Ford just wanted to ban that guy. He was never really nice to talk to, and he didn't even say things that made sense. This was probably nonsense too; maybe Aquarius had suddenly grown jealous of Ford getting a pokédex and pokémon and planned on going on a journey too. He just wanted to intimidate Ford and it didn't work. Who let that guy onto the Zodiac, by the way? Couldn't have been Gemini.

He walked down to the kitchen and found the head chef of the Knox house there. It was a hearty man who always tasted his own food but strangely enough was the tallest and thinnest man Ford had ever known. It was as if his metabolism worked at tenfold the rate of usual men's.

After a decent breakfast and lots of sandwiches and small packages of relatively healthy snacks put away into the backpack by the Chef, Ford left the house with Pikachu in his arms. Pidgey and Pansear were in their pokéballs, both having been healed at the pokémon center on the evening before. Today he had planned on going to route 22 to find more pokémon. Being native to Viridian City, he knew very well that he would have no luck trying to get further after route 22 at this point; the League guards would chase him away if he as much as lingered near the gates for too long. But he had spotted a lot of pokémon in his days sneaking out to play on the route, sometimes together with Will.

First, he should stock up though. He went to the pokémart and looked through the wares. He had never gone into this store with the purpose of buying something before. Just sneak peeked in or followed a friend who would buy something for their pet occasionally. But now he would buy his own stuff! If he only had the money to do so. He hadn't, at the moment.

Now, he was a rich boy. His dad had made sure to spoil them, which was part of the reason that Burt was such an unbearable brother and person generally. Ford had tried to not be so obviously spoiled, moderately successfully. The modern smartphone was a pretty obvious display though. He could just go back home and fetch some money now. But that wouldn't be completely fair. He should earn his own money. By battling. And to battle successfully, he would need pokémon. And to get pokémon, he should go out to route 22.

Hm, seems like his trail of thoughts ended up right where it began, didn't it?

→ route 22

Anyways, Ford was soon stepping onto the westward route with its somewhat rocky and windy landscape. A river ran alongside the road, which winded upwards towards the Victory Road and eventually Indigo Plateau. The place only legends reached. Or incredibly lucky / rich / badass people. Ford didn't need to go at all that far though. He just wanted to stray away from the path enough to see some wild pokémon. He encouraged Pikachu to look around as they walked away from the road in a particularly rocky region, out onto a ledge. Looking down, Ford was just a little relieved to see that a deep part of the river was beneath him. Just in case he should fall. Not that he planned to.

Suddenly, Pikachu said something to make him look up. The rocky ledge widened into a plateau where three yellow mouse pokémon sit together and talk. They weren't the least bit like Pikachu, but something still told Ford that they were mouse like. Oh yeah, it was the pokédex, which he held up in front of himself to let it recognize and read the info on the pokémon ahead. They hadn't spotted him nor Pikachu yet.

"Cool, I think they are rare!" he said, excited. Pikachu smiled.

Just to make sure that it was a good idea, he pulled up the smartphone and consulted with the guys on Pestify. He just hoped that Aquarius wouldn't be on at the moment...

Sagittarius: Hi guys, I've spotted some Sandshrew. They're good, aren't they?
Aries: good, bad, it's all relative some say but I know that everything sucks,
Sagittarius: I know you do, Aries.
Sagittarius: Anyone else?
Leo: hi! no, sandshrew are mice and they are almost rats. so I'm not sure how I feel about that, Ford!!
Aries: word has spread that he also has a Pikachu, word has spread that you like Pikachu, Leo, so I assume that you either dislike Pikachu, or like Sandshrew then,
Leo: :O
Sagittarius: Haha. Snap!
Sagittarius: Well anyways. I just, kind of wanted confirmation that it's a decent pokemon and not as common as Rattata.
Leo: I think sandshrew are cute!! catch it!
Aries: we will all eventually die, so what pokemon you capture makes little difference, but it's not the worst pokemon out there, I guess,
Aries: I've seen some Sandshrew survive battles longer than their opponents,
Sagittarius: You mean... win?
Aries: win, lose, it's all relative they say, but,
Sagittarius: Ok, thanks!

When he looked up, Pikachu was sitting with the three Sandshrew, talking. Ford was shocked but managed to keep calm and quiet. Did wild pokémon just walk up to each other like that? Anyways, the Sandshrew didn't seem hostile; they just talked friendly with the electric mouse. Maybe, as mouse pokémon, they could communicate and relate easily. Ford didn't know about that stuff. Virgo might know. Or Leo, actually. He looked down at the smartphone again, about to message Leo privately to evade Aries' emo talk. The pokédex was in his other hand now so he wrote with only his thumb - quickly though, as he was experienced with messaging like this.

Unfortunately, fate wanted other things to happen. The rock ledge that Ford was standing on suddenly crackled and grumbled. All hairs on Ford's body stood up and Pikachu's ears shot up. The mouse had time to see a frightened look on his trainer's face before the ledge under his feet disappeared and he fell helplessly down. Without saying goodbye to his newfound acquaintances, Pikachu dashed to the edge of the plateau and saw a big 'splash' where the boy landed in the river. His head soon came up, panting for air and trying to swim against the strong current. Pikachu's eyes scouted for the fastest way down there and his legs took him on that way even before the eyes had found the end of it.

Ford was completely soaked and so was his backpack and probably everything inside it. He swam and swam but didn't seem to get anywhere. He had to struggle to stay afloat. Through splashes of water and streams, he could see Pikachu loyally running along the beach, eyes fixed on him. But that little mouse couldn't possibly hope to save a human from drowning here. When Ford's brain formed those words, panic struck him for real. He might drown! He started waving his arms and legs about even worse than before, getting bruised by some underwater rocks in the process.

Pikachu helplessly ran on the shore and thought, thought and got frustrated by not being able to help. Eventually, the normally calm pokémon couldn't take it anymore. It sat down and screamed.

"FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORD!!!!!!!!" which of course sounded to Ford like 'CHUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!'

Suddenly, Pikachu wasn't alone on the shore anymore. Three yellow mouses of the earth stood beside him and one of them quickly ran away down the beach to try to spot where the human boy were now. Another one left Pikachu to scream something down into the river itself, standing high on a rock to avoid getting wet. Sand pokémon disliked water too much to dive into it themselves. But other heads popped up in the water, heads of pokémon who didn't mind getting wet. Some heads were pink, others were blue and some where red and white. There was even a yellow head there too. The second Sandshrew said some things to the pokémon, who first looked warily at each other but then nodded and started swimming downstreams with the Sandshrew running alongside them on the shore.

The third sand pokémon had stayed by Pikachu's side and carefully took his paw to comfort him. Pikachu was speechless and didn't even know how to say thanks to what he suspected that these wild pokémon were trying to do for him. Sandshrew motioned for them to follow, when it noticed that the water pokémon had caught up with the first Sandshrew, and thus the human boy.

Pikachu's legs had never run so fast, he thought. When he reached the others, the river had widened up to a small lake, but Ford was so beaten up from the river ride so he couldn't stay afloat and as soon as he drifted into the lake, his head - eyes closed - disappeared beneath the surface. Pikachu yelled, but only a second later, the boy's head bobbed up again, along with the only yellow head in the water. A head with a large, flat beak and narrow but wide eyes. The pokémon ferried the boy ashore, where they all helped getting him out of the water and up on the dry grass. Pikachu frenetically licked his face to wake him up. When it didn't work immediately, he found his fellow team members' pokéballs and made them break out.

Pansear was annoyed with Ford being asleep, but after being yelled at by Pikachu, he instead conjured some fire in his hand to warm the boy up without burning him. Pidgey chose another approach. He forcefully slammed down into the boy's chest with his Tackle attack. Pikachu was about to yell at him too, but it had done the trick! Ford couched up some water and started breathing normally again. Pikachu now hugged a proud Pidgey instead of bashing his head in.

When Ford sat up, the water pokémon started a commotion and scurried away back into the water. Ford didn't quite realize what had happened until he saw his three pokémon standing in front of him with relieved faces and two Sandshrew jumping away in the distance. He connected that with all the water pokémon that had been there when he had waken up and understood.

"Oh my god," he said. "You guys saved me?"

Pidgey blew up his chest and looked important, until Pansear set one of his tail feathers on fire with a giggle and made the bird mad. Pikachu gestured at the lake and in the direction of the fleeing Sandshrew though. He wished so much that he could talk so that Ford would understand. Why were humans so bad at understanding others? From what Pikachu had seen during his time as a pet - or as a captured pokémon could be a better way to put it - humans even had a hard time understanding each other. Pokémon never had that problem. Being creatures made up of the same flowing aura energy, they could understand each other profoundly no matter what words really came out of their mouths. Even human words. But humans were so... distant. So strange. Pikachu gave up and sighed.

But Ford lifted Pikachu up in his arms, surprising him. "Thank you," he said with a big grin.

Had he understood? Pikachu smiled as well. Maybe there was hope for humankind after all.

Behind a rock, the third Sandshrew watched the happy reunion. Thoughts were awakened inside its mind. A strange longing.

→ viridian city

They came as far as back to the doorstep of the Knox house before Ford realized that he had dropped both his pokédex and his smartphone into the river. They were probably both broken now and lay at the bottom of the whirling inferno he had barely escaped with his life to spare. He spent half an hour panickingly half-crying at the kitchen table while both Nanny and Chef tried to comfort him. Then he shaped up - after getting a weak electric shock by Pikachu who was tired of his crying - and decided to go visit Will. First he got new dry clothes, of course, and left his backpack at home for Nanny and Chef to pack with new, dry stuff. He put on a new pair of jeans that were just as black as the old ones and reluctantly switched to less comfortable sneakers while his Converse dried. His favorite blue hooded shirt also had to dry - and be washed even - so Ford put on a green one for a change now, on top of a simple white t-shirt.

Will of course understood Ford's devastation over having lost his most precious mechanical items. He packed some of his own weird mechanical stuff and encouraged Ford to go with him back to route 22 to search. It wasn't even midday yet so they should have lots of time. Ford had no hope of actually finding the things and had already started planning how to excuse himself to professor Oak for having destroyed his precious pokédex. Or rather, how to avoid getting hanged and banned from ever becoming a pokémon trainer again. Will did what he could to cheer him up as they walked back to route 22 with Pikachu tagging along.

→ route 22

They went right back to where Ford had fallen down the river. Not via the broken ledge, but down at the shoreline. It wasn't easy to find the exact place though, since they couldn't be sure of where and when Ford had dropped the items.

"Here somewhere, then?" Will said, taking off his backpack and starting to rummage through it.

"I don't know. Really, I have no idea."

All of a sudden, a yellow pokémon dashed between their legs and came to a stop by the shoreline. It turned to look at them but didn't say anything for a while. Then, just when Ford was about to question the situation, Pikachu spoke up. He looked friendly, as if he knew the new fellow. Maybe it was one of the Sandshrews from earlier? Sandshrew then pointed down into the river and turned back to the water. Pikachu ran up to it.

"What... do you think it knows where the stuff are?" Will asked.

"I... still have no idea," Ford said.

They both walked closer to the water's edge and saw numerous water pokémon popping up their heads in the stream, seemingly fighting the current without problems. Ford wished that he was as good as swimmer as they were... The pokémon didn't do more than carefully glance up though. The humans were scaring them, no matter how Pikachu tried to tell them that they wouldn't get hurt.

Only one head remained after all other water pokémon had sunk back down again after having spotted the humans. It was the yellow one with the flat beak. Ford picked up his... no, wait, he didn't. Because his pokédex lay on the bottom of the river somewhere, unless some jerk had eaten it or otherwise destroyed it already. Ford was fuming and Will noticed.

"Hey there," he tried. He hadn't spoken to many pokémon before the monkeys for his experiments. The duck actually walked ashore and stood to look at them with a strangely disturbed face, while holding its head between its hands as if it hurt. "You're a duck. I don't know your name though."

"Let's call him Duck for the moment," Ford said, keeping his cool somewhat. "Hey, Duck, have you seen my stuff?"

"Maybe you should try a more gentle approach..." Will suggested when Duck's face grew increasingly narrow.

"I mean... I've lost some things in the river. Would you please look for them for me? It would mean a great deal," Ford said after having taken a few deep breaths. It wasn't like the items were going to work when he got them back. What were they really doing here. He was as good as dead already.

Pikachu sighed sadly, but Sandshrew looked from Ford to Pikachu and then to the duck who was almost about to step back into the water again. Sandshrew didn't like seeing Pikachu so sad. It quickly ran down to the duck, dangerously close to the water, and talked to it. It knew that Duck had been the one to really save Ford earlier and that the human might be a bit blunt to not even say thanks for that now. But humans were like that, obviously. And it would make Pikachu happy if Duck helped them. And that would make Sandshrew happy and that would make Duck the best duck in all of Kanto. Phew! Sandshrew didn't think that it had ever talked in such long sentences before. The sand language was short and concise, normally.

Duck still looked like it couldn't care less, but its gaze lingered on the sand mouse for a moment before it turned away and sunk down into the whirling water. Sandshrew sighed and turned back to Pikachu and the humans with a disappointed look. It tried. Pikachu wondered why it was doing this.

"That's it, then. I'm dead. Really," Ford exclaimed and slumped down on his back in the grass, staring up into the sky.

"No, you're not. Just tell the professor that an accident happened. He'll be glad that you're alive!" Will said, standing beside him.

"Haha. You should have seen the old man yesterday. He didn't really want to hand Pikachu to me after I consulted the Zodiac before deciding on..." Oops.

"What's the Zodiac?"

"Oh, right..." He had forgotten. He was supposed to ask Will if he wanted to join. It meant less now though. Without the smartphone, Ford wouldn't be able to be on Pestify when he was journeying so Will wouldn't know anyone there most of the time. "It's just... a thing. Nothing..."

The thick mattress of clouds above did nothing to improve his mood. What a disastrous start on his journey, and likely its end. Just then, something else was in the sky above him, for only a few seconds. Then they fell down on his belly, making him jump and sit up. Two wet items: one pokédex and one smartphone. Both almost without a scratch. Ford turned around, bewildered. On the shore stood Duck, still with a narrow and grim face. But he stood there. He hadn't just turned his back on Ford.

"Whoa, he did it!" Will cheered together with Pikachu.

Sandshrew nodded and smiled, in its discrete, Sandshrewy way. Ford took the items - both were stone dead, but still, they were back in his possession - and walked up to Duck.

"Thank you," he said. "I guess... I underestimated wild pokémon."

"They do seem more intelligent and compassionate than I too thought!" Will commented.

"Yeah..."

Both a wild Sandshrew and a... Duck, had helped him today. And he had seen even more pokémon scurry away when he woke up earlier. They must have helped him as well. Why did pokémon do that? But then again, there were humans too who dedicated their lives to helping wild pokémon thrive without capturing them. Helping was maybe natural. It was in pokémon's blood. Humans maybe had just forgotten that.

"Let's go back to my house. I actually think I can help revive your pokédex and phone... give me a few hours," Will said. "Pity I didn't even get to use any of the equipment I brought here. It could have helped us locate the items, but probably not fetched them for us. So we still have the duck to thank for that."

"Yeah..." Ford said again. He was thinking. The duck was still there. Maybe it was thinking the same as Ford was?

Pikachu seemed to understand his trail of thoughts and walked up to the duck, nodding with a determined smile, as if he wanted to tell Duck that it was doing the right thing.

"Ford?" Will said, having put on the backpack again.

Ford took up a pokéball from a pocket. He had brought some on pure instinct. As a trainer, it already felt wrong to not carry empty pokéballs wherever he went. Without another word, he threw the ball at Duck, who only winced a little as the ball hit.

"What are you doing?"

"Capturing good pokémon, I hope," Ford said. "I didn't get an opportunity to ask my usual people about it, so you'll have to stand in. Think the duck will be good to have on my team?"

Will blinked, a bit confused but glad for the honor of being asked for his opinion. "Yes," he said. "I do. That pokémon helped you already."

"All good then," Ford said with a relieved smile, waiting for the pokéball to stop wiggling about... or burst open. He wouldn't know until either thing happened. "Say, I appreciate your opinions. How would you like to become part of the people I usually talk with... permanently?"

Will raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? Is that a really weird way of saying that you want to... uh, be better friends again?"

"Not really. I mean, of course I want that! I'm sorry for being distant, once again... but I mean..."

Pikachu suddenly pulled Ford's jeans leg, making him look at his surroundings instead of talking to Will at the moment. Indeed, Duck had burst out of its pokéball. But it was still standing there. As if it... "It wants me to battle it!" Ford realized. "It's one of those pokémon who doesn't respect you until you beat it. Like my Pansear!"

"Oh?" Will said. "Then what about this one?"

He pointed at the Sandshrew, who had crept closer and closer to Pikachu and Ford as they spoke. Now it was blinking up into Pikachu's face as if it didn't want to leave it. It reminded Ford of how Pansear had refused to leave him before, but in a much less intensive manner.

"That one... seems to just want to join me. Am I right?"

Sandshrew shifted its gaze to Ford and nodded shyly, but then looked back to Pikachu, who felt both a bit flattered and bothered by the attention.

"Haha, it seems to want to join Pikachu, actually!" Will giggled.

"Hey, you will be with Pikachu if you become my pokémon," Ford said and took up another empty pokéball. He simply dropped it onto Sandshrew's head. The pokémon got sucked in and the pokéball wiggled while Pikachu eagerly looked on.

"Seems we'll have to use another pokémon to battle Duck with, then..." Ford said, seeing as the water type still stood rooted in its spot as if it was waiting for Ford to take action. He thought hard. Well, not that hard. He had a fire type and a bird and fire was easily doused by water. Bird it is.

Pidgey came out of its pokéball and flew directly up into the air. He recognized the duck from before and wondered for a moment why he should battle it. But then he saw Duck's determined eyes and decided to do battle fur realz.

Ford directed and Pidgey flew. They started head on with a Tackle, which Duck countered by spraying a Water Gun at the bird, pushing it backwards. Change of strategy: a Gust instead! Duck tried to counter that too with a Water Gun, but the strong Gust burst through the water beam and turned into a light rain of drops onto the ground around them. Then the Duck used some attack to spray additional water all around it to make the ground wet and slimy. It didn't cause much inconvenience to Pidgey though, as he could easily stay airborne now that there were no nasty paralyzes to strike him. He took the opportunity to fire a Sand Attack at Duck, which turned into some sort of mud throw after the Water Sport. Duck was taken by surprised and actually fell backwards, tumbling down to the beach some meter below the ledge he had been standing on all this time. Ford and Pidgey followed, Pidgey throwing another Gust at the water pokémon before it had gotten back onto its feet. That made it fall over again, and then the bird finished with a strong Tackle, beak first. Actually, it had looked more like Pikachu's Quick Attack than like a normal Tackle. Maybe Pidgey had learned a new attack? That seemed to be enough, anyways.

Duck stopped struggling and looked up into Pidgey's eyes, and then Ford. It knew that Pidgey hadn't won the battle on its own. There was a human mind behind it. And this duck wanted to know more about that. When Ford threw the pokéball again, the duck couldn't resist and got sucked inside. Now the ball rolled from side to side in the sand once again... would it come to a stop in the 'right' way this time?

((OOC: ~4400 words. Also that was a Psyduck, I think you realized that. So trying to capture both Sandshrew and Psyduck here.))

Royal · Jul 8, 2012

Pokemon Kanto Rebirth
Chapter 3: Viridian Forest
Post 3

The ball almost immediately clicked in a succeeded capture, and Rayne grinned. "Come on, Scyther, let's go outside, alright." Rayne offered and the bug and flying type nodded, following her outside. Spearow and Nidoran greeted both of them with a smile, standing in front of the entrance.

Scyther blinked a few times in confusion before grinning back. "(I've never met nice trainers. All of them just wanted to battle me since I'm a 'rare' find in this forest.)" she explained.

"So, there's a lot of Scyther around here? I thought your species live in groups? Why were you alone?" Rayne asked, turning to look at her new addition.

Scyther nodded. "(Yes. I used to live in a swarm, but once I started taking care of Chikorita, I was banished from the swarm because I wouldn't have baby Scythers or take care of them.)" she shrugged. "(Felt I was a 'disgrace' from all Scyther, but what do I care? Not one bit.)"

"Well, I'm glad to have you on the team," Rayne said. She retrieved her Pokeball. "Would you like to go inside for a rest? I'll put your Pokeball next to Chikorita's, alright?"

Scyther seemed to hesitate. "(I am a bit tired… but I want to stay out to protect you in case those Venipede show up again.)" She seemed genuinely concerned.

But Rayne laughed. "It's alright, Scyther, Spearow and Nidoran will be able to handle them," Rayne said. "Now, return, okay?" A flash of red light shot out and transported Scyther back into her Pokeball, placing it in its spot in her jacket. She then turned to her two Pokemon with her familiar smile. "Alright guys, let's head out."

With Spearow soaring in the air and Nidoran at her side, Rayne continued through the forest, only stopping when she noticed a few fruits growing from the tree above her. "Oh look, those are Pecha berries," Rayne said, remembering that Pecha berries could become very useful in the forest because of all the poison type Pokemon. She took a Pokeball from her belt and called out her young Chikorita, bending down eye level with her.

"Hey there sweetheart, would you do me a big favor?" Rayne asked and Chikorita jumped forward to cuddle against her chest.

"(Yes.)" she giggled.

Rayne pointed towards the Pecha berries, which there were a good number of them on the trees. At least twenty, which was a good number. Rayne knew a few good recipes to use with Pecha berries and it could also cure poisoning. "When Spearow cuts those Pecha berries from the trees, can you catch them with your Vine Whip? You do know that attack, right?"

Chikorita nodded, and the two got to work. Within ten minutes they had gotten all the Pecha berries off the tree and safely stored inside a container in Rayne's backpack. "Thanks a lot, both of you," Rayne said, offering Spearow and Chikorita a smile.

"(Glad to help.)" Spearow cawed as it took its place. But when Rayne turned to continue to walk, she stopped in place as several Venipede were blocking her way, sharp narrowed gazes on Rayne and Chikorita. The biggest one, which was in the middle seemed to lead the three behind him.

"(Well, look what we have here! The same Chikorita from yesterday.)" it hissed.

Chikorita gave a cry, running behind Rayne's legs.

"(And still a pitiful Pokemon. And look, you got yourself a pitiful trainer.)" it laughed.

Rayne's eyes narrowed and crossed her arms across her chest. So these were the Venipede that attacked Chikorita. "Watch your tone. It looks like you're the only pathetic Pokemon here," Rayne snapped back, and the Venipede grew shocked. "Picking on a Pokemon weaker than you? Naw, that's only what pathetic Pokemon do."

"(Excuse me?!)" the lead Venipede hissed, bristling. "(You want to get poisoned, missy?!)"

Rayne retrieved a Pokeball, recalling Chikorita, before switching it with another. Rayne smirked. "You can't poison me when I kick your ass," Rayne said. "Spearow, Nidoran, go out there! Scyther, you too!" In a flash of light, Scyther appeared next to Spearow and Nidoran, looked angry and ready to fight.

The Venipede seemed to step back for a moment. "(I – I remember you!)" it hissed at the Scyther.

Scyther only smirked. "(Yes, and I remember you. You poisoned my baby Chikorita! And now it's time for you to pay!)" All Rayne's Pokemon jumped forward, ready to take on the opponents.

"Scyther, Aerial Ace! Spearow, you too! Nidoran, use Headbutt!" Her Pokemon all charged in, ready to go out at the Venipede. The battle lasted for awhile, all the Pokemon launching their attacks – even the Venipede. Nidoran had knocked out two by the time Spearow was finished with one – which just the leader of the small swarm.

"(Let me finish him.)" Scyther said, waving one of her pincers for Nidoran and Spearow to back off. "(Rayne, tell me what to do.)"

As the Venipede opened its mouth and shot out Poison Sting, Rayne shouted, "Double Team." Scyther's form blurred and within a moment, several Scythers were surrounding the Venipede, confusing it. "Now Fury Attack!" all the Scythers seemed to attack in a fury of swipes with the pincers, slicing and dicing at the Venipede.

"Finish it with Aerial Ace!" Rayne commanded. Scyther tossed the Venipede up in the air with one swipe, before jumping up over it, before smashing its other pincer into it, sending it crashing to the ground.

The Venipede was finished by then, and Scyther started to smack each one away with its pincers, a smirk across her face. "(Looks like you were the ones being kicked around now, weren't you?)" she mocked before shaking herself clean and walking over to Rayne and Spearow.

"Well, that was quick," Rayne said with a laugh. "But nonetheless, those Venipede got what was coming to them." She got out two Pokeballs and raised them up. "Thanks guys. Scyther and Spearow, I want you to return. Nidoran and I are going to be training for a bit." With a nod from each Pokemon they were transferred inside.

With that, Rayne put the Pokeballs away before kneeling down and scooping up Nidoran. "Well, between me and you gal, I wanna see if we can get you to evolve before we hit Pewter. With your fighting type attacks, I would need you for the Pewter gym, okay gal?" Nidoran smiled and nodded her head.

Then the two were off.

The forest seemed to get darker and darker as the hours passed, and Rayne figured it was the light of the sun that was causing the whole forest to darken. A few rustles in the bushes alerted Rayne that several types of bug Pokemon were definitely coming out to play. Hopefully none that was too poisonous that it could affect Nidoran.

A rustle of branches up above, made Rayne look up, watching as some sort of tree gecko swung from the vines. Rayne recognized it, and knew she wanted it right away. "Nidoran, Poison Sting!" Rayne commanded, and from in her arms, Nidoran launched a Poison Sting that struck the Pokemon in its stomach.

It let out a cry as it tumbled to the ground. Rayne rushed forward, settling down Nidoran, ready for battle.

The little tree gecko struggled to its feet as Rayne withdrew her Pokedex.

Spoiler:

Just as she expected. Treecko was one of the Hoenn starters – the grass starter to be exact – like Chikorita was the Johto grass starter. Did all sorts of starting grass Pokemon live in this forest. If so, Rayne just could not let this Treecko walk free.

"Nidoran, Poison Sting, again!" her Pokemon obeyed, shooting out poison needles that quickly contacted with the grass type. Poison type moves were greatly affective against grass Pokemon which made Nidoran a good choice as a battle partner.

The Treecko struggled to its feet, looking ready to go. It charged forward in a Quick Attack.

"Meet it head on with a Headbutt," Rayne commanded, and Nidoran charged forward. Both of the Pokemon collide, and Nidoran stumbled back a few steps, shaking her head. The Treecko though, looked almost like the attack did nothing at all.

The Treecko lunged forward, and spinning around, it smacked Nidoran harshly with its tail, sending the poison type rolling across the ground to Nidoran's feet.

"Nidoran, can you get up?" Rayne asked, gaze still on the Treecko. A few moments passed as Nidoran struggled to get up at her feet, but the Pokemon collapsed to the ground.

"(I'm sorry, I can't.)" Nidoran whimpered.

"Don't worry, I have someone who can cover your back," Rayne took out another Pokeball. "Nidoran, time to prove yourself!" She chucked the Pokeball forward and in a brilliant flash of light, Nidoran boy appeared, stomping the ground riving and ready to battle. It seemed that the Treecko was a boy, so Nidoran boy's ability would make his attack increase two fold.

"Begin with Poison Sting!" Rayne commanded, and Nidoran boy opened its mouth, sending poison needles shooting straight for the wood gecko Pokemon.

The Treecko though, had learned from Nidoran girl's attacks; it jumped straight into the air, missing the attack. And then it came down, spinning, and smacked Nidoran boy with its heavy tail.

Nidoran boy stumbled back, dazed.

"Hang in there, Nidoran boy," Rayne cheered on as she bent down and picked up Nidoran girl in her arms, and Nidoran shook his head, clearing away the daze. "Good, now Poison Sting again!" Nidoran opened his mouth and shot out the poison needles.

But the Treecko dodged again, jumping into the air.

"This is our chance! Poison Sting again!" Rayne commanded, and Nidoran boy obeyed, opening his mouth and releasing the poison needles straight for the Treecko, which made contact.

The Treecko feel back to the ground, flat on its back.

Rayne retrieved a Pokeball, enlarging it, which shifting Nidoran girl into one hand. "You'll make an excellent addition to the team, Treecko," Rayne mused as she threw the Pokeball forward.

The Treecko was absorbed into the Pokeball in a flash of light, and it again began to shake… a familiarity to Rayne and all her Pokemon.

Gandhi Savage · Jul 8, 2012

@Red: Really loved Aries downbeat view on everything, brought real humour to the post, in my opinion at least. I smell a romance brewing between Pikachu and Sandshrew, cuteness! Really good post by the way!

Ford caught a Sandshrew!
Ford caught a Psyduck!

@Royal: Sorry, got ninja'd. Great post, really enjoyed it.

Rayne's Nidoran (female) is now able to evolve!
Rayne caught a Treecko!

Starsprite · Jul 8, 2012

-Jett Minks-

Chapter 3, Part 1

The Pokemon Center wasn't exactly where Jett wanted to be, but he was hard pressed to think of a place he wanted to be at all. He supposed that sitting down in one of the Pokemon Center's chairs was as good of a thing to be doing as any.

It came as a surprise to Jett, that he was no longer feeling quite so distressed about anything. Today had been a long day, but he, like his Tepig, was just tired. Still, there was no way he was spending another night in Viridian City, so as soon as his Pokemon were done healing he was going to get out of here.

He had been sitting in the chair for fifteen minutes already, and so another three minutes was all it took for the nurse to call to him. She looked like she had some kind of lecture just hanging on the tip of her tongue. It was probably something about treating his Pokemon better, abut Jett didn't need to hear it. He'd had one too many life lessons for the day.

And the last one he took to heart. Harsh words could become kindness, and maybe just apologizing was enough to set him on the right path. Of course no change came overnight, but people made resolutions every day to be a better person, so why couldn't he?

So he walked up to the counter, gathered his Pokemon, and muttered a, "Thank you." before the nurse could say anything. It wasn't that he was ungrateful that his Pokemon were healed, but he muttered because he was a little intimidated. That nurse definitely has the potential to be scary.

Out the door he went, heading to the Pokemart. It wasn't a grand shopping expedition, he just picked up a few more potions and an couple of antidotes (he knew a bit about Viridian Forest, and had the suspicion he would need them). After that he headed out the door in a hurry, hoping to make his way through the forest before the sun started to set.

Route Two should have been an uneventful walk. Instead he was challenged to a battle immediately after he entered the route. A young boy ran over to him. He was dressed in summer clothes, clutching a bug net in one hand. "Hey! You! I wanna battle! Right here, right now!"

Jett, not wanting a repeat of earlier decided to reply, "No." He started along the path, only to be followed.

"Hey! Come on! You're a trainer, you can't say no!"

Jett sighed, turning around. "Is that not exactly what I just did."

The boy taking this as Jett giving in to his request – okay, demand – threw a Pokeball (he must have pulled it out while Jett's back was turned). "Go, Caterpie! Let's teach this guy a lesson!"

Needless to say Jett was completely and utterly confused. "A Caterpie?" he asked, shaking his head in dismay. "Fine."

He pulled out the ball for his own Caterpie. No point in overkill, right.

The boy, not very well versed in the correct way to battle, took that opportunity to immediately attack. "Tackle!" the boy yelled out, overly excited, even to the point of waving around his arms.

"Counter with String Shot," Jett instructed, voice neutral.

From Jett's Caterpie's mouth shot a line of sticky web, covering the other Caterpie, and pushing it back as well. The boy's Pokemon stopped just short of Jett's.

"Now tackle."

Jett's Caterpie knocked into the other one, evidently doing some amount of damage.

"No way! Caterpie get unstuck and use Tackle!" cried the boy.

Unfortunately for the boy's Caterpie it could not get out of the web fast enough to avoid yet another tackle from Jett's Caterpie. The hit effectively knocked out the other boy's Pokemon, leaving him only to stand there, mouth hanging open in awe.

"But how?"

Jett shrugged. "Train harder, I guess."

He then picked up his own Pokemon, placing it on his shoulder, and continued to walk towards the forest. Well, this was good, right? He'd finally remained calm for an entire battle, albeit a short one.

And he was kind of impressed with his Caterpie, despite his victory being to someone so inexperienced. The little Pokemon needed a name. "I don't know...Catie maybe?"

He had mused that aloud, such a silly nickname, and pased on its name too. Maybe he should just be set on having a whole team of Pokemon that sounded like humans. No. He needed a name that sounded at least somewhat related.

"How about Luna?"

He was thinking of moths when he came up with it, but it was the name that stuck, and his Caterpie was from then on known as Luna. Nicknames were kind of a big deal in Jett's party.

It was time to enter the forest now, kind of an intimidating place, when close up. So Jett went in thorough the gate. This...the whole journey, he just knew it was going to change everything.

Gandhi Savage · Jul 8, 2012

@Starspite: Great start to the chapter!

Jett's Caterpie can now evolve into a Metapod!

Starsprite · Jul 8, 2012

-Jett Minks-

Chapter 3, Part 2

(OOC: I'm baaaack. Sorry. This one is a bit fast paced, maybe even a little to much, but I just couldn't think of any good way to edit it.)

Twenty minutes in the forest and he was sick of it.

Jett really had been interested in catching a new Pokemon here, but it was for naught, it seemed. All the Pokemon that showed up were bug types, usually Weedles or Caterpies, and maybe the occasional Wurmple if he was exceptionally lucky. A few of them he had used Luna to beat off, and even now Luna had just knocked out another wild Caterpie.

The trainer imagined his Pokemon was getting tired, especially considering how many Pokemon they'd gone up against. But when Luna started to glow white, Jett didn't know what to think. So he didn't think at all. He just kind of gawked in amazement.

The Caterpie's shape began to change, slowly at first, but speeding up the further it got to the completion of its new shape. The black haired boy whipped out his Pokedex first thing. This must have been evolution, something he had heard about, but never actually seen a Pokemon do.

Spoiler:

Hey that was actually useful. So it also apparently knew the move Harden now, which could help to protect its shell. Jett kind of wished that maybe Luna would hurry up and evolve again, but he knew it would need more training. Metapod just didn't seem like the most fantastic of Pokemon to handle in battle.

He would have loved to have further trained his Pokemon, but decided that it was time to let a different party member lead. Jett assumed that evolution must be quite the exhausting process, so he called back Luna to her Pokeball, and in her place let out Tom.

Tom was a flying type, so she would make for a great support in the forest, and her ability Keen Eye would probably be useful for picking out things in the distance. Well, on their way then.

The procession through the forest lasted a good ten minutes before anything exciting happened, but when it did it was just that, certainly exciting. It was a forest, so of course Jett was walking under the cover of trees, but as fate would have it he happened to walk under just the wrong tree at just the wrong time.

From one of the trees dropped a Venipede. It wasn't unexpected, bugs had been falling from trees the entire time Jett was in the forest. The unexpected part was when four more dropped down, and then another two. All this time, Jett had not encountered a single threatening Pokemon, yet here he was now, surrounded by seven of them. Well this was just fantastic.

Tom leapt down from his trainer's shoulder, defensive. "Hoot!"

Without even being prompted, the Pokemon shot at one of the Venipedes, pecking it right between its eyes. It was obviously a move not welcomed by any of the Venipedes, and they let the trainer and his Pokemon know that very clearly, all attacking at the same time.

Some screeched, where some used Poison Sting, and one, obviously the leader, even used Rollout. The one using Rollout wasn't aimed at Tom though, but rather Jett, barreling right into him, and knocking his feet out from under him. His Hoothoot struggled to get to Jett, getting attacked several times, as she was so intent on protecting her trainer.

"No! Tom! Use peck on each one you can hit!"

Inclined to follow her trainer's command he started to peck wildly, injuring some of the bug types as he did. But they were greatly outnumbered.

The teenager struggled to reach his bag, pulling out a Pokeball at random, and tossing it out into the crowd of Venipedes, still taking damage himself. Really, he thought he might faint if he had to take another hit from Rollout.

From the Pokeball, in a flash came Luca, now fully awake. Of all three Jett could have picked...why did it have to be the militant fire type?

But this time it seemed the Pokemon was not angry, or that he at least had a sense of duty to protect the boy who called for him. Luca spat flames from its mouth as Tom pecked away, working as an excellent team. Several of the Venipedes went down rather quickly, their strengths varied really. It wasn't like Tom and Luca were going to get out of this one unscathed, though.

Tom had been poisoned, and this was something Jett could tell, even despite taking his own barrage of attacks from the Rollout Venipede. Still, she seemed very intent on doing what she was told, something that, from the looks of it was very painful.

There was still the matter of the Pokemon attacking Jett though, and Luca turned to see that. It was like a hidden instinct had kicked in, and the Pokemon suddenly charged, using Tackle.

But wait. This was no tackle. Luca was suddenly encircled by flames, a move Jett had never seen before. The Tepig jumped, slamming right into the Venipede using rollout. The collision was loud, and certainly not pretty, but in the end Luca was the one who could still stand.

Tom had only one Venipede left, a lone one still fighting, though barely. The bird wasn't looking to great herself, honestly, but she was determined enough to swing back for a final blow. Jett had a different idea though. He had witnessed first hand the power of these Pokemon, and he didn't want to miss this chance.

"Wait!" Jett called, freezing the flying type where he stood. "I want to catch this one...I think."

He pulled out a Pokeball, bringing back his arm and throwing it. Well, more like a weak toss. Jett wasn't exactly the most tolerant of pain, and he had just had a great deal of it inflicted on him.

In went the bug type, and the ball began to shake.

moon · Jul 9, 2012

FORD K N O X

→ viridian city

Chatting on a desktop computer was sort of annoying after being used to be on the go with a smooth smartphone.

Sagittarius: Hi guys.
Scorpio: TOOK YOU SOME TIME! where have you been?
Virgo: thanks for making Taurus a part of the Zodiac! he's really nice.
Taurus: heh, don't overdo it, Agnes :)
Scorpio: did you catch more pokemon?
Sagittarius: Oh. Well, I'm glad you like him! Of course he's nice, he's my friend!
Tauros: yes, thank you Ford, or I mean Sagittarius :) long name.
Sagittarius: Yeah, a rule here: we don't use real names. Gemini goes mad then.
Virgo: he sure has a temper. not like Taurus :)
Scorpio: WHATEVER! Sagittarius!!
Sagittarius: No, I didn't capture any more pokemon yet. I have five. Isn't that a lot already?
Taurus: those last captures were amazing! I was there to watch.
Virgo: make sure you have time to care for them all...
Scorpio: you're behind already. so you've gotta make them stronger instead!
Sagittarius: What? Behind?
Sagittarius: Is this about Aquarius...
Scorpio: hell no, he couldn't throw a pokeball even if his life depended on it.
Taurus: can't he read this now? should you really be
Taurus: wait, Ford! I've got something for you, like I said. come over to my place now!

Ford happily turned off the desktop and went over to Will's place. His blue shirt had been washed and dried, and so had his Converse shoes, so he was finally back into his most comfortable attire. Upon reaching Will's home, he was directed to the garage by the father, where he found Will putting the final touches on his newest invention.

"The Poképhone!" he presented proudly. "Isn't it cool?"

Ford took the machine, which was only the same size as the old pokédex, but with black and blue colors. It had a large screen and a full keyboard below it - with very small keys but manageable if he practiced a little. It also had some microphone and speaker holes.

"It's the perfect pocket computer for a trainer! A phone, a minicomputer AND a pokédex! Isn't it good? Don't you think you could try it?"

Ford was speechless. After a few stuttering tries, he came up with: "How did you do this?"

"Oh, it's not too difficult. I merged your smartphone and pokédex, reviving them in the process. And I added another function... but it's only in the prototype state. I'm not sure you'll like it, even. And I think it won't work every time... well, you can try it out."

"What function?"

"A translator."

"For when I meet Hoenn people with that tricky dialect?"

"No, for pokémon."

Ford looked at Pikachu, who was sitting on the table in the middle of the room, trying not to touch the electric screwdriver next to him. "What, so I could understand Pikachu?"

"Sometimes. Perhaps. Try it!"

Ford turned the machine on. It worked just like his smartphone, with an app for the pokédex. There was also an app neatly labeled 'translator' which could be running in the background. Ford started it up.

"Pikachu?" he tried.

"Pikachu!" Pikachu said.

"Oh, it doesn't really work."

'Guess not.'

"Too bad, it would have been cool to talk to you for real."

'Not to mention useful.'

"Yeah."

Silence for a few moments, during which Will clapped his hands over his mouth in amazement and Ford's jaw dropped to the ground.

'What?' Pikachu said, confused.

"You speak!" Ford exclaimed.

'I was only silent when we first met because I didn't have much to say to you,' Pikachu explained.

"But... I understand you!"

'That is actually... quite cool,' Pikachu admitted with a calm smile.

Ford attacked Will with hugs and 'thankyouthankyou's but Will ushered him away and looked thoughtful. "It didn't work as intended," he said. "I only got that you spoke with Pikachu, but I didn't understand what Pikachu said."

"Maybe it only works for the one holding the machine?"

Will tried holding the Poképhone but he still couldn't understand Ford's pokémon.

"Maybe the thing is that only the pokémon's trainer can understand it?"

"Yeah, that could actually be it! There is some strange connection between a pokémon and a trainer after it's been caught. I need to investigate that further!"

With that, Ford left the garage and went back home to fetch his backpack and get going. He talked a little with Pikachu on the way. They didn't have much to say, he realized soon. Pikachu was a pokémon with pokémon thoughts, not another human with their own life and problems. Things that worried Ford, Pikachu had many times not even thought about. Ford couldn't wait to try this thing on his other pokémon as well!

Sagittarius: Okay. Taurus is amazing and everyone needs to admit that.
Libra: I never admit anything, tehee
Pisces: Look who's here. Finally you have some timing.
Sagittarius: Omg, you guys are almost never online!
Sagittarius: Where have you been?
Libra: I'm always online, tahaha
Sagittarius: Stalker.
Pisces: Let's just say that I don't have a smartphone like you do. I'm confined to logging in on desktops.
Sagittarius: Yeah, you should get one! But I don't have a smartphone anymore. I have this cool device Taurus crafted for me. It's a POKEDEXSMARTPHONE. A POKEPHONE.
Libra: sounds like a child's toy, hahaha
Libra: I'd rather have a desktop than a childrensphone
Sagittarius: Actually
Sagittarius: its real name is
Sagittarius: the SMARTDEX. Yeah! So now I can talk with pokemon. Can you beat that?
Pisces: We'll see :>

Finally free to chat and walk at the same time again, Ford decided to go to the pokémart now. And just when he had thought that, he realized that he still didn't have more money than before. He would need to earn some. By battling, because that was how trainers made their living. So he would need to win as well, or he would get ruined immediately. Well, if he did lose, he could just scuttle away back home and fetch some of his spare money. Or some of Kid Knox' for that matter. So it was a win win situation! Relieved with that solution, Ford went to the local battle club.

He had been here to watch battles before, but of course never participated in one himself. Registering at the club was a breeze, contrary to what Ford kind of had hoped. He didn't really want to enter and battle officially yet. He had never battled another trainer before! Maybe he should go to the local school and see if he could find an eager kid with a poképet to battle instead. He wasn't sure if he could really demand money if he won such a battle though... no, he should do this the real way. Learn the hard way. With a little help from Pestify, perhaps...

He was assigned an opponent after only a few minutes - the battle club in Viridian wasn't the busiest in Kanto, even if it was popular - and the two teenagers stepped onto the arena and shook hands. It was indoors; a plain ground arena with some places for the audience on the sides. The only audience for this battle was the referee and two of Ford's opponent's friends though. Thankfully, Ford thought. He didn't doubt that he was going to make a fool out of himself. The opponent was a brown haired boy with a huge sleezy smile that Ford recognized from school. He was one grade below Ford or something.

"Hey, geek!" the boy, named Adam, called out. "I've got five pokémon! Can you match that?"

"Sure!" Ford said, realizing that he had to battle with all of his pokémon in this battle."

Before the referee got onto the arena, Ford took up the smartdex, slightly panicking.

Sagittarius: What have I done?! I'm about to enter a real battle!
[COLOR="#41660"]Leo: yay! go Sagittarius!![/COLOR]
Gemini: take it slow and assess every action.
Scorpio: are you stupid? USE YOUR INSTINCTS! I know you've got them in there somewhere!

The referee waved. The battle had started. Adam sent out his first pokémon immediately; it turned out to be a male Nidoran.

Sagittarius: How do I decide what pokémon to use?!
[COLOR="#41660"]Leo: the cutest one!![/COLOR]
Gemini: think about type advantages, of course.
Scorpio: what is the opponent?
Sagittarius: Nidoran! Male.
[COLOR="#41660"]Leo: the one who has been inside the pokeball the longest!![/COLOR]

Seeing Adam raise an eyebrow at Ford typing away, the black haired boy got stressed and took Leo's advice. It wasn't the most logical or strategical but nevertheless, he got a pokémon out on the arena. Pansear flexed his muscles with a mischievous smile.

"So, Pansear," Ford said. "This is the first time we really battle. On the same side."

"Haha! The first time? You're not just a geek, you're a NOOB too!" Adam laughed and got his friends laughing with him.

Pansear looked over his shoulder at Ford. 'Don't worry,' the pokémon said, making Ford realize that the translator was still running in the background on the smartdex. 'I got this!'

"Ok, Nidoran, Peck!" Adam called out and Nidoran jumped forward with its horn ready to peck the monkey.

"Leer!" Ford shouted and even though Pansear probably wouldn't have done that in the wild, he decided to try obeying Ford for now, giving the Nidoran a mean glare that slowed its approach a little from shuddering. The Peck still hit, but Pansear wasn't thrown back from it, and not badly pierced either.

"Scratch!" Ford quickly shouted, but Pansear had already instinctively clawed Nidoran in its face in retaliation. The pink pokémon was pushed back with the wound.

"Ah, well. Luck!" Adam decided. "Double Kick!" Nidoran ran towards the monkey.

"Incinerate!" Ford said, seeing Pansear's hands light up as he did so. Pansear managed to fling the flames at Nidoran before the Double Kick impacted, and thus both pokémon were struck by each other's attacks. Nidoran was burned and fell down and Pansear was bruised and thrown back to land at Ford's feet.

"No! Are you ok? Can you stand?" Ford asked his pokémon. He didn't want to lose his very first battle...

'Sure...' Pansear said between clenched teeth and dragged himself up. The Nidoran did the same.

"Again! Double Kick!" Adam said, apparently convinced it was the strongest attack available.

"Dodge!" Pansear managed to dodge the attack to the side. "Now, grab it!" Ford said, thinking hard and hoping it wouldn't be dangerous to touch the poisonous rabbit pokémon.

"What?" Adam said, annoyed, as Pansear reached out and managed to grab Nidoran's hind leg.

"Lick!" Ford said triumphantly. After the next attack, Nidoran spaced out, being paralyzed in the face by Pansear's rather affectionate licking. "Haha!"

"Nidoran is unable to battle," the referee announced.

"No! It's just paralyzed!" Adam tried.

"It's hurt too and we don't allow major injuries in this club. Nidoran is out. And... so is Pansear."

"What?!" Ford exclaimed and saw Pansear drop to the ground, looking sick. He ran up to him and saw that he really didn't feel well. "He got... poisoned. Oh. I'm sorry, Pansear," he said.

'No sweat,' Pansear said. 'I can still... battle!'

"Not in this arena. We'll switch!" Ford said reluctantly and took Pansear into his pokéball.

The next battles were just as eventful and dramatic, if not more. First Pidgey got to face a Spearow. It was an aerial battle that mostly consisted of exchanged Tackles or Pecks, until Ford realized that Spearow wasn't at all as good as blowing up wind as Pidgey was. Then Gust was used to keep Spearow at a distance and blow it into walls and stuff. When Pidgey finally got a chance, it threw a Sand Attack at the other bird and managed to finally get close and Quick Attack it into fainting. Ford was quite proud of himself - and of course of Pidgey - after that battle.

Next, Sandshrew was put to the test. It was immediately clear that the sand pokémon disliked fighting. It faced a Machop and all it did initially was avoiding its punches. Ford thought for a while and took out Pikachu from his pokéball.

"Just sit here and cheer on Sandshrew, will you?" he asked him.

'Uh... sure!' Pikachu said with a shrug and proceeded to cheer his teammate on. This worked just as Ford had intended. Sandshrew manned up and dared to face Machop head on. But even with its speed, Sandshrew was struck by many of Machop's punches and kicks. Eventually it seemed like the sand pokémon would curl up into its Defense Curl and take the attacks until it fainted, but it managed to obey another order from Ford and hit the Machop with a Sand Attack to the face. That was when - if not earlier even - Ford decided that Sand Attack was his favorite move. The bothered Machop now stumbled backwards, allowing for Sandshrew to crawl close and hit it with Poison Sting. It managed to work and make Machop poisoned and after a strong Scratch, the Machop was hurt badly enough for the referee to declare Sandshrew the winner. Pikachu jumped out to him and cheered in joy and even though Sandshrew was relieved, it fainted just then, out of nervousness and exhaustion. It was still young, Ford reminded itself. This might have been the toughest battle it had ever had so far. He hoped he hadn't traumatized it for life.

Then it was Duck's turn to be put to the test. Or Psyduck, as Ford had now discovered that it was called. Psyduck faced a Poliwag so the typing wouldn't be a problem. But he refused to battle initially!

'I have a headache,' was his excuse.

"Come on, Psyducks always have headaches! The pokédex says so."

'Well, you wouldn't like to battle with a headache either, would you?'

"Yes I would! If my honor and the honor of my whole team depended on it!"

Psyduck stared at Ford for a moment, and the referee asked Ford if he wanted to switch pokémon already. But then Psyduck turned around without another word. It agreed to battle, apparently. Ford sighed. What a person.

They started off with a competition of who's Water Gun was the strongest. It turned out they both were strong, and made the referee wet as the man stood in the middle of the battlefield. Eventually, the referee commanded both pokémon to use other attacks. Poliwag went with Bubbles instead, but Psyduck - being a water type - wasn't afraid of them and easily burst them with his Tail Whip. Then, Adam thought he'd be clever and use Hypnosis. Poliwag lulled Psyduck into standing completely still...

"What are you doing! Psyduck! Snap out of it!" Ford shouted.

'It's soothing. For my headache,' came Psyduck's reply.

"THINK ABOUT YOUR HONOR!"

'Honor means little when your head screams at you.'

"Uh... on the contrary! It's when things really matter that you have to shape up and be brave even if you are hurt!"

Psyduck turned to stare at his trainer again, right when Poliwag shot more Bubbles at him. They almost reached Psyduck, when he finally moved again and started running towards his opponent, bursting bubbles with his Tail Whip as he went. The little tadpole could only watch as the duck came closer and suddenly Scratched it hard. Its little tadpole legs weren't at all fast enough on land to run away from that attack, and it was even thrown up into the air. On Ford's command, Psyduck then finished by shooting Poliwag with Water Gun until it slammed into the ceiling above. It then fell down and landed with a 'splash' in front of Adam's feet. The referee instantly declared Psyduck and Ford the winners, to Adam's dismay.

"Haha, you're awesome!" Ford praised his water pokémon.

'You are annoying,' Psyduck said, but then smiled a little before going back into its pokéball.

"Heh. Maybe I deserved that. I know I'm a monster when I have headaches. Well, Pikachu, are you up for the finale?"

'I always was!' Pikachu said and stepped up onto the arena from his place at Ford's side.

Adam's final pokémon was one that Ford had never seen before. He took up the smartdex to identify it.

Sagittarius: Houndour. Looks strong.
Gemini: as long as you watch out for the fire and try to stay clear of the smog it spouts.
Sagittarius: Uh... how? Pikachu can't blow away stuff. But he's fast, I guess.
Scorpio: ATTACK before you get attacked, then! a good offense is the best defense!
Gemini: that is so not true all the time..
Sagittarius: It might be my only option. Here goes nothing!

"Pikachu, Thundershock!"

Pikachu charged its attack up and fired it as quickly as he could. The Houndour fired an Ember attack that met with the lightning and made a minor explosion occur in front of Adam. The smoke settled quickly... no, it didnt! Adam had commanded Houndour to use Smog already. Poisonous gas lay in a cloud on his part of the battlefield, impossible for Pikachu to see through, but perfectly clear and breathable to Houndour. This wasn't going to be easy.

"Thunder Wave!" Ford commanded, not wanting to give Adam time to launch an offensive attack.

Pikachu did so, and since the Thunder Wave was more like a shock wave that spread out, than an aimed attack like Thundershock, he could send it at the whole cloud at once. Houndour would be struck or... yeah, it jumped out of the smog cloud, which now quickly evaporated since the dog wasn't entertaining it anymore.

"Quick Attack!" Ford hurriedly shouted, thinking about Scorpio's plan.

"Leer and Ember!" Adam said with a smile and made Ford flinch. Pokémon could obey two commands in a row like that? Apparently, if they were trained to.

Houndour Leered at Pikachu, making him gulp and slow his approach, then the dog fired Embers in the mouse's path to stop it from reaching the dog. It worked and Pikachu was hit by Embers, with interrupted the approach for Quick Attack.

"More Embers!" Adam laughed and his friends on the side of the arena cheered.

"Pikachu!" Ford shouted, at loss of ideas. But Pikachu had his own plans from time to time. He dashed away quicker than the eye could follow, using Quick Attack not as an offensive technique, but as a means to escape. The embers hit plain ground as Pikachu was back at Ford's side, panting.

"Awesome!" Ford said and reached down to pat his little friend. "Can you continue?"

'Yes,' Pikachu said and stared into Houndour's eyes, which were narrowing.

He burst away in another Quick Attack, but Houndour blew out a cloud of Smog again before the mouse could reach it. Pikachu didn't stop though. It jumped into the cloud and hit the dog, tackling it to the ground. Then he finished with a Thundershock that hit right on target. Houndour fainted and the referee was just about to declare Ford the winner, when Pikachu stumbled and fell over as well. It had been poisoned by the Smog. The referee declared this round a draw but Ford the winner of the battle overall, since he had won most of the matchups.

Fetching the mouse and carrying him in his arms, Ford was pretty damn proud over his team. First time he battled with half of them and they did very good jobs. None of them seemed to hate him... well, apart from maybe Psyduck. But he would loosen up, Ford was sure. He got paid in the reception, since both trainers had paid a sum when they entered the battlefield, and the winner took it all.

With these new money, Ford could finally go to the pokémart with a clean conscience and buy a couple of Potions, a Paralyze Heal, a Poison Cure and some new empty pokéballs. He wasn't sure what he would find in the forest, but chances were that there were more pokémon out in the region of Kanto that he would love to have on his team. His team of win. His SMARTTEAM. No wait, that didn't really sound good. Let's just call it 'the team'.

Gandhi Savage · Jul 10, 2012

@Starsprite: Really enjoyed that post, it seems as though all the Venipede are bad guys so far!

Jett caught a Venipede!

@Red: Really good battle, I was cheering Ford on the whole time! You've almost caught up to everyone now, which is a great achievement!

moon · Jul 10, 2012

((OOC: Thanks, it might be because I write as soon as I've got some time to spare during the day, so when I'm able to post again, I already have a finished text XD Hope it's ok to teach several pokémon new moves in the same post. In the anime and manga, there were Bulbasaurs who knew Solarbeam fresh from the egg and whatnot...))

FORD K N O X

→ route 2

The next morning, Ford Knox set off north from Viridian City, onto route 2 in a decently sunny weather. The usual path that trainers took around Kanto was this, with Pewter or Viridian being the first gyms. Now with Viridian's gym being closed temporarily (hopefully), Ford had more time getting ready for the gym battle in Pewter. He didn't know much about the leader there, or the gym at all. He knew that at least one of the Zodiac lived there though. Maybe they could help with some hints.

First, he had to get through Viridian Forest, though. He had packed an ultra-foldable tent with built in sleeping back as well as extra food to survive what was probably going to be a long trip through the dark forest. He wished he could just take the way around... Route 2 should stretch along the sea to the east. But that would take even longer. Plus, no trainer with dignity took that long way around without good reason. And nearly no reason was good enough.

Even before he reached the forest, though, he needed to traverse the northern route 2 to get there. It wasn't long so if he walked steady he would probably reach the forest before noon. His pokémon were out of their pokéballs, walking alongside him. Pikachu and Sandshrew took the lead, walking ahead of him on the road. Pidgey naturally flew above his head while Pansear walked by Ford's side (or jumped or rolled at times, when he got bored). Psyduck marched behind him, not saying a word. Maybe he had a headache again.

Soon, Ford realized that keeping his team out of their pokéballs had its problems though. He passed by many trainers who used the open grassy fields around the route to battle and generally train. They turned and stared at Ford's group. Eventually, a group of girls came up to Ford and demanded to be allowed to pat his pokémon. Pikachu enjoyed it and Pidgey seemed flattered, even though he wasn't receiving the most attention. Pansear was easily the most popular pokémon, since it couldn't be naturally found in these parts. Sandshrew hid behind Ford's legs and didn't want to be patted, while Psyduck stood completely still and looked like the patting worsened his headache.

"A battle," a voice suddenly said. It was one of the girls, who had long black hair and a clever look. "I challenge you."

"Uh, I'm about to go into the forest so I don't think I want to tire my pokémon out-"

"HE'S NOT A REAL TRAINER!" the girl shouted out, and the other girls started whispering.

"Hey, I am a trainer! Ah... alright then. Battle it is!"

'He fell for the trap...' Pikachu said, facepalming.

'Awesome!' Pansear laughed manically. He even jumped to Ford's side to indicate that he wanted to be the one doing the battling.

"Sure," Ford agreed. "I'll use Pansear!" he called out to the girls, who had put some space between themselves and Ford by stepping out onto the grass.

"And I'll use Butterfree!" the girl said, sending out a beautiful butterfly pokémon.

Ford took up the smartdex to read some quick info on the bug. Aha, it was a bug. Weak against fire. Gemini would have liked this matchup! Pansear started directly with throwing Incinerating flames at Butterfree, who blew them away easily with a Gust. Then it flapped its wings to release a strange powder into the air.

"Waah, Pansear, get away from the dust!" Ford called out, instinctively understanding that it wasn't harmless. Pansear was too late though, and soon got very very drowsy.

"Sleeping powder! Always a good strategy! Now Confusion!" the girl laughed. Butterfree's eyes glowed all of a sudden, and Pansear tried to shake his head to get rid of the tiredness. The Confusion made him shake it a bit too hard, and he fell over onto the ground.

"Pansear! Fury Swipes!" Ford tried, but Pansear had difficulties getting up.

"A battle easily won," the girl yawned demonstratively while her friends cheered. "Gust!" Butterfree blew Pansear away, letting it tumble around on the ground several meters until it came to a stop and clearly had fainted. "You look strong but your pokémon are weak!"

Ford swallowed. How embarrassing. He paid the girl a sum of money for the victory - not as much as he had won in the official battle at the battle club, thankfully - and walked off with red cheeks. Pikachu and Sandshrew tried to comfort him, Pidgey flied a bit higher to avoid looking Ford in the eyes, Pansear was of course in its pokéball and Psyduck...

'Stop,' the duck said all of a sudden, making the others turn around.

"What?" Ford said.

'You can't sulk just because of one defeat. I lost against you, didn't I? Against Pidgey. And I don't sulk.'

"Eh. Then what would you call the thing you are doing?"

'What I mean is, you should respect that girl and thank her for teaching you the need to be more tactical. To always have solutions.'

"Is that what you gathered from that battle?"

'We need to train. I thought I was a strong pokémon but since I joined you, I've realized that pokémon trained by humans can become stronger much more quickly than wild ones. If trained right. I want to become strong. You want that too.'

The last part was directed to Pikachu and the others. They looked at each other and nodded slowly.

'Of course we want to,' Pikachu admitted, speaking for Sandshrew too.

'Clearly, I'm already very strong! I wouldn't have lost against that bug,' Pidgey chirped from above.

Psyduck just ignored him. 'Let's spend some time training here. Like so many other trainers do. Maybe there is a reason why so many gather here instead of going directly into the forest?'

Ford blinked, listening to his pokémon. "This is the best invention ever," he decided, holding up the smartdex. Psyduck seemed to be an ocean of clever thoughts. "Let's train."

They walked close to the western forest's edge - the forest that wasn't quite as deep as Viridian Forest but nevertheless was connected to it, and the place where the elemental monkeys had run to before - and there they made a camp in a spot where they were sure that they couldn't be spotted from the road so that they wouldn't get interrupted by more trainers. And they trained.

Aries: don't worry, we'll probably live for at least 50 more years, or at least I will, even if I'm the only one who doesn't want to,
Sagittarius: Hello.
Cancer: sagittarius, please say something stupid and pleasant
Cancer: i can't take more of her whining but i can't boot her
Sagittarius: Haha, Aries in a good mood again?
Aries: this mood of mine should be defined as not good, I think, but then again when isn't it,
Taurus: I might regret this, but I agree with cancer... :(
Aries: I will find out where you live, taurus, and those 50 years will disappear before you can say aaah,
Taurus: I'm sorry I'm sorry!!
Aries: that was a joke, I doubt anything you do can ever really upset me, I mean, I was probably upset already so it wouldn't be your fault,
Cancer: see what i mean? come on sagi, tell us something about your glorious loser adventure instead
Taurus: ;_;
Sagittarius: You'll get used to it, Will. Or you'll end up like Cancer.
Sagittarius: Anyways. I'm going to train my pokémon. Just generally... train, without battling. I was actually looking for Gemini since he's usually good at giving advice.
Scorpio: GEMINI?? WHY WOULD YOU WANT ADVICE FROM THAT STICKINTHEMUD!!
Scorpio: obviously I'll give AT LEAST as good advice as him.
Sagittarius: Oh, well I was actually looking for him OR you :>
Scorpio: of course! :>
Taurus: good luck, Ford!
Sagittarius: Thanks, I'll miss you! Actually.
Taurus: I'll be here :D
Aries: oh, the illusion of friendship,
Cancer: brb, throwing up
Taurus: ;_;
Sagittarius: Arceus o.o Scorpio, private talk?
Aries: oh, the implications of private talk,
Scorpio: SHUT UP!!

Pansear wasn't badly damaged; he just needed to rest for a while and take a quick bath in a nearby pond to wash off the remaining sleep dust. Then he proceeded to practice making bigger flames with his Incinerate attack. According to Scorpio, Incinerate was basically a pretty weak move, but if the speed and accuracy was trained well, it could become useful. At least until a better move was available.

Scorpio: thought about teaching him fire punch?
Sagittarius: Is that possible?
Scorpio: anything's possible! if you really want it. a TM helps, but if you train a lot, maybe he can learn it on his own.
Sagittarius: TM? o.o
Scorpio: technical machine
Scorpio: you didn't know that??
Sagittarius: There's obviously tons of stuff I don't know.
Sagittarius: I actually wonder why professor Oak sent me the invitation instead of one of you.
Scorpio: heh, about that... you're not the only Zodiac who is a trainer now, you know.
Sagittarius: What? So Aquarius was up to something!
Scorpio: well, yeah, I actually think they're CONSPIRING against you! you shouldn't talk about this in the open chatroom though!

Just then, a strong wind hit Ford and almost made him drop the smartdex. "Pidgey! Careful with where you aim!"

The bird chirped as if to mutter a forgiveness, and directed his Gust elsewhere. He was currently training with trying to narrow his Gust attack down so that instead of just blowing up a whole lotta wind, it would be more like a focused beam of forceful wind in front of him. Sure, it would make it more difficult to hit with, but it would be more powerful when it hit. This had been partly Pidgey's own idea and partly Scorpio's.

Sandshrew and Pikachu had been sparring for a while, training their speed with Sandshrew using Scratch as fast as he could and Pikachu dodging and using Quick Attack. Ford had initiated that training. Now the sand mouse was trying to curl up in the strongest Defense Curl possible, and then start to roll around while in the defensive position. It was difficult, since he couldn't easily see where he was going. He'd have to rely on the vibrations from the ground and waves in the air to steer. The goal was to master the fairly simple move Rollout and try to learn the somewhat more advanced Rapid Spin, which would allow Sandshrew to get around really fast, while still being pretty defensive. Like a curled up Quick Attack! But maybe less precise, still. And this had been Scorpio's idea.

Thinking back, Ford wondered if he had taught his pokémon different techniques if Gemini had been the one to give advice. Still, this worked fine. Scorpio was more fun to talk to, anyways, even if she could become crazy once in a while.

For being the one who suggested the training, Psyduck didn't do very much. He mostly watched the others, and watched Ford watching them. Then Ford had stared at him for a while, and the duck had finally sighed and went over to the pond to practice the aim of his water moves. Suddenly, Pansear had bumped into him while whirling around with his fire, and the two had begun fighting - Ford thought it was just friendly sparring. Suddenly, Psyduck's eyes glowed and Pansear's fire disappeared when he was trying to storm the duck with it. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't conjure his fire again for over a minute. Ford inquired Scorpio about it and she told him that it probably was Disable. That move could become stronger - lasting longer - the more it was practiced. Pansear forbid the duck from practicing on him again though, and marched away to swing at trees with his Fury Swipes instead.

What about Pikachu then? When Sandshrew started practicing rolling, Pikachu went to sit by Ford's side instead, until Ford left Scorpio alone for a while and was free to play with him. Ford disliked this sort of 'playing' as it mostly involved him jumping out of the way of Thundershocks. Pikachu was also getting better and better at aiming, so most of the time - even if the charges were very low on purpose - Ford got struck. Eventually he told Pikachu that he needed to rest, so the electric mouse went on to practice on Sandshrew instead. Ford begrudgingly wondered why the mouse hadn't done so before - the sand pokémon was immune to the charges and didn't even feel them! Pikachu just smiled.

Eventually they realized that it was way past lunch time. They had been training for hours! They ate at the little camp - a pile of rocks and lodges to sit on - and then went back to the road in search of... there they were. The same gang of girls from before.

"Hello ladies," Ford said in a very silly way that made all of the girls frown. "Let's have a rematch."

The trainer from before agreed to pummel him into oblivion once more and they went over to a decent battlefield again. There, she sent out Butterfree who just like before looked really smug. Ford sent out Pidgey.

Scorpio: if you don't win now YOU SUCK!!
Scorpio: I mean
Scorpio: good luck, Ford.

The opponent girl laughed, before commanding a Gust attack.

"Blow through it with your own Gust!" Ford said, fist clenched. Just when the bug's Gust started reaching them, Pidgey whipped up his own, which was now a more concentrated beam of wind. It struck Butterfree and made it lose its balance in the air.

"Ah! Well, POISON POWDER!" the girl now shouted, obviously wanting to win this with any foul means necessary. Butterfree's wings strew a purple powder over the battlefield.

"Whirlwind!" Ford called out. Pidgey's new attack. As opposed to concentrating his Gust attack, they had also tried to widen it to become more of a swirling storm than a well aimed punch. It blew the poison powder away from Ford and Pidgey and towards the girls instead.

"Aah! Gust! This way!" the trainer screamed. Butterfree turned around and did so just in time to make sure that the poison didn't hit them. "That was dangerous!" the trainer pouted towards Ford.

"You were the one to sent in the poison into the battle in the first place!" he retorted. "Pidgey, Quick Attack!"

"Butterfree, stop it with Stun Spore!"

"Pidgey! Switch to Gust!"

It wasn't easy, but in mid-air, Pidgey halted its approach, seeing as Butterfree all of a sudden sprayed orange powder around itself. The bird was only a few meters away from the butterfly now, but fired its beam of forceful wind anyways. The Gust shot through the power and hit the bug hard. So hard that it soared down through the air and fell to the ground.

"... Awesome!" Ford cheered and the girls behind the other trainer cried with displeasure.

Reluctantly, the girl handed Ford the same sum of money he had lost before, and went back towards Viridian City with her gang. Ford ruffled Pidgey's head in appreciation, which the bird pretended to hate. But in reality, it was endlessly proud with itself now.

Sagittarius: Well, I won. Thanks, I guess.
Scorpio: I knew you'd win!
Sagittarius: Really?
Scorpio: nah, I thought you'd lose actually.
Scorpio: but that you didn't shows that you're not as crappy as everybody thinks! :>
Sagittarius: That's so comforting to hear...
Sagittarius: Wait, who else thinks I'm crappy?
Scorpio: Aquarius, obviously?
Sagittarius: Oh RIGHT! Is he a trainer?!
Scorpio: him? I already told you that he's too "fine" MEANING LAZY to even open a pokéball by himself!
Scorpio: why are you so in the dark? didn't I tell you that Pisces got a pokemon two days ago as well?
Sagittarius: Pisces!?
Scorpio: yeah, from what I've heard, her pokemon have already EVOLVED! you're way behind, smartass½!!
Sagittarius: If I'm that stupid, then why don't you go help her instead? I thought everybody liked her. Heck, I like her!
Scorpio: BECAUSE everyone likes her!! rooting for the favorite is so dull.
Scorpio: underdog is the way to go!
Sagittarius: That doesn't really... comfort me. Who else is rooting for Pisces?
Scorpio: how would I know! what am I, your personal trainer??
Sagittarius: Well, yes.
Scorpio: oh
Scorpio: well
Scorpio: OF COURSE :>
Scorpio: don't worry, talk to your friends, of course they'll be on your side!
Sagittarius: Even though I'm just a dull bloke and everybody likes Pisces?
Scorpio: you're starting to sound like Aries!

Gandhi Savage · Jul 10, 2012

@Red: Of course it's fine to teach new moves at will, not a problem at all. Another grear battle post, really enjoyed Ford defeating the girl the second time round.

moon · Jul 11, 2012

FORD K N O X

→ viridian forest

It was afternoon when Ford and his entourage reached the station at the edge of Viridian Forest. A house built for weary travelers to rest up before continuing. Ford didn't even enter it. He had instead gone back to Viridian City's pokémon center to heal up properly, after having spent many hours training and then battling random trainers on route 2. Surprisingly, Ford had won most of those battles. He hoped it wasn't only thanks to Scorpio's tutoring.

Armed with medicine and pumped up pokémon (well, all but one who still groaned about his headache), he stepped away from the station and went in under the green ceiling that the lush foliage of the forest made. All his pokémon were in their balls at the moment, but he thought that he'd better let someone out. Just in case he ran into a nasty bug. He didn't know how many trainers could be in here, but bugs seemed more probable to encounter since so many trainers seemed to stay on route 2 for long.

Pidgey became his choice of pokémon to keep outside.

"Stay close, but keep an eye out for wild pokémon, will you? Or people," Ford told it.

'I guess I can follow that order,' Pidgey said with a nod and proceeded to fly around a meter or so above his head while he walked, sometimes coming to rest on branches in the trees.

The road wasn't exactly wide. To his sides, endless green vegetation grew, and while some trees weren't much higher than triple his size or so, he could spot some very tall trees through the leafy ceiling. This forest must be old! He had never really ventured into it before. There had never been a need to do so. Anyways, since there was no imminent danger or interruption, this was a golden opportunity to space out in Pestify for a while and let Pidgey do the navigating with his sharp eyes.

- entering group chat [Zodiac] -
Sagittarius: Entering Viridian Forest. Anybody here?
Capricorn: not, like, in the forest. but im here, maan!
Sagittarius: Oh, Capricorn, it's been a while!
Capricorn: yeeah, been busy. listen, you should listen to this while you walk around in that forest.
Capricorn: song link, clickyy
Sagittarius: That's actually kind of relaxing. Makes me less nervous about running into creepy bugs. Thanks!
Capricorn: np man.
Libra: hehehe, listen to this instead! (link)
Sagittarius: Libra. That one's also nice, I guess! Maybe a bit more... ominous?
Capricorn: yeah, you need something more relaxxing. like this, click thiis
Libra: so dull! >:D
Virgo: I think you should listen to the sounds of nature. it's soothing enough.
Sagittarius: Maybe I'll do that too! WAIT! A wild pokemon?

Pidgey had found something indeed and struggled to get Ford's attention. A green bug crept out on the road in front of them... no wait, this wasn't a road. This was just a small clearing in the otherwise dense forest. The road was nowhere to be seen.

"Pidgey... didn't you stay on the road?"

'I followed the best branches. What did you expect?' the bird replied as if he had no idea of how this situation could be not pleasant.

Ford considered panicking and blindly retracing his steps, but first he should deal with the bug. It looked scared of the bird already, which was sitting on the forest floor some meters away from it. In defense, it shot out a sticky web that narrowly missed Pidgey. It had apparently not practiced its aim as diligently as Ford's team had.

"Use Whirlwind!" he ordered, and in a matter of seconds the bug was blown back into the bushes from where it had crawled out. "Great! Let's find the road now. What direction did we come from?"

'It's hard to tell, I led us in circles,' Pidgey admitted.

"WHY?!"

'You didn't tell me not to, and I find it soothing to fly in circles!' the bird defended itself.

Now it was definitely time to panic. Especially as another bug came crawling out from another nearby bush. An orange one. This time, Ford took a deep breath though, and aimed the smartdex at the bug. Weedle, weak but poisonous.

"Great, that's not what we need now," he said in a slightly high pitched voice as he had to suddenly dodge a String Shot himself. Pidgey came to his rescue, perhaps feeling a bit ashamed of having led him astray, and blew the bug into a tree with a Gust. "Thanks..." Ford muttered and started walking... in just any direction really. Any one was as probable as another.

- entering private chat [Sagitarrius & Virgo] -
Sagittarius: I think I'm lost...
Sagittarius: It's just green green wherever I look, and bugs keep coming out at me!
Virgo: oh Ford! that's terrible! stay clear of poisonous ones!
Sagittarius: I'm trying to. One of them nearly shot me with some sticky goo.
Virgo: well, hopefully that was just a String Shot. that's not poisonous, it's more like a defense mechanism. are you battling the wild pokemon?
Sagittarius: I kind of let Pidgey do that for me.
Virgo: yes, of course. but stay calm and don't get hurt, it's the most important thing! I wish I could help you more...
Sagittarius: You're keeping me from freaking out by talking to me, that's a great help, Agnes :>
Virgo: I'm glad :) why didn't you use the group chat by the way?
Sagittarius: Uh... Libra would just have laughed at me and Capri wouldn't have taken it seriously.
Sagittarius: I figured you would.
Sagittarius: That's a compliment, by the way!
Virgo: thank you. I'll try thinking of something more useful for you... tell me if you see any more pokemon and I can help you with that!
Sagittarius: I will!

It didn't take long. He managed to meet three more Weedle and two Caterpie over the next five minutes, all easily chased away by Pidgey though. But Ford noticed that his bird pal was getting a bit tired from Gusting and Whirlwinding so much. He let the pokémon rest inside its pokéball and took forth Pikachu instead, who was glad to come out and help. He had never liked sitting inside his pokéball much.

After almost an hour of aimless trekking, Ford definitely admitted that he was lost, and he had made Virgo worried in the process. She wanted to make Taurus - I mean Will - go out and find him, but Ford assured her that that would only make it worse. Two Zodiacs lost in a forest weren't better than one. On another note, it was soon getting dark.

"I guess... we'll have to make use of this tent tonight," Ford said when they had found a decent spot to camp in. He took out a package the size of a hand from his backpack and pushed a little button on it. In a matter of seconds, the package had unfolded itself into a decently large one man tent. Inside was a sleeping bag. Awesome thingy!

- entering group chat [Zodiac] -
Sagittarius: It's getting dark. So I've put up the tent.
Virgo: have you got enough food?
Sagittarius: Haha, yeah, I've got enough food to last a week here.
Leo: you should watch all the cute forest pokemon play in the night!
Virgo: actually, if you see any bugs in the night, it would be cool to watch them. they might do their mysterious dances and things :)
Sagittarius: Uh, watching bugs isn't really my favorite occupation.
Leo: there is more than bugs in there!!
Sagittarius: Don't say that! I get even more freaked out..

'Ford,' Pikachu said all of a sudden. While Ford was laying on top of the sleeping bag inside the tent, Pikachu was sitting in the opening, looking out into the night. 'Something is approaching.'

The blood in Ford's veins turned to ice. Not literally, of course. He quickly pulled Pikachu in and closed the opening, eyes wide open in fear. "What is it?" he hissed to the mouse.

'Don't know,' Pikachu answered, wriggling himself away from Ford's grip down to the floor. 'But I think it's been watching us for a while. Let's go to sleep instead?'

"How can you think about going to sleep when some dangerous wild pokémon is stalking us?!"

'It's on the outside, we're on the inside?'

"THIS TENT HAS THIN WALLS!"

'Oh. So it probably heard you now?'

"... dammit!" Ford whisper-shouted, crawled into his sleeping bag as if it was a protective armor and went back to Pestify.

- entering group chat [Zodiac] -
Sagittarius: COME AND GET ME NOW NOW NOW
Virgo: Ford! what's happening? :O
Gemini: what is he doing now? seriously. keep your cool.
Leo: he's probably just spotted a bug! :3
Sagittarius: SOMETHING IS CRAWLING UP ON US OUTSIDE THE TENT! I CAN HEAR IT WALKING!!
Virgo: oh my! Ford, be quiet and breath slowly, it's probably nothing really dangerous.
Virgo: bugs don't eat humans.
Gemini: take Pikachu and let it fire Thunder Wave through the opening. then let Pansear jump out and do Incinerate!
Sagittarius: That's... I guess I could...

He instructed Pikachu, who still didn't seem to think it was worth it, and took out Pansear, who seemed really confused about being squeezed into a tiny tent with the others. They heard some branches snap and the sound of leaves on the ground rustling as something slowly but steadily moved closer. Pikachu's sensitive ears could almost pinpoint the location of the intruder, even though the opening of the tent was closed and they couldn't see it with their eyes.

"Now!" Ford mouthed to the mouse, who jumped out from the tent and fired a Thunder Wave blindly in front of him at the same time.

Ford and Pansear heard a scream and a 'thud'. "That's your cue! Locate target and Incinerate!" Ford ordered the monkey, who smiled eagerly and shot out of the tent as well. His eyes soon found the shape laying in the leaves and he quickly lightened the small flames in his hands, ready to throw them...

Pikachu jumped in the way. 'Wait!' he yelled.

Pansear almost fell over when he had to put out the fires and stop his arms from swinging around. 'Whaaat?' he said annoyed. 'Clear orders and not even you could follow them?'

"IS IT DEAD?!" came Ford's terrified voice from inside the tent.

Pikachu sighed. 'No. Look!' He stepped aside to reveal what was whimpering on the ground, struck and affected by the Thunder Wave.

Ford finally dared to come out of the tent. He got Pansear to make a half-Incinerate by holding the flames in his hand to make a torch in the dark. The light fell upon a small, green creature with a big leaf on its head and worried, red eyes. All fear was lost immediately, as Ford recognized it but couldn't exactly name it. The smartdex did it for him.

"Chikorita," Ford mumbled. "Not exactly a killer bug. Why was it sneaking up on us?"

Chikorita stuttered something that Ford didn't understand. He shook the smartdex a little, in case the translator was out of function momentarily, but then remembered that it only worked on his own pokémon. He couldn't talk to wild ones, and perhaps not with pokémon of another trainer either. Luckily, Pikachu could.

'It's saying it got lost in the forest and thought the tent looked funny. It just wanted to investigate.'

"Oh. Well, go investigate somewhere else. I've got to get some sleep tonight, or I'll be even worse tomorrow when it comes to jumpiness!" Ford said, feeling irritated.

Chikorita smiled. The paralyze seemed to begin to wear off, because it managed to stand and giggle a little.

"WHAT?"

'It thinks you are funny!' Pikachu said and couldn't help giggling a little himself. Pansear even broke out into big laughter.

"I can't take much more of this..." Ford sighed, which made Chikorita even happier. He looked down into the smartdex to see what kind of pokémon it really was. A grass type with mostly defensive abilities, apparently. Not a pokémon to brag about. But cute, he guessed.

He went back to the tent, but felt too wired up to go to sleep immediately, so he almost immediately went out again. Pikachu and Chikorita were conversing and it seemed like the latter was quite childish. With Pansear's help (and protection; they actually found another Weedle), he gathered some wood and made a campfire, where they all sat down on some rocks and logs and had a late dinner instead. Ford didn't want to give the wild Chikorita any of his food, but Pikachu treated it to some of his own so it was a lost cause.

- entering group chat [Zodiac] -
Virgo: Sagittarius! are you alive?
Virgo: oh god, please!
Gemini: calm down, the only thing that could kill him in that forest is a Pinsir, you know.
Gemini: or a Scyther, of course. or Beedrill.
Gemini: ok actually a lot of things could kill him there!
Leo: lament of the sagittarius!!
Sagittarius: No. It wasn't a bug.
Virgo: FORD!
Sagittarius: It was a Chikorita.
Virgo: oh
Gemini: man
Cancer: i can't believe this guy! seriously, he's gotta be the suckiest trainer ever!
Libra: HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHH
Sagittarius: o.o
Sagittarius: Were you guys here all the time?
Libra: didn't you listen? I'm always here!
Virgo: but Chikorita does have some powerful powers! like healing and defense and some grass things. it could probably have put you to sleep or maybe even poisoned you.
Gemini: yes, that could have happened. good thing you too my advice.
Cancer: a 3 year old could wrestle a chikorita and kill it with one finger!
Leo: don't kill it!! catch it :3 it's the cutest pokemon there is! apart from perhaps Pikachu.
Leo: and Sandshrew
Leo: and some others!
Sagittarius: Catch... that little thing? Can it even fight?
Virgo: fighting isn't everything about pokemon. not at all.
Gemini: but yeah, it can fight. if you train it. I could come up with some nice training strategies.
Cancer: you're going to get a green banana on your team? i totally understand why people aren't rooting for you!

That made Ford stop and think. Did Cancer mean Pisces and her team? Was Cancer one of the guys who rooted for Pisces? Because she was the popular one... He didn't care about Cancer anyways. That guy was fun at times, but he had been even more of a jerk than usual lately. But Virgo... and Gemini and Libra and Leo. Who did they vote for? Both? None? No, they would of course favor Pisces. Who wouldn't. He was just a loser who was contemplating catching a green banana pokémon.

Pikachu looked up from his weird chatting with the wild grass pokémon and saw how depressed his trainer was all of a sudden. He told the Chikorita to wait a moment and jumped over to the boy.

'Cheer up!' he tried.

"Mhm..." Ford said.

'I can't read your mind but usually when you look like this, you're worrying about some trivial thing that isn't at all as severe or bad as you think it is!'

Ford looked up with a curious face. Pikachu smiled at him. Pokémon really worked differently than humans. Problems for Ford weren't always problems in Pikachu's eyes. Maybe he was silly to sit here and think he was bad just because some of his friends cheered another one of his friends on. Come to think of it, wasn't Pisces his friend too? Yes! At least somewhat. So he could cheer for her and hope that she would cheer a bit for him! They didn't need to be bitter rivals! Though... why would she cheer for him when she didn't have to? For him it would be a defense mechanism - a way to put up with being non-popular. But for her it would be unnecessary. His face drooped again.

Pikachu shocked him and made even Pansear jump up from the food he was eating, and exchange a questioning look with Chikorita.

"HEY!" Ford scolded. Pikachu just stared at him. And something came back to Ford's memory.

Scorpio: BECAUSE everyone likes her!! rooting for the favorite is so dull.
Scorpio: underdog is the way to go!

A smile played across his lips. No, he didn't have to be as everyone expected him to be... if Pisces was being the ordinary, strong cooltrainer who evolved her pokémon early and captured lots of strong types, couldn't he try to best her by training less expected types? If he ever beat her in battle, he would be so much better than her if he had stranger pokémon. Awesome.

"Chikorita," he said, getting up from his spot. "I know it's dark and so, but would you battle me?"

Chikorita looked terrified at first, but then Pikachu seemed to assure it that it would be fun. He asked Ford to be the battling one, glancing at the impatient Pansear who had finished his food and looked like he wanted nothing more than to burn a little banana with his fire. Chikorita didn't seem to realize what it was getting itself into, but it smiled now and agreed. It and Pikachu stepped back to allow some space between each other.

"So I'm capturing a Chikorita, out of everything I could have found in this forest... well, it's better than some bug," Ford said, shrugging. "Pikachu-"

He didn't have time to utter his first attack before Chikorita stormed forward in an attempt to Tackle Pikachu, all with a smile on its face. Pikachu managed to escape with Quick Attack to the right, and then ran around the campfire to use the Quick Attack offensively at his opponent. Chikorita noticed, though, and quickly scattered a blue powder into the air while laughing. Pikachu couldn't slow down fast enough and got the dust onto him.

'Sleepy...' he uttered, stopping in his tracks and fighting hard to keep his eyes open.

"Sleep powder! Ah! So this Chikorita is that kind of pokémon!" Ford realized. He was still mad at the Butterfree he had fought earlier - to have a powdering pokémon of his own would be an awesome revenge. On any trainer he happened to come across next. Hm.

"Thundershock!"

Pikachu fired it away and struck the Chikorita rather easily. It didn't seem too hurt though, and instead quickly recovered and swung the leaf on its head to throw sharp Razor Leaves toward Pikachu, who got hit and scratched.

"Are you alright?" Ford said when Pikachu fell over at his feet.

'Yeah,' the mouse reassured him and got back up to his feet. 'She's... strangely clever.'

"SHE?!" Ford gaped. He hadn't really thought about it, but all the other members on his team were male. He would capture a female now? Well, some variation couldn't hurt, right? "Thundershock again!"

Chikorita tried growling to make the attack less powerful by appealing to Pikachu's soft side. Totally useless. The thundershock struck her hard and made her whimper instead of counter attack.

"Quick Attack!" Ford shouted and Pikachu obeyed, quickly tackling the poor grass type so that it rolled around on the ground out into the darkness where the light from the campfire didn't reach.

"Thundershock again!" Ford yelled triumphantly, but Pikachu just turned to look at him. "Oh... ok, maybe that's enough."

They walked over to the spot where Chikorita had landed instead... but she wasn't there.

"She... left?" Ford wasn't sure if he should be relieved or disappointed.

Pikachu looked sad.

"Oh, did you look forward to having her on the team?" Pikachu nodded. "Hm... maybe I did too. Yeah. I did. Pity she didn't."

Sighing, the two guys turned back to the campfire, only to hear Pansear laugh out loud. Blinking, they saw him sit and chat friendly with the little banana pokémon he had been wanting to fry earlier. She was roughed up, but not fainted yet. She smiled weakly at Ford and Pikachu when they saw her. Pikachu shone up infinitely and ran up to her, even apologizing for attacking her so hard.

'It's ok! It was fun!' she said, which made Ford stunned for a moment. He wasn't supposed to be able to hear her speak yet! He hadn't captured her yet! Did this indicate that... the important thing wasn't the capture with a pokéball? But something else? He had to talk to Taurus about this. And maybe Virgo.

Still, he took up an empty pokéball and showed it to Chikorita.

"Would you do me the honor?" he asked her, stepping close.

'To do what?'

"Come with me on my journey! And Pikachu and Pansear and several others, of course."

Chikorita looked at him for a moment, then at Pikachu, who nodded eagerly and Pansear who shrugged but gave her a cool blink. Then she smiled.

'Try to catch me then!' she laughed and suddenly jumped away.

"Hell..." Ford muttered and wondered if he really wanted this particular Chikorita... nevertheless, he threw the pokéball towards her before she reached the edge of the campfire's light again. It hit, with its special pokémon-seeking properties. The pokémon got sucked in and...

Gandhi Savage · Jul 11, 2012

@Red: That was a great post, loving the personalities of the team so far :)

Ford caught a Chikorita!

Starsprite · Jul 13, 2012

-Jett Minks-

Chapter 3, Part 3

The sound of a Pokeball's click had become something more than just an affirmation that the Pokemon had been caught for Jett. To him it was a signal that he was safe. He had alarmingly bad luck with wild Pokemon, he noticed. So the sound of a capture had come to mean that Jett could take a moment's rest.

And Jett was perfectly content to slump over on the forest floor. The whole thing felt kind of surreal.

But that was probably just the effects of taking one too many Poison Stings along with his onslaught of Rollouts. Now Jett knew that people needed to be weary of poison types, but Poison Sting wasn't going to kill him. What it was going to do was make him very very disoriented. He could feel it now, a severe case of vertigo washing over him. And oh was he ever glad to be sitting down.

The trainer knew Tom was probably experiencing much more severe side effects, being contained in a smaller body, so he managed to keep his head up just long enough to shuffle though his bag. Buying antidotes had been the right decision, even if he was quickly running out of money.

The bottle, to his somewhat fuzzy perception, was a very complicated device. In reality it was no different than any other spray bottle, but what Jett saw was a contraption that required infinite wisdom to operate. So naturally he abandoned all logic and started to twist and pull at various parts of the bottle.

It goes without saying, his actions were not very well thought out. Evidence of this was that when he did find out how to operate the bottle he ended up spraying it directly into his face. And it burned.

Jett could not force himself to open his eyes again after that. He kept his calm for the most part, rubbing frantically with his jacket sleeve rather than trying to gouge his eyes out. Okay, so maybe he didn't keep his calm, but the comparison mad him seem much saner.

Even after the stinging pain was reduced to a dull throb, Jett's eyes remained shut. This time he managed to hold the bottle the right way, though, spraying it in the general direction of Tom. Fortunately his blind aim was accurate, as he heard almost a sigh of contentment from the bird Pokemon.

Now the black haired boy really did collapse. His back rested on the forest floor, ignoring his two Pokemon completely. He couldn't see, and if he could he'd probably be hallucinating. There was hardly any point in staying awake now.

That's right. Jett fell asleep on the forest floor. It wasn't sanitary or safe, but the trainer didn't care. Besides, he trusted that his two Pokemon wouldn't let him get eaten alive. Although he felt like he could have slept there forever, his nap only lasted about six hours. That was just long enough to make it dark in the forest, exactly what he had wanted to avoid.

The boy woke up with a throbbing headache and a very confused state of mind. His eyes hurt and so did his everything else. Also, he could only see directly in front of him. It was very very dark. Fabulous. This was all just fabulous, wasn't it?

Jett's first order of business was to find his Pokemon. Luca was a fire type, and if the little Pokemon didn't hate his guts too much he could really use that fire. Or he could always use himself as a torch when Luca tired to burn him to a crisp, he thought. Was this really any time to be sarcastic?

Who was he kidding? Every time was a time to be sarcastic, making light of the situation in a purely pessimistic manner. Was that even possible? Jett thought it must be, since he just did it. So now there was just the task of finding his Pokemon, sarcastically or otherwise.

"Luca! Tom!" he called out.

One of them, presumably Tom, nudged into his side. The other one climbed up on his legs. Well now he felt like one of those annoying types that shouted for people that were in the same room. Well it wasn't like he could see or anything, so for all he knew his Pokemon could have decided that he was a terrible person and run away.

See, it's funny because that could have actually happened. Jett found that his sarcastic humour was starting to annoy himself even. Maybe he could consider making jokes with much less self-loathing involved. Then they could all be happy and frolic through the flowers or something.

Jett made a note to slap himself at some point later. Right now he needed to get out of the forest. "So Luca...would you mind using Ember for us?"

The fire type, no longer having one of his mood swings, tilted his head to the side. His master wanted him to use Ember...on him? He let out a small flame in the direction on Jett, not letting it close enough to burn his trainer. He would if the boy really wanted him to but...

"Woah!" Jett cried as he wiggled back from the flame. "Not at me! We need to use your fire as a light."

It was still a slightly confusing concept to the Pokemon, not using his fire for battle, but he saw some logic in it. His trainer's eyesight was worse than that of a Pokemon, and he needed to see where to go to direct them out of this scary forest.

Luca hopped down from Jett's legs, blowing a small, constant flame from it's mouth to illuminate the groups surroundings. Jett took this chance to observe the scene, analyzing every last detail that he could in the dark. Fortunately he was young, meaning his night vision was good for a human, but the shade of the trees prevented him from seeing without Luca's light.

The first thing he noticed was that Tom appeared to have recovered slightly, still looking worn, but able to travel for now. He let the Pokemon up onto his shoulder for when they got to moving. He also notices a Pokeball, one that he faintly remembered had some sort of importance.

Oh. Right, That was his Venipede's Pokeball. He'd never retrieved it. So he reached over to pick it up, the slight shift in his shoulder making Tom hop to the other one.

Jett put the Pokeball in his bag, then stood up. Well, time to go then. This was going to be an adventure, that was for sure.

Adventure had something of a negative connotation. All Jett could imagine was tripping over anything and everything in the forest, coming out with one eye and a severe limp. That wasn't sarcastic, just pessimistic.

fauchoux · Jul 13, 2012

So angry I missed this. Good look to you true role players!

The Noob Hacker · Jul 13, 2012

Something cold was felt. All was dark, the air was humid, humid, yet with a slight chill to it. Somewhere distant, high-pitched noises occurred. Sensation slowly faded away. Faded...faded..gone.

Another shot of cold rushed through. Darkness was blinked away, there was green. The grass was coated with dew, as were the leaves of the trees above him. This was surely the source of the cold wetness beneath Bennet. As he was still waking up, the boy realized that there was something hard behind him, holding him up. It was the trunk of a tree, tall and thick. It seemed vaguely familiar. He began to stand up, pulling himself up with the tree. His back and neck ached, and he groaned as he stood up. He held himself on the tree for a some time, eventually pushing himself off and standing.

It was by then that it finally hit him that the area was far lighter now than it was the last time he had seen it. Memory starting to come back to him, Bennet realized that it was the exact same clearing that he was in the day previous. The same clearing he was attacked in. He looked about frantically, but no sign of the blue Pokemon from last night. Blue Pokemon did remind him of something else, though. He checked his belt, though he knew that it wouldn't be any use. He quickly sent out Queen and threw the Pokeball that normally contained a Shinx. The Snivy was still resting, as would be expected, not even moving as it materialized on the grass. Sparks was nowhere to be found. Bennet put his starter back into her Pokeball, not especially surprised at Sparks' absence. This did open up a new problem, however. But the boy was still not awake enough to be completely worried about it.

The surrounding area did not look good. A lot of leaves were scattered on the ground, more than Bennet would expect. Looking up, the branches on the tall trees had little leaves, they were removed by something. Tree trunks and ground alike had several scorched patches, some places completely removed of grass, even some of the dirt displaced. As he continued to survey the area, he came across one patch of bare ground unlike the others. While almost all of the dirt areas had some sort of markings in it, this one in particular had very clear markings in them. A large, rounded triangle, with a long, narrow triangle shape close to it. A Pokemon footprint, perhaps? Bennet was about ready to disregard it, when something else caught his eye. On the very edge of the dirt patch, there was another marking in the ground. Another footprint, much smaller, much lighter. A small, paw-shaped print. Starting to get excited, Bennet looked in the direction that the footprint was pointed to. The grass beyond the patch was, like most of the rest of the grass in the area, trampled, as if it had been run over by something large, as if fighting had happened on it. There was no way to be sure if Sparks had run off in that direction, or if the footprint was his at all, but it was his only lead. He began to walk in the direction of the footprint.

The growth got thicker as Bennet neared the edge of the clearing. There was still the occasional sign of disturbance, but it was far easier to determine whether or not something had been there. The path of trampled grass was far easier to follow than it had been when the boy had begun chasing the potentially cold trail. There was one final area of bare earth before the clearing gave way once again to thick growth. The trees and other such vegetation nearly formed a wall as the cleared land reached its boundary. Many of the smaller trees surrounding the bare earth were bent backwards, some snapped, some completely uprooted. The larger, sturdier trees also bore markings, mainly scratches and cuts that had pierced thick bark or severed branches to reveal fresh wood like a snail whose shell had been partially shattered. Beyond the first line of damaged foliage, the forest showed no signs of disruptive, as if whatever happened last night never happened at all. Had Bennet not been preoccupied with trying to find his Shinx for the third time in the past twenty-four hours, and had he been the more pensive type, he might've considered how insignificant the forest made yesterday's event seem, like the world in miniature. He could very well have died lying against a tree, and none would've been the wiser. Everyone's stories would continue. A few may be affected by his absence, but that group would be nothing to the rest of the world who don't know nor care of the boy's existence. Nature has a way of making people feel small. But there was no time to consider things like those as Bennet, blindly, pushed into the thick forest.

As Bennet reentered the timeless zone that was the forest, though it was far lighter than it had been before, he realized why people were advised to stick to the paths. He could barely walk two steps without encountering a tree, exposed roots, bushes, undergrowth, and unidentifiable areas of soft ground that he preferred to avoid. Every obstacle he had to go around or ford through cost time, time the boy didn't know mattered or not. He was trudging through a part of Viridian Forest he couldn't find on a map, going in a single direction he couldn't identify, looking for a Pokemon in a location he didn't know. What was a half hour at this point? An hour? A day? It didn't make a difference. Like it or not, Bennet was lost looking for a lost Pokemon. It was a stupid move. Sparks ran off on his own so many times, and now he could be anywhere, and Bennet was wasting his time going on a goose chase for a Pokemon that clearly had better things to do than be with its trainer. That didn't matter either, it was too late to turn back.

Bennet began to catch himself. What was he thinking? He shouldn't try to find his Pokemon? It was a waste of time to begin with? What kind of trainer thinks those things? That has to be hunger and pain talking. Bennet told himself. He had to find Sparks, he had to. It was his Pokemon. No, it was his friend. They may not have had too much time together, but that never prevented Bennet from making friends before. The two were partners, and it was Bennet's duty to find him. It wasn't a matter of questioning, it was a matter of simply doing. As soon as I find Shinx, me, him, and Queen are all gonna eat a big breakfast, or lunch, or dinner, or whatever the case may be. Then we're getting out of this forest, and nothing's going to stop me. Bennet gave himself the best pep-talk he could think of, and with new determination pressed on into the forest. Unfortunately, the self-motivation had completely distracted him from the forest, namely the trees in front of him. Not seconds after he pumped himself up, Bennet got a face full of bark, spinning of that tree to hit his back on another.

Bennet found himself on the ground, his hands firmly clenched around some loose leaves. He shakily began to lift himself. "Okay, that's it! No more thinking in forests!" He scolded himself as he tried to get to his feet. Suddenly, he stopped. Directly in front of him was a tree, a small one, small compared to the rest of the trees in the forest. If there was ever a plant that looked like a war hero, this one would be it. Beyond the small scratches and occasional deeper cut, there were entire chunks of the tree were missing. Large pieces of the trunk were gone, it seemed a miracle that the thing could even stand. The gashes and missing chunks revealed wood that had already begun to rot and was inhabited by small insects. Broken pieces of bark, splinters of wood, snapped tree limbs surrounded the base. The tree was not alone either. Several ones similar to it were scattered around it, some standing, others fallen, some overlapping on the ground. Yet the truly out of place thing was the area that the dismantled trees bordered. A nearly clear area of land, one that certainly seemed unnatural in the deep forest. A small clearing that almost could've been a campsite or something of the like. As striking as the scenery was, it was not what caused Bennet to kneel on all fours in the middle of a forest. It was the soft sounds coming from the clearing. The small black ball that was curled against a tree.

Somewhere between shock and disbelief, Bennet found himself slowly pacing towards the small thing making the noises. Not entirely in control of his own actions, he began to walk faster. Faster, faster, faster until he felt that he was sprinting, faster so that he was surprised he had not yet made his way across the small clearing. Then, out of the blue, or brown as the case may be, he was stopped. More on instinct than reaction, Bennet had stopped himself from running into the blue Pokemon before him, though it was far from the blue Pokemon he was looking for. The one before him was large, bipedal. Yellow-rimmed eyes that were far from welcoming burned holes through Bennet. Sharp claws attached to thick, spiny arms were held to his face. A several-foot-long horn was poised less than a thrust's length from the boy's neck. Bennet was completely frozen, already sweating cold bullets. He couldn't leave Sparks, not with this huge beast that would surly demolish him, but neither could he take on the Pokemon from his current position. The young trainer was frozen mid-step, and began to plant his back foot back on the ground, shifting his weight back to his middle. There was a loud snap as Bennet's foot crunched a twig.

The Pokemon's eyes hardened, and its teeth clenched as it let out a growl. Without warning it shot forward at Bennet, throwing out one of its claws. Bennet fell backwards slight after he stepped on the branch, and that probably saved his life, as the blue Pokemon's claws simply grazed his cheek rather than take his face off. Bennet felt something hot seep from two long, shallow cuts. Before he knew it, he was flat against the ground, back on the dirt. The hostile Pokemon's foot was planted firmly on Bennet's chest, pinning him, but also not breaking his ribs. Once again, the boy found a long horn in his face. He was frozen, still sweating. He tried to breathe as little as possible, which wasn't hard considering the foot planted on his chest, the single claw less than inches away from tearing through his clothing and skin. Bennet shut his eyes tightly.

Suddenly, he felt the pressure on his chest alleviate slightly. The Pokemon that towered over Bennet looked behind it, getting the horn out of the boy's face. The Pokemon walked off of Bennnet. He lifted himself partially, not quite sitting yet not lying down. Now that he wasn't in as much of a life-threatening situation Bennet was able to hear that which drove the large Pokemon off of him. A soft mewing sound, one that sounded very familiar. Bennet couldn't see behind the large dark blue Pokemon, but he knew that it was going to the source of the sound. It was going to hurt Sparks, or worse. Bennet tried to flip himself over, tried to crawl after the Pokemon. But between the pain in his back and the new ache in his chest that left him barely able to breathe in the first place, he wasn't nearly fast enough. The blue Pokemon knelt down, right in front of what Bennet presumed to be Sparks. For a long while, nobody moved. Bennet could hear soft noises from both his Shinx and the strange Pokemon, but couldn't hazard a guess at their meaning.

Several minutes passed, but it seemed far longer. The large blue Pokemon raised itself from the ground. It walked back to Bennet casually. He tried to move, tried to crawl away from it, but his arms and legs wouldn't obey him. Once again he was eye-to-eye with the blue Pokemon. He noticed that two of its claws were curled around something, a small yellow thing. It extended that hand to Bennet, uncurling its claw. Without thinking, he took the fruit from its hand. While he did, his hand accidentally brushed on the Pokemon's skin. As Bennet found out, skin wasn't exactly the best word to use. The Pokemon's outer shell was hard, like armor. Just like that, the blue Pokemon walked off into the forest. The next thing he knew, a Shinx was in his face. How Bennet felt at that moment is unexplainable. The emotions were far too conflicting. He was happy, happy that he felt a tear run down his face. At least, he hoped it was a tear. Yet, behind the happiness, there was a trace of worry. As he looked the Shinx's ears, he noticed that a considerable bit of its left was missing. Just gone. Signs of injury appeared all over the creature, but nothing as permanent as its now-chipped ear. Around its lip, Bennet could notice small bits of yellow, along with areas of wetness. He looked back to the fruit in his hand, and his stomach growled. It wasn't much, but it was more than what he had before. He greedily chewed at the fruit. It was sour, but it gave him a sudden rush of energy. When he looked back up, Sparks was already leaving, off in the same direction as the blue Pokemon. Right before it exited the small clearing, it looked back to Bennet. Shakily, he stood up. Sparks left once more into the forest, and hesitantly, Bennet followed.

Starsprite · Jul 15, 2012

((This is the first part of the joint post by Red and myself. There should be a second post sometime shortly.))

Wandering through the forest at night with only the guiding light of a Pokemon that only came up to mid-shin on him was certainly exciting for Jett, but a kind of exciting that he did not particularly enjoy. This kind of exciting was the kind of exciting people got from uncomfortable situations like, in Jett's case, nearly tripping over everything he passed over. It got his heart rate up, but it certainly wasn't fun.

Well, at least he hadn't been attacked by any rabid Pokemon yet, but it was only a matter of time, he speculated. Considering his luck, he'd probably come out of this half-eaten. That was kind of a gruesome thought. Jett was fairly certain he didn't want to experience it, in his mind or otherwise.

Other than the somewhat disturbing psychological workings of Jett, however, it was a fairly quiet traipse through the forest. Nothing especially interesting happened up until the point that he saw a light in the distance. It was faint, but Jett saw this as his potential escape from this wretched place, and decided to travel towards it.

The group, Tom, Luca, and Jett, ended up taking a diagonal path towards their destination in the hopes of reaching it sooner, which resulted in several branches to the face, and a struggle with a thorn vine. But in the end, they arrived.

If this was Pewter city, then it was a lot smaller than Jett had been told. It was a tent and a campfire, nothing more. Jett hadn't quite found civilization.

He decided to pass it by, uninterested in whatever setup this was, and for the first time that night, his face hit the dirt. He was surprised that this was the first time he'd fallen all night, but more-so he was surprised at the resulting noise of his body hitting the ground. To say the least, it was loud. Loud enough to make an insomniac monkey nearby jump and give out a little surprised noise. And that noise in turn made a boy sleeping inside the tent literally jump up from his sleeping bag.

"WHAT?" Ford yelled and stumbled out from the tent. He could see a light and something red and blurry beside it. Aha, he had forgotten his glasses inside the tent.

'Visitors, man!' Pansear informed him with a grin and pointed in the direction where Jett had dropped to the ground so noisily.

Ford wasn't thrilled about that, so he backed off and reached into the tent to retrieve and put his glasses on. "Is it another Chikorita or is it a bug this time?"

'Neither!' the monkey said.

"Hello?" Ford said, a bit nervously. "I have pokémon and I'm not afraid to use them!"

Jett rolled over slightly, covered in dirt, and suddenly not having the best disposition. Maybe he could just crawl away and pretend this never happened. No, that could only end in more pain.

A loud sigh escaped Jett's lips, only managing to suck more dirt into his lungs and trigger a coughing fit. In between coughs he could only manage to sputter out, "Oh c-calm down will you!"

His stutter wasn't from being nervous, just a side effect of trying to expel the forest floor from his lungs, really.

Hearing that it was a human being and not a vile pokémon calmed Ford down endlessly. "Oh," he sighed with relief and tried walking closer to the other guy. "Are you alright? It's the middle of the night, you know. Why aren't you camping?"

Once his coughing fit was over, Jett propped himself up in a sitting position, a painful endeavor, considering all of the bruising he was going to have tomorrow. He stared up at the boy in front of him, just for the sake of starting. He didn't exactly gather anything from his appearance, or even the way he talked.

"Well I was really hoping to get to Pewter City. I've had a long night. Plus I got attacked and I think I might be poisoned," he mused. His tone was casual, like it was the most normal thing in the world. "No. It probably wore off by now. I got sprayed in the face with an antidote. Do those things even work on people?"

Normally he wouldn't be this expressive with anyone, but tonight Jett's rambling couldn't be helped. He was still feeling a bit lightheaded, after all.

When the other boy sat up, Ford could vaguely see what he looked like, from the faint light of the campfire. He didn't look very happy, but not too angry either. Ah, who had the energy to be angry in the middle of the night anyways?

"I don't know if they work on humans, really... pokémon are pretty strange stuff. Well, I hope you're fine," Ford shrugged with half a smile, offering the guy a hand to help him up. "I'm Ford, from Viridian City. Was on my way to Pewter but... uh, I got lost. Wasn't my fault though!"

He then glanced at the pokémon the other guy brought. "Whoa, you have pokémon I've never seen before!"

Jett tilted his head to the side. "Are you referring to Luca or To-"

How would this guy know which one was which? He corrected himself, "Tepig or Hoothoot?"

He had skipped straight to that question, never the most fantastic at introductions. Jett realized he probably should have mentioned his name, or at least given a more friendly greeting, but instead he waited awkwardly for Ford to answer the question.

Ford didn't really react at that the other boy didn't introduce himself. He figured he should become more interested in things regarding pokémon, to make Scorpio and Gemini think of him as less of a know-nothing than they did now, so he turned his focus to them.

"I've seen Hoothoots before... well, not with my own eyes, but I know of them. The other one though, Tepig you say? Extraordinary. Fire?"

Pansear walked up to them and raised an eyebrow at the little pig. It didn't look like a match for him! He sneered at the Tepig.

Luca, Jett's Tepig, snorted in reply. He puffed out smoke from his nostrils in doing so, a motion showing his indifference as a whole. Or maybe he was just trying to show off by pretending to be cold and indifferent.

"Well...yes. He is a fire type," chimed in Jett. That was all he could think to say. Extraordinary? Did that guy just call his Tepig extraordinary? "He's kind of messy and destructive actually."

Ford glanced at Pansear. "Uh, yeah, that's probably true for my Pansear too."

The monkey didn't seem offended, instead he let out a little maniac giggle.

"Anyways, I think I'm going back to sleep in my tent. Are you going to, uh, keep going in the night? Because otherwise, I mean..." He still didn't want to admit fully that he was lost. But then again, he already had. "Otherwise we could maybe try to find Pewter City together in the morning?"

A ragged sigh came from Jett. At this point, trying to wander through the dark to get to Pewter City was a bad idea. Even with light, the forest was confusing, and if the two of them ended up in the same place, then they were probably equally as lost.

"I'll stay here if you want," came his reply. He had put it rather bluntly, he thought. No point in dancing around it.

"I never told you my name either, did I?" he asked rather suddenly. Of course, he knew he hadn't, but it seemed less awkward if he acted like it passed his mind.

Ford let out a sigh of relief. "Good then! And no, you didn't," Ford said and looked back towards the tent. "Is it a secret?"

Raising an eyebrow, Jett replied, "Why would it be a secret?"

He didn't wait for the answer to his own question before proceeding to finally introduce himself. "My name is Jett. I'm from Olivine City. There's not a lot about me that's especially suspicious or secretive."

"Haha, sorry," Ford said. "Well, nice to meet you, Jett. I'll just..." He gestured at his tent. "... go back to sleep and I'll see you in the morning? Pansear will probably guard the fire all night. He doesn't seem to want to sleep."

Pansear just giggled again and took his place by the fire once more, after having blinked at Luca in a teasing manner.

Jett simply continued to sit, ever-so-slightly uncomfortable with the whole thing. "I'll just..." he stopped to ponder his words momentarily "I'll just sit out here I guess."

He pulled Tom, his Hoothoot, up onto his lap, where she settled down before saying, "Well, good night then. See you in the morning."

Ford was about to ask if he wasn't going to sleep or set up a tent or at least pull out a sleeping bag... but instead yawned loudly and thought that he didn't really care that much anyways. Instead, he went back into his tent and took up the smartdex, about to message some people about this incident. He fell asleep with the smartdex in his hand though, on top of the sleeping bag. Too tired.

Fuyu · Jul 19, 2012

Alyss Redford
Everyone needs a pick-me-up...

Alyss wandered Viridian for about an hour, watching battles with a delightful curiosity. There were so many different Pokemon; it was really exciting. Unfortunately, her earlier courage must have flown away because she still couldn't talk to anyone without stammering. It seemed this would take much longer than they thought...

Finally however, believing she had given their former opponent enough time, she went to the PokeMart. The machines... they were so shiny! Okay no that wasn't entirely it. They did seem rather advanced though. Then again she had never been in a PokeMart. Celestic Town only had a tiny market run by a couple of grandparents. It was nice but... this place had so much variety! Unknown to her, her eyes were visibly sparkling.

"Hey, you aren't from the city are you?" Instantly Alyss let out an "eep" and jumped backwards, only to come face-to-face with a taller boy. His hair was brown and short, framing a friendly face in typical trainer gear. The boy chuckled. "Yep you aren't!"

Rai shot the taller boy a look from where he stood on the ground. It was rude to laugh at a lady. Honestly, were all male humans without manners? Alyss, completely baffled, turned away again, looking at the items on the shelves. Hm... two Pokeballs... a few Antidotes... and a few Potions... Well it left her almost broke but that would be okay. She would be able to beat up a couple of trainers (maybe) and earn some money. She needed to get two more Pokemon first though. She knew what kind she wanted and they were adorable...I mean... no wait, adorable.

The male seemed to realize this a few moments later and flushed, scratching his head sheepishly. "Oh I'm sorry. I wasn't laughing at you; I was just surprised at how accurate I was."

Alyss blinked and turned back. Oh... was that what it had been about? Oops... "Um... it's okay. You just, well erm, you.. confused me," she admitted, looking sheepish. "I thought you were making fun of me..."

The boy raised his hands in defense. "No, no never! I can just tell where people are from... it always surprises me when I get it right." Alyss relaxed a little, but only a little! This was still a stranger, and worse still. a boy. Oh Arceus help her. "My name's Scott. Sorry about that, let me help you with those." Before she could reply he had snatched the items out of her arms and carried them to the register. Alyss, utterly befuddled, paid for her items and carried them out, followed merrily by this older boy. "My name is Ken," he introduced with that chipper grin.

Alyss looked away from it, pink in the face. "A-Alyss..." she replied quickly, trying to hurry away toward the Pokemon Center. Before he could grab her arm she had disappeared into the crowd, Rai racing after her with a grimace. The boy sighed and shook his head as she disappeared. Some girls were just strange. Or maybe this one was hard to get.

Alyss returned Rai and murmured to get a healing done for her Pokemon. She then went to go get something to eat. She kind of wanted to take her mind off the strange boy who had been after... something. She didn't know what that something was though.

---

She arrived on Route 22 with a minor trepidation. Alyss knew she wasn't ready for Viridian Forest, let alone Pewter City Gym. How did she know that? Because of Sammy's losing streak. For the otter, it was rather frightening. He had won against Rai sure, by a sheer willpower. Against the two trainers however, he had lost horribly. He had to get better. And if they could get some new partners too, well, there was nothing wrong with that.

With that decision made, she pulled out Sammy's Pokeball and released him. Sammy flipped to face forward, grinning as exuberantly as ever.The little Oshawott's fangs glittered as he winked at her. He didn't have a thing to worry about as far as he was concerned. Sure there had been a couple... setbacks but they were key to being awesome. With that thought lodged firmly in his head, Sammy let out his typical war cry and charged, brandishing his shell.

Rai made a movement similar to a facepalm from next to her. Stupid kids... Alyss followed the eager Pokemon with a look of sheer trepidation. She knew she should have faith in her silly little otter. But that was the problem. He was rather silly. Maybe this battle, whoever it was with, would help. Ahead, deep in the grass, was a sudden screech. Sammy shouted a "WOTT!" of annoyance as he flew up and out, glaring at a sudden soaring orb of sandy yellow. It knocked him feet over head, causing the Oshawott to balance on tiny flippers back to standing.

Before their eyes the ball uncurled to create a mouse-like creature, one who scratched one of its ears with annoyance. Its black eyes lazed over her and to the growling Oshawott. Then it grinned and fired purple needles from its mouth. "Dodge!" Alyss called quickly. Thankfully Sammy obeyed, expression determined as it landed again. "Water Gun! Keep it away from you!"

"Osha!" Sammy fired, only for the Pokemon to curl up and have the water splash near harmlessly on his hide. Uh oh... Uncurling, it leaped forward, scratching Oshawott in the face. Sammy flailed and flew backward, bouncing on his butt. His eyes watered with crocodile tears and then he wiped them away, getting back up again. "OSHA~!"

Rai whistled in appreciation. Had to admire the little bugger's spirit. Alyss, finally getting a free second, pulled out her Pokedex. As the mousy creature crouched on all fours, she read, "Sandshrew, the Mouse Pokémon. Sandshrew hates moisture and lives in holes it digs in dry places. It protects itself by curling into a ball." She frowned. "It's a ground type... isn't Sammy,erm, good at those?" She wasn't sure who she was talking to but Rai nodded at her anyway.

"Oh...o-okay..." The other trouble with Sammy was that she hadn't thought of any good strategies for him. It was easier with Pidgey. She was good with aerial Pokemon... mostly because she watched them back in Celestic. And Rai... he would just do whatever he thought was the right thing unless she saw it beforehand. Sammy was young and... not good at anything all that complicated. So that meant... be simple. Okay let's see... "Sammy Water Gun again... then run!" As she said this the shrew had taken off before curling up into a ball and ramming Sammy off his feet again.

Alyss almost moved but Rai's paw on her leg made her pause. "Chu," he stated flatly. Quit babying him. Of course she didn't know what he said but the intent was clear. She couldn't save him. He had to see this to the end. So Alyss thought quietly for a moment. That Sandshrew had a tough hide... but its belly had to be weak. Otherwise it wouldn't protect it so much.

"Sammy,"she began quietly. "Focus Energy."

The otter looked at her in utter confusion before wailing and throwing himself away from the still rolling Pokemon. It swirled around him, trapping him in a small tornado of dust. The Oshawott flailed and tried to escape, only to be clipped as Sandshrew rolled past. His eyes watered and he looked desperately at Alyss. He had been all ready to go... but this was like that Squirtle and Hoothoot all over again. He was going to lose... and get really hurt. He didn't want to...

However Alyss stood there. Her expression was calm. It was almost scary. Did his trainer want to hurt him? He was tired, done. Stop...

"Focus Energy," she repeated steadily. "You can do it Sammy. Focus. You're getting scared. You need to calm down." Sammy stared hopelessly at her before stopping where he stood and doing just that. He closed his eyes and tried to drown out the loud whirring of the ground being rolled on around him and the wind it kicked up. he concentrated, thinking of the shell firmly resting on one flipper. As he thought about it, the shell began to glow bright blue. The sensation of the cold on his chest was soothing... and the fear was going away...

Then the noise outside his ears stopped, replaced with the sound of something headed towards him. Opening his eyes, Sammy fired a Water Gun, knocking the Sandshrew back. It rolled head over heels, thumping onto the grass. Righting itself quickly, the shrew raced forward on his paws, poison turning his claws purple.

This time, Sammy was ready. Shell glowing bright blue, he charged and ducked under the larger Pokemon's scratch, slicing upward with his Razor Shell. The opponent shrieked and flew back. As the Pokemon soared, disoriented, Alyss threw the Pokeball. It sucked the Sandshrew in and closed, beginning to shake...

Gandhi Savage · Jul 25, 2012

@TheNoobHacker: Really enjoyed that post, the detail was exquisite!

@Starsprite: Very good posts, enjoyed reading it. Can't wait for the second part from Red!

@Fuyu: Really loved Oshawott's comeback!

Alyss caught a Sandshrew!

Pokémon: Kanto's Rebirth [T] [IC]

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Gandhi Savage

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