I N N O C E N C E ☆ (IC thread)

"Zephyr, Extrasensory" José said. Zephyr nodded, and blasted the Trapinch with telekinetic energy. Zephyr giggled, and José gestured at the other trainer.

"So, its your turn. Don't worry, you'll lose soon." José said, laughing slightly.

"You little ... !" Sam exclaimed, "Now, Mercury, use Sand Tomb so Zorua can't see!" Mercury did it instantly, stamping the ground, bring up sand that blocked Jose's and Zorua's vision.

"Now, Bite down hard on Zorua's tail!" and so he did, and Jose and Sam heard Zorua yelp.

"Don't worry," Sam grinned. "This will be all over soon, I'll win, and you can just cry away."

"Ah, but you have forgotten that Bite is a dark type move, and therefore isn't very effective! Zephyr, use Bounce!" José said. He smiled in the direction that the other trainer was in, even though he couldn't see him. Zephyr jumped out of the sandstorm, rising out of sight.

"Oh yeah ..." James face palmed as the Zorua soared through the sky. "Mercury, because your other two moves are only dark type moves, use Sand Tomb to protect yourself from Bounce!"

Zorua flew down from the sky, making both James and Mercury jump, but Mercury did do what he was told, and Jose's Pokemon bounced off of the Sand shield.

"I might start calling your Pokemon Zephyr, Jose, and with the colour and it all disappearing I think it suits it, saying Zorua all the time is boooring..."

José nodded, and seeing that the Trapinch was weakening, cracked a smile.

"That would be his name. Zephyr, Faint Attack." José said. Zephyr disappeared, and then suddenly reappeared, attacking the Trapinch. He ran back to his position in front of José.

James saw he was grinning, just because Mercury was weakening. He was weak and tired already from the last battle, so this was hardly fair.

"Crap ..." he muttered, "Mercury, use Faint Attack to confuse Zorua, and then use Sand Tomb."

"Also, Jose, your Zorua is only winning for one reason - we had only just finished our previous battle, so I wouldn't be that bothered if you win because this has been pretty much unfair."

"You're Pokémon was at perfect health. The only thing unfair is type disadvatage. Zephyr, watch for him." José said. His body language was that of someone calm and sure of himself, but his insides were alive with the electricity of adrenaline. Zephyr took the hit, and got up. He was reasonably hurt, but not near as much as the Trapinch.

"Finish him with Dark Pulse." José said. He then nodded at the trainer as Zephyr glowed, and smiled as the pulse of dark energy hit the Trapinch, making it faint.

"Nice battle. I didn't get your name. I'm José." José said, walking up to the trainer.

"My name is Sam, Sam Davi." he grinned happily as he slowly picked up Mercury. "That was a great battle, we should travel together sometime."

Sam walked slowly away, smiling to himself. "He," he thought, "is not too bad ..." And he healed Mercury up with his potion.

Kaiba's trouble

Kaiba's was walking down the stairs after finishing a shower, while he was walking down the stairs he thought "Man that dream was really weird I can't believe that I woke up with burns but more importantly what was a Haxorous trying to say to me." as Kaiba thought about the situation that happened he found himself falling down the stairs at a very fast speed. He wasn't paying attention and he tripped which was very unfortunate. When he opened his eyes he saw that his parents were glaring at him with judging eyes because there's son had fallen down stairs. That's when his father said "Kaiba, hurry up and get ready to go on your journey" Kaiba got up and that's when his mother gave him a backpack. She then said to him "Never come back home until you become a Pokémon master champion whatever" following that little talk Kaiba headed for the door. That's when his family's Hitmonchan stopped him and his parents told him to take Hitmonchan with them for protection. As they were walking Hitmonchan made Kaiba practice jabs.While practicing his jab he accidentally hit a guy walking out of a bar, which then knocked that guy into three other people and that was just bad news Bears for Kaiba from there. Following that the three guys plus the guy that was jabbed were going to be beat up Kaiba, but before they could Hitmonchan came to the front to Kaiba and nodded for him to attempt to go away. Kaiba would agree and made his way to the lab hoping to get back in time to help Hitmonchan if possible. When Kaiba finally arrived at the lab he collapsed from exhaustion. He was very tired and that's when he opened his eyes and looked up and saw the professor leaning over him. "please give me a Pokemon" said Kaiba. "I need to help my Hitmonchan." Kaiba looked up again and saw a Axew come down from the professor's table. It grabbed a leaf off the professor's plant and started to fan the exhausted Kaiba. Then with a strong second wind, Kaiba grabbed the Axew and hoisted it into the air. "I want this Pokémon and no other!"

"Look what I got, Timmy!" Eri was petting her blue eel thing, who looked like it enjoyed it much more than his Pokemon had. Maybe he just had bad technique? And he sighed forlornly. It appeared as though nobody liked to call him Mothball. He couldn't understand why.

The other girl was gazing intently at her Pokemon and giving it a name that sounded like "Meta" or something. It looked awesome. Everything was just so fantastic, it was a brilliant day.

Mothball couldn't help but puff up his chest - what there was of it - proudly when the Professor proclaimed him and his Pokemon to be a cute couple, even if he wasn't quite sure what she was talking about. What did she just call the Pokemon? Larvitar? That was so cool.

He stood back up when the Professor began to talk about the pokedex. State of the art technology? He really, really hoped he wouldn't somehow break it. It must be expensive, and it sounded really impressive. He kinda couldn't believe that they would just hand it out to a bunch of kids.

He looked kinda confused when Professor Vayne began to talk about "symbols". Did he miss something? Oh shoot. Maybe it was like an orienteering exercise or something, where you had to travel to places and get a stamp to say you'd been there. That sounded plausible, didn't it? Before he could ask if Eri knew what she meant by symbols, the Professor invited them to take a pokedex. Shakily, he reached out to get one. It wasn't as though he was going to say "no" or something, so he might as well just hope for the best. It was surprisingly light in his hand, but that might be because he'd just tried to pick up a Pokemon which seemed to be made completely out of stone.

He watched as Eri used hers. It appeared to work just by opening them and maybe pointing it. With a sense of nervous anticipation, he did so and pointed it at his new companion.

"Larvitar, the Rock Skin Pokemon," the machine intoned, startling him quite a bit. "A dual Ground and Rock type Pokemon. It feeds on soil until it turns into a pupa. This Larvitar's moves are Bite, Sandstorm, Ancientpower, and Screech."

Mothball looked a bit overwhelmed. He stared at his Pokemon, who merely stared back. Then, quite suddenly, he joyfully threw his arms around the Larvitar who proceeded to look at him as though he was crazy. "You are the best, you really are," Mothball said happily. It was then that he noticed the words displayed on the screen of his Pokedex, asking him whether he wanted to change his Larvitar's name. Personally he thought Larvitar was already wicked cool, but both Eri and the other girl had changed the names of their Pokemon, so maybe it was a very common practice.

Mothball looked thoughtful. "I should call you... Boom!" he said with a wide grin. "Then everytime I send you out, I could be like... 'Go Boom', which, you know, sounds like I'm telling you to explode when in reality..."

Larvitar bit him on the finger again. "Okay!" he yelped. "Fine, not Boom." When the Larvitar let go, the two of them realised that she'd accidentally drawn blood. Immediately, the Larvitar looked apologetic, but Mothball simply reached into his bag and absent-mindedly began to wrap a bandage around it.

"Fine, okay. You're a girl. What's a nice girl's name?" he wondered, and made a face when his mind immediately supplied him with his sister's name, Maria. No, just... no. "If I call you Eri, I'm sure everyone would just get confused, right?" he mused aloud. "Um... well, she named her Pokemon Ruby, so I guess the green version would be Emerald, right?"

Larvitar looked unimpressed once more. "No, you're right," Mothball said, "Ruby isn't red, so I suppose it might be better to call you Sapphire." When the unimpressed look didn't abate, he shrugged. "Alright, not the way to go. Even though you're, you know, a rock. And gems are stones, and they're pretty and girls like them, so it would have been totally suitable."

He sat and thought some more. Secretly he thought calling her Onyx would be all kinds of fun, but he suspected that the Larvitar wouldn't agree. What was a nice name? "Shuriken!" he said eagerly.

Larvitar brightened at that one. She wasn't sure what shuriken meant, but it sounded better than any of the alternatives that he had put forward thus far. "Lar!" Mothball grinned triumphantly and entered the name into his pokedex.

"Alright, off to the Sahra Woods! Eri, you coming?" he exclaimed, full of energy. So full of energy that, when he began to walk towards the door, he tripped over a stack of things which then proceeded to crash down onto him. "Sorry!" he said, voice muffled, before getting up and trying to pick up everything that fell and placing them back on the desk. "Right, off we go," he said again, more sheepishly this time as he carefully walked out the door.

So, he named his Larvitar Shuriken? That was so cute! Ericka gave her Dratini another pet and turned her attention back to the PokéDex she had received from Professor Vayne. From her advice, she quickly looked through some of the options. There, she could see the map now. And there was her home town! She swiped through other options, including Ruby's moveset, which didn't make much sense to her anyway (Wrap? Leer? What?). Since PokéDexes could store data, she pointed it at Timothy. When that didn't work, she pointed it at his now named Larvitar, Shuriken. It seemed to make noises almost immediately.

"Larvitar, the Rock Skin Pokémon. A dual Ground and Rock type Pokémon. It feeds on soil until it turns into a pupa."

The voice was definitely the same as Timothy's and so was the explanation. Neat! At least she knew there was no difference between them, not that it mattered anyway.

"Alright," Timothy exclaimed, seeming to be heading off towards the door, "off to the Sahra Woods! Eri, you coming?" He turned around and fell over straight away. Ericka, though she knew it may have been a little mean, giggled at his face plant. Travelling with Timothy would be hilarious from the get-go if this was to go by.

"Yep!" she said, picking up Ruby and cradling her in her arms. "Onwards we go! To Sahra Woods!" She darted past Timothy before he fell over again and with her spare arm, grabbed him as Shuriken jumped on him and climbed to a safe distance, like his shoulders. When she thought Shuriken was safe, she pulled Timothy along and ran for the woods, laughing while she did.

Mothball tried his best to keep up, but Shuriken was actually very heavy and the added weight unbalanced him even more than usual. It didn't take long before his arm slipped from Eri's grasp and he began to slow down, his shoulder feeling very sore. Shuriken took this as her cue to jump back onto the ground with a thump.

Mothball winced a little and laughingly said, "I think that it might be best if you walked by yourself for a little." Shuriken dutifully began to plod alongside him. By that point they were already in the woods. Huh. It was amazing how much less time it took Eri to navigate their way down here than it took for Mothball to figure out how to get to the Professor's lab. Then again, she didn't stumble into a fruit stall every second step either. Just picking up all the oranges alone took him a really long time.

"I love the air," he said excitedly, looking up at the trees. He wasn't sure he'd ever seen this much green in his life. "This is so cool. We've got real live Pokemon and we're going on an actual adventure. Are you excited? Because I'm excited." He kept chattering away, keeping an eye on Shuriken because a part of him was afraid that she would run away or something the moment he turned his back. "Oh right, you should tell me about yourself! For all I know, you could be a psychopath." He paused for a moment. "Wait, you're not a psychopath, are you?"

He probably shouldn't have been splitting his attention between his Pokemon and trying to hold a conversation instead of looking ahead. Maybe then he would have avoided smacking his face into a tree branch, stumbling backwards a few paces, bumping into Shuriken, and then flailing his way into a bush.

Where he was promptly electrocuted.

The bright yellow light startled Shuriken, who proceeded to ready herself for battle. She ignored Mothball as he crawled out of the bush in favour of concentrating on the possible threat.

Mothball slowly got back to his feet and shook himself out. "That," he said, "was awesome."

The bush rustled a little before an irritated Pokemon jumped out. Underneath the creamy wool it had a blue body, other than the ears and tail which were striped black and yellow. Mothball fumbled for his Pokedex, which he dropped. Hurriedly, he picked it up and opened it before pointing it at the Pokemon. "Mareep, the Wool Pokemon. This Electric type Pokemon stores static electricity in its body. If this builds up, its fleece doubles in volume and its tail glows more brightly."

This Mareep, despite normally being as placid as any Mareep, was severely ticked off. She had had a very bad day already, and now something just fell on her right when she had just managed to drift off to sleep. "Reep!" she baa'd angrily, unaware just how adorable Mothball, the cause of her ire, found her. Without much warning, the Mareep began to charge forward towards Shuriken.

"Woah, wait, what are you doing?" Mothball said, suddenly sounding panicked. "We don't want to fight! I'm sorry about landing on you, I didn't mean it, I swear."

Mareep took no notice of him, concentrating on her attack. The impact slid Shuriken backwards by a little, but seemed to do little damage. The Mareep, on the other hand, staggered backward slightly and shook her head. Bashing skull-first into something literally as solid as rock was a little bit disorienting.

"Oh man, what am I supposed to do?" Mothball wondered, chewing his lip. He didn't want to fight. Did they have to fight? But he didn't want Shuriken to get hurt or anything, either. Shuriken, to her credit, was waiting for a command from her trainer. But she wasn't going to wait too much longer.

"Are you sure you want to be so quick in your choice?" the Professor asked as she gathered a Pokedex and Pokeballs for Kaiba. "There are still other Pokemon on the table in their Pokeballs you can take. That Axew just happened to be out of her Pokeball because I was giving her a check-up." "No, no other Pokemon will do for me. Just last night I had a dream and this little one's final evolution was in it. This must be a sign that me and this Axew were meant to be partners." The Professor was confused about what Kaiba was talking about but she decided that his mind was made up enough that she couldn't change it. So she gave him his Pokedex made by the LATIOS organization and his Pokeballs and then sent him on his merry way. "Thank you so much for this opportunity!" Kaiba said as he ran out the lab and back to his Hitmonchan's side.

Once Kaiba made it back to where the scuffle had began, he found that Hitmonchan had defeated two of the four men's Pokemon. He thought that Hitmonchan was doing alright. That was until he saw him shaking and breathing quite hard. Hitmoncahn was barely able to put up much more of a fight against his last two opponents, Seviper and Drilbur. "Oh no, he must be out of strength and stamina to continue on like this. We have to help him." Kaiba pulled out his Pokedex and looked over the moves his Axew knew and contemplated a strategy for helping against Hitmonchan. "This move would definitely help in this kind of bind." Kaiba pulls out Axew's Pokeball and throws it into the fray. The Seviper from the guy that was originally jabbed comes at Hitmonchan with a Poison Tail attack. Hitmonchan is unable to move and prepares to be hit. "Now Dragoon, use Protect" released from her Pokeball, Dragoon uses Protect to cast a shield between Seviper and Hitmonchan which sends Seviper flying back into Drilbur.

Hitmonchan turns around to see Kaiba giving him thumbs up. "Leave the rest to me and my new partner." Hitmonchan nods and then plants himself on the ground. "You think you can just come in here and interfere with our vengeance, punk." the man said as he prepared his Drilbur to attack. "I started this mess and I'm going to clean it up for sure. So let's battle it out!" The men and Kaiba stare each other down. "Drilbur use Metal Claw attack" "Seviper use Haze" "Dragoon, Rock Smash that Metal Claw away." The Pokemon attack as instructed by their trainers. Seviper sets up a Haze that Drilbur uses as cover to attack Axew with its Metal Claw attack. Dragoon stares at the haze and then notices the sun shining off the metal of Drilbur's claws. Using this knowledge, she lowers her head as Drilbur dives out of the Haze and smacks him in the stomach with a Rock Smash. This time Drilbur smacks into Seviper. Kaiba watches the Haze clear and notices both Seviper and Drilbur have disappeared. He then notices that the ground is covered with holes that were made by multiple dig attacks. "This is what they must have used to wear out Hitmonchan."

As Kaiba realizes this, Seviper pops out of a hole and wraps up Dragoon. Following Seviper wrapping up Dragoon, Drilbur jumps out of the same hole and smacks Dragoon with a Metal Claw. Dragoon flies back. Seviper and Drilbur then disappear into the holes again. "It's no use for you. This combo toppled even your much stronger Hitmonchan. Your little Axew doesn't stand a ghost of a chance." The man says laughing at Axew and Kaiba. "The difference between my Dragoon and Hitmonchan is not just the experience and power, but also their movesets." Both men look befuddled at Kaiba's words. "You see, Hitmonchan knows the three punch moves and Mach Punch. Those moves have no real versatility and can only be used up close. However, my Dragoon knows a move that's quite versatile and turns your little hide and seek strategy into mush." Dragoon looks back at Kaiba waiting on his orders.

"Now Dragoon, get close to one of those holes and shoot your strongest Dragon Rage into it!"

Dragoon nods and shoots her Dragon Rage into a hole created by Drilbur. Before the men can react back, Dragon Rages are shooting out of all the holes. "Your Pokemon are forever trapped in this Dragon Rage Cage!" The men look on in shock as they watch both Seviper and Drilbur come out of the holes and then immediately faint. "That's the game!" Kaiba said as he walked over to Hitmonchan and Axew. The four men, run away. "Hitmonchan, I'm sorry you had to do so much for me, but I really appreciate it. I'll be going on my journey now, but make sure you get home and to a Pokemon Center asap." Hitmonchan nods to Kaiba. He then extends his fist to which him and Kaiba share a fist bump. He then turns to Dragoon and ask the same thing. Dragoon fist bumps with Hitmonchan as well.

Kaiba and Dragoon then make their way out of the city and on to their first route. "And so it begins, Dragoon."

That was a nice battle!

Zephyr went to level 12!
Trapinch went to level 11!

(even if you lose, your pokemon still gets exp. ^^)

Kaiba obtained a Axew (Dragoon)! (Lv.10, M)

Dragoon went to level 11!

That... is a tough Axew. xD

Kaiba and Dragoon were making their way out of the city and into the forest. "This is where I journey shall begin, Dragoon." Kaiba looked down at his partner who was staring back at him. "Is there something you want?" Kaiba asked with a confused look. After asking his Dragoon's eyes lit up and she started climbing on the side of her trainer as if he was a big tree. Once she made it to his shoulder, she stood up and let out a small victory roar to celebrate her achievement. "Oh I see, you just wanted to ride on my shoulder. It's fine because most of the little kids in town would do the same thing to me. They call me the Big Tree Brother. It was kind of insulting but cute and amusing too." Kaiba laughed at his partner and what she had done. They continued to walk through the forest hoping to see some interesting Pokemon. "Dragoon, what kind of ally would be super cool for our combination?" Dragoon simply looked around off of Kaiba's shoulder as if she was on top of a ship's mast looking for land. "That's the spirit, search out a Pokemon partner that will rock the stars themselves."

Dragoon suddenly started jumping up and down and pointed Kaiba towards a tree. "What's up with the tree?" Dragoon hopped off her trainer's shoulder and smacked the tree with her Dragon Rage. The attack was small but still shook the tree enough for Beedrills, Butterfrees, Tailows, Starlys, Pidgeys, and Pidoves to all come flying out. "I see, you knew this tree would make for a good hiding space for the Pokemon. Well now that they are all open for catching, let's take one!" Kaiba nodded at Dragoon and she nodded back. "Now close your eyes and use one Dragon Rage to knock our target out of the sky!" Dragoon closed her eyes and shot one Dragon Rage at the Pokemon that were flying away. Kaiba looked on to see what Pokemon he would be attempting to capture. That's when the Dragon Rage caught a Starly and Beedrill. Beedrill was smacked into Starly due to the force of the Dragon Rage. "Didn't see that one coming…" Kaiba said as he watched both Pokemon fall to the ground.

Dragoon came to her trainer's side ready for a battle. Then she noticed there were two Pokemon and not just one. Dragoon looked back at her trainer with an "I think I used too much power" face to which Kaiba nodded in agreement. Beedrill was the first to get up and it was quite enraged. It had two scars on both wings, which Kaiba recognized because of his own scars. "This Beedrill must like to fight a lot, well it's a good thing we hit with our Dragon Rage first. Dragoon, Scratch!" Dragoon lunged at the Beedrill, who just stood there waiting of the attack. The attack connected, but Beedrill did not flinch, it countered with an X-scissor attack that sent Dragoon back. "I see, it was using Focus Energy as you were lunging to attack then used that to increase the power of the X-scissor. That's definitely coming from battle experience." Kaiba looked at Dragoon, "We were lucky that wasn't a critical hit."

Dragoon got up and dusted off her body. Kaiba notices that Beedrill has not come in for an attack. "Why is it keeping that same distance between us? That Starly is still out, but I doubt that's the reason. So why is it so far away?" Kaiba then recognized the Beedrill's plan. "I'm betting it only knows close range moves and that's how it's controlling the pace of the battle. If we wait it out he will recover from that first unexpected Dragon Rage, but if we rush in to attack it will just kept countering with close range moves." Kaiba then swiped his thumb over his nose. "If that's the game you're playing, then I'll happily take the invitation. Dragoon, move in close." Dragoon rushed in to Beedrill's area. Beedrill prepares another X-scissor attack on Dragoon. "Two can play the shield and then sword game, Protect!" Dragoon smiles at the Beedrill as she creates a barrier that bounces the X-scissor attack away. Beedrill is caught off guard and is stunned as it tries to gather itself in mid-air. "No time for games, Dragon Rage!" Dragoon opens her mouth and shoots her Dragon Rage into the stomach of the befuddled Beedrill. The Beedrill falls to the ground again, but uses its twin stingers to break its landing.

Beedrill rushes at Dragoon with its purple stingers; it was now using Poison Sting to attack Dragoon. "If we get poisoned we will be in deep trouble. I'm sure Dragoon's little body couldn't withstand the perils of being poisoned. Luckily she is dodging those stingers for the time being. I better think of an attack plan soon." Dragoon caught her trainer's eye to which she realized what her trainer was plotting. As Beedrill's stinger came in for another attack, Dragoon ducked below it as if she was avoiding a jab from a boxer, she then delivered a Scratch attack. This broke Beedrill's stance and with his guard down, Dragoon delivered another Dragon Rage that knocked Beedrill into tree.

"Now let's settle this score, Pokeball go!" Kaiba threw his Pokeball at the collapsed Beedrill.

As Kaiba waited for his Pokeball to stop shaking, he noticed that Starly was starting to get up. "Looks like our other target is getting up; Dragoon, do you want to capture this one too?" Dragoon nodded with a spark in here eye. Kaiba could tell she wanted to continue battling. Starly rose up, but unlike Beedrill it seemed frightened and scared. It was franticly flying around as if it was trying to escape from the area, but that's when it noticed Dragoon and Kaiba staring it down. "Dragoon, Dragon Rage attack!" Dragoon fired Dragon Rage at the frightened Starly. Starly was hit and fell to the ground with ease. "At least the Beedrill put up a fight to not smack its face on the ground."

The Starly got up with tears in its face. "Dragoon, is that Starly, crying?" Dragoon and Kaiba looked at the Starly in shock. The Starly simply sat on the ground crying from being hit and having its face smack the ground. Kaiba started to feel bad for trying to catch it now. "If I catch this Starly then make it into an awesome beast of a Pokemon then I will be one awesome beast of a trainer."

With that in his mind, Kaiba prepared Dragoon for another attack. "Now use Scratch on that crybaby." Dragoon looked back with concern at her trainer. Her face said "I really don't want to bully this one" but she still slowly ran towards the crying Starly. She gave the Starly a weakened Scratch attack. The Starly reacted as if it was hit with a super effective move. Starly started to roll around in the grass as if it was busted up. "Use Dragon Rage one more time!" Dragoon unleashed another Dragon Rage that smacked the fallen Starly. "Now here is another shot, Pokeball go!" Kaiba threw a second Pokeball for the fallen Starly.

"I love the air. This is so cool. We've got real live Pokemon and we're going on an actual adventure. Are you excited? Because I'm excited," Ericka giggled at his excitement. She could hardly contain hers either, but she had spent most of her time outside. Maybe Timothy was more of an indoors-y kind of person. While Timothy was was flailing about and falling ever so often, she was skipping, Ruby now coiled around her arm. "Oh right, you should tell me about yourself! For all I know, you could be a psychopath. Wait, you're not a psychopath, are you?"

"Not a psychopath," she laughed, spinning herself around a tree. "Are you?" As she spun the full 360 degrees around, she was met with Timothy and his face first into a bush. She laughed again but immediately stopped and jumped back as a bright yellow light flashed from under him. When he got back up to his feet, a tiny, yellow, woollen Pokémon emerged rather angrily from the bush.

"Mareep, the Wool Pokemon. This Electric type Pokemon stores static electricity in its body. If this builds up, its fleece doubles in volume and its tail glows more brightly."

Ericka didn't bother retrieving her own PokéDex, simply listening to Timothy's. Despite how cute the sheep looked, it was also rather angry looking amd perhaps a little annoyed? It didn't stay still for long, charging at Timothy's Shuriken.

"Wah! Look out!"

The Mareep collided with Shuriken, but it didn't really do much. Well, not to Shuriken anyways.

"Oh man, what am I supposed to do?" Timothy looked confused, as if he had never seen a Pokémon battle before. Well, Ericka wasn't experienced either but at least she knew what the general idea was.

"You gotta fight!" Ericka stepped in, putting her arm forward. Ruby flung herself off and fired herself like a torpedo at the Mareep. The collision was about as useless as the last one, but Ericka didn't give up hope. Instead, she pulled her PokéDex out and quickly memorised all of her Pokémon's moves.

"Uh, Ruby! Use Wrap!!" the Dratini launched herself again (the lack of legs probably gave her a slight disadvantage to walking or running) and coiled her body around the Mareep. The sheep let off a few bouts of electricity, but Ruby held fast and squeezed tighter. "Hey! Timmy! Tag team! Get Shuriken to help while the Mareep is tied up!"

((Grr... PC ate my large, amazing, epic catch post... Time to repost to the best of my memory...))

José walked out of the city, Zephyr standing triumphantly atop his head. He soon came to the forest. He knew it had a name, but he never did memorize it. All he knew was that many ugly, disgusting and annoying bug Pokemon lived in there. He hesitated, but Zephyr's eager mood urged him on.

José shivered as the forest enveloped him, making a sort of eerie twilight. He was walking when a bush began rustling. José stopped dead in his tracks, fear flooding his heart. This was exactly how his encounter with the Scolipede had started...

A few years back, when he had first come to Dahngrest, he had visited the forest. All the ones at his old home were filled with playful Aipoms and silly Seedot. He had heard a bush rustling, and approached. The Scolipede, who had been devouring its prey, turned on him and attacked. It would have been his death if the Vulpix hadn't come along...

"Vulpix!" José yelled as the exact same one strut out of the rustling bush. She looked at him intently, and her eyes came to rest on Zephyr. Zephyr jumped down, curious as to who the Vulpix was. They talked among themselves, and eventually started playing. José laughed, and squatted down next to the Vulpix.

"Perhaps, if you would like to, you could come with Zephyr and I. I would love that." José said. The Vulpix nodded, and scooted back, taking a defensive stance.

"Alright, if you want to battle first... Zephyr, Bite!" José said, the electricity that battle brought him beginning to course through his veins. Zephyr jumped at Vulpix, who dodged and used Will-O-Wisp. Zephyr yelped as his rear end was burned, and ran back to José.

"Okay, Zephyr. Calm down and concentrate. Use Dark Puse." José said, slightly calmer. Zephyr was slightly confused at José's sudden change in emotion, but complied, sending a wave of dark energy at Vulpix. In retaliation to this, she used Ember. Zephyr was annoyed by this, and used Bite without José telling him to. José returned him to his ball, just in case if he decided to take this farther than necessary. José then threw a Pokeball that he had bought at the Pokemart on his way out.

It bumped once, and a new wave of adrenaline pumped into José's system. He knew that this was really his only chance to catch Vulpix. He wondered what she would think if he failed to catch her.

It bumped a second time. José's heart rate had hit the ceiling. He stared intently at the little red and white orb which contained his friend. It crossed his mind that this Vulpix might not be the savior from his childhood, but he quickly dismissed the idea.

The Pokeball shook a third and final time. If it was to be a successful catch, He'd hear a click. Time seemed to stop as José's heart raced. Many mixed emotions flew through his brain, distress being the most prominent.