[Best Rookie March 2011] Begin, Again (Kanto Journey RP)

[moon]

@ Beechlgz - Nice post, I could really feel the setting. I liked the farmer lady ^^ If you want, you can write about how you got the Silk Scarf in another post. I'll give it to you nevertheless.

- Tulip (Bulbasaur) grew to level 8!
- Crescent (Taillow) grew to level 5!
- Rose captured a Poochyena! (level 4, female)
- Rose got a Silk Scarf! (raises the power of Normal type moves when worn by a pokémon)

 

[Tonko]

((OOC: Third post! Had a mild attack of inspiration))

Chapter 2 (Part three)

Team, team, team, Astrid thought to herself. If she was going to do this properly, she really did need a good team, balanced, who knew their moves well. How was she supposed to pick, though? This morning had been quiet, Archie even poking her to go back into his pokeball, bored, maybe, by her silent thinking.

How in the world did people narrow down all the pokemon to pick SIX? Obviously some where not ever going to be on a successful team... Astrid doubted there'd ever be a Champion who'd won with a Magikarp. 'Course Gyarados, on the other hand... But even while eliminating weaker pokemon, or non-evolved stages, or legendary how-did-you-even-find-them pokemon...

Well, Archie was a water-type. So she didn't have to get another water type.

Unless she really wanted to. Or if there was a dual-type she liked. Some people at the Academy boasted that they'd be champions using a whole team of all the same type! That seemed even harder than choosing one weak pokemon just because you really liked it, like Cara and the Hoppip.

Astrid sighed to herself. Maybe she should try to pick a favourite?

She opened her pokedex and peered at the entries she had. Hoppip. Poochyena. Hoothoot, spotted last evening. Shinx, from her encounter with Cara. Snivy, from seeing that dumb Jayesh again. She hmmed at the screen. Now there would be an easy choice—Snivy was strong, hence its being bred as a starter. Like all starters though, they were vanishingly rare. She'd heard someone say that maybe none of them existed in the wild at ALL anymore. That was sad, but at least they were still here at all.

Probably would never get one for her own team, though, or Bulbasaur, Tepig... all those. Well, that was a bunch crossed off. Okay. She paged through the other entries. Hoppip was cute but... nope. She still felt like it looked too fragile. Hoothoot's big eyes were kind of appealing, but she'd seen a picture of Noctowl before. It didn't look... imposing enough. After finally participating in her own battles... she wanted something that looked like it could take a beating. Cute ones, delicate-looking ones would just make her feel guilty when they got hit.

Archie had a shell. He was tough. He was really perfect for her, in a way she hadn't even thought of!

"I guess I do sort of have a preference." It wasn't narrowed down, or practical (did she want a Wailord? Now THERE was a sturdy pokemon, and that was an understatement). But maybe a place to start from.

Poochyena? Well... the one Archie had fought off before had had some energy, that was for sure. And the tamed Mightyena she'd seen had certainly been a handsome pokemon, bigger and more daunting than its pre-evolution.

Okay. Maybe she'd look for one of those again. Putting away the pokedex, she straightened up and started watching the tall grass and bushes and any likely hiding place.

*

Some hours later, she'd surprised three Sentret, spooked a Taillow, seen two Pidgeys and a Starly in some kind of territorial dispute, and passed another field with domesticated Mareep.

Finally, in midafternoon, the sound of crazed barking made her and Archie look up from their snack stop. Archie crammed the last of his portion of Nanab bread into his mouth and turned immediately towards the sound.

Rapidly approaching through the long grass of the fallow field they'd stopped next to was the sound of a very agitated canine. A scruffy grey-and-black ball of energy scrambled under the fence, and Archie moved forward a few steps, putting himself between Astrid and the wild Poochyena.

She frowned at it consideringly. "Okay.. let's try to get it," she said, and Archie threw her a skeptical look. The Poochyena was still barking. Astrid wasn't sure how it got enough air to do that and not suffocate. "Go, uh, gently!" she raised her voice over the din. "Tail whip! Then tackle!"

"Squirrrrrr-t!" Archie answered, biting off the "t" sound in a way that sounded like an acknowledgment of her commands. The Poochyena chose this time to charge, still barking, and Archie hopped back and caught it in a glancing smack as it passed, then chased it down for a full-body tackle. He didn't slam the other pokemon fully to the ground, and Astrid nodded, pleased he was heeding her request to take it easy.

The Poochyena's barking trailed off for a merciful moment as it threw it's nose up in a howl. "Tackle again!" Astrid put in, and gritted her teeth, covering her ears with her hands as the Poochyena started up its insanity-inducing racket again.

Archie and the Poochyena circled each other for some long second, the barking crazy one lunging a few times, and Archie making admittedly non-threatening swipes with his stubby arms.

Finally Archie timed himself to strike, tackling the Poochyena just as it hopped forward for a feint. Still barking, of course.

This time he did take it to the ground, and the barking cut off into a disgruntled whine as they rolled over and over, and Archie slammed it down with a last emphatic. "SQUIRTLE" that probably translated, intention-wise, to "SHUT UP!" The Poochyena did, laying on its belly and eyeing her and Archie through somewhat dazed-looking eyes.

"Get back, Arch," Astrid pulled her hands down from her ears in relief, and pulled out on of the empty pokeballs out, regarding the Poochyena dubiously. Remember the Mightyena, she reminded herself.

The Poochyena's jaws parted a bit. It panted, understandably tired from this battle. It took a deep breath.

And it started barking again.

Astrid closed her eyes in frustration. "This is not worth it," she declared, and slapped her hands over her ears again. "Archie!!" She gritted out over the shrieking barks. "Make it stop!"

Archie, whose expression was growing steadily as frustrated as hers probably was, "Squirrrrrr-T!!" he snapped eagerly, and stomped towards the yapping Poochyena, that was getting to its feet, and now backing slowly up. "SQUIRRRRR!" Archie charged headlong, and the Poochyena's bark turned to a yelp as Archie tackled it back towards the grassy field.

It subsided again, and scrambled back towards the grass. Astrid followed the twitching grass stems with her eyes as it left. "Good riddance," she gasped.

Then, in the distance, faint yapping.

"Oh, no more!" She grabbed her backpack, rewrapping the remains of the Nanab bread and stuffing it in at the same time as she started walking away. Archie followed her, putting two hands to the side of his own head, where his much-less-visible ears were and giving her a pained look. "Yeah," she agreed, wincing.

A new factor to remember. It wasn't enough to want a pokemon... you had to find one that was actually right for you.

New factor, then, for her team building. Whoever she picked for her team would have to be nice and quiet.


((OOC: Sorry for doing Poochyena again, but my idea sort of needed it.))

 

[moon]

@ Tonko - *pokes Squirtle* squeeee, kawaiiii! Interesting way for Astrid to realize what she needs xD

- Archie (Squirtle) grew to level 8!

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I'll just repost this on the current page~ Since people made more chapter 2 posts here :3

Chapter 3
Viridian C i t y
<Click for chapter theme song>​

Viridian is a medium sized city, situated in a valley. To the west lies a winding road that eventually leads to either the mighty Tohjo Falls or the well guarded Victory Road entrance. No use going there now. To the east lies farmlands, vast fields and some forest-like parts, all the way to the distant sea, which isn't really visible from the city. To the north lies the deep, dark jungle called Viridian Forest.

Viridian has some schools, cafés, restaurants, shops, a mall where the cool kids hang around, several smaller pokémarts for different stuff as well as a popular pokémon center and a pokémon gym. The pokémon center gives treatment for free to all real pokémon trainers (meaning, anyone who has graduated an academy in any region and for any number of years ago, and has a pokédex with a license programmed in) while people with injured pets or cattle have to pay a rather small sum to get help. The head nurse, called nurse Jill, is usually very caring and sometimes treats children's pokémon without taking payment. Trainers can also get a room for the night for free here, but you'll have to pay for food from the cafeteria.

There is a small school here where a man called Bursh teaches children about pokémon. He wants it to turn into an academy but it's way too small so far for the Pokémon Association to grant it that status. Bursh may not graduate students into official trainers. But if you want a battle against one of the aspiring trainers there, you can try to stop by the school grounds, just a little ways from the gym.

The pokémon gym is legendary, having once harbored the Team Rocket leader Giovanni as its ruler. But those days are long gone, and today the respected
Gary Oak leads the gym.
*pokemonelite2000 image removed*He is a tall man who almost never smiles or jokes. But when necessary, he is kind and very wise. His pokémon are very strong and in fact, most trainers from the Cedar Laboratory academy instead take on the gym in Pewter as their first gym challenge, as the leader there is said to be a little less experienced. Should you try to challenge him, he would refuse you, as he sees how inexperienced you are. He spends most of his time exploring the never ending mysteries of Viridian Forest, but will be inside the gym when you get to Viridian City.


In this chapter you may post freely. Battle a trainer, annoy Gary by challenging him, catch a pokémon or make up an whole adventure and NPCs of your own...



Posts: 1 minimum.
If you want to make several posts and interact with the other players (à la Road To Pokémon Master!) they don't have to be chapter-sized. You may also post as usual, or make a joint post with someone.
You can move on as soon as the next chapter is up, if you want to, or stay for a while.

You are allowed to interact with other players in this chapter!



Catchable pokémon:
Pidove

(Gust, Growl)
Tympole

(Bubble, Supersonic, Growl) ... yes, there are ponds in Viridian City xD
Meowth

(Scratch, Growl, Bite)


Levels 4-7. End your capturing post with the pokéball shaking. I will determine if the capture was successful or not, as well as the gender and level of the pokémon, depending on post quality and creativity.

 

[Beechlgz]

Chapter 3, Viridian City, Day 1

When Rose realised the poochyena wasn't coming out, she ran and picked up the ball before putting it in her pocket for later.

The other poochyena ran from Crescent, tired of being pestered from the air.

Back at the road, Rose, Tulip, Crescent and the farmer gathered together.

"Well, thank you for your help," she said humbly. "Your pokemon look a little worn out."

"Yeah. I think we need a rest for today," Rose replied.

"Well, come back with me for a while."

"Actually I was wondering if you could drive me to Viridian instead?" Rose looked shy, hoping she wasn't asking too much.

"No problem! Oh, and since I won't be giving you any of my home-made doduo stew tonight, how about I give you this lovely silk scarf instead? I'm not really sure where I got it, but I never use it." The farmer offered.

"For me? Thank you!" Rose accepted the gift in both hands.



After she had been dropped off at Vermilion City, Rose made her way immediately to the pokemon centre, not even bothering to look around first. Her pokemon needed healed as they were quite tired.

"Can you please rest my pokemon? They're a little pooped." Rose looked at the name tag on the nurse's uniform. 'Nurse: Jill' it read.

"Certainly, do you have a licence?" Jill asked cheerily.

Rose handed over the pokedex, showing Jill the chip on the inside cover, before sitting down to wait. Having not eaten a thing all day and with it already being dusk, Rose was feeling a little weak, so she decided to scarf down the rest of her pancakes while her pokemon healed. It didn't take long, which as a relief. Electronic pokemon healing was really useful!

After Rose got back her pokemon, she decided to stay inside the pokemon centre and let out her newly caught poochyena. It materialized on the cold sterile pokeball-patterned tiles of the centre, a vastly different environment from the one she was used to. She seemed a bit stunned at first, and marched slightly on the spot, seemingly disliking the cold artificial touch of the ground beneath her.

"Hey, poochie." Rose tried to get her attention.

The poochyena licked her own nose and stared nervously. She wasn't so big ant tough now that she was alone and out of her comfort zone. Her normally perky tail was tucked between her back legs.

"I'll call you Poochie." Rose smiled.

Poochie gave her a quizzical look.

Rose decided to take Poochie outside for a little while to her used to being handled. Out in the street there was a paved area that was cut off from car traffic. Many grey birds were gathered in the middle of the wide paved area, pecking at something on the ground.

Without any command from Rose, Poochie ran straight for the crowd of pigeon-like pokemon, scattering them into the sky in a thunder of flapping wings.

"Poochie, no! Come back, now!" Rose desperately ran after her escaped pokemon.

Poochie kept her eyes on the flock, which came back down to rest further down the street. She made another dash for the birds, sending them all back off into the sky, flying together as a single unit. This caused some of the passers by to duck in annoyance in case they were hit by one of the birds or, more likely, their poo. When Rose was fairly satisfied that Poochie wasn't actually running away, and was only interested in the birds, Rose took the opportunity to flip out her pokedex.

[Pidove, the Tiny Pigeon pokemon. A pokemon that lives in urban areas. It loves company so many of them gather in parks and plazas.]

Looking back up, Rose saw Poochie facing one of the pidove and howling coldly with her fur raised. It seemed that one of the pidove was annoyed by Poochie and didn't want to take any more pestering from her. It stood opposite her, trying to stare her down.

"Another chance to fill up my pokedex..." Rose thought. "Tackle, Poochie!"

Poochie was already charging towards the pidove before Rose even gave her command. She slammed into the pidove before it could flutter away. It flapped its wings in an explosion of feathers as it tried to keep its balance, before flapping its wings at Poochie.

"What's this...?" Rose thought.

A mini-whirlwind formed in front of the Pidove, illustrated by the dust and leaves that could be seen flying the contours of the wind. With one final strong flap the pidove sent the gust flying towards Poochie. Poochie tried his best not to get pulled up with the wind, but it was no use. He was thrown up into the air before the gust subsided and he came crashing back down.

Poochie whimpered slightly before shaking herself off and angrily howling.

"Another tackle!"

Poochie ran towards the pidove again, but this time the pidove managed to jump out of the way just in time and send another gust in Poochie's direction. Poochie was thrown across the pavement before tumbling to a stop. The hyena pokemon started to show her true nature, snarling and growling in anger at being tricked. She changed towards the pidove again, slashing at the ground in order to maximise her speed and just managed to collide with the pidove.

Rose already had a pokeball handy, and decided to take the pidove by surprise. She threw the ball at the pigeon pokemon before it got the chance to regain its senses from the attack. The ball sucked in the dazed pokemon, before tapping across the pavement to a halt. The ball started to bounce a little as the pokemon struggled to get back out.

 

[Ash_Ketchum123]

Chapter 3 ~
The Lesson of the Day!​

((OOC: If you don't mind, I'll time skip to when Shigeru wakes up the next morning and explores the city xD))

Shigeru stepped out of the Pokémon Center and greeted the nature surrounding him a nice morning. Before he completely went out, he turned around to thank nurse Jill for helping him with his Pokémon. He got out now and fished for Kai's Pokéball in his pocket. He wasn't really used to walking around without that little critter around perched on his shoulder. He pressed the button on the middle of it and a red beam shot out from it. The energy then revealed the cute little Kai with his arms touching the shell on his belly.

"How're you doing, little fella?" he asked Kai, who then replied with a bump on Shigeru's head with his soft white paws. "Ow." Shigeru muttered as Kai quickly ran up his right shoulder and perched on it. Shigeru snickered and walked anyway. He guessed a bump on the head was Kai's way of thanking people. They passed a bunch stores that sold many useful stuff. They spotted one that sold an item that they said would raise the level of Kai, and they were immediately tempted to buy one. Unfortunately, it cost more than $3000. Shigeru and Kai ended up continuing their stroll around town without that item. Soon, they came across what looked like a school.

"Viridian had a school?" he asked no one in particular, but he was in no place to ask such thing, 'cause this was his first time in Viridian anyway. "Might as well take a look inside."

Once he went inside, he saw a bunch of kids with Pokémon beside them. He saw this one kid who had a Pidove on his shoulder, and another with a Lillipup just like his. He thought this was the perfect opportunity to scan for some data. He took out his PokéDex and started pointing at every single Pokémon he could spot. Sometimes, the PokéDex would be cut off from saying the description of one Pokémon to move on to the other. It was only until one kid bumped into Shigeru, making him let go of the high-tech encyclopedia and fall on the ground. He made an unusual gasp and knelt down to pick up the PokéDex. Thankfully, there were no major damages. All it received were a bunch of minor scratches. The Dex had entered an emergency sleep mode for reasons Shigeru can't explain. He stood up and faced the kid who bumped into him with a frown on his face.

"Aren't you gonna apologize, kiddo?" Shigeru told the kid, who was by the way a little boy. He expected the kid to tear up or something, but instead, the boy just stood there and stared right back at Shigeru. He stuck his tongue out unexpectedly and ran. Normally, Shigeru would let this one pass. After all, he was just a kid. But after a few moments, something hit him at the back of his neck. He turned around and looked for what had hit him. He looked down and saw that it was a Pokéball. He turned to the students and they were all pointing towards the bratty kid who made him let go of his PokéDex. Again, the boy stuck out his tongue and ran. This time, Shigeru ran after him. The kid ran out of the school, and towards the rows of stores. Kai jumped off of his shoulder and ran towards the stores. Shigeru instinctively followed his Pokémon. They chased each other with a bunch of shoppers staring at them in confusion. Soon, Shigeru lost Kai in he middle of a crowd. He swam through it and found that Kai and kid were now a long distance away from the other side...o so he thought.

"Hey! Kai! Do you hear me?! Answer will ya!" he shouted. "Osha!" He heard from a distance. Quickly, Shigeru to where he was hearing the voice. "Osha!" The sound came closer and closer. "Osha!" Now Shigeru was positive he was getting closer. "Nyarth!" He stopped. [Did Kai just say "nyarth?"] He shrugged away the thought and kept on running. After a few minutes, he spotted the boy Kai was chasing. He grabbed the boy by the arms. He pulled on it, and when the boy faced him, he was crying. Shigeru was stunned. "Wh-" he tried to ask why, but then he faced left and saw Kai facing off with a Meowth. He looked at the boy again and saw that his leg had a scratch mark on it. Without explanation needed, Shigeru nodded. He walked towards Kai. As he got closer and closer, he also saw that Kai already had scratches on him, too. [Hmm, too late, I guess.] "Kai, move back. Let Inu handle this." he told the shiny Oshawott, but it stayed put. "Kai, come on now. I don't want you to get hurt." But still, Kai just stayed there. Shigeru gave a sigh and went near his Pokémon. He reached out his hand to touch Kai, but he fell down facefirst to the ground. He gasped and picked up Kai. There were more scratches than he initially thought. Rage built up inside him. He laid Kai down beside his foot and pulled out Inu's Pokéball. He threw it and it opened in mid-air. Out came Inu from within it and as soon as the two set sight on each other, they both growled. Clearly this was gonna be a good fight.

The Meowth charged at Inu with its claws retracted. It lunged at Inu, but the dog gracefully sidestepped and countered with a Tackle. Unfortunately, the counter-Tackle was also countered by a Scratch right behind the Lillipup's head. Inu gave a loud bark as the Meowth's claws scraped against his skin. Little trickles of blood came out from the wound. Inu faced his opponent with anger, and the Meowth did the same. Obviously, this was something personal. Shigeru was so caught up with the two's fight that he forgot about throwing in commands for Inu. Nervously, he racked his brain for a move he knew Inu could do. "Uhm, Inu use.....Charging Ram!" he shouted at the puppy Pokémon. It took quite a few seconds for Shigeru to realize his mistake. Once he did, he bumped his head using his palm and called himself baka. Good thing Inu was focused too much in the battle that he ignored his master's command and used Tackle instead. Of course, this was what Shigeru meant by "Charging Ram." Inu stormed forward in an incredible speed towards the Meowth, but apparently, the speed didn't matter to the Meowth. It dodged as easily as Inu dodged it at the first time. Again, the Meowth countered with a scratch, bu luckily, this time Inu controlled the path of his Tackle to miss the attack. After Inu had stopped, the Meowth ran towards Inu. Its claws weren't retracted, so Shigeru was wondered what attack it would use. Some few seconds before impact, the Meowth bared its fangs and bit Inu. It hit him really near the wound it had left earlier, so it might've hurt a lot. Because of his outrage, Inu kept using Tackle at basically nothing. The Meowth held on to Inu like it was food that was still fresh. Very fresh. The Lillipup Tackled and Tackled and Tackled until his back hit a......tree. ((OOC: Yes. I can't go a day without making someone hit a tree.)) Once it hit a tree, the Meowth released itself from Inu and stood there dazed. Shigeru took this opprtunity to hit it with a final blow. "Inu! Use-" But he was cut off when someone behind him whispered something to him. He turned around to see a man that Shigeru guessed was around his thirties. ((OOC: Please corect me if I'm wrong)) The man pointed at Inu and Shigeru looked to see that he was already finishing the job for him, without instructions. Inu rushed towards the dazed Meowth while using Leer at it. The Meowth lowered its guard and got hit by a strong Tackle square on its chest. It flew and hit the tree it had already hit a awhile ago. Inu contentedly walked back towards its trainer and stayed beside he injured Kai.

[Maybe I should catch this.] But as he was about to fish out an empty Pokéball and throw it at the Meowth, a red light beamed towards it and sucked it in a Pokéball. Shigeru turned surprisingly to see that the Meowth was actually owned by the boy he was chasing. [Okay. Now, I need an explanation.] He turned to face the man who had arrived awhile ago. "My name's Bursh." he introduced himself, "I am the instructor of the Viridian School that this boy here-" he pointed at the batty kid "- goes to." The boy wiped away his tears and walked towards the man named Bursh. "I suggest you go by the Pokémon Center first. I want you to come to school after that." At first Shigeru thought Bursh was talking to the kid, but as he analyzed what he had just heard, he figured out it was him Bursh was talking to. Before he could ask why, the man walked back towards the school.

Shigeru decided it was best to follow Bursh's advice and go to the Center. He called Kai and Inu back in their respective Pokéballs and placed them inside his pocket as he ran off back to the Pokémon Center.

 

[moon]

@ Beechlgz - The pokéball twitched for several seconds. The pokémon seemed to really be struggling... but finally, it stopped. The Pidove was successfully caught!

- Poochie (Poochyena) grew to level 5!
- Rose captured a Pidove! (lv 5 female)
*the dice roll made it a female, but since I think its final evolution is rather ugly when female compared to male, I'll give you the opportunity to object if you rather want a male xD


@ Ace - Nyarth~! I love the japanese name. Interesting, I want to read the next post :3 Also, I was picturing Bursh as similar to a hiker in his 40's ^^ But I guess you are free to picture him however you want to, since I forgot to specify.

- Inu (Lillipup) grew to level 7 and learned Odor Sleuth!

 

[Tonko]

Chapter 3 (part one)


After the (mostly) quiet and wide-open farmland, Viridian felt kind of cramped. And noisy, but the murmur of vehicles and people on the street was familiar from home in Pewter.

Also, like Pewter, there was a Gym!! After a good night's sleep, and Archie looking bright-eyed and rejuvenated from Nurse Jill's care, Astrid had two goals. One—find a camera shop, and two, find the Gym.

Before falling asleep last night in the her room at the Pokemon Center, she'd poked tiredly at her tablet PC, browsing through the online camera suppliers and electronics shops. The massive amounts of money it took to get some of the most spectacular cameras was mind-boggling, but while the technological possibilities of those huge lenses were intriguing, the price range and skill were both so far away right now that she studied the cheaper ones without much regret.

The shop she found had a sign on the door "Pokemon larger than THIS SIZE are not permitted inside the store. NO electric types under any circumstances."

"THIS SIZE" was pretty small, and so she had to recall Archie. She entertained herself as she pushed the door open and entered with the mental image of an Onix trying to twist daintily through the space, or a Pichu running amok among the laptops.

This store was general electronics, and she paused in the tablet computer aisle to stare covetously at the one that was two or three models newer than her own. Hers was perfectly serviceable—she wasn't producing high-end graphical work, or playing any cutting-edge games—but still. Oh, those were nice machines.

But, priorities. She tore herself away from the little panel listing all the new specs, and went past the remote-control-toy and music player aisles to find the cameras.

"Miss, can I help you?" a shop employee, a tall guy with a sort of a patient look on his face, as if he thought she didn't really belong in here.

"Yeah," she replied. "Want a camera that'll take action shots without any blur. Continuous shot speed of... five or six, please. Big buffer, and really good autofocus. I need to be able to increase the ISO setting too. But I have a limited budget, so..."

"Er." The employee blinked at her. "You did your research."

"I always do my research," Astrid said, a little irked.

"Well, let's start with your price range, and see what we have."

Forty-five minutes later, Astrid left the shop, much broker—good thing she liked ramen—but with a fine camera case hanging across her chest. She'd found a little camera that would do what she wanted. Its memory was smaller than some other models, sacrificed for an extra battery slot, but she'd be able to plug it into her tablet to unload it. This was a lesser camera than the most expensive one she could have bought, but that better model had been only slightly better, and the one after THAT was practically epic, at least compared to this one, but without an epic jump in price. So this would do, until she'd scraped up enough for that epic camera.

Now... She pulled out Archie's pokeball and let him out again. He grinned at her, then peered curiously at her new acquisition. "I got it," she confirmed, and extracted the camera itself from its case. She crouched down and turned it on, showing him the display screen.


"Squirrr," he sounded skeptical, tracing the outside of the screen carefully.

"Yeah, this screen is smaller, but when I put them on the computer, they'll be much better. Let's take some! I have to show Ben and Ninny what it can do."

By the time she reached the Gym, she had a photographic record of the path she'd walked that was, she had to admit, a bit excessive. But educational, as she'd struggled with some of the settings, and briefly panicked when a wrong button-press sent her to an incomprehensible menu.

There was one of a row of Pidove along a roof—even backlit by the sky, the flash had still worked to light up their fronts, so the clouds behind them were visible along with their tidy little faces. They looked to Astrid like they wore little suits.

There was another one of Archie, mid-splash in someone's very large private pond. He'd scared a couple of Magikarp, but when the man who'd been gardening at the other end of the house came over to investigate, he'd been too taken with Archie's unusual colouring to be annoyed. He'd fairly dragged Astrid to the pond's edge, pointing out a school of Magikarp. Beautiful vibrant red scales and white fins... and one was golden! "Shiny!" Astrid had exclaimed. "It's gorgeous!"

"I know," the man had said proudly, pulling his gardening gloves off and stuffing them in his overalls pocket. "Your fellow is pretty handsome too."

Archie, with the man's permission, had kept on swimming in the pond for a while, his trundling body surprisingly graceful under there, arcing smoothly around the sedately swimming fish. There were some more pictures of him and the fish together. That golden one really stood out. Though, aside from its colour, it seemed to act just like its normal-coloured companions. That didn't really mean that it would battle and grow the same, but she couldn't find that out for this one anyway. She'd decided to send the Professor a picture and a little report on that one, along with her most recent observations about Archie.

The man who owned the garden had been a little taken aback when she'd started asking him so many questions about the fish's personality and where he'd gotten it and how old it was and everything. But all in the name of research!

Like now, Astrid thought excitedly, nearing the entrance to the Viridian Gym.

When she got to the door, she was welcomed by a trainer who told her there was a challenge about to start. She couldn't talk to Gary now, but there were bleachers she could watch the match from.

They were crowded. Lots of teenagers with their pokemon, some people who just looked like fans of Gary, and what looked like a bunch of kids on a school trip.

She found a spot as close to the middle as she could, and settled in to watch.

She almost forgot to take any pictures at all, then ended up juggling both her camera and her pokedex.

The match was... earthshaking, literally. The pokemon the challenger had were so far beyond Archie, or Jayesh's Snivy, or that dumb barking Poochyena...

The Hippowdon that had slammed the Earthquake into the Gym's floor was recalled and replaced with a chubby Dragonite whose strength belied its cuddly appearance as it hauled itself up on tiny wings and tackled Gary's Nidoking with a Dragon Rush that made it look like a wrecking ball.

The noise, the crashing of the heavy blows and the growling and roaring of the pokemon and the bellows of encouragement or taunts from the crowd...

This was nothing like the battles at school. And even the recorded matches they'd been shown... nothing like this.

Astrid almost dropped her camera when a four-legged steel monstrosity was sent out, stamping and glaring. Metagross—steel and psychic, after all—she'd review the pokedex's new data after this, there wasn't time to read now. What an alien-looking pokemon.

It was laid out by a couple of Fire Blasts, but the Swampert that replaced it was nearly impervious....

Astrid was on the edge of her seat the entire time. When Gary won—barely—the entire audience let loose with a cheer, and Astrid was swept right along, even though, and it was very had to imagine after seeing all that, she'd one day be challenging Gary herself.

A voice came over a loudspeaker system, announcing Gary's win, and informing the spectators that there was going to be another challenger in the afternoon.

Much of the crowd started to file out—locals, probably, used to taking in a good battle like that, but Astrid and a few others sat where they were, recovering, maybe, from what they'd just watched.

Paying proper attention to her pokedex at last, Astrid paged through the newest additions to its database. The challenger had had a Hippowdon, a Dragonite, Swampert, Metagross, Mothim, and Sableye. The last two had performed as well as the first four, even though they'd all lost to Gary's team eventually, but even watching that Sableye beat Gary's Nidoking with a Night Shade attack hadn't made her able to shake the winces at its tiny shape in front of that huge, spiky beast.

Swampert... not that one, it was a starter, right? The rest? Well... never say never. She looked over at Archie, who looked back at her with wide eyes and the hugest grin she'd seen from him yet.

She was definitely coming back for this afternoon.


((OOC: I think the the afternoon, she saw a Snorlax, a Donphan, a Honkrow, a Liepard, a Scrafty and a Bellossom. Probably got a little freaked at the sheer tininess of the Bellossom, lol.))

 

[moon]

@ Tonko - Amazing. You're making the setting feel so incredibly alive. Remember this is somewhere in the near future, so feel free to invent some even niftier technical things ;)

Actually, I think Archie got some experience from this well written post watching that battle.

- Archie (Squirtle) grew to level 9!

 

[Ponee]

Chapter 3 part 1 of 2
(Just going to time skip to Viridian City the next day. :p )
Ryan, Pyro and Mareep

Ryan rested on the outskirts of Viridian City. She was laying belly up on a field and was staring at a pokeball. Inside the pokeball was Pyro, who yesterday, caused mass destruction to a patch of farm land. She had went to the Pokecenter the day before to get her Pokemon healed, and to see if the nurse could look at Pyro. Of coarse with Ryan's luck, Nurse Jill said that she was to busy to physically look at her Pokemon, but by judging by his status when she healed them, he was fine. Ryan thought that was a load of bologna. No pokemon just freaks out for no reason... right?

Suddenly, Ryan had an idea. She would battle her pokemon against each other, not just to gain experience, but to see if Pyro will act the same. She tossed her two Pokeballs up in the air, and her teammates materialized in front of her. On the left stood the blue sheep with cream wool, she had yet to name the creature only because she knows nothing about her new Pokemon. The Mareep seemed very timid though, cautiously walking over towards Pyro, who was on the right side.

"Okay listen guys," Ryan announced. "No hard feelings or anything, but y'all need to experience. I have decided that you two will battle each other. Not any extreme fighting though. When I notice that one of you is getting tired, I will stop the battle and take you to the Pokecenter. Okay?" Pyro and Mareep looked at each other and nodded, then looked at Ryan and began to cheer.

Ryan directed Mareep to one side of the field and Pyro to the other. Pyro confidently stood in his "battle stance", while Mareep seemed to be kind of tense and nervous.

"Okay, both of you use tackle!" Mareep and Pyro both began to charge towards each other. Pyro quickley dodged to the side, causing Mareep to loose her balance and trip. "Tail whip, Tepig!" Tepig quickley spun around, but before he could do anything Ryan shouted "Growl, Mareep!" As Tepig was headed towards Mareep, Mareep opened her mouth and let loose a piercing screech. It caused Tepig to drop to the ground and clench his long floppy ears with his hooves.

"Okay, Mareep use tackle!" mareep stopped the growl and quickly rose to her feet, not fast enough to get hit by Tepig's tackle. Ryan cheered at Tepig's attack. "Thatta boy! It's okay to use your own attacks sometimes, just don't get carried away!" Tepig happily nodded to his trainer's comment.

Suddenly, Ryan felt a cold hand on her shoulder. She quickly spun around and was frightened by a large man. Judging by his face, he had to be at least forty. He had shaggy blond hair with patches of grey. He was vary tall and muscular, giving him a tough appearance.

"Waa? Who are you?" Ryan said shyly.

The man's face held no expression. "I am just watching your pokemon battle. You may continue."

Ryan gave him a weird look. "No."

The man looked surprise. "I am no harm, my name is Gary Oak, I was just interested in watching your battling techniques."

This man was starting to creep Ryan out. but she nodded and turned back around to her Pokemon. Both of them were staring at her, confused.

"Um..." Ryan had forgotten what she was going to do next. "Okay." She tried to remember. "Well, um, Pyro use ember!" Ryan hesitated for a moment, she had already forgotten what had happened last time. But Pyro seemed perfectly fine, he realeased a small bolts of fire towards Mareep. "Dodge it Mareep! Then use tackle" Mareep gracefully avoided each fireball and shot towards Tepig, hitting him directly in the side. Tepig flew backwards, a little baffled that Mareep had actually hit him.

Mareep happily cheered, proud of her work. Ryan chuckled as she called out another move. "Both of you, use tackle again!" Both pokemon charged directly towards each other, running straight into each other head on. Both of them flew back, groaning in pain.

"Well, no one wins in a head butt." Ryan shook her head, embarrassed that the man had witnessed that. The man, Gary Oak, just stood there watching the battle.

"Tackle again!" Mareep and Pyro got to their feet and charged towards each other again, but when Pyro got closer to Mareep... it happened. His eyes changed to a bright red, and he began shooting small bits of fire everywhere. Mareep cried in pain as she was being burnt by the fire, and Ryan was quick return the two. She sighed as she looked at Gary, who was still there.

"I don't understand." She frowned, looking down at Pyro's pokeball. . "Why is he doing this."

The man shook his head. "It's not your fault."

Ryan looked up. "What?"

"Listen, follow me back to my place, and I will explain."

Ryan nodded. The man then turned around and began walking towards the city. Ryan walked behind him, but not too close, who knows what would happen if she accidentally stepped on the back of his shoe.

 

[Neptune Vasilias]

Chapter 3: Pokemon in the Pond

Rowena had just healed her Pokemon in Viridian's Pokemon Center and stood outside of the building. She took a good look around her at the city. There was a gym but she decided not to challenge it as she had heard rumors of challengers been defeated countless times. She decided to try and catch a Pokemon from here to add to her team. She scanned her surroundings and noticed a few ponds at the side of the city.

She walked over to the ponds and saw that a few fishermen were sitting at the banks of the pond, probably waiting for a big catch. She stepped over next to one of them and asked, "Mister, what are you fishing?" The fisherman answered, "Me and my buddies are trying to fish for a big one!" She did not quite understand what he was saying. He noticed her puzzled expression and explained, "There are Tympoles in the ponds. We're having a mini-contest to see who can reel in the biggest catch!" After saying that, the fisherman chuckled.

"Tympole? Sounds good, I think I should catch one." Rowena wondered aloud. Then, she felt something vibrating. Looking down, she saw that Electrux's PokeBall was fidgeting. "Hmm, so you want to get out huh?" She unlocked the capsule and the Shinx shape-shifted in front of her. Before she could say anything, it had already run to the side of the pond and was lapping up water. So you're thirsty. "Be careful! Don't fall in!" Rowena called out. Suddenly, the Shinx leapt back without warning, it hissed warily at the pond. Rowena saw what Electrux was looking at- a Tympole had swum too near to where the Shinx was drinking and had unintentionally startled Electrux. "Calm down Electrux, it's only a Tympole. By the way, I was thinking of catching. Since you're here now, want to battle it?" The Shinx just let down its fur and tail and smiled dryly. Her Pokdex came to life as it read out the description of the Water-type Pokemon.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tympole

Tadpole Pokemon
It notifies its comrades of danger by making its cheeks vibrate to create high-pitched melodic sounds.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Tympole had now managed to bounce onto land and was flopping about. Electrux flashed a horrid look at it. The Tympole noticed that it was being rudely stared and chirped as if to say, "What are you looking at?" It had stopped flopping about and was standing on its tiny tail. Electrux charged forward as a swarm of bubbles was released from the tadpole. He collided into the bubbles which stung his pelt but he came moving onwards and knocked the Tympole back. It hopped forward before shrilling in a high-pitched voice. The Shinx hissed as it tried to block out the noise and its fur flashed annoyingly. Electrux then dashed towards the tadpole and slammed it hard on the ground. The tadpole squealed before emitting light blue circles at the Shinx. Electrux lost its sense of direction and stumbled around aimlessly. It tired to attack but ended up tripping over his paws and bruised himself. The Tympole then fired multiple strings of bubbles. A cluster exploded right in front of Electrux's face and caused the Shinx to snap out of his trance. Electrux then jump and evade the flying bubbles. He then pounced and flung the tiny blue tadpole to the edge of the pond. The Tympole tried to flop into the water but was too weak to do so.

Rowena took that as a cue and threw an empty PokeBall at the flopping Tympole. A hunk of red light surrounded the Tympole, preventing from moving, and sucked it into the capsule. The ball shook for a while before renaming still but the light still kept flashing. Rowena held her breath and Electrux kneaded the ground with his paws as they waited for a signal from the ball.

 

[moon]

@ Iwasapony - Oooh, Gary shows up! Exciting~ And that fight has got to have yielded some experience.

- Pyro (Tepig) grew to level 8!
- Mareep grew to level 5!


@ Diamond - I wonder if Rowena won the competition? ^^ Maybe a little short post, but OK.

- Rowena captured a Tympole! (lv 5 male)
- Electrux (Shinx) grew to level 5!

 

[Neptune Vasilias]

Chapter 3: Watch and Learn!

Rowena picked up the ball and smiled widely at Electrux. A moment later, she came out of the Pokemon Center after healing her Pokemon. She decided to pay the gym a visit. As she walked into the building, an announcement was blared from the loudspeakers saying that a gym battle was about to start in less than 3 minutes. Rowena followed the crowd of onlookers and everyone rushed to get a seat. Rowena sat down in the middle section and looked around. The battlefield was about the size of 3 quarters a football field and there were markings to show where each Trainer would stand while their Pokemon battled.

Then, the buzzing noise of discussion drastically fell as the gym leader Gary calmly strolled into the center and took his position at the side of the battlefield. The challenger, a lanky boy with dark jeans and an olive green jacket appeared at stood at the other side. The referee rattled off a number of rules pertaining to the battle and blew the whistle to start the match. Both parties revealed their lead Pokemon; the challenger had a Weavile while the gym leader sent out an Ambipom.

The battle was so exciting that Rowena could not peel her eyes off for a second. She did so reluctant for a short moment to release Amber who was itching to see what was going on outside her Ball. In a short while the Weavile was down and a Dugtrio took its place. The Ambipom suffered massive damage and the gym leader sent out a Dusclops to battle. The Dugtrio emerged victorious after a suspenseful match. The whole battle went by in almost an hour. Rowena did not even know that an hour was up till the challenger walked out of the gym defeated. Today, she had seen marvelous strong Pokemon that were brought up by their Trainers. She made a quick mental note of the Pokemon she had seen and recorded them in her notebook. The challenger owned a Weavile, Dugtrio, Tropius and an Electrode; whilst the gym leader Gary Oak had an Ambipom, Dusclops, Poliwhirl and a Metang in his team.

As she stood up to leave, her legs and thighs ached with numbness. Amber was feeling groggy too. Excited as she was, the tiredness from getting hyped up at all the Pokemon she had seen during the gym battle had caught up on her. She decided to call it quits for the day and walked to the Pokemon Center and retired to her room for the night.

(OOC: Just thought that Rowena should at least enter the gym once for anything. I've read some bits of other RPers' posts and thought that maybe I should do the same by letting Rowena be awed at a professional gym battle.)

 

[moon]

@ Diamond - Nice to see Rowena wants to learn stuff~ That post was however far too short and the battle not detailed enough for Amber to get a level, just so you know ;)

 

[Beechlgz]

(Chapter 3 Day 2)

That morning Rose got some boiled eggs for herself for $80 at the cafeteria and a box of salad for Tulip. She cringed at the price of the salad. $150... ouch! But Tulip didn't seem interested in anything else they had on offer (not even the pokemon food) and he ate the whole lot of the salad, so she guessed it was worth it. The water was free to drink, thankfully, as they were both thirsty.

After they left the pokemon centre Rose decided to have a look around the city, seeing as it was now morning and they had plenty of time. Although Rose was distracted by the clothes shops, particularly one shoe shop, she had to remind herself to conserve her money. She had enough clothes, having left yesterday's garments in the laundrette to pick up later (minus another $35), and now wearing a change of clothes she brought with her - including a long, flowing dress with floral patterns along the bottom. Still, it might be nice to have an extra change... NO! Rose pulled herself away from the shops, too tempted to buy something.

Then something else caught her eye.

"Viridian City Pokemon School..." Rose read out loud. "How come I've never heard of this?"

She stood before the small, humble looking building, before making up her mind that she was going inside to take a look. There were other buildings on the grounds and some small outddor courts for battles to take place on, but this seemed like the main one.

It was just a single room. Desks and chairs were arranged at the end of the room closest to the exit, while closer to the front and in front of the teacher's desk there was a large empty space presumably for demonstrations to the class. At least Rose remembered that set-up at the academy. There were also bookshelves lining the edges of the room, with the odd potted plant placed here and there between them. Maps of different regions could be seen on the walls.

It seemed that right now there wasn't any particular lesson going on. There was just a handful of people in, mostly younger children. One boy sat at his desk taking notes from the board about status effects. Another two kids sat at desks just chatting to each other quietly about pokemon. There was a young girl, a little younger than Rose, standing talking to an older male, with an oddish by her side. The man caught sight of Rose and quickly excused himself from the conversation.

"Ah, are you here to learn about pokemon? Welcome to my pokemon school, my name is Bursh and I am the teacher here," he said with a wide grin.

"Hello, I was really just stopping by to have a look. I'm on a journey to fill up the pokedex."

"Oh, are you official?"

Rose flashed the chip in her pokedex with a smile.

"I see, you graduated from where... Cedar's academy?"

"Mm-hmm," Rose replied in agreement.

"I see. Rose. Um, please, come with me." Bursh put his hand out to show Rose the way down towards the front of the room, letting her go first.

Rose was hesitant at first, but made her way down, next to the young pig-tailed girl and her smiling oddish. Rose opened her pokedex in front of the familiar leaf-haired bulb-like pokemon.

[Oddish, the Weed Pokemon. It often plants its root feet in the ground during the day and sows seeds as it walks about at night. ]

"That's a cute oddish," Rose remarked.

"Thank you!" The pig-tailed girl replied.

"This is my student, Polly." Bursh informed Rose. "And she needs a partner to test her skills against. You up for it, Rose? Against your bulbasaur, of course. Just a short one-on-one." Bursh smiled.

Rose looked down at Tulip, who was looking up at everyone, knowing he was being talked about. He occasionally glanced at the oddish shyly, who was smiling back quietly.

"Yeah, why not." Rose looked back down towards Tulip. "Battle time, Tulip."


The two trainers walked to their respective positions in the middle of the empty area of the classroom.

"Ready..." Bursh prepared to give the signal. "Go!"

Rose and Polly both gave their commands to their pokemon.

Rose gave her command first. "Tulip, go straight in with a tackle!" With that, Tulip started bounding towards the oddish.

"Oddish! Spray acid at it!" Polly shouted.

Although Tulip was about to hit the oddish with a tackle, the oddish kept firm on its position. It opened its mouth, sending forth a high pressure spray of black, smoking liquid straight at Tulip's face. Tulip didn't have enough time to dodge, his momentum was still carring him towards the oddish when the black liquid struck him. He cried out in pain as the liquid started to burn and sizzle his skin and eyes. Blind, he skidded to a halt to save himself from crashing into anything.

Tulip shook the excess acid off of his face until his eyes were relatively clear. His eyes were very red, puffy at the edges and bloodshot in the whites. Going by his head movements, he was having difficulty seeing.

"Tulip, behind you! Tackle!" Rose shouted desperately as the oddish started to move around the bulbasaur. Tulip spun around as fast as he could and lunged his body at the oddish. The little round plant creature sustained some damage from the heavy frog-like pokemon's bulk crashing into it, but not enough to appear particularly fazed.

"Give it another acid," Polly commanded.

This time the oddish's acid spray struck the side of Tulip's body, causing more chemical burns on his skin and on his bulb.

"I can't tell him to leech seed because it won't work agains other grass types... Growl, Tulip." Rose started to appear worried. She though that the oddish would be relatively easy to beat with a bulbasaur, but it didn't appear to be going her way."

Tulip growled at the oddish painfully, trying to garner some sympathy from it.

"Oddish... Absorb."

"Oh... darn!" Rose exclaimed, knowing what this meant. The oddish had lowered Tulip's resistance against special attacks with acid, making him moderately weak to absorb when he would normally have been doubly resistant. Polly had no intention on continuing to use acid for the rest of the battle, so Rose's command to Tulip to use growl was just useless.

A green light formed around Tulip. This light was sucked away like smoke in the oddish's direction, joining its green aura instead. It didn't seem like a particularly painful attack until it was over, when Tulip suddenly staggered off to the side. He felt as though some of his life force had been taken from him. His legs felt like jelly and his eyes felt droopy, tempted to drift off into sleep. His body ached as though he had been partaking in tremendous exercise when in fact he hadn't.

The oddish took a deep breath. "Orrrd!" It jumped and spun in the air, expressing it's feeling of rejuvenation

"Just tackle it, Tulip. Keep tackling until you can't tackle any more!" Rose was out of options, and tackle seemed like the only move that was of any use any more.

Although weakened, Tulip forced himself to focus and once again crashed into the oddish, this time landing on top of it in a critical hit.

"You still might win, Rose!" Bursh cheered. Rose wasn't sure if he was being genuine or just trying to patronize her.

The two pokemon exchanged attacks back and forth, the oddish absorbing more of Tulip's life force followed by Tulip struggling to muster enough energy to give it another tackle. Unfortunately, oddish had the upper-hand as it's health was being restored a little with every absorb.

Tulip finally crashed onto his belly with his legs splayed, unwilling to battle any more.

"Please, no more. My bulbasaur's had enough."

"Okay, Oddish, stop now." Polly commanded. "Good job, girl!" Polly picked up her pokemon. It barely even looked bruised.

"I can't believe I lost!" Rose gasped. Rose rummaged for her purse. She remembered the last trainer she had fought. Although he was rude and nasty, he still won fair and square. Rose felt pangs of guilt for cheating him out of his money, and made sure she had the full half for Polly.

"No, no! We don't battle for money in this school!" Polly insisted.

"You don't need to pay my student." Bursh assured. "If she doesn't want you to. She's not an official trainer yet!" Bursh chuckled a little.

"Why not?" Rose asked, confused because the girl was obviously far more skilled than herself.

"They say the school's too small. The Pokemon Association won't allow me to graduate trainers. So they all eventually need to attend the academy before they can start their own pokemon journey. Or I need to become a professor and expand my school."

"Hm... that doesn't seem fair though. Polly would get a better pass than me at the battling anyway." Rose's eyebrows furrowed, her envy for Polly's ability being replaced with sympathy for her disadvantaged situation.

"It's just the way they run things. Stops a lot of phoney teachers from handing out licenses like hot-cakes," Bursh explained.

"I guess..." Rose trailed off.

"Hey, thanks for the lesson! Come again some time!" Polly asked.

"Yeah, I'd like that. We could have a re-match." Rose suggested, hoping that she might win next time.

Rose said goodbye before leaving the building. She wasn't finished looking around Viridian City...

 

[Tonko]

Chapter 3 (part two)

You haven't seen a battle, I swear, Astrid wrote. The gym in Pewter, well people battled and trained there, but still. The moves these ones were throwing at each other is just... well, see the attached! --Astrid

She attached the fruits of her fine new camera to the email and sent it off. She still found herself going over the battles she'd seen yesterday in her head. Some of the stuff those trained pokemon had done just boggled the mind. She'd never forget the sight of that Snorlax, wreathed in electricity, slamming into its opponent. "Wild Charge", the trainer had commanded. What a move. And done by something THAT big... well.

Her inbox refreshed and a new email from Ben appeared. She opened it, grinning. He must be online right now! Like most of his emails, he hadn't written much of anything. "Check it out, new stuf," was all this time, and somewhat grainy pictures of his own attached. New models that he'd made. He always had to be creating something. A miniature treehouse, this time, out of twigs. A picture frame covered with cutout League and Gym logos, all glued perfectly flat and glazed to boot. The last one was a joke, clearly, made in about thirty seconds, just for her. A pipe cleaner stick-figure with brown yarn hair and googly eyes, dressed in a scrap of flower-print cut out like a tee-shirt, and a shorter rounder one with a cutout piece of green paper with a Squirtle-shell pattern inked on it. The curly tail pipe cleaner was the finishing touch.

She laughed and sent back a "LOL <3"

Now for today... did she want to go back and see if there were going to be anymore challenges at the Gym... or head out to the forest?

She hadn't really seen all of Viridian... she should probably take advantage of this time to explore a little more before she moved on.

And take some pictures. "Wanna go for some walking?" She rolled over and poked Archie with her foot, where he was dozing in a patch of sun from the room's small window. He stretched, yawned, and got up, blinking agreeably at the proposition. "Maybe we can visit the Magikarp guy again, and you can swim some more," she said.

"Squirtle!" Archie approved of that idea.

They left the Pokemon Center, and strolled around. Archie's unusual colouring got the same sideways stares as yesterday. Anyone who was interested in pokemon knew about the starters from the Academy, and they knew Archie looked different from a normal Squirtle. The attention had been strange until Astrid had just decided to take it as it came. She didn't have to respond to anyone who didn't talk to her, and as annoying as it was to repeat herself "yes, he's shiny. Yes, I am lucky. No, I won't trade him", she was starting to realize that was going to be part of the deal from now on, and best get used to it.

She came around the corner, and came to a small building. A school, she'd overheard people talking about it at the Center's cafeteria. Not licensed like the Professor's school to let graduates challenge the league, but still a place to learn about pokemon training. She bet it was a good pre-study to get into the Academy—more than she'd had certainly... Cute building. Looked quiet now. It wasn't a school day, anyway.

She took a picture of it, and then moved on.

Just past the school, down in the alley that ran between the school and the next building, she heard the sound of weeping, and stopped.

Archie started towards the sound, and then looked over his shoulder when he realized she wasn't following. She grimaced at him. "I don't wanna," she said. This stuff was always so dumb and awkward. She sighed, remembering years back when she'd tripped over Benny at school, he'd stuffed himself into one of her reading corners, and had been sniveling and hiccuping, and trying to be quiet. He'd been a really big kid for his age of eight, and having failed a year of school he had also been WAY bigger than his seven-year-old classmates... she'd always kept away from him, not wanting the largest, most pissed-off kid in the grade to start harassing her like the rest.

But that had worked out, after all. She smiled to herself, thinking of Ben's pipe-cleaner figures.

Then she rolled her eyes. Whoever was bawling down the alley was probably not gonna be happy to be found by some random stranger, but whatever. She did have to at least make sure whoever it was wasn't hurt. "Okay," she said, and Archie gave her an encouraging smile that she snorted at.

Moving quietly down the alley, their footsteps were nonetheless overheard by whoever was crying, and it choked off into smaller whimpering noises. Undeterred now, Astrid kept on going until she peered between the concrete pillar of someone's rear carport and the tall side of a wooden slatted fence with a lot of weeds around the bottom. There was a little kid—a boy, yeah, maybe eight, stocky, in a shirt and shorts dusty from sitting in his hiding spot. A few feet away a Sandshrew crouched unhappily.

"Um," Astrid said.

The kid looked up at her, and scrubbed his face with his hands, wiping off snot. Then he wiped his hands on his shirt. Oh, little boys, always so classy. He didn't say anything.

"Are you, you know, okay?" she asked. "You need help?"

The boy glowered at the ground. "Can you help me not lose ALL THE TIME?" he asked, the last words going up in volume to a screechy roar as he scrunched his eyes shut briefly and made his hands into fists.

Archie came around the corner then, and the boy's eyes widened hugely. Astrid's mouth twisted a bit. "Maybe?"

The Sandshrew came forward a few steps, reached out to pat the boy's arm. The boy gulped and grabbed the pokemon, hugging it tight. He spoke, his words muffled against the Sandshrew's hard armoured skin, but it sounded like "can't never do it right."

Astrid fished in her bag and pulled out a bag of gummy pokeballs she'd bought on her walk around the city today. When she'd had tantrums as a kid, her mother had always given her a bit of food after she'd calmed down, something about low blood sugar. She didn't know what that meant, really, but she liked candy and the kid probably would too. "Here, have one," she said, and the boy looked up over his Sandshrew's head, eyes lighting up just slightly. He picked one and stuck it in his mouth, chewing slowly.

"Okay well, do you have to stay here? Can we go... somewhere else?" Astrid asked. The boy let out a last shuddery sigh and nodded, heaving himself to his feet. He headed back out towards the school's front yard, and parked himself on a bench. She sat next to him, and while he fidgeted, she got out the last of the nanab bread and handed it to Archie. He broke the slightly stale piece in half and offered it to the Sandshrew, who took it eagerly after a curious sniff. "What's his name?" Astrid asked, when the kid kept on not saying anything.

"She's a her," the kid corrected. "I named her Sunny." At the mention of her name, Sunny looked around, and smiled around her mouthful of bread.

"She looked like a good Sandshrew to me," Astrid said, trying to use a leading question so the kid would keep talking.

"She's awesome," he said, and slumped back, letting himself slide down into a discouraged slouch. "But I'm really crappy."

"Don't use bad words," Astrid told him automatically, channeling her dad. From the kid's expression, he was used to that reprimand. "What do you mean you're... crummy?"

"We always lose," he said simply, like that was an explanation on its own.

"Aren't you going to school to learn how to battle?" Astrid asked, and the kid twisted around to stare longingly at the school.

"No. S'too expensive right now. We just moved here because Mommy lost her job. I only have Sunny because when Granpa died they found an egg in his PC account. He got it for me for my birthday, but he got too sick so instead he put in his bill."

"Will?"

"Yeah, that."

"So you're battling just like that? Why don't you ask some people who go to the school to give you tips?"

"I hate 'em," the kid glared suddenly. "They made fun of me because I came around and wasn't really in the school. I punched one of them and he got a bloody nose," he added, looked slightly cheered.

Kids. Definitely SO classy. "Um... you know if you go to school there someday you're gonna be with them in classes?"

That made him blink. "Errr."

"So what are you doing about it?"

"Bout what?" his gaze was quizzical.

"Well... you don't have money for school. Are you trying to get some? You don't know how to battle yet... are you trying to learn how by some other way than letting those kids kick your... behind?"

"I..." the kid looked a little stunned. "What am I supposed to do?" he said in a small voice. "I don't know how to do that stuff."

"You could do little jobs for people, and get money and save it. You could ask the teacher at school if there's any way they can help you go. Sometimes if you're good in school, people give you money to keep learning. If you work hard at your normal school, you could have a scholarship maybe. If you get good enough, you could even apply to the Pallet Academy, not just this one. You just moved here but you know there's a gym, right?" He nodded. "You can go to the Gym and see if the gym leader needs anyone to do little jobs around there. Or you can just go to watch the battles. They're amazing..." she trailed off for a second. "You could also go to the Pokemon Center and talk to the trainers. Without punching them," she added. "Or you could go to the library and find the books about battle theory."

He looked a little bewildered by the long list of options she'd just offered him, and maybe that last one was a bit much for an eight-year-old. "I... don't know if I can remember all that," he said, sounding daunted.

Astrid found a battered notebook in the bottom of her bag, along with a pen, and opened it onto a blank page. She passed him both and said, "write down the stuff you remember," and then she watched him make a list. Used to doing homework, he wrote his name at the top, "Darin". To her pleased surprise, he added a few options of his own, like "pratice evry day" and "get a book to rite stuff in." At that one, she told him he could keep the notebook. She repossessed it temporarily to pull out a few pages of things she wanted to keep, then handed it back.

"It's kind of old, you'll want a new one," she said, feeling a little bad at the way he looked so thrilled to have her crappy (she was old enough to say that) notebook.

"No!" he protested, "this one's good, it's a real trainer's notebook."

"Oh," she said. What a strange thing to realize a little kid was looking up to her. She was barely graduated. "I guess, yeah."

"Umm... since you're a real trainer..." Darin trailed off, and gave her a hopeful look, "would you teach me?"

"You know I'm not staying in town, right?" she told him. "I'm only here on my way through to Gym challenge."

The crestfallen look on his face actually kind of hurt.

"Oh. Yeah. Right," he said.

"You know what that means though," she added, trying to scrounge up something so that he wouldn't get discouraged again right away, "all the graduates from the Academy come through here. And I bet all of us go to the Pokemon Center. You can talk to all kinds of different trainers when you visit there."

He sighed hugely, his big eyes fixed on her like he was an imprinted baby bird pokemon.

"Shrrrewwwww!" came a gleeful cry from in front of them, and they both looked up to see Archie and Sunny play-fighting, tumbling in a ball of wrestling yellow and green.

She'd seen enough of the city, right? And what she'd missed, she could see again when she got back here to challenge the gym anyway... Okay, fine.

"I'm not going right now, though," Astrid said. "I can show you some stuff today."

Darin's grin lit up his entire self, and he shot off the bench towards Sunny with a cheer. Gathering up his notebook so it didn't get lost, she trailed after him, trying to sort out all the things she had been taught at the Academy to pick out some good basics from her practical battling classes. She didn't think he'd really want to sit still for a lecture presentation...

 

[Doctor Who]

((I'm not entirely happy with this but I wanted a break from the battling so there you have it (: ))


Axel massaged her aching forearm that was now neatly bandaged and disinfected. Naturally when Axel went bee-line for the Pokémon Center instead of the Mart March got a bit iffed and decided that a good bite would surely changed his trainer's mind. The Nurse had been so kind of bandage it up for Axel as she wasn't so great at treating wounds with one hand. "What a brat," Axel mumbled. The only good thing was that she'd been able to score a bowl of noodles and a cup of nice black coffee from the cafeteria. What with Caren's generous donation. Axel couldn't help but smile at the memory.


"Miss?!" Axel turned around to see the Nurse… Jill was her name? Either way to see Nurse Jill waving at her from the counter. She quickly cleaned up after herself, throwing away the empty carton cup of the noodles and taking the coffee with her and met the woman at the counter.


"Your Snivy is all healed up now, may I please see your trainer's license if you have one?" Nurse Jill (yupp it had been Jill, the namecard at least said so) asked with a warm smile.


"Oh, yeah," Axel fished out her Pokédex and Nurse Jill scanned it, confirming that Axel was indeed a legitimate trainer. "Ehm, thank you."


"You're very welcome. Since it's getting quite late would you like a room? They're free for trainers."


"Yes, thank you," Axel accepted the roomkey and the Pokéball which contained Snivy. Looking outside she saw that it was already getting dark rapidly and the shops would all be closed by now. It was looking like March would have to wait for her treats until the morning.


*****


"OW!" Axel jumped up from the bed with once again the teeth of a Snivy attached to her, this time biting her fingers. "What the hell you useless thing?!" March let go quickly but continued to glare at Axel pointing furiously at the window where the sun was rising.


Axel looked at the clock, it was barely 6:00. "You're going to have to learn about humans and their sleeping habits March," Axel grumbled. "Not even the store clerks will be up at this time in the morning." But there was no way Axel would fall asleep now. She swore a couple of times at March before groggily retreating in the shower and taking an extra long, extra hot one. Nothing like a warm shower after having walked an entire day the day previously.


Even after the shower it was only 6:30 but they had to do something. "Right, let's see if there's any food to be gotten at this hour. For ME," she added, making March stick out her tongue.


Coming down in the Center everything was still dark in the morning hour. It seemed even the nurse had an ending shift as there was a sign on the counter that said 'Ring for emergencies' with a button next to it. The cafeteria had its big metal screen pulled down against thievery and the whole lot just looked a little pitiful and deserted. "See," she snapped at March. "Humans are still asleep at this hour."


As if on cue Nurse Jill came in through the doors, all smiled in the early morning. "Oh hello! You two are up early!" she said all brightly.


"Same can be said for you," Axel said a little perplexed at the Nurse's sudden appearance.


"Oh, yes, well my shift's not due for another half hour but I was up anyway and who knows if anyone needs a healing this morning," she took the sign and the button and put them behind the counter as she started up the lights of the Center. "I don't think it's any problem to be here just a little early every day."


"Alright, well goodbye," Axel was a little weirded out by the Nurse. Did she not have anything else to do but take care of the Pokémon Center 24/7? Axel wondered if she had a family or anything like that but it seemed unlikely especially if she was coming to work early. It still weirded her out, who would work more than they had to?!


In any case the life in the city was just getting started. A few smaller kids were off to work early, some people were off to work while some others might have just gotten off of the night shift. Axel breathed in deeply, she loved the fresh air of the morning, so new and clean.


After a little bit of searching she found a baker who sold her a nice salad Panini even though he hadn't officially opened yet. Axel gave him a bit of a tip and settled on a bench on the city's square. March settled next to her nibbling on some of Axel's generic Pokémon food. It didn't take long for some Pidoves to gather, attracted no doubt by the smell of the little sandwich.


Axel threw some bread on the ground for the Pidoves to eat, which they fought over quite animatedly . "I suppose this is how pests get started," Axel mumbled throwing down another piece of bread. It was just a little too cute not to, and Axel wasn't one for cute in any way so that had to mean something. A disgruntled March, meanwhile, nibbled on her own food and was contented with snapping her vines at the Pidoves making them fly away and then come back just as quickly.


As the Panini was finished Axel took some Pokémon food to throw down toward the doves, which they ate just as easily. This did tick off March however who tried to vienwhip the Pidoves away from the pieces of food though a little futile. One of the doves seemed to have had enough and bit on the vine, making both March cry in pain and Axel laugh. "You deserved that you pest," she laughed making March glare again.


Finally one of the employees at the Pokémon Mart opened his doors and March booked it in even before the man could have turned the open/closed sign. Axel hurried after the Snivy, apologizing to the man for her Pokémon's behaviour. March was already with the treats.


"Alright, alright, so what do you want?" Axel demanded. She picked March up, who was far too small to see the shelves on her own, and held her in front of the rows of plastic bags filled with Pokémon treats from various brands. She sniffed around the packs a bit before picking out a fruit-mix. "Alright, your call."


Axel loaded in some more grass-type specific Pokémon feed and then paid for it all. The shopkeeper grumbled a little about March' entrance, and the grumbled a little about March trying to eat his shoelaces and then grumbles some more about March biting his hand before Axel could drag the Snivy out, but alas they'd bought the Pokémon feed.


"There I think it's about time we got on our way again isn't it?" March responded by biting her hand shortly and Axel rolled her eyes. "Alright, alright, here's your treats you monster!"


And that was how March became a happy Snivy.

 

[Neptune Vasilias]

Chapter 3: Taming (and Training) of the Tympole

Rowena had slept for more than 2 hours and woke up with her stomach bellowing for food. After taking a refreshing shower and doing up her facial for her and her Pokemon, she strolled down to the cafeteria of the Pokemon Center. She bought a set meal of meat, vegetables and berries and Pokemon food for the rest. With everyone back in their respective Balls, she stepped out of the large building. She calculated an estimated 2 or more hours before the sun sets and thus, decided to catch up on more training.

In Viridian City, Rowena heard the hustle and bustle of activity from the Trainer School nearby. The students were being dismissed and were leaving the school compound in mobs and crowds. Hmm, maybe I could challenge someone for a friendly battle. I hadn't had one since I met Scott. A disgusting knot lumped in her throat as soon as she thought of that despicable guy. Mustering every ounce of her courage, Rowena maneuvered her way thorugh the moving crowd of students. She strolled up to a random boy and asked, "Hi. Do you want a friendly battle with me?" The boy and some of his friends just stared blankly at her. "Oh kays…Never mind then." She asked and questioned every single Trainer she met but all she received were no battles and just puzzled blank stares. Rowena was about to sigh when someone called to her from behind. "Hey, I heard that you wanted a battle. I accept your challenge of one." The voice belonged to a boy roughly one year younger than her and he was dressed in a cool black shirt and pants with a slight smirk hanging on his face. His friends stood quietly behind him. It was obvious that this Trainer was the leader of some sort of boy clique. Rowena did not notice all these facts but was glad to hear that somebody would battle with her.

They each introduced themselves. The boy was named Tony. "It will be a one-on-one. The loser pays up as usual, the winner….wins, obviously." Tony stated. They took their places on a makeshift battlefield at an isolated corner of the city. A friend of Tony's was the referee and with a simple red-and-black flag, he started the match with a "Ready, get set, battle!"

Rowena chose Timmy, the new Tympole, specifically for this battle as she thought that she should train him. Tony's Pokemon was a Venonat nicked Vien. Both Trainers gave their command at the same time. Vien charged towards Timmy as Timmy powered up to fire clear bubbles. The bubbles formed clusters as more and more of them were released from the Tympole's mouth. Unfortunately for the Venonat, it rammed itself into a colliding bubble cluster and the 'bomb' was set off. Vien cried and the impact pushed it backwards to square one. Timmy's cheeks then vibrated and the tadpole made a shrill annoying cry that forced Vien to cover its ears. Vien's eyes glowed purple for a moment before emitting blue circles from its antennas at Timmy. Rowena recognized the move as Supersonic and instructed Timmy to do the same. The Tympole flopped in mid-air and fired multi-coloured rings at Vien's Supersonic. Both attacks crashed into each other and both Pokemon tried to out beat the other. As Vien was higher in level than Timmy, its Supersonic broke through and dazzled around the tadpole. Timmy had lost all sense of direction and wobbled around aimlessly. Rowena called out an attack but it was too dazed to hear its Trainer. It tried to fire out bubbles but with no control over them, they popped around him and he was badly stung. Tony then ordered Vien to go for a Tackle. The purple bug ran towards the Tympole and landed its full body-weight on the smaller tadpole.

Rowena's mind was clouded with worry and confusion as she wasn't used to things not going her way. She kept stuttering as she called out attacks, "Super…wait! Bubble! No, no…I meant Superson…Bubble!" The Tympole was confused by his Trainer's instructions but did as he was told. With his mind clearing out much better, he aimed a yellow-blue circle at the Venonat. Vien was caught by surprise and became confused. Timmy jerked his body forward and strings of crystal clear bubbles jetted from his mouth. They sizzled and burst around the dazed Venonat. Just then, Vien stopped moving around in circles and regained back its focus. It rushed up towards Timmy and body slammed him. Timmy tried to fight back with another blast of bubbles but Vien's eyes glowed blue and released an eerie purple aura that bound the tadpole. As a result, Timmy could not attack for a while. The Venonat then jumped up and butted Timmy as the Tympole tried to use Bubble, but to no avail. Rowena decided for a change in moves and told him to use Growl. Timmy wriggled its body from the aura and shrieked sharply at the purple insect. Vien cringed for a short moment before continuing its ram at the tadpole. Timmy tried to dodge the tackle but Vien grabbed his tail to prevent him from evading and slammed with full force.

"Teem….." The Tympole flopped slightly on the ground, before closing its whirling eyes.

"Looks like I win." Tony said proudly. Rowena's head sunk as she reached for her purse to pay up her fee. "Um, don't bother about the money. I didn't battle for money. Keep it and train your little guy. He needs it." His friends gloated at her for a while before they were shushed up by him. Little drops of water fell from her eyes as she rushed to the Pokemon Center. She had lost today; she was such a lousy Trainer. Timmy had suffered under her.

As she exited the Pokemon Center again, she resolved to make Timmy stronger and train him well. She would no longer have her Pokemon suffer humiliation because of her. She had learned a lesson from today's battle. She had learnt to be strong.

(OOC: Oh gosh, that's very long. I plan to put up Timmy's training by tomorrow.)

 

[moon]

@ Beechlgz Ouch, I feel sorry for Tulip ;___; That was some experience.

- Tulip (Bulbasaur) grew to level 10 and learned Vine Whip!

(yes, you can get more than one level from now on)


@ Tonko As usual, a great work with the setting.

- Archie (Squirtle) grew to level 10 and learned Withdraw!


@ Doc Ah, I love mornings~ Let's hope March finally makes peace with Axel now ^^

- March (Snivy) grew to level 8!


@ Diamond Actually that was a very good length of the post. Timmy did a great job, I think! And so did you, with the battle :)

- Timmy (Tympole) grew to level 7!

 

[Ash_Ketchum123]

Chapter 3~
Part 2
I Can't Think of A Proper Title!

Shigeru was greeted by the cool air as he took a step inside the Pokémon Center. At the front desk stood the very hospitable Nurse Jill and her Chansey, both with inviting smiles on their faces. Shigeru can't help but to smile back at them, even though both of his Pokémon were seriously injured. He walked towards the nurse and her Pokémon with a carefree grin on his face. Finally, he reached the desk where the staff of the Center stood and he was greeted by the nurse with a hearty "Welcome!"

"Oh, thank you. Would you mind treating my injured Pokémon?" he asked the nurse, even though he knew they would without really asking. "Oh, sure." the nurse said, taking a tray with some kind of crater-looking holes on 'em, "Just put their Pokéballs here, and the machine will be done with it in a few minutes." Shigeru pulled Kai and Inu's Pokéball from his pocket and placed it on the tray. Jill took the tray and placed it inside a machine. The nurse turned back to Shigeru. "Say, haven't you stayed here last night? Shigeru, is it?" Nurse Jill asked him, and he nodded in confirmation. The machine beeped a catchy tune ((OOC: Yes.)) and Jill opened it up, grabbed the tray, and placed it in front of Shigeru, all in less than eight seconds. [Wow, she's really used to this.]

He took the balls, placed them in his pocket and thanked Nurse Jill. After that, he walked outside of the Center. He took out Kai's Pokéball and pressed the button on the middle of it. It released a red energy that beamed out onto the ground, forming Kai's physical appearance. The light disappeared shortly after and the replenished shiny Oshawott gave a big "Oshaw-wott!" as he stretched his arms in the air. Shigeru knelt down, and Kai quickly ran up his arms and perched on his shoulder. "Nice to have you back, ol' buddy. We have to go back to the Trainer's School for some reason we are yet to find out." he told Kai, and the otter Pokémon nodded.

With Kai perched on his shoulder, Shigeru ran across the lined-up stalls and towards the Trainer's School, but when he arrived there, the lights were out. He knocked on the door and shouted, "Is anyone there?" until the doors opened up...by themselves. He went inside out of curiosity. He was sure that guy named Bursh told him to come to school after he healed his Pokémon back in the Pokémon Center. Every step he took caused the floor to creak, which was weird 'cause he didn't notice the floor creak when he first came there. Probably because of all the noises from the students. Suddenly, a blast of water fired from his right, which he was able to dodge by sidestepping as quickly as he could. He fell over and rolled, sending Kai tumbling off of his shoulder. Luckily, Kai managed to stick a great landing. The Oshawott quickly shot back a water blast of his own. Shigeru wasn't sure if the attack would hit or not, but he knew it hit when he heard a loud "Marr!" from the darkness, followed by a thud. Shigeru stood up and ran towards the voice he had heard. He saw a blue ball-like creature with a ball-tipped tail. He took out his PokéDex and pointed it at the creature.

{BELL0S0M: error: 183 The Aq&u&a Mouse Pokém0n.

Its flower petals deepen in color through exposure to sunlight. When cloudy weather persists, it does a dance that is thought to be a ritual for summoning the sun. error: 182 /execute program 1101101}

After that, the PokéDex turned off by itself, and showed an image of an exploding Voltorb. Shigeru scratched his head. Something about the word "petal" didn't seem right to him. [Marill doesn't even have petals.] He shrugged the thought away and re-focused at the Aqua Mouse Pokémon. (even though Shigeru wasn't sure if the data the Dex had stated was real) He tried to think of why such Pokémon would attack him in the first place. "Osha!" Kai shouted from a distance, as he was hit by an Ember attack. Shigeru ran to his aid as fast as he could while thinking of an order for Kai. "Use...um...Aqua....something!" he shouted, not being able to think of a proper move. Luckily for him, Kai had already gotten used to Shigeru's made-up attacks and used Water Gun again. This time, when the attack hit, the sound they heard was a "Maaag!" He quickly ran towards it and saw a red duck-like thing. He took his PokéDex from his pocket and pointed it at the creature.

{M1LTANK: error: 240 The&L1v3&Coal Pokémon *bulbagarden.net image removed* It gives over five gallons of milk daily. Its sweet milk is enjoyed by children and grown-ups alike. People who can't drink milk turn it into yogurt and eat it instead. error: 239 /execute program 1101101}

This time, the PokéDex showed what looked like an old photo of a Magby blowing embers of flames towards the air. Oh, and one other thing. [Milk? Now I know something's up here.] He turned back and walked towards Kai, who was incessantly turning his head left and right, almost sure another attack will land on him without warning. Unfortunately, he was right. Only this time, the attack was physical. A rogue Pokémon rammed Kai square on the chest. The Oshawott flew distantly and hit the wall of the establishment. Shigeru looked more closely at the Pokémon that hit him, and noticed that it was a Meowth. He wondered if it was the same Meowth that attacked Kai earlier. Kai jumped back up and charged right at the Meowth. The stealthy cat Pokémon dodged him with ease and sent Kai ramming his head onto a stone column. While he was dazed, the Meowth came charging at Kai with its claws retracted. "Hey! Look out!" he shouted at Kai, snapping him out from his dizziness. The shiny Oshawott looked at the charging Meowth and quickly fired a Water Gun. The attack landed right on its forehead, missing the golden coin on it by an inch, making the cat Pokémon dizzy. It spun a few times, still with its claws retracted.

Shigeru took this opportunity to order Kai to finish the dazed Meowth with a combination attack. He just hoped he'll be able to say it properly. "Now, Kai! Run straight at it, use Tail Whip when your close enough, then Tackle it right on its chest!" he said, patting himself at the back for the well said command. Kai nodded and ran off to do exactly what his master told him to. First, the Oshawott ran as fast as he could towards the dazed cat, readying his tail for the "whip" his gonna give it. When it came close enough, he used his tail to whip (well, more like a tickle than a whip) the Meowth's belly, making it lower its defense. Finally, Kai landed a strong Tackle on the Meowth's chest, making it fly off and hit the wall. The ironic part? It hit the part of the wall exactly where Kai had hit. Shigeru waited for a few seconds before he walked closer Kai. The shiny Oshawott then climbed up his right shoulder like nothing had happened. They were still expecting more Pokémon to pop up somewhere in the darkness, but that's when the lights turned on. Around him stood the children he saw training earlier. He spotted the bratty kid he had chased holding a Pokéball. He pointed it at the fallen Meowth and it sucked it right back in. [So it was the same Meowth.] It took a few more seconds to notice that the children surrounding him were smiling, for reasons Shigeru is yet to find out. A man stepped out from a door, (that Shigeru haven't really noticed before.) applauding.

"I am most certainly glad you came here," said the man who was coming closer him. When he got close enough, Shigeru realized that the man was actually Bursh. "Me and my students thought we got ready for nothing." he continued. Shigeru may not have noticed it, but he had a confused look on his face. And believe me when I tell you Shigeru's confused look is quite funny. Bursh snickered a little. It was only a matter of time before Shigeru said, "What in the name of Articuno are you talking about?" Wait for it. One...two...three.

"What in the name of Zapdos are you talking about?" (Close enough.) Shigeru asked Bursh, who was still trying his best not to laugh at Shigeru's face. The man took a deep breath and answered his question. "The first time I saw you, back when you were battling the same Meowth you had just fought, I just had this strange feeling you were it." Shigeru had that confused look in his face again, and Bursh was too serious to try and hold his laugh. He just snickered and continued on with his story. "The reason I have asked you to come here today, is to offer you a job." Immediately, a student came up to him with a flier in his hand. Shigeru took and read out loud. "Viridian Trainer School is looking for a new tutor?" He gazed at Bursh, who had a confident smile on his face, though Shigeru wasn't sure what he was so confident about. And why would Bursh want him as a tutor? Didn't he see him fail in giving commands? He smiled back at Bursh and handed him the flier. "Thanks, but no thanks," he started to say, but Bursh was already frowning, "I feel like I'm not exactly it. There are lots of other Pokémon trainers out there who can tutor these-" he pointed at each of the students inside the room, including that bratty kid with the Meowth, "-wonderful children lots of things that even I don't know about." Bursh sighed at what Shigeru had said, but immediately returned to his jolly state. "Okay, then. I guess it wasn't all worthless. After all, that odd Oshawott of yours at least learned a thing or two from the initiation." he told Shigeru, patting Kai's head with his large palms, "If you ever wan to learn something new about Pokémon, feel free to come by."

Shigeru said goodbye to Bursh, and to all of the students. He walked out of the building with many thoughts in his head. He wondered about what would happen if he accepted the job offer. Soon, he reached the end of Viridian City, coming up to a sign that read "<-- Route 2" He turned towards Kai, who was on his right shoulder, and both of them nodded. He tried take a step on the road to Route 2, but he was stopped when he heard someone call, "Mister!" He turned around to see the boy who owned the Meowth he had battled. He wasn't really that ecstatic to see him. After all, Shigeru figured it was his fault his Dex was acting all weird and stuff. "What is it, kid." he told the...well, kid. The boy stopped when he was right in front of Shigeru, fished something out of his pocket and handed him a Pokéball.

"Please train Neko for me..."

((OOC: Please tell me if it's allowed to receive a Pokémon from an NPC. If it's not, then I'll have Shigeru do something with it...))


​

 

[moon]

@ Ace - Actually, I think it's ok, since you've battled that Meowth twice now. I think you don't have to battle a pokémon to catch it, if you can make up an interesting enough story around the different "capture". It's just as worth writing a good story post as writing a good battle post, if not even better. And you certainly have.

One thing though, the dice roll made Neko a female... is that ok with you? :3

- Shigeru captured Neko (Meowth)! (lv 5 female)
- Kai (Oshawott) grew to level 9!

----------------------------------------------------

I'll post the next chapter now, but you are free to keep posting in Viridian City until you feel like you are done. This is just so that you know what is coming when you are done there.

Chapter 4
R o u t e 2
<Click for chapter theme song>​

Route 2 stretches north from Viridian City and ends at the tiny village called Edgeville at the edge of the deep and dark Viridian Forest. Many years ago, something in the mountains to the west snapped. A rather large river erupted, and is now floating calmly through the middle of route 2. The best means to cross it is by a small boat or by using the bridge that joins the road on each side of the water. People from Viridian City and from Edgeville often go fishing and bathing with their friends or family there, as the sea is pretty far away and the water here is calm and clear.

Edgeville is built around a Pokémon Center that somebody thought was needed near the forest. It only consists of a few houses, the pokémon center, and a gift shop. In the pokémon center,
nurse Eskil rules."image removed"He is young and always seems to be stressed, but he will help if you need it.
The gift shop is owned by an old couple, where the man is awfully quiet and the lady is pretty odd"image removed". She is called Lady Getsit. She sometimes asks trainer to capture a certain pokémon for her, because she can make useful things (gifts to the gift shop... mostly crap) out of their scales, horns, eyelashes or toenails (better not ask how). You might receive 2 Full Restore in return, if you bring her what she wants.

From Edgeville, you can either go the long way around the forest, to the east. It usually takes a whole day longer than if you choose to move through the forest, and you won't see at all as many interesting pokémon. But now, that road has even been closed, but not by the police. Two people in black clothes are standing guard at the eastern exit of Edgeville, making sure to tell anybody who tries to go around the forest that important work is being done there and that you will have to go through the forest instead. They don't seem to cheery or talkative beside that, and you simply won't get out of Edgeville that way.

Other than that, some wild pokémon roam the countryside on route 2, which isn't at all as cluttered with farms as route 1. There is much tall grass beside the well traveled road, and some forest-y parts.


In this chapter you may post freely. If you want to interact with other players, create a joint post together with them.


Posts: 2 minimum.
You can move on as soon as the next chapter is up, or stay in route 2 for a while.


Catchable pokémon: Remember you may catch many pokémon! When you have more than seven, the extra pokémon will be transported instantly to the Cedar Lab.
Nidoran-F"image removed"(Growl, Scratch, Tail Whip, Double Kick)
Nidoran-M"image removed"(Leer, Peck, Focus Energy, Double Kick)
Magikarp*pokemonelite2000 image removed*(Splash)
Goldeen"image removed"(Peck, Tail Whip, Water Sport, Supersonic)
Minccino"image removed"(Pound, Growl, Helping Hand, Tickle) Normal
Deerling"image removed"(Tackle, Growl, Sand Attack, Camouflage) Normal/Grass
Lotad"image removed"(Astonish, Growl, Absorb, Nature Power)
Yanma"image removed"(Tackle, Foresight, Quick Attack)


Levels 6-9. End your capturing post with the pokéball shaking. I will determine if the capture was successful or not, as well as the gender and level of the pokémon, depending on post quality and creativity.