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

[Ponee]

Ryan couldn't believe that she had actually followed Gary into Viridian City, she usually wouldn't trust someone, especially an old man, but there was something about Gary that just made Ryan feel safe.

Gary opened the door to a large metallic building. In graved on the top of the building was the word "GYM." Ryan's jaw dropped once she realized who Gary Oak was.

"Y-you are the g-g-gym leader?" She was ashamed that the Gym leader had saw her pathetic training abilities.

Gary simply nodded as he walked into the gym. The inside of the Gym was HUGE. There was a dirt arena surrounded by bleachers. But Gary did not walk into the arena, he walked to a small office next to the arena. Of coarse the office wasn't as interesting as the arena, it was a small room that had many boxes and papers covering the floor. Gary must have been a pretty busy man.... and messy one. He began to rummage through out the office, with a frown upon his face.

"What are you looking for?" Ryan politely asked.

Gary just ignored her and found a book entitled "Fire Types." inside a large box. The cover was the five fire type starters; Charmander, Cyndaquil, Torchic, Chimchar, and Tepig. He tossed the book to Ryan, who nearly missed it. "Sorry, it is not high-tech or anything, but if you read it you will learn more about Fire Types."

"What does this have to do with Pyro freaking out?" Ryan asked.
Gary sighed. "There is a chapter in the book called Abilities. I advise you to look in there."

Ryan nodded and began to open the book, but Gary gently took her by the arm and walked her out of the door. "Sorry, but I have work to do, please read the book some where else."

Ryan was a bit surprised at his gesture towards her, but she listened and exited the Gym. But before she left, she quickly asked "Well, when do I get to battle you?"

Gary let out a small chuckle and told her, "Not any time soon my dear." and then he closed the door.

Ryan sighed at his answer and made her way to the Poke-center. She was hopping that Nurse Jill would not recognize her, considering that she had already been there this morning, but she was greeted with a large smile and a "Hello, again." Ryan handed her two Poke-balls and then sat herself down on a large, circular red chair. She opened the book and turned to a page that had large, bold letters that made out the word "Abilities"

"Ah hah!" She said, excited that she had found the ability that Tepig had. It was called "Blaze" and seemed like an intense ability.

Ryan read the text out-loud "Blaze is an ability that every fire starter Pokemon has. When the Pokemon has received a large amount of damage their fire powers become stronger. Be careful though, because if the Pokemon will become uncontrollable if it can not handle the power." Ryan realized that Pyro must not be able to control Blaze, but how was she suppose to fix that problem? Suddenly a red-headed boy approached Ryan.

"I heard you reading about Blaze." The boy told her. "It just so happens that I specialize in Fire-types."

"Okay." Ryan was a little embarrassed that she had been heard reading aloud, she had forgotten that there was other people in the center.
The boy reached into his pocket and grabbed what looked to be a small can of Poke-food. "This is a special Fire Pokemon food, it keeps them calm, even when Blaze is activated." He handed Ryan the food. "The name is Leon, by the way."

Leon seemed to be a kind boy, giving Ryan special food for her Pokemon.

"Thank you." Ryan blushed. "My name is Ryan."

The boy chuckled. "Ryan, ain't that a boy name?"

Ryan frowned. "My parents aren't very creative." She didn't bother telling him that her last name was O'Brien, he probably would have laughed if she did.

"Ryan O'Brien, your Pokemon are fully healed." Nurse Jill called over the intercom. It couldn't have been worst times.

Before Leon could say anything, Ryan quickly stood up. "Well Leon, I have to leave now. Thank you for the food, maybe I will see you around sometime." Ryan smiled as she received her Pokemon and left the Center.


(Sorry this part is so boring and lame, but I just wanted Ryan to learn about the Blaze ability and meet a "friend".... maybe (: )

 

[moon]

@ Pony - I really liked the post :) And since Ryan knows about Blaze now, they have a chance to learn to control it, so...

- Pyro (Tepig) grew to level 9 and learned Odor Sleuth!

 

[Tonko]

Chapter 4 (part one)


Your realy comin home soon? Ben's email read. Cant wait :)

I can hardly believe it Astrid wrote back. Weird that I'm only passing through, after staying at school for so long. But I'm getting used to traveling. Doesn't this make you want to see the whole region? Love, Astrid. She attached picture of this morning's view, sunrise gleaming through the trees at the campsite by the river, and just touching the surface of the still water. She'd been the only one there last night, but it was obvious by the permanently worn patch in the grass and the well-settled ring of rocks and ashy ground that people camped here and set up their dinner fires. That and the sign that warned people not to leave food or garbage at the site, for their safety and the health of local wildlife.

Even though she still wasn't used to the chilly dampness of mornings spent outside, she was starting to find it refreshing, instead of it making her want to burrow back into her sleeping bag. Now it was midmorning, though. Despite her anticipation of seeing Mom and Dad and Ninny and Ben again, she wasn't really in a hurry.

"And done," she said to herself as she hit Send.

"Squirtle, squir squir squir squirtle..." Archie started tugging on her sleeve, waving his other hand in the direction of the water.

"Yeah, let's go." she planted one hand on his head and gave him a playful shove towards the bank as she picked up her things. He'd wanted to swim as soon as he'd woken up, but even though she'd nodded and waved in the direction of the river while she'd shoveled her breakfast oatmeal into her mouth, he hadn't been willing to go that far away from her, keeping his eyes watchfully on the forest's edge and on the closest bushes and stands of grass. He'd been smarter than her just then, that was for sure. You didn't want to be caught alone by a wild pokemon. Even if most of them were shy of humans, you only had be wrong once to get hurt or worse.

She followed Archie to the water's edge. At some places, the forest grew all the way to the river's edge, but at this part of it, for a good distance up and downriver of that little bridge they'd seen yesterday, the forested patches had been cleared to allow safe clear space for distances ranging from ten to fifty meters. There were a lot of the little camp spot dotting the bank, a few docks. A good distance downriver Astrid could just see a cottage peeking out between the trees—that person must have some good guard pokemon living there! Right here, though, were all public areas, signs warning for safety at the docks and the few sandy strips that couldn't really be called beaches.

When they were close, Archie put on a burst of speed and ran for the water, bounding happily over some rocks that poked through the surface before launching himself into a prodigious bellyflop. Astrid put her hand to her stomach and winced at the SLAP sound it made, but he had shell to protect him, after all.

She gauged the size of the rocks and followed Archie's path to the last one that was big enough to sit on. She did not do a bellyflop, but just tried to spot him under the water.

It was clear, and moving smoothly but not too fast. The rippling distortion was faint, and Archie's green shell was easy to find against the river bottom. At this spot, the river bottom dropped in a steady incline from the bank, and the center was too deep for her to see all the way down. She took a deep breath, smelling the air. River smell—damp leaves, wet stone, a fresh smell that was the water itself.

The green flash of Archie's shell shot past her rock as he rode the current and added his own power, but before he went too far, he rolled under water, looping and letting his momentum shoot him too the surface. He swam to her, then held her rock and blew her a bubble, just a little one, before disappearing under the water again.

The next time he appeared, he was accompanied by flashes of red. The view was familiar—it was just like the pond in Viridian, but these were wild Magikarp! No gold ones among them, she noted without surprise. The school was following Archie, but when he came near her rock, they swerved away, probably wary of her presence. Surfacing for a breath, he rejoined them a bit farther away, and she slowly and carefully got her camera ready as Archie led the school back to her again.

They swerved away, but not as quickly. And he did it again and again, until they seemed to stop caring that she was there, and Archie was able to nearly stop right in front of her, with the great big Magikarp bumping at him clumsily. The clear water made them easy to see, and she snapped a few pictures, hoping to catch the way the light outlined their scale just so.

So engrossed was she in the antics of the fish that the growling sound rising behind didn't register until it rose to a short bark. "Drrrrran!!"

Her head shot up and she turned, too fast. She slid halfway off her rock, grabbing on out of sheer reflex, but not before her legs hit the water, and the shock of cold hit her up to the waist.

The Magikarp scattered instantly. Archie was at her side instantly, burrowing under her arm like he was trying to support her. Mostly he risked making her lose her grip on the rock. "No! Stop," she elbowed him away. "Over THERE!" She jerked her chin at the bank, and Archie's eyes widened.

There on the bank, scratching at the stones at the water's edge, was a Nidoran, a male, it's purple hide a bright spot against the green and brown of the area. Though with a defense like Poison Point, it wasn't like the little guy really needed to hide.

He didn't look angry, that was good at least, but when Archie popped up, the Nidoran's attention fixed on him right away, and he reared back and stamped his little forepaws against the ground. "Drrraan!" he called again. Had this one been sitting here waiting for a battle?

"Sssquirrrr," Archie responded, glaring, and Astrid glared right alongside, getting out of the water and back on to her rock awkwardly. Dripping, with scraped palms and knees from clinging to the rock, she was not best pleased, to say the least.

"Go for it," she said. "Bubble, tail whip, tackle," she commanded. "No arms if you can!" she added. The poison spikes wouldn't work so well against his shell.

"Squirr-rt!" Archie acknowledged, and spat out a bubble. He was getting much faster at that, since they'd been training together. He put his wet hands on the bubble and pushed as he headed straight for the shore, his tail thrashing and his feet kicking to drive him forward in a rush. In a move that was becoming familiar now, he popped the bubble in the Nidoran's face and then wheeled around to slap it upside the chin with his tail.

The Nidoran tackled him, and Archie fell back towards the water. "Don't let go!" Astrid said, in a moment of inspiration, and Archie clung to his opponent, taking them both into the shallows. The Nidoran let out a bark of surprise and struggled free. As Archie swam away to get some momentum for his tackle, the Nidoran splashed back towards the bank.

Archie shot forward, under the water, almost a headbutt instead of a tackle, and propelling the Nidoran fully out of the water to smack into the rocks at the water's edge. The Nidoran tucked himself into a ball as he hit, then shook himself, and braced against the rock as Archie stomped towards him.

"Tackle again! Watch it, he's quick," she added, as the Nidoran dodged and struck Archie straight on with a neat double-kick. "Tackle!" she repeated. "Get 'im!"

Archie came at the Nidoran with a slightly awkward leaning run, turning at the last second to ram the Nidoran with the back of his shell. The blow landed exceptionally well, and Astrid's eyes widened. That had probably been luck, to send the Nidoran bouncing off that hard, but they'd have to practice that one.

After that shell-blow, the Nidoran didn't come forward again, only getting to its feet and shaking itself out. Bright eyed, it regarded Archie with a contented look, which made Archie stop in his tracks and scratch his head, and then the Nidoran trotted off towards the tall grass.

Astrid came awkwardly back to land, wringing her stinging hands a bit before crouching to rinse grit off in the shallows. Ugh, everything below the waist was soaked through, she was going to have to dry her shoes. She had some sandals to wear, so she could keep walking, but still, that was going to take for ever...

Archie was still regarding the spot that the Nidoran had disappeared into, and Astrid poked him on the head, putting her hand down for him to give her his Squirtle-five. On the back of her hand, this time. "I guess he just wanted to fight," she said. "Oh... hm." It occurred to her belatedly that just there was a good pokemon to have caught. And she'd let it wander right off. Well, the annoyance from getting dumped in the water hadn't helped.

"Squirtle," Archie said soothingly, and patted her leg.

"Maybe next time," she agreed, and, with a sigh, went to change into dry clothes.


((OOC: ARGH. I can't decide on anything for her to catch. I was ambivalent about the Nidoran, then decided not... Hmmm.))

 

[Doctor Who]

"Come on you boot," Axel gentle nudged March forward who wasn't walking fast enough. Every time something even moved a little March would freeze and stare at it and Axel would have to wait for her to decide that nothing dangerous is hiding in that particular piece of foliage. Or, most likely, she'd just keep walking but then she'd have to eventually wait anyway.


"I'm fairly certain nothing's gonna jump out at us," She rolled her eyes and kept shoving March forward who refused to do any walking on her own. "Plus, we could handle it if it did now get going!" That seemed to raise March' confidence a little, she outed a deep sort of growl in discontent with the rough behaviour but got moving again.


Aaaaand then Axel's cellphone rang. It was one of those classic call-tones, Axel didn't bother with fancy ringtones. Caller display said it was a hidden number so she was forced to take it.


"Hello?" She asked annoyed yet a little curiously.


"Oh hello darling!" came a way too preppy and excited voice on the other line.


"Goodbye mum."


"Wait! Don't hang up!" Annabell said it just as Axel was about to clap her phone shut.


"You've got five minutes," she didn't attempt to hide the hostility in her voice at all.


"Isabella! Is that any way of addressing your mother?!" Annabell cried highly dramatic. "I've not heard from you in over a year! What is a mother to do when her only child doesn't even bother to contact her once in twelve monthes?!"


"You left, end of story."


"Oh so now I am the bad guy?!" That's right you are, Axel thought but she didn't say anything. "I do believe that I warrant a thank-you and not such rude behaviour Isabella. I knew it wasn't a good idea to leave you with Anthon," Annabell gave his name a nasty ring.


"Mum, you left us! You left us!" Axel was raising her voice now. "You do not warrant ANY thank-yous, you only came back for a signature on the divorce-papers so you could remarry as soon as possible."


"You weren't even old enough to remember that Isabella, that's just the propaganda Anthon told you. Besides I am the one who got you into that academy in the first place-"


"Right the whole reverse psychology thing? Dad told me you were quite good at manipulation. Now if you excuse me-"


"Oh, right, so you really believe that silly scholarship got you into the school?"


"What…" Axel's voice sounded far too weak for her liking.


"Who do you think arranged that scholarship Isabella?" Annabell said almost lazily. "Why would they have any need for an athlete at a trainer school?! Didn't you ever wonder why you got such a lovely opportunity while the school itself had barely any sports facilities?"


"Well, yes, it's crossed my mind, but-"


"There's little money can't do Isabella…" Annabell said in a sing-song voice. "So that thank-you can be arranged the next time you're in the city, which should be in the near future as you're going to want to challenge the gym there. We'll have a nice dinner and-"


"Mom."


"Isabella don't interrupt your elders when they're talking-"


"It's Axella, I haven't used the name Isabella in years as, you know, you left. Have a great day Annabell" and with that she slammed her cellphone shut, resisting the urge to throw it against a tree. Talking about that tree, Axel dropped the the ground, leaning against it, head in hands. March nudged her curiously, wondering what's got her trainer so upset.


"Could you go do something, I need to think," Axel shooed March with a weak voice. So Annabell had bought her into the school? She was no better than that Caren, the only difference was that she'd been stupid enough to fall for that lie! What about her license, was that bought too?! She buried her head deeper in her hands. That b*tch! Why did she have any right to decide her life like this? What gave her the rights that other mothers had, other mothers didn't usually leave their children before they could properly walk!


The nudging of March disturbed Axel's frantic thinking. March was pointing in the direction where two Pokémon were sparring. Axel immediately recognized them as Nidoran, there'd been a class about gender difference and Nidoran were quite quickly the main topic in such lessons. Well venting frustrations was healthy right?


"Alright March, let's show them," Axel got up with renewed energy. "Use the good old Vine Whip to get their attention," At her trainer's instruction March cracked her whip near the two wild Pokémon whose attention immediately snapped toward March. There was a brief eyecontact between the two before they seemed to decide that instead of battling each other it would be more fun to beat up March. Both opponents came running at March and in tandem they jumped up, twisted in the air and kicked the Snivy with a combined Double Kick attack.


"Alright focus on the male, use leer to stop him in his tracks and use vinewhip to toss him against the tree," Axel said calmly knowing that March could take the hit. The Snivy looked right at the Nidoran with a dangerous glint in her eyes that stopped him right in his tracks. Then March' vines wrapped all around Nidoran's body and she attempted to throw him towards the trees, but he was heavier than Axel had expected. Axel shrugged, so she'd underestimated March's power, they've have to train a bit on that later on.


"Change of plan," Axel said, surveilling the battle. The male was walking backwards and shaking on all sides trying to get the vines off of him, the female was preparing to aim another Double Kick at March. "Time for the oldest trick in the book," Axel muttered. "March, move just about a meter to your right, yes, good, now turn around and try to lift the Nidoran." Axel wasn't sure how much these Nidorans could understand of her speech so March was just going to have to trust her.


March put all her strength in trying to lift the Nidoran just a little when the female decided to launch her attack. "March, jump over Nidoran when I say so, NOW!" March jumped up just as instructed and Nidoran's kick hit her buddy instead which it hurt quite a lot. "Now swing him against the tree!" Using the male's momentum from receiving the kick March used her vines to swing him headfirst into the tree. She had to hold a root that came up from the ground not to get swung right back and quickly retracted her vines, but it was done. The male Nidoran was out for the count.


"Now tackle the female!" Axel yelled. She'd entirely forgotten about her mother in the midst of the moment, something March had been hoping for by pointing the two out to her. With the strength of a victory both on the male Nidoran as well as for her master March put her whole eight (which wasn't much, but still) into the tackle while the female put all of hers into a scratch attack. The two collided and March was pushed back a few meters from the contact. The female was off a lot worse than March and actually got propelled back landing against one of the roots coming from the ground. She was knocked right on the head and right out.


March ran towards Axel victorious and entirely excited about it. She was just jumping with adrenaline and energy and this even made Axel smile, a little. As in just a twitch of her mouth, but a smile anyway. "Thanks, fool," she told March and gave her a little banana-flavored treat from the package."Now let's get going, and no more sidetracking, you hear me?"

 

[moon]

@ Tonko - I love how you portrayed the setting. And you do know you're allowed to catch more than 6 pokémon right? But I understand you xD I'll throw in more interesting pokémon now and then.

- Archie (Squirtle) grew to level 12!


@ Doc - Oh, story! I can feel with Axel.

- March (Snivy) grew to level 10 and learned Wrap!

 

[Ponee]

Ryan's day so far had certainly been interesting. Pyro had freaked out yet again, She had met a Gym leader(But she was not allowed to battle him... which might have been a good thing.) She also learned about Blaze, the ability that Pyro has and the reason he has been freaking out, and she had also met a boy named Leon who seemed to be a nice guy. At Least he was nice enough to give her some special food that was suppose to calm Pyro down once Blaze was in effect.

Route 2 was definitely not as chaotic as Route1 was. Route 1 had many young trainers that had just got their starter pokemon, and if you even glimpsed at them they would demand a fight, but Route 2 was serene and peaceful. There was a few trainers, but they didn't seem as anxious to battle as the ones on Route 1 did.

Ryan clipped two pokeballs off of her charm bracelet and released her pokemon. Mareep let out a large yawn, she must have been exhausted for being in her Pokeball so long. Pyro on the other hand quickly shot off towards the water and began to watch the pokemon that inhabited it swim around peacefully. Ryan chuckled at her pokemon's actions, they were so different from each other.

"Mareep, We definitely need a name for you." Ryan squatted down, facing her Mareep. The Mareep let out a cheerful "Mar!" and began to wait patiently for a nickname.

Ryan placed a finger on her chin. "Hmm." Her mind began to filter in names, but none seemed right for her Wool Pokemon. A small spark of electricity flew off of Mareep's coat and suddenly Ryan had figured out a name.

"Triss." She pat her Mareep's face, proud of what she had came up with. "Short for Electricity." The Mareep happily bounced up, accepting the name.

"Ryan, Triss, and Pyro!" Ryan clenched her face. "We are awesome!" Mareep cheered in agreement.

Pyro happily pranced back to his trainer, holding something in his mouth.
"What is this?" Ryan said as she took the small plastic object out of the Tepig's mouth. The object turned out to be a goldeen shaped fishing hook, and it seemed to be in good condition. "Where did you find this?" Ryan asked, but she was guessing it came from the river. Pyro quickly ran over towards the river and pointed into the river.

"Te! Pig!!" It called out, trying to show Ryan were he saw it.
Ryan and Triss walked over to the river and examined the cool, but gentle water. There was no tackle box or fisherman around, so some one must have lost it.

"Looks like we have a mystery on our hands!" Ryan told her Pokemon. "We will solve it, right?" Ryan and Triss nodded, they seemed excited to be able to participate in solving a mystery.

A little farther onto the Route was a fairly decent sized bridge, and supposedly many fisherman would come a fish on that bridge, so maybe the hook belonged to one of them.

Ryan, Pyro and Triss made their way towards the bridge. Triss obediently followed by Ryan's side, while Pyro made his way to the bridge by jumping on top of lily pads.

Ryan noticed her Tepig's activity and was about to say something, but suddenly one of the lily pads sunk down into the water. Pyro was caught of guard and went down into the water with the lily pad. Ryan gasped and sprinted to her Tepig, who was still submerged underwater.

"Crap." Ryan began to panic. "Do you see him anywhere, Triss?" Triss began searching through the water, but saw no sign of Pyro.
Suddenly, Pyro's head reached the surface of water. He was gasping for air, and then was dragged under the water again.

"What the-" Ryan pulled out her Pokedex and pointed it towards the water. Something, was definitely attacking Pyro.

"Lotad, the water weed Pokemon. Lotad lives in ponds with clean water. It is known to ferry small Pokémon across ponds by carrying them on the broad leaf on its head."

Ryan wondered what made the Lotad Pokemon so angry at Pyro, but that didn't matter right now she had to rescue Pyro! Ryan was about to jump into the water, but a yellow blur shot past her and into the water.

"Triss!" Ryan called, a little shocked that Triss had went to go rescue her friend.
One by one, small lotads began shooting out of the water and onto land. Triss must have been using tackle to get the Pokemon away from Pyro! Soon, Triss re-appeared to the surface of the water with Pyro latched to her back. She quickly swam back to the land and placed Pyro by Ryan's side. Pyro was soaking wet and was breathing heavy. Ryan's best bet was to get Pyro back to the Poke-center, but small blue pokemon were surrounding them.

"Oh my god." Ryan said in disbelief as she realized that they were being surrounded by... Lotad. Triss stood in front of Pyro and Ryan and seemed to have been in Pyro's signature "battle stance."

Three Lotad launched a decent bubblebeam attack at Triss, which was the move that was chosen when they used Nature Power. One Lotad growled at the Mareep, and another attempted to use Absorb.

Triss quickly tackled the Lotad, that had began to glow white in order to use the move absorb. The Lotad flew back into the water with a large splash. Mareep could not dodge all the bubbles though, and shrieked in pain as they reached her fur.
Ryan gritted her teeth as she watched her Mareep fight, she believed that Triss could win if she tried hard enough. "You got this Triss!" Ryan called to her Mareep, trying to boost her confidence.

"Behind you!" Ryan shouted as she watched a Lotad try and attack Triss from behind with an astonish. Triss spun around and growled in the Lotad's face, causing it to loose it's focus. Triss then tackled the oblivious Lotad hard, sending yet another Lotad back into the water. Ryan realeazied that once the Lotad's had been hit back into the water they didn't bother comming back out to fight the Mareep.

A good amount of Lotad were still on the land, though. To make it even worse, they had made a circle around Triss and began to all glow white. Triss tried tackling the Lotad's but they didn't budge. Suddenly, a large stream of a white glow shot out from each Lotad and began to devour Triss in its white glow. Triss cried in pain as her energy was being sucked out of her.

"No!" Ryan called, trying to return her Mareep back into her Pokeball, but one of the Lotad's quickley used bubblebeam(nature power) to knock the Pokeball out of her hand. Ryan pulled her hand back in pain and watched in horror as Triss loose all of her power.

"Pig." Pyro grunted as he got to his feet. His eyes were bloodshot and his expression seemed angry.

"Wait." Ryan told Pyro, when she remembered what Leon had given her. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small brown cube. Supposivley, if you fed it to a pokemon with the blaze ability it will help it stay in control. Ryan tossed it to Pyro, who caught it in his mouth and squeeled in delight.

Pyro then began to run towards the Lotad, who were still using their absorb on Triss. Absorb was a move that would suck the engery out of the Pokemon's victim and then give it to the Pokemon, causing that Pokemon(Lotad in this case) to get more energy.

"Tepig!" Pyro called out, in an angry tone. Soon after, he let out a large amount of flames from his snout. Each Lotad was engulfed in flames, causing them to retreat back to the water. Pyro blinked, and his eyes were back to their normal color. He looked around, confused on what happen. He then saw his Mareep friend lying on the ground. Quickley, he ran over and nudged his buddy's back.

"Mar?" Triss slowly said. She looked up and saw Pyro by her side. Triss got to her feet, but was still a little bit unstable.

"Te!" Pyro happily said as he watched Triss rise, but he made she to stay by her side to give her support so she wouldn't fall.

Ryan happily ran over to her two Pokemon. "You guys did great, but you also need some rest." She returned both Pokemon and mentally watched the battle again. She was so proud of both of them and what they had accomplished that day. She turned to the river and noticed that the group of Lotad were all huddled away from the rest of the Pokemon that were in the stream. Maybe they were hated by their neighbors? Ryan chuckled as she saw a red scaley pokemon flop ontop of the pile of lillypads. The Lotad all let out a sigh and dunked the fish back into the water.

Fish! Ryan remembered that she had to find the owner of the fish hook! She dug in her pokets trying to find the fish hook. It would be bad if she had lost it.
"Ouch!" ... she found it.

 

[moon]

@ Iwasapony25 - Really enjoyable post! I love it when battles are made vivid. Also, Triss sounds beautiful.

- Triss (Mareep) grew to level 7!
- Pyro (Tepig) grew to level 10!

 

[Tonko]

Chapter 4 (part two)


"Okay, I don't know what was up with that lady, but she was strange," Astrid muttered, casting a glance over her shoulder in the gift shop's direction. "Whole place was strange." She'd belatedly wanted to bring some souvenirs home for everyone, and while Edgeville was almost next door to Pewter, none of them had been here, so she supposed it sort of counted.

But that gift shop... there'd been things made out of... bits of pokemon. Kind of odd. Okay, she knew perfectly well where leather and meat came from, but somehow that hadn't felt the same as the keychains made with Minccino fur or Nidoran claws. She'd settled for the generic "Scenic Viridian Forest!" postcards at the Pokemon Center. She could get real souvenirs from somewhere else past Pewter anyway.

She'd chosen the east way out of town, and Archie walked with her for a while before yawning significantly. She recalled him to his pokeball, and pulled out her tablet, pulling up the Academy site, and the news and message boards, catching up on faculty debates and information about new published research papers. She still had her online library access to those, which she cherished.

Engrossed, she didn't look up, even after stumbling a few times, until a heavy hand landed on her shoulder, making her gasp and jerk away with a glare.

The tall, black-clothed man who'd grabbed her let his arm drop, but his unsmiling demeanour held no sympathy for startling her. "What," she snarled, still rattled. People usually poked her, or tugged her tablet, if she didn't respond. They didn't GRAB her. She hated that.

The man raised an eyebrow in mild, unperturbed surprise, glancing to the side where another guy, dressed in black as well, was standing on the other side of the road. The other guy smirked a bit. Astrid's frown deepened.

"You can't go this way, kid."

"Says who?" she asked.

"Says us. Buzz off." The first man folded his arms across his chest, squaring his shoulders like he was trying to make himself look bigger and more imposing. It worked.

"I'm a licensed trainer. I'm allowed to go along any road that's not private property. It's at my own risk, and not yours." What was the term. Liability, that was it. They didn't have any to worry about for trainers, it was the trainers own choice to wander the region. She showed the man her license to underscore her point.

"Doesn't matter. There's work being done down the road. Nothing to do with the league, Miss... Baker," he said slowly, glancing at the name on her license, then looking her up and down like he was committing her to memory. She snapped it shut at that, suddenly not liking that she'd just given her name to a pair of shifty men that were lurking around. She wasn't getting a gross vibe off the guy, but definitely a... watch-out sort of feeling. She put it away and pulled out Archie's pokeball, pressing the button that made it expand to full size in her hand. Primarily for comfort right now. "Go ahead and take the forest path," he said with a shrug, "but you can't go this way."

"Sorry for the inconvenience," said the other guy, still smirking a little.

"Look, I'm not going to wander around your stupid construction site," Astrid snapped. "I'm just taking the road around the forest." She started to walk forward and the tall guy got in front of her, forcing her to bump into him, or stop. She stopped, fuming.

"Buzz off, kid, I said. This road is closed." He stared down at her impassively—or not quite. He was getting annoyed now, and suddenly the watch-out feeling multiplied. That glint in his eye was rapidly approaching dangerous. She pushed the button on Archie's pokeball again, and the flash of red light appeared in the corner of her eye.

"Squirrrrrrr," Archie growled in a low voice. He put a hand on her leg in support.

"Licensed trainer going to try that, are you," the tall man asked, and he almost seemed like he was daring her.

"Wouldn't dream of it," she answered. And she wouldn't—she'd lose her trainer license if Archie attacked a person out of anything but defense of himself or his trainer. "Just getting some company for the walk to the forest road," she said, finally giving in, even though it left a bad taste.

Then from beyond the two men, behind a large boulder and a scraggly bush, Astrid thought she faintly heard a sort of electronic fritzing sound, or something like that. She and both the men looked in that direction, and as they did, a sudden scrabbling sound started, then a grey mass of fur scrambled onto the path and took off like it was on fire, straight for them. Astrid took a step out of the way automatically.

"Hey!" the smirking guy started to say, his smirk turning to a glower. "It's getting—!"

The tall one swore, and then, cutting off his friend, he said, "WATCH OUT! It's WILD," and stepped back too. The other guy got a sour look, but went quiet.

The Minccino streaked by almost too fast to be able to tell quite what it was at first. It went straight between them and past Astrid, then stopped in the middle of the path, its big eyes round and fixed on her, and then it took off again, swerving into an alley.

Astrid had never seen a wild pokemon looking afraid run into a place full of humans before. The tall black-clad guy swore again, and Astrid walked backwards for a few steps before turning and heading back into the town. She didn't like the feeling of turning her back on those two men, but Archie was right there.

When she got to the first corner, she stopped and looked back once. The two of them were standing close together now, talking about something, gesturing. "Hm," she narrowed her eyes, then turned on her camera and took a picture of them. She put the camera away just before one of the men looked up and saw her again. It was too far for her to really make out his expression anymore, but she gave him a good final glare before moving on around the corner. She let out a breath.

"Squirrrrr," Archie growled again in a low tone, still sounding very displeased.

"Yeah," Astrid agreed. "Ugh. What if there were more of them down the road? I guess the forest road would be better anyway."

They moved on, but it was only about half a block before a grey flash caught her eye and she looked over. Archie had already spotted it when she found it, the big eyes and big ears just visible from the low branches of a tree on someone's lawn, still watching her. The ears looked ragged, like there was fur missing.

Curious, she took a small step towards it. The Minccino vanished then, presumably farther up the tree. "Is it following us?" she asked, looking at Archie. His gaze was still trained on the tree, probably seeing something she didn't. Frightened pokemon could get really aggressive, and she didn't want to frighten it even more. She decided not to get close again if she saw it.

They headed off towards the forest road, stopping before the edge of town at a little park. She wanted to eat a little before she headed out, and shake off the last of the nerves from getting stopped by those men.
It was a tiny park. A wedge of green lawn, a few trees, and a couple of benches. But it wasn't a playground—no jungle gym or swings, so probably no kids would be by. Right now it was empty, not even any old ladies or anything.

She parked on a bench, taking off her backpack. Archie hopped on the bench, standing on it and looking over the back at the trees. Astrid rummaged in her bag. She'd found more nanab bread at the little market here, which Archie had been overjoyed about. She broke off a piece for him now, and raised her eyebrows when he didn't immediately demolish it. Instead, he was still looking around and she followed his gaze... ah, yes.

Their furry little companion was showing itself again. At the bottom of a tree this time. Big eyes, ragged ears. "Still here, huh?" Astrid said to it. It really must have been following them.

It took a tentative step around the tree towards them. It didn't look rabid, or dangerous—she wasn't sure a Minccino could ever look dangerous, or its evolved form either even though she knew intellectually it certainly could be—and Archie didn't look worried. He finally started nibbling on his bread, in fact.

"Sqrmffff" he said, around his mouthful, sounding encouraging. Astrid looked at him. Was he coaxing this thing along? She looked at it again. It was cute, painfully so. It looked like a cotton ball with eyes and ears. It looked skittish at heck. She would never pick this thing for her team. But it had run away from those men when she was there. Or something like that. She doubted it was a coincidence, anyway. And now it was following her.

It took a few more steps towards the bench. Astrid sighed and looked down at the bit of bread in her hand, and broke it in half. "Well, I can't leave you here like this, can I?" Ragged fur. Too thin, she thought. It looked like it had been stressed for a long time. Sick? She couldn't quite tell. Its eyes looked bright at least, and it wasn't wobbling. Hungry but not starving. Okay. But the patchy fur didn't look good.

She held out the bread. It came the last few steps looking caught between hesitation and eagerness. Soft little paws took it from her hand, and it took a slow bite, watching her the whole time.

"You look just like that kid from Viridian," Astrid said with a slight groan. The Minccino shuffled closer. Despite herself, Astrid reached out, well aware of the somewhat stupid risk she was taking, and touched its face, keeping her hand where it could see it before sliding her fingers up through the soft, soft fur to rub it gently between the ears. Around the tuft that stuck up from its forehead, she could feel where the fur had thinned.

It had squeezed its eyes shut and put its ears flat back when she'd put her hand on its head, and that bothered her. It made it look hand-shy, like it was ready to flinch. But it still let her touch it. She lifted her hand away, and it opened its eyes and raised its ears again, still blinking hopefully.

Was it weird that it hadn't made a sound yet at all? She frowned consideringly at it. "Do you know what this is?" she asked, pulled one of the empty pokeballs out of her pocket.

Maybe it did. It regarded the ball without apprehension, less than it had shown when she touched it, anyway. Astrid looked behind her for a moment at Archie, who was watching with some anticipation himself.

"Okay," she said. "Fine." It was following her around, and it was in bad shape. It would be cruel to leave it to its own devices. She didn't want it as a fighter—she didn't think it WAS a fighter—but she could give up a pokeball to make sure it could get healthy. Maybe she could trade it... though after the trouble it had taken to follow her, she suspected doing that would make her feel particularly guilty. Well, she didn't need to worry about that now.

She pressed the button on the ball and reached out slowly to touch it to the Minccino's head.

The red light flashed, surrounding it briefly before turning transparent and shrinking back into the ball. She dropped it to the grass as it twitched.

It had looked almost like it was waiting for this, but would it panic now at the confinement and try to break free?

 

[moon]

The pokéball did wiggle on the grass for a few moments. Maybe the Minccino was unsure of the choice it hade made when it let Astrid touch it? But finally, the ball stopped. It was laying still in the grass, almost sparkling.


@ Tonko - It's getting a bit silly with me saying your posts are wonderful all the time. But they are.

- Astrid caught a Minccino! (level 7 male)

 

[Ash_Ketchum123]

Chapter 4~
The Magic of the Carps!

Shigeru sighed as he stared at the Pokéball in his hand. He wasn't really sure if he had made the right choice to accept the Meowth, especially if Inu hated it. He stuffed it back in his pocket and shrugged the thoughts away. Even if he did change his mind, he had walked a long distance away from Viridian. Looking ahead, he can see a river that divided Route 2. He remembered hearing his parents talk about a large river erupting near Route 2, dividing it by a small river. As he got closer, he saw lots of people either bathing or fishing. Others were taking a boat ride across the river. Farther to the right, he can see a rope bridge that swung over the river. By the looks of it, people preferred to travel on boat rather than the bridge. As soon as he noticed that, he decided to cross the river by boat. [There must be some kind of reason they don't cross the bridge.]

Finally, he was standing by the riverside. He looked around for a vacant boat, but unfortunately, there were none. He paced beside the river to search for a boat. It took him almost an hour to cover the distance of the whole river, but he found no vacant boat. He gave up and sat by the river. He dipped his legs in the cold water to clear his mind of all bad thoughts. "#^@! It got away again!" he heard from beside him. The swearing startled him, making him jump into the river. He quickly swam up in panic and looked at who was beside him. It was a fisherman. By the looks of him, he was really bummed. Shigeru swam up to shore. He checked his pocket if anything got lost. Nothing. Good. [Wait...!] He quickly grabbed his Dex to check if it was still working properly...or at least, still functional. He opened it and pressed on a button. Some sparks flew.

[error=000 /crash/bug VICTINI error=execute? 1010101001 PIKACHU emergency shutdown...failed...error...error...closing program]

Shigeru's right eye twitched. It was gone for good. He looked at the fisherman who looked as if nothing had happened, still fishing there with his rod in the water. It took all his willpower not to strangle the fisherman. Good thing he was raised with manners. He walked over to the fisherman who was still frustrated about not catching a stupid fish. He took a deep breath and spoke calmly.

"Excuse me, sir. I believe you owe me an apology for startling me." he told the fisherman. "Me apologize to you? You should apologize to me for scaring away my catch!" the fisherman answered, "Now scram!"

Shigeru was now all boiled up. He tried his best to remain as calm as he could in a situation like this. As he was about to "accidentally" push the man in the water, the line of the fisherman's rod started to pull into the water. The fisherman pulled back as delicately as he could both to keep the catch at bay, and to make sure the line doesn't break. He jept pulling and pulling, until he was finally able to pull the Pokémon up from the water. Out flew a reddish-orange, medium-sized fish. Its notable characteristics include large, heavy scales. Its fins are primarily white, but it has two stiff, three-peaked fins on its back and stomach which are both yellow. It also has long yellow barbels. Shigeru knew what the Pokémon was, but he couldn't remember clearly. It flopped on the ground as it dropped. "Magi! Magi!~" it said. Shigeru figured its name must start with the word "Magi."

The fisherman's joyful face slowly vanished as he saw the Magi-creature. He turned away and cast his line back in the river. Shigeru wondered why, still trying to remember what the Pokémon was. [If only my PokéDex was still working...] It kept flopping on the ground. Shigeru thought it looked strong, so he decided to stop trying to remember and start trying to capture. First, he went closer towards the Pokémon and picked it up. It was heavier than it looks, and was as hard as steel. Shigeru's mind filled with delight. He thought he has found the strongest Pokémon yet. The thing jumped out of his grasp and dropped back on the ground. It jumped and jumped. Occasionally,it jump a height of seven feet, and Shigeru would applaud it. He just had to capture this amazing Pokémon. He fished out a Pokéball from his pocket. He had no one in mind particularly. He just wanted to capture this Pokémon so much. He threw the ball and it opened in mid-air, releasing the new addition to his team, Neko.

As soon as the Meowth saw the fish Pokémon jumping up and down, her mouth hung open. It was probably saying "Dinner" over and over again because she kept on mumbling "Nyarth" while staring at the Magi-mon. "Okay, Neko. Use Scratch on it." Shigeru ordered his Pokémon. Neko walked calmly towards the jumping Pokémon with her mouth open. Shigeru looked confusingly at his new Pokémon. She wasn't retracting her claws nor was she running towards the opponent. When the fish Pokémon made the mistake of jumping near Neko's mouth, the Meowth bit as hardly as she could. "No!" Shigeru shouted. "Nyarth!" Neko screamed in pain. The Magi-mon's scales were so hard Neko's fangs barely injured it. The Meowth looked at her opponent with wild eyes. She was mad. She ran at it with her claws retracted, just like she had when she was battling Inu and Kai. [This one has anger issues.]

Not being able to dodge, the fish Pokémon got hit square on its chest...sort of. It is hard to identify a fish's body part, especially if you're not a fish yourself. It flew a considerable distance before hitting a tree.((OOC: Don't judge me. I like making things hit trees.)) At first it just laid down the ground, then after a few minutes, it started jumping up and down again. Shigeru smiled. [If it just withstood a Scratch from Neko, then it is most definitely strong. I must capture this.] He opened his mouth for his next order, but Neko stormed towards the Magi-mon anyway. She still had her claws retracted, and her eyes were still filled with rage. She scratched wildly at the fish Pokémon splashing around. This time, Neko made sure she didn't hit too hard so the Pokémon would stay in place and suffer more hits. Shigeru started to wonder why the Magi-creature hadn't countered yet. Soon, blood gushed out from the wounds Neko had left. She was still clawing madly at it. "Neko, that's enough." he told the Meowth but she kept scratching at the fish Pokémon. More blood came out from the Pokémon's wound. "Neko, stop!" he told her, shouting this time. Neko seemed to her nothing at all because she kept on attacking the fish Pokémon. Soon, the fish stopped splashing, but the Meowth kept on clawing on it. Shigeru decided to call back his Pokémon now, seeing that Neko wouldn't listen to him. He took Neko's Pokéball and it sucked her right back in. He held the ball closer to his mouth and whispered, "What has gotten into you?"

He walked towards the Magi-creature he was so ecstatic to catch. From afar, all he could see was a reddish-orange fish with lines of red all over it, but up close, Shigeru saw that Neko had broken through its steel scales and made lots of bruises all over its body. It looked so poor it just made Shigeru even more eager to capture it. He took an empty Pokéball from his pocket and threw it at the injured fish Pokémon. It hit it right between its eyes and sucked it right inside. The fisherman chuckled. "Now why would someone want to capture a measly Magikarp." he said. And on that note, Shigeru facepalmed...

((OOC: Sorry if this post has low-quality. My creative juices are not working properly...))

​

 

[moon]

@ Ace - Low quality? I loved it, especially this xD

Occasionally,it jump a height of seven feet, and Shigeru would applaud it. He just had to capture this amazing Pokémon.

If this post is how you write when your creative juices are low, I can't wait to see more posts when they are flooding.

- Neko (Meowth) grew to level 7!
- Shigeru caught a Magikarp! (lv 8, male)

 

[Neptune Vasilias]

Chapter 4: Seasonal Greetings from Deerling!

Rowena had made it out of Viridian City and after a long while of walking, she had to admit that she was lost in the middle of route 2. She took Electrux out of his ball as she needed some company and a Pokemon to defend her if need be. "Shin?" The little lion cub asked cautiously, perhaps also sensing the eerie atmosphere around the two of them.

Suddenly, a nearby sound shocked the daylight out of them. Rowena looked around for its source and heard it again. It sounded like a rustling bush, which meant movement. Movement of what? I hope it isn't a wild Pokemon. The Shinx then barked at something at a corner of the beaten path. She caught a glimpse of a four-legged thing behind the hedges. She tried to use her Pokedex to locate the Pokemon but because of the dense trees around them, the device could not track any signal. Electrux yapped again, this time more excited instead of being cautious. Something popped out from behind the bush. A face of a little deer emerged and soon, its whole body. The Pokedex finally blinked a clutter of words but Rowena only absorbed the Pokemon's name as she gazed at it. Deerling. That was what she was looking at. Just then, the fawn vanished into the air. Rowena and Electrux looked around frantically. Was that just an illusion? It felt so real. Then, she caught a glimpse of the Deerling trotted a few metres before disappearing as if it was like transparent glass.

Though his Trainer couldn't find any trace of that pink deer, Electrux could. He licked the air and tasted the Deerling's scent wafting from behind bushes of berries. Somehow, it had managed to change into a colourless figure and light just passed through its body. He stealthily crawled to where the Deerling was hiding. Rowena shouted something to him but his mind pushed all thoughts of her aside and focused on locating this strange Pokemon. He crept silently, his haunches a few inches above the ground. The fawn then appeared this time right beside him. Before he could do anything, it reverted back to its invisible state. He sniffed the breeze and his scent receptors told him that the deer was still in the vicinity but slightly further.

Rowena gave up on finding out what was going on with that Shinx. He seemed to know where the Deerling was as he was right next to it when it reappeared. She decided to let Electrux track down this Pokemon that was capable of avoiding all forms of contact. "Electrux, go find that deer!" The Shinx replied with nothing but a gaze deep in thought. She decided to just leave everything to him. She knew that he might get upset if he thought that she did not trust him. Electrux pawed around in circles, tasting the air before heading straight into the undergrowth. She tried to keep up with him but was slowed down with all the brambles and twigs that tugged at her clothes. She broke them free and scurried after the blue lion cub. Both of them came out into a clearing where it was surrounded by bushes and saplings of berries. Oran, Leppa, Rawst, Aspear, Pecha, they were all around her. Rowena inhaled the aromatic breeze and felt herself slowly relaxing. She then spotted the same Deerling, browsing through the leaves of a Pecha bush. It gobbled up the sweet pink berries. Rowena took a few steps forward and the fawn perked its head up at the sound of her movement. It eyed her for a while before continuing its meal. A few more berries were ingested by the Deerling by the time Rowena was just in front of it. She hesitantly placed her hand on its back. She felt it tensed up but after a while, relaxed its body. It allowed her to pat its back. It was obvious the Deerling was beginning to trust her as if she was her Trainer, but she knew she had to battle it to officially catch it in a PokeBall. She took a stride backwards and talked to the pink Pokemon. "I'm sorry but I'm gonna have to battle you to catch you." It made a movement like a nod that it understood what she said.

Rowena went over to where Electrux was, nosing around in a bush. She beckoned for him to take his place at one side of the clearing. By the time he was there, the Deerling had positioned itself on the opposite side of the clearing. Without warning, the Deerling started to charge at Electrux. He managed to dodge a few feet and went forward to ram the fawn. It stumbled backwards before using its hind legs to kick up a cloud of dust at his face. He winced as sand grains stung his eyes and he shot back a nasty glare. The Deerling cowered slightly before crying out cutely in a high-pitched voice. Electrux flattened his ears for a moment as the Deerling galloped towards him and knocked him off his feet. He went sprawling like a rag Banette to the forest floor but swiftly got back on his feet. Then, he couldn't see a trace of his opponent. Did it run off again? Just then, the wind was knocked out of him from behind and he landed face-first in the soil.

Electrux jumped back up and pounced onto the deerling with a full-body crush. The Deerling was quite strong to keep him on its back but gravity overcame and it staggered to the ground. The Shinx leapt off and gave an insolent look at the pink deer. It did not seem to have its usual effect and the deer pranced towards him at a fast speed. He tried to counter-attack it with his own charging body-slam and both forces repelled each other to the sides of the clearing. Panting slightly, Electrux glimpsed the outline of the motionless Deerling on the forest floor. He knew what Rowena was about to do before she signaled for him to stop the battle.

Rowena extracted an empty ball from her bag and walked over to the still Deerling. She tapped the capsule on its floral tuft and a beam of sparkling red-pink light shot out from the ball and engulfed the fawn in it. The deer was then warped into the ball and left on the forest floor, gently shaking and swaying from side to side. Rowena hoped that friendship would overcome all odds and that this Deerling would be another great friend to her, just like the others in her team.

(OOC: The first part was a lame attempt to bring out the move Camouflage. I also like being in a first-person perspective of the Pokemon when battling so my posts wouldn't be just 'tell' and not 'show'. Hope it's acceptable, I'm having a bad writer's block today but I just had to catch up with everybody in Chapter 4. >.<)

 

[moon]

@ Dia - Tough battle! And just so you know, that was still third person perspective. First person is when you write like "I said, I saw, I did" ;) I liked how you did the battle though.

- Rowena caught a Deerling! (lv 7 male)
- Elextrux (Shinx) grew to level 7!

 

[Doctor Who]

"You're not going to hurt it, are you?" Axel asked skeptically.

"Who, me? A sweet old lady? Now why would you even ask such a thing?!" The old lady protested. Axel lifted an eyebrow. "I just need to shaving from the horn, no more," Lady Getsit insisted and Axel sighed.

"If I get this Goldeen for you, what do I get in return?"

"Hm, quite the miss ain't ya? Let's just say I'll make it worth your while hun," The lady chuckled ominously and went into the back room to retrieve something. Axel just sighed and dropped unto a dusty old couch that was set aside a wall with psychedelic seventies wallpaper.

She'd just been passing through to heal March before entering the forest when the lady had come barging out of her door yelling. The old lady was definitely nimble for her age, that was for sure. She'd dragged Axel inside their shop and into the backroom apparently to get her to catch a Goldeen for her. Apparently Lady Getsit used shavings from the horn in some of her traditional medicines or some bullcrap like that. In any case she wasn't a Lady that accepted no for an answer, that was for sure.

The lady returned with some apparent snorkeling gear. "Ehm, thanks," Axel said as she accepted the gear. She'd never snorkeled before and didn't really think it necessary to but, as she had no fishing rod, swimming would be the most straight-forward way of getting that Goldeen. Or finding it at least.

"I want it back whole," Lady Getsit said sternly. "You're not the first trainer who borrowed it and you wouldn't be the first to break it or steal it so I want some leverage here!"

"Alright, alright, what do you want?" Axel rolled her eyes gain, this lady was such a bother.

"How about your Pokédex, can't go running away with out," The lady rubbed her hands together in anticipation. "And here, have this," she handed Axel the Great Ball. "Don't want you failing on me now do we?"

"Fine, whatever," Axel gave her the Pokédex and accepted the Great Ball. "Do you have a room where I can change?"

***

About half an hour later Axel was at the river with her swimsuit on and March standing on the bank of it. It was a large river but the water was relatively calm. Still that didn't mean it would be without danger of currents. Axel left the flippers on the side, wouldn't need those as she was a good swimmer by nature. Still the diving mask would prove invaluable and the snorkel, well, she could work with it.

She still wasn't quite sure how she'd catch it though. There was no gear for a Pokémon and March wasn't really a natural when it came to water. Sure her attacks would be most effective but she'd have to get the Goldeen first. Still that was something to think about later on. Now all she had to worry about was finding the damned thing.

She waded into the water, ignoring the cold temperature. She'd swum in cold waters plenty and knew it was just a matter of time before she'd get used to it. And besides, she seemed to have luck with her as the sun was shining down.

"Alright March, can you swim?" March shook her head vigorously. "Oh come on, not even a little?" March shook her head once more. She was standing just off the banks where the water came to about her tummy. It was quite apparently that she didn't like it at all.

"Alright then, you stay where you can stand and I'll try to get it to come towards you. This is the plan, as soon as it's close enough you will use your vines to restrain it, alright?" Axel got a tentative nod, but a nod nevertheless. "Good, so stay ready."

Axel placed the snorkel in her mouth and dove down. First breath was a breath full of river. She came up violently coughing. "Alright, never time not so deep," she muttered and emptied out the snorkel to try again. Second time was better, but not perfect. She stayed very close to the surface this time but as soon as she saw something the first instinct was to dive towards it, resulting in another breath of river.

She cursed as she emptied out the snorkel again, she just really wasn't used to it. And not to mention she hated the feeling of breathing through the plastic thing, hated having to be so nervous over breathing in water. With ever breath there was the chance that she'd gone too far down again and breathe water into her lungs. This definitely wasn't her favourite past-time.

But she had to admit, it did allow her to stay underwater, and she did love the feeling of the water around her as she moved her arms and legs to relocate it. She loved swimming, it was pure euphoria for her, the feeling of weightlessness. But she wouldn't allow herself to truly enjoy it until she'd gotten that Goldeen. The job went first.

Scanning the river floor for any moment was a dull job. The water was dark and almost greenish and, even though it was also very clear for a river there wasn't much to see. A lot of plants and a lot of pebbles on the rock floor. There were a lot of Magikarp too, hard to miss with her bright red scales. Everywhere you looked you saw flashes of Magikarp. Axel knew the creatures were just following the flow of the river, not really intelligent enough to wonder where they were going. Every once in a while one stopped to suck at a rock or a plant with its huge mouth but that was all the excitement there was. Axel figured that this was why so many fishermen complained that all they caught were Magikarp, they were simply everywhere.

"Hey, you!" A fisherman called out from the shore but Axel, with her ears under the surface, couldn't hear. The guy took a tiny pebble and hit the water just besides Axel, making her jump just about a mile in the air. 'Hey, you!" He repeated and this time she heard him alright.

Axel coughed up some water she'd inhaled through the startling, hitting her chest to help get it out. After she her trachea stopped struggling she croacked "What?!" accusingly.

"Hey, I'm just tryin' to help, 's all," The guy said raising his hands, palms out. He was old alright, with a big grey beard and all. "You're one of Getsit's folks ain't ya?!"

"How did you know?!" Axel called back.

The man just shrugged. "Been around for a while, she's been around for a while. You look like 'er type, tell me what's she want this time? Magikarp or Goldeen?"
"Goldeen," Axel admitted grudgingly.

"Well ya ain't gonna catch one with just you lemme tell ya. You can try, many have, but they've all failed."

"So what do I do then?" Axel challenged. "I have no rod and no water Pokémon, and I'm not going to catch one just to get some old lady her Goldeen."

"Well yer gonna have to get it to her," The old man said with a throaty old-man-laugh. "She ain't gonna give ya back yer Pokédex if ye don't, lassie," another laughed, apparently he found this quite hilarious.

"Well if you're so keen to help me," Axel yelled with a bit of a smile herself. "You can just lend me that rod over there…"

"What, ya NUTS?!" The man yelled/laughed. "No way is my baby gonna be held my 'nyone but me! But… Ya can have this net if ya want, it'll make it a little bit easier." He swung a medium-sized net over his head and let it go. It landed in the water only a few meters from Axel.

"Nice toss old man," she admitted, though not too happy that she'd need his help. Still Axel was stubborn but not stupid, the old man had been right. It was a fools work to catch a fish with bare hands.

"I want it back though!" The man called back just before Axel went under again, shaking his fist in the air.

It took about a quarter of an hour for Axel to find herself a school of Goldeen. She'd whistle if her mouth wasn't attached to a plastic tube feeing her air, they definitely were beautiful creatures. Too bad battling with them would be limited or Axel might have considered getting one of them. But she was quite picky about what her team would be and this Goldeen didn't fit in it.

Coming up she removed the snorkel from its position, folding it behind her head so it wouldn't get in the way. She was glad to see that March wasn't too far off and would be easily reached. Grabbing both ends of the net in her hands she sucked in a lungful of air and dove down. Most of the Goldeen startled by that one simple movement and ran away right then, but there were about half a dozen that lingered, curious. With precision Axel swam towards them, cutting the way away from March off. The Goldeen did as they were supposed to, swimming away from the approaching net and towards March. But now Axel's air was just about up.

She resurfaced, quickly sucked in more air and went down again. Most of the Goldeen had swam away and there was only one left going towards March. This was time for a change of tactic if there ever was. Axel quickly swam towards it, keeping the net out of sight. The Goldeen, perhaps a little stupid, swam curiously towards her and with one fluid swoop of the net Axel caught the Goldeen. It took her a second to free her own hands from the same net and swim up again, weighed down by the struggling Goldeen.

With a lot of effort she managed to drag the Goldeen onto the shallower banks where March was waiting for her. "I'm going to let it go and you're going to catch it," She told March, who nodded. "If you let it go you're going to get it back," Axel warned making March gulp. "Alright, one… two… three…"

As soon as she opened the net the Goldeen shot out towards the river and towards freedom, however just before it managed to get to said freedom March' vine wrapped around its tail and it was yanked to a stop. March reeled the fish in, wrapping another vine around the fish' body. The Goldeen struggled but couldn't come free. As soon as March had pulled the Goldeen close enough to her, yet far enough that it couldn't do any real damage, she wrapped the vines more securely around it, one by one. The vines lopped several times around and that's when March started pulling them close, constricting the Goldeen which was obviously in pain.

"March," Axel commented. "If I didn't know any better I'd say that's a Wrap attack." March looked at Axel and flashed a proud smile. "So you learned a new move? Good." March seemed to revel in Axel's approval, something that was not easy to earn. Then Axel threw the blue and white Great Ball which swallowed up the Goldeen and caught it without much effort. It was a Great Ball after all, and a probably rather weak Goldeen.

"Good job March, let's get you a treat at that lady's house," Where Axel had left her bags and belongings. Obviously she'd check it thoroughly to see if anything was missing. Treacherous old hag.

***

Axel tossed the little bag a little in her hand, satisfied with the weight. The lady hadn't lied when she'd said the reward would be worth it. The bag contained two Full Restores, which would be invaluable, especially later on in their training career. And Axel had made sure that the lady hadn't run off with the expensive Pokémon treats that had mysteriously gone missing from her bag. She'd also decided to not keep the Goldeen and had given it to the lady, against better judgement.

Now all there was to do is go through the forest. She knew there was a shortcut somewhere but Axel wouldn't dream of using that. They both could use a good challenge. And an excuse to use their new bounty of course.

 

[Ponee]

The bridge was full of fisherman and their children, but there was one man who was sitting on top of his tackle box. His leg was shaking and he was roughly rubbing his hands through the tiny stubble resting on top of his skull.

Ryan made her way over to the man and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Excuse me sir, but is something wrong."

The man looked up at her, his eyes were watery and his cheeks where red. "Yes actually, something is wrong." He rose to his feet, revealing his tall structure. Ryan was a little baffled at how tall he was. "I lost something." He sighed. "Something my daughter gave me for Father's Day."

Ryan pulled out the fish hook. "Is this what you loss?" Ryan crossed her fingers that that was what the man needed, he obviously had really loved what his daughter had given him.

The man's eyes widen. "Oh my, where did you find it!" He quickly snatched the fish hook out of Ryan's hands and held it tightly.
Ryan jumped when the man quickly grabbed the fishhook, but she regained her composure and smiled. "My Tepig found in floating down the river."
"Oh, how can I ever repay you!" The man said, delighted.

Ryan bit her lip and thought. "Well... my Pokemon are pretty bruised up, do you think you could take me to a Poke center?"

The man chuckled. "Oh hun, I'll just take you to my house. You don't want to go the the Poke center in Edgeville. The poor guy that runs it is a mess!"

****

The how was pretty much in the middle of no where, but it was so beautiful. It was very large, made out of bricks that were many shades of red, and it was surrounded by a long white picket fence. Ryan gazed in awe when she exited the red pick up truck.

"Sally loved playing around that tree." The man sighed, pointing to a large, scratch that, VERY large Oak tree.

Ryan turned to him. "Loved?"

The man closed his eyes and took a deep breathe. He soon exhaled and walked over to the tree. Ryan followed behind him.

On the other side of the tree was a wooden cross. Written on the cross was "Sally Hart. A smile the world will never forget." Ryan realized that it was a grave. She knelt down to the man, who was trying his hardest to hold back the tears.

"It was my fault." He wiped his eyes. "I let her go into the corral with the Tauros." Ryan's eyes widen in horror. She didn't ask what happened, but the man began to tell her anyways. "I didn't think that they would spook... and cause a stampede." He paused for a second. "I couldn't get to her fast enough."

Ryan closed her eyes, she couldn't imagine how much pain this man must have been going through. "I'm so sorry, sir." Ryan wrapped her arms around the man, and gave him a much needed hug.

The man stood up. "I'm so sorry, I completely forgot, My name is Davy." He let out a small chuckle.

Ryan was a little baffled that he changed the subject so fast, but it was fine. She held out her two Poke balls. "Um, did you say you could heal my Pokemon?"

Davy smiled and held the two pokeballs. "Yes, I have my own healing machine inside my house!" The man said, very enthused.

****

The inside of the house was just as beautiful as the outside. When Davy opened the door, the very first thing Ryan saw was the glass spiral staircase. It gracefully swirled down from the second story of the house to the first. It ended at the insanely clean white tile floor.

"Your house is beautiful!" Ryan said as she spun around. Looking up at the large chandeliers.

Davy chuckled. "My wife has always had a passion for decorating." Davy turned towards the kitchen. "Speak of the devil."

A tall, gorgeous, blond women walked out of the kitchen. "Who is this?" She smiled, asking about Ryan.

"Lucille, this is...."

"I'm Ryan." Ryan giggled.

"Why, hello there Ryan! It's nice to meet you!" Lucille had a very strong country accent.

"Honey, she found the fishhook!" Davy's smile was stretching from his left ear to his right.

Lucille gasped and quickly hugged Ryan. "Oh my! That you so much sweetie!"

Ryan, awkwardly, hugged her back. "Your welcome." Lucille finally released Ryan, and stepped back. Ryan gasped for air, and once she could finally breathe again she turned to Davy. "I don't mean to rush you, but I really need to get my Pokemon healed."

Davy slapped his fore-head. "I'm so sorry hun, I forgot! Now here, follow me!" He opened up a door and began to walk down a flight of eerie concrete steps. This was definitely not the prettiest room in the house. Once they reached the bottom, a green glow could be seen coming from a large machine in the middle of the room. It was the only thing that was even in the room.

"Whoa, what is that?" Ryan questioned.

Davy let out a chuckle and said, "This, my dear, would be my healing machine. I have been working on it for a while now."

The two walked over to the machine, and Ryan could see that there was many different buttons on the insane object. Davy began pressing many buttons, each one made a different 'Beep!' noise. Soon, one button turned green, and Davy pulled out a cabinet that was inside the machine. A green fog poured out of the machine and on to the floor. Ryan quickly tried to avoid it.

"It's okay, it wont hurt you." Davy smiled as he placed the two Poke balls into the cabinet. He then pushed the cabinet back into the machine and turned to Ryan.

"Now, it does not work as fast as the machines at the Pokemon Center, it actually takes a good 8 hours to heal..." There was an awkward silence.

"But, we have an extra room if you would like to just sleep here for the night."

Ryan agreed to his offer. A nice rest from her adventure would be nice, especially in a huge house like this.

 

[moon]

@ Doc - Seemed like a nice swim :)

- March (Snivy) grew to level 11!

@ Pony - Aww, that's sad but nice at the same time.

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

I'll post the next chapter now, but you are free to keep posting in Route 2 until you feel like you are done. This is just so that you know what is coming when you are done there.

Chapter 5
Viridian F o r e s t
<Click for chapter theme song>​

Viridian Forest is ancient. It stretches from the mountains in the west all the way to route 2. There is a winding trail going through it, not marked out by any signs. This last week, when route 2 is blocked off, many more trainers and travelers than usual walk this path. Viridian Forest have started to resemble a jungle more and more over the last decades. It's still more like a northern forest, but it's lusher and seems to hold even more pokémon than before.

What the forest also holds is a new group of people who have decided to live in huts inside the forest and shun technology and electricity, ever since Kanto started to change its climate. These people are commonly called the Viridian Savages, although they call themselves the True Viridians. They keep pokémon as friends and pets, and are generally angry with travelers. Thus, they have been even angrier since the people dressed in black made sure every traveler had to go through the forest.

Should you manage to gain their trust and talk to them though, they might mention some people dressed in white. The savages don't really know much about them, other than that they are fighting for the good of pokémon and wild-life, and therefore has the support of the True Viridian tribes. These white-dressed people have been here and talked to them, seemingly with the sole purpose of making sure they were on their side. The savages tell you that they appeared calm and polite, but got eager and fiesty as soon as pokémon were mentioned.



Here you might meet your rival, if you want.


Posts: 1 minimum.
You can move on as soon as the next chapter is up, or stay in Viridian Forest 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.

Butterfree

(Tackle, String Shot, Harden, Confusion)
Beedrill

(Poison Sting, String Shot, Harden, Fury Attack)
Houndour

(Leer, Ember, Howl, Smog)
Seedot

(Bide, Harden, Growth)
Buneary

(Splash, Pound, Foresight, Defense Curl, Endure)
Pansage

(Scratch, Leer, Lick, Vine Whip) Grass
Sewaddle

(Tackle, String Shot, Bug Bite) Bug/Grass
Pikachu

(Growl, Thundershock, Tail Whip, Thunder Wave)
Emolga

(Thundershock, Quick Attack, Tail Whip, Charge) Electric/Flying



Levels 8-11. 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.

 

[Neptune Vasilias]

Chapter 4: Edgeville's New Visitor

Rowena fitted the ball with its new occupant perfectly with the others along her waist and brisk-walked all the way. She managed to arrive at the small village of Edgeville and healed her Pokemon. She decided to look around in the gift shops for any souvenirs, but the moment she took sight of the odd lady, she fled like a scared Pokemon from that place. She updated her PC and analysed her whole team. She was going to have to trim and upgrade her team if she was ever gonna make to her first gym, or the next battle for that matter. Some were going to have to go out. She decided to add more Pokemon to her collection before she began her official selection of the best.

Exiting the building of the Pokemon Center, she decided to train around the foresty parts of route 2. She recalled catching glimpses of bug Pokemon buzzing and zipping through the air, that could make some good training targets but they were quite fast. She did not want to let Daerson, her new Deerling, to battle yet. Amber could catch up on a lot of training. As she shuffled through the weedy path, she spotted a flash of strong purple in the bushes and it disappeared. She then tried to search for it, rustling about the undergrowth. It barged out again, this time she recognized a pointed horn from its forehead before it tumbled back into the grass. For a while, she kept searching for that Pokemon. She ruffled through hedges and dense bushes; frightening off groups of Lotads, startling a Yanma from its roost and causing a tiny herd of wild Deerlings to run away camouflaged.

Frustrated, Rowena plopped down on the earth floor. Squuishh! Her skirt was stained yellow and purple and she found out that she had crushed a pile of Aspear, Grepa and Leppa berries. Muttering an 'Ugh', she proceeded to try and wipe off most of the liquid off her clothes. Suddenly, she heard an angry snort and stomping from out of the bushes, an infuriated purple Pokemon with scales and a horn cried at her. Her Pokedex blinked to life and its voice rattled out, "Nidoran♂- The Poison Pin Pokemon." So that was the Pokemon she was looking for. It was very angry and seemed to be glaring at the pile of squashed berries. It must have taken a huge amount of time to stock up those berries only to be crushed by a klutz. Rowena mentally lectured herself for a moment before switching to her surroundings.

She tried to calm it down but obviously the Nidoran was not letting her get away scot-free. It lunged at her as she shrieked to dodge. Plucking out a ball, she sent Amber into the battlefield. The lizard was ready and went for a burst of tiny fire bolts. It seriously charred the hind legs of the purple Pokemon and heightened its fury. It charged towards Amber and stabbed its horn into her body. Amber was then given an insolent glare from the wild Pokemon. She leaped with her burning tail flashing and rushed a fury of scratches behind its body. The Nidoran spun around to kick the lizard but Amber swerved out of the way. The Charmander then pelted it with crackling fire sparks from its tail. The Nidoran readied itself before lunging forward at full speed. Its hind legs knocked the wind out of Amber and as she staggered back to her feet, it rammed its horn deep into her side.

Rowena saw the horn turn into an eerie state of blue-purple before it came out of Amber's body. Amber seemed to be in immense pain and moved with a slight limp. The golden lizard had her hands around her abdomen and her face was grimacing in agony. Amber had been poisoned by the Nidoran somehow. Double-checking the Pokedex to make sure that this was normal, Rowena discovered that Nidoran's ability Poison Point has a chance of intoxicating its foe upon direct contact. The Charmander coughed a weak flame as Rowena tried her best to encourage it. The Nidoran just stood at its position opposite and stared warily at Amber and Rowena. She dished out a call and Amber rushed up to the Nidoran and sprayed sizzling flames on it. The Nidoran countered with a menacing gaze. Amber cowered for a moment before the poison took its slow drastic toll on her and snap her back to reality. She then scream a desperate pitch as the Nidoran made its ram towards her. It lost control of its direction and tripped over the ground and slided past her, slightly bumping her flank. It swiftly propped back up on its stubby legs and dove in for another jabbing of its poisonous point. Amber tried to dodge again but failed to do so and suffered a bruise on her back. She laid on the earth as the Poison-type Pokemon reared its legs above her. As it brought its hind legs down to bash her, she rolled to the side and swiped across its flank at the same time. It fell down to where she was lying a few seconds ago and Amber breathed a cloud of orange orbs which burnt the Nidoran, causing it to hide back in the bushes and slowly recover.

The venom in Amber's body was soon knocking her out and Rowena had to scoop her up and rush back to the Edgeville Pokemon Center. She stayed overnight at a room while Amber underwent an operation below.

 

[moon]

@ Diamond - Nice battle! Poor Amber though :(

- Amber (Charmander) grew to level 9!

 

[Doctor Who]

((Was about time she got a teammate 8D))

The Viridian forest was eerie at best. The trees were long and thick, showing their uncountable age and keeping the sun from truly reaching the path resulting in a half-lit way with shadows of leaves dancing across. And cold too, very cold. Axel zipped up her jacket as far as it would go and buried her hands in her pockets. Springtime meant it was nice in the sun, but still very much chilly in the shadows.

She walked quickly with a sulking March walking just behind her. Axel knew that she had to catch another Pokémon soon as she'd be a fool not to, March hadn't liked that idea. It seemed that the stubborn and unwilling Snivy had quite warmed up to Axel and was now jealous to have to share her with anyone. Whatever, it didn't faze Axel much, March would come around.

"Oh please don't tell me you'll be sulking all day," Axel snapped over her shoulder at March impatiently. "You know better than to think I wouldn't need a full party, or you should. I don't raise any dumb Pokémon." March led out something resembling a growl in response and crossed her short arms. "Fine, you can go back into your Pokeball then. Just after she'd returned March the rustling of leaves made her whirl around towards the sound. Almost like a canon a projectile hurled itself at her, clinging to her waist.

"Please, please, please help me!" A little blonde girl currently attached to Axel said,

Axel blinked, unsure of what to do. "Ehm, with what little girl?" She asked a bit awkwardly, pushing the girl gently to disengage her. It was just her luck to have a little person clinging to her. She didn't particularly like children, they were better than adults, given, they were truthful and sincere. But Axel never quite knew what to do with them, she was far too awkward for that.

"I-I lost my mommy" the girl half-sobbed, clinging harder to Axel despite Axel's attempts to push her away.

"Alright, okay," Axel breathed in deeply, and breathed out. "Tell me what happened... And- and tell me your name," She added as an afterthought.

"Maggie," the girl said with another shaking sob. "My name's Maggie."

"Okay, Maggie, I'm Axel. Now tell me what happened." Axel managed to get the girl to stop clinging to her waist and lowered herself to one knee as she'd seen others do with kids. Maggie looked about six years old, though Axel was also terrible at guessing age, with a little head of blonde curls and big green eyes. She wore a pink checkered dress and a white blouse with neat shoes and long white lacy socks. There was an equally pink and checkered bow holding her hair back. The only thing ruining it was that there were brown and green stains on the socks and on the dress and there was a branch in her hair.

"Well, we were going to the city," Maggie said, her voice high and panicky but she was settling down a bit. "And me and mommy were going to take the long way around, like we always did, but there were these really mean people that wouldn't let us pass," A sob. "So we went through the forest, and mommy's scared of bugs so-so I wanted to the strong for mommy. And then this butterfly flew at mommy and mommy screamed and I thought that I could chase it away and then everything would be fine," Another sob. "But-but-but I couldn't find my way back!"

"Oh God," Axel said panicky. "Oh God. Okay. Okay. You can do this. Ehm, Maggie? When did you last see your mommy?"

"I don't know! A long time ago!"

"Do you remember where you were going?" Axel asked, wanting nothing more than for someone to walk by that she could pass the child on to.

"I don't know what it's called, it's the city with the big mountains..." She trailed off, quivering lip.

"Well it just so happens that I'm heading there too. How about we walk there, it's mostly a straight-forward path. All right? We're bound to find your mommy looking for you, probably feeling really bad, yes?"

"Mommy's feeling bad," Maggie's lip quivered more. "I made mommy sad?"

"No, no!" Axel said quickly. "No it's not your fault! It's not your fault!" Axel was starting to get about as panicked as the child. But Maggie calmed down, luckily for her.

"Okay." Was all she said, and she took Axel's hand and the latter swore she almost saw Maggie skip.


***


And about an hour later Maggie was still skipping. She wasn't entirely smiling, but she was just a little kid who was convinced that it would be fine because Axel said so.

Axel, however, was growing exceedingly anxious. They'd not come across a single soul during the whole walk, a few Pokemon maybe, but no more. They hadn't found anyone, let alone the girl's mother. So when Maggie was skipping, clinging to Axel's hand, Axel was about ready to rip some hair out.

"Are we there yet?" Maggie said in a whiny voice, it was about the third time she'd asked.

"No, we're not," Axel snapped. "Wait, sorry, it's not your fault you're whiny."

"You think I'm whiny?!"

"Yes- wait, no! Ugh," Axel sighed. She would NEVER get kids. EVER.

"Excuse me missus?"

Axel turned towards the voice, that definitely hadn't been Maggie. In front of her was a boy probably a little younger than her. He looked dirty and unkept with clothing that was of no better state. But he had clear eyes, very clear eyes. "Yes?"

"Is that Margret?" He asked, pointing at Maggie.

"It's Maggie," the girl supplied for herself. "Are you one of the bush-men?" She asked curiously.

The boy laughed. "I suppose you could say that, yes I am. Listen, your mother is waiting on the outside of the forest and she's very worried about you."

"You're one of the savages?" Axel asked curiously.

"Are you a trainer?" The boy asked icily. Axel nodded and the boy narrowed his eyes. "We don't like your kind here."

"Yeah well it's not really your forest, is it?" Axel shot back, glaring right back at him. She then noticed that there was a little green monkey on his shoulder, its big eyes staring at her. She put her free hand on her hip, an offensive stance.

"We call ourselves the True Viridians, not savages," The boy said, ignoring Axel's accusation. "I'll take the girl from here."

"What, you think I'm nuts?! No way am I trusting her to you, I'll find the way to the exit. myself, thank you very much."

"You're being stubborn," the boy said. "What do you think I'll do with her, hoard her up to my hut and keep her as my pet?" He rolled his eyes.

"What's your name mister?" Maggie asked, interrupting Axel's forming response.

"My name's Denny, little girl. What's yours," The latter was directed at Axel.

"Axel," She said grudgingly.

"Alright so now we're all on first name basis, can we move on from the hostility now?" Denny challenged.

"I'm not the only one being hostile," Axel muttered.

"Right," Denny rolled his eyes. "How about we go together. I know the quickest way around, you can't challenge that, and you're obviously not trusting me enough. So we'll ALL go. Is that alright with you Maggie?" He lowered himself to one knee and put a hand on her shoulder. "Let's all get you back to your mommy."

Maggie nodded and Denny got up again. Axel sighed," How far is it anyway?"

"About a ten minute walk," Denny grinned, showing that he was missing two teeth in the top row.

At that moment a bug zoomed by at high speed. "What was that?" Axel wondered.

"A Beedrill, there's a nest not far from here. Better not get too close," Denny explained.

"A Beedrill huh?" Axel said slowly. She liked Beedril, they were just the kinds of Pokemon she liked. They were aggressive and simple-minded, they knew what they wanted and didn't want. "Say, where exactly's this nest?"

"Why, yo want to catch one?" He put a nasty ring to the word 'catch'. But then he seemed to turn around a little. "If you just go past those bushes over there you should find a big oak tree, a few meters to the left is a small path that you just follow for a few more meters and you should see it, its kind of obvious."

Axel looked to the direction he pointed and back to Maggie. The girls smiled a big whole-hearted smile. "It's all right, Denny's gonna take me to mommy and I'll be fine. Thank you so much!" She huge Axel's waist again, the latter awkwardly patted her back.

"It-it's quite all right. Take care of yourself, okay?" She nodded a thanks to Denny, who gently turned Maggie away.

"See ya," Denny waved back nonchalantly, no malice in his voice but no liking either.

Axel followed the path, glad to be rid of Denny and Maggie. She was so not good at dealing with people, especially not little people. Denny was right, it was indeed rather obvious, and not just because there were Beedrill zooming all around. There was a big tree with numerous Kakuna hanging from the banshees and Weedle crawling around. And most of all there were Beedrill, lots and lots of Beedrill. The bees were to and from the tree, most of them carrying honey to feed the Kakuna and themselves.

She stayed behind the bushes, regretting her choice not to bring the binoculars. She couldn't confront one by the tree or all of them would come at her, she'd have to do it stealthily, jump one when it's out collecting honey. And it would have to be a strong one too, preferably one that hadn't just evolved. Then she got the idea of following one to the source of the honey.

It wasn't easy, she had to keep from being noticed by the bug, especially so close by the tree. She really didn't want to catch just any of the Beedrill. But the flower patch was generally close (and rather beautiful if Axel had been a nature person). It was just a patch of green pushes full of little white and yellow flowers.

Axel released March when there were no bees around. "Alright, time for a briefing. We're catching ourselves a Beedrill, and this is where they gather their honey. When one comes by that we," she stressed the 'we' so March wouldn't feel left out. She'd thought dealing with Pokemon would be easier than humans, but dang March could be such a person sometimes! "Feel is strong enough to be a good teammate then you will use your vines to restrict it and then battle it. Now it'll have a type advantage over you, so you'll have to be real careful, yes?" March nodded, though not without a glare towards Axel first.

And March barely had time to finish glaring when one zoomed in. Before Axel could give the command March wrapped her vines around it, restricting it from flying away. "Alright, so much for finding one we both find strong enough," she said with a facepalm. "Right then, use wrap before it can get you!" Axel commanded.

March wrapped her vines around the Beedrill real tight, but the latter showed an amazing feat of self-control, and without even cringing from the constriction it lifted the stinger on the end of its body and fired poison strings at March. Since she was about as stuck in her position as Beedrill was she had nowhere to go and not enough time to disengage herself, thus got pelted by the stingers. She cringed from the poison entering her system but kept the wrap going. Beedrill lifted its stinger again and shot a string shot this time, covering March's arms and a good part of her body in the sticky white thread. March' vines grew slack as she struggled to get the vines off of her but it was almost no use. For once Axel generally didn't know what to do, none of March' moves could get her away from the strings and the struggling wasn't paying off. All Beedrill had to do was fill March up with stingers and she was done. March would be out before the battle had even lasted for five minutes.

Then March got an idea, something that Axel really kicked herself for not thinking about. There was a sharp branch not a meter's away from march and she half-hopped towards it. At the same time the Beedrill was flying straight towards her, ready to use a fury swipe and really whipe March' butt. March was able to hook a big part of the thread around her onto the branch when the Beedrill struck, hitting her three times with the stingers on its arms. A good thing to a bad thing was that the impact sent March flying, causing the thread that was already stuck to the branch to rip and the thread to peel off. When March got up she was free again, only having to brush a few stray threads off.

"Alright, great job March," Axel said, which was generally meant. Axel didn't praise without meaning. "I want you to use the normal trick, see if you can manipulate Beedrill's flying to sent it towards the ground or to a tree or another solid object with your vine whip."

March did just that, she wrapped her vines around Beedrill, though more loosely than before. The Beedrill did the natural thing, it charged straight at her. Using Beedrill's momentum March used her own body as well to swing the Beedrill in an arch towards a tree. It managed to push all of it's (little) weight to the side and avoided the tree. The force pulled March right with it and March landed harshly in a bush. She jumped when she saw that ten centimeters next to her was a bramble bush, and within that bush was the Beedrill, out cold with several thorns from the bush sticking in it.

"Great job March," Axel said as she threw the Pokeball at the Beedrill, though secretly she was NOT happy about the fact that the win was mostly because of her Pokemon's smarts as well as a lot of luck that it ended up falling into a thornbush. She stared at the shaking ball, her fingers automatically crossed.

 

[moon]

@ Doc - xD Nice tactics and use of the environment! I love that in battles. And you got Denny's view on trainers just right, although many savages may not be quite as friendly to urban people as this nice guy was.

- March (Snivy) grew to level 13 and learned Growth!
- Axel caught a Beedrill! (lv 10 male)