Clash of the Titans [PG-14]

[ShadowDragon~]

Petalburg forest was quite an experience. Seph clearly felt one with nature, aend again took the time to observe his surroundings. Normally he wouldn't be this carefull and observing, but he enjoyed hoenn's environment. First the beach, and now the forest. The trees were closing in on all sides, and the sun's rays dappled through the leafs, giving it a very serene impression. Seph took a deep breath, and felt fresh air in his lungs. He could smell pollen, and flowers, but also the rather relieving tang of leaves. He made a promise to himself that once he was done with his journey he would build a small house just inside petalburg forest. He would be able to go to the beach, and he would surely make an hammock just outside the house.

He was still dreaming when he heard screeches around him. He suddenly became aware of the situation and ran through the bushes, hoping to find out where the commotion was coming from. There was quite a situation. He saw some worms, a pinecone, and an awesome looking pokemon with knife arms.

"...cool," He slowly muttered, and took out his pokedex (((or was it nav? Please correct me if it is nav XD))) Wurmple, Pineco, and Scyther huh? That's pretty cool, especially the scyther. The pokemon didn't notice him, and he immediately threw a pokeball at the scyther.

"Yes!" He exclaimed, while to pokemon got pulled into the ball. Tough seconds later it popped out again, and the ball rolled towards him. "Huh, it went in didn't it?" The scyther had noticed him, and forgot about its fight with the other pokemon, tough soon the others did the same.

"Uhh, hi?" He smiled, and suddenly all the pokemon shot forward. Well, the scyther shot forward, the wurmples crawled as fast as their little worm leggs could carry them, while the pineco kinda... rolled over. The scyther lashed out and he dodged. It was hard to manouver inside the forest, but the scyther apperantly got used to it.

"Go, Stripes!" He threw the pokeball, and his Stunky appeared right in the middle of the other three pokemon.

"Uhh the scyther?" He was running now, with the pokemon on its tail. Stripes tried to follow them, but the wurmples shot strings around him.

"Stripes! Take care of them first!" He yelled down. Suddenly he remembered the beach, John, and the battle factors. Well it was four on one, but... Actually he had no hopes even if the wurmples were weak, and the pineco was just a pinecone, the scyther was going to cause troubles. Then he recalled the environment, everything was closed in, like a container, no breeze here.

"Stripes, use poison gas!" He was enough of a trainer to know that poison devestates grass and bug types, and the trees would focus it in one area. He looked back, the scyther was jumping trees now, and Seph tried to increase his speed. Tough he wasn't looking for the scyther, he was looking for something else, and he instantly found it. A cloud of poison, spreading out in between the trees. He couldn't see stripes at all nor the other pokemon, The scyther looked back, and then resumed its chase.

"You know what?" Seph stopped and spun around, gathering up all his guts. "What the hell is your deal anyway?" He picked up a stick and whacked the incoming scyther right on its face. "Yeeaa, thats what i'm talking about!" He was pretty proud of himself, but the scyther got right back up and slashed at him. He raised the stick, but the scyther cut it in half. "Uhh crap," no use fighting a pokemon himself. He grabbed another stick, but soon that one was cut in half as well. He was beginning to lose hopes when he saw Stripes in the bushes next to him. Realizing his battle was done, Seph looked at the clearing and saw the three knocked out pokemon lying there. He made a quick claw mark with his hand, and was satisfied when he saw Stripes glowing red. He grabbed another couple of sticks, and kept using them to block the scyther's blows.

Stunky slowly crawled up to the scyther, still glowing red, and then instantly slashed down its back. The scyther screeched in agony and turned around, slashing at Stripes. Stripes got knocked back, but he didn't appear to have any cuts.

"Claw him again!" Seph yelled, and he trew a stick at the scyther, but the pokemon cut it in mid-air. While it focused its attention on Seph, it didn't notice the Stunky creeping up on it again. It lashed out and the scyther screeched again. Seph could see it panting, and wasn't surprised when the pokemon dashed off into the trees.

He sat down next to Stripes, and looked over the situation. Stripes had a cut on his right shoulder, and he had a cut on his leg.

"Don't tell me we have to go back to the pokemon center again?" He groaned and got up. "It's a thirty minute walk from here..." He was against it, but could see that Stripes was worn out. "Alright, lets heal up and quickly get back." He agreed.

Ugh, yet again Nurse Joy? Did you put a curse on us or something?












EEK, already made my second post, can u like, rate the top one first and then rate the second one as an entirely different post, like it normally would have been? XD I just didn't want to wait :D


(OOC: I am editing this as i am typing this... beep my grammar, but i realize i was kinda dope when i typed it so i added some slight commentary (Only like 2 or 3 times) .... Hope u don't mind, again, i can edit it ;D)


Seph walked through petalburg forest, he was happy with Stripes and his progress. It was later in the afternoon, they had taken a quick rest at the pokemon center, and they were all fixed up and ready for battle. He was sweaty from the walk back to petalburg forest, but that didn't matter, it was nice and cool under the trees. There were a bunch of sounds in the forests, mostly birds tough. Still he couldn't shake the feeling of being watched, by either pokemon or human. Everytime he stopped, everything went quiet, while when he walked he could hear branches crack. He looked over his shoulders, but nothing was there.

"You hear something?" He asked Stripes, who instantly raised his head, and began to sniff like crazy. "Well, what is it?" He asked, but the pokemon ran around him frantically driving him away from the trees and bushes, towards the middle of the path.

"Huh?" He asked, and when he heard a rustle in the bushes he instantly smiled. "You scared? A strong pokemon huh? Well let's see," He confidently walked over to the brush and parted the leaves.

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Everything was dark, and Seph felt numb, which must have been good, as he would have an agonizing pain in his head. He couldn't open his eyes yet, tough the sounds were ampilfied.

"What did I tell you? No, repeat it, what did I tell you?!" He heard a conversation nearby. He didn't listen to the rest of it, but he did open his eyes. He isntantly closed them again as blood tickled into his eyes. Tears started to form, and he waited for the blood to clear away. His hands also felt numb, and he realized he was tied up. He didn't even bother to try to untighten the ropes, he was sure that people like that wouldn't make mistakes.

"Madam, we couldn't just look into their eyes before we hit them, we were behind." Seph saw three men talking to somebody he couldn't see. He tried to slip through the ropes, tough he knew he would fail. Frustrated, he kicked out, and his foot landed on a twig. The fourth person walked towards him, a curly haired woman in bloodred robes.


---------------Almost completely copied and pasted this---------------------------
"Look what we have here!" Her voice carries joy with it, though not one you would come to appreciate. "Finally the little babies have awoken! How wonderful! Now, how to deal with this… You see, you three were not at all what we were looking for. Especially not you two!" She sneers, then returned her broad smile toward Seph. "Well aren't you just cute! Too bad you are going to have to die. Maybe I'll kill you first, quick and painless you say? Then to follow up with the more… fun… killing. Oh yes, you three shall be very amusing to toy with." She seems to contemplate something. "How shall we do it? I can't seem to decide between knifeworks, or more… electrifying… techniques.

With one quick movement she reaches inside her sleeve and sent out an Electrivire. For a second she adoringly looks at the Pokémon, before turning back to Seph. "I have decided to let you choose. I can either cut your throat quickly, or have Electrivire here destroy your nervous system. Which one would you prefer?"

"Just try *****," Seph muttered. Let the crazy ***** try, he and stripes had grown alot.

Then swooping from the sky came a Fearow with passenger. As the great bird lands, a man in a white cloak, fastened with a golden pin at the collarbone, jumps off of it. The cloak had a green line along the trim of the hood, sleeves and main piece with symbols Seph didn''t recognize. His hood was down, revealing the head of someone in his early twenties with messy red hair. The wasarow immediately attacks the Electrivire, while the guy takes a knife and cuts the ropes that tie you down, signaling to run.

"Thanks," He smiled and ran away, but he abruptly stopped when the earth shook. One of the trainers who were with the woman was standing in front of him. Together with a huge rock... with a nose? He couldn't help but burst out laughing again, pokemon were just crazy, really... a nose with a rock. (((((((((((rock with a nose, made a typo but lolled so hard that i felt it deserved a spot in here))))))))))

Unfortunately this trainer was more experiences, and didn't get taunted that easily.

"Stono ((WTF? The guy must have been drunk when he captured this)), use rock throw!" The Nosepass tossed rocks at Stripes, who had strangely enough come out of its pokeball when the nosepass appeared.

"Stripes... dodge," He didn't yell out his commands this time, pokemon battles weren't always for fun, he realized you fight to learn more things, and bond with your pokemon. (((Yes Seph learns alot of things -.-))) Stunky dodged around the rocks and darted towards the rock. "Scratch its nose," he told the Stunky, who immediately darted towards the nosepass.

"Harden..." The nosepass began to shine, but nothing else happened. Seph was about to make fun of it when he realized that it could be something like focus energy, and he was right. The Stunky's claws easily got deflected off of the massive stone.~Thats retarded... it's no fair to fight rocks~ Seph realized this wouldn't be an easy battle.

"Focus, and try it again..." Stunky stood still and began to glow red.

"Tackle it! While it's still focusing!" The guy yelled this time, and Stono darted forward. Seph panicked, but realized the big rock wasn't that fast.

"Scratch it as soon as you finish focusing!" He started yelling too. Now it was just a matter of being faster. A tackle from nosepass would probably nearly knock Stripes out, but the focused scratch could stop the incoming attack... Stono was getting nearer...

"Yes!" Seph yelled as Stripes stopped focusing. "Now u-" He was cut short when Stripes flew past him and crashed into a tree. "Huh...?" Seph quietly brought out. He dropped to his knees... he had lost. Stono had hit Stripes...

"Dammit!" He yelled through the forest. He got up and ran back, grabbing stripes. He saw the guy who cut him loose, fighting the electrike. Suddenly the guy turned around and tossed something to him. A purple spray can. "What do I?" He stopped and sprayed the whole bottle on Stripes' wounds. The pokemon opened its eyes. "Stripes?" He put the pokemon down, and it appeared to be good as new.

"Great," He smiled, "Focus again!" Stunky glowed red.

"Huh? Crap you used a potion?" The guys face distorted for a second, but he regained his calmness. "Stono, harden again, let's see him scratch you." Stono went ridgit and shined again.

"Heh," While being in the pokemon center he had read about special moves and physical moves, harden obviously boosted defense so... "Poison gas oughta do the trick! Stripes a focused poison gas!" Stripes immediately released the gas. Seph coughed as he had forgotten that the gas got intensified under the trees.

"****! Stono use shock wave!"

Seph couldn't see anything, but suddenly he felt a jolt, and it felt like his whole body turned on fire. His hair sprang up and he fell to the floor, paralysed. He must have gotten caught in that last attack.

"Stripes, are you ok?" He groaned from where he dropped. There was no reply, and he closed his eyes waiting for the gas to clear. What he saw was quite astonishing. All four of them were lying on the ground. Seph, from being paralysed, Stripes from getting knocked out by shock wave, Stono from being knocked out by poison gas, and the trainer must have breathed in too much of the gas.

Minutes passed and none of them even twitched. It wasn't until ten minutes later that the trainer moved first, he returned the nosepass and walked over to Seph. Seph also stood up and faced the guy, swaying on his legs. The guy doubled over, probably still noxious from the smell, and changed his mind, deciding it wasn't worth trying to get Seph in his state. He walked away towards the woman in the robes. Seph also returned his pokemon, and walked over to his rescuer.


(OOC: Uhh the last person can teleport Seph as not everybody has posted...)

 

[{Swan}]

~ShadowDragon - sounds like Nurse Joy wouldn't too thrilled to see them. The commentary is fine, just not too much okay? It kind of pauses the reading for a few seconds every time.

Post 1: Stunky grew to lv. 11 and learned Fury Swipes!
Post 2: Stunky grew to lv. 13!

 

[YoshiRiRu]

OOC: So so sorry that it's so late.

IC:

Petalburg Woods

The ball clicked to a halt and Axel breathed a sigh of relief. As he picked up the cold metallic sphere, it dawned on him that he had just captured his first Pokemon. His first actual capture. He clipped it on his belt and did a little dance move that he in retrospect hope nobody saw. (Zubat silently laughed from the trees). The rest of the Bellsprout had dispersed, and he stood alone on the path. He stood still for a minute and then began to walk down the path, hand on the pokeball, stroking it thoughtfully. After a minute or so of walking, he couldn't stand it any longer. He grabbed the Pokeball and tossed it into the air.

The matriarch Bellsprout stood quietly in shame in the middle of the dirt path, her once powerful tendrils now limp shadows of the command they used to hold. While admittedly she was still young, having inherited the matriarchy from her Mother who had been recently captured, she took care of the herd and she had promised that things would be just as safe as before. She kept her promise. She singlehandedly chased away a hungry Ariados who had threatened the new sproutlings. She had led the brood to the Safe Grounds during the harsh summer months. Now look at her. Captured like a common thief. She felt like dying; not only had she let the brood down, she had let her mother down as well. Her mother was one of the finest matriarchs in the history of the brood, nearly doubling it's size since she inherited the position from HER mother. Bellsprout looked down. She was a failure. And Captured by who? The more Bellsprout saw him the less she liked him. There was something.. something about him that she didn't care for at all. He just... felt wrong. The fact that she was captured by someone so despicable.. she shuddered and slumped again.

Axel watched Bellsprout with a sad air. Something was wrong with her, that's for sure. He walked over to the small, pathetic looking pokemon and kneeled down next to it. She turned her head away from him and would not look at him. Axel sighed and returned her to her pokeball. Still sitting on the ground, he sighed again and was about to get up when he heard a branch snap behind him. He turned sharply but was struck in the head by an unknown assailant before he could make any move to defend himself.

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

"Then why did you not do what I asked, you imbecile!?"

Axel swam into consciousness and winced as a splitting pain rocked his head and he almost passed out again.

"Madam, we couldn't just look into their eyes before we hit them, we were behind." came another voice, and Axel realized slowly that he couldn't move and that he was bound at the ankles and hands. His wrists chafed and he struggled to make himself even remotely more comfortable, begrudging the strength of the knots. These were sailors knots, designed to resist the harshest elements, and there was nothing a 17 year old kid could do against them. He felt something behind him and he realized it was another body. His "cellmate" was trying and failing to break the bonds. As Axel was about to whisper something, his fellow captive kicked out in frustration and cracked a twig. He could not see from where he was sitting, but he could feel his assumed assailants turn and face them.

"Look what we have here! Finally the little babies have awoken! How wonderful!" came a voice, and Axel cringed. There was something about the way she spoke that excited him and unnerved him at the same time. "Now, how to deal with this… You see, you three were not at all what we were looking for. Especially not you two!" he felt her spit hit the back of his head, and he knew she was speaking to him. He briefly couldn't decide if being the one she was looking for was a good thing or a bad thing, and for the sake of his sanity he quickly decided it was a good thing and breathed a little sigh of relief, although he wasn't sure why. He was still tied up with some crazy woman spitting all over the place. "Well aren't you just cute!" She said to whoever was sitting behind him. "Too bad you are going to have to die. Maybe I'll kill you first, quick and painless you say? Then to follow up with the more… fun… killing. Oh yes, you three shall be very amusing to toy with." At the mention of three, Axel's stomach dropped. "How shall we do it? I can't seem to decide between knifeworks, or more… electrifying… techniques."

As she said this, he heard the sound of a pokeball opening and a Pokemon whose cry he did not recognize was released. "I have decided to let you choose. I can either cut your throat quickly, or have Electrivire here destroy your nervous system. Which one would you prefer?" Axel thought about it, and decided that having your nervous system destroyed probably wouldn't hurt for very long and he was about to respond when his new friend replied before he could. "Just try," he said, ending his retort with an obscenity. Axel was about to ask him politely about his mental state, but before he knew what was happening there was a huge commotion. The cry of a Fearow sounded throughout the area, (Fearow was a cry he did know, working often with them at Pidgeot's Palace) and the roar of the spitting woman's pokemon battling racked Axel's ears. He found his ropes being cut, and a young man in a black and green robes, not much older than himself, was helping him up and telling him to run. Axel didn't need a second opinion.

As he began to tear towards the closest wooded area he could see, a black haired girl dressed in crimson robes stepped in front of his path, blocking his escape. She was petite, so Axel bowled her over and began to run again. However, she caught his leg from the ground and he tumbled to the ground with a cry. "You're not going anywhere," she sneered, drawing a pokeball from the folds of her robe. "Rhyhorn. Crush him." Axel stood up and turned, finding himself faced with an angry Rhyhorn. It was clear it meant business, and Axel would have ran if his legs would have allowed it. Instead all he could think of to do is draw Zubat's pokeball from his belt and toss it in front of him.

The size different between Zubat and Rhyhorn was almost funny and if Axel hadn't been terrified, he might have chuckled at it. Instead, he found himself hyperfocused and he tried to think clearly through his fog of uncertainty; his head was still swimming and hurt like hell. "Zubat, supersonic!" he ordered, and the bat opened her mouth, shooting ear piercing waves of sound at the beast. The Rhyhorn looked troubled for a second, but shook his head. The woman laughed, a hearty cackle that was as cheesy as it was irritating.

"Nice try, kid! But Rhyhorn's dumb as a rock, you can't confuse him any more than he already is!" she laughed. "Rhyhorn, horn attack!" With surprising agility, Rhythorn leapt into the air and struck Zubat with its horn, bringing her to the ground. "End this, Rhyhorn! Stomp!"

"Zubat!!" Axel cried. "Supersonic again, it's our only chance..!" Zubat shot another supersonic from the ground, this one hitting Rhyhorn dead center. It stumbled briefly, but continued it's charge, seemingly unaffected. The monstrous pokemon stomped Zubat, fainting her with a cry. Axel quickly withdrew her and tried to run.

"I don't think so, kid! You're not going anywhere! Rhyhorn, Horn attack!" As Axel braced himself for the hit that would inevitably be the end of him, he turned when it did not come. Rhyhorn was sitting down, clearly confused. It turned it's head in a circle, and smacked it's head cleanly on the ground. "You idiot!" screamed the girl. "Get up! Now!" she stamped her foot but Rhyhorn remained on the ground. Seeing his chance, Axel send out Bellsprout.

"Bellsprout! Please! I need your strength right now! You may not like me, but at least help me!" he pleaded, but Bellsprout turned away. The woman was still screaming.

"Rhyhorn! Horn attack! Forget the plant, it's useless! Go for the kid!" Axel's eyes opened in shock as the Rhyhorn dove for him, its large horn exposed. Axel tried to dive out of the way, but the horn struck his left arm in the bicep and he was knocked to the ground. Bellsprout watched this all happen and then narrowed it's eyes in determination. Axel was on the ground, about to be trampled. Bellsprout's maternal instinct erupted to the surface, knowing that a child was in trouble, not caring who it was. With a strength that in her sorrow she had forgotten she had Bellsprout used her vines to constrict the Rhyhorn, before nearly lifting it like a ragdoll and whipping it into a tree. The Rhyhorn did not move.

"Estella!" cried the first woman, the woman who was battling the Fearow. "Forget it! It isn't worth it! We can get them later." Estella recalled her Rhyhorn and ran to her bosses side. Another two cronies of hers were also with her, and the three disappeared in a beam of light, teleported by the yellow beast.

Axel was in bad shape. He had fallen on his leg and while it wasn't seriously injured, he found it difficult to get up. His left arm was dripping blood. The red haired man who had set them free had released an Abra that would send them to Rustboro. Axel didn't know where Rustboro was or even who this man was, but he accepted the offer without a word to either him or his two companions who were likewise victorious in their battles. Axel touched the Abra, not speaking. He felt himself tingle...

 

[{Swan}]

~YoshiRiRu - Nice post, I keep liking your dive inside the Pokemon's head.

Zubat grew to lv. 11! Bellsprout grew to lv. 6!

The next chapter will most likely be up tomorrow everyone!

Chapter 4
Getting Stoned
Number of Posts: 1​

It is the morning after the attack on you, and you might still be a little paranoid. You decide that this is the exact thing that you should tell Professor Holly. You call her on the PokeNav and as she picks up you might notice that she sounds a bit distraught, and she asks you what is wrong. You tell her about what happened and she comes up with answer that sound a bit too rehearsed. She tells you that whatever it was, it had to be just a coincidence. Just some sadistic group that enjoys terrorizing people, nothing to worry about any more than you already have. She's just glad you made it through okay and hopes that this sort of thing would never happen to you again. She encourages you to continue with your journey no matter what, and subtly points out that there is a gym in Rustboro that you should try to challenge. As you hang up you decide she is right, and you head for the gym.


the Rustboro gym is a single story, square building made entirely of black brick. It looks very ordinary apart from the big white letters that say 'Gym'. The inside is made off of the same black bricks, the main hall has a few small windows by the ceiling, and the rest is lit by bright TL-light. You see Roxanne, a woman in her mid-thirties dressed in a white and black dress with her brown hair pulled into a long braid. She is arguing with one of her assistants and you try to get her attention. Finally she sees you and smiles brightly.


"Ah! A challenger! How nice, it's been quite the slow day!" She retrieves twp Poké Ball from a table with a dozen or so on top of it and assumes her position on the field.


Roxanne's Pokémon:

Shieldon
Level: 11
Moves:
- Tackle
- Protect
- Metal Sound
- Headbutt

Sudowoodo
Level: 14
Moves:
- Copycat
- Low Kick
- Rock Throw
- Defense Curl


After the battle you hurry to the Pokémon Center to heal up your Pokémon, but you're stopped by a small crowd. You wonder what is going on, so you wrestle your way to the center, to find a crying woman being supported by a few other people. She's sobbing heavily, and you wonder what happened. A nearby newscaster answers that question for you.


"Behind me is the mother of the abducted child," the woman speaks into a microphone while facing a camera and crew. "Witnesses talked about a strange person, clad entirely in deep-red robes, carrying a limb body through the city. People described seeing this mysterious person running off with the child on his shoulder before disappearing into a shadow. No one can find him anywhere, but the police is searching the area for any clues where this person might have gotten."


"My son!" the woman in the center of the crowd wailed while another woman was frantically trying to calm her down. "My beautiful son! He was there, I tell you, there! Right next to me!" The woman retreated back into loud sobs, and the newswoman continues her cast.


"The mother of the child, Daniella Brown, was just done with shopping when her son, Nico, got taken. The kidnapper assumingly came up from behind and pressed a chemical against Nico's nose to make him faint. He then hoisted the child over his shoulders and ran away with him. If you see anyone, presumably a male, in deep red robes covering his entire being, please call the police right away. This was Genevieve Thomson, signing off." The camera stopped rolling and the woman became absorbed in her mirror and make-up. The sobs of the mother, Daniella Brown, were still providing the soundtrack of the streets at that moment. You decide to carry on back to the Center, but not without your doubts as to who the kidnapper was.

 

[{Swan}]

~Proddit - nice post, I liked the emotion you poured into it.

Venonat grew to lv. 11 and learned Confusion! Pidgey grew to lv. 6!

 

[Gumshoe Satyr]

(So sorry for the wait :(... but I'll do a two chapter post next time to try and catch up)

"Spinda's ready!" Laura opened her eyes to see the ever cheerful voice of Nurse Joy, slightly irritated at the interruption of her thoughts. For now, she'd pushed all thoughts of the Charizard's rescue, deciding that it was an unsolvable mystery, but she was still a little concerned about her problem Pokemon. Within only hours, he had managed to nearly steal candy from a little kid as well as somehow provoke the wraith of a pack of Poochyena. Nothing worse could possibly happen today, right!? Whatever the case, she needed to keep Spinda on a tight lease, at least for now.

"Thanks," Iysus replied as she accepted the pokeball, staring at it as if it was a bomb that might go off at any moment. With it in hand, she walked out the door of the pokecenter, pausing outside to consider her next move. Knowing for certain that, unfortunately, Petalburg's gym was closed down long, long ago and was practically a disaster area, she didn't see any reason to stick around anymore, so she headed toward the next route. Besides, if she wasn't careful, her mom would see her, and if the second good-bye was anything like the first one, Laura didn't want any part of it.

Taking a deep breath, she sighed peacefully as the sweet smell of salt water drifted toward her nose, and she headed toward one of her most favorite places in the whole world.... the beach. She stopped just out of the reach of the water, where she laid her backpack down and took off her shoes. Just as she was about to place Spinda's pokeball with the rest of her things, she changed her mind and released him with a bright flash of light. "Hey," she murmured, giving him what she realized was the first smile since they met earlier today.

"Spinda," he answered just as quietly, his full attention on the water that lapped near his feet. Slowly, he knelt down and swirled his paw around in the water before sticking it in his mouth. "Spin!!!" he cried, making a face. With his other paw, he desperately tried to wipe the salty taste off his tongue.

"You're hopeless...," she groaned, rolling her eyes. Just when she thought that they were making progress... At her statement, his eyes snapped up toward her- though she couldn't tell whether he was looking at her or not with his weird eyes-, and his ears dropped a little. Sighing a little, she tried to think of something better to say since she hadn't really meant to hurt his feelings, but when she looked back down at him, he was splashing his paw around in the water and laughing to himself. 'Uh... Short attention span, I guess...,' she thought to herself raising an eyebrow. After watching him play for a few more seconds, she figured that it was better to just forget the whole thing.

Rolling up the legs of her pants, she waded into the shallow surf. She didn't really care whether she got her clothes wet or not, but it would be uncomfortable to have to walk around the rest of the day with her pants sticking to her legs. After a moment's hesitation, Spinda staggered behind her, enjoying the cool water against his skin nearly as much as she was, but while Laura stopped when she was about knee-deep in the ocean, he continued until the water-line lapped at his neck. She opened her mouth to warn him, but just then a small wave crashed into him, bowling him over and swallowing him up.

Fearing that he might be swept into deeper water, Laura dived toward where she'd seen him go under and barely managed to catch hold of him and pulled him back toward the beach. "You're much heavier when you're wet...," she panted, putting him down on the sand and sitting next to him. "You ok?" Trembling a little, he managed a nod, though she doubted that he would go anywhere near water anytime soon. "Darn, I didn't want to get wet," she griped jokingly, hoping to cheer him up, but he ignored her. For the next ten minutes, they sat next to each other without a word. When he finally began to play a little with the sand, she smiled, satisfied that he was alright.

After resting for a few more minutes, Laura stood up and walked over to where she'd left her stuff. "Guess we should get going, huh? You want to rest in your ball or...." She fell silent as she lifted her bag and noticed that it felt heavier than it should. "What the...." Setting it back down, she noticed that it was partially unzipped, and when she reached to peer inside, a large, orange claw shot out of the backpack, missing her hand by centimeters. "Whoa!" she shouted, falling backwards onto her butt hard. Spinda tottered over to see what the deal was just as a crab-like pokemon, which she immediately recognized as a Krabby, crept sideways out of her bag, dragging some of her clothes with it. As soon as Spinda saw it, he wrapped his arms around Laura's leg, hiding his face in fear.

"He's bigger than the Krabby by two feet..., and that's counting the pincers," she murmured to herself, rolling her eyes. "Hey, Spinda, want to try to catch it?" she asked, slightly concerned after what had happened earlier. After a few moments, he bit his lip and gave a slow nod. "Alright then... Shake it up with Uproar!" Taking a deep breath, he screamed at the top of his lungs and charged at his foe with arms flailing, while Krabby's face twisted in pain and his pincers moved to the sides of its head as if to try to cover its ears. Unable to get out of the way, it was knocked to the ground, but immediately got back up. Turning, Spinda charged at it again, still shouting.

Krabby, however wasn't about to be taken down by the same move twice. Before Spinda could even touch it, its pincer jabbed out and caught him by the throat, cutting off his voice and breath. Stunned by this sudden turn of events, Laura desperately tried to think of what to do. Spinda frantically tried to wriggle out of its grasp, but he could gain little footing in the loose sand. Giving what appeared to be a smile, Krabby tossed Spinda like a rag doll, who landed heavily on the sand several feet away. Gasping and spitting sand out of his mouth, he stood up and looked helplessly over at Laura.

"We've got to stay away from those claws...," she mumbled to herself, furrowing her brow. He had to have some kind of weakness, but what? Suddenly, she had an idea. "Spinda, distract it with Uproar again and try to hit it from behind!" Nodding, he rose his voice to practically a shriek again, and Krabby seemed to react the same as before, but this time it didn't lower his guard. Spinda ran toward it as if to directly attack it, but he dodged to the side at the last moment, missing one of its pincer's by inches, and slamming into it from behind. "Stay behind it!" Laura ordered, hoping that her theory was correct. When Krabby struggled back to its feet, it tried to turn to attack him, but Spinda moved with it, keeping directly behind it, which was its weak point. As impressive as its claws were, it was very difficult for it to reach and attack something behind it.

"Give it a tackle at full strength!" Laura shouted with excitement swelling in her. Giving a devilish smile, Spinda slammed into Krabby, sending it sprawling. It tried to get up, but it was all over. Spinda charged into it again, and it fainted. Heart pounding, Laura held her breath as she tossed a pokeball at Krabby and it disappeared inside with a bright flash. The ball began to shake furiously....

 

[{Swan}]

~Namora - Don't worry about it, I'm just glad that you are still interested.

Laura caught a lv. 5 male Krabby!

 

[YoshiRiRu]

OOC: Wow. This is huge. That's what happens when I get on a nice feeling keyboard. I just can't stop writing. D:


Axel did not sleep well. Tossing and turning throughout the night, his subconscious creating horrifying assailants dressed entirely in red, constantly chasing and antagonizing him. Finally he managed to escape them and as he turned around to take a breath of relief, there stood Professor Holly. She smiled at him warmly, but her warm smile quickly turned into a menacing smirk, and the whites of her eyes turned blood red, and she opened her mouth wide to brandish her immense fangs, and then-

*knock knock knock*

"Mr. LeRoux!"

Ngh.

"Mr. LeRoux, will you please answer the door? As per Pokemon Center code I have to check up on you to make sure that your injuries healed well overnight."

As if on cue, a blinding pain shot through Axel's left bicep, and he sat up, now completely awake, and turned to look at it sharply. It was bandaged cleanly, but Axel could see the small dap of red where the blood had seeped through the gauze.

"Uh, hang on a minute!" replied Axel, still puzzled. "I'm, uh, getting dressed!" This was a lie, he was in fact completely dressed., shoes and all. Truth of the matter was, he wasn't exactly sure of his condition and would much rather know himself before he let Nurse Quack start probing him this way and that. Healing Pokemon was one thing, but healing humans was an entirely different endeavor.

Axel threw the covers off of himself and made motions to stand. However, once his legs were on the ground, they immediately turned to jelly and he got lightheaded. Grabbing onto the bedpost for support, he was able to avoid completely falling, but this episode urged him to reassure the nurse outside that everything was just fine.

"Uh, be out in just a sec! These darn shoes, haha!" he forced out that laugh and limped to the door, barely able to collapse onto a nearby armchair before the Nurse walked in. She took one look at him slumped over the chair and sighed.

"I told you not to try and walk until you felt ready. Don't you remember? Ugh, if you would have just said that, I wouldn't have made you get up." She huffed again and began to check his wounds. "Okay, your arm seems to be healing up okay. Maybe a fresh set of bandages but other than that, you should be as right as rain in two or three days. As for your legs, well there's nothing really wrong with them, that I can see. Right now they're wobbly because of the drugs that we gave you to sedate you last night, but those should wear off in probably within the next 2 hours. If you have any more pain, don't hesitate to come back and tell us, mmkay?" She punctuated her speech with a raised inflection, as if she was talking to a 6 year old.

She went out to her cart in the hallway and brought back fresh bandages, with which she redressed Axel's arm. "You'll be just fine." She smiled. "Thanks for coming to the Rustboro Pokemon Center. Your pokemon are downstairs whenever you want to retrieve them." She wiggled a reproachful finger in his face. "Not 'til you're ready though, young man!" she smiled again, and left without another word.

Two hours. Mused Axel. Great. What am I going to do for two hours? He looked at the alarm clock sitting on the bedside table. 10:14 AM. He stroked his chin, puzzled. "How long was I out? …Why was I out?" suddenly, it all came flooding back to him. The red robes, the lady, the rhyhorn, the other lady… "Maybe…" he pondered. "Maybe this is the type of thing Holly wanted us to report." Holly's face flashed into his mind's eye, smiling and then vicious and menacing. He shook it from his head, attributing it to the drugs he was on. "Crazy dream or no, I'd better give her a call." He picked his Poketch from his bag, noticing his broken Pokegear (still gotta git that fixed, he noted.) and dialed Professor Holly's number, the only saved number.

When she answered, Axel immediately raised an eyebrow. "Professor Holly's office, Holly speaking, what can I do for you." She said in a strained, hurry-up-ive-got-stuff-to-do voice.

"Professor Holly? It's me. Axel. Axel LeRoux?"

"Oh, Axel!" she said, her voice slightly calmed down. But then it raised with a note of slight concern. "What is it? Is something the matter? Did something… happen?" she said, her slightly eager tone making the boy uncomfortable.

"Uh, no.. well, yes. Maybe I ought to tell you. "

He told her the story of the incident, describing in as many details as he could the woman whom was leading the kidnapping seminar and also the man who came to their rescue.

Holly listened throughout, and what surprised Axel is how little his story surprised HER. When he was finished, he said, still uneasy, "Well, what do you make of that?"

"Axel", she said, her voice stoic. "There are a lot of freaks in this world, and it looks like you met a nasty bunch of them. I wouldn't worry about it, don't even describe the incident to the police. People like them love the publicity and it'd just do more harm to other unfortunate people who'd get in their way. If I were you, I'd just forget the incident completely." She finished simply.

"But professor-" Axel began, frustrated, but Holly cut him off.

"Axel. I know it was rough, but you made it through brilliantly. You're fine. Why don't you get your mind off things? See the town a little bit. I hear that Roxanne, the gym leader is back in town." She had resumed her "gotta get to work" voice, seeming to be shooing Axel off the phone and out of her day. "Axel, you'll be fine. Just forget about it. Gotta go now. Bye!" she said cheerily, and Axel put the phone away, still troubled. There was something so odd about this whole situation. I mean, he had almost died, and still Holly treated it like he had called about finding a penny on the sidewalk. But maybe she was right, there wasn't a lot for him to worry about. After all, these people weren't with him now, so they weren't any trouble.

After only about an hour, Axel's legs felt strong enough to let him walk around town. He collected his Pokemon from the front desk, and left the pokemon center to explore the town. Rustboro was huge, with massive paved roads and people bustling to and fro, doing this or that, busy busy busy. Axel made his way through the crowd of people, his eyes peeled for the gym. He would have missed it if he hadn't nearly bumped into the official gym sign standing in front of the building itself. It was very unassuming; a black brick building like so many other black brick buildings in the city, except that this one said Gym on it, which was good enough for him. He stepped in from the hot sun and the frigid scent of rock and earth filled his nostrils. He stepped into the cool black stone arena, eyes searching for the sign of a gym leader. He saw a man and a woman arguing atop one of the platforms.

"I know that it's important that the gym remain rock themed, but my polls say that more trainers will be liable to come in if they see some flair.."

"I don't care about flair! It's my gym, isn't it? If I want a brick building, I can have a brick building. Any trainer who doesn't want to fight me because I don't have a fancy gym shouldn't be a serious trainer anyway and-"

The woman, whom Axel could only assume was Roxanne, turned and looked down at Axel, her face smiling happily. "Excuse me, young man! Do you mind my gym being made of stone?" she asked. Axel, struck suddenly, shrugged.

"I dunno, it seems fine to me."

Roxanne stuck her tongue out at her assistant, and he left. Roxanne turned back to Axel. "Ah! A challenger! How nice, it's been quite the slow day!" She turned around and retrieved two pokeballs from the table. "Shall we?"

Axel nodded and took his place on the challenger side of the arena. "Now, I assume you know the rules of the Pokemon Gym Challenge?" called Roxanne from across the field. Axel admitted that he did not and Roxanne smiled. "Ah, so this is your first? Well. Let me explain how this works. " She held up the two pokeballs she had selected, one in either hand. "I have two pokemon. You'll pick two pokemon. We'll have a battle, and if you win, you get an official league badge. She held up something small and shiny that was too far for Axel to see accurately what it was, but he knew it was the badge. "All clear?" she smiled, and Axel nodded. "Well then! Let's begin!"

The gym battle referee stood between the two combatants and held up his hands, a whistle in his mouth. "The gym battle between the leader, Roxanne and the challenger, Axel will now begin! Each combatant is allowed two pokemon, and the person whose pokemon are knocked out first is declared the loser!" he brought his arms to his side abruptly and blew his whistle. "Begin!"

"Zubat, here we go!"

"Sheildon, let's rock!"

"I love Rock pokemon!" laughed Roxanne cheerfully. "They're so tough and they can't just get pushed around like so many other types of Pokemon!"

"Zubat," called Axel. "Astonish!"

"Not so fast!" cried Roxanne, with another smile. "Shieldon, protect!" The pokemon was covered by a small barrier which Zubat's supposedly frightening apparition merely bounced off of.

"Alright, Zubat! Let's try something a little less orthodox! Supersonic!"

"Shieldon, you can't let yourself get confused, that'll be nothing but trouble for us. Protect again!" Roxanne called to her pokemon, a note of worry in her voice.

Zubat dove in towards Shieldon and observed the prehistoric Pokemon's protective aura. She hadn't seen it the first time, but this particular shell had a small hole. Maybe when it was used consecutively it became less effective? She fired off two rapid bursts of supersonics and they broke Shieldon's protect, causing the Pokemon to become confused. Roxanne groaned in despair.

"Man! Come on Sheildon, snap out of it! Metal Sound!" she ordered, and the Pokemon looked like it was about ready to carry out the order, but it suddenly set it's head down, and fired the sound directly into the ground where it ricocheted and hit him square in the forehead, knocking him unconscious.

The referee held up an arm indicating Axel's side of the field. "Sheildon is unable to battle! Zubat is the winner!" Roxanne recalled Shieldon and growled.

"Fine then. Let's take this seriously. Sudowoodo, let's rock!"

The odd tree pokemon stood in the middle of the arena, unmoving. Axel looked at it, puzzled. "A tree? I thought you were a rock trainer?" he asked. Roxanne smiled again, a devious grin that was a little scarier than the other two grins she had shown before.

"He looks like a tree, doesn't he?" she smiled.
Axel shrugged. "Either way, what ain't broke, don't fix! Supersonic!" Zubat let loose another wave of supersonic waves, and Roxanne smiled.

"Perfect! Sudowoodo, copycat!" she cried, and the tree opened its mouth and shot the same confusing sound waves right back at Zubat. She tried to avoid the attack, but it hit her hard, and she fell to the ground, deeply confused.

"Zubat, come on! Get up!" Axel called, distressed. "Quick attack! He's just a tree!" Zubat, through her confusion, managed to aim her body at the Sudowoodo and launch at it. The connection, instead of being a satisfying thud, was a sickening splat, as Zubat's tiny form smacked uselessly into Sudowoodo's giant form. "A rock tree?! Come on!" Axel groaned. Roxanne called out to Sudowoodo.

"Finish it! Rock throw!" Sudowoodo lifted two large rocks and hurled them at Zubat's already reeling form, which dropped to the ground and did not move.

"Zubat is unable to battle!" called the referee, his arm pointed to Roxanne. "Sudowoodo is the victor!"

Axel winced and withdrew Zubat. "Come on out, Bellsprout. Let's see what you can do!"

The sprout pokemon stood facing the faux-tree that was much larger than it, and Axel felt his stomach sink. This was going to be it. His first gym battle, and a glorious loss. Roxanne smirked again.

"Nice Bellsprout, looks a little bit weak though, doesn't it, Sudowoodo?"

Axel called to Bellsprout. "Let's show them how wrong they are! Vine whip!" he ordered and like lightning Bellsprouts powerful vine-arms wrapped around Sudowoodo's two rocky arms and brought the copycat Pokemon to the ground with a crash. Roxanne gasped.

"Sudowoodo! Get up!" she called, and her Pokemon obeyed. Obviously shaken and weakened, Sudowoodo crawled to it's feet. "You remember that supersonic technique from a minute ago? Let's see it again! Copycat!" Sudowoodo opened its mouth and shot the same confusing waves that Zubat had used previously.

"Bellsprout, get out of there!" Axel called, and Bellsprout was able to cleverly maneuver herself out of harms way.

"Sudowoodo, get in there, Low kick!!" cried Roxanne, now clearly distressed. As Sudowoodo's leg was extended towards her, Bellsprout saw the perfect opportunity for an attack. Cleanly dodging to the side, she grabbed Sudowoodo's leg, and using his forward momentum as propulsion, lifted Sudowoodo into the air and brought him smashing down onto the floor.

"Stop! Enough!" cried Roxanne, and she rushed to her Pokemon's side.

"Sudowoodo is unable to battle!" cried the referee. "Axel is the winner!!"

Axel recalled Bellsprout and walked over to Roxanne, who was returning Sudowoodo. She looked at him and smiled.

"He gonna be alright?" asked Axel, pointing to Sudowoodo's Pokeball. Roxanne nodded.

"Yeah. I'm training him still, so he gets roughed up a lot. You have quite the Bellsprout there, not many are strong enough to lift a Sudowoodo." She shook her head, and reached into her pocket. "Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's your badge. Congratulations." Axel looked at it and frowned.

"Man, this thing is tiny. I'm going to lose it like that.." he chuckled. Roxanne nodded.

"A lot of trainers pin them to the inside of their bags, or sometimes they get specific carrying cases for them. Just make sure you don't lose it, or you'll have to battle me again and it won't be so easy next time." She winked, and turned, walking away into the other parts of the gym. Axel made his way out of the black brick building and into the sunlight.

He walked into the street and realized that his legs had begun to hurt again. This made going back to the Pokemon Center doubly important, so he made his way there as quickly as he could. In the middle of the street he found himself surrounded by a yammering crowd. Sounds of sobbing came from its epicenter and Axel made his way to the center of the crowd, where he saw a middle aged woman weeping desperately, surrounded by gawking onlookers.

"Behind me is the mother of the abducted child." Came the voice of a nearby television reporter. "Witnesses described a strange person, clad entirely in deep red robes, carrying a limp body throughout the city streets."

Red robes? Axel thought, and his blood ran cold. He listened in hard, ignoring the now throbbing pain in his legs.

"People described seeing this mysterious person running off with the child on his shoulder before disappearing into a shadow. No one can find him anywhere, but the police is searching the area for any clues where this person might have gotten."

At this, the sobbing woman choked out "My son! My beautiful son! He was right there, I tell you! Right there beside me..!" she collapsed back into sobs and the newswoman continued.


"The mother of the child, Daniella Brown, was just done with shopping when her son, Nico, got taken. The kidnapper assumingly came up from behind and pressed a chemical against Nico's nose to make him faint. He then hoisted the child over his shoulders and ran away with him. If you see anyone, presumably a male, in deep red robes covering his entire being, please call the police right away. This was Genevieve Thomson, signing off."

Axel was in a stupor. The same people who attacked him were now attacking small children. Was this as innocent as Holly claimed? There was no way.

As the crowd dispersed, Axel led himself to the Pokemon center, now fully aware of the pain in his legs. He checked him and his Pokemon in and after a short visit to the infirmary, he sat in his room, pondering. Who were these red robed freaks? What did they want with him?

 

[{Swan}]

~YoshiRiRu - Great post, I liked the conversation with Holly and Roxanne.

Zubat grew to lv. 13 and learned Bite! Bellsprout grew to lv. 9 and learned Growth!

 

[Gumshoe Satyr]

(Sorry for the beyond ridiculously long post. Just trying to catch up. The **** separate the chapters. Let me know if I got anything wrong because there was a lot of information to look through. Hope its ok.)

A huge grin spread across Laura's face as the pokeball stopped moving. Strolling over and picking it up, she stared at it, unable to fully believe yet that she'd caught her very first pokemon. Spinda, curious, stumbled over and stood on tiptoe, trying to get a good look at it. "Hey, how about we...," she trailed off as a chill crept up and down her spine. She felt like there was someone nearby..... watching them, but when she looked over her shoulder, no one was there. "Strange...."

"Spinda?" he asked, tugging gently on her pant leg, probably asking what was wrong.... or perhaps for a snack, but she preferred to believe the former. He followed her gaze, but frowned when he didn't see anything amiss.

Shrugging and forcing a slight smile, she replied, "Nothing really. My imagination is running away with me, I guess. Anyway, we should get going or we'll get too far behind." Unable to shake off the creepy feeling, she quickly returned her tired pokemon to his pokeball and put both balls in her backpack before hurrying off toward Petalburg Forest, honestly hoping that she was only being paranoid.

Her unease only grew as she reached the dark, wooded confines of the forest. As she walked casually along the path, she took a few deep breaths, hoping to wash away her anxiety with fresh air and the peaceful surroundings. Overhead, Wurmple were happily munching on the leaf canopy and a few pokemon that looked like giant pine cones hung lazily by their heads, or at least that's what it looked like, from branches. Just another beautiful day in Petalburg Forest.

A loud click sounded near Laura's ear, and a bright flash of white light shot out of her backpack. "What the...?!" Looking down, she saw Krabby at her side, grinning up a her. "How the heck did you get out?!" she wondered aloud, crossing her arms across her chest. She'd heard here and there of a few pokemon learning how to escape their pokeballs by themselves, but this is the first time she'd ever actually seen it, and frankly she wasn't sure whether she should be annoyed or amazed that he'd figured it out so fast or at all. Crouching down closer to his level, she debated internally on whether to scold him or just let it go, but before she could say anything, Krabby jumped up and scrambled into her lap, his smile broadening with content.

"Uh... I don't think so, little guy," she protested uncomfortably, gently pushing him off. Well, first of all, he wasn't exactly the most cuddly pokemon in the world, and besides, she'd wasn't at all sure of what she thought of a pokemon that decided that it loved her within the first seconds of meeting as partners. She'd expected some initial confusion and, hopefully, friendliness, but this was different than anything she'd even heard about. Undaunted, Krabby gazed up at her with adoration, raising one of his claws straight up in a kind of salute. "Err... Nice to see you, too." Deciding to make the most of the situation, she pulled out her pokedex and pointed it at him, bringing up the list of moves.

"Let's see.... You know Mud Sport, Bubble, and Vice Grip. Well, I saw you do Vice Grip before, and I know what Bubble is, but what's Mud Sport?" The machine immediately responded: "Mud Sport is a non-damaging, Ground-type move that weakens electric-type moves by covering the user with mud."

"Interesting," she decided, nodding a little. Suddenly, bushes to her left began to shake violently, causing both human and pokemon to jump with surprise.

"Shrroooom," an angry voice called out. As a peach and green-spotted pokemon crept out, Laura's pokedex dutifully declared that it was a mild tempered Shroomish.... but it looked anything but "mild." It glared at her with such a depth of animosity that took her breath away. Completely unafraid, it ran toward her and tackled her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. Holding her abdomen, she gasped for breath.

Furious that his trainer was hurt, Krabby reached out with a Vice Grip and squeezed Shroomish unmercifully with his pincer.

"Hey!" a voice rang out, startling Krabby so bad that he released his opponent. Shroomish darted back into the bushes just before a young boy of about twelve years of age stepped into view. "That was my Shroomish! I saw it first!"

"Not....my.....idea," Laura managed to wheeze. Scuttling back to her side, Krabby nodded with agreement, snapping his claws shut repeatedly to show his irritation.

"Well, you cost me that pokemon, and you're gonna have to make up for it with a battle," he answered, pulling a ball off of his belt. "We'll each use two pokemon, alright?" He waited until she could reply somewhat normally.

"Fine...." Was battling a solution to everything for this guy? Setting her backpack on the ground, she pulled out Krabby's empty pokeball as well as Spinda's before turning to face the kid. "Guess I might as well start with Krabby." Pleased, Krabby scurried forward in his strange sideways walk, snapping his pincers even louder.

"THAT little shrimp," the boy laughed, pointing at him. "Have it your way, but I think you're going to regret it. Pineco will destroy it!" Throwing his pokeball, a pine cone-looking pokemon appeared, just like the ones Laura had noticed before. She wondered whether she should switch to Spinda, especially since Pineco would have an environmental advantage, but it was too late now.

"We'll see. Krabby, Vice Grip!" He gurgled happily to himself as he scuttled quickly toward opponent, after all, this was his favorite and best move. As he opened his menacing pincer wide, Pineco whimpered, obviously wanting nothing more to stay away from it.

"Don't let it intimidate you! Use Protect!" Just before Krabby reached his foe, Pineco braced itself and a sphere of green light surrounded it, and his claw clattered uselessly against it. "Great! Now Tackle it!" the kid called, triumph ringing in his voice. Thinking quickly, Krabby realized that he couldn't dodge in time, but he could try to deflect it. He sprayed a multitude of bubbles from his mouth that impacted against the charging Pineco with concussive. Although Pineco winced in pain and slowed down, it was still able to soundly collide with Krabby, and both pokemon fell sprawled onto the ground.

"Hurry and Vice Grip it before it can recover!" Laura shouted, pulse racing with anticipation. Coming back to his senses with a jolt, Krabby rolled over and grabbed the stem on Pineco's head with a loud clack!

Suddenly, as a cry of pain jumped from Pineco's throat, it glowed blue and exploded! "Don't!" the kid screamed, but it was already done. Both pokemon collapsed, unconscious. Both trainers ran to their fallen pokemon, and the boy tossed a spray bottle over to Laura. "Sorry about that.... I guess my Pineco still needs training," he apologized as he applied the bottle to his pokemon's wounds. "That potion should make Krabby feel better though.

"Thanks... I guess" As she began to apply her potion as well, a thought occurred to her. "Hey, why did Bubble hurt Pineco so much? I thought it was a grass-type."

Chuckling, he replied, "No way! He's a bug-type!" Straightening up again from his kneeling position, he recalled his pokemon. "Gosh, it's getting late! I've still gotta catch a Shroomish. We're going to have to postpone the rest of this battle." With a wave of his hand, he left.

"Uh.... Bye? Sure hope we don't meet him again. What a pain...," Laura muttered to herself, glancing down at the newly recovered Krabby. With a final shrug, she recalled him, but just as she was about to continue on, a twig snapped behind her. As she whirled around, something slammed heavily into the side of her head and she collapsed, darkness slowly closed in.....

******************************************************************

The sounds of voices slowly seeped into Laura's consciousness. She grunted painfully as a sharp pain shot through her head, which gradually turned into a dull, steady throb. When blood oozed down her forehead, she attempted to wipe it away, but her arms wouldn't move, and she had little feeling in them. 'I'm tied up!' she finally realized. Forcing down her panic, she tried to figure out what was going on.

"Then why did you not do what I asked you imbecile!" shouted a female voice. Somebody was in trouble...

"Madam, we couldn't just look into their eyes before we hit them, we were behind." came another voice, this time male. When something jostled against her back, Laura got the feeling that there was someone with her. Correction, two someones, but she couldn't see exactly who they were. What did the guy mean when he talked about looking into eyes anyway? She was about to whisper her question to the others when a twig snapped. Hearing footsteps, she turned in time to see a crazy-eyed woman in blood-red robes approaching.

"Look what we have here! Finally the little babies have awoken! How wonderful!" An involuntary shiver across Laura's body, and she seriously doubted that she wanted to hear what this weirdo was so excited about.

"Yeah, and it looks like you did, too," she responded, eying with distaste the tangled, curly mess that the woman somehow called hair. "Y'know, we'll wait while you go fix it. It's no problem at all. By the way,.... did you know that kidnapping is a federal offense?" she asked as she lowered her blue eyes to her face, hoping to provoke some kind of response, but she got none. She fell silent as a pain shot through her head again, and her head swam a little.

"Now, how to deal with this… You see, you three were not at all what we were looking for. Especially not you two!" She sneered at Laura and someone else, then turned toward the third person. "Well aren't you just cute! Too bad you are going to have to die. Maybe I'll kill you first, quick and painless you say? Then to follow up with the more… fun… killing. Oh yes, you three shall be very amusing to toy with."

'Whoa, she's insane!' Laura realized, struggling frantically against the ropes binding her wrists. "I'm no toy, you sick psycho!" she shouted, panic threatening to overwhelm her. "Untie me!"

Undisturbed, she seemed to contemplate something. "How shall we do it? I can't seem to decide between knifeworks, or more… electrifying… techniques. With a great effort, Laura forced herself to remain calm, so that she could somehow think of a way out of this, but so far it seemed hopeless..... Pulling a pokeball out of her sleeve, the psycho lady released a large, yellow and black pokemon that she didn't recognize. For a second she adoringly looks at the Pokémon, before turning back to the third captive. "I have decided to let you choose. I can either cut your throat quickly, or have Electrivire here destroy your nervous system. Which one would you prefer?"

"Just try," he muttered, cursing. Laura figured that he was either stupidly brave or bravely stupid, but she had no desire to think about that now.

"Personally, I prefer to die peacefully in my sleep, but you know.... To each his own," she added, trying to stall for time. But for what? As if to answer that thought, a Fearow swooped down from the sky with a screech, carrying a man wearing a white cloak. When the man jumped off, he ran toward the prisoners and cut their ropes and told them to run while Fearow fiercely battled the Electrivire.

Laura ran for a few steps, but something incredibly important came to her. "Where's my stuff?!" She couldn't have cared less at that moment whether she lost her backpack or not, but her pokemon were in there, and she wasn't going to leave them behind, no matter how annoying they were! Relief washed over her as she spotted it a few feet away, seemingly unopened. Just as she reached it, a guy with brown hair and wearing the same red robe as the psycho lady ran up to her, blocking any chance to escape.

"You have to get through me and my Gligar first, brat," he growled, releasing a small, purple, bat-like pokemon from its ball. It immediately took off through the air, gliding over their heads as it waited for its first command.

"Gladly," Laura replied, smiling with confidence now that she could defend herself. "Your flying rat is going down!" Reaching quickly into her backpack, she pulled out the first pokeball that she could find. "Get 'em, Spinda!" She stared in confusion as Spinda's right paw glowed briefly before mud shot from it up into the air, covering him completely. "That was Krabby's Mud Sport, I think...," Although she had yet to see Krabby perform it, she was almost positive that was it. Vaguely, she recalled that Spinda also knew a move called Assist, which allows its user to randomly use a move known by another pokemon in the party. "A lot of good that did us...," she grumbled.

"Playing in the mud?" the man jeered, bringing her mind back to the battle. "Well, have fun with this. Poison Sting!" Gligar sneered at Spinda as it pointed the large stinger on his its toward him, releasing several white darts. Spinda tried to dodge, but he couldn't move fast enough, and they jabbed into him. Fortunately, he seemed barely hurt.

"I don't know if Spinda can handle this... He doesn't know any ranged moves except by luck of the draw, so Gligar can just pick him off from a distance," she muttered worriedly. Doubting that it could be counting as "breaking the rules", she reached for Krabby's ball with her right hand, but jerked her hand back abruptly as a few of the white barbs stabbed into it. Cradling her injured hand, she glared first at the obnoxious Gligar and then at its equally obnoxious trainer.

"Don't think so," he gibed, chuckling at her obvious pain. "Gligar, Aerial Ace now!" Engulfed in a white light, the bat pokemon dived down at Spinda at lightning speed, slashing through him before he could even react. Laura knew she had only one option...

"Krabby, get your shrimpy butt over here and blast him out of the sky with Bubble!" she shouted, hoping that he could hear her. She was rewarded with a flash of light jumping out of her backpack, followed by a very, very angry crab. Glaring up at the Gligar, he couldn't believe that any pokemon would attack a human like that! Well, there was that Shroomish, but he could swear that there was something weird about it.... Anyway, that was no excuse, and he was going to teach this pokemon a lesson!!! As it prepared to hit Spinda with another Poison Sting, he blew a stream of bubbles at it, surprising it enough that it nearly crashed into the ground. Snapping his claws, he scuttled around excitedly. Wouldn't his trainer be proud of that!

Grinning at the water pokemon, she commented, "Great job, little guy. Alright, Spinda. This is a gamble, but we're going to take it. Use Assist!" This time a claw made of white energy formed, and Spinda jumped up and used it to grab onto Gligar's foot before he could regain altitude. Gligar lifted him very easily, but he was in obvious pain.

"Ignore the little twerp," the robed man shouted, nervousness creeping into his voice. "The Krabby is the real threat. Stop it with Poison Sting!" Obediently, it lifted its tail and released a barrage of barbs. There was no time for Laura to give a command, but Krabby didn't need one. Bracing himself, he withstood the Poison Sting with ease, countering with another Bubble. With an agitated screech, Gligar scrambled to get out of the way.

"Spinda, hurry! Uproar!" Laura yelled urgently. The instant that he opened his mouth, Gligar's sensitive ears were slammed with such an intense barrage of sound that the Bubble flying toward him was very nearly forgotten, and it hit him squarely in the stomach, causing him to fall toward the ground, unconscious. Using the bat pokemon to push off of, Spinda leaped outward, landing neatly in Laura's arms. "Great job, guys," she congratulated them, giving them a thumbs-up.

"This isn't over....," the man growled, returning his pokemon. Running away, he rejoined two other trainer as well as the psycho lady and they teleported away by use of the Electrivire. Laura returned her's as well and put them back in her pack.

Rejoining the other two trainer, she vaguely recognized them from the professor's lab earlier. What were they doing here? Before she could ask them, however, the red-haired rescuer was walking toward them. "This Abra will teleport you back to Rustboro, simply touch it and you're gone." Hesitating for a second, Laura was last of all to accept his offer. She closed her eyes as she surrounding area began to change....

 

[{Swan}]

~Namora - It's okay, I'm just glad someone posted, things are getting a bit slow around here. Awesome post. Sadists... don't wanna mess with those.

POST 1: Krabby grew to lv. 7!
POST 2: Krabby grew to lv. 9 and learned Leer! Spinda grew to lv. 10 and learned Copycat!

 

[Underoos]

Chapter 3 (1/1): Stony Gym

Chad was snuggled up and hugging his pillow when the sun came creeping in through the curtains he hadn't shut in his sleepy haze. Chad frowned, mumbled to himself, and buried his face in the pillow. He was having a rather terrifying dream. His guitar had just been snapped in half by that stupid Scyther. Chad growled and rolled over, accidentally punching the wall. That made him wake up. Chad's eyes snapped open in pain. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW! He thought, cradling his red knuckle to his chest. Figures, Chad thought in annoyance. What a wake up call.

He sighed heavily and rolled on his back. Chad then glanced over at the PokeNav. With one thought in his head, he picked it up and dialed the number he knew the best. The thing rang several times. Chad sighed. Probably too early for her, he thought sadly as the voicemail popped up. Chad snapped the PokeNav shut and pushed up in bed. The sheets pooled around his waist as he did so. Chad simply stared out at the sunrise with his amber eyes, mulling over the events of the previous day. I have to admit, he thought, I'm still a little peeved I didn't get to finish my sentence. Chad then noticed something. Three Pokeballs were lying on the dresser beside him. He blinked, did Nurse Joy bring those back there?

With a shrug, Chad shoved up from his bed and landed on the balls of his feet. He yawned stiffly. Then Chad grabbed some clothes and trooped off to the shower that connected to his room. A while later, Chad was back in his room happy and refreshed from his shower. He was wearing a pair of his favorite ripped gray jeans and a black shirt with a cloud that said "Puff" on it. Chad grinned at his shirt. It was one of his favorites. He carefully set his Pokeballs into place, basically doing any small task he could to not-think about what had happened. Chad decided to just ignore it. It probably wasn't anything anyway. Not like it would help him on his journey, or help him write songs, or help him get a girl. Nope. Not important.

Chad sauntered out of his room and then paused. Wait, where am I going again? He wondered. Chad glanced at the PokeNav that was on his backpack. Then he picked it up without real reason, but dialed Professor Holly's number. She picked up on the second ring.

"Hello?"

"Hey," Chad said smoothly without really meaning to. He blinked, cleared his throat. "I have a question." She told him to continue. "Is it weird when a bunch of people kidnap you and try to kill you for no reason? Just wondering, you know."

"Oh, it was probably just some group of people who are into terrorizing others. You know the type," she said, faking a chuckle. Chad's eyes narrowed on the other end. "Don't worry about it. I'm sorry that happened, you must have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm glad that you're alright. I doubt it will ever happen again, but be careful. Now, you should really continue with your journey. There's a gym in town, you know. Maybe you should try to challenge it and see if you're strong enough," the Professor offered.

"…Uh…huh," Chad said slowly. "Well, alright. Bye." He hung up without waiting.

Chad tucked the PokeNav away and then shifted his guitar to his other shoulder. He exited the Pokémon Center and then headed for the gym. Whatever that was. Chad honestly had no idea why he was going to a gym. He didn't want to work out. Ah well, he thought as he walked down the streets and browsed around. Maybe I should get more in shape or something. He paused outside of a single story black building that was made of brick. There were big, white letters that clearly read 'Gym'. Chad scratched the back of his neck. It really didn't look like much. A wide yawn escaped his lips as he walked into the gym, bushing the door open with his fingers. Once inside, he saw that the hall had a few small windows close to the ceiling, but the rest of the place was lit by some lights. Chad glanced about. This totally didn't look like a gym. It looked like a room with a girl in it. Girl? He thought, glancing back to the center of the room.

In the center of the room stood a women who looked to be in her mid-thirties. She was in a white and black dress. Her hair was pulled into a long and brown braid. Chad cocked his head to the side. She also appeared to be arguing with one of her assistants. Chad cleared his throat.

"Uh…this is the gym, right?"

She stopped, and looked at you. A smile appeared brightly on her face. "Ah! A challenger! How nice, it's been quite the slow day!" she declared. Chad blinked, really…looks so busy. She then grabbed two Pokeballs from a table. Chad blinked—he finally got it. This wasn't a gym it was a Pokémon gym. And I'm about to battle that Roxanne girl, right? He paused, consulting in his mind. Yup, that's her…wait, CRAP!

"Uh…" Chad began lamely. "Double battle?" he offered. Roxanne accepted. Chad grabbed Buizel and Scyther's Pokeballs. "Let's go!" Chad called, tossing their Pokeballs. Roxanne tossed hers.

Buizel appeared first. His hands were in the devil horns pose, and Chad vaguely wondered if he was a bad influence. Next came Scyther, looking as feeble and tricky as ever. Chad smirked internally, but looked worried on the outside. He was going to play this good. Two more Pokémon appeared, but Chad didn't recognize either of them. He frowned and brought out his Pokedex. The short one was known as Shieldon, and the tall tree-like one was a Sudowoodo. Great, Chad thought, Buizel will have no problems.

"I'll let you have the first move," Roxanne declared.

"Sounds good to me, princess," Chad said. Roxanne frowned. "Buizel get in there with water gun!" Chad called sharply. Buizel nodded swiftly and a jet of water shot directly out from his mouth. It slammed into Shieldon. The Pokémon snorted as the pressure of the water pushed it back. Scyther shifted, still looking gangly. "Scyther you use leer on Sudowoodo!"

Scyther leered at Sudowoodo, and the tree thing winced. Buizel's attack continued, but somehow Shieldon was able to hang on. Chad frowned and called off the attack. Buizel cut off the stream, simply staring the Shieldon down. Scyther was focusing her energy now. Roxanne smirked, and Chad told them to get ready. She called for Shieldon to use headbutt. Shieldon charged towards Scyther, finding her to be gangly and uncoordinated. Chad smirked, but then suddenly realized something. Even though Scyther could be useful, he honestly had no idea how to use her. Her attacks in this gym wouldn't work well. He called for a quick dodge. Scyther scrambled about, barely making the dodge. Roxanne's eyebrow shot up. She ordered Sudowoodo to use low kick on Buizel. Sudowoodo charged.

"Buizel, get out of the way with quick attack," Chad called. "Then swing about and use water gun! If you have to, weaken it with sonic boom." Buizel nodded swiftly and managed to dodge the kick. It shot another stream, this time towards Sudowoodo. The attack struck, and Buizel kept it up.

"Shieldon, break the water with protect." Roxanne's voice was calm and steady.

Shieldon hobbled to Sudowoodo, and suddenly a green veil surrounded them. Buizel cut off the attack, knowing it was useless. Scyther materialized next to Buizel, scowling at the pair across the field. She was focusing her energy. Chad licked his suddenly dry lips, trying to formulate a plan that could get this battle over with fast. The Pokémon hadn't even really attacked yet, and Chad was worried that when they did, his team would get thrashed. Chad let out a slow breath. In that amount of time, Roxanne had suddenly ordered an attack. Chad's eyebrows shot up as Sudowoodo slammed its foot directly into Scyther. She cried out and slammed against the wall. Slowly she got up, injured but not about to give up. Scyther had spunk, and Chad liked that. Roxanne's eyes narrowed when she saw Scyther somehow manage to pull herself together.

Another hit like that, Chad thought, and she's done. "Scyther use quick attack on Sudowoodo. Get away fast, and stay away. Buizel you use sonic boom on Shieldon and keep it away from Sudowoodo!" Chad called, knowing that not giving Shieldon a chance to protect would be a good idea. Scyther slammed into Sudowoodo in about a second, and then slipped away quickly. Roxanne looked almost baffled.

"But…it was…" she said.

"She's tricky," Chad replied.

Buizel was sending wave after wave of attack to Shieldon, and they repeatedly slammed into the Pokémon. Shieldon cringed and flinched. Chad smirked—this battle was totally in the bag. He was sure of it. That's when Shieldon let out a funky sound that was almost a screech. Scyther and Buizel both let out cries and cringed away. That was all Roxanne needed. She ordered Shieldon to use headbutt on Scyther, while Sudowoodo used rock throw on Buizel. Chad glared as the attacks hit the mark, knocking his Pokémon backward and away. Scyther was beaten and battered; she was no match in the first place. Chad recalled her silently, basically apologizing. He then grabbed Poochyena's Pokeball.

"We've still got this," Chad said, more to himself than Roxanne. He tossed Poochyena's Pokeball, and the Pokémon appeared in another bright flash of light. Buizel glanced at his familiar battle partner and nodded. Poochyena barked. "Alright guys, I think I might have a little bit of an idea," Chad called.

"Too bad, it won't work. Shieldon use headbutt on Buizel. Sudowoodo, knock Poochyena down with low kick!" Roxanne called. Chad then remembered that fighting attacks totally kicked dark type attack's ass.

"Buizel, use sonic boom or water gun to keep them away! Poochyena, evade that attack and follow with tackle on Shieldon!" Chad called, knowing that it would be easier to get them down to one. Shieldon was a bit more tired than Sudowoodo anyway.

Buizel decided to use water gun to keep them at bay. It worked too—Sudowoodo decided not to try to use low kick once the attack hit it a few times. Shieldon snuck by, ready to attack Poochyena, but Poochyena leaped away. It was much faster, and it succeeded in slamming into Shieldon. Buizel whipped around suddenly, and a jet slammed directly into Shieldon. The Pokémon cried out as it was suddenly propelled off the ground and slammed against the sidewall, creating a rather nasty looking dent. Chad grinned widely when he saw Shieldon slump to the floor. It was finished. Sudowoodo, however, was not. It looked a bit angered by the fact that its partner had just been defeated.

"Let's finish this Buizel. Poochyena you use howl as backup. Buizel go in with a quick attack and then use a close range water gun!" Chad called, finally figuring that the battle was won. "Use tackle if this fails, Poochyena."

Buizel then charged, and in a flash was right next to Sudowoodo. It glanced over in surprise. Then it tried for a low kick, but Buizel dodged. Poochyena howled and Sudowoodo flinched, giving Buizel the perfect opening. Buizel then unleashed a jet right in Sudowoodo's face. The Pokémon cried out and tried running away, but suddenly Poochyena blocked it with a harsh tackle. Sudowoodo went down, the attack completely beating it. Buizel and Poochyena stopped their own attacks, and moved away slowly.

Roxanne silently recalled Sudowoodo. Chad surveyed his Pokémon. Poochyena and Buizel were both panting, and upon looking at his Pokedex Chad frowned. Buizel was literally an inch away from falling to the ground himself. He quickly recalled the "water rat". Poochyena was recalled next. Without much of an exchange between them, Chad took his badge and walked back to the Pokémon Center at a much quicker rate than when he had exited.

He was trying to get in, but there was a crowd blocking his way. Chad growled in annoyance and slipped his guitar off his back. Using it as basically a person-shove-aside-thing, he made his way to the front of the center. The sight he saw confused him. There was a woman (a hysterically sobbing woman, no less) being supported by a few other people. Huh? He wondered, cocking his head to the side. Suddenly out of nowhere (well, not literally) a newscaster appeared and began talking.

"Behind me is the mother of the abducted child," the woman said into her microphone. She was facing an entire camera crew. Chad's jaw dropped, and he looked at the woman briefly. "Witnesses talked about a strange person, clad in entirely deep-red robes, carrying a limp body through the city. People described seeing this mysterious person running off with the child on his shoulder before disappearing into a shadow. No one can find him anywhere, but the police are searching the area for any clues where this person might have gotten." Chad's expression hardened.

"My son!" the woman cried frantically. Another in the center attempted to calm her down. "My beautiful son! He was there, I tell you, there! Right next to me!" Then she began to sob again. Though Chad wanted to do something, she sort of scared him so…he just stayed where he was. Hysterical women weren't exactly his forte. The newswoman continued on with her report.

"The other of the child, Daniella Brown, was just done with shopping when her son, Nico, got taken. The kidnapper assumingly came up from behind and pressed a chemical against Nico's nose to make him faint. He then hoisted the child over his shoulders and ran away with him. If you see anyone, presumably a male, in deep red robes covering his entire being, please call the police right away. This was Genevieve Thomson, signing off." Then the camera stopped rolling. The woman was suddenly absorbed in her mirror and her makeup. Chad scowled—he hated girls like that, no matter how much of a player he was. Daniella was still sobbing when Chad continued on to the Center.

 

[{Swan}]

~Fenris - Great post, Chad still manages to make me laugh.

Buizel grew to lv. 11 and learned Pursuit!! Scyther grew to lv. 8! Poochyena grew to lv. 10 and learned Sand Attack and Poison Fang!

 

[{Swan}]

Chapter 5
Part 1
Free Post
Number if Posts: 1-2​

You are entirely healed up, confident and maybe a little bit disturbed by the abduction, but this doesn't stop you from going out to Route 116. You have defeated a gym after all, you feel invincible!
Up ahead is a forest-like route, with a thick path going up to the large tunnel connecting Rustboro to Verdanturf. There are lots of Pokémon poking their curious heads out, most noticeably might be the various cries that could only belong to Whismur, but there's plenty of other things to explore, and other trainers exploring.


Catchable Pokémon:

Whismur

Level: 6-7
Moves: Pound, Uproar
Common


Sentret

Level: 6-7
Moves: Scratch, Foresight, Defense Curl, Quick Attack
Common

Nidoran

Level: 6-8
Moves: Growl, Scratch, Tail Whip
Uncommon


Ekans

Level:6-8
Moves: Wrap, Leer, Poison Sting
Uncommon


Skitty

Level: 5-8
Moves: Fake Out, Growl, Tail Whip, Tackle, Attract, Sing
Rare


Shinx

Level: 4-9
Moves: Tackle, Leer
Very Rare

Part 2
Creepy-Ass Doubts
Number of Posts: 1
(Asphodel and Tartarus only)​

You arrive at the mouth of the famous Rusturf Tunnel. The tunnel is big and sharp, with an asphalt flooring and big TL-lights on the ceiling to light it. The only Pokémon in sight are the few Zubat that have chosen this spot as a place to sleep. The walls are completely smooth at first, but the farther you go into the tunnel, the more creases and claustrophobic little paths there are, branching out from the main tunnel.


Asphodel Heirs:

Spoiler:

You've been walking the tunnel for a long while when you hear something behind you. You spin around just as someone grabs you and pulls you in one of the larger side-tunnels. The person in front of you wears blue robes over casual clothing. You are immediately distrustful, they might remind you of the red-robed creeps that abducted you a day before. You might react in distrust at first, and the person doesn't really disclose any information about themselves.


"Listen! I don't have a whole lot of time to chat with you, but there's something really important that you need to know." You decide to hear him out, for all it's worth. "There's this bunch of trainers, you know the ones you started out with. They're not who you think they are. In fact, a pair of them is very dangerous." He pauses to let you sink it all in.


"There's these, two I think it is, they each have very brown eyes. Don't trust them, they are part of the Tartarus lot. Never trust them." You might object to this, depending on your personality, but something about it is nagging in your brain. Your instinct tells you that whoever those people are, the brown-eyed guys really aren't trustworthy.


"Look, I have to go, but we'll see you soon, we'll send for you. Remember, don't trust them! The only one you can really trust is that other one with the blue eyes!" Within the blink of an eye he's gone, and you're left with a seed in your brain sprouting worries rapidly.

Tartarus Heirs:

Spoiler:

You've been walking the tunnel for a long while when you hear something behind you. You spin around just as someone grabs you and pulls you in one of the larger side-tunnels. The person in front of you wears blue robes over casual clothing. You are immediately distrustful, they might remind you of the red-robed creeps that abducted you a day before. You might react in distrust at first, and the person doesn't really disclose any information about themselves.


"Listen! I don't have a whole lot of time to chat with you, but there's something really important that you need to know." You decide to hear him out, for all it's worth. "There's this bunch of trainers, you know the ones you started out with. They're not who you think they are. In fact, a pair of them is very dangerous." He pauses to let you sink it all in.


"There's these, two I think it is, they each have very blue eyes. Don't trust them, they are part of the Asphodel lot. Never trust them." You might object to this, depending on your personality, but something about it is nagging in your brain. Your instinct tells you that whoever those people are, the blue-eyed guys really aren't trustworthy.


"Look, I have to go, but we'll see you soon, we'll send for you. Remember, don't trust them! The only one you can really trust is that other one with the brown eyes!" Within the blink of an eye he's gone, and you're left with a seed in your brain sprouting worries rapidly.

Elysium: You can just add the tunnel part to the end of your free post(s).


all of you end the post with climbing out of the tunnel and into Verdanturf.

 

[{Swan}]

~Proddit - Great post, now off to the next chapter :D

Pidgey grew to lv. 8! Venonat grew to lv. 13 and learned Poison Powder!!

 

[YoshiRiRu]

OOC: This is just one of two free posts im gonna do. Then I'll go into ze tunnel.

Rustboro City – Pokemon Center

The night progressed slowly. Axel's mind turned circles around itself and around the desperate cries of the mother pleading for her child's life.

My son…
My beautiful son…

Axel was awakened at the all too early hour of 7:30 AM by the pain in his leg politely knocking at his mind. Grumpily answering the call, Axel sat up, his head still swimming to the surface of consciousness. Cracking first his neck, then his back, then his fingers, Axel got out of bed. Even walking around his room, his leg smarted angrily, and Axel decided to tell the Nurse on duty, maybe getting something for the road ahead. He gathered his few belongings and made his way downstairs to the lobby of the Pokemon Center.

He stepped into the infirmary, and the familiar face of Nurse Joy looked up at him from behind a mountain of paperwork and tutted, her arms crossed. "Let me guess." She said, a triumphant sort of look in her eyes. "Your leg hurts?" Catching Axel's eyes falling to the floor, she sighed and clicked her tongue again. "Didn't I tell you not to go out on that leg? What did I tell you?" Axel started to speak.

"I-" he stammered.

"I don't want to hear it!" Nurse Joy interrupted impatiently. "Either way, my best advice is still to not walk around on it. You're not thinking of leaving the city today, are you?" she seemed to wait for him to answer but cut him off again as soon as he took a breath to even begin to answer. "Oh, who am I kidding? You're a trainer. Of course you are. Well, here." She said, turning and rummaging through her cabinet, producing a small bottle. "Drink a bit of this, and at least wait an hour for it to kick in before you're off tramping through the wilderness on that leg of yours. Now go on, I have things to tend to." With an irritated scowl she waved him out of the room, before sitting down and returning to her paperwork.

Once he collected his pokemon from the front desk, Axel glanced suspiciously at the nondescript bottle that the nurse handed him. Pokedexedril, the label read. For moderate to severe pain relief. Recommended dosage; one tablespoon, as needed. Do not take more than 4 tablespoons in a period of 24 hours. Grabbing a plastic spoon from his bag, (he usually kept some form of silverwear with him) he poured a tablespoon of the viscous, evil looking purple liquid onto the spoon, and reluctantly swallowed it. As it snaked its way down his throat, Axel nearly gagged. "Tastes like the inside of a Kangaskhan's pouch…" he choked, not thinking of any other way he could possibly explain it. He put the medicine away and sat down, his leg throbbing worse than ever. Soon after, however, the devil's liquid seemed to be doing its job, as his leg had quieted down considerably.

Rustboro City

He stepped out of the Pokemon Center into the brisk morning air, and felt himself wake up instantly. Axel had always loved the smell of morning air, and he found that it rejuvenated him like nothing else could. He looked around at the still stirring city and made his way north. He passed the spot where only 12 hours before, Daniella Brown had been sobbing uncontrollably in the midst of a giant crowd. Now, all that remained was a young girl trying to teach her Psyduck to dance, an endeavor that was likely to fail, as the duck pokemon was neither interested nor even awake. Axel sighed and moved on, noting that that was the nature of cities; each individual event means nothing in the grand identity and memory of a huge city. It was the job of the individual, not the city, to remember the good times and the bad… especially the bad. He found himself entertaining a notion to call Professor Holly about the incident, especially because it had to do with the group that had taken him before, but he remembered her words from before and decided against it. There's way more to this situation than meets the eye, he thought. I guess I'll figure things out as they go along.

Route 116

The road out of Rustboro was straightforward enough, so after a short time Axel was outside of the city, the stone city streets now devolved into a well-travelled dirt pathway. This dirt path led him to a wooded area covered in high grass . Through the grass and trees Axel saw in the distance what he assumed to be the Rusturf tunnel, or that's what the signs said at least. Axel trekked through the tall grass, the large entrance of the tunnel looming ever closer. Right as he was about to enter the tunnel, a booming voice called out to him from beneath a nearby tree. "Say, kid!"

Axel wheeled around and saw a rather beefy man standing slowly up, his walking stick and hat complementing his beaming face and rugged beard. "Say, kid! Wait a sec!" he repeated in his booming voice. The man walked over to Axel and peered down at his bag, frowning. "'Zat what I think it is?" he pointed to the flap of Axel's bag. Looking down, he realized what he was talking about.

"The Rustboro gym badge?" Axel asked. He had decided that he would secure them to the pocket of his bag for safe keeping, but also to brag a little bit. "Yeah. I got it yesterday." The man chortled heartily.

"Ha! Looks like Roxanne's as big of a softy as she ever was! Look at you, you couldn't beat up a fish on land!" Axel raised an eyebrow but the man apparently paid no attention. "Clark's the name!" he cried, clapping Axel jovially on the back. "And if you want to see a real rock trainer, then look no further! Come on! It's early; it'll be good for you! Let's battle!"

"Look, pal, I-" Axel began, but Clark had already grabbed a Pokeball.

"Onix! Go!" Upon it's release, the rock snake's mighty roar shook the nearby trees, and several Pokemon fled in terror. "Gwah hah ha! What's the matter, junior? You scared?" Axel did not respond. Instead, he grabbed Bellsprout's Pokeball and tossed it in front of him, where the petite pokemon was released with a flash. Clark nearly doubled over in laughter. "Oh ho ho! What a sight this is! This ain't no time for a David and Goliath effort, son!"

Axel was getting more and more aggravated by the second. With a twitch of his eye, he grinned a big fake grin. "Go ahead. Your move." The hiker guffawed and shrugged.

"Your funeral, boy! Onix! Iron Tail!" The rock snake lifted its massive tail which had turned as hard as steel, and swung it with incredible force at the small plant. Axel noticed quickly that he was aiming rather high and with a lot more force than necessary.

"Bellsprout, get low. Right as he comes over you, see if you can't trip him with his own momentum." Bellsprout nodded and flattened her body out along the dirt pathway, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. As the roaring beast sailed clean over Bellsprouts head, she used one of her powerful tendrils to pull down a stray tree limb, which Onix tripped over. With a roar of confusion, Onix toppled to the floor, taken down by its own inertia.

"Bellsprout! Vine whip!" Axel ordered.

"Argh! Onix, get out of there!" cried Clark.

Bellsprout's powerful vines smashed into the rock snake and it tumbled to the ground in defeat. Clark smiled.

"Well, looks like you're the real deal, kid!" he cried, clapping Axel hard on the back, nearly knocking him over. "Guess you earned that badge fair and square. That's a pretty powerful little bellsprout you've got there!" Axel nodded.

"So I've been told." He said with a smile.

 

[{Swan}]

~Yoshi - Great post, I loved the hiker <3

Bellsprout grew to lv. 11 and learned Wrap!

 

[Underoos]

Chapter 5 (1/2): Clair De Lune

Chad whistled to himself a random little tune he had stuck in his head. He felt completely on air. For some reason, Chad felt invincible, but it was probably just the winning having gone to his head. Chad would never admit that though, because he totally wasn't that type of guy. Nope, not that type of guy at all. So now he was heading out on Route 116. It looked rather forest-y, and Chad decided that it suited him just fine. As he began to walk, he noticed numerous Pokémon looking at him curiously. He also heard several loud voices. It made him wince, but he just kept going. There was plenty here to explore.

He was almost ten minutes into the route when his stomach growled. Chad blinked and glanced down. He stopped in the middle of the road and then pulled out a small bag of chips he had still left in his backpack. Hopefully, he thought as he eyed two sandwiches, I can make it to the next city. He didn't want to starve, now did he? No, exactly. Chad popped a BBQ flavored chip in his mouth and continued along the route. He would occasionally pop another in his mouth as he went. Chad was enjoying the scenery, sure, but a part of him was uneasy. Chad sighed heavily, I feel like I feel homesick. I don't want to feel homesick. This is no fun… He crumpled the empty bag in his hands and stuffed it in the side pocket of his backpack. That was when his phone started to ring. Chad perked up and glanced at the number. Sweeeeeeeeet, he thought, immediately happy. He answered it.

"Why did you call me at seven in the morning? It's like one of the few days I get to laze about, and you call me at seven in the morning!" she half screeched in his ear. Chad winced. She wasn't a morning person, and he had accidentally forgotten that in his haste to call her earlier.

"But…Selene," he whined, "I had something really important to tell you. And you know you love me too much to just not talk to me!" Chad sniffed, feigning hurt. She sighed on the other end. That was basically a sigh that meant for Chad to just tell her already. So, that's exactly what he did. "You see," he began, "here I was in the middle of this creepy forest after snagging an evil Scyther that tried to kill my guitar—"

"What?" she interrupted.

"Just go with it," he replied. She was probably rolling her eyes on the other end, but she didn't say anything. "Anyway…then I saw a Cyndaquil! And I know you love those funky little weasel things, so I was like I should catch this for her." Chad cleared his throat briefly. "So then I chased it all around. I was like an inch from using my Pokeball when I suddenly blacked out!"

"It knocked you out?" She started cracking up. Chad's face heated.

"No! Someone else did smarty pants."

"Oh, my bad."

"Anyway," Chad grumbled, "I woke up and I was in this cage thing with this other kid. There were these weird people there. One of 'em said something weird to me, and then talked about cutting off my finger, so me being me, I snapped right back. But I sadly didn't get to finish my awesome sentence."

"Do I even have to guess what said sentence was?" Selene questioned lightly. She probably already knew the answer.

"Nah, you probably don't," Chad replied. A grin spread across his face as he sat down under a tree.

"But you really should've caught that Cyndaquil. Jeez, make me depressed why don't you," she mumbled. Chad frowned. He knew she was joking, but a teensy part of him said that a teensy part of her wasn't. "So! How many Pokémon have you caught? Just that annoying Scyther?"

"Naw, I caught a Poochyena and…er…wait, that's it," Chad said. "I got a Buizel as my starter though." Chad knew that she had just changed the subject, but he didn't feel inclined to mention it.

"I don't even know what that is," Selene replied. "But that's alright. I have to go anyway."

"Oh…" Chad said. He sighed softly. "Bye."

"Bye."

Chad sighed and leaned against the tree. He stared up at the thick leaves silently. Generally talking to Selene made him feel a lot better, but right now he wasn't so sure. Honestly he felt like a complete jerk. Chad took out his guitar and began to play. The tune was something he'd known for a long time. Actually it was the first song he played for her—Clair De Lune. Truthfully he was half numb while playing it. He was thinking but somehow managing to play at the same time. Chad had been playing since he was about eight though, so that factor probably contributed. Suddenly there was something that caught his eye. Three big, roundish Pokémon were standing in front of him. Chad blinked slowly. They were staring at his guitar.

Chad kept playing, but eyed the Pokémon carefully. What is up with wild Pokémon and my precious guitar? He thought, eyes narrowing silently. They seemed to sway their round bodies to the music. Then he finished the song. The Pokémon paused and stared. Chad swallowed harshly. The Pokémon's faces crumpled, and then they suddenly began to wail. Chad yelped and clapped his hands to his ears, guitar falling directly on his lap. The Pokémon paused, and Chad decided to take that opportunity to start playing the song again. The Pokémon suddenly quieted. Chad quickly thought of an idea, and glanced at the three Pokeballs on his belt. If I get to them, then I can get these guys away from me, Chad thought. He deliberately slowed the pace of the song further, and then carefully positioned his hands close to their Pokeballs.

Finally his hand hit all three of the little white buttons. Chad grinned as his Pokémon appeared. The wild ones looked surprised and taken aback—they were obviously into the tunes. Buizel quickly slammed into all three of them at once in a harsh quick attack. The Pokémon were so surprised they had failed to launch an attack. Chad stopped playing instantly and ordered different moves for each of his Pokémon.

Scyther followed up on the Whismur with a quick attack of her own. Upon order, Poochyena charged one with a tackle. Buizel brought up the rear by using a water gun on the final one. The Whismur got up as Chad's Pokémon backed off. Chad smirked, ha…they'll probably run off now. That's when they starting bellowing in funky harmonies that made Chad's ears hurt. Chad groaned and clapped his hands to his ears. His Pokémon winced from the sheer loudness. Chad whipped out his Pokedex quickly and skimmed it over. Poochyena has a new move, he realized.

"Poochyena, use poison fang!" Chad called sharply. Poochyena charged in and snapped his purple-laced jaws down on one of the Whismur. The purple ball cried out, shrieks stopping instantly. When Poochyena hopped away, Chad saw the Whismur's face go a funny shade as it keeled over. Chad blinked. Did that seriously just…? He wondered. The other Whismur stared, and then looked at Chad with a very odd look on their faces. They didn't look happy. Suddenly they began to cry and hop around, stomping their little feet. Buizel, Scyther, and Poochyena all flinched and shuddered. Chad looked at his Pokedex, and was surprised. This was actually some form of attack that did damage! Well crap, he thought.

"Bui!" Buizel cried, attempting to cover his ears. He shook his head a couple times, but that didn't seem to help much. Poochyena was growling continuously. Scyther was hissing and looked like she was about to pounce and tear their throats out. Chad frowned.

"Poochyena, go attack the one to the left with tackle. Scyther you take down the one on the right using quick attack. Once they get out of the way, you use sonic boom to finish the combo Buizel," Chad said. It was a slightly rocky plan, but they were only wild Pokémon. Chad figured it would work—this time.

Poochyena darted in with Scyther a few paces ahead. The Whismur attempted to block the attacks, but their speed was nothing. Scyther knocked one into the other, and Poochyena smashed his fangs down. The Whismur cried out as they tumbled together. Buizel then used a sonic boom, sending familiar shock waves directly towards the Whismur. Within seconds, the Pokémon were slowly getting up and backing away. It was virtually over. Chad sighed and recalled his Pokémon after briefly thanking them. Then, without another thought, he slung his guitar case over his shoulder and stood. He played his guitar as he walked, strumming the same song over and over.

 

[{Swan}]

~ Fenris - Great post, I loved reading the phone call

Buizel grew to lv. 12! Poochyena grew to lv. 11! Scyther grew to lv 9 and learned Pursuit!

 

[{Swan}]

~ ShadowDragon - I really liked this post, the strategy with the fingers was great.

Stunky grew to lv. 16 and learned Smoke Screen and Pursuit! Would you like to delete one move for either of these? (Answer in OOC please)

----

Seph's head ached as he woke up. He still had a bruise from being clubbed on the back of his head, but other than a big headache, he was fine. His memory of the night before was still blurry, he got teleported back to the pokemon center, boasting about his victory to the nurses. Unaware of his own tiredness, he had blacked out right there in the lobby. Now he was in a clear white room, one that seemed much to clean and white to his liking, in bed. He saw his clothes folded on a chair next to him, and he wondered when he had taken them off. The truth was, he hadn't. He blushed when he realized the nurse had had to strip him out of his clothes.

He stumbled over to the sink in the corner of the room, and quickly washed his face. He could see his own tiredness disappear, and he decided to take a shower too. He came out clean and refreshed, his head didn't hurt anymore, and he was glad when he was back in his clothes. He went downstairs, and at the sight of him the nurse behind the desk smiled.

"Had a good rest?" The lady asked, she must have been the one who helped him upstairs.

"Err, yes…" He fell quiet.

"Need your pokemon back?" She inclined.


"Uhh, yes please ma'm," He watched the nurse go into the back, and she returned with a pokeball. Gracefully, he accepted the poke ball, said his thanks, and paid his fine. He scurried out of the pokemon center, and realized he was hungry. He looked around and jolted with awareness as he realized he was in rustborro. It was certainly bigger than petalburg had been, even tough petalburg was considered a city. Rustborro was also much more modern, he noticed a big tv station, and some other big building with satellites. There was also a huge building with a billboard of a pokenav on top of it, and finally the gym. Other than that there were houses and some shops, he didn't care that much about the houses, but he wanted to buy some stuff.


He took his pokeball off his belt and released Stripes. "Stripes ya hungry?" He asked his stunky, but it shook his head. "Right, ate at the center?" The pokemon nodded, and Seph wondered if he should go back in to get some breakfast. He didn't like the cleanness of the pokemon center, and he was longing to explore rustborro. He ignored a protesting Stripes and walked over to one of the shops.


The shop was full of supplies, and Seph was sure he needed some. He remembered how the potion had worked the day before, and he decided to get a few in preparation for the gym battle. He went over to the counter and paid for the three potions, and two full heals. Stripes was calmly waiting outside, and followed Seph towards the pokemon center.


Seph thought the rustborro center was calm at first, there was the waiting room with the desk, and the staitwells. He walked past the desk, and went into the dining area of the center. This part however, was way more busy. Seph could see business men who had stayed overnight, young trainers, and local teens enjoying their lunch at the center. Most of them didn't even have a pokemon, which surprised Seph. He walked over to an empty corner table, near a window. It overlooked the gym, and Seph's couldn't help but grin, soon he would fight for his first gym badge.

After having a waffle, some fruit, and a bowl of yogurt, Seph went outside, towards the Rustborro gym. The gym looked like an average building, except for a big sign on front of it. Just outside, he saw a huge crowd watching a live news report.


"Behind me is the mother of the abducted child," A woman with a microphone said.


"Witnesses talked about a strange person, clad in entirely deep-red robes, carrying a limp body through the city. People described seeing this mysterious person running off with the child on his shoulder before disappearing into a shadow. No one can find him anywhere, but the police are searching the area for any clues where this person might have gotten."

"My son!" the woman cried frantically. Another in the center attempted to calm her down. "My beautiful son! He was there, I tell you, there! Right next to me!" Then she began to sob again.

"The mother of the child, Daniella Brown, was just done with shopping when her son, Nico, got taken. The kidnapper assumingly came up from behind and pressed a chemical against Nico's nose to make him faint. He then hoisted the child over his shoulders and ran away with him. If you see anyone, presumably a male, in deep red robes covering his entire being, please call the police right away. This was Genevieve Thomson, signing off."

As the lady finished her report, something dawned on Seph. Deep-red robes? He remembered something about deep-red robes… The lady from that christmas party? ~no, Maybe the nurse from the pokemon center… Then he remembered the lady from the night before, she wore dark-red robes.


~Stupid, should have thought of that earlier~ He scowled himself. Even tough he sorta felt sorry for the woman, he wanted to get his gym badge first. He left the crowd behind, and entered the gym building.


He saw a lone woman, still in her younger years, talking to a group of people. She looked up when Seph closed the doors behind him, and she beckoned for him to come closer.


"The last challenger left a couple of minutes ago, and you're the third one today, so please hold on a minute while my pokemon heal up." She smiled at him, and he quickly nodded. Then she went back to her conversation with the assistants.

Since he had some spare time, he took out Stripes, and discussed battle strategies. He had to think of Stripes' whole arsenal, scratch, focus energy, poison gas, screech, and fury swipes. He knew this was a rock type gym, so scratch and fury swipes wouldn't do much good. Poison gas can't KO it either, meaning that this was going to be a helluva battle. He could tell stripes was restless, it was running around in the gym's scenery, dodging rocks, digging, and hiding in ditches. Surprisingly the whole gym seemed to be filled with scenery, making it hard to walk around the center of the gym. There was of course a thin path around the scenery, and there seemed to be windows all around.



"You ready?" He heard somebody say behind him, and he saw it was Roxanne, with two pokeballs in hand.

"Uhh, yeah, where do we fight?" He asked the gym leader, who was now almost at the other side of the hall.


"Why, right here of course!" She shouted through the hall. "We change the setting of the gym every hour, you were fortunate enough to experience the rock part," she grinned.


Uhuh, here? With all these rocks, that was going to be a problem. ~or not~ He silently thought. He started adjusting his strategy when the judge entered the hall, and took his position on a heightened stage.

"The battle between gym leader Roxanne and the challenger is about to begin!" He called out, and raised up two flags. "Basic league regulations apply, two pokemons may be used, the challenger may switch at any time." He lowered the flags in a quick motion.


"Wait, two pokemon?" He yelled out before Roxanne could release her first pokemon, who frowned. "I only have one pokemon," he explained.


"Well, you're going to just have to deal with that, or catch another pokemon, regulations are I use two pokemon," She said with sympathy.


"Alright then, I guess I'll just use my one pokemon," He walked back into what he thought was his square, he just slightly make out some red lines in between some rocks. Stripes followed him back, and Seph gave a thumbs up when they were both in position.


"Now then, get em' shieldon!" She threw one of her pokeballs, and a big iron cow-pig thingy appeared. It was too small to call it a bull, and it's head was humongous; kind of like an ox or some sort.


Seph opened up his pokedex and scanned the pokemon. Steel type, this wasn't going to be easy. He actually had no idea of how poison was going to react to steel, much less normal typed moves. He decided to play it safe, and showed Stripes two fingers with one hand, and four fingers on the other. For his left hand, he used direct commands, one finger offensive, two fingers defensive, three fingers evasive, and four fingers would be used to decide a specific strategy. On his other hand, for evasive one finger meant direct assault to see how the opponent will react, two fingers meant flanking and waiting for an opportunity, three meant exploring the opponents weaknesses, four fingers meant dodging and studying the opponent. In this case, he wanted Stunky to use the last one.


Roxanne had no idea of what he was doing, and decided to make Shieldon use head butt. "Shieldon, get in there!" She yelled, and shieldon shot forward.


"Stripes! Remember!" He encouraged his pokemon, who was waiting for shieldon on a rock, hopefully hindering it's progress. Though it's small size, shieldon was buff enough to break through the rocks in it's way. Stripes waited for it to come closer, there was a clear path where rocks trailing behind the shieldon. Stripes waited until the last moment, and jumped up wards. Shieldon looked up, but couldn't slow down with all its momentum. The rock crumpled as Shieldon broke through, and skidded to a halt about twelve meters further.


Seph grinned, knowing this could work out to his advantage, and at least he knew one of it's powerful attacking moves. Stripes looked at him, but he still held up four fingers. ~Just wait a bit more~ He silently pleaded. Stripes understood, and jumped over the rocks. Seph already knew where he was heading, a big cluster of rocks, stacked up on top of each other. Shieldon would have a hard time getting up there.


Roxanne was quick to counter, "shieldon use metal sound!" The shieldon unleashed a metallic nerve wrecking soundwave. It felt like a skarmory was screeching right next to their ears. Stripes who was almost at the top now, heard the sound, and lost his balance, tumbling to the bottom of the hill.

Shieldon knew exactly what to do, and Seph was too intent on Stripes to notice him coming in for a head butt. He watched in dismay as Stripes got up, but then crashed into a rock. Shieldon was out of breath, from making continuous charges, but at least it hit.


"Stripes, move onto one four!" Seph yelled as he saw his pokemon regaining strength. Stripes immediately ran up to the unexpecting shieldon, and raised his claw.

"Pro-" One command that Shieldon was trained to use directly after hearing the first syllable. "tect!" Shield had already set up a huge barrier, and Stripes' claw bounced right off.

Seph summed up all he knew up to that point, Shieldon had about ten to thirteen meters of extra momentum, and it could finish in at least a circle with a four meter diameter from where Seph could expect it to be. Metal Sound was used to frighten Stripes, but was otherwise not very effective, whilst protect could protect from outside attacks. ~Outside attacks? That means…~


"Stripes, one two at the third cluster from your left!" Stripes ran up to a cone shaped cluster of rocks closed up at the top, with only one opening revealing the centre of the cluster. It disappeared for a few seconds, and came out with no apparent changes. "Now get to the third rock on the left of the second cluster in front of you!" It sounded complicated, but Stripes managed to follow his directions.


Shieldon was coming in with a head butt, genuinely crashing through the rocks, towards Stripes. Seph was right; from its starting point towards the rock Stripes was standing on, would form a direct angle, carrying Shieldon towards the cone.

"Use a one three before it gets too close!" Stripes whose eyes were now blurry and staring, began to glow red. ~Just a few more seconds~ Seph pleaded, when he saw Shieldon coming in for the hit. ~Yes!~ Stripes was done focusing, now for the dodge… "Wait for my command!" Shieldon was almost there.

"Now!" The word rang out through the field, and Stripes jumped straight up into the air. Shieldon missed again, and bounded on. "Follow it Stripes! He commanded, and Stripes ran behind it."

"Heh, we can get headbutts in all day, I just hope your pokemon won't get tired!" She taunted, but then she saw Shieldon crash into the cone of rocks, with Stripes hard on its tail. "Protect!" She commanded, and raised her lips into a sneer when she saw Stripes stop dead in front of the barrier.

"Hah!" She sneered, not noticing that the barrier was growing purple. "Shieldon use headbutt!"

Shieldon did not use headbutt, in fact it came out of the barrier coughing.


"Smart making Shieldon use protect, in a cone filled with poisonous gas!" Seph sneered, he had hoped she would do this, Shieldon could have just ran out, but now he was rooted in place surrounded with gas. As soon as Shieldon bounded out, the final step of their plan commenced. A furious focus energy- fury swipes combination from Stripes took care of the rest. Shieldon slumped to the ground, and Roxanne had no choice but to return it.

Seph's thoughts cleared, and he grinned happily. "So I guess I get my badge now?" He sneered at Roxanne.


"Don't try to be a smartass," she scolded. "I have my final pokemon," She threw her second ball and a big tree came out.

His face contorted with dismay, when the pokedex entrée stated that it was a rock, not a grass type. "Damn it, couldn't you have chosen to have a grass type gym?"


Roxanne laughed, but immediately got back into focus. "Sudowoodo, low kick!" The tree immediately bounded towards stripes, and lashed out with a well aimed kick.


With a jolt he realized that both of them, Stripes and him that is, had never seen the move. Stripes was too close for him to go back and read the opponents moves. He saw Stripes look at him, desperation filling his eyes, but Seph was speechless. He had no idea of what to do except dodge, but sudowoodo seemed to be coming at a speed impossible for a tree that size.


"Stripes dodge!" It was too late, sudowoodo had reached Stripes, and Seph watched in awe as his pokemon crashed through the rocks.

Roxanne grinned, "If your pokemon had been heavier this would have been devastating."


Ah, that kind of attack Seph recognized. Now he just had to find the last pieces of the puzzle to counter this move successfully. Of course sudowoodo had other moves, but that would come later. There was no need for signs anymore, so he just called it out.


"Stripes, come back here!" At the sound of the order, the badly bruised pokemon scurried back to it's owner. Seph looked up, and spoke to Roxanne "Since you're using a second pokemon, I guess I'll use this," he winked and sprayed Stripes with a potion. The pokemon looked fully refreshed, before Roxanne or Sudowoodo could make a move.


"Great stripes, now destroy him!" This battle was taking way longer than it should have, and Seph was sick of it. "Poison Gas!" A cloud of gas floated towards sudowoodo, but it ran across the field, dodging. "Alright then, fury swipes!" Stripes darted forward, but sudowoodo was too quick.

"Copycat!" Sudowoodo suddenly swiped at Stripes, making Stripes run back to Seph. Copycat was an interesting move, but this was not the time to admire a move. "Seriously," he told Stripes. "I have no clue what's however on how to beat this guy except for brute strength. Now use a screech, focus energy, poison gas, fury swipes, scratch, combo." That was about every move he could think of, and he watched as Stripes screeched at sudowoodo, making it cower behind Roxanne. Now Stripes had enough time to focus correctly, but he still had to make a direct hit with focus energy.

"Wait for it…" He pleaded Stripes.

"Sudowoodo, low kick!" Roxanne commanded, and sudowoodo began running again.

"As soon as he extends his leg, do a kamikaze poison gas." He said, careful not to amplify his voice too much. He anxiously waited until Sudowoodo came into reach, and hoped Stripes would get the timing right. "Yes!" Sudowoodo kicked Stripes, but at that moment Stripes unleashed a focused poison gas, making sudowoodo tumble through the rocks. With a screech in, and Stripes not being big, low kick did minimal damage, but it still hurt. Stripes slowly stood up, with new scratches and matted fur. Realizing Sudowoodo hadn't recovered, it ran over to the pokemon and scratched it; and again, and again, and again. Seph wondered how long this would continue, and he looked towards Roxanne to see how much this would affect her.

Roxanne had been overconfident at the start, she was sure that sudowoodo could take a hit. Her confidence was lost when she saw that Stripes was scratching it non-stop, but sudowoodo would be alright, it was a rock pokemon, how much could this hurt? Her eyes became blurry, and suddenly she decided it was enough. "Stop it! Stop it right now!" She yelled out, and Stripes backed away.

Seph walked over to sudowoodo, and saw that it had been long knocked out. It was in no state to fight anymore, and he wasn't surprised when the referee waved his flags.

"The challenger has been victorious!" The man decided his part was done, and walked out, leaving Seph with Roxanne.

"Hmpf, I guess you earned it," Roxanne gave Seph a stone badge, and took sudowoodo away, leaving Seph in the lone gym.

"Good job Stripes." He smiled awkwardly at his pokemon, knowing that it hadn't liked being used as bait. "Hey," he tried to make the pokemon cheer up. "At least we won," he winked and signaled for Stripes to follow him out the gym.