The New League

[Charzeon]

(OOC: Well, time for some major catch up.)

Sara Goodman panted as she sprinted across the Sandgem Town. The auburn haired girl did her best to reach the Laboratory in time, cursing herself as she ran.

"Oh yeah, nice going there moron," Sara muttered to herself, "just great. This is the only day that you've looked forward to since forever, and what do you do? You sleep in!! 'Oh, I don't need to set the alarm' you said to yourself 'I'll wake myself up'! Well look at ya know! Guess who woke you up? You're mother! And then your dad had trouble with starting the car so that you could even get to this town and now-"

Sara stopped talking to herself when she realized that she had reached the Lab. Not even thinking twice, she burst through the door. This startled the brown haired professor who couldn't even get one word out before Sara said, "Hi. I'm Sara. I want Pokemon. Now. Hurry!"

"Oh, um...Sara Goddman, correct?" Prof. Rowan asked, getting a nod from the girl. "Ah, I see. Well, luckily for you, you've arrived just in time. We only have one Pokemon left so I'm afraid you'll have to do with it."

"Figures," Sara muttered, sighing deeply. I just made sense that she would get the last Pokemon they had. It was probably something stupid like a Pidgey or Weedle or even a Magikarp.

"Yes, well, here it is," Prof. Rowan said, taking a red and white ball and pushing a button in the middle. The ball opened up and a small, dark Pokemon that seemed to float and had large, blue/yellow eyes. As the Pokemon looked around, the professor said, "Sara, say hello to your starter, Shuppet."

Sara blinked. Of all the Pokemon she thought she would be getting, she definitely didn't think that she would be getting a Ghost type. The girl bent down to the Shuppets eye level and the two stared at each other for a while. Then the Shuppet let out a happy cry and charged Sara, nearly knocking her over. The girl laughed and hugged the ghost.

"Alright! I like her!" Sara laughed. "I'll take her!"

Rowan smiled, happy to see that the two seemed to like eachother so much already. He then coughed, getting the Shuppet and girl's attention. "Well, know that you two have met, I have a few things to give you. First, I want you to have this Pokedex," he handed the large, and somewhat clunky machine to Sara, "and these Pokeballs. Now, Pokeballs are-"

"Oh you don't have to tell me!" Sara said cheerfully. "I remember reading a bit about them in a magazine. They're the newest invention for catching Pokemon, right?"

"That is correct," Rowan said with a nod.

"Exactly! From what I read, they sounded pretty good."

"So you wouldn't mind taking them?" Rowan asked.

"Not at all!" Sara chirped. "I don't even have any Apriballs anyways, so I'll take what ever I can get."

"Very well then," Rowan said with a nod, then gave Sara her Pokeballs. "Well, now you're ready to go. But first, do you want to nick name your Shuppet?"

"Hmm..." Sara mused, looking at her started. "...How about Angela? What do you think about that?" When the Shuppet cried out happily, the girl grinned. "Alright then Angela! Let's get this party started."

"Yes, I wish you-" Rowan started to say, but stopped whent he girl shoved her equipment into her pack and ran out shouting 'Bye'! The Shuppet right behind her. The Pokemon Professor couldn't help but chuckle. "Well, that girl looks like an interesting one."

-/-/-

Sara hummed quietly to herself as she walked into Route 302. A hand on her strape of her pack as she looked around at the forest area surrounding her. On her shoulder, Angela leaned against her head, seeming to be taking a nap. The girl didn't mind. As long as the Shuppet woke up when a wild Pokemon appeared, Sara had no problems with what her starter was doing.

"I'm actually a bit tired myself," Sara said, then shook her head. "No! Don't talk like that! That's what got you in trouble in the first place!" She sighed to herself, then said, "Well, anyways, the first thing I should do is find a Pokemon and catch it. That should help me out some."

Sara stopped talking to herself then and just concentrated on walking. Pretty soon, she had left the town behind her and was now really in the route. Angela muttered something and stirred slightly. Suddenly, she bolted up right and looked around her. Sara felt her starter move suddenly and stopped walking.

"What is it Angela?" Sara asked looking around. "Did you sense something?"

The Shuppet just made growling like a sound and glared at some bushes. Sara followed her gaze and, just as she did, the bushes started to rattle. The girl tensed as the bushes continued to rattle. Then, a bird like Pokemon burst from the bushes and landed a bit away from the two. It looked around it and started to peck randomly at the ground.

"Hey, that's a Starly isn't it?" Sara asked Angela, though she knew the Ghost type couldn't answer her. She took out her Pokedex from her pack and, after taking a couple steps closer, aimmed it at the Starly.

"Starly, the Starling Pokemon. Because they are weak individually, they form large group. However, they bicker if the group becomes too large."

"Huh, interesting," Sara said as she put the Pokedex away. "Well, what do you say to catching this Pokemon Angela?"

"Shuppet!" Angela called out happily, floating down from her trainer's shoulder and glared at the Starly. The bird seemed to sense the ghost and turned to face Angela. It then let out a strong cry and ruffled it's feathers, ready for a fight.

"Alright, this is great," Sara said with a grin. "Lets get this started. First of all Angela, use Screech, then hit it hard with a Payback!"

"Shup!" Angela said, then let out a loud, screeching like noise. The Starly cried out as the sound assalted it's ears and flinched slighlty. The Puppet Pokemon then charged at the Starly, the tip of it's head glowing darkly as it made contact with the bird.

The Starly cried out in pain, then shook it's head to get it back in the time at hand. It glared at Angela before rushing at it in a blur like speed. Both Angela and Sara brached themselve for impact...but nothing happened. The Starly went right though Angela!

All three blinked in surprised. The Starly recovered first and, with a vengful cry, tried to hit Angela again with another Quick attack. Yet still nothing happened to the Puppet Pokemon. With another frusturated cry, the Starly continued to try to hit the Puppet with no success. Sara then shook her head and grinned. Remembering that Normal attacks can't hit Ghosts and vise versa. She was also thankful that Angela know Dark moves, other wise this battle would had been impossible for either side to win.

"Alright Angela, use another another Screech, then hit it with a Knock Off!" Sara called out to her starter.

Angela grinned, knowing that the bird had no chance at winning, and used Screech again. This casued the Starly to stopped once more, giving Angela enough time to hit it, knocking it back a bit. Before either Sara or the Starly could do any more, the ghost suddenly used it's Payback attack, knocking the bird into a tree. The Starly fell to the ground and stay there, limb.

"I guess it's now or never," Sara said as she took out one of the Pokeballs. She threw the red and white ball at the Starly, hitting it's body. The girl watched as the ball opened up and the bird disappeared in a red light into it.

The ball then hit the ground and started shake as the Pokemon in side it continued to stuggle. It shook once...twice...a third time and...

 

[{Swan}]

Strikit - Nice post, I'm still liking the Ethan-Caterpie thing.

Congratulations, Ethan caught a lv. 4 Male Rattata!

Koroc - Good post. Pichu against Pikachu, hm?

Pichu grew to lv. 8!

Rockman0 - Oh the joys of a raging Mankey. Good post, I liked it.

Mankey grew to lv. 8!

Charzeon - I liked your double post, it was good.

Sara received a Shuppet (Angela).
Sara receiver five Poke Ball.
sara received a Pokedex.

Congratulations, Sara caught a lv. 3 Female Starly!

 

[Strikit]

The violent struggle between the Rattata and its new container continued for several minutes. Finally, just when Ethan had been sure it would burst out and flee, foiling his attempt to catch it, the ball stopped moving. It took a second for the thought to register in his brain, but when it did he bent down and retrieved the ball that now contained his Rattata. It felt slightly heavier than before in his hand, no doubt due to the introduction of a Pokemon inside it. It was no longer perfectly smooth and shiny; there were remnants of Caterpie's String Shot on it, as well as little flecks of dirt. He wiped it on his pants to get the removable stuff off. It still had a scratch here and there, but who cared, really? It had a Pokemon inside. His Pokemon. The first he had ever caught.

His awe was interrupted by Caterpie scuttling up his pants and onto his shoulder again. He sighed and glared at it, though less heatedly than before.

"It's going to be impossible to get rid of you, isn't it?"

Oblivious, it crooned softly and nuzzled him. Why it liked him so much, he would never know. It'd never seen him before today, nor had he ever come into contact with any bug Pokemon, besides a Scyther his cousin had owned. And that was not a larval worm, that was a truly amazing creature. Nothing like Caterpie could ever be.

Or could it? He appraised it through the corner of his eye. What did it evolve to? As basic information as that ought to be, he'd never had any reason to learn it, and as such had not. Would his Pokedex tell him, he wondered? He took it out of his pocket and pushed buttons here and there until he found what he was looking for. Across the screen scrolled new information.

'Metapod, the Cocoon Pokemon. This Pokemon is vulnerable to attack when its normally iron hard shell is soft, exposing its tender and weak body.'

Yet again, Ethan was frustrated.

"Are you ever not going to be useless?" he said furiously. It didn't answer him this time. The silence only made him angrier. Finally he reached up to his shoulder and grabbed it with both hands, plucking it from his shirt. "I'm done being your trainer. You can stay here and get eaten by a Starly for all I care."

He put it down and started walking again at a blistering pace. The little Caterpie hurried to keep up with him, but its tiny feet were no match for his long legs. It cried out, as though it didn't know he was intentionally leaving it. He only sped up. Its calls became more desperate as it pushed its body to the limit, but it simply was not enough. It slowed, exhausted, large eyes confused. Where was its master going? Didn't he know it had fallen behind? Well, it wouldn't give up. It didn't want to disappoint master, no matter what. So it continued on, following his footprints. Every time it saw his shape on the horizon it chirped excitedly and sped up, but he was always faster, and it always fell behind. Its only hope was to catch him when he stopped. Surely he couldn't keep that up forever.

Several feet ahead, Ethan pushed himself forward, ignoring the stitch forming in his side. He had to outrun the thing, to get away from it so that it could never find him again. At the back of his mind, his father's words echoed.

"Now, listen, Ethan. I don't know what starter you're getting, they weren't able to tell me. But I expect you to bring pride to the Sarvois name, no matter what it is. Even if it's a Wurmple, I expect you to raise it to its full potential and eliminate anyone who stands in your way. It is how I got to the top, and it is how you shall do the same."

He clenched his teeth, tears forming in his eyes. How could he be expected to bring pride to his name when his first Pokemon had been a Caterpie? How would that ever earn him respect? Insects were not known for being the strongest creatures on the planet, and that was all he could be seen with. The Sarvois name demanded it.

He would never tell anyone, he decided. He would never tell anyone that he had first obtained and then abandoned a Caterpie. This was in part due to the uncomfortable feeling in his stomach that had intensified and moved up to his chest. What he had done was despicable and he knew it. Everything in him wanted to turn back and find it, and ask it to forgive him. But what had been done was done, and he was not one to admit his wrongs, no matter how wrong they were. Besides, a Caterpie in this part of the world was rare. Surely some trainer would come upon it and take it into their party. He hoped so, for as much as he did not want to raise a bug, he also didn't actually want a Starly to eat it.

Pushing all these feelings aside, he continued onward towards Jubilife City. He would put all this behind him, never think of it again, and he would make up for lost time training his Rattata. Nothing would keep him down, not even a Caterpie carapace in his closet.

 

[Broadway]

On the way to Sandgem, Mackie had spent his time firmly on the road. He'd seen a couple of wild pokemon off in the distance two or three times, but they'd been the shy ones, and had fled.

This time, he was resolutely uninterested in taking the same route back. Uncle Red had had a saying that nothing was the same the next time you did it, but Mackie wasn't so sure--the gardens and orchards on the farm had been so familiar he could navigate them blindfolded (he really could--Caden and him had done it once. Caden had walked into a low-hanging branch and gotten a really superb bump on his head, but Mackie had done it perfectly, at least until he'd tripped over the hoe Caden had left in the third row... hoe's didn't count).

So he was off the path. Not too far as to be stupid--if his fuzzy-wings girl got in a battle and got worn down, he wanted to be able to reach the path again... but it was out of sight, off to the side. He kept his compass in the pocket of his overall front for easy checking. so he didn't end up getting too deep.

The Swablu was riding his head again, this time on his ball cap. He got his hair pulled less that way.

"Estelle?" he suggested. The Swablu made the low whistle-with-the-end-cut-off that he was getting used to mean 'no'. "Hmm. Clara?"

No.

"Ariane?"

No.

"Gertrude?" he asked, laughing.

NO! The whistle ended in a squawk that time, and the Swablu whumped him lightly with her wings.

"I dunno, pretty girl. You're picky."

"Blu," she replied, sounding very like "well, naturally."

Then she stiffened up, he felt it in the grip of her feet on his hat, and he stopped walking. "What's up?" he asked, keeping his voice quiet.

She took off from his head and glided forward to sit on a fallen log, looking back at him expectantly. There weren't any trees just ahead, so it was probably a clearing. He hadn't heard anything, but his Miss Wings probably heard better than he did.

He came forward, still keeping quiet, and found he'd been half-right. The forest past the fallen log opened up into a large open space, but it wasn't just grass or meadow. There was a rise in the ground on one end that water spilled over in a downright cute little waterfall. That waterfall was feeding a wide, mostly still pond. The water reflected the blue sky overhead, except for the mound of sticks that rose out of the middle. What Mackie thought the Swablu had been alerting him to, though, was the pair of chubby brown critters on the near edge of the pond. Stocky little Bidoof that were working at a tree trunk with some big teeth.

Mackie hunkered down behind the log, and then remembered to pull out the pokedex. Was he close enough?

The thing made some noises that startled him, and made him look up to make sure the Bidoof hadn't been scared off. The screen wasn't clear enough for him to read easily in the shady light of the forest, but he could see words scrolling up, so something was working. Good stuff. He left it open on his lap while he watched them.

While he watched, the Swablu walked off the log and up his arm, climbing back onto his head, and fussing around. Probably cleaning her feet. Mackie had noticed she like things nice and clean, like when they'd passed a gate with dusty brass knob decorations on the way out of Sandgem, and she'd gone over and polished them right up. Silly thing, she was--but maybe that's why Swablu lived around people, like the professor had told him. Lots of shiny stuff to clean! Keeping the wild places tidy was a lost cause.

There was a sudden loud cracking sound as the Bidoof's gnawing hit some critical point in the tree trunk. One of the pokemon jumped at the sound, and tumbled head-over-tail into the water with a splash.

With a few more cracking sounds, the tree tipped slooooowly but inexorably towards the pond, landing with a huge splash across the surface.

Bidoof heads popped up, one after other, five, maybe six, Mackie wasn't sure, they were bobbing around pretty fast, climbing up and falling off (falling off a lot... clumsy things. But determined!) the tree.

A flash of red in the corner of his eye made Mackie look over in the direction of where the tree had once stood, but there was nothing there. The flash came again, back over the half-drowned tree top. A... something was moving speedily in a swooping, angry-looking circle over the Bidoof's heads. Some of them ignored it, seemingly without any trouble at all, a couple of others stood up on hind feet to reply, and it paused for a moment, buzzing angrily at the slow murmur of the Bidoof, like an neighbor who'd finally had enough.

Mackie leaned over the log, bracing himself to squint now that the red thing was moving. It was FAST, it was AMAZING. Now it was hovering in one place and he could see huge green eyes and a red shiny body--naturally red, he grinned. Red always made things go faster. The wings were going so fast he could only see the edge of a blur.

"Wow," he said, and then fumbled for the pokedex. He needed the data on this one. He swung over the log and jogged down towards the pond, hoping he could get close enough before the speedy pokemon finished lecturing the Bidoof.

Text started scrolling up the screen just before Mackie would've had to get his feet wet, and he pumped his fist in triumph, and stopped looking at it. Time to read later.

The red bug, because it had to be that, at least, let out a particularly furious noise, and zipped away to make a hairpin turn and buzz straight into one of the Bidoof, smacking it into the water, then swung wide and made a circuit around the pond's edge, and Mackie scrambled backwards.

Not fast enough. It had whipped around the pond in no time, and Mackie started to duck before he was struck.

"Swaaaablu!" his partner protested, and he'd almost forgotten she was there. She leaped from his head, and shot forward. The bug pulled up, coming to what would have been a screeching halt if it hadn't been in midair.

It hung there a second, turned very briefly back towards the Bidoof, then eyed Mackie and the Swablu.

The Swablu waited. The bug wasn't attacking, and Mackie didn't want to ruin this bug's day anymore than it clearly already had been. Maybe it had lived in that tree?

It moved again, more slowly, circling Mackie as if making an inspection. It buzzed over the the Swablu. "Yyyyyaaaaaaa" it said, the sound odd and kind of... vibration-y. There was probably a better word, but Mackie didn't know it.

"Swaablu," his pretty girl replied firmly. The bug bobbed in the air, wings buzzing quietly now, just enough to keep it moving.

Then it charged. "Hey? Hey!!!" Mackie exclaimed. It had looked like it was calming down. "You got no manners!" he shouted at it.

Then realized, when the bug struck his Swablu square on, that this was a real battle.

After a second of groping for what to do, he remembered. "Featherdance that bug!" he told her. If it was strong, he wanted it less strong.

The Swablu had righted herself, and managed to dodge a second pass by the bug, making a swoop of her own. It dodged too, and if she'd been trying to hit it, it would've worked great, but she smacked her wings together and a cloud of down feathers puffed out around the bug. She peeled off and rose higher. "Get it again!" Mackie said, and she did, drowning it in another feathery cloud as it emerged from the first. It didn't seem any less fast, but when it made an arrow-straight line and caught the Swablu from below, she tumbled back through the air with visibly less violence than before.

"Astonish!" he called up to her, and she arrowed right back for the bug, flinging her wings out in a sudden stop, and screeching suddenly.

The bug twitched and dropped a couple of feet in the air. Mackie still wasn't sure how the move really worked--he just though the fuzzy wings were cute, but maybe it was different when she was really attacking.

"Peck! That's a bug! You got this!"

But the bug had recovered, and was buzzing in circles around her. "Just wait!" Mackie said. "Wait for the right moment!"

She took another blow, actually planting her feet on the ground to push off upward again, before she seemed to have her bearings. Her eyes were fixed, now, and she looped once below the bug's streaking flightpath before rising over it. Then she tucked her wings in and dropped, and pecked that bug on the back, right between the buzzing wings.

They came to a sudden halt, those wings, still and gleaming, and the bug fell, only just catching itself before it would've landed in an undignified splat on the muddy edge of the pond. It touched down gently instead, then its wings halted again, and it stared at Mackie.

Mackie stared back.

Nothing happened. He chanced a glance over at his very awesome and bug-behind-kicking Swablu. She was on a patch of clean, dry grass, fastidiously cleaning herself. "Uh... you won, right?" She paused a moment and glanced at him.

"Swaaaa," she said. Yes, silly, he heard, clear as day.

"Well, it's still here." He pointed at the bug. It looked defiant, wary, but weirdly expectant. She glanced at him, and then went back to her cleaning. Apparently this part was up to him.

"What's your deal?" he asked the bug. It was like it was waiting around for someone to capture...

What, really?

That was stupid.

Though... Uncle Red had once said that the reason pokemon and humans worked together so often was that pokemon liked the training. Or some did anyway. They weren't all the same, just like people.

"Well... you don't have to tell me twice," Mackie said (he would roll his eyes at himself for saying that later), scrambling for his bag in a sudden fit of urgency. This bug had been amazing to see. To HAVE it was something he'd almost forgotten he could try to do. Where were they?! His hand closed around something smooth. One of the new ones. Why not?

He mashed the button down and threw it in one motion, relieved to see it didn't go wide, but arced nicely towards the bug. It opened and in a flash of red, the pokemon vanished.

The ball twitched only once before, with another flash and a sound of frying electronics, the bug reappeared. It stalked forward a few steps, eyeing Mackie the whole time. Another chance? Oh, he could only hope.

This time it was one of the rough apri-balls he grabbed first, half-wrapped in one of his t-shirts. He needed to organize his things, he thought despairingly, and threw the ball.

The bug vanished again. The apri-ball hit the mud.

Mackie bit the inside of his cheek and held his breath.

 

[Koroc]

Pichu finally awakens looking around to find where she was. Pichu saw that Kenny was on the ground sleeping next to her and decided to wkae him up. Pichu climbed up Kenny's hair and got to his goggles. Pichu lifted them up and placed herself between the goggles and Kenny's head. Lifting the goggles as high she possibly could she losed her balance and fell to the ground releasing the goggles.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" Kenny screamed in agony holding his head. He sat up looking around for Pichu. Kenny saw Pichu rolling on the ground laughing while she was holing her stomache. "So you think this is funny huh?" Kenny went into his bag looking for something. Pichu inched over to see what Kenny was doing. "There it is." Kenny said laughing menacingly. Pichu began to back up from Kenny.

"Pi….chu." Pchu said as it shuddered if fear. As Kenny turned around a small purple blur dashed past his hand. The purple blurr made its way to the bushes. Kenny noticed that the item in his hand was gone. Getting up Kenny ran after the blurr.

"Where are you what ever you are?" Kenny said looking through the bushes. Opening the bushes, he noticed a small purple mouse like pokemon. It looked like it was gnawing on something. Making his way around to the front side the pokemon stared at Kenny and then growled at him.

"Okay you rat thing just give me back my….."

"Rattata!" It yelled attacking Kenny. Falling back Kenny threw his hand forward pushing the Rattata back through the bushes. Getting up Kenny ran to see if Pichu was okay.

"Pichu use thunder…." Kenny quickly thought about what happened to Pichu earlier. "Use Present."

Pichu threw her hands up forming a box above her head and tossing it at the small rat pokemon. The pokemon saw the box land in front of it and then quickly turned its body hitting the box back in Pichu's direction. Pichu terrified that it might explode on her quickly released a thundershock at the box hoping to destroy it before getting to her.

The rat pokemon charged at Pichu as the box opened and exploded covering both pokemon in smoke. Kenny worried that pichu would be hurt from the thundershock. Suddenly something came flying from the smoke and hitting a tree. The smoked cleared and Kenny saw Pichu was perfectly fine. The rat pokemon got up and shrugged off the damage. Charging at Pichu again the pokemon aimed for its target's chest.

"Pichu get of the way." Kenny yelled. Pichu did not listen and just stood there. Then she threw her left hand her right and batted her eyes very cutely. The rat pokemon began to sweat and tried to avoid hitting Pichu. Pichu then turned to then rat pokemon and then released another thundershock. The attack landed and the rat pokemon laid on the ground twitching from the attack.

Kenny went to his bag to get one of his pokeballs. Kenny picked it up and then threw it at the pokemon. The ball made contact with the pokemon and then transformed into a red light. The poke ball opened and absorbed the light and closed. The ball landed on the ground and began to shake and the center flashing. The pokeball continued to rock back and forth while Kenny went to find what the pokemon took from him.

 

[{Swan}]

Strikit - I can't believe he just did that! That's terrible, poor Caterpie!


Broadway - That was one bug-behind-kicking Swablu xD Nothing like the antiques to do the job right, hm? It really was a great post.

Congratulations, Mackie caught a lv. 5 Female Yanma with an Egg Move!


Koroc - Nice post, on the short side, but solid enough.

Congratulations, Kenny caught a lv. 3 Male Rattata.

 

[Charzeon]

Finally, after a few more shakes, the Pokeball finally stopped moving. Sara blinked, not believing that she she had caught her first Pokemon. When what she did finally reached her brain, the girl gave a wide grin and walked over to pick the ball up.

"Alright, we did it Angela!" Sara said happily, punching the the air with the Pokeball, her Shuppet crying out happily with her trainer. She smiled at the Puppet Pokemon before looking at the ball again.

"Now, I believe it is nickname time," the girl said, tilting her head at the Pokeball that now housed the Starly. "Hmm...let's see...what do you think of Yansa, Angela?"

"Shuppet!" Angela said, nodded her head and making Sara grin again.

"Great! Then this Starly will now be known as Yansa!" Sara said thriumphantly, then put the Pokeball back in her pack. "Now that we've got that bit of buisness done, what do you say to continuing our way to Jublife City?" When Sara got a nod from Angela, she smiled and continued, "Then what are we waiting for?"

That being said, Angela once again floated onto Sara's shoulder and the two continued their journey towards Jublife. Sara once again hummed a random tune under her breath and looked around her. She mused over whether or not she should catch another Pokemon. After all, most Pokemon on this route might only know Normal type moves. Meaning that, while they can't do anything to Angela, the Shuppet could trounce them.

But, Sara decided against it right then. She was happy enough with just Angela and Yansa. Plus, she didn't want to fill up her party so much already. She might be able to catch some rarer or better Pokemon in the next few routes to come. So, she just continued to hum the quiet tune and walk.

However, sooner then she expected, she suddenly stopped walking. Her eyes widen and she shook Angela, who had fallen asleep again, awake. The Shuppet muttered something under her breath, then looked to where her trainer was looking. Right infront of them was a strange, green worm-like creature. The Pokemon was trying to move quickly and Sara could tell it was taking a lot to just keep up the speed it was going out.

Courisity took over Sara and, after getting her 'dex out and talking a few steps closer, she aimed the device at the strange looking Pokemon. She watched as the machine took the Pokemon's apperance in and soon enough text appeared.

"Caterpie. The Worm Pokemon. It releases a stench form it's red atanna to repel enemis. It grows by molting repeatily."

"Huh, that's kind of cool," Sara said as she put the Pokedex away. She then looked at the now known Caterpie and smiled. "You know...it seems pretty cool. Hey Angela, what do you say to helping me catch another Pokemon?"

Angela grinned and floated down to the ground. She looked up at her trainer, waiting for her orders on what to do.

"Okay, start this off with a Payback!" Sara shouted, pointing at the Caterpie.

"Shuppet!" Angela said, then raced towards the Caterpie, trying to hit it with the tip of it's head. Neither knew that this Caterpie was already owned and was just trying to find it's trianer...

(OOC: I hope you don't mind, Strikit. I figure this might be a good way for the Caterpie to prove to Ethan that it is actually a good Pokemon. If you feel you need/want to, you can control my characters in your next post.)

 

[Underoos]

Selene wiped her forehead once she got outside seconds after her moment of triumph. She glanced over her shoulder at the lab, and decided that she'd prefer not to make any trips back there anytime soon. Selene then fumbled slightly with the Pokeball in her hands. Finally she pressed the center button, and watched as the heavy ball released an equally heavy looking Pokemon. The dinosaur-like monster seemingly yawned and stretched. It looked about blearily, and then focused its eyes on her. She offered it a form of a smile. The Crani...uh...thing looked at her funny. Then it looked around some more, and finally settled a rather angry gaze on her. Selene blanched, having a rather bad feeling about the nasty look her new Pokemon was shooting her. It didn't seem to like the fact that it was now owned by someone. Crani...well, it huffed and turned away from her, sticking its nose in the air and basically refusing to look at her.

"Aw, don't be like that C...uh...Pokemon," Selene corrected. She pointed the Pokedex toward it in an effort to remind herself what the little bugger was called. The Pokemon's information soon popped up. "Oh, yeah. Don't be like that Cranidos." She tried to smile to get the Pokemon to relax, but it still refused to look at her. Selene huffed in annoyance. "Fine. Be stupid. I'll get you to trust me one way or the other. Mark my words you stupid fathead."

Cranidos glanced at her sharply, seemingly annoyed now. Selene's eyes narrowed at her Pokemon. Cranidos narrowed its eyes as well. They had a bit of a stare off which attracted some odd looks from the few people out and about this early, but other than that nothing disrupted it. Soon enough, Selene sighed and gave up. What was the use in fighting with Cranidos anyway? Well, there probably wasn't one. She figured that she would probably have to just suck it up and try to get her Pokemon to trust her somehow. With a soft sigh, Selene waved her hand in Cranidos' direction. The Pokemon cocked its head to the side curiously, and then looked as if to berate itself. Cranidos then just stared at her as it had been doing moments prior.

"Well, you'll see," Selene muttered. "We'll be the best of pals." She hesitated and looked at the Pokeball. Cranidos looked at it with a bit of disdain, almost as if it didn't like the round object. Selene suddenly had a (what she thought to be) brilliant idea. "You don't have to go back inside as long as you come with me," she declared cheerfully. This'll get that pigheaded Pokemon to trust me, even if just by a little bit more, Selene thought in slight triumph. Cranidos eyed her skeptically, almost as if it didn't believe her. "I promise," Selene backed. "Please?"

Cranidos looked at her silently. Finally, it nodded once. The nod was curt and short, but Selene figured that it was better than nothing. She grinned at her Pokemon. Cranidos didn't really awknowledge the fact that she was being rather polite to her Pokemon, and simply reverted back to ignoring Selene in most forms. Selene sighed heavily and slumped. Cranidos waited for her to get over it. She looked about the town, and then just decided what to do. There was really nothing more left for her here, so it was time to move on. Whipping around suddenly towards Cranidos, Selene held her chin high.

"Route 302 is where we're off to," she stated. Cranidos looked at her in a rather bland way. "What?" she asked indignantly. Cranidos stared at her like she was insane. "Blah, I'm going to ignore you. Follow me if you'd like. I'm going this way." She really hoped Cranidos followed her, because otherwise she was completely and totally screwed. Soon Selene heard the soft clomping of feet behind her, and when she glanced over her shoulder to see Cranidos following her in an almost curious way, she grinned to herself. Cranidos seemed to be warming up to her even just a little. Maybe this will go well after all, Selene thought hopefully.

A short amount of time later they were standing just outside a rather forest-like road. It was marked with a sign that clearly read Route 302. Selene glanced at the sign and then the route. Cranidos had come to a stop beside her. She checked her Pokedex, right...Cranidos is a guy. She cleared her throat, causing Cranidos to look over at her. Without saying a word, Selene marched on into the route. Cranidos took on after her, still not being to conversational. The walk was like this the entire time; quiet and almost awkward. Selene sighed and stopped about ten minutes later, wanting the silence to be over.

"Crani," Cranidos growled suddenly. Selene looked over at a rustling bush. A bird flew out of it and past them, causing Selene to jump and Cranidos to growl again. Well, that was one good thing about her Pokemon. At least he was brave.

"Uh...well, I guess we should keep going," Selene said lamely.

"Crani!" Cranidos insisted, glaring at the bushes.

Selene sighed and rolled her eyes, about to tell her Pokemon to come on and shut up, when suddenly the bush rustled once more. She snapped her gaze to it, and saw a purple Pokemon come sneaking out. It was a rat. A purple rat. She brought out her Pokedex and snuck closer, using Cranidos as a shield incase the little rat decided to attack. Soon she got the information. It was a Rattata. Selene noticed that it seemed to be an easy capture, especially because it was perfect for beginners. She grinned suddenly. Though this Pokemon didn't appeal to her too much, she did need some sort of practice, right? Right.

"Alright Cranidos, this is going to be our first ever battle," Selene stated. She stood up. The Rattata was eyeing her and Cranidos wearily. Cranidos didn't really note that Selene had said anything, so she was a bit afraid that her Pokemon wasn't going to listen to her. "...Erm...right, start off with a leer attack," Selene declared, looking at the large print on the screen. Cranidos actually listened to her! Although, that might have been because it was doing a form of leering already, but oh well. It growled and narrowed his eyes toward the Rattata. The little mouse squeaked in a hissing way. Cranidos didn't back down. "Alright, now use..." Selene glanced at the screen quickly, "headbutt!"

Cranidos growled and charged, but the Rattata was quicker. It dodged using a form of a quick attack, and then swooped around and charged for Cranidos. They met head on, but luckily for Cranidos he seemed to have the harder head. Selene smirked as Rattata cried out and shook its head vigorously. The little squealer would be sure to have a headache now. Cranidos snorted and pawed at the ground. He then lowered his head and took another charge, though Selene hadn't really told him to. She opened her mouth to say something, but it was too late. Rattata had dodged. Cranidos attempted to stop by digging his heels in the ground, but it didn't work. Her Pokemon ran into a tree and topped over, glaring about angrily.

"Well that didn't work well," Selene muttered dryly. "But that's alright. Cranidos get up and use...uhm...stomp!" she called. Cranidos pushed himself up and charged at the Rattata with little hesitation.

Rattata looked like it was smirking as it dodged away rapidly. Cranidos whipped around, but couldn't hit the quicker mouse. Selene clenched her fists. This little rat was beginning to get on her nerves. Rattata then wagged its tail at Cranidos, almost as if it were taunting him. Cranidos snorted and charged again. Selene cried out, calling for Cranidos to stop, but it just didn't listen. The crazy Pokemon slipped in mud this time and skidding in a swirl on the ground. Rattata seemingly snickered and dove in with a quick attack. Cranidos winced, but got up moments later. Selene bit her lip as she thought of the different things she could do to win.

"Cranidos, just listen to me," she called almost desperately. Cranidos glanced back at her in a brief note that she was there. Whether or not he would listen was up to him. "We can win if we let that little friggin' rat come to us. Use focus energy, and then when it gets close enough go in with a stomp attack!" It was the best that Selene could come up with. She could only hope that Cranidos would listen to her and that Rattata would fall for the almost obvious trap.

Surprisingly enough, it worked. Cranidos snorted and stayed absolutely still, gathering his energy and becoming focused. Rattata began to hiss a bit in annoyance. It seemed like this Pokemon was all for tough battles and fighting. Selene watched carefully as the Rattata paced back and forth. It seemed to grow very impatient when it noticed that Cranidos didn't look like he would be moving anytime soon. Suddenly it charged in, looking for a good opening to attack. Selene called for Cranidos to use stomp, and that's just what it did. The Pokemon slammed his foot down on Rattata's back, causing the little one to cry out and fall to the ground in a heap. When it didn't look like it was going to be moving anytime soon, Selene grabbed one of the heavy Pokeballs and chucked it at the injured Pokemon. The ball began to shake rapidly.

 

[Broadway]

(OOC: It's not probable that there'd be much of a fight immediately after my previous post, so please imagine this either the next day after some camping rest, or at least after a nice lunch by a generous berry plant.)

Mackie walked slowly backward, happy the wind was in his favour. He checked over his shoulder now and then to mark sure he was on track, but he kept his eyes mainly on the kite.

He'd come back to the main path not too long after finding the Bidoof pond and capturing, or being allowed to capture, more like, the Yanma. That pokedex thing had sure come in handy to tell him about the bug. Apparently Yanma special abilities included one called Speed Boost, and he could believe that, especially now, watching her play with his kite, far above.

The kite was a spot of bright yellow against the sky, with a knotted length of purple ribbon for a tail, and Mackie tugged it this way and that in the air, teasing the Yanma. The rest of his brain was still running down nicknames. He'd been having enough trouble with the Swablu--now he'd have to think of two.

The Swablu was riding on his hat again. She'd gone up after the kite at first too, and the two pokemon had chased it and each other around in the air for a good while. But it looked like the Yanma was more used to flying all the time, and the Swablu had floated down while the red blur still was still mock-battling the kite.

The kite string jerked against the spool, hard, and the line tension rose significantly. This was a small kite, but the wind could grab it hard anyway. A few seconds later Mackie felt the wind pick up closer to the ground, whipping at his hair, and making the Swablu murmur in protest at having to hold on tighter to his hat.

"Hey rude miss! Get your tail down here 'fore you blow away!" Mackie shouted up, and began the process of reeling in the resisting kite. The sunlight dimmed as cloud cover moved in, and Mackie hoped this didn't mean rain.

The Yanma zipped down and paused in front of his face, eyes bright, and gave him the bug equivalent of a rasberry. "No manners!" he laughed. She zipped away, but did stay low, to his relief. She may have chosen to let him capture her, but she wasn't used to him at all yet, and didn't necessarily do whatever he said. Still, she never went far and he was pretty sure she was happy to be with him.

The kite was halfway down when the wind picked up again, and he almost lost the spool. It unwound a few feet instead, and Mackie grimaced.

Off to the side he saw the Yanma bank over the long grass. It was all whipping around in the wind, but Mackie's eyes widened as some of it seemed to move counter to the wind's effects. Not now, surely?

But yes, now. Blue and black appeared, a big-eared Shinx with its tail straight out and its head down, looking ready to pounce. "Ack," Mackie said, reeling in a few more feet of kite string. That was an electric type. That could be very bad. But they weren't supposed to be that rough around here, and maybe were too weak to know any of their same-type abilities. He could only see what happened. "Go, uh, Yanma!" he really needed nicknames. It just didn't feel right to call them by their species. "Tackle!"

On his head, the Swablu tensed, growing alert, and he wished he could reach up to pat her in reassurance, but he'd risk losing the kite.

The Shinx glowered, and the Yanma seemed briefly daunted, but she swerved hard and went to ram it.

It growled, and sidestepped, dodging the attack, but only just. "Try again! Tackle!" Mackie called out, and she buzzed in a quick circle. All that flying didn't seem to have worn her out for a fight, and she arrowed forward, this time catching a glancing blow that nonetheless sent the Shinx into a spinning tumble.

"Use Silver Wind!" Mackie told her as wrestled the kite, daring to look at it for just a moment as he reeled in a few more feet, yanked and aimed it down.... it dipped and yanked a last time before taking a nosedive, bottoming out over the path and coming to rest without crashing, thank goodness.

When he looked back again, while pulling the string in hand over hand, sparkling dust dust was streaking towards the Shinx. It struck and sent the Shinx skidding a few feet back, and the Yanma did a loop-the-loop, appearing suddenly energized. "Tackle it good!" Mackie raised a fist in encouragement.

"Swaaaa!" came from overhead, and the Yanma bobbed in acknowledgment. Mackie grinned.

"Shhhhhhiiiiiiiiii!" the Shinx snarled, and ducked below the bug, or so it seemed. She looped back on herself again and caught it head on, bowling it straight backward, where it sprawled. The Yanma hovered briefly, then came to rest on the ground, staring at the Shinx challengingly, but it seemed like it had had enough, and it dragged itself to its feet, and, with a final baleful look over its shoulder, slunk back into the long grass.

The Swablu took off from Mackie's head and went to land by the Yanma, wings up and out in enthusiastic praise, or so it seemed. The Yanma angled her own wings back in a way that seemed almost bashful. "Aw shucks!" Mackie laughed. "You did great!" he shouted, jogging away to pick up the kite where it had landed, and then came back to crouch down next to them.

The Yanma bounced on her six little feet at the sight of the kite, but he shook his head apologetically. "Nah, it might rain. You wanna get zapped up in the sky? I know there's one bird up there somewhere that can take it, but I'm just glad that Shinx didn't have any electric attacks."

He crouched down by the two of them, and reached out, a little tentative. The Swablu liked to be petted and stroked, but he wasn't sure about the Yanma. She didn't have fur, or even skin, so maybe it wasn't the same.

She didn't pull away, though. She didn't seem to go nuts for it, or mind either, just stayed still while he ran a light finger over her smooth carapaced body, keeping away from the wings. Those wings stayed straight out, all the time. They changed angles a bit in every direction, which was why she was so agile in the air, but they didn't lay back or close.

Her body gleamed red like a shiny gem, and her wings were like glass, smooth and reflecting the light. She'd found out this morning that if she sat in the right spot and angled her wings, she could reflect the light right into his eyes. Which she of course did, repeatedly.

"There's a word my aunt used to use for when she got done polishing the good silver and the fancy glasses," he said suddenly, "maybe you'll like it. It means, like, a shine or a gloss. You're like that too. So... how about Luster?" he asked her. He was never really sure how much either of them understood. A lot, it seemed like. Maybe not always the words, but always the meaning. "Luster," he said again, running his fingers again between the short red horns on her head. "Hm?"

"Yaaaaaaaaannnnma," she said to him, again with the buzzy undertone, and she wiggled a bit.

"So, yes, huh," he smiled. "Luster! That's you, miss no-manners." He braced one elbow on his knee and put his chin in his palm and looked over at the Swablu. "Sorry, pretty girl, we're still short one name. I dunno." He felt a little guilty for having found one for Luster first.

The Swablu walked over, wings held up off the dusty ground, and sat in his lap, leaning against him. He guessed that meant that she didn't mind. "Wanna wait for the one that's just right, I think."

 

[rockman0]

As Bryce and Mankey continued walking, the poor Pokémon struggled to keep going.

"Man-key," the Pokémon repeated with deep breaths as it continued walking. Bryce could tell that it could faint at any moment, but he was keeping up so that was good. He decided to give the Pokémon an Oran Berry. What good would a Pokémon be if it were unable to battle? Besides, he needed to catch some more Pokémon.

As Mankey ate the Oran Berry, he immediately began to feel better. I mean, how could you not tell? Mankey began jumping around, turning cartwheels, doing backflips, you name it. For a minute, Bryce looked at the now happy Pokémon and smiled. Then, he realized that they were losing time.

"Mankey, stop fooling around and, let's go!" The Pokémon immediately stopped jumping around and walked toward his trainer.

"Mankey!" he yelled as he stood by his trainer's side.

The two continued down Route 302. Bryce searched from left to right for a Pokémon that would be worth his time. Ratatta and Bidoof were too common and extremely annoying. Besides, he had always heard about Bidoof being really weak, even when it evolved. There were all sorts of Bidoof jokes, more than you could imagine.

He hadn't seen another Natu since that battle. He really wanted one of those. Too bad that other one already had a trainer. Bug Pokémon were weak and annoying, so Yanma was out of the question. Starly was just pitiful, at least in his opinion.

What to get? As he worried, he saw a small cat-like blue and black Pokémon strolling by. Aww, he thought, it's cute. He wondered where that came from. Pokémon weren't cute, they were fighters!

He pointed his Pokedex at the Pokémon to get a reading. The screen displayed a reading that said, "Shinx, the Flash Pokémon. When it senses danger, the hair on its body lights up and it runs away, leaving its opponents dazed.

"Awesome!" Bryce exclaimed. "I didn't know there was a screen here!" He was referring to the Pokedex. Here he was printing out paper all willy-nilly and it had a screen all along! Anyways, Bryce decided that he had to have that Pokémon!

"Mankey, battle position!" Mankey got ready to battle the little Shinx. The Shinx, almost as if on cue, faced Mankey and got ready for a brawl. It knew what this trainer wanted. If he wanted it to join his team, he would have to fight for it. Shinx's body began to light up as it prepared to battle. Bryce was awestruck.

"Mankey, low kick!" Mankey ran up to the Pokémon so that he could knock the Pokémon off of its feet, however, the Shinx jumped out of the way and glared at Mankey. Mankey froze and stopped moving as if he had just seen a ghost.

There was that move again, Bryce thought. He was lost in thought when Mankey cried out in pain. It had just been hit by a Tackle attack.

"Alright Mankey," he said. "Let's try doing that Leer attack again." Mankey glared at the Shinx. Meanwhile, Shinx glared at Mankey. It looked like a staring contest the way both Pokémon used Leer.

"Mankey, quickly, use scratch!" Mankey stopped staring and ran towards the Pokémon, readying himself to scratch the Shinx. Again, the Shinx jumped over him, but this time, it went on to tackle Mankey from behind. Mankey cried in pain as the momentum of the Shinx's tackle pushed him forward.

Bryce gritted his teeth. So far, the Pokémon was getting the best of him. He had to do something. Then he remembered how Shinx was jumping over Mankey. Maybe he could get Mankey to do the same.

"Mankey," he yelled, "stay where you are!" Mankey looked over his trainer as if he had lost his mind. There was no way he was going to stand here while…

"Now jump!" His trainer had issued another order. Out of instinct, Mankey jumped into the air. As he came down, he saw that the Shinx had just missed him. Ah, so that's what his trainer was doing.

"Now, Low Kick!" Mankey ran up to Shinx and kicked him from behind. Shinx cried out in pain. However, it got right back up and charged at Mankey again. Mankey, who was feeling pretty confident at this time, got a little over confident and continuously jumped over Shinx, taunting it at the same time. As Shinx grew more and more frustrated, its speed began to grow faster and faster.

"Mankey, don't get cocky!" Bryce warned, but deep inside, he was feeling the same way. "Use Low Kick!" Mankey, however, did not heed his trainer's warning. Mankey can be a little hotheaded when things are going their way and grumpy when they aren't.

After Mankey landed from that last dodge, he was hit as soon as he landed. This, of course, caused Mankey to completely lose its temper. Like I said, Mankey are grumpy when things aren't going their way. He began to thrash about as he grew angrier. Bryce knew that he could take advantage of this.

"Mankey, get Revenge!" Mankey fixed his gaze on Shinx. Emotions rose to a pitch and everything went red. Mankey was intent on getting revenge on that Shinx for hitting him so hard. Shinx ran up to the Mankey. Meanwhile, Mankey, whose judgment was clouded, stood there waiting while the Shinx charged right at him. Suspense was in the air as the Shinx charged toward Mankey. Then, right before the Shinx's attack could hit, Mankey unleashed all of his fury on the poor little Shinx.

Shinx fell back but did not get back up. Bryce, impressed even more by his Mankey's power, got a Pokeball from his backpack. He tossed the Pokeball at the Pokémon. A bright light from the Pokeball engulfed the stunned Shinx. When the light disappeared, there was only the Pokeball, shaking continuously from left to right…

 

[{Swan}]

Charzeon - Good post, but you could finish it if you want, because Strikit already did his two post. But I'm not gonna meddle with this one, so do what you want xD

Bond of Flame - Nice one, a little temperamental Cranidos, hm?

Congratulations, Selene caught a lv. 4 female Rattata!

Broadway - Looks like one of the naming troubles has been solved, hm? Great post, I liked the Kite addition.

Luster gained exp and grew to lv. 7 and learned Quick Attack!

Rockman0 - That was a good battle, I liked your use of Mankey's temperament.

Congratulations, Bryce caught a lv. 5 female Shinx!

 

[drunk ¬_¬]

Chapter Two, Part 1

Ooc:

Spoiler:

It's a little rough, but there you go

Chuy García
Location: Route 302

VS Natu​

Chuy had made his way over to what was known as Route 302. Although not the most urbanized of routes, it had been worked on plenty, and several Pokémon could be heard from the forest on the sides of the route. There were also some Pokémon scattered across the route itself, playing around under the sunlight, but they were mostly Bidoofs and Rattatas, and they had a pretty bad reputation of being 'weak'. Thus, Chuy opted to ignore them and go straight for the 'good ones'.

Phanpy on the other hand, simply followed him from the back; marching in long, paced strides, and swinging his trunk from side to side showing his happy mood.

Making his way in to the bushy sides of the route was harder than it appeared to be, however. Chuy didn't have a lot of strength to break the branches in the way, nor was he tall enough to climb over them. Worried over how he could make his way to his Pokémon 'pot of gold'. He felt something slap his right leg from the back, and then…

Chuy groaned a little bit as he opened his eyes, being greeted by the faint sunrays trickling through the tree branches up above. He could barely feel his legs, had the worst headache of his life, and some type of soreness in his throat prompted him to begin coughing violently. As he struggled to push himself up to his feet, he felt a cold, moist feeling on his face and looked up to be greeted by… something. It looked familiar, but Chuy's low angle of sight made it tricky to decipher. He quickly rubbed his eyes in order to get rid of the blur that covered his eyesight, and up again. This time, the sight was unmistakable.

"Phanpy!" he yelled a bit startled before finally mustering enough strength to get up. "What happened?" he asked himself, looking up and around. He was clearly not in the same place as before. He was in a small, dark clearing, and everywhere he looked, there was nothing but vegetation.

Trying to remember what had happened, Chuy held his head in an attempt to ease the pain. Suddenly he felt something hit his pelvic area, and looking downward, noticed his Phanpy extending him what looked like an Oran Berry. "Ha ha" he laughed. "Thanks Phanpy, but I can't eat this… here, I'll save it for you, okay?"

"Phanpy!" the Pokémon replied always in his cheery mood.

Taking another look to his surroundings, Chuy noticed something else. While they were enclosed in the clearing by thick vegetation, he could see that in several directions plants had been charged through, giving off the appearance of small gates. "Phanpy?"

"Phanpy!"

"Did you make all of those?" he asked concernedly.

"Phanpy!" it replied in the same manner as all of their interactions so far. Chuy didn't even know what to make out of it.

"Can you show me how you did it?" he asked again even more concerned.

"Phanpy! Phanpy!" The Pokémon replied finally mixing his speech up. Suddenly, he turned around, and began charging at the thick vegetation moving his trunk from one side to another, and trampling over any plant that got in his way.

"Phanpy!" Chuy finally called his Pokémon, and watched as it trotted backwards in an excited manner. "Do you think you could tell me how we got here?"

"Phanpy! Phanpy! Phan!" He 'said' repeatedly while enacting that he did the same thing as before, but behind his trainer.

Understanding what the Pokémon attempted to tell him, Chuy snapped: "So you're saying that you trampled over me too?!" He suddenly realized how lucky he was that the only thing he got injured was his leg. You see, Chuy's Phanpy was bigger than most other Phanpys, and it came up to a height of about 2'07". Therefore, making him way heavier.

"Phanpy!" The Pokémon replied with his ever-happy mindset.

Chuy sighed. "Well, I guess we're here anyways, so let's go deeper." He wasn't very happy with his Pokémon, but Phanpy was all he had. As he tried to take a step however, his right knee buckled under the weight, and it dropped, becoming numb. 'Damn it you freaking clown!' he cursed at his Pokémon in his head. Struggling to get up once again, Chuy took a deep breath before feeling something hold him under his crotch. "What the…"

Turning around, Chuy noticed his blue Pokémon as he picked him up with his snout, and dropped him on his back. "Whoa! Are you serious?!" Chuy questioned his Pokémon.

Phanpy simply replied by beginning to walk towards one of the 'gates'.

"AWESOME!" was all that Chuy's twelve year-old mind was able to say. Sure he might've been pissed at his Pokémon a minute ago, but this was… well, awesome! He was riding his Pokémon damn it!

Watching out for one or two branches hitting his head, it was soon pretty clear why Phanpy had wanted him to visit the place.

A pristine lake marked the boundaries of a clearing where the treess crooked branches played with each other, forming a dome like a bubble caught inside the forest. The air was moist, and tasted reminiscing of lemons, while the glistening and scarce rays of light painted the sight like watercolors. In here he saw every Pokémon he had caught a sight of before living together. Countless Rattatas ran hurriedly along the tree branches. Bidoof families got together to drink water from the lake and Chuy could swear that he also saw some bigger ones make their way into the lake for a dive. Up in the sky, Chuy recognized some Starlys as they flew from branch to branch courting each other. Skimming the surface of the lake, Chuy saw two red pokemon flying around in circles before making their way back into the forest.

And suddenly, Chuy saw the greatest sight he could fathom. Right next to where he had reached the lake, he noticed a flock of green and pink birds chirping loudly in coarse voices. While the symphony wasn't the greatest he had ever heard, their sheer appearance was enough to captivate him. "Phanpy" he called his Pokémon. "Do you want a new friend?"

"Phanpy!" the Pokémon answered him as always happy.

"Alright, but we need to think of a way to get one of them down here. Let's see" On cue, Chuy took out his Pokédex and began reading the different moves that Phanpy commonly knew. "Mmm…"

After about a minute or so, Chuy finally came up with an idea. Getting off of his Pokémon's back, he told him: "Alright Phanpy, go under the tree and use Odor Sleuth."

Phanpy did as he was told, and after identifying a particular scent, gave his trainer the sign: "Phanpy!"

"Alright then, now Tackle the tree!" Chuy ordered.

Phanpy made some space between the tree and him, and finally ran against the tree, hitting it with his head causing it to shake, and the Phanpy to fall on his ass. Immediately after the Tackle, the flying Pokémon rattled, flew away from the tree, looking to escape whatever had caused the tremors.

Chuy ran up to his Pokémon, and quickly ordered him to follow the scent he had looked for. Phanpy replied with a snort, and began running off following the scent, and trampling over whatever came in front of him. The bird Pokémon quickly became visible when Chuy and Phanpy caught up to it as it hopped hurriedly along the ground. "Phanpy, Tackle it now!"

Phanpy obeyed and rammed powerfully against the wild Pokémon. "Nice! Keep it up!"

"Phanpy!" his Pokémon replied happy that his trainer was satisfied by the effort, and began charging at the small bird, but in his excitement, Phanpy didn't realize that the wild Pokémon was already starting a counterattack.

"Natu!" the Pokémon cried after being hit by the second Tackle, but it got up again and began staring at Phanpy like before.

'I should be close enough here' Chuy thought as he pointed his Pokédex to the wild Pokémon. He had walked into the foliage as his Pokémon fought the other one, and was in range for the Pokédex.

Suddenly, it beeped, and words began to appear on the screen of the Pokédex. 'Natu, the Tiny Bird Pokémon. Natu usually move around by hopping, and always appears to be staring at something.'

"No wonder" Chuy thought as he looked on to the bird Pokémon, not realizing that instead, it was using its Leer attack. "Keep attacking Phanpy!"

Phanpy obeyed, and kept charging at the Natu, but Natu hopped out of the way and finally retaliated. First, its eyes began to glow red, and suddenly, to black ghastly beams shot out from its eyes hurting Phanpy.

"Damn! Phanpy you got to keep the pressure up! Use Tackle again!" Chuy ordered, but was disappointed to see that the wild Natu, not only got out of the way of the charging Phanpy fairly easily, but also delivered a Peck, that while it didn't seem too powerful, it did seem to hurt Phanpy a lot. Immediately, Natu turned around, and hopping, became ready to attack again. Noticing that the bird was almost twice as fast as his starter, Chuy had little thought to his next command: "Phanpy, brace yourself for the hit… Defense Curl!"

Phanpy obeyed, and curling up into a ball, took he attack head on. "Great job Phanpy!" Chuy yelled, "Now keep it up and wait until it gets tired!" Phanpy obeyed.

On the other hand, while Natu did become more hesitant to attack, it continued doing so. Over and over it Pecked at Phanpy's tough skin, feeling how every hit became less effective than the former, until finally Chuy made a new order: "Phanpy, now get ready to counter this bird, use –" However, Phanpy had already begun his own attack.

Phanpy began giving off a red glow, and after stuffing a powerful Peck by Natu, it attacked the bird Pokémon's stomach with a powerful punch with his nose, taking its air away and making it fall on its side.

"Great Phanpy!" Then, looking at the fallen Pokémon, he hurriedly took out a Pokéball, and threw it, hitting Natu on its forehead, before a ray of light engulfed it, and it disappeared into the Pokéball, which started shaking violently upon touching the ground.

Chuy had no option, but watch expectantly.​

 

[{Swan}]

Drunk - Good post, enough to get yourself a Natu.

Congratulations, Jesus caught himself a Lv. 3 Male Natu!

 

[Underoos]

The Pokeball finally slowed and came to a complete stop. The little center piece binged red and it was over, just like that. Selene stared, blinking. She couldn't believe it. It seemed almost surreal to her that she had captured her very first Pokemon. Cranidos plopped down on the ground, looking rather adamant in the fact that he was so NOT getting back up for a while. Selene walked over and picked up the Pokeball and then set it inside her backpack. She brushed the few strands of hair from her face and huffed in triumph. Cranidos stared at her as she turned around. Selene opened her mouth to say something, when Cranidos turned his head. Really? He was going to do this again? Ah, such a great Pokemon Cranidos is.

"Oh come on Cranidos," Selene groaned. "Work with me here. Wait! I've got it! You need a nickname. That will brighten you up. How about Denahi? I like that. Don't you like that? Good. See? That's how we do it. Team work."

"Crani," Cranidos stated stubbornly. He apparently wanted to take a break, and decided that for the entire group.

"No. We are going on. It's stupid to just sit here and relax. We've got some ground to cover, so get your rocky ass up and move," Selene snapped at her Pokemon. Cranidos' eyes narrowed. Selene gulped slightly, fearing that she had pushed Cranidos a little too far. The Pokemon suddenly got up and darted off and into the forest, leaving Selene in the dust. "REALLY?!" Selene shouted. She growled in annoyance and pulled slightly at her hair. "I'm going to KILL someone," she snarled. Selene then charged off into the forest after her Pokemon. Such a beautiful partnership was already beginning to form.

It took Selene a total of an hour to find her Pokemon. She searched practically all around the route, until finally some loud exclamation from some boy got her attention. Selene sighed, knowing that the boy would most likely be trying to capture her Pokemon. Grumbling to herself under her breath, Selene ran off in the direction of the outcry. Upon stumbling onto the scene, she saw that the boy had summoned a Starly. He was about to have Starly attack when he suddenly noticed Selene standing there. A look of anger came across his face, which made Selene wonder what the hell his problem was.

"Back off," he snapped. "I'm catching this Cranidos, and no one's gonna stop me."

"Actually, you little thief, that's my Cranidos," Selene said back, equally snappy. Her pissed side was coming out. She didn't like this little bratty shitface already. "So shut the hell up and get that stupid squawker away from my Cranidos." She really, really didn't like this kid. He was pissing her off for almost virtually no reason.

"Whatever. That's just an excuse so you can steal my prized Pokemon. Yup, that Cranidos is as good as mine. Just watch and learn, you little novice baby."

Selene glared at him, almost able to feel her eyes go cold and scary. She looked a lot like her father when she was angry, mostly because she rarely ever got angry. But oh yes, she was angry. In fact, she was downright pissed off. "Listen here you little turkey gobbling fat head," Selene practically snarled. "That's my goddamn Cranidos, so get that through your head. You want proof? Go ahead and try to capture it."

"No. You have to weaken a Pokemon first, dumbass," he snapped back. "Watch and learn. Alright Starly, hit that Pokemon with a solid quick attack. If it proves to resist, go with growl just to lower its attack."

Selene silently fumed. "Cranidos, dodge that quick attack. Follow it up with stomp," Selene called.

The boy's expression was priceless when he saw Cranidos dodge the quick attack (even if it was only by a hair) and slam his foot down on Starly in a stomp attack. It seemed that he couldn't believe that Selene was telling the truth. Suddenly the boy's ears turned red from sheer embarrassment. He looked down and didn't give Starly another order. Selene patiently waited for him to do something, anything. When he didn't, she sighed.

"Look, I'll still give you a battle," Selene mumbled. She kicked the dirt a little. "Would you like to battle?'

The boy didn't look up. Selene sighed and slumped. She was about to give up and leave when he suddenly shifted. She looked over at him. "I'll battle you. Starly against your Cranidos. And...uhm...about before..." he trailed off lamely. Selene saw his pale face light up completely red.

"No worries," she relented. Selene decided to cool off a bit. It was a mistake, after all. "So let's get this party started. Cranidos go after that Starly with a headbutt."

"Crani!" Cranidos shouted.

That was when Selene realized something. Cranidos really only seemed to obey her in battle. Otherwise he would ignore her and even run off. Was he just playing around, but pretending to be serious? Or did he really dislike her and only listened to her because he thought he would lose otherwise? Selene bit her lip, and soon realized that it was probably not the best idea to muse about something like this in the beginning of a battle. Cranidos got slammed into a tree, and that's when she snapped out of it and looked up. Truthfully it looked like she was just snapping out of a sort of daze.

"Cranidos!" Selene cried out. The boy looked immensely happy. Was this his very first trainer battle too? Or just the first battle it seemed like he was winning? "I'm sorry, pal," Selene muttered. "Go ahead and attack Starly with whatever you've got! Don't hold back. Maybe start off with a stomp to hold it down, and then headbutt!" Selene called.

Cranidos seemed to hesitate, almost as if he didn't want to attack. Starly hovered a few paces away, cooing softly and looking almost content. Selene soon realized the problem. Starly could easily dodge almost all of Cranidos' attacks, simply because it could lift itself up and out of the way. Selene's opponent seemed to notice this as well, for he smirked a bit and looked even more confident. Cranidos looked around, and then stared back at Starly. Selene's Pokemon looked almost strained in the realization that he couldn't fully take on Starly on equal grounds. Cranidos pawed the ground in sheer annoyance, unsure of how to now go about this battle. Selene had to compliment her Pokemon though. At least he hadn't attacked repeatedly for no reason. She was somehow glad that she hadn't received a Pokemon who rushed and didn't think, even if it was the tiniest bit.

We have to figure out a way to get Starly off the air, Selene thought quickly. She glanced around the area. The boy ordered an attack. Just try to dodge it as much as possible. Let me just get this figured out, Selene thought in an almost desperate way. She scanned the area once more, only this time she was looking for things-even the smallest things-to help her and Cranidos out. She noticed bushes and trees and the ground, but other than that there was nothing. Selene was about to give up and just have Cranidos charge right in, when she suddenly saw something. There was honey dripping from a spot in the tree Cranidos had ran into.

"Cranidos, headbutt Starly into that tree!" Selene called rapidly.

Luckily for them both, neither Starly nor its trainer were really paying attention to her. This was simply because of the fact that she hadn't done anything in such a while and Cranidos was just dodging now. Starly got hit and fell against the tree. It tried to fly out, but the honey made its wings sticky so the bird thumped to the ground. Selene smirked. Now Starly couldn't fly and its quick attacks were disabled. The boy cursed and grabbed his hair in a frustrated way.

"Good job Cranidos. Now use stomp on Starly." Selene felt her confidence grow a bit as Cranidos charged forward and slammed his foot against Starly, causing the little bird to cry out. "Excellent!" Selene breathed. "We've got this now Cranidos. Use a headbutt to finish off Starly," Selene said happily. She was going to win, and she was very excited.

"Watch it Starly!" his trainer shouted desperately as the little bird struggled to move out of the way. "Try to dodge! Do something!" he cried sadly.

Starly tweeted helplessly as Cranidos roared forward once more. He was about to slam his dynamic skull into Starly, when somehow the bird was able to roll away, leaving a trail of sticky honey in its wake. Selene's jaw dropped as Cranidos tripped and rolled off into the bushes. She couldn't believe that the Starly had managed to move out of the way just in time. Cranidos came lumbering through the bushes moments later, looking around rapidly for the elusive Starly. Starly was attempted to free its little wings, but it just didn't work. Cranidos charged angrily this time, and it was done. Starly didn't have time to roll because it was struggling with its wings. Cranidos slammed into Starly with a headbutt, and before Starly could attempt to flee and leave again, Cranidos finished it with a quick stomp.

"Starly!" the boy said, clearly distressed and sad. He looked at the ground. "Oh well, I guess we should keep trying," he mumbled. The boy recalled Starly with a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry about earlier, once again. And my name's Peter, by the way," Peter said, introducing himself quickly. "I...uhm...should probably...er...go..." he mumbled sheepishly. The boy scratched the back of his scraggly blonde head quickly. Selene opened her mouth to reply, when the boy suddenly recalled his Starly and took off through the forest. Selene blinked in confusion, and looked at Cranidos. He turned his nose away from her.

"Great...here we go again," she grumbled dryly.

 

[{Swan}]

Bond of Flames - Great post, let's hope that Denahi learns some manners xD

Denahi gained exp and grew to lv. 9!

Chapter Two
Jubilife City
Number of Posts: 1​

Welcome to Jubilife City, one of the biggest establishments in Sinnoh today. This particular city is mostly concerned with technical research and advancing the world's electronics. Several companies are based in the city, the watch company Pokétch being one of them. There have even been rumors that the ambitious company has been trying to built more technology in their watches so it would have more functions than just to see the time.


In the very back of the city is the Battle Tent, with several arrows pointing its way. The Battle Tent was an idea that has come across with a family from Hoenn. It's a small green tent just out of the city with a few small battlefields attached to it, including a pond for water battles, marked with white stripes in grass. The way it works is that you loan a lv. 10 Pokémon from the tent, but you don't know which Pokémon you have. They will bring you to a field with an opponent who also has a random Pokémon and you two battle. The winner gets a TM prize, depending on how good their battle was.
NOTE: The owners of the Battle Tent are old-fashioned people who use only Apri Balls. Their balls are marked with a number.

How the Battle Tent works:

You get to choose the random Pokémon that you and your opponent have, but don't go crazy. It's a lv. 10 creature with an appropriate moveset. It's your job to make the battle as creative as possible. In the end I decide what TM you get, and I judge by the creativity of your post. I will also make sure that the TM is applicable to at least one of your Pokémon. Be wise about when you use it, TM are one use only.


Pokémon Center:

Pokemon Centers provide you with a warm bed. Rest for the night or heal up your Pokémon here. They also have a lobby with chairs and tables and a coffee/tea machine for waiting while the Nurses revitalize your Pokémon.

Pokémon Mart:

Of course, there's a Pokémon Mart in the city. You can buy items here, but don't go overboard. Again, items are one use only. Don't go overboard. Also, I'm only allowing you to buy one Apri Ball per post.

Items for sale:

Potion*
Antidote**
Paralyz Heal**
Air Mail
White Apri Ball***

* Potions in this time are simply a white bottle with translucent liquid with a red cross on the bottle. Have your Pokémon drink this and they'll feel a bit better instantly. They're far more reliable than Oran Berries, but they only help your Pokémon a little bit.

** Antidotes and Paralyz Heals are in the same sort of uniform white bottle, but their crosses are green for Antidote and blue for Paralyz Heal. They work the exact way as a Potion does.

*** White Apri Ball is exactly as it sounds, entirely white apart from the black middle. These special Apri Balls have been equipped with a catch-feature which allows you to open the Balls when pushing at the button in the middle, which loosens the catch inside and makes the Ball spring open. Close them by snapping the shut quickly.
White Apri Balls help with Pokémon that are trying to flee from the battle.


*Special*

There's a notice board in the Pokémon Center where people can put advertisements. If you look closely, there's a little note in the corner. Someone is requesting Rattata because, apparently, their mother won't permit them to leave town and catch one themselves. It also explains that this person is offering Pokémon that are quite rare to the continent. You might wonder why on earth someone would value Rattata over rare Pokémon, but if you're not entirely attached to your critter, it might be beneficial for you to visit this person. There's a rip-off strip with an address on it.


If you decide to go with the offer, you'll find a big house in the center of the city. It looks to be the house of a rich person, and when you ring the bell you are greeted by a woman with a big smile and even bigger jewels. She takes you up the stairs to where there's a ten-year-old boy in a large room, apparently his bedroom. There's big pictures of the rat on the walls, and a few Rattata are already in the room. He immediately asks you about the offer, and there's a row of beautiful Apri Balls on a shelf in the corner. He offers you one of them for a Rattata, assuring you that you will quite like what it holds inside.

You might ask him why he wants Rattata so bad. The boy would proceed to tell you this story of how Rattata are the most supreme of species and how he is certain that he could take on the Gym Challenge if only he had a full team of Rattata. He is currently only three Rattata short of having a full team.


VIII.Bond Of Flame.XIV.


The boy will offer you an Apri Ball decorated beautifully with orange and red flames, with some golden lines intertwining it. The Apri Ball itself is of the best quality, with the catch-feature built into it for convenience.



Growlithe

Level: 4
Gender: Male
Type: Fire
Ability: Flash fire
Moves: Bite, Roar, *Flare Blitz

*This Pokémon cannot yet use this move, it will have to get a lot stronger to be able to pull it off.


Strikit


The boy will offer you an Apri Ball decorated beautifully with golden and cream swirls that resemble flames on a background of silver. The Apri Ball itself is of the best quality, with the catch-feature built into it for convenience.


Vulpix

Level: 4
Gender: Female
Type: Fire
Ability: Flash fire
Moves: Ember, Tail Whip, *Heat Wave

*This Pokémon cannot yet use this move, it will have to get a lot stronger to be able to pull it off.



Koroc

The boy will offer you an Apri Ball decorated beautifully with silver and green leaves, that appear to be falling, on a black background. The Apri Ball itself is of the best quality, with the catch-feature built into it for convenience.


Turtwig

Level: 3
Gender: Female
Type: Grass
Ability: Overgrow
Moves: Tackle, *Seed Bomb


*This Pokémon cannot yet use this move, it will have to get a lot stronger to be able to pull it off.


NOTE: If you choose to trade your Pokémon, you are not allowed to battle in the Battle Tent, it is one or another.

 

[Underoos]

Selene yawned widely. It was beginning to grow dark, and she was starting to wonder when Jubilife City would show up. She had seen lights in the distance for some time now, but with each step she took they appeared as though they were getting further away. Another yawn escaped from her chapped lips. Cranidos was even growing very weary. Selene mumbled under her breath as she thought, vaguely reminding herself that it was Denahi now, not just Cranidos. They were pals. She mumbled and yawned some more, and then just as she felt she was about to collapse, the city came into plain sight. Selene began to walk down a small hill, but tripped and went tumbling down. She stopped in a heavy heap. Cranidos trotted up to her curiously.

"Crani?"

Selene groaned and pushed herself up into a sitting position. "That was not fun," she muttered. Selene glanced up and eyed the hill in brief annoyance. "Such an evil hill that was. Right, Denahi?"

Denahi looked at her like she was insane. Hills don't attack people. "Cra..." Denahi mumbled. Selene couldn't help herself. She yawned widely again. "Cranidos. Crani."

Selene lifted her droopy eyes and stared at her Pokemon. "I suppose I should at least wait until I get to a Pokemon Center to collapse, huh?" Selene mumbled. She offered her hand to Denahi. Denahi eyed it for a moment, and then set his chin in the palm of her hand. Selene grinned. She probably would have felt more accomplished had she not been so tired, but a full day of traveling had worn her out. Groaning, Selene got to her feet and looked at the brightly lit city. She came into the city stumbling and tired. The lights almost blinded her, but they were amazing. Selene was suddenly full of a form of tired energy.

"How does this sound, Denahi. First we go get you all healed up. I'll take a short nap while you're getting recovered-oh, and Rattata is too, of course-and then we'll go out for some dinner. Sound good?" Selene looked to her Pokemon. Denahi glanced up at her. It looked as though Denahi was too tired to be resistant, for he simply nodded in consent to the plans. Selene and Denahi then trekked through the town and finally made it to the Pokemon Center. The warmth of the very presence of the building filled Selene with comfort. They went inside, and thus the night began.

Selene was awoken by Nurse Joy roughly an hour and a half after she had fallen asleep. Yawning and stretching, Selene stood and followed Nurse Joy to the counter. Nurse Joy smiled and handed Selene back her Pokeballs. Selene tucked the large objects away in her backpack, silently promising Denahi to let him out once they were outside and going to a restaurant. Nurse Joy, noting that Selene didn't leave right away, asked if she needed something else. Selene blinked rapidly.

"Oh, yes, sorry," she said sheepishly. Selene rubbed the back of her head. "I'd like to have a room, if that's possible?" Selene kept her tone pleasant and light. There was no reason to be mean to a Nurse Joy anyway. They were all just so crazily pleasant. Well, most of the time anyway. When it came to emergencies they weren't exactly that friendly.

"Of course, let me just get a key," Nurse Joy said. She rustled around in the drawers and then produced a key with the number 13 on it. "The room is number thirteen, like it says on the tag located on the key. There will be a door with a brass plate on it so you will be able to find the number. It isn't too far down along the hallway to our right." Nurse Joy pointed. Selene glanced down the hallway, and then nodded. "We provide some machines that produce a bit of food. Mostly our guests go for the coffee or tea." Nurse Joy frowned a bit. "Would you like a map of the city? It is rather large, and the map will help you locate some ideal dining areas."

"That would be great," Selene said. She took the map that Nurse Joy offered. Then she took the key. "I'll return this tomorrow morning most likely," Selene promised. Nurse Joy smiled in reply. "Thanks for healing Denahi and Rattata. I'll be out for dinner now," Selene stated, basically excusing herself. She was just about to exit the Pokemon Center, when she noticed a form of an advertisement board posted up. Cocking her head to the side, Selene casually sauntered over to it and skimmed over the board. Something very interesting happened to catch her eye.

She peered at all of the advertisements, but none of them really stuck out. Selene was about to leave, when she noticed a piece of paper in the corner of the board, looking rather small. There was a slight sketch of a Rattata's head. She read the notice. Someone was apparently requesting a Rattata, because his mother apparently wouldn't allow him to leave the town. Why? Selene wasn't sure, but she did smell an opportunity. She continued reading, and found that the person was offering very rare Pokemon that were unique to the continent. Selene had to admit, she did wonder why someone in their right mind would value a Rattata over a very rare Pokemon, but she did. Selene ripped off the address paper and stuffed it in her pocket, deciding that she would stop there once she'd eaten. Then Selene left the Pokemon Center.

Soon she summoned Denahi by pressing the center button on his Pokeball. Denahi shook himself as he popped out, seemingly very happy about not being confined anymore. Denahi looked up at Selene in an almost curious way. She offered her Cranidos a big grin, and even gave him a thumbs up. Denahi eyed her like she was crazy again.

"Time for some chow. Are you hungry, Denahi?"

"Crani," her Pokemon stated.

"I'll take that as a yes, just because I know I am."

Selene then unfolded the small map of the city. The restaurants were marked in red. Selene located the nearest one, and pointed in the general direction. Cranidos looked after her finger, and then marched on. Selene didn't notice, until she suddenly felt someone tap her shoulder and point. She looked up quickly, and saw Denahi just leaving. "Denahi!" she shouted. Selene whipped around and faced the stranger. "Thanks a lot," she said in a rush and then took off after her Pokemon.

"Crani," Denahi declared, stopping fully outside of a rather nice looking diner.

"You've got to stop running off like that. You're going to kill me, making me run when I'm starving," Selene stated. She had her hands resting on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. Cranidos was surprisingly fast for a dinosaur. Or whatever he was. Once she finally got her breath, Selene walked into the diner with Denahi on her heels.

She glanced around and then finally chose a booth in the far corner of the place. Denahi sat opposite of her and simply looked around the diner with a form of wonder. She slipped one of the small menus from the holder near the window and looked at it. Denahi then moved his gaze to her and cocked his head to the side. Selene glanced up from the menu and to her Pokemon. She then wondered if maybe, just maybe, he was only being nice because he was very hungry. Grumbling to herself, Selene went back to deciding what to eat.

The menu had multiple things with multiple combinations of foods. All of them sounded somewhat appealing, so it was a difficult choice. By the time the waiter had gotten there, all she could do was order a water. The waiter commented on how "cute" Denahi looked, and decided to bring him a nice bowl of Pokemon food for free. Selene then went back to the menu, and began to have an internal debate over a rather giant looking cheeseburger with all of this amazing stuff on it, or a nice big bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. Both made her mouth water, but in the end she decided to go with the spaghetti. Denahi soon finished his bowl, and began to look about curiously once more.

Selene stared at the bowl of spaghetti for roughly a minute and a half without even touching it. Then she picked up her fork and began to dig in. She was normally a pretty neat eater, but right now she was ravenous and ate like a starved wolf. The bowl (at a large size, because she was very hungry) was gone in probably about ten minutes at the most. Selene sat back happily and all content. Denahi was staring out the window, and when Selene looked over she saw a large tent with several advertisement posters. Bringing out her map, Selene decided to take this time to do some research before she left.

After a little bout of research, Selene soon found out where exactly the house with the Rattata person was. She also found out that it wasn't too difficult to get there, so it was definitely going to be her last stop before sleepy-ville. Besides, it was only about eight thirty at night anyway. Selene had also come to know that the funky tent thing was known as the Battle Tent, but she was too tired to be concerned about that at the moment. Setting out roughly five dollars for the entire meal and tip, Selene nodded to the door and left with Cranidos hot on her heels once more. They then walked through the beautiful city all the way to the house.

When she saw the house, Selene couldn't believe it. The house was like a mansion. She sighed. Of course rich people lived here. Probably scary rich people too. Muttering under her breath, she knocked on the door and waited. A few moments later, she heard some form of stomping throughout the house. Then the large door opened, and suddenly a woman was standing there. She was full of giant smiles and even more giant jewels.

"Are you here about the Rattata?" she asked cheerfully.

"Uhm...yeah," Selene said slowly.

"Oh good!" she squealed. "Follow me. Oh, and if I do say so, that's such a cute little dinosaur you have there."

Selene muttered a soft thanks. They walked up a spiraling staircase and to what appeared to be a room. The woman opened the door, and inside the room sat a little boy drawing something at his desk. He looked over at the sound of the door opening, and that was when Selene noticed. His room was COVERED in Rattata stuff. It was almost like he was obsessed with the little thing. The mother bounced away down the stairs happily, and left them alone.

"Oh!" he exclaimed happily. His hair was brown and curly. "Do you have a Rattata for me?" he questioned, big green eyes lighting up and sparkling. Selene offered him a bit of a hesitant smile and nodded. The boy grinned wider (if that was even possible, Selene couldn't believe it was) and then hopped on over to a shelf containing multiple Apri Balls. The little boy looked at the shelf, and then picked one up. It was very beautiful, with orange and red flames dancing up the sides. There were golden lines intertwining as well. It looks as it is of the best quality, and Selene suddenly felt very excited. "This one," he declares. "I'll bet you'll love this one. It's one of the most excellent Pokemon I've seen. Would you like to trade right now?" He was so excited, that Selene couldn't help a smile tug at her lips.

"I don't have a fancy Apri Ball, only a newer Pokeball," she explained.

"It's alright. It's what's inside that matters," the boy said happily. He grinned more.

"Alright. Here," Selene said, holding out the simple Pokeball. The boy giggled and took it from her, and then handed her the Apri Ball. "I have a quick question though, before I leave." The boy looked at her and waited. "Why exactly do you want Rattata so bad? I mean, I can see you like them, but..." Selene trailed off.

"Haha, you obviously don't know the excellence of Rattata. They are one of the most divine Pokemon I have ever seen. Rattata have it all. They have beauty, cunning, grace, skill, and intelligence. They are great. Excellent partners and best friends. Those are some of the short reasons. Would you like a book on them?" The boy then moved towards a rather expansive bookshelf, but Selene waved her hands back and forth in a no gesture.

"No, no," she said, faking a look of embarrassment, "those are your books. I can't just take them."

"But you know what?" the boy questioned, suddenly switching the topic a bit. Selene cocked her head to the side at him. "I'm going to take the Gym Challenge once I have a full team of Rattata. After this one, I only need two more." He seemed rather proud of that fact, so Selene congratulated him. She was growing tired. "Thanks for the Pokemon, really. I'll bet you'll like yours!" She took that as her time to leave, and what seemed like a blink later Selene was standing outside. She looked at Cranidos.

"Bedtime?" she questioned.

"Crani." Yup, that was the affirmative. Denahi was tired too.

"We'll meet our teammate later," Selene muttered. They both slept very, very excellently after their first exciting day together.

 

[{Swan}]

Bond of Flames - Great post, that's exactly what I imagined the Rattata boy to act like!

Congratulations, Selene successfully traded her Rattata for a Growlithe!

 

[Koroc]

Kenny went into the bushes to find what the strange rat pokemon took from him. Looking in the pile of leaves that the pokemon placed itself as it gnawed on the object. Kenny was just about to give up on the item when he seen that there was a little hole near the base of the tree. He dropped to his knees and stuck his hand in the hole. Feeling a few things he grabbed the closet object and pulled it out.

Kenny pulled out a wallet. It had a black leather cover and still seemed like it had some identification inside. He pulled out the card and saw that it belonged to a Mr. Robert Peters. Placing the wallet to the side and went back in he pulled out a watch. The watch looked pretty new and it was still working. Kenny looked around to see if he could find any indication of its owner. There were some initials etched into the back of the watch.

"R. P." Kenny said placing it on top of the wallet and going back in. This time he pulled out the item he had been looking for. He got up picking up the items he got out of the tree and walked back to where Pichu was standing. Kenny laughed as he watched Pichu carry the pokeball that was just about the same size as she was.

"Pichu, this is I wanted to show you." Kenny said pulling out a small rubber cap. Kenny smiled as he threw it over Pichu's head forcing her ears downward. Pichu yelled and tried to shock Kenny but it did not work. Continuing to laugh as Pichu struggled to get the cap off. Finally after getting it off, Pichu walked over to Kenny and threw the cap at him. Pichu turned her head away from Kenny and folded her arms.

"Ah come on Pichu, you can't stay mad at me." Kenny said with a smile. Pichu continued her little episode as she turned her whole body around away from Kenny. Kenny walked over to the poke ball that laid on the ground. Wondering just what pokemon he caught, Kenny stretched out his arm.

"Come on out." The pokemon came out the ball and looked at Kenny. Pulling out his pokedex to see what pokemon it was and opening it scanning the pokemon. Text began to appear on the screen.

"Rattata, the mouse pokemon, usually don't have any particularly area they stay since they are always so cautious. Even when they are sleep they move their ears to listen for danger."

"So rattata huh?" Kenny said kneeling down and picking up the pokemon and cuddling it. Pichu turned around to see her trainer hugging another pokemon. She quickly got up and ran over to him. Staring up at Kenny she used the puppy eye dog trick.

"Oh now you want to talk to me." Kenny said with a smile returning the Rattata to its pokeball. "So you get jealous easy."

Pichu crossed her arms and began to pout again. Kenny placed Pichu on his head and continued to leave the forest. Both Kenny and Pichu began to bond on their adventure through the forest. They would stop and watch some of the other wild pokemon run pass them in packs or they would find a tree and get some berries to eat.

Finally they began to see signs of a town ahead with plenty of mad made sculptures more gradually. Kenny saw a small staircase which separated the green and shady forest into a concrete and brick forest. There were buildings as far as the eye could see. For just about anything someone could think of there was a building for. Walking over in the direction Kenny thought the pokemon center would be. Finally making it there he sees a board on the inside of the center and he notices a poster.

I am looking for a
Rattata

Please if you have one please come to my house.
I live in the building past the gates.​

Kenny thought it would be a great idea to pay the owner of that poster a visit. Kenny walked up to the counter.

"Excuse me." Kenny said softly looking at the lady at the desk who had long, fluffy, orange hair and a white nurse's hat that rested on top of it. She wore a pink dress that had a white apron above it.

"Oh hello there young man. What can I do for you?" The lady at the desk said politely

"Could you please heal my pokemon?"

"Sure young man it will take about thirty minutes if you want to do some shopping while you wait you can."

Kenny smiled and dropped off his pokemon with the nurse. He waited a little bit then headed out the front door of the pokemon center. Not knowing where he would go, Kenny headed down the street. Kenny noticed a Poke' Mart a little ways down the street and decided to hit there first.

Opening the door to the mart he was greeted very warmly. The citizens of the city seemed to be really friendly and they also loved to talk about recent technical advances. Kenny looked around the store for a bit until one of the workers there came up to him.

"Are you looking for something particular sir?'

"Hmmm….. Would you have any potions?" Kenny said curiously.

"Yes sir we sure do. We keep them at the counter since they are usually impulse items."

"I will take 10 bottles please." Kenny said walking to the counter to make his purchase."

"Oh okay." The worker said running to the counter and places 10 white bottles with a red cross in the middle of the bottle on top of it. "That will be 30 dollars."

"Okay I got that." Kenny said going into his pockets pulling out his wallet. He noticed that he still had Mr. Peter's wallet in his pocket. Kenny pulled out his money and the lost wallet. "Here is the money. Also I want to know if you know a Mr. Robert Peters because I found his wallet in the forest." Kenny placed the wallet on the counter.

"Oh I know Mr. Peters." The clerk said picking up the wallet. "One sec let me call him."
The clerk picked up the phone and dialed a number. Talking briefly on the phone the clerk hung up the phone and turned to Kenny. "Mr. Peters in on his way here to get his wallet and wanted to meet the kind soul who brought it back."

"Oh okay." Kenny said looking into the air knowing he still had time before he gets his pokemon back. About 15 minutes later the doors of the Poke' Mart flew open.

"Where is the person who brought my wallet here." a tall man with brown bushy hair with a white streak going down the middle of it. He wore a brown overcoat that covered his green dress shirt and khaki pants.

"He is right here Mr. Peters." The clerk said pointing towards Kenny.

"Thank you young man. I have been looking for my wallet for months. After being attacked by a rattata I dropped it and ran away as fast as I could." The man said scratching the back of his head.

"I think I might have the culprit also." Kenny said smiling "You see because I caught it after it stole something from me." Kenny we back into his pocket and pulled out the watch. "Is this yours too?"

"Why yes that is from the time I went to find my wallet." Mr. Peters said as he went into his pocket and pulled out some money and handed it to Kenny. "Here young man this is the least I can do for you."

"No, no I can't really." Kenny said holding his hands up in front of him.

"Well then take this instead." The man pulled out a couple of bows. "These bows will make your pokemon normal attacks do more damage."

Kenny took those bows and put them in his pocket. Mr. Peters thanked Kenny again and then left the mart in quite a hurry. Kenny looked at his watch and saw what time it was and bolted to the pokemon center. Running in to the counter the nurse turned around.

"Oh Mr. Henderson your pokemon are ready." The Nurse said smiling and handing him his pokemon back.

"Thank you very much." Kenny said releasing Pichu from her pokeball. He was ready to
head out to see about the trade for rattata. Kenny picked up Pichu and put her on his head and headed out the door.

After a little ways Kenny finally came up to front door of a very elegant house that looks like it is owned by rich people. He rung the door bell and awaited for someone to open the door. The door opened and a woman with a bigger smile showing her pearly white to the whole world greeted him.

"Hello young man." The lady said "You must be here to see my son. Well follow me."

The lady walked him down a long hallway and finally came up to a door and upon entering the room all Kenny could see was pictures, statues, and fabric covered in rattata. Standing their in awe, Kenny didn't notice that there was a kid right in front of him.

"Hey mister did you come here to offer a Rattata." The kid said tugging on Kenny's jacket.

"Yes I am." Kenny said taking out the pokeball that contained the rattata.

"Let me see it. Let me see it." The kid said jumping up and down. Kenny let out the pokemon and the kid inspected the pokemon. "This one looks like he is a champion."

The kid ran to his desk where he had two Apri balls on top. The kid picked up the Apri ball that had silver and green leaves, which appear to be falling, on a black background. Kenny quickly agreed to the trade make the kid very happy.

"Oh thank you, thank you." The kid said smiling from ear to ear. "With your Rattata I only need one more Rattata to complete my team."

Kenny smiled to know he could make a kid happy. Turning around and heading out the house, Kenny looked at the arpi ball and began to wonder what pokemon was inside.
The excitement was unbearable that as soon as he got outside he released the pokemon from the ball.

Out came a small green turtle like pokemon that had a big head with a small plant growing on its head. Its shell was brown with black lining on it. Kenny decided to pull out the pokedex to get more information about it. Reading the text as it appeared:

"Turtwig, the tiny leaf pokemon. Turtwig's shells are made of soil and usually live close to water. When they are thirsty the leaf on its head begins to wilt."

Walking to the pokemon center with both pokemon by his sides and thought he would take a rest for the day from all the excitement.

 

[{Swan}]

Koroc - Good post, I like the creativity.

Kenny obtained 10 Potions and a Pink Bow!
Congratulations, Kenny successfully trades his Rattata for a Turtwig!

 

[Broadway]

Mackie had seen the signs for the Battle Tent on his first wander around the city, after leaving his pokemon at the Center, but it had been late in the evening, and he'd already been tired from the walk to Jubilife, so he'd gone back to the Center to crash.

Now he'd slept, and everything was all good. He'd woken up at dawn, and left his pokemon at the Center to walk again around the quiet city. It was so early that the streets were silent, no traffic and hardly any people. Movement on the roof of a store building up ahead (looked like a convenience store, but wasn't open yet... he'd have to come back later for a couple of candy bars or maybe some chips) made him look upward. Three birds sat there, fussing and grooming themselves. Starlies, right in the city! He wondered if they were wild and just lived here, or belonged to someone in the building.

If Luster had been out here with him, she'd probably have zipped right up to see if she could fight. Mackie laughed a little. His Swablu fought with a will, but Luster's zippy movement carried over into her battle enthusiasm too. However, both of them had been worn out after the travel from Sandgem, and even after a treatment by the nurses at the Center, both were dozing in the their pokeballs now, in side pocket of his smaller city bag, the one that held pokeballs and his wallet, and not much else. His big hiking pack was in his room at the Center.

He hadn't spent too much time in this city on his way over from Solaceon, more interested in getting to Sandgem, but now it had his full attention. Despite the hour, he went right up to the Pokemon Mart and peered through the front door. He would definitely need to get a few supplies. Berries were nice, but scrounging through bushes for them when one potion was a much better restorative was kind of a waste of time. The orchards back home had given him the false impression that berry bushes were both common and yielded many berries. Apparently in the wild, this was not exactly the case.

There was a display against one row of shelves, a cardboard rack with many envelopes printed with colourful letters. AIR MAIL read the display, and Mackie thought maybe he should send a note back home. Aunt Laura would be happy if he did. He'd definitely be back later.

He went on, through the quiet city, and it slowly started to wake up.

"Whoa whoa, now that's something," he said to himself, some time later. Now people were moving, heading out to work, and the sidewalks became crowded with many people and a few pokemon.

The pokemon often made Mackie turn and look, just because. He saw a Glameow walking beside an old man, and a little girl ran past him with two Buneary following her. There was a strange white-and-green pokemon that looked like a snow-covered tree helping out behind the counter of an open-front shop that sold ice cream, and he stepped under the awning to see better.

He exited with a cherry snow-cone, and a new entry for "Snover" in his pokedex.

He had just finished the snow-cone when he noticed just how big the building up ahead on the other side of the street was, huge and white and square. "Jubilife TV, huh," he mused. There was a big old antenna rising from it, way bigger than the one Uncle Red had gone up to the roof to attach on the farm.

There was a large poster by the shiny glass doors, taller than Mackie was, proclaiming 'Daily Trainer's Lottery! Lucky Draw!' In smaller text it said 'Please visit the kiosk in the lobby!' Hmm. Couldn't hurt.

He pushed open one of the two front doors and went inside, pausing a few steps in to let his eyes adjust to the indoor lighting. It didn't take long, though--the lobby was wide and well-lit, and pretty crowded, too. He had to sidestep to get out of the way of a woman in a suit coming in behind him, and there were well-dressed people like that in all directions it looked like. Aha! Except there. A line of people in mostly normal clothes was in front of a desk with a placard overhead reading LUCKY TRAINER LOTTO.

He was about to go stand in the queue when someone stepped in front of him.

"Hi!" It was a young man with a microphone. Behind him was a bigger fellow with the hugest camera Mackie had ever seen on a tripod.

"Uh. Hello," Mackie answered, a bit tacken aback.

"You you mind answering a few questions?" the man asked chirpily, his grin bright like he'd had waaay too much coffee.

"Does that one count?" Mackie asked. The man paused a moment, looking confused, and then laughed.

"Hahaha, too funny, yes," he held the mic out towards Mackie. "I'm Carter Jacobs, a reporter gathering interviews for a piece on the perceptions the public has of the new advances in pokemon technology."

"Oh... well, okay," Mackie said, glancing briefly at the lotto kiosk. Well, it would still be there afterwards.

"Doesn't need to be long, not at all," Carter reassured him. "Just whatever you think."

"Umm, I guess I think it's a good thing," Mackie said. "The Pokemon Centers are great for trainers. Not just for healing up the pokemon an' all, but we meet each other too, y'know? The League and the Centers are places where we can find out stuff, and, uh, stuff," Mackie trailed off. It was hard to just talk and talk. He had never been one to do that. "Oh, but, like, the pokeballs, I'm not so sure about," he tilted his head and scratched behind one ear. "I visited the pokemon professor and he gave me my first pokemon in a pokeball, and it's sure slick and pretty but thing is, if you're trying to capture and whatnot, and it don't work, they bust up and leave little pieces all over." He shrugged. "It's hard to get all the bits, and I don't like so much that I'm leaving it out there in the wild. Apri-balls are more natural."

Carter nodded, looking elated at what Mackie had just told him. "That is an excellent angle, really an excellent angle," he said, and Mackie shifted slightly. His point had been that the pokeballs were kind of a mess when they busted, he didn't think that was a good thing.

"Uh, do you need anything else?"

"Oh, no, I think you've given me a gold mine," Carter said, and thanked him. "And you know, you might see yourself on TV," Carter told him. "Jubilife News Magazine, watch for it!"

"Right... okay," Mackie nodded and sidled around Carter, who was turning back to the cameraman.

"Everyone loves environmental issues, Sam, this piece will be brilliant..." Carter was saying as Mackie walked away. That had been too weird. Would he really be on the TV? Imagine that--imagine if Aunt Laura and Uncle Red and everyone saw!

He woulda dressed up better, he thought. Worn the red plaid instead of the blue plaid shirt. Oh well, too late now. Time for the lotto, at last!

The lineup moved quite quickly, he found, but he had time to study the list of prizes posted at the kiosk. Grand prize was a grand shopping spree at a Pokemon Mart, and lower down on the list were sets of the new pokeballs in varying amounts, kits of potions and status healing items, stuff like that. All of it could be useful, he thought. Especially that shopping spree! He smiled a little, and tried to imagine what he could possibly use that much money for. It wasn't long before he was at the counter, and a pretty girl gave him a bright smile. "Good morning!" she greeted. "Try your luck? Today is the beginning of the prize week sponsored by the Jubilife Pokemon Mart! May I see your trainer card, before you draw, sir?"

Mackie nodded and showed her his signed card, and she recorded the number, and then held out a dark blue nearly-opaque jar. "A simple draw today," she told him, "however in the future there will be exciting different ways to win, so keep coming back."

He stuck his hand into the jar, feeling the little cardboard tickets. He rummaged for a few seconds, then chose one and pulled it out. It was white with a black stripe across it, and nothing else. After looking at it for a second, he handed it to her, wondering if it meant anything.

"Oh!!" She exclaimed, clapping her hands. "Congratulations, sir!! You have won one of the White Apri Balls!" She turned briefly to hand the ticket to a young man waiting behind the kiosk, who ducked down, presumably to retrieve the prize.

Mackie bounced on his toes and grinned, elated at the win. It was no shopping spree, but these sorts of things were pure luck, and mostly you weren't likely to win anything. He accepted the apri ball happily and looked at it. Sleeker than the plain standard kind for sure.

"These special Apri Balls have been equipped with a catch-feature which allows you to open the Balls when pushing at the button in the middle, which loosens the catch inside and makes the Ball spring open," the young woman said, and Mackie turned it over in his hands, nodding. "They're quite effective against pokemon trying to flee," she added.

"Thanks, miss," he said, still elated, and he gave her a last nod in parting, before getting out of the way of the next person, still studying the new ball. Now see, these were fine devices. The bleach job and veneer that had had been applied to the apricorn had the faint irregularities that something natural ought to have. He popped it open once to test the mechanism, and snapped it shut with a satisfied nod.

Stashing it in his bag, he walked onward with a smile on his face. Good way to start the day, couldn't deny that.

Now... where was that Battle Tent?

The signs were easy to follow, and he had no trouble finding it, not far outside the city. The tent itself wasn't that big, but the battle areas looked plenty roomy enough.

There was a respectable crowd of people, some at the tent proper, some lined along the battle areas to watch the goings-on.

He joined the group at the tent, finding himself among people of all types, from little kids to older folks.

"Next!" called the attendant, and Mackie came forward. "Here we are--whichever you like," the attendant indicated the numbered apri-balls. "But we're not telling what's inside until after you chose," she smiled, "so it's all up to luck."

"Mine has been pretty good today," Mackie said, and she winked at him.

"Hope it holds up for ya, then."

He picked one of the ones in the middle, without thinking too much, and 'hmmmed' mysteriously, and gave him a sheet of paper with his turn number and area location on it, as well as another with the information for the apri-ball's inhabitant.

He went out the rear of the tent and found the field he was supposed to be at. Most of them had two- or three-person queues, but this field had no one waiting, and it looked like the current battle was wrapping up, as the two contestant shook hands.

He popped the apri-ball open while looking at the sheet of paper.

"Spinarak," he said, and was echoed from below with enthusiasm.

"Spiiiinarak!" declared the pokemon, scuttling around his feet.

"Well, hi there," Mackie said, and jumped as the Spinarak scuttled right up his leg. "Ack!! Boy, your feet feel funny," he told it. It dropped down to the ground and walked in a circle, looking impatient. "Yeah, yeah, gimme a sec to see what you do!" Across the field, he could see a little girl, maybe seven or eight, in a blue dress and pigtails. She saw him looking and waved.

"Hiiiii mister!" she screeched, and Mackie winced, but returned the wave.

"Hey there, little miss!" he called back, and then took a minute or so to study his information again, trying to decide if he should feel guilty about trying to beat a little kid in a pokemon battle.

'Course, little kids who were only ten could register as trainers. So probably not. Easier said than done, though!

Then he and the little girl were facing each other down in the battle area.

"Off y'go, Spinarak!" he said, and the Spinarak scuttled forward, ending the move with a jump to the center of the ring.

"Bonsly! Go squish that dumb bug!" the little girl said, and the little not-really-a-tree fellow ran out to meet the Spinarak. "I don't really hate bugs," the girl added to Mackie, "but my big brother says you gotta be aggressive. Low kick, low kick!" the girl shouted, jumping up and down, and Mackie hurriedly countered.

"String shot!" he called out. The Bonsly didn't seem like it was particularly fast, but it wouldn't hurt to have some more time to think.

The sticky threads struck the Bonsly, but, though it thrashed a little at the stuff, it kept right on coming, and spun its low kick at the Spinarak. It bounced the Spinarak back a little bit, but otherwise didn't seem to do much damage.

Fighting... against bug? Right! It didn't work that great, Mackie remembered, and pumped his fist. "Poison sting, Spinarak!" he ordered. "Those kicks can barely do anything, so go for it!"

The Bonsly was still struggling with the strings as it moved, shaking itself, and it was too easy for the Spinarak to catch it, leaping onto its back and making it fall right onto its face as the Spinarak stung it.

"Bon!!" the Bonsly protested, standing up so violently that the Spinarak was thrown off. It seemed fine, and Mackie closed his eyes briefly. Of course. Poison to rock... not very effective.

This... could very well take a while.

"Don't let it get its bearings," Mackie called. "Scary face!"

The Spinarak dashed forward--uncanny how fast those legs could go--and jumped right over another low kick to come face to face with the Bonsly--and then it flipped, standing on its front legs to flash the back of its abdomen at the Bonsly, the face-shape there apparently doing to the trick, as the Bonsly bounded back and looked more hesitant to attack, now.

A wail rose from the little girl, and Mackie jumped himself, staring at the girl's frightened face, her hands up over her eyes, turning to fists to rub away tears.

"I--" Mackie said, before a bawling from the field made him look back. The Bonsly was crying too.

The Spinarak looked uncertain, just like Mackie felt. "Uh, little miss," he tried again. Dammit, he had never wanted to scare her--he thought she'd said she didn't mind bugs.

"Bonsly, low kick!!" the girl shrieked suddenly, not sounding at all like she'd just been crying her eyes out, and Mackie stared back and forth between her and the Bonsly as it bounded up and launched a low kick that sent the Spinarak tumbling back. Effective or not, that had been a serious blow, Mackie realized. He sent the girl another disbelieving look, and she smiled at him. "Fake tears," she stuck her tongue out at him. "I made it a signal before we started!"

Mackie was taken aback, but had to give her the respect that idea deserved. "Nice one," he told her. He'd have to remember that. But for now... "Constrict!" he called out, "then poison sting again!!"

The Spinarak gathered itself up and sped forward, but jumped at the last second, and landed on the Bonsly, letting out some threads that weren't as sticky as the String Shot ones, but served in their own way to catch the Bonsly's head leaf-things and the Spinarak swung around and wound the threads around the Bonsly, clutching at it with all of its legs and tightening up.

"Flail, Bonsly!" the little girl shouted, and the Bonsly thrashed out with all its might, smacking the Spinarak a good one with its head leaf-things, but the Spinarak got off its Poison Sting before it was bucked off.

And... YES!! Mackie smacked his hands together. The Bonsly had twitched, hard, and had a distinct ill look about it. Poison would work over time, no matter what. "Good job, Spinarak! Keep up the Constricting! Don't let it move!"

"Flail, Bonsly!!"

Mackie and the little girl were next to each other by now, both staring at the mess of string, flailing Bonsly and Spinarak legs, and they cheered them on and called out. Another good blow and the poison wouldn't mean anything, Mackie knew, but this Spinarak had spirit and didn't let its poison do the work.

Then the Bonsly caught the Spinarak in the belly with both feet and then spun apart, the Bonsly festooned with threads and staggering, the Spinarak still upright but looking like it could be knocked over with a feather.

Maybe sometimes it was best to let the poison do the work. "Spinarak, just dodge!!" Mackie told it. "It's slow, it can't catch you!!"

"One more flail, Bonsly!" the little girl encouraged it.

The Bonsly seemed to gather itself, while the Spinarak moved slowly, but its sharp eyes were fixed on the Bonsly, ready to dart as soon as it moved.

The Bonsly charged. "Boooooooooooooooooooon!" it shouted.

"Rak!!!" the Spinarak spat, almost a retort, and scuttled sharply aside.

There was a chase, headlong and hard, but cut abruptly short when the Bonsly stumbled to a halt, and then sat down all of a sudden.

"Oh, no!" the little girl cried. One of the field attendants came to meet her, lugging his case of pokemon medicines. The little girl made a sniffling noise, and stared down at the ground.

"Hey," Mackie said, and nudged her in the arm. She didn't look up, and raised one arm to rub over her face. Didn't look like fake tears this time. "Hey," he said again. "Good match. I got lucky."

She looked up at last and, as he'd thought, her face was wet this time, a little red. She seemed to work hard to change her expression, and glanced at him quickly. he felt kinda like a jerk even though he hadn't really done anything wrong.

"I guess," she said, voice a little thick. "I guess... I can try again."

"Yeah, see?" Phew. "And I think you can win. The pokemon listen to you good when you tell them what to do. You're pretty natural." She definitely had the 'loud' and 'encouraging' factors down, anyway.

"You think so?" she said, and brightened considerably.

"Well, I'm kinda new at this myself," he allowed, "but looks like it to me." That first screech of greeting had certainly gotten HIS attention.

She looked almost back to the cheerful kid she'd been at the start, and Mackie let out a silent sigh of relief. He didn't want a win to leave a bad taste in his mouth.

"You're a real trainer?" the little girl asked, sudden fascination washing away the last of her distress, and she focused on Mackie hard enough he almost felt it. "Like my brother? Do you have pokemon? Are they here? Can I see them?"

"Uh," he said.

"What kind are they? Are they boy pokemon, or girl pokemon? Did you give them names?"

"Uh," Mackie said again, and shot a pleading look over at the referee attendant to rescue him.


(OOC: OMG, that kinda ran long.)

(OOC2: er... Mackie was going to go by the mart after this but I left it before he was awarded a TM... can I just say that he picked up 5 potions, 10 antidotes, 3 paralyze heals, and 1 Air Mail, when he went back later? Totally cool if not; clearly he was just distracted by other things and spent all his afternoon at a kite store, or something.)