The New League

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Strikit - Great post, seems like Flare won't open up to him as easy as Verde did.

Congratulations, Ethan caught a lv. 6 Male Magikarp!
 
Oreburgh would never be one of Mackie's favourite towns, he knew that, but at least it was the terrain, rather than the people. He'd rather be in a place he didn't like with decent folks than in the most beautiful place with jerks.

Besides, he allowed, it wasn't really so bad, after. It was definitely no cave, that was for sure, and the way the houses matched the local stone was kind of neat. The dark colours made the sky seem brighter, and made people and pokemon stand out against the stone and brick. There was an old man out walking this morning with a Bonsly by his side, its green "leaves" bright and shiny. Mackie smiled at the sight—even the plants around here were made of rock.

He still wouldn't ever want to live here... but it was nice to visit.

Made a guy appreciate home, he thought, feeling a pangs for the green-and-gold fields and the orchards and colour-flecked meadows.

For now though, after going through that cave, Mackie just wanted to appreciate the Pokemon Center, and it was a relief when it came in sight. It was still only the morning, but he felt like he'd been moving for a day. The red roof ahead made him walk a little faster, able to ignore the throbbing cuts in his leg. They weren't enough to make him limp, at least, not if he concentrated, but he wasn't about to start sprinting. It wouldn't do to get in with blood all over his leg.

Bonnie was gliding just above and ahead, apparently unwilling to land on his head or backpack just now. "Lead the way, pretty girl," he said to her, and kept up his uncomfortable fast walk all the way to the Center.

It was, of course, a whole production to convince Bonnie to go back into her pokeball so Nurse Joy could rejuvenate her and Luster, along with that wretched Diglett (Mackie felt a stab of guilt for disliking it, but he couldn't help it), but once Bonnie finally acquiesced, Mackie trudged to the room he'd been assigned, and dumped his bag.

He took a shower for good measure, might as well clean the rest of himself if he needed to wash his leg, and then took the time to tape and bandage the cut, and prepare extra gauze pads to switch out along the way... though maybe it would be best to rest here for a day or two, just in case. He grimaced at that thought while he anchored the end of the bandage with a safety pin. He'd been moving every day so far. He didn't want to stay put, even for just a bit. But if it got infected, he didn't want to be out on a route all alone.

"Well, that's lookin' better," he eyed his handiwork. First aid wasn't new to him, nor anyone who ever worked on a farm, and the tape wasn't doctors' stitches, but the bandage work was nearly as good. "Now for eating..."

He pulled on a clean pair of overalls and a t-shirt, jammed his hat back on his head, and went back to the lobby. "Ma'am—uh, miss," he corrected. This Joy looked younger than he was. She giggled at him, and he ducked his head, hoping he wasn't blushing. The Joys were darn cute, specially the young ones. "My pokemon doin' okay?"

"Of course sir," she nodded smartly. She was young but confidant. That was good, though, because he wouldn't feel so great about giving his pokemon over to a nervous person. "They're resting comfortably now. I can go get them for you if you're ready to take them back."

He nodded, and she handed him a pen to sign his name again, while she brought them out. He took back the three balls, slipping two into his city bag, and handling the last one uncertainly before stashing it there as well. He left with a wave, setting out to find a snack, explore the town, and try and gird himself for what he knew this stop was really about.

The Gym Leader.

The pain in his leg was virtually forgotten as he thought about that. Rock and steel was what he'd be up against here, and though the Diglett's ground type would do wonders for that kind of battle, he had no plans to bring the Diglett out in battle. It had woken up on the walk from the tunnel to the city, and the pokeball had jittered and bounced until it had appeared again, spitting angrily, and glaring like it wanted to attack him again. Bonnie had flown at it, landing in front of it and staring it down, and its irate expression had been cowed. Mackie had recalled it, then, and it hadn't tried to get loose since. Maybe he should've left it back there, he thought again, as he had many times along the way to town. But after he'd left the tunnel, it was too late to contemplate.

It was his decision, and now it was his responsibility. He wasn't going to dump it in the outside, nor force it to battle, either. Surely Byron would know how to deal with it.

And hopefully Mackie would be able to deal with Byron... Bonnie's singing would sure be one key. Pecking wouldn't do much at all, but Astonish may be useful...

Lost in thought about battle tactics, Mackie walked half-aimlessly through the streets, running down ideas as he moved through the city. He found himself near the museum, he realized eventually, he'd seen a poster and flyers for it at the Pokemon Center. "More rocks," Mackie wrinkled his nose. "Just what I need."

On the other hand, there might be postcards, and Caden loved fossils, so if Mackie could send his cousin something nice, it would be worth it. And if he was visiting, he might as well learn about the mine. Better this way than by going into it!

The entrance fee wasn't too much, and soon Mackie was peering down at glassed-in displays of rocks. The coal was boring as, well, rocks—black stone, big deal—but there were some really neat-looking things too, big hunks of crystal in different colours, or pieces of plain old grey or brown stone with metallic veins in them. There was even a wall chart about soil acidity and alkalinity that Mackie nodded approvingly at—that stuff, at least, he knew about himself. Couldn't grow plants in the wrong kind of ground.

Just like you couldn't fight pokemon types with the wrong kind of pokemon, he thought, and grimaced. This place was interesting, but he could barely pay attention, his mind was too occupied with what was coming up.

"Hey there!" he heard a voice. "You're not from around here. Would you be a trainer, now, sonny?"

Mackie turned to see a man a little farther down, closer to the back. "Uh, yessir I am," he nodded. "Can't deny I'm still new, but I'm a League-registered trainer for sure." He resisted the urge to show off his trainer card. He couldn't resist the urge to show off at least one of his pokemon though. He reached into his bag without looking, grabbing Luster's apri-ball since it was easiest to tell apart by touch alone. He took it out, showing the man the red-stripe-painted ball.

"Oh my, my," the man nodded. "I see you're still using the old tools."

"Well, them and the new ones too. But these look the best to me," he said, looking down at his paint job on the apricorn hull.

"And what manner of creature have you got in there?" the man inquired. "You see, I'm a collector of items, myself, not of pokemon, but I've found myself with a surplus of some of the more useful ones. They don't suit all kinds, though," he added, a little regretfully.

Mackie opened the apri-ball, red light coalescing into Luster's four-winged shape. Fortunately for him, Mackie belatedly realized, she didn't go swerving off into a madly buzzing exploration of the room. Rather, she hovered by Mackie, perhaps realizing that inside small rooms (in comparison to outdoors, even a museum hall was small), she should stay still. She did, of course, buzz-raspberry him, but he just grinned back. "Manners," he reminded her. He smiled at the man. "This is Luster. She's a Yanma."

"Oh, but indeed she is!" the man exclaimed. "What a lovely Yanma she is, too," he leaned close, and Luster dipped a little, looking almost shy. Mackie chuckled—it figured she was polite to people who weren't him. "And I think you, dearie, may find a better use for this than I do," the man said to her. He glanced over at Mackie, and fished something out of his back. On a white ribbon dangled a small vial, which he held out for Mackie to take. Mackie inspected the little tube. It was filled with iridescent silvery dust of some kind. It reminded him of Luster's Silver Wind move, in fact. "That, sonny, is Silver Powder. Bugs quite like the stuff."

Indeed, Luster seemed enchanted by the little vial, trying to butt in nearer and get a closer look. Mackie held it up for her, and she wiggled happily.

"Let her hold on to that, and she'll be a better bug, or so I'm told," the man said.

Mackie found a way to fasten the ribbon around her neck so it held the Silver Powder vial snug against her. And Luster seemed thrilled to have it. "Yan, yan, yanma!!" she exclaimed.

"I know, I know!" Mackie laughed. "But you gotta go back in a bit more, 'kay, girl?" he asked. "When I'm outside again you can go for a good loop-de-loop around, and show me how much you like it."

"Yaaanma," she replied, flying in a tight, giddy circle around him, then she paused in a hover, and he recalled her again.

"Thank you, sir!" Mackie told the old man, who waved him off.

"Oh, think nothing of it, sonny," he smiled. "I like seeing the young folks with their big plans. The new League starts here, after all. Gotta see 'em off as best we can."

**

Mackie hadn't expected the Gym Leader to look so young.

Following on that, he hadn't expected someone so young to be so relentless. But that was, perhaps, a good description of rock and steel as any. Byron was standing back now, watching Mackie without a trace of mockery, for which Mackie was grateful, since that little Mawile, deceptively cute and then suddenly frightening, had dealt a Bite that against Bonnie had landed as hard as possible. Potions were allowed in trainer battles, which was something Mackie was unashamed of taking advantage of.

"Flyers aren't known for their strength against steel," Byron remarked calmly. He didn't sound like he was rubbing it in, or anything, more like he was cautioning Mackie. It still made Mackie a bit mad, though, as Bonnie drank down her potion. He knew for certain now, just how resilient steel was. Bonnie's Peck had barely been acknowledged.

"I like 'em," Mackie bit off, aware he was being impolite, but too agitated by the fact that this was a Leader battle to pay proper respect to a Gym Leader just yet. "I like flyers. and I raise what I like."

"Fair enough," Byron nodded. "Stand by your convictions, then. But I don't go easy on anyone."

"Wouldn't be worth beating if you did," Mackie retorted, and Byron narrowed his eyes at that, then smiled a bit. Mackie touched Bonnie on the head for luck once more, and then, "Go, Bonnie! Watch those ugly teeth! Don't get bit! Featherdance!" he hollered, and Bonnie leaped into the air, circling the diminutive Mawile, and Mackie watched it too, watched those giant jaws. Something so small was so tough—amazing.

Bonnie darted down at it, then smacked her wings together before darting away, and a cloud of feathers obscured the Mawile for a moment."Maw!!" it cried, and at Byron's command it tried again to land a Bite. It missed the first one, and Bonnie snuck in a Growl before she was unable to dodge again. This time those great jaws connected, but merely seemed to nip her, the tough little Mawile's impact vastly less than before.

"Blu!" she cried, sounding satisfied at that.

She'd done the hard part, she taken the hits to weaken it. Now... "Bonnie, c'mon back a bit!" he called, and pulled her back into her ball. "G'wan, Luster!"

Luster zipped away almost instantly, making a circuit around the arena before Mackie had time to even issue a command. "Quick attack! Show that Mawile what you're made of!" He knew it would do little good versus the steel type, but Luster got pumped up from the show of her own speed.

She dive-bombed the Mawile, slamming into it and knocking it down before zipping upward again. "Don't take that! Fake Tears!" Byron ordered his pokemon. The Mawile sat up and raised its little hands to its face, letting out a pathetic bawl as Mackie watched, and he narrowed his eyes.

"No mercy!" Mackie cried as Luster sketched a hesitant circle before homing in again on the Mawile. "Show off that bug power! Silver Wind!" Luster bobbed in the air, and Mackie repeated himself. "Silver Wind!! It's faking, Luster! Don't be fooled!"

Bug was no better than flying or plain old normal, not here. But Luster's Silver Wind was a special attack, not a smack or a tackle or any other physical one. Steel defense was mostly that, wasn't it?

"Yanmaaaaa!" Luster buzzed at last, and whipped around the Mawile, wings gleaming first, then glowing, and then Luster banked and twisted, and a rain of silvery light washed over the Mawile, the impact driving back across the arena floor. The glow didn't fade immediately. This attack had made Luster stronger, as it sometimes did.

"Bite when it comes back!" Byron ordered, and the Mawile obeyed smartly, hopping up and somersaulting midair to clamp those giant jaws around Luster's tail. Luster took the bite more harshly than Bonnie had--even after all of Bonnie's efforts to reduce its attack power, Luster's defense didn't match Bonnies--but not badly enough to fall. She buzzed furiously and shook the Mawile off.

"Don't stop!" Mackie told her, and the glow returned, and Luster whipped that Silver Wind against the Mawile yet again. It sprawled back, and then vanished in a red glow. Mackie looked at Byron, who was giving him a considering look.

Mackie stood up straight and lifted his chin in defiance. Byron nodded in acknowledgement, then tossed out his other ball.

"Shieldon! Attack!"

The little shield-headed pokemon appeared with its four feet braced on the floor like it was immovable.

If he pulled Luster out now, she'd lose her momentum and the increased energy from her Silver Wind. He'd have to let her do her damage now, he knew, or there'd be no way to do enough in time to beat that Shieldon. "Keep it up! But stay far as you can!" he told her, and there was another glowing flash. The Shieldon, braced as it was, seemed to weather that better than its teammate had, and didn't move under the impact, though Mackie could tell it had done some damage. Not much. But some.

And it was surely slow, Mackie thought. Luster could dodge that, no problem.

"Mud in its eyes!" Byron called out, and the Shieldon tried to Mud Slap Luster, Mackie stared across the arena incredulously after Luster rose out of the way of the mud. Byron, suddenly red-faced, didn't meet his eyes. Maybe he was a little flustered from his Mawile losing, Mackie thought. Well, good! "Headbutt!" Byron's next order came, and Mackie watched Luster.

"Keep away!" he reminded her, "But use your Silver Wind as soon as you can!"

The next few scuffles were Luster barraging the Shieldon while she dodged its Headbutts with little effort. Her speed and agility were exceptional, Mackie thought, and cheered her on whenever her attacks landed.

It didn't last long enough. The Shieldon charged yet again, finally picking the right moment, and its sturdy face-shield struck Luster head-on as she arrowed downward. She was sent flying back, head over tail-tip, until she actually landed on the floor, flinching from the impact. She wasn't done, not quite—the Silver Wind had toughened her temporarily, just enough to keep standing after that hit, but Mackie called her back.

"Luster, you're brilliant!" he told her as he recalled her. "Bonnie, put that thing to sleep!" he added, as he sent Bonnie into the fray once again.

"Swa!!" She called, a harsh warning to the Shieldon, and surged forward, eager to be back in the ring. She sang out, but nothing happened, and she was caught sideways by plain old no-frills Tackle before she could pull up to try again.

"Metal Claw!" Byron called out, but the Shieldon didn't get the chance. Bonnie dropped down near its head, and sang, this time so softly that Mackie could barely hear the notes, and the Shieldon's head nodded down, and down, and then it slumped down, fully relaxed and fully asleep. Mackie took a moment to breath, and Bonnie circled over the arena as he did.

"No! Shieldon! Wake up!" Byron shouted, and he repeated himself, but the Shieldon was deaf to his calls.

"Bonnie! Peck! Fast as you can!" Mackie told her. If Luster had done enough, maybe Bonnie could do the rest. And so she pecked away, and Shieldon lay, oblivious, lost in its doze, its diminutive, yet literally rock-hard body twitching but not waking with each small hit.

Until it woke up. "Dodge!!" Mackie yelled in a panic as the Shieldon swung its head around to tackle Bonnie where she hovered close by, and Bonnie did, narrowly.

"Headbutt!" Byron commanded, and Mackie yelled, "Astonish!"

Bonnie was first. She flew in and screeched, flinging out her wings in a sudden movement, and the Shieldon stopped in its tracks, transfixed. Then it stumbled, swayed, and then red light surrounded it, and it was gone.

Mackie stared for a second, not sure if he believed it, before looking again at Byron, who was regarding him thoughtfully. Bit too thoughtfully, for someone practically the same age as him, Mackie thought a little sourly, but then if you were a gym leader, Mackie guessed, you were supposed to be more grown-up than a regular person at that age.

"Swaaaa..." Bonnie murmured, and turned on a wing to fly back to Mackie who held out his arms to catch her.

"So, you won," Byron finally said.

Mackie took a breath and stroked Bonnie's headfeathers. He looked down at her. "Hear that?" he asked her. "Flyers ain't so bad."

"Blu," she said softly, and nibbled at his overall strap in an affectionate grooming gesture.

"Good fight," Byron added, crossing the arena to extend his hand, and Mackie shook it. "Definitely a good fight."

"Definitely," Mackie echoed, and tried not to wince. Brock's grip was amazingly strong. That figured.

"Well, as the Oreburgh Gym Leader," Brock went on, "it is my honour to award you the—"

"Oh, wait a sec," Mackie said suddenly. When he'd stepped into the gym, his adrenaline had kicked in and he'd totally forgotten until now.

Byron looked taken aback at the interruption, but since he'd already done the interrupting, Mackie just forged ahead. "Sorry, uh, sorry, it's just that I have this pokemon," he dug into his back and pulled out the Diglett's ball. "This is, uh, this is a Diglett, it's from the cave route on the way over, y'know?"

"You have a Diglett and you didn't use it?" Byron asked, looking slightly incredulous. Mackie grimaced.

"Yeah, no, well, see, this one, it uh. It got me good in the tunnel, see," he took a step back and pulled up his overall leg enough to show some of the bandaging, and Byron's expression changed to one of comprehension as Mackie went on. "Bonnie fought it, beat it good, too, and I didn't want it for myself, no way, no thanks, not at all, but I couldn't just leave it in there. I wasn't even down a side-tunnel when it got me, it was right on the main path. Coulda come after a kid or something."

"I think I get it," Byron said, and held out a hand. "I can take care of it."

"Oh, thank you," Mackie said, relieved. He handed over the Diglett with a sense of great relief. "I dunno the area, see, and I don't wanna leave out in the open if it lives in caves, and no way could I trade it to any random person, it wouldn't be safe."

"Well, there are some who might welcome the challenge in training," Byron said, and Mackie nodded. "I'll let it out and see what its like. I can find it a home far away if it definitely can't be tamed."

"Well..." Mackie allowed, "I know scaring critters makes 'em angry. But for sure it hates me now, so good luck."

Byron nodded. "And now, unless you'd rather just leave without it..." he trailed off, cracking a smile that made him look much more like a teenager all of a sudden.

"Oh, nope. No way," Mackie touched his hat brim and grinned. He thought about taking the cap off, but Bonnie was up there again.

Byron nodded. "Then, it is my honour to award you the Coal Badge, Trainer." He held out the brown-and-silver badge, and Mackie ducked politely as he took it, holding it up to look at it closely.

"Swaaaa!" Bonnie exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's real shiny," Mackie agreed, and saw Byron roll his eyes a little. "Well, it is," he told the Gym leader, and pulled in his chin to look down and pin the badge to the front of his overalls.

"Congratulations," Byron said, and Mackie was surprised that he actually looked kind of happy. But then, he did get to give the first badge of the League out to the new trainers, so maybe he didn't mind losing so much.

"Thank you, sir," Mackie replied. This was only the first step, but he felt proud anyway. Bonnie and Luster had been amazing. He was gonna take them out somewhere big to fly with his kite, as soon as he could.

**

Maybe it was because he was winding down from the morning's cave ordeal, and then taking on the Gym Leader, (which, Mackie admitted, he could have left till tomorrow... but he had gotten all tunnel-visioned again), but his leg was just now starting to really hurt, and boy was he ever tired.

He'd found a place to eat, though, treating himself to a nice restaurant, since he'd just won his first important battle. The waiters all gave him funny looks for his clothes, even though he was wearing his nicest shirt, green and black plaid, but they were still nice, not snooty, and he realized why when he saw some people in miner coveralls on the terrace. Hardworking people in this city, for sure.

Mackie sat out on the terrace to eat, too, and the sun was going down, making the light all orange and changing the colours of the rock and brick of the city. He didn't like booze much, even if he'd been old enough to buy it, but he had gotten some ginger ale, and poured it into a wine glass, just for kicks. He raised it, looking up, to where Bonnie was perched on the peak of a roof across the street, Luster next to her, wings glinting in the low sunlight.

"You're both stars," he said, even though they couldn't hear him right now, and took a sip of the fizzy drink.

*


(OOC: Since this is one post, I'm skipping the IC shopping run again. Say Mackie purchased a potion to replace the one he used, and one Pink Apri Ball—unless he can get two, but I think it's one per of these special ones, right? Mackie doesn' t like pink so much, but he definitely likes the way these balls work with the positive connection.)
 
Broadway - Awesome post, I loved your portrayal of Byron.

Congratulations, Bonnie grew to lv. 12!
Congratulations, Luster grew to lv. 13!
Mackie gave away his Diglett and received the Coal Badge!
 
Standing at the entrance of Oreburgh City Kenny watched the little girl run down the stairs off to her house. Worried that the first gym he would challenge would be something his pokemon can't handle. Pichu finally poked her head out of his bag to see that they were no longer in the cave and jumped out to rest on his head.

"Finally wanted to come out huh?" Kenny said chuckling a little bit. Chewy gave Kenny a strange stare and hit him on his head. Sunny was still full of energy and they walked into the town. The town was full of people dressed up in mining outfits and in the far corner of the town was a museum with many people in front of it.

"Hey are you looking for the gym leader?" A shady man wearing a hard hat was resting on the side of the gym.

"I am but don't know if I am ready." Kenny said with a depressed face.

"Don't worry he is still very young and naïve. He gets cocky quickly." The man said taking his hard hat off his head scratching his head. "You will find him down by the mines. He really doesn't spend too much time at the gym."

"Thank you for the advice." Kenny said heading down south towards the mines. He passed many cranes and machines that were used to help them dig. Many miners sat there eating and talking about some kid that was out doing them in the mines.

"That Byron kid is out doing all of us." One of the miners said stuffing his face with a sandwich.

"Yeah but without him we would be so far behind in work." Another miner said picking up his thermal cup taking a drink.

Suddenly a young kid walked out of the tunnel covered in dust and dirt. He threw his shovel on the back of his neck and walked over to the other miners.

"That has to be him." Kenny said to himself gathering the nerve to walk over to him. Kenny's feet were shaking in fear so Chewy gave his trainer a little jolt to get him moving.

"Hey you there kid in green what is your business here." Byron said looking over with a serious expression.

"I was looking for the gym leader so I can challenge him to a battle…"

"Well how about we battle right here." He said wanting to take a break from the mines.

"Okay." Kenny said clinching his hand together.

"Mawile lets show them own we work." Byron said releasing a small yellow pokemon that had a gray colored mouth on its head that looked like a pony tail.

"Well I will start off with Chewy." Kenny said looking at Pichu jump off his head to the rocky ground in front of Kenny. All of the other miners stopped what they were doing and turned around to watch Byron battle a kid for a badge.

"Mawile use false swipe." The girlish began to spin her big mouth around as she approached Chewy.

"Chewy dodge it quickly!" Pichu jumped up to dodge the slash flipping above its opponent.

"Quick use bite." The mouth quickly opened and closed around Pichu.

"Chewy use Thundershock quick." Kenny yelled ask she struggled to try to escape from its prison.

"Chaaaaaaaaaa" Chewy yelled while Mawile was surrounded by a blue lightning aura. Finally opening its mouth saw the faces of the miners in awe as they witnessed her escape.

"Now use present and get out of there." Chewy created a box and placed it in Marilee's mouth as she jumped out and turned around. The box exploded knocking it to the ground but it seemed she didn't feel too much damage from the attack.

"Mawile use fake tears." Mawile began to cry with tears running down its cheeks. Chewy ran over to see if it was okay. Mawile gave a smirk and then swung its mouth around hitting her up in the air. Pichu fell to the ground and then quickly got back up running at Mawile.

"Chewy use another thundershock." Pichu jumped clinching Mawile's mouth close and then shocked it again. Mawile tried to shake Chewy off but it was no use.

"False swipe now Mawile." Mawile spun her mouth around hitting Chewy against the rocky ground. Holding on a tight as she could Chewy released another thundershock forcing the steel pokemon to the ground. Breathing deeply Mawile stood up on its feet but Chewy held her mouth tight and then released another thundershock making the pokemon fall back to the ground. Mawile laid on the ground not moving. The miner began to get rowdy as they watched their leader's first pokemon go down.

"Return Mawile you tried your best." A red beam absorbed the pokemon and it returned to its ball.
"Shieldon your up." A big headed pokemon can out of the ball. Its head looked like a shield and it had a small yellow body. The pokemon turned towards its trainer and then stared at its opponent as if it was taunting her. Chewy brushed herself off and then yelled at the small shield pokemon.

"Chewy use your tail whip." Pichu ran up to Shieldon and tried to strike it with her tail.

"Shieldon use head butt then follow up with a mud slap." As Pichu's tail approached shieldon it trusted its head to chewy knocking her back. Shieldon turned around kicking up mud at Chewy attempting to bury it.

"Chewy use present on yourself." Kenny said in a desperate attempt to recover some of her health.

"Risky move kid." Byron said with a smirk. "Present has a small percentage to heal." Pichu looked at Kenny in fear of knocking herself out.

"Chewy you have to trust me." Pichu took a big gulp and created a box and placed it right next to herself. Pichu sat there waiting for the box to explode. The box opened and let out smoke. Byron laughed after here a boom. The smoke cleared and Chewy stood there as if nothing was down to her.

"Lucky aren't we? No matter Shieldon use metal claw." Shieldon sprinted to Chewy as fast as it could with the claws at the end of its feet began to glow a bright white and it lunged at Pichu with its claw out.

"Chewy dodge tit and then use thundershock." Pichu moved to the right dodging the attack and then turned to release a blue shockwave at Shieldon. The Shieldon quickly turned his head blocking most of the attack. Kenny quickly noticed that Chewy was not going to do damage to this pokemon.

"Chewy come back and rest." Kenny said as he looked down at Sunny who was ready to fight. "Sunny you are up."

"You seem nothing like the trainer I fought the other day." Byron said with a grin

"Lets go Sunny use tackle." The turtle pokemon did as commanded as she charged in at the shield pokemon.

"Fool haven't you learned that brute force will not win you the match." Byron said laughing getting the other miners to join him. "Teach him a lesson Shieldon. Use head butt then follow up with a metal claw." The shield pokemon sat there waiting for its opponent to reach it as is tilted its head to the side.

"Stop Sunny and use withdraw." Turtwig stopped kicking up dirt and dust that floated towards shieldon. A light blue aura formed around Turtwig and it seemed to attempt to ball up. "Now tackle once more." Shaking her head Sunny continued towards the Shieldon.

"Release now." Shieldon lunged its head at Sunny. Predicting the attack Turtwig jumped over its head. Shieldon then turned around and used Metal claw knocking Sunny into some nearby rocks. Sunny shook the attack off since withdraw made her defense rise a little.

"Now use tackle again and again Sunny."

"Keep those head butts up Shieldon." The two pokemon collided again and again until both pokemon looked like they were going to collapse.

Suddenly Sunny formed a green aura around itself. The aura disappeared and Sunny let out a big yell. Her eyes were as green as emeralds and the leaves on her head matched them.

"Looks like you Turtwig's overgrow has kicked in." Byron said with a bit a confidence.

"Overgrow what is that?"

"Overgrow is an ability that increases the power of Turtwig's grass attack with is near the point of exhaustion."

"Well let's wrap this up Sunny. Use absorb." Sunny created a green aura around her and Shieldon. The aura around Shieldon turned into little orbs and floated back toward Sunny. After the attack shieldon fell to the ground too tired to get up. Byron returned his pokemon to is ball.

"Nice job shieldon could not have asked for more." Byron walked up to Kenny and placed his hand on the boys shoulder. "You fought well and won a valiant battle for that I award you with the Coal Badge." Bryon said pulling out a shiny pin from his dusty coat pocket. "This is recognition that you beat me in a gym battle and is a ticket into the Sinnoh League."

"Thanks Byron." Kenny said kneeling down to show what their hard work has pulled off. His pokemon smiled and looked at each other.

"Well break time is over guys lets get back to work." Byron yelled throwing his shovel across the back of his neck walking back into the mines.

Kenny smiling while looking at his new badge headed towards the Pokemon Center in town to heal up his pokemon. With the red roof in sight Kenny sprinted to the doors.

"Hello young man what can I do for you." A familiar looking lady said from behind the counter.

"Ummm…. Can you please heal my pokemon Nurse Joy?"

"Certainly but you might want to rest here for the day before heading back out. We have plenty of rooms available."

"Thank you Nurse Joy I will take you up on that offer." Kenny said as Nurse Joy handed him a key. Kenny walked to his room and opened the door only to find that Dustin was in there getting ready for a battle.
 
Konekodemon - The profile's good, you're accepted. I VM-ed you about the Pokemon (Even though I VMed before reading the thread. I should stop doing that) But besides that you can post now. Also please respond to the OOC about the route thing, since I'll have you starting later in the rp to help you catch up. Thank you for joining.


Koroc - Great post, I liked the strategy with Pichu! Very creative.


Congratulations, Chewy grew to lv. 16 and learned Sweet Kiss!
Pichu wants to evolve, will you let it? (Answer in the OOC)
Congratulations, Sunny grew to lv. 15 and learned Razor Leaf!
 
Sara sighed in relief as she finally reached the town of Oreburgh. The girl stopped walking just passed the city gates and took that moment to rest up a bit and relax. Once she did so, Sara once again started to walk into the town. She had to admit...it was disorienting to see all of the buildings that all pretty much looked exactly the same. Still, the newer trainer shook her head and looked for the very familiar building with the red roof.

"Alright, there it is," Sara said with a grin as she finally located the Pokecenter and went at a light jog towards it. She continued the pace until she entered the building and went up to the counter. The Nurse Joy behind it turned around and smiled at the female trainer.

"Hey there! Welcome to the Pokemon Center, how may I help you?" The Nurse joy said cheerfully.

"Yeah, could you heal my Pokemon?" Sara asked as she took her three occupied Pokeballs on the counter. The Joy smiled as she took the 'balls and placed them in a container. Once she did that, the nurse handed Sara the clipboard and pen and had her write down her name and what Pokemon she had.

Once that was done, Sara handed the clipboard back and asked, "So, do you think you could tell me anything about the Gym Leader in this town? Like what his main type is and everything."

"Well," the nurse began as she placed the Pokeballs into the healing machine, "first of all, the leader's name is Byron. His main type is Steel, though I know that his one Pokemon is a Steel/Rock type."

Sara frowned deeply and swore under her breath. Steel and Rock? Just the Rock made it so that Yansa wouldn't be the greatest choice, but with the Steel added on none of her Pokemon's attacks would do much against them! The trainer curled her hands into fists, wishing that she had had known this before hand. She would had at least picked up some kind of a Water type in the forest. Or even one of those Sandshrews that had attacked her party. Sara had to keep herself from punching something.

The Nurse Joy tilted her head as she watched the girl's angry expression. She then looked at what the trainer had and blinked, realizing the girl's problem. The nurse looked back at Sara and said, "You know, there's this offer going on at the museum where, if you show this one guy a certain Pokemon, he will give you an item that will boost that Pokemon type's attack."

Sara looked up sharply at the Nurse Joy. "Really!? Where's the museum!? What types do I need to show him!?" She all but yelled.

The nurse flinched and said, "I don't know, I haven't been there myself. But the museum itself is just near the north gate of the town-" She started to say but didn't get to finish as the girl just ran out of the Pokemon. The nurse sighed and turned back to her work.

A few hours later...

Sara was standing in front of the Oreburgh Gym. Her three balls holding her Pokemon in her pack, with the one holding Lee having the Twisted Spoon she had gotten him. To behonest, it had been a tough decision for the girl trainer. She knew that Lee was already strong enough and that Yansa would probably benefit from the extra little boost. But, at the moment, the bird wouldn't do well at all in the up coming Gym Battle. So, for the time being, things would just work out better if she helped at least one of her stronger Pokemon who can do more then Yansa.

Taking a deep breath, Sara took the last few steps and entered the Gym. Once she did, she looked around, realizing that it lookeas though she was in a tunnel. In fact, if it wasn't for the arena and the electrical lights overhead, she would had thought she was. Not to mention the man standing on the edge of the battle area. Taking another deep breath, the girl approched the area.

"Ah, another kid," Byron said, smiling slightly. "Nice to see that the young ones are also taking an interest in Pokemon Battling."

Sara narrowed her eyes. "Hey, I'm not much younger then you are, for your information," the girl growled, causing the Gym Leader to smile more.

"You don't say huh? You look younger," he said, then added when it seemed as though Sara was going to argue, "But, now is not the time for guessing at People's ages. Do you want to battle or not?"

Sara grunted then pulled out one of her 'balls. The girl threw the ball and shouted, "Angela, it's your time to shine!" She shouted as the ball opened up and the Ghost type appeared in a flash of light.

Byron smiled when he saw the Pokemon, then reached for one of his Apri balls and threw it in the air. "Mawile, show this Pokemon what you got!" He called out as the ball opened up and a small, female looking Pokemon with a jaw coming off of the back of it's head appeared.

"A Mawile?" Sara muttered to herself as she started to take her Pokedex out, but then realized that she was too far away to get a read on the Pokemon and she didn't want to delay this battle anymore then she had to. So, getting back to what was happening, the girl shouted, "Okay, Angela, use a Screech, then a Night Shade attack!"

"Shuppet!" The ghost said happily, then let out an ear splitting cry, making the Mawile cry out in pain and cover her hidden ears. Angela soon stopped the noise and a purple aura surrounded her. The aura quickly spread and hit the Steel Type, knocking her back. Sara knew that Ghost didn't do that well against Steel but since Night Shade was a fixed attack, it was mostly the only option she had.

"Hmm, not too bad there kid," Byron said, then grinned. "But I'm afraid that you're gonna have to do better then that! Mawile, use Fake Tears!"

"Maw!" The Mawile cried out, then its eyes grew wide and started to water a bit, making it seem as though it was going to cry at any minute. Angela, despite herself, couldn't help but to feel sorry and relax slightly.

Before Sara could shout anything, Byron yelled, "Alright! Now use a Bite attack!"

"Angela!" Sara shouted, but it was already too late.

The Shuppet couldn't move fast enough to get out of the way of the very large jaws. The Ghost cried out in pain as the attack hit and, with out even having to have her trainer tell her, she used another Night Shade attack, making the Mawile let go of her. The Puppet Pokemon then slammed itself into the Mawile, hitting it with a Payback.

But when Angela tried to hit the Steel type with another attack, Byron shouted, "Mawile, Astonish now!"

The Mawile reacted quickly and slammed her extra head into the Ghost, knocking her back a ways and slamming her into the ground. Angela cried out in pain once more and slowly floated back up.

"Angela…" Sara said, then looked up when she heard Byron sigh.

"You really need to learn how to control you're Pokemon," the Gym Leader said, making a 'tsk' sound as he did so.

Sara glared hatefully at Byron and, in an effort to prove him wrong, shouted, "Okay Angela, use Payback again, then a Night Shade!"

The Shuppet just grunted and once again slammed dark covered horn into the Mawile. Then before the Steel type could recover, sent out the purple aura once more. This knocked the Mawile to the ground. It tried to push itself back up, but its arms gave out on it and it collapsed once more. With a sigh, Byron returned the Pokemon to its ball and took out another Apri ball.

"Nice going there," Byron said, throwing the ball up into the air. "But you still haven't convinced me of anything! Shieldon, come out!"

The Apri ball opened once more and, in a flash of light, a small, dinosaur like creature appeared. It titled its head the weaken ghost, then grunted and pawed the ground, seeming impatient for the battle to start.

"Alright Angela," Sara said. "Quick, use a Night Shade!"

"Shup!" Angela said with a nod, then once again sent the purple aura at the Rock/Steel type. The Shieldon grunted when the attack hit him, but didn't seem too bothered by it. Sara figured this, but she wanted to take as much of the small dinosaur's health as she could before her ghost fainted.

"Alright Shieldon, finish this with a Mud Slap!" Byron shouted.

The Shieldon nodded and kicked up some mud at Angela. Of course, when the mud hit the ghost, she fell to the ground and didn't get back up.

Sara sighed herself and returned the Shuppet to her ball. She then picked up a Pokeball, threw it in the air and said, "Lee, it's all up to you now!"

The ball opened up and, in yet another flash of light, the Ralts appeared with his arms crossed. The Twisted Spoon, though quite large on his small body, hung around his neck with a ribbon tied around it. Lee seemed to glare at the Shieldon, making it shift nervously under the gaze.

"Huh, now this should be interesting," Byron said with a smirk, then shouted, "Shieldon, use a Headbutt on that Ralts!"

"Lee, counter with Confusion!" Sara shouted to her Pokemon.

The Shieldon pawed the ground a couple times before charging at the small Psychic type. But before it could hit him, Lee let out a small cry and a burst of Psychic energy came from him, knocking the dinosaur back and making it slam into the ground.

Byron grunted, not expecting the little Pokemon to have that much power, especially since his Shieldon was a Steel type and should have repelled that attack some what. Sara, on the other hand, smirked. Now she was really thankful that she had gotten the Twisted Spoon from the man in the museum.

"Alright Lee, use a Growl attack now!" Sara ordered her Ralts.

Lee grunted before growling lowly at the Shieldon. The Shield Pokemon shivered in fear slightly as its attack was lowered. But before Sara could give her Pokemon another order, Byron shouted, "Shieldon, Metal Claw now!"

The Shieldon charged at the Ralts and tried to slash at him with its glowing claws. But Lee quickly jumped out of the way, making the dinosaur slash the ground instead.

"Lee, use Confusion again!" Sara yelled quickly. The Ralts just grunted once more before sending another psychic burst at the Shieldon, making it cry out in slight pain as it was once again knocked away.

"Shieldon, Tackle now!" Byron shouted at his Pokemon.

The Shieldon quickly recovered and, at speeds that seem faster then what it could go at, slammed its body onto the Psychic, knocking it back a ways. Lee bounced on the ground a couple times before stopping. Sara bit her lip, wondering if her Ralts was going to make it. But then, the Ralts let out a grunt and slowly pushed himself up. Though his eyes could not be seen, he glared daggers at the Shieldon, once again making it nervous.

"Alright Lee, use another Confusion!" Sara ordered her Ralts.

Lee nodded before the psychic aura surrounded him. Soon enough, this same aura surrounded the Shieldon. Before either Pokemon or Leader could do anything, the Shieldon was being thrown from one side of the Gym to the other. Not to mention how it was slammed across the ground a couple times. Byron opened his mouth to yell something, but before he could Lee had thrown the Shieldon into the air and broke the psychic connection. The Shieldon let out a startled cry as it started to fall to the ground, but just before it hit the ground, Lee sent out another, a bit more powerful, Confusion attack. This knocked the Shieldon hard into a wall, causing dust to fly everywhere.

When the dust finally settled, Sara and Byron could see a knocked out Shieldon with its own little indent in the wall. Byron sighed and returned his Pokemon to the ball.

"Well kid, you beat me," Byron said. "There isn't anything I can say against it. You've won the Coal Badge."

"Yes!" Sara said happily, punching the air as Lee let out a happy cry. The girl smirked widely before picking her Ralts up and walking over to Byron. The trainer and leader met half way across the battle field.

Her smirk growing, Sara held her hand out for the badge. Byron took one out of his pocket and held it out for her. But just before he gave it to her, Byron said, "Now, I want you to know. You've still got a lot to learn. Just because you won this battle, it doesn't mean that you can just ignore any and all of the problems that going on with in your own party. For instance, that Shuppet and Ralts are strong, but they're wild and do things on their own. I don't really care how you do it, but you have to teach them that you're the boss and to do things when and only when you tell them to during a battle. You get me?"

"Yeah, I get ya," Sara grunted, extending her hand more.

Byron sighed and dropped the badge on her palm. "Sure, what ever you say kid." He said before turning around and walking away from her.

Sara stared at the Gym Leader before sighing herself. "Maybe I handled that wrong…" She muttered to herself, then shook her head and looked at her Ralts. "Well, I'll think about it later. Right now, we celebrate!"

"Ralts!" Lee called out happily, making his trainer smile more. Then the two walked out of the Gym, ready to have a small celebration to winning their first badge.
 
Charzeon - Great post, I enjoyed it a lot.

Congratulations, Angela grew to lv. 13 and learned Curse!
Congratulations, Lee grew to lv. 12 and learned Teleport!

Sara received the Coal Badge!
 
Kairi, a girl of 12 as you may have already noticed, was up playing video games that night. But she really should have been in bed about half an hour ago. Just then there was a noise behind her,"Kairi! What are you still doing up?" Her mother asked her. Kairi looked at the clock. It was already 11:00PM. "You really should go to bed, right now. You don't want to be late getting your first Pokemon, dear," her mother told her.

"But I'm too excited to sleep," Kairi complained, as she turned her attention back to her video game. Just then her mother pulled the cord from the TV,"Hey!" Kairi complained,"Get to bed right now young lady!" Her mother ordered. Glameow, her mother's Pokemon was watching all this from the hallway. She thought it funny.

Kairi sighed. She had just gotten though with a very big boss fight too, and hadn't had a chance to save yet. Now, the next time she played it, she'd have to fight the boss all over again. But she sighed, put down the controller and went into the bathroom and bushed her teeth and then put on her pajamas and went to bed. She didn't notice though, that she had forgotten to set her alarm clock first though.

***

Kairi awoke the next morning, to notice how late it looked. She looked at the time,"Oh no! I forgot to set my alarm clock! I'm going to be late!" Kairi panicked as she noticed it was 9:00AM. The Pokemon were being given away, an hour ago. She'd never make it. Only one thing to do now. She put on her shoes and dashed out of the house still in her pajamas.

Kairi dashed down the road in her pajamas. She passed by a lot of people looking at her like she was crazy. She ran though Route 201, passing by a lot of wild Pokemon who thought this girl was too crazy to be messed with. She then entered Sandgem Town, and ran up to the lab. She stopped to catch her breath.

Just then though someone opened the door hitting her in the face,"Ow!" Kairi screamed painfully rubbing her sore nose. She looked up to see who had knocked her over. It was her rival, Kaz. And it looked as if he had already gotten his first Pokemon, from the lab,"It looks like your already starting off in a bad way Kairi," her rival laughed at her.

"What do you mean?" Kairi asked as she got up from the ground,"I already got my Pokemon and it's the best one," he told her. "What is it?" Kairi asked,"It's an Eevee, of course," Kaz repiled,"And it's the last Pokemon," he grinned as he then walked away, not wishing to weast his time with Kairi any longer.

"Did he just say, he got the last Pokemon? Oh no!" Kairi panicked. Just then she jumped as a voice behind her said,"So, you finally showed up Kairi." She turned around and came face to face with Professor Rowan. He was holding a PokeBall in his hand. It looked like Kairi had lucked out big time, as the Professor looked as if he had just caught a new Pokemon.

Kairi didn't care what Pokemon it was either, she'd take it. She followed him into his lab,"I'm afraid I don't have anymore Pokemon left besides the one I just caught Kairi. You may have it if you'd like. I just caught it in the wild and it's not tame yet. So be very careful," Prof. Rowan informed her. Kairi nodded and took the PokeBall. Just then there was a flash of light as a small looking white squirrel with yellow cheeks appeared in front of Kairi,"Pachu!" It greeted.

Kairi got a Pachirisu!

[PokeCommunity.com] The New League

Pachirisu
Gender: Female
Type: Electric
Ability: Run Away or Pickup
Moves: Growl, Bide, Quick Attack

"Nice to meet you," Kairi said lending down to the Pachirisu's level. It grinned,"Pachu!" It said again. Kairi thought to herself,'This is the cutest Pokemon ever!' The Professor walked over to her and handed her an object,"This is a new invention, I've been working on Kairi. It is called a Pokedex. It holds info about Pokemon in it. We've like you to test it for us," he told her.

"Sure! I'll test it for you," Kairi grinned, as she accepted the Pokedex. "Also are you going to use your own Apri Balls, or do you want some PokeBalls?" Prof. Rowan asked her,"I'll take PokeBalls please. I never knew how to make Apri Balls. So, I don't have any anyway," Kairi said, accepting the PokeBalls.

Kairi got a Pokedex and some PokeBalls!

"Also you might want to hurry up and leave Kairi. Everyone else, expect Kaz is already way ahead of you. But I believe you can catch up in no time at all, Kairi. Ok, guess I'll see you later, I have a lot of work to do so you'll have to leave now, bye," Prof. Rowan said as he put Pachirisu into Kairi's arms and pushed her out the door and closed it. Kairi stood on his front porch in her pajamas with a very confused Pachirisu in her arms.

Kairi then decided it best to take a detour back home first, before heading to Route 202. She needed to get her things packed for the trip and change out of her pajamas. So, carrying Pachirisu in her arms she walked out onto Route 201. Now the Pokemon consiered her a treat now that she had a Pokemon. A Rattata came up to her wanting a battle.

Kairi checked her Pachirisu's moves in the Pokedex,"You gotta be kidding me! It's an electric type, yet it doesn't learn any electric moves until level 13!" Kairi complained, wishing that Pachirisu had at least knew Thundershock,"Oh well. Pachirisu, use Quick Attack!" Kairi ordered.

Pachirisu jumped down from Kairi's arms and ran at the Rattata using Quick Attack. The Rattata jumped over Pachirisu as she ran at it. "Pachu!" Pachirisu screamed painfully as she hit a tree,"Well, this is turning out bad," Kairi sighed,"Pachirisu! Attack Rattata not the tree!" Pachirisu nodded but before she could turn around the Rattata hit her with a Tackle attack.

The Rattata then used Tail Whip on Pachirisu, lowing her defense status. Pachirisu then used Quick Attack. It was a critical hit! Kairi checked the move Bide in her Pokedex,"Oh! So Bide actually is a good move to use. Pachirisu I know you will take a lot of damage from this but use Bide!" She ordered.

Pachirisu nodded, as she glowed a red color and red smoke emitted from her body. She then stood there unable to move for three full turns. Rattata ran at Pachirisu using it's Tackle move again. And because of the Tail Whip attack the attack hurt even worse this turn,"Hang in there Pachirisu!" Kairi called out,"Pachuuu!" Pachirisu repiled grinning though her teeth, baring the pain.

Rattata then ran at Pachirisu attacking with Tackle again,"Pachu!" Pachirisu screamed painfully,"Come on!" Kairi begged shaking her fist. Just one more turn and Bide would take effect. Right on cue, Rattata used it's Tackle attack again. "Now Pachirisu!" Kairi called. Pachirisu released Bide sending all the damage back to Rattata in one powerful hit. Rattata looked weaken as it fell to the ground.

Kairi used a PokeBall on the weaken Rattata!
 
That night, Selene got a nice sleep. Having checked into the Pokemon Center and dropping off her Pokemon, Selene immediately made for the room. Nurse Joy had agreed to take her Pokemon to her when they were ready, simply because Selene was so tired. She was also growing a bit *****y, but that was beside the point. So, as about nine in the morning rolled around, Selene's face was shoved in her pillow and she was sprawled across the bed. Her Pokeballs were sitting on the nightstand next to said bed. Selene shifted and hugged her pillow, when suddenly her phone began to have a freak out. Selene snapped her eyes open and sat up, knocking her head on the headboard of the bed in the process. She groaned and picked up the phone.

"Sahib, you jerk," she hissed. She then answered the phone. "What?"

"What's wrong with you? Can't a guy just check on his favorite little sister once in a while?"

"I'm your only little sister," Selene grumbled back. She glanced around the room, and smiled a bit when she saw the Pokeballs sitting on the nightstand. "Really though, you're up earlier than I am. Are you sick?"

"Nah. I have some stuff to do with my friends today. Seriously though, how's stuff been going?"

Selene sighed, and then decided to tell him. They talked for about half an hour in total, until Selene was finally through with his continuous questions. Selene hung up the phone shaking her head, half unable to believe that her older brother was acting like a little boy who had stumbled upon a great adventure. Grumbling to herself, she gathered her items and then moved into the bathroom to shower. She tried to speed things up, mostly because she had a major gym battle intent today and didn't want to have to wait. Though Selene doubted she would have to wait, she just wanted this to be over with anyway. Quickly shoving her items in her bag, she carefully set Kenai and Denahi's Pokeballs on top. Then with a quick scan around the room, she left.

Selene's check out was quick, and in under five minutes she was on her way through the dark town and to the gym. Sure, she was in a hurry, but Selene couldn't help but think that she rather liked this town. The dark brick made her feel calm and ready. As she approached the bright gym, Selene mused that it almost felt out of place here. Smiling a bit without amusement, Selene pushed open the heavy doors to the gym and walked inside. The doors swung shut behind her, clamping down with a heavy thud. Selene glanced over her shoulder, and then back to the dimly lit arena. She walked forward, and then suddenly a man became visible.

He looked fairly young, maybe only just a few years older than Sahib. The boy had purple hair and looked like a miner. He had a bit of an amused smirk on his face. Selene glanced at the rope hanging at his waist with Pokeballs attached to it. That was one creative way to hold your Pokemon, she supposed. The man, Byron, cleared his throat and arched his eyebrow. Selene looked up to his face. She felt her ears grow warm, but other than that her embarrassment went unnoticed.

"So, I'm just going to go ahead and guess you're here to challenge me," Byron declared.

Selene smirked at him. "Yeah, I am. How'd you guess?"

"You look awfully determined. Most people don't look that determined unless they're setting themselves up for something big."

"True," Selene agreed. "So are you going to accept my challenge?" She did have to beat him to obtain her first badge after all. Sahib had told Selene all about Byron, and she was trying to think of a strategy. The only thing she could think of was to keep Kenai handy. He would be her best bet against his Pokemon. Cranidos would be like a last resort.

"Yes, I accept your challenge," Byron declared. "This is how it will go. The battle is two on two. Would you prefer a single or double?"

Selene wanted single, and she voiced this. Byron nodded, declaring it to be single. The judge suddenly appeared almost literally out of nowhere, making Selene wondered how these people did it. Suddenly there was a thudding click, and lights snapped on. They illuminated the gym and made Selene wince at first. She rubbed her eyes with her fists lightly and then blinked a few times. The black spots slowly disappeared. Byron was smirking a bit in what appeared to be a form of amusement. Selene glanced down. Of course, she'd already made an ass of herself in front of a gym leader. Such a surprise.

"The single battle between leader Byron and the challenger will commence on my mark," the referee declared loudly. Byron grabbed a shiny red Pokeball from the rope. Selene grabbed her Growlithe's Apri Ball. Byron eyed the Pokeball silently, but other than that made no note that she was still using it. "Go."

There was a bright flash of light from Byron's Pokeball, and suddenly a funky little Pokemon with a giant mouth on its head appeared. Growlithe appeared opposite, and Byron frowned. He didn't seem to like this matchup, but Selene sure did. She grabbed her Pokedex and scanned the mystery Pokemon. It was a Mawile, the steel type that Sahib had informed her about. Wow, he really does read those trainer things. What a weirdo, Selene thought in half amusement.

"Kenai let's kick stuff off with a nice ember." Selene was going to use leer, but then she realized it wouldn't help ember whatsoever. She would use leer as more of a if-I-have-to move.

Kenai growled and shot a burst of fire in Mawile's direction. Byron calmly ordered his Pokemon to dodge. It did so, lightly missing the burst of fire and rolling away from the next. Kenai managed to keep up a nice steady stream, but Mawile was a bit faster than it looked. Selene called for Kenai to cut off the fire, so he did. Mawile looked rather pleased with itself, giggling and hopping about. Byron chuckled lightly. Selene's eyes narrowed. For some reason she didn't like how relaxed Byron seemed, especially when dealing with something that his Pokemon was weak to. Then again, if Kenai couldn't hit Mawile it wouldn't make a bit of difference who was weak against whom.

"Mawile, nice dodging. Now attack that Growlithe with bite. Follow with false swipe."

Mawile suddenly darted in, but Kenai was much faster. Though his ember didn't travel as fast as Mawile, Kenai could. Kenai ducked the bite attack and slammed his jaws down on Mawile's arm instead. It was almost a perfect counter, and Selene couldn't prevent a wide grin from spreading across her face. Kenai shook Mawile harshly, and then suddenly the Pokemon began to cry. Byron watched silently as Mawile cried. The shrieking sobs startled Kenai so much his grip slipped, and then suddenly he was being slapped rapidly. Selene's eyes widened and she glanced at the data on her Pokedex. Of course. Mawile knew fake tears!

"Kenai, watch out. That Mawile seems pretty sneaky. Use ember!" Selene called.

What she had planned and hoped for had worked. Byron had just been expecting her to tell Kenai to break free in a way. He wasn't expecting Kenai to come back with an attack of his own. Selene watched hopefully as Kenai unleashed a burst of fire from close range. Mawile screeched and flipped away, but the fire still struck. Mawile just barely managed to scrape past the rest of the flames. Selene looked for signs of a burn and became slightly discouraged when there were none. Byron looked relieved. He paused, and Selene could almost see him calculating a strategy in his head. She didn't exactly want to give him that option, so she thought of her own plan.

"Kenai just keep in there with ember. If it gets too close, use bite and then try another close range shot," Selene called. Close range with ember would do much more damage than far away, especially if it took Mawile longer to move out of the way of the attack.

"Mawile, use false swipe. Follow with bite," Byron declared. He crossed his arms, almost looking a bit uncomfortable. Selene's lips twitched upward into a small smile. She felt she had the upper-hand.

Mawile, in the meantime, was quickly darting in towards Kenai. It had gotten struck by ember at least once, but it kept coming. Kenai saw Mawile coming in from the right, and unleashed another ember for that direction when Mawile suddenly veered to the left and slashed at Kenai. Then its large mouth head thing snapped its jaws down on Kenai's body. Kenai howled in pain and began to struggle harshly in the Pokemon's vice-like grip. Selene ground her teeth together. It was amazing how one minute she felt rather confident in her abilities and then the next her Pokemon was getting creamed.

Selene glanced around the gym, taking in the scattered about boulders as she thought of an idea. Kenai was still struggling in the harsh bite attack, loosing energy at almost every second that went by. Selene suddenly realized that Mawile had made a bit of a mistake when she had captured Kenai.

"Kenai, use ember!" Selene shouted.

Byron had suddenly realized it, and shouted for Mawile to let go and get away. Luckily for Selene, it was too late for Mawile. Kenai unleashed as much of a fire burst as he could directly into Mawile's face. The steel type shrieked harshly again, suddenly releasing Selene's puppy and running away from the fire. Kenai snarled and continued with the ember attack. Mawile dodged a few, but by the end it was too much. Mawile couldn't take the dodging. Kenai snorted, cutting off his ember attack. Selene glanced at her Pokemon and then over at Mawile, who was down. The referee raised a hand in Selene's direction. She had won the first round.

"Very nice. I think you'll find this next Pokemon to be a bit more of a challenge," Byron commented as he recalled Mawile. Kenai snorted, almost as if to say bring it on. Selene grinned.

"Bring it on," she stated confidently. She had just beaten a gym leader's Pokemon. Selene found herself well on her way to victory, but she shoved her overinflated ego aside and focused harder on the upcoming battle. Mawile was difficult, and she could only imagine what the next Pokemon he had up his sleeve was.

"I don't think I'll go easy on you now," Byron called as he tossed the next Pokeball. Selene huffed. Suddenly there was another flash of light, and a funny looking Pokemon appeared. It reminded Selene of a triceratops from her dinosaur stories when she was little. "Meet Shieldon, my trump card."

"You'll need more than a trump card to beat me and Kenai," Selene shot back. Byron chortled and muttered something. The referee rolled his eyes, and then pronounced the battle to start. Selene wanted this over, so she took her chance straight away. "Let's go Kenai, this one is part steel too! Attack with ember!" Selene shouted.

Shieldon, though slower than Mawile, seemed to be able to hold its own better. As Kenai unleashed a burst of fire in a stream that spiraled towards Shieldon, the Pokemon hung tough as the attack hit dead on. The only thing Shieldon did to reduce the damage was lower its head. Selene's jaw dropped. The Shieldon shook off Kenai's fire attack like it was nothing. Hell, that little dinosaur looked like he was ready to battle all day. Byron shot her a teensy grin, obviously telling her that she had clearly underestimated Shieldon. Underestimation, under any circumstances, can almost ensure a loss. Selene licked her suddenly parched lips.

"Alright Kenai, we'll have to be a bit more careful then. Use ember once more." Selene wasn't really able to think of anything else for Growlithe to manage to do.

"Shieldon, put Growlithe out of his misery. Use mud slap to smolder that fire and hit Growlithe," Byron called.

Shieldon shorted and then suddenly began to kick up what seemed like bucket fulls of mud and throwing them at Kenai. Kenai's ember attack was doused immediately, and the mud was suddenly slamming into him at an alarming rate. Selene's eyes went wide again. She couldn't believe that the Shieldon was that strong! Selene called for Kenai to dodge, but by the time he did the damage was already done. Kenai was already tottering back and forth on his legs, and then he just collapsed. Selene swallowed harshly and recalled her Pokemon. Byron stood up straighter and crossed his arms again. Selene spared him a glance before grabbing Denahi's Pokeball. Her hands had begun to sweat. She forced herself to remain calm. Taking a steadying breath, Selene tossed the red and white sphere that would bring forth her starter.

Upon noticing what it was, Byron seemed almost stupefied. He stared at Denahi. Shieldon snorted and began to paw at the ground angrily. Denahi growled a little and scratched the rocky field with his clawed foot. Selene blinked slowly, half unsure what was going on. That was when she brought out her Pokedex and found out. Shieldon and Cranidos were like the two fossils of Sinnoh. Selene let out a bit of a huff that was part laugh and part squeak. This was going to be a very interesting battle indeed.

"Well, isn't this just something," Byron commented. "We're ready whenever you are, Tom." Tom must have been the referee, because the ref blinked suddenly and cleared his throat. He then started the battle officially. "Shieldon, I'll bet you're pumped for this," Byron said to his Pokemon. His eyes were alight with excitement, "Use mud slap to get close, and then follow with metal claw!"

Selene knew that both of those moves would result in major damage for Cranidos. Selene called for her starter to dodge. He ducked and slipped by some of the shots, while a few others hit him directly. Denahi snorted and rolled to the side. Shieldon advanced. Yes, it was slow, but it advanced nonetheless. Selene called for Denahi to use headbutt when Shieldon got close enough. Soon Shieldon was right there. It suddenly smirked, claw quickly glowing a metallic silver. Shieldon then leapt up and slammed his claw in a downward motion. Denahi slammed his head upward, and the attacks met in a heavy crash and boom. Denahi went flying backwards, and Shieldon created an indent in the ground.

Selene clenched her fists. "Denahi, use leer and follow with focus energy!" She figured it was all she could do, though she didn't like the fact that Denahi would almost be a complete sitting duck.

Denahi complied, leering angrily at Shieldon. Selene could tell that Denahi's pride was slowly beginning to get in the way of how he was thinking, and she then vowed to do everything in her power to prevent that. If Denahi went into a fit of attacking rage, there was no way they would win. Shieldon slowly began to get up, and soon it was shaking itself off and glaring at Denahi once more. By this time, Denahi was just beginning on the focus energy. Byron smirked, obviously seeing a grand opportunity to do some damage. Selene ground her teeth together, but there was nothing else she could do.

"Shieldon, get in there and use metal claw once more," Byron stated.

Shieldon nodded and charged. His little paw began to glow once more, and Denahi knew what was coming. He lowered himself to the ground and compressed himself, trying to leave only his hard skull visible. It was his best defense. Selene watched in almost utter hopelessness as Shieldon's claws slammed into Denahi's head, causing her Cranidos to cry out sharply and fall backwards. Shieldon leaped away, looking perfectly fine in terms of most damage. Selene quickly assessed Denahi. He would last fine, unless he took two more metal claws. Then they would be pushing it.

"Alright Denahi, it's time to use your head," Selene declared.

"Same for you Shieldon!" Byron roared.

The Pokemon let out simultaneous roars and charged at each other as fast as they could. Denahi lowered his head, and Shieldon mimicked. Selene and Byron watched as the Pokemon collided. There was a heavy rumble and the ground shook. A heavy thudding sound resounded through the gym. The slammed heads a few more times, and then Denahi suddenly brought his foot around in another stomping roundhouse deal. Selene grinned. She had to admit, she did like how creative Denahi could be when he wanted to. Byron's nose wrinkled. He obviously hadn't seen something quite that interesting for a bit.

"What an odd little Pokemon," he stated. "But back to business. Shieldon, let's finish this battle. Go for another metal claw! If that doesn't work well, follow with a mud slap!"

Byron seemed to be very serious in wanting to get this battle over as soon as possible. Shieldon roared and charged at Denahi, though he looked a bit dazed and confused. Denahi was tottering himself. Just in the knick of time, he dodged the metal claw and swung around to preform a headbutt on Shieldon's unprotected side. Selene grinned and glanced at Byron. He looked very, very serious. Shieldon suddenly dug his claws in the ground and whipped around, spraying mud towards Denahi immediately.

"Denahi!" Selene cried out as her Pokemon got pelted with the bullets once more.

This time, Denahi simply wouldn't back down. His feet dug into the ground harshly, creating deep ruts. Finally a boulder stopped his backward progress. Denahi glanced at the boulder, and then back at Shieldon. Suddenly he snapped his head around and shattered the boulder into large chunks. A field of dust blew upwards, shielding them all from view. Selene blinked, unsure what exactly Denahi was doing.

"Denahi?" she whispered.

Suddenly there was a cry from inside the gray and tan dust cloud. Byron was watching with anxious eyes. Suddenly a shape materialized from the cloud and shot directly for the wall. Byron ducked, and Selene strained to see what it was. Finally, after a few minutes, the dust cloud cleared. Denahi was standing in the center of the broken arena, huffing and puffing to himself. He was trying to hold himself upright to make his win all the more prideful. Selene stared in something that was close to utmost bafflement, until she realized what had just happened. Then a wide grin broke across her face.

"Shieldon is unable to battle. The challenger is the victor!" Tom called, waving the flag in Selene's favor.

Denahi trooped over to her heavily, and looked up. Selene grinned at him and gave him a thumbs up. Denahi snorted and glanced at Shieldon over his shoulder. Then he nudged the Pokeball still clutched in Selene's hand with his snout. She recalled her Pokemon, and then walked over to meet Byron in the middle of the battlefield.

"Excellent match," he proclaimed. "And as your reward for beating me, take this." He handed her a shiny object. "It's the Coal Badge. My official Pokemon League gym badge."

"Thank you," Selene said softly, eyeing the shiny object in her hand.

It seemed Nurse Joy would see her at least once more today.

(OOC: 7 and a half pages on word...and I stayed up until like 3:20 am doing it. Yeah XD)
 
Konekodemon, I VMed you.

Fen - Fake Tears never fails to work, does it? Loved the post, and sleep in then! Lucky American.

Congratulations, Kenai grew to lv. 14 and learned Odor Sleuth!
Congratulations, Denahi grew to lv. 17 and learned Take Down!


Chapter Six
Route 206
Free Post
Number of Posts: 1-2​


Route 206

This route is still very rocky, due to its location being right beside the mountain. There's a river separating the slightly flat region from the rougher one, too bad that this is the only way to reach Eterna City without going all the way back again. The start is very foresty, but as soon as you're over the bridge the landscape quickly makes a drastic change, become more rocky than anything. The last part is the huge carved-out stairs that lead up to the entrance to Eterna City. Good luck climbing those. There are rumors of a great bicycle road to cross straight over the landscape, but those are just plans, unfortunately, and you're going to have to cross the Route.
There's also a small cave, but it's completely dark in there and potentially dangerous. Better not travel in there.


Wild Pokémon on the Route:


Machop


[PokeCommunity.com] The New League

Level: 6-11
Type: Fighting
Moves: Low Kick, Leer, Karate Chop, Focus Energy
Rarity: Common


Ponyta


[PokeCommunity.com] The New League

Level: 6-11
Type: Fire
Moves: Tackle, Growl, Tail Whip, Ember
Rarity: Common


Doduo


[PokeCommunity.com] The New League

Level: 6-11
Type: Normal/Flying
Moves: Peck, Growl, Quick Attack, Rage
Rarity: Uncommon


Gligar


[PokeCommunity.com] The New League

Level: 6-11
Type: Ground/Flying
Moves: Poison Sting, Sand Attack, Harden,
Rarity: Uncommon


Baltoy


[PokeCommunity.com] The New League

Level: 6-11
Type: Ground/Psychic
Moves: Confusion, Harden, Rapid Spin, Mud Slap, Psy Beam
Rarity: Rare


Bronzor


[PokeCommunity.com] The New League

Level: 6-11
Type: Steel/Psychic
Moves: Tackle, Confusion, Hypnosis
Rarity: Rare


Nidoran (f)


[PokeCommunity.com] The New League

Level: 5-12
Type: Poison
Moves: Growl, Scratch, Tail Whip, Double Kick
Rarity: Very Rare


Nidoran (m)


[PokeCommunity.com] The New League

Level: 5-12
Type: Poison
Moves: Leer, Peck, Focus Energy, Double Kick
Rarity: Very Rare


Pokémon By The River (Catch by Fishing)


Magicarp


[PokeCommunity.com] The New League

Level: 6-11
Type: Water
Moves: Splash
Rarity: Painfully Common


Finneon


[PokeCommunity.com] The New League

Level: 6-11
Type: Water
Moves: Pound, Water Gun, Attract
Rarity: Uncommon



Qwilfish


[PokeCommunity.com] The New League

Level: 6-11
Type: Water/Poison
Moves: Spikes, Tackle, Poison Sting, Harden, Minimize
Rarity: Rare
 
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Sara hummed a happy tune as she walked onto Route 206, a hand on the shoulder of her pack while the other was free to open it up and take out what ever she needed. The girl smiled to herself as she thought about the badge she had just won. However, the happiness was mixed with a little frustration.

The Gym Leader, Byron, had told her that she had to have better control over her Pokemon, else she would lose battles. But Sara didn't like that idea all that much. After all, if her Pokemon had the sense to act with out having to ask her permission or wait for an order each and every time they got the chance to attack, then what was wrong with that? They had won, haddn't they? So what was the big deal?

Sara sighed to herself and just kept walking looking around at all of the rocky terrain that she was walking passed. She then thought about what she should do between here and Eterna City. Even after a night of rest and a trip to the Pokemon Center, she didn't really want to train Lee or Angela just yet. Not to mention, Yansa hadn't been out of her Pokeball since the tunnel. So, the girl finally decided that she would trainer the little bird for today.

"Yansa, come out!" Sara called out after she had taken the Starly's Pokeball out and threw it up into the air. In a flash of light, Yansa appeared on the ground. She looked around her self quickly before looking to her trainer.

"Hey there Yansa, hoped you had a good rest," Sara said with a smile, bending down slightly. "Now, I know I haven't really used you that much, so we're gonna use this time to train you up a bit! It would be nice if you evolved before we got to the next Gym, but I'm not gonna pressure you too much about that."

"Satrly?" Yansa asked, tilting her head once more.

"Lets just try to find something for you to fight..." Sara said with a small sigh and stood up once more. She looked around and, soon enough, found a Machop sitting by some boulders, seeming to concentrate on something. "Alright, that's perfect! You even have a type advantage over it! So, Yansa, lets get this thing started!"

"Slarly!" Yansa called out, flapping her wings to get closer to the Machop and then squwaking to get it's attention.

The Machop turned around and, at seeing the Starly, grunted and stood up. It then got into a fighting pose and glared at the bird, making Sara smirk.

"Alright, it wants to fight," she said with a smile. "Alright Yansa, start this off with a Quick Attack!"

Yansa nodded before running into the Machop, knocking it back a ways. The Machop landed on it's feet again, then ran at Yansa, hitting her with his own Karate Chop attack. The bird cried out in slight pain and flew up a bit higher so that he couldn't hit her again.

"Okay Yansa, now use a Wing Attack and then a Tackle!" Sara shouted.

"Star!" Yansa said, then flew at the Machop and hit it with one of her wings. The Machop cried out in painas it was hit with the attack, then was knocked inot a rock when Yansa Tackled it. The Machop slumped to the ground and was still.

"Alright! We did it!" Sara said with a wide grin on her face, but that grin soon went away when she heard rustling behind her. She turned around and her eyes widen when she saw two more Machops appear, and they didn't look happy.

"Oh this is just..." the girl muttered, "Yansa, use Wing Attack again!"

"Starly!" Yansa cried out and flew at the two Machop, hitting one with her wings. Though the attack was stong enough to make the Machop cry out in pain and step back from the battle, the othre Machop had the chance to slame it's foot into Yansa's back and threw her away from it's friend.

"Oh yeah...something tells me this needs another Pokemon..." Sara muttered, then threw another Pokeball up. "Lee, come on out and use Confusion on the Machop!"

The Ralts appeared in his own flash of light. He quickly scanned the two Machop before nodding and sending out a burst of psychic energy at the Machop that had hit Yansa. The Machop grimaced in pain and, before it could do anything more, was hit with another Confusion attack, knocking the Fighting type out. Yansa also took this time to hit the Machop she hit before with a Quick Attack, also knocking it out.

"Alright, good job guys, now-" Sara started to say, but then groaned when she saw a couple more Machops appear. "You've got to be kidding me! Lets make this quick. Yansa, use a Wing Attack on the Machop on the left! Lee, use Confusion on the Machop on the right!"

Both Pokemon nodded before Yansa charged at the Machop on the left while Lee started to gather a psychic aura around himself. The psychic aura was quickly placed around the Machop he was to attack. Next thing anyone knew, the Machop was being thrown around in tipical Lee fashion. Then the Machop was knocked away with a burst of the same psychic energy that had trapped it, effectivly making it unconious.

Yansa, meanwhile, had a bit of a harder time. The Machop she was to hit dodged the attack and counter with a Kratate Chop. The bird grunted in pain before turning around and whacking the Fighting Type with a wing. This made the Machop stumble, letting her hit it again with another Wing Attack and finishing it off.

"Okay, lets get going before more of those Machops come," Sara said, her Pokemon nodding in agreement. She returned Lee to his ball and picked Yansa up, quickly using a Potion on her. The girl then looked around herself once more before quickly walking off towards the bridge, not wanting to litter the route with more unconious Machop bodies.
 
"Go, go!!" the little boy jumped and cheered, his chubby arms reaching into the air. His older brother clapped instead, but was just as excited.

"Tag, Hyper Beam!" the older one shouted, and the Machop blinked, at a momentary loss, glancing sideways at the boys' father who gave it a little shrug and a smile, hiding the expression behind one hand.

Mackie hid his own smile and tried to look like a Very Serious Trainer. "Uh-oh, Bonnie, this is bad news! Watch out!"

Bonnie flapped purposefully clumsily, bobbing through the air like a ballon in a kid's hand.

"Maaaaaaaaaaaaa..." the Machop started, winding up its next "move" with a whole stage-production's worth of acting, before shoving its hands out forward like it was throwing an invisible something at Bonnie.

"Blu!!" Bonnie cried out stridently, and she tumbled to the grass.

"Chop! Machop!!" Tag put its fists on its waist and stood proudly over Bonnie.

"Yay, Tag!" The older brother ran forward to hug the pokemon, his toddler sibling trying to keep up, but stopping over Bonnie instead.

"Birdie okay?" he said, concernedly. "Daddy! Birdie okay?"

"Birdie's fine, Kavan! The trainer will give it a potion, and it'll be all healthy again." The father gave Mackie a raised eyebrow of request, and Mackie obligingly slung his pack off and found his water bottle.

Bonnie eyed him with silent amusement, and took a few sips from the bottle. "There, pretty girl! Good battle!" he said, trying not to laugh.

Tag the Machop was grinning as widely as his humans, and gave Bonnie a thumbs-up when she righted herself.

"Pretty girl!" the toddler repeated, and reached out one hand.

"No, Kavan!" his brother grabbed his wrist. "You always ask first! Remember?"

"Ohhh," Kavan nodded, then looked at Mackie, with both hands behind his back. "I pat birdie?" he asked hopefully.

"Yes, it's fine," Mackie said, and Bonnie eyed him with significantly less amusement as Kavan knelt down and then gently stroked her head with one grubby little hand. But she didn't express the annoyance to the kid, who was being surprisingly careful, and Mackie was glad.

"I'm Carl, by the way, and that's Kavan, and Freddie," the father introduced himself at last. The two boys had come barreling forward just as Mackie had left Oreburgh city limits, apparently on their way home, and asked for a battle, and Freddie had urged their family's Machop forward with a command of "Fire Blast! No, um, Cross Poison! No, no, wait! Mega Punch!!"

"Mackie," Mackie replied, and shook the man's hand.

"Their mom is a surveyor with the League," he said, "she's not exactly a trainer, but close enough. Tag here was her first catch, though he's not much for real battles, unless he's protecting the boys. He mostly like to just play."

A League surveyor? Mackie was impressed. "I was wondering where they knew those moves from," he said.

Carl laughed. "Maggie's team is friendly with them too, and she trains them against each other as well, and they both watch. Kavan's first word was 'attack!'"

"Daddy, I'm hungry," Freddie had wandered over and was pulling on his father's sleeve.

"Well that's good, because we'll be home soon!" Carl replied, poking Freddie lightly on the forehead. "Kavan! C'mon, time for going home!"

"Aw," Kavan said sadly. "Bye, birdie," he leaned forward and kissed Bonnie on the head.

Bonnie, still heroically tolerant under the sloppy attentions of the kid, nibbled gently at his wrist, making him giggle. She then groomed herself furiously for a second, then her head rose with a small blue feather in her beak. Kavan took it with the same overly careful manner he'd touched her with and his eyes widened. "Thank you," he said politely, and stood up to charge back to his dad. "LOOK DADDY!!" he shrieked, the sound reaching painful heights, but the grin making up for the discomfort. Mackie was briefly worried that the older brother would be jealous, or something, but Freddie was thumb-wrestling with the Machop, and didn't seem to care.

"Bye now!" Carl waved as they drew farther apart on the road.

"BYYYYYE!" Kavan shouted, and Mackie was far enough away that it didn't hurt that time.

"Bye!" Mackie returned, and shook his head to himself in lingering amusement. "No wonder you lost," he said to Bonnie. "I mean, Hyper Beam?"

She didn't answer, and Mackie could tell from the way her weight was shifting on his head that she was grooming herself again, presumably removing any of the grime the friendly child had left on her. "But looks like the kid did more damage," he chuckled.

"Swa," Bonnie muttered evenly. Then, "Swa..." she added, more consideringly.

"Yeah, I didn't think you minded that much. S'good, you know. Philip's baby will be bigger by the time we're back to Solaceon, you know. Maybe all little kids like Swablu, huh?" Ivan had been a screeching, giggling eating-and-pooping noisemaker last time Mackie had seen him... his sort-of-nephew was cute, but so helpless. Phil and Meredith had let Mackie hold Ivan sometimes, even feed him once, but that had always been scary. Mackie was looking forward to him walking and talking and seeming a lot less fragile.

Luster's apri-ball twitched in his bag, and he reached back to pop it open, and she blew him her buzzing raspberry of greeting, before zooming off. She stayed within sight all the time now, and he was glad of that.

The terrain now had trees and green, though Mackie could see the rising "steps" up to Eterna vaguely in the distance. He wasn't really looking forward to still more rock to go over, but at least it was outside this time. But it would be a while yet before he got there, he wasn't even at the bridge he knew was up ahead.

He looked at the terrain off the main path. It didn't seem too bad. Even with his scratched-up leg, he could probably take some off-road time, see what there was to see.

The patchy forest made lots of clumps of woody areas interspersed with open meadows and some stony flat areas with bare rock and no place for much to grow.

He saw a flash of fiery mane once or twice, he was sure that's what it had been—wild Ponyta. He wished he could've seen them properly, out here in their natural habitat. They were so pretty, and some of 'em made great helpers, out ot on the ranches and farms around Solaceon. Them and Rapidash too. Riding one was supposed to be like riding the wind, that's what people said. Mackie privately disagreed. Riding the wind was when your flying pokemon was able to carry you. He reached up idly to stroke Bonnie's wings. Not all pokemon ever got so big, never mind getting the ability anyway, and being licensed to use it...

Maybe someday.

Then he saw something that he'd only ever seen in pictures before, one of the strangest flying pokemon ever, and Mackie had wondered if it wasn't really two pokemon at once.

After all, it had two heads.

The Doduo was racing across a flat rocky open ground, heads down and going flat out, running after something that was spinning like a top. The bird's round body and round heads somehow seemed to align to look sleek as its skinny legs ate up the ground. It was fast!

The spinning-top thing was faster though, at least for a while, and Mackie watched the chase until the spinning top hit a divot or a bump or something and bounced and tumbled end over end, coming out of its spin long enough for Mackie to see a...

"Whassat?" Mackie blinked. It looked like wood? Or smooth brown stone? Fired clay? With bright red lines like paint that stood out over round, but nearly closed, eyes and while it had two skinny, stiff-looking arms, it didn't have any feet. Or maybe it had one pointy foot, where it'd been spinning on. "Baltoy," Mackie said aloud, squinting at the pokedex screen. "Weird!" Weirder than the two-headed bird, in his opinion.

He heard the sound of Luster's wings as she returned to him, landing on a tree trunk, hanging vertically by her grippy bug feet.

Mackie kept watching the Baltoy and the Doduo, expecting the Doduo to attack now that the Baltoy had stopped.

But it didn't, it just shuffled and waited, heads leaning down eventually, one after the other, to poke the funny little living spinning top.

Had they the chase been for fun? Mackie smiled a bit at the idea. Why not?

His smile faded when he realized the Baltoy's strange round eyes were facing his direction.

"Uh-oh," he said, when the Doduo seemed to realize something was up. "My girls, uh, might be time to watch out." He backed up a little as the Doduo took a few steps in his direction. It was a good twenty yards off but he had just seen how fast it went.

"Yaaannn," Luster said warningly, and Bonnie jumped away from his head.

None too soon. The Baltoy suddenly spun into motion again, and this time it was heading straight for where Mackie stood, just inside the edge of the woods.

"B-b-b-b-b-b-ballll!" came from the Baltoy as it screeched to a halt, its Doduo friend alongside, both heads lowered now, looking ready to attack.

"Both? Ack," Mackie choked, "go! Luster, uh, Quick Attack the Doduo!!" he thought a moment, while Bonnie rose above a mud slap from the Baltoy and Luster was growled at. "Bonnie! Astonish the Baltoy!"

Bonnie whipped around and squawked at the Baltoy, flinging her wings up, and it rocked backwards, hard, digging a groove in the dirt where its foot-point touched the ground. Mackie was amazed at its balance.

The Doduo's beaks were snapping at Luster when she arrowed down and nailed its round body with a Quick Attack. The Peck was harsh, as Mackie knew it would be, but Bonnie's impact made the Doduo moved backward, and it tripped over the Baltoy, legs catching on the skinny arms, and it fell in a heap. "Quick attack while it's down!" Mackie ordered, hoping she could get another one in while the Doduo righted itself. She did, but it was fast, and she only narrowly avoided another Peck. "Forget it, go after the Baltoy! Silver Wind!" Mackie told her. "Bonnie!" he started, but the Baltoy's eyes seemed to glow for a second "BaaAAAaaaAAAlll," it called, an eerie sound, and Mackie saw Bonnie's flight suddenly go from purposefully to erratic, like she was drunk. "Bonnie? Go for the Doduo instead! Peck!" He didn't care if it was the same type. It was still her biggest attack.

Luster's now-familiar glowing wings sent the silvery rain down on the Baltoy, and it teetered back again, but Bonnie...

She shook herself in midair, seemed to orient towards the Doduo, and went for it, but then she veered at the last minute, crashing headlong into the ground, staggering upright. The Duduo was on its feet now, hissing angrily, and made a sharp snap at her. Not pecking anymore. Rage.

"Bonnie!!" Mackie shouted urgently. She'd hurt herself there, and even now her awkward flutter back into the air was not encouraging. "Try again!" She seemed to hear him, or at least, she turned in his direction, as if to fly to him. "No! Watch out!" he cried, as the Doduo's rage built and it struck again.

"Luster, finish the Baltoy," he said, "Silver Wind until its down, then Aerial Ace on the Doduo!"

The Baltoy's eerie call rang out again, but Luster, unlike Bonnie, shook it off. Bugs didn't take much harm from psychic, and Mackie was grateful for that.

"Bonnie..." Mackie said weakly. He didn't like watching this confusion at all, it was horrible. Her next dive-bomb peck actually landed, but she hadn't recovered, her flight was still wobbly, and he was almost sure it had been pure luck that she'd struck the Doduo at all.

The Doduo was chasing her now, and only for that was the erratic flight a help, as it couldn't predict at all where she was going.

Motion caught his eye at the Baltoy went into a spin again, but that couldn't stop Luster's Silver Wind, and it slammed into it, knocking the Baltoy out of the spin and sending it bouncing back out across the stony ground, almost back to where Mackie had first seen it.

"DODUO!!" both heads cried at once, furious at the fall of the Baltoy. Its rage had built scarily, but it was distracted now, looking at its fallen friend.

"YanMA!" Luster screeched, and the Aerial Ace was a streak of green and red across Mackie's vision, striking the Doduo straight on in its round body. Its toes made marks in the ground as it hung on against being shoved back, but when Luster peeled off, its heads were both hanging down.

"Bonnie! Stop! Stop and sit!" Mackie called, glancing rapidly between the Doduo and Bonnie, as her weaving flying ceased abruptly, midair. She didn't land, she fell, and Mackie dashed forward. He realized he wouldn't catch her and he flung his whole self forward instead, skidding over the ground so that she landed with a thump on his backpack instead.

Luster was hovering between them both and the Doduo, but the two heads were only very slowly coming up again, and it was walking backwards. One head eventually turned behind to watch its steps, until it reached the Baltoy and gently nudged it.

The Baltoy righted itself without using its arms. Strange, strange creature. It turned its big eyes away from them, and went into a slow spin, and followed the Doduo as it walked away from them, both Pokemon aiming for the treeline on the other side of the open area.

"If I keep this up, I won't have any skin left," Mackie groaned, looking at his palms, both scraped from hitting the ground. "Ow." He gingerly pulled his arms under him, craning his neck to try and see behind himself where Bonnie was sitting on his bag. He wriggled out from the straps, and stood. Bonnie was shaking her head, again, and again, but sitting still, thank goodness, no more slamming into the ground. "Hey, pretty girl?"

She looked up at him, blinking dazedly. "Swaa.." she said faintly.

"I know, I know. You really nailed it while you were all confused but--No, no, don't move," he reached out to discourage her from trying to fly again. "Potion time for you. You nailed yourself just as hard."

She drank down the potion, perking up with each swallow, and then got to work on cleaning off the dust and dirt she'd gotten in her feathers when she'd attacked the ground.

"Birdie's okay," Mackie said, sighing with relief.
 
Kenny rolling over in the bed to check on his pokemon he looked at his sleeping pichu on the desk and smiled. Suddenly a bright white light covered pichu. Kenny looked in amazement as Chewy began to change shape into a tall mouse shaped pokemon. Her tail became just about, as long as she did and a little indent formed on the tip of it.

"Chewy?" Kenny said trying to see if that was really her. The newly evolved pokemon twitched her ears and then turned towards Kenny.

"Pika?" Chewy said looking at her trainer. Her tail flew straight up in the air as she jumped down from the desk twisting its body checking out what had happened to her. Scratching her head Chewy let out a big yawn running over to Kenny's bed and jumped in with him rolling up in the bed falling back to sleep.

Kenny pulled out Sunny's apriball and just stared at it. Twisting it around to look at the designs on the ball, Kenny let out a sigh. He placed the ball in between him and Chewy trying to help her fell welcomed into the team. Kenny laid there looking up to the ceiling until the sun began to peek inside his window.

"Well its time to get up." Kenny said throwing the covers off his body uncovering Pikachu and his apriball. Chewy opened her eyes to see that Kenny was getting dressed and she hopped out the bed grabbing Sunny's apriball and throwing it in the bag so he would not forget it. "Okay let's go Chewy we have a long road to travel down.

After making up his bed Kenny walked out the room door locking it with the key Nurse Joy gave him the night before and head down the to counter.

"Nurse Joy here is the key for my room." Kenny said placing the keys back on the counter.

"Blissey Bliss-sey!" A Big egg-shaped pokemon said as she raised her arm running up to the counter retrieving the key.

"You would happen to know where the next gym is would you Nurse Joy."

"Sure do. Eterna City is just north of here. You will have to climb so stair to get there but be warned there are many vicious pokemon along the road." The nurse said with a look of despair on her face.

"Thank you. " Kenny said as he headed out the front doors of the pokemon center.

Oreburgh City was a dusty place in the morning since the dirt had a chance to settle on the buildings. Kenny let pikachu jump on his head as he began to walk to the north part of town. Chewy looked down at Kenny smiling and ready to fight in her next battle. Kenny quickly climbed the small wall so he can make his way to Eterna City.

The top of the wall was very rocky. Kenny noticed that there was a bridge layout so they were in progress of finishing the bike bridge. Looking ahead he decided to take the route which had grass scattered about. Heading down the route Kenny saw three grey Human-shaped pokemon about the size of kids.

"Chop Ma Ma chop!" The middle pokemon yelled throwing its hand in front of its body. Kenny stopped and then noticed that they were trying to take one of their friends to a safe place to rest. He knew that this was his chance to catch another pokemon.

"Chewy lets catch us another pokemon." Kenny said with a strange grin on his face. Chewy jumped off Kenny's head to land right of front of him. "Now use a thundershock attack." The pikachu charged its cheeks and let out a yellow shockwave at the middle machop. The attack landed shocking the machop and then knocking on the ground. The two machop on the side helped their seemed like leader off the ground. The machop walked forward with the middle on throwing its hands back keeping the other to behind him.
The machop ran at Chewy throwing its hand in the air. Chewy saw the attack coming and flipped backwards to dodge it but in the process of dodging Pikachu rubbed her tail across the Machop's face making its body feel funny. The machop did not like that and tried to deliver a kick to knock Chewy down. Pikachu did another back flip dodging this attack but the machop grabbed her tail and began spinning Chewy.

Chewy did not like her tail being grabbed and released a thundershock at machop shocking it and making it let go. The now angry machop charged at Chewy rapidly swinging his hands in a chopping motion trying to land a hit on the pokemon. Soon it started adding in kicks trying to land a hit on the speedy pikachu. Chewy was dodging the attacks successfully until she landed on a rocky making her lose her balance. Machop landed a powerful kick on Chewy knocking her to the ground. The pokemon jumped on top of the mouse pokemon and began chopping her in the face repeatedly.

"Chewy!" Kenny cried out. Suddenly the machop could not move its body with static forming around him. "Now use thundershock." The pikachu shocked the machop off its body sending it into the air. Then Pikachu spun itself around to get up. Watching the opponent fall to the ground Chewy charged her cheeks again and released another thundershock at the pokemon right before it hit the ground.

The machop took the attack making it roll on the ground twitching from all the electric attacks hitting its body. Kenny pulled a pokeball out of his bag and was ready to throw it when the other two machop jumped in front of their friend trying to prevent the capture.

"Alright Sunny I need your help." Kenny said releasing Sunny from her apriball. The turtwig saw that Chewy was in bad shape and ran over to her. "Alright Chewy use thundershock and Sunny use absorb."
Chewy stood up on its feet and released a yellow shockwave at one of the machop. Sunny followed the Pikachu's attack and created an aura around the same machop that the thundershock was heading to and began to drain its energy. The other Machop sat there yelling while the ground around it began to shake around it. After it finished yelling, it grabbed the other machop by the arm spinning it around making it dodge the thundershock and then it tossed the machop at the weakened Pikachu.

Sunny reacted quickly throwing her head forward releasing a barrage of sharp leaves at the incoming machop. The machop fell to the ground cut pretty badly. The injured machop just laid there not moving then the other machop took off running as fast as it could.

Kenny did not just want to leave one of the pokemon on the ground so he decided to try to catch both pokemon and have them healed up and then release on of them. Kenny threw a pokeball at each of the machop on the ground. The balls began to shake and then Kenny pulled out his pokedex to find out what move that Sunny used.

Text began to pop up on the screen.
"Turtwig can use many attacks on of its most powerful attacks is razor leaf. The attack releases a barrage of sharp leaves at its enemy. Also it knows tackle withdraw and absorb."

Kenny then closed the pokedex and looked up to see that the poke balls were still shaking.
 
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Charzeon - Great post, those Machop just don't let it go, do they?

Congratulations, Yansa grew to lv. 12!
Congratulations, Lee grew to lv. 14!

Sara used up one of her potions.



Broadway - Awesome post, I loved the intro, it was amusing.

Congratulations, Bonnie grew to lv. 15 and learned Fury Attack!
Congratulations, Luster grew to lv. 15 and learned Sonic Boom!
Mackie used up one of his potions.



Koroc - Great post, certainly enough to catch yourself a Machop.


Kenny caught himself a lv. 9 Female Machop and a lv. 8 Male Machop, but he can only keep one of them. Which one will he release?
 
Bryce made it to the Pokémon Center just in time. His Pokémon, Shinx had been poisoned in a massive swarm as he made his way to Oreburgh. He remembered how that swarm of Masquerain had attacked him and his Pokémon like it was yesterday. Actually, it was yesterday. The memory still lingered within his mind, a constant reminder of his bad decision.

He had attempted to capture a Surskit, only for a swarm of Masquerain to get defensive on him. They thought he was trying to harm them. That was the only reason for an attack. They were usually peaceful. He had done something to harm them. The attack ended with him still capturing the Surskit that he had been after.

Then, while going through Oreburgh Gate, he had fought a trainer who claimed to have some antidotes in his possession. The battle wasn't too hard. After all, both of his Pokémon had the type advantage. He won the battle only to find that the opposite was true. The trainer did not have any antidotes.

From then on, he had been dodging trainer after trainer in an attempt to prevent any battles. By now, he himself was quite exhausted. A nice warm bed at the Pokémon Center sounded pretty good.

While these thoughts were going through Bryce's mind, Shinx began to shiver again. He stopped his daydreaming and walked into the Pokémon Center. This Pokémon Center was a lot busier than the center in Jubilife City. Since this was the first city with a gym, there were lots of newbie trainers attempting to battle the gym leader there, only to be crushed. He'd heard that Byron was not one to be taken lightly. His rock/steel type Pokémon were a force to be reckoned. Maybe I'll challenge him later, Bryce thought for a while. Then he walked up to the desk where the familiar Nurse Joy stood.

"Ma'am, I need you to help my Pokémon quick!" He placed Shinx on the counter who was obviously in a lot of pain. The nurse looked shocked at the Pokémon.

"What happened!?" She asked so loud that everyone in the Center turned their eyes on him. Oh, great, he thought, now everyone's going to think I'm a bad trainer.

"While we were coming here, we were attacked by a swarm of Pokémon. Shinx got badly poisoned. I tried my best to keep her awake with Potions."

"Well, you should have been more careful," she said, "but at least you got her here in time. Any longer and she would have been worse. Not to mention the constant potions that you gave her. Haven't you ever heard of a little thing called overdose. Well, I guess you didn't know, you…" Bryce tuned out the rest of the lecture. When Nurse Joy finally went into the back, he left. He decided to go and get something to eat.

The food took what seemed to be an eternity to come back to him. He had a burger and fries, while Surskit and Mankey had some Pokémon food. Surskit finished first and attempted to steal some of Mankey's food, who in return got angry. Bryce couldn't help but smile at this moment. Then, the thought of Shinx caused him to lose any cheerfulness he had acquired. After he had finished eating, he recalled his Pokémon and walked back to the Pokémon Center. When he arrived, he realized that the nurse still wasn't finished. He sat in the waiting area. He looked around at the many trainers who seemed close to their Pokémon. They played around and laughed together and everything. He wished he was more like that. Oh, stop beating yourself up, he thought. This is no time to go into depression mode.

He left the Pokémon Center and went to the Mining Museum. He had always wanted to go here. He walked into the museum. He saw a big lump of coal.

"The Pokémon that carried this must have been really strong," he heard a little girl say. She was obviously very amazed at the big lump of coal.

"Hi there, young trainer!" A man came out of nowhere and patted Bryce on the back, causing him to almost crash into the big lump of coal.

"You look like a strong young man! May I see you Pokémon!?" For some reason, the man was very excited. Bryce was reluctant at first. I mean, if someone just approached you out of nowhere and asked you to show them your wallet, would you? Then he realized that the man did not have any Pokémon of his own, so he showed him his Pokémon. The man scratched his chin and nodded his first at the sight of Mankey. When he saw Surskit, however, he was really excited!

"Is that what I think it is!?" The man took two steps back and two steps forward. "It's a Pokémon! A water Pokémon! But not just a water Pokémon! It's also a Bug Pokémon!" The man jumped up and down. "You are deserving of a reward, yes?!"

"Umm, I sure?" Bryce wasn't sure what he'd done to receive a reward, but he would gladly take it if it was something good. The man pulled out a vial with silver powder in it.

"This is Silver Powder!" The man exclaimed in his uppity way of talking. "It will power up any bug type moves if it is worn by a bug Pokémon. Try it! You must!" The man put the necklace around Surskit's neck and leapt with joy. "Splendid! Stupendous! Serendipitous!"

Bryce didn't know what all of the fuss was about, but he did know that this man was confusing. The man must have seen Bryce's puzzled face because he looked at him.

"You're wondering why I would do this, yes? As you will see on your journey, there are many people who are willing to help you for no specific reason at all. We are all ever much alike as one day we were young and just starting on our journey. So, we made up our minds that we would help other aspiring Pokémon Masters on their journeys." The man looked at Bryce, expecting an answer.

"Thank you very much," he told the man in the museum. Then, we walked out of the museum and headed back to the Pokémon Center. As he walked through the door, the nurse came out of the back. She motioned at Bryce that his Pokémon was ready. He walked to the back with her.

"She's made a great recovery, but she's going to need some rest. I suggest that you stay here for the night. It would give Shinx some time to rest up and you also." She must have noticed the bags under his eyes. Bryce shook his head in agreement. She went over and picked up a bag.

"I've decided to show you a little trick to deal with status ailments." She pulled out a green berry from the bag. "This is called a Lum berry. It can heal the status any status problem. If your Pokémon has one, it will eat it on its own whenever the need arises." She handed a few Lum Berries to Bryce. "I suggest you make good use of these." Bryce nodded in agreement. She then took Bryce to the room where Shinx was. She sat on the bed and ate some food. When she saw Bryce, she was overjoyed. She jumped up and down on the bed. Bryce was happy to see that she was fond of him. He was worried she wouldn't like him anymore.

Bryce spent that time talking and playing with Shinx. Then he released his Pokémon and allowed them to interact with Shinx. The three played Pokémon played together while Bryce watched. Surskit was showing off her new necklace. Nurse Joy walked in.

"I'm sorry but I can't let you stay here all night. Shinx needs her rest." Bryce nodded his head.

"I have to go soon Shinx but I'll be back early in the morning okay?"

"Shinx!" She replied in a happy voice. Bryce waited for Shinx to fall asleep before he left the room. Then he walked over to the reception counter.

"May I have one room please?"

"Sure," Nurse Joy replied. She handed him a key. It had a number on it, indicating what his room number would be.

"Thanks for everything," he told her. Then, he walked to the area where the rooms were. Mankey and Surskit slept on a bunk bed at the top while he slept at the bottom. That night, he slept better than he'd ever slept.
 
Rockman0 - Great post, I loved your version of the random museum man!

Bryce received Silver Powder!
 
Sara sighed to herself when she crossed the rock bridge and walked onto the other side. She quickly looked behind her to see if any of the Machops were following her, but was happy to see that they weren't. The girl smiled to herself before looking down at the small bird in her arms. Yansa looked up at her trainer and chirped a bit irritably. Sara smiled more at that and set the Starly down.

"Okay, okay, you don't like to be held, I get that now," She said. "I'll remember that for next time. Now...back to training. What should we fight next?"

"Hey, you! I challenge you to a battle!" A male voice shouted behind Sara. The girl sighed and turned around to face an older looking boy in just a plain red t-shirt and ripped jeans. He had no shoes on and just had a black sweat band on his right wrist.

"Sure, I'll accpet your challenge," Sara said, placing a hand on her hip. "What are your conditions?"

"Just a regular single battle with three Pokemon, that good for you?" The boy asked and glared at Sara, as if daring her to dare otherwise.

"Yeah, that's fine with me," Sara said. "Though I just want to ask one more thing, what's your name?"

"Tony, Tony Erobos," the boy, now known as Tony, said, then took a dark colored Apri ball out. "But enough, lets get this started. Roger, show this girl who's boss!" He then threw the ball up and in a flash of light, a small black dog appeared. It glared at Sara and Yansa before baring his teeth at them.

"Huh, that's a new Pokemon," Sara said, taking her Pokedex and aimming it at the Pokemon.

"Poochyena, the Bite Pokemon. A Pokemon with a persistant nature, it will chase it's prey until said prey becomes exhaustted."

"Remind me never to get a pack of them angry at me," Sara muttered before putting her Pokedex away. "Alright Yansa, this is your battle."

Yansa bobbed her head before hopping onto the feild, glaring back at the small dog.

"Alright Roger, start this battle off with a Tackel why don't ch'ya?" Tony shouted to his Poochyena.

Roger barked his agreement and charged at Yansa. However, the Starly flew up into the air and dodged the attack. The Bite Pokemon looked up into the air and barked at Yansa, making her smirk.

"Alright Yansa, counter with a Quick Attack!" Sara ordered her Starly.

"Star!" Yansa chirpped and flew at Roger in a blurr of speed, hitting him right one. The dog let out a yelp of pain as he was knocked back a bit, but was still on his feet.

"Fight back with Bite Roger!" Tony yelled.

Roger launched himself once more at the Starly. This time, Yansa couldn't move fast enough and cried out when the Bite Pokemon latched onto her wing.

"Quick, Yansa, use a Wing Attack!" Sara shouted to her Pokemon.

Yansa then started to beat the small dog against the ground with the wing he had bitten onto. It took quite a few whacks, but the Poochyena did let go after a little bit. The bird then gave a chirp of rage before hitting the dog with a Quick Attack, making him hit the ground.

"Come on Roger, get up!" Tony shouted, "This ain't over yet!" The dog grunted, as if in disagreement, but slowly pushed himself up. "That's a boy. Now use another Bite on that bird!"

Roger grunted again before charging at Yansa, but missed this time when the Starly once again flew into the air.

"Yansa, finish this with another Quick Attack!" Sara ordred.

Yansa nodded before becoming a blur and hitting the dog once more. This time when Roger fell, he didn't get back up. Tony muttered some curses under his breath as he returned the Poochyena to his ball and put it away. He then took out another Apri ball, this time a purple color, and threw it up.

"Poizon, it's your turn!" Tony shouted as the ball opened up and, in a flash of light, a small almost rodent like Pokemon with big ears appeared. It looked at Yansa and Sara and then pawed the ground.

"Another new one," Sara muttered as she took her Pokedex out once more and scanned the pink rodent.

"Nidoran Male, the Poison Point Pokemon. It scans it's surrounding area but sticking it's ears out of the grass. It's toxic horn is for protection."

"And to make this battle harder," Sara muttered as she put the 'dex away once more and looked to Yansa. "Still think you can fight?" When the bird gave her a nod, she continued, "Alright, then lets get started. Use Wing Attack Yansa!"

"Poizon, counter with Poison Sting!" Tony shouted.

Both the Starly and the Nidoran charged at eachother after their trainer's gave their orders. Poizon's horn glow with a pink light as he lunged at Yansa, but she dodged to the side and whacked the Nidoran with one of her wings. However, Poizon fought back but kicking out at Yansa with one of his back feet. Both of the attacks hit eachother and the bird and rodent were knocked away from eachother.

"Yansa, quick, get back up and use a Quick Attack!" Sara shouted to her Starly.

"Starly!" Yansa shouted herself and hopped back up. She smiled when she saw that the Nidoran was still down and charged at him at high speeds.

"Now Poizon!" Tony shouted. Right after he did, Poizon jumped back up and slammed his glowing horn into the unsupecting Yansa, hitting her with his Poison Sting.

"Yansa!" Sara yelled as the Starly cried out in pain and landed once more on the ground. The girl thought that she was out for the battle, but then was surprise when Yansa slowly pushed herself back up. The bird glared hatefully at the Nidoran, but waited for her Trainer's orders before doing anything.

"Yansa..." Sara repeated, then shook her head and said, "okay, Yansa, use Growl and then another Wing Attack!"

Yansa just nodded before letting out a low, growling like sound. Poizon flinched and shivered a little bit in fright. The Starly then flew at the Nidoran and whacked him with her wings once more. Then, she used a Tackel attack on him and knocked the Nidoran to the ground. Poizon tried to get back up, but collasped and was still.

Tony muttered some more cursed before returning his Nidoran. He took his last Apri ball out, which was of a grey color. But before he could do any more, Sara said, "Yansa, get back here. I'm gonna use another for this last bit."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "What? Afraid of what I'll do to your precious Starly?" He asked with a sneer.

"No, it's just that she's taken enough of a beating and I don't feel like supjecting her to any more." Sara grunted and pulled out a Pokeball. "So, with that said, come out Angela!" She threw the ball up and in another flash of light the Shuppet appeared.

Tony grinned when he saw the Pokemon. "Well, this will be interesting. Get out here Grim!" He said, shouting the last part as he threw the Apri ball into the air. In yet another flash, a small ghost Pokemon with a skull for a face and seemingly one glowing red eye appeared.

Once again taking her Pokedex out, Sara scanned the new Pokemon to see what the 'dex would say about it.

"Duskull, the Requiem Pokemon. It loves the crying of children. It will pass through the walls of bad children, making them cry."

Sara just grunted at the discription and once again put her Pokedex away. Once she had done that, she said, "Angela, start things off with a Screech."

Tony shouted right after, "Okay Grim, use a Night Shade attack!"

Angela nodded and let out an ear peircing screech, making both the Duskull and his trainer whince. The Duskull recovered first and sent a very familar purple aura at Angela, making her gasp in pain. The attack could had done a lot worse, considering it's type, but it's fixed attack was still enough to cause Angela some pain.

Sara smirked to herself. "Okay Angela, why don't we make things quick and have you use a Payback!"

Tony's eyes widen but before he could say anything, Angela had already hit Grim with her darkness covered horn. The Duskull cried out in pain and shock as it was knocked against the ground, making his trainer whince again. However, despite how powerful the attack was, Grim slowly pushed himself up and glared at Angela with his one eye.

"Alright Grim, show this Shuppet who's boss with an Ominous Wind!" The boy trainer shouted.

Now it's was Sara's turn to have her eyes widen the boy announced his attack. She opened her mouth to shout something, but was too late when a very evil wind suddenly appeared and knocked Angela to the ground. The Shuppet cried out when she hit the ground, but slowly got back up as well.

"You okay Angela?" Sara asked. When the Puppet Pokemon nodded, she said, "Alright, lets put an end to this and use another Payback!"

"Shuppet!" Angela shouted and charged the Duskull. Grim tried to float out of the way, but Angela moved with him and was able to hit the Requiem Pokemon. This time when Grim hit the ground, he stayed there.

"Oh for the love of..." Tony muttered when he returned his Duskull to his ball. He then glared at Sara before digging though his pockets. He threw a fist full of money and a couple Antidotes before saying, "Just you wait, I'll get you back one of these days." He then spun on his heels and walked away.

"Talk about a sore loser..." Sara muttered before bending down and picking up her prizes. She pocketed all that she got before turning to Yansa and Angela. "You two did great. Thanks a lot for winning that battle."

Both the ghost and bird looked at eachother before grinning at one another. Sara chuckled before looking at the road ahead.

"Well, we might as well get to Eterna City before night fall, lets go," the girl said before she started to walk along the road to the next city, her two Pokemon right behind her.
 
Kenny walked over to the where the pokeballs rested and picked them up. Kenny stared at the balls then put them in front of him which released both pokemon from there prisons. The machop lay on the ground moaning in pain trying to sit up. Kenny grabbed two potions out of his bag giving each of them one. Watching them drink the potions Kenny stared at them.

"You to should be strong enough to move around on your own now." Kenny said smiling going back into his bag grabbing two more potions. "Okay guys drink up." Both pokemon drank their potions and they jumped around full of energy. The machop ran up to Kenny and hugged him. Kenny seemed fond of the smaller, more muscular machop. Grabbing one more potion out of his bag he handed it to the taller machop here take this to your hurt friend. Machop gave a strange look at Kenny holding the potion.

"I can not keep both of you so I will let you go back to being wild and help your hurt friend." Kenny said calmly as the machop nodded and turned around heading into the mountains. Kenny watched the machop disappear as it passed the rocky edges of the mountain making its way to the trail. "Okay then now I need to give you a name."

Pikachu was sitting on the ground breathing hard from that battle when Kenny went back into his bag grabbing another potion handing it to the tired mouse pokemon. Quickly drinking it Chewy jumped up shaking the dirt off her body and running back over to Kenny to rest on his head.

"I will call you Barney." Kenny said looking at the machop flex his muscles. Chewy and Sunny ran over to Barney and tried to bond with the new member of the team. The three pokemon sat there talking to each other while their trainer looked around for the fastest way to get to the town.

"Oh Kenny." A familiar male voice cried from behind. "You know what it time for don't ya?"

"Oh hey Dustin." Kenneth said with a sigh then turned around to see it was him. "Okay fine."

"My Pikachu, Onix, and Bronzor versus your Pikachu, Turtwig, and Machop."

"Fine one on one then?"

"Sure but be ready."

"Okay Barney you are up first." Barney walked forward and flexed a couple of times before it was ready to fight.

"Bronzor go and show them how we roll." Dustin said releasing a blue hexagon with round edges came out of the pokeball.

"Okay Barney use a Karate Chop." Machop ran at the blue hexagon pokemon and chopped it dead on. The bronzor fell back a little but shook the attack off quite nicely.

"Haha Bronzor has some amazing defenses doesn't it? Now use a Tackle attack." Bronzor charged at Machop attempting to tackle it.

"Okay use Karate chop rapidly." Machop chopped the oncoming pokemon once blocking the attack and the continuously did it making the pokemon spin around in circles.

"Okay use confusion." A blue aura formed around bronzor as it stopped spinning and looked at machop. Its eyes started to glow and a blue aura formed around machop. The fighting pokemon was lifted into the air and tossed around. The pokemon then stopped its attack making the airborne pokemon fall to the ground.
Dust was rising from the area the pokemon fell. Machop looked up and started charging the bronzor again.

"Didn't learn your lesson the first time. Confusion go."
"Well I did. Now use leer." Machop gave a angry glare at the bronzor making it shudder preventing its attack. "Now use Karate chop." Machop chopped the steel pokemon into the ground face first then he continued to chop it.

"Bronzor use…" Dustin stopped realizing that bronzor was fainted. "Return Bronzor." He said as the red beam absorbed the fallen pokemon to the ball. Machop stood there breathing hard with his arms going up and down like he was trying to calm itself down.

"Well Onix your up." The rock snake pokemon came out of the ball roaring at the smaller pokemon. "Now use Bind then Rock throw." Onix made its way over to machop circling him.

"Barney jump then use low kick." As onix tried to tighten its grip machop jumped up quickly then stuck its foot out to kick the onix in the face.

"Onix use screech now." Onix looked at the incoming pokemon and let out a piercing high pitch sound wave at machop knocking it back to the rocky ground. "Quick use a rock throw to seal the match." Onix swung its tail into the ground as hard as it could knock machop and rocks into the air. Swinging its tail hitting a few rocks at machop that hit his body knocking it into the ground. Machop tried to get up but then just dropped since his arms could not pick him up.

"Good job Barney return and take a nice rest." Kenny said returning his machop then stared at Dustin. "Go Sunny and use withdraw." Sunny came out of the ball landing on the ground then creating a blue aura around her body.

"Onix use bind." Onix quickly made its way around Turtwig and tried to squeeze it as hard as it could.

"Just what I wanted Dustin."

"Whaaaaaaat?"

"Now use absorb then razor leaf." Sunny began creating an aura around its opponent and itself sapping energy away from the onix then she released a barrage of sharp leaves at onix's face knocking it to the ground making it lose its grip on her. "Now use razor leaf one more time." Sunny jumped up off the onix and launched more leaves at the downed snake pokemon making many cuts on its body. Onix let out a roar from the pain then plopped its head on the ground not moving.

"Oh well onix we will get better. Return to your pokeball." Dustin knew his pikachu was his only hope. Okay now you have to beat both of them so Pikachu go." Pikachu came from out of Dustin's bag ready to fight. "Now use Fire punch." Pikachu's hand was covered in fire as it charged as Sunny knocking it to the ground.

"Oh man Fire punch is bad for Sunny." Kenny said as Sunny was hit to the ground from the fiery fist. "Sunny use withdraw and the razor leaf." Sunny created another blue aura around its body and then launched a barrage of leaves at Pikachu.

"Now use Shockwave." Releasing a static pulse from around its body it knocked the leaves to the ground. "Now use fire punch again." Pikachu charged it at Sunny swinging its fist towards her face when she ducked dodging the attack and countered with a razor leaf knocking Pikachu back.

"Okay time to regain some energy. Use absorb Sunny?" The Turtwig created a green aura around her body and Pikachu's body sapping energy from the mouse pokemon.

"Quick use shockwave and then follow up with a fire punch." Making a static pulse leave from around its body knocking turtwig out of it's absorb attack then it ran to Sunny and hit it with a massive fire attack. Turtwig hit the ground trying to get back up.
"Razor leaf and then use absorb." Kenny shouted looking at his weakened pokemon. Suddenly turtwigs overgrow kicked it creating a green flashing aura around Sunny's tiny body. Sunny released an attack towards Pikachu knocking it to the ground then created an aura around Pikachu, which drained its energy quickly. Pikachu was taking long deep breaths as it approached its breaking point. "Use Razor leaf quick to end the battle."

"Pikachu use shockwave." Pikachu tried to gather energy as fast as it could before Sunny's attack could land but it was no use. Pikachu was knocked to the ground covered in cuts.

"Pikachu return. You deserve a rest after that great battling buddy." Dustin returned Pikachu then covered his face with his hate and ran off as fast as he could.

"Well I guess he ran to the pokemon center but he could have said bye." Kenny said returning Sunny to her pokeball. Kenny turned to or see that the stairs were nearby and headed to them.

Finally after about 20 minutes of walking he made it to the stairs and began to climb them. Chewy jumped off Kenny's head ad jumped up each stair trying to get to the top before her trainer.

"A race huh? Okay then see you at the top." Kenny said as he increased his pace up the stairs. Chewy kept up with him using here agility to her advantage. Finally reaching the top both Kenny and Chewy bent of trying to catch their breath. Looking up to see that the gate to Eterna City was right in front of them and he headed to the door.
 
Mackie hissed and grimaced, and tried to pretend those weren't tears prickling in the corners of his eyes as he peeled off his leg bandage.

"No, back up," he muttered, as Bonnie moved closer, leaning in to peer at the cut. He leaned over and pushed her back with one arm, keeping his hands off her. He'd just boiled some water and washed them, he didn't want to have to do that again.

He'd thought it was doing okay, he'd changed the dressings and done his best to keep it clean, but this morning his whole calf had felt like it was on fire, and the rest of him didn't feel great either, which meant it was infected after all. The skin around the area was red, and hot, and he didn't want to touch it. It was so tender it felt like even the weight of his gaze hurt. But ignoring it would be worse in the long run. He only wished the cloth didn't feel like sandpaper now. Could've been worse, he reminded himself, it didn't look like it was healing over the infection. An abscess was the last thing he wanted to deal with.

When he was done, he redid the bandage, and sniffed. Not like he'd cried or anything. His nose was just running, that was all. But it hurt, a lot, the pain shooting higher up his leg towards his knee, and lower down past his ankle.

And he had only gone up the very beginning of the stone stairs up to Eterna. He was too far to want to go back, but the prospect of getting up over those just made him want to crawl back into his sleeping bag and wait until he felt better. He even had plenty of supplies for camping out.

But if it was like this, he didn't see his leg getting better by doing nothing.

He packed up his stuff, slowly, wishing, every ten seconds and with more and more despair, that he'd stayed on the main path after crossing the bridge. But he'd headed diagonally away, going west and north at the same time, until he fetched up against the cliff wall that rose from the edge of the wide steps. So far aware from the main path, he could see how the steps were almost naturally formed, carved by wind and rain and rockfalls, unlike the cleaner areas closer to the road.

It hadn't seemed hard to climb at all, yesterday. Scrambling over rocks had been almost as much fun as going through the forest underbrush. He'd even seen a little group of Nidoran, both genders, nibbling at the grasses that grew on the mountainside. He'd tripped and made some noise when he'd come over the nearby rocks, and they'd all stood up at once, the males' ears upright and oriented right onto where he was. Both pokemon had been in their balls then, so he'd just frozen and waited and watched, hoping they'd relax again, and wishing that he had a camera. One of those new ones, where you took the picture and it came out from the camera right away. Those were expensive though, not to mention too big and heavy for him to carry.

The Nidoran had, actually almost gone back to grazing, when another noise made them all stand up, a sound like stones cracking—probably a Machop or two working out—and this time they'd run off together, disappearing among the brown and grey stones and yellow grasses surprisingly well, despite their bright colouring.

Mackie shouldered his pack now with a wince, trying to keep most of his weight on his good leg. He wouldn't be seeing anything much today, all the wild pokemon would hear him coming from miles away. He sighed. Probably for the best, he wasn't sure he'd have appreciated the sights anyway.

Bonnie didn't try to ride on his pack or on his head this morning, and he was glad. He hadn't been looking forward to telling her she couldn't. Even her slight weight would've made it worse. Luster was out and about too, more subdued than normal. She seemed to be more attuned to him than he'd realized, Mackie thought. She hadn't teased him at all or looped around him in her usual request for kite play.

In fact, both of them were a ways off now, flying in even and regular patrol-like patterns, Bonnie overhead, and Luster off to one side, and then the other, like they were watching for danger in the area. Mackie smiled a little. Whatever else, he wasn't alone out here.

He'd intended to head back in the direction of the main road, while still keeping on north, but the clearest path for now still lay along the cliffside. That still led straight north, so he gave in to favouring his injury, and went that way.

He took it one step at a time, looking at the ground in front of him, instead at the distance ahead that he had to cover. Get to that rock there. Now get to that next rock there. Now reach that clump of grasses with the little red flowers. Small steps.

He got into a sort of trance, it felt like, timing the throbbing in his leg with each step, and on and on it went, time crawling along as he did, until something slammed into the ground ahead of him.

It actually took him a few extra seconds to stop, blinking out of his rhythm. Luster was in front of him the next instant. "Yaaaannn," she threatened the... whatever it was that was in front of him. He couldn't see it now. When she moved around, though, circling over what had fallen, he saw a Gligar crumpled on the ground. A little one, now struggling to rise, but under Luster's glare, it cowered down again. "Leave it alone," Mackie told her tiredly. "It's not doing anything to us."

Bonnie was gliding down now too, though she landed on the ground near the Gligar, walking a few steps forward to examine it. "Swablu," she said to it curiously, and it pulled in its little claws and seemed to do its best to curl up and hide. "Swa..." she added.

"GLI!!" came a gravely call from above, and Mackie looked up, and nearly tipped over in dull surprise.

On the cliff face above, Gligar were perched or clinging, glaring down, a large group of them, all eyes fixed on what lay below them.

"Gligar..." the little one on the ground answered meekly, and moved slowly back to the cliff, hesitantly starting to climb up again.

"GAR!"

"GAR! GLIGAR!" the ones on the cliff growled back, and one of them leaped out, arms out to glide, and it angled straight down to the little one, slamming into it and knocking it off the cliff again.

"Hey," Mackie protested. What was their problem?

The little one tumbled back again, getting up again, but this time staying still, seeming a little shellshocked now. It stared around itself like it wasn't quite seeing anything, its mouth in an open expression of despair, and Mackie suddenly saw there was something different about this one. No fangs, unlike the gleaming points that every Gligar overhead had bared now. Was that really what this was about? This one was kind of runty compared to them, and fearful, and no fangs... Mackie had no idea if its size and personality were a result of being harassed or not, though. It reminded Mackie of when some of the townie kids had cornered him at the general store back home. There'd been a group of them that liked to tease him whenever he came into town with Uncle Red, little jerks, though most of 'em had grown out of it since then. But they hadn't knocked him around. He hadn't ended up scared like this, but then he hadn't had to live with them, either.

"Gar!! Gligar!" the Gligar overhead called again, and the little one flinched. Mackie looked up to see them glide or climb away, one by one, until there was only a single Gligar remaining. That one was still starting angrily down, though, and it gathered itself, tensing to strike.

"Luster, watch that one," he pointed upward, inwardly surprised at how weak his voice sounded. He pulled his arms out of his backpack straps and let it fall, sitting down hard next to it. "Protect the little one, okay?"

"Yanma!" she replied smartly, despite him not at all projecting the kind of command a trainer was supposed to. Bonnie edged nearer to the Gligar runt as well, and it

The Gligar dropped towards her, but she zigged easily out of the way, and it landed neatly on the ground, attempting a Sand Attack that Luster didn't even bother acknowledging. "Quick... Quick Attack," Mackie told her, the usual starting move, and she rammed the Gligar promptly. It latched on as she did, teeth clicking against her carapace. Barely any damage at all, from that. Had to have been a Poison Sting or something, Mackie thought vaguely, but Luster hadn't been stung successfully.

The Gligar seemed only half interested in Luster though, still very intent on attacking the little one that was huddled next to Bonnie. Not good.

Luster slammed into the Gligar again, Aerial Ace knocking it back and away from its prey, and Mackie realized he hadn't even told her to do that. He rubbed one hand over his face and tried to focus, watching her taunt the Gligar by zipping in and out of its ranging, keeping its attention away from the runt. She dodged another Sting while Mackie watched, and countered, on her own, with Aerial Ace again. "You're doing great!" he told her. He was supposed to tell her something else, too, wasn't he? But she was doing fine, he thought muzzily. She was smart and brave. "Doin' great," he repeated, and leaned back against his pack.

He closed his eyes, just for a second, and then something nipped him, hard, on the arm, and he jerked awake. "Uh?" he said, looking over. Bonnie was watching him, and he was sure the red mark on his arm was from her beak. A few yards beyond her, the bigger Gligar was flat out on its face, breathing but not moving. "Wow, you really knocked it out," Mackie glanced around for Luster, then sucked in air at the dizziness that hit him when his head moved so quickly. She was right there on his other side though, watching him worriedly. "What's wrong? You did super," he told her.

"Maa," she said unhappily, and came forward to nudge his thigh. She did it again.

"Right. Better move." He sat up properly, and winced at the dizziness that washed over him again, chased by a distinct chill. The pain in his leg seemed distant now, but understanding filtered through as he stared fixedly at a rock up ahead for a few moments. He was feverish now. He really did have to get back to the road.

"Swaa?" Bonnie nudged him too, and he turned slowly to look at her.

"How you doin' pretty girl?" he asked. She shuffled a little, and lifted one of her wings, and he saw the purple sheen of the runt Gligar's head. It looked up at him, eyes large and hopeful.

"Oh... you're still here." He reached over a little clumsily and touched its head, patting it heavily between the ears. Belatedly he realized that was a brick-stupid move, touching a wild pokemon like that, but his mind was too sluggish to really care. But in this case, he had nothing to worry about, if he'd had the energy to worry.

"Gliii," it said happily, and came nearer to snuggle against his side. Mackie laughed vaguely.

"You... y'wanna stick around, huh..." He reached back and struggled with his pack, yanking it close enough to pull out one of the red-and-white pokeballs. He didn't think this Gligar would make much of a fighter—it didn't seem to want to be, at any rate, though it definitely seemed to like people. And it didn't seem to belong out here either, where it might get bullied to death, given what Mackie had just witnessed. He pushed the button on the ball and tapped the Gligar gently. Red light enveloped it and it vanished. The twitch of the ball snapping shut was enough to make his clumsy fingers fumble it, and it dropped to the ground, twitching.
 
Soon after the gym battle, Selene was heading out of Oreburgh. She was taking the long road to the north instead of going all the way back and around to get to Eterna City. Selene pulled out the wrinkled map of Sinnoh from her pocket and observed it. She stuffed a piece of pocky she had gotten from the Pokemon Center in her mouth. It made her look like she was smoking while she stood there musing over the route. She figured it was the quickest way, so in the end she folded the map for the second time that day and stuffed another stick in her mouth. With Denahi and Kenai tucked safely in their balls, she then exited the mining city and moved on in her quest.

Selene decided to amuse herself with the scenery as she went through the route. First it was trees. Lots and lots of trees. Selene also noted a few types of Pokemon that were fluttering about. Most common were the Ponyta that galloped through the forest. Their fiery manes stood out and caught Selene's gaze for more than a few moments. Soon, however, Selene began to feel a bit antsy. It was almost like she was being followed, and Selene didn't like that one bit. She cleared her throat and glanced around, checking to see if there was anything following her. When she saw there wasn't, she began to whistle softly to herself. Sure, she didn't get scared much, but this heavy forest and creepy feeling were sorta giving her the heebie-jeebies.

The thought of bringing Denahi out crossed her mind, but Selene brushed it off. There wasn't any need to. Besides, if she absolutely had to bring him out she could. It wasn't like she couldn't just toss his ball and it would stay shut. Nope, he'd be released quick as a flash. Nothing bad could happen to her in that amount of time. ...Right? Right. Yup. Selene nodded to herself, satisfied with her own reasoning. Suddenly there was a sharp snap from behind her. Selene whipped around, fists clenching like she was preparing for some fight.

"HEY!"

The voice made Selene squeak and trip over a tree limb. She looked about, and finally saw a dark shape just a few feet away from her. Swallowing heavily, Selene reached into her bag and quickly grabbed Denahi's Pokeball. She clutched it tightly in her hand and watched as the figure grew closer. It looked like it had two heads! One head was fuzzy, and the other was pointed like a birds. Feathery too. Selene stared, unsure of what the heck was going on. What kind of Pokemon was this thing anyway? She grabbed her Pokedex in the other hand, and held it out. It gave her no data. Selene looked from the thing to her Pokedex.

"What're you doing?"

Suddenly the voice was familiar. Selene's jaw dropped. A ray of sunlight fell onto the person's features. His green eyes were practically illuminated in the sunlight. It was Jake. Pidgey was perched on his shoulder. It cooed happily. Jake's head was cocked to the side, and his eyebrow was raised. He probably thought Selene looked like a dummy.

"Uhm...I just..." Selene began rather lamely. She then figured a way to fix her wounded pride. "Hey, what's the big idea? Sneaking up on me like that!"

"I didn't know it was you," Jake said, face flushing. He looked away and scratched the side of his face rather sheepishly. "I thought you might've been a Machoke or something."

Selene's eye twitched. A Machoke? Did she really look that Pokemon-like? Oh well, then again, she HAD thought he was some freaky forest monster. She chose not to inform him of that. "Thanks," she said dryly. "Why is a twenty year old following me?"

"I'm really flattered that you think I'm twenty," Jake said. He grinned widely, showing bright white teeth. His canine teeth, for some odd reason, seemed to stick out. "I'm only sixteen though."

Selene blanched. How had she mistaken this kid for twenty? Granted, she was only fourteen herself, but still. She could've SWORN he was at least a young adult. Grumbling to herself, Selene decided that now would be a good time to get up. She pushed up from the forest floor and looked up at him. "How tall are you anyway?"

"Uh...about six feet four inches, I think," he said. He put a hand up to his head, almost as if he was measuring himself with air. Selene giggled, and then clapped a hand over her mouth. Had she really just done that? She wished she hadn't, because Jake's eyes lit up and his grin widened. He seemed to be very flirty, this one. "So what brings you to these parts?"

"I'm going to Eterna," Selene declared, though her voice was muffled from her hand. Once she realized this, Selene removed her hand and looked down the path. "And I was getting a bit freaked out because I thought something," she snapped, "was following me." She turned to him and poked him in the chest. "But I guess it was just you." She annunciated the 'you' with a harsh jab. Jake grunted and rubbed his stomach, pouting softly.

"It's not my fault that I didn't know you were a human," he grumbled. There was a small frown on his face, and then suddenly he lit up again. His eyes were awfully bright, almost like a little kid's when they got something they wanted. "How about we go to Eterna together? That way you won't get scared by the shadows," he teased, poking her in the arm. Selene glared at him and huffed. She wasn't SCARED, just a little startled. The whole way. Yeah, startled. Jake looked at her with wide and hopeful eyes. It was almost like a wounded puppy look, and Selene hated those looks. With a bit of a reluctant sigh, Selene agreed. They'd go together.

Jake's grin widened to an almost impossibly wide size. Pidgey was looking at him like he was crazy, but then the bird went back to plucking at its feathers. Selene shrugged and began walking, Jake following after her seconds later.

"You walk really fast, did you know that?"

"I do?" Selene asked lightly. She hadn't even been paying attention. So she slowed her pace to something that was apparently comfortable for both of them. "So is that Pidgey a girl or a boy?"

Pidgey glanced at her, but then continued preening. Jake answered, "She's a girl. A sassy one at that, but I love her to death. She was technically my very first Pokemon. My dad gave her to me as a birthday present. I got Nidoran a little bit later on the road."

"Oh," Selene muttered. She stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jeans and kicked at the dirt. "Are you taking the gym challenge then?"

"Yup, but I've already been to Eterna. I have two badges," Jake said proudly. He pulled out a shiny case from inside his jacket that he was wearing. "See?" Then he flipped it open. The badges were bright and shiny, so it made Selene wonder when he had gotten them, and why he wasn't advancing to the third gym instead of hanging back with her. Or just hanging back period. She decided to voice this question. Jake snapped the case shut. "Well, I went to go visit my dad in Twinleaf. So I was heading back up to Eterna anyway." Jake whistled lightly once he had finished his brief explanation.

"I see," Selene murmured. She suddenly missed her own father, if only a little.

"So how's that rowdy Cranidos doing?" Jake questioned.

"Fine."

And that was when the silence ensued. Since it was so quiet, Selene took this as an opportunity to renew herself with Jake's features. This time he was wearing a fuzzy sweatshirt instead of a light shirt. She wondered why, and then figured maybe it got cold through this forest. He was also wearing a pair of raggedy torn jeans. The holes in the knees were wider than her fists. He was still wearing the pair of black Converse it seemed. She figured they were still high tops too. Jake's hair was still a dark scraggly color. She realized that nothing else had changed besides his clothes, so Selene sighed softly and went back to looking about the route.

Soon Selene began to feel like she, or they in this case, were being watched again. Selene glanced over her shoulder, and didn't feel all to relieved with Pidgey suddenly fluffed herself up and looked about. Jake seemed to notice something too, because he looked around.

"See? I told you something was following me," Selene hissed, "and apparently it wasn't you."

"Wow, that's sure creepy," Jake whispered back. "Maybe you have a stalker. What do you call them? Creepers? Yeah, a creeper." Selene gave him a dry look. "What? I'm just saying..." Jake muttered, trailing off.

Selene opened her mouth to reply, when suddenly a shape flew at them from the front. Selene squeaked and ducked, grabbing Jake's arm and pulling him down with her. Pidgey gave a startled cry and ended up rolling off of Jake's shoulder. Selene opened one eye (when had she shut them?) and looked about the wooded area. Nothing. There wasn't a single damn thing there. Selene frowned, her eyebrows coming together. Jake groaned and glanced over at her from his spot on the ground.

"What was that for?" he grumbled. Jake sat up and brushed himself off, plucking a leaf from his hair in the process. Pidgey flew back to Jake and perched quietly on his shoulder. "I thought you were having a spaz attack!"

"I...there was..." Selene said lamely. Where had it gone?

Jake rolled his eyes, and went to get up when he suddenly stiffened. Selene was too busy staring ahead to notice. Although she did notice the cold feeling that came over her and made the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Selene looked over at Jake, and then she saw it. It was a Gastly, a ghost Pokemon. Selene frowned. They weren't native to these parts, so what was this one doing? Jake slowly looked over his shoulder, and gave a startled cry when Gastly stuck his tongue out. He scrambled over to Selene and practically hid behind her. Oh, such a big strong man he was. Selene rolled her eyes. It was just a Pokemon. There was nothing to be afraid of now. She glanced over her shoulder at Jake and then to the floating ball of gas. Or floating head. Whatever it was.

"Gasssss," the Gastly said eerily. Jake peered over Selene's shoulder.

"You're such a baby," Selene whispered to him.

"Shut up." Jake didn't even bother to argue.

Selene grabbed Growlithe's Pokeball and was about to attack, when suddenly a girl came crashing out of the brush. Gastly looked over its...shoulder?...at her and suddenly looked rather happy. The girl let out a sigh of relief, and held out an Apri Ball. Gastly practically hissed and floated to hide behind a tree.

"Oh, Gastly," the girl sighed.

Selene glanced at Jake, and rolled her eyes. His eyes were completely on the girl. Then again, her hair looked like something from a fictional novel. It was honey blonde and fell in ringlets to her chest. The white, lacy shirt she was wearing practically said 'look at me, I'm pure, you want me' and the matching white skirt did nothing to diminish that impression. Her eyes were a silvery blue, lips full, and face perfectly shaped. She looked small and dainty. Of course Jake was ogling her like there was no tomorrow. Selene huffed, face going pinkish. She didn't like that girl at all.

"I'm sorry if Gastly startled you," the girl whispered. "He's been looking for a battle, but I haven't been able to find a suitable trainer." She sighed softly, looking practically heartbroken. Such an actor. Selene snorted softly. The pristine doll girl's eyes suddenly lit up. "Do you think one of you could battle him?" she questioned hopefully. Jake tried to take this as his cue, but Selene shoved him back and beat him to the punch. She wanted a go at this girl.

"I'll battle you. One on one," Selene snapped. She was so gonna kick this girl's ass.

"Oh! Will you?" she practically squealed. Jake propped his chin up with his fist and pouted. "Thank you so much! Here we go Gastly."

Yeah, here we go, Selene thought dryly. She tossed Kenai's Pokeball. A flash of light later, her Growlithe was standing fluffy and proud. He barked happily, and then saw the Gastly. Happy to serious in a split second. Kenai growled at Gastly. The girl squealed, saying something about 'such a cute puppy' and 'can't wait to battle something so cute'. Selene rolled her eyes.

"Gastly, let's begin with a curse attack." Even her battle voice was dainty. It was like she was afraid to get down and dirty or something!

The Gastly suddenly winced, and Kenai barked, shaking his head furiously. A veil of purple surrounded him. Selene pulled out her Pokedex and watched it compute. Growlithe's health suddenly dropped from perfect to subtracting about six in just seconds. Selene couldn't believe it. She glanced at the girl in annoyance. Fine. She wanted to play, she was gonna get to.

"Kenai use bite," Selene called, knowing that bite was going to be her best bet.

Kenai growled and charged at the hovering ghost. It slipped away from Kenai's jaws briefly, but Kenai rounded and snapped down again. Gastly cried out, its eyes pinching together in what appeared to be some form of pain. The girl cried out to her Pokemon. Kenai released Gastly and leaped away, ready for the next attack. Selene smirked. This was going great! She called for Kenai to use an ember attack. Suddenly, just as he was about to unleash the fire, Kenai winced. The purple surrounded him briefly, and sure enough his health depleted seconds later. Selene licked her lips slowly.

"Gastly, now is your chance. Use hypnosis!"

Selene's eyes went wide. She checked her Pokedex and found that Gastly could indeed use hypnosis. She called for Kenai to dodge, but it was too late. The barely visible waves coming from Gastly's eyes hit Kenai. The puppy fell to the ground, completely asleep. Selene stared, unable to think of what she should do. The girl giggled happily. She then ordered Gastly to use night shade. The attack struck, and then seconds later purple surrounded Kenai. His face pinched and more health was gone. Selene couldn't believe that he could stay asleep through all of these attacks! She bit her lip, wondering how exactly she was going to win this way.

"Ooooh, good job Gastly! I believe we're winning!" the girl exclaimed. Selene's eye twitched in slight annoyance. She wished desperately for Kenai to wake up right now, just so she could have him bite the living hell out of that Gastly. "Let's finish this off, shall we? Use night shade once more!"

"Kenai!" Selene shouted.

His eyes snapped open. Gastly was floating dangerously close, obviously intent on finishing this now. Without hesitation, Kenai snapped his jaws down on Gastly's head. The ghost cried out sharply. He hadn't expected to be attacked, but Kenai had gotten lucky. Gastly was finished. The ghost shuddered violently, and Kenai released it and backed up towards Selene. She had won. Kenai snorted, looking rather proud of himself. Selene let out a breath and resisted the urge to look over and see Jake's face.

"Oh my," the girl whispered. She brought her Pokemon back. "Thank you for the battle. I can only hope Gastly will be satisfied now." She was getting teary eyed. What the hell? Selene wondered. The girl sniffled and then ran off into the forest. Selene's jaw was hanging open.

"Wow, that was a bit harsh," Jake said. He even sounded a little mad.

"It was a battle. She should've known what to expect."

Jake eyed Selene for a few seconds, and then shook his head and turned away. Selene sighed. Why had she even bothered again?
 
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