[X] My Assistant

[Dragonwish2]

Liz daydreamed to the tune of Darius’s voice, letting him spin a tale where she was the heroin atop a graceful dragon. The name of Altaria and Milotic were familiar; Altaria were glimpsed sometimes flying above Lilycove City, and Liz had heard rumors that a gym leader possessed a Milotic in Hoenn. Dragonair were among the ‘imaginary’ Pokémon spoken of in idle chat. Liz could picture herself in a contest with a dazzling serpent, one with both beauty and power. The idea of all three seemed so tempting, it almost seemed teasingly cruel to dream of it.

Darius seemed to be overjoyed as well, displaying a push of his fist into the air. Liz turned to her two Pokémon, and was surprised to see Ryan gazing into the shadows of the plants. His eyes glowed, and he waved his paw over the plants. The darkness between the plants seemed to clear up, and two figures stepped out. On the left stood a Nuzleaf, and on the right was a proud grass snake. Liz called upon her Pokedex out of habit, letting it scan the Pokémon.

“Servine, the grass snake Pokémon. They avoid attacks by sinking into the shadows of thick foliage. They retaliate with masterful whipping techniques.” Liz clicked it shut, snapping a picture of the two Pokémon quickly.

“Okay, I’ll take on the Servine, you can battle the Nuzleaf. Good? Let’s go!” She beckoned her Taillow, and then pointed at the Servine dramatically. “Ryan, you’re up. Start off with a quick attack.” The Riolu responded immediately, almost disappearing from view as he ran in the snow. The Servine didn’t move, but the instant Ryan appeared solidly, a vine sprung from its neck and blocked his palm. Liz nearly gaped in shock. The grass Pokémon was faster than Liz expected. She would have to be cautious. The Servine lashed at Ryan with vines, forcing him to step back into the snow.

Liz gritted her teeth. With no obvious advantage on either side, the battle was going to be one of brute strength. She had no clues to who might come out on top.

“Ryan, use force palm.” Liz’s voice cracked, which scared her briefly. Her voice was normally deeper than the sharp squeak she had just made, and she hated being unable to stop it. Was puberty already hitting her? The battle prevented her from pondering it further.
Ryan hesitated for a moment due to Liz's voice changing, but then grabbed the vine blocking him and swung the Servine from it, throwing it into the sky. The Servine quickly twisted, righting itself like a cat and landing on two vines. The vines crept towards Ryan in an attempt to hold him captive. Liz caught on quickly. “Ryan, use quick attack to avoid it!” Ryan stepped back with amazing speed, dodging the vines with relative ease. He lunged forward, punching the Servine sharply in the gut. It let out a cry, slanting its eyes in a glare. Ryan’s defensive arm loosened, and the Servine shoved him away.

The use of leer was clever, if the only easy thing to do in the Servine’s situation. Liz admired the Pokémon, and she somewhat felt remorse for having to drive it away.

The two opposing Pokémon stared each other down. Liz could tell they were evenly matched; the next attack would bring victory or loss. Her next command was decisive. “Ryan, use force palm,” she whispered. Ryan heard her, and he pulled back his striking hand, the remaining arm pulled over his chest defensively. The Servine spun, leaves following its pattern into a tornado of foliage. The leaves shot out at the Riolu, engulfing him. Ryan splayed his hands out sharply, glowing stars shooting from his palms. Liz blinked in surprise. Ryan had learned the speedy attack of swift; where did he get that from? The stars broke easily through the leaves and struck the Servine. As the tornado cleared, Liz could still see them both standing. Ryan was covered in cuts now, and his cloudy breath was short and ragged. The Servine was in a similar condition, but it continued to gaze regally. Seconds ticked by, feeling like hours.

The Servine collapsed in the snow, unconscious and defeated. Ryan fell to his knees, and Liz let out a deep breath. She ran to her Emanation Pokémon and picked him up, cradling him like a baby. “Shh, Ryan, it’s okay. You put up a good fight.” She returned him. The sight of the unconscious Pokémon in the snow left her feeling empty and numb. Tears sprang to her eyes. Serena chirped from her shoulder, and Liz stroked her feathers. She hated taking on Pokémon viciously, even if they had done some wrong. Her last brutal fight had been with fossil Pokémon, and she herself had taken on two of them, with help. One of the two she had fought had been pushed over a cliff with her own hands. Liz stared at her fingers, flexing them, and feeling like she was in a horrible dream suddenly.

Serena nuzzled her neck, and Liz smiled at her. “Nice job with the Deerling, Serena. You should get some rest too.” Liz returned the Taillow and turned to watch Darius’ battle.

Ryan learned Swift!

This post has been edited by Dragonwish2: Feb 14 2012, 08:59 PM

[Jonahman10]

Amelia rushed around the corner to find the battle winding down. Austin was by far better prepared for fighting than the Deerling. The Deerling was starting to let down its defense and offense. Austin decided that it was weakened enough and began to fly up high. After flying up Austin spiraled down with great speed, causing a whirlwind of air to send the Deerling scurrying off the property.

Austin circled around above, then landed directly on her shoulder. As the elegant new Hope approached the two, Austin's reaction was to spread out his wings to protect Amelia, but soon realized it was Hope. Austin took off and began to weave around Hope's new form. They greeted each other in a gentle embrace, though it was strange seeing how much larger Hope was compared to Austin. Amelia was absolutely thrilled that her training had finally helped her catch up to Daniel and Delainey, she would have to get together and show them Hope's new form.

After a few minutes of getting acquainted to Hopes new form, Amelia decided that they should go meet up with the others. Her area seemed to be cleansed of any major disturbances. Amelia, having trouble seeing over the tall foliage, sent Austin and Hope to scout. It only took a few seconds for the flying Pokemon to locate the others, and it wasn't long before she came to where Darius and Liz were. It looked like Darius ad Liz were just finishing up their battles with some Pokemon that were even more oddly placed than the Deerling.

"Hey guys! Guess, what! It looks like Hope, my Combee, evolved! How are you guys doing? I was really inspired at how beautiful she is now, I wish you could have seen the transformation: it was really intense!"

Not far away, the weird wolf-boy was backing away from a strange hill. It looked like some foreign Pokemon was making the nest. Strange, most ground and rock types preferred to live in the caverns reserved for the native subterranean species at the fringes of the city, not in the agricultural sector. Plus, she didn't recognize this species normally being seen around here...

"What are all of those weird looking Pokemon in the ground? I haven't seen them in Gigarte before!"

This post has been edited by Jonahman10: Feb 17 2012, 12:23 PM

[ShinyRalts]

"I... hate... Durant," Fenrir muttered under his breath. He had managed to back away without being attacked, a good thing indeed. Unlike some people who dislike ants, he had a good reason. His whole life, he had considered himself a dark-type Pokemon. Dark-types can't do much damage against steel-types, and bug-types did a lot of damage. He also had one other good reason: once the Den had been invaded by Durants. In the end, it had turned out to be someone trying to poach Poochyena, but he doubted they realized that it would also attract Heatmor. All in all, it was an unpleasant experience for him. This had happened when he was five.

After sneaking away, he noticed the others looking at him oddly. Once again making an effort not to speak Wolf, he shouted, "THEY'RE DURANT, AND THEY AREN'T TERRIBLY NICE!" He decided to go look for something else to do. When someone finally came over to help him using a Pokemon that was not at a terrible disadvantage, then he would take them on.

He noticed an odd color in the snow. ...Pink? Curious, he stalked the moving pink Pokemon. He was startled to discover that it was, in fact, a Deerling. That's odd... shouldn't it be white-brown in the winter? He looked at it closely. He certainly wasn’t imagining things.

”Hey, Fang, Scruff, check this out.”

“Woah... that’s wierd.”

“Yeah, it’s a little messed up. I wonder if it can tell how cold it is?”

“It’s shivering. I think it can’t go to its winter form. It wouldn’t be as cold in a winter form.” Fenrir could relate to a Pokemon who was different and had problems with camouflage. It was a problem he had faced himself. He suddenly resolved to catch it. A Deerling wouldn’t be half bad, and the poor thing was unlikely to survive long anyway. He tried to think of an effective way to catch it without hurting it. He had an idea.

”Hop out all at once and Howl really loudly. Hopefully, it will get confused enough we can catch it without attacking.” That they did. As Fenrir had planned, the Deerling was confused and frightened. It looked at him oddly. He supposed that the Pokemon wasn’t used to watching a human growl at it. He threw the Pokeball. Then, he had a Deerling.

”Hey, buddy, it’s ok. I’m here for you.” Not able to speak Deerling, he wasn’t entirely sure what it said. However, being able to speak one Pokemon language gives you an instinctive feel for all of the others, just as Pokemon seem to all understand each other. So, despite the fact that Fenrir’s first language consisted of growls and barks and the Deerling’s consisted of a certain tone of the words “Deer”, “Ling”, and “Deerling”, he could understand somewhat what it said.

”You... you won’t be like the first one, will you? He wasn’t very nice.” Fenrir had a bad feeling about that.

”Other one?

”The other trainer. But you can talk! You understand me? I think... my name is Cherry. Who are you?”

”I’m Fenrir. This is Fang, and this is Scruff.”

”Hi.”

”Hello!”

“Hi?” Everyone, having introduced themselves, felt a bit better. Fenrir was feeling a little bit more confident, although not as idioticly so as that Darius person. Personally, he thought he looked a bit too vain. He didn’t look like he would last in a pack, everyone would tear him apart and the wild would be harsh. Niether would his employer. The girls, though, looked slightly more determined. That may be a Mightyena Hierarchy instinct, though. Females are always given the highest positions of power in a Mightyena pack.

He set back towards the others, preparing to force one of them to come with him to take out those creepy Durant if he had to.

Fenrir got a Deerling!

This post has been edited by ShinyRalts: Feb 18 2012, 01:42 PM

[Toogee]

“You got it,” Darius replied to Liz’s battle plan. True, he probably could have taken them all by his lonesome, but he did want to see how Liz fought. If she was to become his future apprentice, she would have to know the basics of battle. Of course, Darius would have to worry about his own opponent first.

“Alright you little gnome,” the dragon trainer pointed at the nuzleaf, “today, you will feel the fury of dragons! Go, Snake!”

The charmander stood at Darius’s side as he unleashed his second pokemon: an ornery ekans. He was unaware of Gigarte’s aversion to poison types, nor would he have cared had he known. Type advantage was type advantage as far as he was concerned. At least he wasn’t using fire…yet.

The nuzleaf started off the fight by growing in size. Its growth maneuver was increasing its attack power. While somewhat concerning, Darius used that maneuver to command Snake to use wrap. The nuzleaf tried to stop the ekans with several razor leaves, but the serpent merely weaved around the attacks with its lithe body. The ekans continued slithering forward until one quick strike had him wrapped around the enemy.

“Yeah! Now weaken it with leer!”

Snake obliged, staring at the nuzleaf with golden eyes. Though the attack was successful at disarming the enemy, it also put Snake in a prime position to get clobbered. The grass type started using pound, pummeling the ekans’s head as if it were a punching bag. After three hits, the serpent retaliated by biting down on the pokemon’s fist.

“Poison Sting! Poison Sting!” Darius repeated himself in rapid succession. The ekans continued to bite down upon the fist, injecting his toxic venom within the enemy. The nuzleaf found it near impossible to hit back: both of its arms were locked up by the attacks (one arms was in Snake’s mouth, while the other was wrapped under the serpent’s coils). The razor leaves could not reach the ekans either; the snake was far too close to get at the right angle. The nuzleaf started dashing around in circles, attempting to crash into objects to hurt Snake. Its labored breathing was evident that the combined effort of poison, constriction, and weight of the ekans was finally taking its toll. A few more labored steps and the nuzleaf finally collapsed into the snow. Amid Darius’s cries of victory, Snake slithered back to his master.

“Great work, Snake!” Darius said as he reached out to put the ekans. The serpent responded by biting his arm. Snake blamed his trainer for the pounding he took earlier; such bad tactics would not go unpunished. Darius simply laughed as the snake pokemon attempted to inject his venom into the human.

“Don’t worry guys. He’s just playing. Snake knows that he can’t hurt me with this chain mail on. He just wants to roughhouse!” Darius proceeded to shake his arm playfully against the struggling ekans.

“I swear the moment I evolve, I’m going to kill you.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Soon after Darius returned his pokemon to their pokeballs, he noticed that the others had finished up with their battles as well. Liz seemed like she shed a few tears, not to mention cuddling her riolu earlier. It was to be expected; she was still a child after all. With age, she’d toughen up no doubt. Meanwhile Amelia was showing off her newly evolved vespiqueen. Clearly, Amelia had a bit more battle experience than he had originally anticipated. Though he didn’t mention anything, he was kind of jealous. Long had he wanted to witness the evolution of a mighty dragon. The adventure was still young however; he may get his chance yet.

And then, there was the wolf boy, who despite all his ferocious feral appearance, backed away from a colony of foot-long metal ants. Granted, any amount of foot long metal ants would give anyone pause. Darius, however, was a bit more familiar with this particular pokemon species.

“Ah, Durant. We have many of these on Victory Road. They prefer the mountains, but why in the world would they be in Plant Town?” As he said this, he watched as some of the durants were carrying off metal and electrical parts. In fact, there was a whole line of these ant pokemon stretching over the gemma gardens. Whatever they were doing here, Darius deduced that the answer lied beyond the estate.

“Come. We follow the ant trail! I think they have a lot to do with why we’re here…”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Over snowy hills and through gemma plants (once again careful not to stomp upon them), the group caught up to wear the durants were coming from. A door that separated the agriculture sector from the wild area of Gigarte was broken, possibly by other pokemon. As they came closer to the opening, they would have seen the Durant streaming out of the bottom. The metal ants were tearing pieces of the dome frame, creating even large openings. This would certainly explain how the menagerie of pests came to be in the area. Upon closer inspection, there was a more pressing situation.

“You know, for a town that prides itself over plants, you guys sure do a carppy job of taking care of them,” Darius commented. “The place is bone dry!”

Gone were the lush greens common in much of Gigarte. The dominant colors here were the browns and yellows of dry plants and cracked earth. It was also deserted; the only wild pokemon present were the durants scurrying in a single-file line.

[Dragonwish2]

Liz gasped as the Ekans bit Darius. It didn't seem too happy for a victory. Darius laughed and explained how he was unhurt because of his armor. Liz stared quizzically but did not speak. The armor made sense, she supposed, if he was planning to be around dragons the majority of the time. Even the sword now had an explanation, even if brutal. She imagined herself wearing armor, a sword, and having strange hair like Darius. At the idea she laughed; as practical as armor might be, she would rather just buy some leather army gear for whenever she did something rough.

As Amelia approached, Liz turned and waited as Amelia let out a torrent of words in all of her excitement. Beside her now hovered a Vespiqueen, quite graceful in its movements. Amelia was clearly overjoyed about the evolution of her Combee, and Liz was curious as well, for she had never watched a Pokémon evolve. Liz snapped a picture of it, and then looked to the ground as both Amelia and Darius stared. In a militaristic line steel ants marched, each one about a foot long with large pincers. Liz shivered; the last time she had seen such massive and piercing jaws was on a Pinsir that had killed everything in its path. She noticed the ants carried metal parts, as though they had performed surgery on a computer.

Darius seemed to recognize the species. “Ah, Durant. We have many of these on Victory Road. They prefer the mountains, but why in the world would they be in Plant Town?” Liz shrugged in response, taking a picture of them before retrieving her Pokédex.

“Durant, the Iron Ant Pokémon. It is a bug and steel type. Durant dig nests in mountains. They build their complicated, interconnected tunnels into mazes.”

Liz was frowning by the time she closed it. If Durant lived in mountains, what was it doing here? If the Pokémon built the tunnels under Gigarte’s buildings, the infrastructure could very well collapse. She watched the ants march onwards away from the Gemma farm.

“Come. We follow the ant trail! I think they have a lot to do with why we’re here…” Darius followed the ants, and Liz trailed behind him.
--------------------------------------------------

The group arrived at the barrier that separated modern Gigarte from the wild outside. The single door that lay on the wall was torn apart, with Durant streaming from the bottom. Liz was only more worried; the openings could allow more than Durant into Gigarte, and if wild Pokémon attacked helpless civilians, there could be chaos. Liz considered blocking one opening with her foot, but another glance at the Durant’s pincers convinced her otherwise.

Darius looked past the openings in the door. “You know, for a town that prides itself over plants, you guys sure do a carppy job of taking care of them,” Darius said. “The place is bone dry!” Liz followed his gaze beyond, shocked to see a desert like area with Durant the only living thing there. She was glad to see her worry of wild Pokémon was proved wrong, unless every living thing had already vanished. She paused, considering. Liz erupted in a jump and pointed at the bare land.

“I know why the grass types were there! They must have lived here when it was nice, but the Durant somehow chased them out and made the place unsustainable for anything but themselves.” She was proud to have solved part of the mystery. Nevertheless, there still remained the question how the Durant managed to dry the place up overnight. Liz pondered it, and then muttered, “So much for my detective moment.” She turned to the rest of the group.

“So… anyone care to explain how the Durant sucked the life out of this place?”

This post has been edited by Dragonwish2: Feb 18 2012, 12:23 PM

[ShinyRalts]

Fenrir looked at the humans... well,isn't that an odd way to think. Fenrir looked around him and quickly realized why he couldn't think straight. The place gave him a sense of deja vu, and not just because it was crawling with ants. It looked just as desolate as Lenoilia. He was half happy half sad. Suddenly, he was on his home territory. He knew what he was doing. On the other hand, that was part of what he was trying to escape when he left. Without thinking, he howled a low, mournful howl, a howl aching for home.

Finally, he sat, slightly forlorn, on the ground in front of him. He turned to Liz. "I don't think Durant did this. Durant don't naturally live here, but were put here. You can tell by the way they dig their hole. A natural Durant hole, like the one in the farm, is slightly oval-like, but this one is perfectly round. We're missing something..."

It hit him. The Deerling that had a trainer. The odd Durant. The odd appearance of Pokemon in the wrong environment. It was all a flashback to the Durant poacher. "Sabotage!" he barked, then switched to English so his companions could understand.

"It was sabotage. I don't know why, but someone has it in for the farm we were just defending. They made sure the Deerling went their, even adding their own. They put in the Durant, so that they looked home clear, so that no one suspected it. They probably even stirred up the bugs! It all makes sense!"

He began barking orders to Fang, Cherry, and Scruff. "Stay close. I doubt our enemy likes our snooping."

In English, he said, "We've got a battle ahead of us. Our enemy is not going to be happy that we are snooping. Stay alert. We may have trouble ahead."

This post has been edited by ShinyRalts: Feb 23 2012, 05:04 PM

[Jonahman10]

Amelia was surprised when the weird wolf-boy shouted loudly about how the foreign Pokemon weren't very nice. Darius also recognized them, though it angered her that he was so insistent on calling the city Plant-town. Probably the most helpful was Liz, whose Pokedex article revealed that Durant lived in mountains. Of course they couldn't be native here, Gigarte was in the middle of a plain!

Liz and Darius were already on the trail of the Durants, and she sprinted to catch up. Shouldn't she be the one leading, since she lived above the city? Her angered started to flash against Darius for being so overconfident, but she was able to bite her tongue, for now at least.

---

Amelia was shocked when they looked through the door which was broken open. Unlike most parts of Gigarte which flowed into each other, the agricultural sector was removed from the grasslands, which eventually rolled into several half-explored tunnels, by a wall. On the other sides of the city, the dome was incorporated with the wall and went straight from city to tunnels. She remembered something about erosion causing this side of the cavern to move away from the original boundaries of the city or something.

The grasslands section was generally left alone in order to study the impact of the city on the environment and for other ecological experiments. If something major happened here, it might take a little while for anybody to notice because of this. How long had these Durants been there, and who brought them?

Amelia just looked at the wolf boy strangely when he started speaking like a wolf. Was this kid serious? Though after translating, it seemed like their minds had come to similar conclusions. Amelia quickly agreed with the crazy-wolf-child before jumping through the gate so that Darius wouldn't take the lead again. Remembering that last time something like this happened, she did what she should have done last time and sent Officer Jenny a text via her watch. She certainly didn't want to repeat the Gigarte Grotto Disaster...

"Let's look around guys! I called the police; last time something like this happened...let's just say it got really ugly"

Amelia took off her coat and tossed onto the barren ground; she didn't need it because of the strange heat. After giving a brief look over of the barren grasslands she noticed what should have been a temperature control port, but was now colonized by the swarm of Durants. That explained why the temperature was so off. Upon further investigation she discovered footprints in the dry soils along with Durant marks. Undoubtedly, someone had definitely been here!

On the other side of the mound there was a grove, or what was left of a grove, and there was a group of men conversing under the trees, well hidden from other angles except when standing next to the control panel. She held her breath and motioned for the others to stop moving. When the trainers had entered, they had been far enough away that they weren't heard entering, but Amelia was certain that if they were too loud the group of shady men would notice.

She grew dizzy for a few seconds but regained consciousness quickly. Somewhere behind her came a loud yelp, though she couldn't tell where it came from. It was enough to alert the shady guys. Seeing her, the strange men quickly jumped up and ran after the imposing party and summoned their Pokemon to fight them. Amelia warned the others and then confronted the most intimidating man; after all, she was the most experienced! He was quite buff, but he was barely a foot taller than her. She scowled at him as they prepared to confront each other...

This post has been edited by Jonahman10: Feb 27 2012, 04:25 PM

[Toogee]

Darius listened as the others discussed the reason the Durants were here. Liz predicted that the Durants were the ones that ruined the environment, forcing the other pokemon to find food on the farms. Fenrir clarified further, believing that someone was going after the farm. He voiced his opinions in English and in wolf, a language of growls and body movements. Though it was a bit interesting to see, Darius wasn’t terribly surprised (he was more surprised the feral-looking boy knew English). Amelia seemed to agree, cutting off Darius as she ran into the dried grassland.

“Well excuse you!”

As they looked around, Darius joined Amelia in examining the mound. It appeared that the steel ants were making a home out of the environmental sensor. Judging from their trail to Gemma Farms, the durants were looking to expand. In their remodeling, they must have removed important electrical components necessary to maintain climate in the area. Amelia was concerned, so this likely wasn’t a “drought phase” like the snow on the farm.

“Well, that certainly makes the case for sabotage,” Darius remarked upon seeing the wreckage. Amelia however, waved at him to be quiet. There was a group of men talking underneath a dead grove of trees, probably discussing something nefarious. This was to be the big climax of Darius’ adventure in Plant Town. He would confront the bad guys, find out their evil plan, defeat them, and become hero to the plant people.

“I got this,” Darius whispered, moving to meet the group of suspicious figures. Amelia couldn’t let that happen, he could blow everything! With all the anger she kept inside regarding the dragon trainer’s… confidence, the Gigarte native finally unleashed it all with a swift kick to Darius’s calf. The blow stopped him dead in his tracks, as if he took an arrow to his knee a hammer struck his leg. The dragon trainer attempted to hold the pain within him, his face contorted to show his struggle. The pain continued to throb and he couldn’t take it much longer. He turned away from the others and let out a small “yelp”. It was just loud enough to alert the enemy group. Darius turned around to see the enemy approaching.

“Ah! They must have small pokemon serving as sentries. That would explain the small yelp I heard…over there.”

Darius followed Amelia and the others, limping along to meet one of the bad guys in battle.

“Hey, you kids aren’t supposed to be out here!” one of the men yelled. His bald head glistened in the sunlight, almost blinding Darius. “This here is pokemon only territory. No people allowed!”

“Uh…what’s your excuse?”

“You wanna know my excuse? Here’s my excuse!”

The man quickly unleashed his pokemon: an angry mankey. The monkey pokemon started jumping around in a rage, ready to break stuff.

“Oh really?” Darius began, “Well here’s mine! Snake, Leer!”

A pokeball quickly flashed in Darius’s hand just moments before he released the ekans inside. The snake pokemon stared into the enemy’s eyes. The mankey stared right back with his own leer attack. Unlike most battles, the trainers continued commanding leer, the match quickly devolving into a staring contest.

“Leer! Don’t blink! It’s a sign of weakness!” Darius warned.
“Yeah! What he said! Leer!” commanded the bald man.
“Leer!”
“Leer!”
“Leer!”
“Leer harder!”
“Leer with avengence!”
“You’re the Master of Leering!”
“You’re King Leer!”

The mankey and the ekans drew closer and closer to each other, each staring into the other’s eyes. Eventually, their faces were touching, their eyes red from staying open for so long. Even their trainers were participating, staring each other down in a challenge to each other’s manliness.

“LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRpoison sting.”
“Ha! You blinked- wait, what? No!”

The ekans sank his fangs right into the mankey’s face, causing the mankey to run around shrieking. The snake pokemon flailed about with the mankey’s arms, sinking its poison into the enemy.

“Don’t just stand there, use Scratch!”

All it took was one scratch and the ekans fell to the ground. It’s greatly weakened defenses combined with the damage from the previous battle were enough to knock out Snake. Darius returned his snake pokemon back to his pokeball, scowling at the smug look upon his shiny headed opponent.

“It isn’t over yet,” Darius retorted back, holding his second pokeball.

((Permission to bunny Amelia given by Jonahman))

This post has been edited by Toogee: Feb 27 2012, 07:12 AM

[Dragonwish2]

Fenrir spoke in barks and whines before translating that people had overseen the Durant. Amelia jumped through the rubble in her child-like eagerness. Liz followed her through the broken barrier, shuddering. If someone was behind the Durant, they had to be maniacal saboteurs! She now understood her sympathy for the grass Pokemon she had fought earlier. It had been driven away by the steel ants, with their horrible pincers gleaming ominously. Grass types wouldn't have been able to defend themselves against the bug and steel Durant. Liz instinctively reached down and stroked Ryan's pokeball, remembering the fights he had recently had.

Amelia beckoned them to silence, and Liz Crouched next to her, following her gaze. Men were talking in the remains of a building. They appeared very muscular and fearsome; again Liz shuddered. Darius boldly moved to confront them, but before Liz could calmly stop him, Amelia kicked him in the knee. Darius whimpered loudly, alerting he men of their presence. As the men challenged the others, Liz lunged out, meeting one of the advancing men with a pokeball. He smirked and released a Durant, this one a bit larger than the others and clearly the leader. Liz threw her pokeball into the air.

"Guinevere, I choose you!" Her Ralts landed in the dry dirt silently, watching her opponent with hidden eyes. 

"Bad move there, missy. Looks like I get to fight the amateur, he said, spitting the word in a pirate like accent. Liz's eyes narrowed.

"Guini, use confusion."
"Use your vicegrip Durant."

Guini held out her small arms, using her telekinetic powers to throw the metal ant away before it could bite. The Durant was untaxed by the attack. Liz realized the issue. Her Ralts was weak to bugs. Liz wanted to smack herself for the mistake.

"Durant, use your bite attack and end this." 

Liz muttered a groan at the command. The bug knew moves that could destroy Guini. The Ralts seemed to pause in thought as the Durant charged. Liz froze, an unfamiliar thought coming to her. An image of Greg breathing a flame came to mind. Liz blinked as the image faded. Guini jumped away from the Durant and began dancing, her hands glowing like coals. She aimed her hands upward in a spin and blue-white fire shot from it, surrounding the Durant foe and setting its steel armor alight. It screamed as it melted a bit, revealing a gap in the steel embodying it. Liz discovered to her surprise Guini had learned the mov will-o-wisp

"Guini, use will-o-wisp on the opening!" Liz was practically jumping with joy at the exposed weakness. She watched proudly as her Ralts fired again, the fire serpent seeping into its victim viciously as it writhed in the dirt. The Durant rose to continue fighting, but it stood paralyzed by its burns.

"Durant, use fury swipes."
"Stop him with confusion," Liz said quickly. Guini threw the frozen bug with her psychic abilities, knocking it pincers first into its trainers crotch. Liz averted her eyes in embarrassment at the bold move, but it was effective. The man returned his Pokemon slowly and withdrew another. 

"You asked for it. Tangela, go!" He released the Pokemon with some hesitation, as though he didn't want to call upon it. Liz could see it was his only other Pokemon; there were no other pokeballs on his belt. The Tangela was small and shaking in an odd dance, the vines on it moving like snakes. Liz was repulsed by the quivering appearance, as it reminded her of snakes on prey, each one pulling and turning over it's comrades. She pointed. 

"Guini, use confusion." Liz was confused as her Ralts  did not move.

It... afraid.

Liz was stunned. The fragment came to her mentally, along with a wave of pity and grief. Liz's mind felt suddenly open and vulnerable. The sensation was terrifying yet beautiful, and something about the openness led her to think of Guini. She looked to her Ralts, and then to the Tangela. She notched its shaded eyes stared in fear at its trainer in terror, not the stronger psychic Pokemon before it. 

"Use confusion," she said again. Gently, she thought. Guini lifted her hands and sent the Tangela softly backwards with her powers. It whined and ran to hide behind its trainer's legs. The man muttered an inaudible curse and kicked his Pokemon away. 

"Sorry, lass, seems the creautures here aren't so strong. I'll be seeing you." The man held the Tangela's pokeball and broke it, freeing the Tangela from its bounds. He then turned and bolted into the rubble. Liz glared after him, throwing up her Taillow's pokeball and releasing her. She pointed in the direction the man had fled. 

"Follow him and make sure someone can see or hear you once you catch him." She wanted to give him a piece of her mind later, and turn him in to Officer Jenny. Her Pokemon flew off, and Liz ran to where the Tangela lay, crying its heart out. Guini stood by it, stroking the still vines. Liz lifted her Ralts onto her backpack and picked up the Tangela. Guini stood on the bag's top, clutching the strap to hold herself still. Liz looked to her fighting comrades, watching their battles commence.

This post has been edited by Dragonwish2: Mar 6 2012, 06:05 PM

[ShinyRalts]

As everyone ran towards the enemies, Fenrir wondered how insane everyone was. Why on earth would you do that? He did what he did best: he and Fang and Cherry and Scruff faded into the shadows. He followed slowly, knowing that-

"HEY! YOU! YOU AREN'T ALLOWED BACK HERE?"

Uncomfortable, Fenrir asked, "Why not?"

"You just aren't"

"That isn't a very good reason." He edged closer to his Pokemon. They were only in OK health, due to the battles. The only one in wonderful health was Cherry, so he supposed if it came to battle, then Cherry it was.

"It is to me! GO, Magikarp!" The orange, floppy Pokemon practically fell out of its pokeball. A MAGIKARP?

"Go for it, Cherry." Cherry gave the fish a bemused look and proceeded to Double Kick it, then Tackle a few times, doing... very... little? "Keep it up, Cherry, I have no idea why it isn't fainting!" Meanwhile, the trainer in front of him just kept on using splash. Over. And over. And OVER! He only appeared to be slightly unnerved by Fenrir's stare and wolfish talk.

"You can't beat them! I have three, and they're all level 100! I kept them from evolving and learning new moves because I'm trendsetting that way." Fenrir groaned. This was going to be a long battle. A very long battle.

Suddenly, after having FINALLY managed to knock out one of them, it hit him. It wasn't as if this trainer was holding him at gunpoint and forcing him to battle. He whispered to his Pokemon, "Magikarp can't block our path. Let's just go around."

It took a second for the guard to notice. "HEY! NO FAIR!" Fenrir wondered why. If a hunt wasn't going well. you just an away, right? Why not an excruciatingly useless battle too?

Unfortunately, the idiot had friends. As Fenrir sneaked off, he ran into another guard. This one was slightly smarter and sent out a Rhyhorn. Now, a Rhyhorn is much more capable of causing trouble than a Magikarp. That, and a tackle from one hurt, a whole lot. Fenrir had been on the receiving end of one before. Sighing, he told Cherry to get on out there again.

It was going to be a long day, wasn't it.

[Toogee]

Darius was on the ropes. His opponent had scored the first win of the battle; who knew how many more pokemon he had? But that was the path of the dragon trainer. Facing seemingly insurmountable odds was the test of his strength. Coming out victorious would be the best start for his journey, not to mention his legend. It was all up to his charmander now.

“Finish this, Bindy!”

Once again, the charmander emerged from the pokeball, her hands over her eyes. A moment later, Bindy revealed her face, followed by a gleeful cheer. The bald guy proceeded to point and laugh at the charmander’s latest attempt to be scary. She scratched her head and looked to Darius; why was he laughing?

“Heads up!”

Bindy turned around too late: the mankey was coming down upon her. The karate chop struck her on her shoulder, causing the charmander to topple over. As she got herself up, she noticed the mankey’s breathing was strained. The poison from earlier was taking its toll. Darius took note of it as well; this would be a waiting game.

“Shake it off Bindy and use smokescreen!”

The lizard pokemon obliged, spewing forth a cloud of smoke into the mankey’s face. The bald man continued to issue commands, but the mankey was blind. His karate chops were flailing all over the place, not even coming close to Bindy. The charmander continued the assault with more smokescreens until the monkey pokemon disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. Darius saw the opportunity to finally strike.

“Pepper him with some embers!”

Bindy took her tail and blew across her flame, spraying tiny fireballs into the cloud of smoke. The spray of the attack made it easy to hit the target, causing the mankey to run out in pain. Combined with the poison, the opponent was weary. All it took was a simple scratch attack: the charmander charged forward and raked her claws into the mankey’s face. The force of the blow spun the opponent around in one full rotation before landing flat on his back. Both Darius and his charmander stood their ground and awaited the opponent’s next pokemon. However, all the bald man did was withdraw his fainted mankey and scowl at the dragon trainer. There were no other pokemon.

“Ha! Victory is ours!” Darius pumped his fist in the air while Bindy jumped for joy. It wasn’t quite the mighty roar the dragon trainer was hoping for, but at least they won. Just as they were giving each other high fives, the enemy was picking up a piece of metal pipe. If his mankey couldn’t win, he’d club the lizard himself. That outta wipe the smug look off his face, he thought.

The pipe was swung downward towards the charmander’s skull, but it never met its target. A flash of steel met it with a loud clank, causing the pipe to jettison into the dry fields. In a split second, Darius stood in front of his charmander, his sword pointed to the now weaponless opponent. Apparently, that sword was not mere decoration. Darius’s expression changed from victorious to serious, even discreet outrage. The dragon trainer stepped forward, causing the bald man to fall over in fear. Darius put his boot upon the enemy’s chest, still pointing the sword to his neck. Attacking a pokemon with human weapons without cause, especially in retaliation for a fair fight, was one of the worst things any trainer could do. In Opelucid, it was grounds for exile. Darius held his temper in check, only because Bindy was unharmed and safely behind him. The charmander watched quietly as her trainer addressed the attacker.

“There’s no questioning your lack of honor, so how about your motives? What is your business here?”

[Dragonwish2]

Liz heard the screech of a bird behind her and turned, coming face to face with the man from before; only now he held a blazing stick. Serena circled close by, not daring to come near the flames. Her tail feathers had burnt marks on them, signs that she had tried to fend off the intruder. Liz whimpered softly, fearing the fire and pitying her Pokémon. The man waved the torch precariously under her nose, his mouth turned into a malicious smirk and his eyes lit with sadistic enjoyment at her terror.

“You see, pathetic girl, we been planning to set this rotten place alight the entire time. We just had to make sure there was enough kindling for the flame.” He motioned with his free hand at the dry ground around them. “Once Gigarte’s lit like a candle, it’ll be too late for you and your pathetic friends to stop it. Not even a thousand Blastoise will be able to stop the spark we’re going to cause.” He looked down to the Tangela in Liz’s arms, his grin widening. Liz gaped in horror, realizing the idea he had just thought of. The man stuck the flame towards the Tangela. Liz quickly opened her arms, dropping the wriggling Pokémon and letting it run freely away. In the process, Liz’s hands smacked the man’s chest, harder than she thought. He staggered back in surprise, quickly becoming enraged. “Why you little,” he said, lunging towards Liz. His hand quickly enclosed around her wrist, easily holding her prisoner.

The young trainer panicked and her mind raced to find a solution. What would Ryan do? The mental response came immediately from within herself. He’d stay calm and kick this guy’s butt. She looked; he wasn’t exactly in a great position for her to literally kick his butt, but…

Liz lunged quickly, her knee tucked in sharply as he approached. He moved to block her with the fire, but her thin leg was too fast. His mouth contorted in pain as her knee struck his hip, and his grip on the torch loosened. She grabbed it, holding it out at the man’s chest like a sword. He raised his arms in surrender. Liz beckoned her bird Pokémon, and Serena swooped down to her, landing on her shoulder. Liz kept her eyes on the man, staring him down. “You’re a vile monster,” she spat. “I have half a mind to do to you as you did to my Taillow.” As she spoke, the Taillow obliged to show off the burnt scissor-like tail feathers. “What sick reason would you have for destroying Gigarte?”

The man snorted and spat, just missing Liz’s feet. “You’d have to kill me first,” he sneered. His eyes were sparked with fear, and he never took his eyes off of the dangerously close fire. Liz kept the fire aimed at him, taking the time to glance at Darius. His sword was held at one of the other goon’s neck, with his cute Charmander standing behind his legs and staring at the goon. Darius’ face was straight and burned with an inner blaze of hate and disgust. Liz looked past them at a fallen pipe. She immediately understood, it least vaguely, what had happened. She turned back to her own enemy.

“The audacity you had, to destroy a location reserved for the benefit of wild Pokémon, to attempt to obliterate a civilization, and to harm Pokémon in the process is calls for far worse punishments than I can give.” A horn blared in the distance, sounding louder as the seconds ticked by. Liz nodded. “I’m going to hand you to Officer Jenny,” she said. The man blinked in surprise, suddenly shaking his head.

“No, no, you can’t! We don’t know why they wanted it, we were just hired to do it, oh no…” He whimpered, dropping to his knees and groveling. Liz struggled to suppress her confusion. Before she could ask further on the subject, a car door slammed behind her, and an energetic but serious Officer Jenny ran to Liz and the man holding a pair of handcuffs. Liz handed the torch to her after she handcuffed the fallen goon. Jenny took it and snuffed it by burying it in a dirt patch. She returned to Liz, eyeing the others solemnly.

Jenny sighed. “This is going to be some report for the files, isn’t it?” Liz could only shrug in response, but her mind itched with curiosity; who were the ones who had wanted so desperately to turn Gigarte into the world’s biggest bonfire? She glanced at the handcuffed men, struggling to form an explanation.

A stream of smoke rose from where the torch was buried, mocking in it's harmlessness as it rose into the darkening sky.

This post has been edited by Dragonwish2: Mar 21 2012, 07:52 PM

[ShinyRalts]

Finrir was monotonously battling the Ryhorn trainer. "Er, Cherry, just keep Double Kicking!" The Ryhorn, annoying enough, kept on charging in such a skewered direction that it kept on hitting the wall behind Finrir, as opposed to hitting Cherry. This was mainly a problem because Finrir had to dodge it so it hit the wall, not him. He really did not want to get tackled by a Ryhorn again. Yes, again. It was kinda a long story.

"Hey, mister evil!" The trainer scowled. "Why are you blocking my path? Why am I not allowed here?"

"I can't tell you." The two Pokemon were just continuing doing what they had the entire battle- tackling, dondging, and kicking. They had literally been using the same moves the whole time. It seemed to be a battle of which Pokemon got bored first, as neither seemed to be gaining any ground.

"Why not?" Finrir was beginning to lock eyes with the opposing trainer, a very intimidating sight indeed.

"Because I can't." He said it like it was perfectly obvious. After dodging yet another missed tackle, Finrir, who had only recently learned the language, took the statement literally.

"Really? That's kinda odd. How come? Do you not know? Surely you are capable of telling me?" Finrir had no idea how annoying he was being.

"NO! THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEAN! I MEAN I WON'T, AND AM NOT ALLOWED, TO TELL YOU!" Now the opposing trainer looked mad, exasperated, and bored out of his mind. He only was going to take one straw to boil over... And then Cherry missed, bowling into the trainer.

"THAT'S IT! THE LAST STRAW, WEIRDO!" The man suddenly came at Cherry with a knife. "THIS BATTLE EN- HEY!" Finrir had attacked back, protecting his pack, like instinct told him to. The two circled each other, not sure of what to make of the situation. Then, claw clashed against fang, until finally, an Officer Jenny pulled them apart, and unsure of who to handcuff, proceeded to do so to both of them.

[Jonahman10]

As Amelia confronted the tough guy, her tunnel visioned thickened between her and her foe who had dared to mess with her home. There would barely be a fight! She didn't even need to win because the police were coming anyways. She wasn't in a hurry though, she wanted a chance to beat this guy.


"Hey Thug, take this!"

"A Little Girl, Hah! Little princess, why don't you go home and you won't get hurt!"

"Aren't you being extremely generic today? Almost every henchman has said that at some time!"

The Henchman glared out her morosely before finally shouting, "It's a lot harder than you think to come up with these sorts of lines. Lets just start this thing."

"Fine, Go Hope, Go Austin!"

Hope gracefully floated out and hovered tranquilly in front of her, while Austin immediately started cawing a battle cry at the recently emerged Durant and Cherrim. Amelia grinned, this wouldn't be too hard: Cherrim had a disadvantage and could easily be taken down, leaving two Pokemon against one. Austin could distract the Durant, while Hope would get rid of the Cherrim.

The intense environmental conditions due to the maltreatment of the environmental systems had enticed the Cherrim out of its normal bud into a full out bloom, discharging excess energy to increase it and the Durant's power. Hope immediately pursued the flower Pokemon. Before Hope could reach her target, it summoned a cloud of Magic leaves to impede her progress. As Hope parried to left, the attack redirected and slammed into her. The offensive had little effect on her and Hope managed to get a bug bite squarely on the Cherrim.

Meanwhile Austin circled around the Durant, trying to build up momentum for a gust attack. However, The Durant began to kick a great deal of the sand up into the air. Visibility was greatly limited from the air, and Austin was forced to unleash his attack just to clear the dust left leaving a hit on the Durant to chance. Having cleared the air, it left room for Austin to make a move, and he flew down and jabbed the steel Pokemon with beak. The Peck landed straight on, but Austin was unable to retreat before the Durant bit his talon. Austin yelped and kicked off the Durant before returning to the air.

Amelia was close enough to slug the extremely generic man in the face. And that she did much to the man's surprise wheeling back, wondering why she wasn't standing around doing nothing like other Pokemon trainers did in the heat of battle. Suddenly the man became slightly less generic and broke tradition by facing Amelia. He made a quick kick to Amelia's legs and she fell down into the dry sand, baked soil and horribly dehydrated gemma. Amelia managed to pull herself up and attached herself to the man's legs and began to pull him down. Once on the ground, the less-generic goon was able to pin her down and force her arms to the back.

In a spurt of being spontaneously generic, the goon murmured, "You're coming with me little princess." Amelia wasn't able to break free and couldn't stop herself from cursing uncontrollably as she was pushed grudgingly towards the mouth of the cave....

Hope had the Cherrim nearly defeated and suddenly went into a Fury of Strikes, repeatedly striking the Cherrim with her arms. The Cherrim finally succumbed to the attack and fainted. Hope quickly rushed to aid Austin in his battle now that the Durant wasn't being powered up by Cherrim's special ability. Austin heard Amelia's struggle and immediately left Hope with the durant. Hope was mildly annoyed, but made no move to stop Austin.

Amelia was nearly to one of the grottoes a fair distance away, it would be difficult to track her once she was in the complex cave systems around Gigarte. Austin would know, not only had they gotten lost in the cave system before but the blue-haired lady required them as guides through the caves as well. Amelia should stop putting herself in those sorts of situations.

Austin blasted off towards Amelia, but he wasn't going fast enough; Amelia was already in the mouth of the cave and he was meters away. Suddenly, he began to feel like a new wind was underneath his wings. Austin started glowing. A surge of new found speed swirled around in his face. In mere moments, he reached Amelia as a full-pledged Pidgeotto. A Pidgeotto which smashed into the kidnapper's head as he was going through the first fork in the cave. A Pidgeotto that was soon in a warm embrace with its trainer.



-----------------
Darius had watched the others apprehend their foes just as he did. Liz’s performance was the most impressive. Though the dragon trainer thought he had to step in, the young girl managed to bring down the larger man and wield his torch. Such fighting skills were highly value in Opelucid society. Imagine what she could do with a sword!

It was when the other evil doer started explaining his plans to burn Gigarte to the ground. Darius thought it was a little extreme. True, Plant Town wasn’t the best place for a burger, but that was no reason to torch it. Besides, there wasn’t anything to grill over the flames anyways. What a waste…

“So, that’s why you guys are out here,” Darius asked the bald guy.

“What? No!” the enemy responded in dismay. “I have no idea what that guy is talking about! All I was told to do was to cut a wire and get my check. I…kinda forgot what wire to cut, so we just cut all of them. We didn’t want it to look like people did it, so we had the durants do it for us. Then I was told to wait here to guard the place and they would pay me.”

“How long have you been out here?”

“Too long! It’s friggin’ hot out here!”

Despite the fact that the bald guy was a criminal who tried to whack his charmander in the head, Darius was inclined to believe him. Liz’s captive was likely being over-dramatic, especially after cowering in fear of a lowly patrol officer named Jenny. On the other hand, it was entirely possible that both stories were correct. This may have just been an experimental run, a rehearsal for a much larger calamity. One guy simply knew more than the other.

But those were thoughts for another day. As the officers arrived on the scene, they apprehended Darius’ enemy and took him to a waiting patrol car. The dragon trainer put his sword away and put his foot on one of the earthen mounds that scattered the excavation.

“Plant Town can rest easy tonight. The heroes are victorious, among them Darius Dovakin of Opelucid. Remember it well!”

He was about to step off, but the events happening with Fenrir had called for an extension.

“Er, also among the heroes is Dog Boy over there, so if you guys don’t mind uncuffing him, we can all get back to the celebrating.”
-----------------
Liz returned her Pokémon and approached Darius. She smiled. "So, think I'm Dragon Co-ordinator material?" She jokingly flexed her muscles, and then burst into laughter at herself. "I'll have to go hunting for dragons sometime. Maybe you'll see me in a contest one day with a Dragonair, or an Altaria." She patted the red and white orbs on her hip, her mouth straightening as she considered the numerous possibilities with such Pokémon. It was awe-inspiring, yet she wanted to scold herself for such wild dreams as she thought. It would be difficult enough to discover rare Pokémon. Liz would plan for that, but she wouldn't let it overcome her other priorities; she would work for ribbons first with the Pokémon she had.

She smiled again. "You gave me an idea for my first contest. I can't wait to try it." In her mind's eye she held an image. Liz was determined to make it a reality. After Darius responded, Officer Jenny approached.

"These vandals will be taken care of under the full extent of the law. Good work helping stall them, kid." As the woman spoke, Liz felt an odd burning at her title. No regular 'kid' stopped people who wanted to burn down a city. The young tween nodded firmly with a false smile, but she felt conflicted at the merry expression. Before she could do anything on the matter, one of her pokéballs broke open and released Kelli. The Zorua ran around Liz’s feet before flashing red and transforming to look like a duplicate of Darius- but with two black ears sticking out of the red hair. The young trainer laughed and pulled on one of the ears, returning Kelli to her normal state before the Pokémon could use the illusory sword on her hip.

Liz laughed. "“Oh Kelli, back you go."” She held out Kelli’s pokéball and sucked her back in before looking back to her comrades. Amelia, Fenrir, Darius… She would miss them, surely. She nodded. “Well, I guess this is goodbye. If you ever hear a contest is in town, look me up.” With a wave she turned and left the dry field, aiming for the Pokémon Center with high hopes of the coming days.
-----------------
Amelia was pleased, but something was still off. She got sweet vengeance on the generic goon, her training with her comrades led to their new-found strength, they had rid Mr. Darsey of his pest problem. But something was still off; Gigarte's system would be sufficient to put out any fires here. Though this area would burn, it should have been contained by the metal barrier and functioning climate control modules. And this area seemed to be reached through the tunnels... The three outsiders seemed pretty excited though, she didn't want to rain their parade and Officer Jenny seemed not to mention anything either, but they would need to talk later.

Amelia heard Darius and Liz talking about a contest. Maybe Amelia should enter one, Hope's new form was simply stunning. Liz was a good kid, she hoped they could meet again someday and just hang out. It seemed like catastrophe seemed to be following Amelia around lately. Amelia gave Liz her business card and wished her luck on her journey. She then proceeded to promise that she would see Liz at a contest someday. Liz had to go and she went away from the crime scene. Amelia wished she could walk away...
-----------------
As the police cleaned up the mess, Darius listened to Liz’s plans for a future contest. She was genuinely excited about training dragons. Good. Darius was quite proud of himself to have inspired a young person into dragon training, especially in such an underutilized field as contests. She continued, saying that Darius himself inspired a contest! Imagine that! The dragon trainer didn’t even have a single statue built in his name and he was already an inspiration. That alone made the trip to Plant Town worthwhile.

“Well then, you’ll win for sure,” Darius replied with a smile across his face. “Dragons are always awe-inspiring. Even acts inspired by them and their trainers will give you an edge.”

Just then, the officer in charge came up to Liz and thanked her for stopping the thugs. Though the young girl didn’t seem as happy about the compliment as her face expressed, this was nothing compared to Darius’s shocked face. He was completely ignored for his efforts in saving the day! It appeared his adventure would be relegated to folk tale instead of official reports.

“She had some help,” he attempted to reply to Jenny, but he came face to face with…himself? The charmander by his feet gasped: there were two versions of Darius! The second one had pointy black ears, which identified it as the fake. A quick tug on the ear revealed the perpetrator to be a zorua, one of Liz’s pokemon.

“Well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” Darius responded with a wink. He was pretty popular even among pokemon! And with that, Liz bid everyone farewell, off to train for that next contest.

“Later Lizard,” Darius waved back. With Amelia likely headed back to the Mr. Darsey and Fenrir presumably released by the police, the dragon trainer’s job was done. It seemed the repair crews were making great progress on fixing the wires: thunder clouds soon formed overhead, ready to drench the parched earth. Darius quickly said bye to the remaining members and recalled his charmander before she was soaked.





“Well, this is more like it!“

Darius had emerged from the underground elevator, back on the ground floor of Furoh. Bindy was back at his side, looking left and right as to which way to go. There really wasn’t much around them, so it was difficult to determine where their next conquest would be. Still, the goal was quite clear: find dragon pokemon and seek out Taggarty Lee. With that in mind, the dragon trainer looked over the horizon.

“If I were a reformed renegade dragon trainer, where would I go?” He thought about it for a minute before finally giving up. A reformed renegade dragon trainer could be anywhere there was a challenge! Darius really didn’t have any clues. For all he knew, Taggarty Lee could be right under his feet in Plant Town. No, not there. He was already in Plant Town. Going back would just be silly.

“I say we let fate decide,” Darius proclaimed. “That’s where the real adventure is to be had.”

The dragon trainer took the first step forward onto a brand new adventure, destination unknown. His charmander, however, ran in another direction, crying out playfully. She seemed to have other plans.

“Bindy! This isn’t the time for games! We’re supposed to be on a daring adventure!”

The big beady eyes of a very sad charmander were all it took to break the dragon trainer, though he tried not to show it.

“Fine, we’ll play a little bit of tag, but once I catch you, we’re back on the road!”

The fields above Gigarte were filled with the laughter of a charmander and the frustrated grunts of her trainer.
-----------------
Apparently Darius continued on his Quixotic quest while Liz and Amelia were saying good bye. Though he made her furious, Amelia couldn't deny he prevented the criminals from escaping, even if they were just generic goons. Though, for some reason it seemed like he was avoiding her as if she had done something mean to him. Had she done something in anger and forgotten about it in her tunnel-vision? The Wolf-kid was still here and Amelia thanked him for his help as the environment control was repaired. She finally got a chance to talk to Jenny as the rain began to fall.

They went back to the snowy agricultural district to prevent getting wet and subsequently freezing to death. Jenny's convictions had matched her own. The Grotto incident and this were related. They discussed the matter for a minute and Jenny thanked her for contacting her this time, even if they ended up ambushing the bad guys. Like usual their conversation ended with Jenny demanding that she got some rest and they would discuss the matter further after they were rested.

Amelia drudged back to Darsey's field through the thickening snow. Amelia found him on the phone, "Maybe it's because I find it hard to forgive the follies and vices of others, or their offenses against me. My good opinion once lost is lost forever. Good day, sir." He quickly dislodged the phone from his ear. He primly thanked her for her help but coldly urged her to leave because he was busy. Though for some odd reason he wanted to acquire Liz's contact information...


Amelia came home through the snow and curled up by the warm fire. On this cold winter evening she read her book to a Pidgeotto and a Vespiquen.

The 3 non-Amelia posts included in this one were written and shared on the discussion thread by their respective Rpers.

This post has been edited by Jonahman10: May 19 2012, 07:10 PM