[X] My Assistant

[Ariadan]

As Frank closed in on the exit he tripped on something, hit his elbow on a protruding part of the wall, spun around and fell with a "Whoaa, this is go.. OOF!!" Unintentionally he had grabbed on to Mack who had stopped just outside but didn't hold on, as he didn't want to make him fall over as well, and hit the floor with his back first.
Since he fell onto his back, his shield hit the ground first but didn't dampen the fall at all.
The sword, which hung on his back behind the shield, caused him even more pain as it hit his vertibrae.

A muffled yet loud "OW!!! Owowowow!" told those that would hear, that he had lost his breath. He tried gasping for air while rolling over, but wasn't able to, and laid still on the ground attempting to breathe. After about 15, or so, seconds, which felt like an eternity for him, he finally managed to take a short and rasping breath.

After about a minute when he was able to breathe properly, he got onto his knees and then onto his feet and looked at Mack. "Sorry about that. Didn't mean to hit you when I fell."

He looked around, not at where he was but to see where Sophie was. He saw it a few feet away, laying down. He hurried toward it and picked it up carefully. "Are you okay?" A short "Bal" told him it was hurt but not badly. Holding it in his arms he looked around, only now noticing where he was standing.

"Wow, this place is HUGE. This must've taken an eternity to create."
He looked at Mack and then looked for Eric. "Uhm, where's Eric?" He asked when he didn't see him anywhere.
He spun around a few times before stopping and looked at Mack again.

He thought of several possibilities, some were nothing more than his mind making stuff up for him and not even close to what could actually happen.

This post has been edited by Ariadan: Oct 27 2009, 10:00 AM

[Spearow]

Things happened at once. That was the only way to describe it - Eric and Shinx were there one moment, and then they weren't. Mack would have thought they were spirited off somewhere by the ghostly eyes, had not he seen a splash before the water became still once more. He stood there, shocked, hardly noticing as Frank came barreling out of the passageway behind him and took a painful-sounding fall. He didn't even notice when the taller boy clipped his shoulder accidentally with his hand.

Promptly snapping out of his dazed state as he heard Frank come up to his feet, breathing heavily, Mack spun around to face the other boy. In answer to his question, he could only wave a hand frantically at the spot where Eric had been standing, sputtering, "He fell in!"

No time to tell about the weird noises and the eyes - Mack had worries only for the present danger, and that was finding Eric. Chuckie seemed strangely calm, sniffing around the water's edge intently. Mack stared into the blackness of the water, through the quickly fading rings of disturbance. Should he go in? He knew how to swim, but... somehow it was different, in a cave. And he wasn't sure if he was ready for what he might find down there.

He steeled himself, pulling his pant legs up slightly and preparing to wade in, when he was startled by the apparition, once again, of those narrow, thin-pupiled eyes. Yelping slightly, he stepped back as a wispy form emerged from the surface of the lake. He knew what it was, immediately, even as it stated its name in a thin, ghostly wail. "Gaaaastly..."

Queenie chirped in alarm beside Mack's head, and he felt her look to him, knowing that she was waiting for permission to fight this wild creature if need be. "Wait," he murmured, more to himself than anything. Chuckie was staring up at the creature, but surprisingly not with an unfriendly expression.

Chuckie "talked" and made gestures at the water, urgent screeches and purrs that were of course unintelligible to the humans, but the Gastly seemed to understand. Almost smiling, the ghost Pokémon floated up over the heads of Mack and Frank toward the passage they had come from, whistling in its strange way before it disappeared through the crack. Mack looked to Chuckie, and the Mankey made a short nod. Mack was sure he could trust him. The Mankey had never led him wrong before.

Mack started to jog back through the crack, looking over his shoulder to Frank and indicating with a jerk of his head that he should follow. "Come on. He's gone back out the cave, I think. The Gastly knows where he is." It sounded sort of crazy, but Mack could only hope that the other boy would trust him.

[Nogster]

Eric shot out of a hole in the cliff side, breathing again after what felt like forever. He felt relieved until he opened his eyes, seeing that there was a ten foot drop into the ocean.

"AAAAAgbbblb-" He hit the surface head first.
As he resurfaced, Eric coughed, spat and got a few convulsions as he swam to catch Starly's pokéball, floating out of reach. He had swallowed a mouthful of saltwater and didn't feel too well after hitting the walls of the prehistoric water slide. His elbows were bleeding and he had hit his hip and knees.

"Shiinx! Shiii-" Splosh!
The sound was heard as shinx flew out the same hole and landed close to Eric.

"Shinx, return!" Eric had pulled the pokéball from his wet trench coat in a second while trying to keep afloat with his legs.
The pokéball opened and he heard the sound of Shinx returning to her ball.
Poor Shinx had probably gotten as hurt as him. He should get her to the pokécenter as quickly as possible.
As he swam towards the beach near the cave entrance, Eric looked back up at where he fell from and noticed a waterfall spurting out of the cliff side.

Once at the beach, he ran up the trail to the pokécenter. Slipping and almost hurting himself further on the metal walkway. He was exhausted and soaked from water and sweat once he reached the top. Walking the last bit to the pokécenter, breathing heavily, Eric didn't care about people staring at him. He dragged himself through the doors and slammed Shinx's pokéball on the desk.

"I... Need this... fixed." Eric looked at nurse Joy, she was fading in and out of focus and the wounds had started to hurt. "Shouldn't we take a look at you too, you seem pretty badly hurt." nurse Joy said, eying Eric where he stood.
"I'm fine... I just need to sit down for a bit." Eric turned around, searching for a free seat.
"Sir! What about your Shellos?" nurse Joy asked behind his back. Eric turned back around.
"My.. what?" He looked at her with a confused face.
"There's a Shellos on your backpack. Didn't you know?"

Eric did not know this, and he didn't even know what a Shellos was.
"Yeah, whatever." he said, discarding nurse Joy's comment and assuming she was joking.
He turned back around, found an empty seat and sat down. More people were staring at him now but he didn't care.
He just wanted to heal his pokémon and get back to his newfound friends, if they were still alive...

This post has been edited by Nogster: Oct 27 2009, 12:51 AM

[Ariadan]

Frank stood there , clearly confused. He had no idea what was going on at all. Eric had fallen into the water, but, why hadn't he come up? And why hadn't Mack jumped in to try and save him?
At Mack's notion to follow him he was even more confused before he thought of the fact that Eric might've been pulled out of the cave via some underwater tunnel.

He'd been looking at the flying.. head? for a while and then at the crack in the wall where it and Mack had gone through. Was that thing a pokémon? He did know about ghost and dark types of pokémon, but to see one that was basically just a floating head, somehow he couldn't picture that. Didn't all living things require an entire body? A minute had passed after Mack having gone through the tunnel that they had just went through. Were they now supposed to go out again? Oh yeah, Eric. He slapped himself to 'wake' himself up and started walking towards the crack.

Inside the 'tunnel' again he sped up to try and catch up to Mack. His back still hurt like heck so he couldn't walk too fast.
"Well, you did ask for an adventure out of the ordinary." He told himself.
He looked down at Sophie who seemed to feel a lot better but still looked weak.
"Don't worry, I'll get you to the pokécenter as soon as we get out of here."

Back outside the 'tunnel' he saw Mack and walked as fast as he could towards him.

[Spearow]

Mack was still holding his flashlight, though the beam's erratic jouncing across the cave wall as he ran rendered the light near useless. He just had to follow the beckoning whistles of the Gastly, which floated steadily along through the cave. Being more or less incorporeal, it didn't encounter the same resistance from the twists and rocky turns that Mack and Chuckie had to deal with. The Mankey leapt over corners and ocassionally skittered hand-over-hand along the uneven walls, aided by his dextrous digits, while Mack stumbled as best he could with one hand held out in front of him to prevent himself from encountering the fate Frank had met just a few seconds earlier. Queenie kept her grip on his shoulder, ruffled but carrying on gamely nonetheless.

He flashed an occasional look back into the tunnel, hoping Frank was following - Mack was in possession of one of the only available light sources, after all. But he knew he couldn't wait for very long. Eric had gone under, he could be drowned by now, the only link to him they had was this strange ghost creature...

Abruptly they were out in the main cave. The Gastly had paused, waiting for the slower humans and Pokémon to catch up. Mack heard Frank's footsteps behind him just a few seconds after he emerged into the draftier, more expansive run of the cave. Sighing in relief, the boy checked back to see the older trainer and his Baltoy and gave a quick waving gesture with his hand toward the mouth of the cave. The Gastly was already floating in that direction, in its unhurried yet unfailingly direct manner of movement.

Mack followed at a decent pace, somewhere between a walk and a run. It seemed to take a lot less longer to get out than it had to come in, most likely due to the new urgency of their situation. Mack flicked off his flashlight as the light from the entrance came into view. He couldn't help but fling an arm in front of his face - though it was only a somewhat sunny day, the light of the outside world was blinding compared to the dimness his eyes had grown accustomed to.

The Gastly was floating just outside, and Mack thought it looked a bit more faded, less "there", though it was hard to tell. It stared at him, as if waiting for him to do something. He looked around. The gravely beach was empty. There was nothing on the horizon, nothing out in the visible expanse of sea for him to see.

Helplessly, Mack turned around to look for Frank back at the entrance of the cave. He was visibly confused, though not ready to give up hope yet. "He's not out here. Eric's not here."

[Nogster]

Eric had waited a few moments, trying not to think about the pulsing pain in his hurt limbs.
After about a minute, nurse Joy called him. He stood to his feet and walked back to the counter, leaving the now soggy and wet seat behind him.

"Your pokémon are fully healed. Please come again." she said, as per automation. Not even looking at Eric as she handed his pokéballs back on a tray.
Visible in her eyes was a clear irritation that he wouldn't let her help him.
Eric collected the pokéballs and put them into his trench coat slots again, forcing a smile to act polite.
"There's still-" nurse Joy started, glancing over the top of his head before cutting herself off.
"Oh why do I even bother." she turned to a man standing next to Eric.
"How can I help you?"
Eric turned around and left the pokécenter, his sneakers creating a certain squishing sound as he walked.

As he got outside into the afternoon sun, Eric examined his clothing.
The trench coat had large scratch-marks and the jeans were scrubbed at the knees.
Apart from that, everything seemed to be intact.

He felt the need to remove the clothing on his upper body to inspect his elbows since they hurt more than the rest of his body. He walked behind the pokécenter to get out of public view before chucking the bag off his shoulders and dropping it to the ground.

"Shellos." A muffled sound could be heard from under the bag as Eric removed his trench coat.
Eric was too busy with the pain from his elbows to hear it, though.
A minute passed and Eric had managed to unbutton his bloodstained shirt, slowly removing his arms from within it.

"Shellos!"
This time, the little voice was louder and Eric heard it, turning back around towards his backpack, not seeing anyone. He had just removed his shirt and tie when his backpack fell over, revealing an east sea Shellos behind it.

Eric looked at it for a second. Unsure of how to grasp the situation. This was obviously what nurse Joy had been on about. The Shellos seemed to be eating seaweed which had gotten stuck to Eric's backpack. It was probably the reason for it latching to it in the first place.

Eric examined the pokémon. It was seemingly ignorant of Eric's presence, munching away without a care.
Needing the little bottle of disinfectant again, Eric slowly reached for the pack.

The Shellos reacted in a heartbeat, switching it's attention to Eric and creating a ball of water in it's mouth, releasing a pulse of water which threw Eric to the ground.

"I need that disinfectant!" Eric said as he crawled over to his sprawled out clothing, rising to a kneeling position and pulling Shinx's pokéball from within the trench coat.

"Shinx, don't fail me now." he said as he pressed the button to enlarge the pokéball throwing it at the ground in front of the Shellos.

The Shellos had resumed eating and ignored the commotion as a flash revealed Shinx. Her fur glowing as she knew her master was hurt.

"Shinx!!" she grunted, challenging the Shellos.
The Shellos just kept eating, not caring the least about Shinx's challenge.

"Shinx, use Charge beam!" Eric said, pointing at the Shellos with his left hand and feeling for Starly's pokéball in the trench coat with his right.

Shinx's fur started to glow brighter, catching Shellos' attention.

"SHIIIIIINX!" she barked. Sparks flew from her fur as she released a beam which hit the Shellos dead on before it got to react.

Shellos took the blow, sliding off the backpack and into the wall behind it. It took a second for it to retaliate, hopping over the backpack and spraying mud in Shinx's face. She tried to jump out of the way but the stream of mud was too fast and hit her as she jumped, making her fly back a few feet and land on her side. Both of the pokémon were breathing quite heavily and shinx had gotten some mud in her eyes, making it hard for her to see clearly.

Eric had found Starly's pokéball and had with some effort managed to get to his feet again.
"Shinx, another Charge beam!" he yelled.

Shinx stood to her feet and started to glow brightly again as she released a second beam, missing the Shellos and even the building behind it completely. Eric thought it looked a bit like a shooting star in reverse as it bolted up into the afternoon sky.

[Captain Combuske...]

Alex Slasher had only been a young boy. He had liked pretty normal things really, such as playing with Pokemon and playing football. That was, until be began his Pokemon journey.

Now, Alex had had Blaze, his favourite Pokemon and best friend captured. He'd been cornered by Team Deception, some evil villains, and on top of that, he'd been chilled to the bone in a haunted house.

Yeah. You could say that Alex had been lucky to have this adventures. I mean, who else gets the extraordinary chances of getting a Pokemin friend, starting as great Pokemon journey, and stopping villains from getting to his best freind? Surely that was worth celebrating!

Not so.

For Alex, his whole journey since he left Daas, his hometown, had been almost like hell. He'd gone through quite a substantial bit of pain after Blaze had been kidnapped, and still hadn't quite recovered from the nightmares that he had had warning him about this, he knew they had been. Alex was surprized he'd made it through all this. That was his thought right at the point of the beginning of this chapter in his story. Then he looked artound him and realized why he'd managed to go through his ordeal.

Friends. Freinds were the meaning. Blaze for one, was a great freind. His other Pokemon Swamps the Mudkip, Stryk the Starly and even Cross the heracross had made a little impact to his happiness. Then there was Drew, a young boy who Alex now called freind, a young farmer's son of 13 years, a year younger than Alex. Drew had always been encouraging, he'd always tried to make Alex happier. Presently, Alex spoke to his companion:
"Drew, we're almost in Lenolia. I think we'll be there by mid-afternoon."
Drew nodded slightly, and the two boys continued to walk in the heat of the sun, which was burning brightly above their heads.

Soon, they had arrived in Lenolia. Alex remembered his mother's words about Lenolia. All the pollution and bad stuff. After a while of wandering through the city, Drew offered to sit down somewhere and have an early dinner. They found a small hot dog stand. Two tough looking guys were working. Almost everyone in Lenolia was very tough looking, broken nose, teeth missing, black eye, you name it. Drew ordered a hot dog with a side of fries.

After they sat down, Drew asked, "Alex, I know you are from Daas. What's it like?"

Alex mulled Drew's question over in his head for a while. You see, Alex didn't really know how to react to it. You see, he loved his town, it was host to a large amount of lovely, peaceful memories. however, it also did contain quite a substantial amount of negative ones.
"Daas... Oh Drew, it's great. It's my hometown. And I don't think I would have wanted it to be anywhere else. Daas is a town full of activity. I don't think there was a single minute in any day in that town where there wasn't some kind of minor drama. People were alwaysturning up at my mum and dad's house, and of course my house. My mother was a gardener. She had a very special job. In the spring, she planted Roses and Tulips and all kinds of beautiful flowers. She made the place look nice, and smell nice. Even in the winter, when fragrance came from the scented candles that filled Daas, she made flowers out of ice and snow. A Winter Wonderland. Yes. That was what Daas was when the weather got cold.

My father was just an ordinary man, he was the baker. Each day when we sat dwon for dinner, I could smell two things. The first was Mum's fragrences, she was also the beautician, which she squeezed from flowers to created perfumes and soaps and things like that. the other was my dad's breasd, constantly baking in the huge baking oven he owned. We never had processed bread from the shop. Only some wary people of Dad did that. There were few nasty people in our town. But I suppose, that even in the most peaceful and goos place, there must be evil, and that evil seems worse than usual becuase od the serenity that usually exists.

The reason why I ran away from Daas, which is what I call it, is because of the evil. In my case, it was in the shape of the akwardly named Team Skull. They played a lot of Mystery Dungeon, and had grown to like the evil team. Their leader was my brother James, younger than me by two years. The other two; his evil friends Bob and Josh, who I am convinced were exactly like the Zubat and the Koffing in the mystery dungeon games. They beat me every day, me and my freinds, and eventually, I grew scared, and so ran away. I couldn't bear the torture of day-to-day life. Now I've been through worse torture. In the form of REAL evil. If my brother and his ragamuffin gang are team Skull, then team deception are the evil future tyrant Primal Dialga. Which means that you and I may be the Poképals. And we have to stop them. But these are only my speculations. I mean, where would Dusknoir, Wigglytuff, Chatot, The whole guild and Grovyle come from? It doesn't matter at this stage of our journey. Let's concentrate on Lenolia first, eh, Drew?"
There was silence for a couple of minutes, as the two boys ate, and as Drew absorbed all of Alex' words about basically his whole life, and as Alex filtered through his memories, remembering. Then, Alex asked Drew a question in return.

"What about you, farmer boy? What's your life been like?"

"Well, I was born in the great region of Kanto. North of Vermillion City was where I lived. Just like know we had a farm, but that farm was on a major trail that led into the city. Many different species of Pokemon and their trainers walked past our house. I would wake up at five in the morning and work til dinner. Than we played cards, usually it was pitch, but sometimes it was poker or euchre. We didn't have a television. We only had a newspaper, only the newspaper kept us intact with society.

"Than we moved. I still to this day have no idea on why we moved. We moved to Northeast Barley. Than when I was ten, sitting in the empty farmer's market of Northeastern Barley, a stray Tyrogue ran right in front of me. I chased it down to old Peterson's farm when we ran into a Usaring. I wasn't thinking back then and I stepped in front of the Usaring. The giant bear almost ripped me into shreds if it wasn't for old man Peterson. He caught the Tyrogue and later gave it to me.

"Than, one day me and dad were picking oran berries on the far side of the farm when our barn started on fire. My sister and my mom were inside milking the Milktanks. They died, some of the Miltanks got out though. It was sad," a tear or two dropped from Drew's eyes. "My dad made me drop out of school permanently. He never gave me time off, he worked me to the bone. And that's why I left."

There was more silence as both boys finished off their hotdogs. Then, Alex got up, breathed in the cold air, and walked. He walked over to the fountain in the mifddle of the square. There were quite a few people there. A Couple, kissing tenderly near the far side of the fountain, two girls, gossiping, and keepng on darting glances at the couple, there wer a couple of rough looking boys.

Alex sat down on the fountain's edge. He liked the slight peacefulness. Lenolia was recovering a little from its misfortune. More and more nicer folk were coming here and rebuilding the town. The archetecture seemed to be being renovated, and Lenolia had a slight charm to it. But Alex felt, it would be a long time until Lenolia was back to the way it had been before the sewage incident.

Just as Alex was about to finish his sit on the fountainside, one of the two boys came up.
"Get orf my seat." he said. When Alex paused slightly, the boy pushed Alex into the fountain. He and his friend started laughing nastilly. Alex felt himself being held underwater, and started fighting back. But the boy would not stop. Alex let out Swamps. Swamps quickly grasped the situation, and jumped at the boy, surprising him long enough for Alex to get himself out of the water and jump out of the fountain. Alex shook his head like a dog, ridding himself of some of the water. The sun would take care of the rest. Swamps had already jumped to Alex side.

The boy snarled.
"You arsked fro dis." said the ruffian. "GO, CRUSHER!"
It turned out that "Crusher" was an Aron. But that was how Alex' battle began. From his opponent trying to drown him.

"By the way, my name is Carlos, weakling!" shouted the boy against Alex. Alex replied with his name as he looked at Crusher.

Arons, Alex knew, were weak against Water, which was Swamps' type. He smirked slightly.
"Swamps, use Water gun"” he shouted. Swamps made a tiny sound in agreement, and started spouting water at his foe. The Aron winced slightly as the water hit it, and it jumped back out of the way of most of the attack.

Alex gritted his teeth together slightly as he realized that this boy could actually fight pretty darn well. He prepared himself for the next move, which would come from Aron.
"Crusher, use Shock wave!" shouted Carlos. Alex' eyes widened. Obviously a Tm move, he realized, seeing as Arons didn't learn electric moves. The move came so fast from the little Aron that Swamps couldn't avoid it.
"NO!" shouted Alex. "Swamps, come on!" luckily, Swamps was a good fighter, and didn't give up after a nasty hit. The little Mud fish Pokemon stood up, a defiant, angry look in its face. Swamps still had HP left, about half, so Alex wasn't worried too much about him.
"Swamps, use water gun again!" said Alex.
This time, before Alex had even finished, Swamps was firing water at Crusher the Aron. It was visibly hindered, seeing as it started to look weak after Swamps had finished the attack. But neither did it give up.
"Go, use Take down!" shouted the Aron's trainer.

The powerful Aron barged into Swamps so hard that Swamps literally flew through the air a little. It looked spectacular, but Alex knew that Swamps was a good tactician in battle. By allowing the attack to hit him and therefore make him fly through the air, Swamps had cushioned some of the attack; it would have hurt more if Swamps had stayed there, muscles tensed. But unfortunately Swamps was still almost K.O, Alex could see it in his Pokemon's eyes. The good thing was that Swamps still had an inkling of life left in him. He looked into his Pokemon's eyes.
"Swamps, anything, just as long as it's a water attack."
Swamps nodded, and used Water gun before Aron was ready. It was surprised by the power of such a small Mudkip. But Alex knew Swamps' trick. Swamps had Torrent, which meant he was much more powerful when he used a water attack and had little HP left.

Crusher's eyes turned into K.O.d crosses, and it fell, knocked out. Carlos slowly pulled out his Pokeball, and returned his Aron.
"The battle ain't over yet. Go, PIKO!" he shouted. Out came a Pikachu.
Alex returned Swamps and sent out a random Pokemon from the other three in his bag.
"Go, STRYK!" he shouted. Out came Stryk, the Starly, looking proud, and ready to fight.

Apologies for the long post

Blaze- Alex Slasher's Torchic
Swamps- Alex Slasher's Mudkip
Stryk- Alex Slasher's Starly

This post has been edited by Proby3: Oct 27 2009, 06:51 AM

[Ariadan]

When he finally caught up to Mack, he sighed and looked tired. He looked around when Mack said that Eric wasn't around he thought of several possibilities.
"Maybe he came out somewhere further down the beach." He looked down at Sophie.
"If he made it out I'm sure that he's up at the pokécenter, if he is able to move that is. Why don't we temporarily split up? I have to get Sophie to the center and Scorch needs to get some rest as well. I'll head up there. If I find him I'll send down Electrike to get you. Otherwise I'll come down as soon as Joy's done with my pokémon."
He started walking slowly towards the path that led up to the town.

"I won't be much help anyways." He sighed and looked out over the beach, hoping that Eric wasn't in the water somewhere.
"Either way I'll see you in a little while." He started walking as fast as he could towards the walkway.
When he reached the walkway he thought of something and shouted towards Mack.
"Hey! Why don't you use your mankey to try and track him down? It worked before didn't it?"

If Mack replied Frank didn't hear it, he was on his way up.
"Don't worry, Sophie, you'll be healed really soon."

[Spearow]

The Gastly was still floating calmly, almost expectantly in place. It mostly watched Mack as if waiting for him to do something, just as he had watched it for direction before. He noticed that its eyes flicked out to sea, to the cliffs, to the white puffs of cloud above, as if it had never seen any of these things before. The ocean breeze caused the edges of its wispy self to stutter like a dying candle. It seemed - smaller, yet not dwindling. A child in a large world.

Mack was watching the ghost creature with a sort of sleepy befuddlement brought on by a combination of shock and the resulting exhaustion. It took the combined forces of Chuckie, tugging relentlessly on his pant leg, and Queenie administering a gentle but insistent peck to his earlobe to wake him out of this stupor. Shaking his head, Mack looked up in time to see Frank heading up the path, and to hear his shouted suggestion.

Mack sighed and scanned the horizon once more. There was nothing, as expected. What would be the right thing to do in this situation, he wondered? Call for help, maybe. But who was here to help? If his dad were here, he would know what to do - him and his two Gyaradoses, a small but effective rescue team on their own. But he wasn't. Mack felt a twinge of something like pain in the deep parts of his chest. Some distant and faraway feeling, which he didn't care to give thought to at the moment.

He would have to work with what he had - which, at the moment, was this short stretch of rocky sand, the sea, the cliffs, and two (possibly three) Pokémon prepared to do his bidding. Mack pointed to the sky. "Queenie. Think you could fly up and do some... y'know, scouting? Come back and tell me if you find anything. Or get Frank, whoever's closer." With a chirp to the affirmative, the Taillow took off from her trainer's shoulder with two flaps, sailing on a heady gust up and over the edge of the cliff, out of sight. Mack watched her go before turning his gaze back to the business at hand.

Chuckie was sniffing around the edge of the water. The beach didn't go much farther down - the end, where it was blocked off by a mass of jagged, slippery rocks, was visible from where Mack was standing near the mouth of the cave. The Mankey looked up after a few seconds and gave a short, sharp, shake of his head. Nothing. He moved further down the water away from the cave, repeating the ritual. Mack could do nothing but follow somewhat half-heartedly, kicking his sneaker prints into the wet-packed sand.

***

Above was above, where Queenie was, and where she loved to be. The winged creature pinwheeled on a shifting swirl of air currents, transferring her featherweight onto a higher thermal and riding that up over the trees and clustered buildings of Daigake. She circled down, lowering herself before she could overshoot the area she had been asked to examine.

She came low enough to see people's features, barely - the color of their clothing, at least, was clear. She winged low, cruising at a comfortable but brisk velocity. Here there was a woman outside at her mailbox, two children running down the lane, the swinging of a storefront window, and there the distinctly patterned roof of a Pokémon Center -

Queenie squawked in fright as the familiar crackling of electricity approached, tingling the roots of her feathers. She veered sharply, and a yellow blast of concentrated charge disappeared into the blue void above her. A close call with that most dangerous of substances for birds such as herself - it frightened her so much, that artificial lightning, grounder of the airborne, that it almost made her angry.

Ruffled in annoyance, she looked down to find the source of the electric attack - and was shocked to see a creature she recognized. Two creatures, in fact: a Shinx and its bespectacled trainer. Queenie wheeled down swiftly, chirping, hoping that Eric would recognize her as she came to a bumpy landing in the grass beside him. He looked to be engaged in something having to do with a strange, slimy creature that she did not recognize, but she hoped he would take notice of her anyway. Mack would want to know that his friend was alive and well.

This post has been edited by Spearow: Oct 27 2009, 09:54 PM

[Nogster]

As the Charge beam passed over the rooftops and went out of sight, something familiar caught Eric's eye, almost making him forget about the battle. A Taillow fluttered down and landed in the grass beside him. She was chirping at him for a few seconds before he understood.

"Queenie? Is that you?" he kept his voice down, but made sure the pokémon could hear him.
"Make sure Mack and Frank know where I am." he added, not waiting for a response. His mind had turned back to the battle.

Just as Eric looked back, Shellos shot another wave of mud at Shinx, making her flinch and fall to the side. This time she seemed to have lost sight of the battle completely. Her eyes were completely covered with mud and she was facing the wrong direction.

"Shiiinx!" she cried.

"Shinx, return!" Eric yelled, as he threw her pokéball again, this time watching her dissolve and disappear into the pokéball.
He caught the pokéball in his left hand as it flew back, throwing his other pokéball into battle with the right hand.

"Starly, GO! you can do this!" he yelled.
Starly's ball hit the ground and the little bird appeared in a flash, lifting off from the ground in a second.

As Starly was called in, Shellos once again used his Mud-slap attack, it totally missed Starly and even if it had hit, a ground move wouldn't have done a thing to him.
Starly ad stopped in mid-air, waiting for instructions.

"Starly, use growl!" Eric yelled.
"Show him you mean business!"

Starly made a shrill cry and dove down over the Shellos, making it a little frightened.
Starly turned and flew a lap around Eric before coming back for a second round.
This time, the Shellos was ready for him. A pulse of water barely missed Starly as he did a barrel roll to avoid it.

"Starly, Peck!" Eric said, as Starly came closer to his target.
Starly flew down on the Shellos, pecking it on the head, before flying off again.

The Shellos looked pretty worn out. The electric shock had done a lot but this looked quite a bit worse. One more attack, and maybe he could catch it.

"Starly, have another go!" Eric yelled, as the Starly circled around him again.

Eric rummaged through his trench coat pocket and pulled out five pokéballs and an old eraser.
He threw away the eraser and examined the pokéballs. There was one premier ball and the rest were regular pokéballs.

As Starly locked his aim on the Shellos again, Shellos looked him straight in his eyes and as he came closer, Shellos yawned widely, causing a chain reaction on Starly.

Starly managed to peck his opponent again but as he turned to do another sweep, Starly suddenly lost all balance and fell like a rock to the ground, sleeping.

At first, this caught Eric by surprise, but then he remembered the pokémon attack "yawn".
He had seen it on TV during a pokémon battle once.

This is my chance! Eric thought, I think I can catch it.
"Here goes!" he said, throwing one of the regular pokéballs at the shellos.


...the ball wobbled once...


...the ball wobbled twice...


A "poof" was heard as the pokémon broke free from the ball.

"Just my luck!" Eric said, as Shellos shot more mud at the sleeping Starly, not producing any direct effect.
Shellos was just about to send another Water Pulse flying towards Starly when Eric managed to throw his only Premier ball.

...the ball wobbled once...

And that was it. The Shellos was caught.
Eric could hardly believe it. He had won his first real pokémon battle, without having to use traps on low-level pokémon.
He recalled Starly and went over to pick up the premier ball with Shellos in it.

"Welcome to the team, Shellos." he whispered to the little white ball with red lining, before putting it into the trench coat slot next to Starly.

As the battle was over, he remembered why it began in the first place.
The disinfectant he thought, hurrying over to his backpack to look for it.

(Eric Dean Nogarius) caught a level 6 East sea Shellos.

This post has been edited by Nogster: Oct 27 2009, 11:32 PM

[Captain Combuske...]

"Stryk, quick, use Peck!" shouted Alex. Obeidiently, the Starly rushed towards the Pikachu, and started pecking at it like mad. Piko the Pikachu, frustrated, started to build up sparks around his cheeks.
"Piko, let loose a thundershock!" commanded Carlos. The little electric mouse zapped Stryk, who winced a couple of times, clearly hurt by the attack. But Stryk was a fighter, so she rapidly recovered.
"Wing attack, Stryk!" but as soon as he had said the order, Alex realized that it was a mistake. Stryk hurt Piko a little bit more, but as he had feared, Piko had static, and Stryk was paralyzed.
"Shock wave!" said Carlos, and Piko fired an electric wave. Stryk fainted. Alex returned her, and Carlos returned his Pikachu

"What's next then, Carlos?" asked Alex.
"One last Pokemon then... Go, Chop!" exclaimed the boy.
Out came a Machop.
"Well, I guess Blaze can have a go... go, Blaze!"
Out came Alex' Torchic, his most faithful companion, a gleam of happiness in his eyes. he was battling with his trainer again. Alex winked at his little friend, then said a single word.
"Ember." and on that order, Blaze breathed a tiny, little, hot flame onto Chop, who lifted his hands in front of his face to sheiled the flames, and staggered back, before blinking and jumping back to his spot.
"Chop, use Low Kick!" cried Carlos. Chop nodded, and kicked Blaze at the legs, making him fall. Blaze stood back, up shaking the dirt off himself.
"Blaze, use Peck." said Alex. Blaze rushed towards the Machop, and pecked at it. The Machop was visibly injured by the hit, fell over. Alex was watching him intently, wondering was he K.O.d? But then, Chop got up, altough he was very weak, and Karate Chopped Blaze, who got hurt more as it was sudden and unnexpected. But Blaze was alos starting to flag, and Alex remembered Blaze's ability: blaze, which meant that like Torrent, fire moves were better when you had bad HP. Blaze knew this, so used ember without needing to be told. Chop looked dizzy, and suddenly flopped, fainted.
"YES!" shouted Alex, very happy.
"Well done..." said Carlos, returtning his Machop. Alex returned Blaze, and the two bous shook hands. Alex felt very proud at his first well erned victory. the others, he figured, had been luck really, and just mad fighting with impossible odds. He was happy to have finally won a well earned battle, using good tactics and the right Pokemon.

After Blaze had settled down on a bench, Drew Nelson, his companion, came up to him.
"Blaze, I have to go. I... I have decided that I want to go to Fidona, and seeing as you are headed towards Gigarte, I cannot fufil that. I'm sorry, but I must leave."
Alex contemplated this next loss of a freind in his head. Then, with a sigh, he answered his friend.
"Good luck, wherever you are going, Drew." And with that, Alex left Lenolia through the North gate, and Drew through the west one. It would be a long journey from now.

A few days after walking along the route to Gigarte, Alexsaw a building. It was a very large, but very rustic building. Immediately, he was determined to see what it was. He rushed towards it, excited. He ran up to a man, who was satnding outside the gates of what looked like a farm for Pokemon. Alex frowned. What was this? He reapeated what was on his mind to the elderly man.
"This," said the old guy "is one of the three daycare centres in the region of Furoh. Daycare centres, take at least two of your Pokemon and raise them, in our case we take a maximum of five Pokemon, then come back quite a while later, and your Pokemon will have grown quite substantially in level. Occasionally, we sometimes find eggs, a sign that two of your Pokemon have bred. These we give to you for no charge. If you want to take back any Pokemon that you have deposited, then you pay us 100 Pokedollars plus 100 times the amount of levels your Pokemon has grown by."
"That's so cool!" exclaimed Alex. "Can I drop off one of my Pokemon, please?"
"Feel free to, Son. Just go in the building and talk to my wife, Sally. I'm Mark, by the way."
"Thanks!" said Alex, before going into the building. Once inside, he saw a house basically, and guessed that this was where the couple lived. Then he saw the smiling face of an old woman at a desk.
"Let me guess, you've talked to mu Husband. Well, do you want to deposit a Pokemon in the Lenogarte daycare?"
"Yes please, can you take care of Cross, my Heracross?"
"Certainly." the old woman replied. Alex gave her Cross' pokeball, and she smiled, before inviting Alex to come into the daycare garden. Alex followed her, and he saw a lushious green garden. There were lots of Pokemon there. Alex felt joyful. Then Sally opened Cross' pokeball. Out came the beetle Pokemon.
"Cross, I want you to stay here for a while and train, OK? I'll come back soon, but for now, stay here and listen to Saly and Mark. Got that?" asked Alex
Cross nodded a "Yes".

And then, Alex left the building.

[Ariadan]

Halfway up the walkway, Frank was starting to feel exhausted.
Trying to get to the pokécenter as fast as he could while his back was hurting so bad that he could only walk. The battle with the Bronzor and not having slept well the night before, was also starting to take their toll on him.
From his arms he could hear a worried "Baltoy".

"Don't worry about me, Sophie. I'm just a little tired." He looked down at his Baltoy and gave it a smile. From up at the town he could hear the sound of people talking and walking around, but he could also hear the sounds of what seemed to be a battle.

He caught himself thinking, I wonder what pokémon they're using and who's winning. He shook the thought out of his head and concentrated on getting up as fast as he could.

It took him a couple of minutes but he finally made it up to the top of the walkway, breathing heavily. He wanted to stop to catch his breath, but instead he continued walking. No time to stop, Sophie could be hurt worse than it looks. And Scorch and Bronzor also need to get to the center.

It seemed that the battle had ended but he didn't look around to see if he could see who had been battling. He saw the large P on the pokécenter and made his way straight for it. He bumped into two people on the way and apologized without turning around.

Well inside the center he placed Sophie and Scorch's and Bronzor's pokéballs on the counter. "Please, my Baltoy needs healing right away and these two are in need of some rest."

Nurse Joy looked at him and smiled. "Don't worry. I'll take care of them for you." She blinked and looked a little concerned now that she saw that Frank was in pain. "Say, you look like you could use some rest and healing as well."

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I just need to sit down for a while." He turned around to walk towards a couch and sit down when he lost his balance for a second. He didn't regain his balance in time and hit the counter, his shield clanged against it and pushed the sword against his vertebrae again. This time Frank didn't utter a single word, his face simply got twisted in pain, his eyes were spread wide open and his mouth open as if he wanted to scream. It took no longer than a second before he was on the floor, his knees took the entire impact, that was too much for Frank and he fell to the side, the last thing he saw was two pairs of legs hurrying over to him, then everything went black.

The two men who had seen Frank fall and pass out from the pain carefully lifted him up, after removing his shield and sword, and carefully carried him to a stretcher and then carried him into a room, following what nurse Joy said. A younger man had picked up Frank's sword and shield and carried them into the room where Frank was lying down on a hospital bed, Joy had just placed a oxygen mask over his mouth.

[Spearow]

Queenie chirped once and bobbed her head sharply, a very human gesture she had adopted from Mack. She hopped and flapped vigorously away from the Pokémon center, taking off somewhat awkwardly in her hurry to be clear of the battle and haphazard bolts of electricity being thrown about. Soon she was a small dark shape in the sky above the town, moving down toward the edge of the cliffs and then shooting sharply down towards her target at the foot of them.

***

Even Chuckie’s adept senses couldn’t detect much of anything on the weatherworn shore. Any scent must surely be muddled by the constant ebb and flow of the saltwater tide, and perhaps the traffic of seabirds as well, Mack reasoned as Chuckie lifted his snuffling pink nose and sighed in defeat. He turned red eyes to Mack, mournful and somber, a rare expression for him. Mack shrugged somewhat half-heartedly. The enterprise was drained out of him once more. He had no idea what to do.

A high whistle from behind him caught his attention, and he turned to be reminded once more of the Gastly’s presence. It seemed barely there – only its eyes were very clear, hovering patiently near the cave entrance. Mack remembered how it had helped them, despite no obvious promise of gain on its part. “Thanks,” he told it, though he wasn’t sure if it could understand.

He might have said more, or fiddled around in the outer pockets of his pack to see if he had a suitable trinket or treat to give the creature for its trouble (what sorts of material things did ghosts value anyway?), had not he been interrupted by a cry from above, and then a whirl of blue and white and red as Queenie alighted nearby.

She chirped excitedly, hopping in place, almost seeming to forget he didn’t speak her language. The news she had, he gleaned from her demeanor, was obviously good. So Eric had to be alive. Mack approached her, accompanied by an equally curious Chuckie. Hardly waiting for them, she flapped twice and took off, floating some ways up the path to alight about midway up on the hand rail. Chuckie and Mack jogged to keep up. They followed her hop-soaring guidance up the cliffs, back into the village.

In this flurry of excitement, Mack forgot about the small, quiet being, who was left floating by himself down on the beach, watching the departing group with that same vague expression.

The three arrived at their destination – the Pokecenter, which seemed just as Mack had left it a couple hours before, until Queenie led him eagerly round to the side, where he saw the object of his search, looking a little worse for the wear but in generally good spirits.

“Eric!” he called, trotting over to the older boy. “Jeez, I was looking all over for you. Glad you’re okay.” He tried not to sound too relieved – he feared he had been making himself look like a right old lady with all that worrying.

[Nogster]

Eric had just found the disinfectant in one of the side-pockets in his backpack as Mack came around the corner and he was applying it to his elbows.
He had spread out most of the other things he had in the backpack on the ground to dry. The bag was water resistant, but that didn't help if the bag was lowered in water, it was more of a disadvantage as the water got trapped inside.
Some of the things on the ground included the rest of his pokéballs, some canned food, an umbrella, a lighter and a jar of tinder blocks.
A lamellated map of Furoh, three pairs of pants, a second trench coat, seven pairs of socks and six of underwear hung on a clothesline which he had pulled between a nail in the wall of the pokécenter and a tent pin on the ground. The place looked like someone's back yard. Eric's flashlight lay next to him, for some reason it had started working after the accident, Eric had no clue why. He had hung his regular trench coat over his now emptied backpack. The old and bloodstained shirt was lying in a bundle on the ground and in Eric's lap lay a new one. It was wet, but Eric would rather be wet than semi nude.
Next to Eric's flashlight lay an open med-kit, in which he had put the bottle of disinfectant.

He looked at Mack as he came closer.
"About time one of ya showed up." he said, jokingly.

"From your dry clothing I assume you didn't jump in after me?"
Eric smiled as he said it and was just about to laugh as a sudden sting came from his left elbow when he disinfected it, making his face look like if he'd just eaten a lemon.

"Goodness! I hope you'll never get to experience that water slide I went through." he said, with a nudge of his head towards the cliff.

Eric's expression changed as he realized that Mack and his pokémon came alone.
"Where's Frank?" he asked, putting some bandaids on his elbows before standing to his feet to put the shirt on.

This post has been edited by Nogster: Oct 29 2009, 03:39 AM

[Captain Combuske...]

As soon as Alex left the Daycare, he headed north, towards Gigarte, seeing as that was his next destination. He reluncatnly stopped at midday, especially seeing as he was starting to feel hungry. He took out a cheese sandwich from his bag and starting eating. Once he'd finished that, he took out and apple, and after that, a packet of crisps. Finally, he got a Yorkie out, and stood up, wating that as well. Then he put his bag back on his back, and started walking again.

It was nearly evening by the time Alex stopped once more. He only rested for a couple of minutes, when a boy approcahed him.
"Hi." said the boy.
"Erm.... Hi." said Alex. This boy seemed very kind and talkative, and Alex liked him quite quickly.
"I'm Tom. Tom Hawk. Who are you?" asked the boy
"I'm Alex... Alex Slasher. I'm on a Pokemon journey." replied Alex.
"Same! Hmmm... can I come with you?" asked Tom.
"I suppose... OK."
"Thanks. Where do you want to go?" asked Tom.
"I WAS heading for Gigarte... but it looks like you came from there. Do you have an updated map?"
"Yep." Tom showed him the meachanical map on his Poketch. Alex immediately saw three various new small towns.
"How about the one closest to here, that "Daigake"?" asked Alex.
"Yeah, that's good."
"Let's get there quicker. Do you have a flying Pokemon?"
"Yes. Stryk, my Starly."
"I'll teach her fly."
And with that, Alex and Tom Hawk forged a friendship that would last for a long time.

They weren't flying for long. Soon they arrived in Daigake, and were looking around, when Tom suddenly exclaimed.
"Look, the name rater's house! Let's go there!"

[Spearow]

Mack glanced over Eric's makeshift camp somewhat bemusedly. Chuckie leaped up onto his shoulder, not seeming particularly interested in or excited about the denouement of their little adventure, but seeming mildly pleased that his quarry had been found, if not by him. Queenie, meanwhile, was hopping up and down by Mack's feet, quite pleased with her performance during the whole ordeal and how directly she'd led Mack to Eric.

He grinned somewhat as Eric spoke, watching him tend to his wounds with measured interest. "Well, yeah, I was about to dive in, but that Gastly - the one you saw earlier - led us out the entrance instead. I guess he must have known about the underwater tunnel." As he spoke of the ghost Pokémon, Mack remembered he'd left it on the beach. Too bad, he wouldn't have minded it sticking around; it had been a friendly enough creature, anyway. But he could only assume it was more than capable of taking care of itself, it having lived in the cave for all that time on its own. He decided it was best to put the ghost out of his mind. What were the chances of him seeing it again, after all?

Snapping himself out of his own thoughts to answer Eric's question, he found that the answer was not readily available, nor very satisfying. "Ummm... he said he was going up here. To the Pokémon Center, that is." Mack felt his brow crinkling despite himself. "You mean you haven't seen him? Huh... maybe he went inside and missed you."

Not this whole separation business again, he hoped. He didn't know what he would do if Frank went missing as well in so short a time.

[Nogster]

Eric was concentrated on buttoning his shirt and simply nodded when Mack explained the situation. He was happy that Frank hadn't jumped in after him as his shield would've probably gotten stuck in the tunnel and caused him to drown. As Mack answered his question about Frank, Eric had just gotten done with the last button and looked up at him and his two pokémon.

"Well, since he was going to the pokécenter, I'd suggest we go look there first. There's probably not any trouble, though. Frank is old enough to be able to take care of himself." Eric smiled, unaware of how wrong he was.

"Well, I've had more adventures..." He added. Picking up Starly's pokéball from where the three of them lay behind his still soaked backpack and trench coat.
"...But I won't say a word about it until you're both present." He pushed the button on Starly's pokéball and let it drop to the ground in a very undramatic way. As it hit the ground and Starly was released in a small flash, Eric looked at the clothes on the line, nudging his head in it's direction.

"Starly. Could you flap your wings at the clothes to make them dry faster? I'd prefer if-" Eric stopped mid sentence, smacking his head with the palm of his hand as he looked back down at Starly whose tail feathers were pointing to the sky. Starly lay stretched out on his belly, making nasal tweets as he slept.

"Oh right." Eric said.
"I need to get back in there and heal my pokémon."
He pointed towards the wall next to him with the hand which wasn't currently sliding down his face.

"Could you keep an eye on my things as I go fix them up?" Eric asked Mack, as he pinched his nasal bridge in an attempt to think clearly.

"Starly, return." he said as he activated the pokéball with his foot, making the sleeping Starly dissolve to a red silhouette and beam back inside. He picked up the ball, the pain causing him to display a strained face as he bent over. He gathered the other two balls from behind the backpack, making sure to hide Shellos' ball from Mack's view. He looked at Mack, awaiting a reply.

This post has been edited by Nogster: Oct 31 2009, 02:30 AM

[Spearow]

Mack smiled slightly as Eric announced (but refused, at this moment, to reveal) the mysterious happenings that had taken place between the time they had been separated and their reunion. Oh, well. Mack knew he could wait. Stories and explanations would come in due time.

His grin spread wider as Starly proved to be out of commission for the time being. The poor bird was exhausted enough to sleep through being summoned by his trainer. Even Queenie gave a cheep of mirth as the sleeping Pokémon "snored" actively from his position on the ground.

"Sure, no problem," he replied as Eric asked him to watch his stuff. He moved over to the Pokémon center's stucco wall and leaned against it, followed by a cheerfully hopping Queenie. Chuckie, meanwhile, went over to sniff curiously at Eric's drying clothes. Mack kept a careful eye on the Mankey, lest there be mischievous thoughts brewing in the Pokémon's mind.

[Nogster]

Eric looked at the Mankey, as he started sniffing Eric's drying garments.
"Yes Chuckie." He said, pointing fleetingly at the clothes.
"They do smell like rotten seaweed."
He laughed as he turned around, raising his left hand.
"I'll be back soon then. Talk to ya in a bit."
He went around the building and walked inside, trying to look respectable this time. Nurse Joy hadn't seemed too satisfied with his behavior last time. Once Eric got to the front desk, however, she wasn't there. Standing in front of him was in her stead a pokémon which he identified as Chansey.

"Chansey, chansey!" she said, hopping happily as she spoke.

"Um, hi..." Eric started, being unsure of how to handle the situation.

"Uh.. Is nurse Joy about or should I just wait?" Eric looked around, searching for but not finding Frank.
Something he did manage spot was the seat on which he had sat earlier.
It still looked very soggy and dark, standing out quite prominently compared to the seats next to it.

"Chansey! Chansey-chansey!" Chansey replied, causing Eric to look back at her. She was waving her little paws, holding a tray.

"I should leave my Pokémon with you?" Eric asked, getting some hopping and a pitched "Chansey!" as a reply.
Eric nodded, leaving his pokéballs on the tray.

"By the way, You don't happen to have seen a guy pass through here? Pretty tall, wearing a ninja mask-thing, looking sorta childish with a sword and shield. Usually has a Baltoy on his shoulder too." Eric said. He seldom spoke fondly of people he didn't know well, and he always spoke his mind especially if the person he said it to couldn't tell anyone what he had said.

"You see, he's a friend of mine." he added.
The Chansey lit up as if she recognized the description.
"Chansey!" she said, putting the tray down and walking over to a door leading into a back room.
She opened it a little as to tell Eric that he was allowed to go inside before returning to the front desk to take care of Eric's pokémon.

Eric walked into the back room. It was filled with beds and hospital equioment.
There were a few pokëmon laying on some of the beds, Eric recognized a Golduck and a Pachirisu.
Something he found even more familiar was a sword and a shield, laying on top of a table in the back of the room. As he walked closer, he could see into a second room on his right. Inside of it he saw the familiar features of nurse Joy, and on the bed next to her was...

Eric couldn't believe his eyes.

It was Frank!
Eric ran into the room, almost stumbling over a bucket on the way.

"Frank! Are you OK?" he yelled, looking at his friend, Sophie the Baltoy spinning around to look at him from where she sat on the bedside.

"He's out cold sir." nurse Joy explained from right next to him.
Eric calmed down, seeing as she seemed rather annoyed at him for yelling.

"I'm sorry, it's just that Frank's a friend of mine." he said, looking at Frank.
"What happened?" he turned back to look at nurse Joy.

"He seems to have had hit his vertebrae on several occasions. Would you happen to know anything about that?" she asked.
Eric hadn't been present at any of the occasions that Frank hit his vertebrae so he just shook his head with a baffled expression.
"Nope. He seemed fine the last time I saw him." He assured her.

"Will he be alright?" Eric asked, looking a little concerned.

"Yes." she replied. "He just needs some rest."

Eric nodded.
"Alright. Well if he comes around, could you tell him that Eric and Mack have set up camp behind the pokécenter." he said with a smile. " It is alright that we stay back there, right?" he asked Joy.

"Yes, of course." she replied. "It's public property. You just go ahead."

Eric pulled a hand through his hair and smiled.
"Alright. I'll just go back out there and get my pokémon." he said.
Looking back down at Sophie, he nodded. "Take care of Frank now, y'hear." he said to the little pokémon, turning around and walking back out to Chansey.

His pokéballs lay on the counter and Chansey smiled towards him as he picked them up, nodded and walked back towards Mack and the camp.

If any of this would be considered bunnying it's allowed by Ariadan. He's been having computer issues, which is the reason why Frank is unconscious.

This post has been edited by Nogster: Nov 1 2009, 12:22 PM

[Spearow]

Mack slid down into a sitting position with his back against the prickly stucco, thin knees poking up to the sky. Queenie hopped about nearby, poking in the grass and dirt for unidentifiable things - worms, perhaps, or discarded shiny objects. Mack left her to her own devices and twiddled his thumbs as he waited for Eric to come back. The thought occurred to him, brief but significant - where would he be going after this? Presumably somewhere with Eric and Frank, barring something that would cause them to part ways.

He leaned his head back into the wall, suddenly feeling the weight of the busy day pressing down on his body and his eyelids. He watched Eric's belongings, his clothes fluttering in the wind through half-opened eyes. Presently he felt the warm weight of a furry body against his arm as Mankey hunkered down next to him, having tired of inspecting Eric's sea-smelling attire.

His catnap hadn't progressed long before Eric returned. Mack saw him approaching as he turned the corner of the building. Pushing himself off from the wall with some effort, he looked up at the other boy. "How'd it go? Find Frank anywhere?"