[X] My Assistant

[Douken Sota]

"Tinka?" he questioned, looking at the gears crushing his fingers. "I am guessing you are Tinka then? Seems like that dude could use you more than me." Prying the gears off of his fingers, he let her float off back to the male trainer. "Alright! To Speaker!" And in a dash, he ran back into the direction of the screaming, the spider hanging off of his back.

Still, he was now a witness, and a Venomoth was planning on getting in the way.

"Alright, ya bug brain! Let me show you the awesome power of Record!" Holding his finger out, he was expecting the spider to hop on out, ready to fight. Instead, nothing. The Spinarak chose to be a dick and stayed on his back as the rock star looked around. However, when he turned around, the spider saw the moth and a grin appeared on his back before he let out a large Electro Web.

The noise was gone. The irritating noise was gone, but Speaker was stuck screaming. That was a problem with Uproar: being able to stop. However, being able to change was a different solution, so instead of the funky wave she was producing, she altered it into a basic E major string from Seican's guitar. it was a lot deeper and less bothersome for the bugs. However, the little girl was gone, and she was stuck, screaming in the middle of no where. Now what?

[Master Houndoom]

Tinka looked at the venomoth, then at Cesc. Branwys was still her priority. Branwys would be upset if anything happened to the human. Branwys was still lost. Branwys was a good human and could take care of herself, despite the fact that she hadn't evolved yet.

The sooner she finished helping Cesc, the sooner she could go find Branwys. That was the argument that did it.

She floated toward the large colored moth as the Loud One introduced his recently caught Record, and, klinking for the spider to stay out of the way briefly, began spinning her gears rapidly. Soon, the teeth of the gears became a blur, and arcs of electricity began to spark between the gears, then all around Tinka.

"Nice show," sneered the man, pointing to Tinka. "Venomoth, use Supersonic on this scrap!"

Tinka was not one to worry so much about insults. Like most things, they bounced off of her, doing very little damage.

But scrap? That was just insulting. Without waiting for a command, she allowed a bolt of electricity to fire forth, striking the venomoth at the same time she was hit with the screeching, supersonic wail.

Everything went shaky. She couldn't hear, for some reason, and everything wasn't where it should have been, and up was down and down was off to the left somehow...

and that spinarak was looking awfully threatening

~*~*~*~*~*~

Branwys wasted no time hugging Dimo, who happily returned the hug. For about a second.

[Hokay, hokay, geddoff!] He pushed her away at the chest, causing the girl to giggle. [Come on, we gots to go find de Tinka. Unt de fanshypantshy boy hyu came to find, ja?]

He had just turned, when, from over Branwys' shoulder, a green and yellow blur struck him in the back. Dimo toppled over with a yelp, both from himself and Branwys, who had been taken by surprise.

He stood up, brushing off his chest and stomach. [Ho ho! I see hyu stronger den hyu look!] He leaned over and picked up the bone, flipping it in his hand once, then twice, seemingly ignoring the electrike. Finally, he gave the electric pup a sideways leering gaze, his eyes narrowing. [Dot's goot... dot's fery, fery goot...]

The pup merely crouched down, growling low. With a spin, Dimo charged him again, but this time the electrike held his ground, Quick Attacking away at the last second. With a yip, the green animal sent a bolt of electricity arcing toward the cubone. It struck dead on, and the electrike howled in triumph. Dimo's eyes were half-lidded behind the skull mask.

[Din't hort.] The pup charged, lightning sparking all around him, and Dimo stood his ground. [Hyu izn't dot schmott, iz hyu?]

As the electrike collided with Spark, Dimo brought his Bone Club down, striking him in the head. That proved to be enough to take the electrike down, and it slumped, dizzily, to the ground.

Branwys had been silent the whole time, seemingly taking in the fight with clinical reserve. However, Dimo soon learned the truth of it: She had found the bag he had been carrying, and had grabbed her tool pouch, working to open the box. Dimo rolled his eyes. He knew it was a sign of trust, for her to ignore a battle to work on something, but SOME praise would be nice.

A piece of jerky flew over Branwys' head, tossed by her left hand, and Dimo caught it happily.

[Kamaitachi]

Things were not looking great for the sudden partnership of Seiccan and Cesc.

Several attacks burst out all over the scene, rendering what should've been a rather orderly 3 vs 2 into something utterly chaotic. Tinka set out a brilliant display of lightning, using her own body to rapidly generate the electricity. Likewise, Record shot out an electric web, which seemed odd for a perfectly innocent, albeit dickish, bug pokemon. At the same time, the Venomoth let out a wailing shriek that had clearly taken some effect on Tinka. Cesc could've sworn that despite her impassive face, she was giving the Spider the eye. Not the good, flirtatious eye, but rather the death glare that usually preceded aforementioned death.

Meanwhile, on Cesc's side of the battle, the Arbok and Scyther continued to clash violently, with both pokemon ardently ignoring their trainers' cries in favour of defeating their opponents in their own way. Bardolph seemed overwhelmed, simply due to his constant stream of battles, and a well placed poison tail sent the praying mantis toppling to the ground, panting heavily at Cesc's feet.

"Oh man, looks like the knight needs rescuing!" The opponents let out something that vaguely resembled a laugh, but really sounded more like a "hurr hurr". The two men, while oafish, had some powerful pokemon behind them, and Cesc wasn't about to get some super power up anytime soon. He was pretty sure that Tybalt couldn't evolve, and Bardolph couldn't without the help of something called a Metal Coat. Finding the latter seemed fairly implausible, given that they were in Bug Country and not The-Land-Where-Metal-Coats-Are-Everywhere.

"Hey Longhair" Cesc beckoned to the kid commanding the Spinarak. "Can we switch partners?"

He wasn't sure how the request would be taken, but nevertheless, he felt that Bardolph had a better chance fighting the Venomoth. Bardolph heavily favoured the move "Wing Attack", which would probably be more instrumental in bringing down the poison moth. The already somewhat weakened Arbok would hopefully NOT eat the man's spider pokemon.

Throughout the veritable bedlam they'd created in the little clearing, Cesc found himself staring in the direction that Speaker had run off in, which was potentially the direction that Branwys was in. Had she and the little puffball beaten the electric puppy, or were they in deep trouble now?

[Douken Sota]

"Yeah, sure. Not a problem!" he called out, looking around frantically. "Just let me find Record so he can rock this stage!" Clearly, he was not the fastest trainer to know the spider was still on his back, attacking from the "safety" of the human's flesh. "If you can hear me Record, why not slow them down with some String Shot?!" However, unlike the spider, the cobra could easily see the spider and looked like a nice little morsel. So, with an empty belly, went down to bite the spider.

Speaker had other plans as he fired off a wave of Poison sting into the back of Arbok's throat. A good tactic, it seemed, as it made the cobra cough and choke before the commanded String Shot to wrap around the snake's head. FInally hopping off the rock star's back, an evil grin in the form of two dots and a line formed on the spider's back, and Seican finally found him. "There you are! Alright. Now let's kick ass!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The screaming finally settled. Oh, was she tired from having to yell her head off twice. Luckily, this time was not out of sure panic, so she wasn't out on the grass. Still, all that screaming made her thirsty. Maybe there was some water nearby? Sure, there was battles going on she can hear, as well as her loud mouth trainer, but there was someone else closer shuffling through a bag. Maybe if she was kind and lucky, the other human could offer her some water before finding out why she had to scream in the first place. So, at a run with tiny legs, she headed in the direction of the girl and cubone.

[Master Houndoom]

Branwys was lost, and in more heaven than she'd ever been since she landed on Furoh.

Though, heaven, it seemed was relative. There was, indeed, a machine in front of her, its secrets opening to her. Those secrets, however, were not pleasant.

"Really? A resonance chamber? No wonder the sound was bleeding into other frequencies!" She yanked the metal, cylindrical object out, carefully pulling the rubber bands away one by one. "These should be nylon, or catgut, or something. Much more consistent sound..."

Dimo watched, amused, as Branwys pulled the machine apart. The idea of using the intestines of a creature didn't sit well with Dimo, but he knew, too, that her judgement was probably right. It didn't really matter to Dimo. Aside from the parts he usually ran to get for her, he had no idea what made her contraptions work. He thought, sometimes, she could just throw random pieces together and make something out of it.

He'd yet to see her doing that, but he figured for all the effort she put into making things, which wasn't a lot, she could do anything at all.

However, Dimo could hear two things: One was, now that a pokemon in the distance had stopped its caterwauling, there were sounds of a battle nearby. The second was that there was another pokemon coming, and Dimo felt he should be ready for it.

He reached over with his bone and tapped Branwys on the shoulder. She didn't budge. He tapped her again, and she brushed the spot.

He really should have known better.

Reaching out, he rapped her smartly on the head.

"OW! Dimo, what in the--" Luckily for Dimo, who had prepared for an earful, the nearby grass rustled, and Branwys was fully aware of what that meant.

"Scheiße..." She stood up, grabbing her bag and holding it in front of her.

A little pink, round rabbit appeared from the grass, eliciting an "awwww!" from the young girl.

"Well, hello, little one! How are you? Are you lost? Do you need help finding your trainer?" Dimo gaped at Branwys. She wasn't usually so dense as to assume a cute pokemon was friendly... he'd have to keep an eye out.

[Kamaitachi]

Record finally made an appearance on the field, rather than hanging on to his trainer's back like the terrifying camel spiders of the mythical "middle east". Once he literally tangled up the Arbok as Cesc had requested, the other long-haired co-ordinator yelled out his command:

"Bardolph, Wing Attack on that big bug!"

The Scyther in question, unfortunately, opted to completely ignore his trainer, continuing to focus on the Arbok with an unleashed pursuit attack. The large, scary cobra pokemon flew through the air towards Record. A bit irked that his pokemon had blatantly disregarded his orders, while trying to reconcile the fact that he was a brand-spanking new addition to his team, Cesc turned to Tinka.

"Hey Tinka-tinks, will you use like...Thunder Wave? Or that thing where you grind your gears?" Cesc found himself at a loss commanding the two pokemon. He knew nothing of their abilities except for what he witnessed first-hand, and he felt that to be putting him at a severe disadvantage. As of yet, he hadn't realized that confusion had sunk into the gear's 'brain', but still valiantly tried to turn the tables in their favour. The two buffoons laughed at his efforts. Even if the battle, in actuality, seemed fairly even, the two seemed in high confidence that the victory was indeed theirs.

Bardolph, meanwhile, focused his attacks on the Arbok, summoning up the remainder of his strength and stamina to avoid the various poisonous attacks from the large snake. His blades seemed to be working wonders on the Arbok, which was a boon in their favour, but Cesc needed the thing taken out and fast.

Meanwhile, the Venomoth, left unchecked, moved about the field freely. Upon hearing a command for "Stun Spore" it immediately began flapping its wings rapidly, sending a green cloud of paralyzing mist towards the trio of Klink, Spinarak and Scyther.

[Douken Sota]

At the act of the flying snake, the Spinarak jumped on the cobra's head and gave it a tight squeeze using a Constrict. Of coufrse, this was not Seican's call: He had no idea what the spider could do anyways besides what he had seen. So, to be on the safe (and dickish at the same time), starting using Leech Life on the Arbok. Sure, weak and ineffective move, but the snake's blood seemed tasty. Also, with him on the snake, the oncoming Stun Sproe had to hit an ally as well.

Now, Seican had no idea what he should be doing. Speaker was off somewhere, no idea what the spider could do, and was randomly fighting some poachers out of the blue. True, this was an off day.

Well, either this girl remembered Speaker, or she thought she was so adorable that she should jsut be hugged. So, hopefully, she could understand what she says as she tries to tell her story about screaming her head off twice and trying to find Seican and being thirsty as hell. A fellow Pokemon may be able to understand, but humans can only seem to hear "whis"es and "mur"s. Humans are such strange beings.

[Master Houndoom]

Tinka heard the command as if from a long distance, down an echo chamber. Thunder Wave? That didn't make any sense. She didn't know Thunder Wave. And Branwys sounded oddly deep and manly. Still, a command was a command. She couldn't give Branwys a Thunder Wave, but she had something BETTER! Something MORE... BETTER.

She shifted her two body parts and started whirring. Unfortunately, she also started dropping. She hit the ground at full spin, kicking up dirt and starting, of all things in a garden, a localized sandstorm.

...

That wasn't right? Hadn't Branwys ordered Gear Grind in her manly, manly voice?

No matter! She was going to get that... um... winged... green... thing... and tear it apart in the name of Manly Branwys!

She began to spin again, lifting up too quickly and spinning toward Bardolph. Unfortunately, in her confusion, she had misjudged by a severe angle and struck a stone near a tree, spinning off to the side, hurting herself.

Something wasn't right here...

Those piplup weren't there before, and they *certainly* weren't dancing in unison like that....

[Kamaitachi]

Manly Branwys (aka Cesc Rojas) couldn't help but shake his head at all the chaos blossoming up around him. Both Bardolph and Record had opted to ignore their trainers, though honestly, Cesc could see why the latter ignored Seiccan.

Then it struck him: If his pokemon wasn't listening to him either, that meant he was on the same level as the loudmouthed punk. Something had to be done about that.

Tinka, likewise, had selected Sandstorm, which turned out to be a far cry from Thunder Wave. Now vicious streams of sand kicked up everywhere, lacerating all the pokemon on the field, save Tinka, and threatened to engulf the trainers as well. While somewhere, far away in Gigarte, Taggarty Lee had a pair of Go-Goggles, Francesco Rojas did not have the same luck. Shielding his eyes, he figured at least the Stun Spore from the Venomoth would be wrapped up the mess, and had indeed missed.

So, Cesc sprang into action. Standing tall in the middle of the blinding storm, he raised his hand high into the air before settling it down, pointing towards Bardolph.

"Bardolph! Stop being a little prick and listen up! We're only gonna win this if you listen! Use Quick Attack on the Venomoth! Tinka! Follow up with Grinding Gears!" It still didn't sound like the right attack name, but it was closer than "Grind your Gears". Hopefully the confused Klink would manage to sort out that the flapping bug monster with bulbous eyes was the enemy, and not the rather harmless, stationary rock.

Oddly enough, to everyone's surprise, the Arbok succumbed to the Spinarak's Constrict and Leech Life attacks. Though they were rather weak, the giant snake had suffered through vicious assaults from Tybalt earlier, as well as Bardolph before the partner switch. Combined with the whipping sands of Tinka's erroneous sandstorm, the beast wore down quickly. It collapsed on the ground in a heap, leaving Record, Tinka and Bardolph to face a single Venomoth. With any luck, Tinka and Bardolph would be able to take it down before any more damage was done.

Furthermore, Cesc really hoped that there were no more enemy pokemon. He watched as Bardolph cocked his head to one side, as if hearing his command. There was a flash of recognition in the monster-bug's eyes, but instead of obeying, he launched into a Wing Attack, scoring a vicious hit on the poisonous moth. Cesc seemed a bit dismayed that the Scyther absolutely refused to listen, and now his hopes rested on Tinka to finish up the combo, lest the Venomoth counter-attack and wipe them all out.

[Douken Sota]

Although the sand covered the field severely to block the vierw of battle, Seican was at least able to watch the snake fall and lay there as Record hopped off the Arbok's head, and did something that could be resembled as a taunt through the sand like shadows! "Alright! That's what I'm talking about. Now then, time for that moth! Show that bug your power like you did that snake."

The other buig was still choosing to be a pain, having watched them fight the Arbok like a dick and going to attack their weakened bodies. He is the only one who was supposed to be a dick! At least he wasn't the idiot who ran into a rock! And to prove it, he was going to put that Vernomoth in a sticky situation: and by sticky situation, he had an Electro Web at the ready, quickly fired through the sand (oaky, maybe not one of the BEST ideas, but not AS stupid as Klink). Even with the sand tearing at the thin webbing as well as draining the charge, it should still have some effect on the other bug!

[Master Houndoom]

"Are you all right, you sweet thing?" Branwys fawned over the cute pokemon, tiny hands rubbing its soft ears and checking it for injuries. "You sure are talkative!"

She looked over this time, when Dimo tapped her on the arm with his club. In his other claw he held out a Fresh Water, which she did not remember packing in her bag. It wouldn't be the first time Dimo had thought of preparations before she did.

Branwys turned to the little pink ball of fluff. "Are you thirsty, little one?" She let the whismur drink, and when it had had its fill, handed what was left of the bottle to Dimo to put back in her bag. She hadn't seen that it was empty.

Dimo just shook his head and put it back, anyway.

"OK, sweetheart, where's your trainer?"

[Dunt vorry about her, dahlink,] Dimo said, peering over Branwys' shoulder. [She ken be a leetle dense, but her hart is in de right place. Joost take us to hyu meester.]

~*~*~*~*~*~

The hit on the rock must have knocked something loose. Or pounded it back into place, which would be more accurate. The piplups faded, and she could see the sand storm, and the twitching tail of the arbok, and the silhouette of the venomoth, being attacked by a tiny disc-like form.

She had a near computer like memory, despite being less computer and more... being. Still, she remembered that Cesc had asked her to do Thunder Wave, which she didn't KNOW, but she had responded with...

This sand was HER FAULT?

That made her embarrassed. And embarrassment made her MAD.

She leapt up from her position against the tree, spinning her gears rapidly, to get speed. stretching the electrical connection that kept the gears that made her up, she positioned them one in a line with the other, like wheels. Spinning both of them in the same direction, and sped toward the venomoth.

At the last second, she separated her gears, slightly, clamping the wings between the Gears, and Grinding them between. Unfortunately, some of the wings were gummed up with sticky, gritty, shocky web. At first she was upset at getting tangled up, AGAIN. Then it hit her.

This web could conduct electricity.

Neither of her mouthes were capable of conveying an evil grin, but the nature of her klinks took on a sinister tone as she used Thunder Shock at close proximity, channeling even more electricity through the sticky, Shocking Web.

[Kamaitachi]

A look of admiration crossed Cesc's face as the trio of allied pokemon took down the Venomoth. The two oafs stood there dumbfounded, now with fainted pokemon and no machine. The stinging sandstorm died down at the battle's conclusion, leaving no indication that it had ever been there at all.

"Yuh..." the dull duo backed away slowly as Bardolph approached them, clacking his claws menacingly at them. The quickly recalled the two poison pokemon that had been haranguing the team, then retreated into the woods. Cesc wondered if they'd forgotten their little Electrike as well, but from what he could tell, they'd run in its direction.

Which meant they were beelining for Branwys and the machine.

"C'mon Tinka, Bardolph. Let's go!" With that, he tore off into a run, ignoring the bruises on his body from his fall earlier. His scyther, equally bruised, still managed to outspeed him in pursuit of the two fleeing poachers. "You too Longhair!"

With their enemies lacking pokemon firepower, Cesc felt confident that he didn't need Seiccan's help here. On the other hand, it would've been rather mean to just dump the guy off there without his own pink bunny that had earlier been in Cesc's arms.

Trying to keep his eyes locked firmly on the backs of the two escaping men, Cesc found it difficult as he tore through the foliage. Bardolph, being more inclined to hunting in the woods than his new trainer, had an easier time gracefully weaving and slaloming through the trees. Cesc couldn't help but be impressed at the creature's natural agility, as it took long, purposeful strides aided with the buzzing of his wings to boost his speed and keep his balance. The dual propulsion worked wonders, and it was no surprise that Bardolph possessed the phenomenal agility inherent to his species.

The giant bug pokemon caught up to them in no time, and as he raised his sinister looking scythe-arm, one turned around and fired. After a dull thunk, Cesc watched as a net sprang forth and wrapped around his pokemon, sending the insect tumbling to the ground, screeching what Cesc could only imagine were profanities. With a flash of his blades, the Scyther was back up in no time, but the men crashing through the woods had put some distance back between them. It was only a matter of time before they ran into Branwys and Speaker.

[Douken Sota]

"Good shot, Record!" he called out proudly, returning the bug back to the Pokeball. He was going to pull out his guitar and play something of a victory theme, but the other kid felt like it was better to chase than to celebrate. "Wait, what?!" he questioned as him and the other Pokemon ran off. "But I still got to find Speaker!" In a huffing sigh, he chased after as well.

Not like Speaker was in any danger, yet. IN fact, she was more pampered than anything, chugging the bottle of water down, not even taking a breath of air doing so. Seemed both of them wanted to know how to get her back to Seican, but she culdn't help but giggle at the cubone.

"You got a funny accent," she told bluntly before her ears tweaked, listening around her. "I can' barely hear him. There was a lot of background noise. Maybe a battle... Oh, and the feet running towards us." Pointing over to where she and the Electrike came, there was the visible shadows of the two henchmen coming at them. "They don't sound happy..."

[Master Houndoom]

[Hy gots de fonny aksent? HYU gots de fonny aksent!] Dimo poked the whismur lightly on the side, with the intent to tickle rather than prod. As he listened to her remarkable account of where her trainer might be, as well as what may have been happening to it, he began to get more and more tense. When the two men made themselves aware, he brandished his bone club at him.

This, in turn, alerted Branwys to them. She stood with a gasp, grabbing her bag and the whismur and holding the pokémon protectively in front of herself. She backed up in the face of the two larger, menacing, if dumb looking men, until her heel hit the box that had caused this mess.

She couldn't just abandon it. It wouldn't take much for them to restart the chaos, maybe even worse than before, if her adjustments worked out.

She couldn't let that happen.

The taller, skinnier of the two men saw her, but, more importantly, saw what was behind her. His face split into a disgusting, toothy grin and her lurched toward her. Dimo, however, interposed himself between the man and his trainer, whirling his club in his claw menacingly.

The man snorted. "Get out of here, you little-" He didn't finish, opting instead to put what obviously large amounts of energy he expended into kicking Dimo. Dimo spun to the side, answering with a swipe of his club, the hollow sound of bone meeting bone cut off by the man's pained howl.

"You little piece of dung! I'll get you!" Branwys' opinion of the man's intelligence based on his looks was justified when he stooped down, trying to grab Dimo with his hands and bending at the waist to do it. Dimo rapped him smartly on the head with his club and skittered back, shifting from foot to foot as the man danced in circles, clutching his head.

"Moron," his slightly larger, slightly shorter companion guffawed stupidly. "I got just the thing for him!" He pulled out a pokéball he had obviously been holding in reserve and released what, to Branwys, had to be the cutest little blue bird in a tuxedo she had ever seen.

"Hey!" The man stopped hopping and stood there, both hands still on the growing lump that Dimo had caused on his head. "You held back with those other clowns!"

"They had an electric type, and I didn't want her to get hurt!" The (slightly) larger and (slightly) shorter man snarled. "Besides, you didn't exactly make sure your mutt was around to help!"

"'E was GOING after HER!" The other man paused. "Hey! Where's my electrike, you little wench?!"

Branwys pulled the lower lid of her right eye down and stuck out her tongue. While she didn't show it, a small part of her mind noted that she had watched a little too much anime recently.

"Pippy! Git 'im!"

Pippy spread her small, nebbish wings and danced around in a circle, then hopped to face Dimo. Dimo stood up, straight, tilting his head to the side. Was she going to cute him to death? He leaned against his bone and chuckled.

Which is likely why he was hit with a face full of bubbles. [Ho, crap!] he shouted, batting them away too late, one by one. Each wet pop made him feel weaker and weaker.

"Dimo," came Branwys' concerned shout.

Dimo stood, shakily, unaware that he'd fallen. [Zo dot is how hyu want it, huh?]

The piplup he was facing giggled. He roared, and charged at her, swinging his club back. It came forward, as strong as he could make it, and bounced off of the piplup's head. She staggered, but not nearly as much as he thought she should.

"Gound attacks ain't very effective! HAHAHA!"

[Vell, crap!]

"Dimo," Branwys called. "Take Down!"

Dimo reached out, grabbing the piplup and spinning, slamming her to the ground. Unfortunately, she was facing him, and, unfortunately, the impact sent a gush of water at him.

He had already fought once, and while he hadn't been too hurt, water attacks were strong against him. His head was swimming.

"OK, that's enough!" The man recalled his piplup. "Call him off or I'll bring her back out."

Branwys looked at the man, to Dimo, who seemed not only hurt but woozy besides. "OK! OK... Dimo, don't attack anymore." She reached into her bag, but the man pulled out his pokéball again, pointing it at her as if it were some kind of spherical gun. "Don't even think about it..."

"I'm just getting his pokéball," Branwys cried, feeling for the first time like she might begin to weep. The man was wary, but nodded.

She pulled out Dimo's pokéball and recalled him, putting it back in her bag. The skinner man went and got the box from behind her, punching the middle button.

Nothing happened. Branwys had never been so happy to know she'd broken tech.

"What'd you do with the box?!"

Branwys looked at the two men, swallowing thickly. She tried to answer, but words came out as squeaks, soft and unintelligible.

"What?! Can't hear ya, peach," growled the man with the piplup menacingly.

Branwys tried again, swallowing, but it was as if her throat was too dry. The man grabbed her, pulling her up, and Branwys squeaked a little louder.

"Tell me!" He put her up to his ear. He didn't see her break into a malicious little grin, but his partner did.

"Hey--"

"YAAAAAAAAA!!!!" shouted Branwys, right into the man's ear. With a cry of his own, he dropped her, clutching his head. Branwys turned to the other man, gave a battle cry that would make her ancestors on both sides of her family proud, and climbed up the man's coat, beating and clawing and biting like a demon possessed ambipom.

[Kamaitachi]

For a split second, Cesc's blood turned to ice. The blood-curdling yell pierced through the thick forest, and immediately he redoubled his running efforts. Both he and Bardolph broke onto the scene at the same time, trying to make sense of the situation. Electrike, out like a light. Speaker, okay. Branwys...fighting one of the goons.

Bardolph, seeing the howling Branwys on top of the oaf immediately took the sight as a threat. Therefore, it needed to be eliminated at once: Large howling monsters were dangerous.

Flashing his blades dangerously, he began to charge towards his new foe, when a red light engulfed him. With a disgruntled sigh, the praying mantis disappeared back into his new, begrudged home.

Cesc wasn't quite sure how to deal with the situation now. He had watched Bardolph charge off to fight Branwys, who was fighting shorter, larger goon. A small smile flicked across his lips; a sign of appreciation for Branwys' spunk, as well as the anticipation of a good old fashioned brawl.

He'd been in quite a few back in The Under, when he ran with a local gang. Normally, he'd play mediator, trying to smooth things out with diplomacy. Even then, he'd given and taken a fair share of punches, often bruising his very pretty face. Seeing his partner in action, however, riled up his old fighting spirits.

With a raucous, joyous "Yahoo!" Cesc stooped down, picking up a clod of dirt. As the skinnier man turned to face the sound of another yell, he was met with a shower of dirt directly in his face, followed by a square punch in the stomach. As the man hit the ground, Cesc turned his attention to the big goon, waiting for a moment to strike. As Branwys clawed away, Cesc found an opening, and sent a hearty kick at the man's groin.

With a piercing howl of pain, the man fell forward, and Cesc neatly plucked Branwys from his back, holding her in his arms as if he'd swept her off her feet. As the man whimpered on the ground, the 'knight-in-shining-armor' kicked a little patch of dirt in his face, smiling in Branwys' all the while. Yes, he was fully aware that she was probably still in berserk mode, but again, he'd endured his fair share of bodily pains before. Getting clawed at by a girl had not been an unusual affair back in The Under.

"Why hello there, gorgeous." His lopsided grin betrayed his giddiness at seeing her again, despite the situation.

"P...pippy."

A flash of light on the ground revealed the Piplup, back and ready for action. Dancing around on the ground cutely, she waited for an order from her trainer.

"W-...w-...watergun..." he managed to groan. With a cheer, the little blue penguin fired off a gush of water, bowling Cesc and Branwys over. Angling his body, Cesc took the brunt of the attack, and rolled as he flew through the air so as not to land on his charge. As a result, she wound up on top of him, both of them dripping wet.

"Bardolph!" Cesc managed to wriggle an arm free and toss a pokeball towards the enemy. The Scyther appeared on the field once more, staring down at the enemy. With a huff, he reached out with his blade, tapped the pokeball and disappeared back into its confines.

"Oh...good job there buddy." Cesc rolled his eyes, visibly annoyed.

[Douken Sota]

Seemed like the Scyther didn't want to play with the penguin, since all Seican saw was the two men on the floor and the penguin. But that was not all he saw: Speaker was there! What better way to show her off than now, since he seemed of of been missing out on a LOT of action. "Speaker! Show them what you can do!" And what better way to catch off the Piplup than a wet willie from behind for an Astonish. An uneasy feeling washing over the penguin's body as the fingers were pulled out. "Now then, give us an E major!" Rolling over the guitar to his front, he pinged the thinist string on his guitar, which was very faint. However, Speaker imitated it at 11 with a loud Uproar... Right in the penguin's ears.

"There is no way you can't hear me! I am Seican Serroc, and I will rock the contest hallways! Now feel the vocal power of my Whismur!" Still, UIproar is a long move that gets her stuck yelling for the third time in a row, but it is not like she had much to work with. Why not use what she does best when controlled?

[Master Houndoom]

When Branwys was grabbed in the midst of the severe midget-mauling of her enemy, which she vaguely understood was falling, and could have injured her, she reacted in the only way years of growing up with eight clever, rambunctious, older siblings had taught her. She struck with all her might at the eye of the "offender". Luckily for both of them, Cesc was in mid-spin as he swept her off of her feet (a precarious position indeed for one of her height) and his arms, due to the centrifugal force her minor weight underwent with the spinning, put his face briefly out of arm's reach. This gave her time to register his face and smile, and have the according physical reaction of a blush.

She quickly averted her eyes, knowing it was already too late and the near-tomato red of her face was clashing with her usual Pikachu-yellow hair, but still, she noted the man she was fighting on the ground, moaning and curled in a fetal position, the long haired gent standing nearby, possibly (he had spun past her field of vision too quickly for Branwys to make certain) throwing heavy-metal horns, ( |m|/ >o< \|m| ), the little pink darling scampering toward said long hair, and once again Cesc's smiling face.

It was a nice face, she sighed internally.

"P-P-Pippy... Watergun..."

"Aw, cra--"

Cesc reacted, pulling her around to try to take the brunt of it, but the tiny penguin was much more powerful than her size seemed to indicate. Water surrounded them, bowling them over, and without really realizing how, Branwys ended up laying atop Cesc's chest.

She really needed to thank that penguin. However, the principle of the matter was at hand. As Seican greeted the crowd of no one and allowed Speaker her solo, Branwys flicked out a hand, having finally spotted what she knew was missing.

"Tinka! Thunder Shock on that poor adorable enemy!"

Without waiting for a response, because she trusted her pokémon to follow orders, especially after seeing their designated opponent attacking her trainer, Branwys turned back to Cesc. She made no effort to remove herself from his chest, but instead leaned closer, on hand on her chin, and said in a voice which counted as husky, "So, you've caught me... whatcha gonna do with me, huh?"

Unfortunately, Tinka's Thunder Shock attack chose that moment to strike, lending an ominous bolt of lightning and crack of thunder to what was supposed to be a sultry come on...

[Kamaitachi]

Once again, Seiccan made a grand entrance. The boy had the annoying habit of CONSTANTLY introducing himself, which Cesc surmised to be a rock-star sort of habit. This time, however, he noted that the guy was a co-ordinator, and that meant he was an opponent. He really hoped that Seiccan wouldn't "Ser-Rock" the audiences, if only because the pun would be unbearable. He wanted to watch the guy battle a little closer now, to see if he could pick up any tips, but his movement was rather limited due to the Branwys on top of him.

Cesc's lopsided grin gave him an incredibly cheeky air, especially considering he was all wet. Branwys, whom he'd spent a majority of the adventure looking for, was not seated nicely atop his chest, while he was on his back. Despite the potential danger of the situation, she still managed to flirt.

He liked that. A lot.

To be honest, the aforementioned potential danger made this situation much more sexy than it should've been. So, he summoned up his most sensual voice and said:

"I'm gonna stuff you in a pokeball, then teleport you to some faraway place where an old man with glasses will stare at you."

He paused, confused, then shrugged. "That didn't quite work. Maybe we should just make out."

In the mean time, between Tinka's and Whismur's combined assaults, Pippy looked like she was on her last leg. The oaf of a trainer had the decency to recall her, seeing as she was now facing two pokemon by herself. The other trainer groggily recalled his Electrike nearby. The duo grabbed the machine, now not working, and bolted back off into the woods.

Cesc was leaning forward to plant a kiss when suddenly:

"BING BONG. THE CONTEST IS OVER, PLEASE RETURN TO THE ENTRANCE IMMEDIATELY."

The most amusing part was that there wasn't a bell noise. There was just a voice saying "bing" and "bong" in a way that didn't even remotely resemble a bell.

[Douken Sota]

"Its been an hour already?! Time certainly does fly when you are rocking out as hard as we do, right Speaker?" Giving a thumbs up to the pink rabbit, she returned one, mouth wide open and screaming before being returned back into her POkeball. "Still, that was certainly wierd. Cmon, let us go and check out me getting that win, cause Record is going to be Record-breaking." Talk about a bad pun...

Returning to the entrance with the other two (they were around ready to make out, but it wasn't like he was paying attention), he looked around to see where the Pokemon were being displayed, getting points from the judges. So, following suit, he showed off the spider, who looked a lot more worn out than before capture, before being told to wait for final judgement and the award ceremony.

[Master Houndoom]

Branwys' heart threatened to beat out of her chest. Now that the moment was upon her, the moment of her first real kiss, she found her head was swimming with a thousand questions, each one pulling at her in a new direction. What if she was bad at it? What if he was bad at it? What if they both were bad at it? What if he didn't like it? What if they bumped heads? What if she killed him?!

Nevertheless, while her mind froze and threatened to shut her down, both by not allowing her to continue and through grievous logical failure, her body reacted in the way that it had been taught through copious romance novels, soap operas, shoujo manga, plays, and spying on her sisters and brothers after dates. She closed her eyes, leaned toward Cesc a little bit, and...

"BING BONG. THE CONTEST IS OVER, PLEASE RETURN TO THE ENTRANCE IMMEDIATELY." Promply fell off of his chest in surprise.

With a blush, she righted herself and put her hand out to help Cesc up. Realizing that this was, in all actuality, somewhat futile, her blush only increased. Suddenly, she stepped forward, for no one had ever accused Branwys of being bashful, and kissed him, directly on the... cheek.

A small part of her was a little happy about the interruption, but a larger part was disappointed, both to be interrupted, and in her inability to follow through with what she was pretty sure she wanted.

She'd have to call Zeetha when she got back to her room.

As they walked back, with Branwys both pre-occupied with her own thoughts, and internally wincing from Seican's horrible pun, she suddenly had a thought strike her. "Oh! I wish they hadn't gotten away with the machine."

Looking up at Cesc, she smiled. "I thought I had broken it before, then I realized maybe I hadn't. The machine looked like it was modified, or intended to attract pokémon to it. But they were using a metal coat as a resonance chamber, see?" she pulled the object out of her bag. "When I pulled it out, I think I fixed it..."