[X] My Assistant

[ZapdosZulu Hunte...]

As James and his friends arrived in Port Barley he could remember most of the objects around the town after taking the long hike from Port Barley to Arthro Town. As James and his friends looked around at their surroundings, James saw Wingulls flying gracefully through the air and other land pokemon like Krabby's stepping from side to side looking to do what they had in mind. James thought Port Barley was thinking about it while he stood on a wooden pier he could only think how relaxing and peaceful Port Barley is with all new trainers coming in every few hours it was a begginers paradise.

James looked around again and saw the Pokeathlon Dome. James seemed to get a fire in his belly once he saw the Dome and was looking to compete maybe later on. He thought what his friends had in mind when they saw everything at Port Barley. That's when James heard his belly rumble, he was hungry and was looking at his friends as he said,

"Hey Kaya and Willow. Want to go grab a bite to eat?"He said hoping they would accept their offer.

[FirePower]

Kaya looked all around her. She hadn't been to Barley in years. The salty sea breeze, the chattering of wingul, even all the hustle and bustle on the boardwalk seemed refreshing. Some things that crossed her mind were sad, though. Her parents had always said that they had met here. There was also the time she had been pinched on the rear end by a krabby when she was five, but that was more of a funny memory than a sad one.

When James asked Kaya and Willow if they wanted to eat, Kaya was about to answer when she was interrupted by a panicked young man.

"Excuse me," He said, "But you look like a decent trainer. Do you think you would be able to control my psyduck? His nicknames Attila, and he's a bit hard to handle. He's level 9, and his moves are scratch, water sport, tail whip, and water gun. This has got to be the sushi I ate for lunch. I am never eating undercooked fish again! Thanks!" The man said all of this, shoved a pokeball in Kaya's hands and ran off before she had a chance to speak. Wow, that was weird, Kaya thought, bewildered. Port barley was stranger than she remembered.

Turning to James she replied, "Sure; Eating sounds great. What about that place?" Kaya pointed to an all-you-can eat pizzeria. It smelled delicious in there. Kaya could feel her taste buds tingling with delight of what it all tasted like.

[Jansen]

Willow liked the port city. She could taste the salt in the air, and that was a feeling she'd never experienced before. It was pleasant. The trip here with Kaya and James felt like it had passed in the blink of an eye, compared to her traveling by herself; though, even those times went fairly quick once she brought out her pokemon to talk with. Willow was lost in though and only just heard James suggest that they go get something to eat, and it was right about then that Willow heard her stomach growl.

Willow went to answer, but was interrupted by a strange man running up to Kaya and basically shoving a pokeball into her hands as he ran off shouting something about sushi. There are some down right crazy people here in Port Barley... Willow thought, But, if they're giving out free pokemon, I'll take one... Willow giggled at her thought, and then remembered that they were talking about eating something. And after the crazy man with the sushi problems left, Kaya suggested an all you can eat pizza place.

"Mmm... Pizza sounds wonderful," Willow said, taking a few steps towards the building. "Do you think they'll have pokemon food? Cause, delicious as pizza is, I don't think it's quite something pokemon eat..." That, of course, got Willow to thinking about her pokemon eating Pizza, which made her giggle again. "And I wonder if they have the all meat Pizza... I love the meat pizzas..."

[ZapdosZulu Hunte...]

Before James started walking over to there decided food destination a random strange guy ran up to Kaya and gave her a pokeball and ran off. James was in shock, it was strange for someone to just give over there pokemon without offering anything. James just wondered what type of people are in Port Barley. Because some of them seemed to be very strange. It only made James wonder.

James started leading the group over to the shop with the sign "All You Can Eat Pizzeria". The sign made James's mouth almost water. He opened up the metal door in front of it and the bells at the top off the door jingled signalling there were new customers inside now. James looked around and smelled the beautiful aroma of the pizza. It was such a delicate smell that made you hungry even if you weren't. James looked around and most of the tables had a sign on it with "Reserved" or people already there eating their pizza. James found a table it was near the center off the room. It had only just been vacated a few minutes ago because it was clean and shiny. James lead his friends over to the table and pulled out two seats for the girls and after he had done that he sat down himself.

James grabbed a menu off the table and started reading it. He instantly saw Vegetarian pizza an old favorite for years. James had made his decision but he thought about what his pokemon were going to eat. He looked through and on the back page it said "Poke Meals". There was all types of pizzas for the pokemon so James decided to get two whole pizzas for his pokemon to share. As he folded the menu back together he looked at his friends with a smile waiting for them to decide what they wanted to eat. James sat in anticipation waiting for the waiter to get to their table. His belly was rumbling as he looked around at the paintings in the room they were all Italian based showing pizza and their home Italy. James knew it was sensible to have them in a shop like this because Pizza originally came from Italy.

This post has been edited by luke39: Apr 21 2011, 06:12 PM

[FirePower]

Kaya followed James into the pizzeria. The smell that hit her made her feel like she was floating. She could tell that Manera was feeling the same thing, because it closed its eyes in pleasure and made a little hop. When they sat down, Kaya opened another menu. The three-cheese personal pizza sounded good to her. She also decided to get her pokemon some special poke-pizza. A medium, she decided, should be able to fill them all up. Now knowing what she wanted, Kaya sat back and waited for the waiter to come.

[Asterna]

Meanwhile, a ferry from Unova was pulling into the port. On the ship, a rather small, scrawny-looking thirteen-year-old girl with hair tied in a brown ponytail stood by the railing, bright green eyes sparkling with excitement as she looked at the approaching city.

"Hey, guys! We're finally here!" Rose Fiore said excitedly to her Pokemon, who were both out of their Pokeballs. Alaia, her Cottonee, bounced up and down on top of Rose's head, letting out a cheerful "Cott!" as she did so. Ciar, Rose's Zorua, was currently being held in Rose's arms so he could see over the side of the ship. The dark fox Pokemon peered more sedately at the shore with quiet curiosity.

The ship ground to a halt by the dock. Rose held onto the railing with one arm so as not to fall over. She waited impatiently, bouncing on her heels, while the sailors tied the ship to the dock and let down the gangway. At long last, the passengers were allowed to leave the ship. Rose set down Ciar so he could walk by himself, then bounded down the gangway with a giant grin on her face. "Hello, Furoh!" she exclaimed, posing dramatically with both arms flung out to the sides, as if embracing the new region.

A voice from behind interrupted her moment. "Hey, kid. You're in the way," pointed out a gruff-looking man behind her.

"Oh, right. Sorry," Rose said meekly, hastily stepping off the gangway and into Port Barley. She quickly got over her embarrassment, far too excited about reaching Furoh to care. As she walked along the streets of Barley, she looked around at the sights and chattered animatedly to her Pokemon, that huge smile back on her face.

"...and I heard that Barley's boardwalk is pretty cool, so we have to see that, and then we should get some plant samples for Mom and Dad to study, and then --" Rose cut herself off as her stomach emitted a loud growling noise. She laughed sheepishly, glancing down at Alaia and Ciar. "Well, I guess we should get something to eat first."

Nearby, a restaurant with a sign saying "All You Can Eat Pizzeria" was giving off a delicious aroma. "Pizza sure sounds great..." Rose said longingly. "How about we go in there?" she asked her Pokemon. Ciar gave an affirmative nod when she looked down at him, Alaia voicing her agreement at the same time.

They entered the shop, the bell on the door jingling as they did so. She glanced around the full restaurant; all the tables seemed to be either reserved or taken. However, she did notice a table with three kids that looked to be around her age, or at least not too far from it -- there was an empty seat there. She walked over with her best polite smile. "Hi, do you mind if I sit here?" she asked hopefully. This was a new region, and she was looking forward to making new friends; perhaps she could befriend these three.

[FirePower]

"If it's all right with them, then it's all right with me!" Kaya said, smiling. "I'm Kaya. That's James, and that's Willow. My blitzle's called Manera. Nice to meet you. Are you just starting out?" Meanwhile, Manera was greeting girl's pokemon. She would touch her muzzle to them, then back away real quickly. Finally deciding they were nice, the blitzle reared up on it's hind legs.

"Bli-bli...zle!" Manera said, introducing herself.

[Jansen]

Willow went with her little group into the pizza place. The smells that wafted past her as they walked toward a table were just heavenly. Willow hadn't realize just how hungry she was till they got in here, and once she sat down in the chair James so kindly pulled out for her, she dove directly into the menu. It all looked very good, but it wasn't long before she came across her old friend, five meat pizza. Willow could feel her mouth water; the menu said it had sausage, ham, peperoni, bacon, and Italian sausage. Willow didn't really know the difference between Italian sausage and regular sausage, but, that didn't matter; she was going to get the biggest one they offered.

Willow turned over the menu and found the pokemon menu, just like everyone else. She looked it over, and figured they'd like a little pizza of their own. She decided on a large for them; anything they didn't eat could be kept for a little later. If it was anything like regular pizza, it was just as good cold.

Willow put down her menu, and waited for the waiter; but something more interesting happened before the waiter came. A girl, younger then Willow, came into the restaurant; Willow only noticed because of the bell. She looked around, and found no open tables. Willow looked too, she must have been very focused on food when they got here; she hadn't even noticed that they'd lucked into a table. The girl noticed that the three of them had an extra chair at their table and came up to them. She asked if she could sit there, and Kaya was the first to agree to let her, as well as introducing everyone very quickly.

"I don't mind," Willow said, smiling. "The more the merrier! I'm Willow, like Kaya said. What's your name?" Willow then noticed the two pokemon she had with her; Willow wasn't always the most observant person, and she knew that. She grabbed out her phone and took a picture of them, just like she had for James and Kaya's pokemon. She was hopeful to see them in action; she hadn't ever seen them before, and they looked very interesting. "What cute pokemon," Willow added after she put away her phone. "What are their names?"

This post has been edited by Jansen: Apr 11 2011, 09:46 AM

[FirePower]

Seeing willow take pictures of the pokemon reminded Kaya that she needed to fill her pokedex. First she scanned the black fox-like pokemon.

"Zorua, the tiny fox pokemon. To protect themselves from danger, they hide their true identities by transforming into people and pokemon." The pokedex said in it's robot-like voice. Next, Kaya scanned the fluffy pokemon Manera was investigating.

"Cotonee, the cotton puff pokemon," The pokedex said. "When attacked, they shoot cotton out of their bodies. The cotton acts as a decoy for attackers." They both looked like decent pokemon. Kaya looked foreward to battling someday.

To pass the time, Kaya read the menu some more. There was the regular cheese and peperoni. There were also crazy flavors like chocolate anchovy surprise and aipom paw pizza. Kaya didn't have much of an adventurous spirit when it came to food, and these flavors certainly didn't tempt her.

[ZapdosZulu Hunte...]

As James watched his friends a girl who looked around the age of thirteen came barging through the door and politely asked if she could sit with Kaya, Willow and James. James looked at Kaya and Willow and they were both happy for her to sit with them so he nodded his head in approval. It was always good to make another friend, James looked down at the pokemon following her and he was so excited to see them. He pulled the pokedex out of his pocket and pointed it towards her two pokemon as it said in it's robot voice,

"Zorua, the tiny fox pokemon. To protect themselves from danger, they hide their true identities by transforming into people and pokemon."

It then said as James pointed it towards the other pokemon of the girls,

"Cotonee, the cotton puff pokemon," The pokedex said. "When attacked, they shoot cotton out of their bodies. The cotton acts as a decoy for attackers."

James was excited to see new pokemon he hadn't seen before. He looked at the girl as he grabbed out his pokeballs from his pocket and let out his pokemon out of their pokeballs as they passed through the gleaming red light to the floor. James decided to introduce his pokemon and ask her some questions,

"Hello, it's nice to meet you. Could I by any chance ask your name?" James said with no flaws in his voice. He then said after that,

"This is Muddy" he said pointing to Mudkip as it jumped up and down on the spot as it's name was said."This is Trikey" he said pointing to Electrike as it ran around Muddy in circles. James still didn't get why it did that, it was a mystery."This is Jolt" he said pointing to Joltik as it climbed up James's chair with it's spider like body and sat behind James."This is Sandy" he said pointing to Sandile as it stood behind Mudkip like it didn't want to be seen. James could understand it would be hard for a pokemon to get used to a new trainer after being abandoned by it's previous trainer.

James looked at the girl and decided one more question couldn't hurt so he said,

"Also may I ask what your pokemon's names are?" he said as he waited for her response.

James was hoping the waiter was going to come soon to take their order because he was hungry and was getting impatient.

[Asterna]

"Oh, really? Thank you!" Rose said happily, pulling the seat out and plopping down in it. She listened attentively while the others introduced themselves and their Pokemon, peering at the Pokemon with interest. She had heard of most of them, but she'd only ever actually seen the ones from her native region, Unova.

"It's nice to meet you all. I'm Rose," she said, then raised an eyebrow when Willow took a photo of her Pokemon. However, she didn't question it, instead grinning proudly when Willow complimented them. "Thanks! They're awesome, aren't they? This is Alaia up here." She pointed to the Cottonee still sitting on top of her head, then added, "Alaia, say hi." Alaia flapped the two leaf-like appendages on either side of her body to gently drift down onto the table, where she bounced around it, greeting each individual person before coming back to rest next to Rose's empty plate.

"And that's Ciar -- Ciar?" Rose blinked as she looked down to find him absent. She leaned down further, tilting her head, and finally located the missing Zorua -- he was hiding under her chair, staring warily at the unfamiliar faces. "Uh, sorry. He's a little shy," she said with a sheepish smile as she straightened up. "Relax, they're nice people," she told Ciar in a soothing tone. "C'mon, it's okay."

He didn't look entirely sure of that, but carefully padded out from underneath the chair to sit beside it regardless. He glanced up at James, Kaya, and Willow, and voiced a quiet "Zor" before looking back down again, apparently very interested in the floor. Rose just smiled slightly with fond resignation, and reached down to pet her Zorua. He flicked an ear in acknowledgement, and looked up again -- but only for a moment. Ciar had never been at ease with unfamiliar environments or new people, and she knew that this must be difficult for him. Really, it was good enough that he wasn't hiding anymore.

Social niceties performed, she picked up a menu to peruse the options, raising an eyebrow at some of them -- slowpoke tail pizza, for one, sounded rather distasteful. After considering for a moment, she decided on a small pepperoni pizza for herself.

"What kind do you want?" she asked her Pokemon. They both looked over at the menu, Ciar leaping up to her lap to do so. Eventually, he pointed at the cheese with one paw. Rose looked over at Alaia for confirmation; she bounced once, her version of a nod. "Alright, then I'll get the two of you a medium to share." That decided, Rose leaned back in her seat and waited for the waiter to arrive.

Luckily, she didn't have to wait long. A uniformed young man walked over fairly soon. "Hello, may I take your order?"

"Ah, yeah. I'll have a glass of water, a small pepperoni pizza, and a medium cheese pizza for my Pokemon, please."

The waiter nodded, noting her order down. "One water, one small pepperoni pizza and one medium cheese poke-pizza." Then he turned to the others, who gave him their respective orders. He wrote them all down on the small pad he carried, repeating the orders once after each person, then repeating all of them another time for good measure. Once they had confirmed their orders, he nodded politely and collected the menus. "I will be back with your food shortly," he said, then walked off briskly.

Rose turned back to the others. While they were waiting for their food, she decided to strike up a conversation and break the ice. "So, why are you guys in Furoh?" she asked conversationally. "I came mostly to explore, but I'm also helping out my parents -- they're botanists, see, so they want to get a look at some of the native plants here."

This post has been edited by Asterna: Apr 11 2011, 08:16 PM

[FirePower]

"Cool!" Kaya said. "I was born and raised traveling around Furoh, but now that I have a trainer's license, I'm gonna beat all the gym leaders and become the champion!" Then Kaya decided to let her pokemon out sou they could stretch their legs before they ate. "This is, Miner, Flit, Pede-erpat, and Attila, the rest of my pokemon. Flit's a bit stubborn, you don't want to mess with her. Attila... Well, I don't know much about him, yet. A random person walked up to me and shoved it in my arms before running away. He seemed pretty scared of it. It's only a psyduck, though. I can't see that much to be scared of."

Miner timidly walked up to Attila and offered a claw to shake. The psyduck didn't shake it. It only smiled maniacally and laughed. A bit freaked out, Kaya's drilbur began to back away slowly. Like pede-erpat, Attila was clearly not going to be a favorite among her pokemon.

[Jansen]

Shortly after the new girl, Rose as she introduced herself, sat down, introduced her pokemon, and looked over the menu, a waiter showed up. He was wearing a uniform, Willow thought it looked a little funny, and he asked for their orders. A couple of the others ordered before her, but before long his gaze came around to her.

"I'll have your largest five meat pizza, a root beer, and a large cheese poke-pizza," Willow said. She'd figured that some of her pokemon would have preferred something different, but this one was universally accepted by all of them. Or, all of them but Venom; she still didn't know Venom very well, but she hoped this would go over well. The waiter nodded after Willow ordered, and after everyone else had finished, he left saying that the food would be out shortly. When the waiter left, Rose asked everyone about why there were here, and given how she asked and answered it herself, Willow figured she wasn't from Furoh.

"As it would seem," Willow said, smiling at Kaya, "Kaya and I have very similar goals. I was also born in Furoh and have aspirations to beat all the gym leaders. I'm still undecided on whether or not I intend to challenge the champion. I'm also out to make some good pokemon and human friends; and maybe even find myself..." Willow began to trail off a little with that, thinking about her pokemon and how much they'd already help her discover about herself. This adventure was turning out very good for her.

"Oh!" Willow said, coming back to reality, "I should probably let out my pokemon if I intend for them to eat." Willow laughed a little to herself at forgetting that. She grabbed all five of her pokeballs and let all five of her pokemon out in turn. "In case you're curious," Willow said with a smile to Rose, "These two are Flare and Blade," Willow pointed to her charmander and ralts on the floor, "These are Wingover and Venom," she pointed to the pidgey and joltik on her shoulders, "And this is Tri," she pointed to the aron in her lap.

"I almost forgot," Willow added, speaking to Rose, "Your question made it sound like you weren't from Furoh. Are you originally from somewhere else?"

[ZapdosZulu Hunte...]

As everyone introduced themselves and their pokemon to Rose they got caught off guard by the waiter. He had walked over with a little yellow notepad and a pen in his hand and he wanted our orders. The others had told the waiter there orders and just as he was about to turn and head back to the kitchen he walked over to James and asked him what he wanted. James smirked and then said

"Yeah waiter could I please get a Hawaiian pizza for myself and two pizzas of the Meatlovers for my pokemon? Thanks."

James watched the waiter walk away from their table as he opened up the kitchen door and said to the chef,

"Here you go Sir, another order. Wow today has been rushed. You think?" he heard the waiter talking to the Chef.

They lowered their voices so no one could overhear them so James turned his head back around to his friends and looked at them. They all had almost similar goals like wanting to challenge the Gym's in Furoh and that was also James's goal. But as much as James lover having company and travelling friends he thought maybe if he competed in the Pokeathlon and once there finished they might just go their own ways. You would never know if you would bump into them again somewhere, it was just a game of luck.

James snapped out of his deep thoughts and had heard that the rest of the girls had originated from different regions, James felt left out being brought up in Sinnoh but he didn't worry. He just decided to talk to his friends and enjoy the company. As he listened in and waited for the waiter to arrive with their food. James was starting to starve without food.

[FirePower]

(I sense foreshadowing...)

"Um, yes. I'll have a 3-cheese personal pizza, the biggest size of Dr.Primape and a cheese poke-pizza, please," Kaya said to the waiter before he left. The very sound of her meal made her mouth water. She was too busy being hungry to notice the waiter and the chef talking in hushed voices.

Meanwhile, Attila was evilly grinning at the other pokemon and in general trying to creep them out. Fed up with the psyduck, Pede-Erpat launched a twineedle attack, pinning Attila to the wall. Attila Managed to free itself, and it raked its claws across Pede-erpat's face. Before things could get worse, Kaya had to return them both back to their pokeballs.

Making a mental note to feed them separately from now on and fixing the damage of the fight that she could repair, Kaya asked James, "Speaking of which, I don't think I know where you're from. Could you tell us?"

[Asterna]

Rose listened attentively as the others explained their origins, nodding in the right places. "Oh, so you guys are from Furoh? I was born and raised in Unova, but my parents are from Sinnoh," she explained, then paused thoughtfully as the girls stated their ambitions to defeat the gym leaders. "So you're all taking the gym challenge... You know, I was wondering if I should do that," she commented. "I mean, I traveled around Unova for three years, but I never tried the gyms or anything. How's it been going so far?" she asked, genuinely curious. "Like, is battling fun? I haven't done it much."

Just after she finished her sentence, Kaya's Pokemon began fighting. Rose stared with mild alarm as Attila and Pede-erpat fought. Ciar ducked back under the chair, hissing, and Alaia bristled slightly, ready to defend her trainer if need be. Fortunately, Kaya returned them quickly. "...Maybe that's why the guy gave Attila to you?" Rose suggested, eyebrow raised. "I don't know who started it, though, so maybe not," she added as an afterthought. Then again, she had noticed the Psyduck leering at Kaya's other Pokemon -- either way, he didn't seem to be the nicest Pokemon on her team.

Rose was distracted from the fight by the waiter's reappearance, this time holding several trays of food. "Your pepperoni pizza and cheese poke-pizza," he said to Rose, placing the aforementioned food in front of her, and then moved on to serve the others. Her stomach rumbled as the delicious scent of pizza wafted into her nose. Before eating her own meal, she leaned down and set the plate of poke-pizza on the floor where Ciar and Alaia could reach it. Her Pokemon immediately began to devour it; the last meal any of them had was the lunch service provided by the ferry, which had been a few hours ago. Rose was starving -- and so, she eagerly dug into her food.

[FirePower]

"Mm, I don't know. Pede-erpat by far isn't the most patient of my bunch. But then again, he was provoked" Kaya said just before the waiter brought their food.

"You guys be sure to leave some for Pede-erpat and attilla," Kaya told her pokemon as she set the poke'pizza plate on the floor. The pokemon dug in, looking like they didn't plan on leaving any. Up at the table, Kaya dug into her own meal. She had never tasted pizza so good! And the Dr.Primape was huge! By the time she finnished it all, she was stuffed.

Everything was great... until she got her bill. Well, so much for buying pokeballs. It would take almost all of the reward money she got from helping out in Artho Town to pay for her meal.

This post has been edited by FirePower: May 3 2011, 05:23 PM

[ZapdosZulu Hunte...]

As James looked around starting to get angry from the food not arriving. He was becoming ticked off as his face went a bit red, but then out of the kitchen door came the waiter who had taken there orders. He had already been back twice giving Kaya and Rose their food, now this looked like what James had ordered. He arrived over at the table and said,

"Order for one Hawaiian Pizza and two Meatlovers." trying to remember if it was Willow or James.

James looked at the waiter and said to him,

"Yep, that's my order thanks. Wow this looks great!"

As the waiter handed over the Hawaiian and Meatlovers pizzas James grabbed all four of his Pokemons pokeballs out of his pocket and let them out. He looked at them and then split the pizza's in halves for Sandy, Jolt, Muddy and Trikey. As they tucked into there food they looked extremely happy that it had finally come. James watched them eat and then he looked back onto the table and saw his pizza and said,

"Let's dig in!"

As James put a napkin just under his throat he grabbed a piece of the Hawaiian pizza and ate it and could taste the beauty of the pineapple. It had a rich taste that made it so good to eat. As he finished that piece he grabbed another, then again he ate another until he had two pieces left and he was full. He looked at his pokemon and Sandy and Muddy were full but surprisingly Trikey and Jolt weren't. He grabbed the two pieces as he placed them on the little Pokemon's plates as they dug into them.

It was a very enjoyable meal with his pokemon and his friends as he finished the waiter came out of the kitchen and handed over a little notepad like piece of paper and it had the price of the pizza's and the total amount he had to pay. The total was $15, as James grabbed out his wallet and scurried through it and grabbed out the $20 that he had gotten from helping out at the Arthro Town reserve. He handed over to the waiter as he took it off James and gave him back $5. James was happy as he wiped his napkin over his mouth cleaning himself off. Then he grabbed out his pokemon's pokeballs and returned them to there balls, but the only one he had problems with getting in the ball was Jolt. It didn't seem to want to go back in it's ball. James looked at the little electric type spider as he said,

"Jolt why won't you go in your ball?"

Jolt climbed up James chair and onto James shoulder as it sat down and rested itself. James didn't normally leave his pokemon out of there pokeballs but Jolt seemed to want to stay out on James shoulder. James was fine with that for now as he watched his friends and thought of what else there was to do in Port Barley. But as he looked out the window he saw a poster on the telegraph pole that had a picture of pokemon jumping over obstacles and swimming through water. It intrigued James as he anxiously waited for his friends so he could go check it out. But from where he was now he couldn't read the writing clearly.

[Asterna]

Given their currently voracious appetites, Rose and her Pokemon finished their pizza quickly. She stretched out, leaning back in her chair with a sigh of satisfaction. Alaia flapped slowly up to Rose's lap and settled there, a little heavier than usual; Ciar set about cleaning his fur with a napkin that Rose had placed on the floor next to him. "That was good," she commented to no one in particular with a small, pleased smile. She stretched a little more, then sat up, trying not to dislodge Alaia. It was time for her least favorite part of eating out.

She looked around for a waiter, waving him over for the bill. She frowned a little at the price -- $15. It wasn't a lot, but Rose didn't have all that much to spare, given that she didn't battle much; her only source of income came from her parents and the occasional sale of an item she found during her travels. With a quiet sigh, she rummaged around her bag for a moment before finally unearthing her wallet, from which she pulled out the amount of money due, plus $2 for a tip. She handed the bills to the waiter after James paid for his food, then turned back to the table just in time to see Jolt climb onto James's shoulder. She smiled a little as she watched the tiny electric spider; she'd always thought Joltiks were cute whenever she saw them back in Unova. She was just opening her mouth to remark on this when she noticed where James was looking.

Curious, Rose followed his line of sight to a poster, tacked to a pole outside the window. She squinted a little, managing to make out what seemed to be an image of Pokemon participating in some sort of athletic event. It looked kind of interesting, she thought, now intrigued. She frowned, squinting harder and leaning forward a bit, but couldn't quite make out what the words on the poster were.

"Hey, can any of you see what that poster says?" she asked the table as a whole, pointing to the poster in question.

[FirePower]

Kaya called miner and Flit into their balls and got up, ready to leave. When Rose asked about a poster on a telephone pole outside Kaya squinted at it and said, "'Campete in le foraothajon, whoke evepydody's o winnok'? That doesn't sound right. I better get a look at it outside."

When she got outside, Kaya took a closer look and said, "Oh, 'Compete in the pokeathalon, where everyone's a winner!' That makes more sense. Sound's fun. Do you guys want to try it?" Turning around, she saw a boy of about fifteen watching her from an alley. A Pawniar peeked out from behind his legs and ran forward to greet Manera. The boy returned the pawniard into it's pokeball, and Kaya introduced herself.

"Hi, I'm Kaya," She said cheerfully. "This is Manera. We're traveling around Furoh to collect gym badges and eventually become the league champion team."

"I'm Luke, and that was Strall," The boy said quietly. "We don't really know what we're going to do yet."

"You could come with us. Maybe you'll find what you want to do."

Luke shrugged. "I can't see why not. I'll travel with you, for now at least."

"Hey guys, this is Luke." Kaya said, introducing her new friend. "Now about that pokeathalon, who's gonna compete. I know I'm going to try."