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Posted by: Dragonwish2 Jul 15 2012, 05:44 PM

http://forums.gtsplus.net/index.php?showtopic=65093

A calm breeze blew through the treetops as a small blue figure ran across the forest floor. He paused at the edge of a clearing, surveying his surrounding with vibrant red eyes. His foxy black snout inhaled the sweet scent of berries to the west and a cool stream north. A snap of breaking branches from behind caused his ears to prick and his muscles tighten. Wheezing breaths filled the air, growing louder by the second. The blue figure turned his head slowly, watching the shadows.

With a cry of exasperation, a young tween exploded from the trees in a run, screeching to a halt beside the blue figure. Her long brown hair was plastered to her forehead above light blue eyes. She leaned against a tree trunk to catch her breath, glancing around the clearing.

"Nice place Ryan. Though next time, try to slow down. This isn't a contest," she rasped. Ryan, the unfazed Riolu who stood beside her, shrugged in reply.

Liz Shir relaxed her shoulder, sliding her grey bag on the grass. "If it's all clear, let's get started." She reached to her black leather belt and plucked five red and white orbs. She threw them one by one into the air, watching as her Pokemon team filled the empty space before her with their uplifting presence. Her fiery red Growlithe, Greg, barked merrily before sniffing the ground for an unseen item. Oreo and Serena, an Oshawott and Taillow, respectively, cheered upon their arrival, with the former performing a sort of jig while spinning. A black and red fox raced around the clearing while transforming into its various teammates, much to their displeasure. In a red flash it was a clone of Liz, running up to her while grinning maniacally. The second Liz sighed and reached into the first’s hair, tugging at something. The clone disappeared, a smiling Zorua once more.

“Knock it off Kelli, we need to focus. Where’s Guini?” Liz turned as she spoke, searching the ground for the green and white Ralts. A warm feeling of content swept over Liz, and she looked up to see Guinevere staring down at her from a branch. Liz reached her hand up and carried her down. With her Pokemon all accounted for, she opened her bag and started pulling out various objects.

Handing Growlithe a small box, she gave each of the Pokemon instructions in turn. “Greg, you’ll help start the fire. For now just carry these over there,” she said, pointing to the left half of the clearing. Greg clamped the small bag in his mouth and trotted over to the appointed site.

She continued, “Serena, you’ll be on wood duty. Try to gather dry kindling for the fire. Ryan and Oreo, you’ll work with me to set up the tent. Kelli, you can look around nearby for any berries to eat. Once the tent is up, Guini and I will get logs for the fire, and then set it up with Greg. Does that sound okay to everyone?” She asked, gazing into each of her Pokemon’s eyes. They nodded, barked, and chirped in agreement before beginning their set tasks.

Liz strolled through the trees with Guini shuffling beside her. If all goes well, we’ll be at the Arasam Contest in no time. She looked down at her companion knowingly, and felt a conscious feeling of agreement emanating from Guini. Liz smiled and picked her up as the traveled further into the forest.

Posted by: KomodoDrgn Jul 16 2012, 04:35 PM

Walten leaned forward on his cane and muttered, "I'm getting too old for this..." under his breath. A freshly polished Klink, who was named Gera, followed happily behind him, the two bodies rotating rhythmically. Sitting on Walten's shoulder was Don the Murkrow, who looked as tired as Walten, but was really using this as an excuse to get a free ride.

"You get off now," Walten grumbled to the small black bird, brushing it away with his cane. Don squawked at the possible threat of the cane hitting her in the face and flew up above the tree branches. Gera emitted a bit of static at the loud noise created by the bird, and chased her around, trying to Vice Grip her, with no result other then causing to create an even bigger rucus.

Walten laughed and sat on a stump. "You two stop that before one of you get hurt, now," He called out to them as the flew off. He stretched and sat his cane on the ground, soon pulling a small satchel full of berries and other fruit from his pocket. As he munched a green apple, he heard a bush start to rustle behind him. As he turned around to inspect, Don flew out and snatched the berries from his bag, landing on a branch and gulping them down one by one. Gera, who was still chasing around Don, crashed into her causing her to drop the berries all over the ground. Walten sighed and went down to retrieve them.

Don, disappointed by the loss of her loot, flew down to ground level and started picking at the dirt. Gera, who decided that it had gotten revenge on the noisy bird, floated triumphantly to the ground and started basking in the sun, letting the light reflect off its shiny skin. After picking up the last of the dropped fruit, Walten went back to the stump his cane was by and rested on the ground, using the stump as a pillow.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jul 16 2012, 11:55 PM

For the first time in what felt like a very long time, Taggarty Lee stood still. The Slowpoke next to him stopped to stare up at him with his ever confused face plastered on. Ever driven forward by whatever ambition happened to fuel him at the time, the man with the tattooed face had come to a stop. For a moment, longer than he was accustomed to, Tag raised his face, closing his eyes. The slightest hint of a smile crossed his face as he felt the gentle breeze waft through his hair and caress his face.

It had been a few days since his loss at the Gigarte Gym and awkwardly parting with Jill Laurent, but something about the serenity of the battlefield clung to him, desperately trying to etch itself in his skin. Today, Tag stopped resisting.

It had been ages, perhaps well over a decade since the dedicated trainer had just let the wind blow over him. Normally the tail-wind blew from behind him, channeling him forward to his various objectives, but today, it swirled around him playfully. He had not known this feeling for quite some time, and had never expected to feel it after a scathing loss to a powerful foe.

He felt content.

Taggarty Lee had selected Baccate Town as his next destination, not because there was anything to accomplish. He'd heard around Gigarte that Baccate was well known for its berries, even if the admissions had come between gritted teeth. It was time to learn to take care of his pokemon on a gentler level. His team, thus far, had respected him due to his firm, but caring nature. Now his regimen had become too strict with training, and it was a due vacation for everyone, even the newer members of his team.

Back in the day, he would never have thought to have taken something as trivial as a little vacation, but the eyes of a particular Poochyena stuck with him. At the request of a being that was essentially a deity, Tag had to give all of his pokemon the option to leave and be free. Of his entire team at the time, only one had chosen to go, and that was Tag's former partner, Zuki.

<Poke.>

The single word echoing in his head snapped him out of his reverie. Looking down to his side, his friend, Tonbo, had taken to a seated position, staring up at him with large, vacant eyes. Tag had first heard the mental voice in his head during the gym match in Gigarte. He'd never really worked with Psychic Pokemon before, but it appeared that Tonbo had taken quite the shine to Tag ever since his rescue in Gigarte. He remembered that sometimes Psychic Pokemon opened mental channels between things, and now, albeit slowly, he was hearing the thought-speak voice of his pokemon. Although smart enough to create a psychic link between them, Tonbo seemed to have difficulty saying anything other than "Poke.", which seemed silly, considering that it was one of two syllables that Tonbo could say aloud. (The other, of course, being "Slow".)

"Right." Tag nodded and slowly began moving forward again, keeping pace with his newfound comrade. He found that he increasingly enjoyed Tonbo's incredibly simple, very zen-like company. The Slowpoke demanded very little of his attention, save for the occasional poke, and Tag in turn demanded very little of his company. The two simply enjoyed existing near one another, which was something that Tag found very comfortable.

Since leaving on his walk from Gigarte, Tag had cycled through his pokemon, giving them each equal time in the sun and warmth, but never more than one, so he could enjoy each of their individual companies. Suzu, naturally, had remained out the longest, being his oldest and most faithful companion...

With the thought of oldest and most faithful companions, Tag's mind flashed to the other of his starting duo...

* * *

"Edwin. Tag."

"Hey there, what can I do for you?" The bespectacled face appeared on the screen in the Pokemon Center.

"Transfer my Pokemon back to the Blackthorn Lab." Tag tapped the screen a few times, as if it would magically do his commands for him. He hadn't quite gotten used to using technology at all, save for pokeballs, TMs and the like. He didn't really enjoy the communicative devices, but evidently, in this day and age they were of utmost necessity.

Edwin nodded, a bit confused by the request. Tag had insisted that his pokemon be sent to the Elm Lab, so as not to be tracked. However, here he was making the exact opposite inquiry with equal resolution.

"I'm swapping them around a bit. Please, take care of Bachi, my Nidoking. He's growing a bit unruly, so I don't want him battling for a bit until I get to Baccate."

"Oh, he probably thinks he's too powerful for you." Edwin offered, tapping a few buttons around on the screen and powering up the transfer machine.

"Admittedly, he might be." Tag shrugged, "I'll swap for him again once I get to Baccate."

"Really, why're you headed there?" Edwin's voice sounded genuinely curious this time. The Tag he knew was entirely about fighting, and Baccate, from the Furohpedia that he'd just pulled up on his screen clandestinely, appeared to be a place for berries.

"I'd like to learn more about my pokemon." The tattooed man spoke earnestly, looking a bit concerned. "I realized that I don't even know what kind of berries they like. I've spent so much time studying their techniques and abilities while calling them my comrades, but I know so little about them."

"Berries is a good first step. I can even send you a primary analysis based on their natures." Edwin offered helpfully, beginning to pull up a chart that Professor Elm himself had developed.

"No." Tag shook his head resolutely. "Let me learn them on my own."

"Oh, you're no fun." the Pokemon Researcher on the other end of the line chided, eliciting the tiniest of smiles on Tag's features. "Anywho, the transfer machine is ready. Let's do this!"

* * *

<Poke.> The voice in Tag's head chimed once again, causing him to look down at his walking companion, only to find that the Dopey Pokemon had actually gotten ahead of him. That, alone, spoke volumes to the pace at which Tag had been walking. Looking beyond that, he noted a brunette girl carrying a Ralts <Poke?>.

Tag slowly approached, hands in pockets as he eyed the the duo closely. Something about her seemed very familiar, though honestly, he couldn't put a finger on where he knew her from. As he once again glanced to his partner as if searching for an answer, he noted that the Dopey looking Pokemon was gazing off through the trees in another direction, as if something or someone had grabbed his attention. Ending his query, Tag decided to continue his approach. Potentially, company seemed like a good idea, even if he was no good at it.

* * *

Posted by: KomodoDrgn Jul 19 2012, 04:37 PM

The skies were dark, lightning striking every step ahead of a large and aged ship, whose sides had began to splinter and crack worse then they already were due to the rough waters. The crew aboard the ship were trying their best to prevent the vessel from flooding, while two others were fighting to keep the sail up.

"Captain! We need to turn back!" cried a member of the ships crew

The captain removed his hat and threw his cane to the ground. "Not without taking this beast down! He's claimed one victim too many, and this needs to end!"

As the captain went to retrieve the harpoon net, a giant shadow loomed over the ship. As the captain yelled at his crew to head for the life boats, and giant beak crashed down onto the ship.

Walten awoke with a start. Don, who was repeatedly pecking at his head and squawking loudly, was the cause of his rude awakening and she knew she was in for it. As Walten went to scold the bird, he heard a small growling coming from her direction. He sighed and knew the reason for her acting the way she did; she was hungry, and Walten had taken the food away. He retrieved the food satchel, and reached in to grab some berries, when the most horrendous stench arose from it. Walton quickly sealed it and dumped them in a nearby ditch. He figured they'd gone bad when they were knocked down on the ground and bruised, but didn't know they'd smell that bad that quickly.

Don squawked once more out of hunger, and Walton figured they'd go looking for food. He'd heard from the lady who'd rescued him that there was a city that specialized in growing berries, and would be a good first stop so he could fill his food supplies a good bit. He chuckled a bit; he found it funny he only remembered his rescuer as "That lady." He then picked up his bag, and let Don rest on his shoulder. "It's going to be a bit before we can find food," he told the Murkrow, "but, we're close to a city that has a whole lot of it. If you can hold out just a little bit more without going crazy, we should be there in a couple of hours."

Don gave an annoyed squawk in response. A couple hours without food? She was starving! How would she ever survive? She sighed and decided she'd go looking herself for food and flew off into the distance.

Walten sighed in annoyance at Don and chased after the black bird, shouting after her and waving his cane around in the air. Gera, who was sunbathing this whole time, slowly and leisurely followed after the other two.

Posted by: Zapi Jul 23 2012, 01:45 PM

Since she moved to Baccate, Mona’s life had been rather uneventful. It had taken her quite a while to adjust to life in the peaceful little town, where she didn’t have to worry about things like where she would sleep, where she would get her food from, whether she would be attacked, and other problems she once constantly faced when she still lived on the streets of Lenoilia. Even now, she often wished something interesting would happen in the town. For now, though, she had gotten used to the pattern of life in Baccate; wake up, eat, pick berries, eat, train with Pokémon, maybe pick some more berries, eat, sleep, rinse and repeat…

But today was different. Today, even as she was picking berries, Mona was on alert. Recently, Pokémon from the town and the area around it had been disappearing without a trace. She had to keep a close eye on her Pokémon; she was hesitant to even let them out of their pokéballs as of late, but they were both in need of exercise, so she made an exception for the time being.

Luckily, at least one of her Pokémon was obedient. Mona couldn’t help but smile down at Lianne as the small, timid Rattata nuzzled against her leg and whimpered quietly. She must have sensed that something strange was going on, or that her trainer was acting oddly. Mona reached down with one hand and picked up her Rattata, using the other hand to nab a small pecha berry from a nearby tree and hold it up to Lianne’s nose. The Pokémon took a second to sniff the berry, and almost immediately took a bite of it, chattering happily. She’s sweet, all right, Mona thought as she lowered Lianne back to the ground.

Her other Pokémon, however, was an entirely different story. Right then, Marion the Shuppet was hovering above his trainer, looking down on her with a menacing smirk on his face. Mona supposed he was up to something; perhaps he was watching for her to look away so he could sneak off and find some poor, unsuspecting trainer to scare, or maybe he was just waiting patiently for one of his pranks to take effect. Whatever the case, Mona wasn’t about to take her eyes off of the Shuppet for more than a minute.

“What are you planning?” she asked him, but Marion just snickered, the same evil smile on his face. “Well, whatever you do, just be careful alright?” Brett would surely kill me if you disappeared on me, she added in her head, remembering her old friend and her Shuppet’s previous trainer. Marion didn’t make any notion that he’d heard his trainer; he just continued smiling down at her. Why do I even bother with that one? She sighed and rolled her eyes, expressing her annoyance at Marion’s lack of response. Normally, she wouldn’t let her emotions show like that, but when she was just around her Pokémon it didn’t matter as much to her.

Her attention was brought back to Lianne as the Rattata let out a squeak of displeasure. She had discovered a cheri berry bush and eaten one of them – apparently, it was a bit too spicy for her taste. Mona laughed quietly, patting her Rattata on the head sympathetically. “Guess cheri berries aren’t your thing, hm? Maybe we’ve had enough berry picking for today,” she suggested. Lianne nodded sadly and Marion didn’t object, so she decided that was a good idea.

“Let’s go, then,” she stated, recalling Lianne to her pokéball. She attempted to do the same for Marion, but he avoided the beam of light that came from the pokéball, so she gave up. “You really like being difficult, don’t you?” she said with a sigh. “Just don’t wander off.” He nodded at that, though Mona doubted his sincerity, and they were off.

Mona had only been walking for a few minutes when she heard some shouting from somewhere nearby. She tensed immediately, listening in order to determine which direction the noise was coming from. Following the sound, she back-tracked a bit and, using a tree for cover, watched a man with a cane shouting and running in her direction. He appeared to be chasing after something – probably that thing, she figured as a Murkrow flew over her head. She doubted that this man was hostile – there was no way that the people who’d been stealing Pokémon would be as boisterous as he was being, since no one had even found traces of those criminals. So, she figured she should warn him about the disappearances, as he appeared to be traveling toward Baccate.

“I’d be a little less loud if I were you,” she voiced as the man grew nearer to her, stepping out from her cover so he could see her. “And I’d also do a better job of keeping track of your Pokémon.” She didn’t mean for either of these remarks to sound mean; from her perspective, she was simply giving him some friendly advice. However, she didn’t realize that she should probably follow her own advice, as her own Shuppet was no longer beside her and had wandered off to who knows where.


((I think Mona was originally going to be in Baccate's pokecenter at the start or something, buuuut I kind of changed that to her picking berries outside of the town so she'd have something to do. Hope that's okay. Also sorry this is so late omg it won't happen again even though it probably will))

Posted by: Dragonwish2 Jul 23 2012, 09:17 PM

Liz paused in her walk, listening intently. She glanced around her in worry. Something felt strange about the space around her, and goosebumps rose on her arm. She backed up slowly, suddenly scared to keep going. It felt as though she had been pulled out of her scherzando stroll and thrown into a horror movie, right at the climax. Liz could almost hear the teenage girls shivering in their lover's arms as ominous music played. A shout erupted in the distance, sending her jumping and running away from the noise. She steeled herself behind a large tree as she held her breath, praying whatever caused the noise might not have heard her. Her vision became speckled with colorful dots.

Her Ralts stared at her as a pensée of curiosity met her trainer's consciousness that guided her to breathe. Liz exhaled deeply, taking in slow breaths to fill her lungs. She leaned against the tree to wait through her wave of dizziness. She glanced down at herself, groaning softly in dismay. Her grey short sleeve v-neck was stained in sweat, her jean shorts stained by the bark, and her new tennis shoes caked in mud and grass. She stared into the treetops in resignation at her fate.

After she regained her breath, she concentrated on one word, in hopes her psychic Pokemon might hear her thought.

<What?>

Liz waited for a reply. Silence followed. She briefly feared that the answer was imponderable, that her Pokemon was as clueless as herself, until she noticed the Ralts was staring at a fixed point behind her. It occured to Liz that Guini had mentally nudged her to notice, but at the moment she didn't care. She waited for a word or sign of what it was the Ralts saw, but Guini remained quiet, refusing to give any hints. Liz pivoted slowly, terrified of what awaited her.

A shriek pierced the air.

Back at camp, Oreo struggled with the tent. Kelli watched him with a smirk as his small flippers wrestled with the poles.

"Mind helping?" Oreo squeaked as upright portion of the tent collapsed on top of him. Kelli snorted and trotted to his side, tugging the cloth away from him with her teeth. The astonished Oshawott shook himself, as though to rid himself of the terrifying memory. Kelli chuckled. Oreo swung flimsily at the Zorua and squirt water at her cackling form as she fled from him. Serena chirped at them from the trees before turning her attention to Ryan.

The quiet figure stood beside Liz's sitting bag, holding the girl's camera. He tapped the sreen gently, watching the images fly by. Some were of himself training and battling various opponents. Others were of people, such as Liz's mother and sister. There were several snapshots of Starfall Field and the meteor. Ryan grimaced at the memory. It burned him that he was unable to always protect Liz. In his view, she was always in trouble, and he was never there to prevent it. He refused to see her hurt anymore. Ryan clicked random buttons on the camera until the screen became dark before he placed it back in the bag.

Serena watched this all and called to him. "What's up? Did you see me on that thing?" She opened her wings, posing as though she were just about to take off. Ryan remained silent as he stared at her. The Taillow sighed and flew off, deciding to instead to join Kelli in her new pursuit of Oreo.

Ryan's ears pricked. A shout echoed just at the edge of his hearing. He turned towards the noise, his nerves on edge in worry. He scanned the area for Liz's aura, to no avail. Ryan panicked. The teenager couldn't have gone far, as far as he knew. He tought of a way to contact her. He needed to see her, to be sure she was alright. An idea struck him, so revulsive, so pitiful, but it would have to do.

He would contact Guini.

It wasn't that he hated Psychic types. He had made sure once to never hate a Pokemon due to having a weakness to them. Even as a fighting Pokemon, he held a certain respect for the Pokemon whose mental abilities could match his own. Nor was it her gender as it would be hypocritical to care for Liz and not Guini by that trait. It wasn't her shape, her size, or anything physical about her. Rather, his dislike of the Ralts stemmed from her connection with Liz. He had seen it early on at Starfall Field, during Liz's amnesia strike. He had immediatly been wary of Guini as she reached out to Liz in comfort. He had feared- no, still feared Guini might take advantage of Liz through their connection. It made him forever careful around the Pokemon, and he didn't especially like the idea of needing her help.

Ryan raced into the forest, screaming with his mind and thinking of the Ralts. <Guini! How is she? GUINI!> After several yards he slowed, hearing a flutter of wings in the trees behind him. Believing it to be Serena following him, he stopped and turned. As he moved it crossed his mind as to why he might not sense the bird before hearing her, until he saw what perched on the branches. His eyes narrowed and he lunged, punching the tree viciously. The branches shook loudly, and leaves fell to the ground.

The branches stilled as the air fell silent and still once more.



Liz clutched her chest, panting. "Oh my gosh, you scared me! Sorry for the yell." Before stood a man with a Slowpoke at his side. His black hair lay tousled above his tanned face, which was covered in tattoos. Something about his nature felt familiar, but she supposed she wouldn't remember any time soon if his tattoos hadn't reminded her up front. Though she scolded herself for the rude thought, it made sense for her to be frightened, given the circumstance and his appearance at a glance. She breathed a sigh of relief as the adrenaline that had rushed her nerves now faded away. It left her thoroughly exhausted, though.

Guini sent her a feeling of amusement at her terror. Liz, still maintaining eye contact with the man, replied to Guini with aggravation, though her face broke into a smile.

Liz continued, "I'm sorry if I scared you. I'm Liz. Have we met before? I'm sorry, but I think I've seen you before somewhere." She thought of any largely public places she had recently been too. She reasoned the man was in Gigarte, or Starfall Field, and that she had passed him unknowingly. It seemed reasonable enough explanation for familiarity.

Meanwhile, Guini watched the man's Slowpoke, following its gaze beyond the trees and into the unknown. It gave her some relief to know she was not alone in her wonderings of the forest. She was distracted momentarily by the man, as she quickly assessed him. She knew that, had Ryan been present, he too would be careful around strangers. She kept a mental note to assure him once they returned to camp; Guini felt that the man had only good intention, though she was prepared to use her teleport move if necessary.

She could only hope it wouldn't be.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jul 23 2012, 11:10 PM

Aforementioned shriek pierced the air...directly in Tag's face. He knew he was both an intimidating sight and incredibly awkward when it came to human interaction...but this was a new reaction all together.

"That's quite the battle-cry." Tag grimaced, placing his hands to his ears in an attempt to stop the ringing. "Consider me mortified."

Tag had made a joke, and not a terrible one. However, his flat delivery left no room for the interpretation that it had been a joke. He made a mental note to add a smile, to at least give the indication that he was joking. On the other hand, the clear image of him did not give any indication that he was, in fact, scared of the cry, but had merely been startled by Liz's rather loud reaction. That alone was funny enough, at least to Tag.

Now that she mentioned it though, Liz did look a bit familiar. He didn't recognize her light blue eyes, which was usually something he noticed about people, but the hair and frame seemed familiar. Peering at her for an intense moment as he racked his brain, he tried to move through some of the possibilities. They televised his matches on TV here in Furoh, so it was possible that she'd seen him battle the gym leaders. However, it wouldn't explain why she seemed familiar to him in turn. Having really met a handful of people in Furoh, Tag remembered all of them to date. This girl, however, was only a glancing memory in his mind, and she seemed to feel the same about him.

"Probably at Starfall Field." He pulled the answer from the ethos. It seemed like the easiest place for him to see people who had also seen him. Usually, people saw him and he ignored them, mostly because they were gawking at his tattoos. "I was with the Team to awaken Registeel. Unless I miss my guess...we may have briefly crossed paths in the Gigas Temple fighting off Golett and Golurk."

He took another moment to size Liz up before extending his hand.

"Anyway, I'm Tag. It's a pleasure to officially meet you." He looked down to his comrade, Tonbo, who was turning now to look at the Ralts. "Might I ask what you're doing out here on your own?"

<Oh.> The Slowpoke, meanwhile, took his sweet time studying the little psychic type before him with his large, dopey eyes. <Hi.>

Tag, meanwhile, heard: <Slow. Poke.>. Internally, he found himself quite pleased. In such a short time, Tonbo had managed to double his thought-speak vocabulary. Even if it was still only the name of his species, it was still progress.

Posted by: KomodoDrgn Jul 24 2012, 10:01 PM

As Walten chased after Don, he could swear he heard someone shout something to him. He slid to a halt and scanned the area behind him, and spotted a young woman with blonde hair. "I'm sorry if she ate some of your crops without permission," he claimed as he removed his hat, "that bird can sometimes be more trouble then she's worth..."

He leaned on his cane with one hand, and Don, belly full and a berry in her beak, happily flew over to his shoulder. She made a happy squawk as well, but dropped the berry onto the ground as she did so. When she flew down to retrieve it, Walten felt it appropriate to introduce themselves. "I'm Walten," he said with a bow, holding his hat to his chest, "This pesky bird is Don," He pointed with his cane to the small avian, who was just finishing up eating fallen berry, "and this is..."

As he went to point to his second Pokemon, he realized that there was nothing there. He looked around, behind and in front of himself. He quickly realized the terrible truth; Gera was missing.

Walten ran to the edge of the forest. "Gera! Gera, answer me!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. Don, who was on the still on the ground, pecking at any scrap of food, perked her head up when she heard Walten yell and flew towards him doing her best to mimic his cries, although the best she could do was a loud "GAR, GAR!"

As Don circled overhead continuously repeating her new word, Walten turned to the young woman, "You wouldn't have happened to see a Klink follow behind me, have you?"

It was right after asking this that Walten heard a shriek pierce the air.

Gera awoke inside a dark cave. The small steel-type created an even smaller spark to light up a little bit of the area, only to find an Alakazam and Ghastly staring right at it. This caused the Klink to stutter in its rotation a bit, which in turn made the spark go out, covering the room in darkness once more.

The last thing Gera heard before being hit with a direct Hypnosis attack was the opening of a door.

Posted by: Zapi Jul 25 2012, 05:14 PM

The man ran a little ahead of where Mona was standing before he heard her voice and turned around. He didn’t make any notion that he’d actually understood what she said, though, but at least he’d slowed down and stopped yelling. The first thing he did was apologize in case his Murkrow ate any of her crops. “She didn’t steal anything,” she stated.

As the man introduced himself as Walten and his Murkrow as Don – odd name for a female, Mona noted mentally – she just watched, her face impassive. He even bowed to her, which came off as rather strange. She didn’t know what she’d done to earn such a greeting; the man was much older than she was, and Mona certainly didn’t think her rugged appearance was what warranted his respect. She guessed he was just trying to be polite, but she had no idea why an adult like Walten would go out of his way to be nice to some teenager. Maybe he was just a nice sort of person…

She wondered for a moment whether she should introduce herself as well, but she didn’t get a chance to do so, as Walten immediately started fretting about another of his Pokémon, who was apparently missing. Looking around in attempt to assist him in his search, she noticed Marion was missing as well. She swore under her breath, instantly regretting not trying harder to get the mischievous Shuppet into his pokéball. It was becoming harder for her to hide her frustration. Didn’t I warn him not to wander off?! Please don’t let this be another one of his stupid pranks…

“No, I didn’t see anything,” she said in reply to Walten’s question. “My Shuppet’s gone too. We should try to find them as soon as possible; there have been reports of Pokémon disappearing lately, I was trying to warn you about it earlier but—”

She was abruptly cut off as a shriek pierced the air. “What... what was that?” Although she managed to keep a mostly neutral expression on her face, she couldn’t hide the shock and fear in her voice. Without waiting for Walten to answer, she took off in the direction of the yell. “Come on!” she called, but she didn’t turn around to make sure the man was following.

---

Meanwhile, Marion had to restrain his laughter. Finally, a prank that actually worked on his trainer! He was, in fact, floating along right behind her; however, he’d made himself invisible, so she couldn’t see him. It was really difficult for the Shuppet not to break out into maniacal cackling at the sight of Mona’s needless panic. He couldn’t believe she actually thought he would ever wander off if he knew he could be in danger of being stolen – he wasn’t that dim.

No, he thought, looking at his trainer. I’m not wandering off at a time like this. Brett told me to protect you, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

Posted by: Dragonwish2 Jul 29 2012, 04:11 PM

At the notion of her battle cry, Liz inwardly blushed. It was laughable that she let herself become so easily startled, but she blamed it on hormones and her Ralts, who had taken to staring at Tag's Slowpoke. Liz could hear an odd whisper in the back of her head as the two Pokemon engaged in a staring contest. Shrugging it off as post-scare jitters, Liz brightened at Tag's question. It was nice to talk to someone other than her Pokemon, for a change. She hadn't spoken to anyone at length since Gigarte, which felt like ages ago. Company was just what she needed, she thought.

As she looked Tag over once again, she realized that, by coincidence or by fate, the past few men she had met were all rather... odd. They were all friendly, but each one had a unique appearance and held themselves in a almost alien fashion. Liz had met a dragon trainer who lived like a knight from Camelot, a gaunt wolfish boy who could speak in barks, and now she was face to face with a tribal warrior or something. She was glad to see that the newest person was at least ordinary in his speech pattern. While she loved to speak to exotic people, what she really wanted was a normal person who didn't boast or bark as small talk.

"I'm on my way to Arasam for a contest. I'm hoping to earn my first ribbon. But first, I'm stopping by Baccate Town. I'm guessing you're doing the same." Liz gestured to the Slowpoke before continuing, "Baccate is supposed to be relaxing, like one big aromatherapy clinic." Liz sighed just at the thought. It would be bliss to visit a spa, but she knew that she didn't have the money. She had saved the rest of her money for Pokeblock making, including berries. Feeling the small lump in her pocket that was her wallet, she was reminded how she needed to find a way to make money while in Baccate as well.

While Liz chatted, Guini peered down at the Slowpoke. <Hello. Who are you?> She was pleased to meet another psychic Pokemon. A proper telepathic conversation was an engaging activity that was rare for her to enjoy. Even though Ryan had mental strength similar to a psychic, it just wasn't the same, and the Riolu refused to speak to her as well.

Liz glanced at Guini. An odd feeling of joy emanated from her, with more whispers tickling the back of her mind. "It seems they like each other," she said. It made sense to her that the two were instant friends, what with a Slowpoke being part psychic. She wondered if they were speaking telepathically, and vowed to question the little Ralts later on the subject.

"Anyways," she continued, "I'm not really alone. My other Pokemon are back at my camp. Want to see?" She pointed in the direction of her camp.

Guini gave her own idea of returning, showing Liz an image of the camp burning and Oreo setting up the tent horrifically. Liz breathed a groan of annoyance and muttered, "Oh, no! I forgot." The thought of her new tent being destroyed was dismal, as her old one had been struck with a meteor at Starfall Field. It would cost her too much to buy yet another tent. That, and it was her own fault for leaving the Pokemon alone. She would be the one to blame if the forest went up in smoke.

She turned, running into the forest. Seconds passed before took she stopped herself by grabbing a tree. When she managed to steel herself, she looked over her shoulder, beckoning Tag with a wave before sprinting off again. Guini clung to her shirt as she ran, regretting her input in the conversation.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jul 31 2012, 04:23 PM

"A Co-ordinator" Tag tested the word. Liz hadn't outrightly declared herself as such, but the words "Contest" and "Ribbon" stuck out like a pair of sore thumbs.

Tag, himself, had never shown any interest in contests. While he had a more elegant battle style than most ruffians, he would never have thought to make his moves...pretty. He required function over form at all times, and had trained his pokemon in efficiency rather than big showy attacks. The notion struck him as rather absured. He wasn't sure he'd battled any co-ordinators to date, so he wondered what the sensation was like.

Appraising the Ralts in Liz's arms, Tag surmised that it wasn't a very experienced battler. He wasn't sure exactly what criterion he was following, but his instinct told him that Liz probably did not have a team of pokemon that would match his in strength.

The only other co-ordinators he remembered meeting were Darryn Kellor and Seiccan Serroc. The former evidently possessed some powerful pokemon, which excited Tag immensely. The latter seemed more of a loudmouth than anything, but Tag had witnessed a smudge of skill, which meant that in time, Seiccan could grow into a decent sort of battler.

But, Pokemon Battling wasn't quite on the agenda today. He was moreso looking forward to studying the casual side of his pokemon, notably their berry preferences. No, he'd save training for a later date. Everyone on his roster had earned a vacation, and that's what they were getting.

"I'm hoping it is." Tag nodded earnestly. "Feels like I've been going non-stop since I arrived in Furoh. I'm overdue for a vacation."

Meanwhile, Tonbo continued to stare at Guini, whose perch in Liz's arms evidently confused him. Though, perhaps it was just projection, because Tonbo always wore a fairly confused, uninspired look on his face.

<Tonbo. Yes. My Master calls me Tonbo. Pleased to meet you. What's your name, little one?>

Tonbo's thought-speech came off as distracted and distant, as if he were only partially involved in the covnersation. Outwardly, the Slowpoke turned his head, looking around through the foliage again, as if seeking out something invisible.

Then, almost without warning, Liz invited Tag to her camp, then tore off.

With an almost imperceptible sigh, Tag recalled Tonbo to his pokeball and took off at a brisk pace after the young girl. The Slow Pokemon probably could not have kept up at that pace. Tag gradually sped up into a jog, surprised at Liz's burst of energy.

* * *

In the air where Tag and Liz had stood just moments before, a pair of eyes seemingly opened in mid-air, followed by a wide, toothy smirk. Slowly, a dark vapor poured out from around the floating face, forming the body of a grinning Gastly. With a soft, mischevious snicker, the ghost floated after the two trainers, fading from sight once more as it bore down on campsite.

Posted by: Soos Jul 31 2012, 08:21 PM

Walten, not wanting to get into any trouble with one of his two Pokemon missing, decided against running into the forest to investigate the loud scream with the young woman. Instead, he'd search the nearby town for any signs of it. Don, being the ever-so curious Murkrow she was, didn't like his idea, and immediately tried to sneak off to search for the source. This attempt ended in failure, though, because when she took off, she started to "call" for Gera with her usual "Gar!"

Walten heard her right away, and with a shake of his head recalled her to her Pokeball. "I can't have you disappearing as well, so if that's how you're going to act, you can spend time in there," He mumbled to the Murkrow.

As he searched and asked around for information, he caught a rumor that made his heart sink. Apparently, Pokemon all over the town were vanishing, and every one seemed to have their own theory. One person told him that there was a hidden grove that attracts Pokemon of all types, but it takes longer for some to get attracted then for others. Another person told him that there were bandits that were snatching unsuspecting Pokemon away from their owners. He just didn't know what to believe, although, with so many stories, he figured one of them could be true.

Gera awoke once more, although this time in a cage. Or a box. It was still hard to tell what anything was still, as it was still dark, but the Klink knew it was in a tight space. It tried creating a spark to light up the area, but to no avail.

It soon after this Gera realized that the two gears that make up its body were no longer spinning. In fact, they were separated! Gera felt stupid for not realizing this sooner, and struggled to find the other half of its body which was, as expected, in a different crate.

This wouldn't be much of a problem if that only meant Gera couldn't use any attacks. What worried Gera was the fact that if the gears stopped spinning, it would soon power down, until reunited once more with its other half. Gera just stopped worrying and hoped that someone, hopefully Walten, would come to its rescue, and soon.

Posted by: Dragonwish2 Sep 3 2012, 10:16 PM

The speed at which she ran allowed Liz to arrive at her campsite within minutes. She slowed down as she neared; the lack of ominous screams or flame made her less eager to run like a maniac. Guinevere slid from her bag, colors swimming before her eyes until she steadied herself. The Ralts took a moment to glance at the nearby Pokemon. She was dismayed to see that the Slowpoke had been returned to its Pokeball. She resolved to think positively; the opposite seemed to produce poor results.

Liz was relieved to find the camp perfectly safe, if a bit messier. She grabbed her bag from the ground and slung it across her back. Her camera slipped from the inside, falling to the dirt with a soft thump. She frowned and picked it up, examining it with curiosity.

A picture of herself and Guinevere glowed softly on the screen. Judging by the rocky background and bandage on her arm, Liz inferred the image to be from Starfall Field. As she wondered what might have turned on the device footsteps sounded behind her. She turned, her face downcast in apology as she remembered the tattooed man.

"Sorry about the rush. Someone thought there might be trouble." She shot a glare at Guini and, after the Ralts gave a shrug, chuckled softly. "Everything's OK though," she continued. Someone barked at her, and she glanced at her feet to see Greg pawing her leg. Liz laughed and stroked his fur.

"This is Greg. The Oshawott over there," Liz said, pointing, "is Oreo. Kelli and Serena are my Zorua and Taillow. You've already met Guini." She gestured at each Pokemon in turn, until she was left searching for her Riolu. Her brow creased in worry. The trees were fairly widespread in the surrounding area, enough to see past the majority of them with ease. Finding a blue Pokemon amongst them shouldn't have been difficult, yet Liz found herself frustratingly unable to locate him.

She believed he was unlikely to keep any great distance from herself, out of some hidden loyalty she had taken for granted, she now knew. Liz began to wonder why he hadn't appeared at her side when she had screamed earlier. She scolded herself mentally for the thought; it appeared shallow in her eyes, and yet she couldn't deny the underlying truth of it. His disappearance made her uneasy.

You never know what you've got 'til it's gone, she thought bitterly. The quote was fitting, if cruel, and easily applied to her situation. Liz felt as though a life-long friend had simply vanished, leaving her with a void in her heart. In an attempt to cheer herself, she imagined him waltzing into the site with his calm red eyes watching Tag carefully as they did, and how she would be furious and overjoyed to see him, hugging and chastising him simultaneously. She let her mind toy with the idea until her heart broke the lack of his presence.

She became desperate in her search, though she forced her face to remain as placid as possible. Her mind focused on Guini. Concentration allowed her to convey a message in random images and blips of emotion.

<Where is Ryan?>

Liz busied herself with cleaning the camp to allow Guini to ponder the question. She hoped that Guini, with her psychic abilities, might be able to locate him. Though Liz itched to reach for a novel from her bag to take her mind off of the matter, she took her Pokemon and Tag into account. She thought it would be rude to shut them out so suddenly.

"So, Tag," she called as she bent down for her tent, "what are you on vacation from? Are you a badge collecting trainer, a coordinator, or something else altogether?" Liz stood at the end, staring into Tag's eyes for a moment before continuing her work. "Pardon me if I'm wrong, but I'd guess you're not the contest type. Do you enter Pokeringer contests then?" She considered the man for a moment. Her imagination allowed her to visualize him with a sharp eyed Skarmory or energetic Crobat. Gigarte was the home of such contests, she knew, and Baccate was near enough to be a plausible vacation spot.

Something made her pause in her cleaning. Guini had formulated a response and shown it to Liz. It was one of the few words the Ralts knew how to display clearly in word.

<No.>

What accompanied the word made Liz softly gasp. A wave of emotion enveloped her thoughts, a wild mix of sadness, apprehension, and an empty feeling of despair that caused a knot to form in the coordinator's throat. Wordlessly, she returned all but Guini to their Pokeballs, struggling to make her arms move calmly. She steadied herself before turning to Tag again.

"I-I can't seem to find my last Pokemon. He's a Riolu. I don't think he's simply wandered off- he's not that kind of Pokemon, you can imagine- and I'm a bit worried. This is a bit unusual for him, and I- well, I'm not sure where he could be." She stopped herself. Tears sprang to her eyes. "Would you mind helping me look for him? Maybe there's someone in Baccate who's seen him, or, or-" Again she cut herself off, fearing that if she continued, she would not be able to stop her oncoming tears. She stared into Tag's eyes with determination, silently praying he would help her find her lost Riolu.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Sep 4 2012, 12:11 AM

Tag slowed his pace a bit, feeling only slightly winded from the nice jog he had taken. The girl, Liz, grinded to a halt, which meant that they'd arrived. The sight of a fairly messy campsite, with a few pint-sized pokemon made it clear that she'd let them do the set up.

It struck him as odd that the girl had let her Pokemon Comrades do the work. He'd never thought to ask his Pokemon for help in setting up his campsites, but perhaps this was a good idea. It seemed like a nice bonding experience for everyone. On the other hand, Tag preferred setting up the camp on his own, and kept his Pokemon in their Pokeballs, save Suzu, who often stayed at his side. She never did any of the work, though. Tag took care of that.

Then again, the tattooed man had been journeying for much longer than Liz. It stood to sense that he'd been on a Pokemon Journey longer than she'd been alive.

"No worries." Tag nodded to her, in what he believed was an attempt to allay her fears that he'd been somehow inconvenienced by the change in pace. "Hello Greg. Oreo. Kelli. Serena, and officially Guini. Pleasure to meet you." He watched closely as Liz appeared distracted with looking for something else. Though, he figured, at her age, having five Pokemon was a bit of a feat. He'd probably journeyed with Dratini alone for several years, considering the sparcity of Dragon Pokemon. Nevertheless, she seemed distracted, almost distraught, at missing something.

For the moment, Tag took an interest in the little black Fox-looking pokemon. He'd only met one other Zorua, to his memory, and it had been rather fascinating. He'd caught the jig of how to battle them pretty quickly, but he was pretty sure that they would always be a surprise in battle, no matter how prepared one was.

"Oh. I'm a Badge-Collecting Trainer. Just lost to the Gym Leader in Gigarte, so I figure...a little break before we resume training. "Pokeringer though. That's an interesting thought." His only available flyer was Suzu; perhaps it would be something she enjoyed? He had no idea.

Then, Tag finally pinpointed the distracted look. Just as he was about to ask if something was wrong, Liz approached him with tears in her eyes. He knew that look; the mixture of worry and grief. He'd seen it at Starfall Field, amongst the survivors in the Gigas Temple. He'd seen it concerning a Tepig with broken ribs. He'd probably caused it in droves back in Blackthorn. He'd been growing painfully familiar with this look.

Taggarty Lee, unbeknownst to himself, had turned into a person who could not turn a blind eye to someone in need. Especially when they asked him. Like an awkward knight, he felt the compulsive need to help those who needed his help. He'd taken on an Eco-Terrorist group, simply because they'd taken over a Pokemon Center. He'd taken on a Black Market in Lenoilia. He'd helped two known members of Team Deception rescue one of their Pokemon. He'd figured that it was because he was atoning for the great sin he'd committed years back, but it was also nice to realize that he had some sort of obsessive-compulsion with aiding the unfortunate.

"Of course." Tag nodded, kneeling down in front of Liz. He quickly formulated somet semblance of a plan. "Let's get our more mobile Pokemon out. Serena, if I recall, could probably cover some ground."

With that, he plucked two pokeballs from his belt.

"Suzu. Orin." He intoned as he dropped them to the floor. From the ensuing light, a Ledian and a Froslass, respectively, burst up into the air to the Tag's right. Tag pulled out an area map from his bag, spreading it out on the floor between Liz and himself. "Meet Liz." He indicated his new acquaintance offhandedly while staring at the map.

"Hmmm. Okay. There's Baccate. Here's...about where we are, right? We're just a bit North of Baccate. Liz, you and I will head South, towards the town. Okay ladies, we're looking for a lost Riolu. Suzu, you go North, then double back and meet us over in Baccate. Orin, head West, then back South-East to meet us in Baccate. If you find the Riolu, escort him back with you. Understood?"

Suzu nodded, chancing a glance over to the distressed Liz. Putting two and two together, Tag's most loyal Pokemon immediately flitted up into the air, above the treetops, and began a direct move south.

Orin, hand-sleeve to her mouth as always, bowed in a surprisingly respectful manner reminiscent of a kimono-girl, and quickly floated towards the West, her 'dress' billowing out behind her as she went.

"Tobi, Kyoko." Two more pokemon appeared once Suzu and Orin had dispersed. Tobi, Tag's Vulpix, looked up to Liz immediately, tilting his head in confusion at the girl. He then looked to Tag for an answer, receiving only a nod. Deigning this enough of an answer, Tobi settled back onto his haunches, sitting regally while waiting for his command. Kyoko, Tag's Bellossom, appeared with what was almost a customary twirl. It had been a move she'd been practicing since she was a Gloom, and had since polished the entrance move. Upon seeing the upset girl, she immediately hopped over, placing one of her short arms on the girl's leg, looking up at her.

"This is Liz. Her Riolu's missing. We're heading south, but pan out. Tobi, take the right, Kyoko, the left. Head South with us, but keep an eye out for Liz's Riolu, got it?"

He stood once more, offering a hand to Liz to help her up if she'd joined him on the floor with the map.

"Okay, let's pack up your campsite and get moving. He can't have gotten too far."

Posted by: Soos Sep 16 2012, 03:38 PM

Walten was at a loss. Gera, a Pokemon who wasn't one to get lost or wander off, has completely and utterly disapeared off the map. No one in town had seen the little Steel type anywhere, and Walten was sure it was following close behind him before it vanished. There seemed to be only one explanation for this, and that was that Gera had gotten left behind at their little campsite a little south of town. Well, it was either that, or it'd been Poke-napped. Walten didn't want to think about that scenario, though.

As Walten was making his way back to the stump on which he'd napped on earlier, Don escaped from her ball and perched on her master's shoulder. In her mind, she had a good idea about where the pesky Klink was, and that was in a field of lush berries, with it hogging them all to itself! She didn't like the idea of this one bit, and squawked in both anger and annoyance. So, she figured as soon as Walten found his way back to where they stayed earlier, she'd take off and find the greedy little Klink.

When Walten finally made it, he yelled for Gera multiple times. Instead if Gera, his worst fears answered in response; there was no sign of it here, either. He slumped onto the tree stump, wiped the sweat off his face and sighed. He looked up at Don, who was high above the trees and squawking wildly, and shook his head. The noisy bird would attract unwanted attention. He tried calling her back to her ball, but found she was too high up for it to reach. It was at this time an Idea popped into his head.

"Don! Get down here!" he yelled, "I might have an idea for how we could find Gera!"

Don, barely able to hear her master, flew back down and perched on a branch.

He explained to her that Gera might have gotten lost in the woods, and that they should look deeper into them to find it. He also explained that they shouldn't split up in fear she'd get lost, too, but rather have Don search up in the air, with himself right below her, calling out for Gera.

Don squawked "GAR!" in response and took off, heading south-west, and calling out "GAR! GAR!" repeatedly. Walten followed close behind her, calling out for Gera and keeping his eyes on Don, in case anything were to happen to her.

Posted by: Dragonwish2 Sep 17 2012, 06:58 PM

A tear slid down her cheek as she fell to her knees. Liz wiped away the tear, smiling in relief at Tag’s enthusiasm. Her own body drained of energy as though her soul had left her. She could barely nod numbly in response. A blue light woke her from her stupor, and she discovered its source with a gasp of awe. A Froslass and a lady bug with white gloves gazed at her unblinking as Tag introduced them to be Orin and Suzu. Though exhausted, she managed to pull together a single question that struck her as absurd.

“Oran? As in the berry?” Liz smiled at the idea of naming Pokémon after berries; a Cleffa might be named Pecha, and a Charmander dubbed Tamato. The idea was amusing to her. Maybe there was a Gyarados out in the world named Rawst. She almost laughed, until the emotional pain of her fear struck her again. In her depression she dismissed the idea; the name of the bug discontinued it anyways, Liz thought. She watched as Suzu fluttered away in a buzz of wings.

The Froslass lingered, bowing to Liz as an odd respect before floating away on the breeze. She watched her go with awe. The beautiful ice and ghost type was majestic in its movement, like a white ballerina in the air. She found herself wondering whether or not Tag had told the truth when he said he was a trainer. His Pokemon alone held great potential for contests, and she questioned whether or not she should tell Tag of her assessment. His next two Pokémon only confirmed her idea, as the Vulpix and Bellossom held a grace Liz couldn’t deny.

"Your Pokémon are beautiful,” she managed to whisper. It was all she could make of it at the moment, for Tag pulled Liz to her feet, and her attention returned to her trauma with an aching sigh. She scooped up Guinevere with her, letting the Ralts rest on her bag as she cleaned up the rest of her camp. In quick movements she plucked item after item from the ground. Luckily enough, her Pokémon had made little progress on unpacking, allowing her an easy clean up. Ryan would have kept things clean, she thought, and again she scolded herself for such negative thoughts. Desperately she searched her brain for something to take her mind off of it. Consideration of what Tag had said seconds before made her grow increasingly ashamed. She had forgotten her own Pokemon after Tag's had filled the camp.

In a single movement she retrieved a Pokéball from her belt and released Serena, outstretching a hand to the bird. Serena came to rest on her thin wrist with a chirp. Liz stared into her eyes at the Taillow, her gaze determined.

“Serena, Ryan’s gone missing. Can you head east and search for him? Tag and I are heading South to Baccate. You can double back and meet up with us once you’ve checked around.” After a moment's thought she leaned in and whispered something. Serena’s eyes widened lightly, but she chirped nonetheless and took off, soon out of sight. Liz sent a prayer with her flying Pokemon.

Like the dove returned with the olive branch, please, please come back with Ryan.

She considered other options of search. Though her first thought was of aura, which only made her want to cry again, she remembered how some trainers could teach canine Pokemon to track scents. She released her Growlithe and watched almost wistfully as he landed in the dirt at her feet. He barked at her, licking her hands playfully. She stroked his fur, all the while staring him in the eyes.

"Greg, this is Tag, Tobi, and Kyoko." She pointed at them in turn with her forefinger. Greg fearlessly approached the tattooed trainer and sniffed his feet. He barked as if in confirmation before turning his attention to the Bellossom and Vulpix. He glanced over the grass type, his attention falling eagerly on Tobi. Greg barked at the fox Pokemon and he fell onto his forepaws, his tail wagging in a clear sign of desired play. Liz knelt down and rubbed his fur virogously, chuckling. "We can't play now, Greg. We've got work to do. Ryan's missing. Think you can help us look for him on our way to Baccate?" She laughed again as the dog licked her cheek and stepped out beside Kyoko, sniffing the ground in search of Ryan's scent. He checked Liz for approval and, at a wave of her hand, set off happily into the forest in a Southerly manner. His trainer followed at an even pace, not wanting to run after her previous jog.

Watching her own Pokemon, Liz's mind wandered back to Tag's team.

"You know," she said to Tag, "your Pokemon would be amazing in a contest, I think. They have great potential." She smiled down at the Bellossom and Vulpix. "They probably already know a lot about double battles if they've trained for gym battles. And I bet combination moves are second nature to them." She imagined the Belossom firing a stun spore attack, paired with a will-o-wisp for a blazing rain. It would be an amazing combo, both to pull off and watch, yet Liz felt her heart soften at the idea. She considered other topics to talk about.

"So, Tag. How many badges do you have?" Liz hoped casual conversation might lift her spirits. "I don't have any ribbons myself, but like I said before, I'm anxious to enter a contest. Are gym battles particularly difficult? What kind of Pokemon have you met on your journey?" She stopped herself and blushed, embarassed to have let loose a barrage of questions. She realized she was excessively nervous and reassessed what she was trying to ask. "What I mean is," she said slowly, "you seem to have been with your Pokemon on your journey a lot longer than me. Is there anything really interesting you've ever seen or done?"

In the back of her mind a seed of doubt lingered. She shrugged it off, desperately clinging to anything familiar; it felt as though the solid rock beneath her feet had turned to slipping sand. The feeling was bitterly familiar, yet she struggled to place it. She figured that she hadn't felt sorrow this great since-

Liz gasped at the realization. She hadn't felt this pain since her father had died.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Sep 18 2012, 06:11 PM

"Orin..." Tag looked a little embarassed. He'd never had to reveal where the names come from before, so it seemed a little odd explaining it for the first time. "...comes from 'Hyorinmaru'. All of my pokemon's names are derived from the names of swords."

He heard Liz whisper something barely audible about his pokemon, but couldn't quite make it out. Inwardly, he hoped that she'd said something nice. Before he could ask, however, Liz summoned her Taillow, who after a verbal command and a whispered one, disappeared off into to the air headed east as Tag had suggested. To add to their entourage, she summoned a Growlithe. Tag allowed himself a small smile as the fire-puppy bravely advanced, sizing the much larger Tag up and down with unsurprising scrutiny. The Growlithe, Greg, took an immediately playful liking to Tobi.

The vain Vulpix tilted his head slowly, then turned it away, nose upturned. Tag shook his head, the small smile remaining on his face; Tobi had turned into such a spoiled brat since his rescue from Lenoilia. Tag had certainly expected a regal, intelligent pokemon, but it appeared that Tobi thought very, very highily of himself.

As Greg bounded forward, Kyoko and Tobi parted as well, heading out to form a sort of 'net', in order to spread out their shared field of vision. This would make it easier to spot the Riolu on their way down to Baccate, should they have had the fortune to cross paths.

Liz suggested contests, and made a surprisingly good argument for it. He shrugged as he slipped his hands into his pockets while they walked:

"I'm sure they would be. I'm the one who'd make a poor co-ordinator. I've been a battling trainer all my life; my fighting style is more function than form, really. Really, they don't go for 'combination moves' in the way that co-ordinators do. For instance, I had Suzu use 'Encore' on Chloe of Gigarte's Cradily after it used Sandstorms. Then I had Tonbo use 'Disable' on it, which locked it into Struggle for a little bit."

He looked over at Tobi and Kyoko, who'd both moved ahead a bit to keep pace with Greg the Growlithe, and he wondered whether or not they'd enjoy something like a contest. They certainly seemed determined in battles, but perhaps they'd like the chance to show off their skill.

"I have two badges." He reached into his pocket, drawing out the old cigarette case that contained his badges. Flipping it open, he pulled out the two Furoh badges while the badges from the rest of the regions jingled around. "Twilight and Emberwing." Setting them back in, he slipped the case back into his pocket, where it usually lived. "Gym battles are outrageously difficult. I'm surprised I even have two badges."

He raised an eyebrow at her next question, pausing to think in the air.

"I think I can safely say I've met all the non-fossil, non-legendary pokemon from all of the regions except for Unova, but I'm starting to meet those here in Furoh. I started journeying roughly...11 years ago. I used to be a Dragon Trainer, training only Dragon Pokemon." A faraway look crossed his eyes as he continued to walk, not really paying attention to his surroundings.

"There were rumours for awhile that I tried to scale the Sky Tower in Hoenn, where Rayquaza lived. There was another one that I tried to break into the Distortion World via Sendoff Spring in Sinnoh." He looked down at Liz with a bit of a smirk. "Both are true. I did try. The pokemon there were just too powerful for me, so I never got to meet those legendary Dragons."

Noticing that Liz started to sag a bit, overcome with grief, Tag reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder. He figured that what she felt was something similar to how he felt when he had been exiled from Blackthorn and had his pokemon confiscated. He'd tried to kill himself; hopefully she wasn't as overdramatic as he had been.

"So..." he stammered a bit, trying to find more conversation to occupy their time while they walked, looking for the missing Riolu. "Suzu is short for 'Suzumushi', which means 'Pure Insect'. After I stopped being a Dragon Trainer, she was my first pokemon, hatched from an Egg back home in Johto. 'Bachi' is my Nidoking, who's not with me at the moment. His name is short for 'Suzumebachi', which is short for 'Giant Hornet'. Tobi, you see over there, is named after 'Tobiume', which means 'Flying Plum Tree'. Kyoko is short for 'Katen Kyokotsu', or 'Flower Heaven, Crazy Bone'. Tonbo, whom you met earlier, is short for 'Haguro Tonbo', or 'Iron Drink Dragonfly'. Kana, my Spinda, is short for 'Sakanade', or Counter-Stroke. Uchi, my Nosepass, is named after 'Tsuchinamazu', which means 'Soil Catfish'. Lastly, my Mareep is named Enka, after 'Raika Goen Kaku', or 'Lightning Flash, Flame Shell'."

After a moment, Tag looked to Liz once more: "Maybe...maybe I can join you in the next Contest? Maybe I can give it a shot. For fun."

Fun. That in itself was a rather strange concept. Tag can't remember the last time he did anything purely for enjoyment. He worried that he wasn't able to do it at all. He internally groaned: Taggarty Lee had forgotten how to have fun.

Posted by: Soos Oct 6 2012, 06:55 PM

Walten looked up to the sky when he heard Don shriek for his attention. As he saw her circle above a small area in the sky, Walten figured it to be one of two scenarios; either she found something relating to their search of Gera, or she found something relating to her search of a filled belly. Either way, he felt it wouldn't hurt to follow the little bird's cries of attention. He followed her all the way to a small clearing. By the looks of the surroundings, it seems as if someone had just packed up their things and left. Anyhow, it looked like a perfect area for starting up a little camp for lunch.

Don could have sworn she smelled food around this area, and she just knows that Gera is hogging a whole gourmet of food all to itself, the greedy little thing. This thought infuriated her, and she flew off as fast as she could to the south, shouting "GAR!" all the while.

Walten was surprised when he saw Don fly off. Didn't she want to stop and eat here? He figured that to be the reason she called him to the area, but he could be wrong. So, he packed up his bag and chased after the bird.

Don, finally coming to her senses, just couldn't believe that she just skipped out on a nice lunch. She squawked in annoyance with herself, but soon remembered that Gera was hiding out in a field filled with berries. Her stomach rumbled with anticipation, and she took off faster, only to smack head first right into the back of a strange man. She flailed around on the ground a bit, before getting back up. She then squawked and flew back to Walten, who was just a few steps behind her.

Walten sighed and picked up Don, placing her on his shoulder. He looked at the two people standing in front of him, a man and young woman. It was obvious she smacked right into one of the two, he could see a lump developing on her head. "Sorry if she hurt you. She can be a bit... Out of her head on an empty stomach..." At this he pulled a berry and fed it to her.

"My name is Walten, and this is Don," He motioned his hand over to the now satisfied Murkrow. "We're looking for my Klink, named Gera. It went missing earlier today, and we've been looking high and low for it. You woundn't have happened to have spotted it, would you?" He knew it was a long shot to ask these strangers, but he at least hoped they would have some sort of information for him.

Posted by: Dragonwish2 Oct 16 2012, 07:07 PM

Liz listened intently to Tag. The origin of Orin’s name surprised her greatly. It was intriguing to see such depth in nicknaming one’s Pokémon. She considered playing with the idea later and made a mental note to do so before Tag revealed a small box holding his badges. Liz was stunned by the gleaming multitude, but it was his honesty and experience that really captured her; before her eyes he transformed from a tattooed teenager to a wise old man weaving stories of adventure. He told her how long ago it was since he first started his journey, and the years made her almost gape in amazement. Eleven years ago? I’m barely older than his entire journey! Such a revelation shocked her beyond words. To her, it was as though she had just boarded the S.S. Anne and sailed off to Furoh with Lilycove City at her back. She knew she would have felt increasingly inferior to him, if not for the respect with which he spoke to her.

His mentioning of Dragon Pokémon aroused new thoughts. Liz was surprised to learn such a trait of his past. He hardly seemed like a man who would train ferocious beasts. A glance at his dainty Bellossom and feminine Vulpix seemed to disprove his claims, until he moved on to his attempted feats. The legendary names of Rayquaza and Giratina awed her further.

She realized then that Dragon Trainers came in many shapes and forms, like all trainers. Some were arrogant and boastful, as she had previously stereotyped them; others were kind and wise, with Tag among them.

A hand fell on her shoulder, and Liz looked up into the soft eyes of Tag. They comforted her to a great length and she felt her spirit lifting. She pushed away her dark worries and focused on the moment, glad to be rid of the weight on her shoulders. Tag went on to explain his other Pokémon’s nicknames.

She was smiling by the time he had finished. The ‘Flower Heaven, Crazy Bone’ was most intriguing of them. What would inspire that name, she wondered. Before she could ask, Tag paused and spoke softly.

"Maybe...maybe I can join you in the next Contest? Maybe I can give it a shot. For fun."

Liz’s face broke into a wide smile and she blissfully forgot her question.

“Really? I mean, that’s great! It would be so much fun to have someone I know with me!” She blushed, but her enthusiasm kept her from quieting. “Even if it’s just ‘for fun’, I think you’ll enjoy it. But I guess I can’t speak from experience quite yet. That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth a shot. With such a diverse team as yours, you have a lot of options to go with for appeal and battle team.” She glanced down at Guini, who suddenly grown warm in her arms. The Ralts sent a blip of feeling to her trainer, one of pride and sheer happiness. It lifted Liz’s heart to cloud nine. She rubbed the psychic type’s head softly, glancing at Tag. He had a somewhat faraway look in his eyes.

A dark shape appeared from behind him. Liz gasped and was seconds from warning him, but it was too late; a black Murkrow slammed into Tag’s back. It fell to the ground clumsily, but it wasn’t long for its senses to return and it rose, squawking at Tag as though it were his fault. The bird flew to an elderly man, who set it on his shoulder.

The man apologized and introduced himself as Walton, the Murkrow being Don. He then asked if either of them had seen a Klink. Liz frowned slightly at the name and retrieved her Pokedex from her bag, snapping it open with her thumb and flitting through it until she found the data under Klink.

"Klink, the Gear Pokémon. Two bodies comprise a fixed pair. They spin around each other to generate electricity." The image revealed two gears with blank expressions, locked together in an eternal rotation.

She turned it off and tucked it in her pocket. Turning her attention to Walton, she realized something both she and the man had in common; they both had lost one of their Pokémon. She considered the possibility of it being a coincidence. Immediately she dismissed it. Liz figured that if both disappearances had occurred at about the same time, it was likely suspicious. She stared solemnly into Walton's eyes and shook her head.

"No, I haven't seen your Pokémon. I'm Liz." A sigh escaped her. She quickly recomposed herself. “This is Tag.” She gestured to the tattooed trainer beside her before continuing: “My Riolu, Ryan, has also gone missing. We were heading to Baccate with our Pokémon to look for him. Would you like to join us?” She knew that three heads were better than one. Her only worry was that she would end up being treated as a child, what with both of the men being so much older than her. She only hoped she could maintain a certain level of maturity in their presence to earn a certain respect.

Greg noticed the pause behind him and stopped, turning to see what could possibly keep anyone from enjoying such an exciting march. He quickly spotted Walton and fell into a playful stalking crouch. With all the stealth of a puppy he snuck up behind Tag, peeking out at Walton. He let a second pass as he tensed, coiling up like a spring before surging past Tag’s legs, barking madly. Liz nearly shrieked and quickly grabbed him by the scruff, holding him back. Greg allowed this, yet he didn’t waste the chance to sniff Walton’s shoes. Liz laughed and rubbed his soft fur vigorously. She looked up at Walton.

“Sorry about that. Greg’s very... energetic.” She smiled and rose, and Greg returned to his post at the head. “Nothing like a ferocious dog to spruce up an exploration, eh? Maybe Ryan and Gera heard him and are on their way now.”

Posted by: Kamaitachi Oct 31 2012, 10:58 PM

"Appeal."

The word lacked a sort of auto-referential value to Tag; an appeal simply held no appeal to him. But, as he'd told himself, he was just going to try it out 'for fun'. Therein lay the merit in even considering the entering of a contest. Though, if the Hall Leaders had even an increment of the skill that the Gym Leaders possessed, perhaps the battle-veteran Taggarty Lee could deign to enter a contest.

Part of his brain erupted in protest, insisting that a contest would throw away all the years of training and skill he'd been slowly acquiring over a decade of journeying and battling. The other part of his brain, the less stubborn part, insisted, in turn, that it would allow him to expand that part of his brain, giving him more flexibility and creativity in battle. Tag rarely had the opportunity to beat his opponents by textbook means anymore; he no longer had the firepower of an entire arsenal of dragon pokemon under his belt. A little expansion to his creativity couldn't hurt.

"You'll have to explain it all to me." the older man couldn't hide his confusion towards the entire concept of contests. Luckily, Liz seemed well versed in the form, and the mention of battle seemed to set his mind at ease. He'd heard that Contest Battles used a point system on top of the 'make-your-opponent-eat-dirt' system he was accustomed to, so he'd definitely have to learn that. Assumedly, the point system based its scoring on how pretty a technique was. Tag's mind shifted to his team, to see which of their moves he'd consider 'pretty'. The other day, back in Gigarte, he'd had Tobi use a Sunny Day + Flash Fire + Flamethrower, which had been really impressive, both in terms of display and damage. But, with his current team lacking that sort of synergy, Tag had no idea how to pull something like that off. Liz seemed to have a good idea for his team, or at least more of an idea that he possessed on his own, so he made note to ask her for advice once they'd found her missing Riolu.

Too far lost in thought, Tag had let his guard down. He now paid the price in full as he stumbled forward, immediately irritated that something drummed up the moxie to attack him. His hands flashed to his pokeball belt, where the two final pokeballs for Tonbo and Enka, his Mareep, rested. He whirled around, ready to summon them to the potential battle, but stopped when he saw the gentleman before him scoop up the likely offending pokemon.

Starting with the Murkrow, Tag cast a quick scan of the man in front of him. He seemed a few years older than Tag, but definitely carried the same air of a veteran traveller. He wasn't sure precisely what details gave it away, but he likened it to a sort of sixth sense for kin. He'd felt it in a few other people before, so there was the chance that he was simply getting better at recognizing like souls. On the other hand, this 'like soul' was far better dressed than most people Tag had met in Furoh.

The dandy introduced himself as "Walten", which seemed like a slightly odder variation of "Walter" or "Elton", but Tag really had no right to judge a person based on the silliness of their names; his shortened name seemed to draw reference to a children's game. Liz took the liberty of introducing him, so the intimidating looking trainer took a sort of strange pleasure in nodding silently with a stern look on his face.

The mention that Walten, too, was searching for a missing pokemon immediately waved red flags in Tag's mind. This made the second person in the span of an hour or so to be missing a pokemon in the same area. While it appeared likely that both pokemon could've simply wandered off, Tag didn't like to place his faith in that sort of coincidence. Immediately, worry for his own pokemon started to surface in his mind, and he wished he'd thought up a way to summon them back from their missions. Unfortunately, mentioning that it wasn't simply coincidence had the potential of lowering morale for Liz, and he didn't feel like dashing the young girl's hopes before they'd even started looking.

Liz's Growlithe burst his reverie by cavorting about in a puppy-like manner. Greg, thus far, had evidently not picked up his comrades' scent yet, which meant that they probably hadn't honed in on them yet.

"I can't imagine they've gotten too far away." Tag assured the two trainers. "I also can't imagine that we'll find them by standing around here." He looked to Walten "Liz and I have dispatched our more mobile pokemon to scan the forest; they're to meet us back in Baccate." He eyed the Murkrow on Walten's shoulder, studying her curiously. "Is there a chance that...Don...here, could keep an eye out from above us?"

Posted by: colourcodedchaos Nov 19 2012, 07:06 PM

((OOC: Hi! I'm new, and Kamaitachi's the only person who's said anything about my posting here. What I'll do is stick something up here, and if people don't like it then I'll delete it and move along. I hope you like it, though! =]))

"I don't get it, lady. I don't get it."

"Tynamo."

"I really do not get how a human being with as much computer equipment on their person as you do..."

"Tynamo."

"Can try to get to Daioh and fail so magnificently."

"Tynamo?"

"Man. Tyke."

"... Mooooow..."

"I mean, you took a boat, lady."

"Ty... ty?"

"We don't even have a port!"

"Tyna-Tyna-Tyna-Mo?"

"And for Pete's sake keep your Pokémon under control, I don't want them freakin' out my kid. I ain't telling you again."

"... Ty?"

"Mantyke... Mantyke tyke ma ma Mantyke."

"Tyna... TY!"

"Daddy, the fishy's trying to rub itself on me and I don't like it get it off get it off get it off!"

"Tynamo!"

"Okay, I've had it. Get the hell outta my truck, ya freak."

THUD.

"TYNA-"

THUD. THUD.

"TYNAMO! TY! TYNA TY!"

VREEEEEEEE...

...

"Man... Mantyke? Mantyke Mantyke."

"... That fool... that fool shall be first to taste the wrath of Demented Doctor-"

"Mantyke."

"Oh. Yeah. Forgot for a moment."

"Tyke."

"Thanks, sweetie. C'mon, you two, let's try and find somewhere to sleep tonight."

"Mantyke?"

"Tyyynamo?"

"Tyke."

"... Tyna."

"You don't have anything to apologise for, little guy."

"Tyna?"

"As sure as I am that Solargirl's a pretty nasty and misogynist insult in Zikthuji now."

"Ty!"

...

"Tynamo."

"Mantyke."

"I love you too."

*******

Let's take a step back for a moment. Consider the woman in white, her body scarred to within an inch of its life (and indeed hers), her long coat covered in pencil drawings and, at the hem, the tan dust from the Baccate dirt road. She is tall and lissom, though the long black boots are perhaps overdoing things a bit, raising her another three inches to 6'1" of wiry paleness. Her long black hair's equally dusty from her abrupt exit from the truck, and the fact that her only shampoo on board the ship from Cerulean to... wherever the hell this was had been Mantyke's launching Bubble at her scalp had made it lose its usual lustre. It was better than when Tynamo had tried to help with a Spark, though. People at the Power Plant had thought she was going through an Eighties phase. She is not crying, rather deliberately

At her side as she trudges towards some deadly dull collection of two-up-two-downs and one tiny village shop are the two Pokémon that so worried the daughter of the truck driver (largely by existing). Mantyke is swooping gently around her shoulder and nuzzling her right cheek (at least, to the casual observer that's what it looks like; in reality, the little lamb's rubbing the lumpen scar tissue that comprises the remains of her trainer's right ear), while Tynamo, scamp that he is, is swirling all over the place doing elaborate midair tricks to try and cheer her up a bit. If it weren't for his typing, the woman would swear blind he had a brain made of rocks, but as it stands she'll settle for him having one made of bugger-all. Still, she loves the pair of them and wouldn't have them any other way, although perhaps stronger would be nice.

As it stands, they're nice enough - both level 10, with a little light EV training and fairly well-bred. They'll be part of a worthy team one day. All that matters to them right now, though, is trying to cheer up the nice human from the hospital who took care of them. She was kind, when so many others were indifferent or-

"Tyke?"

A change fell over Mantyke: her bright eyes became dulled slightly, as if the colour had been drained, and she stopped nuzzling the woman.

"Tyyyyyke..."

"Mantyke, sweetie, are you okay - Mantyke!"

She was too late. Mantyke had sped off in the direction of a decidedly dodgy-looking deciduous forest as fast as she could. Admittedly, this wasn't very fast at all, but she got the drop on both of them and had built up too much of a lead by the time they sprang into action. It didn't help that Tynamo wanted to stay by his trainer's side and keep her moving. Eventually, she ran out of steam entirely, and Mantyke disappeared into the trees.

The woman collapsed to the ground, her lungs feeling like they'd been filled full of nails and then deep-fried. Tynamo was torn for a moment, but then stayed by her side, zipping about and rubbing himself against her prone, shaking body until it wasn't shaking any more.

This, understandably, took a while.

After said while, she got up. A keen observer would have noticed the tear tracks on her face through the dust, but said keen observer would likely have been put off due to the huge scar now visible across her face, ancient and malevolent as an Outer God. She sniffed, blew her nose on a hankie, and set off towards the woods to call for Mantyke.

It was hopeless. The little creature was nowhere to be found, and the boiling midday sun had drifted languidly towards twilight by the time the pair emerged from the woods. Neither spoke; they'd shouted themselves completely hoarse. Neither looked at each other as they trudged towards the hamlet's lights. Neither dared.

As they journeyed, though, they came across three people, a girl of indeterminate youth with a couple of much older men in tow. Her eyesight sharp even through the veil of tiredness and sorrow, she noticed they both had Pokéballs on their respective persons. She picked up the pace and tried to shout for their attention, but it just came out as a dry rasp that turned into a hacking, painful cough. Tynamo zipped on ahead, crashed into the larger man's leg, bounced off into the air and came back to earth just in time to realise that this was probably going to sting a bit. He was wrong. It hurt. Quite a lot.

"Tyyyyyy... mo mo mo mo mo mo mo..."

Forcing her tired body to go faster, she ran over to the prone Pokémon and clasped him to her chest, telling him over and over that it was going to be alright. Then, she spoke to the trio that they'd finally caught up with.

"Hello. My name's... Doc- Adelaide Robinson... and s-something's... happened to... to my Mantyke. Have you... seen her?"

Posted by: Soos Dec 11 2012, 01:09 PM

Walten scanned the two people in front of him. The young woman introduced herself as Liz, and the older man next to her as Tag. Walten thought Tag was a rather funny name, although his name was rather strange itself. He tried thinking of his parents, the people who attached the name to him, but to no avail.

He almost began to wonder if his parents were even still alive, and if so, where they lived, but before he could get lost in thought, Liz mentioned that her Pokemon had gone missing itself. He held his hand to his chin, wondering if this was just coincidence, or if some strange force had caused this to happen. He figured he wouldn't bring that up, though. Liz was young, and Walten thought the idea of one of her being kidnapped would crush her.

After the rude interruption, Don flew by the tattooed man's shoulder and gave him a loud "GAR!" right in the ear before flying up to a tree branch. She watched Walten get tackled by a Growlithe and squawked in annoyance. She didn't have time for them to stick around and play, she had to go find Gera and the bountiful field of fruit it was keeping all to itself, so she flew off in the direction they were heading before she crashed.

Walten nodded his head at Tag's idea, "Indeed, she can. In fact, that's what she was doing before... Well, you know the rest." He chuckled a bit. As he turned to call down Don and give her instructions, she was gone too. He called out her name, and heard her cry, "GAR!" further ahead in the forest.

"It seems she's already ahead of us" He straightened his hat and started off in her direction before he small Pokemon and a woman burst out of the woods.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Dec 18 2012, 08:15 PM

((I had no idea what to write, since Dragonwish was the threadrunner. So...I defaulted to a battle?))

Tag winced in displeasure as Walten's Murkrow cawed in his ear. He'd asked a simple question of the bird, honestly, it didn't require such an awkward response. Perhaps the crow still had a vendetta against Tag for having stood in the path of her flight. While he hadn't intended to do so, seeing as he had simply been standing, the vengeful crow probably blamed him for her poor lack of vision.

Then, with very little warning, a small eel creature flew out of the underbrush and in to Tag's leg. There was a slight sting from the spot of impact, and Tag looked down, irritated and confused. Eels weren't exactly native to forests. The irritation quickly subsided as he watched the little creature moan on the ground.

Behind the eel, an oddly dressed and scarred woman rushed in to scoop and comfort her pokemon. Introducing herself as Doc Adelaide, she proceeded to ask about her pokemon, a Mantyke. Tag recognized the look as the same one Liz had worn when she'd noticed her Riolu missing.

"We haven't, Doc." Tag looked to the motley crew that had all fortuitously assembled, three of them missing Pokemon. "But it's getting more and more suspicious. Liz and Walten here are also missing pokemon."

"In the mean time, after that bird." Tag pointed the group after the caw of the Murkrow. According to his calculation, it was heading in the direction that his Ledian, Suzu, had gone. He put his fingers to his lips, letting out an incredibly sharp whistle. The trill pierced the air easily, resounding through the forest. First, Kyoko and Tobi burst from the cover from different directions, and in one swift move, Tag drew their pokeballs and returned them.

"Calling my pokemon back", Tag explained to the group around him, "They'll come looking for me."


* * *

Tag, potentially being one of the more limber of the group, followed closest to the Murkrow, whistling occasionally. As they ran Tag looked back to keep tabs on the group. He wasn't entirely sure whether or not he could trust groups like this; there was always the chance that one amongst them was the one stealing all of the pokemon. However, he'd been a part of odd groups before and it had been the source of most of his adventures.

Though, a nagging part of his mind continued to probe the possibility that any one of them could be Team Deception agents pulling a double gambit on them. But, at least he had been convinced that their Pokemon were actually missing, just from their eyes alone. Whether or not they were excellent liars remained to be seen.

In a moment, Tag's Ledian appeared through the foliage, settling on Tag's shoulders.

"Find anything?"

Suzu shook her head softly, resting her head up against Tag's cheek.

"Walten, any idea where Don is leading us?"

Regardless of Walten or Don's responses, a jet black pulse of energy lanced out of the air, aimed directly at the leading Don. As the group closed the distance, several similar pulses began raining down towards them, slamming into the path before them. As Tag screeched to a halt, he placed a hand on Liz to keep her from running forward into the barrage. "The hell?" He blinked owlishly around, looking for a source.

As if on cue, several Gastly faces appeared in the air, followed by their gaseous bodies. Grinning wickedly at the team, they broke formation and began to swoop down at them.

"Take them out!" Tag ordered, dropping a pokeball on the ground before rearing back to his full height. "Enka, Discharge." Leaping from her ball into the crowd of Gastly, Tag's Mareep took a moment to look back at Tag. He looked back at her, confused, then nodded at her. With a happy noise that Tag could only imagine was a laugh, the sheep let loose a surprisingly powerful electrical vortex, which ripped easily through the cloud of Gastly, scattering them around into more manageable groups.

"Everyone pick your target. Take them down."

Posted by: colourcodedchaos Dec 20 2012, 05:57 PM

((Awesome post, and now battle shall be joined in earnest!))

The scientist could feel her heart hammering away in her chest. Both she and her Tynamo had been running (or the equivalent thereof) since mid-morning, and it was beginning to tell on them. Keeping up with the easy strides of Liz, Walten and the large man wouldn't have been easy for her at the best of times, but now her general lack of fitness was making her wheeze like a hacksaw encountering a particularly knotty bit of wood. Tynamo wasn't faring much better; he kept circling back and resting on Adelaide's shoulder to catch his breath and be stroked along his dorsal fin by her earrings.

In the meantime, the good Doctor was looking around at her compatriots - or rather, at their backs. Liz, the girl, seemed really rather young, even by the moderately insane standards of the world she'd come to be in. Of course, to her all girls seemed rather young; a problem more keenly felt when you can remember being that age and thinking twenty-four-year-olds were practically Palaeolithic. She seemed to have some experience, though, which was not what could be said for herself. It irked her a little, if she was being brutally honest, but now wasn't the time or the place for such thoughts.

The men, though, were very different. Walten had long, loping strides, which suggested ex-military, but nothing else about him did, which was strange. Adelaide wasn't even sure this planet had a military. Even though the Terra, Vola, Aqua and Astra Corps were only really kept around for ceremonial reasons back home, they were still extant. His larger friend, on the other hand, had a lot more raw power about him. He gave the impression that he could handle himself in a bar brawl, and now Adelaide was deeply regretting her lack of death rays. She didn't want to tangle with him and he kept looking at her with rampant distrust. Not only could she feel it coming off him in waves, her cyber-enhanced eye picked up the little vibrations of tension that shook him constantly. This man, whatever he was, had seen something that had deeply shaken him.

After about an hour's people-watching and trying desperately not to collapse, the group came to a stop as a lance of black energy smashed into the ground, leaving a smallish crater. Adelaide looked up in bone-deep shock. "Well, th-they came out of nowhere. Horrible gas monsters, a perfect end to a perfect frelling day. Reminds me of the last time I went to Norwich..." She then grabbed her Pokédex and scanned one of the Gastlies.

Gastly, the Gas Pokemon. Born from gases anyone would faint if enveloped by their body, which contains poison.

It then reeled off the stats and typing information. Adelaide smiled. This, she could deal with. She struck a pose, pointed at the knot of Gastlies on the far left and began to shout at it.

"Ackgarkhnarglehweeeeehgarkhrk..." That can't be good, she thought while she bent double from coughing. Oh well, let's try again.

"Ahemhem. FOOLS! DO YOU NOT KNOW WHOM YOU CROSS? I GIVE YOU THIS RARE CHANCE TO FLEE THE FURY OF THE DEMENTED DOCTOR SPATULA! TAKE IT, OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCE OF MAD SCIENCE!"

The Gastlies just looked confused. Adelaide suddenly remembered where she was and didn't dare look around at the others.

"You're not taking it then. Alright. Tynamo! Solo pattern Vola 5, Captain Splendiferous Edition!"

"TY!" Tynamo started to spin around, then shot into the cloud of Pokémon like a fishy surface-to-air missile. He collided with the first and went straight through it, still spinning. "Ty?"

Then he flipped around and turned to face them. "TYYYYYYY!" The Thunder Wave had a much bigger effect, knocking a few of the foes to the ground and scattering the rest. He summoned his electricity once more and blasted back to earth. With a flash of actinic light, two of the Gastlies were no more.

The rest did not take kindly to this.

Tynamo simply wasn't fast enough to deal with the furious barrage of Psywaves, Hypnoses and Night Shades that followed. One even summoned a burning fist from its constituent gases - and this was what tagged the little brave little physics-breaking eel thingy. Tynamo went down in a hail of fire after attempting to stutter-step with his Sparks, and he took out a few before the Fire Punch hit him in the side. After that, he was mobbed by the ghosts. Hypnosis after Hypnosis smashed into him before finally they got the hint. Then they turned towards the rest of the group.

Adelaide rushed over to her sleeping, fainted friend. "Tynamo, are you alright? Don't turn your backs on me, you inbred, shiftless, emo clouds! I've got a carbon sequestrator with your names on it, you see if I don't!"

They didn't turn their backs on her. Instead, they turned towards her. And kept on coming.

"... Ah."

*******

When Mantyke awoke, she was in a box with a gear in it.

This certainly didn't look like anywhere that she'd slept in the past month or so - Adelaide always kept her lodgings in total disarray and the gear was the only thing in the box. Logically, she assumed that the nice voices in her brain had not been nice at all, and in fact had taken her away from her Trainer.

From this position, Mantyke formed the argument that she needed to school a bitch.

As she prepared to charge up, she nudged the gear. Surprising her at first, the little thing shot into mid-air and gave a short, but very eloquent speech.

"Klink! KlinklinklinklinklinklinklinklinKLINK!"

"Man... tyke?"

"KLINK!"

Mantyke's expression softened into sadness. The Klink, which introduced itself as Gera, had told her that it was separated from its other half and absolutely terrified. The big Pokémon that had captured it didn't know how it worked - Klink fed on the energy they created from spinning around each other. Mantyke flopped down and told the little half-Klink to lie on her back, murmuring soft, calming words to the worried little gear. It landed gratefully on her back with a thump and swivelled a little to get a decent grip on her skin. With that, Mantyke growled and called upon her knowledge.

The lid of the box exploded in a shower of splinters as Mantyke's Bubblebeam hit it. She soared out and fled towards another box, Gera giving her directions by turning against her skin. They could hear footsteps behind them, but reached the box and smashed it with another Bubblebeam. The Klink skittered across to rejoin its fellow gear, then hid underneath Mantyke, spinning madly as it did. Mantyke made to calm them, but suddenly span round, some ancient bit of hindbrain twitching in fear and loathing.

"Hypno," said the Hypno. It sounded bored and gave Mantyke a look. It wasn't a nice look. It was deeply unpleasant, in fact. It said: You are nothing. It said: You are flawed, you have no value. It said: You are animal. It said: Perhaps you may be a pet, or perhaps you may be a quarry. It said: And the choice is not yours.

"Mantyke." Mantyke delivered a look in reply. It said: Bugger that.

The Hypno was swinging its watch back and forth and mumbling to itself, which was by now just making her annoyed. She floated gently to the floor, tapping a signal to the Klink beneath her, then charged, slamming into and through the legs of the kidnapper even as Klink grabbed its nose and turned. Mantyke heard a cartilaginous crunch and grinned.

Then it all went a bit wrong.

Gera had charged itself up until it was fair glowing with energy, but that wasn't enough to stop the furious Hypno's Psybeam from blasting it into next week. Mantyke screamed a challenge and fired off another Bubblebeam at her foe's head. It caught him right in what was left of his nose, causing him to growl in pain and fury.

It was at this point that the Psychic slammed into Mantyke's brain, knocking her cold. The Hypno gave the Alakazam who'd fired it a pointed look, to which he responded with utter smugness. Grunting, the Hypno lifted the two back into a brace of boxes before separating the two gears once more and heading off to look for a restorative berry.

In what remained of her consciousness after the Alakazam's attack had mangled it, Mantyke was still certain that she'd done the right thing.

((Yes, you really can breed a Gastly to have Fire Punch, I checked the wiki. You need a Dusknoir. Peculiar, but that's Pokémon for you. Oh, and I do hope that this is okay. I'm not entirely sure where I stand with regards to the section with Mantyke and Gera attempting to battle a Hypno with a massive level advantage on both of them, and thus I will expunge it from the post if it's breaking any bunnying rules...))

Posted by: Dragonwish2 Dec 22 2012, 05:23 PM

Liz felt a mild relief when she compared her situation to Walten’s. The elderly man appeared so calm in the face of his lost Pokémon, and she almost envied his and Tag’s assurance that the missing Pokémon would be found. Her back and shoulders straightened in a subconscious effort to imitate their doubtless determination. The Murkrow, Don, flew to Tag’s ear and screeched before settling on a branch nearby and, with one last impatient glance back at them, flying off. Liz held in a giggle at the tattooed man’s treatment from the bird, but she found it rather amusing in light of the otherwise solemn moment.

The trees rustled nearby, and she watched a small white and yellow creature fly into Tag’s leg before falling in a heap on the ground. Empathy struck her heart at the sight of it; the way it quivered and moaned so softly reminded her of sickness and death, or the agony of old scars. Pain like that could scar someone for life, she realized.

A woman appeared from the forest, following the white Pokémon’s path and breaking Liz’s thoughts. The woman picked up and clutched the Pokémon to her chest in a motherly hold while murmuring assurance to it. Liz observed her at a distance with mild shock and confusion. The woman’s dress brought to mind the analogy of a Pokémon professor gone wrong; that, or Professor Birch after a field trip. Scars covered her skin, and her flat eyebrows appeared drawn on. Her lab coat was stained on the hem and covered in erratic pencil markings and other foul stains. Liz felt the mild urge to demand that they aim for a Pokémon Center to clean her up. She grimaced at the sight of the most noticeable facial scar and quickly tried to cover for her reaction, hoping that she was unseen.

The woman noticed others after a short moment. Her eyes rose to the three other people in the clearing, and the young female trainer saw pain in her expression. She introduced herself in stuttered words as a Doctor and inquired about a lone Mantyke of hers.

Tag immediately came to the rescue and alerted her that, no, the blue Pokémon had not been spotted and explained Walten and Liz’s similar situations. The latter had recovered from her emotional episode and minor flashback, her face mostly blank with a small pained smile. She realized, then, that things were suspicious, and that something was most definitely wrong. Her darkened imagination was suppressed as Taggarty let out a loud whistle. Though she was first confused, she watched in awe as two of the man’s Pokémon, Kyoko and Tobi, reappeared. The tattooed trainer returned them immediately and explained that he was calling his team back, and that the others would reappear soon as well.

Liz felt inclined to keep Greg out by her side, too reluctant to lose her one close companion, but worry sprang up along the outskirts of her thoughts. She prayed that her other Pokémon would return soon, even if they returned without news. A soft touch came to her arm; the trainer shot a glance down at her bag and was surprised by the sight of Guini, whom she had forgotten briefly in the meeting with Walten and the doctor woman. The Ralts gave a small nod of reassurance that warmed her trainer’s heart. Liz returned Greg then, deciding that her Psychic type was enough for protection and search.

The female trainer scanned the forest eagerly as the group followed Don. In an attempt to distract herself she reevaluated her knowledge on Contests, deciding that if she was the one to help teach Tag, she had better know what she was doing.

Total knock outs in the battle round result with a win, though the ribbon can also be won if, when the time runs out, the Coordinator has lost less points than the challenged Contest Leader. There are four contest halls in Furoh; the Exotoxin ribbon contest in Gigarte, the-

She disrupted her thoughts as Tag’s bug Pokémon returned from amidst the woods; though she only could hear half of what he said, the news did not appear positive.

“Walten, any idea where Don is leading us?”

Though Liz found the question reasonable enough, it seemed something else did not agree, for at that moment blasts of black and inky waves struck the ground before them. Tag reached out and held Liz back, preventing her from running straight into the onslaught. She gaped at it and glared as Gastly poured out of the forest, grinning wickedly and lunging at them. Tag acted quickly and dispersed them into smaller clumps before Liz could even blink, using a formidable Mareep.

Tag set out the command of taking down the Gastly; his youngest companion was at first surprised by his sudden change, for he had immediately taken on the role of leader and set them out a task with great power in his tone. She shook off her initial amazement and focused her attention on the wild ghost Pokémon.

Guini leaped down from her trainer’s bag and prepared herself to fight. Liz nodded in affirmation and reached for her belt, tracing the smooth Pokéballs with her right forefinger. Her thoughts raced as she considered her options; unlike the Doctor, who was reliant on her Pokedex for information, she had already encountered Gastly before and was fairly well experienced with them.

Okay, Serena and Ryan are gone, she thought. I guess that’s good for something, Fighting types wouldn’t be much use in a battle against Ghost types. What are they weak to? Come on, Liz; remember how horror movies are rated? PG-D, parental guidance for disturbing images… Or psychic, ground, and dark. She smiled as she grabbed her Safari ball, throwing it into the air with a whirl.

The spirited trainer’s Zorua landed on the grassy forest floor with a boisterous yowl. Her bright blue eyes fell upon the Gastly, who continued to smile like a Banette doll. Kelli met them with her own grin that threatened darker things to come.

“Alright, girls,” Liz said dramatically. “Consider this Contest practice. Kelli, use your ability to copy your comrade. Guini, start off with double team.” The Pokémon reacted quickly; her Ralts multiplied until it surrounded a small duo of Gastly. With the Zorua’s ability in play, it soon became impossible to tell who was who, and the ghost Pokémon appeared rather confused.

One of the Gastly was bold enough to leer at the copies, its sharp teeth turning into a growl. The copy froze up briefly and then vanished, and Liz began to worry at the result of its mean look attack. The double team façade wouldn’t last forever; she needed to come up with another plan, fast. “Kelli, use captivate.” She smiled, realizing that the move would lower the Gastly’s major strength and leave them vulnerable to offensive moves.

A lone Ralts approached the Gastly with a charming smile, fluttering her eyelashes and swinging her white hips seductively. The ghost flashed a smile and licked Kelli’s face. She recoiled in disgust, her charm gone and replaced with contempt. Liz frowned momentarily, and then she realized her mistake: Normal-type moves had no effect on Ghost-types. What am I thinking? Time for Plan B.

“Let’s do this. Kelli, climb that tree and get ready,” she pointed at a nearby branch. “Guini, use teleport to meet her there. Keep your illusion on the ground.” Two of the copies vanished instantly, and though the movement pointed them out as the real Pokémon, the Gastly were too disoriented to launch a counter-attack on the fleeing individuals. Instead they defended themselves with another mean look barrage that eradicated the remaining copies. “Kelli, lose the illusion and jump into a faint attack. Guini, get on her back and strike with will-o-wisp,” Liz cried as the Gastly returned their attention to her.

The ghost’s turned to face their opponent and yelped in surprise. A white and green female warrior rode upon the back of a foxy steed; the warrior’s hands were lit up in glowing purple flames that streaked out behind her like a comet’s tail, decorating her red horns with sparks and ghostly stray embers. Kelli’s head tuft appeared like a flame itself in the sudden light, and she growled triumphantly as she flipped straight through the first Ghastly with an outstretched paw. Guini leaped from her back and spun, the flames circling her in a vortex. The flames shot out from her hands and circled the remaining foe. It moaned in agony as its vaporous form was inflicted with a terrible burn.

The two female fighters landed on the grass side by side, one kneeling on her forepaws and the other curtsying. Liz gave them a small applause and knelt to rub their heads. “That was brilliant. We’re so using that in a contest sometime. Let’s try that with some more- ah!” She let out a yelp as a silver nail tore through Guini’s chest; the Ralts fell on her hands, shuddering at the sudden curse attack. Kelli growled at the attacking Gastly and scared it back to its friend. Liz straightened and nodded to her Pokémon, her expression grave. She picked up her psychic Pokémon, holding Guini close to her chest. I should be better than this, she thought with a grimace. I had a type advantage and everything… What went wrong? She scanned her surroundings in search of a new strategy and spotted the Doctor, the defeated eel Pokémon held in her arms. More Gastly were approaching.

It’s Starfall Field all over again, she thought bitterly. Too many Pokémon to handle, and I’m too weak to battle them efficiently. At least last time there were people to help. Liz clasped her green friend ball and threw it in the air. In her anger, she felt no joy or appeal at Oreo’s joyful appearance, try as he might to swish his tail and dance in an adorable jig. “Oreo, use focus energy; Kelli, keep them at bay with faint attack.” Her voice was cold and emotionless. The battle no longer felt like a contest or appeal; it was only a fight to the death for her. She was battling to win, and she wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

Kelli ran into the fray with a mighty roar. She swung and bit at the Gastly while Oreo swung his tail and tensed, his eyes narrowing into a sharp glare. Night shades and hypnosis’ flew at the frenzied Zorua, but she took them in stride and returned each with her own attack. Though successful in taking down one or two, she fell to the ground after a grueling lick attack; the move had left her too paralyzed to retaliate. Liz returned her to her safari ball and growled out her next attack through gritted teeth.

“Razor shell.”

Oreo took the scalchop from his chest and held it out. The curved tip glowed and stretched into a sword like apparition of water which the otter Pokémon brandished readily. He squealed and slashed at the Pokémon, the water cutting through them and throwing them into the dirt. A fire punch hit him in the gut, the distraction forcing him to drop his scalchop. “Don’t stand down. Fight back with water gun,” his trainer ordered. The water Pokémon obeyed and squirted out a stream of water, dousing the ghosts and driving them away.

“Gastly!”

The teenager turned and addressed the first two Gastly, the very ones that had cursed her Pokémon. She glared at them and spoke in a low voice. “Oreo, use-“

<No.>

Guini pushed her way out of her trainer’s arms and stood before the Gastly, arms spread wide and her head lifted high even as she trembled under the effects of the curse. Liz watched her with a startled expression, “Guini, you’re hurt. Get away from them.”

<No.>

“Don’t be stubborn! I’m not letting you faint just because you didn’t quit.”

The Ralts visibly shook her head, as if telepathy suddenly required too much energy to use. She held her hands together and waited silently. Confused, the Gastly rushed at her in an attack. Guini swung her hands out and sent them flying backwards. Her body shimmered, and then glowed, turning into a brilliant white. Liz gaped at her Pokémon as it stretched and grew an entire foot taller; its horns spread out to the sides of its head and its legs grew longer and thinner. Even Oreo and his opponent stopped fighting to watch the strange occurrence.

As the glow faded, Liz saw an entirely new Pokémon standing in the place of her Ralts. Joy radiated outwards from the shining new Kirlia and warmer her trainer's heart. “Oh my gosh. You evolved.”

<Yes.> She turned and looked over her shoulders, and her trainer sensed that she was amused at the statement. <Battle?>

“Oh, yeah!” Liz smiled with pride. “Show them your confusion, Guini! Oreo, keep up the razor shells,” she directed, not even bothering to look over her shoulder at her otter Pokémon. She could hear him squeal with delight, and that sounded good enough for her.

Guini spun in place and performed a pirouette, pausing to lean forward and outstretch her arm. The Gastly slammed into each other and moaned; while one fled into the forest, the other shooting out a confuse ray.

“Block it with will-o-wisp and use confusion,” Liz called out. The Kirlia’s hand shot out and shot out a stream of purple flames. It met the golden ray with a zing, and they exploded into sparks. She concentrated on the Gastly’s widened eyes and let out a pulse of psychic energy that slammed into it with great force, and it followed its companion into the shadows.

At her left shoulder, Liz could still hear Oreo fighting off another three ghosts. “Guini, let’s take them out!” With her joyful exclamation pointed at the group. “Oreo, use water gun. Guini, use confusion to boost the force of his attack.” She smiled thoughtfully; she was going to win, but she was going to win her way.

Posted by: colourcodedchaos Dec 23 2012, 07:49 AM

Adelaide could only watch as the ranks of Gastlies closed in on her. She wasn't an experienced trainer at all, really - even the child Liz was hammering the enemies into paste. Her way of fighting was so... elegant. Every subtle nuance was there, every dodge made, every necessary hit landed. Watching her fight took her mind off the fact that her sole remaining friend - not sole, not sole, I'd know if Mantyke was... was gone - was unconscious in her arms. He looked so peaceful, as if he was merely sleeping-

Wait a minute.

The doctor leapt to her feet and backed off from the advancing Gastlies. Idly, she noticed the one hurling Fire Punches all over the place was considerably weaker than its friends. Something to recall. As she moved, she grabbed her Pokédex from her pocket and scanned through it, looking for the entry on Exploud. Once she'd located it, she snapped it shut, grabbed a Potion from the side netting of her bag and forced it down Tynamo's throat, making sure he didn't drown in the process. She discarded the bottle and opened up her Dex again, cranked the volume up to as high as the inventively-hacked device could handle without shattering, and pressed the button on the touchscreen marked "Show Cry."

The resultant cacophony shook the little eel Pokémon out of his slumber with a confused and rather pained noise. Once his eyes were able to focus again, he glared at the advancing Gastlies, most of whom were giggling.

"Okay, Tynamo. You're alright, I'm here, I'm here. Now, we're going to try solo pattern Terra Omicron. Are you going to be okay?"

"... Ty," he said determinedly, as if he was wondering why she'd asked such a stupid question.

"Alright." The scientist took a firm but not painful grip on her little friend's body and dropped into a fencer's stance. None of your Errol-Flynn here, though; she was keeping her body tight and ready to move, her free hand snapped tight to her back and pushing her posture up. "Tynamo, Charge Beam!"

"TY!" With that cry, Tynamo summoned a small yellow orb of barely-contained lightning in front of his mouth. It then exploded forth into a beam of energy, still controlled and contained. Now she looked the part, like a true fencer.

The Gastlies looked confusedly at one another, then charged.

Adelaide tagged two of the weaker ones as she barged through the mass of Ghost-types, dropping down into red-bar levels of health according to her cybernetic eye. She spun on the pointed toe of her boot, forcing down a yelp of pain as something went twang in a less important toe, planted her back foot as if drawing power from the earth, and began to duel.

Each strike did sent the Gastly it hit reeling back with about fourteen to twenty per cent of its health bar gone, occasionally more when she caught one in a weak spot. Every time they launched a barrage of moves at her and her Pokémon, the doctor feinted out of the way, sometimes charging through them. Her Tynamo's beam faltered a little, but she kept on going, and now it seemed to be even stronger! No, wrong tense: her cybereye told her that it was stronger, reaching a second stage of boost from the attack. Tynamo's strange, huge-mouthed face was set in a fierce glare of concentration, lit up as it was by the golden beam of his power. She spun again and slammed two Gastlies at once into next week, watched them crash to the floor with a slim smile, and then noticed she was running into the path of a Fire Punch.

Adelaide decided, as she was lifted off her feet and sent sprawling against a tree, that she really didn't like that move. On the plus side, that Gastly was weak. But now it was coming in for the kill, and Tynamo was sinking back into unconsciousness. She stroked the little eel gently and told him he could stop. He did, and the Charge Beam winked out.

She placed him reverentially at her feet, pulled off her rucksack and produced a roll of electrical tape. Then, she beckoned at the Gastly to come and finish her off. The Gastly chuckled, readying its Fire Punch as it steamed towards her-

Straight at her own hand.

Which held an open Great Ball.

As the ball snapped shut, Adelaide swamped the ball in layer after layer of tape, the better to keep the Gastly caught. Eventually, the ball stopped trying to rip her hand off and her cybereye flashed a message.

[[Congratulations, Doctor. You have caught a Gastly. And it hates you.]]

Posted by: Soos Dec 28 2012, 03:10 PM

Walten watched as a small Tynamo crashed into Tag's leg, with a woman following behind it. She picked it up and introduced herself as a doctor. It seems her Pokemon had gone missing as well, a Mantyke at that. For some reason, Walten remembered seeing a group of Mantykes and their evolutions, although he had no idea where. Must be some sort of weird amnesia thing. He shook the feeling off the feeling and followed after Don with everyone else. Tag, at one point, questioned him as to where Don was leading them. Truthfully, he didn't have any idea himself.

Don flew on, following her nose to the nearest berry tree. She heard a small commotion back where the group was, but decided it would be best (for her) to continue on. It wasn't too long before she heard everyone following her. She landed on a branch and looked back to see the group, and found they'd picked up another member. It was a lady with some sort of white snake thing. She didn't really care, except for the fact that this meant there were more mouths to feed, and Don had to make sure she did her best to get the most food for herself. It was only fair, seeing as how she was leading them to the great field of food. Speaking of which, she remembered Gera, and how the greedy little thing was taking all the food to itself. She made note to not share any with him and was about to take off again before she saw a black shadow race across the distance. Although, with her keen eyes, she knew right away that it was a group of Ghastly they were about to deal with.

Battle quickly started, and she watched them all pick off most of the Ghastly. The annoying tall man used a Mareep, and the young-looking girl use little blue thing with a shell and her now-evolved Pokemon. Don then went into daydreaming about what it'd be like to be evolved. She might pester master about it later.

It was after she thought this that she remembered master didn't have any other Pokemon to protect himself with! Gera was gone, and she was daydreaming! She took off in Pursuit of a Ghastly right behind Walten, and smacked right into it before landing on his shoulder.

"Good going, there," Walten said before giving Don a congratulatory pat on the head. Don loved it when master gave her attention like this.

The Ghastly that was hit with Don's Pursuit attack rose back up. The annoying bird was gonna get what it deserved, the Ghastly thought to itself. It slowly rose up behind Walten and sent a blast of Hypnosis right at the small bird, hitting her head on. The Ghastly smiled at this and was about to go in for a Dream Eater when he realized the bird wasn't falling asleep. He was about to try putting it again before being Astonished right in the face by the small, annoying bird.

Don squawked angrily at the gas ball, warning it to not try getting near her again.

The Ghastly decided this target wasn't worth any trouble, and started floating off, in search of a new target.

Walten looked at Don, giving her a knowing smile; The Ghastly was retreating. "Go on, then" he told her, but she was already in Pursuit of it. She smacked right into the back of the Ghost type, sending it right into a tree. She then plucked a berry off a nearby tree and landed back on Walten's shoulder.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Dec 28 2012, 04:14 PM

Tag found himself surprised that once again he'd issued a command, and everyone present followed without hesitation. He paused to think for a moment, wondering if it was because he was usually the one with the first response, being a naturally quick strategist. But, his only move so far had been to disperse the swarm of Gastly into smaller, more manageable teams. Each of his makeshift companions had immediately scouted out and taken on just as much as they could handle. Maybe it was the commanding tone with which he usually spoke? Or perhaps it was because he was probably the tallest one in the group.

Then again, people rarely questioned intimidating men with tattoos on his face.

The cloud had broken up into chunks that Adelaide, Liz and Walten were handling with considerable aplomb, and as Enka bristled at the trio of remaining opponents before her, Tag appraised their battle styles with a nod of satisfaction. Adelaide's preferred style of battle matched her battle cry: "Demented". She had used her pokemon as a makeshift weapon, bodily throwing herself into the fray despite her scarred body. Then again, it made sense as to how she had gotten the numerous blemishes. Liz, meanwhile, fought with a grace surprising for one her age. She elegantly combined the skills of her two battling pokemon in a way that Tag recognized as the Co-ordinator's battle style. It managed to be both flashy AND effective. Lastly Walten and Don approached the battle with a nonchalance that put Tag's to shame. Don, despite being a rather pesky sort of bird, easily tore through her target, even pausing to rest on Walten's shoulder for approval. The trainer, himself, seemed fairly unfazed at the fact that a battle raged on around him, which was probably an excellent sign as to his experience.

Tag turned back to his battle, pushing the other commands and battle cries to the back of his brain, he watched as the three remaining Gastly converged on Enka. He watched as their eyes started to glow, which indicated that more than likely some debilitating status attacks were incoming.

"Suzu, Safeguard."

Flashing off of his shoulder, Tag's ever reliable Ledian inserted herself into the fray next to her partner Mareep. While it would limit Enka's wider area attacks, it would definitely help Tag set up the defensive buffer. Suzu quickly summoned a thin, shimmering silver veil that fell over her and Enka, and by extension, similar ones appeared around the other allied pokemon on the field. The Gastly trio's attacks launched, easily recognizable as a Confuse Ray and a Hypnosis, which bounced harmlessly off of the Safeguard veil. The third, however, turned out to be a Night Shade, which easily passed through the veil and slammed hard into his two pokemon. A frown curled on Tag's face; the Gastly trio's attack had been excellent co-ordinated; it was difficult defending that particular trio of attacks with Protect or Detect at his disposal.

Now his pokemon were on the defensive, and Tag briefly considered bringing another Pokemon to the field, considering he had Tobi, Kyoko and Tonbo in reserve. Ultimately, he decided against it; this was nothing that Suzu couldn't handle, and it was an excellent way to see just how well his training with Enka had gone.

"Enka, Power Gem!" With a happy sort of cry, the Mareep spun around and slammed her orb-tail onto the floor, apparently shattering it, though no visible damage had occured. Several shards of glittering, irregular shaped, yellow gems flew out, lashing out fiercely at the enemy ghost Pokemon. "Suzu, Acrobatics!" As the gas-clouds reeled from the Power Gem, Suzu flashed in with another dazzling display of mid-air agility and struck the center ghost with great force, sending it reeling.

A flash of light grabbed Tag's attention for a moment, and he turned in time to see little Guini evolved into a Kirlia. Despite the number of times Taggarty Lee had witnessed Pokemon evolution, he still found himself impressed by the beauty of the transformation. As the graceful Kirlia took center-stage in the battle, another flash of light pulled Tag's attention back to his own match.

Spurred by the moment and having felt their victory slipping away, the Gastly Trio that Tag had taken on took to mimicking Guini. The three ghosts, in pools of light as bright as they were dark, spread their forms, growing clawed hands and much more sinister bodies. Tag coolly stared down the trio of Haunter that now faced him, cackling as they honed their sights on his duo.

Without warning, a triad of Shadow Punches streaked across the battlefield, slamming hard into his two Pokemon before they had a chance to react. Tag winced at the sound of his Pokemon's cries; he'd severely underestimated the sudden spike in power and he now needed to even the playing field once more. His hand snapped to his pokeball belt, and he drew the pokeball for Tobi. As he started to reach forward with it, he stopped short at the sound of a familiar battle-cry.

A flurry of frozen blades lanced through the air from behind him, slicing effortlessly into the shadow pokemon before embedding themselves in the ground. Without turning to look who had launched the attack, Tag issued his next set of commands:

"Suzu, Reflect. Enka, Agility"

The playing field had gravitated to a more equal standing with the sudden, but welcome return of his Froslass, Orin. While she held type advantage over the Haunter, they held the same advantage in triplicate. His hunch had been correct about their next move as they honed their next bout of Shadow Punches at Orin, who gracefully swept behind Suzu's Reflect shield. The golden barrier absorbed most of the brunt of the series of blows, shattering only to let some glancing blows through. Orin and Suzu received only minimal damage, easily shaking them off. Tag, in turn, readied his next offensive:

"Thunder Wave. Silver Wind. Ominous Wind." He rattled off in quick succession. They knew their commands, and they knew what to do.

Enka hopped forward, sending out a wide spread of fairly weak looking lightning. The thin web of electricity alighted on the enemies, not causing any damage. But, their attempt to dodge Suzu's Silver Wind proved in vain as paralysis wracked through their ethereal bodies. Suzu's stining attack hit them in full force, and despite their resistance, it still stung, further accentuating their paralysis. They looked on wearily as Orin floated in next, spinning gracefully in the air before unleashing a storm of dark wind. Two of the Haunter fell easily under the combined onslaught, but the third, perhaps the most resilient of the triplets, began to retreat, pulling away from its fallen brethren.

"Orin, follow it. Use Spikes to leave a trail." Orin nodded obediently before floating off after the Haunter at a slower pace, making sure to keep it in her sights. Tag, himself, had wished their reunion to be a bit more lasting, but he needed her to find the enemy headquarters. In the mean time, there was still a battle.

As Tag turned around, he was pleasantly surprised to see Adelaide and Walten had neatly wrapped up their battles. Liz had taken on the final set of Gastly, so Tag folded his arms, content to watch.

Posted by: colourcodedchaos Dec 31 2012, 06:28 PM

((I cleared this with Soos beforehand. Soos, I hope this is a good RP.))

Mantyke had now realised she needed to be a bit smarter about escaping. Her little Klink friend, Gera, had been sleeping to conserve its dwindling power reserves, and she needed to get both bits of him to safety. As such, she nudged the little gear into wakefulness and nuzzled it gently, saying that everything was okay in the language of Pokémon.

Eventually, she came up with another plan. Instead of breaking the boxes, she told Gera to clamp his mouth upon the exposed screws holding it together - the boxes were old, cheap wood, and the screws on such things are never flush with the surface - and spin as fast as he could. With a muttered "Klink," it complied, spinning quickly and completely stripping the threads, one by one. After the fourth, he stopped, and Mantyke knocked the stripped screws out with a slap of her wing, then caught the box's wall in her teeth to stop it from crashing to the earth and making a noise that couldn't be explained away by wind.

They had to move quickly now. At any moment, the Hypno or the Alakazam could come in and see them escaping again. As such, the two new friends picked up the screws and shoved them back into the box's frame, looking only slightly different from before. Gera was visibly sagging, his energy reserves obviously low, and Mantyke had to carry him on her back to the other box. His partner was equally low on power, but they still managed to pull off the same trick. After Mantyke had let them out, the two halves of Klink reunited once more...

And then dropped into a feeding cycle, spinning like tops and filling themselves on the energy they needed to live. Mantyke facewinged and dragged the now-whole Klink away - and then she moved much faster when she saw a face coming through the wall.

A battered-looking Haunter had arrived and it looked very annoyed indeed. Cowering behind some boxes, Mantyke and Gera trembled as the Ghost-type smashd boxes left and right in pure fury. Mantyke started to shuffle them towards the door. Said door was immediately blasted off its hinges by a furious-looking and now entirely healed Hypno, who started to scream blue murder at the Haunter for "destroying the prisoner accomodation." The Haunter's response, a Shadow Punch to the Hypno's head, started off a brawl between them. Powerful blasts of Psychic energy filled the room, smashing through boxes and the Pokémon within them alike. It was almost too good to be true.

This turned out to be pretty much right. Just as they were a few feet from the door, the Haunter evaded a Psybeam from the Hypno and the move tagged Gera in the back, sending the two gears flying apart. It didn't even have time to scream, so Mantyke didn't hear him faint. She just waited, biding her time, then sped out of the door as fast as she could.

This left her in the middle of the woods with no idea where she was. All around her, the trees were blighted and bent, gnarled and leafless old things, all dead, all rotting from within, as if designed to terrify small Pokémon far away from their families or trainers. Though she'd be loathe to admit it, the fear she felt gave Mantyke an extra boost of speed as she fled from her erstwhile prison.

After a few eternities of running, she slowed and risked a look behind her. Gera was nowhere to be seen. To her mind, the conclusion was obvious; he hadn't kept up, and they'd taken him back. She knew she couldn't fight off the Hypno, the Alakazam was an Alakazam, and she didn't much fancy her chances against a Haunter. It wasn't worth jeopardising her own escape when she could call in the cavalry and bring everyone back.

And one day, she might even believe it was motivated by something other than fear.

Her conscience duly mollified, she set off again, much slower this time. Now she was able to truly take in how creepy the forest looked. The sheer number of trees around meant that even though they were all dead, the light from the sun was almost completely blotted out. It would be even darker soon, and Mantyke shivered at the thought. Had it got colder all of a sudden? As if a shadow had fallen

A flash of movement overhead. Mantyke shrunk back and flopped lower to the ground - which didn't help at all. The Pidgey came tearing down from the sky and brought with it a screaming Gust, which - well, actually, it barely hurt at all, even with the natural boost that came from bird Pokémon using that kind of move. Mantyke growled a challenge at the bird and fired off a Bubblebeam that broke a worm-riddled branch off of a tree behind it. Cursing her own stupidity, Mantyke barely had enough time to steel herself before the Pidgey grabbed her in his claws and started pecking her over and over. The little manta thrashed around, all her heart just wishing she was home with Adelaide and Tynamo and, and, and just safe-

That was when it happened.

A ball of multicoloured energy formed between the Mantyke's horns and blasted the Pidgey square in his midriff. He shot up into the air and sqwauked a surprised challenge at the little manta. It started to rain, as well. Perfect, thought Mantyke as the water rushed over her body, a welcome relief from the dry world of the surface. Now we shall see who has the edge. She darted forward and blasted the Pidgey with another Bubblebeam, and this time it found its mark. The Pidgey dropped to the ground, its feathers already soaking through, and yet more bubbles smashed into its face. With that, the thing sqwauked some more and tried to kick dirt into her face. The attack failed and Mantyke grinned the kind of grin that usually has sharp teeth and a fin on top, then moved in for the kill.

The attack was called Signal Beam, and was commonly seen on Bug-type Pokémon. Mantyke might not have gotten the bonus power from it, but it was still enough. The Pidgey dropped to the ground, defeated, unconscious and soggy. Despite all the pain and longing and loneliness that she was feeling, Mantyke felt a pure kind of joy. She was more than just a little lost Pokémon. She was a huntress now.

And she would bring her captors retribution.

Posted by: Dragonwish2 Jan 18 2013, 05:09 PM

A forceful water gun took out one of the wild Pokémon, and only two Gastly were left. Liz stole a glance at her surroundings and observed that the other battles were finished; apparently she was taking longer than the others to complete hers. In particular, she noticed that Tag was watching her. She looked back to her double battle and loosened her shoulders. It’s okay, Liz, you’re going to be in a contest soon with thousands of people watching. What’s the harm with just one person? Her eyes flicked over her opponents with a scrutinizing gaze.

The first one on the left did not appear particularly menacing. In fact, it seemed to be reconsidering the entire battle, and it warily eyed the other three trainers. The other ghost was much calmer; it met Liz’s eyes with an amused expression, and she could almost visualize it beckoning her with a ghostly hand to continue the battle. In the back of her mind the trainer recalled how Tag’s foes had evolved, just as her Ralts did. Though they had been defeated in the end by some powerful and amazing attacks, she didn’t want her own rival to try anything similar to it. “Oreo, use razor shell on the left Gastly.” She kept her eyes on the remaining Pokémon even as her Oshawott struck the first. The Gastly made no effort to aide its comrade, allowing it to flee into the forest. What are you planning, Gastly… It was low to abandon a partner in a double battle, but Liz figured that the Pokémon was only waiting for the right moment to strike.

“Alright, Mr. Evil, what do you want?” She murmured, dubbing the cocky Gastly with a title that seemed rather fitting for it. It cackled as a silver nail appeared in the air before it and flew at Oreo’s exposed back. “Look out behind you!” Her cry went unheard, or too slow, and she grimaced when the nail pierced her Pokémon’s skin easily, the head of it exposed on the back. She gaped in shock and horror as Oreo fell to his knees and fainted. Liz returned him to his green friend ball and shot a murderous glare at the Gastly. It smirked at her with full arrogance; if the Pokémon had hands- heaven forbid it evolve there and then- she imagined it would have beckoned her with a finger in a manner of ‘bring it on’.

<Female.>

The teenager was startled at first, unaware of her Kirlia’s thoughts while she focused on the Gastly. The trainer considered the term for a moment while she stared at the Gastly warily. Her eyes widened at the realization; the ghost was female, and now she presumed it- no, she was angered by her gender assumption. Liz blushed a deep red and called out a command to cover her embarrassment, “Guini, start off with confusion!”

Guini was quick to respond, holding out her arms as her eyes began glowing blue. The Gastly was slammed tree. She recovered quickly from the psychic blow and leered at Guini in a raging mass. She cowered below the spite attack and held her gaze; Liz held back a frown at the reaction, unsure as to her next move. “Got any new attacks, Guini?” Her Kirlia nodded in reply, still watching the Gastly girl. Meanwhile, her trainer considered her options. Confusion was out, at least for a moment, and she really had no other offensive moves. A sense of assurance touched her mind and eased her thoughts. She would trust her Pokémon to do the smart thing. “Teleport and then use it,” she called, concentrating on a specific location for Guini to appear in.

The Kirlia vanished from sight, leaving the Gastly to glare down at a nonexistent foe. She scanned around in search of her opponent and flew in and out of the nearby branches in search of her. A whistle pierced the air from behind her, and she turned around and stared straight into a rainbow swirl of leaves. The Gastly had little opportunity to lessen the blow as the magical leaf raked through her vaporous body, throwing her into the trunk of the tree she had been searching. She opened an eye cautiously and spotted Guini down below, standing next to her trainer with a triumphant smile. Liz reached down and hugged her Pokémon, muttering about the beauty of the grass attack and all of its possibilities for contests.

The Gastly, Mrs. Evil, chuckled in spite of herself. Losing didn't seem so bad if it made someone else happy, she thought wryly. She slunk away from the tree with one last glance at the trainers, aiming for her own master’s location.

Liz rubbed her new Kirlia’s head and smiled from ear to ear. “That was fantastic, Guini. You deserve a good rest.” She returned the psychic Pokémon and turned back to her comrades. “We should head straight to Baccate, guys, and fast. There might be more Gastly out here, and we have some injured Pokémon. We can heal up at the Pokémon Center and search for our missing Pokémon first thing tomorrow,” she concluded, somewhat dismayed at the thought of abandoning her Riolu to the night. He’s tough, she thought, he’ll be O.K. A flutter of wings came from behind her with a small gust of wind, and she glanced upwards. Serena had returned from her flight and perched herself upon her trainer’s head. She chirped happily, and then she dove from Liz’s hair and circled Adelaide and Walten before returning to her perch.

“Serena, this is Dr. Adelaide and Walten. They joined up with us to look for their own missing Pokémon.” She pointed to the respective trainers as she said their names. “Guys, this is Serena, my Taillow. I sent her out earlier to look around,” and then she glanced up again, “Serena, see anything?”

The blue and red bird shook her head somberly and flew down to Liz’s shoulder, nuzzling her affectionately. She smiled and stroked her back gently, whispering, “Don’t worry about me. You did great. Thank you.” Her attention returned to the other trainers, and she managed to maintain her hopeful smile when she met the eyes of Walten, Adelaide, and Tag. Liz didn’t feel prepared to let a broken heart bring her down; at least, she wasn’t sure she was ready to.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 23 2013, 12:56 AM

With the battles concluded, Tag looked over at the new rag-tag crew with whom he'd met only earlier in the day. Over the years, he'd always been a rather solitary person, but since coming to Furoh, he'd willingly partied up with people. In his younger days, he'd been fine on his own, and perhaps he'd even found himself annoyed at company. Taking a moment to chart through his own path, he realized that he'd grown immensely. Perhaps, now, he was even a person worthy of the Dragon Pokemon he'd lost. It had been a few years now. Considering he sported an entirely new look, including a host of tattoos, would they even recognize him?

Liz's suggestion did not make sense to Tag, in the slightest. At least in terms of battle strength, the tattooed man still had his full roster available, and most of them still at full strength. The Gastly had been annoying, but he'd pulled through with minimal damage to his team. Walten, likewise, still had his annoying Murkrow.

Adelaide, however, really had no more fighting strength, save her own bizarre tactics. Liz had suffered a little loss in her match, but surely she had enough fighting capability to soldier forward and rescue her lost Pokemon. After all, they had no idea what had drawn them away, or where they were. Gera, Ryan and Mantyke could all have been captured by thieves, Team Deception or worse. With their Pokemon returning, defeated, there was a chance that they would simply move on and change location.

Likewise, Orin was still out there trailing them, leaving Spikes for them to follow. Not to mention that their rest would likely give the enemy time to rest as well, meaning they'd be met with a full force tomorrow, in turn.

Nevertheless, Liz had a point. They had injured Pokemon. He would've felt horrible forcing a twelve year old to continue to fight potentially waves more Gastly. Though, if he had, in fact, recalled correctly, Liz had done so at Starfall Field. In this case, he reminded himself, the world wasn't ending. In that sense, they'd have plenty of time to track down the missing three Pokemon.

Tag let out a sharp whistle, just as he had before, in order to summon Orin back to him.

"To Baccate, then." Tag nodded, looking over at Adelaide and Walten before settling his eyes on Liz's. They seemed worried still, and rightfully so, but her care for her other Pokemon was just as evident, and perhaps there was the chance that playing it safe this way would prevent any of the rest of their pokemon from disappearing. Even despite her hopeful smile, Tag sensed that she was merely hiding her grief to keep a strong face up for the adults.

* * *

After a fairly short walk, for they'd been closer than Tag had anticipated, the crew found themselves in the Baccate Pokemon Center. Within moments of their arrival, Tag had reported the disappearances of the three Pokemon to the local Officer Jenny, then found himself at the PC.

Within moments, and a brief, stoic conversation from Tag with the entirely-too-chatty Edwin over in Blackthorn, Tag placed a few Pokeballs in the machine. Within moments, Tag had swapped out a few of his comrades, preparing his roster for the combat that he would surely encounter in the next day. Once that was done, he handed the entire set of six to the Nurse Joy over at the counter. She, in turn, set them in a tray before handing them over to her assistant Chansey before waiting for the other three to do the same.

Tag settled in to a bench for the moment, not ready to retire to the room until he had his team safely back. He didn't like the situation at all. There were still too many variables to set in motion any sort of real plan. They knew the general direction in which their enemies had headed, and Orin's Spikes trail hopefully still be in tact the next morning.

While the other three in his group went about their business, Tag remained stoic, stead on the bench with his elbows on his knees. His hands clasped and pressed to his chin, almost as if he were in prayer. He stared, seemingly vacantly out over the Pokemon Center. While the intimidating man appeared to be spacing out, he was, in fact, trying to piece the few fragments of information together into something reasonable to work with.

Posted by: Soos Feb 6 2013, 01:09 PM

Walten was surprised at how quickly they'd taken care of the attacking Ghastly group. Well, more surprised at himself than the others. They all look like they'd had their fair share of battles, and while Walten may have as well, he didn't remember any of course. He'd taken into account at how smoothly he commanded Don and wondered if this is how he battled before his amnesia. It all felt natural to him.

He watched as Liz finished up her own Ghastly battle. Her new Kirlia looked rather graceful in its movements, perfect for the contests it competed in. He wondered if he should compete in contests himself, or at least take up the gym leader challenge while trying to find his memories. Of course, with as stubborn as Don was and how passive Gera was, contests would be out of the question. The gym challenge, though, seemed like something he'd like, seeing how smooth Don was in her recent battle.

A rather loud whistle cut his train of thought. Walten looked up and saw it was Tag, calling his Froslass back to him and agreeing with Liz that they should call it a day and return to Baccate. It was at this moment Walten realised how late it was getting.

"Gar!" cried Don, when she realised they were turning back. She wasn't about to turn around just yet! Gera needed to be found and punished for it's greedy acts! Keeping a whole field of fruit to ones self was a horrid crime in her book, and she wasn't about to let it go. "Gar!" she cried again, and was about to take off into the air, but it seemed master was a few steps ahead of her and called her back to her Pokeball.

"You need to rest a bit, now. We can find Gar- err, Gera, tomorrow." Walten said, comforting his bird Pokemon. He was surprised at how worried she was for Gera's well-being. She was one to usually look out for herself, but he figured she must secretly care for all her friends, despite how she treats them.

Before he knew it, they were back in Baccate, and they soon found the local Poke Center. He gave the nurse the Pokeball carrying Don, and she gladly took it. "I'll be back before you know it," she said with a comforting smile. Walten sat down on a nearby bench. He spotted Tag talking to someone on a video phone. It was a shame he didn't have anyone to call himself. He then wondered if he actually did have someone to call, and how worried they must be for him. He shook they thought out of his head when He heard the Nerse Joy call to him.

"Your Murkrow is in good health," she said with yet another comforting smile, "Have a nice night, sir!"

Walten smiled back to her and replied, "You too, ma'am," with a tip of his hat and sat back down to try and piece together thoughts of his current predicament and his memories of the past.

Posted by: Dragonwish2 Feb 8 2013, 10:01 PM

Liz glanced around the bright room distractedly. The glaring lights felt abnormal, painful to her eyes. She could feel her contacts dry and loose, but she made no move to rub at her eyes, fearing they might fall out. Multiple conversations were held all around in whispered conversations that felt sharp to her ears. She wished to scream at them to leave her alone, to go away, but she remained silent. For a moment she wondered what her voice would sound like if she spoke. Would it be high and sweet, as with a friend, or low and cold, as with an enemy? The question plagued her until Nurse Joy approached with an empty silver tray.

“Would you like me to take a look at your Pokémon?” The pink haired nurse held up the tray with a kind smile.

The teenager numbly reached to her belt and retrieved her remaining pokéballs. “Yes, please,” she whispered, setting them each in the hollowed indentations of the tray. Her forefinger slid over her last shining pokéball, and she forced herself to keep it, scolding herself mentally for the thought of placing an empty pokéballs in for healing. She was slipping, she feared, or acting as foolish as she had in her amnesia so long ago at Starfall Field. At least Ryan was there then to help me, she thought.

Nurse Joy handed the tray to a helping Chansey. She looked back at Liz and seemed to think for a moment, her lip pursed pensively. The poor girl surely seemed to be depressed about something, yet the nurse couldn’t perceive exactly why, and she didn’t think it right to pry on such deep thinking as the girl appeared to be in the middle of. Her computer lit up with a message and she stole a moment to glance at it before smiling. “Ms. Shir, you have a call waiting for you at Phone 2.” Perhaps the girl was waiting for a call from someone, she thought with slight relief.

Liz looked up in surprise, having been staring at her muddied flats. Someone had called her? Her family normally sent letters, and she didn’t keep a close contact with anyone else long distance. Could it be a sales person, or an old friend deciding to catch up with her? She considered the plausible options as she approached the green booth and picked up the phone. The screen lit up brightly, displaying a perky blonde with sun kissed skin and dark blue eyes. “Lizzy, where on earth have you been?” A clear, feminine voice came from the light pink lips that were stretched into a smile.

The addressed ‘Lizzy’ gaped in shock. “Sierra? Is that you?” She closed her mouth, but her bright blue eyes remained wide and her eyebrows were shot up her forehead in utter disbelief. “What are you doing calling? Is mom there? What happened?” Her sister was not one to call unless it was an utter emergency, or so she thought, but the blonde’s smile made her have second thoughts. For a split second, Liz desperately wished that the myth about twins sharing a telepathic link was true; at least then she would know what was making her so crazy. A bright color caught her eye, and she squinted at the screen. “Is it just me, or are you blonde?”

Sierra’s grin turned into a playful pout. “Sheesh, what is this, twenty questions?” Before Liz could respond she continued, “I’m just calling to check up on you. Ever since the PokéCon meteor mania, mom’s been worried about you like crazy. You wouldn’t believe how many times she’s been talking to herself these days. It’s a little scary.” She gave a mockingly scared glance over her shoulder as if an imaginary monster were about to creep up on her. At her sister’s questioning stare she let up on the joke and smiled again. “The hair’s something I’ve been trying. Brown just doesn’t work with this skin color!” She held up a hand, each nail precisely painted green, as if to compare it to her golden locks.

Liz rubbed her temples. “So Mom let you dye your hair?” With everything her mind had to take in, it seemed best to focus on that which felt ridiculously outrageous first and sort out the details later.

“Oh, it’s totally temporary. I’m just testing it to see if I like it; I’m hoping she’ll let me get permanent if it works.” She winked.

“But, why? I mean, it looks great, but just… why?” The brunette trainer was completely baffled by her sister’s personal hair choice. There wasn’t a moment in their childhood where either of them had considered changing anything major with their bodies. What else was different in Lilycove City, she wondered, if something like hair color was so flippantly altered?

Sierra rolled her eyes. “Didn’t you get my letter? I’m working at a fashion school. Blonde goes so much better with everything, trust me. But you’re totally working the chocolate do!” She held up her hands dramatically and her shoulders relaxed in a display of concern for her twin’s emotions.

Liz blinked in surprise. Did she think that she was making her feel worse for her own appearance by her change, and was trying to dissuade her from feeling obligated to do the same? A faint smile crept to her lips. It was humorous, if touching, to see her sister so emotionally sensitive. Maybe they did share a connection of sorts, after all. “It’s cool; you look great, by the way. Have you been working on the beach?”

The stylist nodded eagerly. “I’ve been designing a whole beach collection with mom, so I’ve been studying out in the field almost every other day with a notebook and pencil. I’ve already got five outfits designed, and mom’s got more.” She suddenly broke out into another smile, holding her hands together in a tight clasp and squealing. “I totally forgot to tell you! Mom got hired by someone to do a collection for a runway, and she’s working full time as a designer now.”

Again, the trainer was surprised, but much more pleasantly than before. “You mean it?” Liz was overjoyed at the news. It felt like just yesterday her mother was struggling to find work doing repairing to old clothes and laundry for neighbors; now, she was a designing artist? The idea was almost too good to be true. “That’s great! How did she get hired?”

“Well, my teacher at the fashion school had a conference with mom, and they shared drawings, and then my teacher gave her a recommendation to one of her superiors, who passed it on to a friend in the business, and voila! We got a call totally out of the blue asking mom to an interview, and a week later she got a call back.” Sierra squealed again, but luckily for the nearby people she lowered her voice. “She showed him the design of your dress among her sketches. You’re going to be like a living advertisement when you wear it in contest. Speaking of, how are you and your Pokémon? Last I heard, you were headed to Arasam.” She stopped and gripped the box hard, her eyes wide. “Oh my gosh, I bet we missed your contest, didn’t we? In all the excitement and rush, we forgot about it, and-“

“No, no,” Liz cut off her sister, chuckling. “I’m only in Baccate, so Arasam’s a little while off. I’ll be sure to call you before it comes, anyway. My team’s great; Guini evolved into a Kirlia just outside town, and...” Her voice trailed off towards the end, and her eyes fell downwards. “I was on my way into Baccate, and Ryan went missing. We still don’t know where he is, and other Pokémon have disappeared, too.”

Sierra let out a gasp. “Ryan’s missing? Is he OK? Never mind that, you probably don’t know- sorry for asking, but are you all right?” She appeared genuinely concerned.

“Yeah,” she said with a sigh, “I’m alright. No one else has disappeared, and we should be safe at the Pokémon center.”

“Wait a minute. Who’s we?”

It took her a moment to realize what Sierra was asking. “Oh, right. I met some trainers outside of town,” she explained. “Three, to be exact. There’s an older fellow named Walten, an eccentric but generally nice scientist named Dr. Adelaide, and an older guy with tattoos named Taggarty. The first two both have a missing Pokémon each and we teamed up to look for them in the forest.”

“Ew,” Sierra said, shuddering. “I never liked forests. Everything seems to go wrong in the trees, I say. I’m sorry to hear about their missing Pokémon.” Her thoughts trailed on to another matter. “Sounds like a crazy group. Tattoos? He sounds hardcore; is he tough? Does he have a bunch of gym badges and scars from fights?”

“Actually, yeah, he has a few gym badges. I don’t think he’s exactly gang guy or anything, if that’s what you’re thinking. He’s pretty nice. He has a lot of experience, and I think he’s been on his journey for a while. He even offered to participate in my first contest with me, for ‘fun’ he said.” She smiled at the memory, and how excited she had been to hear his offer.

Sierra’s eyes grew large. “Wow, that sounds incredible. Is he cute?”

“What?!” Liz asked, and then in a lowered voice said, “Are you crazy? He’s way too old for you! He’s, like, twice our age and more maybe!”

“You just said he was older.” She pointed out, and then she straightened her back and said in a high and formal voice, “Well, he sounds like a lovely gentleman. Do tell him I said hello, and that if he so much as says one word outta line to you, I’ll wring his sorry neck.” She remained passive, causing her sister to erupt in laughter.

“I’m not telling him that. You’re crazy, you know that?” She stifled her giggles.

“Alright, but so are you.” Still maintaining her performance, Sierra pretended to brush off dirt from her shirt. “I’ll be sure to tell mom everything, and I’ll try to call you again soon. I hope you find Ryan. I mean it,” she said, suddenly serious. “Keep a sharp eye out for anything and everything out there, and get a good night’s sleep, too. I don’t want to get a call from someone saying you passed out from exhaustion and worry because you wouldn’t let yourself get a decent nine hours rest.”

Liz smiled softly again, her heart touched by her sister’s enthusiasm and care. “I will. Tell mom I said ‘Hi’, and I’ll be waiting for your call.” The screen darkened after Sierra gave one last farewell. Liz put the phone back and stepped away from the booth for the next occupant. Her mood was considerably brightened by the call, and she felt much lighter inside. A weight had been lifted from her shoulders by the surprise and good news of her family, even in light of everything that had happened earlier that same day. She walked to the front desk and asked the nurse for a room key. Suddenly, she realized she was thoroughly exhausted. The battle had been tense, and her mad scrambling through the woods paired with her earlier traveling left her feet sore and her thighs aching.

“Room 2B is right down the hall with two beds and a private bathroom,” Nurse Joy said as she handed over the key. “I’ll send down your Pokémon once their check is complete. They should be fine by morning.”

The trainer thanked her and held the key in her hand, rubbing her thumb over it as she thought. Turning around on her heel, she located the Dr. Adelaide and asked, “Would you like to share a room with me?” It felt reasonable in her sleep deprived mind at the time, and she didn’t feel inclined to spend the night alone. The Doctor certainly seemed like interesting company, after all, and she was the only girl in the quartet besides herself. “I think it’d be fun,” she explained, both for herself and the Doctor.

Posted by: colourcodedchaos Feb 10 2013, 09:03 AM

"Welcome to Baccate Pokemon Cent - uh... ma'am, are you alright? There's a doctor in town, I can get himhere in ten minutes-"

"No, thank you. I've had these since childhood. It was... kind of you to offer, though. I require aid for my Pokemon, which I feel you might well be more suited for. Please ignore the gaffer tape on this ball, my Gastly can get a little, you know, tetchy. By which I mean he'll try and Fire Punch everything that moves."

"Oh... right. Uh, how do you plan on releasing him to, like, battle and stuff?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now, I just need him and my Tynamo fixed up."

"... ty... ty?" A voice came from a pocket.

"It's alright, Tynamo, you're going to be fine."

"mo..."

"I'm just going to put you in a ball so the nice lady can make you all better, okay? It's not going to be for long, I promise."

"tyna... tynamo..."

"Okay. Here we go..." Tynamo was gently stroked along his dorsal fin before being put in the ball.

"Doesn't like his Ball, huh, ma'am? We get a lot like that."

"No. I just hold severe reservations about putting sentient beings in something the size of a largish peach. Blame my dastardly liberal upbringing." Adelaide handed over the two Great Balls and tapped the lumpen flesh where an ear used to sit. "Right now, though, my concern for his physical wellbeing is forced to override it. There must be a better way to treat one's minions than this. There has to be."

"Um... we'll, we'll get them both healed up nicely by the morning, don't worry!" The Nurse Joy smiled nervously. "In the, um , in the meantime, why don't you just take a seat in our waiting room while I deal with your Pokemon and send for the police. BELLHOP! S-sorry, I'll get right on that!"

"See that you do."

The Nurse Joy scuttled off with the balls at a pace just shy of insultingly fast. Again, Adelaide was forced to marvel at the levels of biotech this world had; their computers were powerful enough to store coded versions of living beings and they apparently had something of a fetish for cloning government employees. She had once wondered if the prize for Employee Of The Month in some government back office was having your face chosen for the Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys.

She slumped into a chair and idly wondered what was becoming of her dear little Mantyke, lost in the woods on her own with nobody to hold her at night. Then she stopped wondering, because her cybereye was in the process of disconnecting for the night and water didn't exactly help proceedings. She looked around at the Pokemon Center's waiting room, her sight already devoid of depth perception, and watched the others in the group, and felt more alone than she had in quite some time.

Such melancholy musings were interrupted quite quickly when Liz asked if they wanted to share a room. Normally, this would have elicited a slightly sarcastic remark about whether or not she wanted any nice sweeties, but right now Adelaide wasn't in the mood for such frivolity. Instead, she just nodded her assent and got to her feet, her boots impeding her progress a little. Her steps were short and her breath still slightly ragged - she was going to feel the day's exertions tomorrow morning - but that was shortly to be the least of her problems.

A lack of depth perception is definitely sub-optimal when charting one's progress on a polished floor, especially when one doesn't have the best track record when it comes to remaining upright. Thus, as she made for room, she slipped and fell backwards, her head landing with a resounding crack on the floor.

"Don't worry, nobody panic, I'm alright - oh. Oh, balls."

Floating above her - she wasn't entirely certain how far - was her cybereye, the fall having obviously triggered the emergency optical tether release catch and powered up the device's tiny but effective repulsorlift pad. The programme for the holographic systems had yet to shut off as well.

The overall effect was of a human eyeball hovering in the middle of a room.

That was when the three small children walked in with their mother, a rake-thin, nervous looking woman with the general demeanour of some sort of prey animal destined to end its days as a small, damp squeak in the middle of a wood.

That was when the screaming started.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Feb 14 2013, 12:15 AM

Tag watched closely as Walten sat down on a bench nearby, studying the older man now that he didn't have to keep his constant vigilance up. There was something rather zen about the man, in that for most of the day, he appeared to be living completely in the present, or so Tag felt. However, Tag peered closely at Walten, noting that the man had essentially folded in to himself, in a way that Tag recognized instantly. He'd done it himself all too many times.

Knowing that he didn't like to be disturbed, Tag decided to offer the same courtesy to Walten, and turned to look for Adelaide or Liz. He saw them walking down the hallway, disappearing towards the back, meaning that they probably had gotten themselves a room.

Tag had spent so much time on the couches at Pokemon Centers that he had pretty much forgotten that Pokemon Centers had rooms at all. He typically liked to use his trainer earnings as a means to afford non-pokemon center inns or motels as they offered just a bit more privacy. He also typically wasn't surrounded by kids, as they tended to lean towards Pokemon Centers rather than inns.

It felt odd to join the two ladies as they adjourned to a chamber, so he remained in his seat, staring off in to space. Surely, at some point, sleep would claim him too.

Then a scream pierced the air of the Pokemon Center.

On his feet in an instance, Tag tore towards the back hall where he'd seen Liz and Adelaide disappear towards just moments earlier. As he approached, hand on pokeball belt, he visibly started as he saw the eye floating in the middle of the room. While he was used to Pokemon levitating in the middle of rooms, he had never in his travels encountered a human body part that did the same.

A quick scan of the people revealed that Adelaide had been sprawled on the floor, and a matchstick of a woman was screaming in shock.

"What the hell is that?" Tag visibily tensed, ready to spring into action at the slightest provocation from the floating eyeball.

Posted by: Soos Feb 14 2013, 03:34 PM

Walten broke his train of thought to look around and see what everyone else was doing. The Doctor and Liz were headed off to their own rooms, it seemed. Tag was finished with his phone call and was sitting on a nearby bench. Walten wondered if he should try and strike up a conversation with the man. They hadn't talked much since they first met, and Walten felt it important to get to know his new allies.

It was right as he was about to say something to the tattooed man when a piercing shriek broke through the silence of the hospital.

Walten saw Tag get up to his feet right away, and he quickly followed suit, not worrying to grab his hat and cane he left on the seat next to him. When he arrived at the scene, Pokeball in hand, he saw a thin woman surrounded by a couple children, and the Doc getting up from the ground. He failed to see the reason of the shriek right away, but soon caught in his eye an... eye?

Walten didn't know how to feel about the current situation. Slightly disturbed, maybe. Confused, definate maybe.

He held out a hand to Adelaide to help her up and cleared is throat. "Is that... Your eye?" Walten asked, and nodded toward the floating eye. He knew the question was rather obvious, but felt he had to ask it anyhow.

Posted by: colourcodedchaos Feb 15 2013, 07:55 AM

"Now, nobody panic! I insist that nobody panic! This all has a perfectly rational explanation, I assure you-"

"MONSTER! MONSTER IN THE POKEMON CENTRE!" The mousy woman screamed and ran off, the children in tow leaving yellow trails behind them.

"I don't know why I bothered getting out of bloody bed this morning, I really don't." Adelaide picked herself up with some difficulty. "Bad cybereye. Very, very bad cybereye. You scared the nice lady by floating at her." If it was at all possible for a small floating eyeball to look sheepish, this one did. "And look at that! Someone's going to have to clean that up. I'm very disappointed in you."

"..." said the cybereye.

"Oh, right, you're not sapientech. You'd think I'd remember after thirteen years - oh, hello, Lee. Walten too. Don't worry, the situation is entirely under control. Probably. Sort of. Ish."

"Is that... your eye?" said Walten.

It's one thing getting a sarcastic glare. It's quite another getting it from two directions at once. "No, Walten. This is clearly the holy floating eye of Pope Gregory IX, which was canonized after an incident in which it single-handedly saved the entire West Indian cricket team after they fell over the side of the papal yacht, a huge great beast called the Saucy Sue. It has sixteen thousand followers on Twitter and enjoys the delicious taste of deep-fried badger. Look, it's been a hard bloody day for everyone. Let's just get some sleep and we can sort things out in the morning."

Posted by: Kamaitachi Mar 8 2013, 05:14 PM

Tag was having a difficult time reconciling the situation in his head. Adelaide was standing before them in all her nonchalant and sarcastic glory with one of her eyes floating around the room. She proceeded to answer Walten's question with a slew of nonsensical terms that Tag had never heard before. Words like "Sapientech", "Pope" and "Badger", and terms like "West Indian" and "Twitter" appeared to be utter gibberish. Adelaide wasn't from any of the regions that Tag had been to before, that much was obvious. Perhaps she was from that Region far out there, where a little foxes and frogs were starter pokemon. Maybe they all had robot eyes there. If that was the case, he had no intention of journeying around there, especially if everyone was as odd as Adelaide.

"Whatever." Tag shrugged once her tirade had ended. Not wanting to delve further into her oddball, possibly psychotic history, the tattooed man turned and went back into the main area of the Pokemon Center.

The trip to Baccate had originally been intended as a vacation, but here he was, once more, embroiled in some conflict. It was pretty par for the course in his life, but he had to wonder just how easily avoidable many of these little 'adventures' were.

He stepped outside for a moment, opening the pokeball for Orin.

"Hey, pretty girl." Tag smiled as the ghostly pokemon sidled up to him, nuzzling up against him for a moment. "Back to your mission, okay? Track down those Gastly so we can find them tomorrow morning. Use Spikes to leave a trail for us, okay?"

With a gentle croon, Orin bowed before flitting off into the night. Tag watched her go for a moment before heading back into the Pokemon Center and settling down on one of the benches again. He and Walten had a room, but admittedly, he wasn't much for sharing rooms if he could help it. If other people slept around the Pokemon Center like him, he certainly didn't mind, but something about sleeping in a very enclosed space with a stranger unsettled him greatly.

Laying himself down so that he was in a rather restful position, he reached down and popped open one of the pokeballs from his belt, revealing Kana, his Spinda. She looked curiously up at him from the floor, and he patted his chest with a nod. With a bright grin, the little Spin-Panda Pokemon hopped up onto his chest, eliciting a little 'oof' from her trainer. After a moment of fussing, she settled down, curling up on Tag's torso as he pet her gently.

This would be an easy way to fall asleep, given that there were no more distractions or floating eyeballs that night.

Posted by: colourcodedchaos Mar 21 2013, 12:24 PM

((Use of Orin permitted by Kamaitachi. In case anyone asks.))

Adelaide had a little ritual every time she went to sleep. First, her cybereye went into the little self-replenishing nanite bag, which was then topped up with a sugar cube to provide fuel for the creation of the cleaning nanites' repro factories. Then she took her lab coat off, transferred any new notes on it onto the relevant tablet (mostly as a hard backup in case her cloud storage failed), stripped, showered, and wandered back out to her bed. She realised she wasn't technically alone, but she booted up her palmtop and ascertained that no, it wasn't indecent exposure to a minor. Besides, everybody knew a mad scientist's beautiful daughter only had eyes for heroes or heroines. Or variations thereof, she chided herself after remembering Vociferous Doctor Mangle's lessons in queer theory and gender studies. Mustn't forget that.

She looked out of the window at the night sky. The wind had picked up and dark clouds had gathered, pummeling the ground beneath them with rain that even sounded cold. This was really strange weather, something she hadn't seen since she'd sparred with Mister Monsoon and the Downpour Division back home. It hadn't been natural then, and it certainly didn't feel natural now. Mumbling to herself and trying to ignore the thunderclaps outside - for thunder and lightning go hand in hand and she didn't want to think about what a bolt of lightning might do to Mantyke, lost and cold and alone and don't think that Adelaide Robinson don't you dare - she did her best to slip into sleep before giving up and glanding a few hypnotics. Her night was dark and dreamless. She hadn't had to do that in a while.

*******

Tynamo, on the other hand, did not have that luxury. He was a little ball of energy at the best of times but when he was worried about his friend it was all he could do not to bounce off the walls of the basement recuperation facility in Baccate's Pokemon Centre. He was doing his best - he didn't want to annoy any of the other Pokemon down here, especially not the tough-looking Kingdra over by the target gallery - but it was hard, especially considering he hadn't discharged in a while and it was beginning to get painful.

Suddenly, he realised something. He was level 20 now. He had double the levels he'd had before coming to Furoh with Adelaide and he, well... he couldn't do anything with them. All he had was four basic moves, one of which was a non-damaging status move. He'd grown up a little, but he hadn't actually grown. He was useless. He wasn't fast, he wasn't strong, he didn't have any variety... all he had was four low-level, basic, boring moves.

With a small, depressed-sounding sigh, he floated over to a large metal plate on the floor and launched a few Sparks into it. Then he lay down on the ground to think about what his place was, and just how long he had until Adelaide realised how useless he was and kicked him out for someone better.

<You okay there, kid?>

<Hm... wha?> Tynamo looked up into the face of a Hitmonchan and leapt back. He realised now that he'd just been discharging into the base plate of a punching bag and became utterly mortified. <Sorry, sir! I'll, um, I'll go over there->

<Nah, you're okay here. What's your name?>

<Tynamo. Just... just Tynamo.>

<You didn't get a nickname?>

<Adelaide didn't want to force a name on me that I didn't pick myself.>

<Oh, okay. That's... kinda weird. You're alright though, Tynamo. I'm Cassius. You look to me like you've got yourself some problems.>

<Oh, um...> Tynamo shied away a little. <Just... you know my movepool?>

<Uh-huh.>

<I... I don't get anything. At all. Just four things.>

<Is your trainer just happy with a basic moveset and wants you to keep it? Because that's technically abuse->

<No, no! Nothing like that! It's just...> Tynamo sighed and looked down. <It's all I learn. It's all I can learn.>

<... No Egg Moves?> Tynamo shook his head. <No TMs?> Another shake. <Come on, you gotta have something->

<I have four moves. I have them... forever. I can't learn anything else... I'm just stuck like this. And, and today my best friend went missing, she's a Mantyke, and she's all alone and I couldn't do anything to save her and, I just feel so weak!>

<Li'l dude... that is harsh. C'mere, let's hug this one out.> Cassius swept Tynamo up into his arms and held him tight, his glove-like hands also drowning out the sounds of the thunderstorm that still managed to penetrate the basement. <You're not weak. You've got good IVs, you're even a little EV-trained. 'Sides, you've got a decent STAB attack that suits your stat layout. You're alright, Ty. It's okay.>

<I... th-thank you.> Tynamo flew up and nuzzled where the stubby remnants of Adelaide's right ear would've been on the Hitmonchan. <I'm sorry.>

<Do not be,> said a voice from the other side of the room. It belonged to the Kingdra, which made Tynamo panic a little more and reflexively charge up some electricity. <Self-doubt afflicts us all at times. In my youth, I despaired of my poor base stats. It is most sad that your lot as a Tynamo is such a small moveset, but have faith. It gets better over time. Not least because of the chikara himitsuno.>

<Oh, the secret moves? Dude, those are barely even legends, don't give the kid false hope->

<Then explain this, master Cassius. Chikara Himitsuno DELTA HEAT BLAST!> The Kingdra's muzzle flared bright white and a shining, banana-shaped red pulse flew out from it, smashing into the target and registering quite highly on the damage computer's readout.

<... That's not a move I've ever seen. Bruce's friend Claire has a Kingdra and she doesn't know that->

<Indeed she would not. Mark me well in this; the road to finding the secret moves of one's people is a hard and treacherous one. However, the prize is almost always a most splendid one->

<Teach me.>

This finally made the Kingdra turn away from the target gallery and look at the Tynamo. <I beg your pardon?>

<I have to learn this stuff if I'm to have any value. I could get any move, potentially. So I need to learn something from you, so you need to teach me.>

<And precisely why would I do that?>

<Because you love the power that you have, and you want to pass it on to others.>

<I warn you now, every Pokemon is different. Nobody can learn every Secret Power. You will never learn Heat Blast, nor Protective Swirl, nor Aqua Stream, nor many others. There are many techniques that only a single Pokemon can learn.>

<I don't care. Even if I can't access all of them, I need something to make me less useless.>

<And you are aware that your evolutions are famed throughout the world for the breadth of their movepools?>

<I evolve at level 39, and I need a Thunderstone to go further, and in order to get that, I need to get more moves, which means I effectively evolve into an Eelektross at level 55 or higher. I don't have the time to waste.>

<... There is logic in what you say, if your situation is as desperate as you say. Cassius, will you join in too?>

<Heck yeah. An edge is an edge, am I right?>

<Very well. We shall begin with a process of self-analysis, to determine how the pair of you can learn to attack...>

*******

All through the day and all through the night, Mantyke hadn't dared stop moving. She was stronger now, she could feel it, and she had a few more moves to fend off others with, including a secondary STAB move in the form of Wing Attack. She moved purposefully through the shivering dark, the chill of the rain biting deep into her bones even as the water itself refreshed and aided her. She was not, however, alone.

The ghosts of that insane mansion had been following her through the woodland. Every time she stopped, even for a moment, she had to keep a weather eye out for the insidious grasp of a Gastly or, even worse, the big Haunter who she'd seen do... no. She refused to dwell on it. Besides, it had all been in her mind, or at least someone else's. Still, a quick blast from her new moves - Signal Beam or Confuse Ray for preference - generally scared them off, at least when they hit.

Right now, though, she was tiring. She'd kept going in as straight a line as she could, but the forest seemed to go on forever. It was, to put it mildly, terrifying her. She was cold and scared, and she wanted her Trainer-

<Little fish, little fish, come and play with us again...>

The explosively foul-mouthed rant that this got in return went on for several minutes as Mantyke redoubled her efforts at escape, blasting through the forest at incredible speed for one so small and low-level. She just went faster and faster, trying desperately not to show any kind of weakness-

And there it was, right in front of her.

A knot of Gastlies, led by a Haunter, and behind it an old, dark house, gnarled and twisted by the ravages of years. Even as she watched, a hailstone smashed through one of the top floor windows. Wait, Mantyke thought, hail? This isn't normal either... distraction play. Now.

<How nice of you to come back to us, little fish. Even though you took the long way around through Master Alakazam's Trick Room.>

<Oh, some bitches are gonna get schooled when my Doctor gets here->

<Hah! Your precious human won't find you, little fish. Nobody can find us if we don't want them to.>

<Shove it in between your rot-raddled beef curtains, you disgusting, herpes-powered filthspewer!>

The Haunter rocked back in mid-air and the Gastlies joined in with howls of laughter. <My, such language! Did you learn that from the human - wait. Oh, for Darkrai's sake... After her! Into the trees!>

The Gastlies roared off after Mantyke, but they didn't have long to search. Mantyke had ascended the tallest tree she could find and was firing off blast after blast of Signal Beam into the night sky.

<Who are you looking for, little fish? Who do you think is coming to save you-> The Haunter's scream of pain was lost in the howling wind as he was hit by a powerful Crunch attack. As he fell to the ground, a Froslass appeared where he had been floating.

<That,> she said in a cutting whisper, <would be me.>

<Who are you?> Mantyke murmured as she dropped down beneath the canopy once more with her new friend in tow.

<My name is Orin. My trainer bade me follow the trail of these vagabonds and deliver justice to them. I left a trail with my Spikes, so we can follow it to get back out->

<DON'T JUST FLOAT THERE, YOU MORONS! GET THEM!>

<Can you fight, my dear?>

<... I can try.>

<Good,> said Orin, and battle was joined.

Posted by: Dragonwish2 Mar 21 2013, 08:46 PM

After the others broke away, hiding any serious surprise at the Doctor’s strange removable eyeball device, Liz felt rather lonely. A chill hovered over her shoulder that refused to leave. She let out a sigh and glanced back over her shoulder, her mind crossing over from her fears to the topic of the traumatized woman and her children. Would they be alright? She wondered as she made her way to the room. The young trainer imagined that they were being comforted by Nurse Joy that very moment, a Chansey waiting nearby to offer eggs and entertain the little kids. The hopeful image made her smile, and she unlocked the door to her room happily.

Adelaide was in the showers as she entered the dimly lit room. Steam rolled out from under the cracks in the bathroom door, fogging up the window and giving the dorm a mystical feeling. Liz swung her bag from her back and hung it on the untouched bed’s wooden frame, seating herself on the soft mattress and pulling out a spiral and pen. She paused as she held the black inked pen over the pure white paper; that was the thrill of writing, to her anyways. Marring a beautiful and clean sheet in hopes of making something beautiful, a fond little secret of her own that kept her going through many a time. Her wrist fell flat against the journal’s surface, and she began to write.

A distant clap of thunder startled her midway. The pen smeared across the surface, slashing through several words and leaving ink on her fingers and palm. She let out a soft groan and rubbed her messy hand with her other thumb. As she attempted to clean herself, Dr. Adelaide reappeared from the bathroom, bare and fragrant from the many soaps and shampoos. Liz instantly compared herself to the clean Doctor and found her own body rather lacking in hygiene. Closing her spiral, she pushed off from the bed and slipped silently past the elder woman, closing the bathroom door with a small click.

The shower relaxed her immensely, warm water flowing over her shoulders and wearing off the grime of the day. She pulled her hair back into a towel turban and searched her bag, withdrawing a simple pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt for her pajamas. The Doctor was sound asleep when Liz folded back the covers on her bed. Rain knocked against the window with gentle little patters, a thousand voices whispering into the silent room in hopes of an entrance. The noise irritated Liz; it felt harsher than the warm shower she had just recently exited. In her anger she slammed the curtains shut and blocked out the little voices.

She lay in bed for quite a while, thinking. Her thoughts bounced back and forth, from Adelaide to her Pokémon to Ryan and then forcefully on to Tag and Walten. They never lingered on any one subject. As the demented madness stormed her mind, a headache building into an unbearable migraine, a bolt of lightning struck close. Liz barely held back a scream. She gripped the pillows with an iron fist, her whole body shaking and adrenaline shooting down her back.

One, two, three, four.. BOOM.

Liz let out her breath, somewhat surprised she had been holding it. Rolling over onto her other side to face the wall, she considered her immediate response. Counting to the thunder clap was something she hadn’t done for years, yet it was her first reaction to her crisis. Her eyes opened wide and she sat up, patting the bed around her bottom and testing the blankets. They were dry, against her fears, and she lied back down. Forcing her eyes to remain shut, she fell blissfully into a dreamless sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~

The darkness was broken occasionally by the electricity from the sky. Rain poured in through the windows, showering down onto Ryan’s back and drenching his fur. He shook uncontrollably in the cold. Part of his mind continued to vent angrily at the hail that had broken the windows earlier, but a weaker, more sensitive part of him feared the storm. He bit his lip painfully and yowled, throwing another punch against the metal bars of his wall. He had previously awoken in a wooden crate, easily broken by his force palm.

And then they had come.
And they hurt him.
And the pain never ended.

Endure kept him on the last string of life, but he barely held onto consciousness. His will was no match for a type advantage, and that was exactly what they had. They outmatched him in every way. He had heard them talking about her[/], and how they would hurt [i]her, and all of her little friends. Ryan screamed at them and lashed out, but their Pokémon always came at him and bit and tore without stopping. Eventually the men had confined him to the metal cage held by a chain to the ceiling. He was forced to sleep and live in the most uncomfortable environment imaginable.

That was what they wanted. They wanted to break him and control him. The goons, seeing his strategy and skill from ages of contest practice, had informed their leaders, who took an interest. Their auras were sickening to him, full of lust and desire and greed. He shook his head in the cage, the chain swinging him back in forth. A horrible sickness came over him, and he vomited through the bars and onto the floor.

Ryan shut his eyes, blocking out all other senses but his hearing and auras. The sound of thunder didn’t frighten him. But another noise came through the monstrous storm, one that lit a fire in his heart and made his eyes open in surprise. Fighting had broken out in another part of the lair, and it didn’t sound like the poisonous Gastly were winning. Ryan pushed himself to his feet and swung out with his arm. Dagger like stars fired against the metal, sparking and sending tiny flashes of light into the room. He repeated the motion, ignoring the ricochet and the sparks that burned his feet and paws. When the metal creaked from pressure he swung and shattered the brittle metal.

His feet hit the floor with a faint splash. He raced through the halls, closing his eyes and letting his inner ability guide him towards the fight, hoping to join and escape with the others. Turning the corner, his body slammed into another, and only too late did the aura warn him of the dangers.

As he fell into unconsciousness, he watched the golden figure tower over him, its eyes glowing blue like the sky.
~~~~~~

Liz awoke early in the morning. She stretched and yawned, glancing over at Adelaide. Still asleep, she thought to herself as she checked the clock. Her partner’s slumbering condition lost all surprise; the time was only 5 AM. The girl slipped out of bed and dressed herself in a pair of blue jean shorts and a black v-neck shirt. Pulling on her Pokéball belt and black sneakers, she wandered quietly through the halls while pulling her hair into a ponytail. She stopped short at a bench. The wooden surface was covered by the snoozing form of Tag. He appeared rather peaceful in sleep, his tattoos losing their terror. Liz softly smiled at him and crept past to the desk.

Nurse Joy was up and about early. She nodded joyfully and whispered a good morning to the trainer before entering the back room. Liz fiddled with her room key as she waited, glancing around the room nervously. Outside the world was still dark, the stars fading into the blackness with the moon. The air smelled of warm food and laundry inside. A few TV’s were on with a low volume, and one or two people were watching the early news.

The nurse returned with a silver tray holding Liz’s team. The trainer took them and clipped the Pokéballs onto her belt, thanking Nurse Joy and stepping outside as quietly as possible.

Her Kirlia landed onto the newly cut grass beautifully, spinning on her toes like a ballerina. Guini stretched her body, enjoying the new use of her extended arms and legs. She looked up at her trainer and curtsied. Liz knelt down to her height, staring her in the eyes. “What would you like to do today before we head out?”

The question surprised her, but seeing her trainer’s serious expression she considered it thoughtfully. <Yoga. Join me?> She stepped daintily over to a clearer patch of grass and beckoned Liz with a snow white arm. The girl smiled and followed, positioning herself next to her Kirlia and standing perfectly balanced. She practiced her even breathing at the guidance of Guini and did some basic warming up.

The two spent the next hour practicing, the Pokémon acting as a role model for the trainer. Within minutes they were perfectly in synch, extending their bodies out gracefully with an air of poise. Liz let her mind empty as the steady breathing and repetitive movements calmed her body. She closed her eyes and stretched outwards, listening to nature around her. Only the nudging of Guini woke her, and she followed her gaze out into the eastern distance. The sun crept over the horizon before their very eyes in a stunning display of reds, oranges, purples and yellows. They watched the spectacle together on the grass.

Liz’s stomache growled shortly afterwards, and she laughed at the sound. She had been so serene that even her empty stomach had failed to disturb her. Now it felt as though there was a bottomless pit in her belly. “Come on, Guini. Let’s get some breakfast,” she said with a smile. The two reentered the Pokémon Center and went to the dining area to find their morning meal, careful not to disturb those still sleeping in the rooms.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Mar 22 2013, 12:48 AM

Taggarty Lee boasted a surprisingly graceful team of Pokemon. While his Ledian, Vulpix and Bellossom were certainly in the running, his Froslass was the one who shone when she chose to.

Knowing Tag's battle style to be primarily utilitarian, she avoided the flashier attacks and stuck to his guiding; he had not often steered her wrong. However, now she was on her own, and did not have his commanding tone to navigate the battle. She had to rely purely on her own instincts. As a timid Snorutnt and an equally shy Froslass, Orin never had been one to stand out.

But as the battle erupted around her, and the odds overwhelming, she trusted in the training she'd received under Tag. She trusted in her own ability. She could not watch herself over the course of the battle, but a part of her secretly wished she could.

Diving forward, she carefully navigated a flashy signal beam, scooting along its perimeter as it slammed into the central Gastly in the cloud. As the beam faded, she took its place in the center, much to the surprise of the poisonous gas pokemon around her. With a spin, ectoplasmic energy launched out from her 'sleeves' mouth, eyes and whole body, sending out a wave of Ominous Wind in all directions, scattering the swarm as best she could.

It would be more difficult for her makeshift Mantyke ally to aim, but the attack itself had been most efficacious. The enemy reeled from the stinging blast of ghost power, naturally a supereffective attack.

As the began to retaliate, the blasts of their own Night Shade attacks screeched towards her eerily, momentarily allowing her ally some respite from their onslaught. As they apparently slashed through her body, the graceful snow ghost disappeared from sight, only to reappear as a triplicate of herself; double team had been an effective means of evasion.

As another Signal Beam slammed violently into another of the comrades, the Gastly cloud appeared to get wise to the hurried strategy. Orin, while more powerful, was the one providing distraction, leaving Mantyke as a powerful artillery from long range. They laughed eerily before sending off a combined wave of their dangerous Night Shade attacks careeing towards the "Little Fish", as they'd so mockingly called her.

As if flashing to her side, Orin appeared just above the little Manta Ray creature, forming a protective bubble, easily dispelling the next attack. She panted a bit, not being a pokemon used to rapidly utilizing her techniques so quickly in succession; it made sense as to why Tag often waited for her to counter the attacks, rather than sending her recklessly into the fray. She and her partner remained mostly unharmed, but signs of dwindling stamina were already showing on the Froslass.

<How dreadfully tedious.> Orin sighed as she placed a sleeve over her mouth, covering a bit of her slightly ragged breathing. <While I'm quite sure we've the advantage in skill, I'm afraid their numbers are problematic.>

Her head snapped to one side as she felt something in the air. It was a sensation that she recognized, that a part of her ghostly nature recognized as a foe. A psychic. The energy in the air had twisted in a way that she recognized from her partners Tobi and Tonbo. Perhaps it meant another Pokemon was near, and perhaps it meant that their enemies would soon gain reinforcements.

<Would you mind terribly if we retreated?> She peered down at her ally, but as she looked back up, she caught the eye of the Haunter, whose eyes seemed to have melted together, forming a single, horrific, vertical eye at the center of his body. She felt her own form lock up a bit, and instinctually she knew her urge to retreat would be a futile one. They had to fight the battle. <Ah, well...scratch that. Any ideas, my dear?> she raised her arms protectively as the Gastly advanced. In her periphery, the sun began to crest through the trees.

* * *

When Liz re-entered the Pokemon Center, Tag had awakened, and was sitting upon the wooden bench, blinking repeatedly as he focused his sight into the room. In his arms, he still held his Spinda, who likewise was blinking her great, big, spinny eyes as she looked around the room. Cheerfully, she waved a good morning at Liz and her Kirlia, uttering a pleasant: "Spinda!" as they passed. Tag nodded at them silently, looking a bit bedraggled. He rose slowly, still holding his partner, and followed wordlessly after Liz, though in truth, he was simply walking towards the smell of breakfast, which was what had roused him to begin with.

"You're up early." He muttered in a voice that sounded like it had never been used before. The tone had sank deeply into his chest, turning his normal baritone to a full on bass, still crackling from the lingering sleep. "Get any sleep?"

Posted by: Dragonwish2 Jun 1 2013, 04:31 PM

Guini paused at the small cry behind her. Turning with newfound grace, she nodded to the small Spinda, pleasantly surprised to see someone closer to her species. <Hello, little one.> She said softly, her voice like the pleasant hum of a harp.

Liz barely glanced over her shoulder at Tag. “Yeah, I just woke up early. The doctor’s still sleeping, but I’ll wake her up if she isn’t already after breakfast.” Her gaze lowered to the tiny panda Pokémon in his arms. She crouched down to meet it at eye level, smiling sweetly. “Who’s this little guy?”

<Girl,> Guini corrected her telepathically.

Her trainer shot her a glance and straightened. “Uh, girl. Sorry, I seriously suck with genders sometimes,” she told Tag. “I’m surprised I didn’t mistake you for a girl.” Realizing the awkwardness of her pitiful attempt at humor, she looked away and searched for a change of topic. “What do you think they serve here? I’d guess waffles, or maybe toast. Wonder if they have jam.”

The halls wound to a larger, open room with glass doors and floor to ceiling windows that revealed a beautiful garden behind the center. Small berry bushes crouched under the shade of several trees that held larger fruits. Wild Pokémon plucked at the free tokens and darted out of sight in the undergrowth. A bar lined the glass to allow visitors to watch the wildlife while eating, with several signs, distinguishing the glass as a one way view, with the other side reflective for the Pokémon’s comfort, as well as dissuading viewers from tapping the glass or feeding the wild Pokémon without permission.

On the other side of the room, several buffet stands were held, each covered in large dishes of eggs, potatoes, biscuits, sausages, and rolls. Pancake and waffle makers were held on a table in the corner, alongside the toaster and the juice machine. A fresh coffee pot lay steaming inside the machine beside several plastic mugs. Jam, creamers, and sugars lay between the two stations, held above serving utensils and napkins.

Liz went to the first stand and took a plate off of the stack held on the buffet station’s corner, filling her plate with sausage patties, biscuits & gravy, and a cinnamon roll. She balanced the meal in her left hand while snatching up some napkins and utensils with her right, setting a fork and knife on the edge of her plate to reach for a plastic cup and pour herself a glass of apple juice. “Guini, why don’t you see if there’s Pokémon food here?”

The Kirlia gave a small hum of acceptance before turning her attention to the Spinda. <Care to accompany me?> She asked the Panda Pokémon.

Her trainer waited patiently for Tag to find his own meal. “Care to sit with me?” She asked him. At his reply she scouted out an empty table for four, setting her plate down at a small table for four. Liz rearranged her items into neater positions and placed an unfolded napkin in her lap with her drink beside her plate. “I haven’t eaten with anyone but my team for a while; at least, not since Gigarte. It’s a nice change,” she commented, cutting out a bite of her roll. “What about you? Do you travel with people a lot, or are you on your own?” She looked up from her plate briefly and met his eyes with the intent gaze of a careful listener. It was pleasant to speak with someone who could easily reply, unlike her Pokemon, and she enjoyed the company immensely.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jun 2 2013, 02:17 AM

<Hello, Big Sister!> Kana's cheerful voice echoed back at Guini. The little Kana's thought-speak was surprisingly loud and clear, perhaps stemming from her Alakazam sire. Kana had limited access to the psychic plane, which usually manifested as the move "Psycho Cut". However, in the presence of a full-blown Psychic, her thought-speech came through loud and clear, as if empowered by the Kirlia's very presence.

Kana shrugged nonchalantly, an odd feat for a Spinda, as Liz called her a 'little guy'. Guini's correction only brought another bright smile to her little panda face.

"This is Kana." Tag nodded, speaking pleasantly, despite the sleepy rumble in his voice. "She's one of my newer friends, and if I'm not mistaken, our secret weapon for when we find those Gastly again." He wasn't quite sure how to take Liz's attempt at a joke, so he simply responded: "I'd make a fairly ugly woman, that's for sure. It's the tattoos. And the stubble."

Liz quickly changed the topic to food, which was something Tag held great interest in. For all of his travels, the young man always appeared perpetually hungry. Often going for long stints at a time with not very much to eat, he'd gorge himself upon first sight of food. Today, he had to be careful, because as soon as Adelaide and Walten woke up and finished eating, they would be back out into the woods. Tag couldn't afford his usual comatose state today.

"I'd imagine...gruel." He frowned at his own pitiful attempt at a joke. The embarrassment didn't last long, however, as they entered the 'place-where-food-happened'. The buffet stands looked like heaven on earth. Baccate was truly an amazing place; Tag had never seen a spread like this at any other Pokemon Center he'd ever stayed in.

Fighting every urge to dive headlong into the victuals, Tag took his time and picked out food that would empower him for the day, like a sensible person. He glared lustfully at the waffles, longingly gazed at the biscuits and gravy, and even stared challengingly at the cinnamon rolls. Such foods would have to be imbibed tomorrow, as victory for a succesful rescue mission.

Today, with hands quivering, he merely picked out some scrambled eggs, some buttered toast and a few links of sausage. Even as he walked over ot the table, he continued to look back lovingly at the masterful breakfast spread. He poured himself a glass of orange juice, because that seemed breakfast-y.

As he sat down, he watched as Kana teetered off, following the Kirlia at Liz's suggestion of finding Pokemon food.

<I would love to, Big Sister!>

A small smile crossed Tag's face as he heard Kana's cheerful "Da!", which sounded like a resounding "yes."

As Liz began to talk, Tag began eating. By the time she finished her first sentence, the food was gone. Completely defeated by the starving trainer. Taggarty Lee did not feel satisfied, but he knew that was voracity, not necessity, speaking.

"Oh, I travel alone, usually. Once I get somewhere, though, things happen and I wind up with a group of people. Looks like Baccate is no exception."

Such was the life of a Pokemon Trainer. Relentless adventuring; always a crisis.

"I never really liked traveling with people before I got to Furoh." He gulped down his juice in one swift chug, sighing in satisfaction. "But I've found that nowadays, I'm enjoying it more and more."

He stared wistfully down at his empty plate, wishing he'd taken the time to pile more food on there. He looked back at the buffet spread, wondering what it would be like to dive headfirst into the food. Probably scalding hot, he wagered.

"But, you know, I traveled through Johto, then Kanto, Sinnoh and Hoenn before coming here; I got used to traveling on my own." He sized Liz up, who stated that she normally just ate with her team. It meant that this young girl also traveled on her own, and aside from a missing Riolu, seemed to be doing just fine. Trainers left home all of the time at age 10, it made sense. Tag, himself, hadn't left until he was about 16, with only the company of his Dratini.

"What made you decide to be a co-ordinator?"

Posted by: Dragonwish2 Jun 2 2013, 02:21 PM

Liz finished her roll and cut her sausage to pieces. “I guess it all started when I was a kid. My mom used to take me to see the contests held in Lilycove City, my hometown, and I fell in love with them. Co-ordinators don’t just battle for a knock out, they fight to win the audience’s attention, to capture their hearts in five minutes or less. And there are so many styles, too: subtle and mysterious, flashy and beautiful, clever and dark. It’s like a canvas that anyone can paint on.” She bit into the meat and let the spicy hot flavors roll over her tongue.

Guini led the panda down to a machine set up nearby the buffet area. It’s model gave her the impression that it was designed for trainers to select serving sizes of Poffins, Pokeblocks, or special berries for their Pokémon, but the Kirlia’s height and intellect allowed her to retrieve her own food. Gazing down fondly at Kana, she asked, <What would you like, Little Sister?> Her hand hovered over the button patiently.

Noticing that Tag had eaten rather quickly and heartily, Liz finished off her patties and dove into the biscuits with renewed vigor. Her thoughts had abandoned her, overpowered by a renewed hunger. After cleaning the small traces of gravy from her mouth with a napkin, she folded up her trash and stacked it neatly on top of her empty plate.

She cast a glance back in the direction Guini had traveled, a smile on her face. “I never imagined I’d have the Pokémon I do now. But they’re great, and now I can’t imagine life without them,” she finished. The last of her juice disappeared in one large swallow, and she added it to the pile in front of her.

“I didn’t know that Spinda had an advantage to ghost types,” she mused. “They are immune to ghost type attacks, but I’m curious to see how she goes against the Gastly.” She stood and picked up her plate. “I’ll wake the Doctor and get my stuff together. Meet you at the door?”

With that, she returned to her room, assuming that Tag had agreed to a meeting location. Liz allowed Guini and Kana to finish their meals, alerting her Kirlia of the arranged time. She stopped by the food machine and retrieved an extra few bags for her other party members with the intention of feeding them later. The doctor was still asleep, much to Liz’s surprise. After the previous night’s escapades, she was wary to awaken the slumbering beast. Precaution and tact was required that she did not presently possess.

Kelli was released with the flick of a Safari ball. Liz shushed her small barks immediately. “Don’t wake her up!” She ordered the fox Pokémon, pointing at Dr. Adelaide. The Zorua gave a mischievous grin and nodded politely before trotting from the bed. Liz gave her a nod of approval before returning to her bag, pretending an intent focus on her items.

A blaring noise echoed through the room seconds later with the decibels of an airplane engine. The teenager covered her ears and whipped around, glaring down at the newly formed Whismur. It’s cries were silenced immediately, and in a red flash of light it transformed into Kelli, who then snatched a pack of food from the top of her trainer’s bag and left the room.

Guini munched on a bitter poffin happily, sitting cross legged beside Kana. As Kelli rounded the corner, the Kirlia stopped her with an outstretched arm. Shaking her head at the erratic fox, she took the bag from her teeth and opened it, returning it to Kelli and allowing her to enjoy its contents heartily.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jun 3 2013, 02:07 AM

Tag nodded slowly as he listened to Liz talk about Pokemon Contests. It was evident that she held the same spark of love for them that Tag held for battling all those years ago. He wondered what it would be like for her to hone and pursue her dedication to her craft. Regardless, he hoped she stuck with it.

<I loves all flavours. I would like Poffin please!> Kana tilted her head to one side, happily. Staring up at the machine, she considered for a minute as to which flavour she was in the mood for today. Pokemon of the Quirky Nature were naturally known for their lack of preference when it came to berry flavours. <Spicy Poffin, please!>

The little Spinda went through her head, attempting to recall the flavours that Tag's other pokemon enjoyed. She had noticed the pokeballs for Suzu, Bachi, Orin, Tonbo and Tobi, which to her meant...

<For Big Sister Suzu and Big Brother Tobi, Bitter Poffin. Big Brother Bachi and Big Sister Orin like Sweet Poffin. Uncle Tonbo likes Dry Poffins best.>

For such an odd looking, spinny-eyed little creature, Kana's Psychic Heritage had evidently made her memory retention quite good. Also, her Own Tempo ability, which kept her from getting confused, potentially aided in her ability to keep facts straight. It reflected in the codex like memory she kept for not only the appearance of her partners' pokeballs, but also the food she'd noticed them liking in meals past.

As Liz finished her juice, she mentioned 'not being able to imagine life without them'. Yet another small pang of guilt tore at Tag's heart as his mind immediately flashed to his former team of Dragon Pokemon. When he was younger, he could not have imagined living without them, and here he was, carrying on just fine. The stabbing pain that he carried would always remain with him.

"Kana has some lovely tricks up her sleeve, as you'll soon see. The Spinda species is a notoriously weak Pokemon, but battles do not rely on strength alone."

He nodded as Liz left to go rouse the sleeping Doctor. He moved over to where Guini and Kana were now seated and eating happily, placing his hand on Kana's head affectionately.

"Thank you for looking after my dear friend here, Guini." He took his place on the floor next to them, figuring that even though they were supposed to meet at the door, he'd spend a little time with the two Pokemon present.

He shot up immediately as he heard a distant 'booming' sort of noise, hand snapping to his pokeball belt. However, as the little Zorua came skittering around the corner, he smiled, figuring the mischevious little fox to be the source of the noise.

"Rascal." He muttered fondly as he sat back down, watching the illusion-fox eat with jealous eyes, even as Kana clambered up his legs and settled into his lap.

Posted by: colourcodedchaos Dec 20 2013, 05:00 AM

Mantyke shuddered under the barrage of attacks from the Gastlies; not from any hitting her, thanks to Orin's sterling work protecting her, but from the ripples of fear that the Night Shades produced in the air, reeking of corpses and the prospect of becoming one. She never let up on her own work, though; the Bubblebeams and Signal Beams were ripping through the foe with all the rage she could muster. Despite her generally sardonic disposition, this wasn't usually very much, but they'd stolen her away from her Doctor and for that they were going to burn. She was bone-tired and bleeding from where a beam of fell energy had clipped her fin, but she didn't dare acknowledge it. She did, after all, have a job to do.

The pair of them worked pretty much in silence, Orin's countenance growing grimmer as the sun came up and her Hail slackened off. Mantyke was rather more sanguine about it, though; her doctor would come for her. She knew it, like she knew the sun rose in the east and two and two made four. When the hailstones finally stopped falling, she spiralled upwards into the branches of a dead tree and let off Signal Beam after Signal beam into the sky, trusting to Orin's battling abilities to keep them safe-

The Hypnosis attack came out of nowhere, and she fell to the ground, sleeping gently in the weak, pallid light of dawn.

*******

Adelaide had barely slept, despite glanding enough tranquilisers to kill a bear. Perhaps she was building up a tolerance for it, she reflected while the detox subroutines had her bent over a toilet. When she straightened up, she popped off the eyepatch and placed it back in her pocket, fished her cybereye out of the sandwich bag of water and nanobots that maintained it, and went out to greet the day. A few of the day's inhabitants, who remembered the, er... incident the previous night, fled in terror, although there was much less screaming than before.

The others were up, which surprised her; she was used to not relying on too much sleep at a time, since it interfered with her research. Absently, she watched the little girl whose name she would place after some tar-like coffee practice the local variant of yoga while scribbling down some complex formulae on a couple of paper napkins. The numbers didn't add up, alas; it wouldn't be feasible to use that many, the Bomburg couplings'd overheat in no time without a decent collapsar forge to make them, and she didn't knoiw where she could synthesise enough clonefeed in a short enough timeframe to evade the attention of this world's authorities.

A few cups of coffee that looked like you could use it to repair a roadbed later, the good doctor strolled out towards the woods, collecting her Tynamo and the Gastly she'd captured by accident on the way. As she did, she was struck by the rather impressive light show on display over the woods - wait - why would someone have a rave over there - it's the morning now - she shouldn't be able to see rave lighting due to ambient interference from the sun -

"THERE!" She shouted, rather too loudly for so early in the morning, and dashed off, Tynamo darting after her with a song in his tiny, eely heart. She was convinced it was a signal, and if she could find the source, she could find her Mantyke and others besides. She shouted back a rather hurried explanation to the others, but wasn't sure they'd heard, and anyway it couldn't wait. Mantyke needed her, and she Mantyke. Before long, she was mired in the woods, her cybereye frantically scanning for something out of place to tell of a creature's passing in the night - and there it was. An array of glittering silver caltrops, forming a path. She followed it deep into the woods, setting up a GPS link via a TV satellite miles overhead, but before long she realised she might as well not have bothered. Something - presumably her friend's captors - was bending spacetime into a lot of very interesting shapes, and it wasn't something she particularly cared for. She idly thought that the heroes back home probably thought like this whenever they kidnapped a major politician or celebrity, but that was a joke, they never harmed them. It was more amateur dramatics than actual villainy back home-

don't think about it not now not now not now you have a job to do you are strong you have always been strong be strong now

So she partitioned off a small piece of her mind for that particular mourning song, and went on, sprinting madly, ignoring the burning in her lungs as much as she could. At a thought, she glanded some enzymes to help break down the lactic acid building up in her muscles and ease her pain a little, and it worked for a while. When it stopped, however, she didn't need it any more. She'd arrived.

In the middle of the woods, with the spindly branches of dead trees forming a barricade around it, lay a dilapidated old house. Adelaide slapped the back of her head and her cybereye popped out, the repulsorlift keeping it aloft as the active camouflage turned on and rendered it as close to invisible as something can be. The night spent refuelling the microscopic fusion plant inside the small metal sphere meant it could buzz off at full speed without any power worries, even while providing Adelaide with an active data feed. Some of it was useless - the house was four hundred years old, build from a regional flavour of yew which accounted for its tumbledown state, the windows had only been blown in during a very recent hailstorm, et cetera - but some of it was very interesting indeed. There were energy readings she'd learned to correlate with "Psychic" and "Ghost"-type attacks, and the exotic particles such moves produced were blanketing the air in the clearing around the house. There had been a battle here, if the earlier horde of Gastlies she'd faced had been anything to go by. She grabbed a sizeable rock, stuffed it in a spare sock, and hid it in a pocket, promptly remembering it as an interesting example of local geology and not under any circumstances as a weapon. Psychic-types could sometimes read minds, some papers had said, and she knew that it was possible to monitor the flow of electrons within the brain when someone was exposed to particular stimuli and form a pretty complete picture of what they were thinking, especially when combined with cold-reading techniques. She didn't want to take too many chances.

Normally, at this point, Adelaide would've turned back to check to see if her new friends had followed her this far into the forest. Se would normally never go in without backup of one kind or another, and as much as the spirit was willing, Tynamo was still low-level enough to not really count. Normally, if you told her that she'd be walking into a haunted house with an electric eel and a completely innocuous local geological artifact - and why had she phrased it like that? - she'd have laughed in your face.

The doctor steeled herself for a showdown and went inside.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Dec 30 2013, 06:13 PM

Liz and Tag had been waiting for Doctor Adelaide to get up and join them, but the Doctor herself clearly had other plans. Rushing out from the room, screeching something that sounded like "There", Adelaide burst out past them and out of the POkemon Center, leaving Tag and Liz behind. There went any sense of strategy they could muster. Now it was just them charging in quite blind.

"Well." Tag rose, scooping Kana up into his arms. "Let's go."

He easily outran Liz, who by virtue of being smaller had shorter legs. As he ran after Adelaide, he noticed several caltrop like projections poking out of the ground as well. Orin had followed his instructions to a tee, and left a trail for them to follow. He lost track of Dr. Robinson, but his ears caught the familiar cries of a Pokemon on his team.

"Orin." He said to himself, veering off the path and heading towards where he heard the cries of one of his teammate. He arrived in the clearing, only to notice Orin slam into the ground next to a Mantyke...presumably the very same one that Adelaide was looking for.

"Kana" The Spinda sprang out of his arms, psychic energy starting to form in her stubby arms. "Psycho Cut." The Night Shade attacks locked onto the new target, but passed harmlessly through her due to her Normal Typing. Gastly, on the other hand, also possessed Poison-typing, which made them weak to the oncoming attack. Kana spun around repeatedly, sending dangerous blades of psychic energy through the air, slamming into the already weakened gastly.

Tag's recall beam struck Orin, and he reached over to scoop up the Mantyke.

"Hey friend, I've got you."

He looked around the field, watching as his Spinda made short work of the remaining Gastly, sending them scattering back through the woods.

"Kana, let's find Adelaide."

The little Spinda nodded obediently, dashing back out of the woods, followed closely by Tag and the unconscious Mantyke in his arms.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Mar 16 2014, 11:39 PM

Tag watched as the deranged Doctor basically charged headlong into the enemy camp. While a brave and noble gesture, Tag figured that she only had a Tynamo, and an unruly Gastly she'd only just caught the evening before.

Without Walten and Liz along, and with Adelaide charging blindly into the fray...it seemed that Tag had to be tactician and firepower.

He had no qualms doing this of course. It was merely the thought that last time he'd charged into a base of bad guys like this, he'd wound up shot in the stomach. Bad guys always had guns for some reason. It stood to sense; if they couldn't beat you in battle, they'd intimidate you with full on death. Money, or possibly survival, drove people to do crazy things.

Tag was about to join the ranks of those doing the crazy things.

Without time to scout out the location, he followed Adelaide into the building, Kana tottering behind him.

He watched as the two poachers on the inside summoned Pokemon to confront her. Luckily, it was only two. Perhaps there were more inside, but this was something he could handle on his own.

"Tonbo, Kana!"

As an Alakazam and a Haunter appeared on the field, Tag's Slowpoke materialized in front of Adelaide, forming a dopey little barrier between her and the enemy Pokemon. Kana bounded up from between her legs, using the long lab coat like a curtain for an oddly dramatic entrance and pose.

"Huh, there's a big lout behind her." They sneered as Tag's intimidating visage appeared over Adelaide's shoulder. "Looks like he wants to play too."

"Adelaide, I'll handle these two. Please," he placed his hand on her shoulder "take your Mantyke and go."

Handing the poor, exhausted Pokemon to the Doctor, he gently ushered her towards the door. Surely, she didn't want to be manhandled, but he figured anything less would not be nearly as persuasive.

"Haunter, Shadow Ball!" "Alakazam, Psychic!"

Combination attack. These two were used to working together. The Psychic forcibly ripped apart the glob of shadow energy into dozens of tiny Shadow Balls. It almost looked like a move out of the 'contests' that Liz had spoken of earlier. It seemed like this sort of attack was more glitz than damaging...

Yet the move had been composed of two already powerful singular moves. The psychic-coated Shadow bombs rained down on the two Pokemon who would otherwise resist either of the moves on their own. The enemy had combined their attack, thus negating their weakness and forcing Tag to stumble through an inadequate defense.

"Kana, Teeter Dance. Tonbo, Disable."

When facing synergy, he had to find a way to break them apart. Applying instant confusion on both enemies made it that much harder for them to coordinate. In the mean time, Tonbo had just shut off Haunter's most powerful attack.

Tag watched the two enemy trainers closely. They appeared to have no other Pokemon, which meant that the cloud of Gastly outside had most likely been theirs as well. As Alakazam fired off a psybeam at Kana, the Haunter slammed its head-body into the ground, trying to figure out how to launch an attack that had been shut off in its brain.

Kana took the hit, spinning gracefully through the air and landing on her feet, striking yet another amusing pose. Tag shook his head admirably at his tiny, confusing Pokemon.

"Kana..."

Tag's scan of the room revealed several Pokemon in cages nearby, notably a Gear-like Pokemon that Walten had referred to as "Gera". There appeared to be at least a dozen contained Pokemon, ready to be processed and shipped out to the market. Tag noted the stapler on the table, and a slew of tags that looked eerily similar to the one that Tobi had first worn when he had been rescued. It took all of his stored up inner-peace from his 'vacation' to keep the righteous fury from boiling over.

"Kana, Psyco Cut the cages."

In a dazzling display of dexterity, surprising for such a small, clunky looking creature, blades of Psychic energy slashed outwards in seemingly haphazard directions. Yet, the random pattern revealed itself to be quite simple; the tops of each of the cages had been neatly lopped off, devastatingly clean cuts in their stead. What Kana lacked in power, she made up with precision.

"Everyone. Get them."

With the confused Haunter and Alakazam, and no other Pokemon to call upon, the two poachers found themselves besieged on all sides by a dozen or so angry Pokemon.

"Kana, Hypnosis. Tonbo, Yawn."

The Haunter and Alakazam duo managed to fire off another attack, but Tag's team fire simultaneously. Even as Kana slammed into the floor from a devastating Psychic, the Hypnosis she'd launched gently alighted on the Alakazam, taking it out as well. Tag recalled his Pokemon, watching as Tonbo oversaw the battle. Tag watched as a Riolu sprang up through the crowd, landing a simultaneous Force Palm on each of their heads, rendering them unconscious immediately.

As the crowd cleared, Tag moved over to the two 'villains', and removed their Pokeball belts. Noting one of the cages still intact, he solicited the help of the formerly captive Pokemon in stuffing the two of them into empty cage, making sure they were in as uncomfortable positions as possible. He recalled the Alakazam and Haunter to their homes, leaving them on the table, well out of reach.

"Well done, old bean."

He snapped his head around, searching for the source of the voice.

"Hmph. Down here, you lout."

Looking down, he noticed a Cranidos peering up at him. The Pokemon had just spoken to him.

"You talk." The former Dragon Trainer made no effort whatsoever to conceal the fact that he had just been struck totally dumbfounded by a Cranidos.

"I daresay I do much more than that, but I wanted to thank you at the very least."

"Do you all have trainers to get back to?" Tag quirked an eyebrow at the little talking Cranidos, even as Tonbo sided up to him, slowly tilting his head in confusion.

"Well, most of them do. I, sadly, did not have the comfort of such a relationship." Normally, simply looking at a rock dinosaur with a sad face would have been perfectly reasonable in Tag's world. Yet, the fact that it spoke to him in clear English completely boggled his brain.

"I know someone who would love to meet you." A slow smile crossed Tag's face. "Because she probably feels just as out of place as you do."

"MIEN!"

Tag looked around again, as apparently another Pokemon wanted his attention.

"Mienfoo!"

He looked at the adorable little creature that had hopped up on the table. It patted its chest proudly and waggled its hand at Tag in a sort of 'come on' gesture.

"It appears that he wants to test your mettle, human." The Cranidos peered at Tag. "This one, Mienfoo, had been released in Furoh by his trainer, who had come over from the Unova region."

"Ah, friend." Tag sighed "I'm quite tired" he held out his hand to the Mienfoo, who stared at it confused. "But I see that you're strong-willed, and I bet you're a brilliant fighter."

The little martial arts Pokemon puffed out his chest, striking a fist to it once more as he stared challengingly at Tag.

"Tell you what. I'm always in search of powerful warriors. You want to test your mettle? Come with me, and we'll fight the strongest Pokemon throughout the continent." Tag let out another smile (he was evidently smiling a lot more these days), and drew out a Pokeball. "What do you say?"

The Mienfoo took a moment to consider Tag's offer, looking up at the earnest eyes of the tattooed human before him. After a moment, the pokemon placed one hand over the other and bowed to Tag, saying in a clear, proud voice: "Foo."

"He accepts."

Tag shot an irritated glance over at the Cranidos.

"I figured that. Thanks." Turning back to the Mienfoo, he enlarged the Pokeball, holding it out to his new ally. "I don't know if you had a name before this, but what about Razo?" The Mienfoo peered curiously at Tag once more, still uncertain as to what to make of this man, who had, without fight, offered him a home and a name.

"Foo."

"Welcome aboard then."

With a happy smile, the Mienfoo kicked the Pokeball out of Tag's hand, up into the air over his own head. With a leap, he threw a flying uppercut, scoring a direct hit on the button. Within a moment, the ball had landed on the table and pinged without so much as a struggle. In an instant, it disappeared, flashing out of sight as it headed for Johto.

"That was lovely." The Cranidos at his side sniffed. Perhaps it was an affect, or perhaps the creature had been genuinely moved, but Tag found himself irritated at the constant commentary.

"Yes yes yes." Tag waved his hand irritably. "Let's go, Cranidos. Tell all of the Pokemon to follow me back to the Pokemon Center. We'll call the police and get these Pokemon back to where they belong.

* * *

"Mr. Lee, we can't thank you enough for your service."

Tag embarassedly looked around, trying to deflect attention from the Officer Jenny who was apparently gushing over him. She shook his hands vigorously, while explaining how they had been unable to locate or punish the criminals that he and Adelaide had rounded up in just a day.

"I did nothing." Tag shrugged sheepishly, indicating Liz, who was furiously hugging her Riolu, and Adelaide, who appeared to be chatting animatedly with the talking Cranidos. "They did all the work, really."

"Oh, I get you modest types." Jenny waggled her finger at him, grinning broadly "It'll be in the report, but I won't leak any information about your involvement to the public, don't you worry."

"Oh, uh, ah...thanks." Tag offered a weak smile, pulling his hand away from her.

"Please, take this as a reward. I'm afraid it isn't much-"

"Thanks." Tag cut her off gently before she could begin another ramble, accepting the small stone she procured from her shoulder bag. The stone felt warm to the touch, and even the surface reflection appeared to be dancing like flames. "I'll use it immediately...Tobi!"

He dropped a pokeball to the floor, summoning his foxy little friend who yipped up at him expectantly.

"Tobi, this is a Fire stone. Do you think you're ready?"

Nodding eagerly, the Vulpix pranced around him happily for a moment, chanting his name up at his trainer repeatedly in joy. Without a further word, Tag reached down, and the Vulpix tapped his nose to the stone. The Fire stone, in turn, sent out a warm glow of light throughout the room, which easily enveloped Tobi in its radiance. Through squinted eyes, Tag watched as his friend grew and stretched, changing shape before his very eyes. As the light subsided, an incredibly regal looking Ninetales sat on the floor, calmly gazing up at him.

"Hello Tobi." Tag smiled, kneeling down next to his friend. His eyes darted to the ear that had been pierced as a Vulpix, and sadly noted that the 'earring' still remained. It hadn't gone away in the evolution, which meant that even now, his Ninetales would be marked for life. A tilt of his head, and Tobi had instantly reassured his trainer. Leaning forward and nuzzling Tag on the cheek, it appeared to be a sign of thanks. Not just for the chance to evolve, but for the life he had been given after being rescued by the trainer.

"Well, Tobi. It's just another new start. We've got plenty more adventuring to do."

He smiled lovingly at his Ninetales, petting the fox along the neck. Looking over at Adelaide and her new friend, and Liz's tearful reunion with Ryan, he felt a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. This was a far cry from the man who had torn families apart and destroyed the bonds between trainer and Pokemon. Perhaps his renaissance had been a good and meaningful one after all. It seemed like he had a role to play in this new life of his as well, and he intended to see it through.

With newfound resolve, he stood, Tobi by his side, and quietly slipped away from the main room, headed to a bed. It felt like he'd solidified his place on the side of good in the world, and it felt good. It felt good avoiding the spotlight in favour of quietly helping wherever he went. Another adventure and another new day could start after he'd finally had a good night's rest. At the very least, he'd continue his vacation in Baccate tomorrow.