[X] My Assistant

[Captain Combuske...]

In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle

The Lion Sleeps tonight

Dawn over Barley was always a pretty nice affair. Alex woke up, yawning as he stretched his muscles, not unlike a cat. He sat up, rubbing his eyes. Today, he was leaving on the S.S. Empress to go to Fidona. Alex smiled as he turned his body to face the wall opposite him. It was a relatively small room, but Alex didn't care. It was only temporary, after all.

Alex presently got out of bed, and went towards his backpack. It was a relatively big backpack, but Alex was still shocked at the fact that it could hold his five change of clothes and on top of that all his other stuff, like his Pokemon, his wallet, his notebook, his phone, his food pack, his Ipod, his DS, Pokemon food and lots of other things. He rummaged around inside this backpack, and picked out his outfit for today: a Yellow T-shirt and blue jeans. The Yellow T-shirt had a picture of the three Hoenn starters on it. Alex owned all three of these, in the forms of Treecky, Blaze and Swamps.

Alex put on these clothes, and then got up, going downstairs into the hallway of the hotel. He saw the receptionist. He and his friends had already been acquainted earlier. She was a lovely old woman, full of a strong passion for life and very nice to all she met.
"Mornin', Mrs. Greaves!" he said
"Good morning, young Alex."
"Could you pass a note on to my friends? I'm just going out to replenish my supplies and all of that stuff. I'm having breakfast next door."
"Ok. That's fine. Will I be seeing you later?"
"Probably."
Alex left the Hotel Tuxen, heading out to the small food shop in the town, Jamison's. Once there, he bought some food. He ate quite healthily, so took a lot of dried fruit, as well as an apple for today's lunch. He also got a big pack of Doritos crisps, his favourite, as well as a large pack of Yorkie bars. Finally, he bought a bunch of Cokes. Thanking the store clerk, he left, going towards the small restaurant next to his hotel. He sat down, and before long a waiter came to the table.
"Can I get sir anything?" he asked.
"I'm no sir. But I'd like some cereal please, and some toast. Butter and Nutella to go with please."
"Certainly."

As Alex waited for his food, his eyes wandered to the door. As he did this, the door opened. In came the boy who Alex expected to see the least. Thomas Hawk. Thomas, or Tom as he was called, was quite a good friend of Alex'. They met quite recently, whilst Alex was near Gigarte, Tom's home town. The two boys had got reasonably close in this small time.
"Tom!" he exclaimed.
"Alex? Is that really you?" replied the blond, muscular youth, clearly happy and shocked at the same time.
"What are you doing in this neck of Furoh?" asked Alex.
"Oh, y' know, jus' going to Fidona. I heard there's a little co-ordinating contest or something, nothing major, it's just I need to fine tune my skills a little."
"I'm going there to get my badge. Also, me and my new friends are visiting Fidona ruins. It's gonna be real fun!"
"New friends?"
"Tikal Faylen and Tyson Parker. They're coming on the boat with me. I met them along the north route, not long after you left! We went to a little island where we freed some Pokemon from Team Deception."
"Cool. You'll have to tell me about this little adventure of yours. I'll tell you my travels after."
Alex began telling Tom the story of the Island.

[Toogee]

Maxi watched as Tikal emerged on stage, issuing her challenge. Back on the beach, she seemed shy, almost defeatist as she watched her friend return from his loss. Now, Tikal had a fire in her eyes; she wanted a win. Whether she would be able to keep that fire was another story.

“So you think your pokemon can withstand the power of fists and waves?” Maxi asked. “Very well, but know this. In my society, women are held with high regard. As such, I won’t be holding back.”

As he spoke, Maxi withdrew three pokeballs from his belt. The pokeballs rolled against his fingers, waiting to be unleashed. As soon as he finished, the gym leader tossed two of the balls in front of him, revealing a tyrouge and a croagunk. His next pokemon was released at his side: a buizel. While the otter pokemon simply crossed his arms at the opponent, the pair of fighting pokemon immediately proceeded to do some stretches. Tyrouge began with a few push-ups, while Croagunk did several practice punches in the air.

“Now, reveal your team and make your move.”

As her hand dropped towards her pocket to retrieve two of her Pokeballs, she took one last opportunity to consider her options. Igglybuff, who was noticing that she was only pulling forth two of the orbs from her pockets, gave her a rather worried and questioning look with her large round eyes as she tugged on the sleeve of her shirt. Surely the girl wasn't considering sending her out into battle? Glancing about at the water with something of a shiver, she clung tighter to her shirt, before Tikal plucked the Pokemon and set her down with an almost reassuring look.

"You'll do fine." she reassured, patting the Balloon Pokemon's head lightly with her hand, before standing back to her full height and shifting the Pokeballs into each of her hands. From the left she released Nidoran, who stood readily beside Igglybuff, giving the two challenging Fighting types something of a glare. However noticing their lack of attention, he quickly shifted his attention to the rather worried Igglybuff at his side. Without warning, the rubbery pink Pokemon quickly took cover behind the more intimidating of the pair, only peeking from behind at the two fighting types.

From her right hand, a burst of white light revealed a rather overexcited Totodile, though at the site of the rather smirk attitude of the Buizel from across the battlefield, seemed to calm at his new opponent. "At least Totodile seems prepared." Tikal thought, somewhat unsure of Igglybuff's unease. Though so long as she stayed back and aided defensively, maybe things wouldn't be too bad. "Just keep back." she told her baby Pokemon, before looking to Maxi and giving him a ready nod.

"Let's go guys, start on the defense! Igglybuff, try Charm on Croagunk, and Nidoran use Focus Energy!"
As if on cue, Igglybuff let out a happy call towards Croagunk, trying to distract it from its workout and captivate it with his cute charm, while Nidoran shifted into a defensive stance, eyes seeming to intensify towards the two fighting types. Hopefully it would take Maxi's Pokemon just the amount of time hers needed to move onto the offensive.

Despite the uncertainty of the igglybuff’s effectiveness, Tikal led with it and a nidoran. This surprised Maxi: a normal type would most certainly face difficulty against his fighting types, especially one so young. Surely, she must have some trick up her sleeve.

The challenger began with status moves, the nidoran attempting to raise his critical while the igglybuff lowered croagunk’s attack. The croagunk blushed as the igglybuff charmed him with her cute looks. Maxi regained the croagunk’s attention upon ordering attacks.

“Tyrouge, Fake Out that nidoran! Croagunk, follow up with Mud Slap.”

The tyrouge quickly rushed over to the nidoran, slapping both his hands toward the sides of the poison pokemon’s head. This would hopefully disrupt the nidoran’s focus. Meanwhile, the croagunk built up a wad of mud in his right hand, courtesy of a special gland that secreted mud. Normally, this gland would be used to spread mud over the croagunk’s body to preserve its moist skin. Here, however, it would be used to throw a wad of mud towards the nidoran’s face.

It was quite clear that Maxi’s main focus was on the nidoran.

As Maxi ordered both of his Pokemon to go after her Nidoran, Tikal found herself to be both relieved and worried. While it meant that they were both going after her strongest Pokemon and leaving her Igglybuff alone, she wasn't entirely certain on how well Nidoran could hold up against two opponents, especially after coming out of an earlier battle.

"Nidoran, use Peck on Croagunk when it gets close!" she called, running through a quick strategy in her head. If the Tyrogue landed the attack on one of Nidoran's spikes, then there was a good chance the Pokemon would be poisoned as a result. Croagunk on the other hand would not suffer the same ill effects, and its attack was sure to cause more harm to her Pokemon anyways. However as the Tyrogue landed its attack, the Nidoran's attention on the second Pokemon was lost, instead receiving the Croagunk's Mud Slap. Taking the attack rather hard, Nidoran was forced back toward the edge of the water, mud covering its face.

Now concerned about Nidoran's status, Tikal tried to think of something to do quickly before he took in another blow. It was then she noticed Igglybuff, still standing on the other end of the battlefield, looking a little irritated as its Charm had become ignored by the Croagunk. That was when she had an idea, to solve two problems at once.

"Nidoran, jump backward into the water!" Tikal called, hoping this time it would work. Not having to go too far, the purple Poison Pokemon vanished under the surface of the water, the mud slowly washing from its face to disperse into the rest of the surroundings. Then glancing to Igglybuff, she called: "Now Igglybuff, use Sing!"

Eyes lighting up the moment she was called upon to use her voice, Igglybuff let out a happy cry, before twirling around in a circle once, and beginning to sing an enchanting song to lull the two Fighting Pokemon into a deep slumber.

Maxi saw his critical error just after Tikal ordered her pokemon. He had underestimated her igglybuff’s abilities. Though it appeared to be a weak fighter, it still had the ability to inflict more status ailments. With the ability to sing, the igglybuff threatened to stall the gym leader’s entire team. While his tyrouge managed to avoid the effect, his croagunk wasn’t so lucky. Already charmed by her cute looks, the poison frog was serenaded by the lovely tune. The attack took away the poison frog’s fighting spirit, causing him to sit down and listen fully. The lullaby quickly took effect, causign the croagunk to doze off in his sitting position.

Maxi would have to change up his strategy. If the little puffball continued charming and singing, she would dull the effectiveness of his fighting force. That alone could put victory in the young girl’s favor. He refocused his attention on the igglybuff.

“It seems I’ve underestimated your little one,” Maxi said to Tikal. “Tyrouge, Mach Punch on that igglybuff!”

The scuffle pokemon rushed across the stage with new resolve. He completely ignored the nidoran, running towards the igglybuff. With speed undetected by the naked eye, he launched his attack on the normal type just as he would a punching bag.

With a look of panic as the Tyrogue vanished from view, Igglybuff, glanced around for a path of escape, but before she could even take a step the attack contacted. Even the Pokemon's plush body could not fully protect it from the Fighting Pokemon's forceful swing, sending the baby Pokemon soaring into the water. With a rather sorrowful expression, Igglybuff floated on the surface of the water, staring back at her foe with large watery eyes, attempting to captivate her foe with her Cute Charm before he could attempt to finish her off.

With an expression of horror, Tikal tried not to look at her poor Pokemon, already feeling terrible for sending out her young one into battle. It was her fault that she had gotten hurt, and she should have known better. Perhaps Charmander would have been the better of the two to use, though even with maturity, the battlefield they were forced to play on did not yield any advantage type-wise. Yet as her eyes fell upon her Igglybuff, Tikal saw something that nobody else saw: determination. Even though her Pokemon was batter and bruised, she still wanted to stay in, to hold out for as long as she could. It was that alone that kept the inexperienced trainer from calling her back, for it would do no justice to hold her back.

Climbing back onto solid ground after having cleaned the mud from his face, Nidoran moved forward toward the slumbering Croagunk, horn poised for a direct Peck attack. He was caught off guard by a loud cry, ears twitching at the hurt sound, and as he rose his head he saw the end of the Tyrogue's attack, Iggybuff falling into the water. Eyes fixated on the Fighting Pokemon, Nidoran completely forgot about the captivated opponent, anger burning in his eyes as he stormed toward the offender.

Tikal quickly caught sight as her Nidoran moved toward the Tyrogue, noticing the enraged look on his face. He was the protector of their little family, and he was obviously hurt by the harm that had come to the baby Pokemon. And with his anger came his determination to knock out Tyrogue, to avenge the family. Tikal couldn't help but smile.

"Peck, now!"

Not even needing the command, Nidoran charged at the Tyrogue like an enraged Tauros, horn poised at the Tyrogue's slender body, intending to cause maximum injury.

Most pokemon that Tyrouge hit were often annoyed or angry afterwords. Imagine the fighting pokemon’s surprise when the igglybuff looked at him with sadness in her eyes. She was a cute and innocent creature that did nothing but charm and sing. It made the inexperienced tyrouge feel a bit guilty about punching her face. As a result, Igglybuff’s Cute Charm had an effect on the brawler.

“Tyrouge, dodge!”

The tyrouge was so distracted with the igglybuff’s charm, he was thrown completely offguard when the nidoran barreled into him. The peck connected with the target with great force, a critical hit. The tyrouge held his side in pain as he fell over, overwhelmed by the attack. Maxi had no choice but to withdraw the fainted pokemon.

Despite the loss, things were starting to look up in Maxi’s favor. His croagunk had just woken up in time to rejoin the fight with the buizel. The otter pokemon did not need to be told to move on stage. Maxi’s pokemon had been trained to double battle; they knew what to do when an ally was knocked out.

“You may have claimed the first pokemon, but don’t get too cocky. You have yet to taste our full strength.”

With that, the gym leader commanded the buizel to perform a quick attack on the igglybuff. It may have been a tough lesson for the baby pokemon, but she was still a threat to his team. Meanwhile, he commanded his croagunk to distract the nidoran with an astonish attack. The poison frog croaked quite loudly as socked his opponent on his side.

At the end of the attacks, the croagunk leaped back to his side of the stage, while the buizel remained in the water to await orders.

This post has been edited by 2gamers: Mar 26 2011, 10:34 AM

Reason for edit: Added one last post.