[X] My Assistant

[Master Houndoom]

Branwys ran as fast as her tiny little legs would carry her. Due to some practice (she ran almost everywhere, just to keep up sometimes), she was not yet getting tired. However, because her legs were in fact tiny little legs, she was having quite a problem keeping up.

She almost wished that Cesc had offered to carry her, but it would have been so embarrassing!

At least it was just spiders and not parasect. Those had given her nightmares. Dead eyes... brrrr.

She screamed, slightly, when the poison stings started shooting past them. The arachnids had opted to shoot for the legs to trip, which was fine, except Branwys' entire height was about the same as the length of her companion's legs. Still, they were missing so far. She'd just have to zig zag. Or maybe she should stay straight, since they *were* missing and zig zagging might help their aim a bit...

While Branwys was pondering, Tinka, having her her trainer scream, was trying to extricate herself from Tybalt's grip. This was not an easy thing: The mongoose-like pokemon had huge claws that barred her escape from the front, and a tight grip that, while it didn't hurt her, kept her from slipping out of his hands without hurting him. She didn't want to hurt him. He seemed nice, if a bit brutish.

Branwys was still debating whether or not to try to dodge or not when the matter was decided for her. A poison sting attack barb flew past her at an angle, sticking into the ground just high enough to catch her foot. She fell forward unceremoniously and rolled before coming to a stop.

For a split second, she was stunned. Catching her wits, she saw the herd of spiders jumbling toward her, and, seeing a galvantula opening its mandibles, with sparking material between it, had no time to think.

She rolled to the side and dashed perpendicular to the path they had taken, charging between the stalks of grass in a dead run. Panic helped fuel her speed, even as she fought to regain control, and it was this fight that kept her from running in a straight line, curving her path to at least try to meet up with her friends.

If she hadn't been panicking, however, she might have curved her path in the right direction...

[Kamaitachi]

The sensation of having someone's hand slip through yours turned out to be a rather horrible one. Cesc panicked a little as he felt Branwys slip out of his hands. Over his shoulder, he skidded to a halt for a moment, trying to turn back to grab her. This time, he would totally pick her up. It was quickly turning into a matter of necessity (and he'd look rather dashing doing it). However, she was quick in her own rights, and darted off to the side.

With Tinka still under Tybalt's arm, Branwys would be sans pokemon, and quite literally defenseless in the park. As Tybalt caught up, Cesc took Tinka from under his arm barked a quick order "Tybalt. Use pursuit! Catch up to Branwys and keep her safe."

With a quick nod, the cat-ferret bolted off to the side, hurtling through the underbrush to catch up to his boss's companion. Unencumbered by his own date, he was easily able to move at his own top speed in rapid pursuit of Branwys.

In the mean time, Cesc continued to run further. He couldn't really tell if any of the stampede had veered off to find Branwys, but he didn't really care. Running was the best course of action here.

"Hey, Peludo!" Referring to his remaining running mate, he focused on bringing himself back up to top speed, while holding an agitated Klink in his hands. "I can't keep this up much longer, I'm gonna fight!" He grinded to a halt and reached down to his belt for Valentine's pokeball...only to realize that he, too, had left his pokemon at the front of the park.

"Crap" With that, he once again broke into a run. "You got any ideas, kid?"

[Douken Sota]

"Peluto?" he asked, watching him stop, only guessing that was what he called Seican. "What the hell is a Peluto?" he seemed to of been in the zone as he got ready to fight, only to realize he sent his Pokemon off after that little girl before running off again. C'mon, dude. Why not use that gear Pokemon thing in your arms?! came to him as he began to run.

"Now then, let me settle things!" he grinned, sliding to a stop and taking a Pokeball in hand. "Just watch and learn! Speaker, rock on!" With Pokeball in hand and the group of spiders trampling ever-so closer, he chucked it with determination and confidence. In his eye, the Pokeball flew slowly in the air, bursting open in midflight, letting his Whisper Pokemon appear on the battlefield... "Whiiiis..." still knocked out from her freak out.

"..." Seican was completely spaced out, completely forgetting that it takes more than running like crazy to have a Pokemon slowly wake up. With the spiders trampling forward, an Aridos went and launched the pink Pokemon into the back of Cesc's head as he ran away. "CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!" Back into a panicked run, he bursted ahead of Cesc, tripping along the way. As he tried to recover his footing, he accidentally got his hair between the gears of the Klink, so once he got his footing back and ran, he never reaalized he took some extra company... while forgetting someone else.

[Master Houndoom]

The grass was too tall. She was lost.

That was the first thought that penetrated the panicky mind of Branwys "Tinkertot" Muphenz as she began to slow down. She turned in place, seeing little but grass in front of her wherever she turned. The sky was still blue, and, while winded, she wasn't exhausted yet, so she hadn't been running for too long. She stopped turning. It was making her dizzy.

The second thought that followed shortly after this strong of thoughts was that, despite her usual care, she had dropped her bag. That was distressing, not only because all of her forms of communication were in that, save for the C-Gear, which still wasn't compatible with the networks on Furoh. She scowled down at her wrist. If she knew the frequencies, she might be able to figure out a way to make things compatible. Her brother, Gilgamesh, would have been able to find the frequency with little more than the tools it took to take the C-Gear apart, which reminded her: Her tools were also in her bag.

The third thought that she had, which came during this frustrated second train of thoughts, occurred after hearing a rustle in the grass nearby. She was not alone, and yet, she had no allies. Dimo, who had been confined to his pokéball, was back at the judges table, and Tinka had been unable to follow her. For the first time, she regretted her decision of one pokémon over another: Dimo had an uncanny knack of finding her, while Tinka, being gears, had no such knack, and in fact was used to being perceived as ornamentation on Branwys' bag, which she took absolutely everywhere.

Unless she dropped it, of course.

But there was that worrisome rustle again, and Branwys had nothing with which to protect herself, not even a pokéball to throw at the creature and capture, or, at least, distract it with. Loathe as she was to hurt a pokémon, she stooped down and picked up a dirt clod at her feet. She was a good thrower: One had to be as a trainer, for one thing, but she spent time practicing when she was younger and it still showed. She could, she hoped, scare off any insects that emerged from the rustling stalks of grass, and run the other way, if she had to. She cocked her hand back, holding the clod high over her head so that she could better strike the ground at whatever-it-was' feet.

However, what emerged from the grass shocked her so much, she dropped the dirt clod, which hit her head and exploded in a crumble of dirt. "ACK!" she cried, spitting and wiping at her face before calming and giving a big grin. "Mercutio! Can you lead me to Cesc?"

~*~*~*~*~*~

For a metallic pokémon with four eyes and two mouths, Tinka still managed a sufficiently surprised expression. She had just been in the process of extracting herself from Cescs grip, realizing that neither he nor their ersatz companion was able to battle the chasing pokémon off, when, while spinning up to send an attack at the insects, her gears jammed in what she was just realizing to be the hair of said companion.

He was travelling quickly, pulling Tinka away from Cesc and, even worse, Branwys, who had dashed off to avoid a near immanent trampling. Understandable as that was, Tinka, who was only fast when she "skated", had not been able to see where Branwys had run.

And now she was caught in this person's hair. Try as she might, spinning (slowly, as she didn't want to hurt him just yet) forward or backward, she wasn't getting loose. After a while, she stopped. She could tear herself loose, of course, but instead she thought she'd wait until the boy stopped. He would be needed to find Branwys...

[Kamaitachi]

Cesc, unsure as to what exactly was happening, felt a soft, yet swift, thud on the back of his head. A pink blur whizzed in front of his eyes, and he realized that Tinka, who had been in his hands, was now replaced with the cute bunny that their erstwhile companion had summoned earlier.

He'd heard, offhandedly, that the thing's name was "Speaker", but Cesc had no idea as to how the creature operated beyond the fact that it had a name, and that it was unconscious in his arms.

The long-haired guitarist, summoning a burst of speed that Cesc had not foreseen, sped off into the distance with Tinka firmly attached to his hair, leaving Cesc the only one remaining facing the Ariados and Galvantula. He was getting quite tired of running, but his only other choice was to get trampled and eaten.

Seeing a branch path, Cesc willed himself some speed as he dashed forward, clutching Speaker to his chest as he did. The Spider-horde behind him seemed to be slowing down, and he sighed, relieved, for the moment.

Then he realized he'd run off a small cliff. As his legs struggled valiantly to find some ground to run on, while one arm flailed about wildly in search of something to grab on to, his face was simply one of acceptance. He was about to take a tumble. Giving up on saving himself, he managed to pull himself into a curl, forming a protective barrier around the small pokemon in his arms.

After a brief tumble, he lay on the ground, groaning in pain, holding the unconscious Whisper pokemon still in his arms. The pokemon might've been a little squeezed, but otherwise seemed rather unharmed. He also still had his unnamed Scyther in his belt, but it appeared that the 'team' had separated, and magically wound up with each other's pokemon.

Opting to lay around for a moment while the painful throbbing around his body stopped, he hoped no bug pokemon decided to drop in on him and-

As if on cue, a rather large, angry looking Pinsir trundled into view. Seeing Cesc laying on the ground was a pretty clear indication that the human trainer was a meal, so with a clack of its terrifying pincers, strode towards the downed man.

Groaning, Cesc pulled out the pokeball for his Scyther, tossing it forward. Popping out of the ball, the scyther immediately took scope of the Pinsir, and readied his arm blades.

"Okay...Bardolph." Cesc drew the name of the guard from Shakespeare's Henriad, since Bardolph was one of his more favourite, underappreciated characters. "Kick that thing's ass!"

* * *

After bounding after the miniscule companion's trail, Tybalt the Zangoose finally appeared in her sight. She had, surprisingly, sought to arm herself with dirt, and had prepared to hit him with it. However, in her surprise, simply sullied herself instead.

"Mercutio! Can you lead me to Cesc?"

Tybalt cocked his head to the side curiously. He didn't remember his name being Mercutio, nor did he know the implications that it implied. Cesc had certainly never explained to him that Mercutio was the one killed by Tybalt, but likewise, Tybalt had been killed by Romeo. In fact, Cesc had not yet explained anything about the nicknames to any of his pokemon, except that they were from Shakespeare.

"Goose." He nodded, moving swiftly to her side and standing guard. He sniffed at the air, but without the powerful olfactory senses afforded to some other pokemon, he was having a difficult time locating Cesc's scent.

Giving something of a shrug, he dropped down on all fours and began to pad forward in a haphazard direction that remotely resembled the direction that Cesc had run in earlier. His guess was as good as any, and hopefully, that led them somewhere filled with less danger and more Cesc.

[Douken Sota]

He could not hear any more footprints. The sound of the stampede had died down. Finally! Seican thought as he screeched to a halt, suddenly getting hit in the back of the head by a chunk of metal. "Ow! What the-" Looking back and forth, he tried to see what it was that hit him, just to see the two gears caught in his hair.

"Damn it," he muttered, grabbing the pair of gears and tried to pull them apart. "Alright, you two," he shouted, as if the Klink was like two separate Pokemon. "Let go now!" Pulling them apart seemed to of been no help, as they were clearly not budging, so the next best thing was to push. "C'mon, get out of my hair! Speaker, give me a hand... Speaker?" Looking back and forth, he tried to see where the Whismur has gone, but saw nothing but a squad of Durant scouting the field. "Where did everyone go?"

~~~~~~~

With a small murmur, Speaker started to come to, eye blinking open slowly to see herself in the arms of someone else. Panicked a little, she started getting frantic, looking everywhere for Seican. His long, ash black hair was no where to be seen, and instead, he was in the arms of someone more neatly dressed, and a Scyther and Pinser getting ready to start to fight. Where did he go? He would never abandon me... Speaker began to think. He said we would be the best pair out there. We could become large stars... As the thoughts poured into her mind, she started to sniffle, tears starting to form in her eyes. If Cesc doesn't do anything to calm her down, there would be yet another uncontrollable Uproar to deal with...

[Master Houndoom]

Tinka strained as the man pressed and pulled and bent. If he'd just have waited, she'd have gotten free herself! Granted, she was a steel type, so his manipulations didn't hurt, but it was annoying.

And he kept yelling. ... No, she was used to that, Branwys yelled a lot, too.

Still, he was distinctly not Branwys. For one thing, he was taller. Much, much taller. And there were several other distinctive differences.

After one particular annoying pull, in which he was actually pulling her against the rotation she was trying to climb down his hair with, she decided she'd had enough and sent a mild electric shock through his hands, and, suddenly, in a way she didn't quite understand, she was free of hair and there was a mild smell of overheated hair in the air.

She floated up, shaking herself off and rotating her gears rapidly, clearing any loose strands of hair from herself and simultaneously giving him a rousing lecture that, unfortunately, only sounded like a rapid series of "klink"s to him.

Rolling her two open eyes when she realized that he didn't understand her any more than Branwys (less so, even, since Branwys had gotten good at guessing what Tinka was trying to say), she turned on her vertical axis, scanning for her trainer.

Klinks, generally, were impassive, pragmatic pokémon, a disposition from not having a discernable face to communicate with. Tinka was only slightly different, in that having a trainer that not only spoke with her as if she were a human (and understandable), but also went as far as to assign her a gender and personality actually gave her a personality (but not a gender; that was medically impossible as far as either of them knew). However, realistically, it would be improper of her to go searching for her trainer and leaving this one behind without so much as a stick to defend himself with. Not to mention that she had no tracking facilities, unlike Dimo, who seemed to have a preternatural sense as to where Branwys was at all times.

So Tinka resolved that she would stay with the puller. At least until they found Branwys.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Branwys followed Tybalt. For the time being, she had little other choice; though she'd never mentioned to Cesc that pokémon with claws aslong as her entire upper body kind of freaked her out, Tybalt was her only hope to find Cesc, and maybe the guy who started the stampede in the first place.

She hoped Tinka was OK. Because she was supposed to catch pokémon with her own, she had let Tinka float freely. However, the klink had not followed her, which wasn't surprising. In the tall grass, Tinka would have trouble seeing Branwys in order to track her, and she didn't float overly quickly. Perhaps Tinka had stayed behind with Cesc...

They hadn't been walking long when the grass rustled before them. Branwys' heart leapt. Had Cesc come to find her? Or someone else? However, it soon became apparent that the rustling had nothing to do with humans: It was angry and there were noises coming out of the tall grass that did not sound like someone searching for something as much as two rapidash having a kicking contest inside of a very tight canvas sack.

The grass parted, and rising above them was a large purple quadrapedal pokémon with a long neck. The scarred body was adorned with alternating dark and light purpe bands, and two pincer-like antennae extended from either side of its head. Currently, its back was to Branwys and Tybalt, but that wouldn't last long. The Drapion was screeching and hissing at something before it.

It was soon apparent by the pinkish-red, long body that a drapion and a scolipede had decided they didn't like each other. The scolipede's antennae waved menacingly, and the two circled each other, wobbling slightly. The fight had been going on for a while.

The first thought on Branwys' mind was that she wished she had her bag, so she could catch the weakened winner. The second thought, the more frightning one, was that the winner may well be hungry after this battle, and Branwys was bite sized...

"Mercutio, we'd either better get out of here or end this for them!"

[Kamaitachi]

The newly named "Bardolph" looked rather confused, and still a bit weak from his earlier match with Cesc's Tybalt. However, he was immediately presented with the opportunity to test his mettle once more. In the back of his mind, the Scyther actually seemed rather pleased to have wound up with a trainer who either sought out, or stumbled upon strong opponents. (Unfortunately, he didn't know of Cesc's plans for Co-Ordination Domination, which meant he had to fight prettily.

In any case, pretty wasn't a difficult thing for a Scyther in general. The Bug pokemon was incredibly agile, and had a natural sort of terryfing grace about him. He hardly paid attention to it, most notably because he was usually attempting to rip his enemy into thinly sliced strips.

The Pinsir charged forward with its heavy claws clacking angrily, but a surprisingly spirited Wing Attack knocked him back several paces, stunning him a bit. Bardolph not only possessed a flying type move, but was backed by his own flying-typing, giving the attack some extra juice.

And yet, the next hurdle arrived rather quickly. In Cesc's arms, the little pink Speaker began to stir,

"Oh hey there Speaker." Cesc smiled, despite the rather gruesome situation playing out before him. The Whisper pokemon responded with sniffles and tears, which immediately set Cesc ill at ease. "Whoa whoa, hey hey hey! What's wrong there, little cutie??" He tried his best to sound placating and calm, but he wasn't exactly sure what would cause the creature to cry. Surely it could've been a myriad of things, ranging from injury, to missing her trainer, to waking up in the arms of a stranger (So Scary!), or waking up to see two large, terrifying bug monsters fighting. Cesc, while not a moron, was definitely no expert on Pokemon either, which meant he unfortunately didn't know anything about the pink blob with funny, swiftly-watering eyes in his lap.

* * *

Tybalt trotted slightly ahead, but within reach of his charge, sniffing the air ahead and peeking around with sharp, cat-like glances. Occasionally he would stop and twitch his ears, trying to make out the sounds of...well...everything. While he was quite adept at listening to forest sounds, the sounds of pokemon battles, trainer battles and all the other various random sounds around him. He was having difficult, however, using any of his sense to locate his trainer, his date (the floating gears), the noisy kid, or the pink thing.

Nevertheless, he trotted doggedly forward.

As they approached some horrid sounding noises, he stopped dead in his tracks and bristled in place. It was very cat-like maneuver, but Tybalt was a sort of cat-ferret anyways, so it didn't seem too out of place for him. Nevertheless, he was trying to convey that there was danger ahead, but Branwys kept walking. The little human had no sense of self preservation, evidently, but Tybalt found that if he could look at it as a sense of adventure, then he rather liked it.

The sight they beheld was that of two titan bug pokemon, one Drapion and one Scolipede, duking it out in all their buggy glory.

"Mercutio, we'd either better get out of here, or end this for them!"

Tybalt cocked his head with a curious expression at being called the wrong name again, but he lacked the vocal vocabulary to explain otherwise to Branwys.

"Zangoose." he sighed, then looked to the two. If there was one thing he enjoyed, it was fighting (A trait he shared in common with his new brother-in-arms, Bardolph). However, their difference was probably that the Scyther enjoyed fighting, and always sought heights in his battles, while the Zangoose was just sort of a bar-room brawler, who liked fighting simply for the sake of fighting. Cesc would probably have trouble honing the two in to fight in flashy contest battles for him, as both seemed to not understand the idea of fighting with flair and panache.

Tangent aside, Tybalt realized the inherent nature of the one on one pokemon battle, and decided that it wasn't really right of him to interfere in someone else's fight. He certainly didn't enjoy it when other people stepped into his, and still wasn't quite used to the fact that his trainer would be calling the shots, rather than him. This was certainly a chance to fight in the way he enjoyed doing, but there was the risk of failure, and that he and the tiny human could be eaten by large bugs.

He jerked his head to the left, indicating for Branwys to follow, and began trotting off, giving a wide berth to the two fighters. Even in their weakened state, Scolipede and Drapion were two fully evolved, and probably very powerful pokemon. He wasn't sure he had it in him to defeat either one of them, let alone do so while protecting his human charge. Keeping a wary eye on them, he hoped neither he or Branwys would attract their attention.

[Douken Sota]

With a quick shock through his system, and the constant grinding of the gears, it seemed that the Pokemon was able to get free by cutting a few strands of hair that held her. "What was that for?!" he yelled at the Pokemon, before he actually noticed himself on what happened. "Oh..." So the duo were free. Great! Next up was to know where they were, and that the Pokemon in front of him was, which was answered by the rant. "Okay, guessing by that, you are called Klink... And if i would throw out a couple random cards, you would be either Steel or Electric..." Even if his Pokedex was working, it would still not given him any data since it would only go up to number 386.

"OKAY THEN!" he randomly yelled out. "I guess we should go and look for that little girl, right? She is the trainer you came in with?" Looking around, he already seemed to of lost the path he ran through randomly. "Let's see... How about... this way!" Walking into an area of tall grass, expecting the gears to follow, he soon ran out as the grass was covered in a purple dust. Leave it to him to run into a nest full of Paras. "A little help please!"

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

The voice threw away her thoughts as she looked up at the trainer that held him. It was the same one that winked to her at the beginning of the competition! She never did get a name, but she knew she wasn't all that alone. Still, her mind began to wander so she tried to ask him questions on where her trainer is and she was with him. However, just like her name is a combination of "whisper" and"murmur," her questions were quiet and full of hiccups as she tried not to cry herself crazy. Still, she could not stop thinking of that possibility... the one that would make her sad and cry.

[Master Houndoom]

Tinka wanted to sigh. She'd seen Branwys do it, quite often in Unova. I hadn't been very often here in Furoh, of course. There was far too much to do. Except for the last few days, when she thought that her tall man had no cared to call her, Branwys was far too wide eyed and open mouthed to even think about sighing.

She'd seen Dimo do it, too, when he thought he was alone. He did not fit the stereotypical mold of a cubone pining for his long dead mother (something Tinka had heard around the Muphenz household, but had never believed since the one cubone she knew was Dimo...), but sometimes, at night, when he was alone, he'd make his way to the gable roof ourside of Branwys' room and look up at the moon, sighing.

Klinks did not need as much rest as non-steel types did, and her time spent on the bracket on Branwys' purse was rest enough.

However, being a steel type, while it was good for not needing rest and spying on cubones who would be upset if they'd known, was bad for sighing. There was no way to do it properly. No chest to heave in and out, no eyes to properly look sad, and two mouths had a way of making any sad expression look odd at best.

Tinka was sure other steel types had the same problem.

This boy was kind of loud. That was nothing new of course. Branwys was loud. And headstrong, and not always smart. But she was good at getting out of situations she put herself in, and that made it worth while. That and the affection.

This... man? Boy? Tinka had so much trouble with ages. This person, while he had not gotten them into any situations, seemed to be as reckless as her own trainer, but not as able to get out of the situations he'd made. Stepping into a nest of tiny bug types? Not the smartest thing to do.

Of course, he was without his pokemon, but she was available.

She swooped forward, taking the lead paras in a head on tackle. Of course, the tackle wasn't much: She was light, and it wasn't as if she knew the move Tackle. But it did get her into position to Gear Grind the beast.

Unfortunately, at that moment the rest of them puffed out their mushrooms, shook them, and sent a load of powder at the klink. Well, some of them did. Others went through the motion, but nothing happened.

Fortunately, that powder was Poison Powder, to which Tinka was immune. Had it been spore, she would have been paralyzed.

And that gave her an idea.

Revving her gears, she let the charge that held her together strengthen until it was visible. A few of the para chipped at her with their claws, trying to knock her down with Scratches, but they weren't very effective about it. Tinka turned to one side and unleashed the mightiest ThunderShock she could (which, to be honest, wasn't that much). It was enough to send the paras on that side scurrying, leaving behind a few that could only sit and twitch on the ground, paralyzed themselves. She turned and saw the rest beginning to back away, and shot off another ThunderShock at them as well. Her motive was not to hurt, but rather to warn. It seemed to be working.

She was, she thought, very lucky that these were such young paras...

~*~*~*~*~*~

Branwys watched the pair of pokemon that Tybalt had bypassed. As much as fighting one or both of them would be exciting, she was glad that Tybalt had nixed the idea. They were huge, and he was... a good fighter, but certainly not huge.

Dimo was like that. A good battler, to be sure, but smart.

They seemed to be properly preoccupied with each other, and Branwys and Tybalt passed without incident. Branwys hadn't realized she had been holding her breath until she let it out. "Good job, Mercutio," she sighed. "You're smarter than I am, sometimes!"

Tybalt looked at her, half annoyed, she thought. Then again, zangoose weren't known to be smiley. They looked at each other, eye to eye, for a little while, then continued in the direction that he'd jerked his head earlier.

Branwys slowly became aware of... something. It was on the edge of her consciousness, like something grating at her brain. Like an irritating sound, but there was no sound. It was setting her teeth on edge.

She looked at Tybalt, seeing if the "sound" was affecting him as well. But she kept looking over her shoulder, back where the two pokemon had been fighting...

"Mercutio, do you think you can lead us past those battlers without attracting their attention? Like circle around them? There's... something over there..."

[Kamaitachi]

"Oh oh oh, there there" Cesc scratched at the spot just behind Speaker's ears. Such a spot worked wonders on Valentine, his Sneasel, and he wondered if it was perhaps a good spot for essentially all mammalian creatures. "Please don't cry. We'll go find Monsieur Longhair, and get you back together in no time, okay?"

He wasn't sure exactly how to appease the Whismur, mostly because they were definitely not speaking the same language. However, he had to redirect his attention to his new comrade Bardolph as he took on the Pinsir.

"Bardolph, use that most excellent wing attack!" Cesc swept his hand out, as the Pinsir charged. The clacking bug met the Scyther's glowing wings head on, and found itself stumbling backwards a bit. Begrudgingly, the creature opted to retreat away from what had appeared to be an easy meal. It hadn't been a moment too soon either, as Bardolph dropped to a knee panting heavily.

Cesc, budding coordinator, took the time to note that Scyther was a rather spindly pokemon, and was probably not too good at weathering long amounts of attacks. The fight with Tybalt earlier had weakened it to the point of capture, and the meager hits from the Pinsir probably left him on the verge of collapse.

"Why, Bardolph." Cesc smiled winningly at the panting pokemon "You're quite the warrior. I admire that."

The surly Scyther growled at Cesc, who took that as an immediate and rather blatant sign that he'd not yet been accepted as a master by any means. His command for "Wing Attack" had probably coincided Bardolph's already planned move. He opted to take that as a sign of similar thinking and wavelength, and returned his new pokemon to the park ball. "Gracias!" he grinned as the creature disappeared.

Gingerly, he rose to his feet, still holding the recently re-awakened Whismur.

"Okay Speaker. You've got some big ears. Maybe you can hear your loudmouth trainer somewhere nearby?"

* * *

Tybalt did indeed look back at Branwys at her comment. It wasn't an annoyed face by any means, but the Zangoose had his serious features almost always on.

Then Branways asked him something that seemed completely out of the blue: She wanted to move back around the battling bug-titans. Even as she asked, a ferocious series of Steamrollers and Poison Jabs were launched out with unsurprising ferocity. The two giant bugs gave it their all as Tybalt and Branwys stood still in dangerous proximity.

He cocked his head to one side for a moment, intrigued, but mostly confused, at her request. He glanced to fighting bug behemoths, then back to her, then back once again. With a rather human-like shrug, he fell back forward onto all fours, and started on a path that left a wide berth between his ward and the warriors. With movements between feline and musteline, he stalked around, keeping his trainer's date in the periphery of his vision. After all, she was a rather small thing, and could probably easily get lost or eaten.

[Douken Sota]

Her large ears being scratched as suched seemed quite soothing, letting her calm down a little and catching her breath. He wasn't a bad guy. He was good. He wanted to help him find "Monsieur Longhair," even though she is looking for Seican. Maybe Monsieur could help him find Seican easier! If that was the case, then there was a godo chance that this guy could be trusted... after a small battle.

Watching the quick actions betwen the two, she could tell that the Scyther was not feeling all that well, and could understand the hate of being "owned." Not everyone enjoyed it, and soem never develop out of that phase, no matter how hard the human tries. Maybe he would grow accustomed to this human, Whismur thought before looking back at Cesc.

Seems like he wanted to use her ability to hear to find Monsieur, but it could be easier to find Seican with it. She knew how loud he could be. "Closing" her eyes, she focused her hearing around the area, seeking anything tht stood out. There was the buzzing of Beedrill, the fast Yanma skimming through the air, an epic battle between a Drapion and a foreign bug titan, and... clicking? Come to think of it, Seican seemed to of picked up a pair of gears which clicked a lot as it rotated. Maybe that was them! Looking up at Cesc, she let off a low murmur, pointing in the direction of the sound.

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

"I knew you were a steel type!" Seican cried, watchnig it take the POison Powder like nothing, since Poison was useless against Steel types. "Are you also an Electric type?" Still, the gears was good at stopping the small swarm poisoning him in the middle of the field, unattended, and possibly die completely by poison. Walking to the gear's "back" he gave it a hard pat, telling it, "Good job! You did awesome out there! You must have an epic trainer. Now then... where the hell are we?!"

Looking around, he had to figure a way out, and clearly walking through the grass was going to be of no help. Next best think was to walk thorugh a clearing and hopefully reach a path. If they don't get anywhere, then they could go the opposite way. "Now then... that way!" Pointing one again to an open area, he began to walk straight into the unknown... just without the tall grass.

[Master Houndoom]

Whatever it was, it was getting steadily worse.

"Thanks, again, Mercutio, for helping me."

Tybalt had been diligent in making sure that Branwys was unharmed. Luckily, the two large bug types were too busy with each other to worry about two diminutive figures passing them. Despite a scare when one landed with a heavy thud and scrambling of insectile limbs, they were able to pass the fighters with no incident.

"I wonder what got into those two, huh?"

Walking next to the zangoose was a little bit sobering for Branwys. He wasn't much of a talker, and she felt she needed to talk to keep her mind off of the grating sensation causing her to clench her jaw. Oh, he was gallant enough. He had thrown himself between Branwys and the ariados when the latter had crashed down near them. But his facial features seemed to be stuck in a perpetual frown, and he was silent, and, worst of all...

He was taller than her.

"I sure hope Cesc is OK..."

She sighed deeply. This wouldn't be so bad, if he were human. She'd even gotten used to the idea that human children would eventually grow taller than her, despite the fact that she would be older than them. But Tybalt (though she still believed his name was Mercutio, a likely cause of his "quiet") was a pokémon, and to have something one supposedly ordered around (to be fair, she wouldn't be ordering him around, but the principle was there...) be almost one third again her size drove home something she hadn't wanted to think about. A dark fact that had loomed up in the morass of emotions brought on by Cesc having not called her back...

Cesc was a good double her height. She couldn't look past it for much longer. He was handsome, and fun, and seemed to like her for her and not the fact that she looked like a living kewpie doll, but how long would that last?

Her teeth were beginning to ache, from gritting them against the noise.

"Do you feel that, Mercutio?"

To her surprise, the zangoose nodded. Jarred from her emotional recriminations, she looked at him, then started moving, more purposely, toward the... noise, for lack of a better term. A large bush was in the way, surrounded by tall grass and small trees on either side. Branwys tried to circle the bush as noiselessly as possible. As it happened, she needn't have worried.

In a clearing, flanking a machine were two large (even when not comparing her to her) men who looked more at home in a biker gang in Castelia than in this near idyllic park. The machine looked a lot like an old style reel to reel tape player, help up on four spindly legs much like one would see on a TV dinner tray.

Branwys gaped, hidden so far from the men, and then looked at Tybalt. Tybalt looked back at her.

"So, what's this do again?" The first man, a large, but not yet fat, stupid looking man regarded the machine with a wary eye.

"I toldja," said the second, skinny and long haired, crossing his arms in a smug matter. "It sends out waves of sound we can't hear that gets the bugs all riled up. Then, when they're weak from fighting each other, we grab the ones left conscious and train 'em!" He blew out a bubble of gum and snapped it loudly. "Easy as lyin'."

Branwys felt her teeth grit harder, if that was possible. These guys were either cheating, or purposely hurting pokémon for their own gains. Her eyes narrowed. She wished, oh, how she wished, that Dimo were here...

~*~*~*~*~*~

Tinka would have sighed. It was becoming a thing with her, realizing she couldn't sigh though she desperately wanted to.

She had done a job on the paras, even if she did say so herself. They had been, however, quite young. So many at once would have likely worn even her down.

The man was impressed, as he should be. But he was loud, and now he was attacking her, smacking her left gear so hard that it briefly went perpendicular and she could look herself in the eye...

She ignored his questions, staying around him because he might be useful, rather than that he might be a good companion. He did have the redeeming quality of thinking Branwys was a brilliant trainer.

Something was bothering her, though. She had, never in all of her time with Branwys, and Agatha before that, seen a paras willingly come out in the light, even having been stepped on. Something, she thought, might be provoking them.

... But what?

[Kamaitachi]

Stalwart and ever quiet, Tybalt padded around the two massive bugs, but still took the time to gesture in response to Branwys' constant barrage of questions. He'd noted earlier that Tinka had responded with several "Klinks" that sounded almost like speech. He was fairly limited to the syllables "Zan" and "Goose", or would sometimes even dare to combine them into one coherent: "Zangoose", but rarely found the need or want to do so.

"I sure hope Cesc is OK..."

He nodded in assent when he heard that question. He was still getting used to his new rather haphazard master, who insisted on dressing him up all the time. However, he noted that Cesc had an aptitude for finding trouble (and so did this girl!), which meant that there were plenty of worthy opponents.

"Do you feel that, Mercutio?"

The Zangoose paused for a moment, his ears twitching as he listened for an incredibly faint sound. Nodding solemnly, he watched as she moved off, curious that she was, in fact, moving towards the irksome noise, rather than away from it. Nothing good ever made those sorts of noises, and here the small human was making a beeline towards it. Giving something of a sigh (in a way that a Klink could never do), he followed after her, determined to protect his ward, even from her own foolishness.

He wasn't quite sure what to do, but the noise was upsetting him, and that meant that it had to stop. Branwys, too, look rather agitated, but perhaps because the men appeared rather loathsome. They looked pretty rough, and Tybalt couldn't remember spotting them out in the crowd earlier.

Without further ado, he sprang from their hiding spot, bounding out. With the two enemy trainers shouting in dismay and surprise (perhaps respectively), Tybalt reared up and brought his heavy claws down on the machine. Yet, the machine seemed rather sturdily built, and all he managed to do was knock the damn thing over. The horrid sound was still there, and now the two trainers were summoning pokemon to the field to fight him off.

Tybalt bounded back, standing between the two men, and the still concealed Branwys. He didn't particularly want to involve her, but from what he gathered from the girl so far, she was rather hands on.

"Goose." He barked, indicating her, then pointing at the machine. Perhaps there was a chance that the machine girl could disable it while he distracted the two lunks with a battle. If he could keep their attention drawn on him, she would be able to sneak around them and take care of the machine.

A dull surprise overtook his face as something bounced off his head. Looking down at the ground in front of him, he stared blankly at the pokeball that landed on the ground. One of them actually had the audacity to try to capture him. Bristling madly, he charged forward as two bright lights appeared on the field.

Before the trainers could even issue commands, the Zangoose swept his claw along the ground before swinging it upwards in a powerful slash, catching the newly appeared Electrike off guard. The electric puppy went sailing into the air as Tybalt turned to face the more prepared of the two. An Arbok.

It wasn't a Seviper, by any means, but Tybalt had a distaste for the other snakelike creature, and immediately stooped low, avoiding a high slash of the Cobra's poison steeped tail.

He glanced again at Branwys' position, to see if she'd moved at all.

***

"Excellent!" Cesc chimed happily as he started walking in the direction that Speaker had indicated. Every part of this forest-park seemed precisely similar to the part previous, and Cesc slowly began to think that he was in a labyrinth. At some point, he'd realize that escape was impossible, and that a giant minotaur would come and crush him with a giant axe, then eat his bones.

Cesc liked his bones.

"Speaker, your hearing's a lot better than mine, so you let me know if anything's approaching us. We need to keep you nice and safe until we find your trainer, and Bardolph there probably isn't quite up for another battle just yet."

All the while as they walked, he continued to scratch and stroke the little pink thing in his arms. She really was quite a cutie. (Little did he know, her evolutions were downright hideous!) Not sure what else to do, and not quite sure how to communicate with the tiny...thing...in his arms, he simply began singing a little ditty he remembered. He wasn't a great singer by any means, but his voice was surprisingly robust and full.

"Si supieras,
que aun dentro de mi alma,
conservo aquel cariño
que tuve para ti...
Quien sabe si supieras
que nunca te he olvidado,
volviendo a tu pasado
te acordaras de mi...

Los amigos ya no vienen
ni siquiera a visitarme,
nadie quiere consolarme
en mi afliccion...
Desde el dia que te fuiste
siento angustias en mi pecho,
deci, percanta, que has hecho
de mi pobre corazon?

Sin embargo,
yo siempre te recuerdo
con el cariño santo
que tuve para ti.
Y estas en todas partes
pedazo de mi vida,
y aquellos ojos que fueron mi alegria
los busco por todas partes
y no los puedo hallar.


Al cotorro abandonado
ya ni el sol de la mañana
asoma por la ventana
como cuando estabas vos,
y aquel perrito compañero
que por tu ausencia no comia,
al verme solo el otro dia
tambien me dejo."

Of course, as he sang, he didn't quite think about the fact that his singing was potentially clogging the hearing of his companion and radar, Speaker.

[Douken Sota]

Seican was getting no where and fast. More than a handful of times had he walked into a grouping of trees which showed no sign of a pathway,m and the gears following him didn't seem to show much in knowing the way either. With such a locked impression, he couldn't even tell if it was concerned over the Paras in he first place. Not like Seican knew that they didn't like to be in bright areas and not as aggressive.

"Let's see... there has to be a better way to find the path. Someone who should know the woods well... Oh, duh!" Taking a Park Ball in hand, he chucked it up, screaming, "Rock on, Record!" which soon released the captured Spinarak. The spider he caught before the stampede that broke the group apart. "Did ya hear that? Record! Awesome name! Now then, help out by -" Not even caring about what the trainer was talking about, he latched himself back onto Seican's face. Can't really blame him. Here, his little colony was trying to deal with this irritating noise before he was "strummed" out of his web, left to deal with that pink ball of a loud mouth. To make things worse, she [i]had[i] to scream at a similar frequency as the noise at the same rhythm, amplifying it to cause the colony to go berserk! Oh, this guy will get it, and get it good...

But the noise... it was still there. He could still hear it buzz in his head, and it was pissing him off worse. Jumping off, the spider went for a straight charge at whatever was making that irritating noise.

"Alright! Let's follow him!" Seican yelled out, chasing after the spider. Looks like the gears has to follow up some more.

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

His singing was not helping. Not only did she not know what he was saying in the first place, but it was ruining her focus. So, with a quick upwards Pound to his chin, she made sure to tell him it would be better to keep quiet. Cause if this human sang again, he would get hit again.

With some quiet around her once more, she was able to focus a bit better. Strange, though. She could hear the agitated buzzing of insects. She could hear punches coming at each other than the trainers that wish to catch them. And that clicking... well, it wasn't a click per say. It seemed more like an unnatural buzz. If it wasn't for her Soundproof ability, she probably would of gotten riled up as well, but she was able to hear it clearly, and know it was annoying. That buzz is blocking the surrounding noises making it harder to hear for Seican. Maybe if they quieted it, she could hear easier. Still, she felt like she was on track, so she kept pointing Cesc in the direction of the buzz.

[Master Houndoom]

Branwys had not sat idle. As soon as the zangoose had made the move to attack, Branwys had scrambled up, circling around the men. She wanted a look at that machine. Supposedly it was there to agitate the bugs, and, guessing from the sensations around her jaw, teeth, and ears, it was a sonic device. Most pokemon had varying sensitivities to sonics. There was a good chance that someone could have found a frequency to do this.

Just not these two. They didn't seem the type to invent. More the type to steal someone else's invention and use it for their own ends.

And she got that. So long as someone had thrown the device away, she wasn't afraid of a little scavenging. She didn't think these two blokes had "scavenged", though. She was pretty sure they out right stole it.

She crept up while the two were distracted by Tybalt (who she still thought of as Mercutio), making her way to the box on the spindly legs. The "sound", just outside of her range of hearing, was more intense (she couldn't rightfully say louder...), and she could feel her teeth almost rattling with it.

She stood on the tips of her toes (grudgingly thanking Zeetha for forcing her to "at least try" ballet), to get a better look. The box was a simple device. Speakers, to be sure, but larger than she'd have guessed, and a knob that was surrounded by silhouettes of what she assumed were pokemon shapes. If that was the criteria being used to select what sound played, and if the noise was meant to effect pokemon by body type, her opinion of the inventor of this device had dropped all the way back to Unova. Worse, there was no apparent off switch.

Branwys had two options in dealing with this thing. The first was to grab a wrench from her bag and smash the glorious hell out of it. It was, as much as she loathed wrecking machinery, the most expedient choice. It was also quite impossible, as she had lost her bag.

That left Option Number Two. She grabbed the thing and ran.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Dimo was not happy. Ordinarily, he would not be upset at Branwys picking Tinka over him for anything. He knew his strengths and weaknesses, and he knew the klamotten needed a work out sometimes, too. This time, however, he'd been stuck in his ball.

That was no place to be.

He didn't really like his ball. Branwys didn't seem to like his ball, either, or at least didn't like putting him or the klinkensprotten in their balls. He once watched her as she spent a night trying to get the bracket on her satchel to act in the same capacity as a pokeball, allowing Tinka to rest there, She hadn't yet mastered it, but he'd had fun getting the items Branwys needed, so it wasn't a total waste.

No, he didn't like his ball, and he didn't like being cooped up in it, and he definitely didn't like the sinking, churning feeling in his gut. He'd have to get out.

Luckily, there was a way. He just had to... *PAFF*

He materialized in the bag There was room for him, but not much, and more worrisome, the bag was on the ground. He slipped out, gathered the spilled items, put them in the bag, gathered the bag, and, unable to sling it on his shoulder, as he was shorter than Branwys, he lofted it onto the knobby end of his bone club by the handles and struck out. There was something about this place he didn't like... something that made his bones rattle...

Which, for a cubone, was significant.

[Kamaitachi]

Cesc's head snapped back from the sudden attack from below. Blushing, he rubbed the underside of his chin cautiously. The blow smarted, and he'd nearly dropped Speaker, but he was still upright. She'd issued a warning blow, and was more than likely ready, if not happy, to do it again.

Really, his singing couldn't have been that bad.

She continued to doggedly point in a direction, which Cesc had no problems heading towards. Though, as more noises announced the presences of other life, Cesc began to grow increasingly worried. There was a lot of hissing, screeching, and thumping noises in the direction in which they were heading, and Cesc was really quite convinced that the opposite direction was probably the way they wanted to go.

Yet, Speaker pointed resolutely in that direction. With no other means of getting around in the forest without winding up more lost, Cesc walked. The ominous noises of a fierce battle grew louder and louder. Peering through a patch of particularly thick foliage, he watched as two behemoth bugs battled in the middle of a clearing, possibly with the intent to consume the other. Cesc didn't know much about pokemon biology, let alone the biology of giant, terrifying bugs, so he assumed that this was the law of the jungle at work.

"Let's scoot around these guys...right?" he gulped nervously as he pet the charge in his arms soothingly. "No need to let them know we're here."

As he started to circumnavigate the two combatants, he heard a heavy thud and snapped his head in that direction. The Drapion was down, and the Scolipede towered over it, equally scarred and breathing heavily. Even despite its fatigue, it lacked the smug look of victory, and instead continued to look as agitated as ever. As it slowly turned its head to spot Cesc and Speaker, a red light enveloped both it and its former enemy Drapion. Two young-ish looking teens appeared from the underbrush to collect their new captures as the balls 'pinged' their signature capture noises.

"Boo-yeah! One of us'll win for sure!"

"Yeaaaaaah!"

Cesc stared at the two teens picked up the pokeballs and disappeared back into the forest. He'd worked pretty hard to capture Bardolph, who was terrifying in his own right, but these two upstarts had strolled in and captured two horrifying nightmare monsters with no effort whatsoever. He wasn't sure whether to be jealous, or to be worried that such power was in the hand of youths.

Yet, in his arms, Speaker continued to lead him forward. Evidently the sound of a raging death match was not her interest, but something hopefully nearby.

* * *

As Branwys grabbed the machine and ran, the two goons yelled rather buffoonishly as she ran off. She'd most likely been correct in that neither of them had been smart enough to know what the words "Sonic" and "Emitter" meant, let alone construct one.

"Electrike! After her!"

Tybalt moved to intercept the electric puppy pokemon, but found himself intercepted in turn as a vicious bite attack flew inches by from his face. Not wasting any movement, the Arbok whipped her tail around, smacking the Zangoose to the ground, effectively preventing him from giving chase. In the time it took Tybalt to get back to his feet, Branwys and the pursuing Electrike had disappeared.

"Tybalt! Swords Dance!"

Peering over his shoulder, he watched as Cesc emerged from the underbrush, holding a little pink thing that he vaguely remembered seeing with a long-haired punk earlier. Where his master had encountered the little marshmellow-with-ears was beyond him. There was no time for pondering; Cesc had issued a command.

In a quick series of movements mirroring those of a Tai-Chi practitioner, the Zangoose felt his muscles and joints loosening, and a new energy flowing through his body. His attacks would be more efficient now, and he was ready to wreak some havoc on this Arbok, then go rescue Branwys.

"Arbok, Glare!"

Rearing back, the Arbok's hooded body appeared to be glowing, and Tybalt found himself instantly mesmerized. Forcing himself to look into the creature's eyes rather than the intimidating fake-eyes, he found that suddenly...he couldn't move! The technique had evidently left him transfixed and paralyzed, as if a part of his mind were telling him that he was deathly afraid of this cobra pokemon in front of him. His natural instinct of terror overcame him for the moment, and he stood there, literally paralyzed with fear.

"Don't know who y'are kid, but you and yer cat best scat, gottit?"

Cesc wasn't quite sure that he 'gottit' at all, and wasn't quite sure what was going on at all here.

"You with that l'il girlie?"

The co-ordinator-to-be assumed that 'l'il girlie' was most likely a reference to Branwys, which meant that she was nearby, considering that Tybalt was here.

Instead of responding to his question immediately, Cesc replied with a command to his pokemon: "Tybalt, Slash!"

Shaking off the paralysis for the moment, Tybalt charged the Arbok with his now powered up attack. The claws raked heavily across the snake's body, sending it flying to the ground, where it coiled up in pain.

"My dear fellow." Cesc swept one arm over the field, before pulling his hand back to rest on his chin. Striking what he felt was a rather dashing pose, he continued: "I'm her knight in shining armor. En garde!"

[Douken Sota]

Other people! Sure, none of them were Seican, but at least it was other people. Actually, one of them seemed to of been running away... a small little girl with a strange machine... wait... that's the girl from the beginning! Maybe she knew were Seican was... but why was she running, and what was she carrying? It was making a wierd noise... the same noise that was bothering her ears. Maybe it was the same thing that was bothering the bugs as well? And... there was an electric dog chasing her.

Wiggling around, she was trying to she was wanted down, whether it be him dropping her or having to hit him again. No matter which senerio it took (hopefully the former), she would run with her tiny legs after the girl and dog.

If that sound bothers people, then breaking it up should have a good countereffect. She was trained well to know the sounds, as well as to how to match her voice to it. Sure, it was going to be a LOT louder that what was being aired, but if she could hit it at the right time, the sounds should be fighting each other, and hurting the Electrike's ears.

In comes one massive Uproar.

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

As the rock star chased the spider, being followed by the gears, a cry seemed to of echoed off of the trees, which placed a grin on Seican's face. "That's Speaker!" he yelled, grabbing the Klink behind him and rushing past the Spinarack. Uproar would last a long time. Plenty to folow it to the source, and carrying the gears would make sure it wasn't lost.

However, for Record, he seemed to of gotten confused by the sound. It was still irritating, but not enough to drive him into the madness from five seconds ago. So, the only real option was to run after the guy who caught him via String Shot onto his back, flying in the cloud of smoke.

It took him some time (about "two turns" of Uproar) before the trio caught up to everyone else, jsut seeing what kind of mess occured. "What the hell is going on here?"

[Master Houndoom]

Quite simply, Branwys ran. She did not look behind her to see if she was being followed, so she subsequently didn't see her rescue. Nor did she have the time to analyze the sounds of the combatants (had she even heard anything past "Hey!" when she grabbed the machine) due to the sound of a pokémon wailing and crying out in a massive Uproar.

No, she ran, ignoring the pulsepulsepulse of the machine in her hands, which was not only giving of what had to be a subsonic noise, but was also vibrating through her hands, jarring her arms as she held it, first in front of her, then over her head, to get better balance. The Uproar helped: giving her ears something else to concentrate on helped distract them from the lower than audible vibrations. Unfortunately, it did nothing for the vibrations.

Branwys' vision was starting to blur. She'd have to find a place to adjust the machine, or somehow turn it off. As much distress that is was causing her, she no longer wanted to destroy it. At least not suddenly. She wanted, desperately now, to take it apart and see how it worked!

Just an opportunity came to her. A corner made of tall planters presented itself. She should be able to take a short look, and maybe there would be some other trainers around. She set the machine down, noting absently that the signal, which she hadn't realized had been wavering, possibly confusing other wild pokémon, was once again strong and steady. That meant turning it off was a priority, lest she attract other, not happy bug-types.

Setting the machine down, she began to examine it. There was the knob, with its pictures around it showing what type of pokémon would be affected. The icons were the same as body types in a pokédex, something she had noticed before. On closer inspection, she noted that not every body type was on the dial.

It seemed that the most likely thing was that each icon didn't mean body type as much as a simple representation of the type that would be effected. A further search found a power light, a smaller knob for pulse strength, and, looking on the bottom, clips for the spindly legs that held it off of the ground. With a sigh and a grunt, she made a fist and smacked it down on the top, hitting the large, main knob at an angle. It depressed, then came back up, and the light turned out. The noise, such as it was, fell silent.

Branwys blinked at the machine, but was distracted by a noise behind her. She turned around, eyes widening as the small electrike dropped low on his haunches, and growled with a menacing "trrrrrrrr".

"Oh boy..." Branwys stood, holding her hands in front of her, palms out. "There there, little guy... I turned it off.. see? It's all off and safe, and you weren't really mad about the box, were you?" The electrike continued to growl, and Branwys could see sparks arcing around its mane...

~*~*~*~*~*~

Tinka had never been as humiliated in all of her life than at the moment the loud man grabbed her and scurried off after his spider. She could get around on her own, thank you! However, it would have been quite rude to shock him again, as he wasn't harming her (He couldn't, to be honest, not without tools or pokemon to help him), and he WAS going to help her find Branwys.

Even is she had to pinch a few fingers to make that happen.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The shock came before Branwys could take in a breath to scream. There was something about pokémon attacks that, while they emulated the element they were, acted slightly differently. Electricity, for example, sometimes flowed slower than it should, allowing it's path to its target to be tracked visibly, rather than traveling at the speed of light and being completely unfollowable by the naked eye. Or perhaps it was a matter of perception. Being at the target end of an attack seemed to make one very aware of everything. Branwys could see the shock form, bolts of electricity tying together at the leading end like bright sticks of light stuck together with pitch, and extend to race toward her.

There was a blur, and then a flash of bright light, and Branwys was on her bottom, rubbing her eyes, and staring at the back of a very familiar, decorated skull helmet.

"D-dimo!"

Dimo looked back at her, giving her a cheery nod. [Gott youself in sum trubble, ja? Goot, goot, tings is not borink vit you!] Without waiting for an answer, knowing that she couldn't understand him anyway, he turned his eyes back to the dog, who was snarling even louder at the new arrival. The eyes behind the helm's eye sockets narrowed. [Hyu attacked dis gorl. Dat vos stoopit.]

The electrike took in the challenge and reared back, howling, Dante continuing to Leer at his opponent. Each one standing firm, neither taking their eyes off the other. The electrike Howled his defiance, and Dimo Leered in response. Finally, the pup crouched on all fours, electricity sparking around him fiolently, as Dimo held the bone club in his forepaws, laterally in front of him, energy coalescing around him in a blue aura.

As if on an unspoken cue, both of them moved, the electrike a flashing blur, Dimo charging like a soldier, the club held behind him and up. It seemed the two passed each other, the only change being that Dimo's club struck forward and the electrike's teeth flashed.

Both forms passed each other and skid to a stop. Dimo's club was stretched out before him, and the electrike's head was down.

One faltered. One fell.

Dimo stood straight and checked his club for marks. [Huh. Tinka vos right. Dem Samyoorye films got goot moofs.]

[Kamaitachi]

Speaker neatly hopped out of his arms, which was fine in Cesc's book. He didn't want to wind up with another pound on the bottom of his face. As she disappeared into the underbrush, Cesc heard the sounds of her massive voice wreaking sonic havoc somewhere that wasn't where he was.

"Poison Fang!"

"Quick Attack!"

The normally weak quick attack, combined with Tybalt's monstrous attack AND a Swords Dance boost would normally be quite formidable. Yet, instead of attacking, Tybalt chose to stand rooted in his spot, quivering with fear.

This was rather unlike Cesc's soldier-like comrade, and it didn't leave him much room for dodging as the Arbok sank his vicious fangs into the Zangoose.

Poison Fang had a strong chance to inflict poison on its foes, but luckily Tybalt possessed the inherent trait known as "Immunity". Etched into his genetic code from his species' longstanding battles with Seviper, Zangoose were unable to be poisoned.

The fangs still hurt like crazy though.

Tybalt looked like he was on his last leg; the paralysis had not been kind to him, and the long day had really taken a toll on his stamina. As Cesc drew the pokeball to recall him, he shot a pleading look at his trainer, wanting to finish the battle.

The look went unanswered as the red recall beam sucked the Cat-ferret back into his pokeball, leaving the field open for Tinka and Record to face the Arbok.

"Bardolph" Cesc's newly acquired Scyther appeared on the field, staring down the Arbok. While the coordinator planned to take it slowly, to make sure the mantis pokemon didn't overexert himself, Bardolph had other plans entirely. Before Cesc could issue a command, Bardolph was all up in the Arbok's grill, his blades flashing dangerously as he launched into a Wing Attack.

Then, Cesc noted idly, that both trainers were standing there, watching the match intently. The owner of the Electrike had not moved to go after his pup, assuming, probably, that it had done its job in tracking down Branwys. The fact that it had not yet returned meant that she was probably still okay. It also meant that thug #2 probably didn't have another pokemon in his line-up.

"Let's go, Venomoth!"

"Mierda." Cesc sighed as the Poison Moth pokemon took the field. Now he was outgunned.

"What the hell is going on here!?"

Cesc snapped his head over to where Monsieur Longhair made his grand, and rather vulgar entrance. A grin broke onto his face as he saw that the man held Tinka in his arms. He'd never been so happy to see a pair of gears in his life before, but now Tinka was his potential mechanical saviour.

"Don't know myself, but your little friend just ran off into the woods." Cesc pointed vaguely in the direction that Speaker had bolted off into. "Tinka, care to help me out? Maybe with...uh..." he racked his brain for the moves he'd seen her use earlier "Thundershock on Arbok?"