[X] My Assistant

[Toogee]

Luckily, Turnip didn’t have to try very hard to clean Zulu of the geodudes. The rampardos was doing a particularly good job at swinging the pokemon off. This allowed the ivysaur to stand back and continue to hit the rock pokemon with his vine whips.

The thrown pokemon resembled baseballs; some were thrown straight towards Turnip, while others curved, threatening the humans behind him. With one flick of his vines, the geodudes were stopped in midair, falling straight to the ground. Some were able to bounce away from the scene to avoid further pummeling.

It was when Justin’s tyrouge intervened that things started to get interesting. His claps and cries formed a beat, encouraging the Turnip to attack with the rhythm. Even Zulu was getting into the beat, calming down as he strutted his head back in forth.

*Clap Clap,* echoed through the tunnel as the tyrouge’s hands made impact.

*Whoosh Whoosh,* followed as the rampardos threw a couple of geodudes towards the ivysaur.

*Whip Whip,* Turnip’s vine whips cracked as they met with the hard surface of the rock pokemon.

The pattern continued until Zulu was cleaned of all geodude. All had one long gash spread diagonally across their bodies, yet another scar to remind them not to mess with high-level pokemon, especially when they find their groove.

With the pokemon cleared out, Zulu’s attitude changed from menacing beast to lazy dinosaur eager for an afternoon nap. The rampardos moved to the center of the tunnel, curled up into a ball on the floor, and immediately started to snore. If Pan wasn’t amazed by his strength, she certainly was with his ability to go into a deep sleep on a dime. As the creature’s snores started to echo through the caverns, the woman decided this would be the best opportunity to return Zulu back to his pokeball. She stood up from lying on the ground and retrieved the dinosaur pokemon.

“That went well,” Pan said to Justin. As she brushed herself off, she noticed that one of the geodudes left something behind. It was a circular object 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter with a hollow space in the middle, similar in shape to a donut. Closer inspection to the outer edge showed that it was not smooth in appearance; there were 28 sides along the edge of the “wheel”. Each side had a unique symbol etched into the edge as well as into the side of the object. The artifact was made of tough gray stone; Pan recognized the material as everstone. Finally, a piece of old twine rope looped through the hole, forming a necklace. This was not something a geodude could have made, leading Pan to believe that there were more than fossils hiding within the Underground.

“Are these…Unown letters?” Pan recognized the shapes from her trip to Hoenn, but she was unable to decipher what each letter meant. She showed the object to Justin in hopes he recognized something on there. As they examined the object, Pan heard the approaching footsteps of a familiar face. She turned around to see that Andrew finally caught up to her.

“Bout time!” Pan exclaimed.

This post has been edited by 2gamers: Apr 11 2010, 01:05 PM

Reason for edit: Improved the battle section with Tyrouge's Helping Hand

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

Justin watched in awe as Zulu thrashed about, knocking geodudes all over the place and as Pan's ivysaur whipped them with its vines. They were no match for the duo. Wanting to be useful, he looked down at Tyrogue, who was eying down the geodudes, barely making it away from Zulu and the ivysaur.

"Go ahead," Justin said under his breath.

Excited, Tyrogue jumped into the fray, but not so close as to risk getting smashed by Zulu's rampage. He could hardly be considered useful. He chased down geodudes which were already retreating and did various attacks on them. One in particular was running away pretty quickly, so Tyrogue used Fake Out to jump in front of it and used a fake attack to just slow it down. Then it just tackled it to the ground and pinned it down. Once that was done, it was clear the geodude was knocked out.

After tossing a few of the rocks around the cave, Justin called out to him. "Why don't you help out Ivysaur?" He didn't actually remember that its name was Turnip. Tyrogue nodded and put his right fist into his left hand, then jumped up next to Turnip calling out and clapping its hands, trying to give the ivysaur some more confidence. Justin grinned as all the pokemon in the cave, even the geodudes somehow, sort of battled in sync. He was incredibly proud of Tyrogue for managing to actually be helpful against an army of geodudes.

Once that was done, Justin kneeled to Tyrogue and held up his right hand. Tyrogue excitedly met his right hand with a right hand of his own before running to grab the sleeping bag which he tossed aside.

“Are these…Unown letters?” Pan asked when Justin stood back up. He took a closer look at the object.

Justin just shook his head. "I don't know anything about 'em," he admitted. "They do look like letters, though. Are they spelling something?"

After looking at it for a little while longer, some kid approached. “Bout time!” Pan exclaimed, and Justin just crossed his arm while eying the kid up and down. He wondered what the age minimum was to work. This kid couldn't have been older than 14 years old. He didn't want to assume, though. Some people just look younger than they are.

"Hey," he said, uncrossing his arms and putting his right hand towards him. "Justin Smart. You must be Andrew?"

This post has been edited by Yzarc Drowsnam: Apr 11 2010, 02:08 PM

[Moonlight Zelda]

Diana paused when she heard the elevator’s creaking box being reeling it back up, before straightening. It wasn’t long before a sturdy iron cage was in view, though clearly in need of some WD-40 from the amount of squeaking at the top. She shook her head after a moment, before adjusting her darkly colored backpack. "Hey there," the young man returned. "I'm Andrew, nice to meet you. I'm heading down to Under Hill, are you coming too?" Andrew added after a moment, he and the absol making their way into the cage as he pulled the door open. Each step was painfully obvious against the metal, echoing down the mineshaft.

“Yes, actually. I was invited by a girl named Pan to explore with her for a little while, but it looks like I’ve fallen behind,” Diana explained as she joined the duo, though plucking Lin off her shoulder, instead holding the pichu against her chest. Judging from how it had been hauled up, there was no telling how it’d go down. “My name is Diana, by the way,” she added as a nonchalant afterthought, briefly offering a hand to Andrew. She paused as she noticed the bright red button – The way down.

As soon as Andrew pushed it in, they immediately began to drop. Stale wind whipped past their faces and through their hair, the absol near them a blinding white flurry. They soon landed with a sturdy ‘thump’, all of them staggering now. Diana barely caught one of the bars as the iron cage proceeded to bounce twice from impact, before it finally fell still. She shook her head, sighing, as Andrew and his apparent partner slipped by her.

Lin, however, was clinging to her shirt for dear life. “It’s all right, little girl …” Diana said softly, gently stroking the terrified electric mouse’s fine pelt while detaching her paws from the material. “Maybe next time, if we leave this way, we’ll put you in your pokeball,” the young woman added, earning a quick nod from the pichu.



Diana paused as she finally caught up with Andrew, having had to sift through the area and people to find him. “Sorry I took so long,” she apologized, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck. The one good thing was that she’d at least acquired basic supplies, and was ready to go. Soon dashing after the duo, hoping to catch up to the others sometime in the near future. Berating herself for falling so far behind already, needless to say. With any fortune, they wouldn’t see her as one merely dragging them down.

[Toogee]

As Andrew approached the group Pan saw that Diana wasn’t far behind. She was glad the two had made it, and just in time. With the geodudes gone, everyone could start digging unimpeded. Seeing that Andrew had gathered his own tools, she offered to share her own with Diana.

“Diana, I have plenty of spares if you want to dig around,” Pan said as she gazed upon her dowsing machine. “While you’re doing that, you can also tell me where you’re from,” Pan smiled, eager to get to know her latest companion.

Even without the geodudes, the machine was still showing plenty of spots to investigate. Pan grabbed a piece of chalk from her explorer’s kit and started marking spots on the wall. These were spots where something was hidden; good starting spots for anyone ready to start digging. Pan took particular interest in a spot within the ground, the only one in this section of the tunnel. The machine indicated that there were two objects buried together in the same spot. Considering how deep the objects were, Pan decided she was going to need a bigger tool.

“Let’s go Pivot!” Pan said, unleashing the baltoy from its pokeball. The pokemon rotated as it examined its surroundings, eventually stopping to await orders from Pan. She excused herself to investigate the unique site.

“Pivot, I need you to use Rapid Spin on this spot right her,” she said, kneeling down to point out the spot. “Go right into the ground.”

The baltoy obliged and immediately started to spin. Its bottom half acted as a drill, digging straight into the ground. The tunnel filled with a drilling noise as Pivot sank deeper into the ground. Care would have to be taken to avoid damage to the objects below.

“That’s enough Pivot!” Pan shouted over the noise. She realized too late that the baltoy had reached the objects: two colored stones were flung out of the hole. Though Pan managed to catch the orange one, the blue one grazed her skull, just above her right eye. The surprise hit knocked Pan on her bottom, while the blue stone landed harmlessly on the ground, not a scratch on it.

“Oh, wow, that hurt” Pan said, flinching when she touched her latest bruise. A small cut appeared at the spot, followed by a brownish area surrounding the wound. She appeared slightly dazed, so she didn’t realize what exactly she found.

Baltoy learned Dig (L.A. Approved)!
Pan found a Fire Stone and Water Stone!

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

"Hey, Diana, you made it!" Justin laughed as she noticed the girl approach the group. "Glad to see it."

When the group set up camp to start digging, Justin found himself without any digging tools. The walls were too rough for him to go digging himself, but he did have a pokemon apt at digging through things. For the first time in, well, ever, Nincada made herself useful as Justin released her from her pokeball. She immediately began pacing around the small cave very quickly.

"Hey," Justin said. "Hey. Hey! Nincanda!" Finally, she stopped running around and looked up at him. "I need you to dig through these walls, try to find me somethin' pretty for Tina, alright?" Nincada didn't even allow Justin to finish his sentence before she moved to the wall. She was no expert digger by any means, but she had sharp claws and an affinity for earth, so she managed to make a few tiny tunnels, but neglected to come up with anything exciting. Unless you count rocks.

That's when he noticed out of his peripheral vision that something crazy was going on to his left. When he looked over, he saw Pan fly back and two shiny stones fly out of a hole. She caught one, but another got her right in the face. He hurried over to her to make sure she was okay, but she got up and turned out to be barely grazed.

“Oh, wow, that hurt," she said nonchalantly as Justin simply shook his head and went to pick up the blue stone, which honestly looked like a sapphire, but already gemmed. It didn't make sense for something like it to be in a natural cave, but then he realized it was no sapphire. There was some sort of power emerging from it, but he couldn't explain it. "Looks like you found a couple of treasures," he said as he handed her the water stone. "Congrats."

[Moonlight Zelda]

The dark haired young woman chuckled at their tones, before nodding in appreciation. “Couldn’t let all the fun start without me – I’ve already missed enough adventure,” she said, winking. Diana smiled when Lin gave them a thumbs-up sign, before casting Pan a questioning glance. It was clear the electric mouse wanted to play with or at least sit with Chi-Chi. “Thanks for letting me borrow these, though,” the young woman said, nodding again to Pan as she accepted the two variations of tools and the paintbrush.

As soon as she turned her back to Lin, however, the clear electric glow doubled. No doubt they’d linked paws. Diana shook her head, before turning back to the wall after glancing at Pan’s machine. According to its screen, there was one object buried in the wall. She tapped the steel pick against the wall steadily, until coming to a weak point. The young woman paused, before tapping Kimball’s Friend Ball.

He cocked his head as the bright red flash vanished, the blue and black dog pokemon almost blending in with the cave’s flickering shadows. Kimball paused upon noticing their surroundings, before giving the puppy semblance of a smile. It seemed the knightly fighting type enjoyed the occasional ‘hunt’ as well, even if for nothing more than a change of pace. “Want to lend a paw, Kimball?” Diana queried, smiling as he barked in response.

The fluttering of zubat wings followed not long after, the nocturnal winged creatures clearly going further down as his bark echoed through the tunnels. Kimball suddenly launched himself off the cave floor, the steel nub on the back of his paw connecting with the wall as he spun. A resounding crack met their ears, stone chips scattering the floor. He landed neatly next to her, staring at the sizable crack with satisfaction.

A solid swing quickly caused it to expand, before dirt suddenly began spraying their backs. Diana pivoted in time to see Pan get smacked upside the head with a glimmering stone. Ouch. She moved back a few steps to help the other woman up, as Justin handed her the other half of her efforts. It seemed to faintly glow blue, in contrast to the amber-bronze one in her hand. “I’d imagine that’ll leave a mark,” Diana commented as she offered a hand, seeing the already purpling scratch from the stone. “Congratulations, though,” she added, smiling.

[Toogee]

Pan was still a little confused when her friends started congratulating her. It wasn’t until she examined the stones in her hands that she knew the significance of the find. In her left hand, there was an orange stone warm to the touch with a blazing fire trapped inside. In the other, there was a clear blue stone cooling her hand with bubbles moving around in order to stay on top. As Turnip moved in to check on his human, she showed the pokemon her finds.

“Look,” she began, “Fire and water stones.”

The ivysaur was more concerned with the bruise on her forehead, but Pan pushed away the examining vines, assuring Turnip that she was fine. She took Diana’s hand and stood back up, brushing herself off.

“Thanks, guys,” she replied to Justin and Diana. She looked back at her dowsing machine; the many dots had disappeared, with just one in the distance.

“Looks like we need to keep moving,” Pan said, grabbing her things to prepare for the trail ahead. “Let’s head for this spot, then we can make camp for the night.”

**********************

The group of four ventured far deeper into the Underground. By this time, they had made several turns as Pan used the dowsing machine as their guide. The beep kept getting stronger and stronger as they went further down. In a nod to Zulu, Pan started to mark the wall with chalk marks so they didn’t get lost in the maze.

In a rare event, Chi-Chi was outside of Pan’s vest, lighting the way with her glowing cheeks. At the same time, she was playing with the little Pichu, using her fluffy tail to tempt Lin into chasing her along the way. She kept just out of reach of the Lin’s grasp, only to scurry further away, chuckling madly at the pichu’s attempts to catch her.

“Stay close to us,” Pan warned the two. She was busy walking next to Diana, examining the amber colored stone in her hands.

“There’s definitely a little bug in there,” Pan said, shining a small flashlight from her kit under the object of interest. The light revealed a small blood-sucking creature in the middle of the old amber. “I’d be willing to bet there’s enough DNA to revive whatever’s inside.”

Just then, the dowsing machine started beeping loudly; they had arrived at their destination. Pan put her things aside and examined the spot. According to the machine, the treasure was several feet above her head; she would definitely need help from one of her teammates.

“I’m going to need to get on someone’s shoulders.”

Pan looked pleadingly to her teammates. Justin could definitely handle Pan, though Diana looked plenty fit to handle the task. She wasn’t too sure about Andrew, but if he was willing to volunteer, she could trust him.

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

Justin sighed as he looked to Diana and then Andrew, realizing that he was indeed the only person capable of giving her the boost she needed. "I, uh," he began, but finally just sighed. "Yeah, whatever." He got down on the ground in front of her and she cheerfully thanked him, climbing up onto his shoulders. He just shook his head and sighed as he stood up again, putting his hands on his shoulders, keeping Pan's feet stable on them as she stood up and was thankfully able to reach the location she needed.

"So, uh," he continued as she began drilling into the cave wall above him. "Ah, that's loud. Uh, yeah, so what do you guys do? Like, do you work? Go to school? Or what?" He realized his attempt at small talk would likely be very clearly nothing more than an attempt at awkward small talk. Justin already didn't like Andrew very much, and Diana seemed too...Teenagerish.

[Moonlight Zelda]

Diana's gaze followed Pan and Justin as they went about their work, before shrugging and picking Chi-Chi and Lin up. The two electric rodents were soon comfortably nestled on her shoulder as she moved to lean against the wall, providing plenty of light for the duo. Standing near them certainly helped being able to hear Justin when Pan clicked on her drill, raining them with dust and rock chips.

The young woman shrugged at his questions, noticing his gaze had turned a bit condescending upon moving to her as he finished speaking. She could live with it if he didn't care much for her, it'd just make the trip seem far longer to all of them. "I have a part-time job at home in Orre, but most of the time do odd jobs on the side to supplement income. As I highly doubt I'm going to be battling my entire life, college is next on my agenda when I'm through exploring Furoh," the young woman said, glancing back over at him as she spoke. "In the meantime, though, I'm going to make the most of the situations I'll end up in. I don't plan on wasting a day that I'm here," Diana added, though extending an arm as Kimball glanced up at her, his crimson eyes pleading. She chuckled lightly, almost drowned out by the drill, as he jumped, catching it.

Kimball gladly let her finish helping him up, despite his usual tendencies. Even the knightly fighting type had the right to want attention, and to feel lonely. At times, though, she had to wonder if the dark intimidated him. Kimball tried so hard to hide what he feared and disliked, believing he had to live up to his eventual evolution's might. The blue and black pup no doubt upheld his honor, and then some.

Diana gently ran her hand along his soft pelt as stone chips continued to pelt them, though Lin and Chi-Chi had taken sanctuary on her other shoulder rather than ignoring them as the human and aura-pup were doing. She paused, glancing up when she heard a faint 'clink'. Dust stung her eyes, but it was clear that Pan had found something. The faint reverberation of zubats' echolocation drifted up the tunnels once more as she watched the other woman, curiosity piqued.

This post has been edited by Moonlight Zelda: Apr 19 2010, 01:49 PM

[Toogee]

“Thank you, Justin,” Pan replied gratefully, eager to find out what awaited her. “I promise it won’t be for too long.”

The first thing Pan did was to take off her boots, thinking her feet would be easier on Justin’s shoulders. She then grabbed a couple of tools from her explorer’s kit, one of which happened to be a portable drill. After attaching them to the belt loops of her shorts, Pan climbed up on the young man’s shoulders, her stance stabilized by his hands on her ankles. From this height, she could work comfortably and quickly.

Pan started by donning a pair of safety goggles and drilling lightly through the rocky exterior. She only needed to break up the tough portion; going too deep could damage the treasure underneath. Once that part was done, she switched off to a quieter instrument, the small pickax. She dug through the area carefully but quickly, all the while listening to the conversation below.

“Orre? That must have been a rough place growing up,” Pan said. She had never been to the country before, but from what she had heard, it was quite a wasteland, not to mention the “Cyphers” and shadow pokemon running about.

The conversation was interrupted by an audible “clink”. Pan smiled: an amber colored object came into view among the rock.

“Ooh, this looks like amber,” Pan said excitedly. She tossed her pickax to the ground (away from Justin’s feet); this required getting her hands dirty. Her hands were well within the wall, grasped firmly on the prize. Despite her grip, the treasure was still firmly in place, requiring Pan to start pulling. As she pulled harder and harder on the object, she wasn’t aware of the warning calls from her teammates. One final pull finally lodged the object free, with one major consequence.

“Got it- WOOOOAAAHHH!!” Pan started leaning back from the momentum of her pull, her hands still grasped to the amber object. Turnip rushed towards his human, but his vines would be useless in stopping her fall. Chi-Chi watched, her hands on her cheeks in shock, waiting for the outcome. Pivot simply watched; judging from the height, Pan would hardly suffer any serious damage, though she'd certainly be sore in the morning.
------------------------------------------------

While the group was occupied with Pan, the humans failed to see the new visitor in their midst. She was cute, about a foot tall, and had a little more than baby fat around her body. The pokemon saw the others fairly occupied, unaware of her presence. She turned to Pan’s unattended backpack and the slight hint of wrappers hiding inside. She licked her lips: wrappers almost always meant candy, one of her favorite delicacies.

“Cleffa Cleffa!” she cried, quickly running for the open backpack. Within seconds, the cleffa was inside, rummaging through the items for the delicious granola bars hiding within the plastic wrappers. All that could be seen from the outside was a backpack shaking and madly giggling in glee.

[Moonlight Zelda]

“Orre? That must have been a rough place growing up,” Pan commented, as if intrigued as she dug her pickaxe into the wall, steadily working it around the object.

Diana shrugged one shoulder, half in agreement half brushing it off. “It had its times, yes. I grew up during both of the Cipher strikes, the most recent being roughly two years ago. All in all, though, Orre isn’t that bad with Cipher gone and Snagem out of business. Things were starting to look up for the entire region in general when I took the ship here, so there is some hope for the future,” the young woman said quietly, a small smile playing about her lips. The beeping of her P*DA, audible between each measured strike of the pickaxe, faintly drifted to her ears through the backpack, but was ignored for the time being. It’d have to wait until they were in a more appropriate area to read an email.

She paused when Lin hopped down her arm and onto the cave floor, darting towards Pan’s now wiggling backpack as the dual-lighting dimmed down with only Chi-Chi left providing it. Diana arched a brow, mildly bemused. The electric mouse poked the wiggling pack with one tiny paw, curious. Lin jumped back, uttering a startled squeak as static sparked at her cheeks, when it rocked towards her. The pichu looked back at the humans, waving her arms and pointing at the backpack, making sure everyone knew just how “Pi” the situation was again.

Innes’s Moon Ball suddenly clicked open, the poisonous gerbil rejoining the group as Kimball’s paw retracted from it. Heh. Probably a good idea to have him watch Lin for a little while, at least. Innes glanced up after a moment, his ears twitching back. Pink aura suddenly flared around the venom spiked pokemon, his weak Confusion appearing right next to his human. Briefly slowing Pan’s fall as she rocked back.

Diana lunged forward, ending up as cushioning for the other woman as a waterfall of loose dirt showered her and Justin. She stifled a cough with her forearm as she craned her neck to see Pan, before nodding gratefully to Innes as his maintained Confusion lightly nudged the other woman off her spine. “Are you all right?” the young woman asked hoarsely, pushing herself into a sitting position once Pan was upright again. Though all three of them were now smudged with brown all over, there was no denying that the archeologist-photographer had obtained her prize – While admittedly dirt clouded on the outside, the transparent amber sphere easily reflected the electric light.

Whatever Pan was about to say was suddenly cut off by an ear-piercing screech, the leathery flap of wings meeting them. An entire flock of the zubat they’d been hearing flooded the tunnel, all of the humans instinctively covering their faces to guard them from the barrage. Another burst of light caused Diana to drop her arm, stiffening somewhat as the flock began to disperse, allowing them to see properly again.

Several zubat had accidentally collided with Lin from lack of space, her small pouches automatically releasing large amounts of static. Just powerful enough to annoy the cave-bound avians. Lin certainly wasn’t strong enough to take on four at once – She was still a baby.

The young woman immediately pushed herself up, motioning Kimball and Innes forward. A sharp bark caused the highly irritated group to falter, a weak Thundershock suddenly striking one of Lin’s aggressors. “Try it again, Lin – It’s helping. Kimball, Innes, try to chase them away,” she said quickly, her tone pleading as she glanced at her male companions.

Kimball darted forward in a feinting Quick Attack, three of the four scattering in response to the blue streak that jumped between them. He jumped between the regrouping zubat again, this time knocking one off balance in mid-air as his paws touched the wall. The riolu launched himself back off the stone, before landing silently underneath the screeching echolocation.

Taking the initiative, Innes finished guiding them after their flock as a frightened squeak tore from the pichu again, small amounts of blood matting her pale yellow fur with each Leech Life. Lin’s small frame suddenly began glowing as a third Thundershock burst from her, yet still zapping herself as the fainting zubat fell onto and then off of Pan’s still wiggling backpack.

A small sigh escaped Diana’s lips as she slowly moved forward, gently scooping up the electric mouse. Lin’s trembling form still emitted small amounts of static as the young woman soothingly ran her hand down the pichu’s pelt, the young mouse pokemon burying her face in Diana’s shirt, small paws hanging onto it for dear life. “Sssh … It’s okay … You’re all right, Lin,” she whispered to her, continuing her soothing motions as she spoke. Oddly enough, the faint white-golden glow continued to emit from the pichu. It wasn’t long before the small injuries began to close, leaving only the spots of crimson as proof. The healing technique Wish, apparently ... Even so, it was clear that Lin’s first experience with battle wasn’t a good one.

Kimball and Innes soon appeared at her side, standing and sitting, but offering silent comfort in their presence. The pichu’s whimpering slowly reduced to occasional hiccups after a few minuets, Diana finally looking back to her human companions as a noise finally registered.

This post has been edited by Moonlight Zelda: Apr 20 2010, 09:42 PM

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

Justin felt Pan begin to get a little eager as her weight shifted around amongst her feet. Clearly she found something, but as he looked up, he noticed her pulling with pretty good force. His grip on her would not help if she fell from the top, so he shouted. "Pan, slow d-" but it was too late. She pulled and fell straight back, her force bringing him down with her. Diana was heroic enough to cushion Pan's fall.

He got up and brushed the dirt off of himself. "That was-" he was interrupted yet again by the sound of flapping wings. "Gonna go out on a limb here and say that's not a good sound," he nodded casually, pulling out one of his pokeballs. He didn't pay attention to which one, but it happened to be Nincada's. He looked down at Tyrogue, who was out of his ball and had also heard the noise. He dropped the sleeping bag Justin told him to carry in preparation for the surely epic battle which was about to ensue.

Sure enough, a virtual army of zubats came flying by, and they did not lack hostility. Tyrogue immediately started jumping in the air, trying to attack the flying pokemon from the ground. Noticing that Diana was using all of her pokemon to defend, Justin decided to follow suit and summoned Nincada and Bonsly as well, respectively. Nincada's first response was similar to her previous first responses, which was to explore the ground around her. Bonsly just looked up at the zubats, which were tending to target the smaller pokemon and (though probably on accident) the people, likely just because they took up more space and the zubats were just flying into them. Justin had to frequently flail his arms to keep them out of his face.

He looked at the other pokemon and heard Diana call out commands, keeping her pokemon organized, and was immediately jealous of her management skills after looking back at his own pokemon, flailing uselessly around on the ground. Nincada was running around in a circle, Tyrogue was jumping in the air and Bonsly was just watching lazily. "God damn, will you guys try to do something?"

Tyrogue looked at Justin with a sort of confused look, like he was trying to do something but was failing. The other two didn't really pay attention. "Jeez," he sighed, smacking another zubat out of his face. "Why don't you like-" he didn't really know what to say. Finally, Tyrogue ran over to Bonsly and climbed up its rocky surface, standing on its green branch things. Then it jumped up and clapped its hands together. Though it did not make contact with any of the zubats, one of them fell from the sky and onto the ground, as if the noise from the clap had startled it. Nincada was quick to the scene, immediately gripping the fallen zubat's wings and scratching away.

"There you g-Ow!" Another zubat had accidentally hit itself against Justin's stomach, then continued flying around. As Tyrogue continued to pull zubats from higher up and allowing his teammates to wreck havoc, Justin couldn't help but be relieved that Zulu was in his pokeball where he couldn't go on another rampage.

This post has been edited by Yzarc Drowsnam: Apr 24 2010, 10:59 AM

[Toogee]

It was not lost on Pan that her fall was slower than what she expected. It seemed as if she was in a movie, particularly in one of the dramatic scenes where someone is falling towards their doom, the entire scene in slow motion. Like in most of the those movies (Pan always cried at the end of “The Death of the Incredible Hulk”), her fall was cushioned by Diana’s back. The impact was also lessened by whatever mysterious force was acting upon her.

As the cloud of dirt returned to the ground, Pan rolled off (not knowing the nidoran helped) and stood back up, brushing the dirt off of her clothes. She turned to Diana, who asked if she was all right. Of course, Pan was, but was Diana? A person falling on one’s back had to have hurt. Diana was lucky she could get up at all!

Chi-Chi abandoned Diana to avoid getting crushed when the woman dived to the ground. She quickly rejoined Pan, climbing up to her shoulder to observe the old amber within her hands. Turnip simply shook his head; Pan’s antics always seemed to get on his nerves.

Before Pan could answer Diana or even check on her prize, a group of zubat, evidently frightened by all the noise, rushed the group. Pan ducked to avoid impact, but was quick to get back up to order counterattacks.

“Ready for an electric swing, Chi-Chi?” Pan asked the pachirisu.

The tiny squirrel pokemon rubbed her hands maniacally, ready for a repeat of her performance back in Castle Vonmoto. This time, it was not Turnip that was doing the slinging; it was Pan! Grabbing onto Chi-Chi’s tail, she swung the pokemon over her head to charge her swing. Upon letting go, the pachirisu flew through the air, her Spark attack surrounding her with electricity. She flew right into the zubat colony, causing a significant number to fall back to the ground, while Chi-Chi performed a roll to safely land on the cave floor.

“Turnip, clean ‘em up! Pivot, psybeam the leftovers!”

The ivysaur rushed the fallen zubat, tackling them against the rock walls of the tunnel. He used his vines like a snowplow, sweeping up multiple fallen zubat aside. Meanwhile, the baltoy emitted what appeared to be psychedelic laser beams at the stragglers. The powerful attacks downed several zubat at once, especially when Pivot added a rapid spin to attack enemies from all sides.

Soon, the zubats retreated and/or were knocked out, leaving the tunnel quiet once more. Pan’s pokemon regrouped around her as she looked at her fellow human companions. Justin seemed to have discovered his team’s newfound fighting skills, while Diana was comforting her frightened pichu.

“Great job guys,” Pan congratulated her team. “I’ll get some food in a minute.”

She walked over to Diana to check on her situation, Chi-Chi climbing back into her vest. Seeing the pichu upset, Pan knelt down to Diana's level and instinctively scratched the back of her head for comfort. The pachirisu wanted a better look; she climbed out of Pan’s vest and onto Diana’s shoulder to get a look at Lin’s face. Chi-Chi then used her fingers to stretch her mouth out in an attempt to cheer Lin up.

“What happened?” Pan asked Diana.
-------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, Turnip and Pivot walked over to Pan’s backpack, still wiggling from before. Even the swarm of zubat did not coax the uninvited inhabitant out of its makeshift home. The ivysaur simply used his vines to hold the bag upside down and shake whatever was in there loose. Out popped a rather chubby cleffa, happily sucking on a granola bar. In addition, empty wrappers rained down onto the ground, the last remnants of Pan’s food supply. Everything else in the bag appeared OK, though had the cleffa been left to her devices, they too would have been missing.

The baby pokemon hardly noticed the others around her, content in munching on her 15th snack.

[Moonlight Zelda]

Diana offered a small smile to Chi-Chi in thanks for her attempt, though sighing as she shook her head. “This was unfortunately Lin’s first battle, and needless to say it did not go well for her,” she murmured, though grateful that Lin had begun to calm down. The onyx tressed young woman continued to lightly run her hand along the young pichu’s back, but lightly ruffling Chi-Chi’s white and blue fur in thanks. It was clear the squirrel’s efforts were helping, as the electric mouse’s grip has loosened; now only leaning against her.

The young woman glanced over after a moment, her gaze briefly evaluating Justin’s and Pan’s companions. They seemed to be all right, at least. Most likely more experienced battlers, if anything. “It seems they’ve done well,” Diana commented as she nodded towards them, before slowly pushing herself up. She flinched, the mild adrenaline rush of the situation having already worn off, but bit back a grimace. There would be, without doubt, a sizeable and probably deep bruise across more than just her skin. Certainly more than enough reason to be grateful for Innes’s assistance, since the result could’ve been worse.

Steady crinkling of wrappers caused all of them to glance over at Pan’s backpack when Turnip decided it needed to be cleaned out, all of her supplies in the main part falling out in a jumbled heap. What appeared to be a pink fluff ball landed on the top, bouncing out with some type of food in its mouth. Lin, now sufficiently calmed, twitched an ear in surprise. Apparently curious, but not about to go down and investigate unlike usual. Still wary from her fresh encounter. It was understandable, nonetheless.

Adjusting her own backpack as she took a step forward, the cleffa finally took notice of its surroundings when Innes and Kimball bounded ahead. The venomous gerbil had a bit of a clumsy moment as he stepped on something that had rolled away from the pile; landing flat on his face, paws spread eagle. It just wasn’t his day.

Diana shook her head, before moving forward enough to stop next to Innes. He huffed again in irritation, the dulled ridges and spikes on his back sharpening with his self annoyance. Carefully avoiding them as not to accidentally poison herself, she lightly stroked his rabbit-like ears to placate him as Kimball quietly padded over to the cleffa. The aura pup knelt on one knee as to show no threat, holding out a paw towards the other young pokemon. Testing what it would do?

[Toogee]

“She probably just needs a few friendly battles to practice,” Pan replied, her fingers reaching under Lin’s chin. “Tell you what. Once we get camp set up, how about a practice match with Chi-Chi?”

After Diana commented on the performance of the other pokemon, she was about to answer Pan’s question as she attempted to stand up. This quickly revealed her sore back. Pan rose with her, holding her hands out in case she had to lend support. Though her companion tried to hide the pain, the flinch meant Diana didn’t escape her rescue attempt unscathed. Though Pan wasn’t feeling the effects at the moment, she new the same would be waiting for her in the morning.

Soon, everyone turned to see Turnip empty Pan’s backpack, revealing the cleffa inside. At first, Pan grew an excited smile; cleffa were rare sights even within the dark caves. Then she took a look at all the empty wrappers surrounding the little one. For once, Pan frowned, hitting her face with her right palm. It looked like her meager dinner was within the pokemon’s belly.

“There goes dinner,” Pan sighed. However, she wasn’t one to miss an opportunity. Catching a cleffa was certainly one of those opportunities.

As the cleffa investigated all the onlookers, taking brief interest in the Riolu’s outstretched hand. Seeing that there was no food in his hand, the pokemon turned her attention elsewhere, towards the sweet scent emanating from the ivysaur’s bulb. It sure smelled nice, and that pink bulb looked a lot like candy…

Turnip gave a quizzical look as the cleffa, who started to lick her lips. Was she going to eat Turnip? Sure her belly was full from all of Pan’s supplies.

“Canny!” the little one cried out. With surprising speed, the cleffa was climbing on top of the ivysaur, attempting to take a bite out of his petals. One of Turnip’s vines quickly wrapped around the cleffa’s waist. The other vine gave her a light spanking on her bottom. Once was enough to teach the cleffa not to eat something bigger than herself.

The poor star shape pokemon looked back at Turnip with teary eyes, as if her best friend (evidently, candy) had abandoned her on the side of the road. She gave everyone around her a similar look. Pan quickly lost the heart to finish the capture; she never had to deal with catching a little baby before.

“Oh…what do I do?” she asked her friends. The cleffa’s sniffles were on the verge of turning into sobs. Even Turnip had to look away at the pokemon’s sad state.

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

Justin began rubbing the bruises all over his body from when the zubats had run into him. He was certainly relieved that they had moved on, thanks, in part at least, to his awesome team - Tyrogue mostly. He really handled the situation out there, better than Justin could, that's for sure.

"Tyrogue, you are just," he began, the pink fighter turning to look at him, a hopeful look on his face. "Such a badass."

An uncharacteristically cheerful expression overtook Tyrogue's face, but only for a few seconds, before he reverted back to his frat boy ways, jumping up and slapping Bonsly five on one of its green branch things. Bonsly looked surprised at the hit. Justin shrugged and called back Bonsly and Nincada into their respective pokeballs, but left Tyrogue out. Then, when Tyrogue went to lift Justin's sleeping bag, the human cut him off and picked it up himself. "You can rest, bud," he nodded, but Tyrogue shook his head, holding out his arms. "Alright," Justin shrugged, bending over to hand the bag to him.

“There goes dinner,” he heard Pan sigh behind him, so he turned to see a cleffa with a confused look on its face.

"Aren't those things supposed to be pretty rare?" he asked quietly, hoping not to scare it off. He didn't have any spare pokeballs himself, but seeing as Diana and Pan were both skilled pokemon trainers, he figured one of them came prepared with a pokeball. Indeed, he was right. Pan was prepared to catch it, but she seemed to feel sorry for the pokemon or something when it started to cry.

“Oh…what do I do?” Pan asked, like she didn't want to hurt it by catching it or something. Justin was pretty sure pokemon didn't hate being captured. Maybe they did, but once they become captured, they tended to like it, for the most part.

"Honestly, I'd just go for it," Justin said. "It'll be an easy catch, and you can probably get it to stop crying if it's actually under your control." More importantly, though, it would shut up.

[Rasu]

While the others were busy minding their own business Andrew took the chance to relax a little. He found a nice spot and sat down, taking a sketchbook and an old pencil (showing signs of evident bites on the top) out of his backpack in the process and began his sketch. Some moments of scribbling later the sketch had now taken the form of a Golbat hanging from the ceiling.


Of course that being focused on his drawing at the time Andrew completely missed the fact that Pan was loosing her grip and only looked up when the young woman was already on the floor alongside with Diana and an old looking piece of amber. Before Andrew could even ask if any of them were okay the cave was swarmed with Zubats who didn't hesitate attacking whatever stood in front of them.


"Darn it!" the teenager cursed as he shook of a Zubat that had just bitten is arm. "Icicle, enough of this, lets go! Try to slow them out a little with your Power Snow!" the Spheal obeyed and a snowy gust was launched from his mouth, creating small ice shards on the Zubats' tails to add extra weight and slow them down. Meanwhile Andrew reached Flick's pokeball and released it giving it his next instructions:

"Flick, use Focus energy while Icicle slows them down! Kan, headbutt the falling Zubats to make sure they don't get away that easily!" the Zigzagoon quickly dashed around headbutting the Zubats as ordered while the Taillow focused its energy.

"Icicle, change that to a Water Gun! Flick, Quick Attack the airborne Zubats!" the Spheal's snowy breath was now changing into a small water blast that took out the already weakened Zubats from the previous Powder Snow while the tiny swallow Pokemon took out some of the flying ones with a boosted Quick Attack. However one Zubat actually made its way through the barrage of attacks and trying to use an Hypnosis attack on Andrew, only to be interrupted by the Absol. A bright flash sent the attack right back to the user and the Zubat fell on the ground, sleeping. It didn't take too long for the fight to finish since everyone did their best to stop the bat Pokemon on their tracks.


"Great job guys! Hopefully it won't be much 'til dinner!" the teenager smiled at his Pokemon, clearly proud of them for their hard work. "Now, about you..." he then turned to the Absol "I don't know what you really want to do but if you want to come with us I'll need to capture you." he informed the Absol who just went to Andrew's bag and took out the Luxury Ball previously bought in Barley.

"Guess that's a yes?" he said pointing the ball to the Absol. A strong light covered the disaster Pokemon and the ball shook once... twice... and finally the red light indicated that the capture was successful!

Level 8 Absol joined the crew!

With Scratch, Feint, Leer and Magic Coat!

(The Absol will be named Greed)

[OOC: Edited to add the Absol's *future* name in the spoiler]

This post has been edited by Tysm: Apr 27 2010, 04:21 PM

[Toogee]

…Cleff…Cleff…

CLEEEEEEEEFFFFFFFAAAAAAAAAAAAA…

The little cleffa wailed in displeasure, her cries echoing through the tunnels. Pivot zoomed away from the distressed pokemon, while Chi-Chi hid herself inside Pan’s vest, plugging her ears with her fingers. Pan cringed as the high-pitched screams reached her, covering her ears with her palms. She was starting to regret not reacting sooner.

Turnip, using his vines as earplugs, still stayed close to the cleffa. His past experiences with a certain mischievous rodent told him that there was only one way to calm such a situation. The ivysaur bent forward in a bow, aiming his fledgling flower towards the cleffa. Like a volcano spouting embers, Turnip unleashed a cloud of pollen into the air, engulfing the star shape pokemon. The cleffa breathed in the sleep powder; the tunnel immediately became silent. She sniffled a bit, but with a long yawn, the pokemon toppled over, fast asleep from the attack. Everyone took off his or her ear protection, relieved that the screaming had finally stopped.

Pan quietly approached the cleffa, pokeball in hand. The pokemon was lying on her back, arms and legs spread out in a start shape. Her silent snoring made her quite a cute sight. Not wanting to disrupt her nap, Pan simply pressed the button on the pokeball, allowing the red light to absorb the cleffa. The device hardly made a movement other than a click, signifying that the capture was a success.

“I think it’s about time to call it a day,” Pan said, thinking the cleffa. Sleeping didn’t sound like a bad idea at all. But first, Pan had to help Diana with her Pichu…

She released Fenrir to assist with the camp setup, then followed Diana to a clear spot.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

As the others were setting up camp, Pan and Diana were standing at the edge of the site. They watched as Chi-Chi and Lin were facing each other, ready for whatever commands would be issued.

“OK, this will be just for fun,” Pan assured the pokemon. Both pachirisu and pichu gave thumbs up to the humans to signify agreement.

“I think Lin should test her thundershock attack, while Chi-Chi uses quick attack to avoid getting hit,” she said to Diana. The woman agreed; it would be a good test of speed and accuracy for the young pokemon.

Both issued the orders, leaving the progress of the battle up to the pokemon.

“OMG!Lookatme!I’mgoingfasterthanasuperfastthing!” the pachirisu exclaimed as she quick attacked away from the pichu’s thundershock.

Chi-Chi wiggled her fingers and gave a mischievous smile; she was threatening a tickle attack. As the battle continued, the pachirisu came closer and closer, her laughter growing louder and louder.
------------------------------------------------------------------

Back at the camp, Turnip and Fenrir were making a fire to provide additional light in place of Chi-Chi. The ivysaur provided a pile of razor leaves, careful to shoot them towards the ground. The growlithe provided the fire, shooting an ember into the pile. Though these particular leaves were more resilient than traditional foliage, the fire would not last long without wood.

As the fire burned, both pokemon watched Pan laughed at Chi-Chi’s antics. Turnip nodded; it was good that she was in good spirits (as always). In contrast, the ivysaur didn’t like being underground, away from the sun and free air. Still, it was only for a little while; he was tough enough to take it for a few days.

Fenrir, however, was enjoying the pairs of pokemon and human enjoy their youth. He laid down near the dying campfire, brought back to times long gone.

Pan got an Old Amber and level 17 cleffa!

[Moonlight Zelda]

“True enough,” Diana returned, nodding in response. “If Chi-Chi is willing to help, that’d be nice,” the young woman added, gently petting Lin now. All of them promptly clapping their hands or paws over their ears at the star shape pokemon’s ear piercing wail, Innes forced to flatten his own ears in order to preserve them. Lin proceeded to bury her head in Diana’s shirt again, her paws holding her ears down while Kimball proceeded to plug his ears like Chi-Chi.

Fortunately, it didn’t last long as Turnip took the initiative to calm it down. Viridian green dust soon cloaked the pink fluffball, its wails slowly being reduced to mere hiccups as results when it began taking affect. It then slowly rocked over, soundly asleep. A short crimson flash briefly caught their attention, though the capture was fortunately lackluster as well.

The pichu let out a soft sigh after a moment, before hesitantly crawling onto Pan’s shoulder to sniff the cleffa’s pokeball. She twitched an ear after a moment, before hugging the electric squirrel next to her – Promptly resulting in Chi-Chi’s flash doubling the expended light again – and pointing at the ball. Now smiling, even. Probably seeing the cleffa as a new playmate.

“So, what are you going to name her?” Diana queried after a moment, though her ears admittedly were still ringing. She had no doubt the rest of them were feeling similar effects. The young woman lightly tapped Innes on the head after a moment, causing his ears to perk back up. “It’s all right, now,” she murmured, causing the venomous gerbil to sigh in relief and surprisingly nuzzle her. She quirked a brow, bemused, though appreciative. He hadn’t done that in quite some time. “… Thanks, Innes.”

They straightened after a moment, before they joined the others at the designated campsite for the night. Kimball and Innes decided to stay with the others and help, though in different ways. The nidoran’s weak Confusion managed to work the rare sight of a root out of the rocky ground, before tossing it on the fire while they went to find something else. Diana bit back a grimace as a bitter smell burst from the flames, causing all of them – People and pokemon alike – to start coughing and/or gagging from the heat-amplified stench.

The onyx tressed young woman dropped her backpack near the others, before quickly joining Pan several yards away. There was no denying their eyes were watering from it, though. Lin’s paws now covered her nose, shaking her head, before they finally dropped. A small sneeze came from the electric mouse, yellow sparks briefly lighting her pink cheek pouches. But, at Pan’s saying it was just a practice battle for fun; the young mouse pokemon promptly gave a thumbs-up sign in confirmation.

* * * * *

Lin giggled as Chi-Chi sped around, creating short plumes of dust behind the squirrel. The young pichu playfully shook her paw back at Chi-Chi, before bringing them both to her chest in attempt to recreate a thundershock from earlier. A sharp burst of golden electricity flashed through the tunnel again, searing the rock black where it struck. The targeted squirrel simply laughed again, already three feet from the spot. Smiling, the pichu immediately lashed out again as her opponent darted away.

With each progressive strike, she got a little closer with the battle wearing on. Her aim was certainly improving, and she was shocking herself less. Chi-Chi then chose that moment to pounce her, gleefully tickling the younger electric rodent. That then produced a series of spark-showers, Lin rolling around and giggling again. Effectively discovering what her human knew as “Charm”, causing Chi-Chi to instead ruffle her pale yellow pelt after a bit.

Lin promptly chose that moment to glomp (somewhere in the gray area between a flying tackle and a caring embrace) the electric squirrel and hugging her, before darting off and using Thundershock again. This time it managed to connect, though just slight enough that the electric squirrel could still absorb it.

The battle can be edited if desired. I am merely posting it now because I'm going out of town for the weekend for a family thing that I have to attend.

And, yes, what Innes put on the fire was a Bitter Root, XD.

This post has been edited by Moonlight Zelda: Apr 30 2010, 12:21 PM

[Toogee]

Pan clapped as Lin regained her confidence in battling Chi-Chi. The pachirisu’s tactic of turning the battle into a game came through; she seemed to have a knack for instilling confidence in young pokemon. The improvement of the pichu’s thundershock attack was a testament to her skill as a teacher.

The smell emanating from the campfire became too strong to ignore. Chi-Chi was starting to cough from the stench, making it very difficult to continue battling. Even Pan had to hold her nose to keep from breathing the bitter air flowing through the tunnel. Meanwhile, Turnip and Fenrir moved away from the source to avoid getting overwhelmed. The ivysaur started to spray its sweet scent around the area to mask the stench.

“Pivot, mud-slap the fire!” Pan shouted as she coughed. The baltoy obliged, spinning rapidly and tilting to the side. This lowered its spinning arms to ground level, flinging dirt onto the burning bitter root. The fire finally died out, though the air still reeked of burning onions (albeit in a rose garden, courtesy of Turnip’s sweet scent). Nonetheless, the worse symptoms disappeared; Pan and Chi-Chi were no longer coughing.

“And the lesson here is,” Pan began, “don’t start burning anything you find.” She smiled; this would make a good story once the smell became only a memory.

She went towards her backpack to grab the only edible things remaining: two bags of sweet pokemon food. Using the granola bar wrappers as placemats, Pan poured piles of food for the pachirisu, ivysaur, and growlithe (Pivot was never able to eat). The human took a piece of the kibble and started to eye it hungrily. Her other pokemon didn’t seem to mind the stuff, so maybe it wasn’t as bad as she thought. Pan plopped the food into her mouth and started crunching. Her face scrunched up in disgust, as if she just took a bite out of a candied hot dog. She forced herself to swallow and quickly reached over for some water in an attempt to drown out the awful taste.

“Does anyone happen to have some extra human food lying around?” she asked her teammates. “This pokemon food is not going to cut it for me.” She was surprised she could even mention eating the stuff without gagging.