[X] My Assistant

[Douken Sota]

Confusion worked as planned, causing the two to run into each other rather than the opponent that was Douken's team. Even Koldo didn't know how to react, he for his Natural Instinct command, he stuck with Taunt, forcing the Siglyph into combat mode (by flipping it off with the claw). it seemed clear that Koldo was not liking the Psychic/Flying type.

Still, the moment gave him a good opportunity of advantage. "Koldo, Sucker Punch! Reep, Curse!" The Toxicroak new that the Siglyph was set on Combat mode, so crouched low, he dashed in quickly until he got underneath the flying type with a heavy Dark-type uppercut. As for the Dusclops, however, an ear-curling moan was let off as she started to drain away her own energy into a ball before being fired at the Water type. Contact wouldn't do anything except for leaving a mark on the target's body in the shape of her mask. This could be an easy setup for next turn... at least for Douken.

[Toogee]

The hits kept coming against Vega’s pokemon. A nasty punch had sent the sigilyph spinning around, not helping his confused condition. Still the avianoid managed to fire another psybeam towards the poison frog. This beam was sent in a sweeping motion on account of all the spinning.

The starmie also had a temporary reprieve from its confused state and started unleashing its own beam. This attack unleashed a concentrated beam of bubbles towards the dusclops. All of these attacks were ordered through the telepathic connection between Vega and his pokemon.

This post has been edited by Toogee: May 15 2012, 06:19 AM

[Douken Sota]

the Psybeam took another effective hit on the poison frog as he had trouble keeping himself conscious. One more and Koldo is out, Douken thought, and he wasn't even thinking of a psychic attack. Any attack in general would be effective enough to knock it out, even a Bug attack could take him out, which would only piss him off more.

Not only that, but the Bubble beam took out a good chunk of damage. Not like it mattered to him. He could still play off of it, making the Curse a quicker pain to deal with.

"Koldo, Bullet Punch! Reep, Pain Split!" koldo's health was poor, so he had to act with a quick action move to counter-act before being preditably knocked out the next round. As for Reep, she took her weakened state more from he curse and the healthier, yet cursed foe Starmie and "balanced out" their health by connecting their life auras and taking from him until they were "even." Saying its even and balanced is off though, because their conditions arent by a percentage, but more like a number you would expect to see in RPGs, so for Reep, being even meant being healthier than the foe percentage-wise.

This post has been edited by Douken Sota: May 15 2012, 06:19 PM

[Toogee]

The sigilyph let off a sorrowful cry as it fell back to the ground with a thump, knocked out after taking a bullet punch to the head. The avianoid pokemon was quickly reabsorbed back into his pokeball. Vega didn’t seem to be too sad about the battle. In fact, he seemed rather excited.

“Good show, but now the plot thickens…” Vega nodded over to the exeggutor, signaling the walking palm tree to enter the fray. The three egg heads were all displaying different emotions ranging from shock to giddiness, but all had their gaze on Koldo.

“Confusion!”

As soon as the command was given, another bout of psychic waves made their way to bombard the toxicroak’s senses further for yet another supper-effective hit.

Meanwhile, the starmie was giving the dusclops a taste of its own medicine. It seemed to have shaken off the confusion from earlier, having no trouble eliciting its own confuse ray attack towards the ghost pokemon.

This post has been edited by Toogee: May 19 2012, 08:32 AM

Reason for edit: Evidently, Exeggcutor can't learn extrasensory

[Douken Sota]

Douken got the first down, but it was a quick followup on Toxicroak's end, giving him the one down as well. "Good job Toxicroak, you rest up," he said, returning his ally before pulling off the third Pokeball off of his belt. "Now then, time to see how things are going to go now, considering this is going to e her first battle. So then, let me introduce you!" With a quick heave of the Pokeball, it sent out his new ally onto the battle field.

"Spaaaaarce...." In what seemed to of been more of a yawn than a battle cry, a Dunsparce was shown to team up with the Dusclops. Still, Douken had a bit of a smile on his face. "Your Starmie is not going to last much longer. I mean we cannot forget about that Curse, now can we?" Douken said, pointing to the mark on the starfish. It had been there for some time, and Curse does some heavy draining.

"Why don't we play that card again?" Reep asked him in his mind, sounding like she suddenly got drunk. Douken was a little against it, considering she was less than half still by a small margin. "I am sure it would be better than hitting me... cause I see me everywhere.[/i]" even confused, she can sort of have that sense of mind, even though she also accidentally leaked the info to everyone in the room as well because of it.

"I gotcha. Alright. Reep, Curse again! Balisk, use Yawn!" With the ghost type focusing her energy again, the yellow winged snake opeend his mouth wide, letting out a bubble in front of the Exeggutor's face. as it popped, the all was shot out again at the tree-shaped Pokemon, followed by Reep's falling.

"Reep is unable to battle," he admitted, returning the ghost, setting it at 2-1, though things should change really soon.

[Toogee]

With an additional Curse attack hitting, the starmie could not take any more of its health deteriorating. It swirled in place one more time before toppling over in defeat. The battle turned into a one-on-one fight till the bitter end. To start the final phase, the dunsparse attacked with…yawn? Perhaps not the most epic of moves, but it was effective nonetheless.

With a nod from Vega, the exeggcutor started stomping around, creating quite the Uproar. In addition to damaging sound, the attack also kept the pokemon awake. On the downside, the move repeated itself over and over again, keeping the gym leader from using his specialty moves.

[Douken Sota]

The Exeggutor was Cursed, and was forced into an Uproar to prevent himself from falling asleep. Obviously, it was the last move he could really do since Uproar was a continuous attack, and Curse only gave the Eggecutor 3 turns at max because of the massive drain. If Balisk can withstand those two to three turns, then it will be victory. Be interesting to pull of this tactic.

"Balisk, Rollout!" With the winged Pokemon curling up into a ball, he began to spin out before firing himself at the coconut tree. With every hit, he would only return stronger with inertia and return, as all the Exeggutor could do was yell his head off as the Curse took away his life.

A smile of confidence came upon Douken's face.

[Toogee]

Unsuccessful in her attempts to contact Justin, Pan found herself sitting within a small sandwich shop owned by some guy named Rick. She had ordered a little bowl of sliced fruit for her little cleffa, who gladly inhaled the meal. The researcher was glad she did: the smell of food was becoming rather nauseating. The pair stepped out in favor of a park bench situated at a bus stop. This was as good a time as any to start talking about the cleffa’s future.

“Lima,” Pan told her pokemon, a bit distracted with a leaf she found. “Remember that contest we were in back in Arasam? You liked that, didn’t you?”

As the mention of contests, Lima’s ears perked up. She was giving Pan all of her attention as the researcher continued.

“Well, Darryn, that guy we’ve been staying with, he’s really good at contests. He could give you all the training you need to do even better than before. Would you like to do that?”

Lima jumped right off of Pan’s lap, ready to find Darryn and achieve stardom. She grabbed Pan’s finger to drag her along. That’s when Pan’s smile disappeared.

“There is one other thing. I can’t go with you. I still have to go exploring, in places that are far from any contest hall. You would be staying with Darryn for a while.”

Suddenly, the cleffa’s enthusiasm melted away. Pan was the only human she had ever stayed with. She was practically her mother. She was faced with a critical decision: stay with Pan or follow her dreams.

“Hey, don’t look so sad,” Pan said in reassurance. “It won’t be forever. It’s like summer camp. You know what that is? It’s when kids go away from home and have an adventure for a few months and come back home afterwards. We’ll see each other again, and I’ll try and visit as much as I can.”

With this, the cleffa gave a tiny grin. She’d still get to tour contest halls all over Furoh without losing Pan. Her excitement started to creep back into her as Pan put the cleffa back in her pokeball to think things over. The researcher had a few moments of solitude before she realized she had to be somewhere else.

“The gym match!”

Pan looked up and down the street. There would be no bus coming for another half hour, while taxi cabs seemed absent altogether. Walking would take too long, at least, on her legs. As for her aerodactyl…it was probably best to wait until later to try her out. That left her trusty arcanine.

“Fenrir!” Pan summoned the fire type, “We have to get to the gym, and fast!”

That was all the arcanine needed to know as the researcher climbed on. He rushed through the streets, leaping over parked cars, passing moving ones, and even jumped on top of a bus to get a free ride (much to the fright of the passengers on board). The wind blew through their hair as they rode the street all the way to the chapel holding the gym match.
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With both pokemon locked in repeating moves, the gym match appeared to be on repeat. The exeggcutor kept yelling while the dunsparse kept crashing into him with increasing ferocity. The only thing that changed for a bit was the door opening. Pan ran up the stairs towards the audience area and took her seat next to Darryn and Lyla, watching the exciting conclusion of the match.

Normally, the exeggcutor would have had the upper hand in the bout were it not for the dusclops final move. Curse was rapidly eating away at his health, more than the damage he was dealing to the dunsparse. A final rollout was all it took to finally topple the tree pokemon. Vega quickly reabsorbed his exeggcutor before he could fall on top of the dunsparse. With that, the gym leader clapped his hands in congratulations to the latest winner of his badge.

“Well done, Mr. Sota,” Vega said as he walked across the arena towards the challenger. The only victories worth having are those gained from hard fighting, and you sir have done just that.”

After paraphrasing another quote, Douken would feel a small prick on his chest. Pinned to his jacket was the prize: apiece of metal detailing a red crescent moon upon a black portal.

“The Twilight Badge is yours.”

Shortly after, Douken’s audience rejoined him on the arena to congratulate him on his badge.

“Halfway there,” Pan remarked as she examined the badge. “Looked like a pretty tough match. Sorry I missed it.”

[Living Arrow]

The Gym Match was an interesting one to say the least. Even travelling with Jaima, Darryn had never thought that a Gym Leader would choose to avoid playing his second staple Pokemon type throughout the entire match – they often accounted for each other’s weaknesses so made sense to send out together. Even so, the combo of three Psychic Pokemon was more than a formidable set of opponents. True, it took a check on his upgraded Pokedex to realise what the hell that Sigilyph thing even was but the facts were still the same – three Psychic Pokemon would be the choices of Vega and Douken was opening with a Fighting-Poison type.

Some peculiar moves and an immobilise-and-drain strategy were what Douken employed for the majority of the battle and it seemed to work wonders against Vega’s Pokemon. This was clearly unlike Jaima or even his own battling styles as they preferred to use direct attacks that did a lot of damage and so naturally, Darryn had to sit back and make mental notes. Funnily enough, Lyla made literal notes in her notebook while the camcorder was passed to a diligent Smoochum in the seat next to her.

Pan’s timely entry at the climax of the battle was enough to break the tension that had been building up in Darryn’s shoulders throughout the match and as though her entrance heralded the end, Vega’s last Pokemon fell.

*Not an epic battle by any means but it certainly showed up the lack of status-inducing in all of my strategies… that could mean the difference between a Ribbon and an empty Ribbon Case…*

Thinking over how he could further improve his own training, Darryn offered his own congratulations and Lyla bounced happily at his side with nothing but big smiles and promises to book a front-row seat at the Pokemon League for all of Douken’s matches in Daioh. It was a good feeling for Darryn, watching the Gym match and setting the next milestone in his journey, but it felt wrong. Without Jaima, Tuesday and Meiko there it didn’t feel like anything had really been achieved that day.

*Damn, I miss those guys.*

*****

Back at the Pokemon Center in Petropolis, Darryn left Lyla to fawn over the battle-wounded members of Douken’s team while he was set with her travelling crèche of baby Pokemon (plus Momo the motherly Miltank) who all required their afternoon feed. After travelling with Precious… No, she had been renamed Eggheart… Meiko’s Happiny, Darryn had developed a knack with the tiny cute Pokemon and hoped it would pay off with his newest team member.

“I really hope Pan’s OK with this…” Darryn whispered to himself as he watched Poliwag round up Lyla’s Plusle and Magby who had started running in circles in a never ending game of tag. He hadn’t grown too close to the round water type since his capture and had failed to train a single Contest-worthy move into the creature in weeks. Pan’s relationship with her Cleffa, however, was extremely different. He rolled Poliwag’s Lure Ball in his hand thoughtfully as he waited for her to join him at the trading station.

*****

“Misser Waggie!” Suika, Lyla’s baby Azurill bounced over to him on his bubble of a tail with all the grace of an obese ballerina. “Misser Waggie! I ‘erd you was goin’ off wiv Miss Pan!”

“Indeed, young man.” Poliwag nodded firmly. “Darryn has commanded that I assist her in her perilous journey into the unknown.”

“Ah!” Suika bounced again. “But did ‘e tell you Miss Pan has an Egg inside ‘er?!”

Poliwag's back stiffened and his eyes took to a faraway gaze of ultimate consideration. The honor of protecting a damsel bound by the limitations of pregnancy on a perilous journey into the unknown? Mission accepted!

[Douken Sota]

His second badge. Throughout the tough challenge and back and forth strikes, Douken emerged victorious. Sure, he pretty much had Reep kamikaze to take out two of the three foes, but unlike Contests, how didn't really matter. How was not about the looks like a Contest, but the skills learned and strategies unfolding in tough spots. With everyone gathered around, celebrating his second win, he grinned before thanking Vega for the experience and heading back to the Pokemon center.

It took a while for the three to recover from injury. During that time, he decided to see what the Sigliph really was and see where the fourth gym was. He knew about the one in Fidona, and was saving that for last, and the other two he won. This pointed him in the direction of the underground city of Gigarte.

With the recovery complete, Douken released the champions of the day out along with the others. "Nice work guys," he told them as Lyla and company looked upon. "This makes badge number two!" Holding it out to show everyone, the crowd cheered in victory. "Koldo, you also have the right to say you kicked a Psychic/Flying type's ass too. You proved that type does not always matter." The frog chuckled, as if he already knew it.

Letting them wander fora moment, Douken chose to sit next to Lyla as they waited for whatever business the others were dealing with. "They deserve to run around and celebrate," he told her, leaning back. "After aall that training and chaos, it would be good for a breather. Even if it is before we headfor the next city.

"By the way," he said, looking at Lyla, "I am pretty sure we are all going to fly all the way there, and i don't see anyone on your team with means. Guess that means you got to choose who t hitch a ride from, huh? I mean, you got a metal bird, a large and feathery one, and one who can be their great-great-great-great-grandparent. I think Droid counts too... but still, who are you going to ride with?"

[Toogee]

“Ready for this?”

The cleffa nodded as both she and Pan walked across the pokemon center towards Darryn. Both saw Douken and Lyla chatting away in the seating area, Douken trying to subtly convince her to ride with him. It seemed they were growing closer in their friendship, another victory for their trip in Petropolis.

While one friendship blossomed, another would soon part ways. Lima had decided to go with Darryn and follow her own dreams. Pan had mixed feelings on the situation: happy to see her cleffa finally enjoy the contest circuit, but sad that they would part ways at some point. Still, that was how journeys seemed to go: the path split and one must make a choice.

Pan placed Lima’s pokeball in the machine to prepare for the trade. She then picked up the cleffa for one last conversation before the big sendoff.

“Now, if you ever want to talk to me, you can just show Darryn this picture and he’ll call over the phone,” Pan said, giving Lima a keychain picture of the two of them together. The cleffa held fast to the item as she was absorbed into the pokeball, beginning the trading process. The researcher turned her attention back to Darryn for further instructions on taking care of the cleffa.

“Lima will eat just about any snack food anyone leaves lying around, so you need to watch her during meals. She loves sliced fruit, and it’s the only healthy thing I can convince her to eat. She’ll watch TV all day if you let her. I try to take her for a walk for some exercise, but I usually end up carrying her halfway through…”

Pan went on and on about various details of the cleffa’s care, but the one subject she didn’t bring up was herself. Her friend already figured something was up with her, as shown in the note he left behind earlier. Pan was afraid if she told him about the pregnancy, he would give up everything to follow her around, just as he proposed back at Castle Vonmoto.

She could not do that to him.

[Living Arrow]

Darryn wished he could pass on some sort of advice on the upkeep of the Poliwag that he was trading to Pan but the truth was he didn’t know all that much about the Tadpole Pokemon. Well, he knew a little… But that wasn’t useful or desirable in a Pokemon. He was an absolute stick in the mud and had no interest in Contest battling. On the plus side…

“You can nickname him whatever you like,” Darryn shrugged as he clicked the Pokeball into the trading machine, “he’s always just been ‘Poliwag’ since I caught him.”

There was an awkward moment as Pan slid Lima’s Pokeball in the opposite slot. Darryn took that moment to read her Emotaglow and rather unsurprisingly she was wracked with worry and guilt. He withdrew from her energy and examined her face. The was no question about it – she was finding it really hard to let Lima go. He wanted to stop her, to call off the trade, and explain that he understood and that they didn’t need to make the exchange but that would only mean one thing – Lima being miserable and that making Pan miserable. It would be a neverending cycle of unhappiness but the trade would break that cycle. Sure, there would be heartache for a while but eventually a new happiness would win out… Plus, they could always trade back eventually.

“You ready?” Darryn laid a hand softly on Pan’s shoulder. “You know I’ll take good care of your baby, right?”

There was a reassuring nod but Darryn could tell tears were being held back. The relationship between mother and baby Pokemon was simply too cute! If Lyla hadn’t been bad enough, this was excruciating to watch.

With a deep breath, Darryn reached out and pushed the trade button.

*****

“Fly!?” Lyla’s shock was one that was impossible to contain. “I won’t be flying anywhere!”

It was fair enough, given the past few hours. She had been attacked by some random guy in the museum, a crazy dinosaur had kidnapped her new friend, she had gotten into a flying car, her cousin had jumped out of the flying car, and she had engaged in what could only be described as ‘Aerial Recklessness’. If one thing was for certain, she’d not be leaving the ground for a good long while!
The hint behind Douken’s suggestion, however, wasn’t lost on Lyla. In fact, she blushed.

“Buuut,” she grabbed at her skirts and tried not to look Douken in the eye, “I don’t think riding on Sabre would be, like, all that bad. Well, if he could carry two…” Lyla had often wondered what constituted as too much weight on a flying Pokemon’s back and was surprised that a Skarmory and Pidgeot would have the sort of strength to carry one teenager, let alone two. Droid and the Aerodactyl were far bigger so it seemed logical that they could handle more.

“I suppose this is, like, the totally awkward part, huh?” Lyla sighed and returned her eye contact. “Darryn and I will be, like, going alone to Port Barley now – there is a chance that I could visit a special breeding center along the way and we could catch up to our friends…” She reached out to give Douken’s hand a squeeze. “It was, like, really really super nice meeting you, though!” She beamed a sunshine smile of dazzling white teeth. “And, if you want it, you can have my PokeNav number so we can keep in touch?”

[Douken Sota]

The moment Sabre heard having to give anothr passenger a ride instantly trigered a death glare at Douken. Sure, he carried two, but not both on his back. And that girl, saying he was weak enough to not be able to carry the duo! The nerve!

With Lyla taking Douken's hands, a blush came upon his face as well. "And here I thought you would be joining us on a trip to Gigarte. When I was researching, i saw there was a contest hall there, and wasn't sure if he has that ribbon yet." However, he returned her smile with his own, using his free hand to grab his PokeGear, saying, "If you get to Fidona before me, give me a call and I can get you some free rooming and some small tips. I am sure my parents won't mind some friends staying over."

He could feel his heart beat wildly. A strange feeling was stuck in his stomach that he never had before. Well, considering he wasn't even allowed to date any of his Amazonian 'sisters,' he never really got to experience a true feeling of love. Anything in the past to this was like a family love, but this was different. Looking back into her eyes, he felt stuck, not sure what to do next.

It may be a bad reference to a battle-dedicated trainer, but taking on the Champion felt like it would be an easier task than this...

[Toogee]

((Joint post by LA and I))

Pan gave a relieved but nervous smile as Darryn mentioned her “baby”. Inside, she cringed that Darryn had no idea that “baby” referred to two things in her life. For his own good, Pan kept quiet about her situation, and she hoped Lyla would do the same, at least for a while. By the time she would tell him, she hoped that Justin would know and at least maintain the appearance that she had things under control. Pan would cross that bridge when it came. At the moment, it was time to send Lima off. She timed her press of the trade button exactly with Darryn’s, beginning the process.

As the pokemon underwent the trading process, Pan decided to change the subject.

“So, you’re meeting back up with Jaima and Meiko? Have you heard from them lately?”

Darryn scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

“Unh… I guess I’ve been so busy working for Mr. Weathers and they’ve been so busy training we kinda lost touch…” He admitted with a little colour of embarrassment rising in his cheeks. “But they can’t be too far for us to catch up with a train or something. Tuesday’s wrote me a couple of times but I don’t know where she is at the moment – not had a letter come back in a while – but she’s smart so is bound to be fine and just caught up in a book or some research or something.”

The machine before the pair of trainers gave a clear *ding* to announce the completion of the trade. Darryn reach out to his new Pokeball and picked it up. Within the cool, hard ball rested a cute little Cleffa that would take the world by storm and he couldn’t wait to train her – nearly every entrant in his Contests had been for Beauty and now he’d face the challenge of including a Cute competitor. Yet again he was reminded that the path of a Co-Ordinator really was meant for him.

“And what about you?” He asked Pan as she examined the Lure Ball that was in her possession. “Has the Professor picked what your next assignment will be?”

“Not exactly,” Pan replied, rolling the lure ball across her fingers. “He said something about Gigarte, but nothing specific. I hear it’s nice over there; haven’t been there…ever, actually.” Pan had surprised herself: after all the exploring she had done, the researcher had yet to visit one of the major cities of Furoh. She was too busy exploring the deep corners of the world that she overlooked the stuff right on the surface (metaphorically speaking in Gigarte’s case). Sometimes, the greatest finds are right under your nose.

“And I bet I know someone else who hasn’t been to Gigarte in a while.” Pan looked to Darryn, hands on her hips and eyes totally judging (in a joking manner of course). “With all this contest stuff going on in your life and all those magazine covers, I bet you haven’t even called home. I hope,” Pan looked over to read the headline of a magazine cover near the trading machine, “Darryn the Dashing isn’t too famous for a trip home.”

Darryn edged sideways to block Pan’s view of the magazine.

“They came up with the name!” He protested weakly, “And I guess I’ll go back eventually… But Mum and Dad didn’t know that I was going to change my career path until it was too late and it was too awkward to tell them but now…” He looked back at the magazine cover to see himself in a camera-pose with an open shirt, hand running through his hair, and a Pokeball between his fingers. “Now I have no excuse… Busted.”

That’s what Darryn could expect from his old friend – someone to tell him how it was. In fairness to himself, he hadn’t forgotten about his parents but they hadn’t been on the top of his list when the sponsorship deals had started coming in. And then there was the Empath thing. And dealing with Lady. And all the trouble he had encountered while travelling with Jaima and the others.

“But I promise that Gigarte will be on the Home Tour – my last Ribbon will be over there.” He minimized Lima’s Pokeball. “And I now have a new model to Appeal for the team when we get there. Thanks to you.” He reached out to hold Pan’s hand. And there is absolutely no reason why we can’t meet up at the drop of a hat anymore, got it? You need me and Bravo’s going to get a serious workout.”

“I’m not that helpless,” Pan replied as her hand met with Darryn’s. “As a matter of fact, I think it’s you that needs me. Someone has to make sure you don’t turn into a total drama queen.” The young woman talked a good game, but her friend was probably right. Some things were changing in her life; had Darryn not been busy with a contest, he might have figured her out. The truth would get out at some point, and he would likely give her grief about not saying anything before. In the end though, their friendship would become her greatest asset, just as it was back in Celadon.

With that, Pan dragged Darryn away by the same outstretched hand he had offered. They walked back into the lobby and took their seats with Douken and Lyla to enjoy one last get-together before heading out.
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“Alright guys, watch her and make sure she doesn’t bite my head off or something.”

Upon the rooftop of Darryn’s apartment complex, the group gathered to take off for adventures beyond Petropolis. Before that was to happen however, Pan wanted to reveal one of her latest companions: the aerodactyl that gave everyone a death-defying flight through the city. In case the pokemon went for a repeat performance, Pan had her venusaur, arcanine, pachirisu, golurk, and new poliwag waiting in the wings to attack. Her friends were around as well with their own pokemon (though perhaps not as many as Pan). Needless to say, they were ready to pummel the ancient pokemon in case things became rowdy.

Pan pressed the button on the pokeball and backed away as the fossil pokemon began to materialize. The aerodactyl immediately let off a mighty roar to put those surrounding her on notice. The high-pitched scream likely woke more than a few people in the apartments below. She looked around at all the humans and pokemon surrounding her; the beast tensed up for a big fight.

“Wait!” Pan said to the aerodactyle and her pokemon. Rather than back away, she kept walking towards the aerodactyl. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't a liitle afraid of the consequences, but having a little wariness just showed that she respected the pokemon. She kept a calm face to hopefully placate the ornery beast.

The aerodactyl’s attention focused in on Pan. The human was the one who challenged the aerodactyl’s strength in flight and came out victorious. No human in her time had ever dared to ride upon her, but this girl not only did but outlasted the aerodactyl in endurance. To the beast, Pan had earned the right to become her master. So when Pan approached her with an out stretched arm, the aerodactyl kindly submitted and allowed her to pet her beak.

“You were quite the warrior out there,” Pan said to her new pokemon, “so I think I’ll call you…Valkyrie.”

After saying that, the researcher climbed upon the fossil pokemon, this time sitting comfortably behind her head. The aerodactyl stretched her wings and cheered her name, satisfied with the name and that they would take to the skies soon. Pan started returning her pokemon, caling each out by name as she absorbed them.

“Turnip…Fenrir…Droid…,” she looked upon the poliwag, who had not received a name yet. The tadpole smacked his tail upon his chest in a salute, awaiting orders from his new master. He was quite ecstatic to receive such an honor. Heck, he was happy to be out of the computer. He wondered what title he would receive: Lancelot…Galahad…

“Frog. I’m gonna call you Frog.”

The poliwag, er, Frog paused for a moment to comprehend the simplicity of the name. It was not the honorable knightly names he was thinking of, but this simplistic name gave him the chance to make it into the books of lore. Rather than stay in the shadows of predecessors, Frog would have a chance to blaze his own trail in the continuing adventures of Pandora Gibbs. At this thought, the poliwag jumped up and down in joy, even as he was reabsorbed into his pokeball.

Chi-Chi climbed up the aerodactyl and took her customary spot inside Pan’s vest. The researcher smirked as she put the pachirisu’s pokeball back onto her belt. The girl then turned to Darryn and Lyla.

“Seems we’ll be heading in the same direction. Care for an escort out of the city?”

[Living Arrow]

Darryn and Lyla kept their distance as Pan made her re-introduction with her Aerodactyl. Darryn would be a liar to say he wasn’t more than a little nervous around the giant Pokemon. He’d battled one before, unsuccessfully, and didn’t fancy his chances against this one, either. Hence, the presence of Romeo, Victor and Lady around him. Oddly enough, Lyla had offered her own protection in the forms of Kaki the Plusle and Momo the Miltank. Luckily for them both, none of them were needed.

“That was, like, so tense.” Lyla sighed a breath of relief and recalled her Pokemon in tandem with Darryn returning his. As Pan went about naming her new Pokemon, the cousins clipped their Pokeballs away and stood slightly apart from the group.

“You’re telling me.” Darryn’s senses were awash with the alert sense of nervousness and excitement from all of the collated Pokemon and humans around him. “It was getting pretty noisy there for a moment.”

“Wha-? Oh.” Lyla’s eyes grew sad.

<Does it hurt?>

Darryn blinked. Lyla hadn’t directed her thoughts at him before. It wasn’t rude, exactly, but the warning would have been appreciated.

<No. Not really – it only hurts if too much is going all all at once. This is just ‘loud’ but I can make sense of most of it.> He responded silently.

“Aahh…” Lyla said out loud. Darryn rolled his eyes. If she wanted private conversations like that, she’d have to learn to separate her mouth from her brain.

“Seems we’ll be heading in the same direction. Care for an escort out of the city?” Pan’s offer broke their side conversation.

“We’ll be, like, totally fine getting the bus or the train out of the city!” Lyla nearly shrieked in over Darryn, her eyes wide with the fear that came with the combination of flying and that Aerodactyl. “Right, Darryn?”

Darryn smiled. “I guess there’s your answer?” He laughed, reaching out to shake Douken’s hand and congratulate him again on his Gym Badge achievement before turning to Pan and reaching up to her on Valkyrie and giving her an awkward up-down hug. “Remember, I’m just a Pidgeot away.”

Pan rolled her eyes.

<I mean it.> Darryn stared into her eyes. <You need to see Lima or anything else – you call me.>

*****

Lyla hugged Pan while taking ultimate care in not getting too close to Valkyrie’s head end (gosh that thing had huge teeth!) and promised that Lima was in the best hands with her around – Momo’s milk was the best there was and Lima would get just as much as the other babies in the group. Then Lyla said her goodbyes to Douken.

“So here is my PokeNav number,” Lyla told Douken as she passed him a slip of paper, “and I’ve, like, got free minutes on evenings and weekends so if you want I can call you back if you just ring the Nav one time.” She threw out her arms and hugged around Douken’s chest. “It really was super nice meeting you, Douken!”

[Douken Sota]

Douken couldn't help but find Poli - Frog's antics amusing, especially with the saluting with the tail. As for Valkyrie, it was good that she was able to get along with Pan. All he had to do now was to hope that she would not try and kill Sabre for the air race and Swift to the belly (With her teeth and "age," he had to figure out her diet anyways). Hopefully, the journey to Gigarte would be a normal one. However, with Pan around, things never seem to be safe.

With Lyla coming up and handing him her number, he pulled out hi small Pokegear, listening to the details as he added her information and ready to call. However, before the "Send" key could be hit, she caught him by surprise with her arms around his stomach, showing a deep blush on his face. "I-It was nice meeting you too, Lyla," he said, slowly wrapping his arms around her to return the hug.

However, time was slowly fading as each duo had to make their own ways. "Darryn, make sure you keep an eye out foryour cousin. Got to protect her. Lyla, make sure he doesn't do anything stupid, either." Tossing the Pokeball out, Sabre stood next to the Aerodctyl. "Oh yeah, and if you see Jaima, tell him I said hi and get this to Mercury." He tossed over a Rawst Berry, remember how she liked bitter things. "Alright Pan, let's go before we lose any more sun." Hoping on Sabre's back, the Armored Bird gave a few flaps to get airborne, waiting for the fossil Pokemon o get up before taking off, heading for their next destination: Gigarte for Sota and Gibbs, and Fidona for Kellor and Moore.

[Toogee]

Ultimate Music for Flying

And so ended Pan’s and Douken’s adventure into Petropolis. To Pan, those two weeks felt like months, but in a good way. They went through a lot together, mostly due to Pan’s tendency to get herself in trouble. She gained new allies, solidified her friendships, and soon enough, would adapt to the greatest change in her life.

With a wave to her friends below and the flapping of wings, they took flight.

The aerodactyl rose into the air after the skarmory, its mighty wings blew a gust of wind down upon the people and pokemon below. This was much calmer than the other day, when they were flying at break-neck speeds. Now, she could admire the jungle of skyscrapers that made up Petropolis. The afternoon sun reflected off the glass to give the buildings a gleaming look. Valkyrie spiraled up and around one of the larger towers, passing by several shocked office workers on the way up. At the top, the aerodactyl propelled herself off the roof to gain greater altitude, while Pan reached out to touch the spire that crowned the skyscraper. They flew above the concrete jungle and saw their next destination.

Beyond the city, beyond the suburbs, were the vast plains that lied between Petropolis, Mt. Carello, and Gigarte. It was a return to the frontier that she loved so much. Pan’s life was changing, but the adventure would continue.

At least, for a little while…