Every Journey Begins with the First Step

[daxx0r]

Mike was kind of expecting the question to come sooner or later. In fact the question had long been on Mike's mind. He still didn't have confirmation of the actual answer for it, but he had come up with an explanation that seemed logical.

"I've wondered that myself, but I think I know how they do it..." explained Mike, eager to tell Grey about his ideas, "Ususally I'd guess the gym leader circulates his or her Pokémon to keep them low-level." Mike took a short pause to gaze up at the mountains. He needed to keep from getting lost or this might be a very long day. His eyes then returned to Grey.

"However, I have gotten some badges without beating the gym-leader. You see, they don't actually have to keep the matches fair... The gym-leader's job is to evaluate the trainer in question. If the gym leader is happy with the performance displayed by the trainer, the gym leader will give the trainer a badge regardless of the outcome of the match..."

Mike remembered a story he'd heard once from another trainer. This kid had just given up on training due to a recent gym-battle and despite Mike's attempts, he would not give it another try.
"I once met this guy... He won his match against a gym leader. The gym leader was however displeased with the trainer, since he had pushed his Pokémon beyond what was humane for a battle. So in the end the guy didn't get his badge, despite winning the battle. Later, he actually quit being a trainer which kind of emphasizes the rightness of the gym leader's decision. If you can't even be motivated to try again after you fail, you're kind of ...not trainer material."

Mike fell silent for a while. He felt he was drifting off topic and wanted to sum it all up neatly for his friend. He smiled at Grey and said:
"Basically, it's your skill that determines whether you get a badge, and not the strength of your Pokémon"

Mike had almost forgotten about the Ekans from the morning. It seemed almost like a distant memory when Grey reminded him of it. He recalled the events of the morning and it actually took him a few seconds to fully figure out what had happened in the turmoil with all the Mankey.

"Actually, no, I didn't. I think it stayed around for a while until it got ugly, and then it got out of there... I should have done the same I guess. Anyway, I never really got a chance to catch it." Mike couldn't help but wonder what had happened to it. Had it really been abandoned? And if so, could it survive in the forest by itself?
"I hope it keeps safe and doesn't get into any trouble. I get the impression it didn't really know what it was doing there."

Mike suddenly caught his foot in a root that stuck out of the ground. The abrupt stop brought him straight to the ground. His face landed right in a pile of mud, and the rest of him wasn't that much cleaner, or dryer because of the rain. He lifted his head out of the brown sludge and wiped some of the dirt off with his hand. He got up on his hands and knees.

Mike let his head drop in a mix of humiliation and irritation. He opened his eyes and looked behind himself in an upside-down kind of way. The Ekans that had been following them stopped dead and lay completely motionless. It did not want to be caught. It didn't seem as if it was going to be either, because Mike had set eyes on a completely diffrent target: A spiky yellow tail that was moving through the tall grass behind them.

"Grey!!! GREY!!" Mike hissed and rolled over on his back. As the bewildered trainer approached Mike, he leaned in and whispered in Grey's ear: "I think I found your Pikachu! Right there." Mike extended his muddy arm in the direction of the tail, and then looked back onto Grey with a broad smile of accomplishment. He had felt a bit bad for taking Grey out of Pika-country, but now it seemed as if it might just have been a good move.

 

[LaenVulpix]

Eyes wide with surprise and happiness only momentarily, Grey turned carefully back to his friend.

"Let me help you up - a Pikachu can wait just a second." he said firmly, catching hold of the other trainer's muddy hand and supporting him as he got to his feet. "Now..." he murmured distractedly, starting to unclasp Reiu's Pokéball.

Then it hit him that to send out the Charmander in this weather was suicide. With a small hiss of impatience - the lightning-bolt shaped tail was bobbing coyly in a bush, apparently trying to retrieve something, but it wouldn't wait forever - his fingers danced over his other Pokéballs. Sora and Fero were out of the question, and Irukei was more likely to bludgeon him to death before fighting for him. The only other choice was Nezi, and as his fingers skimmed the ball he detached it from the magnetic clasps.

He approached the bright spikey tail as he enlarged the metallic device, careful to remain silent. Who knew how well a mouse-type Pokémon could hear? When he was about a yard away from the squiggle of a tail, the Pikachu popped backwards out of the dense bush, showering leaves on the mucky trail as it rolled backwards. Taking immediate advantage of the electrical rodent's complications, Grey threw the Pokéball, letting the cool metal roll off of his fingers.

Nezi appeared in a burst of white, revealing light, taking form quickly. As if in stride, Grey apologized to the Rattata and caught the boomerang-like contraption as it returned loyally to his palm.

"Sorry for the sudden fight, but use Pursuit!" he declared firmly, pointing to the yellow Pokémon.

Surely enough, the Pikachu had come out of its roll running, clearly alarmed by the burst of blinding light. Nezi's playful attitude changed as it understood there was a battle to be had, and growled its name as it shot forward. Its purple body seemed to evaporate into the shadows cast by the trees, reappearing to Grey's eyes immediately in front of the retreating Pikachu. The surprised electric-type didn't see Nezi until it tackled it to the soggy ground.

"Pii!" it yelped, rolling before coming out in a crouching postion, one front claw supporting it. It's amber-colored eyes narrowed in anger, sparks flitting about its cheeks as it prepared for a Thundershock attack.

"Nezi, Quick Attack as it releases the attack and dodge it!" Grey ordered, his fists balled up as battle adrenaline rushed through him. The experience was enthralling as he looked through Nezi's violet eyes as well as his own. It was like his vision was split into two screens.

The Pikachu arched its back and fired the collected energy at its attacker, flashing a bright yellow as the electricity left it. The lighting leaped through the air in an arch at Nezi right as it flashed forward. Its speedy attack merely sent the Pikachu tumbling again, but its stored energy was gone.

"Pikaaaa...chu..." it muttered balefully, glowering at the purple mouse Pokémon. Not only had it made it lose its precious apple, but it wasn't letting it retreat.

As the Rattata darted forward again, intent on another tackle, it ignored Grey's shouted "Wait!", bounding towards the Pikachu. The Pikachu crouched low and then sprang into the air to meet Nezi midair. It's momentum sent the two back the way Nezi had come, and the Pikachu landed on top of the normal-type.

"Raaatat!" it chattered, trying to wriggle out of the Pikachu's grip. It had taken hold of Nezi's oversized ears and held tight, apparently sotring energy.

"Nezi, Iron Tail!" Grey shouted out hurriedly. He knew what the Pikachu planned on doing, and if the Rattata didn't get the Pikachu to let go then it was in trouble.

The short-furred rat-like Pokémon tried a few moments longer to flail out of the Pikachu's grip, and grey winced as the electric type cloaked itself and the Rattata in a brief spout of electricity, effectively paralysing Nezi.

Sparks danced off of Nezi's static-filled fur as it tried to move, making it squeak in pain. The electricity seized up its muscles, and the Pikachu smirked proudly as it tackled the Rattata forcefully. It skidded to a stop in the slippery mud as Nezi knocked into a tree.

"Wait..." Grey pounded one fist into an open palm as a perfect solution came to him that would at least render the Pikachu's electrical attacks useless. "NEZI! Cover yourself in mud, every bit of you!" he ordered in a commanding voice, making sure the Rattata listened to him this time.

"Raat.." it acknowledged in an ashamed voice, rolling around comically in the gloppy muck. Almost immediately, the purple-fur was now a dripping brown figure. Wet mud dripped from its whiskers, and the Pikachu twitched its ears momentarily before----

"Piii Pikachu-chu-chu!" it laughed loudly, pointing a short claw at the awkward Rattata. A malicious glint danced in its eye as it gathered more electricity and then promptly launched it at the mud-cloaked Rattata.

It fizzled out on the Pokémon's muddy body, and defected.

"Pii?"

"Now Nezi, Hyper Fang!" order Grey in a less cold voice, his point proven.

The mucky Rattata pounced on the Pikachu in mid-charge, landing on its chest as the two slid a few feet in the sucking mud of the mountain trail. Nezi took no time in burying its buck teeth in the Pikachu in a pincered bite.

"Chuuuu-Pi-ka!" the Pikachu bawled in outrage - right before it's tail glinted metallically and smacked the side of Nezi's face.

Both worn out Pokémon fought for their feet even as Grey exclaimed, "It took my strategy! Nezi, barrage it with Quick Attacks, it's almost there!"

Smart thing, he thought, impressed, as the brown Rattata flitted forward and knocked into the Pikachu, which was weaving wearily on its hind legs.

"Chaa..." it yelped as it was knocked to one side and then the other, gaining small scratches amidst its own brown-splattered body. It shot small electric attacks at its foe, but Nezi kept up its speed in a way that its mud-barrier wasn't even necessary.

As one Quick Attack pitched the Pikachu backwards onto the ground, mud flying out from under it, grey shouted out, "Enough, Nezi!"

The Rattata skittered to an unsteady stop, watching in obvious confusion as Grey strode past it and knelt on the muddy trail.

"Hey there, Pikachu. Sorry for this, I bet you just wanted to go home and sleep, huh?" Grey greeted the exhausted Pikachu softly. It's pointed ears lay back against its filthy head in aggression.
"In fact....you just wanted to get back to your nest and eat an apple, right?" he inquired with a smirk as his mind picked up the electrical-mouse's thoughts.

"Chu!?" it exclaimed in bewilderment, watching in a dumbstruck manner as the trainer walked quietly over to the side of the road where it had rolled as it came out of the before-mentioned bush. His hand closed over an object and presented it to the scathed Pikachu. A plump, ripe apple.

"Really, it wasn't right of me to attack you like that...but I guess that's how trainers get such extraordinary Pokémon, ya know? You guys wouldn't join me if I just up and asked you, would you? He said wittily.

"Piipikacha," it replied in a grudging voice.

"How about if I don't catch you," Grey smiled at the Pikachu's shocked expression.
"but let you come with me on a trial-period? If you decide I'm not someone you want to travel with, I'll return you right back here as soon as I fight my first gym leader."

The dirty, worn Pikachu watched him with mixed emotions, but finally it extended one claw in a sign of human-like intelligence. Grey shook its stubby claw without hesitation and released it gently as the Pikachu made to stand up. He handed the weary Pokémon its prize, the large apple, then picked it up.

"Pii?" it inquired dubiously at his actions.

"Well, you're too beaten up to walk right now, right? So I'll carry you until we get to Pewter's Pokémon Center, 'kay?" he explained, walking in front of Nezi and rubbing the mud-covered Rattata behind the ears.

"Good job, Nezi, get some rest," he praised the Pokémon proudly as he held out its enlarged Pokéball and returned it in a flash of enclosing red light.

"Erm...Pikachu, meet Mike. He's a true Pokémon trainer." he introduced the two, winking thankfully at the older trainer. "In case you didn't hear, Pikachu's now mine, it's just traveling with us until it decides what it wants to do." he explained as he cradled the battle-worn Pikachu in his arms as it munched enthusiastically on the crisp apple.

[OOC- Wow....talk about a long-tastic post O.o; Guess I get carried away on battles, gomen nasai~]

 

[daxx0r]

Mike was slightly amazed at how Grey kept getting Pokémon by talking to them. He was allready convinced the Pikachu was there to stay. He saw the yellow pokémon sitting cuddled in Grey's arms, quite tired from the battle. I gotta start catching some new Pokémon too thought Mike. He felt he was falling behind Grey, who seemed to be catching one after the other.

Mike slowly took a step out of the mud, carefull not to slip and fall again. He scanned himself for a while. He was practically muddy and brown all over. Even Nezi who had actually put an effort into becoming muddy, couldn't compare to him. He wiped as much of the mud away as he could with his hands. Of course, his hands were muddy too, which left new mud in the old mud's place. It seemed to be seeping in to his clothes. Mike felt pretty miserable.

He kicked some other mud off of his shoe and then turned back to Grey,
"By the way Grey, thanks for the compliment.. you know, the 'true trainer' thing. But you really didn't have to say that. The more I get to know you, the more I see you're a true trainer as well. Maybe even more than me".

Mike shivered slightly in the rain. There wasn't really anything he could do about the situation; he was wet and he had to live with it. He just hoped he wouldn't catch a cold. He didn't want to hang around in the forest doing nothing however, so he thought he'd urge them to get going.
"Well, it seems as if I'm in as much need of that Pokémon Center as Pikachu is, so maybe we should try to get through the forest?"

Then suddenly Mike held out his arms. There's that odd feeling again... Something IS watching us thought Mike.
"Hang on for a second Grey..." he said as he scanned the forest ahead of him, "I keep getting this feeling that something is watching us... It's kind of disturbing"

Mike looked through the rainy terrain, determined to find out who, or what, was behind the spying (he was utterly convinced now that it was spying). He started turning around, careful not to miss looking at any spots in the surrounding area as he turned. He found himself facing the way they had just come.

The Ekans was lying dead-silent in the grass, still at a distance of about 200 yards. It was pretty much over now. The trainers were onto it, and even if it got away this time, it would eventually get caught if it kept following them. It didn't want to stop just yet though. It decided to see if it could keep following them, maybe from 300 yards away instead. That might keep it secluded enough. That was, unless it got caught now, instead.

Mike walked a few feet back along the path. He stopped where the struggle between Nezi and Pikachu had finally seized. He kneeled down and took a look around. There is something very suspicious around here... Mike suddenly saw something out of the corner of his eye. It seemed like a disturbance in the grass next to the path a little ways away. Mike stood up and slowly approached the disturbance.

The Ekans debated running away, but it's body wouldn't move quite yet. Running was going to be the last option it exercised... It looked at the approaching trainer in fear.

Suddenly, a Pidgey flew up from the forestbed and spread it's wings in the air.
Was that it? thought Mike, I know I saw something out here... am I loosing it?
Mike slowy turned back to Grey, shrugged his shoulders and then approached the other trainer and the Pikachu.

 

[LaenVulpix]

Grey ignored Mike's return to them, his own murky blue eyes locked onto a patch of grass some few yards away from where the Pidgey had made its hasty ascent. He frowned a bit, keeping a hold on the Pikachu but letting his palms secure it a bit more now. He closed his eyes peacefully and delved a bit into the electrical Pokémon's memories. The first time he had done so, though he had passed the section of the mind on a few occasions. Sort of like skimming over a book's title at a library when you're looking for something else.

After a few seconds he withdrew, leaving Pikachu looking at him in a strange way - Grey wouldn't have been surprised if the Pokémon had an idea of what he had done. He smoothed the slightly rumpled, sticky fur back down and looked once more over to the patch of grass an amused smile on his face. Pulling Mike the rest of the way over to him and shaking his head in further amusement at the entire team's mudman appearance, Grey tilted his head meaningfully towards the grass once more.

"Hope it makes us even for scouting out Pikachu, but there's more than Pidgey in that field. If he can rely on its memory, Pika here has the recollection of nearly mowing over an Ekans right before it lost its apple...maybe you have a follower." he explained in a rushed manner, not trying to explain that he had just learned how to memory-see and that he was feeling a bit tipsy.

He wanted his companion to have a new catch of his own, and it was his fault that the Ekans had run away previously. He leaned against an aging redwood tree, then commented, "Wonder why it doesn't want to be seen though - I can sense that now that I know it's there."

He wiped some of the slushy mud off on his moderately clean pants, and then shifted the Pikachu to his other arm to repeat the process. Rather my pants be filthy than my hands he thought lackadaisically in his temporary contentment with the day. A loud cracking noise echoes through the air as the dark sky overhead flickered with lightning before fading back into unnatural murky shadows.

With a sudden twitch of surprise, Grey realized that he had already caught six Pokémon, meaning he would either have to drop a few off in the Pewter storage system or have no room for new arrivals - which he wanted to feel welcome to his party. Oh I'll think about that when it's actually an option, he thought in a relaxed way. He felt strangely warm and...sleepy...even in the steadily growing downpour which was washing away the trail mud from the group even as it soaked them to the skin.

"What do you want to do with it for the time? I could keep a bit of my attention on it to see what it does, or you could confront it now." he inquired with a polite look of interest.

[OOC- If you had other plans, feel free to tell me and I can modify this post~ I'm not sure what you wanted to have going on with the Ekans, so I don't have much of a problem with altering it. More writing/RPing for yours truly!]

 

[daxx0r]

[OOC- I actually hadn't really decided what to do with it... I was more or less running blindly with it. I guess I'll catch it then ]

BIC-
Mike turned his head back to where he had just been. So I was right! he thought, happily thanking his intuition. He approached the spot where the Pidgey had been and kept on walking in a straight line. This time there was no getting away! The Ekans was frozen in place. Now it was over. It had been found out. It saw as Mike approached to a distance of six feet and then stopped to look around. The serpent was momentarily relieved as it realized the human didn't know where it was. But the relief was soon interrupted as it noticed how Mike's eyes met with it's.

Mike smiled and took a closer look. Sure enough, there was an Ekans in the grass. Grey had been right.
"Hey there, friend!" Mike said in a calm voice, "Listen, I'm not going to hurt you, but I wan..." He was cut short as the Ekans suddenly turned and fled. Mike wasn't going to let it get away. This Pokémon fascinated him. Why was it so weary of them? Why was it so keen on following them? He had to find out. To do that he had to catch it before it got away.

Mike unclipped Charmeleon's Pokéball, completely forgetting about the rain. He just caught himself in mid-throw and put the ball back. Phew. I gotta be more careful thought Mike, moving on to pick another Pokémon from his belt. All right, Pidgeotto's no good in this weather, but I'm sure Squirtle would enjoy it a lot...
"Squirtle, I choose you!" he yelled as he tossed the red and white ball into the air. I just hope it's ready to trust me he thought.

Squirtle materialized on the grassy forest bed, and was quite instantly delighted by the rainy weather. It put on a huge smile and turned to face Mike.
"Ok buddy! You ready to catch a Pokémon?" yelled Mike enthusiastically.
"Squirtle!" replied the squirtle. It seemed fairly content with the situation, and looked ready for a good battle.
"All right, stop that Ekans before it gets away; tackle it!" yelled Mike. The squirtle took off towards the Ekans, almost looking as if it was flying through the forest. The water seemed to be speeding it up, or motivating it, or restoring it's lost energy... Whatever it was, it was helping.

Squirtle came crashing into the startled Ekans who now turned and prepared to fight. It wasn't going to flee if there was going to be a battle. It aggressively showed off it's fangs, ready to bite the Squirtle.
"Squirtle, get in your shell!" commanded Mike, perfectly prepared for Ekans. It was, after all preforming one of it's trademark attacks. The Squirtle reacted, although with a short delay and got into it's shell just before the Ekans managed to bite.

As Squirtle shot it's head out again, ready to continue the battle, Mike noticed the snake go to attack once more. This time it was charging up for a poison sting.
"Squirtle! Back inside!!" yelled Mike frantically, just as the silvery white needles flew out of the Ekans' mouth. Again, squirtle was a bit too slow. This time, it payed the price by getting hit by one of the needles.
"Stay in there, buddy! Hang on!" yelled Mike. He needed time to think. The Ekans seemed as if it would be ready to attack again, should Squirtle try to leave it's shell. He needed something to stop it from attacking instantly. If only there was a bit more distance between the two Pokémon. Then Squirtle would have time to leave it's shell before the attack got close.

That's it! thought Mike and snapped his fingers. Who said Squirtle couldn't do something about the situation from within the shell?
"Squirtle! Point your water-gun out of the shell!" the Squirtle did as it was told, although it didn't really understand why. It couldn't really figure out what Mike was up to, and that worried it. As soon as the water came guzzling out though, it realized what Mike had planned. The force from the water gun pushed the squirtle in it's shell along the muddy path and eventually slowed to a rest in a patch of gravel. Squirtle slowly began to realize that Mike actually knew what he was doing.

"Out of the shell! Now!" commanded Mike as the he saw he had gotten some distance between the two of them. As soon as the squirtle got back on it's feet, Mike pointed at Ekans and said "All right Squirtle! Give it your best water-gun!" Before the Ekans had time to react, it was hit by a massive torrent of water. It rolled over a couple of times before finally collapsing in a muddy ditch.

Mike dislodged an empty ball from his belt and tossed it over at the Ekans. He held his thumbs, hoping the Ekans was weak enough to let itself be caught. The ball opened up and enclosed the Ekans within. The ball then wobbled two or three times before giving of a rewarding "click", signifying that the catch was a success.

Mike ran over to his new Pokémon and wiped the mud off of the ball. Hmm, you're kinda weak aren't you? But you sure are a smart one, waiting for Squirtle outside it's shell, eh? thought Mike to himself. He then pressed the button on the Pokéball and let the Ekans out.
"Hi there, Ekans." Said Mike with a smile, "Now I know this might be a bit confusing for you... Anyway, I just want you to know that you don't have to come with me if you don't want to, but if you're going to follow us anyway, you might as well do it with us instead of behind us, right?" Mike extended his hand to the Ekans, who looked completely dumbstruck.
"What do you say? Partners?" asked Mike. The Ekans took his hand and shook it with it's tail.
"Great! Welcome to the team, my friend!" exclaimed Mike.

He then turned to Grey and whispered,
"Ok, don't think this was an ulterior motive to catching Ekans or anything, but if you could, I'd be very glad if you found out just why it has been following us..." Mike looked back at the Ekans which seemed to be eying Grey's Pikachu, trying to understand the trainer-Pokémon relationship better.
"Basically, I'm thinking maybe it's hurt or lost or something... I just want to make sure it's ok" continued Mike before turning back to Ekans and giving it a thumbs up.

[OOC- This will be exciting, eh? Finally some answers... perhaps Btw, I didn't really read through the post so well, so excuse moi if it's a bit cruddy]

 

[LaenVulpix]

[OOC- Sounds fine to me~ Looks like ad-libbing time for yours truly though : ]

BIC-

With a congratulatory grin in Mike's direction, Grey cast the large purple snake a careful look. It stared back at him in a bland manner until he blinked and smiled encouragingly at it. Then it let its own, cat-like eyes blink, and titled its head quizzically to one side. He set Pika (a suitable nickname until Grey knew if he had the honor of giving a true nickname to the Pikachu) on one shoulder to free up his hands then crouched in front of the yellow-eyed Ekans.

"Hi Ekans...umm...sorry about trying to bludgeon your head....well....whenever it was. I'm Grey." he introduced himself with a whimsical smirk. The Ekans inclined its head briefly and the trainer assumed it would be okay for him to touch it.

"Just give me a second -" he said out loud to either or both Mike and Ekans. He placed his fingertips cautiously on the snake-like Pokémon's scaled skin, and mimicked the act he had performed with Pikachu. Unlike the electrical Pokémon, however, Ekans seemed to fall into a temporary daze as he did so. After a few moments with his hands spread on Ekans's elongated body, Grey blinked in surprise and withdrew his grip. He seemed to get a grip on himself (as was the Ekans, who shook its head rather viciously before taking a look around to recall where it was), then turned in bewilderment to Mike.

"I can't help much, but...it was abandoned here sort of...only..." he hesitated as he sorted through Ekans's segmented memories from when it was out of its Pokéball. "...only his trainer didn't mean to. I think...that he was separated from his owner by something else, but the Ekans doesn't know what. Some huge Pokémon....maybe a Dragonite or Gyarados..." he muttered into Mike's ear for fear that Ekans hear this shaky news. "I think that his trainer was being attacked by some unexpected Pokémon and released his own Pokémon so that they could get away."

Rubbing his unprotected hair in a thoughtful, puzzled manner, Grey waved reassuringly to Ekans. It hissed politely at him and coiled itself cheerily around one of Mike's pant-legs, apparently intent on staying there until further notice.

"No wonder it was following us. I imagine it's used to trainers but didn't want to just let you catch it since that would be disrespectful to his trainer's memory." he commented regretfully with a pitying gaze at the elusive Ekans.

"Still," he added in a carrying voice. "it couldn't have a better trainer than you, right Mike? I'm happy that you got to catch one...I felt like I was getting everything."

With that remark Grey reached over his shoulder to retrieve Pika, and was further startled when the slim Pikachu clung to his shoulder in a decided way. "Sora's going to hafta fight you over this - wait! Mike, do you think we should make friends out of Sora and Ekans now, or wait until we're out of this storm? Preferably in a Pokémon Center?" Grey asked, his favor leaning inevitably towards the more controlled environment.

[OOC - Back To the Short Posts....heh~ Sorry for the ebil blocks of chat...*cough*]

 

[daxx0r]

Mike stood silently for a while, taking in what Grey had just said. The thought gave him chills. He felt as if the forest was leaning in around him. Was there really something this dangerous out here in the woods? Something that could have taken the Ekans' trainer? At the very least, the trainer hadn't come back to get Ekans. What if this unknown Pokémon was still around? It could be going for Mike and Grey next... And out here, there was nobody to help them. They were all alone (and evidently Ekans' trainer hadn't been able to make much use of his Pokémon either).
The dark thoughts were clouding Mike's mind. He didn't usually panic, but there was something disturbing about this story.
Maybe the trainer just didn't care enough to come back? thought Mike, trying to reassure himself that he was safe.

"Er.. let's head to the Pokémon center first... I don't really think this is the best place for making new friends..." He turned to walk, but then stopped again and leaned over to Grey. Mike really wanted to get going, but he also wanted to get something straight with Grey:
"Anyways, could you, like... not talk about what you found out about Ekans? I felt kinda bad for having you pry into it's mind. But now I'm kinda happy you did. It's sorta creepy but we have to do some more digging into this anyway. If the trainer is still out there, they should at least have the chance to be reunited don't you think?"

Mike looked into the forest anxiously. Then he turned back towards Grey.
"Listen, we're gonna have to tell Ekans what we know, but maybe not this second, ok? That's all I'm saying." Mike gazed back into the woods. Maybe the Ekans had been following them all this time because it was afraid of what was in the woods- whatever it was.

Mike looked down at the Ekans wrapped around his leg. He felt really glad for catching it now that he knew what it's story was. Maybe he could help. He smiled at it and bent over, at least to what extent he could considering the large snake that had coiled around him.
"Listen, I just want to let you know that if you've decided to come with us, I'll always be there." He didn't really know why he said this. Maybe he was afraid Ekans would fear being left alone again- despite knowing that it had been unintentional last time.

"All right, let's go!" said Mike and marched onwards. They kept walking for several hours trotting on through the rain. It didn't seem as if it was ever going to stop. Then the woods suddenly opened up. Ahead of them was a magnificent little lowland, and in it lay the city of Pewter. Mike couldn't help but smile when he saw it. It was a beautiful sight to see, even in the horrible weather; the accumulated negativeness of being wet, getting kind of freaked out by the Ekans story and getting muddy all over had made the sight even better than it should have appeared.

Then the rain stopped. It was still fairly dark in the sky, but at least it wasn't like standing in a shower any more.
Incredible... thought Mike. It's almost as if it waited for us to arrive before it stopped. He patted Grey on the back and then continued towards the city, the Pokémon center and then eventually, the Gym

[OOC- Sorry for the sorta dark post. I just watched "the blair witch project" and I guess it kinda influenced me (that movie is sooo creepy)- but this could develop into a very nice sub-plot ]

 

[LaenVulpix]

Grey, too, had taken a new view of their surroundings - the dark storm and whispering trees seemed to get their influence from the new story. He listened wordlessly to Mike's suggestion that keeping everything from Ekans for the time being, but couldn't help but feel indignant. Did Mike expect him to go off telling Ekans how they knew about the tragedy that happened to it? If anything, that would prove unhealthy to himself, seeing as the resulting emotions would effect him as well.

Grey felt his head rise unconsciously to the sky, and as the heavenly view of Pewter came into focus, he laughed at the storm. It was as if the city warded off the dismal and the dark - for now, anyway. The sky held the uniform look of weariness after a storm, as if it didn't quite know how to appear after the tyranny of the black clouds, powerful rain, and fearsome lightning. As he remained temporarily immobile, Grey dismissed his most recent thought of annoyance. It was replaced with the same optimistic that always seemed to flood him when he was usually alone with Pokémon. The fact that Mike stood beside him somehow elevated the cheer.

"I never knew that seeing the city named after a type of rock would make me feel so happy....well, not happy, but 'saved', perhaps?" he joshed, laughing at the spectacle the duo would make as they walked into town. Two mud-coated boys, one with an Ekans twined around his leg and the other with a Pikachu that had course fur from the mud dried in it. Dishoveled and exhausted - those seemed to be two words that fit them wonderfully.

"Though," he said now in an undertone that wouldn't carry to the newest member of the group. "We might listen out for some rumors around Victory Road while we're there, too."

The deeper truth had burrowed into his mind like a tick, and Grey wasn't in any hurry to share his own misgivings with Mike...perhaps later. Simply - his upcoming Gym battle worried him. He wasn't sure if it was nerves about fighting his first real trainer battle against someone that it was important to show his knowledge to, uneasiness about losing miserably and in front of Mike, or just paranoia tacked onto him because it was his first Gym battle.

As they got a ways into town, Grey was aware of common traits the citizens had, as well as some manners that resulted from it being a bigger city.

"Look, there go two just now! Like they think they can beat a Gym Leader when they can't stay clean." scoffed one such passerby. Grey brushed off the insult like the dust that he thought it was, but felt a small stab of anger that Mike had to deal with an insult like that too. He already HAD more than one Gym badge, and such assumptive remarks weren't even intelligent mockeries.

If they were smarter, they'd see some connection with the storm and muddy clothes...and I'd like to see them travel from Viridian to the Indgio Plateau and then here, all in a few days he thought, realizing how much he relied on Mike's companionship and more advanced skills in battling.

Making a glowering face after the skeptical pair of what appeared to be bug catchers, then swung his head around as his foot met a solid object in his way. He had very nearly plowed into the Pokémon Center, which had clearly been put on the outskirts of town for easy access.

"I wonder if they have another on the Mt. Moon side, or if trainers coming from there just tough it out?" he thought out loud, reading the official-looking board that made minor announcements on the Center's face. A few advertisements and a challenge to win the first in a long line of Gym badges that proved a trainer's worth was all that was on it, though.

"Personally, right now, I don't feel particularly bad for them...I just want a hot bath...or three....and some equally hot food." he admitted with a relieved smile on his face.

 

[daxx0r]

Mike did not take too well to people who insulted him. What right did they have to judge him!? They probably didn't have a badge themselves!
"Hey!" Mike yelled after them "It so happens I already have a badge from this gym!" He really wanted to teach those guys a lesson, but he decided against it. He didn't want to sink to their level.

As they soon closed in on the Pokémon Center, Mike felt more relieved than anything. He loved traveling, but he needed civilization once in a while as well... The doors to the center slid open and revealed an inviting lobby. It wasn't particularly crowded, but it seemed as if all of them, humans and pokémon alike, were watching them with an amused curiosity. Mike didn't blame them, considering that it looked like they were dragging half the forest in with them.

"Oh my!" came the surprised startle from nurse Joy who had just appeared behind the front desk. Mike and Grey approached, trying not to make a mess (even if this was next to impossible).
"Err... hi!" said Mike with an awkward smile strapped across his face, "would you mind treating our Pokémon, and maybe if we could get a room or something? We're kinda wet and tired and we'd like to rest for a while, and maybe take a bath...". The nurse was just now coming over the shock of seeing them drag in enough mud to start a health-spa.
"Oh, of course! Let me take them from you," she said finally, and put forth a Pokéball tray. Mike removed five pokéballs from his belt and put them on the tray. He then gently removed Ekans from his leg and placed it next to the pokéballs. A Chansey appeared with a small wagon, which Joy then placed the tray on.

As soon as all of the Pokémon were taken away for treatments and check-ups, nurse Joy turned back to the boys.
"All right, well, now that that's taken care of, let me show you some rooms!" she said in a cheerful tone, and led the two trainers into a corridor. They made a right, then a left and another left before approaching a door. She took out a key and handed it to the two trainers before opening the door. Inside was a small guest room with a bunk-bed and a dresser on the right wall (both in made out of some dark wood-type), a window on the far wall, directly opposite the door, and a table and chair on the left side.

"We have a small hot-bath just to the right down the corridor, which I'm sure you'll make use of." she said in a kind tone. Then she giggled and continued "And I'm not even going to begin to ask what you've been through!" She got a hold of herself and kindly excused herself. Before she managed to leave though, Mike stopped her.
"Erhm, I'm sorry but would you mind helping us out with just this one thing? Basically, the Ekans I had with me... don't ask us how, it's a long story, but we suspect it once belonged to a trainer. The trainer apparently got attacked by a Pokémon, a large one, and he hasn't been heard from since..." explained Mike.

He was unsure if this was the best way to go about solving this mystery, but then again, Nurse Joy did have contact with a lot of trainers, so she might have heard something...
"I'm wondering if anyone like that has passed these parts, or if you've heard anything about this incident... We want to find the trainer" he continued.
"Well, I can't really say I have... But a big Pokémon in these parts, especially one attacking a human, would be very odd indeed. You might want to talk with someone named Chuck. He lives outside of Cerulean city, and he's the leading guy in the study of rare, legendary, or otherwise odd or unusual Pokémon. He might be able to tell you more.

With that, nurse Joy left. Mike threw his backpack onto the bottom bed and took a deep sigh. Looks like they were starting a real investigation now! This could be fun, actually... thought Mike. But now, all he wanted to do was to take a hot bath and forget about everything.

 

[LaenVulpix]

Grinning in a mischievous way, Grey rummaged around in the room's storage closet until he had located two huge, thick towels. He erupted in laughter as soon as Joy left the room, the door sliding shut behind her with a lazy, mechanical whir. He tossed one of the cottony towels over to his friend and then explained.

"Do all of the nurses look like her? I saw Nurse Joy in Viridian all the time, but..." he left the rest to reason. It was like they were clones or something.

He kicked off his sludged, if water-repellent, boots and continued to peel off his socks as he thought out loud. "Wow...I didn't expect to be traveling all the way to Cerulean to get information. How will Chuck...whoever that is...be able to figure out what Pokémon attacked Ekans and his trainer?"

With that he shrugged off his pack onto the floor beside his mud-clogged shoes and stood up again. The slap-happy smile was back - even if he was shy, Grey couldn't help but feel elevated. They were going to take a bath, after all!

"Race you to the bath." he said in an obviously too-serious voice, holding the towel carefully out in front of him to avoid soiling it even as he skidded out into the hall. He nearly rammed facefirst into the door, giggling madly as the machine slid open in an almost-indignant way. He came, stumbling in his mad dash, to the end of the corridor and turned on a dime.

"I forgot which way the bath...was?" his voice faded off as his cheer-fogged mind reminded him that Mike just might be running after him. With no warning that he had decided to stop.

[OOC - Sorreh for short post, but I don't want to auto a collison. You might be reflexive enough to stop in time. Or not ;D ]

 

[daxx0r]

Mike dodged right, just in time to avoid hitting Grey, and instead went straight into a wall. He toppled over, covering his now sore face with his hands. He sat there for a moment, waiting for the pain to go away. Mike then stood up, and grinned at Grey.
"Well, I guess having good reflexes doesn't always help, huh?" he said, laughing away the situation. He then promptly took a few more steps forward and turned to face a door. I think this was it... he thought as he pulled open the door. It did, indeed, reveal a bathhouse. Inside was what looked like a large hot-spring. Since there was no volcanic activity in the vicinity of Pewter City, Mike deducted that it had to be artificial. However it was made, and however it got there, it looked incredibly relaxing.
"After you" he said, bowing to Grey.

Once they had gotten into the bath, Mike thought about what Grey had said just before racing off down the corridor. He had been kind of surprised when Grey commented on the nurse, but then again, he had once had the very same question. He had just gotten too used to the Joys by now. He grinned at Grey.
"He he, yeah, about Nurse Joy..." started Mike, thinking Grey must have been dying to get an explanation to the phenomenon, "Basically... I don't really know why they're so alike, but I'll tell you this: They're all named Joy, they all look exactly the same and they're all related somehow Like, I think this one is the cousin of the one in Viridian... I'm not sure though. It's way too difficult to keep track of them. Anyway, I guess their looks come from their gene-pool or something..."

"You know, it's the same with the police force. All of the stations around Kanto are led by an Officer named Jenny. And they all look alike too!" added Mike, "Plus, like the Joys, they're related to each other."

Mike sank deeper into the bath, finally able to relax his body. He soon found himself thinking about this mysterious Chuck, and thus straightened up in the bath again.

"And that Chuck guy... I don't really know how he could help actually... But Nurse Joy said that the Pokémon was kind of out of place didn't she?" Mike looked down into the water for a while. He continued, waiting until he was done with the next sentence before returning his eyes to Grey. "And Chuck was supposed to be an expert on odd or unusual Pokémon. So my guess is maybe we can ask him if he's heard of any large aggressive Pokémon in that area..."

His thoughts trailed off into obscurity for a while. He felt kind of sleepy. It washed over him almost as if he had been drugged. The water was just so relaxing, and he had been roughing it during the past few days... Mike didn't want to take a nap though. He had a thing against taking naps. Mike reasoned that if you took naps, your whole daily schedule would be put out of balance. Especially so late in the afternoon as it was now. He would simply keep awake until the time when hr usually went to sleep. After all, sleep would be so much better by then.

He turned his attention away from sleeping and looked at Grey again.
"Do you think our Pokémon are ready yet?" he asked casually, just to keep some form of conversation up.

[OOC- Man, I'm tired... Dunno why, but this post ended up taking forever because of it. I kept messing it up... Anyways, I guess Mike is kinda good with reflexes, but not good enough Oh, and just so you know, I don't mind you autoing small things like that.. They're not really essential anyway ]

 

[LaenVulpix]

Grey let the information about the Joys and Jennies sink in for a minute then shook his head. It was either exhaustion or the hot spring's relaxing steam, or both combined, but his mind was refusing to take much of anything into deep consideration.

"Well, I s'pose I can't rant about unnatural phenomenons, what with my 'Hands of Healing' ability and all." he said simply, letting his body slide deeper into the water. The fogged, hot water lapped underneath his chin as it untensed the muscles that had gotten a workout during their expedition.

His mind ventured whimsically over to Chuck as Mike mentioned him, pondering how much the guy would be able to help them with. There were at least a dozen or more unusual Pokémon out there, but he figured that the number would decrease when he described what he could of the foggy, deformed image from Ekans' mind. All he had to figure out now is if it would be okay to reveal to this 'Chuck' about his mind-reading gift. Otherwise they had better come up with a convenient excuse for their knowledge of Ekans' past.

But we have plenty of time to think on that, I mean, I have to get my first badge and all. And after that, we can think about it on the way to Cerulean City...Mt. Moon isn't exactly a tiny cave, after all,

Buried in his thoughts, Grey's face slipped more and more into the sleep-inducing depths of the bath, until at last, without warning, his entire head dipped into the cloudy water. He popped up, sputtering and wiping dripping hair out of his dark, opaque blue eyes. He gave Mike a shamefaced look and laughed.

"I think this water is going to keep beating on us until we pass out," he remarked, noticing Mike's face. It was devoid of weariness - too devoid. He had a suspicion that Mike had a think against dozing off, sheerly because he did too, and the saying did say 'you can't kid a kidder'.

Combing his fingers through his temporarily obedient gray hair, Grey found himself glancing around the completely fogged room. Even if there was a clock in there, they weren't going to see it unless it was a foot in front of them. He seriously considered slapping himself to jolt his alertness a bit but could picture the bewildered look on Mike's face. The mental image provoked him into another spout of laughter.

"It usually doesn't take too long to heal them, does it? If it takes less than say, fifteen minutes, they'll be done." He paused to tap his head in explanation. "I might not be able to tell you the time from the sun's position and all, but I've got a knack for guessing elapsed time. Accurately too, usually."

Another pause before he spread his de-mucked hands and joked, "Just call me Grey of the Many Gifts, I guess."

[OOC - lol, I always seem to have issues posting. I'll get almost 5 paragraphs then think about how I should've been more descriptive and whatnot.]

 

[daxx0r]

Mike leaned back against the edge of the bath. He sighed and let his head fall back, taking in the moist, steamy air with every deep breath he took. It felt like he was in a rain forest or something - not that he'd actually been in one, but he imagined that the air in one would feel like this. It was almost as if it had weight, or substance, and tried to stick to him.

His thoughts drifted to the gym battle that Grey would be facing in the morning. Grey would probably get that badge easily, with the amount of skills he had displayed to Mike... It was also going to be really fun to meet Brock again after all this time. It had been a while since he was there, but he guessed that Brock would still remember him. It had been quite the battle. Charmeleon had been forced to put every ounce of power into it, since rock-types weren't particularly vulnerable to fire-types. He had made a conscious decision not to go with his squirtle - Partially because it was newly caught, and he didn't feel it was ready for a battle, and partially because he wanted to fight as difficult a battle as possible. It was a way of proving to himself and his Pokémon that they really deserved the badge.

Mike looked over at Grey, who also seemed to be deep in thought.
"Anyway Grey, I don't know if you're the kind of guy who would ask for tips about how to battle the gym-leader, but just so you know, I'm not going to tell you anything." he started, hoping Grey would understand, "Thing is... I feel that the whole idea of a gym-battle is to test your abilities as a trainer. Giving you training tips in general is just helping you become a better trainer, but giving you specific tips on how to beat a gym-leader - it's sort of like cheating if you ask me. You'd be battling a battle with the knowledge of someone who has already won the battle. You'd have an unfair advantage... I hope you understand... "

Mike smiled at Grey, hoping he wouldn't be too upset and smile back. He stood up, leaving only his feet and ankles in the bath and let the water run off a bit. Then he carefully stepped onto the floor of the bath-house. It was made out of a rather coarse material, but he was still careful not to slip on it as he walked around; besides, he couldn't see where he was going either. He eventually found the towls that they had brought with them from the room and he picked one up.

He then returned to the bath and stood next to it, while drying himself off. The towel was quite fluffy and felt gentle to the touch. Mike had felt other Pokémon center towels, and they were usually more rough. He imagined that these must either be new, or of an unusually high quality.

After drying himself off, he finally put the towel on his head and dried off his hair with it. As a result, the roughed up brown hair was pointing in every direction, and though it was drier, it still had a dark, almost black tint to it, indicating it was still wet. Mike then swung the towel around his shoulders and looked back at Grey.

"Err, I think our Pokémon will be ready soon, so we should probably be getting back to the lobby. Anyways, if I stayed here any longer, I'd fall asleep" joked Mike as he went to pick up the other towel. He returned quickly and threw it over to Grey.

[OOC- Didn't notice this untill afterwards, but Mike really didn't get his hair wet in the first place Meh, maybe he just dunked it in sometime during the bath...]

 

[LaenVulpix]

[ é (don't ask) OOC- And if not, I imagine the ridiculous steam in there would dampen it anyways ]

BIC-

Taking a cautious hold on the proffered towel and marveling at its soft quality, Grey stood up himself. Taking assiduous measure to avoid dunking the thick fabric into the water, he dried himself before stepping fully out of the synthetic hot spring. After patting down his feet, which had of course been submerged as he dried off, he wrapped the cottony white towel around his waist. Only then did he look back up at Mike.

"I appreciate the polite warning, even if I didn't intend on asking you for advice. I imagine it's possible I could've ended up hinting at it without meaning to, after all. But...well..it's hard to explain. I want to prove myself worthy of taking this whole challenge on - I wouldn't soften the experience for myself by taking advice from someone who'd already done it." He said, returning Mike's smile with one of his own. His wet hair parted into its usual wayward, stringy style - though the color was a dark, ash grey at the moment.

In fact, as he thought about it, Grey was wondering how much he was staking on his upcoming battle against the Pewter Gym Leader. Certainly his self-confidence was in the balance, but would failure actually mean that he would give up and part ways with Mike? No! I'll fight him as many times as I have to...even if Mike has to move on...even if I have to study and train for an entire year...I'm going to keep going. I'm going to win he thought, his smile faltering as he concentrated fully on his own thoughts.

After another moment in which the trainer's brows were furrowed in consideration, he looked back up at Mike.

"Erm...sorry about that. So, let's go get our Pokémon," he started for the door then doubled around just as fast. "Except...what do we wear? Our clothes are a bit dirty."

The emphasis on 'bit' was clear - congealed mud and smears of dirt layered the garments, and rain made them soggy. The steam from the baths kept them from developing an icy-cold feel, but Grey wasn't in much of a hurry to put everything back on.

What he was in a hurry to do was get his Pokémon back and think about strategy for his first gym battle. None of his types matched particularly well against rock, but he didn't consider that a barrier for a second. It was skill and strategy (plus trust) that determined a battle's outcome. What he had trouble deciding was which Pokémon he would want to send out first in battle. He wanted Reiu more than anything, but his other partners deserved a fair chance as well. I'll just ask them, then he decided, narrowing down the choices to those he was on better terms with.

Thankful that the room's temperature was elevated enough to keep him warm while they delayed. Trickles of water streamed down his back from his persistently-dripping hair, and after a moment he wiped away the annoying drops and wrapped his own towel securely around his neck, preventing further streamlets from venturing past the absorbant material.

"I guess you know Pokémon Centers better than me...do they have clothes we could borrow while we clean our clothes?" he inquired, eager to become reacquainted with his ragtag group of Pokémon. A Charmander, Rattata, Pidgey, Mankey, Spearow, and Pikachu...and all he could think of was how he wished had been able to catch a Caterpie and Weedle to have as friends as well.

[OOC- lol, looks like I started a rant in order to have a decent-length post. I am depressed because I had to delete an entire, finished picture since my Photoshop malfunctioned. :'( ]

 

[daxx0r]

[OOC- Oh, I'm so sorry for you!!! I hate it when things like that happen. No chance you can recover your work at all?]

BIC-

Mike was stumped. He had never actually encountered this problem before. Whenever he had to wash his clothes he did it in the field, by a stream or a lake, and then hung the clothes out to dry. He had never come in to a Pokémon center with the need to do laundry... Then again, he couldn't remember ever needing to get his laundry done so desperately before.

"Err...hang on for a bit." said Mike. "I don't actually know, but I'll try to find out... Stay here." Mike had no idea what he was doing running around the Pokémon center with a towel and swim trunks, but he headed out the door, and started looking for Nurse Joy. He didn't have to look far though; he saw her after only taking a few steps.

"Hi Nurse Joy," greeted Mike, awkwardly smiling at the pink-haired woman, "Err, I was wondering, do you have any clothes or something we could borrow for a few minutes? You might have noticed, our clothes were pretty dirty, so we'd like to get them cleaned off..."
"Oh, well sure!" replied Joy, "We wouldn't be much of a Pokémon center if we didn't have spare clothes! Hold on for a minute." The nurse rushed off around a corner and disappeared from Mike's view.

She soon returned with two blueish robes. She handed them to Mike, who thanked Joy kindly before heading back towards the bath, where Grey was waiting. He took about three steps before turning back to face Joy again, who had also turned to leave.
"Excuse me!" He called, making Joy stop and face him again, "I was just wondering, do you have a washing room we could use, as well?"
"Oh, I'm sorry," she replied and pointed towards a corridor close to her, "Basically, go down this corridor and it's the third door on the left."
She then excused herself and hurried off.

Mike re-entered the steamy room holding up the robes to Grey. He then tossed one of them to his friend before putting on the other one.
"Nurse Joy said that we could use these while we got our laundry done. And we can do that just around the corner." Mike headed out the door, and went to their room to pick up all the dirty clothes he had left on the floor in there. He'd probably get dirty again just from carrying them to the washing machine.

As he walked, he called back towards Grey.
"So, have you decided which Pokémon to use tomorrow?" he asked, curious as to how Grey was planning his battle strategy.

[OOC- I'm aware that you already said Grey didn't really know what Pokémon to battle with; but Mike doesn't know that ]

 

[LaenVulpix]

[OOC - No chance of recovering the lost picure, sadly, but I had to do it in order to finish a contest picture in time. Looks rushed, but I just wanted to enter the contest ]

BIC-

Grey picked up his pace a bit, his feet tapping on the floor, to catch up and then match Mike's stride. His hands were holding his saturated and mud-covered clothing, and he took caution not to accidentally drop a sock or other small garment. As soon as he had taken up his friend's pace, he confronted the question.

"Really, I'm stumped about which of them to use. I want to use Reiu for sentimental reasons and all," he hesitated for a moment before recalling that Mike had the same attachment to his starter. He cleared his throat to take up the silence and then continued. "But I think I'm going to ask my Pokémon which of them really wants to battle."

His decision was odd and haphazard, but Grey figured that if he couldn't successfully win his battle with any and all of his partners, then he wasn't ready to move on. And secretly he suspected that his white Charmander would be eager to prove itself in an important match, though he figured that Mike could see right through that aspect of the answer.

As another automatic sliding door admitted them into the laundromat section of the Poké Center, Grey padded over to the nearest stainless-steel machine and swung open the door. He deposited the weather-beaten clothes and unscrewed the cap off of a jug of detergent while examining the room. It fit the stereotype of laundromats, with two neat lanes of washers in the middle of the room, and drying machines built into the walls. Expensive brand-name laundry soaps and dryer sheets were dispensed from a machine for 100P (OOC: well, the currency looks like a P with a slash through it >.>) - a wonderful way to waste money, in Grey's opinion.

He poured the measured cup into an allotted opening in the washer as soon as the times were set, and then hurriedly handed the heavy bottle over to Mike. The jugs were found in various places throughout the room, but the nearest one to them was at the other end of the room. A pointless walk when it took no time to finish using the soap.

He tightened his robe around himself and flopped into a rigid plastic chair to wait for Mike.

"Should we go get our Pokémon while the clothes wash, and then stick 'em in the dryer?" he asked curiously, assuming correctly that it didn't take near as much time to wash as it did for a load to dry. And, once again, he came back to the feeling that made it so that he wanted his Pokéball belt back at his waist, with his Pokémon under his cautious supervision.

"Would it be considered cheating, by the way, to ask what type of battles he usually goes for? I figure it's a single or double, but knowing whether to decide on one Pokémon or two to fight with would help a bit." he commented dismissively, trying to start of some sort of conversation. Better it be about his important Gym battle than nothing at all. Grey was more than accustomed to silence, but he was quickly realizing that banter was better with a friend.

 

[daxx0r]

"I think we can come back for the clothes later..." replied Mike to Grey's previous statement, "Let's go and get our Pokémon!" Mike went through the sliding door and continued towards the lobby of the Pokémon center. He slowed down a bit to let Grey catch up, and once they were walking shoulder to shoulder, Mike put his arm around Grey's shoulder.

"Anyway, I wouldn't think it's cheating for you to hear something like that... After all, how can you plan your strategy if you don't know what kind of battle you'll be facing?" started Mike. He felt like he was always explaining things to Grey, and he hoped that he didn't seem to come across as a know it all. Grey didn't seem to mind though; in fact Mike guessed that Grey took quite a bit of interest in what he had to say. Thus he put it out of his mind and continued,

"Basically, Brock goes for singles. At least he did when I challenged him, but I also think it's his standard way of challenging trainers." As Mike talked he gesticulated slightly with his hands, "His battles are with two Pokémon, and I don't think he allows changes from either you or himself. If you recall your Pokémon, you cant use it again." Mike looked over at Grey and smirked, "As for the Pokémon themselves, I'll only say they're rock types, but that's fairly obvious. Won't tell you anything more."

Mike smiled at Grey as they exited the rather cramped hallway and stepped into the lobby. Nurse Joy spotted them immediately and waved them over.
"Oh, how good you're here! I have all of your Pokémon ready." she said happily and handed over the two trays of Pokémon to the trainers.
Mike put Ekans down on the floor and then grabbed the rest of his Pokémon (all of whom were concealed in pokéballs) and called them out. He then put his pokéballs into the pocket on his robes, since he had his belt in the wash.

Mike looked down at the Pokémon before him. They all looked happy and energetic, completely unlike how they had looked last time he saw them. Training was quite tiring, for both the trainers and their Pokémon, but right now it didn't show the slightest on Mike and his team-mates: Charmeleon's tail was burning brightly, glimmering in red, orange and yellow; Ekans was happily flicking it's tongue, enjoying the rest and relaxation it experienced while being wrapped up in a coil; Pidgeotto was plucking it's feathers, completely careless; and finally Bulbasaur and Squirtle had started playing tag.

"Ok guys! Listen up." said Mike in a clear voice. All of his Pokémon turned their attention to him, including Squirtle and Bulbasaur who had temporarily paused their game. "We have a new family member I'd like you all to meet. Say hi to Ekans, guys!" The Pokémon started greeting Ekans, one by one, and then without further instructions from Mike, went to a corner and started chatting with each other, undoubtedly introducing themselves in more detail. Mike let them be, but couldn't help to wonder what they were saying.

[OOC - Is it the bulbasuar-pikachu-pichu rescue team picture you put up on your art-topic? Cause that one's awesome! I'm gonna go and say that there as well ]

 

[LaenVulpix]

[OOC - Yup, that'd be teh one ;D Pity that about 100 more entries appeared on the last day, so lotsa competition. I found one that is PWN-TASTIC and very cutesy, and it was color-penciled as well. ]

BIC-

After giving Mike a moment to let his Pokémon get situated, Grey plucked his own Pokéballs one by one from the plastic trey and released them. Pika peered around curiously at the emerging forms before taking first dibs on its trainer's head; Reiu's coat was a brilliant white once more, and its tail flame mimicked Charmeleon's aside from the obvious color variation - it rested on its back legs beside Grey as well; Nezi chattered with renewed energy and darted over to merge itself into Mike's Pokémon's conversations, devoid of its foolish, mud-coated appearance.

Fero and Sora greeted each other somewhat cautiously, both being predatory birds and both competing for Grey's favor. The stubby-winged bird alighted on his shoulder at approximately the same time as Sora folded its wings and perched on Grey's opposite side. At the moment Sora hadn't fully noticed Ekans's presence - Grey had to admit that he didn't mind it staying that way until they could introduce them one-on-one. Ikeiru merely snorted icily at the whole congregation and was quick to snatch its Pokéball from Grey's hand and return itself.

Wordless in defeat, Grey shrugged over at Mike and deposited his own armful of metallic orbs into his robe pockets. They sat uncomfortably and bulged a bit strangely in the cotton pockets, but held. After several minutes of banter coming from both the two boys and their Pokémon, Grey was rather uncomfortably aware that their group of Pokémon attracted mixed looks from various other trainers. More so was the apparent challenging gleam some of them held in their eyes - the look of a true trainer wanting a battle.

"Not that I want to interupt everybody's fun, but if we don't make ourselves scarce soon, we'll be fighting a parade of battles in our swimming trunks." he commented in an undertone, giving his head a twitch over to the line of trainers waiting for their own Pokémon to heal, most of which were observing the assorted species of Pokémon with interested expressions. With much juggling as he fished out the correct balls, Grey withdrew all of his own Pokémon in rapid beams of red energy, leaving out only two. Reiu was his partner and held special attention in Grey's heart, and Pika wasn't even his and therefore didn't have a Pokéball.

Although it might be a good idea to try back here after I'm all trainer-ish looking...a trainer battle would be good practice for tomorrow anyways, he thought, wondering how much more strategy would be needed to fight with another trainer. Against Pokémon that had also been trained.

He resettled the red and white balls back into the faint blue robe's pockets a bit more carefully now, letting go only after he heard the small click as two of the metal surfaces touched each other. The chill of the floor, which had been dismissable at first, was now getting to him. He figured he could relax and re-release everybody once they were back in the peaceful atmosphere of the laundromat, and then he could be left alone to develop a strategy.

"I'm going to wait until we're back in our room to ask the team who wants to fight," he informed Mike unnecessarily, preventing inquiries on that account. "That way I get to come up with strategies and plans for each of them." he added with sarcastic enthusiasm.

Truthfully he felt that any practice in strategy and situations would be beneficial to him - he devoured every one of Mike's words of wisdom, totally alert to the other boy's benevolent intentions. Maybe if he listened and practiced and trained hard enough, he would even bypass - with a guilty shock, Grey realized that he had been subconsciously trying to develop some sort of rivalry in their friendship. And if he knew how strategic and talented a trainer Mike was, such a competitive spirit would be a bad idea.

"Erm...should we head back?....I think my feet are gonna freeze off," Grey commented a bit shyly, worried that his friend was indifferent to the linoleum floor's air-conditioned frigidness.

 

[daxx0r]

Mike was glad he wasn't the only one who's feet seemed to be freezing off.
"Yeah, let's head back." came the quick response from Mike. He picked up the Pokéballs from the pockets in his robe and called over his Pokémon.
"Ok, guys... Back in the balls!" he said kindly and recalled all Pokémon except his starter. His faithful friend Charmeleon tilted it's head to one side, smiling at Mike. He returned the smile and started walking back to their room.

As they approached the laundry room, Mike dashed in quickly to check on his clothes. He saw that the washing machine had finished it's job. He then opened the door to the machine and pulled out his clothes. They had finally gotten their original color back. It wasn't brown any more. Mike threw them all into a dryer and set it appropriately. He couldn't claim to be good at cleaning his clothes machine-style. He got by though - even if he was always terrified he'd somehow manage to burn up his clothes in the dryer.

After the machine had started up, and he felt somewhat confident he wasn't going to ruin his clothes, he returned to the corridor with Charmeleon tagging along closely behind. As they got to the room, Mike yanked the key to the room out of his robe pocket and unlocked the door. Then he bowed playfully to Grey letting him pass through the door before Mike himself entered.

Once inside the room, Mike threw himself onto the lower bed and loungingly let his body fall into place on it. He kept his head supported by the wall behind him and let his legs hang off the bed. Charmeleon got over to the window and lazily looked out at the happenings outside the center. Mike tilted his head over to Charmeleon to and looked curiously at the Pokémon. He wants to head back on the road again... thought Mike, chuckling slightly to himself. He felt the same way; at least mentally. But he figured the rest he would get from spending a day or so in Pewter would be good for him.

"So... you excited about tomorrow?" asked Mike. He was soon distracted though, as Charmeleon suddenly leaned in towards the window and snarled. It had seen something weird. Two people, dressed in white and a Pokémon, probably a Meowth, had been sneaking around in the shadows of a nearby building. The shadows covered them rather well, and it was pretty hard to see, but they were carrying large bags with them, which seemed to be stuffed full with things. Charmeleon couldn't put it's claw on it, but there was something odd about them. They almost looked as if they were scheming or something.

"What's up, buddy?" asked Mike as he sat up in the bed. He took his time, but eventually got back on his feet and walked over to the window. By now the mysterious characters had moved out of view from the window. Mike took a look outside, but of course, couldn't spot anything.
"Huh. There's nothing out there." he said generally, neither to Charmeleon nor to Grey.

He slowly drifted back to the bed, as did Charmeleon who sat down at Mike's feet and absentmindedly stared in the general direction of the window. Mike guessed that Charmeleon was also quite tired, at least too tired to feel it was worth it to stand by the window just to enjoy the view.

Mike leaned over to the closet next to the bed and manged to push it open with his fingers, which just managed to reach the handle. He fumbled around in the closet blindly and pulled out a small case from one of the shelves. It had probably been easier to reach it, had he just stood up, but he was too lazy to do so.

He stretched out on the bed and opened the case, which reveled his four badges. He had removed them from his jacket's inner lining as he put it in the wash. He carefully removed the boulder badge and held it up towards the roof. He studied it carefully, turning it and observing every angle of the gray badge. When he was done, he started polishing it with his robe. He held it up in the light now and then to check the progress of his polishing. He then leaned over to Grey and smiled.
"Well... Just one more day, and you'll have one of these too!" he exclaimed happily, before putting the badge back in the case. He then removed the next one and started polishing that one.

 

[LaenVulpix]

"Well, I think excited is too energetic a word," Grey said thoughtfully. " Nervous or anticipating would fit better." He smiled nonetheless, sprawled out in a lackadaisical manner on the carpeted floor.

Pika was curled up cutely on his stomach, its small yellow body rising and falling with the trainer's breathing. Its large lightning-shaped tail curled haphazardly around its body, the biggest spike covering its nose in unconscious protection. Reiu was peering wordlessly out of the glass window, perhaps trying to develop a companionable bond with the older evolution positioned next to it. Its sparkling blue eyes were narrowed in concentration, with its matchstick tail curled half-heartedly in front of its paws.

At the same moment that Charmeleon let loose an agitated snarl, the white Charmander turned energetically to Grey and pointed to the world beyond the transparent glass with a stubby claw.

"Charchar," it declared firmly, trying to motivate its dozing partner into action.

As both boys maneuvered to the window and observed the sunny weather outside, Reiu growled deep in its throat, making a low churring sound. It had seen the same white-clothed figures, coupled with a cat-like two legged Pokémon padding along between them - and it had immediately taken a suspicious disliking of them to heart. They felt shady, and sneaking in the shadows made the matter physical as well.

"I don't see anything, either..." Grey said, thoroughly puzzled but not worried enough to tap into either fire-type's mind.

He flopped lazily on the floor once again , his attention reasserting itself on the importance of the battle against Brock that he'd be facing on the morrow. Two Pokémon to choose to battle, and Grey had only one that kept appearing in his mind's eye. And it was lying next to him, with its tail-flame flickering and dancing with various shades of blue.

After a second he realized that he was short one Pikachu, which must've jumped off of his stomach when he had bounded to his feet at Reiu's impulsive growling. It didn't take long - the short-furred mouse Pokémon was struggling to get a good glimpse at Mike's badges, undaunted when it fell backwards off the bed.

""Well... Just one more day, and you'll have one of these too!"

Grey blinked blearily at his friend before realizing Mike had presented him with the gleaming silver-grey colored Gym badge. It was newly polished and the fluorescent light glinted off of its monochrome surface, giving it the perfect touch. Now interested he fought for his feet and slumped half-heartedly on the feathery soft bed, studying the next badge Mike had taken to cleaning with reasonable pride.

"Well, I guess we balance each other out," the shaggy-haired boy said with traces of a chuckle. "since here I was just wondering how long I might have to wait before I had one to match yours." He pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes and rubbed, as if to clear away the doubt and worry along with his sleepiness.

"Cha!" his Charmander snorted reprimandingly, a small, pale flicker of fire shooting forward from its mouth to evaporate a few inches away from its nose. It couldn't understand why its trainer was so worried when he had calmly and alertly responded to all of his fights after the Mankey-Incident.

"Watch where you shoot that thing," Grey commented sarcastically, winking sleepily at Reiu. "You might catch something - on...on..fire," he yawned midway through the coy joke, and decided it was fine how it was.

He fiddled with the bars that supported his own bunk in a distracted manner, entwining his fingers in the bars, until the mechanical door to their room slid open with an overdone 'whoosh'. Expecting Joy with some announcement or suggestion, Grey remained stationary on the ridiculously comfortable sheets. It was only after the door remained open that he sat up (with noticeable stretching) and peered down at the obstructing object.

A boy, perhaps no older than eight, indecisive about venturing any further into the room's confines. short, spiked hair, raven black, adorned the kid's head, contrasted by his colorful yellow-like hazel eyes. Grey began to inquire as to the boy's intentions when he backed rapidly out of the room and fled down the hallway.

"Um...am I hallucinating?" a bewildered Grey asked dubiously, eyebrows raised in bemusement.

"Pii Pikaa," Pika supplied in a helpful tone, long ears perked forward.

 

[daxx0r]

[OOC- WOOO! 100th POST ON THE RP!!! ;D Pat yourself on the back for a job well done, my friend, and let's keep this thing soaring to new heights!!!]

BIC-
Mike was still staring at the door, long after the boy had left.
"What the...?" he muttered to himself while getting onto his feet. He looked over at Grey, who had the same bewildered expression on his face as Mike had. He then looked down at Charmeleon who shrugged and inched closer to the door. Mike did the same and as the door slid open, he poked his head out and looked around. His head was soon accompanied by Charmeleon's. The two looked almost like parts of a totem pole, with their heads perfectly aligned in the doorway.

As Mike looked towards the left he just managed to see the leg of what he imagined was the boy who had visited the room. He caught it in the corner of his eye in the very last second before it disappeared around a corner. Instinctively he followed the boy trying to catch up to him. Charmeleon was obviously in on the chase as well, independently of Mike. He could see how the Pokémon's gaze was crisp and clear. It looked determined to find the boy.

Some may have confused Charmeleon's gaze with that of a hunter seeking prey, especially while viewing Charmeleon's large fangs, but in reality, the red lizard was just curious. Mike had grown to realize that Charmeleon was indeed a very curious, and above all adventurous Pokémon. And there was no point in trying to change that with Charmeleon; it was in it's blood (not that Mike ever had a reason for wanting to do so; after all, he was the same way).

Charmeleon scurried around the corner and disappeared from Mikes view. A few seconds later, it reappeared, sliding to a stop against the slick linoleum floor, while pointing at the boy (whom Mike could still not see). Mike chuckled to himself at Charmeleon's enthusiasm. He then picked up some speed and rounded the corner. Now the boy was in clear view.

As he approached, Mike's mind slowly began filling with questions and speculations. Who is this kid? Is he a trainer? He looks to young... And why did he leave like that? Did he just happen to stumble into our room, or had he wanted to ask something? Maybe he saw us in the lobby?

Mike finally caught up with the kid. The boy seemed to be off in a hurry, but wasn't running or anything, so he was probably oblivious to the fact that he had been followed. Mike gently grabbed the spikey haired boy's shoulder and tried to get the his attention.
"Hey kid, slow down a bit, I wanna ask you something!"

The kid did indeed slow down and turned to face Mike. The boy had to tilt his head up to meet the eyes of the older trainer. Mike eyed the boy, who looked like he had been caught doing something bad; at the very least he looked quite nervous.

[OOC- Sorry for the short post, I didn't quite know where you were going with this, so I decided to take it as far as I could without ruining any potential plans you had for the kid... Anyway, it is just great how you manage to add these unexpected elements to the RP, it spices things up! ]

 

[LaenVulpix]

"C'mon!" Grey exclaimed rather unnecessarily to Pika and Reiu, starting out after Mike and the curious Charmeleon in their pursuit. A light impact on his head suggested that the small Pikachu was hitching a ride, and the startling white Charmander was closing in on Mike.

He skidded comically out into the abandoned corridor to catch sight of Mike whipping around a corner - feeling like a detective tailing a suspect, Grey darted afterwards. He flitted around a last corner and nearly knocked into Mike, who ad apprehended the whimsical boy and was talking to him. Reiu sat back on its haunches in expectancy of a long conversation, but Pika leaned out curiously, shoving the trainer's loose bangs down in front of his eyes. As if to bargain with it, Grey hefted the short-furred Pokémon under its short arms and held it at his stomach.

Appearently Mike had already asked the undersized boy something, because he looked miserably nervous. "I...I was, um, just going to..well I wanted..." the kid's golden eyes seemed welded to his feet. "..I was going to ask whether...if...ifyouwouldshowmehowtocatchmyownPokémonandfight!" as soon as his tongue unstuck it seemed eager to spill out everything all at once. By some miracle Grey was able to decipher it, and remained wisely silent, curious as to how Mike (who appearently was involved in the conversation) would respond.

Reiu was studying the raven-haired trainer-to-be in a manner that Grey was familiar with. It was as if the lizard-like creature was analyzing him, and deciding how much respect he deserved. Its soft blue flames weren't so feriously burning, but were rather subdued, as if to prevent alarming the agitated youth. As if in contrast, the spikey-tailed PIkachu was taking to anything and everything with an impatient interest - Pika wanted to know everything available to it in as little time as possible and then move on. Its small button of a nose twitched in curiosity in rhythm with its ears, which ear shifting inconstantly around, never settling on a particular direction.

Grey felt a bit of a connection with the boy. His initial greeting to Mike had been overly blunt and had seemed random at the time...and he'd been equally nervous. As far as his vote was, the scrawny boy had a lot of courage not to run off once more, though Mike's kind but restraining hnad might've contributed somewhat to that. Truthfully, Grey was jealous that he hadn't caught up to the tawny-eyed boy first and received the embarrassed request. Helping to start another trainer's career seemed ego-boosting as well as the right thing to do.

[OOC -Omigosh, sorry for the poor and un-spell checked post...really I am. I watched 2 movies in succession with the family, and then took a bath, and then straightened my hair, and now must rush to bed. Oh, and YAAHAAA 101st post. Let'sa keep everything rolling~~]

 

[daxx0r]

Mike was slightly surprised by the request. He had imagined that the boy wanted to challenge Mike and Grey or something, not ask them to become his mentors.
"Err... well, that was kind of out of the blue, but sure... I err.. we'll be glad to help!" said Mike, careful not to exclude Grey from his reply. After all, Grey was a trainer, who seemed to be learning quickly and showed quite a bit of talent; there was no reason Mike should be responsible for all of the teachings the boy was asking for, leaving Grey on the sidelines. Mike winked at Grey and then turned back to the boy.

"So anyway, why don't you come back to our room, and we can talk about it some more?" asked Mike as he extended his arm in the direction of the room. The boy's eyes lit up. Clearly, he was very happy to have gotten a foot in the door with the trainers!
"All right, sir!" replied the boy enthusiastically. Mike wasn't used to being called 'sir', but understandably, it grew on him instantly. As he turned to lead the way back to the room, he couldn't help but grin to himself when nobody was looking.

As they all re-entered the room, Mike re-seated himself in the bed. He didn't let his body collapse this time. It felt as if he needed to sit straight, or at least semi straight, in order to show that he was worth the respect the kid was giving him. The boy came in to the room and stood anxiously just inside the door. He was very nervous and almost jumped through the roof when the door closed behind them.

"Why don't you come in and have a seat?" invited Mike and yanked one of the chairs along the opposite wall into the middle of the room. The boy quietly and very stiffly went into the room and took the seat. He looked cautiously up at the two trainers. The enthusiasm that the boy had shown outside, in the hallway had now turned back into nervousness.
"Hey kid, relax! You don't need to be so frozen up." said Mike cheerfully, trying to break the ice, "Let's start off with the names, eh? I'm Mike, and this is Grey. And over there are Charmeleon and Reiu."

The boy brushed some of his spikey, dark hair away from his eyes as he checked out the trainers and their Pokémon.
"I... um... I'm Taylor." said the boy, smiling awkwardly while shifting his gaze between Mike and Grey.
"Nice to meet you Taylor," replied Mike and extended his hand. Taylor took it and shook it lightly. "So, what did you want us to do for you, again?"
"If... if you... Could you help me catch and fight with Pokémon?" came the reply. Taylor wasn't speed-talking any more, but he was keeping his voice very low. Mike hoped this was a sign of improvement.

Mike looked over at Grey for a while and exchanged a smile. He then turned back to Taylor.
"Well, I guess we could teach you a thing or two..." he said, "you look a bit too young to be a trainer though, am I right?"
"Yes sir." replied the boy, "I'm only nine since last week, but that's almost ten and I want to prepare for my journey..."
"Hmmm, well, there are a lot of kids out there that have Pokémon before they start training, so we can help you catch one." debated Mike, rubbing his chin while thinking through the situation, "And I guess we could tell you about the basics of battling, but you'll have to promise us not to go off challenging trainers until you're ten, ok?"

Taylor nodded decisively,trying to appear confident and sure of himself.
"Grey," said Mike, after acknowledging the nod, "When do you think we should do this? Cause I mean, we could probably show him a thing or two today, but then again, you have your battle tomorrow and you may want to rest..."
"Battle?" inquired Taylor as Mike waited for a reply.

[OOC- I think the Taylor character is developing nicely, but he is your creation, so if you had any other ideas for him, just let me know and I'll edit the post ]

 

[LaenVulpix]

[OOC- Actually, you developed his persona exactly (if not more so) like I was imagining! The bemusing thing is that I'm using my personality for him...shy but determined and everything. ]

BIC-


Grey, who had followed the duo back to their room in a proportionately more orderly fashion then they had barreled out of it, flopped down peacefully on the carpetted blue floor. After crossing his legs Indian-style and depositing Pika in the nook formed, Grey drew his attention back to the battle at hand. It wasn't even the day of the gym battle and he was in a vicious war over strategy versus affection. Every time he asked himself which two Pokémon to use, his mind instantly responded, Reiu and Pika!, as if there were no other choices in the matter.

If he could obtain Ikeiru's consent, if nothing else, then the female fighting-type would dominate - but he was worried about the mere idea of releasing the grudge-holding Mankey, much less training it. Nezi was quick, but a hard blow from a rock type might cause serious damage to the purple rodent; neither Sora nor Fero would be able to deal with any sort of blow from the rock types, and that left only Reiu and Pika.

Reiu would fare well as long as it kept moving and dodging the majority of rock-based techniques....and Pika was completely hopeless when it came to effecting ground- or rock-types. Maybe I should have more trust in one of them besides Reiu... Grey realized, absentmindedly stroking the Pikachu's silky yellow fur.

"Grey,when do you think we should do this? Cause I mean, we could probably show him a thing or two today, but then again, you have your battle tomorrow and you may want to rest..."

Not only did Grey have no idea what had become of the conversation before it had refocused on him, but now he was expected to put forth a decision. Not in a while had he regretted daydreaming so fiercely.

"Wha- ...um...I don't see why we shouldn't," he replied in a stalling manner, "I have all tonight and in the morning to figure everything out, right?"

His brain was quick to figure out what 'your battle' was referring to, and other than that it was ab lib. He smiled sheepishly at the boy, whose pale appearance rivaled his own. The boy, Taylor return ed the smile identically, and both boys laughed.

"By the battle, Mike means I'm going to commit suicide - that is, I plan on going for the Boulder badge tomorrow." he explained in a marginally more relaxed voice.

The awe on the dark haired youth was almost comical, and Grey had to wonder if Taylor remembered the much more impressive collection of badges Mike had been polishing when he made his debut. "Wow...if I can get up early enough, could I....I dunno....watch?" he asked with a heap of enthusiasm, golden eyes dancing with the mere idea of witnessing such a thing.

Taken by surprise, Grey glanced over to Reiu for support, and the white lizard grinned toothily in encouragement.

"Well, I definitely don't mind...just promise not to laugh if I end up getting totaled out there," he finally answered, winking at Taylor.

With a mile-wide, beaming smile, Taylor swept back his short hair. It might have been cut short, but the strands still managed to flop into his eyes enough to be a hindrance.
"So," added in Grey, yawning as he shook the remnants of sleep form his body, "Do you have a certain type of Pokémon that you're looking for?"

It was Taylor's turn to look moderately unprepared, but he quickly enough admitted his fetish. "Actually...I was hoping for a Sandshrew....but I'm not allowed to go up the mountain by myself, so I waited."

Getting far enough up the mountain to find Sandshrew scurrying about wouldn't take but an hour or so, if Grey recalled where he had caught signs of their borrows correctly. He exchanged this information with Mike and their new trainee before gently picking up Pika and managing to climb to his feet.

"But maybe we could wait until tomorrow to catch a Sandshrew, and teach you all about fighting and training and the basics today." he suggested, the first sign that he'd be more energetic after his challenge with Brock had been completed.

 

[daxx0r]

"Sounds good!" replied Mike, who had been listening in on the conversation that had shifted to between Grey and Taylor. He got to his feet again and brushed some non-existing dirt off his pants.
"How about we go outside for this? We might have an easier time showing you stuff in an open area," suggested Mike and waved Charmeleon over, as he got ready to go. As expected, Taylor nodded in agreement, and without further ado, Mike stepped out of the room.

He didn't go outdoors immediately. In stead he turned and headed towards the laundry room. It had been a while since they had left their clothes in the dryer and Mike hoped they were finished. He didn't really want to go outside with only a robe on.
"Hold on just a second Taylor. I'm just going to get my clothes." explained Mike briefly. He entered the laundry room and moved over to the dryer he had occupied. It had finished it's drying, so Mike opened the door and took his clothes. He put them on, and made sure they were whole and unburned. Obviously satisfied with the result of the drying, he smiled to Grey and Taylor before leaving the room.

He imagined Taylor was quite excited to learn about training, and there's no time like the present, so Mike didn't see a reason for hanging around. Since he had left the room first, Mike more or less led the group out to the lobby. Despite the fact that the corridors were quite similar to each other, and kind of resembled a maze, Mike found he was learning how to find his way through them rather easily.

As they entered the large open room that was the lobby, Nurse Joy called to them from the front desk.
"Be careful out there boys, and remember: Curfew's at nine tonight!"
Mike smiled and waved back at the Nurse, acknowledging that he had heard the message. He walked through the door and stopped just outside the center.

Mike took in some of the fresh air. They had been inside for quite some time now, and the clouds were beginning to clear. The air still smelled of fresh rain though, and since it was getting a bit late, the sun was hanging low and the parted clouds didn't provide particularly much extra light. The ground outside the center was mainly composed of a very well kept lawn. It was wet, but not soggy, so Mike imagined it would work for their purposes.

"All right, Taylor. We're going to teach you the basics now," explained Mike as he saw Taylor standing a bit away; curious, but still nervous about the whole situation. Mike called Charmeleon to approach. He then knelt down next to it, approaching both Charmeleon's and Taylor's eye-level.
"Ok kid," said Mike trying to look like a serious trainer, "The first and foremost thing you have to know about Pokémon is that they are your partners. You don't own them, and you don't control them. It's a mutualistic and friendly brotherhood." Mike threw his left arm around Charmeleon's shoulders and smiled at it. Taylor didn't know what 'mutualistic' meant, but he was too occupied with listening to the rest of Mike's speech to be bothered by it.

"When you battle with your Pokémon it's because they love you and trust you, and they want to show their affection by battling. If they didn't want to battle, you wouldn't be able to get them to do it. So partially, you need to give them love and care in return in order to be a good battler." Mike took a small pause. He wanted the information to have time to sink into Taylor. He then continued, "However, it's also important that you take enough command that they'll respect you and trust your judgment. Fact is that without your guidance, they can't win. Therefore, partially, you're Pokémon also have to believe in you if you want to win. It's kind of in a balance... Not to much discipline, but not too little either. And they need a lot of love, ha ha!"

MIke felt like he had been talking for hours, even if it had only been seconds. He would be relieved if his partner took over a bit. He removed an empty Pokéball from his belt and tossed it casually over to Grey.
"You want to tell him a little bit about the actual capturing, Grey? Or if you have something to add?" he asked, switching over the attention to his partner. Mike didn't know if Grey appreciated the spotlight, but he imagined that he did.

 

[LaenVulpix]

The first thing Grey noticed as the trio trouped out of the Pokémon Center's front entrance was that there were Caterpie scattered everywhere. It was presumably the clean, fresh dewdrops of water dangling off of everything, but the small green insect-types had been attracted to reveal themselves in plain view to citizens. There were a couple on the sparsely placed trees, and they were like Miltank grazing placidly on the front lawn.

The weather had improved with their absence, the sky changing back to its subtle light blue, and the clouds had made their transition from stormy grey to the basic fluffy white. The outside air was crisp and wet, and although the Center was air-conditioned, Grey felt the cool breeze ruffling his freshly-washed jacket and smiled vaguely. Natural elements overruled synthetic comforts, he thought as he compared the two. Well...bathrooms are a plus, he considered silently, following Mike off to a patch of mostly unoccupied lawn.

It took the older trainer only a few moments to get the importance of friendship and trust across to the wild-haired Taylor, but from his friend's face, Grey guessed that Mike felt it had been eternal. It was still unexpected when Mike shifted the tracks off to him, but the previous occasion had him better-prepared.

He laughed lightly as Mike tossed him an unoccupied Pokéball, catching it deftly in his left hand. The small metallic orb thudded soundly when it hit his palm, but Grey's fingers closed around the ball nonetheless. He rolled the catching instrument around in his hands for a thoughtful moment, then gestured over to Taylor. The scrawny boy was at his side in an instant, but his attention was still on Mike. Clearly the words had boosted Taylor's opinion of him, and now the boy was keen to catch any and all comments Mike had to offer.

"Well...you summed up everything worth saying, actually..." Grey remarked with a sheepish grin. "It's kind of hard to explain how to catch a Pokémon, so how about I just show you? Then I'll let you try it."

The statement drew the golden-eyed youth's full notice - namely because the trainer had suggested he actually fight against a Pokémon. Grey looked momentarily to Mike for support, then led Taylor across the well-kept lawn and over to a particularly average Caterpie. The caterpillar-like Pokémon completely ignored them, its circular mouth busy nibbling at the lightly saturated grass...Grey had a feeling it would regret that before long.

"Are you really going to fight one?" the dark haired boy inquired in a hushed voice, as if the Caterpie just hadn't noticed their enormous existence yet.

"Yep. Then you're going to do the same thing." Grey replied in a normal speaking voice. The Caterpie looked up lazily from its meal, then continued its lackadaisical snacking. Only thinking for a moment, the trainer's fingers danced over his newly-donned Pokébelt. It was a reflexive maneuver to do so, but then he declared, "Pika, let's see how you fight!"

The small, slim Pikachu's pointed ears cocked backwards as a serious expression crossed its face, then it leaped down from its temporary (perhaps) trainer's head. It landed neatly in the short, emerald green grass on all fours, ready to fight. Grey figured it would be best to explain his actions in his battle, and then observe how much the boy caught on to in his own battle.

"Alright, Taylor, usually you have to choose which Pokémon you want to use before you fight, and then you release them from their Pokéball. But Pika's just a freeloader, so he doesn't have a Pokéball," Grey joshed, turning from Pika to Taylor, and then back to Pika and the accompanying Caterpie.

"Then you give them a command..it doesn't just have to be attacks though...it can be a big help to them in battle if you're watching to give them tips and strategy..." he trailed off and then gestured to the ready Pikachu.

"Alright Pika, let's give it a Thundershock, and try to tackle it before it can run off or tangle you up...Caterpie thread can be a pain," he told the yellow mouse, holding the empty Pokéball casually at his side and tucking the other hand inside his jacket pocket.

"Piika!"

With that, Pika's body flashed brightly with stored electricity - it crackled briefly before shooting over to the ignorant Caterpie and lighting it up, too. With a frantic cry of surprise, the green Pokémon went tumbling head over heels, followed by the charging Pikachu. At the exact moment that it uprighted its segmented body, Pika barreled into it, sending them both rolling. The small Pikachu landed heavily on top as they slowed down, but sprung quickly away as the weakened Caterpie attempted a half-hearted String Shot attack. The strong white thread wrapped uselessly around a tree branch instead, and while the bug-type tried to orientate itself again, Grey turned to Taylor again.

"Once you think a Pokémon is weak enough you can try to catch it..if it's not weakened and doesn't want to be captured, then you'll probably end up wasting a Pokéball." he explained, presenting the minimized device to their new ward.

That said, he tapped the white clasp to the Pokéball, letting the ball expand in his hand. ow that he was explaining everything to someone else, Grey realized how mysterious the minimizing and enlarging of Pokéballs were - but he dismissed it as he threw the ball once up in his hand, caught it, then chucked it suddenly at the weary Caterpie. As it made contact, the bug-type Pokémon was engulfed in the absorbing red energy before disappearing into the ball. It landed with a soft thud on the damp grass, and proceeded to shake back in forth in a steady motion. After about five shakes, the white button flashed a brief red, and the click of success was heard.

"And that's that, I suppose," he finished up, smiling fondly as Pika fetched the newly occupied Pokéball from its resting place. Clenching the round object in its mouth in a very much similar way that it had carried a ripe apple not too long ago, the Pikachu trotted back up to Grey and climbed unimpeded up his pants leg. As soon as it had released the captured Caterpie's Pokéball in his hand, Pika continued its ascention up to Grey's loose hat.

"So, ready to try? I'll start you off with a different Pokémon; Pika's new, so he's lower level than some of my others," Grey admitted plucking another Pokéball from his belt while at the same time offering the Caterpie's ball to Mike. "It is your Pokéball." he commented.

He let go of Nezi's Pokéball as soon as he felt Taylor's hands cupped securely around the red and white sphere. The hopeful trainer-in-training seemed devoid of color as he stared weakly at ball, then looked up again at Mike - he caught himself and shifted his line of vision back to Grey.

"B-but I'm not...I don't know any attacks." he murmured shyly, blushing slightly.
"Oh! Of course-" Grey dug his Pokédex from the confines of his jeans' pockets, and handed it carefully, opened, to Taylor."I'm sorry. Just look at this list - that's all of the attacks a Rattata can use."

[OOC- You can do Taylor's battle ^-^ You're just as good as I am at playing his character ;D]

 

[daxx0r]

Mike caught the ball, surprised at having it returned to him. He hadn't really imagined he'd end up getting a new Pokémon. He looked at it and winked at Grey before re-attaching it to his belt. Then, Mike turned his attention to Taylor who was standing, almost frozen in place, a few feet away. It was clear that Taylor was nervous. This was his first battle after all. However it was also clear that Taylor was determined to do it.

"So do I just start?" asked Taylor awkwardly. He looked back at the two trainers, who nodded.
"Just pick the Caterpie you want to battle, and then release Nezi." said Mike, making sure Taylor would know what to do. The boy scanned the field and eventually found a medium-sized Caterpie from the grass.
"Ok, go!" yelled Taylor, unsure if he had to yell 'Rattata' or 'Nezi' as he released it. The purple rodent materialized and turned around, surprised not to see Grey.
"Rat?" it asked nervously, before spotting Grey a few feet away. Nezi concluded that it was simply battling for a friend of Grey (and hadn't for example, been given away) and turned back to Taylor.

Taylor looked at it in slight wonder, amazed at how intelligent the little rodent seemed to be. He realized his attention wasn't were it should have been and nervously returned his gaze to the Caterpie he had picked. Then, just as he was opening his mouth to command Nezi, Taylor blushed as he realized he didn't know what to say. He looked down at the pokédex in his hand and took a closer look. He carefully turned the red device, examining it, before finally opening the display and seeing the small display on the machines left side light up. It's scanner immediately picked up Nezi and displayed it's information.

"Rattata - a forest Pokémon. Its fangs are long and very sharp. They grow continuously, so it gnaws on hard things to whittle them down." said an electronic voice in the pokédex. Grey probed his way around the controls of the pokédex and eventually managed to find a list of Nezi's attacks.

Mike looked on in pleasure at how Taylor was exploring the pokédex. It made him think of when he was first exposed the world of Pokémon training. He had been occupied with the little machine when he first got one too. He had actually hoped to get a manual with it, but Mike was just handed the device, and had to figure it out by himself.

Taylor now looked over to Nezi again, and then at the Caterpie.
"Err... tackle attack?" suggested Taylor. The Rattata turned around again, making sure that Taylor was serious about the command.
"Hey Taylor, try to be more decisive when you choose your attacks." said Mike, seeing Nezi's hesitation, "You need to show Nezi that you know what you're doing by being sure of yourself. Otherwise it won't trust you and you'll be at a serious disadvantage..."

"Ok, I'll try..." replied Taylor, "Nezi, Tackle attack!" This time, the Pokémon reacted and went to attack, slightly more pleased with Taylor.
"Raaaattata!" it screeched as it head butted into the Caterpie. The small green Pokémon immediately countered with a stringshot.
"What do I do?!" asked Taylor in a rather panicked voice.
"Hurry up and tell it to dodge!" yelled Mike. He didn't mean to yell as he saw Taylor become rather startled by it, but he was very focused on the battle and he was just talking like he would have if he was commanding Nezi.

"Go! Dodge!" tried Taylor, watching as the stringshot caught the Rattata's tail, wrapping it in silk. Luckily the purple rodent managed to get away before it was too late.
"Err..." continued Taylor as he looked back at the pokédex, "Hyperfang!" The Rattata turned on a pin and charged towards the slow moving Caterpie. The bug Pokémon tried more string-shots but Rattata managed to dodge them as it was attacking. Finally it got in close and sank it's fangs into the green bug.

The Caterpie tried shaking the Rattata off of it, but eventually tired and simply collapsed. Thankfully, Caterpie weren't known for their impressive stamina and battling abilities, so it was fairly easy to defeat. Thus it was a good choice as a Pokémon for Taylor to battle. It rolled over on it's side in defeat. Taylor looked at the trainers, wondering what to do next.
"Well, you beat it! Congratulations, Taylor." said Mike cheerfully, "So do you want to catch it now or should we wait until we have a Sandshrew? Whatever you decide, though, make it snappy, cause if you want to keep this one, we need to get you a ball. I don't know about Grey, but I don't have any more spares with me, and it'll take time to get one. And the Caterpie is eventually going to get up and leave if we wait too long..."

[OOC- Sorry if the post is cruddy. Took me quite some time to write (I was speaking to my brother on MSN at the same time, and it ended up taking one and a half hours), so I didn't read through it carefully ]

 

[LaenVulpix]

Taylor shuffled his feet uncertainly for a second, but was spurred into motion by Mike's abrupt suggestion that he hurry. He looked hopefully at Grey for reassurance before talking.

"Erm...I wanted to try to catch it....but I'd rather wait for my own-" Confused, the boy trailed off as Grey started to feel his belt, clearly checking for an unoccupied Pokéball. A few seconds later he pulled a shrunken ball from the magnetic clasps, smiling slyly at his achievement.

"I put three more claps on by myself, just for emergencies," he explained over to Mike, who might know that he already had met his quota of six Pokémon.

He tossed it, still the size of a large marble, to Taylor, who promptly dropped it and sunk to his knees in the wet grass to find the small sphere. Grey coughed rather quietly in embarrassment but said nothing. He wanted the raven haired boy to get used to handling the smaller versions of Pokéballs as well, and he assumed that Mike could guess what he had in mind.

"If you don't want it, catch it and I'll take it off your hands," he said after Taylor had successfully retrieved the metallic object and fumbled the button to make it expand. "I guess you could say I'm a Pokémon fanatic, and I don't happen to have a Caterpie yet by some miracle."

At this complete dismissal of his mishap, Taylor retained some of his confidence and nodded in acknowledgement to Grey. "Th-thanks," he stuttered weakly, eyes wondering back over to the forfeited Caterpie. "Pokéball, go!" he said in a way that suggested that the announcement of the Pokéball was necessary to him.

The bobber-colored ball sailed from his trembling fingers and thudded on the weakened Caterpie's feelers before popping open and drawing the Pokémon into it in a beam of red light. Without the physical resistance, the orb dropped the remaining foot onto the ground. It gave a singular, half-hearted wiggle, then chimed in confirmation.

As Taylor turned to him with overjoyed eyes, Grey laughed, and patted him heartily on the back. It was as if, with Mike around, he was full of confidence and found it easy to be social. Already the idea of Mike and him going separate ways made him feel alone. Dismissing this drivel thought from consideration, Grey let Taylor go pick up the second Caterpie-containing Pokéball of the day.

He glanced around to check nature's clock, the sun's position, and found that the glowing orange ball was touching the highest treetops. He sighed wearily, surprised that it was still so early in the day after all they'd done. It occurred to him that Taylor knew nothing of his healing ability, and for a moment the fear that the boy might discover it chilled his heart.

No...I just won't manually heal anyone until we're out of town," he thought, trying to calm his nerves. He glanced shiftily at Mike with a panicked expression before he could hide it - the next second it was gone and replaced with a bemused smirk.

"Well, looks like the other Caterpie are starting to rethink their priorities!" he laughed, gesturing with his index finger to the remaining scattered bug-types. They appeared to still be grazing, but their eyes flitted constantly to the trio of boys, making sure that one of them wasn't going to casually approach them. A few even started to crawl away, their segmented bodies inching slowly towards the nearest grove of trees.

Nezi trotted cheerily up to its trainer and twitched its whiskers energetically before bounding coyly to the nearest Caterpie and chittering in its face. The purple rodent got a face full of Caterpie-string for its efforts, and Grey traded stares with Taylor before both broke out laughing.

"Raaaa...at.." muttered Nezi mutinously, trying diligently to paw off the coat of sticky white thread. Taylor juggled around the Pokédex, the Caterpie's Pokéball, and Nezi's Pokéball in his arms then offered the bundle to Grey, seeing as everything was his.

Quickly re-attaching the new addition to his rapidly growing collection of species, Grey pocketed the uniform red Pokédex, jotting down a mental note to read up on the details of every one of his Pokémon before going to sleep. He kneed down and peeled off his befuddled Rattata's unwanted face mask before holding out its Pokéball to return it. But almost instantly he drew his arm back.

"Erm...as a side note, be ready to catch your Pokéball again after you release your Pokémon...and if you throw your Pokéball to return your Pokémon, then be ready to catch it again after that too. They tend to bounce back after you throw 'em unless you're capturing. It's a handy feature if you're prepared."

To demonstrate, he lobbed Nezi's ball down to the rat, and caught it easily without moving as it withdrew the Pokémon and bounded back to his hand without touching the dew-coated lawn. He let the magnet clips on his belt catch on the minimized ball and then stood rather awkwardly in front of the others.

"Um...anything else, Mike?" he asked, poorly containing the hope that he may get in training time before curfew was in place. And before that he wanted to check out his Pokémon's levels, a function available on his Pokédex that had eluded his mind until now.

Taylor, at least, looked positively cheerful. The next day he had a gym battle to watch, and catching his very own Sandshrew to look forward to, so excitement on his behalf was more than understandable. Grey felt a brief pang of pity for the kid. How many trainers did he try to ask, only to be laughed off? he wondered, recalling the tawny-eyed kid's initial doubt.

As the sun collided more fully with the treeline, the sky began to show hues and shades of delicate colors. Pinks, purples, an subtle hints of orange flickered amongst the saturated-blue background, doing the trainer's dreary mind some good.

[OOC - vw00t, I actually got a post done before tomorrow Is it just me or have my post-times been getting later? Oh wells, I finished my second Mystery Dungeon comic today, and went to see a movie around 4:00 p.m., and then ate out at Chinese for dinner. All considering, I s'pose I made okie time~]

 

[daxx0r]

Mike contemplated it for a second or two. He had gotten so used to the procedures of training, that they usually came to him instinctively... Thus he had a hard time picking out the individual tasks involved in battling and capturing Pokémon for explaining them to Taylor.
"Hmmm.... well, I guess the only other thing we could teach you regarding this is... er... I can't think of anything new, but I do think you need to learn how to control the Pokémon better." said Mike.

Taylor looked at Mike with a slightly embarrassed expression.
"Oh, no! Don't get me wrong; you did great out there!" replied Mike quickly as he saw Taylors expression, "For a first battle that was very good, but we all need to improve in one way or another..." Taylors expression faded slightly at the reassuring words.

"Could you tell me what... what to do?" said he while trying not to maintain eye-contact with Mike. He didn't dare see whether Mike looked angry at Taylor's failure. Of course, Mike wasn't angry in the slightest, but instead, only looked kindly at Taylor, trying to reassure him that he actually did ok in the battle.

"Hey, lazy-bones!" hollered Mike at Charmeleon, who had laid itself down on the grass. "Could you come over here for a while?" The Charmeleon, who had been watching the clouds for quite some time, tilted it's head sleepily over towards Mike, and then eventually got up and moved over to it's trainer's side.

"OK, Taylor, the first thing you have to realize is that you shouldn't be intimidated by your Pokémon." started Mike, "I get the feeling you were afraid to really command them back there, like you were afraid you might do something wrong..." Taylor looked at Mike in slight amazement. He hadn't really thought about it, but that was exactly what was going thorough his subconscious while he had been in the battle. Maybe Mike had been through the same thing?

"These Pokémon are your friends and your partners. They are on your level, neither above you or below you. Remember that. You don't control them and they don't control you." continued Mike, "You are all equals, and the only difference between you, battle-wise is that you have different tasks for the team. It's their job to do attacks, and it's your job to make sure the attacks land correctly and that your team isn't injured. Just like me and Charmeleon do. He's not my pet, he's my friend." He petted his partner on the head and looked back at Taylor.

Taylor hadn't thought of it that way. He had been responsible for the success of Nezi's attacks, and Nezi had been responsible for the success of his tactics. Taylor felt relieved that he wasn't the only one who determined whether or not the battle was to be won. And if the Pokémon fought for him, he could surely fight for it.

Mike noticed a slight change in Taylor's eyes. He seemed more confident. Mike was about to continue the lecture, but was cut short by the boy.
"I think... I think I get it now..." said Taylor quietly. Mike realized that he actually did get it. Taylor looked up at the trainers, still nervous, but very much different. Mike winked at him.
"Yeah, I think you do get it, Taylor... I don't believe there's more we could really tell you about the essence of training..."

Mike looked up at the sky. It was still blue, but getting darker by the second. Soon the night would be upon them, and with it came sleep, but as Mike looked over at Grey he sensed that the younger trainer didn't appreciate the darkness in the same way as he did. Mike imagined he wanted to get some more training done before it was too late.
"Grey," said Mike suddenly, "How about we do some training for tomorrow? It's good for you and I'm sure Taylor can learn a thing or two about techniques and such from watching."

[OOC- Hehe, I've been feeling the same thing about my posts And I look forward to seeing the new Mystery dungeon pages you were going to add to your art topic!]

 

[LaenVulpix]

[OOC- ;D Thanks~ After this post I'm actually going to get started on colorng the cover, and from there I have two comics to do. Plus that pic. for Katie-chan~]

BIC-

Grey's eyes ticked instantly to the sky as he realized that Mike had discovered his hopes. The sun hadn't moved an inch since the last time he had checked, about five seconds ago. He started to agree whole-heartedly, then the words caught in his throat as a thought crossed his mind. If he and Mike were going to train together, then he'd be afraid of making a bad choice and disappointing his friend. Nothing can be worse than the Mankey-incident, he reassured himself, unsticking his tongue.

"Sounds like a plan." he said enthusiastically. "I bet I'll be learning just as much as Taylor..." he remarked weakly.

Taylor's eyes narrowed in surprise - he had imagined that the two boys were on the same level, but now that he paid attention, the gray-haired boy did seem a bit antsy compared to Mike. He glanced back at the older trainer with newfound respect, and couldn't help but lower Grey to the same level as himself. In Taylor's shy eyes, Mike was quickly becoming an idol.

Seeing Mike call over for Charmeleon, Grey did the same, instead beckoning over Reiu. The oddly-colored species of Charmander trotted over readily, standing companionably next to its trainer. It's flickering blue flame swayed lightly back and forth with Reiu's tail as it wagged it without thinking - its claws clenched and unclenched in preparation for the upcoming exercise.

Grey was moderately...then extremely aware of a small group of trainers hanging out at the Pokémon Center entrance. They appeared to be milling around casually, but the trainer caught various pairs of eyes glancing constantly at him.

"Why do we have to have an audience..." he moaned, pointing with his own foggy-blue eyes towards the collection of six or seven trainers, most of which were around the same age as himself.

Taylor stared freely at them, the color on his cheeks growing with every passing second, and then skirted behind Mike. "My brother's there!" he exclaimed in a pained voice.

Grey wondered why a boy would be so afraid of his own kin - but then again, if Taylor had an older brother couldn't he get him to help catch a Pokémon and train it? The trainer let his own gaze sort through the multiple eyes until he found a set the identical color as Taylor's unique shade.

Immediately Grey took a disliking of the kid. He seemed sullen and cold, leaning against the metal wall of the Center with his arms crossed. He had on a long-sleeved black shirt and khaki cargo pants, with a jet-black cap hiding his hair. Although his eyes were equally golden compared to Taylor's, they seemed curt and condescending.

"Yeah...I agree with you, buddy." he muttered darkly to their new friend, turning back to Mike to prepare for the practice battle. Reiu growled disdainfully in the group's general direction, its small, sharp fangs bared.

I guess Reiu is uncomfortable with crowds too...I hope it's not like this tomorrow, Grey thought nervously, resting his 'Pokéball hand' (his left hand dominated in most things) on the Charmander's head.

 

[daxx0r]

Mike was, in contrast to the other two, rather happy that a crowd had gathered. He enjoyed showing off from time to time, and if people were willing to watch his practice battle, then it would only be for the better. If nothing else, it would force him to do his best, because if there was one thing he couldn't stand, it was giving the impression that he was going to show off, only to fail miserably. Mike was slightly aware of the fact that his mentality to the crowd might cause a problem in the battle- He might push himself more than should be necessary for a simple practice battle. On the other hand, this was preparation for Brock, and maybe it would be worse not to push Grey.

"All right, let's do this thing!" said Mike, completely psyched. Apart from the crowd, the major reason he was so worked up was because he'd finally get to battle Grey. There's only so much you can learn about a trainer from watching him battle; you don't get a full perspective until you actually battle against him yourself. Mike whipped out a pokéball from his belt, tossed it into the air, and caught it as it came down again.
"You think you can take me out, buddy?" toyed Mike. He quickly winked at Taylor, trying to include him in the battle as well, somehow.

The crowd was slowly getting larger, and although most of them seemed pretty enthusiastic about the oncoming battle, Taylor's brother was yet to be impressed. Mike hadn't really put much thought into him earlier, but now that Mike observed him a bit closer, it became more and more obvious that the guy was trying to look unimpressed. It was slightly annoying, but not enough so that Mike let himself be bothered by it.

Charmeleon looked up at it's trainer. It could see how Mike was burning for this battle, practically like a gym-battle, and as it's trainer played with the ball in his hand, Charmeleon couldn't help but feel a bit sad that it wasn't going to be used in the battle. Mike noticed this fairly quickly, and looked down at his friend with a kind smile on his face.
"Sorry buddy, but I'm afraid you'll have to pass on this one. But maybe you and Reiu could battle later? That would be interesting to say the least." Charmeleon apparently liked the idea; it gave Mike a claws-up and headed over to the side-lines of the battlefield, where Taylor was standing. It sat down with it's feet stretched out in front of it.

Taylor, who was happy to get some company, smiled like it was Christmas. Wow. To think they're going to have a real-live battle! And I get to watch! he thought to himself. He glanced over at his brother, who looked back with his sharp, almost unforgiving eyes. Taylor felt the joy drain from him as he did, and thus quickly returned his gaze to Mike and Grey. Why does he have to be like that? asked Taylor quietly to himself

Mike charged up his ball hand (which, incidentally was his left hand, just like Grey's) and smashed it into the ground in front of him. Maybe it was a slight bit overboard when it came to theatrics, but Mike didn't mind much. In front of him, the shape of a medium-sized bird, a Pidgeotto, appeared of the red energy contained in the Pokéball. It shook itself slightly and then impressively spread it's wings.
"Pidgeoooo!" It called. It was clear that Mike and his Pokémon had been practicing this kind of appearance. Mike had never wanted to be a coordinator, but he did see the point of making himself look theatrical when the situation called for it.

A smile spread across his face as he lifted his eyes from Pidgeotto to Grey.
"I'll go with Pidgeotto. How bout you?" he asked, "And by the way, I'm going to go tough on you - I think you could use a challenge in preparation for Brock tomorrow." He observed Grey for a few seconds, and then added "Oh, and you get the first move. My treat."

[OOC- Wanted to write some more, but I have a big test tomorrow and it's getting a bit late - Also, I just got Mystery dungeon and I need to play some more ;D]

 

[LaenVulpix]

[OOC- No problemo~ Though I gotta say Mike vs. Grey is uneven with all your second-evolutions ;D Fancy-shmancy, ne ne?]

BIC-

Grey hardly heard Mike's playful inquiry - his own mind was snapping through his choices to look for one of his Pokémon that needed leveling up. Nezi and Sora were on even ground, Reiu was above any of them, and Pika...would the small Pikachu be able to cope with a Pidgeotto?

"Hey Reiu, go keep Taylor company, else I might fall over you." he said comically, knowing that such an event wasn't out of the picture.

The Charmander was compliant enough, having caught wind of Mike's suggestion and everything. A competitive look danced in its sharp blue eyes as it curled up on the lawn to comfortably watch the battle. Grey looked minorly taken aback by his friend's theatrics, and shrugged wearily as he announced his choice.

"I don't have an extravagant display handy, but Pika, I might as well let you gain some ground on everybody else, right?" he announced, holding out his arm parallel to the ground for the Pikachu to spring off of.

If he hadn't had a routine set up, the mouse-like electrical Pokémon was improvising. It launched from his outstretched arm and flipped a single time in midair before landing on two legs approximately three yards from its opponent. Energized sparks danced coyly from its bright red cheeks and a brave and eager smirk complimented its face.

"Pika!" it announced readily, landing on all fours and crouching low to the ground, preparing itself for a fast start.

"Umm?" Grey blinked a few times before realizing that it was his Pokémon that had just entered the imaginary arena. A few more trainers that had been fighting through the audience towards the Center doors stopped to watch as well, apparently interested in the sparring Pokémon's professional entrances.

There's no way I'm, going to win this...and everybody watching. Then I'll never be able to show my face in Pewter again... Grey felt a nervous pessimism setting in, but amidst the panicked thoughts he reconsidered. Then again, most the trainers here are just passing by,

"Pii?" Pika looked back at him, wondering where his confident declaration was.

"Go all out if you want Mike," he said finally, his own eyes growing crystal-clear in a way that he was growing accustomed to. His senses seemed doubled, and he was ready for any situation - it was the feeling that came with a battle. "And I'll do my best."

Not the most boastful statement, but it was better than arrogantly proclaiming victory and then getting completely beaten. His expression changed to match Pika's, in fact, almost identically. He was, after all, almost sharing bodies and emotions with the small Pikachu.

The electric-type took a good look at the boy's face and its eyes grew serious. Forget about continuously reminding itself that it wanted to be free. It wanted to prove that it was going to do more than its best.

"Pi-KA-chu," it declared gamely, whipping back to face Mike and Pidgeotto.

At any other time they might be best friends. They could eat together and play games and share adventures; they could face challenges and get through them by teamwork any other time.

But right now, all Pika saw was a foe - and what Pika saw, Grey saw as well.

"You start. I've done it every other time, and this is supposed to be practice, right?" he shouted calmly to Mike his fear and worries gone.

All he had to worry about was doing his best.

[OOC -Ah, nothing like delaying the battle one more turn, huh? ]

 

[daxx0r]

[OOC- He he, never say never my friend- Pikachu managed to beat a Raichu in the Vermillion gym, remember?]

BIC-
Mike eyed his rival silently for a few seconds. Grey was up to the challenge. Mike could see how his eyes had somehow changed; they were clear, sharp, like the eyes of a bird of prey. This was going to be a very interesting battle indeed.
"You're letting me go first, eh?" toyed Mike, playfully tossing Pidgeotto's pokéball from one hand to the other. "If that's what you want, that's what we'll do!" He caught the ball in his right hand and re-attached it to his belt. Now it was time to start getting serious.

Charmeleon and Reiu, who were in the side-lines of the imaginary arena, eyed each-other carefully. Ever since Mike had suggested the battle between the two fire-types, Charmeleon had been watching his white friend with much interest. It was as if Charmeleon was scanning through Reiu's body, looking for any secrets or weaknesses he'd have to take into account. Until their battle was over, Reiu was Charmeleon's opponent; no more. And it felt that Reiu thought the same thing.

Also in the side-lines, Taylor sat down in the grass. He was looking excitedly at the two trainers, and thought of the battle which was quickly approaching it's start signal. Judging by the introductions that both Mike and Grey had put on, this battle could be nothing but exciting.
Taylor dreamed of some day becoming like them. He would battle gyms for badges and compete in battles and go to the Pokémon League for the championships... But he still had a long way to go in order to get there. It was almost unbearable to think about.

The excitement was building up in the crowd too. Some trainers had now actually exited the lobby and were parked against the outside walls of the Pokémon Center, ready to watch the battle.
"You gonna start this thing or what?" came a voice from the crowd.
"Yeah, let's start already!" came another. Taylor's brother still seemed uninterested and remained silent, but he also stuck around and was sure to get a good view of the two trainers. He eyed them coldly, ready to judge them at the slightest mistake.

"Ok, Pidgeotto!" yelled Mike suddenly, drawing everyones attention, "Quick-attack, now!" The bird took off towards Pika, accelerating quickly. It was no more than a white blur moving in a straight line towards the yellow rodent at breath-taking speed. As it flew through the air, it whipped up leaves and strands of grass from the lawn, making the grassy garden almost look like a choppy sea of green. Mike held his breath while waiting to see the result of the attack

[OOC- Ok, just a few things to bring up - First, battle rules: Don't really know how to do this, but the most obvious way is for you describe what happens with my attack, and then you counter itwith one of your own (or let it hit) and so forth? If you have a more structured idea, lemme know!

Oh and just a warning: My post lengths during the battle will probably be a tad short. I mean, if we stick to the rules above, there's only so much you can write, and describing the surroundings will probably get rather repetitive - but anyway, let's try to make thee posts at least reasonably long ]

 

[LaenVulpix]

[OOC - I agree with ye on that account - battle posts do tend to become more to-the-point than descriptive. But we can do our best~ Oh, and the battle rules are fine by me. Where I used to RP there were combination attacks (two in one turn) allowed, so forgive me if I slip up, and tell me. I'll fix it ASAP ;D ]

BIC-

Grey's hands clenched reactively as the Pidgeotto made its move. Quick Attacks tended to be inevitable, so he instead watched to see what effect the attack had on Pika. Depending on the Pikachu's defense, he would have to keep it moving and dodging.

The rapid attack had cuffed the Pikachu's ear, but nothing more. The cocky smile that played for the crowd had disappeared - the expression crossing the yellow electric-type's face now was one of utmost concentration. It took only a second for the crowd to see that Pika had dropped to the ground as soon as the majestic bird had launched at it. Its chest fur looked damp now, with a dried up leaf stuck to it.

Grey wasted no time, he didn't want Pidgeotto ready to counter any of the Pikachu's attacks so he had to be reflexive. Instinct seemed the safest bet here. As the flying-type came out of its dive, outspread wings beating at the air, Grey turned in symmetry with his small mouse-like Pokémon. He had already noted and stored the fact that Pidgeotto was faster as well as stronger than Pika - he just had to fix that.

"Pika, start off with Agility! Don't let it get a lock on you," he commanded in a harried breath.

It doesn't seem like much...but giving orders in battle is pretty revealing, he thought briefly, watching his undersized mouse Pokémon hunker low to the ground before darting across the ground.

It gained more and more speed until its body was just a series of afterimages leading to its actual form, and from there, Pika started to create complex and swerving paths. It would be near impossible for Pidgeotto to hit with anything that took aiming and time, now. Grey watched wordlessly and thoughtlessly for the next move, but his eyes kept up with Pika as best as possible, watching its brown-striped body flit from spot to spot. It left muddy spots where it had been, its claws digging into the wet grass and further into the mud.

"Not a very offensive start-out..." someone grumbled, disappointed after Pidgeotto's whirlwind display of speed.

Reiu growled dismissively, busy locking eyes with Charmeleon. It had to figure out everything about the older evolution - it had a head-start on the white Charmander after all. It let its deep blue eyes scan every inch of its newfound rival, noting claw size, arm and leg lengths, height, and from there tried to judge its advantages.

Taylor, meanwhile, had to put no effort into ignoring his older brother. It was true that the teenage boy was considerably more gifted in the aspect of training Pokémon, but ever since he had become a trainer, Aevin had become mocking and condescending. Taylor forgot about it now, watching Grey and Mike spar off. Both of their Pokémon had used speed-based attacks, and the youth had already given up on tracking the Pikachu's movements. By the time his eyes focused on the bright yellow shape, it was gone.

Grey blinked in a disoriented manner as his vision started to merge with Pika's. He was astounded by how slowly everything else seemed to be going - the effects of Agility, presumably. By now the trainer guessed that his vision flowed together with that of his Pokémon during battles because their goals and emotions were so closely linked during those times. Either way, it made for a very...educational experience.

 

[daxx0r]

[OOC- For once, I'm gonna write this at 4pm, like I did in the beginning, instead of at 11pm. I feel I've been too tired to put out any good posts lately, and they've taken me forever to do so late at night...]

BIC-

Mike was surprised that Grey hadn't even attempted to dodge the quick-attack. Though it probably would have hit anyway, it was almost as if Grey wanted Pidgeotto to succeed in it's attack. Is he trying to size me up? wondered Mike, He's got some sort of plan for me, but what?

Mike didn't have time to think very much, as the yellow rodent had begun an impressive agility attack. Mike couldn't keep up with it, but he didn't let this panic him. Pidgeotto on the other hand, was becoming severely distracted. In trying to track the Pikachu, it was forgetting about everything else and soon found itself on a dangerously low altitude, and at a somewhat slow speed.

Mike acted instinctively, seeing the danger of the situation. If Pidgeotto kept this slow, low-altitude flying up, it would get hit for sure.
"Pidgeotto, go up!!!" he cried, hoping that the bird would react in time. It snapped out of the daze of tracking Pikachu and veered off trying to gain altitude. The Pikachu made a jump for it, attempting to get a hit in before it was too late.

Time seemed to come to a stand-still as everyone was watching the Pikachu approach Pidgeotto.
"SPIN!!!" yelled Mike desperately, trying to get his flying-type to avoid the hit. Pidgeotto did as it was told, but it was too slow. The Pikachu got a good hit in on it's wing and the bird went flying off course. The hit wasn't too damaging though; Pidgeotto could still function and the event only seemed to have angered it.

The crowd was clapping and cheering, as the battle was finally becoming exciting. In the midst of the crowd, several people had started betting on who the winner would be and discussing the strategy that the two trainers were displaying. Aevin was still silent though, evenly keeping one eye on the battle and one eye on his younger brother in the grass. As the crowd's excitement grew, Aevin eventually left it, positioning himself against the wall of the Pokémon center a few feet away from the others. He wasn't very impressed with the battle, and the noise was just annoying, so he wanted to be as far away from the others as possible.

"Pidgeotto, don't loose your focus!" thought Mike. He eyed Grey, looking at him with new-found respect. He's so fast, thought Mike, I had no time to prepare myself for his attack! Grey was not as easy to beat as he had thought, despite the fact that he was relatively new at training. Mike was afraid the situation might get ugly if Grey thought of using electrical attacks. He had to take this to the next level and end it before it got that far. If he wants speed, let's give him speed... he thought to himself.

"Pidgeotto, Aerial Ace! Go!" yelled Mike, trying to keep up with his opponent's attack speed. The bird quickly passed over the Pikachu and climbed almost straight up. As it did, it sped up to the point of being practically invisible. Then, in a flash it appeared again, this time in front of Pikachu, and only a few inches off the ground. It had a mean expression on it's face as it closed in on Pika, ready to get some pay-back for the wing.

[OOC- And thar we go! I guess we can keep these posts adequately long throughout the battle ]

 

[LaenVulpix]

[OOC - Yar indeed~]

BIC-


Grey smiled, impressed even through his natural worry. Pidgeotto had managed to evade a critical hit from Pika with its mid-air pirouette, and Mike had countered speed with heightened speed. The very description of Aerial Ace, quoted from his uniform red Pokédex, had been "An extremely speedy and unavoidable attack". Not very encouraging for the battling rodent-Pokémon out on the field.

Yet, the electric-yellow Pikachu was still energized with the effects of Agility, so maybe...

"Pika, try to slow its momentum down!"

Pika's long, stalk-ish ears flattened against its furry skull as Pidgeotto obeyed Mike's command. It beat its large wings a few times before flitting out of Grey's vision - but not entirely from Pikachu's. The bird-type reappeared at a shocking speed, right in front of Pika, wings spread to barrel over the tiny mouse.

A few spectators gasped at the light-speed movement coming from the adolescent-stage of the Pidgey-evolutions, and various murmurs passed throughout the crowd once more. Aevin studied the bird, his golden eyes analyzing it almost as effectively as a Pokédex. He could almost judge its level - and it was quite a bit better than the Pikachu it was going up against. Meanwhile, he wondered bitterly why Taylor, his awkward little brother, was in the company of two trainers. The boy had always been intimidated and easily alarmed by the creatures' presence, so why hang out with two older boys that clearly lived for Pokémon?

The older boy forcefully dismissed this thought, annoyed that he had even brought it up to himself. All he had to figure out was which of the two would be a worthy opponent for him - if he could beat a traveling trainer then his paranoid, ever-repremanding parents had to let him leave. And with that, he and Nidorino, the evolution he had trained since its earliest years, would be free to become the most legendary duo in the histoy of Kanto.

As Pidgeotto resumed a physical form mere inches in front of Pikachu's button nose, Grey nearly blurted out his command before the raptor had commenced its maneuver. Pidgeotto's claws raked down, intent on catching Pika even if it tried to duck below its incoming wings.

"Piika!" Startled somewhat by Pidgeotto's fierce face so close to its own, the yellow Pokémon reared onto its hind legs. As such, Pidgeotto's claws weren't needed to knock Pika on its back - but instead of falling helplessly over, the electric-type hooked its claws into the predatorial bird's tail feathers as it fought to regain altitude.

The haphazard grip didn't last through a vicious tug from Pidgeotto, but Grey figured it was a bit riffled - enough to get in a surprise attack of his own.

"If this is a speed battle, then show them some tricks of your own! Shock Wave, Pika," he announced, hardly noticing that his fists were clenched as if he was the one fighting.

"Chuu!" the intelligent Pokémon declared enthusiastically. Electricity was its game, after all, ad it had plenty of recovered energy to draw from.

It fell onto all fours to regain its center of balance, then tossed its head around to lock eyes with Pidgeotto. The speed-attacks weren't too powerful, but a couple of them in succession would work just the same as a fierce hit. Pika had to get in its own moves edgewise, otherwise it'd be stuck getting bombarded.

"Piii!" After a few brief flashes as it drew electricity around itself, the electric mouse lit up with crackling electrical energy.

Luckily the grass wasn't too wet - the patch surrounding Pika instantly danced with electricity, but nothing went further than a few feet. The Pikachu's fur stood on end, but by design it was made to withstand large amounts of static without becoming impaired. Electricity accumulated in only a few moments before creating a snapping sound as it hurled away from Pika. The attack dispersed until it became a thin sheet, or net, of electricity, hurtling at Mike's flying-type in an ominous way. The voltage was low, but it didn't take much to lock up a bird's wings.

Grey almost wished he hadn't resorted to electricity so quickly. It was only a sparring match, though it was true that the Pokémon Center was just a short walk away - but it seemed cheap, somehow, to use Pidgeotto's weakness in an unimportant fight. Rather regretfully, he watched the wave-like lightning attack dance towards Pidgeotto's airborne self.

If it shut its wings and plummeted for a bit, it could avoid it, he found himself thinking, wondering if Mike realized the same.It just depends on if it could re-spread them before it hit the ground...

Now several people cheered, satisfied with the display of fast-paced fighting. Neither trainer was letting up, and both were countering with a better move each time. A few, more experienced trainers, marveled that the opponents were friends - they certainly fought as if they were in a professional competition.

They remind me of how interesting brother's battles are....when he doesn't catch me watching... Taylor thought wordlessly, watching the pale blue sky brighten momentarily with the bright electricity highlighting it.

Reiu let its eyes tear away from Charmeleon momentarily to gloat silently at its trainer's rapidly increasing abilities. Grey was improving with each battle, and along with being very empathetic towards all Pokémon, he was showing the promise...he...had once tried to explain to Reiu before it was given to the new trainer.

[OOC- Some people, by the way, decide the outcome of battles before they RP them. Do you want to do that, or play it as it goes? Doesn't matter to moi. ]

 

[daxx0r]

[OOC- Well, it might get more exciting if we just play it by ear, but if you have any special plans for the storyline, I can go with a pre-decided battle too... Doesn't matter all that much to me ]

BIC-

As Pidgeotto climbed into the air with a Pikachu temporarily clutching it's tail feathers, Mike was left staring at it, in pure shock. How could Pika have dodged the Aerial Ace, and then clutched onto Pidgeotto's feathers?! thought Mike in utter perplexity, There's no way it could react that quickly...

As the Pikachu fell from the sky after having lost it's grip, Mike got a small glimpse of what he hoped was fatigue in the rodent. It still had a long way to go, but at least the effects of the battle were showing. The momentum of the battle was high, but if he could keep it up, he might be able to tire out Pika to the point of exhaustion, and have a chance to beat Grey.

Mike didn't have a lot of time to regain his focus, because true to the battle's form, Grey was already starting up another attack. It was Mike's worst fear; Grey had gone to using electricity. Mike imagined this was going to happen sooner or later, so he a contingency plan, but the situation was still dangerous; Flying types like Pidgeotto were at a serious disadvantage against Electric types.

The Shock Wave spread like wildfire across the sky, closing in on Pidgeotto at unmatchable speed. What Mike was going to do next was dangerous, but he had no choice.
"Dive, Pidgeotto!" commanded Mike. The bird did as it was told and curved off into a straight plummet towards the earth.
Dang, it's too close to the ground! thought Mike worriedly, It'll never make it!.

The flying-type just managed to dodge the waves of electricity as they shot through the air above it. Mike followed it's movements carefully, ready to follow up the command with another one once the time was right.
"Straighten up... now!" Mike ordered, waiting for the very last second before it was too late. The Pidgeotto did as it was told, but it didn't help much. There was a massive tree in front of it's flight path and if it kept going without slowing down, it would be seriously injured.

Oh no! This is just as bad as the shock wave! thought Mike, I wonder if he had this planned from the start? Mike eyed the other trainer for a bit, eventually dismissing the approaching tree as a nasty coincidence. He quickly drew his attention back to Pidgeotto, trying to help it out of the situation.

"Pidgeotto, flip over and dig into the ground!" The suggestion was going to hurt the Pokémon, but not as much as hitting the tree. Pidgeotto did as it was told, flipping over elegantly, and lowering it's talons into the grassy ground. It gripped the dirt as hard as it could, ripping lines into the lawn, one for each claw. The dirt, grass and slight mud from the rain got thrown everywhere, including Taylor, Mike, Grey and the closest members of the audience.

As it finally came to a rest, Mike wasn't surprised to see an expression of pain strapped across Pidgeotto's face. It's legs and talons were probably hurting beyond compare, having been sandblasted by the dirt during the landing.
"I'm sorry, Pidgeotto! I couldn't think of anything better," called Mike out to his partner, "You still ok to go?"
"Pidgeoootooooo!!" answered Pidgeotto, yet again taking off into the sky. It wasn't about to give in that easily.

"That's the spirit!" cheered Mike, "Ok, it looks like speed isn't going to get us anywhere, so how about this: Double team, now!"
Pidgeotto started strafing sideways in a circle around the Pikachu, moving faster and faster until it looked as if there were several of them, suspended motionlessly in the air. Mike knew which one was the real one, but he didn't think Grey would be able to figure it out as easily. This might be Mike's last chance to turn the battle around.

 

[LaenVulpix]

[OOC - No ideas from me, I'm making it up as I go~]

BIC-

Grey's stormy eyes shot from his weary Pikachu back to Pidgeotto up in the sky too late. There were three flawless counterparts of the dusty brown bird flapping ominously in the sky now. Pika's ears noticeably shifted to him, expecting and needing orders.

"Pika..use.." he hesitated, developing a mind block as a flurry of attacks barraged his mind.

Perhaps catching wind of the trainer's indecision, the copies began dive-bombing the small target - Pika was forced to dodging, diving, and barrel-rolling to keep from being lifted into the sky. There were sundry shallow scratches appearing in the Pokémon's hide, and it had begun panting huffily.

I've got to get rid of those copies! was the most prominent thought in Grey's mind, and he ordered Pika on that basis.

"Thunder Wave! We've got to figure out which one is real!" he declared nervously, watching Pikachu land on its back in the wet grass as the three birds fluttered above its head.

The small yellow mouse lifted itself and braced itself on all fours, firing off three small streaks of low-voltage electricity only a few feet from the pestering falcon-like Pokémon. As soon as the third short, fast bolt was released, Grey supplied Pika with its next move.

"Get cover, make for a tree!"

Needing no further encouragement, it stumbled backwards until it fell, facing the opposite way of the distracted Pidgeotto-trio, onto all fours streaking towards a broad-branched tree. Grey wiped a streak of muck from his face were it had splattered from Pidgeotto's anchoring-technique. He ignored the crowd now, more concerned with keeping one eye on his Pikachu, flat out in a run, and the other on the result of Pika's short-range, paralyzing attack.

The crowd was, as a body, cheering the participants of the battle on, sensing an end coming soon. The sparring match wasn't major enough to allow one of the Pokémon to faint or come to serious injury, and neither Pikachu nor Pidgeotto was looking particularly vibrant any more. Aevin had found himself tossing and catching Nidorino's scratched and worn Pokéball in one hand while his eyes watched the battle. He didn't like the looks of the silver-haired kid - he looked to novice to be a good fight.

But the other one, with the split-second strategy that allowed his Pidgeotto to successfully evade every major hit, would be a nice challenge. His golden eyes grew solemn as they focused solely on Mike, and he snatched his singular ball out of the air as it passed in front of his eyes. Now he had to wait until the 'Grey' boy wasn't hindering the older one, and then challenge him to a match.

"Aev only looks like that when he's going to fight..." whispered Taylor to the fire-types sitting like body-guards on either side of him.

Reiu snorted dismissively, too upset that Mike was getting the upper hand over its own trainer. It knew that Grey could sense what they were thinking, so why didn't he just check Pika's mind for which Pidgeotto was the real one. While he had been watching Pika, it had been watching Pidgeotto initiate its attack, and had been effectively tracking the true form...until it had turned its back to the predator-like bird Pokémon images (and the real one as well) and headed for the temporary protection of a tree's thick, leafy branches.

 

[daxx0r]

[OOC- Works fine for me ]

BIC-

This was what Mike had been waiting for - a strategic advantage that Grey could not weasel his way out of. His friend had finally made a mistake in his tactics and fallen into a potentially battle-deciding trap. As the Pikachu made it to the safety of the tree, Mike made little attempt to catch it. Once it was there, however, he turned to Pidgeotto.

"All right, get over there and circle the tree!" commanded Mike. Pidgeotto's three images were finally reduced back to one, and as the majestic bird made it's way over to the tree and started circling it, Mike felt he could finally relax a bit. If nothing else, this would buy him some time to think over the situation.

"Grey, I'm sorry to say this, but that was the worst thing you could have done." Mike was vaguely aware of his over-confident attitude, which usually ended up working against him, but the situation looked better and better. He just had to be careful not to let his guard down.
"You see, I have you surrounded. There is nothing you can do to fight back now; if you try to make Pika leave, Pidgeotto here will see it instantly and attack it."

The crowd was silent, waiting for Grey's counter-move. Taylor was even holding his breath, while Charmeleon and Reiu were looked as concentrated and engaged in the battle as the trainers themselves. Now and then Reiu threw a mean stare at Charmeleon, who was gloating about Mike's move. Taylor, finally taking a breath, looked at the two fire-types trying to understand what they were up to. He quickly caught up in the argument and then leaned in on Charmeleon.
"It isn't over yet, Charmeleon, so don't get carried away" he said quietly, trying not to make too much noise in the suspense-rich silence. Taylor didn't seem particularly nervous anymore. He was lost in the battle.

Mike was getting too anxious. He decided to chance it and move in a little closer to Pika. This might be a mistake, but I think I'm prepared for it thought Mike to himself.
"Ok Pidgeotto! Go in closer and see if you can gust-attack the leaves away..." ordered Mike. If this worked, the Pikachu would not only be stuck in the tree; it would also have no way of hiding from Pidgeotto. However, Pika might make a break for it once Pidgeotto had stopped for the gust. It might also try to attack the bird from the relatively short distance that the gust-attack would be launched at.

What is he doing? thought Aevin as he saw what Mike was up to. He just endangered the whole battle! Maybe he isn't worth my time after all... I guess we'll see if he has another trick up his sleeve. Aevin panned his eyes temporarily over to Taylor, who was still in awe of the battle. He chuckled and shook his head at the boy. Taylor was so bad at knowing the ways of a battle that he couldn't even tell when someone made a mistake...

Pidgeotto slowly moved in on the tree, still circling it diligently. Then, suddenly it stopped and started flapping it's wings towards the leafy, green treetop.
"Pigeooogeogeogeogeogeo!!!" It called out as the gust attack was initiated. Mike watched with delight as the leaves of the tree started blowing away. Soon they'd have Pikachu in checkmate.

 

[LaenVulpix]

Grey made no venture to respond to Mike's dauntless comment. His eyes flared a fixed, steely gray as he watched Pidgeotto tearing away Pika's shelter. From the Pikachu's point of view, the aerial Pokémon was only a few feet away, as close to the hindering boughs as possible without injury to itself. The fierce gales of wind buffeted the electric-mouse around, and it clung on only by its sharp claws. With its limbs wrapped tightly around the tree branch, and its eyes squinted to maintain contact with its foe, Pika was in a bad position.

As far as he could see, Grey was left to exchange speed for power - if it didn't work,then he'd end the sparring match. He couldn't expect to beat Mike anyways.

"Charge, and then go into the air!" he called out over the beating of Pidgeotto's wings. The power and vigorous-enthusiasm seen before was fading; the bird-type was ready to attack now.

Without hesitation, Pikachu scrabbled precariously up to the highest, weakest treetips, its cheeks crackling and snapping with sparks of electricity. From there it concentrated on gathering all of the voltage in its body thus far. Before long it obtained a dangerous air, eyes glowing amber with light - as soon as it bounded into the air, the dissipating effects of Pidgeotto's gust lifted its lightweight mass further into the air.

A sitting duck for Pidgeotto, if it dared make physical contact with Pikachu with such high amounts of static electricity awaiting use. And if it didn't go in for an attack, Grey decided to try Pikachu's highest-ranked attack listed on its current-abilities chart. Whatever the case, the battle was in its final stage.

Aevin reclipped Nidorino's Pokéball to his desolate belt with a sagely air, re-interested in the battle. Pikachu's move was interesting and unique - certainly most of the spectators' eyes were following Pika in its eerie suspension in th sky. Clearly the gust wouldn't hold it up for much more than another second or two, but the effect was quite a sight. Pika hovered directly above the hard-eyed Pidgeotto, front claws angled down as if it intended to land on the flying-type's feathered back.

If Mike decides to have Pidgeotto retreat, I may just stop the battle. I don't want to push Pika too far, Grey decided quietly, knowing that a retreat to somewhere electricity couldn't reach would dismiss his maneuver.

"Wow, it's like it's flying, huh guys?" Taylor said enthusiastically, watching the grim-faced Pikachu prepare for a thunder-based flanally.

Reiu frowned quizzically, wondering what kind of idea Grey had gone with; Charmeleon snorted in a half-mocking half-uncertain way. Either Pikachu would be forced to land anti-climatically in the tree again, or Pidgeotto was going to be in for...well...a shock.