The Road to Indigo (Pokemon RP (Closed): Chapter 7: Dead Living On The Radio...)

[Mookie_Magnus]

Mika walked through the tunnel of the mountain's passage, his Pokemon doing their best as they battled the wild cave-dwellers. For the moment, Claw wasn't doing so well, as he had no Ground-Type moves to easily take out the Geodudes, although he was handling the Zubat in a fairly easy manner. Take, the male Paras he'd captured, was doing about as well, the Zubat getting him pretty badly with their Leech Life, though his Stun Spore shut them up rather quickly. His own Leech Life, however, managed to keep him in good health as he battled the somewhat weaker Paras, their partial Grass typing giving them a weakness to Bug-Type attacks.

Mika smiled as he heard Jordan's Zubat conversing with Blaze, Vicky having a bit of an attitude with the Fire-Type. As Mika took another step, he winced, and looked down at his leg. It still stung, despite him having wrapped it earlier. He called out Take, and asked him a question.

"What did you do to my leg, Take? It still hurts like crazy." He asked, undressing the wound and assessing it.

Perhaps you're suffering from one of my spores... You made phsyical contact with me, so it's possible some seeped into the wound... Here, this should numb the cut.

Take approached Mika's cut leg, and began to dust it with a strange powder. Mika was about to object, before he felt the area of the cut go numb, and smiled, wrapping it back up with clean cloth. "Thanks Take... go ahead and return for now." He smiled and called back his newest team-mate, and then got back up once his leg was better, catching up with the group

"Hmm... I wonder why they have these cavern lights in here... When I went through here a couple of years ago, it wasn't this well lit... All it had was a few trail lights down near the ground, so people wouldn't get lost."

 

[RBMidknight]

"Hey, uh, are you all right there?"

*Shrra* Before Simon could respond his Sandshrew dove under his leg and rolled into a standing position, interposing herself between her seated trainer and the newly arrived Tyler. With both of her arms held out at her sides the Sandshrew hissed a warning.

Simon looked up from tearing a length of medical tape from the dispenser. Between his smallest and third finger he held a square of cotton gauze. "Hello..." he said carefully. The greeting was directed at Tyler but Simon kept his gaze on his tense Pokemon. "I'm fine." he added. "Brynn," he said quietly, "calm down. It's okay."

Brynn remained in her defensive stance. Simon was torn between amusement and irritation. "Sorry about her." he apologized to Tyler.

Shadow rose to his feet and jumped over Simon's leg. 'I feel like an obstacle course' the trainer thought wryly. Needing to finish his task, Simon looked down and carefully set the square of gauze over top of the worst of his wounds. "We had a run-in with an angry Sandshrew." he explained. Simon grunted as the gauze, dampened with disinfectant, settled onto his skin. "But we're fine."

Shadow padded over toward Tyler and himself in front of the newly-dubbed Brynn, partially blocking her view of the 'strangers'. "Chee...yen...chee." he insisted. He dropped down to a playful stance and then straightened up again. The Poochyena's tail wagged briefly. "Chee."

*Shrra?* Leaning to one side, Brynn pointed at Tyler and then at Geist beside him. *Shhhr.* Shadow shook his head in apparent response. "Chee!" he insisted again.

While his Pokémon had their little discussion Simon continued working. There were a few shallow scratches that weren't covered by his makeshift bandage, but Simon didn't want to unwrap another square. He gave a one sided shrug and tore the tape into two pieces. He secured the sides of his bandage and quickly jerked his pants leg back down to its normal position. It was then that Simon noticed the small rips in the material at calf level. There were three of them. One for each claw. Simon sighed. 'Another piece of clothing to get mended.'

Brynn and Shadow reached an agreement just as Simon stood up and pulled on his backpack. *Sherr...* Though the Sandshrew wasn't quite convinced she stepped back until she was next to her trainer. Shadow remained where he was and turned to pant at Tyler. He wagged his tail before giving a friendly yip of greeting.

 

[socialtangent]

"Nah, don't worry about it," Tyler replied. Sure is a feisty Sandshrew...

Geist shrank behind Tyler's leg when Shadow placed himself between them and Simon's Sandshrew. The Dark-type Pokemon still seemed to upset his Abra, but Tyler didn't really understand why. Shadow was rather friendly, not once acting towards him in any way that could've been seen as hostile.

"Hey, come on, buddy," Tyler said to Geist reassuringly. "There's nothing wrong with Shadow. He's a friend".

 

[NeoAC]

"I dunno bro," Jordan said answering Mika's comment. "I'm pretty happy that it's like here though. I'm not of fan of like, crawling in the dark." Vicky retained her perch as Jordan continued onward through the cave.

[hr]

"Hurry up with the digging! If we don't find something to bring back to the boss today, we're going to get our pay docked!" The short woman kept a stern watch as her partner carefully worked into the rock in one of the little corridors that had been carved out.

"Patience, Kimmy," the man warned her. "This is a mission that requires stealth, and precision, we can revive an incomplete Pokemon, you know. And we also don't want to attract a crowd. That Super Nerd alone was rough to deal with."

"Well still hurry up!" Kimmy complained. "I hate being in this cave! It's creepy, even with the lights we put up, and I'm sick of seeing Zubat all over the place. They are annoying!"

The man simply smirked. "Oh Kimmy, I don't know how you got into a life of evil, but I almost wish you would make a name for yourself so I could turn you in for the ransom."

"Screw you, Damian! Like you would be able to!" Kimmy was getting angry now. "I'm taking a walk!" With that, the blond girl walked away in a huff, leaving Damian to dig alone.

"Finally I can concentrate," he told himself, as he went back to work on the wall of the cavern.

 

[CounterAttack]

On the way back to the group, Iskra stopped and began sniffing the air, looking around as if something that smelled good was nearby. Confused by this, since she couldn't pick up anything with her own nose, Rochelle caught up to the Mareep and looked down at him. "You all right there, Iskra?" she asked, kneeling down to get a better look in the low light.

"Maa..." the Electric-type answered hesitantly, distracted by the scent he had picked up. He spotted a small tunnel dug into the wall and wandered over to it, sniffing at the ground. A small crablike Pokémon scuttled out, clacked its pincers at Iskra and moved to scratch him. The claw sunk into the surface of Iskra's wool, but didn't seem to hurt him. Iskra reacted by whacking the creature with a foot, knocking it away, and the new opponent narrowed its eyes and resumed its attack.

Rochelle pulled out her Pokédex to examine this new Pokémon. Holding it up, she received a new entry:

Paras. Mushroom Pokémon.
Height: 1'00". Weight: 11.9 lbs.
[color=#3399FF]Type: Bug/Grass[/color]

Description: As its body grows, large mushrooms named tochukaso start sprouting out of its back.

"Interesting..." Rochelle mused as Iskra continued to battle the Paras, headbutting it to knock it away. The bug Pokémon scratched him again, and Iskra gave it another whack. The Paras quickly realised that it wouldn't stand much of a chance, and scuttled away down the tunnel. Before Rochelle could call Iskra back, the Mareep hurried after it, intent on finishing the fight.

"Dammit, Iskra," Rochelle muttered under her breath, going after her Pokémon in order to bring him back and rejoin the group.

 

[RBMidknight]

When Tyler didn't react to Shadow directly the Poochyena took it to mean the trainer hadn't seen him. He whuffed softly in disappointment. With deliberate steps Shadow padded forward to get closer. A mere foot away from Tyler and Geist Shadow once again crouched down, lowering his head but keeping his hindquarters higher in the air. Shadow wiggled a bit with his front paws flat on the ground. He yipped once. Then, immediately hopping out of his playful stance Shadow approached Geist.

"Chee?" The Pokemon asked. Shadow tilted his head and whined softly. 'Come play with me.' the gesture said. Simon read it clearly as it was a common sight and sound for him. Though, he wasn't sure that Shadow had picked a good playmate. 'Why is the Abra still afraid?' the trainer wondered.

Simon stood up and brushed at his pants. With a brief smile he took out Brynn's Pokeball and hefted it lightly. "Think you can rest for a while?" he asked his Sandshrew.

*Shrra* Brynn stopped looking at Shadow at raised her head to look at her trainer. She nodded and raised one clawed hand up. Carefully Simon opened the Pokeball with one hand and shielded his eyes instinctively as Brynn disappeared into a brief flash of light. 'Good girl.' Simon thought, pleased with the turn of events. He minimized Brynn's Pokeball and stuck in into place on his bandolier. When he was sure the item was secured Simon picked up his pack and slung it over his shoulder.

 

[Lambi]

"Maybe it was put here so travelers could see better?" Aeris suggested in response to Mika. The cave wasn't much to be scared of, she thought, what with Blaze nearby, albeit fighting so the lighting was a bit shaky at times.

Tristan, Ekans and Xal were doing well, though they seemed like they could use a break. "You've all done well. Rest for now." She returned them one by one to their Pokeballs and put them, shrunken, on her belt. Blaze was still free and kicking ass against the wild Pokemon around.

From the corner of her eye, Aeris thought she saw something pink go into hiding. Just my imagination? She'd seen and collected data of all the Pokemon in the cave, or so she thought at least. "Blaze, could you light up that area?" she asked her Charmeleon and pointed to where she had seen the pink thing. Nothing. "Huh. Must have just been my imagination, then." As they continued walking, she saw something pink again. "Blaze!" The Charmeleon understood when her Trainer pointed again and this time, they saw what it was. Aeris took out her Pokedex and pointed it at the Pokemon.

Clefairy
Fairy Pokemon
Type: Normal
Height: 0.61 m / 2'0"
Weight: 7.5 kg / 16.5 lbs
Though rarely seen, it becomes easier to spot, for some reason, on the night of a full moon.

"Ooo, it would certainly be interesting to have that Pokemon." Aeris said as she picked up an empty Pokeball from her backpack. "Blaze, use Ember on that Clefairy!" Blaze did as she was asked and to counter it, the Clefairy began to sing. Blaze started to get a little sleepy, and eventually, fell asleep. The Clefairy got away. "Oh, damn it." She sighed. "Oh, well. Maybe next time." She put the empty Pokeball back in her backpack and nudged Blaze. "Come on, sleepyhead. We need to get going." Blaze yawned and woke up. "Char..." she said and looked down. "Oh, don't feel bad. You can't resist the power of Sing for long. There's always another time. Now lets go." Aeris hugged Blaze, then the two of them continued their way with the others through the cave.

 

[NeoAC]

The walk wasn't doing Kimmy any good, she was still angry at the arrogance of the man she was assigned to work with. She didn't even want to be near Damian, the stuck up British prick. However, due to her old partner's recent arrest in Cinnabar on an ill-advised "vacation", she was forced into this relationship, and it was starting to take its toll. And her surroundings were not helping. "Fuck, I am so sick of all these rocks..."

As Kimmy was moaning to herself, footsteps could be heard coming through the corridor of the cave. Kimmy pressed herself against the wall, not wanting to meet the same fate as her partner if she could help it. As she peered from behind a large rock she was relieved to find not an officer, but merely a Mareep that had apparently been separated from its flock.

"Oooh, I actually wanted to get one of you. So fluffy!" She reached for the Pokeball on her belt. "Go get it Gloom!" The white light that emerged from the ball formed into the foul-smelling Weed Pokemon, drool hanging out of its mouth as it adjusted to the cave setting. [color=navy blue]"Glooom,"[/color] it cried. The Mareep stopped in its tracks as this new scent hit its nose, and it moved closer to investigate.

"Gloom, use Sleep Powder on that Mareep!"

The Gloom did what it was commanded and unfortunately for Iskra, its curiosity killed any chance of avoiding the attack. With a full blast of powder hitting it, it quickly succumbed to the allure of Dreamworld.

"Yes! All right! Go Pokeball!" Kimmy hurled a Pokeball at the dozing Mareep, but since it was already captured, it bounced right off of it.

"What? What the heck? Hmmmm.....maybe Damian will be useful for once and actually know what to do." Kimmy walked over to her prize and picked it up, it was lighter than it looked. "Come on Gloom!"

[color=navy blue]"Gloom gloom!"[/color] The Grass type Pokemon complied, following behind it's trainer as they took Iskra deeper into the cave.

 

[CounterAttack]

"Iskra? Iskra, where are you?" Rochelle called out, trying to follow the path her Mareep had taken. Completely lost now, even with the lights that had been set up, she had no idea where she was going. She held up her left hand, flipped open her Pokégear and was about to call someone... but she quickly saw that the signal strength was weak at best, flickering from two bars to one. A problem to be expected, given that she was under a mountain. With that in mind she closed the Pokégear, figuring she could try to call someone if something came up.

Then she heard two sets of footsteps and voices ahead of her in the tunnel she was following. The footsteps were mixed, as if there were two people and one was carrying something heavy. Though that was to be expected, considering that Rochelle herself was carrying a fair bit and her own feet would probably make a fair bit of noise. It was probably just an adventuring Trainer like herself. Nonetheless, she hurried to catch up, rounding a corner to find a girl dressed in black with a red-and-blue Pokémon by her side. The stranger was carrying something familiar; Rochelle could only see what looked like cream-coloured wool and a familiar yellow tail with a bulb-like end... A Mareep. Ordinarily you wouldn't find sheep under a mountain; the logical conclusion was simple. The girl had found Iskra.

As Rochelle watched from a distance, the strange girl and her Pokémon walked over to a guy around the same age, dressed in similar black clothing. The girl set Iskra down on the ground, who didn't move, and the two looked down at him, talking quietly to themselves. Maybe he was paralysed or asleep or something. Rochelle had to get Iskra back into his Poké Ball before he could get into trouble. "Hey! Excuse me, is that my Mareep?" she asked loudly to get their attention, stepping out into the open and holding up Iskra's ball.

Walking forward to ensure the ball's 'return' function was within range, she pressed the button and the device sucked Iskra's immobile form back into its interior in the familiar beam of red light. "He, uh, he got away from me and I only just found him because you did, so... thanks, I guess," she said before looking the two up and down, and noticing the large red R emblazoned on the shirts they were wearing.

Noticing the symbol a little too late. Rochelle stopped and began to back up a little, her mind processing the R that was the logo of a familiar group. Team Rocket had become little more than an urban legend in Goldenrod City, stories told to young children to scare them into going to bed. So they were more than a myth, then... but what were they doing here? Had they come for the fossils someone in the group had mentioned?

 

[NeoAC]

"I told you that was why you couldn't catch the bloody thing. It obviously belonged to a trainer and now you've led her right to our digging site. How could you be so careless?" Damian asked the now red-faced Kimmy.

"Whatever! It's not my fault I wanted something cute to train!" Kimmy was trying to fight back, but she knew she messed up here.

"Oh well, you'll not be paying the price for your mistake," Damian told her before looking over at the girl who had reclaimed her Pokemon. "That will be that girl's misfortune." He turned around to face her properly. "It's a shame that my partner took such a liking to your Pokemon there. Now that you are aware of our activities in this cave, I'm afraid you won't be leaving. Kimmy make yourself useful, will you?"

"Screw you!" Kimmy issued the command to her partner. "Gloom! Take care of this *****!"

[color=navy blue]"Gloom Gloom!"[/color] The Gloom understood the command, and spread another Sleep Powder through out the passage in front of the two Rockets. Even if Rochelle had the reflexes to move out of the spray, it would have been impossible to avoid as the spores filled the surrounding air.

 

[Lambi]

Aeris heard Rochelle calling. It didn't sound well to her. "Could something be wrong?" she asked herself out loud. Deciding that she'd help her out, Aeris let Mika know, then headed towards where the calling came from with Blaze right behind her. This meant less light for the others, but the lights on the cave walls should be enough for the others.

Once she was close enough, she heard the duo near Rochelle, and when she heard the Gloom, she looked past a corner. Blaze lessened her tailfire so it wouldn't be as visible. Aeris saw as the Gloom attacked Rochelle with some kind of spores. She wasn't sure at first what kind, but noticed how sleepy Rochelle became. "We'd better stay back." she whispered to Blaze. "Just so we don't fall asleep too." Blaze nodded and they both stepped away. Only Aeris tripped over a Geodude and gave a surprised yell because of that. "Owwwie. ...Uh oh." Blaze was ready to fight if she had to.

 

[LunaSocks]

Terinth had been staying close to Blaze for most of the way through the cave, allowing Monk and Puppy to take care of various Zubat and Geodudes while they walked. As soon as they entered the cavern and she saw the brighter lights, she made a bee line straight to one and sat down beside it. As the other wandered around her, she became more and more worried.

"Hey guys, when do you think we'll be getting out of these caves?" She said, her voice shaking as she looked around her.

 

[CounterAttack]

"What the heck d'you..." Rochelle started before she involuntarily breathed in a small cloud of the Gloom's spores. Almost instantly her vision started to blur at the edges, then the blurring became more pronounced, and the black clothing of the two Rockets seemed to blend into the rocky background. Rochelle blinked a few times, trying to clear her vision. Each time she did, her eyelids felt heavier and harder to open. She had to leave, she had to get back to the others and tell them... tell them...

All of a sudden Rochelle felt herself listing to one side, swaying back and forth unsteadily on her feet. Then her knees buckled and she collapsed in a heap, out like a light. Through no fault of her own, a particularly jagged rock scratched the side of her head as she fell, drawing blood.

Not wanting to leave her there for anyone to find if they happened to come across the dig-site, Damian and Kimmy hurried to Rochelle's unconscious form once the spore cloud cleared. Between the two of them, they carried her into one of the many tunnels leading away from their work. The tunnel was a dead-end and it twisted and turned a couple of times, so she had nowhere else to go if she woke up.

Spoiler: OOC

Control of the Rockets has been approved by Neo.

 

[Lizmichi]

Fary let Phileas out of his ball and looked back at the group. "I'm going to look around the cave for a bit guys. Don't worry about me." she said walking off with her Pokemon on her shoulder. She didn't look where she was going and walked into a den filled with 4 Zubats.

"PIGEY!" LOOKOUT Phileas pecked at Fary's head some making her look at the Zubats ready to attack her.

"What? Oh shit Zubats." she said sending Phileas out to protect her. She watched at Phileas took out two of the Zubats. "Phileas use Sand Attack." Fary said then covered her eyes right before dirt and sand danced around the small cave. The other two Zubats were lost in the storm of sand and ran into each other. "Phileas use tackle." Fary said keeping her head low and watched one of the Zubats hit the wall of the cave and pass out. Now there was only one left and it attacked Phileas. Philease was able to shake it off and use one last tackle to knock out the Zubat.

"Hey good job Phileas, you saved me." Fary said pulling out a treat for him as he jumped back onto her shoulder. "I'm proud of you." she said giving him the treat as he ate it up then playfully pecked at Fary's head. "Hey now if you ever want to get any more of the treats you better not make a habit of doing that." she said petting Phileas.

A Paras was watching them from behind a rock, when Fary looked over and saw it she keeled down and offered it a treat. "Hey you can come here. I won't hurt you." she said but the Paras didn't move.

"Paras? Food?

"Well if you don't want it now I'll leave it here." Fary said putting it down and started to walk off. The paras quickly made its way to the treat and ate it then looked up and watched Fary thinking.

"PARAS!" It seemed to call to Fary.

She looked back and saw the Paras trying to catch up to her. "Hey I take it you liked the food." she said putting a hand out as if to pet it and waited. It seemed hesitant at first but then let Fary pet it. "So you like my cooking it seems." she laughed. Paras looked at Fary and jump up some. "Hey would you like to come with me?" she said. The Paras didn't seem to know what to do. She pulled out a Pokeball to help it decide.

The Paras looked at the ball funny and looked up at her jumping again. "I'll call you Shroomy." she said then watched the paras tap the button of the Pokeball then was soon pulled into it. "Well seems I have a Paras now." she said.

 

[socialtangent]

Woosh!

Geist vanished, leaving only air where the Abra only a second ago was cowering behind Tyler's leg. Dammit. "Geist?" Tyler called out. "Where'd you go?" The sound of a second woosh echoed through the cave a short distance away. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly in a somewhat frustrated sigh. "He'll get used to Shadow, I'm sure," Tyler said with a shrug. After taking a moment to guess where the sound of Geist's teleportation had come from, he headed off to find his Abra.

The Trainer found Geist hiding behind a rock near what looked like some kind of excavation site a decent way off from the others. Whatever the purpose this site was, it appeared to be abandoned pretty quickly. Holes were left half-dug with tools scattered around the area. It was actually kind of eerie. Like something bad had happened here. That, or Tyler had watched one too many horror films. The Cofagrigus: Tomb of the Sigilyph Emperor in particular came to mind.

"There you are," Tyler said to Geist. "You really have to stop doing that. Especially in a cave like this. You're seriously gonna get us lost one day, buddy".

"Aaabraa..." Geist replied, staring down at the ground in front of him.

"Oh, it's okay. That Poochyena isn't gonna hurt you, I told you before. He's a friend, okay? Can you promise to at least try to be a bit more friendly? He's seriously not going to attack you or anything. Simon wouldn't let him do that to you".

Geist nodded slowly.

"Good. Now, we have to get back to the..."

Something caught Tyler's attention. On the ground near Geist was a trail of something...something that looked red in the pale light of the cave. He knelt down next to the curious spot and whipped out his cell phone for a light. After briefly examining it under the bright white light of his phone, there was no doubt about what the spot was.

Blood

"Not good..." Tyler muttered under his breath. It was then that he noticed a thin layer of white dust, or something, coating the general area. Whatever it was, he wasn't sure, but it allowed for a series of footprints that pointed towards one of the many tunnels that led out of this room. Thanks to his time tracking wild Pokemon in the Scouts, he was able to guess that these prints were made by at least two people, and that they seemed to be encumbered by something heavy, judging from the way the footprints seemed to drag a little.

Tyler's gut sank. Whatever happened here, it couldn't have been good. Despite something inside saying not to follow the trail, he swallowed hard and stood up. "Come on, Geist," he said. "Something's up around here".

Geist stood up from his cross-legged position. "Abra..." he replied.

"Stay on your toes," Tyler instructed as they headed forward.

 

[NeoAC]

Jordan followed what seemed to be a growing group into one of the smaller tunnels. Having no idea where he was going, even with Vicky's added support, he was happy to just stay behind and let the others lead. As he looked around the dimly lit pathway, he did notice that there were seemingly less people around then there were before. One less actually.

"Hey um, bros," he asked. "Has anyone, like, seen Rochelle, since we got in here?"

[hr]

Rochelle was proving to be quite the troublesome traveling companion, even in her current state, as the two grunts tried to carry their new acquisition through the cave.

"Ugh, Damian, she's heavy! Can't we just leave her somewhere?" Kimmy complained.

"That would be rather foolish," Damian answered. "If this girl is in here wandering about, you can be sure there are others. We have to stash her somewhere until we decide what we can do with her."

"What will we be doing with her? She doesn't look like she wants to join us."

"Well, that will be up to that bloody frog Jean-Simon to decide. Depending on who she is, she could be a nice ransom payment. She could be sent off to the islands to be a test subject, I don't know. He may decide to just out and out eliminate her. Either way, if we don't make sure she doesn't get word out that we're working in here, it'll be our heads on the chopping block." The two came up to a storage closet that had been dug into the side of the cave. "Here, we'll keep her in here for now until a decision is made. Lucky I have a key for it."

The two unloaded Rochelle into the small space, placing her on top of a couple of bags of Pokemon feed. "Quickly Kimmy, take her belongings. We don't need her using her Pokemon to escape or anything."

"OK, OK," Kimmy did what she was told, stripping Rochelle of all her possessions and all of her Pokemon. "Yay! I'm going to get my fluffy Pokemon after all!"

"That will be up to Jean-Simon, although it's likely he won't be interested that little ball of static cling, so you'll probably get it."

"Yay! I'm going to call him Fluffy!"

"Now how could I have guessed that?" Damian shook his head. "Come on, we have to go file a report with the frog king." He locked the door and the two headed further into the caverns leaving their captive trapped in her tiny prison.

 

[CounterAttack]

In her unconscious state, Rochelle shifted a little on the sacks of her makeshift cell and rolled over, beginning to dream. Though... it was a memory more than a dream, and it was the memory of an event she remembered well.

[hr]

A bright sunny day in Cerulean City, Kanto. The colour blue was everywhere in its various shades, from the nearby rivers to the Pokémon Gym's design, even the roofs of most of the buildings were coloured blue. With her black bandanna and red hair, Rochelle stood out from the azure, ultramarine and cobalt of the surrounding monochrome. Well, except for the denim of her jeans.

The young Trainer-to-be stopped at a lake for a short break involving the leftovers in her pack, and some wild berries she'd found on her way into the city. As she turned from the sparkling waters to go through her backpack, something caught her eye. A small Pokémon, one she'd seen before on her way to Vermilion Port aboard the Johto-Kanto ferry. Only this one was different. The Horsea had the familiar blue and cream colouring Rochelle recognised, but it was wounded. A trio of long cuts were visible down its side, and a faint hint of red could be seen in its wake as it struggled to swim through the water, occasionally ducking under the surface for a second before re-emerging.

Looking back at the little creature, Rochelle could see that it clearly needed help. It was out of its usual oceanic environment, and now it had been beaten in a battle... or worse, been cruelly cast aside by its Trainer after a loss. Either way, Rochelle didn't want to see it suffer, so she dug a Potion - one of the gifts from her parents - out of her bag and shuffled over to the lake's edge. "Hey there... you're hurt, little one. Um, I think I can fix that for you, if you'd like."

At the sound of her voice, the Horsea stopped its swimming and looked up at her. It bobbed up and down in the water as it simply stared, unsure of what Rochelle was saying. Then it twitched its tail a little and winced as a bit more blood could be seen. It had what Rochelle assumed was a doubtful, guarded expression in its eyes... but eventually it nodded.

"Okay, so... I just spray this on, apparently," Rochelle said, holding out the purple bottle and giving the trigger an experimental squeeze. A fine spray of liquid was the result, drifting right into the water around the Horsea. It flinched, but didn't swim away, and allowed the healing salve to take effect. Already Rochelle could see the wounds closing. Not wanting to somehow mess up, she sprayed the rest of the Potion onto the Pokémon and carefully watched until it was fully healed.

The Horsea looked stronger as a result of the Potion's use; it was swimming with a bit more power and the wary look on its face was gone, replaced by one of gratitude. Rochelle spent a little time with the Pokémon, eating lunch, talking to it and getting responses in kind, and occasionally poking her finger into the lake for it to investigate. When she got up to leave, intending to continue on her way, the Water Pokémon seemed to become sad, crying quietly at the sight of its new friend about to just walk away.

"Oh, no, don't be like that... I mean, I can't take you with me 'cause you need water," Rochelle said, sitting back down to comfort the little Pokémon, who seemed to brighten up now that she was staying a little longer. She thought for a few moments about how to resolve the problem of its sadness... and then it hit her. A brief rummage through her backpack produced that which all Trainers used: the simple Poké Ball. With it, she could take her new friend with her, and the Horsea would see so much more than the lakes and oceans of its natural habitat.

Something about the device sparked an interest in the water creature, and it broke the surface once more to look at the sphere properly. "Trainers use these to carry Pokémon with them... do you think we could do that?" Rochelle asked, holding the ball out to the Horsea. Somehow understanding her, it brightened up further at the idea, and bonked its head against the central button. The ball opened and enveloped the Pokémon in a beam of red light, drawing the Horsea in and closing itself in Rochelle's hand. Surprisingly, it shook in her grip, causing her to drop it. It twitched again, and for a third time before the ball produced a loud click.

[hr]

As the recollection of meeting Kirsten for the first time faded back into memory, Rochelle stirred and woke, uncomfortable. It was incredibly dark, almost pitch-black, in her new surroundings, and... small was the best word to describe it. There wasn't much space to move around in, and she couldn't stand up because it wasn't big enough for her. That and she had trouble just getting up from her position on the ground.

A very faint sliver of light projected itself from one of the walls: a crack in the wall allowed light into the room. Rochelle tried pushing on it, and the other walls, but to no avail. Then she realised she couldn't find her pack, only a few slightly smelly bags of something. Her belt was gone too. An explanation instantly sprang to mind: the Rockets. They'd put her to sleep and subsequently stolen her possessions... and her Pokémon. Thankfully they had had the decency to leave her the clothes she was wearing. Who knew what would happen if one of them came back... would they put her to sleep again? And where would she wake up? If she even woke up at all? The thoughts were terrifying.

Alone in the darkness, with no way out, and almost everything she owned lost to the criminals she'd encountered, Rochelle began to break down and cry into her hands as she sat in her confining jail.

 

[Mookie_Magnus]

"As much as I'd like to comment on the fact that you actually remembered one of our names... You're right. I haven't seen Rochelle for a while, not since she went after her Mareep after it went exploring..." Mika answered, looking around for any trace of her nearby. "Mmm... she might've gotten lost, or taken a wrong turn. We should probably look for her."

Mika pulled out one of his Pokeballs, calling out his Dark Pokemon, Bones, to sniff around and take in the scents of the cave.

"Bones... do you smell Rochelle at all? The girl with the Horsea." Mika explained to his Pokemon, who put his nose to the ground to search.

"Barely... her scent is faint, clouded by the rest of your scents, I can try to find her if we back-track a bit..."

 

[Mookie_Magnus]

...

 

[Lizmichi]

Fary walked around the cave a bit more then found the ground and looked around. "Rochelle is gone." she said to her self. "Were is Rochelle guys?" Fary asked out loud starting to get worried and looked at Phileas. It seemed everyone had the same question on their minds as well. "God I'm going to go look for her." Fary said. "You can come with me but I won't just stand here." Fary said.