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

[NeoAC]

Misty was normally one to go with the flow of things but this outrageous attack wasn't going to go undefended. "Excuse me?" she asked with a liberal dose of derision. "I didn't steal Jordan from anyone! From what I heard, you already ditched him to hook up with Brock!" She was up to shouting at this point. "Oh, and yeah, everyone knows, because Brock can't keep his mouth shut for a second when it comes to normal gossip, so you finally taking his V-card? Yeah, that's front page news! He practically had his Crobat fly a banner over Kanto letting everyone know! So you don't have any damn right to be accusing me of something like that!"

Jordan was going to say something regarding the introduction to this new person, when the noise off to the side demanded his attention. He watched the two ladies going at it over the right to have him. Most guys would kill to be in this situation, but Jordan was just getting more confused. What the hell? What does Fary care? I thought she was banging rock dude. And what's this Misty's coming up with, I thought this was just a one night sort of deal? She's fighting like it's more. Fuck, I totally didn't want shit like this. This is sounding like the beach all over again.

"You know what? I came out here as a favor to Jordan, and I came over here to help, but fuck you and fuck helping. I don't need this shit!" Misty stomped away from Fary, over to where Jordan was. "My number's on your phone, Jordan. Text me when you're back in town, OK?" She didn't trust him to remember directions so she went to the nearest person to him, Callum. "You! You with them? I don't care! Look, just get them to the small building south of town, near the Saffron gate. You can use that to get right outside of Vermillion City. Don't mess things up down there." After giving the terse orders, Misty departed the Pokemon Center.

Jordan looked around, things suddenly very awkward, and partly because of him. Plus, there was now this new guy to work with, the one who Misty just randomly entrusted with the directions. "OK, um, cool, yeah," he stammered out to him. "So should we hit the road then?"

 

[Lambi]

There was an awkward silence in the Pokecenter after Misty left until Jordan asked. Aeris didn't answer, but rather, she stood up and walked over to Callum. She shook his hand. "Hi there, Callum. I'm Aeris, and I'm terribly sorry about all of this. You're not even part of the group and you were practically ordered to be our guide. Don't worry, I caught what she said and if not me, then possibly any of the others that heard her yelling can guide us." She laughed nervously, the atmosphere still kinda awkward.

Turning to Jordan, she cleared her throat. The orange juice made her throat so that it needed it. "Once we've gathered everyone, we should be able to go. I myself at least need to get my things first. Like my backpack, so if you'll excuse me..." She walked towards the back of the Pokecenter where the beds were and looked around for the bed she was in, finding her backpack there and strapped it on herself. She hoped that whatever happened now wouldn't be too uncomfortable because of Jordan and Fary. They were both to blame for the idiocy of sleeping with the first two gym leaders. But she was not someone who blamed others, so she would keep it to herself. If others chose to express themselves about it, that'd be fine. She just wouldn't.

With her backpack on, she went back to the front of the Pokecenter and to where Mika was, standing behind his chair. She returned almost all of her Pokemon back to their Pokeballs except Blaze and Tristan. Tristan she knew would enjoy being in the air and Blaze she just liked to have beside her. She put her hands on Mika's shoulders.

 

[Mookie_Magnus]

The corner of Mika's eye was twitching lightly as the argument went on. He tried to focus on other things, but the two girls were loud and obnoxious. He stepped out, back into the main part of the Pokemon Center, to catch a little air and he sighed softly.

"Sweet Mew, does stuff like that happen normally?" He said aloud to himself, looking down at his Pokemon as they ate. Bones shrugged, and the others were too busy eating to say much else. He suddenly felt a feminine pair of hands on his shoulders, their touch relaxing him as he turned around and smiled. "Hey Aeris.. Didn't want to stay in there any longer, either?"

Mika smiled at her, kissing one of her hands gently and then yawned gently. "Mmf... how long do you think they'll be in there? I was kinda wondering if we could stop by a Pokemart before we head out."

 

[elementsoul]

No sooner did Callum get out his introduction before one of the people in the group exploded with anger. Callum was dumb founded at the event as two people, who he assumed were members of the group, excused themselves and rushed out of the room. Eileen was soon to follow, after an apology for what was happening and some confusing words about television shows.

The next thing he knew he was being bombarded with directions for the group. The woman who yelled them at him stormed off before he could even say a word to her. Shock at the unfolding actions was clear on his face, as another member apologized to him and left after saying that she had heard the directions as well.

As Jordan walked over and asked Callum if they were going to hit the road, Callum finally heard the words screaming in his head. RUN FOOL! RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN! "I umm...ahh," Callum stammered as Jordan asked him if they were going to leave. Slowly Callum was backing away at the same time before turning and quickly walking away after exiting the room.

Callum chose to head towards the phone to contact the researchers, since he was already in the Pokémon Center. As he walked by, he heard the on duty Nurse Joy talk to the Chansey beside her. ?That?s not good. She?s already that mad this early. She?ll probably shut down the gym today. We better prepare for more trainers to be staying here today.? Great that was the gym leader who just yelled at me. That means I?ll likely have to go the same way as the group in order to get a badge today.

Callum sighed as he reached the phone and called the researchers. After a few rings they picked up and their images appeared on the screen and they began to converse. ?Hello Callum how is the catching going??

?Alright, although I haven?t caught any new Pokémon since the Caterpie I sent you late last night.?

?Oh yes. That was a good research specimen. We already finished our tests on it if you want it back. I?m also going to warn you that this species evolves very fast so I suggest not battling with it after it evolves into its next form.?

?Alright, then I?ll switch it with you for one of the other ones I haven?t had a chance to send you.?

?Splendid.?

Callum took out a Pokéball from his pouch that had a Paras sticker on it. He inserted it into the transfer machine beside the phone, and the researchers did the same with the Caterpie stickered ball. After a few seconds the Pokéballs appeared on machine in place of each other. ?I?ll contact you again in the next city I visit.? ?And we?ll transfer the payment to your account and being our testing. Good luck.? The screen went black as the researchers disconnected. Callum placed the Pokéball into his pouch and headed for the front door.

 

[blaze96]

Alan shrugged as he had waited through all of this for people to acknowledge his good morning and getting nothing in return. Instead he had simply opted to sit back, watch, and listen. The reaction from the one girl was odd, but it would have certainly made for an interesting story.

I wonder if I can shift focus towards this group a bit more. Seems to be a bit more drama there. Eileen is still going to be the most prominent feature since she is the one the readers want, but surely the drama of this group will make the story more enticing. He of course knew he would have to talk it over with his editor first. A suggestion like this from a relative rookie like him was sure to cause some eyebrow raising. Hopefully the prospect of having longer articles with more dramatic tension to them would be enough to get his editor to agree. If nothing else the group could always serve as filler for the times when not much was going on other than Eileen training.

He pulled out a pen and paper and started taking notes about the group on a separate page. If his editor said know it would look nicer to just have a page thrown out as opposed to a bunch of scratching out.

 

[RBMidknight]

'Huh?' Caught up in his thoughts Simon didn't recognize Rochelle's voice at first. He turned, intent on being polite and returning the greeting. But he saw that she'd already moved on. Simon's response dropped off into a sigh. Shadow's ears perked up at the sound. Were they going back to food? Shadow's tail wagged. Food was good! Food smelled good!

Simon felt an odd impulse to apologize for his distraction. 'Maybe later.' He decided. There was still a task to be completed. Seeing a tall dark-haired male in a white uniform Simon walked towards him. The trainer failed to notice his Pokémon's enthusiasm disappear. "[small]Te...Yen."[/small]

Simon drew closer to the desk and watched the nurse take a clipboard from the counter. "Excuse me. Sir?" The man began walking away. His gaze was fixed solidly on the clipped stack of paper. "Sir?" Simon tried again. Shadow circled his trainer once. He wasn't quite able to see over the counter but he could tell Simon was talking to someone. Spotting the nurse Shadow jumped forward to block the man's path.

"Woah-hey watch it!" The man halted just in time. Probably having been alerted by the sound of paws hitting carpet.

Simon stepped closer. "Excuse me, I was hoping to talk to someone about a report on one of my Pokémon..."

The nurse scowled at Shadow who tilted his head and wagged his tail. As far as the Pokémon was concerned he'd done something good for his trainer. Perhaps he would get to eat now...

"Sorry kid," the man apologized though his expression indicated annoyance. To Simon's further confusion the man seemed to stare at something behind him for a few seconds. 'What's going on?' the trainer wondered. "Sir?" Simon asked. There was the sound of a door closing.

The nurse jerked slightly before finishing his explanation. "I've got somewhere to be. Try the front desk." With a wave that indicated the proper direction the man resumed his journey.

Simon looked over at the front desk. Two of the assistants behind the counter were on the phone talking in an animated manner complete with emphatic hand gestures. A Chansey was helping the first trainer in a line of about six trainers. Simon watched the Pokémon place each individual Pokéball carefully on a tray. 'Five minutes.' Simon told himself. If the wait was longer than five minutes he would go and get some food. 'Five minutes, provided there's no more fighting going on.'

 

[NeoAC]

"Well everyone seems to be heading out the door," Jordan thought, save for Simon who after a brief wait by the counter headed off to the cafeteria, probably to grab some food. He returned a minute or so later, holding a sandwich, so it was assumed that everyone was ready to go.

Aeris took up the lead, she had also caught Misty's directions. So did half the city judging from her yelling. As they proceeded south, the bright blue roof of the Pokemart stuck out against the city backdrop, so a stop was made for everyone to stock up and get some supplies. Jordan stayed outside, partially out of poverty, and partially out of cluelessness. Everyone got what they wanted and could afford though, so they were off again.

Passing by the city limits, they could see Saffron City looming in the distance, the skyscrapers towering over the verdant fields that separated the two cities. However, the checkpoint station and it's massive gates were also present, the result of heavily beefed up security following the Silph incident of ten years ago. The indicated shortcut would be a few yards away, an older looking shack near another older looking building down the way. Still, all this open space meant that wild Pokemon would surely be able to get the drop on people. Cries could be heard all over the plains.

"Dude, sounds intense out here. Better bring out a bro." Jordan reached into his pocket, hoping he pulled out the right ball. He released it, and the large white ball of energy indicate he made the correct choice for once. Vince emerged from the light.

Scytherscy! Scyther! Aw yeah! Good to be back out!

"All right Vince bro, you totally take care of whatever like, comes out and stuff, OK?"

Scyther! You got it!

Spoiler: Pokemon Capture List!

Pidgey
Rattata
Jigglypuff (uncommon)
Oddish
Abra
Meowth
Mankey
Bellsprout
Drowzee
Ditto (rare)
Snubbull

Trees (Headbutt)
Caterpie
Weedle
Spearow
Exeggcute
Pineco
Ledyba
Aipom

 

[CounterAttack]

Rochelle was starting to feel considerably more awake, now that the group was out in the fresh air and under the mid-morning sun. Breakfast had definitely helped. When others had stopped into the Cerulean Poké Mart to stock up on medicines and suchlike for their Pokémon, she had followed suit, spending a fair bit to bring her supplies up to a decent level. Ten extra Potions, plus five each of Antidotes, Paralyse Heals and Awakenings. She didn't want to get caught out in a battle without having something to get her Pokémon back in the fight.

The open field between Cerulean and Saffron City brought back fond memories from just over a week ago. It was around here, Rochelle remembered, that she had met Kirsten. There was a small pond of water on this route, she knew. Too small for any Water-type Pokémon to establish a habitat, but large enough for one or two to get by on their own. Briefly Rochelle wondered if Kirsten would enjoy coming back here... judging by the cries of wild Pokémon, she could also tell that she could get in a decent bit of training for her team.

With that in mind, she took each Poké Ball on her belt and hit the release buttons to bring out her entire team. Each of them sounded as cheerful as ever: Phoenix and Natalya took to the air almost immediately, while Iskra and Kirsten stayed by Rochelle, listening intently to the sounds the wild Pokémon were making.

"Okay, guys, we're back into training. Got a lot of work to do before the next Gym," she said to her team to get their attention. "Now, let's see how you work as partners. Phoenix, Iskra, you two can go together, just like at the Cerulean Gym. Natalya, Kirsten, same to you. Now let's go." Putting her Pokémon in impromptu pairings was a bit of a test for everyone involved: the two Pokémon in each team, and Rochelle's tactical decisions in each battle.

Her Pokémon paired up on her command, and the five of them went straight into battles against wild creatures. Surprisingly Rochelle had paired off decent teams: Natalya was protecting Kirsten from the advances of Grass-types, selflessly diving in the way of Bellsprout's lashing vines and Absorb attacks from the dimunitive Oddish. Kirsten responded in kind by attempting to blind them with her Smokescreen, giving Natalya the perfect opportunity to take the plant Pokémon down.

On Rochelle's other side, against a pair of Mankey, Iskra ThunderShocked them both, stunning them and giving Phoenix free rein to take them out with lightning-fast attacks. The Flying type advantage helped against the Fighting-type Pokémon. As Rochelle watched the battles - sometimes giving orders, sometimes letting her Pokémon work out strategies themselves - she scanned each new encounter with her Pokédex...

Then something happened to Iskra. A Snubbull had gotten close enough to the Mareep to try to bite him. Thankfully his wool absorbed the impact of the bite, and he used his tail to give the Snubbull a nasty electric shock for its trouble. But once the small bolt of electricity had left Iskra, his tail continued to glow brighter and brighter... soon his whole body was encompassed by a bright white light. He stood up on his back legs, raising his front legs as if they had become the equivalent of human arms...

The white light faded, shrinking back into the sphere at the end of Iskra's tail, and Rochelle found herself looking at a whole new Pokémon. Iskra's dark blue blue skin had changed to a vibrant pink and the orb on his tail had become blue. The cute tuft of wool on his head had grown in size and most of his wool had been shed. It lay on the ground nearby. "Flaa-ffy!" Iskra proclaimed, delivering another ThunderShock to the startled Snubbull, which fled soon after. Iskra turned to Rochelle, who was a little thunderstruck herself. "Iskra... you evolved?" she eventually asked him quietly, crouching down to get a proper look at him.

"Fee. Flaaffy," the now-pink Iskra answered. Rochelle's Pokédex bleeped at her, and she shot a look at it.

Flaaffy. Wool Pokémon.
Height: 2'07" / 0.8 m. Weight: 29.3 lbs. / 13.3 kg.
[color=#3399FF]Type: Electric[/color]

[color=blue]Techniques: Tackle, Growl, ThunderShock, Thunder Wave[/color]
[color=indigo]Ability: Static[/color]

Description: Its fluffy fleece easily stores electricity. Its rubbery hide keeps it from being electrocuted.

[color=oran]Flaaffy is the evolved form of Mareep.[/color]

Iskra seemed to be happy with his new look, as he gave himself a once-over. "Fee. Flaa... flaaffy," he eventually spoke up again. As always Rochelle had no idea what he was saying, so she simply gave him a hug, letting go after a short while. "Okay, guys, time for a short break. Give Iskra a moment to get ready to battle again," she told the rest of her team, smiling down at Iskra as she did so. She took the time to look around at her fellow Trainers, and see how they were doing.

 

[Mookie_Magnus]

As the group stopped at the Pokemart, Mika was unable to get his medication like he needed. However, the pharmacist did say that they would call the branch in Vermillion, and hopefully it would be ready for him. Since they were already buying things, Mika took the opportunity to stock up on Potions, Pokeballs, as well as status-healing sprays.

Once they'd gotten out to the new fields, Mika sent out his Pokemon to get some exercise and fresh air. "Alright... let's see what we can get here." He said to himself, roaming the immediate area, watching the nearby Pokemon. "There's one."

Mika had spotted a Pokemon he wanted. It was a Mankey, a Fighting-Type Pokemon that would be a good addition to the party. "Toxina, go! Poison Sting!" Mika sent out his Nidoran, her barbed horn stinging the Pig-Monkey Pokemon, poisoning it and taking a bit of its health. The Mankey countered with a Karate Chop, which wasn't very effective against the Poison-Type female Nidoran. "Now, Double-Kick!"

The blue, rodent-like Pokemon turned and shifted her weight onto her forelegs, facing away from the Fighting-Type, kicking with each of her legs a few times. The Mankey fell to the ground, but came up for a series of swipes with its paw, Fury Swipes.

"You're mine." Mika hurled the Pokeball at it, catching it in the stomach and absorbing it into the spherical capsule. "Come on..." He crossed his fingers, the light flickering and then going solid, signaling that it had locked. "Great job, Toxina!"

Mika went over and grabbed the ball, putting it onto the last slot in his belt. He called back his Nidoran female, and smiled to himself.

 

[Lambi]

Aeris had gotten the chance to stock up on Pokeballs, Potions and various other items such as Paralyz Heals and Awakenings in the Cerulean Pokemart. She wasn't exactly short on cash, so it was no problem for her to afford it. She still thought she'd see what she could get for her golden nugget. Turned out she got $50 for it. Not bad, considering the size of it.

On the road again, she felt refreshed. The air felt nice and the sun provided warmth. And above all, there didn't seem to be much, if any, drama going on at the moment. Blaze and Tristan were enjoying themselves, so Aeris thought the others could use a bit of fresh air as well.

"Time for you to soak up some sun." she said as she let Xal, Ekans and Sonya out of their Pokeballs. All three of them joined the other two. Not all of them went to train, though. Blaze, Ekans and Xal were mainly training, while the two Bug Pokemon walked and flew close to Aeris.

Blaze did well against a few Bellsprouts and Oddishs, but she wasn't prepared for her next opponent. A Ditto. Aeris caught sight of it. "Oooo, what do we have here?" She picked up her Pokedex which pinged when she aimed it at the Ditto.

Ditto
Transform Pokemon
Type: Normal
Height: 0.3 m / 1'00"
Weight: 4 kg / 8.8 lbs
Its transformation ability is perfect. However, if it is made to laugh, it can't maintain its disguise.
Moves: Transform.

"Not sure if I want it. Though, a Pokemon that can transform into practically anything could be fun to have." When she looked up from her Pokedex, she couldn't believe what she saw. The Ditto had apparently transformed into a Charmeleon identical to Blaze. "Alright. Blaze, show that Ditto what you can do!"

Blaze nodded and charged at the Ditto with a Dragon Rage. The Ditto answered by using Scary Face, after taking the Dragon Rage. It made a face that it considered scary. It seemed to work on Blaze, who just answered that with an Ember. The Ditto took it like the Dragon Rage and used an Ember of its own. Seemed that it knew all the moves that Blaze knew. This battle continued for a while until Blaze seemed to be victorious. The Ditto transformed back into its original form, and as Aeris picked up an empty Pokeball to catch it, a Meowth attacked her face. "Aaaah! Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff!" Aeris screamed in fear and pain, throwing the Pokeball into the air at random. By some sort of luck, it landed onto the Meowth, absorbing it into the ball. A few shakes occurred before the Meowth broke free.

Aeris was not too happy about that, her face partially scratched from it. "Grrr! You'll pay! Ekans, Poison Sting this Meowth!" Ekans returned from his training to do what his trainer asked of him, using his Poison Sting on the Meowth who was trying to escape. The Poison Sting connected, followed by Ekans wrapping around the Meowth to try to crush it. After a moment, Aeris thought enough was enough. She had missed the Ditto, who seemed to have escaped, so the Meowth would have to do. She picked up another empty Pokeball and threw it at the Meowth after Ekans let go of it. The ball connected, Meowth got absorbed into it. A few shakes later, the ball clicked, indicating a capture. Aeris walked over to the ball and picked it up.

"At the very least, lets get data on you." Aeris let the Meowth out of its Pokeball and brought up her Pokedex once more, aiming it at the Meowth.

Meowth
Scratch Cat Pokemon
Type: Normal
Height: 0.4 m / 1'04"
Weight: 4.2 kg / 9.3 lbs
It is nocturnal in nature. If it spots something shiny, its eyes glitter brightly.
Moves: Scratch. Bite. Fake Out. Fury Swipes.

"You're damn right about it being a scratch cat..." Aeris said, miffed at having been scratched earlier. The Pokedex brought up the data that it was a female Meowth. "You'll need a name. And I don't think Pussycat will work..." She thought about it for a while until coming to a conclusion. "I'll call you Felina. It should suit you just fine." The Meowth seemed to like that, licking her paws to clean the back of her ears. "Felina it is. Welcome to the team, as unexpected as that was." She had Felina walk beside her while Blaze, Xal and Ekans continued training.

 

[Lizmichi]

Fary gritted her teeth as Misty yelled back at her. "You have no fucking idea how much I'm already beating myself up over that." she said sitting down after she left and covered her face with her hands breaking down. Her shoulders were shaking hard as she looked at her Pokemon and sighed. "Time to go back into you ball guys. I'm sorry." she said returning them before getting up and walking out as she held her hurt hand.

She made a quick stop at the PokeMart to pick up some PokeBalls and potions then walked around town for about an hour trying to calm down, nothing seemed to help. She sat down just outside of the town waiting for the others to catch up to her. She sat next to some grass and held onto her knees. Soon she saw a Pokemon looking at her and yawning.

"Hey it's an Abra. Come here little one." she said softly getting up slowly.

"Abbbraaaa." Looks like it's another human.

Before Fary could even choose a Pokemon the Abra used Teleport.

"Dammit." she cussed about to sit back down but noticed another Abra. "Hey it's another one. Quickly go Rogue use Pursuit before this one pulls the same shit." she said. Rogue looked at her and nodded.

Fary blinked noticing the attack didn't seem to effect it as much as it should of. "What the hell is going on? It's a physic type?" she said then blinking seeing the "Abra" change into her Zorua. "What the fuuu... OHHHH it's a Ditto. Well this was a huge stroke of luck. They're great for breeding." Fary said smiling.

"Ok Rogue lets try something else. Use Fury Swips a few times." Fary said petting Rogue and sent her to the Ditto. After a few attacks from both sides both Pokemon seemed worn out. "Good job Rogue now I'll take over." Fary said throwing a PokeBall and crossing her fingers hoping she would catch it, she then sighed hearing the ball click.

"Ha, we did it Rogue we caught a Ditto." Fary said smiling weakly and picked up the PokeBall right before it vanished. "Oh yea I have 6 Pokemon already." she said and sighed. She looked over and saw the others walking up and looked down side stepping trying to hide herself.

She watched Jordan talk with his Pokemon then looked at her hand unwrapping the bandages. "God it looks horrible. I'll need to get it looked at as soon as I can. Dammit why did I snap?" she said to her self seeing the wound was red and swollen.

She walked up to Rochelle not noticing her Pokemon had evolved and cleared her throat. "Can you please help me Rochelle." her voice was weak and soft as she bit her lip holding her hand.

 

[tsatoma]

"That's the way Hughes! Watch behind you though," Eileen called out to her fire Pokemon, watching as he finished taking out two Snubbulls before battling a Bellsprout. The Bellsprout was overwhelmed by the Growlithe's Ember attack, quickly falling to it's much stronger opponent. "Good job there. At this rate there will be no Pokemon left for Ari to batt- actually he seems to be doing pretty good on his own," Eileen admitted after locating her other Pokemon, seeing the Exeggcute on top of a small pile of defeated Mankeys.

The Exeggcute looked over at Hughes with smug looks from atop the pile, the fire Pokemon taking out it's anger on an Oddish close by. "That's the spirit! A friendly competition between you two will be good," Eileen said, watching the two try to one-up the other in Pokemon battles won. She jotted down a few notes before noticing a glint of something shiny over in a nearby bush. The glint became distracting after a minute and her curiosity got the better of her. Her notepad was put back in her pocket as she made her way to the bush, kneeling down to check it when a flurry of sharp claws scratched at her face.

A yelp of pain escaped Eileen as she fell backwards and covered her face, waiting for the pain to subside before taking her hands off her face. Before her was the Pokemon that she knew had been following her since she entered Cerulean, the Pokemon that chased after her in the forest. That Pokemon...was a Meowth.

"You!" Eileen sharply said with anger, pointing at the Meowth in accusation. The Meowth made a sound like a laugh at her, fiddling with a makeshift bandolier it had. Eileen watched as it brought out two objects: Eileen's Old Amber and her golden nugget. "Those are-" she started before the Meowth ran off into the brush.

"Hughes, Ari! Finish those battles than follow me!" Eileen called out to her Pokemon, the two knee-deep in random Pokemon they had picked fights with to up their wins. She ran off after the cat thief, wondering how it managed to grab her two valuable items from her bag in such a small time-span. 'That Pokemon is good. Really good. It might just be a valuable companion,' she thought, checking the clips on her bag and finding them closed, 'Really good.'

Eileen ran towards the tree line, wondering if she had lost track of the thief before she was attacked again. "No! Damn it, this was one of my favorite shirts!" Eileen yelled out in anguish, looking at her completely shredded shirt. Hughes and Ari ran up behind her, the two running off after the perpetrator after being told to track the Meowth down.

"I'll catch that sneaky thief and get my stuff back even if it kills me," she muttered as she put down her bag and took out a new shirt; taking off her own torn afterwards.

 

[elementsoul]

Callum had walked past the Cerulean Gym after leaving the Pokémon Center. There was a sign on the door indicating what the Nurse Joy had thought; the gym was closed for battles for today. With no reason to stay in the city anymore, Callum directly left.

Upon exiting the city, Callum went directly for the tree line. Bugs rarely appeared in open areas and you often had to climb the trees outlining the area in order to find any. So before he set to climbing the first tree he released his Spinarak which quickly shot its web into the tree and climbed up. His Ledyba took flight off of his backpack and Callum released his new Caterpie which started climbing up the tree side. After removing his half dry jacket from his bag and putting it on, Callum took after his Pokémon and climbed up the tree.

Half way up his Caterpie had climbed down and took refuge on his shoulder. It only took a few more seconds before he reached his other Pokémon in the thicker branches of the tree. His Spinarak had already caught an Exeggcute in his web and had covered it in a sticky string substance before draining its energy with Leech Life. Meanwhile his Ledyba had confused an Aipom and was brutally beating on it with a Comet Punch. As soon as he pulled himself up both of his Pokémon had finished their respective battles.

Callum started looking throughout the trees for any bug Pokémon that he hadn?t captured yet. There were no signs of them, so Callum slide himself out to the end of a strong branch and switched the trees that he was on. His Pokémon were soon to follow behind him and his Spinarak shot out a web and swung between the trees and his Ledyba flying in behind them.

Soon Callum started to swing from branch to branch in his search of his next capture. The Spinarak only stopped following him when it found a resting Pokémon that was easy prey, and the Ledyba was often dodging attacking Spearows, or battling it out with other Ledybas in the air. This continued for a while before Callum heard a sound out in the distance; it was the cry of a Scyther.

After a second of searching he had identified the source. From the tree branches he could make out a Scyther battling Pokémon off in the distance. Near the Scyther was the idiot who couldn?t even remember Eileen?s name, Jordan. How the heck did he get a Scyther? I mean I haven?t run into one so far and it?s my job. There?s no way that idiot could have caught one.

With Callum?s attention taken away from the branches before him, he accidently grabbed a thin, weak branch. As soon as his weight strained the branch, it cracked and gave way. Callum went flying out from the tree, narrowly missing branches above and below him, before slamming into the body of a tree. With a thud he fell backwards off of the body and landed on his back. When he opened his he saw Eileen standing almost beside him, only wearing a bra.

Callum?s face became beet red as he quickly sat up and looked away from Eileen. His nose started to bleed as soon as he sat up. The cause was from the impact of hitting the tree, but it didn?t really matter as he wiped the blood away and pinched the top of his nose. ?I?m sorry. The tree branch I was on broke and I fell. I didn?t know you were here. I swear,? Callum managed to get out with a high awkward voice, which came with the pinched nose.

Before anything else could happen; a Weedle from the tree that he was in dropped itself, needle first, over top of Callum. Luckily before it could reach him, Callum?s Spinarak shot a string out and caught it, swinging it towards the tree it dropped from, before detaching the string as it made a hard impact. The bug Pokémon dropped down the tree and the Caterpie on Callum?s shoulder took off. It quickly tackled the Weedle and sent it flying back into the tree. Then it covered the Weedle in String Shot to prevent it from moving.

Callum watched the event and quickly took out a normal Pokéball and threw it at the Weedle. As the Pokéball shook, Callum?s Caterpie aimed its head straight up and shot out a mist of string shot while glowing white. Within a few seconds the Pokéball made a click and the Caterpie stopped glowing; the Caterpie had evolved into a Metapod. ?Thanks guys,? Callum said as he pulled out his Metapod?s Pokéball and returned it before walking over and picking up the Weedle?s Pokéball.

 

[CounterAttack]

A quiet voice interrupted Rochelle's observation of the others. "Can you please help me, Rochelle?" Fary's voice. She sounded like she was in a fair bit of pain: Rochelle looked around to find her holding one of her hands. It looked like it had been through a window or something: cuts everywhere, with a fair bit of bleeding and swelling. There were a few loose bandages on Fary's wrist: she had evidently taken them off to look at the injuries. That was something that, in Rochelle's experience, shouldn't be done too often.

"Oh geez... that looks pretty bad. How did you manage that?" she asked, worried, as she set her pack down and rummaged through it, looking for her first-aid kit. The basic training she had received before leaving on her journey from Goldenrod would be put to use, though Rochelle wasn't sure whether or not to be thankful that she wasn't practicing on herself. She soon found the first-aid kit and opened it up, picking out a small patch of gauze, some bandaging of her own, a small clip to keep the bandages together and a pair of scissors.

Having picked out her supplies, of which there were not too many, Rochelle turned her attention back to Fary's hand. It looked like a fair bit of a mess... the wounds needed to be cleaned before she applied anything to them. One of Rochelle's water supplies was her water bottle... though she was fairly sure that the other supply was much more plentiful. "Kirsten, come here, please," Rochelle called out to her Horsea, who immediately turned away from studying Iskra in his new form and hopped over. "Horsea?" she piped up, bouncing on her tail while she waited for Rochelle's attention. The Trainer promptly picked up her Water-type, but she wriggled in Rochelle's arms, expecting a cuddle and maybe a bite to eat.

"Kirsten, I need you to wash Fary's hand with a Water Gun. Not too powerful, mind, we don't want to hurt her. Just to wash off the blood and suchlike, clean out the wounds. You know what I mean, right?"

"Hor... Sea, hor," Kirsten answered, seeming to nod a 'yes' of comprehension. Rochelle looked to Fary for approval of this; it was polite to let her accept the mention of cleaning the damaged hand before letting Kirsten spray it.

 

[tsatoma]

The sound of something heavy falling next to her gave Eileen quite a scare. She had jumped forward and turned around ready to fight off whatever it was, only to see that it was the young teen Callum that had fallen. The teen got up and tried to stop his nose from bleeding before trying to explain himself.

"I'm sorry. The tree branch I was on broke and I fell. I didn't know you were here. I swear."

"It's fine. A little creepy though. Also stopping a nose bleed like that could potentially kill you. Just grab a wet cloth and let it drain," Eileen told him as she put on her new shirt, watching as the Trainer caught a new Pokemon and had one of his own evolve. 'I still need to get stones for my Pokemon. Hopefully they'll have some in Celadon,' she thought, remembering what had caused all this and grabbing her things after writing a few quick notes on Callum.

"The group is pretty close by if you want to join up. I need to go and catch the thief!" Eileen said to Callum before running off in the direction her Pokemon had gone. Up a head of her were a few small fires in a clearing with one tree in the center, and up in that tree was the cat thief herself.

"Nice work keeping it up there Hughes. I see that it has a stash up next to it. Ari, use Barrage to try and knock the Meowth down!" Eileen ordered. Ari fired small eggs up at the Meowth who managed to dodge them by hopping from branch to branch. The constant misses made Ari annoyed, and he instead started to hit all the branches to knock them down.

Now with no where left to go the Meowth jumped down before Ari could strike it from the tree, landing gracefully down on the ground in front of them. "Ari, knock down that stash up there. Hughes use Flame Wheel!"

Hughes backed up from the Meowth before charging towards the Pokemon. The Meowth thought it could simply dodge the oncoming attack then hit the Growlithe with some Fury Swipes, but that was before Hughes emitted red flames from his mouth and somersaulted forwards. Hughes rolled right into the Meowth, knocking it high up into the air. Eileen used this chance to throw a Pokeball at it, the Pokemon being enveloped with red light before the ball fell onto the ground.

"That was a really nice move buddy," Eileen said, congratulating her fire Pokemon after the Pokeball stopped moving. She walked over and picked it up, hearing the sound of something falling from a tree happening behind her. 'It better not be Callum again.'

Turning around she saw that Ari had gotten the stash out from the tree and was already starting to rummage through it. "Back off there Ari, if there is anything in there that you can have I'll give it to you," Eileen told him, looking into the stash. The first things she found were here Old Amber and nugget which were safely put back inside of her bag. While the majority of it was simply shiny junk, there was quite a bit of coins in there to take. "And you can have this Ari," Eileen joked, placing a monocle that was there on him, "Only one of them though, sorry. Let's head back you two...well it'd be three now I guess. I need to come up with a name...a catlike feminine name...Cleo. That was easy."

With a new Pokemon and a bit more change the small group headed back the way they had come, hoping that the other Trainers hadn't moved to far a head.

 

[socialtangent]

Tyler stuck to the back of the traveling group of Trainers, with Geist by his side. Thus far today, a pair of Oddish had run afoul of the Kadabra's newly learned Confusion attack; they didn't stand a chance. Still riding the rush of confidence after defeating Misty, he was sure he was on a roll. He still didn't know what exactly he was doing, but so far it was working. And with the party at the S.S. Anne, things were looking pretty good today.

While he was outside, Tyler thought that he might as well give Tank some attention. He knelt down and let the Nidoran out of the Pokeball. After stretching his legs and looking around at his surroundings, he faced Tyler.

"Long time, no see," Tyler greeted. "You ready to get some fresh air?"

Tank nodded enthusiastically. "Ran!"

"Just don't stray too far, okay? And stay out of the tall grass."

And with that, Tyler continued his relaxed pace behind the others. Tank seemed to enjoy himself as he frolicked through the grass along the forest line. He was glad the Nidoran was enjoying himself, especially after spending a little while crammed inside a Pokeball. Just past Tank, Tyler saw what looked like two people exiting the forest. After walking closer, he recognized one of them as Eileen, the girl he'd met back at Cerulean. The other was a boy that he didn't quite recognize. Regardless, he waved to Eileen and approached the two.

"Hey there. Eileen, right?" Although he was pretty sure that was her name, he still asked for confirmation. "And I'm not sure I've seen you before," he said to the stranger.

 

[tsatoma]

"Oh hey there Tay- Tyler! Yes, you are correct my name is Eileen. Hopefully by the time we reach Vermillion we'll be past this awkward stage where no one can quite remember each other's name," Eileen replied once she stepped out of the tree line. She brushed off some of the twigs and dirt that had accumulated on her pants after running through the forest; happy that she wore pants today. "This guy right here is Callum from Hoenn, and I believe he'll be latest person to join the group. Isn't that right?" Eileen asked, letting her two Pokemon go out to battle. Her new Meowth would need some time to recover from the battle a few minutes ago, and she didn't want it to have to start training when it was tired out.

'Though do I want to use it as a battler? I already have two, and Cleo's talents seem to be in other places. I'll figure it out,' Eileen thought, holding the Meowth's Pokeball in her hand. She put the Pokeball away for now and looked over to see Ari battling a Rattata with Hughes finishing up a fight with another Snubbull close by.

 

[Lambi]

I'll have to get my scratches looked at when we get to the next Pokecenter. If nothing else, they're annoying me. Aeris watched over the three Pokemon she had training, Blaze, Xal and Ekans. All three were doing alright against their opponents, though they were getting a bit tired she could tell. Felina had jumped up onto her shoulder and sat there comfortably, although careful not to dig her claws into Aeris' shoulder.

Blaze was handling a group of Bellsprouts and Oddishes, handling them well with her Ember and Dragon Rage attacks. She rarely needed to use Metal Claw, though she used that against the occasional Meowths and Mankeys that popped up.

Xal was having fun using his Tackle and Rock Throw against Meowths, Pidgeys and Rattatas, but avoided the Mankeys because their attacks were super effective against him. Blaze usually came to his rescue if there was a pesky Mankey attacking Xal.

Ekans was focused, wanting to train and become as strong as Blaze. He wouldn't be battling Drowzees if he wouldn't have his Bite attack, so he was doing alright against them, avoiding their Hypnosis attacks. Otherwise, if he wasn't battling Drowzees, he was picking on the local Normal types with his Poison Sting and Wrap.

Although just newly captured, Felina thought about joining her fellow Pokemon in battle. She found a nearby Drowzee to battle and used her Bite attack, causing the Drowzee pain. It tried to hypnotize her into sleep, but she ran away from the attack, coming towards the back of the Drowzee and used her Fury Swipes. Her claws glowed white and she scratched the Drowzee three times, knocking it out.

Aeris was very impressed by what Felina was capable of. "Perhaps you aren't just cute." She giggled, watching Felina join the other three in battle, while Tristan and Sonya kept just flying above and walking beside Aeris.

 

[elementsoul]

?It?s nice to meet you Tyler, I?m Callum,? Callum replied to Tyler, completely ignoring the fact that Eileen introduced him like he couldn?t do so himself. ?I also never agreed to join your group. That drama earlier caused the Cerulean Gym Leader to shut down the Gym for today. Now I?ll have to go back there later in hopes of getting the badge. However I might join with you on the way down to Vermillion,? Callum replied to Eileen. What?s with this girl? I swear I?d put her on the wrong side of insane at this point.

Callum sighed and removed his Metapod?s Pokéball from his pouch and peeled off the Caterpie sticker. Reaching into a side pocket of his backpack, Callum removed a sleeve filled with several sheets covered in stickers. He peeled the Metapod sticker off from a sheet and placed it on the Pokéball, before returning the ball and doing the same for his Weedle?s Pokéball. After returning the stickers to his bag he felt his Spinarak drop to his shoulder and started to walk south towards Vermillion.

 

[socialtangent]

Tyler groaned somewhat when Callum reminded him of the spat between Fary and Misty earlier on in the day. "Yeah, that blows," he replied. "There's been a bit of tension in the group lately. Don't know why, but drama has seemed to follow us." While he didn't know the whole story, Tyler had heard more than enough to figure out that Fary and Jordan had serious issues with self-restraint. With a shrug, he dismissed the topic and followed them down the trail. "But I digress. Eileen said you're from Hoenn? What brings you around here?"