-=Game=- Dragon Tamers Battle Range version 19! (M.A. by Pidgeot)

[Lady Vulpix]

Nice race, MK! Take 8 stamps! ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢
Amy, your story was great!
Karin, your battle was excellent! I was planning to give you 7 stamps, but I'm giving you 6 and use the other one to pay for the restoration of the historical monument Lune damaged. You should teach your pokemon to be more careful. (Note this is just for the battle, as the intro had been rated before).¢¢¢¢¢¢
Matt, you can have 7 stamps. Nice job! ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢

[pokemongeek]

Hi. This is my first time doing this so please don't get upset if I mess it up. I just want to Train both my Wurmple from the Pokezoo Adoption Center and Snubby, my new Swinub. I am trying my best to understand everything, so I'll split up our adventure into parts.
-----------------Part 1: Wurmple Sees A Magma Grunt-------------------
It was a normal day for me and my Pokemon, Wurmple and Snubby. We were happily playing with our ball when it rolled into the woods. We went after it and split up in order to find faster. Just then Wurmple spotted something.

Wurmple's POV
It was a Magma Grunt and boy did he ever seem angry. He told me to tell Pokemon Geek and Snubby that if we want to stay together forever, we'd have to challenge him in the Winter Games Pokemon battle. I had no choice but to agree.

Snubby's POV
When Wurmple told Pokemon Geek and me about the challenge. I was shocked. I never was in a battle before. My Master reassured me and told me that as long as I believed in myself, I can do anything. Wurmple never battled either and she seemed ready. She may have been that way because she already believed in herself or that she was getting ready to evolve.

[Lady Vulpix]

Welcome to the Battle Range, pokemongeek!
Before you post a battle, I think you should check the current scenario first. It's the one about Easter. You ca find a link to it on the rules post (first post on this topic). Whenever the scenario changes, that link is updated. Also, make sure you read all the rules. That could prevent problems in the future, like posting invalid battles and having to write them all over again.
I hope you enjoy this game.

[pokemongeek]

Wurmple's at Lv 7 and Snubby at Lv 5
----------------------Wurmple's Easter Surprise----------------------------
It was Easter morning and Snubby my Swinub and Wurmple were happily enjoying the candy I gave them when a Pichu appeared. It looked at the chocolate and jelly beans and slowly crept up to my Pokemon. It seemed to be hungry and Wurmple offered it an apple from her basket when it snatched the basket and ran off! Wurmple then became quite upset and ran after it.
"Snubby!" I shouted. "Follow Wurmple! She may get hurt if she tries to get her treats alone!"
We ran after Wurmple and Pichu until we reached a dead end in the forrest. Wurmple demanded that the Pichu should give back her candy and it refused to listen. Wurmple then wanted to battle for her Easter treats.
"Are you sure?" I asked. "It looks strong and you never battled before."
But Wurmple was still determined to get her candy back.
"Okay then," I sighed as I respected Wurmple's decision. "Try and Tackle Pichu for your Easter basket."
Wurmple used a tackle but Pichu was quicker and got out of the way. It then used a Thundershock attack. Wurmple was hurt but she still wanted her candy back.
"Wurmple!" I commanded. "Try your String Shot!"
She then spit out a string shot and Pichu was caught and coyuld no longer move as quickly as it did before. Wurmple then did another tackle causing Pichu to go flying into the air and landed high in the branches of a tree. It was dazed completely and could no longer fight over the candy. Just then Wurmple started to glow and began to evolve. It became a Silcoon! I was so happy for my new Silcoon because I knew that as a Wurmple, my Pokemon had had a desire to become a Beautifly. It was one step closer to reaching its dream.
Wurmple is now at level 8!

[Lady Vulpix]

Will you please tell me how your Wurmple got to level 7? She was level 5 last time I saw her.

[pokemongeek]

I thought she was at lv 7 when I got her but she did evolve I guess earlier than expected just like Ash's Caterpie.

[Lady Vulpix]

What level was Ash's Caterpie when he evolved?
Anyway, you can have 2 battles, so if your Wurmple battles 2 Pichus instead of 1, she'll grow to level 7 and evolve.
Will you fix your battle, please?

[pokemongeek]

As Lady Vulpix Pointed Out, I Made A Mistake So Instead Of One Pichu Taking Wurmple's Easter Candy, I'll Replace It With Two Pichus And Silcoon Will Be At Lv 7 Instead Of Lv 8.

[AntiAsh Superstar]

Hehe, I finally finished me story for this scenario. Excuse the sudden appearances in Ulthuan of people who may be familiar to you, but how could I leave out what has the potential to be the greatest comedy double act I've ever had the good fortune to write about?

-----

So that was it, then. Finally the Dragon Games were over, and finally we could return to something approaching normality. It had been a bittersweet time to say the least. Although Katnip had tried his best, vanquishing a powerful Machamp in the process, there had been even more proficient fighters than him involved in the tournament. Still, despite the injuries the Raticate had sustained, he was more than happy with the third place we had managed to achieve. And if my pokémon were happy, why, so was I. And yet the doubts still lingered within the furthest recesses of my mind. Had it really been worth it? If you had asked Katnip he would have replied to the positive, but me, I wasn’t so sure. The trials had been immense. In fact they had put the Raticate out of action in the short term. Even now he was quite heavily bandaged, the injuries sustained during battle still needing all the support they could obtain. No, there had been precious little gained from the whole exercise, at least to my mind. Just a great deal of hassle. Then again, wasn’t that basically the story of my life? Complication after complication.
“Thinking of complications...” Currently I was sat at my computer, trying somehow to make sense of life through fiction, as was my wont. Of course it was sometimes complex, sometimes rambling, and always too unplanned to be worthy of publication, but what did that matter? It was only meant for an audience of one anyway. If anyone else appreciated my work that was merely an unexpected bonus. “It’s probably time for me to go in and see how the others are doing.” With well-practised speed I saved my work for the day and made to head out of my cluttered bedroom, navigating the papers strewn about the floor with relative ease. Yes, complications seemed to rule my life. And lately one of the biggest complications of all had seemed to land right upon my doorstep. I couldn’t put it off any longer. I would have to rearrange things. To make room for the new arrival.

“I still don’t get it.” Milliardo stared at the round, hard, shiny object in front of him. “I always thought dragons were supposed to be wise, intelligent creatures. Please explain how the **** you managed to find one willing to breed with BECKS, of all pokémon? Umm, no offense, Pearl.”
“None taken, I’m too used to you by now to care.” It had been Pearl’s idea to begin with. She had seen how disappointed I was to have to decline to accept the prize offered at the Dragon Games. I had said earlier that I wasn’t willing to take on another Meowth, and I had meant it. But it had still been agonising to have to refuse the little pokémon. So my team had hatched a plan to present me with an alternative prize of their own. It had required the assistance of Tsuyoi’s prodigious shape shifting powers, of course, plus assistance from Beckham in the form of what Kasumi was later to jealously dub ‘the most selfless act of having way too much fun for your own good I’ve even known’. Yet a willing trainer had been found, and the team triumphantly presented me with the object of their current discussions, a small yet perfectly formed Dratini egg.
“Well I’m glad, because I’m not about to change any time soon.” The Umbreon studied the egg for a little while longer, nested as it was in a cardboard box insulated with various scraps of cloth. A makeshift incubator if ever there was one, but it seemed to be quite effective. “Okay, next question. Do any of you have any idea what a dragon that’s been sired by a total lunatic is liable to turn out like?”
“Hey, I’m not a total lunatic!” Beckham protested. “I’m just half of one. The other half of me is something else, probably alcohol given the amount of times I’ve raided Ade’s drinks cabinet. Still, that’s not exactly stopped me before, has it?”
“No, I’m really impressed by that, actually.” Kasumi grinned brightly. “What I’d have given to be that Dratini you bred with!”
“Can I just point out that whilst a Dratini can just lay an egg and get it over with, you, Sumi, would be lumbered with puppies in your belly for months should your schemes come to fruition.” Pearl rolled her eyes. As much as she thought of the Growlithe as a little sister, there were times when Kasumi was totally impossible!
“Which is why I’m very careful and only stalk pokémon who can’t actually breed with me.” Kasumi stuck her tongue out before returning to Beckham. “So whaddya say, Becks? I’ll even find you some more drinks as your reward!” Fortunately for Beckham, the Wartortle was saved from having to make the hardest decision of his life by my sudden entrance into the room, freshly relaxed from my earlier efforts at literature.
“Yo, dude.” Katnip seemed to be the first one to actually notice my presence. Either that or he was trying to turn the tide of conversation away from the suspect direction that Kasumi was taking it. “Been havin’ a good time in there?” The Raticate hopped off the sofa to go over to me, then instantly regretted it as he landed on a badly sprained ankle.
“Will you watch it, Katnip?” Although the Raticate was taking things exceptionally well for such a restless creature, he did tend to have these moments where he simply forgot all about his injuries. The results were inevitably a sudden wince and a few choice obscenities muttered under his breath. “You’re still not properly healed, you know!”
“So I noticed.” Katnip reluctantly scrabbled back onto the sofa again, deciding that maybe remaining stationary had its benefits after all.
“Anyway, what’s going on here? That egg isn’t going to hatch any quicker if everyone watches it, you know!”
“I know that, we were just talking about it, that’s all,” Pearl offered.
“Again?” Ever since the egg had been brought into the house a few days ago, the rest of my team had been talking about little else. Everyone seemed to have an opinion on what the consequences of its existence were going to be. From Milliardo’s mean-spirited comments as to its parentage to Kirei loudly declaring that she was going to be the baby’s embarrassingly trendy aunt, it was as if all other topics of conversation had been all but forgotten. Still, I could forgive my pokémon their excitement. Hell, I was pretty excited about it too. “Well, I suppose it IS predicted to hatch today, right?”
“So the people at the breeding centre said.” Tsuyoi yawned from his position flopped upon the couch. He seemed to be the only one who cared little for recent events. But then again, wasn’t being excited too out of character for one such as he, always firmly in control of life? “And to be honest that’s the impression I’m getting from the life energies inside that little bundle. I’d say ‘any time now’ would be a fair estimation of how long you’ll all have to wait.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that, but...” My concentration was abruptly broken by a loud and persistent ringing from the telephone in the hallway. Only a few people ever bothered to call me, especially on my home number, and the urgency of the ringing was such that it was as if the telephone wanted me to know that this particular call wasn’t just one of the random telesales pitches that dogged any person unlucky enough to own a phone. “Oh, forget it. If it’s that close to hatching then will you guys just yell if something happens? I’d better go sort that out.” So saying, I pushed my way into the hall and lifted the cold black receiver, effectively silencing the din. “Hello?”
“Hi, Ade! I hope I’m not ringing at a bad time or anything!” Gabi. Of course. I had known who it was going to be even before I lifted the receiver.
“No, no, sorry if I sounded a little sharp.” I sighed, trying to soften my tone. Which was a hard enough task in itself. I was too on edge lately. Maybe I needed to take a little time off. “It’s just been one thing after another lately. And there’s a dragon about to hatch in the lounge, I can’t say waiting for that has been doing anything for my mood.”
“Oh, I heard that you had finally acquired a Dratini egg, congratulations!”
“Thanks. It’s not hatched yet, but I’ve been told it could do at any time, which is why I’m a little edgy at the minute.” A pause. “Anyway, what were you calling about?”
“A few things, actually, but I get the feeling that now isn’t the best time to talk about them. Maybe we could meet up later on today and I can explain? I’ll be out for most of the day but it wouldn’t be hard to squeeze in half an hour to talk. Would about 4pm be okay for you? I can afford to take a little time out to drop by.”
“Of course, that sounds fine with me. I never really have anything planned anyway. This must be really important for you to need to meet up with me, I know how busy you are!”
“Well, you’ll see later. I’ve got a favour to ask of you and I need to ask it in person.”
“Well...” A sudden excited yelling from the lounge broke my concentration in an instant, as if the entire team had began to talk in unison. Something had happened whilst I was on the phone. I could just feel it. “Look, I’m sorry, Gabi, I’ve really got to go now, something’s come up. I’ll see you later, just turn up when you’re ready and then we can talk, okay?”
“Certainly, I understand. You’d better go, they’re making quite a noise back there, aren’t they?” This was understatement of the year! No wonder Gabi could hear the din even over the phone line! “I’ll come over at some point in the afternoon, okay?”
“Yeah, fine. I’ll see you then.” And without waiting for an answer, I hung up, hoping that Gabi would understand my lack of manners in this situation. I couldn’t leave this any longer, that small part of my brain responsible for curiosity finally going into overdrive. Of course I knew what was going on really. It was typical of my luck that such things were happening when I was out of the room, but there was nothing that could be done about it now. I would just have to hurry and do what I could. If, of course, my team hadn’t already taken the initiative. And based on past form, the chances were that such a thing had already happened. The question was what kind of chaos would greet me when I returned to the lounge?

“Aww, isn’t it cuute?”
“If you like that sort of thing. Personally I don’t see what all the fuss is about. It’s just an oversized worm.”
“Gee, Scratchy, not even I’d be that mean. What’s wrong, don’t you like kids?”
“No.”
“Well, I’ll make sure to remember that next time you’re pissing me off, we can lock you in a maternity ward or something.”
“Guys, can we stop fighting for ten seconds? Please?” I was taking far too long making my call for Pearl’s liking, and the way she saw things somebody had to take some kind of control! She took a few faltering steps towards the head now poking out amidst the box of rags in the corner of the room. “And stop crowding it, Kirei. You don’t have to get that close, you know!”
“But it’s so cute!” Despite the urge to stare further, the Espeon reluctantly followed orders and gave the baby Dratini a little space, allowing Pearl to take further control of the situation.
“Okay...” Pearl’s mind went into overdrive. What was supposed to happen next? She felt that she should say something, but what? And what were they supposed to do with regards to feeding the baby? Not for the first time she wished that I would hurry up and provide some assistance. But then again, would I have had any more of an idea as to what to do? “Hello there! It’s your Auntie Pearl! Aren’t you a sweetheart?”
“Oh my God. Do any of you have even the slightest clue as to what you’re doing? If Kirei’s not giving the poor thing heart attacks by shoving her face right into it’s line of vision, Pearl’s giving us lessons in sickeningly sweet baby-talk.” Pandora had seen quite enough of this spectacle, and began to roughly barge her way towards the Dratini. “It’s simple. He’s just hatched. Do you know what the first thing to do in this situation is? No, I don’t suppose you do, do you?” By now Pandora had reached the box, and the instant her eyes landed upon the Dratini her expression and tone softened. “Aww, ignore them, baby, they don’t have a clue, do they? I bet you must be starving. Come on, come to me, I’ll help you. Yes, that’s it. Good boy!” There was something in Pandora’s manner that seemed to attract the baby towards her, and sure enough the little dragon came slithering out of its egg.
“Umm... Pandora... I really hate to be a pedant, but are you going to do what I think you’re going to do?” Milliardo raised a figurative eyebrow in response to the scene before him. This was getting more surreal by the minute! “Because, you know, I’m not exactly the world’s greatest expert on nutrition and all, but are we quite sure that Houndour milk is quite the right... formula for a dragon?”
“No. But I’d like to see anyone else come up with a better plan, and it’s better than nothing. Now would you just shut up, unless you plan on saying something that HADN’T already crossed my mind?” Satisfied that her boyfriend was silenced for now, the Houndour turned her attentions back to the baby Dratini, gently coaxing it to where it could safely suckle. Of course Milliardo was right, a dragon couldn’t exist forever on sustenance designed for puppies, but in Pandora’s mind it was better than nothing. And besides, who else was going to come up with a better idea?
“I’ve seen some odd sights in my time...” The sight greeting me upon my return ranked as one of the most surreal scenarios I had witnessed all year. It was common knowledge that for all her prickly, volatile attitude, Pandora had always possessed something of a maternal streak, but to see her already mothering the baby in this manner wasn’t something that I had necessarily been expecting. “Well, good on you, Pandora. I’m glad somebody knows what they’re doing with infants!”
“I assume that means I’m being asked to play the surrogate mother now?” Pandora tried her best to look weary, but yet again those eyes spoiled the mood. She seemed more pleased than anything by the whole prospect, craning her head down to lay a tender kiss upon the hungry Dratini’s head. “I can deal with that, I suppose. If I have to. But you’re going to have to name him, you know, I’m crap at that kind of thing. Naming isn’t a talent of mine.”
“It’s a good thing I already thought about that. If it was a girl I was going to call it Yuri, but you said ‘him’ didn’t you?”
“Yes she did, this means it’s not a girl. Even you can work that one out, Ade!” Evidently Milliardo hadn’t been totally silenced after all! “So what name did you have in mind for a boy, then?”
“I thought Marius would be a nice name,” I replied, appraising the little Dratini as it nestled up against Pandora’s belly. Just one look into its eyes revealed a creature with the potential to become quite the intellect. Yes, Marius seemed to fit nicely. “Mind if I interrupt?” I bent down to pet the little creature as it fed. The Dratini was too busy to pay me much attention as I ran my fingers along its leathery skin. The sensation was quite unlike anything I had ever experienced, and to try and describe the texture of a dragon’s skin would have been futile. It wasn’t quite reptilian, yet neither was it quite like the flesh of mammals. The best parallel would have been to say that it seemed to possess the most admirable qualities of both, plus a slight velvet sheen that defied explanation. “You’re a cute one, Marius.”
“That he is.” Pearl trotted over to my side, to examine the baby for herself. “By the way, Ade, do you mind if I ask what that call was all about?”
“It was Gabi, she wanted to come over later on today. Apparently she’s got something she needs to talk to me about in person.” A slight frown appeared on my face as I tried to consider what it was that could possibly warrant this visit. For the most part any business we had to discuss took place via phone calls or through the computer! “Don’t ask me what, though. I haven’t a clue.”
“Hey, do you think she’ll be bringing her team over as well?” Beckham stopped staring at his biological son for long enough to join in the current conversation. “You know, I kind of miss playing with Caledor, it’s been ages since the Eevee House was open last. I wonder what happened to that, anyway? Do you think it’s gone the way of everything in Ade’s hometown and been converted into either a sickeningly trendy bar or an overpriced clothes shop?”
“Man, I hope not!” Kirei shuddered. “Trendy is bad. Maybe it’s been taken away by the faeries or something. They’re an unpredictable bunch. Didn’t you know?”
“It’s probably just being redecorated or something like that. No faeries or anything ridiculous like that.” I sighed, resigning myself to the fact that I would probably never find out the answers to my questions on my own. “And Gabi didn’t say anything about bringing any of her pokémon, but you never know what’ll happen. Maybe she will and you can all have a big party to celebrate Marius’ birth or something whilst we talk things over.”
“You mean it?” Beckham’s eyes lit up. “Can we? Can we?”
“You know, I’ll probably regret saying this, but I suppose we ought to do something to celebrate the new arrival. Maybe I’ll ring Gabi back and ask if her pokémon DO fancy a little party.”
“Two trainers and their teams don’t make for a very big party,” Milliardo observed. “Then again, any more guests and people might start to worry that you actually have a social life!”
“Well that’d be well over twenty guests as it is, I’d say that’d be quite a big party in anyone’s language. But I suppose if you’re so worried about the numbers I could always make some more calls and see if certain people I’ve been spending weekends with would like to come up as well.”
“Oh my God, kill me now!” Milliardo put on his best petrified face. “You wouldn’t invite scarygirl, would you?”
“Quit it, Milliardo, we all know she doesn’t worry you nearly as much as you pretend she does. And what kind of party would it be if I didn’t ask my own girlfriend along?” To be honest it sounded like one hell of a good idea to me. For although I had been in a stable relationship for some time now, my love life and my life as a pokémon trainer only very rarely intersected, and it was impossible to keep them separated forever. I was just worried that letting the two cross would cause problems. It would tear me up inside should things go wrong in some way.
“Honestly, Ade, you’re impossible. I fail to see why I bother with you sometimes.” Tsuyoi had quite clearly picked up on my train of thought, for he was shaking his canine head in despair. “If we waited for you to actually act upon decisions that involved a slight risk, we would have all died of old age before you realised you couldn’t put things off forever. Now shall I tell you what you’re going to do? You’re going to get up off your *** and just act on your impulses for once instead of fretting over it for hours. Get on that phone and organise, or do I have to do it for you?”
“No, no, it’s quite alright, I am capable of doing things myself, thanks!” I had to admit it, Tsuyoi had a point! I wasted more time than I cared to admit wondering about the ifs and maybes of a situation, when that time would have been more constructively used in actually doing something. “You’re right, though, I shouldn’t waste so much time worrying.”
“I’m always right, Ade, I’m surprised you haven’t realised that by now.” That wasn’t something I was willing to be drawn into a conversation on! Even Tsuyoi had his flaws! But then again, I suppose that everyone does. The only thing that can be done is to try and better those flaws, to overcome the trials deep inside you. What more could possibly be done, after all?

It was later on in the afternoon that I had finally managed to get everything organised. It turned out in the end that Gabi simply didn’t have the time to stay for more than an hour or so, although that was more than enough time for her to convey her message and for our pokémon to catch up on lost time. As for our other human visitor, although she had jumped at the chance to come and visit, there had been complications with her arrival. Apparently the party proper wouldn’t begin until the evening, once trains that were screwing up more than usual had finally decided to operate properly. If it wasn’t strikes it was signal failures, and if neither of those were a problem then there were staff shortages. And on the off chance that everything was working smoothly, your train broke down halfway through the journey. No wonder most people preferred to use their pokémon as a mode of transport, they were far more reliable than the public services were most of the time!
“It’s good that you finally have a dragon, Ade.” So anyway. Here we were. Gabi and myself were sat at the kitchen table, listening in on the chaos that had now taken over the household since Kirei had suggested a game of tag. I really didn’t like to contemplate the state of the place at the end of it all! “I always thought that you would be able to raise one. And they can prove to be very helpful.”
“You speak from experience, huh?” I watched absent-mindedly as Gabi petted Marius, who was currently curled up asleep on her lap. My mind, it had to be said, was elsewhere.
“Well, that’s true. Lagi has been a great help to me over the years, but then again so have the rest of my team in their own ways. Anyway, this isn’t really why I’m here, and since I can’t stay for that long we should get down to business. I suppose you’ve been wondering what this visit is all about.”
“The thought had occurred to me. So what IS going on, Gabi?” There was a long pause, where Gabi seemed to be concentrating on something, as if she could hear some kind of barely audible sound. I was loath to disturb her concentration, but my curiosity got the better of me. “Is something the matter?”
“He’s listening in, you know.”
“Who is? Oh.” I should have realised. Tsuyoi. His psychic tendrils were everywhere, absorbing all the goings on around him. I was so used to his psychic presence that sometimes I forgot it was even there! “It doesn’t really matter that much, just ignore it. He’d find out sooner or later anyway. So what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?”
“In a nutshell, the Dragon Games.”
“Ah.”
“I’ve got something of a problem, Ade. You remember I won a Gastly as my prize, don’t you?”
“Yes, I remember. How is it settling in, anyway? You didn’t bring it with you today.”
“I did, it’s in here.” Gabi pulled a pokéball out of her pocket. This was a strange turn of events! I knew that Gabi used pokéballs about as much as I did. What was going on here? “I have to admit, winning this has caused something of a problem for me. I really don’t think I have the time to look after any more pokémon than I already have. Now, I know how disappointed you were when you had to refuse your own prize, so that was why I wondered if you would like to take care of the Gastly instead?”
“Hold on, are you serious about this?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! “You’d be giving up your Dragon Games prize!”
“Ade, I told you, I don’t have the time or the energy to look after any more pokémon. I still have the stamps and the TM I won, and Tsunami has gained a lot of experience from participating, so it isn’t as if nothing good has come out of the Games. Please, Ade. I want to make sure that this Gastly goes to a good trainer, and you were the first person I thought of. I think a Ghost-type would thrive on your unorthodox methods anyway.”
“You know, when Kirei turned up I thought to myself that I had finished building my team. Seems like I was totally wrong there, doesn’t it?” I laughed to myself. This was the last thing I had been expecting, but I had to admit that both the offer and the praise were more than welcome. “Okay, Gabi. I’ll look after the Gastly for you.”
“Great!” Gabi passed over the pokéball, and I resolved to let the pokémon out the instant things had quietened down a little. “Oh, and there’s something else I had to give you. This.” Again Gabi rummaged around in her pocket and pulled out a gaily-coloured promotional flyer, advertising some sort of Easter event. “It’s a Easter egg hunt and training exercise all in one, the only event of its kind, apparently. It’s set on an island away from Ulthuan, but a few of us were thinking of hiring a boat and making a day out of it. I’d love it if you could join us. Most of the others will be there.”
“Sounds interesting.” I studied the flyer with more than passing interest. It sounded like a unique event, all right! The hunt for eggs would be combined with pokémon training, and for each battle won an Easter egg would be the reward. Well, if nothing else it would kill some time! “I’d have to put it to my pokémon first, of course, but if it were totally up to me then I’d say you can count us in!”
“That’s good to hear. I’m sure they’ll want to come along. You always did strike me as a group who liked to keep moving.” Gabi stood up, being careful to pass the still dozy Marius back to me as she did so. “I wish I could stay longer, Ade, but I’ll have to get moving again. It was nice to be able to talk to you, though. We should really do this more often.”
“Indeed. I have to admit, it is nice to have a little human company every now and then.” I moved to show Gabi out, waiting patiently as she first rounded up the pokémon she had decided to bring with her. Which in some cases was a lengthy task, especially seeing as Caledor seemed less than willing to give up his game of chase. “I’ll see you later on, then. And thanks again.”
“I should be the one thanking you for taking on the Gastly for me!” Gabi laughed, bending down to pet goodbye those of my pokémon who would allow such gestures. “We’ll see you at the Easter hunt, then! Goodbye, everyone!” And with this, Gabi and her pokémon left us to our own devices again, leaving only the shiny pokéball that I was still tightly grasping in my hand. Well now, weren’t things growing more complex by the second? Not only did we have Marius to deal with - although it had to be said that Pandora was doing an admirable job of that one her own - but there was also the matter of this Gastly. I just hoped for its sake that it was a hardy creature. You had to be prepared for anything when you entered my team, collection of misfits that it was. Although knowing my luck the Gastly would probably fit in all too well. Well, what was one more lunatic to add to the collection, anyway?

“I was thinking more along the lines of Mael.” It had grown late before I knew it. Time had a funny way of doing that to me. Especially when sat around drunkenly debating with all those I held closest, as I was currently doing. The Gastly had turned out to be a male, and one perfectly suited to the team at that. Nothing seemed to phase him. He combined a decent sense of humour with seemingly unlimited patience, and although it was hard to shake the notion that he could easily slip into the stereotypical mischievousness of his species, I had been quite relieved to see that he would fit in well. Of course, there was still the matter of naming him, and this was what we were currently discussing.
“Marius and Mael and Pandora.” Milliardo rolled his eyes. “Why don’t you just rename everyone to fit this new theme and be done with it?”
“I’m not that mean to confuse everyone with renaming, but I know exactly who gets Lestat if I did!”
“Well at least you recognise my show-stopping brilliance!”
“Gas gas gastly gas!” It had been a long time since I had to deal with the obvious problem of communication. For me it had always come somewhat naturally, the more I bonded with a pokémon, the better my abilities to translate. My previous two acquisitions had mercifully erased this problem. I had been fond of Pandora from the outset, and any problems with understanding Kirei had been smoothed over by her psychic powers. But this Gastly was a different matter altogether, and I would need some time before I could fully understand. “Gastly gasgas gastly!”
“Translation, anyone?”
“Ade, you’ve drank so much ****ing alcohol I’m surprised you can translate your own language. That’s not what he said, by the way, that’s just my comment on this situation.” Milliardo stuck his tongue out. “Okay. He’s not all that bothered what you call him as long as you do it soon, please. And he was wondering whether Gastlys are capable of drinking out of bottles. Great. Just what we needed. Another Beckham.”
“Umm, and now can I have a translation, guys?” This was from the equally inebriated girl propped up against me, the two of us sprawled on the floor with a glass of vodka and coke each. Her shoulder length black hair hung fetchingly around her face, and although this wasn’t the sort of lady who spent years on her appearance - earlier in the day she had turned up on my doorstep in a t-shirt, long denim skirt and trainers - in my mind she was perfect. The only human in the world who had ever fully understood me. Maybe that was why it seemed so natural for her to hang around with the rest of us. “You know Milly never makes sense to me.”
“That makes two of us!” Pandora giggled from her corner of the room, where she was busying herself grooming Marius. “Milliardo, you can make yourself easily understood, stop being such a ***** and let everyone in on the conversation!”
“Oh, if I must, seeing as Scarygirl’s incapable of understanding simple words now.” It was child’s play for any pokémon with a degree of psychic energy to communicate with humans. Even Kirei could manage it despite that for the most part her power seemed to control her instead of it being the other way around. And the Dark type’s superiority against psychics was partly down to possessing and understanding these powers themselves. “Well, let me think of how to put this into baby-speak for you first...”
“Milly, you’re so mean to me! Ade, discipline your Umbreon, would you? He’s being a bastard.”
“Milliardo? Discipline? Do those two words really belong in the same sentence?” I had to laugh. This was fast becoming a running joke, the same running joke that anyone who gave as good as they got when it came to Milliardo would invariably become sucked into. “Milliardo, Soo, can I just say that you two are possibly the greatest comedy act I’ve seen in a long time?”
“If you like. Glad we amuse you so.” Milliardo rolled his eyes. “Just remind me, Scarygirl, why you always seem to act so stupidly when I’m around?”
“You have this effect on people, Milly. Tell you what, you stop calling me Scarygirl, I’ll stop bugging you. Deal?”
“No chance, Scarygirl!” Milliardo grinned evilly, hopping away before the altercation could be concluded with a uncomfortably prolonged hug. Which was what usually seemed to happen if he was in danger of getting the last word in. Finally the Umbreon seemed to remember about the original topic of conversation. “Oh yeah. Anybody want to give the poor Gastly a name, before we all start having to refer to him as ‘Untitled’ for the rest of eternity?”
“Oh, I’ve got one!” After a few seconds thought, it seemed that it was Soo who had come up with a name. “What about... Bolovayr? How do you like that?”
“Gastly gas.” It was obvious that the Gastly was quite happy with this title, and whilst I had no idea how she had managed it, there was no denying that Soo could certainly come up with a decent name when she felt like it! Certainly I had no objections to the name, and it was far more original than anything I was liable to come up with!
“Well, seeing as we’re all in agreement, then...”
“I’m not.” Milliardo chuckled. “Actually, I am, as much as I hate to admit it Bolovayr’s not such a bad name. I just like being contrary.”
“I had noticed.” Slowly I dragged myself to my feet. We needed a toast to the newest member of the team! “Now who’d like to remind me where I last put the bottle?”
“I’m one step ahead of you, my good man! Or failing that, a good two measures ahead, at any rate.” As it transpired, the alcohol had rather predictably drifted into Beckham’s possession. There was no doubt about it, the Wartortle was probably worse than I was when it came to drinking. And I hated to think of what this was going to cost me when he inevitably evolved! “Here ya go, now pour us all a good double. That ought to finish off this bottle!” Of course, I wasn’t about to do that. Although a lot of my team had been exposed to my habits for too long and hence would never refuse the odd drink, some had never cared much for the partying habits of, say, myself and Beckham. In actual fact, with the exception of alcoholic Becks and party girl Kirei, everyone was quite good in that respect. Even those who would accept a drink knew when to quit. Evidently the worse habits of my darker days hadn’t been passed along, and for that I was eternally grateful.
“Okay then.” I poured a large measure of vodka for everyone who wanted it, topping it up with orange juice that was finished on those - Lucky, Sindel, Scratchy, Katnip - who cared little for alcohol. “A toast. To those who have just joined us, and to us as a team. And yeah, I know half of you are drinking out of bowls and can’t raise a glass or anything, but I’ll just imagine you have, okay?” And with this, I raised my glass before throwing a great deal of its contents down my throat. Surrounded by those I cared for, a few welcome drinks inside me, life simply getting better by the second... Yes, sometimes even I felt that it was good to be alive.

The next few days passed all too quickly for me. Soo showed no intention of leaving any time soon. Which was fine by me. It gave us more time together, something that I never really could get enough of. I was contented when she was around, a far cry from the empty shell of my previous years, a life that now seemed to be nothing more than a bad dream, something insubstantial that never really happened. And since I was happy, my pokémon prospered. Bolovayr had found his niche quite easily, his adaptable nature meaning he was equally at home partying with Kirei as he was engaging Sindel in serious discussion. Marius was growing stronger and more aware by the day, and it had to be said that he was doing wonders for his surrogate mother. I had never known Pandora to seem to at ease with herself as she was when she was mothering the little Dratini, and this had the knock-on effect of making Milliardo less irritable. Or maybe it was the fact that in Soo he had finally found the perfect sparring partner for his verbal attacks, having enough of a sense of humour to not be offended by his remarks yet enough fire within her to retaliate in kind. He had even taken to being the father figure for Marius, having developed some affection for the little Dratini himself. In short, life was good, and so it was with great reluctance that I finally prised myself away from our new life in order to attend the Easter training exercise, wielding just six pokémon - Pearl, Beckham, Bolovayr, Pandora, Milliardo and Marius - and implicit instructions from my girlfriend to return with as many chocolate eggs as I could possibly carry. And who was I to question such an instruction? So it was that I arrived at the port with plenty of time to spare, the few pokémon I had assembled ready and willing to compete in this latest challenge.
“I’ve no idea why we have to play this dumbass game in the first place.” Well, most of my pokémon were willing! In actual fact, the only reason Milliardo had bothered offering his services at all was the fact that Pandora had decided that a day out would do their little clique good. “I don’t like chocolate. I don’t fancy a battle. Remind me why I’m here at all, somebody?”
“You are here to keep your poor partner company on a terribly long ocean voyage, to stop her from going oh so slightly insane and murdering you upon her return. Don’t you remember?” Pandora shot Milliardo a glance that was guaranteed to silence him in an instant. “Now kindly shut up, matey.”
“Alright, that does remind me why I’m here. Some moron mithered me until I agreed to come along just to get some peace and quiet! Actually, the real reason is that the alternative was being stuck in a house with Scarygirl. This is far better for my mental health!”
“I wish you’d stop being so mean to her, Milliardo.” My eyes scanned the area, searching for some sign of the group I was supposed to be joining. Then again, what was the use? My vision was flawed to say the least. “Anyway, can anyone see where we’re supposed to be headed?” I hadn’t really chosen the most helpful of groups for this particular exercise, in fact I was mainly relying on Pearl’s guidance. Marius was too young to be of any assistance, in fact the only reason he had joined the group was that Pandora flatly refused to leave the house without him. Neither Milliardo nor Pandora had ever been brilliant at spotting things, and in terms of observation Beckham was worse than the rest of us combined. There was always Bolovayr, and although he seemed happy enough to assist when he could, his eyes were adapted to a more nocturnal lifestyle. So that basically left Pearl to act as the eyes of the group. “If we don’t hurry up I get this horrible feeling we’ll end up missing the boat!”
“Relax, Ade, I know you too well now not to be a few steps ahead of you.” Pearl was already scanning the ramshackle buildings and ships that made up most of the scenery around us, and eventually her sharp senses seemed to pick up on something. The Ninetales race always did seem to have exceptional senses, and although Pearl was nowhere near as exceptional as some of her kindred in these matters, what observational abilities she did possess were more than enough for our needs. “Look. Over there, in the far corner of the docks. If I’m not mistaken there’s a whole group of Dragon Tamers over there. Of course, I could be wrong, that could be just an assemblage of people who look remarkably similar to trainers I’ve seen in the past, but I’d say that possibility’s pretty slim, wouldn’t you?”
“I dunno, what happens if it turns out to be a group of shape shifting aliens, trying to trap us into a life of slavery? That boat could be their spaceship in disguise, and they... And they...” Beckham seemed to run out of steam at this point. “And they’re probably who we’re looking for. But hey, shape shifting aliens from the depths of hell could happen, you know!”
“Becks.” Pearl turned to stare at the Wartortle with a well-practised look of despair. “Shut up.”
“I agree with Pearl,” Milliardo nodded. “Becks, shut up, before the shape shifting aliens come to get you. Now are we going to start moving or not?” The Umbreon had a point, despite how rudely it had been stated! If we didn’t get a move on, we would almost certainly miss this trip, and then it would have been a wasted journey. No, better to just get a move on. There would be time enough for chatter once we had reached our destination.

As it turned out, the trip took a good hour or two on its own, and that was excluding the time taken greeting the others making the trip with us. To be honest, I found the whole journey frightfully tedious. I never could seem to find the enthusiasm within me that others seemed to feel for travel, and although the views of the ocean from the deck of our ship - a medium sized craft designed for ferrying smallish parties around - was spectacular in anyone’s language, I found myself agreeing with Milliardo’s opinion that it was ‘very pretty and all but I refuse to believe there’s any better cure for insomnia than a long drawn-out journey’. In the end I found myself spending most of the trip arguing with my Dark type pokémon, bored enough to actually try and engage them in debate. Of course I lost. It was a skilled talker indeed who could win an argument against either Milliardo or Pandora without having to resort to cheap, personal shots that would win their undying enmity! But at least the exercise killed some time. And now we had finally arrived on the island, this Easter Island, a tropical location that would have been paradise to anyone other than myself. But I disliked intense heat with a passion, and so all the climate was doing was bringing to the fore an unnecessarily irritable streak.
“Why did I think this would be a good idea?” I sighed miserably. The group had all split up, each trying their best to search for pokémon trainers who held the eggs they were seeking. If indeed chocolate eggs could survive for very long in this heat. I wouldn’t have been too surprised if I was handed a gooey pile of unidentifiable brown sludge at the end of this ordeal. “It’s too hot, it’s too far away from Ulthuan, and we’re never going to make it back home in time for the next round of drinks.”
“Well at least we’ll make it back in time for the round after that!” Beckham grinned winsomely, trudging along the sands with an unnecessary degree of high spirits. He actually seemed to be enjoying himself! “I kind of like it here. It’s got sand, sea... umm... stuff... what else begins with ‘s’?”
“I’m sure Sumi would be all to happy to offer suggestions at this point if we’d brought her along, but for now I’ll help instead and suggest ‘stupidity’ and another very important word beginning with s that describes this place.” Milliardo seemed to be about as thrilled about this scenario as I was. “Honestly, all this hassle for a chocolate egg.”
“Call me weird, but I was under the assumption that this is a training exercise more than anything.” Bolovayr scanned his surroundings, and found them to his liking. He had seen precious little of the world before now, and he liked what he saw. “What’s so wrong with chocolate anyway?”
“Nothing, but it’s not worth putting up with the sweltering heat, the constant annoying insects, OR the immensely scary company.”
“Quit being such a moaner, Milliardo, I’m quite sure it isn’t as bad as you keep making out!” Pearl sighed, openly despairing of the Umbreon. “Personally I’m beginning to wonder if you’re not just complaining for complaining’s sake!”
“It’s either that or stay quiet for him, and you know how likely THAT is!” Pandora chipped in, the little Marius sat alert upon her back. Neither seemed to be perturbed by the tropical conditions, but then again both pokémon were of types that could easily withstand heat. Marius in particular seemed to be thriving in these conditions, his big eyes taking everything in with wonder. Sometimes you had to wonder what was going on inside the developing mind of his. He certainly seemed a lot more alert and composed than most infants would be! But until he developed sufficiently to hold a conversation, such queries were liable to remain a mystery. “Right, Milliardo?”
“What is this, gang up on Milliardo day or something?” The Umbreon bit back a cruel retort, then cursed himself under his breath. What was the matter with him? He was going soft to put up with all of this! “But you’re right, I’m not going to shut up, so you can like what I have to say or it’s basically tough luck!” It appeared that Milliardo was about to launch into one of his more embittered rants, the conditions doing precious little for his mood, when he suddenly stopped in his tracks. “Oh my God.”
“What is it?”
“Hush. Keep quiet, and follow me. You’re going to love this, guys.” So saying, the Umbreon began to creep through the undergrowth of the surrounding tropics, padding his way silently through the lush forests. We had very little choice but to follow, albeit not quite as successfully as he was at keeping quiet. What on earth was going on here? What had caught Milliardo’s attention so suddenly? Following him was probably the only way to find out.

“I can’t believe you. I mean, fair’s fair, we’re supposed to lose every now and then, that’s why I use you instead of my actual team. But the least you could do is put some effort in instead of cartwheeling into trees every ten seconds!!!”
“Marill mar marill rill!!! Marill!” It was a loud and intense argument between a trainer and his pokémon that Milliardo’s ears had picked up on. Well, argument of sorts, at any rate. In truth it seemed as if it consisted of very little more than bitter words on the trainer’s part and tearful apologies on the part of the Marill he was yelling at. Secreted as we were in the bushes, we had the opportunity to study this odd couple. The trainer was a tall, gaunt figure dressed entirely in brown, his scruffy hair falling over an unshaven face. He seemed to be more despairing than actually angry, however, which was sufficient to steady my urge to interrupt before the quarrel got too out of hand. And as for his pokémon... hadn’t I seen it somewhere before?
“I think it’s some kind of Nurse Joy conspiracy amongst the Marills round here, you know.” As if listening in on my train of thoughts, Milliardo provided a whispered commentary. “Either they all look and act the same, or we’re just unlucky enough to have to run into the same brain dead one every ten seconds. Remember these guys? They were hired to provide some of the training battles at the Christmas party. I guess we just can’t escape them if we go to any of these organised events, huh?”
“Maybe so.” I had to admit, Milliardo was probably right. They certainly did seem familiar, and if they were a mercenary team then it was almost inevitable that we would run into them a lot given the amount of training exercises we participated in! “Oh well. No sense in prolonging the inevitable, I suppose. Let’s get this over with, then we can go home.” And with this, I stepped out of the undergrowth as boldly as I could manage, interrupting the trainer’s tirade in mid-flow. “Shouldn’t be so loud, you know, it makes the Easter egg hunt far too easy.”
“Oh.” The trainer’s face flushed for a second, as if he was only just remembering his purpose here. For a while he seemed rather lost for words. “Uh, sorry. I just get a little on edge in these conditions.”
“Don’t we all? So what are we supposed to do now? Battle, I suppose?”
“That’s about the size of it.” By now my opponent had regained his composure, and was sounding far more like the professional he appeared. “We have a two on two battle, and should you beat me I hand over a token that can be exchanged for a prize at the end of it all. There was talk of us trainers carrying chocolate eggs as rewards, but what with how the weather’s turned out today none of us fancied carting about huge piles of melted chocolate.” The man grinned, a warm smile that seemed quite at odds with his earlier yelling. Maybe he did have a short temper, but this seemed to be a man who cared deep inside.
“Well, that at least answers a question that was bugging me earlier, I did wonder how the eggs were supposed to survive in all this heat!” I returned the smile, wiping away the sweat from my forehead, only to have it all return with reinforcements within seconds. “Anyway, shall we begin before I melt? I’m afraid I was never very good at dealing with heat.”
“Of course. I’ll start off by using my Marill. She needs the experience.” This was said with a sideways glance at the tubby pokémon, who responded by blushing deeply, clearly ashamed. Whatever was going on between these two, this pokémon’s battle form seemed to be at the root of it.
“Okay then. I think Becks needs a battle. He’s not fought for quite some time.” I nodded to my Wartortle, who responded with a broad grin and a thumbs up. “You’ll get lazy if you don’t keep in shape, Becks.”
“Whatever you say, my good man. I’m ready, able, and all kinds of other things that I’m supposed to be before a battle.” Beckham took up his position in front of me, winking good-naturedly at his opponent. “Hey, didn’t we meet at the Dragon Games training ground?”
“We did?” The Marill seemed confused for a second, before recognition filled her eyes and she ran forward to clasp Beckham’s paws excitedly. “Oh yeah, we did, didn’t we? We were in that thing, you know, that giant room!”
“The one filled with water, yeah, and I thought it was a giant aquarium!”
“Well it was! Yeah, and we had a fight...”
“It wasn’t much of a fight, was it, we just tumbled about a bit! It was fun, though!”
“Yeah, I know, I remember really wanting to meet you again, you were the best opponent I’ve ever faced!”
“Hey, I’ve not met many fighters who like to have a laugh as well myself!”
“Oh my God.” Milliardo looked up at me, his amber eyes filled with despair. “Ade, tell them to shut up, if I hear much more of this inane chatter my head is going to explode. All of a sudden I’m really, really starting to miss Scarygirl’s company. At least it’d be preferable to this!”
“Becks, you wanna get this over with? You two can always catch up once the match is over, you know.” Although I found Milliardo’s criticism overly harsh - the two pokémon were rather cute together, chattering away excitedly - the fact remained that I wanted this whole exercise over as quickly as possible. And given how much Beckham could talk, it was wise to nip this conversation in the bud before we ended up stood here all day!
“Oh, alright.” The Wartortle took a few steps backward. “So, shall we have another battle for old time’s sake, milady?”
“Sounds good to me, Becks, me old mate!” Megan - for who else could this pokémon have possibly been? - struck the over-the-top fighting pose that was fast becoming her trademark. “Let’s do it!”

[AntiAsh Superstar]

FIGHT!!! L26 Wartortle v L25 Marill!

No matter whether Beckham was the most easily-distracted out of my team or not, every one of my pokémon knew how to fight on their own violation. Which was why I was able to observe this battle from a distance, sat under the relative shade of a nearby tree with the remainder of my team. Leaving the Wartortle to deal with Megan on his own.
“Right, you, let’s see how you deal with this!” Beckham was always a firm believer in striking first, it came with having been semi-trained in the art of combat by Katnip, back in the days when they were but a lowly Squirtle and Rattata. The tactic had yet to really fail either of them. Which was why Beckham was already launching his first attack, a vicious Tackle that send the Marill rolling along the floor. It seemed a good enough start, but then it occurred to Beckham that something was amiss. Even given his opponent’s roughly spherical shape she was taking far too long in stopping moving. It was almost as if she were doing it deliberately!
“Becks, would you watch it? She’s using Rollout!” My warning came too late, however. There was nothing that the Wartortle could have done to avoid the suddenly speeding Marill heading towards him, so he simply allowed his instincts to act on his behalf, his head and limbs disappearing rapidly into his supremely hard shell. Not quickly enough to atop Megan from inflicting a glancing blow to his head that temporarily send the world spinning, mind you, but at least it protected him from the full impact of the blow, even if it did present him with an intriguing new problem to deal with. Here, safely cocooned within the dark confines of his shell, Beckham was reasonably safe from the Marill’s assaults, it was true, but on the other hand he couldn’t really do much to attack, either! And coming out would almost certainly put him at risk. It took time to return to his normal state. But then again, his opponent was Megan, wasn’t she? She had never been known for her brilliant tactics. So in the end Beckham decided to risk it, to hope that the Marill was as excitable - and ultimately as careless - as he remembered her. He wasn’t disappointed. As his head poked out of the shell, his eyes quickly adjusting to the change in lighting, the Wartortle was just in time to witness his opponent crash into a nearby tree.
“You never could use Rollout properly, could you?” Beckham wandered over to where Megan had slumped, temporarily dazed, and offered a hand of support.
“I know!” The Marill was more than glad to accept a lift back up into a standing position. Balance had never been her strong point. “I just got so excited when I actually hit you, I kept going, and by then I was going to fast to control myself!” Suddenly a wicked gleam came into the Marill’s eyes. “Hang on, we’re in the middle of a battle, aren’t we? Let’s carry on fighting!” Abruptly Megan clasped Beckham’s hand tightly, before swinging him into a nearby tree. The blow was less than terrible - yet again the shell seemed to absorb the majority of the impact - but it did reveal something important about Megan. She was a great deal stronger than she let on. What kind of Marill could swing a fully grown Wartortle about with such ease? And even Beckham, picking himself up and dodging a poorly-aimed Tackle attack, could see that this battle wasn’t going to be the easy ride he had initially assumed it would be. It was time to stop messing about for ten seconds and concentrate fully on the match. The fun could come afterwards. Eyeing up his opponent’s position, the Wartortle leant down onto the ground, gave a hefty push, and at the same instant withdrew into his shell. It was a strange manoeuver to say the least, and to begin with it held Megan quite captivated, wondering what on earth Beckham was trying to do. Until she saw quite clearly what was going on, and the spinning shell struck her in the face at a quite remarkable speed. “Ow!” The tubby pokémon clutched at her nose, trying to stem the nosebleed that the Rapid Spin attack had just delivered upon her. “Becks!”
“Well you said it yourself, we’re in the middle of a battle! To be honest I’m not sure what else I can do with you, my talents in battle run to ‘hit my opponent, soak them with water, freeze them or go to sleep’. I dunno, maybe I should take a bit of a nap now!”
“Maybe you shouldn’t!” As initially squeamish as the Marill was, she certainly soon got over it! Already she was tumbling towards Beckham, her earlier mishap when using Rollout evidently forgotten. However, this time Beckham was ready. He knew exactly what he was going to do to put an end to this particular attack! Taking a deep breath in, the Wartortle drew upon his vast reserves of water to produce a torrential stream that emerged from his moth, pushing against Megan until the Rollout was halted in its tracks. And for the second time in the battle his opponent found herself colliding painfully against the rough surface of a palm tree. “Damn it, Becks...” Megan shook her head groggily, trying her best not to succumb to the depressing feeling that the battle was already lost. She only really had one trick left up her sleeve, and if that failed... well, her trainer was right, wasn’t he? She just wasn’t ready to fight against the strong opponents she had been running into all day. “You asked for it, matey! Dunno what ‘it’ is, but whatever it is, I’m sure you did ask for it.”
“Was it a double vodka and tonic?” Beckham stopped in his tracks, the part of his brain responsible for his goofy nature finally regaining firm control. “If not, I’m asking for one of those now. Let’s call it a draw and go sneak a few drinks off some mug or other.”
“Oh, alright!” The Marill’s face lit up for an instant, before she suddenly remembered what she was supposed to be doing. “I mean, no, I mean... oh, I don’t know what I mean any more!” Megan flapped her little arms uselessly. “Let’s just finish this fight, then we can go on a date or something... no, I meant we should... umm... Oh, I’m all confused now. We should finish the battle, Becks.”
“Alright. Battle first, drinks later. I guess. Though if you ask me, you have your priorities totally the wrong way around, Megan. Drinks come before anything. Except in the dictionary, then ‘anything’ comes before ‘drinks’ and... hang on, we were supposed to be battling, weren’t we?”
“Yeah, we were.” Megan was secretly glad Beckham had finally arrived at this conclusion. She wasn’t entirely sure she could fight him if he was just going to talk. She would only end up getting dragged into the conversation herself! At least now he seemed ready to battle, and she could unleash her final, desperate attack. “So deal with this, Becks!” The Marill took in a deep breath, as if she was going to perform a Water Gun attack, and Beckham braced himself accordingly. The problem was, this wasn’t a Water Gun at all. Sure, it started out like one, the little Marill aiming a powerful jet of water towards the floor. But that was where the similarities ended. The instant the jet struck the ground, it bounced back up, growing ever wider, ever more dangerous. Until Beckham wasn’t being confronted with a jet of water at all. He was being confronted with an artificial tidal wave of alarming proportions, just waiting to crash down upon his head.
“Holy...” My eyes were almost bulging out of their sockets as I watched this spectacle from my relatively safe position underneath one of the palm trees surrounding the clearing that we were battling in. I had known about the Surf attack, of course; all of the books I had read on the subject of pokémon battling were in broad agreement that it was amongst the most useful water-based attacks. But seeing this spectacle with my own eyes was a memorable experience indeed! “Becks, watch it!” My warning was pretty pointless, all things considered. Even Beckham could realise the danger that he was now in! His mind raced. There was no chance that he could avoid this one! There was only one thing for it. Tackle it head on and hope for the best. “Beckham, what the hell are you doing?” I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing! Had my Wartortle taken leave of his senses? Unless I was sorely mistaken, instead of trying to minimise the damage, he was actually running towards the tidal wave that was threatening to engulf him!
“I know what I’m doing, trust me!” It was hard to make his voice heard over the roaring of the water, but the Wartortle gave it his best shot anyway. Then he faced the water. And jumped. Straight through the Surf attack, fighting its overwhelming power with every fibre of his being until eventually the pressure abated and he emerged, battered but mostly free of serious injuries, on the other side.
“What?” Megan was stunned, breaking off the attack in an instant and allowing her carefully-built tidal wave to topple to the ground. She had been so sure that this attack would have been the deciding factor! “How did you...?” The Marill didn’t get a chance to say much else. Beckham was too tired to speak, so he let his actions do the talking, and struck Megan with a hard Tackle that sent her keeling over for the final time. At which point the Wartortle himself practically collapsed upon her, his energies spent. That one had been close! And yet, somehow, for all that Megan’s addlebrained skills had taken out of him, he had managed to come out on top. Who said he was out of practise, anyway?

Beckham wins!
Beckham grew to L27!

“I don’t get why you’re so harsh on your Marill anyway.” My opponent and myself had been in agreement that we take a few minutes out for our pokémon to recover from their hectic battle before we resume the match. Which was why we were walking side by side towards a secluded beach where we could commence the second round of this challenge, my pokémon and Megan surrounding us as we walked through the trees. “She really took it out of Beckham.”
“I know. It’s just that bloody Rollout! You saw for yourself. She’s fine until she tries that, then it all goes wrong. I try and convince her to either give up on using it or practise until she gets it right, but she’s the sort who never pays any attention to anything. It tries my patience sometimes, it really does.”
“Well I can well understand that one!” It was true, I had plenty of experience in dealing with pokémon who didn’t seem to want to listen, or were simply too easily distracted to pay attention. Still, compared to some of my team Megan seemed perfectly easy to train, and I couldn’t help but wonder how this man would cope if asked to try and train Milliardo. I eventually reached the conclusion that the Umbreon would probably drive him to a complete nervous breakdown. “Some pokémon certainly can by very trying.”
“Hey Ade, you wouldn’t happen to have a fire extinguisher on hand, would you?” Milliardo turned and fixed me with his very best superior smirk. “Only my ears seem to have started smouldering for some reason, and for once it isn’t because I’ve pissed Pandora off and got pummelled for my troubles.”
“Which is a first.” Pandora rolled her eyes. “If you go a single day without doing something annoying I start worrying there’s something wrong with you.” Absently her gaze returned to the sweeping panorama before her. It hadn’t taken very long to walk to the beach, and to be frank it had been well worth any inconvenience. This was every inch the perfect deserted tropical beach, pre white sands fringed by a leafy tropical forest on the one side and a perfectly blue sea lapping away on the other. And not a single other creature for miles around. Not only the ideal getaway, but also the ideal battleground. No worries about damaging the surroundings or catching bystanders here! Yet the only thing the Houndour found herself thinking about was how nice it would be to just stay here for a few hours and bask in the sun.
“Okay.” My opponent marched smartly out into the middle of the beach, pulling another pokéball out of his pocket. “We’re here. I don’t see any point in delaying this any longer, although you’re welcome to stay here after the battle, of course.” Clearly he had noticed how enamoured some of my pokémon were with their surroundings. As for me, however, I wasn’t really interested. It was a beach, albeit a picture perfect one. I could take them or leave them. “Which pokémon will be you be using?”
“Pandora, will you fight for me, please?” The Houndour’s ears pricked up at the mention of her name, and she swallowed her apprehension. What on earth compelled her, a pokémon who had always viewed battle as a dirty, harsh occupation, to allow herself to be placed within a fighting team? And yet she knew that sooner or later she would have to overcome her inhibitions. Even though her previous attempts had been less than successful.
“If I have to. Ade, you’re a bastard. I could be making sandcastles with Marius, but no, I’ve got to be pummelled instead.” Pandora trotted over, trying her best to maintain an air of indifference that at least seemed to fool our opponent, even though those of us more used to her mannerisms realised that inwardly she was dreading the upcoming battle. It made me feel awful to ask her to do this, but it was really for her own good. She would have to overcome her fears in order to grow stronger. And I couldn’t put off her training forever. “Let’s get this over with. I’ve better things to do than waste my time with this.”
“A Houndour, eh?” My opponent’s eyebrows arched in surprise. There was something about Pandora that was totally at odds with the stereotype of her species, and to be perfectly honest the man found it even more unsettling than if he had been presented with a snarling, vicious specimen. “Okay. I can deal with that. I’ll use...” Here he abruptly the his pokéball to the ground, where it burst open in a tremendous flash of blinding light. Leaving behind one of the few pokémon that was almost certainly guaranteed to increase Pandora’s discomfort tenfold. A small, cute little creature that stared at her with imploring eyes. A mere baby pokémon. An Igglybuff.

FIGHT!!! L7 Houndour v L10 Igglybuff!

“What kind of sadistic...” Words failed Pandora for what was possibly the first time in her entire life. She had never really trusted this trainer from the outset. Something about his demeanour had instantly irked her. But his was taking things to new lows! What kind of trainer sent a mere infant out to battle? And how was she supposed to fight it? How could any pokémon with any kind of heart battle this cute little thing with imploring eyes? And it was all the worse for her. She loved kids. Something within her psyche was finally satisfied when she had creatures to mother. So how was she supposed to bring harm to a mere baby? The concept alone was enough to bring tears to her eyes.
“Pandora, you don’t have to battle if you don’t want to.” It was easy to see how distressed my Houndour was becoming at the prospect of this match. I was seriously feeling guilty for having even suggested she fight now! But then again, who else could I send out? The adults would all be uncomfortable fighting a baby, and Marius was far too young to know how to fight at all.
“No. I’ll do it.” Pandora struggled to hold back the tears. No point in breaking down now, before the match had even started! Besides, a plan was slowly beginning to form within her mind, a plan that meant her victory without even touching her opponent. Maybe not the most conventional of tactics, but what the hell? As long as it got the job done without irreversible damage to her conscience. “Right, you.” The Houndour turned to face her opponent. “I only have one thing to say to you, sweetheart. Catch me if you can!” All of a sudden Pandora pounced straight over the Igglybuff’s head, and commenced to lead the little pokémon on a fascinating game of chase. Every time the Igglybuff grew close enough to attack, Pandora would dart away again, forcing her opponent to race after her as best as it could. It was a commendable tactic, and just proved how smart Pandora really was. She was going to win by making her opponent too tired to fight. And this tactic could have almost worked, too. Almost. But her opponent had a rather deadly trick up its sleeve. Halfway through this race of sorts, the Igglybuff simply stopped in its tracks, fixed Pandora with a peculiar stare... and began to sing. A haunting ballad infused with some mystical quality that caused any person or pokémon listening to it to relax in an instant. Normally this wouldn’t have had much of an effect on Pandora. In battle she was simply too tense, too frenzied to be lulled into a sleep. But here she hadn’t been strictly battling, had she? She wasn’t in the right frame of mind to shrug off the hypnotic effects of the Igglybuff’s song. So when the melody entered her ears, she was most receptive to it. All this running was certainly making her tired, and that song was simply so... relaxing. The Houndour’s muscles relaxed, her eyelids began to droop closed. And she didn’t even notice as the Igglybuff began to assault her.

“That’s weird.” It wasn’t just Pandora who was being lulled to sleep by the hypnotic song. Everyone in the vicinity was beginning to feel slightly tired. In fact Beckham and Megan had already fallen asleep on top of each other, the Wartortle using the Marill as a pillow of sorts. Marius had already dozed off, and I was well on my way to slumber. Pearl was withstanding the Sing attack well, largely due to her advanced levels of experience, and Milliardo’s stubbornness was proving to be an asset in staying awake. Then there was Bolovayr. Who, to be frank, was acting as if he had hardly even noticed the song in the first place.
“What’s weird?” Milliardo yawned. “Other than the fact that this Igglybuff is totally tone deaf? This music’s duller than Travis played at half speed. Do you think he takes requests?” Receiving no answer, the Umbreon started to heckle the hapless Igglybuff. “Oi! Get off the stage! You’re rubbish! We want Rancid!”
“Well, it isn’t really my place to say or anything. It isn’t my battle, but...”
“But what?” Milliardo broke off from his attempts to distract the Igglybuff, which even he could see weren’t exactly working. “Bolovayr, tell me, would you? I don’t kill people for speaking up, you know. Unless they say something completely stupid, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt on that one.”
“But... well, I get the sneaking suspicion that that baby over there isn’t a baby at all.”
“Say what?”
“Look at it. The tactics, they’re too intelligent for an infant, and it hits too hard. And I’m getting snatches of its thoughts. They’re not the thoughts of a child.”
“Oh great.” Milliardo rolled his eyes. For some reason he didn’t doubt the Gastly in the slightest! “Just what Pandora needed, a baby-faced adult to take advantage of her amazing ability to turn to mush whenever she sees a kid. More yelling required from yours truly, I suppose.” The Umbreon returned to yelling over at the fighters, this time addressing his rants towards Pandora. “Wanna wake up, you idiot? Before the kid who isn’t a kid at all breaks every bone in your body? Call me weird, Pandora, but I don’t actually enjoy standing here watching you get beaten up! Especially not by a FAKE baby!”
“Shut up.” The Igglybuff turned to try and stare Milliardo down with a withering glare. If he kept this up he’d totally ruin its tactics! But its gaze was met by such a scornful glance that it was in fact the Igglybuff who ended up being put off! Such undisguised, seething contempt! Secretly the little pokémon was glad that looks couldn’t actually kill, otherwise it would have been struck dead in an instant. But Milliardo was the least of its problems now. For when it turned back to the battle, it was met with an equally ferocious glare. This one coming from a creature just inches away, and possessing a rather dangerous set of sharp teeth to back up its anger.
“I can’t believe I actually fell for that.” Whether it was anger at herself for allowing the Igglybuff’s youthful appearance to trick her, or anger at her opponent, one thing was quite clear. Pandora was absolutely seething with fury, and it was a fury that needed some kind of outlet before it consumed her completely. “I get it now. Stop yourself evolving, keep the kid’s body. And use it to fool everyone. Nice trick. Shame we sussed it out.” Pandora took a step towards the Igglybuff, who had started to back away nervously. This was certainly not going to plan!
“It was my master’s idea!” came the pathetic response, as if somehow this was going to placate the furious Houndour. It didn’t. In fact the pathetic snivelling only served to annoy her further, to a point where words didn’t seem to be quite enough to express her anger. It was if her fury was building up inside her belly until it simply couldn’t be contained any longer, until it had to be forcibly ejected in a blazing inferno, in an Ember attack of such righteous power that it knocked the Igglybuff squealing to the floor in an instant. This wasn’t enough for Pandora. By now the rage was descending upon her, the desire to make the pokémon pay in kind for its earlier cruelty. The thought of having lay there whilst the Igglybuff had done whatever it liked to her slumbering body was more than the Houndour could stand. And so for once the controlled part of her personality was in full agreement with the wild, furious side. The Igglybuff had to be punished. “Stop...” Pandora’s opponent made some feeble, half-hearted attempts to defend itself, but by now the Houndour couldn’t be stopped, and its attempts to strike back only served to add fuel to her considerable rage. Every struggle resulted in harder and harder blows, until the false infant simply couldn’t withstand the assault any longer, and one, final swipe sent it crashing to the ground, not to get back up again. Pandora stared at its prone body until she was certain that it would no longer move, before turning and heading back to her friends. The rage had finally abated, her anger had been satiated. And for once its disappearance didn’t leave its usual hollow ache inside, the pain of knowing there was a part of her that was always going to be beyond anyone’s control. No, now there was merely the satisfaction of a job well done. Maybe the Houndour was simply feeling more at ease with herself. Or maybe she was simply getting used to this battling thing. Either way, it was a comfort. Finally the troubled pokémon felt content.

Pandora wins!
Pandora grew to L9!

“So much for that, then.” Some hours had passed since our battle. Some hours that had allowed for the collection of our prize - a quite magnificent chocolate egg that no doubt would have sent my girlfriend back home into raptures - and the organisation of its storage. The remnants of our time in this tropical paradise were spent simply playing on the warm sands, waiting for the rest of the Dragon Tamers group to finish with their individual quests. No doubt others would be searching the whole island for a likely opponent, having failed to locate a trainer with the ease that our group had managed. Now it was getting late - and cooler - I could finally find it within myself to actually start having a good time. Pity that already others were already starting to make their way back to the primitive port. I would have liked another hour or two to finally take in the natural splendour of this island without figuratively drowning in my own sweat. Others, however, seemed rather glad to have the whole exercise finally reaching its inevitable conclusion. “I’ll be glad to get away from here. It was nice to begin with but now it’s just getting boring.” Pandora let her eyes wander out to sea. To begin with she had been an ardent fan of this tropical setting. But her battle had left her drained both physically and emotionally, and now all she really wanted to do was to go home and cuddle up with those she loved. Was that really too much to ask?
“Now haven’t you changed your tune?” Milliardo grinned. “Whatever happened to staring at the sand like you were deeply in love with it?”
“When you’ve seen one perfect sandy cove you’ve seen them all, and it isn’t my fault that I’ve got a short span of attention, is it?” The Houndour sighed miserably. Here it was again, the inexplicable sadness that descended upon her from time to time. It didn’t even really need a trigger. Just sometimes, like now, she would simply be going about her business when all of a sudden everything suddenly seemed so useless. And then she would either give in to the urge to curl up and cry, or she would try and snap herself out of it. Like now. Now she could look around at her friends, and that little group she liked to consider her family, and all of a sudden things seemed that little bit brighter. There was no doubt about it, she was a different pokémon to the Houndour she used to be. Back then the depression had seemed a constant, and its pain had only ever been abated by even greater pain, a cruel and vicious cycle that she had been most fortunate to have been able to escape from. Yet now, although the sadness still would cloud her mind, it was now tempered by a happiness that was as equally strong. And so, by holding onto those moments of contentment, she had learned to cope with her own mind, and the only reminders of her dark past was a slight scarring upon her limbs that nobody ever dared query about. Yes, she had certainly come a long way indeed.
“Are you alright?” It was Pearl’s voice that snapped the Houndour out of her thoughts. Yet again the eyes had given the game away. Pandora sometimes hated her eyes. They would never show what she wanted them to show. Instead they revealed her innermost thoughts, and that often caused more complications than it was worth.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Pandora lied, knowing full well that nobody was going to believe her. “Just... thinking. I suppose I should know better, shouldn’t I? Thinking’s too much hassle.”
“All depends on what you’re thinking about, doesn’t it?” Pearl smiled gently. “You know you’re trouble, Pandora? You think about the wrong things. Try thinking about having fun, about your friends and family. I guarantee it’s a lot more pleasant.”
“Yes, and just think about how we’re going back home, and waiting back there are Tsuyoi, Kasumi, Kirei, Thingy, Scratchy, Scarygirl, and... and...” The Umbreon blinked several times before turning to address me. “Ade, I really must insist that we stay here, there’s no way I can handle returning to that lot!” Milliardo was a lot shrewder than one would first suspect. Antagonistic he may have been, but he was also blessed with an extraordinary charisma, and when he decided to use those talents of his to lighten the mood not even Beckham could have surpassed him.
“Now, now, Milliardo, wouldn’t you rather return to the more temperate climate of Ulthuan? You don’t bake to death every day there, at least!”
“That’s a good point. Okay, I guess it is back to the inane asylum for us, after all.” Milliardo made it sound as if returning home was the most unappealing prospect in the world, but this was merely the actor within him speaking, supplying afflictions to his tone so realistic that you were never really sure when he was joking and when he was being serious. At least there were no such questions now. Everybody knew that no matter how much he protested to the contrary, the Umbreon was as happy with his life amidst our little group as it was possible for him to get. And as we watched and waited for the remnants of our original party to return, each with their own story to tell and brandishing the fruits of their labours with justifiable pride, it occurred to me that it was really the same for all of us. The pieces of the jigsaw were finally falling into place, and what had started off as a mad rabble of misfits with no place or direction in life was now transformed into a functional team, each member contented with their lot in life. Even if none of us had ever managed to get over our varying eccentricities. Still, what did that matter? Life was pretty good right about now. No; it was excellent. And as long as our existence kept drifting along in the direction it was currently taking, we would all be happy.

[Aipom Of Doom]

Yay, I'm done the first thing I've posted here since January or something <_<. Anyway, this is just the Dragon Games battle I missed... I have one more non-battle story coming before I get back to writing for scenerios.

Dan’s Perspective

“So,” Aipom walked up behind me as I looked out the glass sliding door which led to the balcony of our hotel room.

“What?” I turned toward the monkey-like Pokémon, who stood about half my height. He looked up at me expectantly.

“Well, it’s been a week since they postponed the Dragon Games for a week… So, are the finals actually going to be held?”

I sighed, and looked up around the hotel room, which at the moment was occupied only by the two of us; the rest of my team was outside. That made perfect sense; it was the afternoon of a nice, sunny day, and everyone seemed to be pretty happy. Except for Aipom; he wasn’t able to take his mind off of the Dragon Games that had been postponed for unknown reasons.

“Look, do you think that I know yet? I’d have told you already if I did. I don’t know what or when we’re going to be told about what’s going on with the Dragon Games.” I realized that I sounded a bit irritated, but it had been eight days since Aipom’s second-round battle against a Snorlax and he had been whining about wanting to find out about the finals ever since. He was very nervous about the Games, and had been the entire time, but seemed to be overdoing it. He hadn’t enjoyed the last week at all; he continually groused and groaned about the Dragon Games.

“When do you think you’ll know?” Aipom persisted.

“I just said that I had no idea! It could be tomorrow, or the next day, or some other time-” I was cut off by the door to the hotel room slamming open.

“Or, you could find out right now.” Thunderblast walked swiftly into the room, clutching an envelope and chuckling to herself. The Raichu, who was slightly taller than Aipom, flung the envelope over toward me; it made an arc though the air that was obviously assisted by her psychic abilities, and landed softly in my hands. I quickly ripped open the envelope, and read through the letter.

“Well?” Aipom asked expectantly as I looked toward him.

“The finals are tomorrow,” I replied, smiling broadly. I felt a rush of excitement; it had seemed like the Dragon Games would be canceled like the last Eagle Games had been.

“Well, that’s good,” Thunderblast said. She was also smiling, but I had a feeling that she was happy because she was quite tired of how pessimistic Aipom had been the last week. “So, who’s the opponent?”

“Umm… a Hitmontop,” I said, and added, “but all of the finalists have a type disadvantage”. Thunderblast nodded; she had a strong belief that all of the tournaments should be fair in regard to type advantages and disadvantages. That belief stemmed mostly from her firsthand experience watching Sai have to fight two fire-types in the Oracle Games, while some of his opponents had very nice type advantages.

Aipom seemed a bit nervous about having to oppose a fighting-type, but was still very curious about the next day’s battle. “So… Where is it?”.

“Well, each Pokémon has a unique arena to battle on. They all have some Pokémon around, but no people. You’re in an airport.”

“Mind if I ask how they got an airport devoid of people?” Thunderblast interjected quizzically.

“It’s not an entire airport, it’s just a terminal and a hangar that they aren’t using much anyway. It’s still pretty big,” I replied after reading through the fine print near the diagram of the terminal.

Thunderblast nodded in response, then headed for the door. She said that she would get the rest of my team back to the room; at that time, only Aipom and my sleeping Dratini, Tulie, were there. My psychic Raichu left, slamming the door behind her.

The door had woken up Tulie; I comforted the baby Dratini after handing the Dragon Games letter to Aipom to read. So the Dragon Games would finally be over. I was happy about this; the free hotel room was plenty nice, but I looked forward to going back to being at the Pokémon Center and traveling around more. The last week had been pretty dull, and I was glad that the Games would finally be resolved

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well, this is sort of sudden,” Blaze commented as he ambled into the room, walking on all four of his legs and being trailed by Thunderblast. The Quilava was the last of my fifteen Pokémon to get back to my room; the rest of my team was already there, most of them talking about the upcoming battle and what we would do afterward.

“Yeah, it is,” I addressed Blaze, “But it’s nice that we’ll finally have this resolved, and we can do other stuff.” He nodded in agreement.

“So anyway,” Sai had just finished examining a more detailed letter about the finals of the Dragon Games. “Tomorrow morning at ten o’clock, the battle is supposed to start. Aipom will be alone; we won’t be able to watch, though the judges will. Anyway, we need to leave early to get over to the airport, so we better get everything we need to do done tonight.” Not that there was really much to do; but I agreed with Sai that we didn’t want to have anyone complaining because they didn’t have time for something.

“When are they kicking us out of the hotel room?” Zippy spoke up, sounding surprisingly calm for her, since she was usually in a state of rage. Sai looked at her quizzically for a moment, and then told us that the night after the Finals was the last free one we got at the hotel.

No one seemed to have any more questions, so we all spread around the room, preparing for the trip we would take next morning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blaze gave a loud yawn as we entered the busy airport, which expressed what the rest of my team was thinking. We had woken up only two hours earlier, and had taken a long, boring train ride here. It was now around nine-thirty in the morning, and Aipom’s battle was scheduled to start in half an hour.

I led the large group of thirteen Pokémon across the airport. Flatten, being way too big to stomp across a heavily-populated public place like this, was in his Pokeball. Lapras, who had wanted some time to herself, stayed back at the hotel. The rest of my team was following behind me as we moved toward the terminal in which the battle would take place.

“Well, here we are,” Sai pointed to the door ahead. A person in a Dragon Games Employee was leaning against the wall next to it. Seeing us, he stood up and walked over.

“Hi,” he greeted us, “You’re the one who’s having your Dragon Games final here, right?” I nodded, and showed him my Dragon Tamers ID for verification. He approved of it, and went back over to the door and unlocked it.

“Well, Aipom, are you ready?” Thunderblast talked to the very nervous Pokémon standing next to her.

“I guess,” Aipom wasn’t very confident, and didn’t act it. Nonetheless, he did want to win his battle, and he walked toward the door. The man opened it up, and followed Aipom in. Behind him, the door slammed shut. The rule for this round was that no one save a few judges would watch, and they would be tracking the battle from another room.

“So,” Aqua spoke up as we walked away from the door. “Does anyone else feel hungry? I wouldn’t mind getting some breakfast now.”

Thunderblast raised the end of her tail, and lightly smacked Aqua on the back of her head. “Of course we’re all hungry, Totodile,” she said, a bit irritated. “Aipom is the only one who’s had anything to eat so far…”

“Well, that’s why we’re going to get some food,” I cut Thunderblast off. I was hungry myself, and I didn’t feel like listening to these two as we walked through the busy airport.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aipom’s Perspective

The metallic door slammed shut and locked automatically as the man followed me into the terminal. It seemed eerily empty; no one, save a few Machokes working on some construction, was in the area. I walked across the tiled floor nervously, with the man’s shoes stamping loudly behind me.

The man walked ahead, and unlocked another door. “You’ll be battling in there,” he said, opening the door to a hallway. “Good luck.”

I walked through the door, and it closed and locked behind me as the last door had. I paused a second, and listened as the man walked away on the other side; his footsteps were the only noise. It seemed like he was walking away, probably toward some room where he would watch the battle.

“Hi,” a Pokémon voice broke the silence; and it was rather close. I turned instinctively and looked down the hall. A Hitmontop stood a few feet away.

“So, you’re the one I’m battling for the Dragon Games finals?” he asked happily. I quietly responded yes.

“Okay, then, let’s start the fight.” He jumped into midair and flipped over, landing on his head. He quickly started to rotate, and quickly got faster. Finally, he tilted his weight, and shot down the hall away from me into the next big terminal room. I jogged after him.

Aipom (Lv. 12) vs. Hitmontop (Lv. 14)

The Hitmontop had led us into a large waiting room; there were padded seats surrounding the room, and an open space in the middle. Immediately, Hitmontop flipped over, standing on his hands. He lowered the spike on his head, and pushed; and he started to spin.

The Hitmontop was true to his name; he now spun like a giant top in the center of the room. This was a unique characteristic of his species that allowed him to fight in unusual ways. I’d have to be careful.

I watched carefully as the Hitmontop seemed to build up speed. Finally, he leaned his body a bit, and started spinning in a large arc toward me. It looked like he was going to try to use a Rapid Spin; I prepared to counter it.

As I expected, Hitmontop launched at me. He spun with an impressive speed, considering he also had to aim and me and control himself so he hit powerfully. However, I had a plan to stop him. I leapt to the side, away from his aim, and diving onto the tile floor. As he slowed a bit to turn and aim at me again, I used a quick Tail Whip. My tail skittered across the floor, hitting his spike and wrapping around it.

My tail curled up to surround the spike, then smashed into it violently. It hurt quite a bit to touch the spinning spike, but eventually I accomplished my goal. Hitmontop tumbled over onto his back, and I scurried away and got up. The Hitmontop may have had more power, but I had outwitted him. At least for now.

The Hitmontop was somewhat dazed and somewhat surprised; he made no attempt to move. Not wanting to waste this opportunity, I dashed toward him. I stood over the Hitmontop as he lay on the back, and gave a powerful Slash across his stomach. The pain got the Hitmontop moving; he sat up, clutching at the long cut where I had hit him. I dashed away, out of his range.

I watched the Hitmontop from a safe distance again. He seemed shaken up, but determined to not let it stop him. He sat down and closed his eyes, starting to concentrate. It looked like a Focus Energy; which made sense, since he needed to concentrate on the battle against me.

However, this was a risky, but well worth it, opportunity for me. If I could hit him, the Focus Energy’s effects could be negated, and I could get ahead in the battle even more. I dashed forward, and leapt into the air at the Hitmontop, who still had its eyes closed.

When I was in the air, Hitmontop quickly opened its eyes. I didn’t think it could do anything about my imminent attack in just half a second, and I was right. However, I had not noticed the Protect shield he had previously made. I Slammed into the invisible shield of energy with a great deal of force. Hitmontop backed away as the shield sank a few inches, and I slid off. My body ached quite a bit; I had put a lot of force into my Slam, and it all reverberated back at me when I hit the Protect.

I fell a few inches and landed on the floor, and Hitmontop turned toward me. I got up, and the Protect shield was gone; Hitmontop had stopped his concentration on it. He now focused completely on me.

He swiftly dashed toward me, and leapt into the air. Before I could make myself run, I felt the Hitmontop’s spinning feet smashing into my chest. He was using a Rolling Kick; I slammed into the tiles hard. Hitmontop nimbly bounced off of me, and flipped over backwards, landing on his feet.

The wind was knocked out of me quite a bit, and I was shaken up; but I pulled myself up quickly. I wanted to win this, even though I was losing faith that I would. Hitmontop looked like he had been preparing to attack, but quickly changed his plans.

I quickly created a small black orb that floated above my hand. It expanded a bit, and turned into the usual shape of a ghostly Shadow Ball; I waited for the power to build up a bit. However, it was not nearly charged to the capacity I could have made it, but I had one last desperation plan to try to save the battle. With a flick of my wrist, I sent the Shadow Ball flying at the Hitmontop.

Though it was less powerful than normal, the Shadow Ball was also faster. Plus, Hitmontop wasn’t expecting it to be launched yet; I caught him by surprise. The ghostly orb disappeared as a purplish haze engulfed the Hitmontop for a moment, then disappeared as he stumbled backwards.

While all of this was happening, I dashed forward. My tail stiffened and started to become a dull metallic color. I reached the fallen Hitmontop and swung my body around, the Iron Tail slicing through the air with tremendous force. It hit the Hitmontop, who was sitting up, in the arm. He was knocked to the ground again.

However, the Hitmontop rolled away from me and quickly stood up. I watched warily as he closed his eyes and extended his hand in my direction. It was too late by the time I realized what he was doing; the Mind Reader was already probing my mind, showing him my next actions.

I knew that any semi-powerful attack would probably be the end of me, so I dashed at the Hitmontop with an attempt to hit him with a powerful Slash and knock him out of the Mind Reader concentration. However, I failed to realize that his Mind Reader let him see what I was planning, so he simply backed up and my tail claws flailed weakly at him as I stumbled forward.

I barely even could tell what hit me after I fell on my stomach. I guessed that it was a Revenge, and Hitmontop had fueled all of the damage I had dealt to him into a raging attack back at me; whatever it was, I was slammed into the tiles below me. I tried for a few moments to get up, but I could feel faint coming on. I collapsed on the floor and things started to get hazy before they disappeared completely.

[Swinubman53]

I'm not posting a essay thing, but I might later. Anyhoo, I have a question are those stamp things a picture anyone can do, like an alt number one like these: °®ÃÍè¬ etc. Or is it one someone made on paint or something cuz it looks cool and I might want to use it on other forums if it's an all computer one. Could anyone tell me.

[Lady Vulpix]

It's the ¢ symbol in Webdings font. (Alt+189).
Ade and Danny, I haven't finished reading yours yet, though what I've read so far is great. I'll try to finish soon. Sorry for the inconveniences.

[Swinubman53]

Actually LadyVulpix Alt plus 189 is : +

[Lady Vulpix]

Oh, Danny, I've finished reading yours now. I'll give you 8 stamps for it, but is that how it ends? It looks as if it was missing a conclusion. ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢

[Lady Vulpix]

Originally posted by Swinubman53
Actually LadyVulpix Alt plus 189 is : +

You may have a different keyboard configuration, or a different operating system. It's ¢ for me.

[Aipom Of Doom]

Originally posted by Lady Vulpix
Oh, Danny, I've finished reading yours now. I'll give you 8 stamps for it, but is that how it ends? It looks as if it was missing a conclusion. ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢

As I said, I'm not done. There will be a second part to it with a conclusion and other stuff before I get back to the scenerios. The end of the battle just seemed like a convenient breaking point between the two. And thanks for the stamps =)

BTW, the ¢ symbol for me is alt - 0162.

[Swinubman53]

Yeah I just got that but the stamp looks different. And besides I cant post it here because I only have four font selections on my font list here in post reply menu.

[Lady Vulpix]

Danny: oh, I see. Sorry I missed that detail. I've had low blood pressure today.
Swinubman53, you can do this: quote a post with a ¢ symbol on it, and copy the UBB code to your own post.

[Charizard04621]

My POV:

How can I explain what happened today? I'm not even sure that I fully understand. It started off with a visit to the Dragon Tamers Adoption Center...

Switchblade the *male* Porygon's POV:

"What is your name? Why won't you tell me your name?" I looked pleadingly at the Trapinch standing before me, puzzled. He was a little smaller than average for his species, but not considerably. What was stranger, though, was that his skin had a slightly golden tint. I had heard about rare pokémon of their kind who had different appearances than the regular ones of their species, but, if I had been paying any kind of attention at all to my trainer's excited talking on this subject (because she loved "shiny" pokémon, as she called them), I remembered her saying that shiny Trapinch were turquoise. This Trapinch's golden luster did not even look close to turquoise. And the weirdest part? He was reluctant to tell me his name, no matter how many times I asked.

"My real name does not suit me yet," he insisted again. "Please do not badger me continually for it. When I finally evolve, you will understand."

I shrugged. "I doubt it. I'll probably never see you when you've evolved. There are so many different trainers that might adopt you that I'm not sure we'd ever meet again."

"Of course we will," he said. "Unless we're never out of our pokéballs at the same time."

"Er, what? Now I'm really confused." I felt kind of dizzy. Talking to this Trapinch was... weird. He was too enigmatic. He seemed to speak in riddles all the time. I could hardly ever figure out what he meant.

"I'm coming along with you. Your trainer adopted me earlier this morning."

I felt really stupid. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" I cried out, frustrated.

The Trapinch laughed good-naturedly. "Sorry, but I found it very amusing."

"Well," I began, regaining my composure, "if we're going to be on the same team, I think I really should know your name."

"No one will know my true name until I evolve," the Trapinch maintained.

"But... What am I supposed to call you?" I was nearly about to give up. This Trapinch's confusing thought process was way too complicated for me.

At that, he smiled. "I guess I've tortured you quite enough. Fine, I'll let you call me Ryu for now. Mind you, that's not my real name. You'll have to wait for quite a while to find that one out." Ryu winked.

My POV:

I remember walking up to the Dragon Tamer's Adoption Center that morning. The golden Trapinch had immediately caught my eye. We started up a rather interesting conversation: one that I will remember for quite some time...

"Ryu" the male Trapinch's POV:

Well, today was an anomalous morning. A trainer actually talked to me without going totally insane. She could tolerate my irritating, secretive manner without so much as a sign of annoyance. Naturally, I thought it best that I secured her as my trainer before I lost my chance to get out of the adoption center forever. She was the only one who could stand me at that point; it only made sense that I went with her. Otherwise, I might never have gotten a chance to evolve; I might have been forced to remain a Trapinch forever.

Why was evolution so important to me? Oh, that was a secret... A secret only I myself knew, a little of which I revealed to my future trainer. I do not care to repeat what I said to her.

My POV:

We left the Dragon Tamers Adoption Center with an odd new member (which wasn't saying much; we were all odd, if I could say so myself). I was kind of curious as to what Ryu's real name was, but I guessed I had to help him evolve first. He was determined not to tell under any other circumstance. He regarded his real name as a great honor, but without evolution, he did not think he deserved it. Maybe his name had something to do with his remarkable, sparkling golden tone, but I wasn't about to ask. I had promised not to, anyway.

I had thought that the journey to Easter Island was over; after Lune's victory, I couldn't remember much, except that when I did start to realize where we were, we were back here, standing outside the Dragon Tamer's Adoption Center. Days might have went by, even weeks, or perhaps just several hours; wherever there was strange magic around, the passage of time was never certain. But there we were, suddenly, at the adoption center. Whether it was fate that called us to Ryu or just plain chance, I found myself feeling sort of glad that we had gotten the chance to meet. I didn't know much about him, but that in itself was what really intrigued me; he had such an interesting character, and was really quite pleasurable company once I got used to him.

Apparently Easter Island was not quite done with me, though. As soon as I had Evenstar, Nimrodel, Élan, Lune, and Ryu in their pokéballs, Switchblade and I stepped outside... And then it happened all over again. The swirling colors, the wind beneath our feet, the flight through untrackable space and time... And then, voila! We fell thump onto the soft grass of Easter Island and found ourselves staring into the creepy eyes of the giant stone statues again.

"KARIN?!" I heard Kristyn yell. "You're here again?"

"Yeah," I said, still shaken from the ride.

"Weird. Well, guess what. I finally figured out what to do with my old Igglybuff. It turns out that she's remarkable talented in pokémon contests! It's great; she doesn't have to battle, and she's much happier now."

"Oh, cool. Glad to hear that."

"I also got a new Igglybuff," she continued. "This one's a real killer. He'll be a tough matchup for your pokémon, I'll bet. Wanna try him?"

"Um, sure," I replied. I reached to my belt for Lune's pokéball, but, to my surprise, Ryu shot out of his own abruptly.

"Sorry about that, but every battle opportunity brings me one step closer to evolution," he smirked, slyly.

After seeing Lune's performance, I hesitated less about Ryu battling the more heavily trained Igglybuff, but I was still worried. According to Kristyn, this Igglybuff was much stronger... And if that were true, Ryu, having far less options than Lune, would have more than just a little problem.

"I remember Lune's previous battle with an Igglybuff," Ryu said, referring to what I had told him when we had begun to chat at the adoption center. "Don't underestimate what I can do. I can learn to immitate any kind of style and strategy quite quickly. Let me show you what I mean." With that, he stepped into the grassy arena ring, waiting patiently to greet his Igglybuff opponent.

[Lady Vulpix]

Oh, Ade, sorry about the delay. You get 23 stamps for your AMAZING story!! Keep up the great work! ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢

Karin, you can have 4 stamps for your interesting and intriguing intro. ¢¢¢¢

[Everoy]

Part 1 of 3: My Easter Adventure-Prologue

It was a Saturday while I was on the computer in my home in Littleroot. Snabura, or Snabu, my Slugma, and Slubba, my Grimer, were playing in my room upstairs. My Numel, Volcamel, or Ocam for short, was watching TV and he called me over.
"Chris! Look at this Easter Island thingy!" he yelled. "There's a big comeptition for easter eggs."
"That looks cool! I'll ask my mom if I can go." I said.

* * *

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease Mom?" I said pleading. "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease can I go to Easter Island?"
"Oh, fine! Just use my sweet Swellow to bring you there and only bring three pokemon aside from her!" She yelled. "And if you battle with Swellow, may the sleeping Kyogre strike you with an Ice Beam!"
"Thank you!!!" I screamed.
It didn't take me long to choose my three pokemon. I chose Ocam because he told me about it in the first place, and Snabu and Slubba because Snabu was my strongest other than Bulbaur, who was vacationing with May and Brendan in Lilycove along with Starspot and LadyLuck.

* * *

I ran-well, it was more of a sprint-to Birch’s lab to tell him the good news. I burst through the door-but Birch wasn’t there.
One of his aides told me he had left for Rustboro to talk with the Devon Co. about a new ball suggestion that would help your pokemon with contests. Brendan gave him the idea before he left because he was going to enter the Master Rank for Coolness with a Swellow full with Pokeblocks. So I left with out telling him, but one of his aides would.

* * *

I was flying atop Swellow and we ran into a patch of trees. It hurt! When I got up, I noticed that they were more like an arena. I looked around. Then I saw the trainers-TONS of them-and I saw a sign! It said:

Welcome to Easter Island,
home of giant Nosepass stues and
trainers with delicious Easter Eggs!

I was so relieved that we had made it okay. I walked around, putting Mom’s Swellow back in her pokeball. I packed it on my belt.
And I got ready for the best adventure I’d probably have.


So, Lady Vulpix, did you like it? P.S., can we battle pokemon on the Island to go up levels before we battle trainers?

[DarkPrincess]

It was a dark, quiet night. Crickets were playing their silent music while the owls sang to it. Thick black covered the sky like a piece of velvet. The moonlight gleamed against the river softly. Besides the river, a dark figure stood. It raised its head and howled at the night sky. When it lowered its head, it let out a simple growl than slowly walked away. Suddenly, it frooze and crouched low to the ground. With another growl, it leaped up and pounced on a young girl. The girl screamed but than she knew right away what it was. She simply sighed than pushed it off of her.

"Don't do that! That slow creepy thing in the shadows!" she ordered.

The creature simply lifted its head revealing it was a Houndoom. A smirk spread across the wolf's jaw and he calmly stood up straight.

"I forgot," he said with an evil smirk.

"Maybe this will help you remember," said a voice from neaby.

Without warning, Lirima leaped from the girl's side and pounced Sith. Sith growled in response and pushed the Persian off. The both of them circled each other, growling and showing off fangs. Rachel sighed and grumbled something under her breath than finally spoke up.

"Sith, Lirima, please not again." she said

Lirima glared at Sith and he glared right back. Finally, the Persian lays on the ground and begins licking her paw. Once in awhile, biting at her petruding claws. Sith walked back towards the river mumbling curses about the cat. Around the camp were a lot of Pokémon. Varyar and Aaye were laying together near a roaring fire in the middle of the camp. Both of them were happily snuggling under a warm blanket. Besides them, Rogue laid on a blanket staring up at the stars. Evylan stood on a rock, keeping a sharp alert on her surroundings while Zorro was fast asleep by the fire. Rachel sat besides the fire and scratched Varyar behind the ear. Rogue sat up than climbed in Rachel's lap and nuzzled her other hand. Rachel used her other hand to pet the Vulpix.

"Where are we going?" asks Rogue.
"Some place called Easter Island...never heard of it," said Rachel.
"Why?"
"Must you ask so many questions Rogue, it's late." sighed Varyar
"Varyar, be nice." says Aaye.
"Yes, dear." said Varyar.

Than, from the rock, Evylan let out a roar that echoed through the forest. All the Pokémon sprang on their feet, now very alarm. Evylan leaped from the rock, staring up at the boulder growling. Rachel walked over to Evylan and slowly pet her forehead to try and calm her down.

"Shhh, it's okay girl, what's wrong?" Rachel whispered.
"Something just fell on my back!" roared Evylan.
"It's a monster! Oh my god! What if it comes for me next?!?!" screamed Epona.
"Calm down Feu," mumbled Legolas.
"CALM DOWN!?! A MONSTER WILL KILL US ALL!!!! MOMMY!!!!!!!" screamed Epona.
"I'll go check," Rachel said.

Rachel climbed up on the rock and looked around. She looked around in the tree branches above the boulder but found nothing. The girl than noticed a bunch of moss on the tree trunk. Than it moved! She poked at the moss than it moved and scrampled up the tree. Now she was confused. Her eyes followed the thing until it was on a branch than fell into her arms. When it fell, she than knew what this was.

"Raptor, what are you doing scaring the crap out of Evylan?" asks Rachel.
"I didn't mean too..I fell off. I swear!" protested a small Treecko.
"Fine, just be a little more careful, okay?"

The Treecko nodded in response than crawled out of her arms and around in the grass. Akuji watched as the strange lizard crawled around. Raptor got on his hind limbs than walked over to Epona who was nibbling on the grass.

"Hello," greeted Raptor.

Epona turned her head to see the tiny lizard. She neighed and stomped her hooves around and reared up, paniced. Raptor quickly scampered into a tent, cowering. Evylan roared angrily at the tent than flew back on her rock, once again on guard.

"Stupid little twat. How dare that bloody lizard do that to me," growled Evylan.
"I think it was an accident," said Akuji.
"I hate lizards..they're so scary..." studdered Epona.
"Epona, you think a caterpillar is scary," said Zorro.
"STOP IT! You'll give me nightmares," cried Epona.

Rachel didn't pay any attention to their conversation however. She crawled into the tent to find the Treecko hiding in a pillow case. At first, he cowered thinking it was someone that was going to hurt him. Raptor looked up at her with his big yellow eyes. When he realized it was her, he slowly crawled out and let her pick him up.

"It's okay, don't worry, Evylan is hard with most of the new ones." said Rachel.
"They all hate me..."
"No, they don't."
"Yes.."
"Don't worry, they'll grow to love you."

Rachel sat in the tent, comforting the little lizard until it was time for them to go to bed.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The next day, Rachel recalled all the Pokémon into their Pokéballs, except Evylan who flew her to Easter Island. When they arrived, Rachel recalled Evylan than sent out Lirima and Sith. Lirima admired the lovely pastel decorations while Sith twitched madly in the place of beautiful colors. All around were people preparing for Easter.

"Wow, this is pretty," said Lirima.
"It's okay," said Rachel.
"Oooo...I think I'm going to be sick," mumbled Sith.

A little Pichu walked towards Sith, handing him a chocolate bunny. Sith stared at the food oddly, than snarled at the Pichu. The mouse freaked out and ran off. Sith smirked proudly at his work than continued walking. Rachel pulled out a scedule thingie and read it. Sith cowered in a corner twitching at all the kindness.

"Lets see...we have to fight Shannon at the meadow.." Rachel read.
"Don't worry about it Rach, I'll tear those wimps apart," grinned Lirima, showing off her claws.
"Um, no Lirima. It says Shannon's Pokémon are at level 5 and 10...I don't think you could fight them.." says Rachel.
"Okay, so who is?" asks Lirima.
"Well, I was thinking we'd let Raptor fight."
"Raptor?! Are you sure? He's never fought before."
"Neither have my other low level Pokémon,"

Lirima sighed, doubting her master's plans but she went along anyway. Rachel turned to Sith and beckoned him to come over. Sith slowly got up and walked over to Rachel.

"Put me back in my PokéBall please! I can't take all this kindness in one setting...need....hatred...." said Sith.

Rachel recalled the Houndoom than walked to the meadow to find a Pichu and Igglybuff playing with a bunch of flowers. The both of them peered up to see Rachel and her Persian. They got up than danced around Lirima singing. Lirima stared at the odd little things, tempted to extend her claws and attack. Than a girl stepped on the meadow and called them back.

"Hello," she said.
"Um, hi.." Rachel said.
"So, you want the egg?"
"Not really,"

The girl stared at Rachel oddly than shrugged.

"Yeah, I don't get it either," she said, shrugging.
"Seems like an awful lot of work just for candy..but I just like battling,"
"Okay, wanna battle?"
"Sure,"
"Ok, I'll first be using Pichu."

The Pichu crawled on the meadow and glared at Rachel. Lirima chuckled at the mouse. Rachel withdrew a Pokéball, tossed it into the grass releasing Raptor. Raptor stared around oddly than looked at the Pichu.

Raptor's POV
Oh my god! She wants me to battle! What is that girl on!?! And to make things worse, I'm fighting against a Pichu...talking about embarassing to loose against a Pichu..oh well..I'll give it my best shot I guess. It was fun knowing Rachel while it lasted I guess.

"Use your Thundershock,"
"Raptor, try a Pound."

When I heard Rachel say that I had my doubts but I have to do what I'm told. That would be rube. I rushed towards the Pichu than thwapped it hard and it got mad. Didn't seem like I hurt it all that much, but the bruise on its face said a lot to me. Maybe I do have a chance to win. Than, the Pichu's cheeks sparked and before I knew it, I was being zapped with a Thundershock! It stun a bit, but didn't really hurt. There's a chance I may win this!

"Try your Charm,"
"Go for another Pound."

I nodded to agree with Rachel, than I thwapped the Pichu in the stomach. The Pichu hollared in pain than fell to the ground. Ouch, critical hit.. that'll leave a nasty mark tomorrow. Rachel was so happy with me beating the Pichu and I was too.

"Pichu, return!"

The opponent withdrew the Pichu in her PokéBall. I hope I didn't hurt her that badly. Maybe I'll get Rachel to give her a Super Potion afterwards, just in case. Suddenly, I felt much more powerful. I just gained a level! Oh my god! I also now know Absorb! GREAT! Now I'm feeling much more confident! Bring it on dood! Fear the lizard! BWAHAHA..I feel calm down now..

"Go Igglybuff, use your Pound."
"Use Pound too Raptor,"

I extended my fore limb out than thwapped the Igglybuff on the head. It didn't seem to bother it at all! The Igglybuff grinned than thwapped me in the tail. It really hurt! The pain is extreme! I still can go on though..nothing can stop me now! Not now! Not when I'm doing so well for my first try!

"This is almost too easy, Igglybuff use your Charm."
"Raptor, try an Absorb!"

I sank my tiny fangs into the Igglybuff's arm and began to drain her energy to myself. I feel better now, but I'm still in a bit of pain. The Igglybuff began to flutter its eyes at me. Strangely, I didn't really wanna attack it...it seemed to sweet and innocent that I couldn't.. Oh great, I fell for the Charm. There goes my win...

"Very good, now use another Pound,"
"Raptor, try your Pound again"

I gotta snap out of it! The fate of my self being is at stake and I can't let Rachel down..not like this anyway... I thwapped the Igglybuff upside the head and once again, it didn't seem to harm her that much. She backhanded me so hard in the face it felt like she broke my nose. A single drop of blood rolled down my nostril. It was so gross! My hind limbs hurt so badly...my stomach hurts and I feel like I'm gonna pass out. I turned around to notice Rachel taking out my PokéBall.

"Maybe you should return Raptor.." said Rachel.

I looked back at her, looking worried than back at the confident smirk of the Igglybuff and her trainer. I took a deep breath than shook my head at Rachel. Slowly, I stood back up and glared at the Igglybuff.

"Raptor?"

I grinned back at Rachel, showing her I was okay. She sighed, hoping I would be okay. Prepare yourself Igglybuff..there is one more surprise to come for you..

"Raptor, use your Solarbeam."

I dug my toes into the ground than opened my mouth as I took in the rays of the sun into my own power. Now the Igglybuff and her trainer looked nervous. Haha! That's what you get for messing with me!

"Igglybuff, use your Defence Curl!"

The Igglybuff curled herself into a ball, praying for the best. Yeah right, that will not save her now. I have gathered enough energy now..it's time. With all the rest of my strength, I exhaled a bright beam at the Igglybuff. When it colided with the Pokémon, dirt and smoke filled the meadow and it all cleared away, the Igglybuff was left badly hurt. I can't believe I won my first two battles! Now I'm feeling a lot more confident in myself. I can feel me getting stronger already. Rachel ran up to hug me and Lirima nuzzled me happily. I'm so happy now.

Yes, it sucks but I just want my Treecko to be stronger so that's all the matters ^.^;;

[Everoy]

DarkPrincess, I actually enjoyed reading that! It was good!

[Girafarig]

My Trip

My Perspective

"Ugghhh.... What happened." I looked around, and saw a beautiful reception room with a strange portal behind me. "Hmm, that must the portal they told me about. If that's so, then this must be the Easter Islands, home of the famous Easter Eggs.", I thought. I read the notice throughly, and then looked around for a trainer.

Suddenly, a voice remarked, "Ah, you must be the newest trainer to come to Easter Island! I am Brian. I have a Lv. 5 Pichu and a Lv. 10 Igglybuff. If you are a beginning trainer, I suggest you battle me. What are the Pokemon you will use?" I thought for a few seconds, then said

"Fine! I will choose my Slugma, Lv. 6, and my Girafarig, Lv. 6 as well, from the Pokezoo adoption center. So, let's battle!", I heartily said. We both walked towards a small arena.

"Fine, let's start! Pichu, GO!", he said. "Hmm, I will choose Girafarig! It's bred-on move will be Take Down!!!", I replied. A young Pichu and a juvenile Girafarig popped into the arena. "Pichu, Thundershock!", Brian yelled. "Girafarig, ram it with your tackle!"

Girafarig POV

My trainer was a nice guy. I respected him, he respected me. When he told me to battle this measly Pichu, I was delighted. It was a chance to destroy my first opponent! I listened to my trainer's directions, and got ready. The little Pichu started to crackle with electricity, so I reared up, let out a cry, and rushed towards Pichu. Just before I hit Pichu, he released a jolt of electricity, shocking me. I yelped in pain, but not wanting to dissapoint my trainer, I rammed myself into Pichu, sending him flying. The Pichu's trainer told him to use something called "Charm". I didn't really know what was going to happen. My trainer yelled for me to use my Take Down. Pichu suddenly looked as cute and charming as it could ever be. I couldn't possibly attack such a cute thing. Suddenly, I heard my trainer yell at me to attack. I shook my head to clear out the "cute Pichu" image, then rushed towards Pichu, I slammed all my force into Pichu, but I was too reckless and hurt myself some with the force. It cried, and it looked like the end was near for it. My trainer yelled for me to finish it off with a Tackle. Confidently, I slammed my full body force into the tiny Pichu, sending him flying. Pichu cried in pain, and then fell down, knocked out. Suddenly, I felt power surging into me, as I gained a level.

My POV
"Yes! Ha ha! Now Brian, what now! My Girafarig now learned Confusion! You can't win!", I bragged. "Just you wait, Mr. Humble, my Igglybuff will destroy your Girafairg! GO!!!"

Girafarig's POV

The pink blob appeared suddenly on the arena. This would be easy. First the tiny Pichu, and now a pink balloon?! Come on... The trainer yelled out for the thing to use Pound. My trainer told me to use Confusion. Searching through my mind, I concentrated all my budding psychic powers into sending that Igglybuff flying. Just before Igglybuff tried to use Pound, my eyes glowed with the powers, and sent Igglybuff flying two feet. She cried in pain, and rolled around on the ground. The Igglybuff's trainer told it to use Sing. Suddenly, it sang the most sweet song I ever heard. I couldn't help but listen. The song fogged up my mind, slowly shutting me down. Tired, I yawned, and layed on the ground, falling asleep...

My POV

"Uh oh", I said. "Eh, no matter. Go, Slugma! Your bred-on move will be Heat Wave! So, let's go with a Smog attack!" "Is that so?", Brian replied. "Well then, Igglybuff, use Sing to send it to sleep as well!"

Slugma's POV

I came out of my Pokeball into the arena. My enemy: a pink Igglybuff. My trainer told me to use Smog, so I sent out a noxious gas towards Igglybuff. It drifted around, coming to descend on Igglybuff. She started on her song, but the Smog caused her to cough intensly. She continued to hack her lungs out, as if the Smog had poisoned her. My trainer celebrated, and told me to use my Heat Wave. I blew a heated breeze over towards Igglybuff, who was still having coughing fits. The wind caused the air to ripple, and Igglybuff sweated profusely. Her trainer looked quite worried, as he had her use a Defense Curl against me. IT was no use, as Igglybuff was too hot and poisoned to do any effective attack. Igglybuff, in absolute desperation, gave up, and fainted. I then felt a new force rise towards me. I had gained a level...

[Lady Vulpix]

Rachel gets 9 stamps! Hmm... Your pokemon have conflicting personalities, don't they? Your story was nice, Rachel, but why do you keep saying "than" instead of "then"? ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢
Girafarig gets 9 stamps too. Nice start! Even if Brian behaved better than you did. By the way, you don't have to mention your pokemon's bed-on moves inside your stories. You can state them anywhere in your post. ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢
Parsec's Politoed, that was a nice and original intro! Take 4 stamps! ¢¢¢¢
Oh, and you can only have 2 battles in this scenario, and only against the pokemon in the list. I hope that answers your question.
By the way, it's nice to see players reading other people's stories.

[Everoy]

Part 2 of 3: My Easter Island Adventure-Battles
I loved Easter Island... It was relaxing, sunny, and the trees were shady. But that didn’t change the fact that I was there to win Easter Eggs.
I had decided that I would try battling two trainers. Then two boys my age came up to introduce themselves.
“Hi, I’m Sean, and this is Aaron! Would you like a tour of the island?” One of the boys said. I said no, because I was here to battle. Then Aaron spoke up.
“Well, I guess we could battle you taking turns! Or a two on two!” He said.
“Sure! Let’s do a two on two! I’ll use my...” I thought in my head. Ocam was lowest leveled, Slubba would learn Disable, and Snabu would reach the Level 10 milestone... I decided to wait with Slubba. “Slugma and Numel!” I said.
“Well, In that case, we should go to our secret Stadium...” Sean said. He led us to a sandy floored cave which was about the size of a normal stadium. Lights were hung up all around. And the battle began.

Snabura (Slugma F, Level 9) and Volcamel (Numel M, Level 5)
versus
Percha (Pichu F, Level 5) and Pippy (Igglybuff F, Level 10)

“Go! Snabura and Volcamel!” I said, tossing out two pokeballs.
“Go! Percha! Go, Pippy!” The two boys yelled.
“Snabura! Use Ember on Percha!” I yelled. Snabu shook off some flames, scorching Percha! Percha was hanging on by a tiny bit.
“Pippy! Sing a lullaby!” Sean shouted. Snabu covered its ears with magma, but Ocam fell straight asleep. Then it was Percha’s turn because Ocam was sleeping.
“Percha! Thundershock on Numel!” Aaron yelled. As weak as it was, Ocam was barely hurt!
“Snabura! Finish Percha off with another Ember!” I screamed, ecstatic. As soon as the flames hit Percha, she fell over. “Yeah!” Slubba yelled bobbing up and down.

Percha (Pichu, F, Level 5) has fainted!

It was down to Snabu, Ocam, and Pippy. Ocam was still sleeping.
“Pippy! Defense Curl!” Sean yelled while Aaron walked around the field handing his Easter Egg to Slubba. Pippy rolled up rounder than it already was.
Then, Ocam woke up, and just in time for his turn!
“Yes! Volcamel! Tackle Pippy!” Ocam lunged toward Pippy and hit her.
“Um, I don’t think it was that effective...” Slubba whispered.
Then it was Snabu’s turn again.
“Snabura! Ember again!” I said, this time I was bobbing up and down. Snabura shot some fire at the annoying Igglybuff and it rolled back but it wasn’t phased too much.
“Pippy! Defense Curl again!” Sean shouted. I was getting bored.
“Volcamel, Tackle!” I shouted AGAIN. But it was a critical hit! “Snabura! Ember!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. Snabu threw some fire onto the pain. And another critical hit! The Igglybuff looked deflated almost. It had fainted!

Volcamel is now Level 7! Snabura is now Level 10!
Snabura learned Hidden Power Water as a TM!

If you want to know how I got two critical hits in a row, I used to auto dice and it was 2 then 7 then 5 on the 100-number.

[Lady Vulpix]

It's ok, Parsec's Politoed. I know those things can happen.
Percha was hanging on! XD
Take 3 stamps for your battles. ¢¢¢
Just one small detail: it's a TM, not a Bred-on move. Bred-on moves are moves the pokemon are born with.

[Lady Vulpix]

<Gabi's POV>

I was seriously considering the possibility that it was me who caused this, at least unconsciously. How else would it be possible for a person to be buried in work all year long? When it wasn't one thing, they were other 10 or 20. Whenever I tried to make the list of the things I was supposed to do to put them in order, the length of the list scared me. And to make things worse, I'd been wrong when, by the end of the previous year, I'd thought I was finally learning to say 'no' to people who asked me to do things. The proof was that a friend asked me to make a computer program for him and, instead of saying "I can't", I only said "I'm too busy; give me a week" and, worst of all, I ended up making it the following day, at the expense of missing a chance to do my own things. Yes, it had to be my fault.
Well, at least I had done a few things right. It had been relieving to leave the Gastly I had received at the Dragon Games in Ade's hands. There was no way I could take in another pokemon at that moment, and the Gastly had seemed to bond immediately with Ade's team. It had also been a good chance to see a friend, if only for an hour, and to allow my own team some relaxation (some of them couldn't wait to get some fresh air, and it was really hard to convince Caledor to finally follow me out of Ade's house). Plus, it had also happened to be my chance to meet Lagi's new grandson, Marius (he was so cute!), and to somehow come to terms with Ade's silent partner. I had never seen him, but we'd felt each other so many times since the Pegasus Games that I could say that we were now old acquaintances; and while I didn't usually approve his methods, I could sense he had been changing over the time. It had been him who had originally brought Ade to my attention; only that now I was not longer afraid of Ade getting in trouble because of him (I somehow had a feeling their relationship could actually get him out of trouble sometimes), so I guessed I owed him a good friend after all.

"Mind if I scold you?," a deep yet sweet voice hummed right behind me.
"Can you ever?," I laughed without turning around. "You're too sweet to ever make me feel like you're scolding me."
"That's not what Hero thinks," Lagi replied.
Now I did turn around to face her.
"Hero's more sensitive that he cares to admit," I reflected.
"Wouldn't I know," Lagi replied. "I think that's exactly why he never wants me to get too close to him, except when we're battling."
"Yeah... Well, everyone has their own issues to sort out. It's not your fault if he hasn't learned to open up yet. Maybe having Tracker around will do him well in that respect."
Lagi nodded.
"Now why are we talking about him? He's not even here, and this is something he'd consider intrusion."
"Oh, right. Sorry, that was my fault. So... where were we?"
"You said you were going to scold me. Now, I didn't exactly believe you, but still I do get that nasty tingling feeling when someone says that. So, will you please spare me that and tell me what this is all about?"
"It's just that you're pressing yourself too much again. You do things because you want to. It's your own choice, so enjoy what you do!"
"Once more you know exactly what to say. But why do I have trouble accepting my own choices? You're right, I wrote that randomizer because I wanted to help a friend and because it was an interesting challenge, and I must admit I'm pleased with the result. But I can't help thinking of the work which is piling up."
"Oh, there's a solution for that. You tried it last February, remember?"
February... what a month it had been! It had gone by too fast for my liking, with that annoying habit it has of being the shortest month of the year. I'd come back from my 10-days vacation to start working on my thesis and studying for a final, plus resuming everyday work. Still, I'd been unable to contain my eagerness to write, and I'd ended up spending my days writing in the mornings and studying/working in the afternoons. The results had been amazing: I'd got the top mark in my exam, and also managed to start a novel which I was now publishing on the Internet and was bringing me unexpectedly good comments from a wonderful group of readers. And it had also ended up providing a way to keep in touch with Ryan despite the unbelievably tight schedules we both had.
"Oh, strange feelings there! You'll have to explain that some day," Lagi commented.
"As if you didn't know everything about my feelings. One day I'll end up having to ask you about them."
"You already have. More than once, actually."
"True. So, you're suggesting that I write a little before going back to work?," I smiled.
"If you feel like it. Which I know you do. I'll watch the door and make sure you have enough calm and quiet for as long as you need it."
"Thanks, Lagi. What would I do without you?"
"Probably resort to your own conscience. You know that most of the time I only tell you what you already know. But for some reason you seem to listen to me more than you listen to yourself."
"Yes, I should change that. I'll add it to the to-do list."
Lagi sighed, shook her head and turned to watch the door. No words were needed, I'd got her message. The first thing on my to-do list ought to be "stop obsessing over my to-do list". But then again, wouldn't that have been a paradox? I laughed.
"Ok, I'll do my best not to go overboard with the self pressure. Now let's see what I can come up with."
I stretched my fingers, grasped some of the ideas that had been circling in my mind since forever, and began to write.

And I finished chapter 13 of my fic.
And I wrote 3 pages of chapter 14.
And I would have kept on writing, but I saw the time and realized I was REALLY late for work!
"What will I do now?!," I shouted.
"Easy," Lagi said. "It was for a good cause. I haven't read what you've written, but from the feelings I got from you I know it served its purpose wonderfully. So don't worry about the time. I'll take you to the DT central in no time. I can use Agility if it's necessary. Or you could always ask Ventura to teleport you there."
"I think I'm not that desperate yet. I'll accept your offer. Thanks a lot, Lagi. You're great."
That's how another day went by, but at least I had recovered some energies. Few things could do me better than writing, and those things involved meeting a person who was unavailable at the moment, so I couldn't get any better than I just had. Even the heavy work I had to do that day was less tiring than usual. Lagi was right, writing was the thing to do in times like those. Well, if it had been up to me, I would have said it was the thing to do anytime.

The next break I took was the day of the Easter Egg Hunt. I had seriously considered staying at home, but my pokemon coaxed me into attending the event. The fact that all 10 of them agreed was a clear alert sign. I was taking work and studying too seriously, and I needed a day out as much as they did, if not more. And they needed the training too. Especially Pidgeot. He reminded me he hadn't had a proper battle ever since we'd helped Officer Jenny catch that thief, and that had been last year! Of course, he'd helped Tsunami train for the Dragon Games finals, but that was not the same. Caledor, in turn, told me that he didn't mind whether he battled or not, but he had to go out and have some fun or else he would go crazy. And Hero and Tsunami made a strong remark about how scary that would be. Needless to say, staying at home was out of the question.
The only decision left to take was whether to take the ship to Easter Island or catch one of those strange portals the hosts had created. And once more, Caledor had an answer.
"We already have enough weirdness here to add any more. Let's take the ship and make the fun last longer."
"Are you alright?," Lagi asked him. "You've been a bit strange ever since we went to Ade's."
"I am strange, Lagi," Caledor said. "Nothing I can do to help it. But I'm fine. I'm as good as I'll ever be. What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

<Tsunami's POV>

The trip was nice. I was glad we'd taken the traditional transport. It gave me the chance to socialize, and even spend some time in the water; but not as long as Water Angel did. There was a moment, though, when Caledor came to my side and I thought he'd come up with a new idea to end boredom, but he only asked me if Hero had talked to me.
"He talks to me all the time," I told him. "What is it? Why are you asking?"
"No, I just wanted to know if we had any news from Tracker, that's all," he said.
"Since he gets out of the house practically everyday, I'd bet he has seen her, but he hasn't talked to me about it. I guess those two haven't come around to confessing their feelings for each other, even if everyone else knows about them!"
"Hey, don't be so hard on the Ninetales...es. Is that a word?"
"I don't know. But why the sudden interest anyway? Lagi was right, you are acting strange. And don't try to come up with a lousy excuse because by now you should know that, after Lagi, I'm the hardest to fool around here."
"How can you be so sure? There are lots of strangers on board."
"That's not the point. What happened at Ade's place?"
"Oh. There? We had lots of fun. At least I know I did. Beckham definitely knows how to enjoy the moment. And Marius!, wasn't he the cutest creature in the world?"
"You're changing the subject."
"I'm not!"
We couldn't keep this up. Caledor was a professional when it came to evading heavy subjects, and I knew him well enough to see the signs. There was clearly something he didn't want to talk about, but what was it? I could have let him get away with it but, as a friend, I had to make sure he wouldn't hurt himself by denying something that was causing him harm. So, what was I supposed to do? The way I saw it, the only chance I had left was to try to put two and two together and take a guess. Either that, or lure Caledor into giving me more hints. And since I didn't have much info yet, the latter would be easier.
"It's ok," I told him. "If you say you're not changing the subject, I'll believe you. So, Marius was cute, eh?"
"He was adorable! Don't you think so?"
"Yes, I guess he was," I smiled, still trying to figure out where he was getting to.
"I bet Becks must be really proud."
Bingo! Suddenly, it all became clear. At least until a certain 7-tailed creature came by and dumped mud on the topic. Give the guy a prize for timing.
"I'd say he was more focused on playing and drinking himself silly than tending to his son," Hero said. "As far as I could see, it was Pandora who was looking after him."
"Hero, one of these days I'll blast you hard with my heaviest wave!," I shouted.
"You wouldn't be fast enough, but... Why?! What did I do?"
"I think you two should enjoy your argument on your own," Caledor said. "I'd better go."
"No, you stay here!," I demanded.
"Hey, what's wrong with you?! First you interrogate me, now you give me orders?"
"I guess I came in a bad moment," Hero deduced. "What's going on here?"
"Now we should give you a prize for understatement as well as bad timing," I muttered.
"Hmm... That would be nice," Hero rolled his eyes. "I guess they'd make good additions to my trophy cabinet."
"Leave me alone and I'll forget all of this in a few minutes," Caledor warned us. "Insist on it, and I'll get really mad. And as you've both agreed, you don't want to see that happen."
"Alright, go," I gave up. "It would be hard for anything good to come out of this the way things are now."
"Ok. See you both later!"
With that, he turned around and left.

"Will you please explain what was going on?," Hero asked me.
"I could be wrong, but I think I know him well enough to know the one or 2 things that hurt him. I think seeing one of his best friends have a child has shaken him, though he'll never admit it. It reminded him of what he can't have."
"What would he want a kid for? They cause a whole lot of trouble if they live with you, and if they don't it's as if they didn't exist. Not everyone is Lagi and I'm sure he isn't."
"That's not the point."
"Then what is the point?"
"The point is he'll never know what it feels like. They took that chance away for him and they never asked him. Whether it was by accident or not, we don't know that. I guess that's why he wanted to know if we had any news from tracker."
"Wow, now give me another prize for blindness, will you? I can't imagine how much he must have hurt inside, all these years. It's really hard to tell with his ever-so-cheerful personality, but I guess I would have gone crazy if I'd spent my whole childhood in a lab with people doing weird things to me and changing my body... deciding my future and never letting me have a say... Whoa, that's terrible! It's almost as bad as what Pidgeot went through! I'll urge Tracker to find out more. Who knows how many pokemon have been in the same situation, and not all of them could have Caledor's self-cheering powers."
"I'm beginning to doubt that those 'powers' are really as effective as they seem to be. He's optimistic, and he's happy most of the time. But I think he often masks his true feelings. Not only to others, but to himself too."
"Ok, I'm not the one to turn to for advice on this kind of stuff, but Caledor is Caledor. I'm sure he'll be fine. I'll ask Tracker if she's found anything new as soon as we get back. So far all I know is that Bahamut and Akira have come from the same place as Caledor, or at least that's what the papers say. And she's heard rumors of a girl trying to investigate the Guild before... a singer, I think. But now the girl has left Ulthuan. She said she was going to try to locate the Guild's research facility and... Oh!, and I'm the dumbest being in the world!"
"Ok, now everyone's acting way too strange. I refuse to believe those words just came from your mouth."
"No, I mean... I know where they are! At least a part of them. I've been there! Scott took Gabi and I there right after the first Griffon Games. There was a very complex lock and he made us wait at the entrance, but I guess the police can find a way around it."
"Now you really deserve to be blasted. How could you forget something like that?!"
"It's not that I forgot. I just... didn't make the connection. I guess I was distracted. Something else must have been in my mind while she was talking about finding that place."
"And we can't imagine what that could be, huh?"
"No idea," he lied.
"I guess we can arrange a meeting once we get back home," I suggested. "With all of us present, and maybe Officer Jenny too. She's the one who can talk to the other human police officers after all."
"Will she be willing to cooperate?"
"She owes us that much. I heard her effectiveness has doubled since she got Tracker, and Tracker would have never come to her if it hadn't been for us. I mean, for you."
"I wouldn't say that. I didn't even ask her to stay. It was her decision and it took me by surprise."
"I'll be direct, though she should be the one telling you this, not me. She left the part looking for you. She was taken to Goldenrod and then she came all the way back to Caledor and, as soon as she found out you were here and evolved with a Fire Stone you had buried, she decided to switch trainers -something very few pokemon have ever done- just to be able to stay in Sector Alpha. Now tell me where it is that you don't see your intervention."
"You're missing some parts," he told me. "She went back to Goldenrod after she evolved. She only decided to stay the next time she came back."
"Oh, right. After she'd managed to talk to you and find out where you lived."
"Tracker's too smart to let her life be guided by impulses."
"It's not about intelligence. Nor impulses. It's about love!!"

I realized I'd gone too far. I could feel the eyes of all the passengers pinned on me. And Hero looked shocked.
"Sorry," I tried to apologize. "I didn't mean to be the one who said that first, but I was afraid neither of you would ever make a move. She loves you. And you love her too. You're always thinking of her, and you look different when you come home after seeing her. Gosh, you've even kept the nickname she gave you! So do something about it, please. You're making me nervous. Tell her what you feel for her before you both die of old age."
"I thought you felt that love was ridiculous," he told me. "The way you've teased Pidgeot and Water Angel ever since you joined the team..."
"I have grown, ok? And so have you. I seem to remember that, back then, you had the worst case of freak complex and needed to prove yourself no matter what. We've both changed. For the best, I think and hope."
"True," he admitted. "But you haven't learned to shut your mouth yet."
"You haven't learnt to open your eyes either."
"Am I really that blind?"
"We all have defects. We can try to deal with them in the best way we can," I said. "Well, I'll try to shut my mouth now."
"Good. I'll... try to figure out what the thing to do is for me."

<Amber's POV>

The Easter Island was a wonderful sight. When we got to the port, I flew around to explore the landscape and I liked everything I saw. And the stone monuments were impressive. I could now understand why they were so famous. Plus, the fact that no one knew who had made them added a nice dose of mystery to them. It was a nice, hot day. Well, nice for me, at least. And for Sylvan: the plants on her back were brimming with life! But Gabi wasn't so lucky. Her blood pressure went down again and Lagi had to carry her until she felt better. I felt sorry for her; she really couldn't take high temperatures.
"We're on the South Hemisphere now, it's autumn here! It shouldn't be so hot!," she complained to no one in particular.
"I guess we arrived on a particularly hot day," said Water Angel, who was swimming near the shore. "Are you sure you'll be able to play? We'll understand if you want to go back. We wouldn't like you to push yourself if you're feeling bad."
"We didn't come all this way for nothing," Gabi said. "I owe you this much. I have some medicine in my pack for these cases, so if I take that and a glass of cold water I'll be able to stay on my feet until the game ends. I won't be the one battling, so that should be enough."
"Maybe you should sit down," Pidgeot suggested. "You wait here, I'll get you some water."
"How will you do that?," Gabi asked.
"I don't know. I'll find a way."
I was as curious as Gabi was as to how he would manage to find potable water and bring it to Gabi, but only a minute after he took of, he came back carrying a bottle of mineral water in his claws.
"Where did you get that from?," I asked him.
"There's a hotel not far from here, and it has a kitchen," he said. "After the game, we can go and pay for it."
"Are you saying you stole it?," Ventura asked.
"No, I just haven't paid for it yet, because I had no money. But we'll sort that out later. I'm not a burglar, you know. I only did this because Gabi needed it."
"And exactly how did you get in there without being seen?," Ventura inquired. "I would have teleported, but you can't do that."
"But there are other things I can do," Pidgeot replied. "And that doesn't make me evil, ok? I've had more than enough of those TR scum to have you getting on their side. Gabi needed help, I did what I could to help her. Now get off and leave me be"
"I had never seen Pidgeot so mad!," Iael exclaimed. He was standing next to me.
"You don't know when to stop, do you, Ventura?," I confronted my teammate.
"I'm sure she meant no harm," Water Angel defended her. "She has problems expressing herself with words. You know that, Pidgeot. You shouldn't let that get at you. Everyone here cares about you and no one would like to hurt you or accuse you of anything."

"Hey! Don't treat me as if I were the villain!," Ventura complaied. "I was just curious, that's all! I wasn't accusing anybody of anything. It's not my fault if somebody didn't sort out his issues as he said he had."
"That's enough," Water Angel said.
"It's ok," Pidgeot sighed. "I overreacted. It's true, I know Ventura and she knows me; this was all a midunderstanding. Now, if you all don't mind, I'll help Gabi take the cap off the bottle, because she seems to be having problems with that."
"Oh, thanks, Pidgeot," Gabi said, relieved. "This thing is not made for my hands to open it."
Pidgeot took off the cap with his beak, and then Gabi slowly swallowed the 500 cc. of water contained in the bottle, adding some phenilefrin drops to the last sip.
"Are you feeling better now?," Water Angel asked Gabi.
"I will soon," She said. "Let's start looking for the trainers... Ummmm... Can anyone help me up, please?"
Lagi helped Gabi to get back on her feet, and then we began to walk. I offered her an arm to rest on if she needed it. I would have been worried about her if I hadn't known her as much as I did, but I'd seen her try to endure the heat of the Lava Room, and be taken out of the Domain of the Sleeping Dragon due to her extreme sensitivity to high temperatures, and she'd always come out of it as strong and energetic as ever. Even now, she didn't want to let us miss a chance to have fun and possibly gain experience for anything. She deserved to be commended for that.

<Water Angel's POV>

The group stayed close to the shore so that I could swim freely instead of being cramped in a pokeball. I was grateful for that. I was used to travelling inside my pokemon, but there was nothing like swimming in the sea, and the view this island presented was certainly delightful! I wondered if we'd be able to find any trainers without penetrating deeper into the island, but the answer came to me sooner than I expected, as we found two teenage girls conversing by the sea. One of them had straight, brown hair tied into a ponytail. The other had loose, shoulder-length, curly black hair. When I got close, I realized they were speaking Spanish. It must have been nice for Gabi to hear her mother tongue again; I could speak a little Spanish, but it wasn't natural to me, so it was not the same.
"Oh, hello," said the first one as soon as she saw us. "Are you here for the Easter Egg hunt?"
"Yes," Gabi replied. "My pokemon decided they needed some training, and who am I to contradict them?"
"Shouldn't you be the one who decides when they get to train?," the other girl said in a teasing tone.
"I wouldn't go against their needs," was the best answer Gabi could come up with. It didn't take Lagi's abilities to notice she hadn't liked the question in the least. "Would you?"
"Marce, ¿por qué no buscas a alguien con quien luchar?," the black-haired girl said to her friend. "Yo ya encontré a una." [Translation: "Marce, why don't you look for someone to fight? I've already found one."]
The brown-haired girl nodded, looked at Gabi and greeted her with a "good luck", and then left.
"¿Ustedes son de acá?," Gabi asked her new opponent. ["Are you two from here?"]
"¿Hablas español? ¿De dónde eres? Creí que eran todos de... esa isla, ¿cómo es que se llama?" ["You speak Spanish? Where are you from? I thought you were all from... that island, what's its name?"]
"Ulthuan," Gabi said. "Vivo ahí desde hace unos años, pero nací en Argentina." ["I've been living there for the last few years but I was born in Argentina."]
"Aha...," the girl showed a malicious smile.
"¿Qué pasa?," Gabi asked. ["What's up?"]
"Que ya sé qué puedo esperar de ti," ["Now I know what to expect from you."]
"¿Cómo, si ni siquiera me conocés?" [Typical Gabi remark: "how, if you don't even know me?"]
"Conozco a los argentinos. Son todos orgullosos y arrogantes. Creen que son los mejores del mundo." ["I know Argentineans. They're all proud and arrogant. They think they're the best of the world."]
"¿De dónde sacaste eso?" ["Where did you get that from?"]
"Lo sabe todo el mundo. Y además no nos quieren a los chilenos." ["Everybody knows that. Besides, you don't like us Chileans."]
"No soy tan estúpida para que alguien no me guste sólo por el país donde nació, pero vos no me estás cayendo muy bien. La xenofobia es tan ridícula como el racismo." ["I'm not as stupid as to dislike someone because of the country they were born in, but I'm beginning to have bad feelings about you. Xenophobia is as ridiculous as racism."] Ahh... translating so much is tiresome. I'll report the rest of the conversation in English.
"You're insulting me," the girl said.
"That wasn't my intention, but you insulted me first and for no reason," Gabi replied.
"I didn't insult you. I only said the truth. Unless you think being Argentinean is an insult."
"You know what? I'll go and look for your friend, she looked much nicer than you. I'm tired, it's hot and I don't want to waste my time on someone like you."
"Oh, so you're running away! Realized I'm better than you?"
"Think whatever you want, apparently that's the only thing you can do."
All of a sudden, both humans took their hands to their heads and closed their eyes tightly. I didn't understand what had happened until they returned to their normal state and Gabi turned to stare at Ventura angrily.
"Sorry, but you two would have never stopped if I didn't do something," the Venomoth declared.
"That's not the way, Ventura!," Gabi scolded her.
"What? One of your pokemon did that?," the local trainer queried. "Now I'm really going to cream you. Come on, pick your best pokemon. I'll show you what a real trainer can do."
"What's your problem?," Gabi asked her.
Lagi looked at me, trying to find the right words to stop this fight.
"Don't add dry wood to the fire," I said to my trainer. "We came here for a battle, she wants one, let's have it. Maybe things will cool down afterwards. I'll battle, if that's ok with you."
Gabi nodded. After years of receiving advice from her, I was now on the giving end. It didn't feel bad.
"Please do it," Ventura urged me. "Anything to cool things down. This heat is driving all of us crazy."
"I didn't mean it that way, but... maybe I can do something about the heat too."
"I know what you meant," Ventura told me. "Still, a fresh breeze and a little peace would suit me just fine."
"Go, Lickitung!," the girl shouted, ignoring us completely.
She stretched out her arm holding a pokeball, and soon a red beam came out of it, quickly assuming the shape of the big-tongued pokemon. The Lickitung looked a bit confused, probably because of all the noise he'd been hearing from inside his pokeball. He looked around trying to figure out who his opponent was, until he targetted me and I nodded affirmatively.
"I'm ready to battle," I said.
"You're using your Kingdra?," the Lickitung's trainer asked Gabi.
"I'm not using her, but she's the one who will battle," Gabi replied.
"Gabi, we don't need you to get irritating too," Tsunami told her. "Things are already bad enough without your corrections. Queenie, are you sure you want to battle?"
"You got yet another nickname for me?," I laughed. "Yes, I am."
"Lickitung, make her wish she'd never opened her mouth," the trainer yelled.
It wasn't the best way to start a battle, but I hoped things would eventually calm down. I'd do my best to achieve that.

Level 56 Kingdra vs. Level 60 Lickitung

"Should I usa my combo?," I asked Gabi.
"Go ahead," was her reply.
I blew dark smoke at the Lickitung until he was enveloped by a curtain of darkness. The command his trainer issued was "Ventisca". I couldn't associate that word with any attack I knew, but it sounded wind-related, so I protected myself by going underwater. Bad move. It turned out to be a Blizzard, and it made some of the water freeze and turn into ice shards. When the shards hit me... well, I could say it was a bitter reminder that I wasn't as resistant to cold as I'd been as a child. My days in the North Sea were long gone.
I returned to the surface to finish my combo. The Lickitung was still trying to shake the persistent smoke away; at least at that the Blizzard hadn't succeeded. It wasn't hard to hit him with my Toxic attack.
"Lickitung, Impactrueno!," the girl commanded.
Now that wasn't even a word. Trueno was Thunder, but the 'impact' part didn't sound like anything I knew of. It was strange; battling against someone who received commands with unusual names was harder than battling a pokemon who received no commands at all. Normally, I'd be able to read my opponent's moves with more or less effectiveness, and follow their train of thoughts. Now this was totally different. Lickitung wasn't even thinking of what move he'd use next until his trainer gave him the codeword. The trainer didn't make any moves that I could read, and this made Lickitung's attacks unpredictable. Well, partially. Impactrueno had to be some kind of electric attack, so I knew I wasn't safe in the sea. I took my chance and jumped out of the water. I wouldn't be able to move much on land, but at least there was a chance that the move would miss.
And so it was. I jumped right about the electric bolt, which was aimed at the water, and saved myself from its 'impact'.
"That was a Thunderbolt," Caledor noted. I guess he'd noticed I had problems predicting Lickitung's moves.
"Thanks for the info," I said.
I tried a Hydro Pump to hit the Lickitung and propel me back into the water at the same time. The attack was a complete success. The water pushed Lickitung to the ground and he landed on his... hmm, bottom.
"¡Lickitung, levántate! ¡Otro Impactrueno, ahora!"
This time the order was easy to understand. I tried to jump out again, but this time the electric energy reached me. It was a nasty feeling to say the least. Worse than Caledor's Thunderbolt (which I shouldn't have known first hand in the first place, but I've forgiven him for that). But my opponent didn't come out of it unharmed either. By the way he grabbed his belly and his tongue came out even more than usual, I could tell the poison was already taking its toll.
I used the moment he allowed me to jump out and strike him with a Headbutt. The Lickitung fell on his back, and was unable to move in spite of her trainer's constant yelling. He looked like he was in a lot of pain. I stopped attacking. I didn't want to take advantage of him while he was down, nor to add to his suffering.
"¡Lickitung, Atactrueno!," his trainer shouted. "¡Usa Atactrueno! ¡O Ventisca! ¡O Impactrueno!"
Lickitung didn't respond.
"¡¡Usa lo que sea, pero haz algo!!," She shouted.
Now Lickitung's eyes opened widely. Something seemed to change in him. He suddenly stood up, his pain apparently gone.
"Wow! What was that?!," I exclaimed.
"That was Refresh," Lickitung informed me. "It stopped the poison. Thanks for waiting for me."
"It was the least I could do," I said. "But tell me, if you could do that, why didn't you do it earlier?"
"I had to trust my trainer," he explained. "I didn't want to disobey her. But a moment ago I couldn't use any of the attacks she told me to, so I did the only thing I could."
"Trusting your trainer is good, but I think she needs to learn to understand what you're going through, and trust you more. And not just you, I think she should learn to understand other humans as well."
"Maybe. Well, she's not perfect, but she's my trainer and she's always been good to me. She trains me hard and takes me to every event there is, and she's very proud of me."
"What's her name, anyway?"
"Sandra."
"By the way you describe her, it seems that we met her in a totally wrong moment. Just trust yourself and know that, sometimes, your trainer can learn from you too."
"I will. Thanks."
"What are you doing now? Conversing?!," Sandra scolded Lickitung. "You're supposed to be having a battle, not befriending your opponent! Move now and do something useful. Use Atactrueno!"
"Please excuse me, but we have a battle to finish," Lickitung said.
"It's alright," I accepted.
I must admit I was a bit curious about what 'Atactrueno' was, but I realized it would be best for me if I didn't find out. So, as Lickitung began to charge up electricity, I summoned my Hidden Power and stopped him in his tracks.
Lickitung fell on the ground, exhausted.

I grew to level 58!

Sandra kept up her hysterical yelling.
"Lickitung, get up! We can't let her beat us!"
"He can't battle anymore," Gabi told her. "You should take him to a pokemon center, or at least let him rest."
"You cheated!," Sandra accused her.
"What?! How?!"
"I don't know, but you cheated. There's no other way you could have beaten me."
"Calm down, please. I don't know what you're so mad at, but I certainly didn't do anything to offend you, and neither did Water Angel."
"I'm not giving you the token."
"Which token?"
"For the Easter Eggs, stupid. Isn't that why you're here?"
"I didn't know you'd be handing us tokens. Fine, keep it for yourself and enjoy it. Our lives won't change because of a chocolate, we came here to train and have some fun, and so far we've had much of the former, but none of the latter."
"We who?"
"My team and I."
"You keep talking as if your pokemon were people."
"Some of them have more things in common with me than some people I know. One even wants to be a trainer."
"I'm not trying to be a trainer!," Ventura complained.
"How did you know I was referring to you?," Gabi retorted.
"Because I know you," Ventura replied.
"See? You even argue with them!," Sandra remarked. "You're crazy!"
"Arguing is not something I enjoy, but it's better than not listening at all," Gabi said. "You didn't listen to your Lickitung when he was in pain, all you did was push him harder and get mad because he couldn't keep attacking."
"Whenever I need training lessons from an Argentinean, I'll... Forget it, that's never gonna happen."
"Goodbye," Gabi sighed. "Have a nice day. Water Angel, would you mind getting into your pokeball for a while? We'll look for another trainer. You can come out when we've found one."
I nodded and let the beam of light take me in until I was a part of it. From inside my pokeball, I heard Sandra mock Gabi by repeating her last words in an annoying tone and was afraid another fight might be coming, but Gabi ignored her. I felt her turn away and heard her feet stepping on the grass as she left the sandy beach. I wanted to help her calm down. I wanted to tell her she'd fallen on the wrong side of Sandra, and that she did have a good side. I wanted to tell her that Lickitung would be fine. And, especially, that I loved the way she treated us. That her work as a trainer couldn't be any better than it was. But I'd have time to say all of that to her later, once we'd found what we were looking for. I just hoped the next trainer was more open-minded than the last. Either that, or at least that the temperature went down. For Gabi's sake.

[MarshmallowEgg]

Quick note: I adopted Akia from the Dragon Tamers Adoption Center, and her bred-on move is Hypnosis.

*****

“Akia, get off my head."

My small Meowth kitten pouted as she jumped from her perch on my head to a spot on the couch I was sitting on.

"I'm bored," she complained, climbing onto my knee and batting at my hair. "I want to go outside."

"Then go," I said, picking her up off my knee and setting her on the floor.

"But I don't want to go outside by myself! It's boring! Besides, the Poochyena that lives next door is scary," she said with a shudder.

"Well, then you'll have to wait. I'm busy," I told her, never tearing my eyes from the tv screen.

"But you PROMISED you'd take me out training this weekend, and now it's Sunday afternoon and we STILL haven't gone out! Besides, you've seen this episode about twenty times."

"Megan, get off your lazy butt and take Akia outside," my mom said as she walked into the room. Apparently she had overheard our conversation. "You've been watching Lizzie McGuire all day. Aren't you a little old for this show anyway?"

"I may be fifteen years old in body, but as far as my mind goes, I just turned ten," I said with a laugh as I reluctantly switched the television off and glanced outside. "Well, at least it's nice out."

'Nice' was an understatement. The sun was high in the sky, golden rays sparkling beautifully while whisps of clouds floated along. Amazing for spring, especially around here.

"Come on!" Akia said impatiently. "Are you gonna just stare out the window all day or are we gonna go?"

"Calm down, will you?" I said, grabbing my jacket and heading for the door. "I'm coming."

*****

"Hey! What's that?"

Akia bounded ahead of me, heading toward a telephone pole with a colorful flyer stapled to it. She leapt into the air, trying to see it better, but as she was fairly small (she was a kitten, after all) she couldn't jump high enough to see it.

"What's it say? What's it say?" she asked impatiently as I approached.

"Give me a second!" I laughed, then started to read.

"Attention trainers! A fun and exciting Easter egg hunt is being held on Easter Island. For anyone looking to have a good time or maybe train their Pokemon a little, this event is for you! Boats will be leaving for Easter Island at 10:30 am and 3:30 pm precisely. Boat fare is free for trainers and their Pokemon." I turned to Akia. "Do I even have to ask if you want to go?"

"Nope," Akia said, a grin crossing her feline face. "So what time is it now?"

I checked my watch. "Three fifteen. If we run, we should make it. You up to a race?"

Akia gave me an evil grin, then sprinted away down the street.

"Hey! No fair!" I yelled, taking off after her.

*****

"Hey! Hey, you! You with the Meowth!"

I turned to see a young boy, probably only twn or eleven years old, waving at me. I waved back, a bit confused, and he beckoned me over.

"You a trainer?" he asked as Akia and I reached him.

"Yeah..."

"What's your name? I'm Justen," he said, remembering his manners a little late.

"I'm Megan," I said, extending my hand. He shook it. "Are you one of the trainers that's got an easter egg?" I asked, remembering the sign that had been near the registration booth.

He nodded and pulled out a foil wrapped egg. "Yep. But I'm not telling you what kind it is-" he removed a Pokeball from his belt, "until you beat me and my Pokemon in a battle!"

I had been expecting this. "Sounds good to me. I'll be using my Akia, my Meowth, as you can see." Akia jumped in front of me, claws out, trying to look as ferocious as a kitten can look.

"My first Pokemon will be Thor, my Pichu!" he told me. "Go, Thor!"

I had to snicker when the Pichu came out of its Pokeball. Thor was the Norse God of Thunder. This Pichu didn't look like any sort of God. Not even in the least. Luckily, Justen didn't seem to notice my amusement.

"Let's get this battle started!" he said.

*****

Akia (Meowth lv. 7) vs. Thor (Pichu lv. 5)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Akia, Growl!"

Akia bared her teeth and let out a loud growl - an amazingly large sound to come from such a tiny creature. The Pichu covered its sensitive ears at the sound, leaving it vulnerable to attack.

"Get it with a Scratch attack!" I said.

My Meowth leapt at the Pichu, unsheathed claws sparkling dangerously. But just as Akia was about to connect, Thor recovered from the Growl and let loose with a Thundershock, knocking both Akia and Thor to the ground. Pichus weren't too good at making sure the electricity in their tiny bodies only hurt their opponents. Akia climbed easily to her feet, the shock not having done much damage to her, though she was a little dazed and shaken. Thor and Justen used this to their advantage.

"Thor! Doubleslap!"

Thor grabbed a handful of Akia's fur in one hand and began to slap her vigorously with the other. Akia cried out and struggled to get away.

"Hey, Akia! See if you can get him to look you in the eye!"

Akia understood what I was getting at, but Justen and Thor were completely lost. Akia swiped at Thor to get him to unhand her, then stared at him. Justen furrowed his brow in confusion at first, but he understood when he saw the faint purple circles coming from Akia's eyes.

"Thor! She's going to hypnotize you! Break eye contact! Now!"

It was too late. Thor was already drifting off. Akia seized her chance and jumped at the snoozing Pichu, claws swinging. After having a few scratch wounds inflicted, Thor opened his eyes, only to promptly sway and fall over. Apparently, Akia's two level advantage was... well, advantageous.

~Akia wins!
~Akia grows to level 8!

*****

"Thor, return."

Thor dissovled into red light that was sucked into a Pokeball, which Justen then attached to his belt.

"Your Meowth did well," he admitted. "But it was at a level advantage. What happens when now its opponent has the upper hand?" He grinned evilly and tossed a Pokeball. "Go, Theseus!"

The white light that swirled from the Pokeball quickly formed into what looked to be a ball with a cotton puff sticking out of the top. As the light faded, though, I saw that it was an Igglybuff, the "baby" form of Jigglypuff. This thing didn't necessarily look like it was much of a baby, though. It looked tough - at least, as tough as a balloon could look. I had a feeling that it was at least a level or two above Akia.

"Akia, I have a feeling that we might want to be a little careful around this one."

Akia snorted, obviously not sharing the same idea. "I'm serious!" I told her. "It may look like a pushover, but it seems quite a bit stronger that that Pichu you just fought."

"Five levels stronger, in fact," Justen bragged. I did a couple quick calculations in my head. If the Pichu had been around level five, that would make the Igglybuff level ten - two levels higher than Akia. That was the same advantage Akia had had over Thor. Great.

"Akia, you'd better watch your back," I warned. "This isn't going to be as easy as Thor."

"Are you going to talk to your Meowth all day, or are you going to battle?" Justen asked impatiently.

"We're ready when you are, right?" Akia nodded, and got into attack position. "Let's go!"

Akia (Meowth lv. 8) vs. Theseus (Igglybuff lv. 10)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Theseus! Pound!"

With amazing speed for a balloon, Theseus flew at Akia and smashed her, hard. Akia went flying, the spot that Theseus' fist had connected with her rapidly turning a deep shade of purple. She hit the ground, but quickly got to her feet, definitely not down for the count yet. Eyes narrowed, she leapt at Theseus, claws extended, but before she could make contact the Igglybuff gave her its cutest, most winning look it could. Akia stopped short, her claws grazing Theseus and only inflicting minor damage.

"Akia! What are you doing?"

She gave me a look. "I can't hurt it!"

Justen laughed. "My Igglybuff sure has a lot of charm, don't you think?"

I groaned at his bad pun. "It's using a Charm attack, Akia! Ignore it! It's your opponent, for crying out loud! Don't think about how cute it is!"

Akia growled, annoyed. She glared at Theseus, then got an idea and widened her eyes, making eye contact with him. Justen recognized the attack right away.

"Theseus! Close your eyes!" Theseus obeyed right away. "So this is how you wanna play, huh?" he said, addressing me. "Well, I think it's time to fight fire with fire. Theseus, sing!"

The Igglybuff opened his mouth, and a sweet, soft melody escaped it. I swear I could almost see the notes and rhythms flowing from his mouth and heading for Akia. I quickly stuffed my fingers in my ears, but Akia, who had no fingers, was completely at a loss for what to do. The melody danced around her, soothing her. Her eyes drooped sleepily, and she slowly sunk to the ground, curling into a ball as she drifted off to sleep.

"Akia! Wake up!" I yelled.

"Five minutes," she mumbled.

"Akia!"

"Theseus! Get her! Pound!"

Theseus pounded his fist into Akia's head. She yelped and awoke wth a start, looking around frantically.

"What happened?"

"You fell asleep. But there's not time for discussion now. Growl!"

Akia bared her teeth and let loose with a loud growl. The Igglybuff covered his ears, and Akia took that chance to strike, scratching him several times before he was able to strike back with another Pound attack. He caught Akia straight in the stomach, completely winding her. She gasped for air as Theseus approached her, both him and Justen looking triumphant. They figured they had the battle in the bag. But Akia had this look in her eyes, this 'over my dead body' look that let me know she was not down for the count just yet. Theseus closed his eyes, focused all his energy and took another swing, His fist hurtled toward Akia...

...and went through nothing but air.

Theseus' eyes popped open as he looked around, confused. Where was Akia? She was nowhere to be found... or so he thought. Akia smirked as she scratched him from behind.

"That'll teach you to knock the wind out of ME!" she said, claws swinging. A final blow sent the weakened Theseus flying, smashing him into a nearby tree. He slid to the ground and didn't move.

~Akia wins!
~Akia grows to level 10!
~Akia learns Shadow Ball as her TM!

*****

"Theseus, return," Justen said, looking dejected. He sniffled a little, and for a minute I thought he was going to cry, but instead he looked up and smiled. "Good battle. Your Meowth is tough."

"Thanks," I replied. "You and Theseus put up a good fight, too."

"So, I guess you've earned this, then," he told me, tossing me the foil-covered egg. "I hope you like caramel!"

I unwrapped the egg. It was fairly large, and the outside was milk chocolate. Patterns of flowers and rabbits decorated the chocolate.

"I want some!" Akia said. "Come on, break it open!"

I cracked it in half. Smooth, thick caramel filled the inside of the egg. I handed one piece to Akia, who happily began to munch on hers. Taking a bite of my own, I looked up to thank Justen for the egg, but he was already gone.

"Huh, that's weird," I said, looking around. "Well, come on, Akia. What do you say we have a little fun at the beach before it gets dark?"

"I say that it sounds like a plan to me!" Akia cried, pushing the rest of her chocolate into her mouth and gulping it down. "Come on, lets race!"

"Okay," I agreed, then took a leaf out of Akia's book and took off.

"Hey! Megan! That's no fair! I apologized for that, remember? Wait for me!" Akia yelled, laughing and running after me.

[Lady Vulpix]

Wow, great start, MarshmallowEgg!! Take 17 stamps! ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢

By the way, is anyone reading my fic and/or my Battle Range stories?

[The_Missing_Link]

I've read your story Gabi. It's very good

My story is on the way. It should be completed by tonight or tomorrow

[Lady Vulpix]

Oh! Thanks, Rebecca! I'm sure I'll enjoy reading yours.

[The_Missing_Link]

<My POV>

“Hurry it up”, I snapped at Nightshade as he was squatting down and peering across at his destination.
<It takes time to make it perfect>, he replied lightly.
“It’s only mini-golf”, I sighed as he stood up and took aim.
<Watch and learn>, he smirked and tapped the ball with his club.
Rolling fast down the slope, his blue ball zipped through the loop and bumped over the hump where it crashed into Drake’s ball and sent it into the wall where it slowed at the edge and stopped.
<No fair, he cheated>, Drake whined as he, Nightshade and I moved over towards the end to finish up the hole.
“Come off it Drake. It was fair and square. Knowing Nightshade, he would probably put it into the hole on his first shot if he wanted to.”
Nightshade just smirked as the others watched from side, eating ice cream. For some reason, Orion was stationed by loop, looking at it wondrously.
<What aerodynamics. How does it work?>, Orion breathed.
<It’s called speed and velocity>, Lee rolled his eyes and dragged Orion away by his helmet before he could become more embarrassing.
“How did I end up with you all?”, I moaned jokingly.
<By good fate>, Lyra smiled.
I smiled back and went over to my golf ball, which was luckily positioned as far away from Nightshade’s as possible. Angling the club at the right position, I tapped it and watched as it slowly traveled into the hole where it landed with a definite plunk. The others cheered as I bowed deeply and stood aside as Nightshade held up a hand for silence and stood beside his ball.
<Nightshade is now lining his ball up to the hole with careful precision. Tied with Rebecca at 43 points, he has a chance to win it all>, Blade whispered in a British mock seriousness tone as the others snickered and snorted.
Nightshade looked up sternly and twitched his moustache before looking down and putting the ball.
<It looks good…going straight down the line…oh no, now it’s veering to the right>, Blade gasped as the ball moved over to the right and barely missed the hole.
<ARGGGGGH>, Nightshade screamed and levitated the ball before it exploded into nothingness.
<Oh dear, that’s the 4th ball he’s destroyed today>, Blade sighed as the others rushed over to restrain the poor Kadabra.
Walking over, I looked him eye to eye and slapped his face.
“Stop being a baby”, I said sternly. “It’s only a ruddy game of mini-golf.”
He nodded dumbly and stalked over to sit with the others as Drake coughed loudly, no one knowing if it was a laugh or a real cough. Expanding his wings to have better mobility, Drake swished his tail closely to the bushes as he aimed, almost setting them on fire. Oblivious to his surroundings however, he swung the club, bumping into the wall before colliding with the ball. Although the farthest away and at a clear disadvantage, it went true and the ball dropped into the hole with grace and ease. As I patted him on the back, Blade handed the scorecard to me and I read off the scores.
“Ok, it seems that I won with 43 points, knocking Nightshade out of the winner’s spot for the first time in 6 visits here.”
The other clapped their claws and paws lightly in the mocking golf manner as I continued.
“In second place is Nightshade with 44 points, despite actually destroying 4 balls, which I will have to pay for”, I glared over at him.
He shrunk back sheepishly as I finished up.
“And lastly with 76 points is Drake, who made a major improvement from last time when he finished with 94 points.”
The Pokemon cheered loudly as Drake blushed and turned away. With everyone in good spirits, we returned our balls and clubs, paid for the 4 balls Nightshade destroyed and walk back home. Checking my watch on the way back, I saw it was almost 6 o’clock and gasped.
“Oh god, we’re going to miss Yu Yu Hakusho”, I cried, which sent a wave of moaning ensuing.
<We missed the last one because of you>, Drake grumbled, referring to yesterday when I accidentally locked myself out of the house and everyone were in their Pokeballs inside while I struggled outside calling for help.
“Well, we’re not going to miss it this time”, I said confidently and stooped down to hold onto Aries.
“Half of you lock on to Nightshade and the rest come with me and Aries.”
We all split up and hooked onto our respective teleporters. In a flash of bright light, we flashed inside and collided together in the living room. Being one of the lightest of the group, I struggled to get up from beneath my Pokemon. Gasping for a breath of fresh air by pushing Apollo aside, I sprang up from below and rolled around on the floor while everyone twisted each way and that to get out of the pile and to escape getting burned by Drake’s tail flame. Eagerly getting up, I found the clicker and turned on the TV just in time to see what happened before on the show as the others finally straightened themselves out. Watching the half hour show, we then had a good dinner of lamb chops, peas and mashed potatoes and watched more TV before going to bed, feeling content.

The next day…

<Get, get up, get up>, Orion yelled as he bounced up and down on my chest.
“Ouch! Orion, get off of me”, I moaned and tossed him off the bed.
Landing on the carpet hard, Orion shook his head and bounded out the door, where he proceeded to trip over himself and fall down the stairs. A loud moan followed up by laughter from the others filled the house as I shook my head.
“Maybe I made a mistake in adopting him”, I said absentmindedly to Aries as I massaged my upper area, where Orion accidentally jumped on.
Getting dressed, I sauntered down the stairs and was greeted by the family, who were eating cereal and toast. Putting some Kix and milk in an empty bowl, I dove in without any remorse for the cereal and ate the whole thing in less than 2 minutes.
<Pig>, Shade muttered as he gobbled up toast from the floor.
“Takes one to know one”, I shot back.
I shrugged as the others stared at my stupid behavior but finished up their breakfast quickly.
“It seems you guys want to do something”, I said.
<We want to go to the Easter Islands>, Lee quietly said.
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.” (We never celebrate Easter, but we do like to decorate the eggs and eat lots of chocolate so they’ve been wanting to go forever).
“Ok then, we’ll go. Since it’s too far away for us to fly, we’ll have to teleport. Unfortunately, everyone will have to go inside their Pokeballs except for Nightshade and Aries since this will need a double team effort to get us there.”
Everyone looked downtrodden but complied and stood still as I recalled each of them.
“Ok you guys, this is where the Island is”, I said as I walked over towards the globe on a stand and pointed at the tiny dot off of Chile.
<Got it>, they replied and attached themselves to me.
Concentrating deeply, blue auras surrounded them and we took off in a flash.

Opening my eyes, we stood on solid ground and gasped at the surroundings. Broad mountains stood off in the distance, its peaks glittering as the sun shone down on it. Fields of long, swaying grass surrounded us with flowers scattered all around. The most amazing part though were these rock carvings that no one knew who made them. The only thing that spoiled the whole scenery was a McDonalds standing 500 feet away from us, but it too looked beautiful.
“Dang, it sure is hot out right now”, I breathed as I waved my hand back and forth.
<Lets go over to that building then>, Nightshade pointed out with his spoon at a larger building than the McDonalds to the right of it.
I nodded and walked over to the huge doors. Pulling one of them open, a huge waft of cold air blew into my face and sighed in pleasure. Walking inside, I let out the rest of the team and walked over to a large sign on a stand.

Welcome to the Easter Islands. Since it is Easter, we are holding a very special event for all trainers. Through the doors behind this sign is an open area where trainers are scattered around. With them are special Easter eggs, each one colored and taste differently. Beat the trainer and you receive the egg to enjoy for your whole team.

The PokeEgg Corporation

“I wonder how they got permission to use this sacred island as a tourist trap and how they’re still in business”, I questioned but were met by shrugs.
<Well, we can all sit around here and think about this oh-so-interesting problem or we can battle!>, Blade said impatiently.
I gave him a look but nodded and we went past the sign and through the doors. The scenery looked much like the one in front of the building but this area had a vast, open field, prime for battling and a beach for water battles. Trainers were scattered about, some battling while others stood around and watched or did nothing. Walking towards the ocean, Lyra ran ahead and dived into the shallow end, bobbing up and down as she gracefully swam around. Within seconds, the rest joined her except for Drake of course who relished the sun with a passion. As I sat down and played around with the sand, someone tapped me on the back. Turning around, I looked at a 14 year old girl with blond hair tied up in a bun, wearing a beach hat, a bikini, sandals and carrying a handbag.
“Are you like, a trainer?”, she drawled in a Californian accent.
I shuddered involuntarily before replying.
“Yes I am. Why, would you like to battle?”
“Most definitely.”
I turned back towards Drake who stared back at me wide-eyed.
<She sounds like one of those stereotypical snobs you see in the movies>, he whispered.
“Hey, I heard that!”, she cried out.
I just rolled my eyes and whistled towards the rest of the Pokemon.
“Battle time you guys”, I called out.
Immediately, they all rushed out of the water and raced towards me.
“You make the ground rules whoever you are”, I said to her.
She just sniffed disdainfully before speaking.
“2 on 2 down by the sands, no time limit and my name is Marissa.”
I just nodded and walked backwards, she doing the same as the others went back into the ocean to watch. Opening her handbag, Marissa dug through looking for her Pokeballs. After taking out more makeup than I thought was humanly possible to carry, she pulled out the Pokeballs and maximized 1 of them.
“Go get them, Muffin!”, she cried and released the ball.
Flying into the center of the arena, the ball landed softly on the sand to release a Snubbull. I choked back a laugh as Muffin was wearing 4 ribbons in her hair and had eye shadow above her eye lids.
“Shade, it’s your time to battle”, I said hoarsely.
My lumbering Venusaur walked out of the edge where he positioned himself in front of Muffin and shook his body, releasing water everywhere. Marissa gasped as Muffin’s eye shadow started to run down her face, making her look like a hideous doll.
“You’ll pay for this!”, she screamed.
“I seriously doubt it”, I replied.

Shade Lv.34 Venusaur vs. Muffin Lv.40 Snubbull

<Shade’s POV>

“Look what you’ve done to me”, Muffin moaned as I stared blandly at her. “You ruined my face.”
“Oh, I’ll do more than that”, I replied and extended my vines, snaking towards her body.
Grabbing a hold of her, I tossed her up into the air and slammed her down into the sand by curving my vines over her head and slapping her down. She sputtered as sand got into her mouth and eyes, impairing her vision. Trying to make my body out, she got up and looked around. Looking at the nearest shadow, she ran over to it and tried to bite it. Unfortunately, the shadow was Lee and he was in the ocean. Backing away, he let her splash in and wipe away all of the makeup before she found where she was and looked back at me.
“Now you got me all wet”, she snarled and disappeared from sight.
“Whoa”, I said and stepped back a bit.
No one knew where she disappeared to but her trainer and she just smirked like an idiot.
“Come on out Muffin”, Marissa purred.
Growling, Muffin came from behind and rammed into my back, causing dark pain to run through my body. I kicked out with my hind legs but I heard no sound. Turning around quickly, it looked like she disappeared again. I moaned as I felt helpless but she made sure I wasn’t alone for long by ramming into my back again.
“Damn you”, I said weakly.
“Well, at least you won’t have to endure the pain for long”, she said and bit into my right foreleg.
I bellowed out in pain and tried to shake her off but she kept on like a cat to a mouse. Doing the only thing I could do, I shook out a dense purple powder. Showering myself with it, I felt nothing but Muffin was unfortunate enough to breathe it in. It didn’t actually take affect until a couple of minutes later so she was still clamped on. However, it did hit her in a big way. Blanching completely, she let go of my leg, which was swollen up badly. Taking my weight off of it, I was at a disadvantage but she looked worse off.
“Muffin, use heal bell”, Marissa said calmly, not worried about Muffin’s situation.
Looking somewhat relieved, Muffin started to concentrate. Although swaying back and forth, a white glow encircled her and a tinkling off a bell was heard in the distance. The glowing soon died away and Muffin looked very refreshed but panted hard.
“I hate…using…that move”, she gasped.
Looking at her grimly, I tried to take advantage and rustled my flower. Dozens of sharp leaves flew out from within and slashed at her viciously until she was left with shallow but burning cuts. Extending my vines again, I hoped to knock her over into the ocean, but the she-devil disappeared from sight again and rammed into my side this time. She would never knock me over, but the pain was terrible to deal with. She didn’t let me have any time to recover either as she came up and licked the side of my face. I shuddered by her disgustingness but felt like my body was unable to cooperate with my needs.
“I’m paralyzed”, I finally realized and heard Rebecca sigh to herself.
“You can still attack without moving Shade”, she called out.
I nodded as I knew she was right. As Muffin came over to bite me again, my flower rustled and she tensed. This time though, a pinkish powder settled over her and she sniffed. Smiling, she exhaled and breathed in deeply again.
“This is so lovely”, she sighed in happiness.
“Very”, I replied, hoping to distract her.
“What is this enticing smell?”
“I’m not too sure myself, but I’ll let you look at my flower to see what’s in there.”
She nodded happily and climbed onto my back.
<You have got to be kidding me>, I thought while rolling my eyes.
“Your flower is soooooo pretty”, she drawled as she looked deep within.
I glanced over at my teammates who stared at Muffin like she was crazy. She had the power, but was lacking it upstairs.
“I’ll release it again so you can smell it”, I said lightly and wriggled my flower.
Muffin held on and expected the sweet smell, but instead got a face full of poison powder, much more potent since she stuck her face into it. She gasped and tumbled off my back and into the sand where she writhed in pain. I just calmly sent out a single seed from my flower which planted itself on her body. Opening up, vines stretched out and grasped her tightly where it proceeded to drain her of her energy. Then lifting her up with my vines, I slammed her down onto the ground where she gasped for air and then fainted.

Shade grew to Level 36!

<My POV>

I yelled in joy as Shade took advantage of Muffin’s stupidity and sent her walking. Striding over to him, I grasped him and squeezed tightly. Although it didn’t hurt him, he knew I cared and grunted loudly in pleasure. Fishing out a full restore, I poured the drink down his throat.
<Tastes like bubble gum>, he replied and walked back to his teammates, acting like he wasn't paralyzed and bombarded with a swollen leg at all.
Marissa looked supremely pissed off after her first loss and recalled her Pokemon.
“You’ll like, pay for this”, she screamed and released her other Pokeball.
Rolling on the ground, I expected something just as frilly as Muffin to appear and I was correct. This time, it was the more feminine Jigglypuff and she looked worse than her mate as her bang over her head was separated into braids, complete with clacking beads. She also had 2 ribbons behind her ears and wore shocking blue eye shadow that clashed badly with her pink skin.
“You can do it Missy”, she called out and kicked out her leg like a cheerleader.
“Apollo, go get her”, I said and the little Elekid raced onto the field.
Drake, Blade and Lee looked solemnly at me as they knew it was time for Apollo to shine…in more ways than one.

Apollo Lv. 28 Elekid vs. Missy Lv.30 Jigglypuff

<Apollo’s POV>

“I won’t let you lose to me buddy”, Missy said in the same accent as her trainer.
“As if”, I mocked her.
She growled and flew at me, hands outstretched. Stepping lightly backwards, I dodged neatly as she tried to strike my face. This went on for quite a bit until she decided to stop, knowing it was fruitless to go against my better speed. Curling up into a tight ball, I gulped as I knew what she was doing. Rolling around on the sand, she started to pick up speed as I started to run away from her. Spraying sand everywhere, she sped in my direction and caught up easily with me. Damn short legs. Colliding into me, I flew across the arena and slammed into the sand. Getting up, I shook my head and glanced up at my trainer.
“Easy peasy”, I muttered up to her before flying into the air once more.
Doing multiple flips, I felt myself going headfirst into the sand and moaned in embarrassment as I stood straight up, my plugs planted deep in the ground. I heard great shouts of laughter, Pokemon and human alike.
“Stuck, are we?”, Missy said in a sweet tone. “Well, I’ll make sure you won’t be anymore.”
I couldn’t see anything since my back was to her but I soon felt something when her fist pounded into my back. Falling down onto the ground, she repeatedly slammed her fists into my back with no remorse. I cried out harshly each time, my back feeling like it was going to break any moment. Then suddenly, nothing happened. Looking up, I stared into Missy’s face, her mouth open wide. Scrambling to get up, I rolled to the side as she breathed flickering flames over where I was lying. Breathing sharply, my back ached terribly from her poundings, but I was not going to be beaten that easily.
“Use the combo”, Rebecca called out, knowing that I was beaten badly and Missy didn’t have a scratch on her at all.
Clenching my fists, I drew upon the power of fire and electricity in my body. Rushing towards Missy, my left fist became encased in fire and my right sparked wildly. Throwing them into her, fire and electricity rushed into her body, sending her backwards into the sand. Jumping into the air, I crossed both of them together and stabbed her in the stomach. She shrieked in pain as I joined my cross chop in with the other 2 attacks. Doubled over, she gasped in deeply for a minute or 2 before pulling herself onto her feet. Staring into her bright but determined eyes, she started to sing. It was something unlike I ever heard before. Not the sweet, doleful melody she usually sings to put her foes to sleep, but a weird, high pitched warble, sounding like a cruel banshee. Holding my hands up to my head, I tried to curl up into a ball to avoid the noise but nothing could stop the horrible song that was emitting from her mouth. Luckily, it ended fast and I uncurled myself and got up to face her.
“What was that?”, I asked.
“Perish song”, she replied simply and smiled manically.
I blanched as I heard that perish song could cause both battlers to go unconscious within minutes. Pissed off at her stupid tactic though, I decided to make her go down first to null her fatal attack. Running around on the sand, I started to run circles around her, a blur to her. Coming in, both of my fists crackled and I rammed into her, pushing my fists and body into her. Sending her flying into the ocean, she went in with a deep splash but came up quickly due to her buoyancy. Running in myself, I swam over to her. Breathing madly, she tried to punch me but I blocked it with my fist and sent a thunderpunch into her face. She screamed madly, but I heard a much louder noise, like a banshee.
<Oh god, it’s coming>, I thought.
Pulling off what could be my last attack, I swiveled both of my arms quickly, trying not to drown myself. Throwing both arms around her, I let the energy flow into her body, the electricity pounding endlessly. She started to yell frequently, but her became weaker and weaker until she stpped altogether. Knowing she was unconscious, I listened hard for the banshee screaming, but it too had gone away. Tired but glad, I swam back towards the shallow end and drew myself onto the beach, where I sat down, exhausted. Running towards me, Rebecca threw her arms around me and gave a great squeeze. Choking, I thought I would go unconscious myself but instead, I started to glow. A white light surrounding me, I started to feel myself grow taller. My arms and legs extending, I also gained a tail and lost my stupid plugs but thin tubes stuck out of the sides of my head. When the light died down, I looked all over and discovered that I evolved. Wicked awesome.

Apollo grew to Level 30, evolved into Electabuzz and learned thunder wave as a free TM!

<My POV>

I smirked as Apollo examined his new body, knowing full well that he would evolve today. The others came up to congratulate him on his fine work.
<Aww, now he’s taller than me>, Nightshade complained.
We all rolled our eyes and ignored his comment. I watched Marissa recall her Jigglypuff and walk over to me.
“That was really cool”, she said quietly.
I nodded and held out my hand. She smiled and shook it firmly. She started to turn and walk away but rummaged through her handbag again. Taking out a steel container, she handed it over to me.
“This is the Easter egg that the opposing trainer receives if they like, beat the holder of it. And I think you definitely deserve it.”
I grinned as I received the box from her and waved as she walked off towards the building. Opening the container, I looked at its shiny blue and black striped exterior before I put it back where it belonged.
“Ok, who wants McDonalds?”, I asked, deadly hungry.
They all yelled in agreement and I held my arm around Apollo as we walked off, the shining sun beating down our backs. How we so needed the air conditioners.

[Lady Vulpix]

Great work, Becca! Take 19 stamps! ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢
By the way, the phrase "then suddenly, nothing happened" sounded a bit strange. Oh, and we both encountered weird trainers.
Congratulations on Apollo's evolution!!
I'm glad to see so many great stories here.

[Everoy]

Gabi, just to let you know, my third part of my story will be finished by next Sunday because I am going on a three day camping trip for school.

[The_Missing_Link]

--; I probably should've elaborated on that. I checked through for typos but that didn't come up as a problem for me. Sorry

[Lady Vulpix]

<Water Angel's POV>

Not much time seemed to happen before I was released again. The strange thing was that nobody talked during that time. I wondered what was going on with everyone; I was usually able to pick up noisy conversations all the time from my pokeball, as my team was composed by a group of chatterboxes, of which I was not an exception. Iael was maybe the only one who didn't follow that 'rule'. He was quiet most of the time. I could understand his silence, and Gabi's since she wasn't feeling quite well at that moment. But the others? What was going on with them? Not even Hero, Tsunami and Caledor were talking!
When I got out, I saw the trainer we had met at the beach; the one who had left to look for an opponent. For some reason, I was glad to see it was her. We were in some sort of a clearing surrounded by trees and filled with flowers. I nearly fell to the ground when I looked around, but Amber stopped my fall and held me up. After the proper "thanks/you're welcome" exchange, I decided to ask her about the silence.
"I don't know about the others," she told me. "But I know Sylvan and I were just enjoying the view. This place is beautiful! Though I must admit I was a bit worried about Gabi."
"Me too," I replied. "She got into a fight and she hardly ever comes out of them in one piece. I wish I could let her know that some things are not worth the emotional draining. I mean... she didn't do anything wrong other than pronounce a few tactless words, and Sandra has an awful way of thinking, but that's her problem, not Gabi's."
"I know. Why don't you just tell her that the way you're telling me?"
"I guess I will. I just don't get how, after facing the likes of Mewtwo, the Dark Battalion and the Dark Cloak and coming out on top, she still gets worked up over things like these."
"Everybody has defects," Amber told me. "And virtues too. You can work hard on stopping either from affecting your life, but a part of them will always remain in you."
"That doesn't sound too comforting," I pointed out.
"I didn't say it to comfort you. It's the way things are. If you know there's something about you that you don't like, you'll have to stay on the watch in order to avoid it. If you're determined, you'll succeed most of the time. But don't be too shocked if it eventually comes out when you're off-guard. And don't blame yourself. Just keep doing your best."
"Are you talking through personal experience?"
"A little, yes. Personal experience and things I've witnessed. Doesn't that happen to everyone?"
"I don't know. I'll have to think about it. I'll tell you if I find a counterexample."
"Ok."

In the meantime, Gabi and the other trainer had already introduced themselves and apparently spoken a little about Sandra. At least that was what my teammates told me, though none of them could understand a word of the conversation other than Sandra's name. How was it possible that I was the only one in the group, aside from Gabi, who could understand a conversation in Spanish? Lagi said she could make out a few phrases, and everyone else was clueless.
"Her name is Marcela," Lagi told me. "And she said something about trainers and opponents and Lickitung."
"Oh, that helps a lot," I said sarcastically.
"Well, she was a bit disappointed, if that helps. Until she found Gabi. Then after Gabi spoke, Marcela felt better. Then they began to talk about Sandra, and Marcela gave her an explanation, and Gabi began to feel a little better."
"Oh. That's good to hear," I smiled. "Your talents certainly make up for your lack of Spanish knowledge. You could understand a conversation in any language, couldn't you?"
"The conversation, I doubt it. But its effects, I'd say I can."
"Just one thing, now. Do you happen to know why everyone was silent while we were coming?"
"Oh, different reasons, I guess. Gabi was trying to make her feelings about the fight go away. Pidgeot was quite reflective. Hero and Tsunami were... would ashamed be the word? In any case they were uneasy; I have no idea what went on with them, though, and I know they'd get mad if I started asking questions. Caledor was trying hard to get distracted, and the fact he had to actually put some effort into it was disturbing. Amber and Sylvan were a little concerned, but they spent most of the time enjoying the landscape. Iael was just observing everything and everyone, as was I, and Ventura had no reason to talk when no one else was talking."
"Wow, you made an emotional map of the whole team!"
"I guess I did," Lagi chuckled.

When Marcela released a new Lickitung, I realized I had been getting too distracted. I'd have to change that if I didn't want to miss the action. And I really didn't want to miss it: Pidgeot was the one to take the challenge this time. It was my turn to gather all my cheering talents and put them to good use. We never knew when he would need a dose of them.
"Do you have any items?," Marcela asked Gabi in Spanish.
"What kind of items?"
"Anything your Pidgeot can use. I just got this collar from abroad and it would be cool if my Lickitung could use it, but it wouldn't be fair unless your Pidgeot was using an item too."
"Oh. Sure! I haven't had many chances to use items lately. Pidgeot, what would you like to use?"
"If this Lickitung knows the same attacks at the previous one, I'll choose the Double Shield," Pidgeot said. "Now that I think of it, I'll choose that in any case. It's the only item I'm comfortable with."
"Alright," Gabi said, reaching for the shield in her backpack. "Take it."
"You can talk to your pokemon?! Wow!," Marcela exclaimed, surprised.
"We've known each other for a long time, and my Espeon's psychic powers help, and I have a few of my own," Gabi explained, unusually comfortable with opening up to a stranger.
"Everybody's acting weird today!," I remarked.
"How good! I can't understand what my pokemon say, but I do understand their body language," Marcela said, placing a collar around her Lickitung's neck. "Are you ready, Rocío?"
Rocío, the female Lickitung, nodded affirmatively.
"Is your Pidgeot ready?"
"As ready as ever," Pidgeot said. Even though Marcela couldn't understand the words, the meaning was clear.
"Ok, let's start!," Marcela decided.

Level 55 Pidgeot vs. Level 60 Lickitung

Pidgeot acted as fast as ever, using the mud on the ground to impair his opponent before she could attack. But the Lickitung's reaction was also quick and accurate: she caught Pidgeot with her arms and with the help of her tongue -he was too big for her arms alone- and hurled him to the ground with Strength. It had been a long time since I'd seen anyone use that attack. Amber knew it, but she hadn't used it for ages. Ever since she'd started having problems controlling her own strength. Maybe that was the personal experience she was referring to when she talked to me.
Pidgeot made a loud noise when he crashed into the ground.
"Are you alright?," I asked him.
"Bruised, but I'll be fine," he replied.
"That was too strong, do something to counter it!"
"I don't have the spare time. Don't worry, I'll think of something. Hey, I just have!"
As soon as those words were spoken, an invisible force lifted Rocío up into the air and flung her down to the ground.
"Nice work!," I cheered.
"Not so nice. She's more resistant than I am. There's a chance in 10 that I can change that, but I'll take it. Now, please, I need to concentrate."
I realized I was doing anything but help him. Talking to me had made him an easy target, and now he was being reached but nothing else than a Thunderbolt! I would have to offer my heartfelt apology and find a way to compensate for this after the battle. Fortunately, the shield absorbed half the damage and sent a shockwave back to the Lickitung through the earth. Rocío lost balance and fell.
"Time to take the chance," Pidgeot decided. I could see his wings shine as he launched himself toward his opponent and cut the skin of her arms with his hardened feathers. Rocío got up and tried to seize him again, but he move away faster and she couldn't get hold of him. Then Pidgeot tried something new: he started spinning around in the air and some of his smallest feathers fell off and began to circle around him. All of a sudden, he stopped and the feathers launched themselves at Rocío like heat-seeking missiles. They didn't seem to cause any damage, but I trusted Pidgeot to know what he was doing. I would make my questions later.
Rocío walked over to Pidgeot and grabbed him with her tongue. She attracted his body to her own, and lifted him up again, once more hurling him to the ground. However, this time the blow wasn't so hard.
"See?," he said, as if he had read my previous thoughts. "Now, if only I could... No, too risky. Let's go standard."
He mirrored Rocío's move, this time having her crash against a nearby tree. Before she could get back at him, he flew away as fast as he could. She did reach for him, though, but this time the target of her attack was not him. It was his shield! The damage Pidgeot took was not significant, but his shield was knocked off.
"Pidgeot, hurry!," Gabi urged him. "She'll use an electric attack! Don't fly too high."
"Rocío, quick! Use Impactrueno!"
What was this? Did everyone on the island use that code? Pidgeot flew up into the air, easily evading the electric bolt. Then he plunged into the Lickitung and hit her with a Fly attack.
"He disobeyed you?!," Marcela said, astonished.
"No, he didn't. He was just smart enough to see through my words. I told him not to fly too high, but a Fly attack would protect him from a Thunderbolt, so that wouldn't be too high for him. It would only be too high if Rocío had used Thunder instead, but that would have been too risky for her with her accuracy lowered, wouldn't it?"
"Oh, so it was a code?"
"Sort of. We never established it, but I knew he'd know what to do. You do seem to have a code, though. What's with 'Impactrueno'?"
"Don't you know? That's the Spanish name for Thunderbolt. I thought you'd know, since you're from Argentina."
"I know the attacks by their English names," Gabi said. "And 'Impactrueno' now. and 'Ventisca'. But as far as I know, 'thunderbolt' is 'rayo' in Spanish."
"The natural one is, but not the attack."
"Oh. Thanks for the info."
"No problem. So... let's see how risky it really is. Rocío, Atactrueno!"
Nasty way to find out the meaning of that word. It was Thunder!
"Don't fly!," Gabi and I shouted out in unison.
Pidgeot landed and pressed his body against the ground, lowering every part of it as much as possible. He managed to dodge Rocío's Thunder attack by ducking, and then got up and hit the Lickitung with a Wing Attack. Worn out, Rocío fell to the ground and didn't get up again.

Pidgeot grew to level 57!

"Rocío, return. You did great," Marcela said, calling her Lickitung back to her pokeball. "That was a great battle," she said to Gabi.
"Yes, it was," Gabi agreed, shaking Marcela's hand.
"Oh, I almost forgot! Here's your token."
Marcela handed Gabi a flat, oval-shaped token. "Go to the central and exchange it for an egg. The content will be a surprise."
"Thanks," Gabi replied. She was clearly feeling better.
"Would you like to take a look at the landscape while we get there?," Amber offered.
"How?," I asked, interested.
"I can lift you up and take you. I'm yet to learn to carry others on my back while flying, but my arms are strong enough to hold you for a while."
"That would be great!," I accepted with gratitude.

"We have to go and pay for the water too," Pidgeot reminded Gabi while we were heading to the central. His voice revealed how tired he was. The battle had been very tough for him.
Gabi nodded.
I was looking around, trying not to miss any detail. I couldn't get enough of that wonderful view. I wouldn't ask Amber to do this often, since I was quite heavy, but I was really glad she had offered to carry me this time.

We soon got there, and Gabi traded her egg-shaped token for a 3-dimensional Easter Egg.
"Eat it fast before it melts," Amber suggested.
"I think we should split it in two and give the pieces to Pidgeot and Water Angel," Gabi proposed. "After all, they were the ones who won it."
"You did your part too," Pidgeot told her. "I hadn't even thought of using Fly until you told me not to fly too high."
"How ironic," Gabi laughed.
"Maybe you two should share it," I offered Pidgeot and Gabi. "I messed up and put Pidgeot in a tough situation. I don't deserve a share."
"It was not your fault I got distracted," Pidgeot told me. "Besides, nothing too bad came out of it, so you have nothing to get worked up about. Now... why are we having this conversation? It's just chocolate with something inside. Anyone can it eat and it will be gone in seconds. It's not as if we were trying to decide who gets a TM or something like that."
"I should get you a TM," Gabi said to Pidgeot. "I will as soon as I can lay my hands on one. Being a DT worker makes it harder, but I'll find a way."
"Thanks," Pidgeot replied. "As for the egg, why don't we crack it into many pieces so that everyone who wants a piece can get one?"
"Sounds good to me," Gabi said.
"What if it's cream?," Iael came out of his silence.
"An Easter Egg filled with cream?," Gabi questioned.
"I heard that some were. If this one is, it will make a mess."
"And if it isn't, I'll put some cream on my part to see how it tastes!," Gabi decided, licking her lips.
"Then we should eat it at home," Pidgeot suggested. "But in that case, we'll have to take a portal. I don't think the egg will endure a long journey under this weather."
"Ok, let's take a portal," Caledor accepted. "Weird can be good."
"That doesn't sound like what you said this morning," Gabi reminded him.
"So I changed my mind. Sue me! We've already tried the long way and it could have been more fun. Maybe the portal will be. At least it will be a new experience. I vote for the portal."
"I second it," Ventura said. "Why take the long way back when there's a shorter one?"
"Maybe because the long way is more comfortable and not as crazy?," Hero suggested.
"What's crazy about a portal?," Ventura shot back at him. "It's like teleporting."
"Oh, sorry. Forgot who I was talking to."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Easy, everyone!," Gabi shouted.
"Starting with you," Caledor laughed.
"Ok, let's take the portal and stop arguing. We'll have tried both things, the egg won't melt and everything should be fine."
No one could argue with that logic.

We went to the hotel when Pidgeot had found the water and Gabi handed a coin to an unbelieving employee, and then we took a dazzling and colorful portal back to Ulthuan. I was a bit dizzy, but I closed my eyes and looked inside myself, and the draconian forces helped me regain stability. Ventura, Gabi, Lagi and Caledor came out just fine, and Pidgeot didn't take a long time to adjust. The others weren't so lucky. They moved as if the world was spinning around them.
"Next time we take a portal, I'll go inside my pokeball," Sylvan decided.
"Same here," Iael seconded her.
"I'll try to get used to it," Amber said.
"What for?!," Hero questioned.
"Umm... to have one less obstacle in life?"
"You'd better set yourself some priorities. Not all obstacles are the same, and some aren't quite worth conquering," Hero responded.
"It wouldn't hurt!," Amber replied.
"I'm getting into my okeball now," I said. "We still have to get home and Amber has already had enough of my weight. But before I go, I'd like to tell Pidgeot that he was great all day long. See you at home!"
I used my nose to press the button of my pokeball on Gabi's belt and quickly got inside. I expected to hear a sarcastic remark from Tsunami, but none came. Yet another proof that everyone was acting weird that day. The only thing I heard was a comment from Gabi thanking the fact that it wasn't so hot where we were now, and the whole group setting themselves in motion. Then I heard some whispers which I couldn't make out, but it was relieving to know that conversation had settled in again.

Final note: when we got home and cracked the egg, it turned out to have a small bouncy ball inside. The vote for Caledor to keep the toy was unanimous. As for Gabi, she did pour cream on her part to check its taste, and she liked the result. But the pieces were so small that we were all hungry after eating them, so we had a big dinner right after the chocolate. It may sound weird, but sweets before dinner had become a tradition at home, and none of us had any intention to break it.

[Lady Vulpix]

No worries, Becca. Your story was great.
Alright, Parsec's Politoed. I will read your story when you post it. Enjoy your trip!
The new scenario will be up in 8 days from now. That is Monday, May 19th.

[Mew Trainer Rose]

I'll be using the Charmander I adopted from the Dragon Tamer's Adoption Center, and his bred-on move is Rock Slide.




I happily walked home from the Adoption Center, with my new pokémon trotting next to me. He was looking around, getting used to the surroundings. I grinned, feeling a bit like some newbie trainer how just got a starter pokémon from the local Professor, but as clichéd as this seemed I was still excited.
Passing a sign on a telephone pole, I stopped to look at it. My Charmander was preoccupied with looking at a windchime on a house nearby and kept walking for a few steps before he noticed I wasn't walking anymore. He then turned around and jogged back to me, saying something that sounded a bit annoyed. I smiled apologetically at him and went back to reading the sign.
It advertised an Easter event taking place on Easter the famous Island, for trainers. Beat a trainer, get a chocolate egg. Sounded pretty good to me. But I needed a second opinion.
"Look at this, Charmander. A chance to battle and win some tasty prizes. What do you think, you want to try battling right away?" Charmander studied the poster, then smiled. "Char! Mander char!" he cried happily.
"I'll take that as a yes." I replied with a grin. "Let's finish going home. Then I can pack us a lunch, we can have a picnic, and spend a while there." Charmander had no objections, so we continued to our original destination, grabbed a lunch, and were on our way. We hopped into a portal that had been set up for the purpose, and soon found ourselves in front of a sign.

Welcome to the Easter Islands. Since it is Easter, we are holding a very special event for all trainers. Behind this sign is an open area where trainers are scattered around. With them are special Easter eggs, each one colored and taste differently. Beat the trainer and you receive the egg to enjoy for your whole team.

The PokeEgg Corporation

Looking around behind the sign, a saw the open area, with a fringe of trees on one side. Sitting on a stump in their shade was someone who I assumed to be a trainer, staring of in the distance and probably not thinking about much. I headed over to him, Charmander at my side. When I was within speaking distance, I called out to him. "Hey there! Are you a trainer?"
The boy was jolted out of his thoughts, looked around, startled at being addressed, and saw me. "Oh. Yeah, I am. You here for the Easter Island egg thing?"
"Yup." I replied. "My Charmander and I are looking forward to it."
"Well, then I suppose you'd like to get right to battling." He said, and pulled out a pokeball. "Step back to give your Charmander some room, and we can get going. He'll be battling Sparks, my Pichu. By the way, my name's Chris."
"Alright. And my name's Rose." I said as I walked back a few feet, as Charmander bounded forward. Chris tossed his pokeball, and the small yellow rodent appeared in front of Charmander.

Charamander lv. 5 vs Pichu lv. 5

<Charmander's POV>

Alright! A battle! I had heard that battles were really fun and exciting, something to really look forward to. Now I had a chance to see if that was for real, or just a pack of lies.
The Pichu I was to fight, Sparks I had heard her be called, looked really cheerful. Upon seeing me, she cried, "Hey! another pokémon! Wanna play with me?"
"If by play you mean battle, then the answer's a whole-hearted yes!" I said. My trainer told me to start with a Growl, so launched straight into the attack, trying to sound as fierce as possible and intimidate my foe. Instead, Sparks happily began Growling with me. Must have still thought it was a game.
"That's good, Charmander," I heard. "Now Scratch!" I was happy to oblige. I raised one hand and raked my claws hard against Sparks' tail. The Pichu yelped and clutched onto it's tail. "Hey, don't play so rough!"
"We're not playing, we're battling!" I responded, and Scratched the tail again.
"Try a Double Team!" her trainer called. Sparks instantly stopped looking so sad, then split into two, then four copies. I reached out to Scratch the nearest one, but my hand passed right through.
"Thundershock!" was the Pichu's next order, and right away the multiples all started to charge up electricity. In a moment the energy was released, and a got a shock from who-knows-which-one.
"You ok Charmander?" Rose asked. I nodded. The attack more surprised me than hurt me. If it was supposed to, this guy still must have though it was a game and gone easy.
"Hit 'em all with Rock Slide!" Rose told me. I ran forward, then slid along the ground like a baseball player sliding into Home Plate. From in front of my advancing foot eruputed tons of rocks, which sprayed forward and smashed into all the copies. One of which was not a copy, and was thrown backwards by several rocks. A couple more Rock Slides later, Sparks was down for the count.

Charmander had grown to level 6!

<Rose's POV>

"Great job, Charmander!" I cheered. I was so proud of the little guy, he battled like a pro. He grinned back at me, obviously pleased. Chris returned his fainted Pichu, Then pulled out a foil-wrapped egg.
"Well, now you have a choice like one of those games hows." he said. "You can walk away with your prize, or you can battle another of my pokémon for a chance at another chocolate egg." I looked at Charmander, who looked back and gave me an enthusiastic thumbs-up, so I replied, "Go ahead and bring out Charmander's next opponent."
"Alright. He'll be facing Bolt,another Pichu." Chris said as he tossed out another pokeball.

Charmander lv. 5 vs. Pichu Lv. 5

<Charmander's POV>

That first battle was a piece of cake! I could take on another Pichu in my sleep! The next guy didn't look quite so carefree as the first, though.
"You just fought the little guy, eh?" said Bolt. "He still hasn't started taking battling seriously. But if you want a good battle them I'm your Pichu!"
"Sounds good to me!" I replied, then launched straight into a Scratch. Bolt was quick and jumped off to the side though, so I just barely grazed him. He also shot a Thundershock at me as I went past. This one hurt a lot more than the first Pichu's. Growling at him, I spun around and Scratched at him again. He didn't expect me to attack quite that quickly, so I was able to get him this time.
"Bolt, try your Hidden Power!" Chris instructed his pokémon. Hidden Power?
"I wonder what element it is?" I heard Rose say, and Pichu began gathering a pale off-white ara around him. I figured that it was the attack that i had heard of, which was a different element depending on the pokémon.
The whitish energy shot at me like a Thundershock, but when it went past it felt more like a strong wind. I guessed it was Flying-element. As the last gust or wind flew past, I dashed forward and slid into a Rock Slide. The rocks knocked Bolt down, but he fired a Thundershock at me even before he finished standing up. But when he was back on his feet, I was right there to knock him back down with a Scratch. He rolled out of the way before I could repeat the attack, then Growled as he stood up. I Scratched him once more as he prepared a Hidden Power, but he fired the attack at me at point-blank range, tossing me head over heels. A Thundershock followed, but I somehow landed on my feet and could leap out of the way before it could hit.
Just then I realized that our trainers had been yelling attacks for quite some time, which we had been ignoring or performing mostly by accident, since we were caught up in the battle. I decided to start paying attention to her again and used the Rock Slide she'd just called for a couple times. One particularly large rock struck my opponent in the forehead, and he keeled over. Everyone stood still and started at him for a moment, before we were convinced that he had fainted.
"Yeah!" I cried, hyped. As I did, I felt a warm feeling rush through me and felt a fire kindle somewhere inside me.

Charmander has grown to level 7! Charmander has learned Ember!

I hoped there was another battle soon, this was the best thing I'd done in my life!
Chris pulled out another egg. "Well, now you again get a chance to fight or take your prize and leave. I've got one more pokémon left, but I'm telling you, he's tough. So if your pokémon can beat him, your prize is a double-sized egg."
My eyes lit up even before I heard of the prize, and I got into a battle stance.
"No thanks," Rose said. My head whipped around to look at her so fast I thought I'd get whiplash. "Charmander looks like he needs a rest. Maybe a bit later."
"Later? What about now?" I cried as she motioned for me to come back. I planted my feet and stood my ground. I wasn't going until I could fight the next Pichu.
"Come on, Charmander, you can fight again after we've had something to eat and you've had time to rest." she said. I shook my head and said “Wild Pontyas couldn’t keep me from this fight!”, although I knew she didn’t understand me. She started to look annoyed and pulled out my pokeball. "Come on back or I'll have to recall you." She shouldn't have told me. After I stared at her a moment, she pressed the button that sent a beam of red light shooting out. But I had jumped as soon as her finger had moved, getting me well away before the beam struck the ground. This was repeated a few more times, until she finally got that I wasn't going to willingly come back.
“Oh, alright.” Rose said. “If you really think you’re up to it, go ahead.” I grinned, and made a V for victory. She looked a tad annoyed and muttered something about pokémon too stubborn for their own good.
Chris, who had amusedly been watching the whole thing, hid a laugh behind one hand. The he pulled out another pokeball. “This one’s my best Pichu, he’s named Surge.” He said as the pokeball was tossed out.

Charmander lv.7 vs. Pichu lv. 5

This fella looked like he was all business. “I’m not your garden-variety Pichu.” He told me as he formed from the red light. I’m as adamant as the Gym Leader I’m named after, and on day soon I’m gonna be as strong as his best pokémon.”
“Big words for a little guy.” I said and threw an Ember in his face. No one was expecting the attack. Hey, I don’t think anyone but I even realized I had just learned the attack. But Surge didn’t stay off balance for long. Rose called out for a Scratch, and I jumped forward to deliver it. But while Surge was still rubbing his eyes to get rid of the effects of a ball of flames to the face, he charged up electric energy. The second I touched him for a Scratch, I got a jolt. I was quick enough that I executed the attack, but I still received the shock. And a second later all the energy was released in a Thundershock.
As I began to pick myself up from the attack, I reflected that it wasn’t a good idea to be us close to a pokémon when it has energy gathered for a ranged attack. Better to keep my distance and fight fire with fire. In my case, quite literally. Just then I came to another realization. I must have taken one to many shocks to the system, because my muscles were having trouble responding. My reaction time was way down, my speed had dropped to that of a Paras, and occasionally I couldn’t move at all.
Rose realized it about the same time as me. “Oh no, he’s paralyzed.” I heard her mutter. The more loudly, she said. “Hang in there, Charmander! Try another Ember!”
I opened my mouth and managed to fire another fireball at Surge, being careful to aim well since I knew I had to really make my attacks count now.
The attack hit, but Chris seemed pleased with his Pichu anyhow. “You got him now, Surge! He can’t run well enough to avoid your attack. Now give it to him! Thunder!”
My eyes widened, and I’m sure I heard Rose muffle a curse. That had to be one tough attack for the little guy to use, but there he was, gathering up every volt he could muster. I thought as fast as I could. An Ember or a Growl wouldn’t faze him now, and even if I could move fast enough to deliver a Scratch before that attack was released, just touching him would shock me enough to put me out of commission anyway. That left me with just one attack, if I could manage to use it.
I began to stumble forward, slowly making my protesting muscles quicken into a walk, then a jog, and finally a painful run. This was my last hope, because if that move hit I was a gonner.
I got up to a good speed, then dove forward, sending the spray of a Rock Slide straight as the now-brightly glowing Pichu. As my slide slowed to a stop, I had no energy to pick myself back up. I squinted at Surge, as I couldn’t look straight at him, but I was determined to see if my attack hit. Several rocks slammed into his small body, but he doggedly held on to the electricity. However, the attack had knocked him off balance enough that even with me just a few feet in front of him, the attack was way off course, missing me by a mile.
The young rodent slumped down, clearly exhausted beyond words. That attack must have been as powerful as a Hyper Beam to him, just as hard to execute, and having nearly the same effect afterward. I had a clear shot at him now. My muscles froze up for terrifying a moment, and I was worried that he would recover before I could get in a shot. But I was able to move again in a moment, I sat up and and fired one last Ember at him. Surge dropped like a rock in no time flat.

Charmaneder grew to level 8!

<Rose’s POV>

All I could do was just stand there for a second, mouth agape. That had to be the most spectaular thing I had seem from such low-level pokémon. Chris clearly felt the same, since he looked pretty much how I felt. But he was first to recover, and lifted his hand with Surge’s pokeball and recalled the rodent.
“Wow. Well, I no one can say you didn’t earn this.” He said, pulling out an egg that was slightly more than double the size of the other two. I walked forward to get the eggs from him, stopping to pick up Charmander on the way. Since my arms were full with Charmander, Chris handed the eggs to my pokémon, who gladly accepted them. “You’re the one who really earned them anyway,” he said, and we all laughed.

One trip to the pokémon Center later, both of us were sitting in the shade on a blanket I had brought, munching on cookies, popcorn and sandwiches. We had unanimously decided to save the eggs for dessert.
Swallowing a bite of food, I said to my Charmander, “Just about when you started pulling the acrobatics to avoid the pokeball, I decided to spitefully nickname you “Dificil”, which is the Spanish word for ‘difficult,’ because you were being such a pain.” He smiled mischievously, probably because he enjoyed that stunt. “But when you were battling, I realized the name fits you anyway. Your one tough fighter, difficult to knock down and keep down. Even when you were figuratively going on a wing and a prayer, you didn’t let the other guy get you. I’d call you “Adamant,” but that sounds a little too blatant. So would you like to go with Dificil?” He grinned and gave a double thumbs-up like he’d like nothing better in the world.
The eggs ended up being dark chocolate with orange cream inside, milk chocolate with peppermint cream inside, and the large one had a bunch of little sour candies inside the milk chocolate shell. He took the orange cream, I took the peppermint cream, we cut the tops off and I comically toasted him like we were holding glasses of champagne and were at some fancy dinner. Then we attempted to drink the cream, but found it far too thick, and we grabbed handfuls of popcorn and had a popcorn fight instead. When all of the kernels were either lying around, caught in my hair, or were burned by his tail flame, we finished up the remains of the eggs, packed up, and headed home.

Oops, i just noticed that we were only supposed to battle 2 pokemon per secnario. Sorry. ;_; I'll keep the whole of this up, because I liked how it turned out, but as far as history is concerned, Dificil only fought the first and last Pichus and is currently lv. 7.

but i just realized that Dificil couldn't have had that battle with the last Pichu, because he used an attack he learned at level 7, which he would have grown to after the battle. >_< so I Suppose he fought Pichus #1 and @ instead. drat, the last battle earned him a nickname, too.