¤Game¤ Dragon Tamers Battle Range v.23 {MA Pidgeot}

[Lady Vulpix]

2 rooms, eh? Hm... I guess it's ok, if they will be 2 separate battles. Mona will battle a Budew and Kurtzwick will battle a Lapras.

[AntiAsh Superstar]

Gabi: It was very interesting to see your take on the whole 'meeting with Teclis' thing and the summary of the relationship between Yserra and the Black Dragon was a really interesting read. Take ten stamps.

Oh, and I'll follow Jeff's lead and have two seperate battles in two different rooms for this scenario. One for Beckham (L33) from the Universal Adoption Centre and another for Milliardo (L28) from the Jungle Deforestation Recovery Agency.

Anyways, now that's all over here's my last RBG... finally. Not my best, but towards the end I really just wanted to get it over with and posted. ^^;;;
---
“I need a word with you, Ade.” Sometimes having your dreams interrupted could be a blessing in disguise. Like tonight. It seemed that Tsuyoi needed to change the channel of my subconscious mind and to be honest I thought he was probably doing me a favour. Before he arrived I was having a hard-to-follow dream involving a knight in shining armour and a cartoon fish. It was good to have some sanity enforced, really, especially at a point in the dream where the king of the realm had just decreed that, as a reward for his good deeds, the knight was going to have to kiss everyone present, cartoon fish included.
“A word? Have several. This dream seems straight out of the imagination of Thunderblast anyway.” Almost on cue the images surrounding me vanished to be replaced with the nothingness of psychic space. And Tsuyoi, stood boldly in front of me. “What did you want?”
“Just letting you know that I’m likely to be gone for a while,” he said nonchalantly. “As are my sisters. We have a rather major project back in our reality of origin that needs attending to.”
“Really? Anything exciting?”
“Revolutionary, you could say.” The smile on Tsuyoi’s face wasn’t exactly a nice one, which made me rather fearful for whatever beings shared a reality with this creature when he wasn’t haunting us. “But I won’t bore you with my plans for lands that you aren’t even aware exist. I just felt I ought to warn you that your safety net won’t be around for a while, so try not to do anything too moronically self-destructive while I’m away, okay?”
“Don’t worry,” I replied. “I won’t. In fact it’ll be nice to not feel trapped in your schemes for once.”
“Well if you’re worried about what you’re going to do with your new-found freedom I can rustle up a list of useful projects you can busy yourself with. I’ve already got Thunderblast looking after my stock investments, I’m sure I can find a use for you too,” Tsuyoi sneered before suddenly growing solemn. “A word of warning though. Steer clear of Lord Absol while I’m away. Although I’m fairly certain now that he would leave you alone even if he did find out you were back, involvement with him is courting trouble.”
“Well…”
“A classic case of the pot calling the kettle black, I know what you’re about to say… by the way, your whining about your lot in life is really starting to get tiresome. You’re perfectly welcome to ask me to leave, I’m sure it wouldn’t be too difficult for me to find a new hobby.”
“No,” I shook my head. “I may not approve of your methods, or your results half the time, but as much as I hate to admit it I think I’d rather miss you if you left.”
“Of course you would. You need somebody to give you some focus, after all. Now back to the point. For all his talk of protecting the realm Lord Absol is ruthlessly efficient and his department is worryingly lacking in accountability. He may be roughly on the same side as you at the moment but who’s to say that later he may decide that humanity counts as ‘a threat to the realm’? Remember, it wasn’t man’s land originally and Lord Absol is elven.”
“You’re saying he could pose a threat? One day just decide that it’s his right to reclaim Ulthuan? That sounds a bit like the sort of thing that you’d do, Tsuyoi.”
“I know it is. In fact I have used similar justifications more than once or twice myself. We’re really not that different in outlook, he and I. The crucial difference being that this isn’t my home. I have no real ties to it either politically or historically. Whereas I’d imagine he has quite a vested interest in Ulthuan and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume a slight grudge against humans.”
“So we potentially could have an enemy in our midst,” I grimaced. “Things are getting a bit clearer now. Thanks for finally being straight with me. And good luck with whatever you’re off to do. What are you doing back at your home reality, by the way?”
“Reclaiming a land that originally belonged to my race and probably causing the ruination of the current supposedly dominant species, of course,” Tsuyoi sneered. “Why else do you think I’m highly suspicious of what the closest thing to me this reality has plans to do with his ancestral home?”
“I…” My mouth was open but no sound was coming out. Sometimes the sheer ruthless detachment of Tsuyoi defied all my expectations.
“Drop me an email when you finally find the words to voice what you’re thinking. My address is ‘tsuyoi@ireallydontgiveadamnwhatyouthink.net’ .” The monster turned his back to me. “Take care. And enjoy the rest of the sanity-destroying dream.”

All of a sudden I understood why so many people hated him so.

Morning came and with it the promise of a new start. Or at the very least a cooked breakfast and a chance to sit down and think.
“You look tired, Ade,” Sindel noted as she dished out the bacon, eggs and toast. “Restless night?”
“No, just a really weird one,” I sighed. The previous day I had finally showed my face to my friends in a small, unofficial Guild meeting. It had been good to see everyone at last and even better to get things out into the open, but the meeting had provided more questions than answers. The most pressing (for me at least) being how I could take up my Guild work again without causing a fuss. “Roll on weekend, the sooner we can teleport over and meet up with Soo again the better.” Ah yes. Soo, my wife and my reason for existence. She had been a trainer alongside me once, but the stressful life of a Dragon Tamer had proven too much for her to handle. These days she kept her pokémon as pets and worked as a retail manager in a store in Tiranoc. I had often joked that she would find managerial life too stressful. She, quite rightly, had countered that if she could survive the likes of the Crimson Blades a few difficult customers weren’t likely to bother her. So she had taken the job, nice and far away from the chaos and danger that surrounded my chosen line of work, and we saw each other on weekends only. Not an ideal arrangement, but the most workable solution we could think of.
“It is nice to see everybody,” Pearl agreed. She had a vested interest in these visits seeing as Soo was currently looking after her daughter, Celeste, “but probably not a great idea to dwell on it too much. We have a few tricky problems to deal with at the minute but none of them are that dire.”
“Aren’t they?” I responded unhappily. “I don’t really know what to make of any of this any more.”
“Ade…” Pearl rested her head on my lap. “I don’t know what’s the matter. But I do know that whatever it is it can be overcome. We’ve been in trickier situations than this before and survived, right?”
“Right,” I agreed. “Maybe I’m just being paranoid. Maybe I ought to just get up, get dressed and return to work. This is Ulthuan, weird stuff happens here on an almost daily basis. Nobody’s going to ask questions, are they?”
“They probably will, but you can always tell them to mind their own damn business,” Thunderblast piped up unhelpfully. “The way I see it you can either face the Guild directly or try and get at the information you would need from them another way. I mean, between what I picked up from hanging around Dan, Marius’ geekiness and a lot of luck we could cobble together some sort of patchwork system to get at their files without being noticed. But that’d take time and my schedule’s very busy today.”
“Really. What does this schedule consist of then?”
“Hmm… let me check.” Here she pulled a sheet of paper seemingly out of nowhere and consulted it carefully. “9am, breakfast. 9.30am, a few laps of the garden. 10am, plot world domination. 10.02am, give up on world domination as it’s too much like hard work. 10.15am, pineapple. Pineapple???” The Raichu looked confused. “Don’t know how that got there. I swear, sometimes it’s as if my mind has a mind of its own. I thought it was pomegranate at 10.15.”
“Okay, okay, I get it. I’ll head down to the Guild, say my apologies and try to pick up where I left off. I’m damn sick of all this hiding, if Lord Absol’s still interested in me just let him come and I’ll just tell him I’m not interested in what he has to say.” Of course there were a thousand things wrong with that plan, not least the fact that the most sinister member of the Dragon’s Guild didn’t seem the sort to take no for an answer. But it seemed to me that whatever trouble was brewing was going to happen sooner or later anyway and it was stupid to put myself out so much just for the sake of delaying it a little. “Anyone who wants to can come with me. I could probably use the moral support for when I get chewed out by Lady Ninetales for not reporting back sooner.”
“You can count on my family’s wholehearted lack of support, but we’ll come anyway,” Milliardo grinned evilly. “For no other reason than I’d like to socialise outside this room and I don’t think Pandora and Marius have got anything better to do.”
“True enough, although it might be nice to let us make our own minds up for once,” Pandora commented, rolling her eyes. “How the hell did I wind up with you for a mate?”
“Pure good luck I guess,” Milliardo grinned. It was amazing, really, how much the two pokémon had developed over time. Pandora had mellowed quite a lot over the years, going from a vitriolic creature with wildly swinging moods to one who was in the main quite agreeable even if she did tend to have depressive episodes. And Milliardo… well, he had simply fallen for his own rhetoric. Once upon a time he had been a very vulnerable creature who hid that fact behind cruel comedy and a fake arrogance. But over time even he had started to believe his bluffs until eventually a charismatic (albeit still barb-tongued) creature with enough confidence for a hundred creatures had emerged, a far cry from the bitter little Eevee he had once been.
“Perhaps I’d better join you as well, Ade, especially if you’re hoping for moral support,” Pearl sighed. “I’ve nothing against Pandora and Marius, but mouth almighty over there is hardly what I’d call great at being sympathetic.”
“Thanks guys,” I chuckled. “Okay, now that’s sorted how about we get moving?” I had put this day off for far too long. It was about time I got back into the thick of things and finally put recent (and not-so-recent) events behind me.

As it happened the initial meeting with Lady Ninetales wasn’t half as scary as I was expecting it to be. These were relatively quiet times for her department and for possibly the first time since we started a working relationship we were able to sit down and talk without her looking like she was supposed to be doing a thousand other things at the same time. It made for a pleasant surprise.
“To be honest I’m just glad you came back,” she confessed at one point. “I was seriously worried that you had pulled another Scott on us. Too many of our – and your as a Dragon Tamer, I have to point out – good people seem to vanish without trace mid-mission.”
“Believe me, if I had a choice in the matter I wouldn’t have gone at all. But you raise a good point. It almost sounds like a worthy investigation in itself.”
“True, and it’s a potential investigation that I’d rather conveniently not think about. It did occur to me, but then I couldn’t help but worry that if we start trying to track down the missing personnel there’s every chance of whatever’s causing this to ensnare the investigators.” Here Lady Ninetales raised an eyebrow. “Anyway, even if I did fancy working on that one I wouldn’t be sending you. I think you’ll find there’s many months backlog of work waiting for you on your own doorstep, Lord Umbreon.”
“Damn it,” I had groaned. “I knew this meeting was going too well.”

As it turned out there wasn’t as much work waiting for me as I had been led to believe, in fact I rather suspected that Lady Ninetales had been ever so slightly winding me up about my workload. Gabi and the others who worked for our little sub-branch had been doing an incredible job of covering for me in my absence and, although there were quite a few items that needed my personal attention I was relatively on top of things by the end of the day. I was a very fast worker when I had to be although I did make it a policy not to broadcast this fact; in my experience the faster you completed your work the faster other people seemed to invent jobs for you to do.
“And that’s that,” I finally beamed after several hours of approving invoices, expenses claims and musing over several proposals from the MTU about future training sessions (these had been submitted by several individuals and ranged from an intriguing and highly detailed – albeit expensive - suggestion involving a day devoted to mass combat to the practical but predictable ‘let’s open up the pre-Games training grounds for a few weeks’). “All done until tomorrow.” I looked about my little office. It was small and mostly taken up with a filing system I liked to call ‘chaotic order’ but at least it was all mine, at least for as long as I stayed in my current position. “Do you think Lady Ninetales was trying to scare me about the workload earlier?”
“Most likely,” Pearl noted from her position curled up in a corner surrounded by boxes of various leaflets. “It’s probably her way of getting back at you for the past half year or so of worry our disappearance has given her. Mean, but understandable.”
“And welcome, considering what I had been expecting,” I commented, idly browsing the files on the Guild’s system. It had taken quite some time but I roughly knew what most of them were all about now. “I wonder if there’s anything on here that might help figure out what’s making so many people disappear? I can’t get that part of our conversation out of my head.”
“Hold it, Ade. Take my advice and just log off now. I know your boss has her stressed and overly-officious moments and sometimes can make the wrong call on things but in this instance I’m taking her side.”
“But…”
“You can be a real trial sometimes, you know that?” In a split second Pearl had jumped up to my desk and somehow managed to slam her front paws down in such a way it caused my PC to start shutting down for the night. “She’s right. Something like that isn’t the sort of thing you can take on as a pet project. There’s no shame in acknowledging when you won’t be able to help.”
“But…”
“Ade, you’re not a one-man fix for everything that’s wrong in the world. That kind of thinking has been the downfall of far too many people around here. Just stick to what you know, hm? It’s one thing to help out in times of trouble but quite another to go actively courting that trouble, especially when you’ve more urgent problems on your own doorstep.”
“You mean Lord Absol, right?”
“Partly. And Tsuyoi. If we don’t watch ourselves and take every step we can to keep those two apart we’re going to end up caught in the middle of something terrible. It’s not helping that Tsuyoi seems to be really distracted at the minute. For the past few months its almost seemed as if we were an afterthought. Do you think he’s growing bored of his pet project?”
“I doubt it.” My blood ran cold as I recalled my earlier dream conversation. “None of us really know what he gets up to when he’s not with us. He’s probably got bigger fish to fry.”
“Do you know something I don’t?” Pearl queried.
“…it doesn’t matter. He did warn me not so long ago that he was likely to be busy. Didn’t really mention why, though.” Reclaiming a land that originally belonged to my race and probably causing the ruination of the current supposedly dominant species, of course. Oh, he had mentioned why and I really wished that he hadn’t. The possibilities were just too disturbing. “Anyway, how about we pack up here and go pick up the others? They were down in the barracks, weren’t they?”
“Right. We might want to check the library along the way, though. Something tells me Marius will have shot off there the first chance he got.”
“Of course.” My team were laws unto themselves most of the time. But hey, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Saying Milliardo was revelling in the attention his sudden return had brought him would have been an understatement. After bursting into the barracks a lot of pokémon had been more than interested in where he had been for so long; since the Umbreon thrived on attention he had been more than happy to keep them enthralled with a tale that sometimes deviated so far from reality that Beckham would have been proud to call it his own. Sadly his family mad much different attitudes, hence why Marius had lost interest in the attention after ten seconds and wormed his way to the nearest computer terminal and why Pandora was busy sitting in a corner and pretending not to have anything to do with her attention-seeking mate.
“You seem miserable, lady,” one of the few other pokémon in the barracks not paying attention to Milliardo observed upon seeing Pandora slumped upon one of the beds looking decidedly uncomfortable.
“Try that one again, only replace ‘miserable’ with ‘embarrassed’ and you might be halfway there.” The Houndour lifted her head to view a small, smiling Swablu eyeing her with curiosity. “Anyway, what’s it to you?”
“Can’t a guy show a little friendly interest?” it asked.
“No. He can’t. Go away.”
“Oh come on! You don’t mean that.”
“Who are you to say what I do and don’t mean?” Pandora snapped irritably. “What are you, amateur psychologist of the month or something?”
“Yup.” The Swablu hopped up on the bed and peered into her eyes. “Let’s see… a tendency to go on the offensive in order to deflect attention away from your own emotions…” At this point Pandora had fixed the Flying-type with the coldest stare she could muster. “…severe emotional reactions to events around you…” By now Pandora was stood up and looking close to exploding. Not that the other pokémon noticed. Or did it? If anything its tone was growing crueller and its innocent expression fading away with every passing second. “…a potentially fatal self-loathing, no doubt caused by painful childhood memories and previous poor choices in life?”
“SHUT UP!!!” Before she even realised what she was doing Pandora smacked the Swablu hard with a ferocious Headbutt, knocking the creature off the bed and forcing it to fly up into the air. It regarded her with a smirk that indicated that it knew exactly what it was doing.
“Point proven, I think,” it sneered. “And by the way…” Here it addressed the rest of the room as all eyes turned to the source of this commotion, “…you all really ought to beef up your psychic security. It’s far too easy to infiltrate here, you know.”
“Who the %^*& are you?” Milliardo snarled, inserting himself almost without thinking between this new threat and the one he loved.
“This body has been around here for a few months, it hasn’t changed. Who controls it is none of your damn business. It was just an experiment and it’s over now.”
“Like hell it is!” The Umbreon looked almost ready to pounce but before he could do that his girlfriend hopped over his head and stood in front of the Swablu with fire in her eyes.
“Oh no you don’t, buster,” Pandora snarled. “This one’s mine!!!”

FIGHT!!! L16 Houndour v L16 Swablu! (Peck, Growl, Astonish, Sing, Fury Attack, Aerial Ace, Agility)
The Swablu didn’t give Pandora any kind of chance to so much as assess the situation, nor did it allow much time for those around the combatants to get out of the way. Almost in an instant it shot forward, diving for her and catching the Houndour hard in the side with its beak before flying back out of the range of any attempt at retaliation.
“Damn!” Pandora glowered at her opponent, not really sure how to deal with this unexpected threat. In the past she wouldn’t have hesitated. In the past she would have already been upon the little creature in a blind rage. But time had calmed her slightly. Now she was able to at least keep control over her emotions for long enough to take stock of the situation. A situation that by all accounts wasn’t looking too positive. Even now her opponent was whirling around for another attack, small talons raised to rake across her flesh. Out of sheer desperation she built up her internal fires in the hope that she could blast the pokémon out of the air. It didn’t happen. The Swablu was much faster than she was, almost unnaturally so, and by the time she was ready it had deftly swooped in and clawed across her side with pinpoint accuracy. They called the move Aerial Ace. And it hurt. It hurt so much that it put Pandora totally off what she was doing and instead of an Ember she merely managed to cough out thick black smoke. At least this seemed to put her opponent off a little, causing it to falter and cough slightly as it inhaled the Smog.
“You’re…” Here the little creature choked violently. “You’re tougher than I thought. Silly me. I got taken in by those big doe eyes and forgot to probe any deeper. Still… that won’t happen again!” Once again it flew at Pandora, but this time the Houndour was ready. She sidestepped smartly as it attempted to furiously swipe at her. All of a sudden things didn’t seem so bad. The anger was subsiding. In fact, she was feeling decidedly calm about the situation. Even a second attempt at a Fury Attack didn’t bother her. She simply sidestepped again. And again. All the time the heat within her receding, all the time a feeling of cold detachment taking over, all the time…
“Enough.” Pandora’s tone was flat, emotionless. “This ends now.” Once more she opened her mouth, her internal energy flowing out towards her opponent. Only this time it wasn’t fire or even smoke. Inside the Houndour right now was just pure, unadulterated cold and this expressed itself in her attack as her Hidden Power manifested itself and chilled her opponent to the bone.
“Wha???” The Swablu was taken completely by surprise by both the strength of the attack and Pandora’s ability to use an Ice-based attack. Not only had the Hidden Power caused some serious dmage but it had also thrown the creature totally off-guard.
“That’ll teach you not to probe deeper, eh?” Pandora snarled, her anger finally returning to her now the cold within her soul had been expelled. “Although if you ask me you shouldn’t have been probing at all!” With a roar of anger she shot toward the shaken Flying-type, her body seeming to melt into the floor until she had become merely a shadow. A second later this shadow burst upward, smacking into the Swablu and sending it hurtling across the room. It wasn’t the most subtle of Faint Attacks but it served its purpose admirably. Her opponent crashed into a wall and slid down it helplessly, finally landing in a heap and not moving any further after that. It was over. That strange little pokémon had been defeated.

Pandora wins!
Pandora grew to L17!
Pandora learned Bite!

“Psychic security…” Soon enough word of the event had trickled back to me and, after a few words with the Swablu’s owner who seemed a mystified as any of us as to why his pokémon had suddenly become vicious, I was left with another mystery on my hands. “It said we ought to beef up our psychic security?”
“Words to that effect, yes. It sounds like it was possessed, doesn’t it?” Pandora nodded in agreement.
“Possessed… yes, but from what you’ve told me it doesn’t sound like something psychic defenses would have helped against. It read your mind against your will, didn’t it?”
“Don’t remind me,” the Houndour shuddered.
“Well that’s not psychic ability. You would have naturally blocked a psychic probe even if it had come from a Mewtwo. This sounds like it’s… something more.” I didn’t really know why I still had issues with calling the process by its name; magic. It just sounded so irrational when used to describe something that had actually happened, even when living in a land of demonic enhancements, dimension-hopping deities, centuries-old elves, invisible towers and goodness knows what else. Not to mention that magical phenomena wasn’t my area of expertise; the only one amongst my companions with any real magical insight was Rhiannon and even assuming her elder persona was in charge of her body (her childish mode was slowly starting to get a grip on her powers but could no better explain what they were than I could) she normally created more questions than answers.
“It sounds like something we shouldn’t get involved in as well,” Pandora commented. “Just file your report and leave it to the experts, would you?”
“Maybe,” I mused, my mind whirring. How could I possibly leave it, though? Something had bypassed Guild security; more specifically it had bypassed security to the area of the Guild dealing with trainers. Why? Was it just coincidence it appeared in this area or did the Swablu’s puppet master have some genuine purpose? If so, were we going to wind up in an identical situation later on? “I’ll let Gabi and the others know. Maybe they might be able to make more sense out of this. If, indeed, there’s any sense to be made of it at all.”
“I think you hit the nail on the head right there, Ade,” Pearl offered. “This land’s filled with magical creatures. When we started dealing with Lord Absol he admitted a lot of his job’s just chasing down and containing the more malicious ones. There’s no need to think there’s any great conspiracy when this is just as likely to be a single wandering spirit with a nasty streak.”
“You’re right, of course,” I admitted finally. “Sometimes weird things just happen for no real reason. I should’ve learned by now that it’s part of the job. Come on, let’s go home. We’ve had enough excitement for one day.” Of course I still had a feeling that we hadn’t heard the last of this encounter. But that was likely to be simple paranoia. For now there was no real harm done and any day lately where we could say that counted as a win in my book. Sometimes it’s easiest to just accept things and move on.

[Lady Vulpix]

It's an Ade!

Ok, so you enjoyed watching Teclis kicking me out of the tower. I guess it had to happen some day, with all those crises going on in-story Gabi was starting to get a bit too paranoid.

I'm on vacation right now, so I'll make sure to read your battle when I get home (which is on Tuesday), whether someone else has rated it by then or not.

Thanks for the review and the stamps! And for reading my story. Whenever I get to post the next one, it will contain a brief reference to one of your characters and an obscure reference to another.

RBG rolls: Mightyena and Haunter respectively (may be Gengar if it helps the plot).

[Sheik]

I would like to train Sabrina, my lv. 5 female Abra, in the Jungle Deforestation Recovery Agency. Two opponents, please.

[Lady Vulpix]

It is done! Sorry for the delay. Comments below.

* Very creative dream. Was it real?
* I'd find it scary just to know that Tsuyoi has a project. Having heard as much as he has said would be very worrying. And only now you understood why so many people hate him?
* Nice explanation of Soo's current status. And sensible way to decide to show your face.
* Everyone's getting into the Guild's files! Hmm... that gives me an idea. Anyway, it's curious how our branch of the Guild is receiving subtle attacks (or at least infiltrations) from different sources at about the same time.
* Paraphrasing Angua Von Uberwald (one of my favorite Discworld characters), it is sometimes dangerous to let your mind do the thinking for you. I think that applies in Thunderblast's case.
* I liked the summary of Pandora's and Milliardo's developments, and the result.
* It looks like Pearl and I think alike again.
* You said: "in my experience the faster you completed your work the faster other people seemed to invent jobs for you to do." That's too true. I learned that lesson a bit too late.
* The story overall was very real, and wll placed within the historical continuity. I must commend you for all the loose ends you've picked up!
* The experiment was scary. It reminded me of a certain TR member who's been keeping a low profile since the failure of the Singlehorn project.
* This is just a detail, but if you're planning to archive it, you may want to add an 'a' to 'dmage'. Are you still archiving, or am I the only one who's doing so now?

Great story, Ade! It was worth the wait. Take 21 stamps! ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢

[The Blue Avenger]

I would like an extension on the current scenario, please. P:

[Lady Vulpix]

As if it was going to change when no one is posting.

You get it, anyway.

[The Blue Avenger]

Well, I move back to college soon, so I know I'm going to be busy, and I wanted to be prepared just in case. ^^; Thanks.

[classy_cat18]

Can I have one too?

[The Blue Avenger]

Extension granted.

[AntiAsh Superstar]

Gabi: as to your comments (sorry I haven't picked up on them before), yes, the dream was real and really left me scratching my head, and if you can officially pick up the archiving I'd really appreciate it. I'm awful at doing this kind of stuff, tho to make up for it I've a few plans for my webspace's allocation towards DT that would make more sense that what I'm using it for atm. ^^;;

Oh, and just to be on the safe side can I have an extension too?

[The Blue Avenger]

Extension granted. Also, hi Ade.

[Lady Vulpix]

Ok, I'll officialize my archive, then.

It's nice to see you around, Ade. I actually dreamed about you on Thursday night... it was weird. I was entering a theater to watch a play and I saw you, and the seat next to you was empty but you were waiting for Soo who had gone to the restroom, so I had to find another seat but the only free one I could find was very dirty and all the seats looked as old and uncomfortable as the ones at university... and basically that was it.

[Crystalmaster Mike]

How long has it been since the Pegasus Games?

Too long. In fact, I've always wanted to tie up the loose ends I left by not posting while the scenario at the time (Training Grounds for the Pegasus Games) wasn't finished. I had a lot of ideas to let my Pokémon battle at the time, and it seems I can't let go of them.

As such, I'd like to post the following, without trying to make you rate it or give me stamps for it. In fact, I won't even have my Pokémon level up.
It's more of a "get this thing off my chest and out of my mind"-thing, really.
Plus, for those that always wanted to hear why Dylan was a Totodile in dislike of anything reptilian (particularly dragons), or why Nora the Aron was so afraid of Fighting types to begin with, I'm intent on writing that out as well.
Better now than ever, seeing as school will start on Tuesday... -_-''

For the best reading experience, I shall post here below the exact data on my Pokémon as I recovered it from a floppy disk (between then and now, our computer crashed... apparently the hard disk was messed up, but I'll always wonder if me installing new drivers had anything to do with it...)

Plus, may I request a battle for my black Eevee at the Free Range Corral, please, so as to reduce the spamminess of this post (as it has nothing to do with the current scenario).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dragon Tamers Adoption Center
Electric Shutdown Retirement System
Rays (Chinchou) (LV7) (f)
05-18-2003
Bubble, Thunder Wave, Supersonic, Thunderbolt

Universal Adoption Center
Verne (Larvitar) (LV6) (m)
05-30-2003 (lvl.5)
Bite, Leer, Ancientpower

Free Range Corral
Shane (formerly Sasha) (Whismur) (LV6) (m)
06-10-2003 (lvl.5)
Pound, Uproar, Extrasensory

Nemo (Espeon) (LV7) (m)
(Note: his fur is a light blue coloration, as a result of me using a special Potion on him)
06-14-2003 (lvl.5)
Tackle, Tail Whip, Helping Hand, Wish

Jungle Deforestation Recovery Agency
“ ‘Cada“ (Nincada) (LV6) (m)
06-10-2003 (lvl.5)
Scratch, Harden, Leech Life, Aerial Ace

Professional Sports Breeding System
Bruce (Machop) (LV7) (m)
06-19-2003 (lvl. 6)
Low Kick, Leer, Rolling Kick
Focus Energy

Aron (LV6) (f)
This rare Pokémon was stolen from its cage prior to release to the public. Dragon Tamer Staff have resolved the situation, but the Aron was badly damaged in the incident. Dragon Tamer Staff may or may not release this Pokémon up for adoption, but there is a waiting list for all those that are keen.
07-19-2003 (put on waiting list)
07-21-2003 (got assigned with) (lvl.5)
Tackle, Harden, Body Slam

Antarctic Survivor Recovery Agency
Dylan (Totodile) (LV7) (m)
06-25-2003 (lvl.5)
Scratch, Leer, Crunch
Rage

Arthus (Spheal) (LV6) (m)
07-10-2003 (lvl.5)
Powder Snow, Growl, Water Gun, Yawn


PokéZoo Adoption Center
Gordon (Mudkip) (LV7) (m)
Ready to start out with a trainer
06-05-2003 (lvl.6)
Tackle, Growl, Mud-Slap, Refresh

Hanna (Carvanha) (LV7) (f)
She was found injured by a Gyarados, but is 110% now
06-07/10-2003 (lvl.6)
Leer, Bite, Ice Beam
Rage

Tony (Trapinch) (LV10) (m)
He wants to grow into a strong Flygon
06-29/30-2003 (lvl 9)
Bite, Sand Attack, Quick Attack
Double Team

Liam (Ninetales) (LV6) (m)
He has an attitude, and will need tough training
07-11/12-2003 (lvl 5)
Ember, Tail Whip, Faint Attack


Pocket Monsters Breeding Center
Skyler
-=Pokémon Egg=-
Winged Male Bagon
Lv.5
Trait: Rock Head
Rage, Bite
Flamethrower as the Bred-on from Alucard, as well as his mutation gene, Congrats!!
He will learn Fly naturally at Lv.28
Mother: Espeon12’s (Christina’s) Mara

Unnamed Black Eevee ((Spoiler:) soon-to-be-nicknamed Ashketh (or Ash) in place of his 'real' name)
-=Pokémon Egg=-
Male Eevee with black fur and electric blue rings
Lv.5
Trait: Run Away
Tackle, Tail Whip, Helping Hand, Hidden Power: Ghost (lv.5)
Parents: Angel Blossom’s L'Arcobaleno and Dark Dragonite’s Nave

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

How many years has it been since the Pegasus Games?

I could check the Archives on it, but I won’t bother. Fact is, it has been years. During that time, I strayed from being a Dragon Tamer. Hiding in the shadows, sometimes I came back to these realms, lurking, plotting a comeback, but not finding the courage.
Now, one of my most valiant attempts has been made. In less than a week, school will start once more, and I may still be lured away from Ulthuan, from this entire world of Pokémon training and admiring.
To prove to myself, now, that I still have some of what it takes, I will try to describe the events of what came to past so many months ago…

~~~ Mike’s POV ~~~

It was during our time at the Training Grounds our group of sixteen split up into 5.
Bruce, Hanna, Gordon, Dylan and me went into the Ice Room First, the Pool Room after that.
Three of them fought courageous battles each; I don’t recall Bruce’s opponent, but the other two defeated were a Slowpoke and a Totodile, respectively.
But when it came to Dylan, he… Well, he… lucked out.
Something in Gordon’s confrontation with the Totodile had hit a weak spot. Retreating into himself, it seemed he had found it “unforgivable” for a Totodile to use a Dragon-type attack, Hidden Power, if I recall correctly.
Maybe some background info is needed. Dylan, as some strange Don Quichote, had taken up a strong dislike of anything remotely Dragon-like. Before Skyler had hatched, his stabs had been pointed towards Hanna, I take it in great part because of her pronounced jaw. Though I do believe Verne sometimes fell pray to his ‘attacks’ as well.
Gordon had been his unwilling underling… Literally, as Dylan had used his four-footed friend as a horse.
But during the half-time between their respective battles, Gordon had been recast as the stronger one of the duo, as Dylan was babbling in himself.

Suddenly, however, the battle arena changed appearance.
The pool after which the training room we were in was named, was divided into two distinct halves by a row of boulders running from one long end of the pool to the other.
In both halves, at the bottom, a collection of statues had seemingly been tossed in randomly.
However, it would appear at least some of these were connected to an underground chamber (the ‘alternate’ pool, maybe), in which the different Pokémon you could battle against roamed free.
After Gordon’s battle, his little croc’ opponent had been sucked in (through the mouth of a anthropomorphic Milotic, no less), after which the whole pool (both halves), had been sucked dry of water.
To our amazement, as if some higher being had been watching us (though it could’ve been the Dragon Guild security people), a Mudkip, larger than our own Gordon, appeared next on the field, dropping out of one the statues on the other side of the boulder row than which Gordon had battled at.
Snapping out of his self-contempt, Dylan raced into battle, risking a death-defying jump (more than 3 meters down is even risky for a human) from the boulder row on top of which we had been watching the change in surroundings.
Taking no heed of our warnings, he madly tossed and threw himself and his paws at his adversary, taking little advantage of the Double Shield he was weaving.
Appearing defiant, bored even, the Mudkip eventually tossed him aside like a cat does with a ball of string it has run tired of.
Taking a critical hit against one of the statues on the bottom of the pool, Dylan crumbled into a heap. Before I had time to gasp for air, however, he pulled himself together and leapt back onto his feet, albeit teetering back and forth. Yet he still refused to succumb. Taking his opponent by surprise, he filled his lungs with air, before releasing a powerful but draining Water Gun. Surprised, the Mudkip took a direct hit in the jaw, before retaliating with its own Water Gun, which was more effective only because he was bigger and more experienced than Dylan.
Being forced against a statue of a courageous Machop-prince yielding a sword, it looked as if Dylan would still not faint from the effort. He readied himself against the continuous spray of water, seemingly preparing a counter-attack, but alas… He passed out, not having uttered a coherent word the whole battle.

“I’ll save you!”
“Gordon, no!” Before I could grab him, Gordon leapt off of the boulder he had been crouching upon. Using the scattered statues as jumping platforms, he ended up jumping right in-between Dylan and the Mudkip that was nearing in on him.
“Out of the way, shortie”, it hissed with a deep, raw voice.
Gordon raised his back “You’re toast, fatso”, came the reply.
Snarling, the foe readied itself for a Tackle. Surpassing him in speed and reflexes, Gordon threw himself at full speed, Tackling the other Mudkip in the lower belly as it was raising itself onto its lower paws to jump.
Caught off guard, the Mudkip had all the air pushed out of its lungs. Its eyes bulging, it quickly fell backwards, its head connecting with the pedestal of a non-anthropomorphic winged-Dragonair statue. The cross-eyed look in its eyes, as well as the pulsating mark on its head where it had fell onto, made it clear that this round was for Gordon.

“I won!”

Wasting no more time in the Pool Room, I took Dylan into my arms and carried him with me into the Jungle Room.
Euphoric cries immediately filled my ears, but I could not pay enough attention to 5 of my other Pokémon that had now joined our little group. I did hear about Liam’s short appearance with the others. It appeared he had spent a small moment with our newest addition to the team, the black Eevee that had only recently hatched, before retreating to places his ‘cool guy’ additute didn’t stand a chance of breaking… the Desert Room, no doubt. It made me wonder where Skyler might be off to… perhaps his dragon heart had lead him into the Volcano Room.

But for now, Nora would have to keep her story of how she got made ‘Queen of Hide-‘n-Seek’ to herself, and Rays and Arthus’ story of how they defended ‘lil’ black Nemo’ (= black Eevee) from a ‘vicious’ Surskit and Chikorita to themselves.
I didn’t register Tony or ‘Cada, Shane or Verne’s presence at the time… I would go see later where they were hanging out.
For now, I only wanted to hear… Dylan’s story.

I found a quiet spot, close enough to yet isolated from the rest of our group, under a thick-branched swamp tree with branches hanging low into the neighbouring pond. As the artificial sun rose on the fake sky, dark green chadows and sharp yellow light fell onto the unconscious reptile in contrasting stripes. When the frown on his forehead disappeared, I let a few drops fell onto his tongue to awaken him. His eyelids twitched, his ears peaked as he regained consciousness.
My face was the first thing he saw as he awoke, and as he yawned the last bits of sleep away, I sternly said: “Dylan… we need to talk.”

[Lady Vulpix]

Welcome back, Mike! Wow, I think it's been at least 5 years since the Pegasus Games. Has it been that long since you last posted?

Interesting recount, though I didn't quite get the anthropomorphic Milotic part. Was that a statue... or what? You changed the names of 2 of the rooms (they were Pond Room and Lava Room), but I liked the decorations you came up with.

Your Eevee will battle a Meowth.

[Crystalmaster Mike]

Welcome back, Mike! Wow, I think it's been at least 5 years since the Pegasus Games. Has it been that long since you last posted?

Interesting recount, though I didn't quite get the anthropomorphic Milotic part. Was that a statue... or what? You changed the names of 2 of the rooms (they were Pond Room and Lava Room), but I liked the decorations you came up with.

Your Eevee will battle a Meowth.

Oh, it might have been less, I may have mis-remembered the name of the Games, as well as the training rooms. And thanks for the comments, I'll change the references if I talk about those rooms again. Yes, it was supposed to be an anthromorphic Milotic-statue, one of the many I pictured the bottom of the pond to be filled with.

[DaRk MeWtWo]

Hi guys.

Antarctic Survivor Recovery Agency x2 pokemon

Using~
Sirius, LV40 Charizard for both

Hope everyone is doing well, greetings Ade, Gabi, and hi to new faces.

[Lady Vulpix]

Welcome back! I feared for the future of this topic... and this subforum as a whole. At least there'll be some new material soon, it seems.

Delibird+Sharpedo=Interesting combination.

[Crystalmaster Mike]

I interrupt my report on times lost, in favour of a report on the given times of present. I shall tell you how… a Basketball joined my team, and an Eevee left it.
(In case you're wondering, the actual battle-ish starts around where my POV ends and Eevee's begins.)
(And, if you’re wondering – the name game reflects how I went about it IRL, thinking of fitting words for the acronyms, only we’re talking months instead of minutes here before I got to the eventual outcome you see here)

~~~ Mike’s POV ~~~

Since he hatched, Eevee has grown a lot. …

Boy, I feel weird calling him Eevee.

You see, I have this folder with files.
Actually, it’s more like one large Word document, containing each and every report I’ve filed with the Dragon Tamers, and even some I’m not quite sure DT HQ ever received.
Actually, it’s more like two documents… I started a new one in light of my recent ‘time off’.
And in the very first lines on the very first page of the very first report in the first document, I introduce my very first Pokémon, who are much the same as the ones I have today. Only difference, since then 2 newborns have joined, and each and every one of my Pokémon has been nicknamed. … Except Eevee, of course, and in a way, ‘Cada as well.
And during the very first ‘mission’ I went on with any of my Pokémon, I went to a pool… With Nemo, my then-Eevee. He was young, enthousiastic, and during those first actual battles discovered a fondness for water he’s passed onto A--, I mean, to Eevee, who’s taken over this fondness and boosted it. Heh, you’ll understand in a little while why I’ve started to laugh at the mentioning of such seemingly unrelated items as a basketball and the verb ‘to boost’.
Anyway, every time I look at him, at Eevee, now I get reminded of the Espeon that always tries to keep up with him.

Lately, keeping up with Eevee has been a drag. From day 1, he’s been full of energy. If you didn’t know better, you would have thought his parents passed on an Extremespeedy move or a Speed Boosting trait to him. But none of that: it’s in him like a holy fire, that abundance of energy.
It wasn’t until he discovered his Hidden Power that things got really tricky. You see… it’s of the Ghost Type. And Eevee’s the child of DD’s Nave, from whom he inherited the gene that provides the Umbreon with that pronounced black fur and electric blue rings.
As a result, once he got the hang of it, he could literally disappear into the shadows, from which he would sneak up on and jump onto his unsuspecting victims. His traitmark ‘Boo’ has gone on to been his unofficial nickname among my Pokémon. Though you don’t really think Boo could be a real nickname, or it would be for a Pokémon you could never take seriously, wouldn’t it? Heh-heh, though at this moment, he is such a Pokémon…

Anyway, the problem of giving him a nickname was something really nagging at me. I nicknamed Skyler myself, but the rest of my Pokémon had chosen their nicknames out of their own accord. And I felt that ‘Eevee’ may have been a too general name, like nicknaming someone you don’t know or understand ‘Joe’ or ‘Bob’. Nemo didn’t seem to be wanting to force him to do anything, except listen to him and learn his lessons and love him and let his take his siesta when he so craved… which Eevee hardly ever was able to do together on any one given day, except the loving part. Eevee loves everything, period, carriage return, new line.

So, it seemed to be up to me. But the last time I tried… I was scared to go near him for nearly a week.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It happened in the park I had brought everyone to.
I had collected the courage to touch this for-all-I-know-sensitive subject with Eevee. I also had asked Nora to accompany me for backup. She acted as the tiny mother of our team when occasion called for it.
Nudging me at ankle height, she forced me nearer to him. He was sitting on the basketball field, nudging an appropriately resized basketball, while listening to Tony, who seemed to be concluding an epic story. ‘Cada, Eevee and Skyler were gazing ecstatically at Tony, as he vigorously animated the ending of the Tale of Tony the Triumphant Trapinch, Part DCII.

“And that’s how Tony saved the Gible village from the angry Golem troll.”
“Wauw.” Skyler said while gasping his breath, unknowingly twitching his leathery wings.
“That was awesome.” ‘Cada said in awe.
“Yeah…” Eevee agreed. “But… I still don’t understand what the robot did.”
“Well, I’d love to tell you… But it will have to wait for Part DCIII.”
“Aww…”
“Eevee? Are you busy?” I asked, drawing the attention of the group.
“Hmm? Oh no, Mike.”, he squealed. “Tony was telling a story, to… con- core- because he lost.”
“He dunked me at basketball again.”, Tony grudgingly explained. Eevee grinned; basketball could’ve been his middle name. Beside, it was unfair competition: he was far more flexible than his sand-crawling friend, albeit one with 4 times his experience level.
“I swear, one day you’ll turn into a basketball.” I couldn’t have been closer…
“Not before I join the Goldenrod Golducks!” At that moment, they were leading in the NBA statistics.
“Well, you still lack a beak, you know.” He had been trying to grow one two days before, resulting in a sore mouth for him and painful laughing spasms for the spectators, among which myself.
“I’m getting there… Nemo said I was getting better at the doggy swim.”
“Well, I won’t keep you up for long, then. I know you were planning on swimming with him.” Actually, it was time for their weekly obligatory swim that afternoon.
“What did you want to talk about, Mike?”, he asked as we strolled into the away from the other guys, as they started round two of the match.
“Well…” I hesitated, before deciding to cut to the case. “Do you want to be given a nickname?”
He frowned, though his eyes lighted up as if he was smiling. “Don’t I have one already?”
“I don’t think ‘Boo’ is gonna look good on any Pokémon license, Eevee.”
“Everyone would notice it.”
“Yes, and I know you’d love it. But please, can’t you come up with something… normal?”
“I’m Normal enough as it is… I don’t feel like behaving like it as well.”
I sighed. “Look, I’ll tell you what we do… I give you till tomorrow morning, and you come up with something decent, okay?”
“Oh, okay.”, he reluctantly agreed.
“Thanks. Now, just tell it to me, in a normal way, when I ask it.”
“Hm-hmm… When you… ask it.”, he nodded as he walked away, seemingly lost in thought already. I shook my head as I saw him go, wondering what tomorrow would bring.

So, there I am, the following morning. I sit by the carpet he’s sleeping on, waiting for him to wake up. His ear twitch, he stretches his paws… and I see his endearing eyes open up to take in the first light of the day.
“Hey Mike,”, he said as he stood up, shaking his rear to cast away the last of Morpheus’ grip on his body. “What’s for breakfast?”
“Your name.”, I said grimly.
”Yorrenaim? Is that a new type of cereal?”, he quasi-innocently asked.
“No.” I sternly answered, determined not to let the conversation stray.
“No?”, he repeated, eyes twinkling.
“No-hoh.” I repeated, this time with feeling.
“No-hoh-hoho?” he asked back, tongue in cheek.
“Eevee, I told you to tell me, with no bizarreties, what-your-name-would-be-when-I-would-ASK-IT.”
“Ask it.” he snapped back, enjoying every minute of mocking me, it seemed.
“I-just-did.” I stressed, feeling more flustered every passing moment.
“Aaaask iiiit.”, he mocked me.
“Eevee!!” I strained to keep myself from shooking him thoroughly, though somewhere I was starting to see the absurdity of the whole thing. If he couldn’t seriously decide on his own name, why try forcing him?
“Ask-it, ask-it, ask-it!!!” he started chanting, thoroughly reminding me of an ambulance wagon.
“Okay, I get it.”, I said, admitting defeat. “You’re just not ready.” I sighed as I got back on my feet.
“Nah, not… not ready, Mike.” he grinned. “Just not serious.”
“Yeah…” I said, as I went downstairs, having learned another lesson regarding my newest AP: never go into an argument with him, you’ll never win. In fact, I had learned another one: if anything, Eevee definitely wasn’t a serious natured Pokémon.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Several weeks passed, and Eevee got so hyper that I started getting requests from neighbours to keep his off the caffeine, to which, at first, I replied he never drank the stuff. I gave up on trying to convince them the day he’d been up a tree for one whole hour shouting “Pidgeys, pretty Pidgeys, won’t you play with me??”, for all to hear.
That was also the day I decided to take him to some training area for Pokémon, preferably one specifically facilitated for hyperkinetic Eevees.

“Where’re we going Mike? Will it be nice, huh? Will there be Pidgeys? Will there, huh, huh?”
I winced. “Eevee, you can drop the whole I’m-on-caffeine,-look-at-me!-thing now. We’re out of the neighbourhood, you know.”
“But I like acting that way! It comes so… natural.” he grinned.
“I know, but if nothing else, think of me, okay. I don’t like getting people’s attention drawn on me, and as your Trainer, I’m with you in the center of attention.” I said as we walked down a tree-bordered lane. At the end of the lane, I began to see the gate to the training area I had chosen – one that was apparently free for Pokémon to stroll around in, independently from their Trainers. As such, I could keep an eye on Eevee without him automatically being associated to me. Not that I didn’t appreciate his wackiness sometimes… but I preferred to be wacky with friends, or indoors, not in plain public sight!
“Okay then, I won’t talk about the Pidgeys anymore…”

Five seconds later: “… Hey, Spearows!!”, he cried out, scaring a flock of the creatures out of the tree they’d been perched on. Lucky for us, they ignored us; apparently they were more docile than the average Spearow.
I sighed. “Ee-vee…” I said warningly.
“Whaat?” he asked sweetly.
I sighed once more, and started rubbing the back of my neck. Ever since the past conversation about his nickname, I had noticed I started having this aching throb in the pack of my neck every time Eevee exasperated me, like now.

We walked another ten seconds in silence, nearing the front gate of ‘The Free Range Poké-Corral’, before he started again.
“So, Mike… I thought about a nickname again.”
“And?” I asked, simultaneously dreading an answer.
“I decided. My nickname’s gonna be… Basketball.”, he said, dropping the bomb.
I couldn’t help myself. I tripped and crashed on the ground, which, lucky for me, was made out of beach sand. At this moment, we had neared the front gate of the Corral close enough. We were on the other side of a hedge, which lead up to the front gate, and apparently there was some sort of lake on the other side: I could hear splashing and growling, and the occasional Gyarados roar.
I took my time to recover, shake the sand out of my clothes and off my hair, put my cap back on… I turned to face Eevee, who’d been awaiting my reply, and calmly asked:
“WHAT?”
“It’s an acronym!”, he proudly ‘explained’.
“Basketball? An acronym, for what?”
“You ask.”
“Okay… B stands for?”
“Boo!”
I winced. “A stands for?”
“Ask-it!”
“S stands for?”
“Ask-it!”
“K st--? Oh, I get it. K, E, T stand for ‘asket’ too, right?”
He nodded, obviously feeling proud of himself.
“Now, do B, A, double L each stand for something, or are they short for something, or so?”
“Or so.”, he grinned.
“So, ‘Ball’ stands for?”
“Hullabaloo!”
“Yeah… It’s that your such a party animal.”
He nodded.
“Look, this conversation could take a while. Why don’t we… get inside, find me a bench to sit on, and continue from there?”

As was said, as was done. We, or better said, I found me a bench to sit on in a relatively quiet zone. There was a grass field leading up to the hedge boarding the domain behind me, and a hedge in front of me. Apparently, there was some sort of maze behind the latter hedge, as said a sign close to me.
“Right.” I started.
“Left.”, Eevee retorted.
Ignoring him, I searched my backpack for a pen and paper, and was surprised to find both.
“So…”, I said as I started writing, “if your nonsense is going to make sense…” I blinked at the stupidity of my comment, but continued nontheless, “than your name would look like… so.”, I finished, showing him what I had written down:

B. Ask-it Ball

“Pretty much.”, he quasi-indifferently replied.
I neighed my head. Don’t go into any argument here… you’ll lose either way. “Fine,” I said to his surprise. “But on one condition: we de-abnormalize this gibberish.”
“What!”
“Sorry buddy, but I won’t register anyone with ‘Boo’ for a first name, and ‘Ask-it’ for a middle name.” And as for Hullabaloo…, I thought.
Apparently, I looked convincing enough that I wouldn’t budge to him. “ Fine…”
“Okay… First up’s… Boo.”
“What’s wr—“, he started to say, but I cut him off.
“Boo is no goo-d. The only person I ever knew went by that name was a character in Monsters, Inc. And she was a girl.”, I added.
That held him from commenting.
“So… Boo, Boo… Bool… Boor… Boos… Booster! An alien from a Disney cartoon I used to watch.”, I explained, to lift Eevee’s puzzlement.
“Go on.” , he urged me.
“Okay… So, ‘Ask-it’ has a nice ring to it, but not in this current spelling.”
“I don’t care about rules, so play around with the letters, if you want.”, he replied tongue-in-cheek.
“Hmm… Maybe something with a mystical feel to it… As-ket… Asketh… Ashketh! ‘And the world will turn to Ash!’”
“Sounds almost Egyptical.” he winked.
Encouraged, I went for the biggest challenge. “Okay, now we’re left with ‘Ball’.”
“Hey, don’t touch ‘Baloo’! That’s my favourite name of the three!”
“Yes, and the most nonsensical, too… but that’s probably the reason it’s your favourite. I mean, I won’t argue over that ‘Baloo’ could stand for ‘Hullabaloo’ – though I’ve seen it written as Hullapalooza somewhere, I think -, but ‘Ball’? Tell you what, keep it ‘Hullabaloo’, but change ‘Ball’ to ‘Baloo’.”, I concluded, changing the text on my note sheet, which had begun to look severely battered.
“Hmm… ‘Kay, I guess ‘Baloo’ can pwn ‘Ball’, but then the whole idea is lost!”
“What, ‘Basketball’?” I asked half-seriously. Eevee nodded, and I checked for myself. Indeed, if you’d read what it said now, and ignored some pronunciation issues, it would still say ‘Basketballoo’… and if I could choose, I wouldn’t be called a ‘basketball loo’ either.
“Hmm, point taken. So? Any ideas?”
“I liked it better first.”, he said cross-eyed.
“Hmm…” If I was going through with changing what he wanted to be named (and it’d be a cold day in hell if I would let him call himself ‘Ask-it’), then…
“We have to extend your name.”
“Extend?”
“You know, paste something behind it… so that this gibberish at least becomes coherent.”
“…”
“Point taken. So… ‘Basketball’ is here to stay…”, I said to his joy, “and thus… ‘Loo’… Loo… Loor… Loon… Luna-”
“Lunatic!” , he cried out. I winced under the weird looks from passers-by this earned me – even the Spinda seemed overly confuzzled.
“’Kay…” I agreed, much to his and my amazement… “But then, what will represent ‘-natic’?”
This had us stumped for a while, until I had a bright moment.
“Nate! You know, short for Nathan?”
He wrinkled his nose. “That’s no name for me… I’m twice has hilarious!”
“No argument there…”
“But ‘Nate’… That sounds cool… Nate. Naaay-th. Nai-d. … Nade!”
“Short for ‘Lemo-Nade’?”, I joked. To my angst, he actually seemed to consider this seriously. What came next surpassed even this fear:
“Nah… More like ‘Gre-Nade’!”
Though I fear fainting any second, I wrote ‘Nade’ behind ‘B. Ashketh Baloo’. Underneath, I vertically wrote down what each of this acronyms (excluding Ashketh) stood for so far: Booster, Hullapalooza, and (gulp) Grenade.
I opened my mouth to speak, when I was hit by an idea. “I don’t think any legal organ is gonna accept ‘grenade’ for a name, Eevee. But,” I continued without stopping, “if we just… change ‘e’ to ‘i’, and add ‘n’… Grenadin!”
“Grenadin?” , he asked unsure , raising an eyebrow.
“You know, sounds like ‘Aladdin’… or ‘Gremlin’!” I added more enthousiastically.
“Fine.”, he conceded finally.
Mentally wiping the sweat from my forehead, I turned to “‘Ic’”, and hit a writer’s (or name rater’s) block.
“You’ll have to help me with this one…”
“Ic… Ics… Ics?”
“If we say ‘Ics’, that’ll add up to ‘Basketball Lunatics’. Don’t know for sure, but I think ‘Lunatics’ a valid word.”
This prompted him to continue. “Okay… so what sounds like ‘Ics’… remotely? ‘X’?”
“And ‘X.’ is short for?”
“Hey, I can’t think of anything! X-Calibur?”
“Hm, nice, but then we’d have ‘lunaticsk’. That’s not English, or even Scandinavic!”
“So, mister I-am-a-critic Mike, your suggestion being?”
“Hmm…” Name starting with ‘X’. Feels like I’m trying to solve a crossword puzzle here… “Xavier? No, Xander! That brings back memories…” I added, momentarily lost in good memories of the Buffyverse television series.
“Sander?”
“No, ‘Xander’. Starts with ‘X’, pronounced as ‘Zan-dur’.”
“But then, Xander’s short for…”
“Alexander, yes. Like the emperor!”
“Cool… But it needs a touch of ‘Ashketh’.”
“What, still not exotic enough for you?”, I laughed. “Remember, you’re going to have 5 names anyway, if we’d go through with this.” Which we’d probably have to, or I will have no peaceful moment for the rest of my days together with him.
“Hmm… Xandros! Well, Alexandros!”
“Ale—what?!” I wrote it down to complement what he’d said. “Oh, a mixture of…”
“Xander, and Alejandros!”
“Or Alex and Andros, depending how you look at it… ‘Kay, deal! This is the point final”, I added, contemplating the end-result:

B. Ashketh Baloo Nade X.

• Booster --> B.
• Ashketh --> Ashketh
• Hullabaloo --> Baloo
• Grenadin --> Nade
• Alexandros --> X.

“The man at the registration board is going to look so strangely at me...”, I concluded.
“I thought these days the Pokémon had to tell the bureaucrats in person their nickname?”
“They do? Well, good heavens then!”, I cheered.
“Yeah, something about the right to have a nickname you consent with, as well as your trainer, and the administration doesn’t have any objections against!
Kudos to the legal guy that thought that up!, I thought.
“So, Mike… If you agree with this, shall we?”
I looked at my notes one last time before putting them away. No sense in spending too much time contemplating – or trying to fight – the general non-sense of it all…
“Okay then, let’s go find some sparring partners.” I said as I stood up, stretching good to prepare for the upcoming events.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ Ashketh’s POV ~

Now we had stopped playing the ‘Name Game’ – as I would continue to call it from now on - , we made our way through the labyrinth. Does that seem pointless to you? Well, it wasn’t, really. I bet you hadn’t noticed the sign saying “THIS WAY TO THE BATTLE FIELD ==>” –sign, huh? Oh, you say that’s because Mike didn’t mention it before? Well then, you should have asked! … Beauty, knowledge and humour all lie in the details, my friend.
The journey through the maze was long and uneventful – or so Mike would have reported. In my report, however, it should be noted that we came across five dead ends – for with the way leading to it in a straight lines, one as a spiral. We also ran into two loops, and even a glass wall – good thing we didn’t literally ran into it. Or at least, I didn’t.
But in the end, we made our way through – didn’t even have to spend the night there, which I sort of regretted.

And what would you know: we immediately stumbled onto the battle area upon exiting. Unfortunately, a battle between a Ursaring and a Metagross was going on, so we smartfully – and gracefully – stumbled back off the field, taking seat between the spectators. In my day dream, there was a popcorn vendor aloof, strolling between the seats selling bags o’ popped corn, but alas, that remained but a day dream. Knowing Mike, he would have preferred some spiced potato chips, anyway.

After a battle or three, it was our turn to fight. It was hard to tell, because there seemed to be some sort of roll call in the way the battles and combatant followed each other up, but I thought that our opponent, a pampered-looking school girl, had been the one with the Ursaring.
Now don’t hold me for a coward: I would have loved to put my teeth into such an overgrown teddy bear! But, you know, with the fangs and the razor claws, and the fluff… Besides, I didn’t even know how to attack with Bite yet. Or did I? Anyway, it may have been for the best he would turn out not to be my opponent later on – and I mean for his best, of course. Ahum.
“Three-on-three sounds good for you?”
“Sure,” said Mike jokingly, “but I only have the one.”
“Oy.” , came the reply, accompanied by a wrinkled nose. “Never mind than. Go, Felicia!”
She threw a Luxury Ball onto the field, which made me wonder what sort of chibi fluff ball my opponent would turn out to be…

The Pokémon materializing from the ball was tiny. A first stage, white mammal. Female, I could tell. An oval jewel sparkling on top of her forehead. Since she had whiskers, a curled tail with a brown end and was feline, you’ll probably have realized by now I wasn’t referring to a Miltank, for instance, but a Meowth.
“Interesting.”, I commended. Let’s see what this beauty can do.
“Felicia…”, said her trainer, pausing dramatically, “you know the drill.”
The only reply she got was a nod, and as I started to run towards her, she braced herself firmly, grinned maliciously, and… started to evolve?
Her entire body, down to the last bit of hair, started glowing a spectacular white. But she didn’t shape shift, nor did the glow diminished… Instead, the light seemed to intensify a thousand times! I started to frown, as I didn’t want to close my eyes and be caught off guard, and momentarily made out the Meowth’s trainer, who wisely had put on some shades, before I had to close my eyes still. The glow didn’t stop at my eyelids though. It came piercing through, rattling my skull and severely disorienting me. Then I realized what Mike had begun shouting at me:
“She’s using Flash! You can’t let her confuse you!”
Easier said than done, Mike., I growled internally. But there isn’t anywhere to hide here, ya know.
And as I was thinking that, I was slammed backwards and fell on my side. She had tackled me upfront, and now I could feel her scratching and swiping away at me.
Of course I fought back: I rolled onto my back, and kicked and whipped my tail in all directions, but she simply had to sit back and strike whenever she saw an opening, as I was still blinded.
“Quick Ashketh!” shouted Mike, and I couldn’t help but think to myself ‘Kudos to me for choosing that name!’. “Get up and get away from there!”
Didn’t sound like much of a plan at the time, but lying around wasn’t doing me any good, so I went ahead and did it. Luckily, I still had somewhat of an idea of the general layout of the battlefield, so that I didn’t run head-first back into the maze, or into a hedge, for that matter.
I didn’t hear her come after me as I sprinted away in an erratic pattern, but the moment I stood still I could hear her trainer:
“He’s still blinded! Quick Felicia, Body Slam!”
Oh great. Of all the fuzzy fluff balls out there, I get the one on steroids and with an arsenal of special moves.
I could hear her, as she sprung up on the other side of the field – she must have been sitting down all the down as I was trying to evade her by running around in all directions. I felt and heard her paws rattling on the ground, followed by a sudden stop, her snarling, a sound as if she came loose from the ground, and then… nothing?
The audience gasped, drums rumbled (or so I imagined)… And then the best thing happened. My hair had been standing on end from the tension, but now my muscles where relaxing, and I knew what was happening.

You see, I have a gift. Call it a Hidden Power if you’re so technical, but it’s the most wonderful thing.
My fur is already coal-black you know – that came with the blue-ringed gene I inherited. If I lay still at night, in the shadows, no one can see me, except for maybe my eyes.
But when I activate my gift, oh boy. I’ve heard the others I just disappear into the shadows. I’ve talked about it with Nemo, and I like to call it more like ‘blending / melting into the shadows, like a Vaporeon into water’.
Of course, there are few shadows really black, but it’ll still seem as if I’m not there. I can watch you, talk to you if I’d like (though I’ll prefer jumping you most of the time – hence my other name, Boo), but you won’t see me until it’s too late. Sometimes, I even go from one place to another by melting into the shadows – one moment I’m here, the next, upstairs. And no one saw me, and I didn’t went up any stairs. It’s creepy, but I suppose that’s what you’d expect from a Ghost-type HP, as mine apparently is.

Now, from what I felt at that time during the battle, I could deduce that I was standing in a shadow – my body prefers the dark, I’ve noticed. I felt invigorated, and energy was returning instantly to me. To all others, only a split second passed, but to me, tens of minutes. My eyesight healed, and my hunch was proven: ‘Felicia’ was hanging above me, blocking the rays of the sun, her paws stretched as a lion leaping at the rabbit.
That gave me an idea. As time began to flow normally again, I agilely rolled onto my back, with my tail in her direction. As she came down, I triggered my ability. You should have seen the confusion rise in her eyes! Were she to have fallen on all fours before, I had distracted her enough to transform the gracious leap into a lot less graceful fall.
But I couldn’t let her drop smack-dab on the ground, now could I? I awaited her fall with all paws stretched out to her, caught her middle with my lower paws and her front paws with mine. Her face came very close to me, and I used that split second to become visible again, freaking her out some more. Then, I used the momentum of her fall to catapult her away behind me, straight into the hedge. If you’ve seen the Lion King, think of how Simba lauched Scar at the end.
The crowd roared as I stood up and took a look for myself: she was hanging between the leaves in an extremely ungraceful position, and as she was returned to her PokéBall, I lamented the goofy, cross-eyed, tongue-out-of-mouth look on her face.

Needless to say, her trainer used the minimally required amount of words to get away from there. As she run off, I thought of doing some kind of victory dance, but seemed a little too crude, even for me.
“Well, you’ve embarrassed that jet set society girl enough, haven’t you?” , asked Mike.
“Yup.”
“Anything to add to that?”
“Uh… Mission accomplished?” I asked sheepishly.
“I suppose…”, Mike sighed. “Any sights you want to see before we go back and ‘introduce’ ‘Basketball’ to the others?”
“The burrito bar.”, I said unshaken.
“Fine, I’ll get one too.”
And as we finished our little cholesterol bomb, which would come back to haunt us in three and a half hours with unpleasant toilet breaks, I couldn’t help but feel fond with myself for a day well spent.

[Lady Vulpix]

What a long and complicated way of choosing a nickname! And I think Basketball sounds more normal than the final result.
Interesting description of a Ghost-type HP... And interesting character too. Take 15 stamps and thanks for posting. ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢

[Crystalmaster Mike]

What a long and complicated way of choosing a nickname! And I think Basketball sounds more normal than the final result.
Interesting description of a Ghost-type HP... And interesting character too. Take 15 stamps and thanks for posting. ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢

You're welcome. Speaking out-of-character, it was a long and complicating way of coming up with that name in the first place, too. But it started something like... "Okay, so he likes to play basketball, and is somewhat of a joker... Hey, why don't I have him want to be named Basketball? But, what would be the background story/info on that name? ...", and so on. And I'll tell you, once I decided "he's going to be named Basketball... -ish", he was going to be named that way, even if it take all my gray matter to come up with a "decent" de-acronymed name for it. Heh.
And yeah, it would have been "more normal" to simply have him be called that, but it was a battle of wills, too... I couldn't and wouldn't pull the shortest end! Though I have a feeling this will be one of the few times I can put my foot down in front of him.

[Orange_Flaaffy]

Okay, I am going to try my best . I can't promise my stories will mix at all well with with everyone elses, I am pretty hard headed when it comes to my writing style ...

Saltine LV 8
One random pokemon from the Free Range Corral please :3!

[The Blue Avenger]

Well, it's good to see some activity at all here.

Saltine will fight a level 8 Ditto.

[The Blue Avenger]

I'm afraid you can only get one random battle per week, unless you want to make it a double battle. Could you clarify before I roll up the Pokemon?

[Sheik]

Oh. Okay. Then let's do this.

A double battle at the Jungle Deforestation Agency, except with this battle, I would like to use Auric, my Umbreon, and Anna, my Espeon. Both are at level 5.

[Lady Vulpix]

They're going to battle a Tropius and a Spinarak.

How many stamps do you have, by the way?

[Sheik]

Honestly... I have no idea. In fact aside from the two Pokemon Earrings, I don't even know what my items are...

[classy_cat18]

Shiek? Oh man, how long has it been? I hope this is a sign that the forum is coming back from the dead.

But didn't you have a webpage with all of your TPM stuff? Or did it expire from not being modified for so long?

[Lady Vulpix]

You once bought a custom juice for your Feebas Rain, who you evolved into a Milotic on 30th June 2003.

Your old site said you had 54 Stamps (17 Stamps from the Battle Range) and the earring, but that was back in 2003.

[Sheik]

Classy_cat18: It's been... let's see.... June of 06? So nearly two years. I'm hoping I'll stay. As far as the web page... not entirely sure what happened, but all personal records of all my prior pokemon were lost, including that website. However, with the help of Gabi, I have been able to get that data back, and I now have it in a word document.

L_V: As far as the site goes... Is it really valid for me to take up the amount of stamps that I had back then (54) when I hadn't been here in so long? As far as Rain the Milotic... I didn't even know I had one, and obviously the stats for that would be practically non-existent.

[Lady Vulpix]

Quoting our IM conversation...

"That's old information, there's no way to know how many you earned or spent after that, so I wouldn't trust it. But on the other hand, you brought the forum back to life, so I guess you can keep them as a reward."

[The Blue Avenger]

Hey, could I get an RBG from the Sports Breeding Center for Groviglio? *hands over 7 stamps*

[Lady Vulpix]

He will battle a Makuhita.

And I've made my choice. This being the first scenario in a long time in which you can break brackets, I'll request a double battle from the Universal A.C. for Pidgeot and Ventura!

[The Blue Avenger]

They will fight a Sharpedo and a Ninetales.

[classy_cat18]

I asked for two opponents for Circe for this scenario, but I would like to change it so that both Nama and Rose can battle. Can I do that?

[Lady Vulpix]

Ninetales at Universal? Not that Ventura would complain, she likes battling fire-types. But as far as I know (and I should know since I wrote that code) there are no Vulpixes or Ninetales in that area. Maybe the randomizer went back to Caledor by default.

[Edit: I have now fixed the randomizer so that it doesn't default to Caledor after each roll.]

I'll take it as it came, though. As I said, Ventura likes that.

[The Blue Avenger]

Oh, whoops, that's probably what happened, yeah. My apologies.

[The Blue Avenger]

Here's my scenario and two RBGs. Cheers!

---

“Uh-uh. No way. This sort of thing… well, it just won’t fly, you hear me?”
“What are you talking about, Bobbery?”
“I think you know exactly what I’m talking about, Jeff. Oh, no, wait; I can’t really call you that, can I? After all… you most certainly are not Jeff!”
The scene: a modest house at the corner of Tycho and Kepler. In the house’s spacious kitchen, a trainer is standing in a corner, his only routes of escape blocked off by the Snorlax in front of him. Behind the Snorlax stand a Mr. Mime, a Tangrowth, an Alakazam, and a Metang.
Jeff swallowed nervously. “I assure you, Bobbery, I am Jeff! I swear!”
“You underestimate me,” Bobbery replied, a smirk crossing his face. The Snorlax began to sniff the air, eventually homing in on Jeff. “It’s as I suspected,” he said, turning to his audience. “This Jeff… I can tell from using Odor Sleuth that he is, in actuality…” Bobbery whipped back around to face Jeff. Without a moment of warning, Bobbery slammed his fist into Jeff’s face. As the Snorlax had predicted, Jeff began to glow white and change shape. When the glow subsided, the figure that stood there no longer bore any resemblance to the trainer. Bobbery took a bow. “A Ditto, as I thought.”
The Ditto nursed its face and scowled. “Bah! Too smart for your own good, Snorlax. I should have taken care of you like I did your PorygonZ…”
Bobbery grinned. “Ironically enough, it’s what you did to 99 that aroused my suspicions. Jeff may be smart, but there’s no way he would be able to predict that me and Maza would force 99 to the Pokemon Center. That’s when I began to notice all the other weird stuff that’s been going down here recently.
“The first was the creepy stalker Cranidos Pogo that Groviglio fought. When Groviglio came back from the barracks, he happened to mention his fight to Maza, and I overheard.”
Groviglio clenched the vines serving as his hands and glared at the Ditto. “I’ll tell you what, you little punk, I’m going to make you pay for humiliating me! Nobody makes me confide in anybody, ever! Unless it’s me! I’m going to hit you so hard, your grandchildren will look up in a hundred years and think, ‘Oh geez, it feels like I was just punched very very hard in the gut!’”
“As you can see,” Bobbery continued, “your little ploy to undermine Groviglio’s confidence had precisely the opposite effect of what you intended. However, that’s not really relevant. As I was saying, I didn’t think too much of it then, because, really, Groviglio had it coming to him.”
Groviglio scowled, but surprisingly said nothing.
“The next weird thing? It was Rookie. More specifically, his visit to us. He warned Kurtzwick that a psycho thief named Pitt was planning to attack him. Again, I didn’t think too much of it, because Kurtzwick has a tendency to make people angry. Looking back, I wish I could have asked Rookie some more questions, but he fled almost immediately after warning Kurtzwick.”
“And what does any of this have to do with me?” the Ditto said, frowning. “You haven’t got any--”
“I’m not done yet,” Bobbery said, holding up a hand. “After I heard about all this from Kurtzwick, I ended up talking to Mona, who needed a shoulder to cry on. With Previsiona having her own problems at the time and Cambiamente out of the house almost constantly, she decided to come to me – I guess I was her third choice. Sorry, Maza.”
Maza sighed almost silently. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Apparently, the charmer who she had met in the park – a Smeargle named Leon – broke her heart. Pretty seriously, too. Of course, this is when things started seeming out of place for me. A painter named Leon falling for a girl named Mona? Too much of a coincidence.”
“Hey, that sort of thing can happen, you know--” the Ditto started.
“Let me finish. Like I said, it seemed too perfect, but I didn’t really pay it much heed, because, as you said, it could happen. And Mona is just naïve enough to fall that hard for somebody she barely knows. No offense meant to her, of course. Now, here’s where I started to put everything together: I was soon after called upon by Previsiona for comfort as well. Apparently, she had been having some awful nightmares, and it was completely wrecking her.”
Groviglio stepped forward. “Hey, hey, lemme tell this part. I’m proud of it. So I happen to be walking past the living room when they’re talking about this, right? And I stay and listen for a bit, because Previsiona… well, I don’t really want anything bad to happen to her. Then she starts describing the nightmares she’s having, and I realize it sounds familiar! They sound exactly like the sort of nightmares someone gets if someone uses Nightmare on them. Dreams designed to hit exactly where it hurts, you know?”
Bobbery nodded. “Right. After I ensured Groviglio had nothing to do with it--”
“Ol’ Blubberboy threatened me within an inch of my life, that’s what he means.”
“…I decided to look into this a bit further. That night, when Previsiona went to sleep, I kept an eye on her room. And lo and behold! I see a certain brown-haired, bespectacled trainer use a certain move on her – a move that should only be able to be used by Pokemon. Odd. Then I realized that, when Rookie met Pitt, when Mona was with Leon, and when Groviglio was with Pogo, you, the fake Jeff, weren’t here! You were nowhere to be found.”
“Huh! Exactly like how Clark Kent and Superman are never seen in the same room!” Mercandos said, perhaps a little more forcefully than necessary.
“Exactly. Then I remembered what 99 was trying to warn us about – that you were still reporting back to Happy-Happy Village. It all seemed to fit together too perfectly to not be true. But then I thought to myself, ‘Bobbery, Jeff passed all of the Guild’s brainwashing tests! How could this be his fault?’”
“See, I told you I’m innocent!”
“Hold it!” Bobbery exclaimed, arm outstretched. “The answer came to me after I noticed that you had a scent on you that was similar to Cambiamente’s. I theorized that if you were in fact a Ditto who could turn into these different Pokemon, you would be able to easily pass a brainwashing test. How? By Transforming partially into a Hypno or a similar Pokemon and hypnotizing the examiner into thinking you passed!”
The Ditto bit his lip. “But… but…!”
“Thus, I had all the proof I needed! You, Ditto, tried to infiltrate our team under the disguise of our trainer! You, Ditto, tried to collapse our team from within by destroying our teammate’s mental health! You, Ditto, tried to beat us for the sake of your master, one Cooper Bartholomew! You, Ditto, tried to beat us… but you failed!”
“Nooooooooo!” the Ditto howled, holding his head.
“One last thing. When you try to create multiple personalities to disguise yourself, it’s a pretty bad move to make them all have four-letter names. Most people can identify patterns, you know.”

---

A continent away, in a small village in the heartland of a cozy country, a young man was painting the side of a building, humming contentedly to himself. He wasn’t the only one: many other people in the town were also out on the sunny, seasonably warm day, painting the buildings in the town. Unlike what had been going on in previous months, however, they were not painting the scenery blue. Instead, everything was being painted to its original color, restoring the town to vivid, colorful life.
The town was Happy-Happy Village, in the middle of Eagleland, and the young man was none other than Jeff Azure. Although he had made some alterations to his wardrobe (a blue dress shirt, dark slacks, a black tie with the number 6 on it), Jeff was still easily recognizable for his large, nearly opaque glasses, his thick brown hair, and his trademark metallic boots. He stepped back from the wall he was painting – one of the walls of the village’s drug store – and looked it over.
Before he could take it in, however, a bright flash lit up the village. As suddenly as the flash had appeared, a quartet of Pokemon stood in the center of town: an Alakazam, a Tangrowth, a Snorlax, and a Mr. Mime.
The Mr. Mime pointed to the Alakazam. “Maza! You scope out the caverns! Groviglio! Search the minor buildings! Me and Trezzatura will go through the meeting hall!” It was then that Mercandos actually looked around. As he and the rest of his team took in the new look of the village, a more and more sheepish expression crossed his face. “Err. Does this place look… not threatening to anyone else?” he mumbled, biting his lip.
Jeff’s face lit up, and he ran to the group. “Guys! You finally showed up!” he called, grinning.
“Jeff! You’re all right!” Maza called right back. “But… what happened here? What’s with all the… not blue?”
“That’s the interesting part,” Jeff said, scratching the back of his head. “Bartholomew up and disappeared from here not too long ago. When he left, so did all of his cultists. All of the people who lived here but weren’t a part of the Happy-Happyists were able to finally retake their town.”
“Well, why didn’t you let us know?!” Groviglio fumed. “We could have come here a lot earlier if we had known you were still here.”
Jeff shrugged. “I felt like I should stay here for a while and help make things right… it was, after all, partially my fault that this happened to their town.”
“That makes sense,” Trezzatura muttered.
“Plus, Bartholomew and his goons made off with my wallet and cell phone, so I didn’t really have any method of getting in touch with anyone. I just sorta kept faith that you guys would figure it out eventually.”
Maza shook his head. “Well, do you think you’ve made enough amends? Can you come back home?”
Jeff smiled. “I think I can, yeah. Let’s go.”
As the white flash once again lit up the area, some of the residents heard a voice saying, “So, Groviglio, what’s it like being a hulking behemoth?” followed by an “Ow!”

---

A week later, Jeff found himself once again in the laboratory in the Dragon’s Guild headquarters. The Guild had given him a thorough checkup (as well as ensuring nobody was under hypnosis for the test) and determined that he was, in fact, the real McCoy. As a result, Jeff was quickly allowed back in to his day job – scientist and researcher for the Guild.
As he put some papers – detailing how certain water Pokemon’s water conducts electricity better than others’ – on his desk, Jeff noticed an envelope sitting on the keyboard of his computer. It was plain white, with his name written in block letters on the front in black ink. He opened it to find a similarly simple letter inside.
To all members of the Research and Training Department, it read, The Mercenary Trainers’ Union has opened up its facilities to expedite training of the Dragon Tamers and the Mercenary Trainers, in order to prepare them for their trip to White Mountain. If you fall under either of those two categories, you are allowed a free training session at the Union. It would be advisable to take this opportunity. Lady Ninetales.
Jeff frowned. “White Mountain, huh? I wonder what’s going down there… Ah well, I can look it up in a bit,” he muttered as he picked up the receiver to his desk phone.
At the house, the phone rang exactly once before Mona picked it up. “Hello, you’ve reached the house of Jeff Azure and his loyal band of teammates, each member stronger than the last, and each with their own particular strengths, like Bobbery, who’s a good chef, and Maza, who’s psychic, so he can read minds, which is kinda creepy when you get right down to it, because what if I know something that I don’t want anyone else to know? That’s just downright rude, although I suppose Maza never reads my mind anyway, so it’s not--”
“Gimme that,” Groviglio said, swiping the phone from Mona’s paws. “Yeah, Azure residence, etcetera, what’s up?”
Jeff sighed. “Hi, Groviglio. Thanks for that. I thought she’d never stop. Anyway, I have a request of you guys.”
“Shoot.”
“The MTU is opening up their doors, and we get a free training session. Can you take some teammates and go train? I’d go with you, but apparently my double didn’t do a lot of work, so I have a lot to catch up on. It apparently has something to do with White Mountain, if that helps you guys out.”
“Got it, dude, no problem. We’ll head over there soon.”
“Thanks. Later.”
Groviglio hung up the phone and looked over the living room. Including himself and Mona, the only other Pokemon in the house seemed to be Mercandos, who was practicing some sort of martial art with the help of a video tutorial in front of the TV, and Kurtzwick, who was hauling a big burlap sack to one of his hiding spots around the house.
“Why did it have to be me that goes with them?” Groviglio muttered under his breath, then turned to the three other Pokemon. “Okay guys, we’re going to the Mercenary Union thing. Free training session. So getcher butts in gear; I don’t wanna have to wait on you.”
Mercandos eagerly shut off the TV. “Huh! You don’t have to tell me twice!” he exclaimed as he dashed out of the door. Kurtzwick followed, saying nothing, but the sullen expression on his face telling all. Mona was the last out of the door, following a grumbling Groviglio.

---

Mona was the first one to choose a room. Picking at random, she decided on the Jungle Deforestation Recovery Agency and rushed in before anyone else had a chance to object. The room itself felt similar to how you would expect a deforestation recovery room to look: it was swathed with greenery of all kinds, it was significantly more humid than the outside hallway, and there was even a small river running through it. The room was filled with grass-type and bug-type Pokemon, although the attendant normally supposed to be manning the room was conspicuously absent.
“Hehe! I like this place!” Mona said, not exactly quietly. “It’s so green and pretty… Although, I suppose if I had my way, it wouldn’t be quite so humid in here, since that would make things a lot more bearable… I guess the Pokemon here wouldn’t like that though, huh? They probably like the humidity they way it is--”
It was here that, like a bolt from the blue, Mona was struck by… a bolt from the blue. Rather, not from the blue, per se, but from a Budew. The Budew waddled over to her, a frown plastered across his normally-cheerful face. “Look, there’s another Hidden Power in store for you if you don’t keep the jabbering down to a minimum, you hear?”
“Hey now, that was just uncalled for,” Mona said, pouting. “You know, you could have just asked, and I would have been quiet. There’s no need to bring violence into it; that just shows your relative immaturity. Huh, for some reason, I think Groviglio would be saying that he finds that statement ironic, though I don’t know why--”
“That’s it!” the Budew cried, charging at Mona.

Time to brawl! Mona versus Budew!
Mona – “All RIIIGHT!”
~
Budew – “Shuuuuut UP!”

The Budew dove at Mona, but she neatly sidestepped it. “You’re going to have to do better than that, you know?” she said, slightly snidely. Mona smiled, grabbed her tail, and began tracing patterns in the air. The pink paint on her tail left trails in the air as it gradually turned to yellow. “Now, let’s see how you like it when you’re shocked, Mr. Rude!”
“I am awed by the magnificence of your repart—uuuurgh!” the Budew cried as Mona sent a Hidden Power: Electric coursing through its body. He stumbled back, but regained his composure quickly, smirking. “Heh, you’re not bad. But seriously, how dumb are you? No electric attack’s gonna do much against a grass Pokemon!”
Mona frowned. “Hmph! You’re just like a miniature Groviglio! Let’s see how you fare against this!” Glowing a faint pink, Mona pointed at the Budew, who quickly found himself enveloped in a similar aura and rising into the air.
“Izzat the best you can do?” the Budew spat. Before Mona could finish the Psychic attack, he pitched an oozing ball of black sludge at the Smeargle, nailing her directly and causing her focus to shatter. The Budew dropped to the ground and bum-rushed Mona again, this time scoring a direct hit on her as she attempted to clear the sludge from her face.
“Ooh! You fight dirty!” Mona yelped, stumbling back. “I’ll just have to fight dirty right back!” She dove at the Budew face-first, fangs glinting in the light. The Budew tried to take a step back, but did so too late: Mona latched her teeth in and shook her head, flailing the Budew around.
The Budew growled, and before Mona knew it, another series of volts was coursing through her body. He dropped the Budew and stumbled back. “You can’t handle the heat, ah?” the Budew said, smirking. “Then get outta the jungle!”
“No way!” Mona cried. She glowed pink again, but this time, the Budew couldn’t react in time: a wave of faintly pink energy emanated from her, pushing the Budew back and slamming him into a wall.
Slumping over, the Budew weakly waved an arm. “I give…”

This game’s winner is… Mona!

“Hmph. These guys need to take better care of their Pokemon,” Mona muttered as she exited the room. “I wonder how many other Pokemon in there would have attacked me just for talking.”

---

While all this was going down, Kurtzwick made his way further past the Jungle Deforestation Recovery Room towards the rest of the training rooms. However, he didn’t get very far before something caught his attention.
“I… I sense…” Kurtzwick muttered, slithering towards one of the open doors, “something valuable…” He darted through the door, completely unseen.
Once inside, Kurtzwick was greeted by a blast of cold air, but he plowed through regardless. “Okay… I think it’s in this direction…” Kurtzwick mumbled, focusing on the back of the room, where a smallish lake, partially frozen over, lay. Something small in the lake was glinting in the light. Kurtzwick grinned and zipped towards it faster than one would think possible. He pounced on the small shiny object, smiling greedily.
“Ooh, this is a Pokemon Earring…” he said. But what Kurtzwick failed to realize was that the Earring was attached to an ear. The ear was attached to a Pokemon, and that Pokemon was rapidly rising above the surface of the water. It was a large, blue, plesiosaur-like Pokemon with a spiky shell on its back.
“Excuse me, what do you think you’re doing?” the Lapras asked indignantly.
“Err… um…” Kurtzwick stuttered. “I don’t suppose you’d believe I’m polishing your earring?”
“Nope. Not in the slightest.”
“Any way I’m going to get to leave without you beating me up?”
“Nope.”
“Shoot.”

Time to brawl! Kurtzwick versus Lapras!
Kurtzwick – “Hack, slay, and haul it all away!”
~
Lapras – “Own up to it!”

“Well then,” the Lapras said, “let’s start this off simply.” He reared back and spat a beam of frost and snow at Kurtzwick, who ducked out of the way just in time. Nonetheless, the Ice Beam nicked his tail, sending a chill up through the Dratini’s body.
“Gah!” Kurtzwick grunted. “Let’s see how you like a taste of your own medicine!” He closed his eyes and focused. Almost immediately, a cold wind began to blow through the room, circling around the Lapras. As it began to whip more and more harshly, Kurtzwick grinned.
The Lapras, however, merely laughed. “What do you think that’s going to do to me? This is like a mild tropical breeze! I could relax in this all day.”
“I suppose it’s a good thing I have more than one trick up me sleeve, then,” Kurtzwick said. He released a cloud of Haze, completely obscuring himself from view. When the Icy Wind finally faded, so too had the Haze, but as the Lapras noted, Kurtzwick was nowhere to be seen.
“Where did you go, huh?” the Lapras muttered, more to himself than anyone else. Unfortunately for him, that question was about to be answered.
“I’m over here!” Kurtzwick called from behind his foe. The Lapras turned, only to be met by a large orb of electricity to his face. The electricity coursed through the Lapras’s body, leaving it somewhat smoldering and absolutely furious.
“That’s it! No more Mr. Nice Sea Monster!” the Lapras howled. Like Kurtzwick had done earlier, he closed his eyes and focused, and as before, a chill wind picked up in the room. This one, however, was harsher than before and significantly colder: even some of the ice Pokemon in the room were shivering. Before long, visibility was reduced to nearly nothing, but the loud laugh of the Lapras could be heard over the whipping wind. “How do you like that, you spaz?” the Lapras crowed.
No answer came, but the Lapras was not very concerned… at least not until the Blizzard began to die down. As the snow and ice receded, the Lapras caught a glimpse of something shiny. Unlike his earring, however, this was significantly larger. Finally, the Blizzard was completely gone, and the Lapras saw it for what it truly was: a Protect shield.
“I see how you play,” Kurtzwick said as he dropped the shield. “Well, have a taste of my ultimate attack.” His eyes began to glow red, and flames began to lap at the sides of his body. “OUTRAGE!” Suddenly, a blast of flames enveloped the Lapras, melting the surrounding ice. When the flames finally died down, the Lapras was panting heavily.
“Okay, okay, you win. Just get outta here before I sue ya,” the Lapras mumbled.

This game’s winner is… Kurtzwick!

“I don’t suppose there’s any way I could still make off with your earr--”
“GO AWAY!”

---

Mercandos stepped warily into the Universal Adoption Center. Today’s training seemed to be going in full blast: the room seemed more fit to be the Professional Sports Breeding Center, as all the Pokemon in the UAC today were playing some kind of sport. “I don’t like jocks,” he murmured to himself. “They’re too full of themselves, and what do they know about real combat? They wouldn’t be able to handle themselves.”
“Hey there, stranger,” a voice called from a corner of the room filled with Pokemon playing soccer. “I hope you’re not saying that without seeing us in action.” Before Mercandos could register it, a soccer ball came flying out of nowhere and nailed him in the head. As he regained his balance, the source of the voice – a smug-looking Shieldon – marched over to him. “I propose that we put your skills to the test if you’re gonna challenge ours. What do you have to say to that?”
Even though he was still nursing his head, Mercandos grinned. “I accept. You won’t stand a chance, son.”

Time to brawl! Mercandos versus Shieldon!
Mercandos – “Ten-hut!”
~
Shieldon – “Get ready to ruuuuumble!”

Hmmm… He’s a steel and a rock type, Mercandos thought. That means that all of my attacks are going to be ineffective. What can I do first…?
“You’re being too slow!” the Shieldon called. “Try this on for size!” He charged at Mercandos, his metallic head glinting in the light.
“Gyah! Not so fast!” Mercandos replied, seemingly surprised. He wound up a Dizzy Punch and intercepted the Shieldon’s Iron Head with it… or, at least, that was the plan. In reality, Shieldon’s head proved just a little too hard, and Mercandos pulled his hand back sharply, yelping.
“I see you’re not all you’re cracked up to be, eh, mate?” the Shieldon chuckled.
“Grr… Now I’ll show you!” Mercandos cried, taking a step back. He began to wiggle his fingers back and forth in an almost hypnotic manner. There was an audible ‘click’, then Mercandos began to do an odd two-step, a red aura surrounding him. “Haaah!” he grunted. “That was great! I feel supercharged!”
“W-what are you doing?” the Shieldon asked, slightly unnerved.
“It worked so well, I’ll do it again!” Mercandos said, grinning. Once more, he began the Metronome. As before, there was a clicking noise, but this time, a bright light began to shine from behind him. “I may not have a tail, but Tail Glow still works great!”
The Shieldon grimaced. “Two can play at that game, buddy,” he said, adopting a defensive pose. An iron coating seemed to surround him: it shimmered in the light, then disappeared.
Mercandos smirked. “That’s what I was waiting for!” he said, putting his hands out. “GUARD SWAP!” Twin beams of light spanned the distance between Mercandos and the Shieldon for a split second, then disappeared.
“What did you do?” the Shieldon fumed. “I feel… drained.”
“Guard Swap is a useful move, I think,” Mercandos said, waving a finger. “It swaps our defensive stat boosts between us.”
“But… you haven’t used any…”
“Exactly.” Mercandos began waggling his other finger. “Now, let’s see what we get this time…” The Mr. Mime opened his mouth, emitting a loud squeal, like two pieces of metal scraping against each other.
The Shieldon covered his ears. “Ugh! Not Metal Sound! That’s horrible!”
“True as that may be, I think this stat war has gone on long enough,” Mercandos said. “Even though it’ll be non-very effective, I think this should still work…” He raised his hands and closed his eyes. A bright white light filled the room, accompanied by the sound of rushing wind. The sounds of several impacts, followed by grunts of pain from the Shieldon, followed soon after. When the light cleared, Mercandos hadn’t moved an inch, but the Shieldon looked battered and bruised.
“I… hope you don’t think you’ve beaten me…” the Shieldon muttered, slowly staggering to his feet. He let loose a howl and charged at Mercandos again.
“So sorry, but this’ll be it,” Mercandos said. As the Shieldon charged, a glowing, orange dragon arose from the ground behind Mercandos. The Shieldon skid to a stop, blinking in astonishment at the figure. This, unfortunately, left him wide open for the gout of orange flames that the dragon spewed at him, leaving the Shieldon charred on the ground.
“O-okay… you’re the real deal…” the Shieldon murmured.

This game’s winner is… Mercandos!

Mercandos shook his head. “I apologize too. Your skills are definitely better than I assumed.”

---

The last of the group to find a room, Groviglio wandered halfheartedly into the Professional Sports Breeding Center. Much like the UAC, the PSBC was filled with Pokemon of all kinds training and working out. Groviglio muttered something under his breath; he was about as fond of jocks as Mercandos was, but for completely different reasons.
“Hey! Everybody! Look at the hulking blue monstrosity!”
That was one of those reasons. Groviglio focused in on the source of the call – a Makuhita – and walked over to him. “Do you have a problem with the way I look? You, you overweight Pikachu mockery?”
The Makuhita bristled. “Hey, hey, it’s not my fault your face scares small children!”
“At least children can get close enough to me to be scared of it! Your putrid stench repels anybody in a fifty mile radius!”
“Look, do you want to make this physical?”
“If it gave me a chance to beat your ugly face in? Certainly.”

Time to brawl! Groviglio versus Makuhita!
Groviglio – “You fight like a cow!
~
Makuhita – “Eat it!”

“Let it never be said that I don’t fight to the best of my ability,” Groviglio said, sounding like he would be smirking if his mouth was visible. He pulled a comically-oversized die from behind his back and rolled it on the ground. “Let’s see how you’re going to be impeded today…”
The die spun on one tip for a moment, then fell, revealing the face that read “Special Defense.”
“Excellent.” Groviglio rubbed his ‘hands’ together. “Now, for step two…”
“You won’t be getting that chance!” the Makuhita hollered. “I’ll take you down first!” He threw himself at Groviglio and began pelting the Tangrowth with a series of open-palm smacks. Groviglio crouched down and weathered the blows as best as he could.
“Heh. You’re a fool if you think that did much. Of course, I’d argue that you’re a fool anyway.” Groviglio shook his head. “Now, as I said, for step two…” He spun his arms in a circle, releasing a cloud of purple spores. The cloud quickly blew in the Makuhita’s direction, and the unfortunate fighting type had little recourse but to inhale them. The Makuhita coughed and turned slightly purple.
“You… fight dirty…” the Makuhita said, hacking.
“Incorrect,” Groviglio replied. “I fight smartly. Honestly, even someone like you shoulda figured that one out.”
“If you were fighting smartly, you wouldn’t have poisoned me…” the Makuhita said, a hint of triumph in his voice. “Because I can do this!” Once again, he charged at Groviglio, but this time, his fists were glowing a bright purple. Faster than Groviglio could comprehend, the Makuhita barreled into him with a barrage of punches. The Makuhita then bounced back, seeming as if he had regained some of his vigor. “Façade, as I’m sure you know--”
“Boosts power when you’re poisoned, yeah, yeah, I gotcha,” Groviglio muttered. “Geez, I’m not some little kid, ya know. Besides, this is all still part of my plan.” He closed his eyes and focused. Suddenly, a bubble of water appeared around the Makuhita.
“What is this?!” the Makuhita exclaimed, his voice echoing slightly through the water.
“You’ll find out shortly, dunce,” Groviglio replied. He raised one arm, and the bubble began to constrict. A look of panic crossed the Makuhita’s face as he realized his air supply was rapidly diminishing. The bubble finally popped, and the Makuhita fell to the ground, panting.
“That was cheap…” the Makuhita said, obviously tiring. “Looks like I’ll have to go for the cheap shots too.” As was standard by that point, he charged at Groviglio. However, Groviglio was hardly prepared for the attack that the Makuhita launched: it was a serious of punches, kicks, and chops that came so fast and so brutally that he had no hope of defending against them. After what felt like an eternity, the Makuhita stepped back. Both combatants were panting heavily; the Close Combat had taken their toll on both of them.
“Haah… haah… you think that’ll be it?” Groviglio said. “I still have an ace up my sleeve…” He closed his eyes and focused once more. This time, orbs of green energy began to flow between the two fighters. With each orb that went from Makuhita to Groviglio, the former looked more and more exhausted and the latter looked more rejuvenated until eventually, the Makuhita collapsed.

This game’s winner is… Groviglio!

“Let that be a lesson to all you jocks,” Groviglio said, looking up around the room. “Nobody insults me like that without getting a taste of their own medicine.”

---

Later that evening, Jeff walked into the house and began putting away his bag. As he did, he glanced at the living room and noticed Mona, Mercandos, Groviglio, and Kurtzwick sitting quietly, watching a TV show.
“So, hey, guys! How was the training?” Jeff asked, smiling widely.
Nobody answered, but he got more than one stony glare.
“…was it something I said?”

[Lady Vulpix]

Well, the rules say nothing about that, but I guess you can.

[Lady Vulpix]

Alright, here I am. Sorry for the late reply, I've been busy.

It was a long story with many battles and scenes, so I'll write my comments as a list.

• Hey, the training wasn't so bad!
• I like your amusing writing style.
• Nice way of wrapping things up by bringing up the details of your previour stories.
• How did the Ditto use Nightmare while in Jeff's form?
• How did you/Jeff survive for so long with no money? And if you did get some, wasn't there a phone booth available in the whole village?
• Groviglio's perfecting himself! His insults are better when he's angry.
• "Unlike what had been going on in previous months, however, they were not painting the scenery blue." <- That sentence made me laugh. I was thinking about that just before I read it.
• So you're Jeff "Blue" Azure McCoy now?
• I liked Mona's greeting. She should record it on an answering machine.
• Nice description of the Jungle Deforestation Recovery Agency!
• It's good to know Mona can get serious when necessary.
• Does Kurtzwick have an internal radar for valuable objects?
• The Lapras deserved to win that one. (Or should I say the Sea Monster?)
• Interesting use of Haze. I guess being transparent has its advantages.
• Yes, it's amazing what Metronome and similar moves can do.
• I've just realized I don't know much about Mercandos. I'd like to see more of him.
• Wow, Groviglio's found a rival!
• I'd never thought of a connection between Pikachu and Makuhita before.

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