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

[Last Exile]

With all the posts I know have an idea of what to do. Intriguing start, Gabi. Allows me to run off that.

Well, I know have a good reason to get writing again. Because last night, I finally managed to get all 180 emblems on Sonic Adventure 2! Ever since I saw that Roddick - El Aynaoui match in the Aussie Open tennis where Roddick won 21-19 in the 5th set, I've been feeling quite psyched and pulling off some crazy stuff. That and I've had to take care of mum since she came home on Wednesday. She had a historectomy on the Friday before. But she's recovering well. In two weeks she should be more active but she'll need another month on top of that to recover. At least she's getting paid leave. Tomorrow is Triple J's Hottest 100, so expect me to be plonked next to the radio for 8 hours straight to see what us Aussies liked musically in 2002. On the 31st I'll be at the Big Day out. 11 bands in 11 hours. On the 16th of February I'll be seeing Pearl Jam. And on the 28th of January I'll be enrolling for my teaching course. Life is busy but alright since Australia won the One Day cricket series 15 mintues ago. Hopefully they can win the cricket World Cup which starts February 9.

In between all that I need to get something for here and something for my fics. Just posted something for When Destinies Collide so I'd better get to it for This Fic.

[Lady Vulpix]

Wow, you have lots of plans, Ryan! Good luck with everything. I'm looking forward to finding out how you're going to run off my story.
Best wishes to your mom. I hope she gets well soon.

By the way, I've started working hard on my thesis because, all of a sudden, I have a deadline (either I finish it by the middle of this year or they get someone else to do it). I hope I get to finish it in time without getting as crazy as las year.

[PancaKe]

Wow you got a lot on your plate! ^_^ Hope everything goes well for you and dont get killed moshpitting please! Make sure you go see QOTSA for me becuase I've just started liking some of their stuff. I like the bass, its simple and funky. Also go see 28 Days and other punk bands! Do you know what punk bands are going to be there?

~Mist

[Last Exile]

Well, here's who I'm seeing:

11:30 - Waikiki (acoustic/harmony rock)
12:20 - 28 Days (hip hop/punk)
1:10 - Frenzal Rhomb (punk)
2:00 - Pacifier (heavy rock)
3:00 - The Waifs (acoustic balladiers)
4:20 - The Vines (crazy rock)
5:15 - The Living End (punk)
6:15 - Queens Of The Stone Age (heavy rock)
7:15 - PJ Harvey (melody/rock/punk)
8:15 - Jane's Addiction (rock legends)
9:15 - Foo Fighters (rock)

Enough rock/punk for you?!

Expect my ears to be continually ringing for at least a day after! And Tara, moshpits are safe. There's a lot of comradery between the music fans. The places where there are hooligans are mainly Syndey and Melbourne. That's why the East Coast legs of The Big Day Out had safety measures put in for this year.

PS. Queens Of The Stone Age swear that they have bootleg tapes that suggest Limp Bizkit were to blame for the death of Jessica Michalik. i.e. They did NOTHING to stop the carnage that was happening once it started! No wonder LB didn't want to testify to the coroner or that they left the country straight away or that they've made no music since because their guitarist quit the band. Hopefully Fred Durst never makes another song again and has a 'limp bizkit' for life! To think the BDO organisers were the ones the coroner blamed. Ick!

Well at least you've seen the light on Queens Of The Stone Age. I give you a lot of praise for that.

PS. Did you catch the Hottest 100? They actually got the No. 1 song for 2002 with No One Knows. They had 4 others ones in there too. Silverchair, The Vines, the Foo Fighters, Grinspoon, Eminem, Coldplay and The Waifs all dominated the list as well.

Here's the link for the whole list for interested parties:

http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hottest100/list02.htm

And yes, Gabi, the song in 8th place IS about what it suggests! *wonders if you fainted at the thought*

Think I'll start a topic on Misc to see what people think of the list

Anways, I'm writing again, so expect new material from me soon!

Bye to all you beautiful people! And good luck with thesis writing Gabi. Start now. That's my only piece of advice.

[Lady Vulpix]

I'd take your advice, Ryan, but I can't. I've started a long time ago.
By the way, I didn't faint. I'm not that fragile. But I did think that the media can make anything pass for art these days.

[Knight of Time]

My trip to the Porygon Valley, Part II

[My POV]

It was a good day for me as usual. After defeating Leo earlier, I decided to stick around for a while longer, and I backtracked to the spot where I had originally battled Leo and Flasher, his lone Porygon2. Knowing that they were long gone by now, I sighed. Starting to figure where Leo could be, I waited for several minutes, until I heard a scream that sounded very familiar. Knowing that I would have a lot of difficulty trying to figure out who screamed, I decided to go back to where I had entered the valley. Even though I could still hear the screams once in a while, they were not as loud here.

Realizing that someone out there was in major trouble, I knew that I might only be able to help the person if I temporarily left the Porygon Valley, and I walked back to the portal that got me here, and went through it, when I suddenly was sent backwards.

Slowly getting up, I rubbed the wounds I had received from trying to go back the way I had came. Figuring that I was trapped here, I knew that Leo would never try to do this to me, as he was a trustful friend, and I soon could hear the screams getting weaker and weaker from my position, until they suddenly stopped.

Figuring it would be very hard to determine who the screams had come from now that they had stopped, I had an idea, and I decided to take out Sniper, my L9 male Crobat, and I asked him if he could search in the air for the person who was screaming.

[Sniper's POV]

Upon hearing Kyle's important request, I nodded. Knowing that I couldn't just refuse to look for this screaming person by air, I flew several metres above Kyle, and flew for a while until I soon began to pant. Beginning to get tired, I was not so confident I would be able to find this person that was in trouble, and I began to slowly float to the ground, until I could see an unconscious boy not too far off, and I called for Kyle to come up ahead of me to see what was wrong.

[My POV]

Upon hearing Sniper's request, I knew that I couldn't refuse, and I followed him until I came up to the unconscious boy. Realizing that this was none other than Leo after several minutes, I helped him get back to his senses thanks to my emergency kit in my backpack, and I asked him what was going on, and he soon explained in deep sighs that he and Flasher were beaten by a bad looking trainer who had a Porygon2 that was trained better than Flasher. Realizing that the guy must have beaten up Leo after defeating Flasher, I helped Leo back up to his feet within several minutes thanks to some pain killers, and promised him that I would stop this person who attacked him.

Helping Leo back to his house which was a short trip from my location, we said our final goodbyes, and I set out to look for Leo's attacker, until I was suddenly interrupted by Leo.

"I hate to say this Kyle, but this guy is one of the most powerful trainers in the whole of Porygon Valley. In order to beat him, you have to have one of your Pokemon trick the guy's Porygon2 into converting into a type in which you can take advantage of by using its weakness against. I know you can do it."

Upon hearing what Leo had to say, I saw him suddenly collapse. Figuring he was too weak to move very far, I asked Sniper if he could airlift Leo back home, and he nodded.

[Sniper's POV]

Upon hearing Kyle's new request, I knew that refusing it could be very bad for Leo, and I watched as Kyle helped Leo onto my back, as I soon lifted into the air. Finding Leo's home about a mile away, I helped him get in, and just as I was thanked by Leo's parents, I flew back to where Kyle was, and I told Kyle that I was feeling a bit tired, and wanted to go back into my Pokeball.

[My POV]

Returning the tired Sniper to his Pokeball as he had requested, I soon set out to track down the stranger. Figuring that there were no footprints here, I waited and waited, until I could hear noises behind me. Turning around, I could see a trainer a bit taller and more muscular than Leo, and I asked him his name.

'So, you must be the one who is friends with Leo I see. I beat his Porygon2 with so much ease, and I am going to beat one of your Pokemon with ease as well! And if you must know, my name is Michael. Take out a Pokemon, and we will battle.'

Knowing I couldn't refuse Michael's offer, I was not ready to end up like Leo, and I took out a Pokeball. Enlarging it, I opened it up to reveal my female Cleffa, Star.

'A Cleffa? Hah. If you think she can help you win, she better be ready, because my Porygon2 will trash your Cleffa, just like it trashed Leo's Porygon2. I call my Porygon2 Blade, which yoy may refer to as a 'he'."

Upon seeing Michael withdraw his own Porygon2, I figured that this would be tougher to beat than I thought, and I took my position opposite Michael, ready to battle.

Star the female Cleffa (L7) vs Blade the Porygon2 (L10)

[My POV]

Upon being forced to fight Michael's Porygon2, Blade, I felt a bit nervous. Knowing that Leo's Porygon2 was tough to beat, and finding out how easily Blade defeated Flasher, I shuddered for a few seconds before turning to Michael, asking him who was going to attack first.

"Since you are a friend of Leo's, you attack first. But beware, I'll be glad to beat you."

Upon agreeing to attack first, I turned to Star.

"okay Star, it might have been a bit tough for Buzz to win against a Porygon2 like Flasher last time, but this is now. I want you to immediately begin with Amnesia."

Upon giving my first attack command to Star, I could notice a few question marks over her head. Knowing she could not lose her memory, I watched as they faded away, as if her special defense had rose a lot.

"Man, you may have made a good move, but that will not protect you against this. Blade, get her with your Toxic!"

Soon, I could see a highly poisonous venom come out of Blade's 'mouth'. Upon seeing it splatter all over Star, I shuddered again. Knowing that she would only have a limited time to take down Blade, I had enough.

"Okay Star, Blade may have been lucky to poison you, but we can still trick him, so begin with your Pound attack!"

Upon seeing Star move towards Blade, she began to pound on him with her back legs. Unfortunately, I realized this wouldn't last very long, as I waited for Michael's next attack command.

"Okay Blade, even though our opponent may be getting a little overconfident, I want you to use Conversion2 immediately."

Upon seeing Blade begin to glow, I scratched my head, not having a clue what type Blade would become, until I could see his body partially transparent, as if he had converted to the ghost type.

"Hey Michael, you may think that having Blade convery to the ghost type was a good idea, but you will see what happens while he is in this state. Star, show him the Hidden Power I gave you, of Darkness!'

Upon seeing Star send out several small balls of dark energy arranged in a medium sized circle, I warned Michael that I was here to win, not lose as I saw the dark energy swirl around Blade's body, hurting him.

"Humph, you might have gotten lucky, but the poison will eventually finish Star off. You can't win. Now, Blade, use your Psychic to ick up Star, and smash her as hard as you can!"

Upon seeing Star being telekinetically picked up and dropped pretty hard, I was far from ready to give up, as I gave Star her next command.

"Okay Star, even though you might faint within one of your next turns, we can still show Michael and Blade who is better off at winning this contest. Now, unleash another Hidden Power Dark at him!"

Upon seeing the second set of dark balls of energy swirl around and crash into Blade's ghostly body, I could see that he was getting weaker, and quite tired.

"You might have the upper hand, but I am going to make sure you end up like Leo. Blade, finish her off with another Psychic!"

As soon as I saw Star lifted off the ground again, I slowly shook my head back and forth. Knowing that this could be the end of Star after seeing her getting dropped hard again, I was feeling more power coming through my body, and I gave Star what might be her last command for the battle.

"Okay Star, it may look like you are very close to fainting, but I know that this can be won. Now, finish off Blade with one last Hidden Power: Dark!"

Upon seeing the circle of dark energy balls swirl around Blade a third time, I watched patiently, hoping he would faint, when I heard some beeping sounds coming from him, as if they were telling me and Michael that he was defeated.

"Arrgh, you beat me. Hmmph, I was strong, but you are way stronger than me. I'm outta here!"

Upon seeing Michael leave, I sighed. Hoping he would be the only human enemy I would face in my entire life, I congratulated Star on a job well done, returning her to her Pokeball just as she was about to faint, and I immediately headed back to the portal that brought me to this great place, succesfuly going through it back into my own world, with Porygon Valley only a memory now...

Star grew to L9 and learned Sing!

Well, I guess this marks the end of my first (but hopefully not only) scenario.

Lady Vulpix, thank you so much for posting it. I really enjoyed making it for you guys.

[Last Exile]

Aw, Gabi, c'mon! You can't slag Machine Gun Fellatio! Those guys and girls are great! They're awesome live! They're a bit naughty but not that extreme. They just like to give a bit of cheek. Anyways, commercial radio won't go near them. Only Triple J plays them. MGF have artistic freedom. Besides, I don't see what's wrong with calling a song 'P***ytown'.

EDIT: Forgot to say. I'm now enroled in my teaching course and I also found out yesterday my application for work on AFL/SANFL game days was successful. I'm finally going to be working for money!

[AntiAsh Superstar]

Hehe, finally here's my scenario for the Christmas party, I did start it when the scenario was first posted but I guess I've been too busy/easily distacted/tied up in exams/otherwise preoccupied to get it finished until now, lol!

-----

Life could be a confusing thing at times. At least that was how it appeared to Adreena. Shouldn’t things have been more straightforward than they were? After all, on the surface was her existence not as comfortable as it possibly could be? A nice apartment to live in, a regular supply of good food, friends who, although admittedly eccentric, never demanded anything of her other than her company. And it wasn’t as if she had any reason to feel low any longer. Tamotsu, the wild Umbreon who had been her closest companion for what seemed like an eternity, was no longer out of reach. In fact, it was quite remarkable how he always seemed to locate her with such precision. All the Vaporeon needed to do was to step outside on her own, and within minutes Tamotsu would be at her side, enveloping her with his much-needed affection. She had long begun to suspect, quite rightly, that he possessed more than a hint of psychic power himself. So that wasn’t the problem. The problem was... well, the problem was that she simply didn’t know where she was fitting in. She was feeling insecure. The place Adreena called home had only been that for a month or so, and she was having a harder time finding her niche in the order of things than her always amiable younger sister was. Kirei had slotted into the team perfectly, but for Adreena the ice simply hadn’t broken yet. Of course there were no worries about those she had known in the past - Lucky and Kirei had been a part of her life for so long now that she couldn’t possibly imagine what it would be like without them, and even though Pandora had found her niche with Milliardo, the Houndour was still more than happy to spend a little quality time with Adreena. And everybody else had been so nice to her as well. The Vaporeon sighed, and ran through her newer companions in her mind. Katnip... he was a generally agreeable sort, but Adreena had so little in common with a creature such as the Raticate who lived for competition! Sindel was intelligent enough company, but she pried too much. She would be sticking her nose in without even realising it, so ingrained was her inquisitive nature into her psyche. Beckham and Kasumi were both funny for a short while, but Adreena often found herself tiring of the Wartortle’s faux stupidity and the Growlithe’s gutter-level mentality. Nobody really seemed to get along with Scratchy, he was as antisocial as they came, spending most of his time napping well away from the others. Milliardo... well, there was an odd one, and Adreena really wanted to be able to befriend the Umbreon, not only for Pandora’s sake but also because she often got the impression that there was an intelligent and witty companion lurking underneath the antagonistic front. But his walls were too strong to break through in such a short time. So that left Tsuyoi, myself and Pearl. The Vaporeon sighed to herself. She could get along with that little group. Maybe they had their flaws, but then so did everybody. But they cared, and they were good conversation, and what more did Adreena really need? Tsuyoi might have been initially unsettling, it was an unfortunate side-effect of his heritage, but he had a very strong paternal streak that Adreena identified with in some way. It was that need to keep people close to you, to watch over them. Tsuyoi gained his satisfaction from that. Of course he was forceful, of course he pulled no punches, but he was strong, both mentally and physically, and had earned every drop of respect he received from the others. In myself the Vaporeon saw a fellow hopeless romantic, and she owed me a lot for the hospitality anyway. Again, I had my fair share of character flaws, but in a lot of ways we were quite similar creatures. And then there was Pearl. The more the Vaporeon saw of Pearl, the more she was beginning to view her with a sort of hero-worship. Pearl possessed all of those characteristics that Adreena found most appealing in a person or a pokémon. Intelligence... no, not that, Pearl was wise. Pearl knew what she was talking about. And much like Adreena, Pearl had a mile-wide romantic streak, maybe even lapsing into sentimentality, but that was tempered with an inner strength, a strong sense of self-belief. Pearl was confident without egotism, a born mediator, the lynchpin that the team relied upon. And Pearl was everything Adreena had ever wanted to be.
“Hey.” A voice from behind startled Adreena out of her meditations with the kind of textbook timing that should have come straight from a work of fiction. The Vaporeon turned from gazing out of the window at the night sky to see a pair of bright red eyes, a sleek cream body coated with gorgeously soft fur, and nine busy tails swaying happily towards the rear. Yes, the timing was impeccable, and Adreena had to stifle a laugh at the absurdity of it all.
“Hi.” The Vaporeon nodded politely, but apparently Pearl was having none of that any longer.
“Jeez, dispense with the formality already, would you?” The Ninetales laughed warmly and joined Adreena by the window. “We don’t CARE about manners around here, or hadn’t you noticed?”
“I guess so. Old habits just die hard.”
“Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of time to be corrupted yet!” Pearl gazed out at the darkened sky, obscured by thick black clouds. She shuddered, suddenly cold. The last time it had been quite this dark... well, maybe it was best not to think about that just yet. “I’ve just been talking to Tsuyoi, he’s got a plan for Ade’s Christmas present.”
“Oh?”
“Apparently he’s just had a really disturbing vision of what this place is gonna look like once everybody’s fully evolved, and wants to get us a bigger place.” Pearl rolled her eyes. “I mean, we’ve only been here for a year, and he wants us to up and leave just because he gets it into his head that HE wants a little more room. He’s not fooling me, I’ve known him for too long now NOT to wonder about ulterior motives.”
“Tsuyoi isn’t that bad, he seems to care for us.”
“Never said he didn’t, but it’s funny how every decision he makes like this always works out in his favour as well, isn’t it?” Pearl grinned brightly. “Nah, I shouldn’t knock him, it’s good to have him about. Somebody round here needs to be something other than indecisive! And besides, in all fairness I suppose I wouldn’t mind a change of scenery. I’m sick of apartments. I’d like somewhere with a decent garden for once.”
“Yeah.” Adreena nodded forlornly. “Jackie used to have a really lovely garden, sometimes I miss just going outside and staring at the stars. Always little things like that, you know? I never miss the important things... just the trivialities. Just the little things that didn’t seem that important at the time.”
“To quote a character from the Crow film Ade’s watching every other day... believe me, nothing is trivial.” Pearl could see the expression in Adreena’s large, soulful eyes change, a distinctly melancholy feeling reflected within them. Could she really blame her? The Vaporeon had suffered a lot, she had witnessed things that no pokémon should ever have to go through. And she didn’t even have the resilient nature of Kirei or the practical mind of Lucky to help her get over it. Adreena had the soul of an artist, and it was a soul that was easily broken. “Adreena, nobody’s expecting you not to miss those things. Don’t think you’re foolish for giving in to you emotions every now and then. You don’t have to try so hard to keep detached, nobody will think any less of you if you let go. Hey, not everybody can pull of that ‘live for today and block everything else out’ thing your little sister does so well, can they, so why even try? Won’t work for everybody.”
“How do you do that?” Adreena sniffed, finding it harder and harder to fight the tears. “Get straight to the heart of the problem like that?”
“Maybe it just takes somebody else to get you to face things.” Pearl looked surprised, as if she had caught something in Adreena’s glance that she hadn’t been expecting. “Maybe things just seem cleared to an outsider. I don’t know. All I’m trying to do is help a friend, I don’t analyse HOW I do it. However, let me say this now. I can help you if you need it, but I can’t solve your problems myself. I’m not perfect. Pearl can give people a shoulder to cry on if they need it, but Pearl can’t wave a magic wand and make everything okay.”
“And Pearl’s done it again.” Adreena smiled weakly. “Hit the nail on the head without me even saying anything.”
“Guess I’m just better than most at reading others.” The Ninetales shrugged. “But I meant what I said about offering a shoulder to cry on, Adreena. Maybe I’m not as perfect as I suspect you think I am, but I can do that, at least. If it ever gets too much for you, give me a yell, okay? It’s what I’m here for.”
“Right.” Adreena felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Still she felt that the Ninetales before her was playing down her own talents - or was simply unaware on incapable of recognising them - but if Pearl was willing to give her support, the Vaporeon was sure that she could make it through this. Maybe she would even start to feel like one of the team. One day.

All things considered, I had felt better than I did that morning. I had been out with a friend a few days ago - yes, it even surprised me, that after all this time alone I had finally located another human being I really wanted to spend some time with - but that night had been cheaper than I had expected, albeit infinitely more enjoyable. Hence the bottle of rum the following night, and hence the body that felt like lead this morning. Why had I overindulged so badly this time, after spending so long surviving within my limits? Was it a desire to sustain the good mood I had been in? If so, it hadn’t worked. Maybe part of me felt that SOMETHING had to go wrong, and was hammering my body in the only way it knew how, through ultimately pointless self-destruction. Or maybe it was that good old friend known as ‘drowning your sorrows’, for if it was possible to miss somebody after a mere 24 hours, I had been experiencing that feeling. But whatever the psychological reasons for it, I had overdone things in fine style. No more rum left. I’d polished the whole lot off. And boy, was I paying for it now, with the hangover that seemed insistent on maintaining a less than subtle presence for the entire day.
“It’s all your own fault, you know.” Milliardo was being his usual less than helpful self, going about his business with an unnecessarily loud chirpiness that seemed - and probably was - designed to aggravate my hangover in the most irritating way possible. The Umbreon bounded over and beamed brightly into my face as I sat at the kitchen table with a steaming mug of black coffee. “Want me to put some music on for you? I heard that putting Cradle of Filth on at full blast is a very good hangover cure...”
“Yeah, I can really believe that!” A thin smile crossed my lips. The headache had faded away after less than an hour, as it always did, all it took was some paracetamol and a glass or two of water to rehydrate. So Milliardo’s plan to put on the loudest music he could think of probably wouldn’t have mattered much. But I suspected he already knew as much anyway. Certainly this wasn’t the first time I had been like this in his presence! “No, thanks all the same, but I don’t think sluggishness is something that can be sonically blasted away.”
“How do you know? Have you ever tried?”
“No, but logic dictates that if it WAS possible, I might have stumbled upon that fact by accident by now.”
“Damn you, Ade, you’re no fun.” Milliardo tried to look fed up, but failed miserably. Or maybe he wasn’t even trying. He seemed too good an actor at times when it came to emotions to portray anything other than exactly what he wanted to portray. “Anyway, how long are you going to skulk around here in the kitchen, that’s what I’m here to ask. It’s getting bloody boring round here, and we need something to do. So in times like this we turn to our illustrious leader for advice.”
“Oh? And what did Tsuyoi suggest, then?”
“Hey, you’d better watch it, Ade, you’re almost starting to sound like me!” The Umbreon chuckled to himself. “No, I meant you, idiot. Whilst I’m sure hanging around drinking coffee on your own is no doubt the greatest entertainment ever devised by mankind, you could do us all a huge favour and put your time to better use.”
“Says the pokémon who’s ALSO just hanging around the kitchen.”
“Call me weird, but explain what else there IS to do without you? We can’t really leave the house, and even if we could we wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves. As depressing a prospect as it is, we’re all kind of depending on the alcoholic ****wit called Ade to take the initiative for once.”
“You wouldn’t know tact if you fell over it, would you?” I sighed, draining my mug and reluctantly admitting that the Umbreon had a point, even if it could have been expressed in a far kinder manner.
“Wow, you only just noticed? Ten out of ten for observation there, Ade!” I rolled my eyes. It was clear that Milliardo was in one of his less agreeable moods. Maybe it was sheer restlessness that was making him this way. In which case, didn’t I owe it to everybody to nip this in the bud and provide something to do other than hang around the house? After all, on one point he was absolutely correct. There was very little that a pokémon could do without its trainer. And I probably could have done with a halfway decent distraction, anyway.
“Alright, alright, you win.” I placed my mug on top of the table with maybe a little more force than I had intended, and stood sharply up, overcoming my sluggish body through a great deal of willpower, that willpower that never quite seemed to exist when I really needed it. “Tell the world to celebrate, Ade’s coming out of hibernation.” Okay, so I felt lousy. But that had never been any excuse for not getting up and at least TRYING to go about the day normally, had it?

“Wow! Since when did you become so popular, Ade?” The comment had been sparked by an arrival in the mail. Usually the mail just seemed to be one huge pile of bills that Tsuyoi would take care of, or junk mail that either got binned immediately or used as a frisbee and thrown up and down the room, depending on how bored everybody was. But just every now and then I would receive something that was actually worth my time opening. Today was one of those days. “All these parties and invitations out... are you leading some sort of double life or something?” Pandora seemed to be in quite a good mood for once, which made a refreshing change. Not least because when she was in the mood to have a laugh the Houndour could be quite brilliant company. “A girl could feel left out...”
“No chance with this one!” I turned the invitation over in my hand, musing things over. Another of these strange little activities organised by a group of Dragon Tamers to fill up the time during an unnaturally quiet - and for some immensely frustrating - period. A Christmas party, to be held a few days from today. “Look, trainers are welcome to bring their pokémon, it says so right here.” I held the invitation out so that Pandora could see, wondering as I did so whether pokémon could read or not, and whether this gesture was as futile as it might have been. As it was, my curiosity was soon satisfied.
“Yeah, and there’s also battling contests, so there’s Katnip happy.” Pandora rolled her eyes. “Although you can count ME out of that one, personally I’m more interested in who these ‘live bands’ they’re mentioning are. If it’s any boy-girl-band crap I might have to savage somebody.”
“Look, it says ‘live’, as in everything’s being done live. It doesn’t say anything about ‘prancing around to a recorded backing track whilst cleverly lip-synching soppy, generic, clinical nonsense’ bands, does it?” Milliardo had come up to pay more attention to the invite as well. “We all know that kind of band would demand too much to appear at a tiny little do like this, you know pop’s all about making a fast buck.”
“Wow, turned into a right little music critic, haven’t you? Man, you’re worse than me!” I had to laugh. Maybe Milliardo was being just slightly harsh - although he had a point when it came to a lot of the more well-known names - but as long as you weren’t the butt of his scathing humour it never failed to at least raise a bemused smile. “Guys, you can both rest easy, my experience of bands playing parties and clubs and stuff tells me that we’re talking about a host of ridiculously obscure rock or punk acts who are just glad to have an audience. And if you’re very lucky somebody might turn up who MORE than two people in the audience have heard of.”
“Excuse me, I hate to interrupt this totally scary conversation, but will somebody tell me what’s wrong with pop?” Kirei spoke up, but the odd looks she received off the rest of the team were enough to silence her in seconds. “Oh, forget it, you know I can be a right girly girl when the mood takes me.”
“And you can be bloody scary when the mood takes you as well.” Milliardo stuck his tongue out at the Espeon. “Anyway, why are we talking like this? Ade hasn’t even decided if he wants to go yet!”
“What, and miss out on free alcohol? I thought you knew me better than that, Milliardo!”
“Excuse me, but I thought you were hung over.”
“So I changed my mind.” I laughed easily. Through one reason or another, I had been feeling in a much better mood than I had been in for... well, the last time I had really felt this good in myself, hangover or not, really escaped my mind. Which, if you thought about it, was a depressing enough concept in itself, but I was determined not to dwell on that aspect of my mood, simply for the paradoxical reason that it would have spoiled my mood. “I am hung over, but I won’t be by the time of the party. Which reminds me, maybe we oughta do a little shopping first, I don’t have anything to wear!”
“Liar.” Kirei grinned brightly. “You’ve plenty of clothes. You just found your excuse to blow a ton of money at that alternative clothing store we found last time we were out in the main shopping area of town, that’s all. Still, it doesn’t bother me, I just wished shops like that existed for pokémon!”
“Oh man, I’d be broke in seconds!” I reached over and ruffled the fur on top of the Espeon’s head playfully. “You guys unleashed in a store like that? I can see the red credit card bills arriving even now!” A large smile crossed my face, and for once it seemed to actually stay there for more than ten seconds. No matter what the past or the future held, right now it simply felt good to be alive. And that was something to be treasured.

The days before the party passed quickly. It gave us something to look forward to, some reason for getting through the day, which was something we all needed desperately. Not that life hadn’t seemingly dealt us a reasonable hand already, but the boredom was getting to us. Now, at least, there was this party to prepare for, and the next few days were spent in a blur of excitement, all talk of what would happen at the gathering, of who would be there, and of how we would get ready in the first place. In my mind events were as perfect as they were ever going to get. Of course, there were one or two little things I would have liked to have changed about the situation, but on the whole I was content. It was just nice to see the pokémon that only a few days ago had been listless and frequently irritable transformed back into the lively and vibrant group that I knew they could be. And that in itself was enough to maintain my unnaturally happy condition. If those I cared about were happy, then so was I. That was how it had always been, and how it would probably always be.
“You chosen yet, Ade?” Finally the day of the party had arrived, and as ever I was taking forever in assembling an outfit I was halfway contented with. “Black or black? Ooh, tough choice.” The Ninetales half sat, half lay upon my bed grinned up at me winsomely. I hadn’t seen Pearl so contented in a long time. Maybe she was just reacting to my own good mood. It wouldn’t be surprising, seeing as she was undoubtedly the pokémon closest to me. We had been through too much together NOT to have something of an emotionally symbiotic relationship.
“Hmm... well... oh, screw it, let’s go with the REALLY over the top shirt and hope I don’t mess it up too much. You know how much I hate having to iron that thing.”
“I know how much you hate to do ANY menial work, Ade!” Pearl grinned, hopping down from her place on the bed to nuzzle my leg with affection. I was touched. Again, it was something rather unusual, that something seemingly so simple could matter so much. What was wrong with me? Why, after all this time as a confirmed cynic, was I suddenly reacting to the overly sentimental side of my nature? “Hey, are you alright?” Pearl seemed surprised, suddenly, as if in some way I had reacted in a way that even she hadn’t been expecting. “You seem like something’s bugging you.”
“I’m just surprised at myself, that’s all.” It had taken well over a year, but eventually I HAD realised that there was no hiding anything from the Ninetales. And, if I were to be honest, I more than likely needed her counsel when it was offered. Sometimes Pearl knew what I was feeling far better than even I could have done. “Sometimes I just find it hard to understand myself. I guess I’m just not used to this ‘feeling happy’ thing. When I think back as to how our last Christmas was spent... I don’t know, Pearl, I don’t know whether I should be happy that my life actually seems to be back on track somehow, or whether I should be disturbed that I’m having such difficulty remembering my feelings from a month or two ago!” For some reason I could feel the frustration welling up within me, like a volcano only minutes away from exploding. Frustration with what, though? With myself? With my situation? With the timing of events in my life? Could I even BEGIN to pinpoint the causes of my emotions?
“Sounds like somebody’s having a hard time accepting that things seem to be going well for once.” Pearl offered a sympathetic smile, her ruby eyes boring straight through to the very depths of my soul. Who knew what she saw within there, or what interpretation she would place upon it? “I can understand that. It was all one thing after the other, wasn’t it? If it wasn’t Team Rocket it was the Dark Cloak... I guess even I’m having a hard time adjusting to normality. So it hasn’t been the easiest of years, hasn’t it all worked out for the best, though? We’re all back, we’re all stronger than ever for our experiences. As a group we’ve become even closer. We’ve made new friends. And as for you... well, either I’m getting really hopeless at reading your emotions, which I doubt, or you actually seem to be quite contented for once!” My flustered silence was all the answer Pearl needed. She knew me far too well. Maybe even better than I knew myself. “So you’ve nothing to worry about. All you need is to relax a little, stop being such a self-doubter, and just enjoy yourself. Which, if you ask me, is nothing that either an hour in Kirei’s company or this party won’t fix. Just go out and enjoy yourself, you hear me?” Pearl fixed me with a look that was part exasperation, part bemusement. Such an odd expression didn’t necessarily fit well upon the face of a creature as elegant as a Ninetales, and all of a sudden I found my situation extremely funny, Pearl’s gaze merely the catalyst in making me realise just how absurd I was being. “What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?” I was having a hard time containing my laughter.
“Oh, I’m hopeless, aren’t I?” I chuckled, sitting down on the edge of the unmade bed and running my fingers through Pearl’s wonderfully soft fur, feeling the warmth of her body against my fingertips. “I can’t even feel happy without doubting myself!” I sighed deeply, and looked Pearl straight in the eye. “Okay, lady, you’ve convinced me. Let’s go out and paint the town red.”

The party itself was a far more informal affair than the last celebration held by the Dragon Tamers. Back then it had been a very sombre affair, tainted by the events of the bloody campaigns held in Nagarythe. There had been an almost reverential air to the proceedings. But this... the scene in front of our group, after a lengthy walk made seemingly all the longer by my team’s inability to ever stop bickering, was striking in how much of a contrast it made with that ultimately chaotic day. A huge hall had been hired - obviously the party’s location would have to be large, especially if everybody accepted their invitations - and decorated in suitably festive fashion. Tinsel and streamers lined the walls, and at one end of the hall a gigantic tree was standing, towering over the guests who had arrived before us, and covered with festive lights and baubles. All in all, it seemed to be quite the stereotypical Christmas party. But then again, was anything EVER truly stereotypical around here? Despite the large buffet table set out with all kinds of treats, from sandwiches to chocolates, despite the bar that seemed to be stocked as well as I was hoping it would be, despite the PA system that was currently spewing out some random Christmassy nonsense, this was still Ulthuan, and if there was one thing I had learnt from my time here it was that things never, ever reached a stage where they could be considered predictable.
“So, guys, anything in particular you fancy doing, or shall we get a bite to eat?” I asked my team, my full attention not on any one particular thing. As we moved through the hall I noticed several faces I recognised. No doubt after a few drinks had loosened my tongue I would be talking the ears off those people, but for now an exchange of polite nods or ‘hellos’ would suffice.
“Food sounds good to me!” Kirei grinned brightly. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starving!”
“Is it any wonder?” A small smile crossed Adreena’s face, the first time she had seemed truly relaxed in a long time. Maybe it was the festive spirit finally breaking through the Vaporeon’s demure front, or maybe she truly was finding her place withing the group. Either way, it was nice to see her relax slightly. “You’ve been twice as hyperactive as normal today. ANYBODY would be hungry if they’d been running around as much as you have.”
“So I got a little excited. What’s wrong with that? I don’t exactly get invited to parties every day, you know.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t get too carried away if I were you, Kirei.” Pandora sighed, trying her best to pretend she was indifferent to the whole scenario, but as usual those expressive eyes were spoiling the front. The tone was sceptical, but the eyes were filled with wonder. “Based on my experience with Dragon Tamers parties, the instant everyone gets settled down we’re going to get attacked. Or the building’s going to collapse.”
“Or both,” Milliardo chipped in helpfully. “Then we get ambushed by killer demons. Or maybe nothing’ll happen and we’ll have a good time with nothing at all going wrong. But based on our past form I can’t see that happening, really.”
“Oh, stop being such pessimists for once, it’s a party, we’re supposed to have a good time!” Beckham looked around the room, his eyes soon settling on the bar. Clearly his mind was racing through a billion ways a pokémon could sneak a drink or twenty out of a bar designed for human use. “Hey, do you think there’s gonna be any games going on?”
“Yeah, everyone’s gonna sit down and play Pass The Parcel.” Milliardo rolled his eyes. “I think this is gonna be one of those ‘stand around eating, drinking and talking’ things. Unless you count those friendly battles the invitation mentioned as a game.”
“Which nobody is going to do unless they happen to be called Katnip or Kirei.” Pandora shook her head in bemusement. As a creature who only battled when she absolutely had to - the vicious side of battling was something she had seen far too much of to view it as anything other than a frightening experience - the way Katnip viewed it as an art form or Kirei viewed it as a big game was something that never ceased to puzzle the Houndour. “I guess you’ll both be first to queue up for the fights, huh?”
“Nah, you think I’m gonna go off and fight when there’s a party going on?” Kirei laughed in her easy-going fashion. “I might find a bit of competition fun, but I’m not THAT stupid!”
“An’ me... I dunno, I might, but then again, ‘all work an’ no play’ an’ all that crap, yanno?” Katnip shrugged. “Might take a day off from trainin’ fer once.”
“Oh my God, did I just hear right? Katnip just said he might pass up on a battle?” Milliardo gasped in mock horror. “I think I need my hearing checked, that can’t possibly be right.”
“Yeah, I know it’s hard fer yer little brain ta comprehend, but trust me, I do think of other things, yanno!” Katnip grinned brightly, his eyes alighting on the buffet table for the first time. No, this wasn’t really the time to worry about fighting. This was supposed to be a welcome break from all of that, and even Katnip needed a little change in routine every now and then. “Now, how about we quit all the yakkin’ and start with the partyin’? There’s a huge pile of grub over there an’ I’m starvin’. Get the picture yet?”
“Perfectly.” I laughed, in some way admiring the Raticate for his constantly upfront nature. No hiding, no pretenses for him. Katnip was as straightforward as they came. And oh, how many lessons I could learn from him on that score! “Go ahead, buddy, pig out if you want. Same for all of you. We came here to have a good time, so let’s go ahead and do it. And don’t worry about having to stick with me. Spread out if you like. I can’t see any of you being mistaken for anything other than my pokémon.”
“Ha! We’re infamous, eh?” Milliardo grinned broadly.
“You could say that,” came my bemused response. “Put it this way, this team’s one of a kind. Anyway, have fun, guys. If you don’t mind, there’s a bar over there that’s just waiting for me. You know I can’t party very well unless I get a bit tipsy first.”
“Unfortunately for us, we know only too well.” Pearl nuzzled my leg affectionately. “Don’t overdo it, okay? And the ‘have fun’ applies to you as well.”
“I intend on doing.” I broke out into a broad grin, something that rarely crossed my face without being overly forced. Weird. I had almost forgotten how to smile naturally, so when it DID come it almost took my by surprise. Almost.
“Good. Well, see you around, I think I might go grab something to eat now. Anyone with me?”
“Hell yeah!” came the enthusiastic response from Katnip, echoing the thoughts of several other pokémon with empty bellies. I watched them go their separate ways with a bemused smile upon my face. Not many trainers raised their pokémon to be so independent. In fact, in some ways I had overdone it, the line between trainer and friend having become so blurred that it might as well have not existed. But to me that was probably what I was most proud of. I didn’t have a pokémon team. I had a close circle of supportive friends instead, friends who would help me just as much as I helped them. And to me, that was proof enough that I had succeeded as a trainer. Yet what was this? This was no time to be going off into a daydream, to get lost in my thoughts for the millionth time. This was a party, and first and foremost I should have been concentrating on having a good time. Reflection could come later. Now where was that bar again?

“Hey, what’s up with youuu...” Aside from Lucky, who always took top priority within the Espeon’s mind, there was nothing Kirei liked more than a good party. And when Kirei partied, she partied to excess. In that respect we were identical. However, even through the haze of what alcohol she was allowed to get - and this party was a rarity, certainly, for it was generally frowned upon to allow your pokémon to consume such things, although nobody here seemed to mind that much - she was still a lot sharper than people gave her credit for. And she could certainly tell in an instant when something wasn’t quite right with one of her friends. Whether this was more due to her psychic abilities than her powers of perception, however, was a moot point. “C’mon, you can tell me, I won’t tell a soul. Cross my heart.” At this point the Espeon attempted to trace a cross on her chest with one of her front paws, an exercise that would almost certainly have resulted in her crashing to the floor had Lucky not been semi-supporting her the whole time.
“Nothing.” The Kadabra Kirei was talking to shrugged. No, there was nothing wrong. Why should there have been? Didn’t she have everything she needed right about now? Okay, so this wasn’t necessarily Sindel’s scene. She had never been really that comfortable with large groups of strangers, which was why she had been mainly sticking to her own little group. After all, Sindel knew where she stood with them. Even Kirei’s slurred nonsense was in its own way comforting. But that wasn’t necessarily what was bothering the Kadabra. Her attentions, it had to be said, were elsewhere, and you didn’t have to be a Pearl to realise that! “No, I’m fine. Really.” Sindel shook her head as if to try and clear out the cobwebs, before returning her attention to the Espeon and Meowth in front of her. “You seen much of everybody else?” It would be child’s play to find out for herself by probing Lucky’s mind, Sindel thought, although Kirei’s mind was always infuriatingly closed off. But what would be the point? The Kadabra wasn’t so addicted to snooping that she’d ruin a decent conversation opening!
“I keep seeing Pearl around,” Lucky replied before Kirei could start rambling again. “I think she’s trying to broaden her social circle a little. Becks is at the bar. Still.”
“He’s tryin’ to catch up with me.” Kirei giggled madly, nearly falling over again in the process. “I out drank him. And somebody here said it was impossible, didn’t they?” Kirei nuzzled up to Lucky with a drunken smile on her face. “You was wrong, baby! Totally wrong!”
“I wish I’d never opened my mouth now.” Lucky rolled his eyes. Hadn’t he known Kirei long enough to KNOW that she would take a comment like that as a challenge? After all, in times of peace life was just one big game to the Espeon. But he had spoken. And Kirei had taken it as a challenge. And although she had risen to it admirably, she was going to really pay the price in the morning, if not sooner. Lucky was now living in constant fear of her throwing up on the floor. “Anyway, Katnip’s still stuffing himself. Milliardo and Pandora were at the pokémon bar for a little while, but now they’ve gone missing.”
“No guesses what they’re up to, huh? They were getting soooooo clingy, Sindel, it was really funny, I think they forgot where they were. Guess they’ve gone to play in private. Lucky buggers.” Kirei stole a rueful glance over at Lucky, but the Meowth either missed it or pretended not to notice. “Speaking of that, I saw Sumi chatting some poor unfortunate up earlier, she’s gone missing now as well, must’ve finally found someone who wasn’t totally scared off by her advances.”
“Poor guy.” Lucky chuckled.
“Or girl. Who knows? Don’t think it matters that much to our Sumi. Hey. Hey. Ground control to major Sindel?” Kirei took a drunken step forward to prod the Kadabra, but only succeeded in finally toppling over and dragging Lucky down with her. “Ow. I felled over. Sindel, tell me what’s on your mind now or I’ll start crying. My nose hurts. Lucky, kiss it better.”
“It’s all your own fault.” The Meowth helped the unsteady Espeon back to her feet, before giving her a quick peck on her petite nose. “But Sindel, she does have a point, something IS the matter isn’t it?” Lucky stared at the Kadabra with an odd look upon his face, and finally Sindel realised that there was no point in trying to hide it. Besides, how hypocritical would that have been of her to continue being so evasive? If somebody was being like that with her, she would have resorted to every trick she knew to get at the truth. “Come on, maybe we... well, maybe I can help.”
“Well...” Sindel let her gaze return to where it had been pointedly fixed nearly all evening, to the corner of the hall where the practise battles were being held. A small arena had be cordoned off, so that the pokémon could battle without fear of accidentally running into the main party. Right now it was in use, a powerful Ampharos putting the finishing blow to a Flareon that had foolishly challenged it. “I don’t know. I was just wondering whether I should go over there and have a go at the battling. I’ve never actually fought in this body, you know. I was just a little Abra when I last battled. I was thinking it might be an idea to go get some practise in, whilst the battles are just friendly match ups. But... I don’t know, it just seems a little weird to want to battle in the middle of a party!”
“Well, mate, lemme tell ya something. Better to go over and do what you think you have to than spend the entire party dithering, right?” The others looked at Kirei oddly. “What? Did I say something stupid? Sorry, I’m me, get used to it.”
“No, I’m just in shock.” A slow smile crossed Sindel’s face. “You made sense, I’m not used to that off a drunk Kirei!”
“Does this mean you’ve made your mind up, then?” Lucky grinned broadly. Despite her frequent silliness, Kirei was a lot shrewder than she pretended to be.
“Yeah. Let’s go see if I can’t get a little training in. Makes sense to use it if it’s there, right?”

“And there goes another challenger! Oh, such a pity! That makes it ten billion to the house pokémon, and all of half a victory to everybody else! What kind of suicidal moron is going to take up the challenge next?” The little group of pokémon arrived at the scene to be greeted with the sight of a pokémon they knew all too well sat down by the side of the ring lending his less than helpful commentary to the proceedings. “Oh my God, here comes just the person we’ve been looking for. Hi, Thingy!” Milliardo turned to welcome his teammates, before returning to watch the action. “Well, this is an unexpected development. We now turn to our resident expert in being a psychopath. Pandora, what do you suppose this will mean for events in the ring, events outside the ring, events in Lord of the Rings and the world economy in general?”
“Well, I predict total Armageddon within the next few weeks, if not for the world then for smartarses who indirectly refer to their girlfriends as psychopaths.” It was quite clear that neither pokémon was necessarily in the most sane of moods. But then again, to see two pokémon who were normally so downbeat actually having a little fun was worth the nonsense that came part and parcel of the package. “Let’s interview the new arrivals. What brings two of the most level-headed pokémon on the planet and the world’s drunkest Espeon to a ****ty little place like this?”
“Sindel wanted a battle.” Kirei nodded vigorously. “And we came to cheer her on.”
“Well, it’s a good thing somebody has, coz I can’t see Milliardo cheering anybody on.” Pandora chuckled. She was clearly enjoying herself for once. “He’s just been running his mouth off the whole time. I think he’s preparing to write a book called ‘How To Lose Friends and Irritate People’.”
“No change there, then.” Sindel rolled her eyes. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. Fighting in the middle of a party was weird enough, but having the Umbreon there would only compound things further. Of course Sindel knew that he never really meant to be mean, sometimes he did have that tendency to cross the line. “I don’t know, maybe I’ll wait for a while, see what’s going on later.”
“Nonsense, Thingy!” Milliardo moved over to join the group, a broad smile upon his face. “The last few pokémon to fight totally underestimated the strength of that thing over there.” The Umbreon cocked his head in the direction of the arena, where a Pidgeotto was currently nestling with an intimidating look on its face. “It’s been embarrassing to watch. I insist that somebody with half a brain fights it. It’s too smug and I want to see the look on its face when it finally loses.”
“Hang on.” Sindel raised a hand to silence the Umbreon. This was all getting too surreal for her! “Did I just hear you right? Did you just as good as say you thought I could win?”
“Hey, credit where credit’s due, Thingy, you may well be an infuriatingly nosy, stubborn creature, but you know how to handle yourself.” Milliardo cackled loudly, the usual sneer he reserved solely for dealing with Sindel now firmly back in place. “Of course, if you don’t think you’re up to it...” The Umbreon turned his back on his teammate, obviously intending to walk away, back to his ringside position. That was a challenge, plain and simple. And nobody knew Milliardo’s power to talk anyone into anything in this manner like the Umbreon himself. Especially Sindel. It was child’s play to ensnare her, hellbent as she was on earning more than an unspoken respect from a pokémon she had probably known for much longer than anybody else on the team. “Forget it. You’re probably still not certain enough of your Kadabra body. It was a stupid idea.”
“Hold it.” All things considered, Milliardo was quite glad he had his back to the Kadabra right now. It concealed his knowing smirk quite admirably. Although he had to wipe it from his face rather quickly when Sindel ran over to his side. But that was no problem. He was Milliardo, after all. Putting on a front was his speciality. “Getting used to fighting like this was why I’m here.”
“Well you picked a lousy time for it, that’s all I can say. That guy doesn’t pull any punches, you know.” At least on this point Milliardo was telling the truth. The sole reason he had been watching the fights in the first place was to watch as a pokémon that radiated egotism was brought down a peg or two. But so far he had been badly disappointed. Apparently this pokémon had the skills to back up its confidence.
“I don’t care. All the better if he’s fighting to win.” There was a steely look in Sindel’s eyes that indicated she had made up her mind. She had taken the bait better than Milliardo could have ever hoped. “That way I get a good fight, don’t I?” So saying, the Kadabra made her way up to the ring. Nobody tried to stop her, even if she came without a trainer. Maybe it was true that the unorthodox methods of training we used were fast giving us some measure of infamy. Or maybe it was a common sight for pokémon to just decide to have a go at battling without consulting their trainers first, at least where this party was concerned. Certainly my team weren’t the only ones that were wandering around on their own accord! In fact, the only one who seemed to mind was the Pidgeotto. Clearly it thought that this Kadabra was not enough of a challenge for it.
“What’s this?” the bird pokémon trilled, an uppity edge to its tone that made Sindel instantly dislike it upon open its mouth. “Another weak opponent? I was led to believe I’d get a challenge by competing in this... charade.”
“And you’ll get one. Give me a chance.” Sindel, as was her nature, had already used her psychic powers to make a quick assessment of her opponent, and it didn’t impress her much. This was one shallow creature, only concerned with how its victories would reflect upon it, only wanting the glory of winning. All of a sudden she could appreciate why Milliardo was so eager to see this pokémon lose.
“Hardly worth my time,” the Pidgeotto huffed.
“What, afraid I might beat you?” Sindel had never really been comfortable with this kind of fighting talk, but it was clearly the only way she was ever going to get this battle underway. “I think you know I’ll be a challenge and you’re chickening out.”
“Chickening out?” For a second the Pidgeotto seemed enraged, but he quickly regained his composure again. If it was possible to smile with a beak, this pokémon was doing so right now. “Well, I like your courage, if nothing else. Fine. I’ll give you your battle.” The wings went up into a fighting pose. “But I don’t go easier on ladies you know.”
“Suits me fine.” Sindel braced herself. This one was certainly going to be interesting!

[AntiAsh Superstar]

FIGHT!!! L16 Kadabra v L25 Pidgeotto!

Sindel narrowed her eyes, hoping to use her psychic abilities to gain some measure of what her opponent was planning. But her powers had never worked that way. They were powerful, certainly, but they had to be forced. She simply didn’t have that subtle sixth sense that Kirei could so effortlessly use, so it was pointless even trying. She would just have to judge events as best she could.
This moron works by getting the first hit in and never letting up from there. A familiar voice echoed within Sindel’s head. Her eyes flicked to Milliardo, still sat by ringside, his mouth not moving in the slightest. Don’t look so surprised, Thingy, us Dark types make a living by running rings around you psychics, remember? Stands to reason we know a few of your tricks. Anyway, if I were you I’d be teleporting away right now, coz he looks like he’s about to attack, and not even I really want to see you being turned into jam by those talons of his. Milliardo out. Sindel would have commented on how Milliardo made telepathy sound like it was some kind of walkie-talkie system, but she knew the Umbreon better than to forget about his warning. Swiftly the Kadabra moved herself to the air a few inches above where the Pidgeotto’s head had been a mere moment ago, before he had decided to launch himself at full speed towards her. Now his beak met cold air instead of flesh, and Sindel suddenly realised why he had seemed to reluctant to battle. If Milliardo’s theory was correct, the prospect of fighting an opponent who could just slip away at any given moment wasn’t something that this Pidgeotto would have relished. It would ruin his entire strategy. And if that was the case, Sindel had the advantage. If he couldn’t reach her, he couldn’t hurt her.
“Damn you.” The fire in her opponent’s eyes as he wheeled round to face her only seemed to confirm Sindel’s suspicion. He looked like he was only just managing to avoid going into a fully fledged temper tantrum. “Levitating won’t help you! I have the advantage in the air!” With a single beat of his powerful wings, the Pidgeotto hurtled towards Sindel, intent on doing some serious damage.
“If you can reach that far, you probably would.” Sindel’s eyes began to glow for a second, before she threw as large a psychic blast at the mind of her opponent as she could muster. Confusion was a simple attack once your psychic powers grew large enough to be used in their purest form. Attack the brain with as much force as possible, and reduce your opponent’s mind to rubble. Sometimes it would work so well that it would reduce the target to a confused wreck. Sometimes it wouldn’t. But it always, always hurt. And, as Sindel had correctly predicted, there was no way that anything could keep up its intended path after being struck by a force such as that attack. It was enough to send the Pidgeotto hurtling back down to the ground, and it was only his admirable single-mindedness that let him recover in time to prevent from striking the floor. “Come on.” Sindel rolled her eyes. This was no challenge! Her opponent’s blind pride was preventing him from being half the fighter he could well have been. “Can’t you just forget about the crowds and fight without the show?”
“Lady, I was raised to believe that the spectacle is half the fun of the fight. I won’t abandon my style just for you!” And once again the Pidgeotto launched himself at Sindel, and the Kadabra once more prepared to avoid his attack. Only maybe she had underestimated his speed this time, for he was upon her before she could move away, striking her hard in the chest with his beak. It was as if Sindel’s entire torso had exploded with pain. It knocked all of her calm out of her, and all of a sudden she was caught in a terrible maelstrom, a whirl of sharp blows from beaks, and vicious cuts from talons, slicing away at any part of the Kadabra’s body that exposed itself as a likely target. Sindel spent a long time in this panicked state, where confusion and pain were the only two constants in her existence, before the rational part of her mind finally decided to take command once again. And it was telling her to get the hell out of her current position. Quickly. She didn’t need telling twice, and finally managed to gather her thoughts together for long enough to move herself quickly back to ground level, well away from this psychotic pokémon. Finally the Kadabra had a second or two to assess her situation, and it wasn’t good. She hadn’t sustained any major injuries, at least nothing that a few bandages wouldn’t fix, but the blows had taken a great toll upon her physical strength. She wouldn’t be able to survive another onslaught like that. And both combatants knew it.
“Why don’t you just give up? It’d be a lot easier.” An indulgent tone had crept into the Pidgeotto’s tone. Well, he was an entertainer alright, he could ham it up with the best of them! But there was some substance amidst all of that, and not to have noticed that earlier had been the reason why Sindel had been caught unawares. Well, she wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice!
“No chance.” Sindel’s eyes flared again, and for a moment it seemed as if she was going to launch into another Confusion attack. Certainly that was how it appeared to the Pidgeotto, who had fought Psychic type pokémon before, and knew how to brace himself against their attacks to a certain degree. However, it wasn’t her psychic powers she was calling upon, and if it were then it was a radically altered version of them. It was her Hidden Power, that control over the ice elements that had served her so well as an Abra. However, her powers had increased exponentially with her evolution, something that for the moment Sindel had forgotten. And so what the Kadabra had intended to be a simple blow of cold energy left her with the strength of a blizzard, striking her opponent with alarming ferocity, chilling him to his very soul. He couldn’t hope to stay aloft when being battered by such extreme forces, nor could he hope to cling onto consciousness for very long. So he just let himself drop, this time too weak to attempt to save himself from a collision with the floor, and hence landing on the hard floor with a loud crash. He didn’t stir for a long time, and for a second Sindel thought that the battle was hers. But it wasn’t to be. Soon enough the Pidgeotto picked himself up, battered and bruised, but still very much in action. Except... except there was something slightly different about him this time. Something about the look in his eye.
“I... I admit defeat.” These were hard words indeed to speak, but even a prideful creature such as this knew his limits. He might have been an egotist at times but he was no fool. Another blow would surely finish him. “If you were looking to knock some sense into me, you certainly managed it.” Was that humility that was creeping into his expression? Surely not! “So I’ll bow out gracefully now and acknowledge a superior battler.”
“This is a far cry from your earlier attitude, isn’t it?” Sindel seemed surprised at the sudden change of attitude. Who wouldn’t be after the earlier smug superiority?
“All show.” The Pidgeotto gave a dismissive wave of a wing. “I’m no serious battler. Think of me as... I don’t know, a pokémon version of a professional wrestler? Has the skills, but is far happier flexing his muscles than participating in any serious fights. Maybe I still have yet to find the fine line I need to walk between talent and showmanship, hm?” And with this, the Pidgeotto hobbled painfully out of the arena, back to wherever the pokémon brought here to battle went to repair their wounds. Leaving Sindel standing there, the victory hers but her head too filled with questions to truly appreciate it. But then again, wasn’t that always the way when Sindel battled?

Sindel wins!
Sindel grew to L18!
Sindel learned Disable!

“Told you.” Milliardo grinned knowingly as Sindel made her way back down from the ring. “Told you that you could beat that idiot with both arms tied behind your back.”
“It wouldn’t be hard, Milliardo, she’s a Kadabra, she doesn’t actually need to use her arms in battle at all.” Pandora seemed to be just as happy as her boyfriend. Then again, that wasn’t really surprising. Pandora’s sense of self-worth was so low that the only way you COULD make her happy was by pleasing those around her. In Pandora’s world, she didn’t exist herself, but those around her most certainly did.
“Oh, stop being so pedantic. You know what I meant.”
“Milliardo, I NEVER know what you mean. You’re too confusing for us mere mortals to comprehend.”
“Then understand this.” Milliardo leant over and kissed Pandora passionately.
“See what I mean?” Kirei giggled, a manic tone to her voice. “They keep forgetting they’re in the middle of a huge crowd.”
“Don’t.” Milliardo pulled away from Pandora, far sooner than the Houndour would have liked, even though she kept quiet about her boyfriend’s slight for once. “We just no longer give a ****. What’s the point in pretending, everyone knows anyway. So the way I see it, we do what we like where we like, and screw everybody else and their opinions.” This was a hasty cover-up, of course, segueing quite admirably into a tirade that was so classically Milliardo that the entire thing seemed almost believable. “Anyway, where were we before I looked too long at Pandora and understandably became crazed with lust?”
“I was going to ask you since when did you know how to use telepathy, that’s where we were.” Sindel gave Milliardo an odd look. “It isn’t like you to keep a power like that quiet.”
“Nah, I always kind of knew I had it, but what’s the point? Anything I’d want to say over telepathy I can say quite happily in the more traditional manner. Call me old fashioned, but I still prefer to run my mouth off than pull any secret messages. And it’s a ***** for me to concentrate long enough to do that properly anyway.” The Umbreon chuckled, just a small trace of unease within his tone. Serious conversation about his own abilities had never been one of his favourite pastimes. “I’m a lousy telepath, and it doesn’t work half the time anyway. Lucky for you it did work that time, though, Thingy. You’d have been massacred without my help, admit it.”
“Yeah, right.” Sindel couldn’t help but notice the sudden change in the direction of conversation, but she didn’t much care to press the point. If it made Milliardo uncomfortable, talking about it too much would undoubtedly result in completely spoiling the party atmosphere. After all, there was nothing like an annoyed Milliardo to put everyone in a bad mood! “I’ve a question. Whilst we’re here, anybody else want to play with the fights?”
“I would, Sindel darling, I really would, but you know, it’s like those daft little Pokémon video games, ain’t it, I’ll go into battle, it’ll go ‘Kirei was confuzzled’ followed by ‘Kirei hurt herself in her ridiculous state of confuzzledness’.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning I’d fall on my nose again before I even got into the ring.” Well, it was true. The Espeon was having great difficulty in walking unaided, never mind fighting! “Hey, Lucky, Mr. Walking stick Lucky boy, why don’t you give it a go?”
“Me???” Lucky blinked in surprise. This was unexpected!
“Sure. You said you hadn’t battled in ages, why not get a bit of exercise in, I’m not gonna fall over or anything without you. Well, maybe I am, but I can always lean on Pandora or something.” Kirei giggled foolishly. She hadn’t sobered up any. In fact the Espeon was making Beckham seem like a teetotaller. “Go on, Lucky, I dare ya. I’ll give you another of my magic special psychic hugs if you do.”
“I’m not sure if I want one with you in this state!” Lucky grinned, only the faintest of blushes coming to his cheeks. He knew what Kirei was talking about. She could couple psychically as well as physically, in fact when it came to giving pleasure the Espeon left Kasumi, the resident expert in such matters, standing cold.
“You sure?” Kirei peered deep into Lucky’s eyes, and even though she was clearly in a totally ridiculous mood there was still such beauty, such understated innocence within her large eyes that the Meowth melted after a mere second of looking into them. Kirei could talk Lucky into anything. And they both knew it.
“Well... maybe I was lying a bit there...” The Meowth’s blush deepened, and then disappeared just as suddenly as he focussed his mind on other matters. It was certainly true that he hadn’t battled in a while. And whilst that situation had suited him quite fine - Lucky was far too timid by nature to get any kind of enjoyment out of battle - he knew well enough that it wouldn’t hurt to just keep in shape. Just in case he was ever required to really fight. Just in case he was caught in another situation where the stakes were a lot higher than merely besting your opponent. Certainly he had seen enough horrors to know that such a thing was possible. So why not take the opportunity to get a little practise in now? In case he was required once again to help protect those he cared about. “Yeah. Okay.” He had made up his mind. “You’ve talked me into it.”
“Knew I could.” Kirei gave Lucky a quick peck on the cheek. “You go show ‘em what you’ve got, my boy! And your wonderful and hyper girlfriend is gonna sit here and cheer you on so frantically that she’ll even end up drowning out Milliardo.”
“I’ll believe THAT one when I hear it.” Lucky returned the Espeon’s kiss, then gently handed her over to Sindel’s care, knowing full well that she was far more likely to take good care of her than the other pokémon in the vicinity. Not that Milliardo and Pandora wouldn’t have done, but in their current hyperactive states they would have done her more harm than good. Sindel, at least, would stay still enough not to provoke the vomiting fit Lucky was sure would be coming in a matter of time. “Okay then. Wish me luck, guys.” And with this, Lucky made his way to the ring, a voice echoing in the back of his head wondering if this was really such a good idea after all.

As it happened, the sight that greeted Lucky once he had been allowed into the ring was enough to placate his fears instantly. All this time he had been worried about encountering a creature of the same intensity as Sindel’s earlier opponent. He simply didn’t think he could defeat a pokémon as frantic as that had been. Fortunately the pokémon at the opposite side of the ring wasn’t the ferocious opponent of his nightmares at all, in fact it was of a species that couldn’t look ferocious or intimidating if they tried. It seemed that tonight Lucky’s opponent would be a Marill, one of a race that was renowned for their generally friendly natures. And, if the stereotypes were true, an ideal sparring partner for a generally gentle creature such as Lucky. Fortunately this particular pokémon didn’t seem to have any intention of going against the cheerful image that it’s smiling, cuddly exterior suggested, bounding over to greet Lucky as he entered the arena.
“Hiya!” The Marill beamed brightly. “I guess you’ll be my opponent, huh?”
“I guess so.” Lucky didn’t really know what to make of this creature at all. It seemed to be more concerned with making conversation than battling.
“Oh, cool!” A girlish giggle emanated from the tubby pokémon. “Tell you the truth, this is gonna be my first battle in ages. My owner hires himself out for all these occasions, you know. He got employed by the Dragons Guild to help with the training grounds, you know. That was the last time I battled, coz I got ill and I only really just recovered.”
“Really.” Lucky knew this type well. He’d lived with a very similar creature most of his life. If he was correct, the little Marill would continue her story regardless of the impatient tone he had deliberately inserted into his voice. Sure, it was cute, in a way, this open attitude, but he was here to fight, not talk!
“Yeah. It was really bad.” Apparently Lucky’s assessment of his opponent had been spot on. “It really knocked the strength out of me, I had to spend ages retraining before I was allowed to fight again. In fact...” A loud and impatient coughing came from the direction of the Marill’s corner of the ring, and for the first time she became aware of the plain man in the brown coat glaring at her. Seemingly oblivious to his impatience, she merely offered a smile and a cheerful wave, before returning her attention to Lucky, who was fast beginning to wonder if he hadn’t found the female version of Beckham here. “Oh well. Looks like we’re gonna have to start this fight soon, or I’m gonna get yelled at. He’s always yelling at me, that guy, it’s not my fault I like to get to know my opponents a little bit. He’s always making this whole business so impersonal, you know! Hey... uh, never mind, it can wait.” The Marill caught herself in time to prevent another rambling outburst. “What’s you’re name, by the way?”
“I’m Lucky.” The Meowth offered a paw, which was shaken with almost predictable eagerness. Well, if nothing else the Marill seemed sincere enough, even if the airheaded attitude would probably begin to grate after a while. No doubt Scratchy or Milliardo would have found her irritating to the extreme, but so far Lucky’s patience was nowhere near its limits. Too long in the presence of Kirei had made him almost immune to these hyperactive outbursts. In fact Lucky had grown to find them somewhat endearing.
“Hiya, Lucky! My name’s Megan.” The Marill finally let go of Lucky’s paw and hopped with surprising agility back into her corner, where she struck up a fighting pose so over the top that it would have looked ridiculous on ANY pokémon, never mind a tubby Marill! It was all Lucky could do to keep a straight face, although from the sounds of things his teammates weren’t succeeding on that score, his ears could easily pick out several familiar guffaws from amidst the bustle of the party! Well, that was fine by him. Let them enjoy themselves. He could go and rejoin them soon enough, but right now he had more pressing business to attend to. “You ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” Lucky dropped, ready to pounce, his every muscle tensed. Sure, this Megan seemed harmless enough, but Lucky had learned long ago that appearances could be deceptive. He would have to be prepared for anything. He had lived in Ulthuan for too long to expect anything else from his battles.

FIGHT!!! L16 Meowth v L16 Marill!

“Okay, here goes!” Megan was clearly not the sort of pokémon who believed in hanging around. Not that Lucky had really expected her to. The impression he got was of a decidedly hyperactive creature, so fortunately he had been expecting a rushed attack to start things off. And a rushed attack he got, as the Marill curled herself into a tight ball and rolled towards him at a quite impressive rate. This was Rollout, and it was an attack he had no intention of letting connect. He had been schooled too well for that, both by his trainer and by the mere act of living. So it wasn’t really all that hard to leap carefully over the tumbling pokémon, his evasion helped tremendously by the fast reflexes that came with being a Meowth. A loud thudding sound from behind told Lucky that yes, the Marill had collided with the arena’s boundary, just as he had suspected she would do. It was all very well having the speed to use Rollout, but to maintain the attack required a degree of control that Megan clearly didn’t have.
“Dammit...” the Marill groaned, picking herself up from where she had fallen. “I should’ve known better. I never do seem to be able to get that one right. Now... where’d he get to?” A large handful of coins answered her question, Lucky having decided that a Pay Day attack seemed to be the best way of getting your opponent’s attention in battle. Megan squealed, caught by surprise as the coins struck her in the back of the head. She turned around to face Lucky with a look of pure indignation that looked quite comical on a creature of her species. “Don’t DO that!”
“Look, we’re fighting here, aren’t we?” Lucky sighed. Even his patience had its limits, and his opponent’s insistence on taking her airheaded attitude into battle was starting to test those boundaries. He was beginning to wonder which of them stood to learn the most from this battle. Wasn’t HE supposed to be the one who was getting practise out of the situation? It felt more like he was having to teach the Marill how to fight! “It’s your own fault for dropping your guard like that!”
“I guess you have a point,” came the sheepish reply. “Okay, I’ll try harder in future! Right, you ready?”
“I’ve been ready for ages, but yeah. Show me what you’ve got.”
“Okay, you asked for it!” Without warning the little pokémon took in a deep breath, seemingly making her tubbier than ever. The sight was distracting, in fact distracting enough to momentarily make Lucky forget what he was witnessing. And by the time he realised that he was about to be struck with a Water Gun attack it was too late. The huge torrent of pressurised water was already hurtling towards him at full speed, and not even his superior speed could save him from being struck hard in the chest and thrown backwards by the force of the water stream. In the fact that he wasn’t sturdy enough to stand his ground, the Meowth was rather fortunate. The instant he fell to the floor he was at least out of the attack’s pummelling onslaught. Picking his soaking body up from the wooden floor, Lucky blinked away the tears in his eyes that had formed in his eyes as a result of the sudden impact. His opponent was quite amateurish, nobody could deny that, but she did have some degree of talent. The force of the blow he had just taken was proof enough of that! If he let her get in too many attacks like that he would lose. So the best plan was obviously to make sure that scenario didn’t happen, and up the ante somewhat. Which wasn’t too hard. He would just have to actually put some effort into this fight. Eyes narrowing, the Meowth shot forward towards Megan with as much speed as he could muster, his claws extending in preparation for an attack. The Marill didn’t know what hit her. From her viewpoint, one minute she had floored her opponent with the hardest Water Gun she could muster, the next minute he was up again, practically upon her, and it took a searing pain in her side, where a set of sharp claws had tore into her flesh, to make her realise just was going on. Her little black eyes widened. And...
“Oh come on, it can’t be THAT bad.” Lucky grimaced, trying his hardest to block out the sudden scream of his opponent. But it was hard. He had never enjoyed drawing blood, and when his claws were responsible for a reaction such as the one he was witnessing now it made him wish he had never been born a Meowth in the first place. Megan was overreacting, for sure, her natural blubber was going to minimise the damage she had taken. But she was a naive creature, and this was probably the first time she had even been visibly wounded in battle. To an extent Lucky could forgive the hysterics. The wound probably looked worse than it actually was. “You’re going to have to get used to it. If you want to continue fighting you’ll probably end up battling pokémon with far nastier claws than me.” Lucky shuddered. If this was her reaction to a little swipe from a Meowth who actually went out of his way to avoid causing major damage, how would this little tyke fare against a less merciful opponent? And if she ever faced a Sandslash, well, that didn’t bear thinking about.
“I’m okay.” For a second the colour seemed to drain from Megan’s cheeks, as if the reality of Lucky’s words had just sunk in, but she was soon back to her usual self, the cuts apparently forgotten even if they were still bleeding, a fine trickle of crimson blood running down her side. “I just... eh, I’ve never really been very good with the sight of blood, especially my own. Guess I’m a little too squeamish to make a good fighter, huh?”
“Well...”
“Oh, whatever, it doesn’t matter. At least I try. Speaking of which, wanna carry on the battle? You’ll probably win and all, but like I say, I try, even if it isn’t usually good enough.” Megan struck her over the top fighting pose yet again, which elicited a smile from Lucky. If nothing else she was a stubborn one!
“If you like.” The battle, in Lucky’s eyes, had gone on for long enough. It was time to put an end to it. So as Megan rolled herself up one more time, attempting to maybe prove to herself that she could use Rollout, Lucky stood his ground. He knew what he had to do. He had just put off using it, because even a pokémon such as the gentle Meowth knew that a battle that was over in a single blow wasn’t a battle worth having. But now it was time to finish things, and Lucky knew just the move to defeat a Marill. Even now, as his opponent began to make her unsteady course towards him, he could feel the static charge building up within him, feel his fur begin to stand on end as the charges within each strand of hair began to push them away from each other. He needed time, of course, it wasn’t a skill that came naturally to the Meowth family, so he was somewhat glad that Megan wasn’t the fastest of creatures. It gave the Meowth just enough time to build up the electrical charge within him to a degree that could actually be used. And just as Megan was upon him, Lucky unleashed that charge, striking the Marill hard with a blast of electrical energy, a Thunderbolt, that threw her clean across the arena. There was no way she could have managed to stay conscious after all of that, and when she finally hit the floor again it was not to get up. Lucky had won, quite decisively, but to him it was a hollow victory. Most victories were. So he didn’t stay to revel in his glory, he simply slipped away, out of the ring and back to his friends, silently cursing the part of his brain that had ever said it was a good idea to fight without a good reason. To Lucky, a battle without a cause was the most pointless thing of all.

Lucky wins!
Lucky grew to L17!

By the time Lucky had returned to his friends, he found almost all the team waiting for him, having tired of their individual explorations and reassembling in the group they knew best. There were one or two exceptions, of course - Scratchy had clearly scuttled off to wherever it was quietest, in fact the chances of the loner Paras still being in this crowded room were remote. And Beckham was still at large in the room, no doubt still having too much of a good time socialising with other pokémon to remember to come back and say hi from time to time. But in the main the team were back together, regardless of the various states we had turned up in.
“Hey Lucky,” I grinned, waving as my Meowth made his way towards us. Currently I was sat upon a chair surrounded by pokémon, a half-finished vodka and coke resting on a nearby table and an exhausted Espeon half-asleep in my lap. Evidently all the partying and overdoing things had eventually proved too much even for the seemingly infinite energy of Kirei. “You missed the light show.”
“Light show?” Lucky blinked, his curiosity overriding the bleak depression that came after every battle.
“Yeah. While you were battling the lighting started turning all these pretty colours. I’ve no idea how they managed to do that, but it was pretty impressive.” I reached over and finished off my drink. The bar area had been quite boring, really, all the people I actually knew of the Dragon Tamers either were underage or had no real interest in drinking. Which was why I had taken my drink over to watch the battles, keeping a firm eye on the stage just in case something interesting happened. There had been a band on earlier, Unwritten Law or something. I hadn’t heard of them before, but they went down quite well, and were enough on the right side of the line dividing a good band of their genre from a merely alright one to warrant further investigation. Of course, I would have rather a band like Millencolin or Bad Religion playing, but I wasn’t really about to complain about the music choice.
“Yeah. They could have really brought Bad Religion to an obscure party in the middle of nowhere, couldn’t they?” Apparently I had been thinking aloud, either that or Milliardo had tapped into my thoughts, for the Umbreon was now voicing his opinion on my ideas of which punk acts I would have liked to have seen. “Get Rancid in as well, huh? And see if the Sex Pistols would have liked to have reformed just for our benefit. And magically reincarnate Joey and Dee Dee Ramone for a Ramones concert. And...”
“Yeah, yeah, I get the idea. Never heard of ‘wishful thinking’ before?” Abruptly I reached down and petted the Umbreon, something he rarely allowed but seemed reasonably happy with at the minute. His fur was short, certainly, but it had an almost silky quality to it. It was wonderful to touch, and not for the first time I wished Milliardo would just be a little more open with his emotions. It would allow for a lot more contact. “See, Milliardo, I reckon you could be quite cuddly if you put your mind to it.”
“And you could be sober for ten seconds if you put your mind to it, too, but I can’t see that happening. I’d rather die than be thought of as cuddly.”
“Milliardo, you’re cuddly.” Pandora decided this was the perfect moment to chip in, but then paused, looking around the slowly emptying hall. “Oh, I don’t know, is it me or is this party starting to wind down now?”
“Yeah.” I yawned. Kirei wasn’t the only one who was starting to feel sleepy! “I think it finishes at around midnight, though I’ve always lobbied for an ending time for these things that falls somewhere between three and four AM.”
“Hell, that’d kill you!” Pearl shook her head in disagreement. “You’ve been slowly drinking the bar dry all night, personally I think midnight’s a good cut off time for you. We don’t need you ending up like Kirei, thanks!”
“No worries about that, I can at least get up and walk.” Thinking about getting up, it was probably time for us to leave. Pearl was right, I probably couldn’t withstand much more partying tonight. Maybe it was time for me to say my goodbyes and leave everyone to it. Carefully I picked the sleeping Kirei up - although the Espeon was currently sleeping so deeply that I could have put her on a roller coaster ride and she would have slept through the entire thing - and got to my feet. As tempting as the prospect was, I couldn’t just sit around here forever! “Okay. Time we were out of here. Somebody go find Becks and Scratchy for me, would they?”
“I’m on it, dude!” Katnip was shooting off before I had even finished speaking, and not for the first time I wondered exactly where the Raticate managed to get all of his energy from.
“Oh well. I guess I’d better go say my goodbyes to everyone. Well, everyone who’s not already left.” Where exactly had the time gone? It seemed to me that every time I started enjoying myself whole chunks of the evening would just mysteriously disappear. At least I hadn’t left it until past midnight before doing anything, which was more than can be said for some of my attempts at going out! My eyes scanned the room, searching for the few people I talked to amongst the congregation. And as ever, I was spotted long before my useless powers of vision had managed to pick out a single face.
“Are you leaving now, Ade?” It was Gabi, as ever. One of the few people in Ulthuan I considered a friend, even though nearly all of the others were also assembled in the room. I could always talk to Gabi, which was quite remarkable seeing as it usually took me forever to relax enough to talk comfortably with most people.
“Yeah.” I gestured to the Espeon asleep in my arms. “It’s probably for the best that we get back now. Although it’s been one hell of a party, I really enjoyed it.”
“Did I just hear you right? You just said that you enjoyed a social gathering? I guess we must have done something right!”
“Or maybe I’m just changing for the better. Although it is quite odd to hear me say something like that. Sometimes I surprise even myself.” I grinned broadly. “Like now, I’m leaving a party before I get thrown out. A minor miracle if you ask me. Even I have to have my sane moments, I guess.”
“There’s nothing wrong with having some fun every now and then. Although overdoing things is bad, and I’m glad to see you know your limits, spending all your time working is just as undesirable.”
“You should have a chat with Pearl someday, you know that?” I raised an eyebrow. “I think you two would get on really well. So things have been busy, I take it?”
“Aren’t they always?” Gabi shrugged. “You know I always seem to have too much to do. But I think I might take things a little easier, at least for now. Even I need to relax every now and then.”
“Well you deserve a little break, that’s for sure.” Out of the corner of my eye I could see Katnip and Scratchy struggling with a Wartortle who made Kirei seem positively sober. Maybe letting Beckham out of my sight had been a bad idea. But then again, what good would my influence have done? Pokémon were sentient beings, after all, and they had just as many little idiosyncrasies as human beings. As the trainer I could help overcome their flaws - that was a trainer’s whole purpose in my opinion - but what if they didn’t really want to be helped? It was hard work, that was for sure. Owner, breadwinner, best friend and landlord all rolled into one. Yet a trainer’s life was the only life I could really envision for myself. Even if my idea of a trainer was several steps removed from the more conventional image. “Anyway, I’d best be off now, I’m getting pretty tired. Thanks for a great party.” Hurriedly I moved over to help my pokémon deal with the staggering Wartortle, who was slurring some ridiculous nonsense that I could only half guess at, the fog clouding my own brain not exactly helping matters. We probably made quite a pathetic sight, truth be told, a mad rabble in various states of disarray. But to be honest I didn’t really care. Let others think what they wanted. Because maybe we weren’t the most orthodox team on the planet, but we got along. We would always be the best of friends. And wasn’t that really what pokémon training was all about?

[Lady Vulpix]

That was an excellent story, Ade! Take 22 stamps! ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢
Yes, Pearl and I would definitely get on very well. I'd thought about that many times. And Milliardo is getting... funny! But don't let him know that I said that. Please keep writing like that and bringing life to the Battle Range!
By the way... do you think Megan and Easter are related? I think they have a lot in common.

DarkPrince, that was a good story, but I'm afraid it was a bit too late. Time extensions expire when the scenario changes twice. Since you must have put your effort in writing a good battle and succeeded at it, you'll be allowed to keep the levels gained in that battle and include it in your story as something that actually happened, but you will get no stamps for it.

Ryan, sorry if I sounded too rude. I've never listened to that song, or the band for that matter. But if a song is called pu$sytown and it really is about what it suggests... well, I don't imagine how it could be good. Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you.
Congratulations on getting a paid job!! I hope you can enjoy it and everything goes well for you.
By the way... are you planning to post a story for the current scenario, or the previous one? I know we've both been posting our newsflashes here, but this topic does have another purpose, you know.

[Knight of Time]

Hi!

I have a couple of questions I'd like answered please.

1. Regarding the third option in the Winter Games scenario (course), is this some sort of race?

2. Call me crazy for asking about this, but is a person not allowed to ask for a time extension for more than one scenario (e.g. the current one, and a future one)?

Thank you.

[Last Exile]

1. It's meant to be a mimic of the cross country event in the Winter Olympics IRL. Except this is shorter.

2. No, I think you can ask for an extension as required.


I'm onto it, Gabi. Summer here does get treacherous eventually. What with the out of control bushfires in 3 states. Canberra had 400 homes destroyed 2 weeks ago. But I'm getting into the swing again. I have been SPAMmish lately, so I'd better cut it out and get something compiled.

[Lady Vulpix]

Well, DP, I guess you can ask for another extension if you see you can't make it, but be careful with that. The longer you take to post for an old scenario, the harder it will be for you to catch up. Sometimes it's better to miss one scenario and catch up with the current one, as I've done a few times.

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, Ryan! Summer is annoyingly hot here, but fortunately I haven't heard of any fires caused by it. Although there are often unnaturally caused fires in ecological reservations. Well, I look forward to reading your next story.

[Last Exile]

Okay. Here's the proof I wasn't lying. Part 1 of my compilation for the Christmas scenario. Part 2 to come soon.

PS. I wrote a fair bit into Tara's compilation for Part 1. Part 2 will write into Gabi, Tara and Amy's compilations.

PSS. No offense about the music ting, Tara! But it was kinda coming after the thing with The Vines! Hope you're well!

PSSS. Hope this doesn't offend Christmas lovers


I hate Christmas. It’s as simple as that. There are certain days of the year I can’t stand. My birthday for one. Everyone always makes a big fuss, takes me into a setting which is the last place I wanna be in and I rarely get the gifts I want. I guess the thought counts, but what really annoys me is that despite my presence on this planet for twenty-one years, they’ve done sweet bugger all to figure out what kind of person I am. They simply couldn’t care less. And that ****ing hurts. Not to the points of tears, I don’t cry. I haven’t cried for a very, very long time. I’ve been moved to very slight wateriness by cartoons, music and the odd movie, but no tears. Does that make me worse as I person? Frankly, I don’t care what the answer is to that question. I am who I am. Flaws define a person as much as their strengths do. Take me or leave me. That’s the pact I have with everyone.
That’s not the reason I hate Christmas though. Wait, that’s a lie. Okay, a partial lie maybe. Part of it’s because my family is about as close as the North and South pole. No one really gets along with anyone. Conversation is forced and has about as much truth in it as Richard Nixon. So forgive me if I don’t believe in the concept of family too much. I wish my father was dead, I wish my youngest aunt would grow a brain, I wish my uncles learned the value about caring for others. And I wish my mother wasn’t the most cynical person on the planet.
I care about others. Sure, I’m not perfect. But I do give a damn about others. I’m not into the once-a-week meets, the short late night calls and the quick lunches. You learn **** about a person that way. It’s almost like a one night stand. I want to know more about the people I give I damn about. I wish someone else would feel the same way. I have way too many lonely days and nights. After all my time on this planet, I don’t know what the hell a ‘good friend’ is. Someone to rely on, someone to trust, someone who gives a damn about you. I can’t name one person like that. Not one.
Until I joined the Dragon Tamers. They gave a damn. Gabi most of all. She cared about who I was. People that knew me for years took about as much notice as they would give a stranger. Within five minutes, Gabi considered me a friend. A true friend. And that meant something. It really meant something.
Yeah, I like friends. I care about others. But don’t expect me to be too crash hot about myself. And you should definitely not expect me to like Christmas.

“Ohhh, jingle bells, jingle bells! Jingle all the way...”
“Shut up, Kasey! You know I hate Christmas carols!”
Kasey retorted with a start, feeling crushed. “Hey, that hurt. Aren’t we supposed to get into the spirit of the season?”
I swore I could feel a migrane coming on. “Ergh! Now I know why they call this the silly season. Even you’re getting silly.”
“That isn’t fair! Take it back now.”
Reznor groaned for the umpteenth time. “Listen, Kasey. We told you a million times before. Ryan doesn’t like Chirstmas! Alright?! So no carols, no get-up, no nothing!”
“And if I do?” she fired back defiantly, her antenna bouncing back and forth as if she was enjoying winding people up.
“I’ll roast your carcass.”
Kasey ruffled her neck leaves and sneered. “You know, if I was the Charizard and you were the Meganium, you wouldn’t be feeling so cocky right now.”
“Well, you’re not. And I don’t want to roast your carcass, okay? We just want some peace and quiet, alright? Christmas is an overblown occasion. So until we hit the Christmas party, just cut the innuendo. We’re not in the mood.”
“Yeah,” replied Beck in a trance-like tone. “Bad karma. We need some flow here. Maybe a group hug would help.”
Kasey smirked. “Thanks, but I’m worried that Reznor’s tail will roast my butt.”
Shirley snorted indignantly. “Hey, I take offense to that!”
“I wasn’t referring to you, Shirley. Your flames are cool.”
“Can we cut the slagging here?” I spat sharply. “Just cut it out.”
“Say,” commented Yorke, his sleek purple fur waving like the ocean, “can anyone hear that rumbling sound?”
“Yeah,” agreed, Kasey, anger flooding away from her face as if in response to Sandy’s fur. “And it’s kinda annoying.”
“It’s getting louder too,” growled Shirley, flapping her creamy white wings in fury.
“It sounds like pop music,” whispered Maynard eerily, his ethereal body rippling like a rock pool. “I hate pop music.”
“You and me both, Maynard,” I agreed heartily. “Except that there are two noises.”
“The other one sounds like metal. Weak metal.”
“This is ridiculous. Maynard, find out what the **** is going on around here.”
Maynard flipped over keenly before hovering off. “Will do.”
“Why didn’t you ask me?” whined Reznor. “I can settle disputes big time!”
“Yeah, as long as you don’t roast the perpetrators to ashes first.”
Kasey snorted with laughter and collapsed to the floor.
“Aw, not you too!” sneered Reznor, her eyes with looks that could kill. “Can we go at least five minutes without referring to my flaming flatulence back at the picnic?”
Shirley was dying to give a response but she never the chance. The distinct sound of breaking glass filled the air and made us jump with a start. I had the sinking feeling that I was not going like finding out the reason why the sound of breaking glass had filled the room.
Maynard emerged with a smug look on his face. “There! That ought to make them shut up, all right!”
I was really about to blow it. My hands were twitching, my eyebrows were slanted down and my teeth were gritted. “Maynard, what the hell did you just do?”
“Ah, some stupid Pokemon were having a bloody war as to who could listen to their music the loudest so I threw a pot plant through their window to shut them up.”
“You threw a pot plant?!” growled Kasey. Maynard should have known better than to offend Kasey’s affinity with nature. Then again, what did Maynard have to fear. He was a ghost after all.
“They were pansies!” he blurted in defense.
Obviously the ploy worked because Kasey pressed the issue no further. “Good. I hate pansies. Pansies suck. They’re a weak plant.”
“I should’ve known better to let a jester like you go and settle that dispute, Maynard. I forgot what a joker a Gastly can be.”
Maynard smirked slyly. “Hey, want can I say? It’s in my blood!”
“Except that you have no blood,” said Beck.
“Don’t remind me.”
“And just how did you manage to pick up the pot plant if you have no actual physical being?”
“Levitation through psychic powers.”
“Well,” Beck continued, “at least you did solve something. That pathetic teen materialistic, capitalist, sexist, corny pop music is off.”
“Except that someone is still blaring bloody weak metal!” growled Reznor. “Can’t they play something decent hard stuff like the Nine Inch Nails?!”
“If they did that at that volume, the whole neighbourhood would be after their hides,” explained Beck. “If it isn’t herbal tea-sipping crap, people have a problem with it.”
“Who the hell is letting their Pokemon have free reign unsupervised anyway?” I hissed through clenched teeth. “They are really beginning to tick me off, I swear.”
“Looks like it’s Tara,” giggled Maynard. “And don’t you feel stupid now!”
“Great. Someone whose sorry carcass I can’t kick.” I wiped my slightly worn forehead and sighed heavily. “Can someone put on something decent before I storm over to Tara’s room and say something I’ll regret?”
“Play The Vines!” jeered Kasey. “They rule!”
“Aw, you only like them because of their name, anyway!” retorted Shirley. “The Vines rock, cause they’re Aussie and they’re cool, but Tara think that they’re a bunch of pot-heads and losers. We’ll have an all out war if we dare put them on.”
“Couldn’t Fly TV play something like the Zephyr Song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers or something?” suggested Yorke. “Now there’s a nice song.”
“Except Ryan would then give us his improvised dirty lyrics version,” joked Kasey, causing the rest of the group to fall over, their sides splitting with laughter.
“Very funny, guys,” I groaned. “Thanks for not taking into account the fact the th Red Hot Chili Peppers rarely don’t have dirty lyrics anyway.” My headache had built up to the size of a mountain. But I wasn’t in the mood for taking aspirin. Aspirin promotes blood clotting and eats away at your stomach and kidneys, which wasn’t something I was keen to endure right now. “But Sandy has a point. Play something softish but cool at a high volume. And recent, too”
“Pearl Jam?” suggested Yorke in yet another of his endless moments of brilliance.
“Pearl Jam aren’t soft!” growled Reznor. “Pearl Jam rock! They saved grunge after Nirvana self-destructed. Their 90’s stuff is some damn hard stuff, man!”
“I think Sandy was referring to the Riot Act album and meant no offense,” replied Beck, smoothing over a steamy situation. “And Ryan did say something recent.”
“Is cool, that album is good.”
“What track?” inquired Maynard. “Not all of them are soft.”
“The opening one,” I whispered as if half-asleep. “I wanna lose myself in the rolling waves. Get some rest, guys. We’re so bloody pent-up we’re ready to tear each other apart. We’ve gotta do something constructive for once. This complacency is eating us up.”
“Got anything in mind?” asked Shirley. She was always sharp to spot something.
“I have something, but that’s to discuss later. Just play the music. And put a few tracks on repeat. I want people to be getting irritated back.”
Everyone smirked as all the stress and the vengeance was released into the atmosphere. Everyone collapsed onto separate beds or seats, laying in the most absurd of positions as the soft oceanic riffs of ‘Can’t Keep’ permeated the room. Its beauty is in its ethereal nature are Eddie Vedder sudden change of manner. It’s a song about life and eternity and all the insanity that comes with it. Somehow Eddie manages to bring some order and normality to it. It’s incredibly soothing and an absolute gem to lose yourself in. That’s what I like doing: losing myself in stuff like this.


Pearl Jam – Can’t Keep

I wanna shake
I wanna wind down
I wanna leave
This mind and shout

I’ve lived
All this life
Like an ocean
In disguise
I don’t live for
Ever
You can’t keep
Me here

I wanna race
With the sundown
I want a last breath
I don’t let out

Forgive
Every being
The bad feelings
It’s just me
I won’t wait
For answers
You can’t keep me here

I wanna rise
And say goodnight
Wanna take
A look on the other side

I’ve lived
All these lives
It’s been wonder
Full at night
I will live for
Ever
You can’t keep
Me here


“Can someone close the window, for crying out loud?”
Kasey quickly whipped her neck vines out and slammed them shut in one motion. “You have to admit, I have killer reflexes.”
“As if we would dare say otherwise, my dear,” joked Yorke.
“I really don’t like winter,” groaned Kasey, her neck leaves shaking like they were in a gale. “So cold. I’d swear I’d wilt instantly out there.”
“Snow’s not that bad though,” commented Shirley. “It’s nice and fluffy, plus you can throw it around.”
“Except that you’d melt it before you even touch it.”
“Don’t remind me.”
“Damn, I’m thirsty,” mumbled Reznor. “Anyone got any drinks?”
Yorke was beside himself. “What’s in this hotel room? Soft drinks, booze?! What ever happened to the purity and goodness of water?!”
“No water?!” I screamed. “You’ve got to be kidding!”
“Alright,” groaned Reznor, picking herself up. “I’ll go melt the snow out there and put it to some use."
“Try not to boil it all off!” replied Beck.
“Shirley, we can use out tail flames to do this without losing it. Could you get some pails and help me out before Beck cops it?”
“No problem.”
Within a minute there was sweet, pure, refreshing water for everyone. The type that chills your lungs and clears your brain.
I managed a half-smile. "Ah, that's the stuff!"

[Lady Vulpix]

That was nice, Ryan! Take 4 stamps! ¢¢¢¢
I can't wait to read part 2. Though I don't think you and Tara should get so worked up about music. It's not meant to hurt anyone, after all, is it? By the way, nice song!

[Charizard04621]

Ack, I'm kind of stuck, but I want to show that I've been working on the scenario, so I'll post the Prologue:

My POV:

“I… hate… winter…” I muttered through chattering teeth. Switchblade felt the same way. He didn’t like cold weather at all; it froze his circuits and made him sluggish, something that an energetic Porygon like him would never feel comfortable with. This was the one thing in the known universe that could ever make him unhappy. Once he got someplace warm, though, he’d quickly cheer up. I, on the other hand, would remain for a while in a rather bad mood; or just really tired, depending on the circumstances.

Currently, we trudged through hard, knee-deep snow; once in a while, a frozen wind, with terrible chill in its breath, would blow by; then Switchblade and I would shiver and curse. Evenstar was fine, though. This barren winter wasteland was not physically distressing to her. She was a Sneasel, after all. Still, she would have preferred a prettier scenery.

What we had come here for, though, could well prove to be worth the torment and the suffering. The Dragon Tamers were invited to the Winter Games: a contest of strength, wit, heart, and most of all, spirit.

Dragon Tamers were allowed to enter their pokémon in three distinct contests: the ice-skating race, the course, and the ice hockey game.

I already knew that Evenstar would be perfect for the skating. She had everything she needed to win: her slender agility, her feline grace, her comfort on ice, and her clever rationality.

For the course, on the other hand, Switchblade would fare remarkably well, though he hated cold weather. His eagerness to enter the event ruled out all intense discomfort that he felt towards this harsh environment. Switchblade was easily my strongest pokémon in battle, and he could move quickly and easily over the freezing, watery course. His sheer courage and determination, if nothing else, would pull him through.

There was only one thing that worried me: Nimrodel, my Lapras. In order to participate in the ice hockey game, we needed three players. I only had three Pokémon accompanying me: Switchblade, Evenstar, and Nimrodel. I didn’t doubt Nimrodel’s ability to play in the game, but she tended to avoid extreme competition. She was the type that could not and would not feel ill will towards others, and she usually refused to oppose anyone. I fingered Nimrodel’s pokéball.

“Well, here goes,” I whispered. “Come out, Nimrodel.”

A sweet sigh of sorrowful joy came out from the white light, like the silvery notes of a rushing waterfall. As the glorious radiance faded slowly, a soft, azure outline of a majestic leviathan traced itself along the glow. There was Nimrodel, towering with gentle beauty above the pure white snow.

I’ll play, said Nimrodel.

I was surprised. “Really?”

You need three members, and without me, you’ll have only two. If I refused to play, I’d be selfish to Switchblade and Evenstar. Besides, I won’t be required to be violent in an ice hockey game. I can tend to the goal.

“That’s great, Nimrodel. Thank you.”

It’s quite all right.

At that moment, the announcer’s voice blared from the loud speakers. “FINAL CALL FOR REGISTRATION TO THE ICE SKATING RACE!” he cried.

“Uh, oh. Evenstar, let’s go!” I yelled, skidding hurriedly across the ice and tripping as I went, but Evenstar was already waiting at the registration booth.

[Lady Vulpix]

Nice intro, Karin! Take 3 stamps! I hope you get to finish your story soon. ¢¢¢

[PancaKe]

Oy! I'm offended mate! the only reason I dont listen to stuff like Nine inch nails and tool and other heavy bands like that is because most of their stuff is really slow yet heavy and bores me. I swear its like slow and heavy and not as hyper active as I like. I prefer punk stuff anyway and I need a good beat and loud rock, and i find nine inch nails, tool and all those other weird heavy bands to bore me to bits. ^_^

And im offended. Papa roach rule.



But you probably are pissed with me for saying that Craig Nicholls was yeah... ^_^ u know what i said... ^_^

I got you seriously pissed off XD i wonder if i saved that.

~Mist

[AntiAsh Superstar]

NIN boring? Now I'M offended! Actually I'm not, I'm too busy trying to remove Millencolin's 'Penguins and Polarbears' from my head atm! (and trying to figure out how I'm gonna go see them seeing as the trains are playing up when they're doing a gig in Manchester... hehe, if everyone else can do off-topic rants then so can I!!!!) Umm... actually, I'm posting to get further clarification on the third event in the scenario, some of us are too busy hunting down obscure underground rock acts and stalking certain Misc mods to pay much attention to sports! XD Am I right in thinking what happens in that one is a race over the snow and water, followed by a spot of archery-style target practise, followed by racing over the ice and then a battle the instant both competitors reach a certain point? I assume then that the battle is the decider, but the advantage will go to whoever reaches the battle spot first as they'll have had more time to rest. Umm, yeah, do tell me if I've misunderstood, I just don't know much about these winter olympic things and I wanna be certain before I write anything about the competition. ^_^;;;

[Lady Vulpix]

Hmm... I think it was a bit ambiguous too, but your idea sounds interesting. Ryan?

As for the music... doesn't anyone like softer music with positive lyrics and melodies that draw you (or at least me) into singing along? I certainly do.

[Last Exile]

Steady on, Tara! Geez, I knew you'd rise to the bait! They're okay, but I've heard better. NIN slow? Which album were you listening too? Okay, The Fragile is slow but The Downward Spiral is fast! Way fast! Well, most of it. Hey I went through the punk phase too. We'll see how long it lasts for you. Just don't pay out Radiohead or there might be trouble!

As for your question Ade, you good taste legend you, it's meant to be like the cross country events in the IRL Winter Olympics. You run a kilometre of snow, then hit five targets with your Pokemon's projectile attacks, then battle on the ice and sprint your way home! That's the idea.

As for your question Gabi, that depends on your definition. If you mean pop, forget it! If you mean stuff like Jeff Buckley or Coldplay, yes!

[Aipom Of Doom]

I want a time extension, please... I know that I want to compete in all three events, and I also know that each one will probably become a rather lenthy story... So I doubt I'll get done in the time limit.

Anyway, how does the cross-country thing work? It seems like a race, except that at the end you have to wait for your opponent to get there so you can battle... So how do you determine who wins?

[*shadow*]

just wondering, with the games, can your pokemon compete in all three, or only two? like, can you have pokemon in the Ice Hockey, and the race, or Hockey, and the cross country, or cross country and the race? just wondering.

[Last Exile]

You can compete in all three. But a single Pokemon can only oarticipate in a maximum of two events. The idea is to use several instead of using the same old, same old.

[Deus_Theios]

may I ask when the next scenario is going to be?

[Last Exile]

Well, the Winter Games Scenario is up and no one's done anything for that yet. It's a few pages back.

[Lady Vulpix]

In a long time, apparently, since no one has posted for this one yet. I will post, of course, but in order to know what to write I'd have to see the end of Ryan's last story first.

[Last Exile]

M'Lady, I finished my new chapter of WDC last night. i'm ready to begin work on the conclusion to my chrsitmas thingie. Expect something in the next few days, depending on how much work I have to do around the house.

[Lady Vulpix]

Thanks, Ryan, I'll check it out.
By the way, I had a final today and I got a 10! (Top mark). I guess writing a little before studying IS a good method after all.
And now that I'm done with that final... I can write a LOT! So expect a new chapter of my fic soon, and I'll write something for this scenario as soon as I can.

[Charizard04621]

Whee. Part Two of Four.

Evenstar the female Sneasel's POV:

The man at the registration counter had a strange look on his face. Whenever he looked at my trainer, he seemed almost... angry. She didn't seem to notice, though; her brain was reduced to a torpid state because of the cold. I hoped she could sit down somewhere warm and get a cup of hot chocolate soon. I knew she hated the cold. Switchblade was the same way.

I felt uneasy. The guy had handed me my skates, and I had put them on, but something was extremely wrong. I could sense it. The skates didn't seem to have a problem with them, but...

"Evenstar, I'm going in that building, okay?" I heard my trainer say, wearily. "I'll be watching you through the big glass window."

I nodded hesitantly. Again, I cast a surreptitious glance at the man. He was rather corpulent, and had a thick beard. But there was something wrong with his face. It just didn't look... natural... I shrugged and got into my position. The Swinub I was supposed to race looked strange, too. In its eyes were the looks of a crazed pokémon, driven to a mad frenzy as if some evil spirit had possessed it. I tried to shake off the unease that weighed heavily on my heart, but I could not.

A loud, shrill squeak came shrieking out from the nearby microphone. "ON YOUR MARK! GET SET! GO!"

We were off.

Evenstar the female Sneasel LV9 vs. Swinub LV10

Immediately, the ground began to roar as it erupted in violent earth tremors. Cracks appeared on the breaking ice. I flinched as some of the upturned debris stung my eyes. It was difficult to maintain my balance.

Things went from bad to worse. My immediate area became clouded with a dense fog. Even with my sharpened eyesight, it was difficult to see through. It was then that I slipped...

Slowly, the fog began to lift. I pushed myself up, glad for the tremors to have stopped. Something sizzled at my feet. I examined the blades of my skates, each moment becoming more and more horrified.

The sickening noise was the sound of acid eating away at the silver blades. I dug the blades into the ground, scraping away the final remnants of the horrible venom. Thankfully, the Toxic puddle upon which I had slipped nearby had already sunk deep into the ice floor. I did not have to want to have to deal with that nasty substance. A brown streak whizzed past me; the Swinub was on its second lap. I realized that I had no time to lose. With a cry, I bolted forward, moving as lightly as possible on the ice as the broken and uneven cracks allowed. Here and there, the Swinub had kicked up bits of dirt onto the ice to slow my progress.

The next few laps were a grueling process; each time I discovered more traps and cheap tactics that the Swinub played. The dirt-covered ice had begun to melt, and in places, the track had become dangerously slippery. The Swinub continued to enshroud some areas in dark fog, especially where it had broken tiny fissures in the ground where I could trip and injure myself on the sharp, jagged edges of the ice. The constant attack was exhausting. I did, however, regain lost ground, inch by inch, as I got used to the Swinub's trickery; it could not match my speed and agility. Finally, when I was drawing to the end of my eighth lap, I caught up to the Swinub.

Something at the sidelines attracted my attention then. When I turned to look, my heart skipped a beat. There was that strange registration man again! There was something in his hand: some type of remote control. It appeared fascinatingly complex with its many buttons and flashing lights. Yet, it fitted the palm of his hand. It seemed as if he didn't want the contraption to be seen. He had painted it the color of his skin. Then I realized why.

I remembered earlier that the man had not been at the registration booth when I had arrived there. I had seen him making his way stealthily through the snow, appearing from out of the bushes. When he had noticed me waiting there, he wasn't pleased, though I hadn't known why.

On my seventh lap, when I had pulled within sight range of the Swinub, I had noticed a small, glowing ring attached to its nose. I had previously believed that it was just there for style, but now I knew its purpose.

No wonder the Swinub was acting so dishonorably! I found it difficult to believe that a pokémon would be such a terrible cheater of its own accord. That man, whoever he was, was out to get at my trainer through any possible means. I remembered that he had looked angry with her, and hateful. Perhaps she had met him somewhere? What if she had done something that had made him crave revenge? I wished I could ask Switchblade about it, but he, along with Nimrodel, who had gone back into her pokéball, had followed my trainer inside the building. I would have to wait until the race was over.

While I had spent time piecing things together, the Swinub had gotten farther ahead of me. I found myself having to struggle through a full blown Blizzard. The sharp, icy shards cut through my skin; the powerful gale lashed at my face. Still, I had to make an effort to catch up. We each had just passed the lap mark for the ninth time. There was only one lap remaining.

With the last of my remaining energy, I sprinted - or rather, glided - rapidly across the ice, desperately trying to pull ahead of the Swinub. I drew up beside it. The finish line was in sight. I knew I would be able to beat it if I maintained my pace.

Without warning, the Swinub swerved aside and rammed into me forcefully, sending me crashing into the ground. I cried out in exasperation. I was so close!

Still, I had to try. I scrambled to my feet, then made a wild dash for the end, avoiding a particularly wide crack in the ice that was made earlier. The Swinub was only meters away from the finish line...

Ahead of the Swinub was a patch of very muddy snow. I stopped breathing. Dirty snow is extremely dangerous. The dark coloration prevents it from showing the slick, shiny surface of melting ice, and therefore goes unnoticed. But it is when ice is mixed with dark debris like that when it melts faster...

Just in time, I managed to leap over the slippery ice, saving myself from a terrible fall. The Swinub was not so lucky. Travelling at such a high velocity when it hit that particular section, the Swinub was thrown violently off course. I saw it trip over broken ice, go hurtling through the air, and smash into a nearby tree. The ring in its nose broke into two. The man at the registration booth uttered a surprised yell.

I heard the Swinub groan pitifully. By the way it cried out weakly for help, I knew that it was in great pain. I couldn't stand seeing a fellow pokémon suffer because of a human's unkindness.

Abandoning the race, I turned back to where the Swinub lay. Some of its bones were broken and dislodged. I hissed. Why did some humans have to be so cruel?

Gently, I held the Swinub in my arms, then made my way slowly to the finish line, where my trainer was waiting in the lodge. I crossed the finish line, but I felt no joy or satisfaction. I made my way past the surprised manager and went directly into the lodge.

Evenstar won!
Evenstar grew to LV10!
Evenstar learned Shadow Ball as her free TM!

My POV:

"Evenstar, are you all right?" I cried. "I saw that Swinub attacking you, but they wouldn't let me out of the lodge!"

I ran to Evenstar, picked up the injured Swinub, and handed it to a nearby attendant, who rushed it to the Pokémon Center next door. I saw that Evenstar was worried about the poor thing.

"They'll have it healed in no time," I assured her. Evenstar wasn't convinced, and I couldn't blame her. I didn't sound very convincing.

Do you recognize that man? she asked me, pointing at the fat guy at the registration booth. When Evenstar explained to me what had happened, my eyes widened.

I was puzzled. I was studying the face of the man in question, when a flicker of recognition flashed in my mind.

"Switchblade," I called in an urgent tone, "is that who I think it is?"

Switchblade took one look at the man and beeped with alarm. That's the wanted criminal with the Porygon2! he cried.

I frowned. "I thought so. Switchblade, we defeated Mike and his Porygon2 the last time, but I don't think it's safe to confront him again. Let's call the police."

I don't think that will be necessary, Evenstar said.

I gasped. Mike was gone.

[Deus_Theios]

This is a starting story, it has no point or scenario, or does it deserve stamps. I am not looking for anything, but this is just to get me into the DT world, and then do my scenarios from there.

“Mourn the Death, of your bloody valentine”-Good Charlotte’s Bloody Valentine

He listened to that song for what seemed like infinity. The CD player whirled around the songs like a blur, but the only one that stood out was that one. He smiled, a soft pleasant smile, a mixture of utter sadness and wonderful bliss. For a second, he looked more like his fifteen years, instead of a hardened man. Then the smile faded, and his eyes returned to coldly staring out from the shelter of the doorway, out where it rained like the gods themselves where weeping.

He sighed, feeling the shimmer of spray as rainwater splashed so close to his dry spot. He was beyond caring though, the only reason he even still stood here was the fact…The fact that this is where it had happened. And he just could not leave yet. Not until this wretched day was over at least.

It was supposedly Saint Valentine’s day. But he did not feel love. He had just been dumped, and she had not even given an explanation. He looked down at the crumpled and wet red roses at his feet, they looked like blood and ichor from where he was sitting, listening to sad songs, the whir of the player and the pulsation of the rain.

He pushed a strand of jade green hair back behind his ears, pushing his hand against the cord to his ear buds. Sighing, he plucked them out, pulling them down and placing them inside his backpack, he leaned against the wall, sliding down to a sitting position, and just stared out at the water, at the purification of earth.

He laughed silently, watching as a lone pigeon flapped down, to wet and weak to do anything. He motioned to it, and it waddled over, hiding up against him. He smiled again, looking for the world younger, yet still hardened by hate and misery.

“Wind Spirits…That’s what grandmother called you. I wonder why” He felt foolish talking to the bird, but noticed that it seemed to be paying attention to him. It hopped up on his knee, and stared him in the eye. He felt a bit nervous, seeing as these where his only good pair of pants. But slowly relaxed.

“Not in the mood to talk?” He asked sarcastically. And the bird only cooed, flapping off, it plucked off the rose petals, placing them down into the rain, where they got soaked more quickly, melting away into almost nothingness.

He stood up, watching the bird, his black pants and dark green blazer strikingly different to the bright blue door behind him. He knew his light jade green hair was weird, but so was most other stuff he was into. He stared at the bird; glittering indigo eyes met with cold ethereal black ones.

He watched for awhile, the rain pressing against him like a welcomed lover. He watched the bird as it plucked the final petal, and placed it. The flowers had become like blood red soup, thick and dark with water splashing on them.

“Hmmmm If this was Anime, I could fall into this circle, and I would be taken away into a different-world. Maybe like Pokemon. Or maybe even some strange new world” He shook his head, but picked up his backpack, and looked around anyway.

“Ah, what the hell…No one is around, it will be fun to pretend” With that, he leaped up, and let his body fly into the rain, not very far, but far enough so that the wind whipped around him, rain flowing as he laughed, expecting to touch ground.

But, there was no ground to speak of. When he looked around, there was simply the rain, the wind, and nothing else. He looked up, and down, and saw just the same mixture of water and sky. He felt his CD player turn off and on, and his backpack lift up.

“What the frick?” He called out, but no sound came, just the soft gentle cooing of the pigeon so far above, or below of him. He felt like laughing, or crying. As if his day could not have gotten any worse; he was no going insane. Completely and totally out of his mind.

He felt the world slow down, so slow that he could see every single drop of rain, like crystals dancing above and around him. The wind took shape, showing him naked women and men, giant monsters, floating cities and strange forests and mountains.

He had the random thought of the new matrix movie. And then the world was in motion again. He closed his eyes, willing himself not to try screaming again as the rain became like stone against his body, beating hard. While the wind burned like flame.

When he opened his eyes however, he was shocked by what he was seeing. By what he was standing next to.

The girl smiled at him. She was dressed in a blue dress, long and looking as if it was made from velvet. She wore a brooch, and next to her was a Strange Pig-like creature that he barely remembered as Sutippu. Drowzee to those in America. He looked at the girl, her long red curly hair bouncing as she walked forward, the pokemon following behind her, looking at him with its strange psychic eyes.

“Konnichiwa…O-Genki desu ka” She spoke japanese, then laughed, tittering like silver and gold as it is poured into a bank vault. she extended one slightly tanned land, perfectly manicured nails that glimmered with gold polish.

“Sumimasen…You do not know Nihongo. I am a friend. I am wondering how you are feeling” She spoke softly, slowly. Trying to remember words in english that she had not used in many a year. He nodded slowly, feeling around he noticed nothing was broken. Then noticed his backpack had changed.

It was now smaller, more compact, and a deep dark green, His blazer had been transformed into a green shirt, soft and comfortable against his sweaty and quickly raising chest. His black pants had remained the same, but they now had complex designs flowing down them, in greens and blues.

“Uh…Where am I?” He asked, not knowing if he had gone insane, fallen asleep, or was really thinking the truth. He stared at the girl who only smiled, waving her hand, He saw the pigeon he had seen before fly to her hand, and she laughed again.

“You have been summoned. By the powers of nature, to help fight in this world. You are filled with emotion, something that many trainers are not anymore. We have offered you Sutippu here-“ she nodded to the Monsuraa, who smiled and gave a soft purr of pleasure. “as a beginning Fighter. It is a female, and quite weak, only LV5. But it will serve you well” She smiled again, letting loose the pigeon, and took his hand, raising him up.

“You see…The world is changing again. We need fighters. And since you still believe in majik and all it obtains, your perfect for the job” She nodded, and muttered something in a tongue that he did not understand. The Sutippu coming forward, almost waddling in anxiousness.

“Uh…I thank you. But are you sure I am not dreaming?” He pinched himself, and felt the shock of pain. Then patted the Sutippu on its head, the soft fur moving underneath his touch, the short bristles brushing against him with all-to much realness.

She laughed again, this time so hard that her golden-green eyes closed, letting loose soft tears that marked her skin with pale-trails of wetness. He watched her, feeling more and more emberassed as she giggled, tears flowing down her face.

“For one who has a broken heart, you still ask the strangest questions. Of course this is real.” He winced when she mentioned the broken heart. He still felt miserable about that. And his mind drifted for a second back to his girlfriend. Correction, ex-girlfriend.

“You have no one back home waiting for you…Please, you and Sutippu are needed” She looked at him, and for once he could tell for certain, this was no dream. As she touched him, soft and pleasant hands on his arm, he nodded.

She smiled, and Sutippu gave off a loud shout of pleasure. “You will find food, and 6 capture boro in your backpack. Also a knife in case you get into a fight, and some of the local currency” She nodded, showing him how things worked, and then slipped off her ring.

“if you need help, twist this ring. It should help you. But it cannot be used against the creatures that Sutippu fights. It can only be used against the powers of darkness” She looked at him for a second, then nodded slowly.

“Ja Ne Misa-chan” She giggled and disappeared then, bright violet light surronding her, one minute her being there, then she was gone. He looked dumb-founded, and sat down next to his new companion.

“Well, I guess I am Misagi now. A warrior for the powers of good, Just like any Otaku would want. Except in this one I can really die.” He sighed, looking at Sutippu, then nodded.

“What do you want to be called?” He asked, wondering if Sutippu could talk english, or if that she was just like most pokemon on the TV show, able only to say her own name. Since this was nothing like the TV show, or the manga, more like a fantasy game with these creatures added, he figured she might know.

<I am Kunta> He felt the voice in his mind, a soft pleasant voice that reminded him of Cinnamon and sea waves. Of sparkling amythest gems and spring breezes. He smiled, nodding one last time as he picked up his new pack.

“Then Kunta. We go…To Love”

He stepped out into the brand new world, not knowing what to expect. But knowing that amongst its pathes, where the glories of ancients and mondern times.

~~~~~~~~~~
Kunta: Female Drowzee LV5
Adopted from the Dragon Tamers Adoption Center.
–attacks (*I need a pokedex to check its attacks! expecially my one allowable bred one*)

[Lady Vulpix]

That was nice, Karin. It could be the beginning of something interesting. Take 5 stamps! ¢¢¢¢¢

Morpheus_ko_Wadjet, I'll read your intro today. Check here for moves for your Drowzee.

Oh, by the way, I'm writing a fic, so if anyone is interested, you can read it here.

[Lady Vulpix]

Misagi? Oh, that explains it! Nice intro! Take 5 stamps and I hope you stay around this time. ¢¢¢¢¢

[Everoy]

Pokemon species: Smoochum
Nickname: LadyLuck
Level: 6
Attacks:
Pound
Lick
Ice Punch(bred-on)

LadyLuck's POV
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Me and my trainer, Chris, went to sign-up for the ice-skating competition.
"Are you sure I can do this, Chris?" I asked my trainer.
"Of course you can, L.L., you beat Skye in all of your practices!" He replied.
Skye is a Scyther, not a Swinub. I thought.
Right after we signed up, I heard the loud-speaker.
"LadyLuck the Smoochum and DixieChix the Swinub, report to the Ice Rink!" the loud-speaker boomed. Every bone in my body shook. Me and Chris ran to the rink. When we got there, we saw the Swinub and her owner. We stood next to them. The battle started.

LadyLuck vs. DixieChix

I waited at the starting line for the starting bell to ring. Finally it boomed out loud. "LadyLuck! Pound DixieChix!" Chris ordered me. I tried, but it missed. But right after I missed, the Swinub used Powder Snow. I yelled to Chris. "Chris! DixieChix is Level 10!" I knew that because me and Chris researched other pokemon every once in a while. Chris must not have heard me because right after I yelled to him he ordered me to Lick DixieChix. Eww...... I thought. but an order in an order... I skated a foot forward and licked the Swinub with all I had. DixieChix started shaking. Then I started thinking about the Lick attack. We had looked it up on the Pokedex. The attack Lick has a 30% chance of paralyzing the opponent. Then I noticed I had crossed the finish line! I felt a funny sensation in my whole body. Then Chris checked his Pokedex. LadyLuck is now level 7!

Pokemon species: Smoochum
Nickname: LadyLuck
Level: 7
Attacks:
Pound
Lick
Ice Punch(bred-on)

[Lady Vulpix]

Not bad for a first post, Parsec's politoed. Take 2 stamps! ¢¢

[Charizard04621]

Um, two things.

1) Smoochum doesn't get Surf as a bred-on move... In RBYGSC, Smoochum and Jynx never learn Surf by HM or in breeding.
2) Parsec's Politoed, your Smoochum should only have gained one level for crossing the finish line, I believe, and not two.

[Lady Vulpix]

Hm? Ouch! Karin, you're right. I hadn't noticed. Take a ¢ for your help.
Parsec's Politoed, your stamps are on hold until you fix your battle.

[Aipom Of Doom]

Originally posted by Lady Vulpix
Hm? Ouch! Karin, you're right. I hadn't noticed. Take a ¢ for your help.
Parsec's Politoed, your stamps are on hold until you fix your battle.

Also, I noticed that you gave your Scyther Fly as a bred-on move, Parsec's Politoed... That's illegal too =/

[Everoy]

The only thing I don't agree with is the levels earned. My Smoochum was at level 6, and the Swinub was Level 10. Although, I will check for the bred-on moves that Smoochum and Scyther can learn and then edit my battle and sig.

[Lady Vulpix]

Check the scenario. Every pokemon gains 1 level from each competition they participate in. So your Smoochum is now level 7.