PTA-Hoshoku Region IC

[GFawkes]

As you all sit in a dark theater, for some reason they insisted on this, something about tradition, you see a faint light come up on stage, revealing a middle aged man wearing a lab coat. He looks at you all sternly and then cracks a smile, and speaks in a joyful, though somewhat tired, voice.

"Hello there, and welcome to the wonderful world of Pokemon! My name is Professor Aspen, though most people call me the Pokemon Professor. This world," he pulls out a pokeball from his lab coat, "is inhabited by creatures known as Pokemon." A red beam of energy emerges from the dot on the ball, and lands on the ground before him, where a grey pokemon with long fur and gigantic ears emerges.

"For some people, Pokemon are pets. Others use them for fights. Myself...I study Pokemon as a profession. Now, a world of Pokemon awaits you! I'll see you shortly." With that, both he and the Pokemon at his side fade away, and the theater goes to blackness. Then a conga line of tulips gets up on stage as a banana plays the piano. A crowd of lemurs begins throwing pudding on stage in appreciation. Then you wake up.

You each wake up in different locations. Whether it be the bed you've slept in for years, or the Pokemon Center's rentable rooms, your eyes open as the sun creeps into the room. You don't know why, but you have a feeling that you should go to the Pokemon Lab.

[Hefty Lefty]

Wesley Northridge's day starts earlier than most. Life on the farm demands it. The 18 year-old boy would've debated hitting the snooze button on his alarm clock that morning at five-thirty am, but the fragrance of delicious bacon fumigates the house and forces him out of bed. He slowly puts on his light blue denim jeans and red flannel button-down shirt. He adjusts the cuffs down to his wrists. Next come his socks, then his faithful, worn cowboy boots. The beige boots have been through a hell of a lot of work. There's still quite a bit of dirt on them from yesterday. In one back pocket of his jeans are two rubber gloves, the other, a red bandana. Lastly, to complete his outfit, Wes dons his trusty cowboy hat. He'd be naked without it.

Wes makes his way down the creaky wooden stairs, basking in the smell of breakfast. "Well howdy there, big bruther," a perky Mara greets him, holding a skillet of bacon and eggs. "You enjoy sleepin' een?" Her words a long and drawn out, like she's squeezing the juice out of each letter. Looking out the window behind her, barely visible in the low light of dawn, Wes spies a few of his brothers working on the fields. They woke up an hour before him; that's the only way to get a full day's work done. "Hm?" Mara awaits her answer as she serves breakfast for the two of them. She's dressed for the day in a yellow floral dress. Her hair, in a long, thick braid, falls down behind her freckled face. "G'mornin' seese." The boy's speech is low, tired, and mumbling, but his accent is just like his sister's. "You're ready for taday, ain'cha?" He asks as he sits down and digs into their meal. Wes would love to take his time with this breakfast, but they've got to hit the road if they're to make it to Nosh City by the early afternoon.

"Eeyup! Goin' to tha big city taday!" Her youthful smile is intoxicating and does its best to wake Wes from his dreary mood that strange dream had put him in. Mara does her best to meet Wes' eyes, which are staring into the yolk of his eggs. "What's the matter? Ya haid that dream agaeen?" She's always been able to read him. In a family of twelve, the 14-year old is one of the closest to the boy. "I know how ya feel. But doesnit make ya glad ya aet least work wit'em?" Her brother looks up from his eggs with an inspired half-smile. "Yeah. You're raight. Now let's get some'a this in our stumach before we head out. It's a long ride."

"Yessir!"

The two eat their morning's meal quickly after that. Mara hurries through washing the dishes as Wes checks the back of their truck. Tomatoes... carrots... beets... onions... Wes goes through the checklist in his hand. If he forgets anything he'll be in deep trouble. Potatoes... corn... *HONK HONK* His thoughts are interrupted by an eager Mara, who had snuck into the truck and is now leaning out the driver's side window slamming on the horn. *HONK HONK HONK* "Well c'mon Wehslee! Let's getta move on!" She yells over her own noise she's creating. Wes chuckles to himself as he finishes his checklist, checks it once more, then slides down the door and locks the hatch, again, checking twice to make sure it's locked.

Whatever energy Mara had escapes her; the second the truck's motor starts up she passes out with her head out the window, hair blowing in the breeze. Wes smiles, leans is left arm out the window, and gives on last wave goodbye to his family at the Northridge Farm.

The drive to Hoshoku takes longer than Wes thought it would, but it's an easy drive, so it's not a problem. By eleven o'clock, the pair makes it to Nosh City. Wes nudges his sister awake. "We're 'ere, Mara." She's groggy, but shoots out of her seat once she realizes where they are. If it weren't for her seatbelt, she would've shot straight through the truck's roof. "We're 'ere! We're 'ere!"

Wes backs the truck of produce against the side of the road just outside of the city's streets. He opens the back of the truck and begins to raise the crate's elevator when a thought strikes him. "Ay, Mara, we should probably go ask fer permission to settup shop 'ere." From the way back of the truck, sitting atop a crate of potatoes, trying to pry it from the wall, his sister nods. She scrambles across the crates and leaps out of the truck. Her dress collects some dust around its white patterned skirt. Wes closes up the hatch and locks it again. "Let's go ask someone in here." He points to a large nearby building. "If isnot the raight place, I'm sure somein in there knows where we should go."

The brother and sister team walks right past the sign that reads "Nosh City Pokemon Lab."

[D_Man_7733]

Damian gets up this morning with a yawn, after the ship docked in Nosh city. His alarm clock hadn't woken up, in-fact he forgot to set it, Your too use to the pokemon waking you up in the moring he thought to himself as he stood up, but still smiled.

As he made his way out of his cabin, he caught a glimpse of some pokemon trainers battling in the back of the boat... how he would love to watch, but he had somewhere to be today. As he left the boat, he realised he hadn't really prepared a map, the sailors hurrying around didn't seem to have time for him, but he still went ahead to ask.

"Hey there! I need some directions, if it wouldn't bother you?" Which is when he remembers the dream and, he simply asks "Which way to pokemon lab?"

The sailor seems relieved that the possible hundreds of questions turned into a simple one. The sailor turns to point down the road and relayed directions.

Damien jogs down the road until roads end, to remember the directions and starts walking to the pokemon lab, he does take a step into the pokemon centre to see what kinds of pokemon there are and how they are being raised. But mind still on the task at hand (astonishingly) he heads of to the pokemon laboratory.

[DiscipleofBob]

Gene wakes up in the small bunk bed. It was a miracle he'd been able to sleep at all what with the Hiker's loud snoring coming from the bunk below him all night long. Still, he didn't make much of a fuss, he rarely did. Slowly he climbed out of bed and gathered his things as delicately as possible, not wanting to wake any of the others sleeping. He was an early riser, and especially today, when he would go and talk to the local professor and finally receive his very own Pokemon, there was no way he could sleep in. He only regret that he wasn't allowed to help take care of the Pokemon while he was staying at the Pokemon Center, but apparently they frowned on untrained volunteers. Gene left the Pokemon Center the sun just rising over the horizon and makes his way to the laboratory, even if it means he gets there early and he has to wait, but the whole time he had to wonder from his strange dream, what exactly was a lemur?

[Spirit Armor]

Aya's eyes snap open, and she sits up in her bed, staring into nothing for a good three minutes as she wonders why she had to have such a ridiculous dream today, of all days.

And then she remembers that today IS the day of all days, and she all but hurls away the covers as she vaults off the bed and gets dressed. Another two minutes are needed for her to calm her nerves enough to remember that backpacks don't go on until AFTER the rest of her clothes; soon enough, she sweeps her old mechanic's jacket on (which made her mom despair at first, until Aya pointed out that training and handling monsters had the potential to be even DIRTIER than helping her dad fix cars).

She feels a little better when the jacket's comforting weight falls over her, like it's another layer between her and the world. NOW she's ready to roll.

One quick breakfast and a few stammered questions of the staff later, Aya quickly scurries away from the Pokemon Center, preferring to keep her gaze to the road. Somehow, she feels more nervous here than she ever did back in Olivine. Olivine, at least, was large enough to let her blend into the crowd; Nosh was small enough that people could tell that she was from out of town just by one look.

- too bad Aya's too busy thinking about these sorts of things to keep HER eyes peeled, and she bumps right into, of all things, some sort of farm boy, and she goes down with an undignified squawk.

"- ngah!?"

[DiscipleofBob]

Gene arrives at the laboratory early, far too early. Unsure of whether he's allowed to go in yet or not, Gene briefly checks to see if anyone else is inside or around before planting himself in front of the front door and waiting patiently.

[Hefty Lefty]

"Sorry there, ma'am," Wes apologizes to something that is clearly not his fault. He extends a strong arm to lift her up, and when he does, introduces himself. "G'mornin'!" He gives an earnest smile. "The name's Wesley Northridge." He places his hands on his hips. "You wouldn't happen ta know wha this place ees, wouldja?" He asks as he grips the door's handle to open it for his new friend. Mara stays quiet and close to his hip. She doesn't appear too thrilled with the girl.

[D_Man_7733]

Seeing another person approach the lab, Damien goes to introduce himself.

"Hey there, I'm Damian. You wanting to see the proffesor too?" His Hoenn accent is audible, but it isn't too different than from what they speak here.

Damian offers his hand to shake.

[DiscipleofBob]

"Gene," the boy says with a soft voice and a smile, sitting cross-legged in front of the door to the lab. "I didn't think anyone would be in yet."

[D_Man_7733]

"I didn't really expect it either, but I thought that there might be some Pokemon around" Damian says as he looks around.

[Spirit Armor]

Aya blinks owlishly up at Wes' hand before taking it, adjusting her glasses once she's up. "Fuhgeddaboudit- I mean, it's okay," she adds, making a conscious effort to slow down her speech and not to fall back into her father's and his friends' way of speaking. Her big city accent sounds strange with her quiet voice. "Sorry, I shoulda been watching where I was goin', anyway-"

"- er, morning." Aya ducks her head sheepishly. "'m Aya Silverly- um, this is the lab. Ain't it?" She glances at Mara nervously, not sure what to make of the other girl's unhappiness.

[Hefty Lefty]

Wes tips his hat to greet everyone springing up around him. "Ah hey there's peyple ever'where. I'm Wesley Northridge ever'body, and this'ere's my lil seester Mara." He rubs her head. She sort of shrugs out of the way of her brother's hand. The cowboy shakes everyone's hand like some sort of politician. "So this is a laeb, eh? I bet somein inside knows abou who we're lookin' fer, Mara." He smiles down at her, she smiles weakly up in reply.

[D_Man_7733]

Seeing the group of people now around him he introduces himself all around.

"Hi i'm Damian!" and he flourishes a bow, rising with a smile. "you can probably tell i'm from Hoenn, my ship just docked this morning. I'm glad the first few people I meet are so kind, some city people can be, less than such." he takes a pause, before continueing. "are you all here to see the proffesor too? he doesn't seem to be in at the moment, so I am just waiting here for now."

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

He woke groggily, still vague images playing on in the back of his mind, but he paid them no attention: his father had once said that dreams were but the fractured mess of sensations we took in during the day and had told Nathaniel not to pay any attention to them. He stretched and climbed out of the Pokemon centre's bed, standing and looking around the room a bit before picking up his clothes and getting ready to go.

So, this was it. Nosh City, the last stop. He'd travelled from one side of the country to the other, but nothing had happened. He'd found no pokemon lying injured that he could nurse back to health, nor and evil trainers, whose pokemon wanted to rebel. Nothing like that, his travels had been singularly uneventful and now he was running short of cash and was regretting his decision to run away. He knew he had to look around Nosh city, just for one chance to find a pokemon and start his dream.

He walked out of the centre at a leisurely pace, wondering where the bet place would be to find, whatever it was he hoped would happen. Nathaniel felt a nagging feeling at the back of his head, some sort of deja vu, but like his old man had taught him he put it to the side.

For an hour, Nathaniel found himself wandering round in circles, until he heard someone cry out in pain:

"ngah"

He looked over and saw a group of teenagers milling around outside a building, he wandered over, feeling that for some reason, just maybe, this could be it.

He approached them cautiously, wondering if in fact they were about to rob the place, or whether they were there for some other reason...

[slurpz]

The sun was already over a quarter of the way above horizon. The blue sky was spotted with fluffy clouds. And the Pidgeys and Taillows were singing. Emphasis on the past tense. The sweet tones of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j3okb3kuts) blasting out of a window overlooking an alley quickly put an end to any perceived serenity.

A Murkrow flapped its way to the ajar window before it plopped its black body down on the windowsill. It tried to open the window more; using only one claw proved to be an unfruitful endeavor. It eventually gave up, before letting out a loud squawk and squeezing itself into the apartment (which could probably be more accurately called a bachelor pad).

The first thing that catches your eye is probably the way-too-large TV screen that takes up half of the far wall. Or maybe it's the ceiling-to-floor speaker monitors that sit in each corner of the living room. The Murkrow cared not for any of these. It flew through another doorway, before landing on a night table made out of black oak. It squawked again before hopping over to the alarm clock. After fiddling with a few knobs, the Murkrow finally found the one it was looking for. The music suddenly tripled in intensity. A groan was followed by a tanned arm that lazily tried to swat the bird away.

"Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnngh, not again you annoying bird!"

The Murkrow ruffled its feathers and lightly pecked at the hand that was still waving around.

"Ouch! All right, I'm getting up to feed you, you ungrateful little..." The rest of Kris Davis's tirade was lost in a string of curses as the bird pecked again, this time quite a bit harder.

He took back his assaulted hand, and slowly rubbed his right eye. Yawning, he caught the time on the clock. Good Arceus, barely after 9:30... Kris didn't bother putting on a shirt as he padded down the hall on bare feet, wearing only flannel pants.

Inside the kitchen, he took out a piece of jerky from a cabinet and offered it to the Murkrow.

"You," Kris declared, "need to go bring your bad luck to someone else!"

The Murkrow responded with a proud caw before scarfing down the jerky whole. It stared back at Kris.

He could do nothing but roll his eyes. "I knew I was on to something when I named you Glutton the first time I saw you." He still gave the bird a second piece of jerky though. He had befriended one of these back when he still lived in Fuchsia City. The little jerk didn't even give him a thank you screech when it simply hopped away and flew off.

Kris skillfully cracked two eggs into a bowl, all the while shaking his head slowly. He added a third one after a slight hesitation. After chopping up a few leeks and adding some salt and pepper, the Ace Trainer whisked the mixture together. Putting a skillet on the stove, he finished the scrambled eggs, before adding a couple of bacon strips and sausage patties. Kris put a small portion of the breakfast onto a separate place before slowly eating the rest.

The alarm music suddenly stopped.

"Mm, baby, what's that smell?" A half dressed woman quickly followed the contralto sound.

"Hiya Cand--" was all he got out before the woman interrupted with a hint of laughter in her voice.

"Aleila."

"--ace." Kris continued without missing a beat. "Figured that I'm a new man now."

Aleila raised both of her eyebrows in mock surprise and pointed at the plate of food in front of her. "Oh my. Am I the very first one you've ever done this for?"

He raised both hands up in defense and said, "I am never doing this again if it gets me into this much trouble."

Aleila laughed, and walked over to Kris's side of the table to give him a kiss on the top of his head. "It's nice not having to do this for once. Usually I'm the one stuck with this job. Talking of which...was that seriously your alarm?" She pretended like she is puking.

Kris reached around the chair and spanked her lightly. "Now as punishment, you are going to have to do all of the laundry from last night."

"Typical sexist comment." Aleila finished her plate, and grinned. "Just this once. For the wonderful breakfast."

As she headed out of the kitchen, he grabbed the plates and cleaned up all of the cookware. She poked her head back into the kitchen looking utterly perplexed. "Is your washing machine broken or something? I couldn't get it to turn on, or to even open."

Kris couldn't resist a last quip. "So you need a man's strength to do even a woman's job?" Aleila stuck his tongue out at him.

He headed down to the laundry room and turned on the light. The power cord was clearly plugged into the wall outlet. And yet, the washing machine was just as clearly not turning on when he pushed the power button. He knew just how to fix machines. He picked up the entire washing machine and banged it on the ground a few times. This time when he pushed the power button, the machine turned on just fine.

"Ah, I still got the Kay-Dee touch."

Kris opened the washing machine door, and sat the small basket of dirty clothes down in front of it. He was about to just shove the whole thing into the machine when his eyes fell down on a small scrap of fabric.

Huh. So this was what was under there.

He began loading the machine. After a good 5 minutes, he noticed that the basket was just as full as ever, while there were only a few pieces of clothing inside.

"All right, I've had it with you. Time for more of my magic."

Kris pulled back an arm and was about to release a brilliant left hook when the machine lifted up and rammed itself into him.

"Holy mother of--why you piece of--"

Man fought machine until the sound of laughter broke them up.

"Baby, I can't believe you're fighting that."

"What are you talking about? I was just teaching my stuff a lesson!"

"First of all, 'stuff' doesn't fight back." Kris rolled his eyes. "Second, have you never even heard of a Rotom?"

Eyes slowly appeared on the washing machine, followed by a big disjointed smirk and loud laughter.

"Bah, this is why women are supposed to handle this anyway." Kris gave the basket of clothes back to the woman before staring back at the washing machine.

He muttered, "Did I really just pick a fight with my washing machine?" in disbelief.

[GFawkes]

For everyone at the lab:

As you congregate outside and begin to meet each other, there is a loud THUD from inside the lab, followed by an epithet that you've never heard before, but can still tell the meaning from the general tone. Roughly translated, it means "That was heavy and expensive and I just dropped it on my foot". You all manage to hear someone speaking, though you can't make out the words.

A few seconds later, the door opens and reveals a short, purple Pokemon with eyes like diamonds and spiky ears. It looks up at all of you, examining you, then turns its head and calls back. "Sab sab eye!". As it speaks, you can see a mouth full of sharp teeth.

"Already? Well, don't just stand there. Let them in!" The voice responding is a young one, possibly 28 years old at most. "I'll be up in a bit. In the meantime, Kelly will show you around."

As you step into the lab, you can see it is in an immense state of disarray. Piles of papers, mountains of boxes (some official looking, others indicating they once held food), and a thin layer of dust seems to float in the air. The purple Pokemon disappears into the mess, and emerges shortly with five folding chairs being dragged behind it. It unfolds them and moves a clawed hand over them in an attempt to dust them off before motioning for you to sit down.

After a minute, you see a man emerge from somewhere in the mess, presumably there's a staircase somewhere. "Glad to see you all made it. Good to meet you all in person. At first, I was afraid the machine wouldn't work and you'd forget your dream as soon as you woke up."

As he speaks, you notice he looks nothing like the man from the dream. He still has all his hair, it isn't graying, and his lab coat has several stains on it and a handful of holes in various places. Additionally, there's a pair of safety goggles on his forehead, though they look like they do more than just protect. A number of dials and switches line the sides. As you look down his body, you see he is wearing large rubber gloves, and that one boot seems to be a much lighter shade in some areas than the other.

"I'd shake your hands, but I've been doing some chemical work and that may not be the best idea at the moment. H2SO4 doesn't really like human flesh." He pauses for a moment, eyeing you all. "Now, I suppose you're all wondering why I've gathered you here. Always wanted to say that. Here's the quick version: I need a package delivered to Argen Town, north of here. They need it for their work on the Cross-Continental Monorail, so it's kinda important they get it. Now, Argen Town hasn't exactly got the best reputation when it comes to crime, but I've got a plan for that." He turns to the Pokemon. "Kelly, go and get the companions," he says to it before turning back to you. "You should all know that there are Pokemon in this world, and that they are used for a variety of purposes. Since you are going to be travelling to a dangerous area, I will give you each one Pokemon for your protection."

In a few seconds, Kelly returns, pushing a cart that has three glass containers on it, with five small balls in each container. Each container has a symbol etched onto it. One has a water drop, another has a leaf, and the final has a small flame. "I've always been a fan of choice and variety, so I made a few calls and reminded one man about an embarrassing faux pas, and was able to get these 15 Pokemon for you to take with you. However, you can only take one each. Part of the deal I made."

Kelly lifts off the lid of each container, and lightly taps the button on each pokeball. After a lot of bright flashes of energy, 15 creatures emerge.

From the container marked with a leaf come a four-legged creature with a bulb on its back, another four-legger with a leaf coming from its head, a small green lizard that eyes you all carefully, a turtle with a sprout on its head, and a long-ish creature with an expression that says "I know something that you don't"

From the container marked with a water drop emerge a blue turtle with purple eyes, a large eyed and energetic crocodile, a finned creature with orange cheeks, a small bird with a giant head, and a furry creature with stubby arms and big eyes.

Finally, from the container marked with a small flame, come a lizard with its tail on fire, a rodent with flames coming from its back, an orange bird with a happy expression, a monkey with a flame on its rear end, and a pig with long ears and a ball on its tail.

"Go ahead and pick one! Take your time, but do be quick."

Yep, you can chose any starter from any region. However, there's only one of each, so this may be interesting*.

You'll get the starter packs shortly, don't worry.

*Using the Firefly definition

[DiscipleofBob]

Gene had been rehearsing his plea for a Pokemon ever since he stepped off the boat from Battle Frontier. He meant to explain his predicament and his desires to the professor, but everything happened so quickly. Before he could even try to get a word in, the Pokemon were already out of their Pokeballs. He quickly recognized the small fire lizard as a Charmander. He should know, his father's ace Pokemon was a Charizard, and by far the most difficult of his Pokemon to look over. Seeing it as a sign of fate, Gene hovered in front of the Charmander, pointing at it, "Um... is it all right if I take this one?"

[Hefty Lefty]

Wesley and Mara look at each other with equally confused looks. They've very rarely seen pokemon of this intelligence, acting as assistants. When it begins unfolding chairs for them, Wes can't help but expel a small "What'n the...?" Wes is about to ask his question about his food truck when the professor appears and reveals that he expected him to be here. Wes' eyes spread open in shock. He... put the dream... in my head? How'd he know I was coming today? What on earth is going on? Nevertheless, he sits down in the chair given to him. Mara stands at his side.

Giving us a pokemon!? What!? Wes can't contain his excitement. "WhoEE!" He slaps his knee. When everyone looks at him awkwardly, he apologizes, but still mumbles, "Givin' us a pokemon canya beleeve that?" The fifteen pokemon amaze him. They all coo in different sounds. Each one seems to have a different personality - some are playful, some conniving, some intense. Much different from the herds of miltanks he's used to dealing with. He gets up out of his seat and investigates a few of the fire pokemon. He leans in close enough that his skin warms up, like sitting around open fire. His amazement is written across his face, but it doesn't take long for Wes to come back down to earth.

"I... I can't accept these." He approaches the professor. "I'm busy, I'm suppose' ta be workin' taday." Then he arches a brow. "But... but you knew tha'. You knew I was comin' here taday. Why do ya nee' me?" All this change is disturbing Wes. "And how in the HAY didja get into my DREAMS?"

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

Nathaniel had stepped back when the banging started off, thinking he'd intruded on something, but then the five teenagers were invited in by the mysterious voice.
Nathaniel was torn, half of him wanted to go, the other investigate, and it was too much to decide quickly. He stepped closer and half garbled : "Uh, whatshapp'ning?" but everyone seemed too intent and had hurried in.

He didn't really have anything to lose he thought, so plucking up his courage he followed the disparate band and sneaked in through the door afterwards. He first thought they'd judge him, but only two seemed to be together. Still, he stood separate whilst everyone else took the chairs, wondering when someone would tell him to go.
But no one did! The professor wanted me here? That dream did mean something! Honestly, when he first heard it, eh thought the professor must be a complete wack-job, but the others all seemed to be startled but believing.

It was all a bit too much, but then the prof offered to give them pokemon to do a mission for him: it was just the thing Nathaniel had dreamed of, except, it was too dream like- the perfect opportunity. He couldn't get rid of the cynicism his Dad had instilled in him, niggling inside, telling him it must be a trick.

Whilst he waited for the farm boy's questions to be answered he perused the creature's arrayed before him. One boy had already claimed a lizard like pokemon, one of the few Nathaniel was acquainted with. My family would have had that straight away: dragons are our heritage. But he'd moved on from that he told himself, maybe it was good that it would be out of temptation. A cute little critter kept drawing his eye; it had a leaf instead of a tail, but helf it's nose up above the other pokemon. It has my sister's arrogance. He thought, and felt a pang of homesickness. Yes, this would be the one for him he knew.

Nathaniel reached out a hand and let the creature sniff him. "Hello you. I'm Nathaniel."

[slurpz]

Kris looked down at his watch.

It was almost 10am. Kris almost never got up this early, but for some reason, today he had a feeling that he was missing something.

"You got somewhere you need to be?"

"I guess so. I had nothing set up, but it just feels like I have to be somewhere. Don't wait for me and remember to lock the door as you leave."

"You really think I'm really just going to let you run away like this after making me breakfast and fighting with a monster on my behalf?"

Kris gave Aleila a pout and she giggled.

"Don't give me that face. I'll give you a ride. I'm guessing you need a ride to the Pokemon lab to look up how to beat that up?" She pointed at the washing machine that was happily throwing around pieces of her lingerie.

He rolled his eyes and said, "I'd appreciate that Jennifer."

"Aleila!" She lightly punched him.

He walked towards the laundry basket. Picking up a black muscle shirt and a pair of jeans, he sniffed them. Oh man, this shirt needs to be washed!

"You are not seriously going to do that are you?"

"But these shirts can be worn agai--"

"Rotom." At the sound of its name, the washing machine gave off a menacing shriek of metal.

He dropped the clothing on the floor, threw up both hands in defeat, before backing slowly out of the laundry room.

[slurpz]

He was standing outside of the apartment in a long-sleeved dress shirt, light khakis, smart shoes, and black aviators. The sleeves were rolled up halfway.

The door behind him opened and Aleila stepped out in a black dress that hugged all of her curves.

Kris whistled at her. "Dang, babe, you came yesterday in that?"

"That's what you said to me yesterday too! And what kind of color is that?"

The shirt was a mix of two colors. It subtly shifted from black to white to black again across the front and back of the shirt in vertical bars.

"I thought that it was pretty subtle."

"Just get in the car, mister."

"What car--wait. That is your car?"

Kris pointed at the red coupe with twin racing stripes that sat at the curb.

Aleila didn't bother to respond with words, and only grinned.

"You know babe, I think I might really be in love with you."

"I am sure that line had been used way too many times in your short life!"

[GFawkes]

Seeing it as a sign of fate, Gene hovered in front of the Charmander, pointing at it, "Um... is it all right if I take this one?"

"Ah, the ol' Lizard Pokemon, Charmander. Of course you can, though it can be tricky at times."


"I... I can't accept these." He approaches the professor. "I'm busy, I'm suppose' ta be workin' taday." Then he arches a brow. "But... but you knew tha'. You knew I was comin' here taday. Why do ya nee' me?" All this change is disturbing Wes. "And how in the HAY didja get into my DREAMS?"

"I actually didn't know you were coming, though I did suggest the thought to your subconscious. As for how I got in your dreams, it is unimportant. What's more important is that I did. That means that my latest device is working properly!" Professor Aspen says, getting excited at the end. "I chose you to go along because you know how the land works. You are a farmboy, yes? Then you know how non-sentient plant life works and what can and can't be eaten. At least, you know better than everyone else."



Nathaniel reached out a hand and let the creature sniff him. "Hello you. I'm Nathaniel."

The creature responds by sniffing, then looking into your eyes. Climbing onto your hand and up your arm, it wraps itself around your wrist, then drops onto the ground. Professor Aspen chuckles at this. "I think she likes you."

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

Nathaniel look up at the professor's words and grins sheepishly. "She? What's her name sir?" He asks, putting out both hands to make a platform for the creature.

[slurpz]

The red coupe pulls up to the Pokemon Lab with a low angry grumble of engine noise.

"Give me your number at least, so I can make sure you can't disappear on me."

"Why don't you just call yourself?"

Kris takes out his phone and flipped it over to the woman. A generic pop song fills the car after a short delay.

"You have no right to judge my choice of alarm music."

He ducks a halfhearted slap from Aleila and gave her a light kiss on the lips.

"Next time then."

Kris slowly walked into the Pokemon Lab and took off his aviators. He could already hear some noises down the coordidor. He quickly stopped as he noticed the professor.

"How did you suddenly make yourself 15 years younger?"

His attention was quickly grabbed by what the other people were doing. "You are giving out Pokemon for free? I can dig that."

Kris tucked one end of his sunglasses into his collared shirt and glanced over the Pokemon.

"Oh, there's a hot chick here. C'mere babe."

The fire chicken seems to take offense at that and nips his outstretched hand.

"Ow! Don't tell me you're actually a dude..."

The Torchic hopped in front of Kris and cawed at him.

"Haha, all right, I'll stop teasing you."

Kris held out one hand near the Torchic.

"I know you've got some great potential there, but you'll have to trust me. Let's get there together yeah? Wanna be my Lady?"

The bird hopped onto Kris's hand and worked its way up his arm before finally settling onto his shoulder.

[DiscipleofBob]

""Thank you very much!" Gene can't hold back the wide grin at his newfound Pokemon. He reaches into his pocket and offers some leftover Pokemon treats to the lizard, letting it sniff his hand as he did so. As much as he wanted to, Gene knew better than to just scoop up a strange Pokemon and cuddle it. He tried to get a feel for his (or her) personality first. If the Charmander seemed receptive, Gene would pick it up and hold it as one would a new pet. He also braced himself in case the Charmander decided to bite his hand, knowing it'd be painful but not serious.

[GFawkes]

Nathaniel look up at the professor's words and grins sheepishly. "She? What's her name sir?" He asks, putting out both hands to make a platform for the creature.

"Hadn't gotten around to naming them, so her name is up to you."


""Thank you very much!" Gene can't hold back the wide grin at his newfound Pokemon. He reaches into his pocket and offers some leftover Pokemon treats to the lizard, letting it sniff his hand as he did so. As much as he wanted to, Gene knew better than to just scoop up a strange Pokemon and cuddle it. He tried to get a feel for his (or her) personality first. If the Charmander seemed receptive, Gene would pick it up and hold it as one would a new pet. He also braced himself in case the Charmander decided to bite his hand, knowing it'd be painful but not serious.

The Charmander climbs slowly into your hands, and looks up at you, tilting its head to the side.

@slurpz:
Actually, it is a female. I just got that off the dice now.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

He looked to see the newcomer to the group, and was astonished by his brashness and generally rude behaviour to the professor: he ignored him, and started taking his pokemon with no permission. And the demeaning way he spoke to the pokemon, as well as the ridiculous boastful way he spoke about himself, made Nathaniel roll his eyes and turn back to the leafy creature. What a stereotype! he thought, Aviators? Come on, really?

He just hoped the guy wouldn't be coming with them, but it sounded like he already planned on doing so. Nathaniel sighed, hey, he'd known this seemed too good to be true...

So, what are we going to call you then, Nathaniel wondered. Certainly not something stupid.

"How about Althea?" He asked the cute little green creature, you remind him of some of the women in my family, and Althea, she was one of the greatest matriarchs. Hopefully you, little one, can live up to the stories.

[Hefty Lefty]

Wesley is thoroughly confused. "Got into ma subconscious..." This professor seems more interested in the success of his terrifying mind-control device than the well-being of his subjects. "How do you... how do you know me?" The farm boy scratches his head under his hat. Maybe's he's been to the farm? Seen me working? Or maybe he's just heard of me, and knows my family's goods. Wes stands dumbstruck. He raises a finger to ask another question, but the professor has already turned to address someone else. Well... if he's insisting on giving me a pokemon, I'd better not squander this opportunity. Wes is pretty upset that his sister isn't getting a pokemon as well. I'm sure she's crushed. The least I can do is have her choose. He turns around, expecting to find a depressed Mara, but instead the little girl is sitting amongst the four remaining grass-like creatures. One gecko pokemon waddles around her, making strange *wik* *wik* *wik* noises with its sticky feet. Another one, a turtle-like pokemon is attempting to climb up into her lap. A third pokemon with a big leafy bulb on its back sprays a tiny orange dust from its bulb. Mara sneezes and giggles, rolling onto the ground. "Well this 'ere's you're lucky day, huh, Mara?" The turtle pokemon crawls up onto her stomach and smiles at her. "This 'un! This 'un! Pick this 'un!" She holds it above her head and its tiny yellow feet wiggle in delight. Wes turns to the professor. "Welp, looks like I've found my pokemon!"

[D_Man_7733]

Damian sits on the edge of his seat, waiting, his smile is gone now, now he just looks astonished...

He finally musters the ability to stand up.

you know pokemon, why is this so hard?

he begins to take a few steps forward, before crouching down a little away from the mass of pokemon. he looks up to the proffesor.

"I'm sorry, but, I don't think I can take one of your pokemon, you obviously raised them very well, and I feel like I would be intruding. I couldn't stand to seperate these guys"

he looks down and smiles at them, apologetically, but at the same time hoping them the best. But he still stays down, and can't really bring himself to stand up.

[Spirit Armor]

Aya hangs back as the lab grows more and more crowded, and- well, it doesn't help when the professor makes his appearance and starts talking about putting dreams in peoples' heads. And about getting everyone here for some sort of purpose, if what the professor is saying to Wes is actually true. Seriously, as if this day couldn't get any WEIRDER...

The moment the Pokemon start appearing, though, Aya's immediately at the forefront of the group, her eyes wide as she kneels down to get a closer look. The little blue penguin catches her eyes, and she carefully holds her hand out, rubbing her fingers together and making clicking noises to try and get the water-type's attention.

Though what the professor is saying-

"Argen Town...? Um- sir- is it- is it really that bad? I mean, my family an' I, we just moved there from Olivine an' all..."

[DiscipleofBob]

Gene can hardly contain a squeal of delight as he gently scoops the Charmander up, of course watching the tail to make sure he didn't set anything on fire. "Well, hi there. Would you like to travel with me little guy? Or girl?" Gene checks the gender of his chosen Pokemon, the Charmander.

[GFawkes]

"I'm sorry, but, I don't think I can take one of your pokemon, you obviously raised them very well, and I feel like I would be intruding. I couldn't stand to seperate these guys"


"Actually, I didn't raise them. They're all imported from different regions. And as far as I know, they've never seen each other before. They're pretty much fresh from the field."


The moment the Pokemon start appearing, though, Aya's immediately at the forefront of the group, her eyes wide as she kneels down to get a closer look. The little blue penguin catches her eyes, and she carefully holds her hand out, rubbing her fingers together and making clicking noises to try and get the water-type's attention.

Though what the professor is saying-

"Argen Town...? Um- sir- is it- is it really that bad? I mean, my family an' I, we just moved there from Olivine an' all..."

The penguin carefully eyes Aya, taking small steps forward. When it gets close, it leans forward, and experimentally taps its beak on Aya's fingers gently, before tumbling forward and rolling into a sitting position in front of Aya.

"If you've just moved in, you may want to check on them when you visit. But as long as they lock their doors and windows, they should be alright. I know that the Chief of Police there is usually pretty good about this sort of thing, but something happened a few months ago, about a week or two after construction on the monorail started."


Gene can hardly contain a squeal of delight as he gently scoops the Charmander up, of course watching the tail to make sure he didn't set anything on fire. "Well, hi there. Would you like to travel with me little guy? Or girl?" Gene checks the gender of his chosen Pokemon, the Charmander.

The Charmander yawns in Gene's hands, then gives a light smile.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

Lifting Althea up he turns to the professor.
"So, um, sir. What is this pokemon? And what do you want us to do exactly? I'm not tied down right now, just wanted to know?"

[GFawkes]

"That Pokemon is known as a Snivy. And I want you to bring a package to the PokeMart in Argen Town. Kelly, could you go find that?" Aspen replies to Nathaniel.

Once everybody decides on a Pokemon, I'll hand out Item Kits and tell you the stats for each one.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

He nods at this, and wanting to stay standing for Kelly's return, moves to the side slightly, and turns his attention back to the Snivy creature.
"So Althea, do you like your new name? I bet your going to grow all big and powerful aren't you!" He strokes the creature's head, entirely enamoured already.

[Hefty Lefty]

Wes' stomach burns with excitement. Whoo boy, a quest with pokemon. This is unbelievable! Mara brings the plant turtle over to the professor. "What's this'un's name!?" She holds the pokemon up to the professor with eager eyes. Meanwhile, Wes slowly walks over to corner of the room, cell phone in hand. This isn't gonna be a pretty conversation...

"Howdy there, Ma," *gulp* "You'll never guess what happened to me and Mara taday..." He sounds very uneasy.

He explains the situation, how they accidentally wandered into a pokemon lab, how they were greeted with a gift of pokemon, and their mission to the Hoshoku town. He leaves out the fact that this professor knows where he lives and contacted him in his dreams. That'd probably just worry her. To his extreme surprise, she answers positively.

"R-really?" There's no way she's letting me do this. Leave the farm? The family? They need me! "But Ma, tha farm needs me..." You're right, Ma, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But what do I do, I've got Mara here and - "Oh okay," an uneasy smile comes across his face, "Thanks Ma. Boy am I 'cited. Yeah, I'll wait here til then." There's a long pause. "G'bye, Ma. I'll miss ya. I'll come back as soon as I can." *click*

Wes had forgotten about his cousin Allen who lives in Nosh City. The family hasn't spoken with him in a long while, but he's kind enough to do them this big favor. Boy the family sure seems to be behind me leaving. I'm happy they're happy for me, but I hope they won't miss my help. I wonder how long I'll be gone. Poor Mara. I wish she could come along. But Ma's right, she's too young. He looks back to see her playing with the new pokemon. I'll let her play for a little longer. We still have a little while. No need to end her fun just yet.

[Spirit Armor]

Aya nods, half her attention split away from the penguin. She's not too worried for her parents; her father, in particular, is rough and strong enough from the heavy lifting he's had to do during his work, but still...

She looks up at the professor. "Thanks... I'll be sure to let 'em know." Aya then pets the penguin Pokemon's head for a few more moments in silence, marveling at the feel of its downy feathers; there's a faint smile on her face as she keeps on playing with it.

Then, she looks back up and her smile fades; it's almost as if she's unwilling to let herself hope. "... may I really...?" Aya trails off uncertainly, but then she gathers up her courage. I wanna change. I don't wanna be like this forever... an' when on Earth is another chance gonna pop up like this?

"I'll do it. And... I'll take this Pokemon, if it's alright."

[GFawkes]

He nods at this, and wanting to stay standing for Kelly's return, moves to the side slightly, and turns his attention back to the Snivy creature.
"So Althea, do you like your new name? I bet your going to grow all big and powerful aren't you!" He strokes the creature's head, entirely enamoured already.

Althea rubs her head against Nathaniel's hand as he pets her.


Wes' stomach burns with excitement. Whoo boy, a quest with pokemon. This is unbelievable! Mara brings the plant turtle over to the professor. "What's this'un's name!?" She holds the pokemon up to the professor with eager eyes.

Professor Aspen looks at Mara. "That one's called a Turtwig. It's known for using the sun to get energy as well as from food it eats."


She looks up at the professor. "Thanks... I'll be sure to let 'em know." Aya then pets the penguin Pokemon's head for a few more moments in silence, marveling at the feel of its downy feathers; there's a faint smile on her face as she keeps on playing with it.

Then, she looks back up and her smile fades; it's almost as if she's unwilling to let herself hope. "... may I really...?" Aya trails off uncertainly, but then she gathers up her courage. I wanna change. I don't wanna be like this forever... an' when on Earth is another chance gonna pop up like this?

"I'll do it. And... I'll take this Pokemon, if it's alright."

"Of course it's all right. I offered, didn't I?"

[Hefty Lefty]

"Hm, Turtwig, huh?" Mara lowers the pokemon and stares into its eyes. "What's' you're name, lil Turtwig?" The pokemon's big eyes examine her face as it dangles suspended in the air. "Turtwig!" It yelps excitedly. "Hahaha!!" Mara loses it. "That ain't'cher name lil one! That's whatcha are!"

"Turtwig!" It responds gleefully.

"Noooo!!" The little girl's eyes squint in laughter. "I'm a human. But my name is Mara." She sticks her tongue out, as if the creature knows what that means. "Not Human!"

"Twig?"

[DiscipleofBob]

"I think we'll call you Charlie. Is that okay, Charlie?" Gene smiles while holding the Charmander. "Just think, someday you'll be big enough to carry me and fly through the air while doing it!"


"I'm sorry, but, I don't think I can take one of your pokemon, you obviously raised them very well, and I feel like I would be intruding. I couldn't stand to seperate these guys"

he looks down and smiles at them, apologetically, but at the same time hoping them the best. But he still stays down, and can't really bring himself to stand up.

"You know, these Pokemon aren't going to grow up and get stronger sitting around a lab all day. Little tykes need a trainer eventually. And they aren't going to come to you unless you show them you can be that trainer." Gene says softly before going panic-eyed, suddenly rambling out an apology, "Imean, nooffense, notthatyouaren'tagoodtrainer, orthatyouhavetobeatraineratall. I'msorry."

Eventually Gene composes himself. "These Pokemon we get to take with us are the lucky ones. We can train them and spoil them and let them see the world. In fact, it's a shame we can't take the rest of them with us too. There's more than enough that if the Professor were willing we could take two." Suddenly realizing his faux-pas, Gene starts bowing his head apologetically to the Professor, "NotthatI'maskingforanotherPokemon, Imeanthat'dcertainlybenice, butyou'remorethangenerousalready, andI'mnottryingtobegreedyorimposing, you'realreadygivingusquitethegifthere, andI'llshutupnow."

[GFawkes]

As everyone gets acquainted with their new friends, Damian feels a tug on his leg. Looking down he can see a blue lizard with a toothy maw smiling up at him.

[Hefty Lefty]

Wesley, having now hung up the phone, returns to his sister who has placed the turtwig down amongst the water pokemon. The grass turtle pokemon begins playing with a water turtle pokemon. "Ya like that one, huh?" Wes asks, kneeling down next to Mara, who lays on her stomach on the ground, wide-eyed, amidst all the pokemon. "Yeah! He's a turtwig!" At the sound of its name, the pokemon turns back to Mara. It sniffs her, then Wes. It has a faint natural, leafy scent. A small tree of only two leaves sprouts out of the creature's head. "Is that comin' from its haed?" The pokemon seems to understand what Wes is saying. It leans its head towards the cowboy as if to say, See for yourself. "So cool." Wes saws in awe. He runs his hands along its left leaf. It feels like a leaf. Usually animals create camoflagues to make themselves appear a part of nature. This pokemon actually is a part of nature. That's crazy. "I haven't thought ova name for 'im yet." "Oh no?" Wes continues to investigate the pokemon, only half-listening to his sister. The pokemon takes advantage of Wes' close face and takes a chomp at his ear. "Ow!" The boy stiffens up in fear, but the pokemon's bite is strong but not painful. "Hey, hey, hey there fella!" He manages to pry the turtwig off his face. It looks back at him with a friendly admiration. "So you're a snappin' turtle, huh?"

Mara perks up. "A sappin' turtle!"

"A sappin' snappin' turtle," Wes says slowly. "Then let's call ya Sapjaw!"

"Hahaha GRRRRR" The girl mocks the naive, peaceful pokemon. "Big scary Sapjaw!"

[D_Man_7733]

"You know, these Pokemon aren't going to grow up and get stronger sitting around a lab all day. Little tykes need a trainer eventually. And they aren't going to come to you unless you show them you can be that trainer." Gene says softly before going panic-eyed, suddenly rambling out an apology, "Imean, nooffense, notthatyouaren'tagoodtrainer, orthatyouhavetobeatraineratall. I'msorry."

Still with his head down Damian replies"heh... no need to apologise; your right, I grew up around people who raised pokemon, not who owned them, this is all coming as a little shock is all." Damian lets out a sigh, before a newfound determination comes to his eyes.


As everyone gets acquainted with their new friends, Damian feels a tug on his leg. Looking down he can see a blue lizard with a toothy maw smiling up at him.

Damian smiles, his attitude returning to normal.
"hey there little guy."
Damian says while he puts a hand on the lizards head.
"You are a healthy one aren't you... and you want to become stonger?"
Damian fishes an Oran Berry from his bag, and holds the bluish berry out to the pokemon.
"well here, this will be the first step in helping you grow, and bringing us together as a team"
Used 1x Oran Berry (not for healing, just as a treat)
Assuming the pokemon eats the berry, Damian stands up and looks down at the pokemon. "well this is where our journey begins, buddy. are you ready for it?"

[roll0] Wisdom for the condition of the pokemon (if I can) or just to learn more about it.

sorry if I'm slowing things down a bit, if I'm allowed to just say "the pokemon eats the oran berry with gusto, and happiness" just tell me, without knowing gender or nature it just seems that it could be betraying its true self. (once I know those, I understand the pokemon properly)

[slurpz]

"What kind of a package are we going to be carrying, Professor?"

Lady, meanwhile has already settled into a ball of fluff on Kris's shoulder.

"I really think we should all try out Pokemon out in here first! It'll be nice to have some mock battles before we head out there."

Total ripoff of the game I know... :smalltongue:

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

He now looks over, content with his companion, and gnetly encourages Damian: "Yeah, go on, that pokemon looks like he really likes you. This is an opportunity for them to see the world and grow, to really have wonderful lives. I'm Nathaniel by the way, and ignore that if it sounded a bit soppy." He laughs.

[Spirit Armor]

"I don't think it's sappy at all," Aya replies, picking up the penguin Pokemon and hugging it carefully. "The same goes for everyone here, doesn't it? --"

She turns to stare at Kris, wide-eyed. "M... mock battles? In here...!?" Aya doesn't sound too thrilled about that prospect, but then, she's imagining all six Pokemon running amok and trashing the lab by accident. "I don't think it's a good idea to muck around in labs! That's as bad as... as... mucking about in a mechanic's garage!"

[Hefty Lefty]

"A battle?" Sapjaw is walking around a few water pokemon, finally left alone for a second. He doesn't seem in much of a mood to battle... "Heya, that could be fun to watch. Dunno if I wanna faight raight now, but aI'll watch fer sure." He puts his hands on his hips and stands from his squatting position. "But I agree. Y'all shoul' go outside. That sounds like it goin' get messy."

[al'Lan Mandrag]

That's as bad as... as... mucking about in a mechanic's garage!"

She says it as though it's some kind of cardinal sin...

Then again, we are pokemon trainers, it's what we should do. Only, only I don't know how I feel about forcing them to fight, yet. I think I'll wait until Althea truly trusts me first.

Resolving this, Nathaniel turns to Kris, saying: "Yeah, she's right, probably not in a lab. We should get the package and get going before we lose any more of the day."

He then turns back to Aya and smiles: "Thanks, um, for thinking it isn't soppy. I've never had a pokemon before. It's kind weird, but I've wanted it so long. And you're so amazing." He finishes, witht he last directed at Althea.

[Spirit Armor]

"Ah... n-no, fuhgedaboudit, it was nothing. You an' me both, you know what I'm saying?" Aya smiles, relaxing a bit. "There was a Gym in my hometown, so I was always thinkin' about how nice it'd be to have a Pokemon, but... y'know. Work," she finishes with a shrug.

At Nathaniel's last sentence, Aya looks down at the penguin in her arms and frowns thoughtfully. "That's right, I've got to give you a name..." she mutters.

[GFawkes]

"What kind of a package are we going to be carrying, Professor?"


"Just some notes for the construction. Where Bolt IL-28632 goes, and stuff like that."



"I really think we should all try out Pokemon out in here first! It'll be nice to have some mock battles before we head out there."

"If you plan to battle, I'm going to have to ask that you do it outside. Additionally, I'm no MD, so you'll need to go to the Pokemon Center afterwards to patch up."


Damian smiles, his attitude returning to normal.
"hey there little guy."
Damian says while he puts a hand on the lizards head.
"You are a healthy one aren't you... and you want to become stonger?"
Damian fishes an Oran Berry from his bag, and holds the bluish berry out to the pokemon.
"well here, this will be the first step in helping you grow, and bringing us together as a team"
Used 1x Oran Berry (not for healing, just as a treat)
Assuming the pokemon eats the berry, Damian stands up and looks down at the pokemon. "well this is where our journey begins, buddy. are you ready for it?"

[roll0] Wisdom for the condition of the pokemon (if I can) or just to learn more about it.


The lizard gives the berry a nibble, then grimaces at the taste. It eats the whole thing, albeit reluctantly.

I'll just say that you were unlucky there. Oran berries are Spicy, Sour, Bitter, and Dry. Totodile likes Sweet food.

You determine that it's Male.


Kelly comes back, carrying six bags and a manila envelope. "Sab eye eye Sabl."

"Thanks, Kelly. And good job thinking ahead." Prof. Aspen says to the Pokemon. He then turns to everyone in the lab. "Now, since Pokemon have a different biology than humans, they require different items to take care of them. So, I'll be giving each of you a basic PokeFirst Aid Kit, along with some basic care items for yourself. It's about 1.5 days to Argen Town by foot, and the package needs to be there in a week."

As he says this, Kelly walks up to each of you and hands you a bag. When all bags are handed out, she gives the envelope to Wesley.

OK, here's what everybody gets:
Potion x5
Antidote x3
Awakening x2
Full Heal x1
Sleeping Bag
12 rations of food

Additionally, if you need anything for your class (Styler, Pokeball Kit, etc.), you get that. If it's only used for 1 or 2 features that you don't have yet, you don't get it.

I've got a plan for PokeDexs and regular Pokeballs, don't worry. Think of this as your first trip to Viridian City.

Also, quick poll: How many people want there to be a rival group, and how many want just one rival?

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

"Thanks" Nathaniel mutters, rooting around in his bag. Useful things it seemed, but they also assumed that his group would get into trouble and need to heal their pokemon, ominous.

He grinned at Aya: "Wow, that sounds really cool. None of my family have any pokemon any more. I've never seen a pokemon gym, they must be really cool. Perhaps, once this is done, we'll all see a bunch of gyms."


"Ok, um, I guess we're ready to go then. If we go outside then anyone who wants to battle can do so, then we cna be on our way? We have got a job to do."

"Thanks so much for this professor, I won't let you down."

[DiscipleofBob]

"Thank you very much, Professor. I'll take good care of Charlie! Oh, and I'm sure the others will take good care of their Pokemon as well." Gene gratefully accepts the package. "I guess a battle would be a good idea before we go. Better to break in the Pokemon before we have to deal with wild Pokemon and all." Gene follows anyone who goes outside to battle.

[Hefty Lefty]

The farm boy gives the professor a nod as she gives him the package. She chose us six out of everyone in the world for this delivery. And out of us six, me to carry it. I won't let her down. Wes attaches the styler to his right forearm, naive to the fact that it would become like a third appendage to him soon enough. He takes the kit and envelope, and heads for the door. "Let's git outside, y'all." Mara follows quickly, but the little turtwig isn't fast enough to keep up. She doubles back for it.

"Those'a y'all who wanna battle can do so outsi' by ma truck. I parked it on the sidea tha road back there aside a big open field. Perfect for rasslin' and whatnot." He walks backward now to address the group following him, opening the door with his back. "My cousin shoul' be up at my truck righ' now ready to take off with my lil sister." His eyes shoot open as the cat leaps out of the bag.

"I... I can't stay?" She looks up at her brother with big watery eyes.

"I'm sorry, Mara," he crouches to her eye level, "But'cher jus' too small."

"I am NOT too small!"

"Yes y'are. Ma said so." He says as if that's the deciding factor, "Now look these pokemon are cute now but you know as well'a'I do that when a Tauros get's'a angry you git outta it's way. These things are all laike that." And maybe even worse.

The group makes the short walk to the field and the Northridge Farm truck. Just as he expected, his cousin Allen is waiting to bring it back. The rest of the party debates starting a mock fight, as Kris suggested, as Wes says good bye to his sister. "Mara you know I'm gonna come home as soon as I can." She begrudgingly sits up in the passenger seat, Sapjaw still in hand. She reaches behind the seat into a crate and pulls out a shiny ripe tomato. The creature begins gobbling away. A smiles leaks out of the girl. "I know you're raight..." She unties a small pink ribbon from her hair and fixes it around the stem of Sapjaw's plant. The strands descend to right above the creature's eyes. "G'bye Sapjaw." She gives the pokemon one last hug, then hands it over to Wes, who holds it under his arm and embraces Mara. "I Love ya Mara. I'll see ya soon okay?"

"Love ya too Wesley."

With that, Allen starts the truck. Smoke pours out of the exhuast pipe of the old vehicle, and leaves a trail of black as it rolls down the highway. Mara sticks her head out of the window to squeeze every last second of Nosh City until her brother and his new pokemon dissolve into a tiny spec on the horizon.

My previous post has been editted for this cousin taking the truck thing to make more sense. I didn't want my character's backstory to stretch into a five-hour delay.

Wes and Sapjaw return to the group in the field.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

He wandered outside with the others, intending to watch the upcoming battle, but as he heard the others talking he developed an itch to join in. Still, he'd promised himself that he'd wait till he knew more about Althea, but she started straining in his arms and pushing him to let her go.

"Do you wanna fight as well?" Maybe this one wants to prove she's just as capable as the rest.
"Ok, I'm up for this as well," Nathaniel says, putting Althea on the floor before him."'niv, niveeeee" Althea adds in her high pitched voice.

Do we have pokeballs for these starters?

[slurpz]

Kris grins back at Aya's wide-eyed stare and winks at her.

"If that's all the objection you have, let's take it outside like the good Professor suggested. My red-hot Lady against your ice-cold dude?"

Of course Kris would try to talk to the only female in the group. :smallsigh:

[D_Man_7733]

"Hey, sorry about the taste, it's the only thing I have on me right now, I'll make sure to get some really nice food for you later"

He looks up to the group & the proffesor "Do any of you know where I might find some pokeblocks? or do they sell the other stuff that I've heard about. pof, pon, poffi... poffins. In my experience pokemon enjoy the taste even if they aren't coordinators."

"well then, last thing to do... is figure out what to name this little guy. Strong Jaw, Lots of energy megabite? no,no,no I've got it, lets call you:Tooth."

Damian seeming to come out of a transe, stands and turns to the rest of the group.
"A mock battle would be a great Idea, if we are doing 1v1 around the room I could judge until my turn. I can't wait to see what these little guys can do."

Damian looks down at Tooth smiling, almost matching Tooths smile... ya know if it weren't for the giant toothy maw.
"like that idea? show your skills to the rest of our friends?"
Tooth looks up at Damian, nods a very large nod
"TOTODILE!"
before looking at the rest of the group, attemptingly menacing, but not really quite making it... his smile is just creeping up his face.


realising he forgot something he turns to Nathaniel.
"Hey nethaniel, I'm Damian, it's nice to meet you."
He offers his hand to shake. before turning back to the proffesor.
"Thank you for the pokemon proffesor, o you know any where we might be able to battle, starting a big battle in the middle of the street wouldn't exactly be a good Idea"

After getting an answer Damian heads for the door, to tell those already outside, but when he reaches the door Damian turns back the proffesor.
"oh yeah... not sure that dream machine is working perfectly... in the dream, you were about, nyeh... 15 years older? and losing lots of hair"
Damian Smiles as he says so, so the proffesor knew it wasn't an insult, just poking fun. and heads outside, now following Tooth who decided to lead the way.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

"Hi there," Nathaniel responds, "You can call me Nat. Do you want to do battle me then? We could get this started?"

[D_Man_7733]

"Sure thing, my tooth vs your althea. You up for it tooth?

"TODOTILE" Totodile jumps up and down at having found a battle so quickly.

"should we take it to a park? or just battle here? Tooth seems ready for anything."

How are we going to handle battles? here is tooths speed and HP just to make it easier to track.

TOOTH
spd: 7
HP: 23/23
Evasion: +1 via defenses

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

"Here seems fine, it's not like our pokemon are going to start blowing things up yet!" He laughs and then strides away so there's a 20ft gap between them.
"Ready, Althea?"

HP; 23
Speed: 6
Attack: 5
Defence: 10

Evasion +2

So you're first. I guess we can handle our own combat.

[D_Man_7733]

Assuming 20ft is the equivilent of 4 squares

"Come on tooth, show 'em how its done, LEER!"

Tooth uses Leer.
[roll0] (new to the system do I get any bonuses?)
lowers defense 1 combat stage.

Tooth moves back 5ft.

[slurpz]

Read the OOC. No "critical" dice for status affecting moves though or attack modifiers.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

Althea glares back, certain in her superiority in this glowering match.

Althea used leer!
[roll0] 3+ to hit.

[D_Man_7733]

"That doesn't fase you, use scratch attack!"
Tooth shakes of Alhteas stare, before charging in.


Tooth uses scratch
[roll0] hits on 2+
[roll1]

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

Althea's glare seems to do little and in turn she staggers as the crocodile sailed past claws flailing.
"Come on Althea!" Nathaniel yelled, "Taking him down"

Tackle Attack:
Hit on a 2+ (3 with evasion) [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

HP: 6/23
Defense: 8

[D_Man_7733]

The tackle hits Tooth in the back, before he has a chance to turn.
tooth takes 5 damage 12-7

"tooth it's time to finish this, scratch attack"

[SPOILER]
scratch
[roll0] hits on 2+e
[roll1]

HP: 23/18

[al'Lan Mandrag]

It's a critical so you deal double damage. Oh dear...


Althea staggers and collapses under the second attack, making one final "Sniv..." before passing out.

"No... Althea." Nat dives forwards and after nodding to Damian, goes and picks up Althea. "You tried, well done. I'd best get you to a pokemon centre."

HP: -10

[D_Man_7733]

Damian congradulates tooth on a good battle before looking and running over to the downed pokemon and pulling out one of his potions and offering it to Nathaniel.

"good job Tooth. Here Nat, use my potion, I didn't really expect tooth to do that much damage, sorry if I hurt your pokemon."

Damians usual smile is now a very serious look, as he tries to evaluate the poor pokemons condition.

[roll0]

"even a potion can only do so much good, it probably needs a good rest"

Tooth comes along and looks concerned at the other pokemon, "Todo..."

"It's okay Tooth, it was a really good battle, you should be proud, that last attack was just stronger than anyone expected, you really are powerful."

Tooth seems happier, but still concerned that it hurt it's new friend.

[Hefty Lefty]

"Whoa." Wes turns from the road to find a battlefield. The pokemon that were once cute and cuddly are now literally at each other's throats. Wes scratches his hair, a bit uneasy, but his turtwig growls. Her trainer's brows raise. "Ya wanna faight, girl?"

"Twig!"

Wes approaches Gene and his charmander. "Look's like we're the last two against the wall." He holds out his hand to shake before their recreational battle. He asks with a friendly smile, "Shall we dance?"

[slurpz]

Not 2x damage. He re-rolls 1d12+14

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Wow: -22HP, Snivy almost died! These pokemon battles are lethal.

Potion
[roll0]

HP: 2/23

Thanks, Nathan mumbles, taking the potion and using it on Snivy. "I'm sorry I pushed you too early."

"Sni..." is the quiet response from the weakened little animal.

[Spirit Armor]

"Hopefully," Aya replies to Nathaniel. "I mean, if we travel that far...

Aya almost drops the items she'd been sorting and gives Kris a deer-in-headlights look at the suggestion, ducking her head. "Eh!? Ah... um, sure...? As long as it's outside..."

Once they arrive, Aya gingerly sets the Piplup down and takes a few steps back, looking down at the water-type. The penguin looks back up, flailing its flippers haphazardly, one of them moving almost as if he's saluting her; Aya's lips twitch up in the corners, a name popping into her head almost immediately. "Ready, Skipper?"

The Piplup warbles. Aya looks back up to Kris, seeming a bit more confident than she was before, and she nods.

[slurpz]

"Lady, you think you can handle that little penguin out there? I can help carry you all the way to Skipper there if you can't get there yourse--"

Kris is interrupted by a Torchic claw to the mouth. Lady hopped off his shoulder, and used his face as a springboard. She transferred her momentum forward into a somersault, bringing both claws down on the Piplup's head.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[D_Man_7733]

used x1 potion

Damian tells tooth to help Nathaniel see to Althea, while he goes and sees the rest of the group and tell them that they will be heading to the pokemon center, and to meet them there afterwards.

Damian returns to Nathaniel, Tooth, and Althea.
"Ok the rest of the group should know where we are, we can probably just wait for them at tha center"
Damian offers his hand to Nathaniel to help him up.
"it was a good match anyway"

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

"Thanks Damian," he replied, taking his hand, and putting Althea on the ground, even though she seemed a little unstable. "That Totodile of yours has one hell of a scratch. We'll have a have a rematch when Althea's stronger."

[Spirit Armor]

Aya tilts her head in confusion at Kris's truncated speech- and then her eyes widen as the Torchic turns its admonishment into a straight-out physical attack. The scratch smashes right into the Piplup's head, the hit made all the more painful by the downward momentum, and the water-type is knocked flat on his stomach. "H-Hey! Whoa-!"

Skipper growls in the back of his throat, trying to pick himself up again, but- it's too much for the Piplup, and he collapses back on the floor, in a daze.

Aya stares for a moment, uncomprehending. "N... nice match...?" NO, WAIT, MORE TO THE POINT- "S-Skipper!?" she yelps, rushing over to the Piplup's side and cradling the water-type in her arms.

[Spirit Armor]

((agh Ignore This Post I Cannot Math))

[D_Man_7733]

"your snivy really put up a fight, it is alot stronger than you give it credit for"

as if saying the same thing to Althea, Tooth gives a nod at her.

"come on lets get to the pokemon center, Tooth needs some healing from that tackle attack"

Tooth HP: 23/12

[al'Lan Mandrag]

"Yeah, come on Althea, you did good. Well done."

Nathaniel accompanies Damian to the pokemon centre.

[slurpz]

The chicken blinked a few times after landing on the penguin. She hopped off, and bounced back to Kris. She started chanting "Torchic" as she ran in circles around him.

"All right, I guess you proved me wrong." Kris laughed before he noticed the penguin still wasn't moving.

"Ah, girl, go back and see if Skipper is okay."

As Lady returned to the penguin's side, Kris walked up to Aya.

"Kris Davis."

He stuck out a hand like he was offering a handshake.

As Aya put her own hand out, Kris grasped her hand fully. He pulled it up to his mouth before putting a light kiss on the back of her hand. "Enchanté."

[Spirit Armor]

Aya breathes a sigh of relief when Skipper comes to- seems like he'd taken a knock that was enough to leave him down, but not completely out. The Piplup huffs a bit at the Torchic. "Thank goodness..."

Aya looks up, blinking at the hand before refocusing on Kris. She'd almost put him from her mind in her worry! "S... sorry. It was a nice fight," she mumbles, standing up and brushing off her jacket.

Then, she takes his hand. "Aya Silverl-"

"--EE!?" And that squeak is from when he kisses HER hand, at which point she's really not quite sure what to do anymore. Aya quickly takes her hand away, her glasses slightly askew and her face starting to heat up. "A-Ah, um, en-shan-tay to you too... I think...!? L-Look, um, let's- let's get to the center and all, just to make sure they're okay! Okay!? Okay!"

And Aya's running off like a shot, Skipper under her arm like a football as she double-times it past the other trainers towards the Pokemon Center.

[DiscipleofBob]

Gene stands on the sidelines, Charlie curled up in his arms, unsure of whether he should challenge one of the others now or wait his turn. The Charmander remains content to rest, as Gene just hoped the docile creature would hold its own when it came time.

((Just saw the previous post))

EDIT: Gene smiles and nods, "Are you ready, Charlie?" The Charmander yawns and curls over, burying its head in Gene's arm. "Oh come on, don't be like that. We've got to get some training in today." Gene sets the Charmander down, who reluctantly steps forward.

((Assuming I go first.))

Charlie narrows its eyes at the Pokemon, giving it the 'You're the reason I have to get up?!' sort of look. (Intimidate lowers your attack one combat stage. I assume that this follows traditional Pokemon Intimidate and that's not my turn.

"Charlie, Scratch it!" Gene commanded noticeably more vigorous than before.


((Rolled in the OOC thread because editing in rolls doesn't work.))
Attack: 2 (Barely hit)
Damage: 6+12=18

[GFawkes]

"oh yeah... not sure that dream machine is working perfectly... in the dream, you were about, nyeh... 15 years older? and losing lots of hair"
Damian Smiles as he says so, so the proffesor knew it wasn't an insult, just poking fun. and heads outside, now following Tooth who decided to lead the way.

Professor Aspen smiles back. "Would you have come here if I appeared to you like this?"



Stuff happens


After the dust settles from the battles, and you start heading to the Pokemon Center, you see Prof. Aspen talking on a cell phone, though you can't quite make out the words.

As you approach the Pokemon Center, you see the local Nurse Joy standing outside with two Chansey. "Professor Aspen told us you'd be coming, though he didn't mention what caused these injuries, and I've learned it's best not to ask when he's involved," she says, quickly moving towards you and examining each Pokemon.

"Hmm...heavy abrasion over an average 65% of their bodies, pulses normal in most, slight irregularity in the Piplup, minor head trauma in the Snivy. Clara, go get 3 5 cc doses of HBB Alpha. Florence, get a standard Sixer, and get them on it." The nurse says this all very quickly, barely giving you time to react. The Chansey nod and dart into the center. Within seconds, they return, one carrying a tray with three small cups of water and three small pills, and the other pushing a gurney with six sections to it.

The Chansey carrying the tray, presumably Clara, opens the mouths of Tooth, Althea, and Skipper, places the pills on their tongues, and tips their heads back with helping pour water down their throats. Meanwhile, the other Chancey, Florence, puts every other Pokemon on the gurney and examines each one, testing reflexes and such. At the end of around 60 seconds (the Chansey work quickly), each Pokemon is given a small sliver of something half yellow, half white. This seems to perk them right up, and they are as energetic as ever.

"They should be fine now. In the future, try to not be so hard on them. I'd estimate each one is roughly the equivalent of 7 human years old. They're still learning about the world. Treat them too harshly and they'll respond in kind."

[D_Man_7733]

Professor Aspen smiles back. "Would you have come here if I appeared to you like this?"

Damian smiles back, "probably, just to see if there was anything wrong with ya'"




"They should be fine now. In the future, try to not be so hard on them. I'd estimate each one is roughly the equivalent of 7 human years old. They're still learning about the world. Treat them too harshly and they'll respond in kind."

"don't worry miss, I expect both us and the pokemon got exited as it being our first time. We will make sure to be more careful in the future."
Damian gives his smile a little extra sincerity, to show that he really means it, and would try to make sure every one else does the same.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Head trauma? Now Nathaniel felt really guilty. He wouldn't let Althea get hurt like that again. He'd have to become a better trainer to ensure it, but he would.

"Thank you so much," he said to the nurse who'd helped them, "I'll be much more careful in future.

When everyone was healed and ready Nathaniel led them outside then asked: "Ready to go? or does anyone need anything else? Does anyone know which direction we're going in? I've got a vague idea of the geography, but I'm not quite sure where Argen town is or which route to take."

[slurpz]

"Yeah Nate. Just follow that northwesterly."

Kris points his finger at the only road leading out of Nosh City.

[Hefty Lefty]

((Oh man, I'm gone for barely twelve hours and already miles behind!! I'm free to battle now.))

The orange salamander comes at Sapjaw with a fury, but the dirt turtle is too fast for him. She quickly shells up, and the opponent's claws merely bounce off the turtwig's shell. It pops its head out after with a victorious "Wig!"

"All right Sapjaw you're turn! Go git 'em!"

Sapjaw backs up, then charges the charmander in a body slam!

Sorry bout that, but your attack actually didn't hit my pokemon. I updated my stats to focus them all on Defense, so I got +2 Evasion vs Attacks. Huzzah!

Turtwig uses Tackle! (He backs up one space, then lunges forward)
If above 3, it hits and deals this much damage:
[roll]2d8+6+9

The pokemon takes down the charmander in one strong brutish attack. "Good gravy!" Wes can't believe what he saw. Sapjaw lifts herself off the fightless Charlie, proud and victorious. "Turtwig!" It shouts.

Turtwig grew to Level 6! Her Defense stat raises by 1 (to 12).

"Atta girl, Sapjaw." Wes gives his pokemon a pat on its shell and she wiggles in delight, rather pleased the fight ended as quickly as possible. He helps Gene attend to his charmander. "Sorry 'bou' Charlie, there. Didn' know these lil guys could pack such a wallop!" He hads a chuckle, to hopefully soften to blow of the lopsided battle.

After the two help Charlie to his feet, they make their way over to the PokeCenter where Nathaniel and Kris are itching to leave. "I actually have a Hoshoku Map in ma' -" he turns to the road as if the truck would still be there, "- Raight. Well, guess we'll have ta faind it on our own. Shouldn't be hard."

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

"Ok, lets get going then." Nathaniel leads the way, Althea ambling by his side.

[slurpz]

"All right, well. Let's hope these little munchkins can protect us on the way up to the city. They sure did fine against each other."

[roll0]

This is just for GFawkes

[Spirit Armor]

Aya nods at the nurse, looking slightly crestfallen. "W-We'll be more careful in the future."

As she ambles out with the rest of the group, Skipper in her arms, Aya glances up. "I actually came here from Aspen Town- um, not by foot, but. It's not too hard," she says in response to Wes.

[slurpz]

Kris scratches his head.

"Not sure why everyone is talking about Aspen Town. Been around a few months and the first time I heard of 'Aspen' was with that professor back there.

Argen Town, though, on the other hand, is right down this road here."

A wink is thrown in the direction of Aya.

[slurpz]

Kris scratches his head.

"Not sure why everyone is talking about Aspen Town. Been here a few months and the first time I heard of 'Aspen' was with that professor back there.

Argen Town, though, on the other hand, is right down this road here dearie."

A wink is thrown in the direction of Aya.

[Hefty Lefty]

"Heya, I think we knew what she meant," he gives a look to Kris with a smile, as if to say Go easy on her. "So Aya, ya wanna take the lead?"

[D_Man_7733]

"ummmm, guys, wouldn't the center have a map, maybe not one we could take, at least to look at. It might be the difference at walking through a forest or a cave."

Damian hangs back a bit as Tooth looks at him thoughtfully, but before anyone can turn around and really thing about it Damian rushes ahead to the rest of the group, totodile in tow.

"but then again; were's the adventure in that?"

[DiscipleofBob]

"Charlie!" Gene is absolutely stunned. He wasn't sure he'd win, but he didn't expect to get one-shotted in his very first Pokemon battle. He quickly scoops up the Charmander and rushes to the Pokemon Center.


Blah blah blah Your Pokemon are fully healed blah blah

Gene is a nervous wreck the entire time in the Pokemon Center. Over and over he keeps thinking to himself that it must have been his fault as a trainer, that he must have screwed up somewhere, questioning if he's really qualified to train his own Pokemon.

Still, he did promise the Professor he'd help deliver the package, so he's with the others as they leave. He stays quiet and distracted by his own thoughts though, dragging his feet and keeping to the back of the group. He feels that he's probably the weakest of the group, and almost embarassed to go with them. Charlie remained in his Pokeball ever since the Pokemon Center, Gene unsure of whether the Pokemon would still trust him.

ANGSTANGSTANGSTANGST :smalltongue:

[D_Man_7733]

"you know Gene, I was once told something by a very wise trainer. He said that pokemon need good trainers to grow, and that if you aren't that trainer they won't come to you. As far as I can tell, your charmander is still right there with you, it knows that you can be the trainer it wants, you just have to prove it to yourself."

Damian says with the sort of smile that makes someone feel better, but his voice has taken a more serious tone that none of you really would expect from him. (except Nathanial who herd it when Althea was knocked out)

what pokemon do we see? [roll0]

[Spirit Armor]

"Eh!? Ah..." Aya quickly looks away, flustered more by her own mistake than anything else. "Sorry, I jus'- I only moved there recently, an' I keep tinkin' tree names an' all, 'cause of the professor-" she babbles, her inner city accent coming out the faster she talks.

Aya flashes Wes a relieved look when he helps her out, and she nods quickly, moving up towards the front of the group. "Yeah, sure. I can do that much!" she says brightly, pushing her glasses up WITH DETERMINATION.

[GFawkes]

As you set out from Nosh City, the sun is nearing noon. Heading out on the road, you see nothing that wouldn't be unexpected. Everything seems pretty average.

After about an hour or so of walking along the path, you come to a bend with a large tree shading most of it.

@Aya and Damian
You notice that some of the shadows in the tree don't quite line up. There seems to be something there, watching you. It seems to react to you looking at it, and it stares back. After a few seconds, you hear a deep male voice that sounds as if it were standing right next to you.

Beware the Apogee.......The darkness....follows.......The war...begins....

At that moment, dozens of images flood your head, too fast to make out exactly what each one is. You vaguely see a large, shiny tower, a diamond pattern in red and white, and a crude depiction of a circle with lines emerging from it. Then, as soon as the pictures appeared, they're gone.

With that, the shadows seem to move, and the tree is now accurately projecting its shadow.

[D_Man_7733]

Damian turns to the rest of the group his face now wears a worried almost terrified frown, and looks behind the group while speaking.

"di-di-did anyone else hear that?... or-or, or the trees?"

Damian is shifting in place, looking in every direction trying to make something out. Anyone can easily see that Damian is out of his element, and being this afraid is certainly unual for him, as he has alot of trouble hiding his fear.

"I couldn't have imagined it could I? maybe, but... no?"

Tooth is now looking worried for it's trainer, looking around bravely to attempt to scare whatever might have done this, and make his trainer feel happy again.

[slurpz]

"Can't say I caught anything out here other than the usual local vegetation."

Kris looks up at the sun, then back down at his watch.

"It's almost noon. Let's eat lunch under the shade to get out of the blazing sun."

As he says these words, he walks towards the large tree with Torchic trailing behind.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

He'd enjoyed getting back on the road, half his dream now accomplished. no longer was he wandering in the vain hope of finding pokemon, he had one and now had a goal.

"di-di-did anyone else hear that?... or-or, or the trees?"

Nathaniel looked up "What was that? Damian, did you say something?" Something about trees, maybe he was a nature freak, in which case hard luck he got a Totodile.

It seemed they were stopping for lunch, so Nathaniel wandered over to a tree adjacent to the largest one and swung down his bag. It's not that I don't like Kris per se.... I just want to sit on my own right now... yer, that's it...

Althea sat down beside him and he opened his pack to see what food they'd got.

[D_Man_7733]

"g-g-guys, I don't think its a good Idea to stop here. no, not near the tree. I can't have been the only one to hear that? There was something about that tree a second ago."

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

Ok, not a nature freak, just a freak. Nathaniel gave him a look, then called him over: "Come over here Damian." He calls, hoping the guy isn't as weird as that one remark made him seem.

[D_Man_7733]

"okay, I guess, that whatever it was is gone now"
Damian Takes a deep breath and approaches the others carefully keeping an eye out for anything in the trees or on the road.

Keeping an eye out

[roll0]


Tooth seems relieved that him and his trainer are now approaching the shade and rushes ahead.
After taking a seat carefully on the grass near Nat Damian also pulls out his pack and starts looking for good food.

"Look, I know I heard something, before, at the tree, the shadows, didn't quite match up, there was something there, it was staring at me, then someone said, something about an Apogee, a war. And I saw, a, tower, and a diamond"

Damian is obviously quite flustered, and isn't recalling any specific information.
Tooth's solution to his trainers problem is to bite Damians hand.

"YEOWCH!, Tooth, that wasn't nice, you shouldn't do that!" but upon seing his companions sincere eyes he lets up a bit. "But I guess you were just trying to help, heh, I guess I could have just imagined it..."

Damian seems to be trying to convince himself, but isn't really successful, in his attempts.
you can tell he is contempt with leaving this subject alone for now.

[Hefty Lefty]

Are these folk crazy!? Wes doesn't think this because of the strange way Damian is acting. No, his eye brows raise because everyone's sitting down. "Are y'all tired all ready!?" Wes, turns around with arms outstretched after realizing half his group has sat down on stumps or against trees in the shade. "We've all been given these supa' strong pokemon, an impor'int task, and y'all wanna have snack and nap time?" The party has struck one of the pet peeves of this usually patient farm boy. "Now com'on, y'all. We can get some rest AYFTER we get our job done."

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

That was something to file away for later Nathaniel mused, but his thoughts were interrupted by Wes, the farm boy.

"We're not resting cos we're tired. We're just snacking. The professor gave us 6 days to make a journey that normally takes one and a half, we don't need to rush. There's no point pushing ourselves to our limits, not if we want a pokemon to be at their full strength if and when we have to battle."

[DiscipleofBob]

"you know Gene, I was once told something by a very wise trainer. He said that pokemon need good trainers to grow, and that if you aren't that trainer they won't come to you. As far as I can tell, your charmander is still right there with you, it knows that you can be the trainer it wants, you just have to prove it to yourself."

"That's nice of you to say, but really with a Pokemon it's not like they'd have much option even if they did want to leave. Plus I can't help but have the feeling that Charlie isn't really interested in battling. Maybe that's why he accepts me as a trainer, because he knows I won't get very far."

Eventually the group stops for a brief snack. Gene himself isn't hungry just yet, but knows that his Pokemon might be another story. Nervously gulping, he lets Charmander out of his ball, and the fire lizard Pokemon appears to be taking a nap, or at least faking it, yawning and stretching. Only when Gene takes one of the rations of food and gives the appropriate portion to Charlie does the Charmander reluctantly approach the food and chow down. While Gene was a nervous wreck about the whole ordeal, the Charmander could not give less of a damn. Sighing a bit with relief that at least his Pokemon didn't appear to be hurt or mad at him, Gene relaxed a little, "I think we should at least stop and feed the Pokemon. At least I'm not sure when Charlie last ate, so it'd be better than waiting until they're starving.


Damian is obviously quite flustered, and isn't recalling any specific information. Tooth's solution to his trainers problem is to bite Damians hand.

"Otherwise that might happen more often."

[Spirit Armor]

Aya is completely silent throughout the entire exchange, staring at the (now normal) tree as if she's afraid that it's suddenly going to stand up and start walking. "I-I saw it too," she says quietly, all her earlier determination knocked out of her like so much stuffing. "Like an illusion, or a message, or a hallucination, or-"

She whirls on the rest of the group, looking shaken. "Guys, we can't- c'mon, let's go a little further, can't we? Somethin' strange's going on here. We can rest later! Please?"

[slurpz]

"Girl there's 6 of us here, with 6 little bodyguards. You saw how powerful they were back at the lab.

Wes, c'mere and join me. I'd like to hear about your farm while we rest for half an hour.

We're just stopping here and filling our stomachs with a little solid confidence.

Plus like Nate pointed out, there is absolutely no rush. We have almost 5 days to just enjoy the scenery."

Kris swept his hands around.

"There are more trees right here than on my entire street back in Nosh City."

He sat down, reached into his pack, and picked up an apple. After turning it over a few times, he took a sizable bite of the apple as the crunch reverberated around the small wooded area.

"Woo, that was one crunchy apple."

[Hefty Lefty]

Wes is disappointed. He rings his hands together. "Guess so..." The process of thought that apparently makes sense to everyone else doesn't agree with him. Let's take six days to complete a request just because we were given them? That's nonsense. She wants it delievered as soon as possible. And besides, the sooner we're done with the package delivery, the sooner we can enjoy our pokemon without bounds. People should be excited to go.

Wesley crouches next to Sapjaw and near Kris. "Wayulp, I live'n work'n Northridge Farm. We produce the majarity'a vegetables and miltank milk for the Kanto region. My cousin's ranch down'a road provides the area with meat an' wool." Wes has a feeling Kris doesn't really care about his family's business, but he shares with a positive attitude all the same. Maybe he just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Wes takes an apple from his bag and shaves a quarter off with his pocket knife. He hand-feeds his little turtwig, who gobbles it quickly.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

Hmmm, so maybe it wasn't just Damian. Perhaps it was a message, like the one the professor sent to us in our dreams. But if sp, why only those two?

Nat settled himself against the smaller tree and turned to Damian: "So what brought you to Argen town? Did you dream of being a pokemon trainer?" he asked.

Whilst he waited for a response he started feeding Althea some berries from his bag. She snapped up each one as offered them to her, but after showing her a trick where he chucked it in the air and swallowed it, failed to rouse her to do the same. She's her own woman this one, he thought. She seemed amused by the trick but didn't want to try herself. Doesn't want to play, or scared to fail? Nathaniel wondered. Well I'll be the confidence for both of us. I won't let you fail and I'll support you all the way. He promised Althea silently.

Edit: The prof's name was Aspen, this was why I was confused. Woops, I shall shy away from names from now on :smalltongue:

[slurpz]

Wes is disappointed. He rings his hands together. "Guess so..." The process of thought that apparently makes sense to everyone else doesn't agree with him. Let's take six days to complete a request just because we were given them? That's nonsense. She wants it delievered as soon as possible. And besides, the sooner we're done with the package delivery, the sooner we can enjoy our pokemon without bounds. People should be excited to go.

Wesley crouches next to Sapjaw and near Kris. "Wayulp, I live'n work'n Northridge Farm. We produce the majarity'a vegetables and miltank milk for the Kanto region. My cousin's ranch down'a road provides the area with meat an' wool." Wes has a feeling Kris doesn't really care about his family's business, but he shares with a positive attitude all the same. Maybe he just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Wes takes an apple from his bag and shaves a quarter off with his pocket knife. He hand-feeds his little turtwig, who gobbles it quickly.

"So you've worked with Pokemon? Or just by hand?

Seems like this is your first time really getting to know a 'mon."

Kris found a wormy section of his apple. He took out a small knife, and flicked the whole section at Lady. The Torchic, which was pecking along the ground looking for food, jumped. After seeing Kris's grin, she warbled before pecking at the piece of apple and fishing out the worm.

[Hefty Lefty]

Wes finally commits to sitting on the ground when Kris proves receptive. "Ayup all around pokemon. I know a miltank like the back of ma hand. I've worked with hundreds of 'em." He sits up and rests his elbows on his knees. "But not like this. Our pokemon are more intelligent. I mean I work with Tauros plowin' the fields, but I've never seen one faight." He chuckles. "Well actually that ain't right I've seenim faight, but I wasn' in control of 'em!" He rests down and puts his hands in the grass. Looking over his shoulder, he sees his companions and their pokemon interacting with each other. His turtwig is talking with the totodile. Must be comparing the sharpness of their teeth. "And the variety of 'em, it's a'rready more than I've ever seen in the fields. That's kinda why I wanna get a move on, ya know?" He speaks to Kris with a calm, determined anxiety.

[D_Man_7733]

"That's nice of you to say, but really with a Pokemon it's not like they'd have much option even if they did want to leave. Plus I can't help but have the feeling that Charlie isn't really interested in battling. Maybe that's why he accepts me as a trainer, because he knows I won't get very far."

"Who says it's not their choice? You have never seen a pokemon break our of a pokeball? Or disobey their trainer? It's possible, and if Charlie isn't interested in battling, you find something he is interested in, or find a way to get him interested."

Damian takes a deep breath trying to calm himself down.

"who gave you that pokemon Gene? who was the one who let you choose it? The Proffesor obviously believes you can help any pokemon, that is why he chose you, among the rest of us. And the more you and Charlie travel, the more you'll get into it, and the more Charlie will learn."



"Otherwise that might happen more often."

Despite his previous exchange Damian seems to have forgotten it completely, or is just ignoring it.
"HAHAHA, oh your right, there, guess it's been a while since i've eaten too, I didn't have breakfast this morning, so it is probably best at least to take a snack break"
Damian fishes out an oran berry before realising Tooth's distaste, and returns it to his bag, and pulls out some of (and any of) the food he can find, and splits it up between him and totodile and begin to chow down.



Nat settled himself against the smaller tree and turned to Damian: "So what brought you to Argen town? Did you dream of being a pokemon trainer?" he asked.

"Actually no, I came to find and raise new pokemon like tooth here. The ones that we rarely see in Hoenn, but I did muse myself with the Idea of being a trainer at some point, living next to Mauville city and all. What about you Nat?"


Aya is completely silent throughout the entire exchange, staring at the (now normal) tree as if she's afraid that it's suddenly going to stand up and start walking. "I-I saw it too," she says quietly, all her earlier determination knocked out of her like so much stuffing. "Like an illusion, or a message, or a hallucination, or-"

She whirls on the rest of the group, looking shaken. "Guys, we can't- c'mon, let's go a little further, can't we? Somethin' strange's going on here. We can rest later! Please?"

Damians eyes look up at her, worried but reassuring.
"look, Aya. I don't want to stay here any more than you do, but if there is any around here, looking or *gulp* hunting us, then it isn't good to split up. Just stay calm and remember you have your pokemon to protect you, if we are not at full strength who knows what could happen.
Damian looks around a bit before returning to feeding Tooth and awaiting a response from Nat.

[slurpz]

Wes finally commits to sitting on the ground when Kris proves receptive. "Ayup all around pokemon. I know a miltank like the back of ma hand. I've worked with hundreds of 'em." He sits up and rests his elbows on his knees. "But not like this. Our pokemon are more intelligent. I mean I work with Tauros plowin' the fields, but I've never seen one faight." He chuckles. "Well actually that ain't right I've seenim faight, but I wasn' in control of 'em!" He rests down and puts his hands in the grass. Looking over his shoulder, he sees his companions and their pokemon interacting with each other. His turtwig is talking with the totodile. Must be comparing the sharpness of their teeth. "And the variety of 'em, it's a'rready more than I've ever seen in the fields. That's kinda why I wanna get a move on, ya know?" He speaks to Kris with a calm, determined anxiety.

"And that is exactly why you -- we -- need to be patient."

You can't quite place Kris's accent, but now that you've finally listened to him talk, he doesn't sound like someone who lived in Nosh City all of his life.

"Take it one step at a time or else..."

He didn't finish his statement. He simply grabbed both ends of the eaten apple's core and cracked it in half.

Kris looked at Wes over his aviators for a moment before tossing the two halves behind his left shoulder.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

"Actually no, I came to find and raise new pokemon like tooth here. The ones that we rarely see in Hoenn, but I did muse myself with the Idea of being a trainer at some point, living next to Mauville city and all. What about you Nat?"


"I've been all over recently, but only on this continent, I've never visited Hoenn, what's it like? I guess I just wanted my own pokemon adventure, and I finally found it."

[D_Man_7733]

"I've been all over recently, but only on this continent, I've never visited Hoenn, what's it like? I guess I just wanted my own pokemon adventure, and I finally found it."

"I couldn't tell you about Hoenn on a whole, because I mostly only saw Mauville and Verdanturf town. Depending on what you're looking for it is a really nice place, Mauville city is busy, but alot cleaner than you would expect, most of it is powered by electric types. There are 8 gyms in the reigon, and Verdanturf town has very clean air, it is great for raising pokemon. Hoenn is probably so popular because of mr. stone and the Devon corp. They invented the pokenav, and mr stone's sun is a champion battler with steel types. Now that all the team aqua and magma stuff is over, Hoenn is becoming more popular as a travel location. If you ever want to go, I would be happy to serve as a bit of a guide."

[Spirit Armor]

"look, Aya. I don't want to stay here any more than you do, but if there is any around here, looking or *gulp* hunting us, then it isn't good to split up. Just stay calm and remember you have your pokemon to protect you, if we are not at full strength who knows what could happen.

Damian's words seem to calm Aya down a bit, and after a moment's hesitation, she joins the others, letting her Piplup out to play. She's quiet as she listens to the others, feeding Skipper chunks of apple (which the Piplup examines VERY thoroughly before eating, sniffing and looking at it).

She perks up at the mention of Mr. Stone's son. "A steel-type battler... like Jasmine?"

[slurpz]

Kris looked at his watch, then up at the sun.

He stood up and nodded at Wes.

"Let's get a move on. 5 hours today, and try to find a nice camping site before it gets too dark.

Day and a half of travel time...If we do 5, 6 or even 7 hours a day, we'll get there in a week without burning out."

He produced a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his face with it. Then, he started down the road.

He activates a Pokeball. As Lady slowly dematerialized in a burst of energy, he said, "It's a long walk Lady, c'mon back here."

[D_Man_7733]

Damian's words seem to calm Aya down a bit, and after a moment's hesitation, she joins the others, letting her Piplup out to play. She's quiet as she listens to the others, feeding Skipper chunks of apple (which the Piplup examines VERY thoroughly before eating, sniffing and looking at it).

She perks up at the mention of Mr. Stone's son. "A steel-type battler... like Jasmine?"

"yeah, Steven is a steel type batteler, they say he's one of the best trainers around, but his real passion is stones, evolution stones mainly."


Realising that it has been a little while since they sat down, Damian stands up, and lets out an breath that he didn't know he had been holding.
"Nothing happened, I guess whatever it was had passed... thankfully."
It seems to be directed more at Aya than anyone else, due to the fact that she seemed to be the only one other than him to have heard it.

"Okay Tooth, Kris is right it will be a long walk, why don't you come back into your pokeball, if we find a nice big body of water I'll bring you out for a swim... if that is okay with everyone else?"
Tooth dissapears in a flash of light into the pokeball, and Damian packs up from his lunch.

Do we lose 1 ration of food?

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

"Cool, I'll keep that in mind," Nathaniel replies to Damian's offer.

Seeing everyone else rise, he does as well, also suggesting Althea should get in her ball, but she refuses. "Well, if you'd prefer to walk..."

They set off trying to make a good pace.
Was something meant to happen?

[Hefty Lefty]

Something about Kris rubs Wes the wrong way. The brashness of his words leads Wes not to trust him. Be patient? Wes thinks as he watches Kris break the core. That sounds like a reason to be impatient. Get stronger. Defend myself against whatever's out there.

Oh well. The farmboy shrugs and pick himself off the ground. Today's too exciting of a day to get worried the people around him. Besides, he's worked with things far more stubborn then him. Wes takes his pokeball in his hand and clicks the button. His turtwig, who had been peering up at him, disappears into a red glow, then zaps into the ball. Wes holds the pokeball in front of him and studies it. "Hope it's roomier in there then it looks..." he mumbles with light heart. He'll never begin to understand how something like a pokeball works.

The trainer gets up and follows the group, this time walking next to Nathaniel. "So what's Althaya mean?" He shades his eyes from the sun. It's probably best that the two trainers of the grass-type Pokemon get along. They'll probably be working together closely in the future.

[DiscipleofBob]

"A-are we leaving then? Okay. Time to go, Charlie." The Charmander had been leisurely snacking on its food, and gave a low growl when Gene took it away and saved the rest for later. Apparently it was looking forward to a nap in the shade. "Come on, now, don't be like that. Do you want in or out of the Pokeball?" The Charmander took one look at the Pokeball and decided it'd rather curl up in its trainer's arms and sleep the rest of the way.

"I don't know if we should try to make this trip take a whole week though. Sure we have extra time and we don't have to rush, but that doesn't mean we need to stretch this out as long as possible. I'm sure the people waiting for this package need it sooner rather than later, and we don't know if there will be complications in delivering it in the first place. How about we just see how far we can get before deciding if we'll need to camp or not?"

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

Hearing the farm boy approach from behind, Nathaniel offers him a smile, and responds to his question, emphasising the correct pronunciation. "Althea was my great-great aunt, and she was really famous among my family for being a great warrior and pokemon trainer. Her dragonite was feared and rightly so, and the pair of them flew across the whole world. Or so the stories go. This little one seems intent on proving she'll be just as obstinate."

[D_Man_7733]

"Kris, i'm not sure you're accounting for getting back to Nosh city. The professor would probably want to know his package got their safely. I guess we could call him on the phone, but that would seem a little lazy of us."

Damian is begins walking along with the others, admiring the scenery, looking for a pool of water, so Tooth can come out for a swim.

[DiscipleofBob]

In case anything stands out about Hefty's post, it's due to misunderstanding. No worries here. :smallsmile:

"A day and a half worth of travel time doesn't mean a day and a half with rests.

We're looking at a good 36 hours of walking.

Even if you spend a third of the day walking, you're still looking at 5 days of travel time."

"Actually, I'm pretty sure that's exactly what a day and a half worth of travel time means. I don't think the city's that far away. If we just keep going we should only have to camp once before we get there." Gene quickly goes wide-eyed when he realizes what he's just said. "OfcourseI'mnotanexpertoranything, Ireallydon'tknowthelandaroundhere. I'mprobablynotthebestpersontolistentoaboutthis."

[GFawkes]

As you trek on, the sun continues to move through the sky. At around 2:30, there is a rustling in the trees nearby. An insect with a red ring around its head and a slightly glowing ball on its rear end bolts out of the tree and onto the path. It has a quite evident panicked look on its face, as if it were running from something.

Turning its head back where it came from, its antenna twitch and it runs to the group and cowers behind Damian. A few seconds later, a man in a white tuxedo wearing sunglasses comes out. Where a flower would normally be present is a small pin of a circle with eight points emerging. He looks around for a few seconds, then sees the creature behind Damian

"Excuse me, would you be so kind as to hand over that Volbeat?" he asks in an aged voice, though it's evident he still has lots of life in him.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

He'd just started looking at the pokemon when the man appeared and asked for it. He seems kind, and polite. Nathaniel thought as he reached down to pick up the creature, careful not to damage it's wings.

"Come on you," he coaxed, trying to pick the small insect up.

[GFawkes]

The insect clings tighter to Damian's leg, struggling against Nathaniel's attempts to return it.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

He doesn't want to hurt the poor creature, which for some reason seems terrified, so after coaxing fails, he turns to the man and apologises, stepping back to get out of his way: "Oh, uh sorry, you might need to deal with this." He confesses, "I'm a bit new to looking after pokemon, seems I haven't quite got the hang of it."

He feels a bit embarrassed, but judging from the small pokemon's behaviour, the old man might have a few things to be embarrassed about as well.

[D_Man_7733]

Damian crouches down, beside the volbeat and pats it reasuringly on the head and checks it over before turning back to the man.

Checking it over
[roll0]
and another for looking over the man: [roll1]

"Is this your pokemon? It seems awfully scared of you, it makes me wonder how it has been treated."
After seeing the insect hide frm Nathaniel Damian continues
"It doesn't seem like he wants to go back to you."

[slurpz]

"Now what would you want with that?

Thing is scared mukless of you."

[Spirit Armor]

Aya tilts her head, looking between the old man and the frightened insect Pokemon. "It DOES seem scared- um, have you not had it long...?"

[DiscipleofBob]

"Okay, Charlie, back in the ball for now." The Charmander grumbles as it vanishes back into its Pokeball. "Is this your Volbeat, sir? If so, couldn't just call the Volbeat back to its Pokeball?"

Assuming these are straight up Wisdom rolls:
Checking the Volbeat's physical condition. Is it wounded? Shows signs of mistreatment? [roll0]
Is the Volbeat wild or trained? [roll1]
Does this Volbeat really belong to the trainer? [roll2]

[GFawkes]

[roll0]
and another for looking over the man: [roll1]

@Damian

The Volbeat is in pretty good condition, but you can see that it has a few rashes on its arms and legs that look like it had a strap or restraint.


The man looks trustworthy, but something just feels wrong about him. Sort of like when you walk up to a blackjack dealer in a Vegas Casino. Seems trustworthy, but has more than a deck of cards up his sleeve.


"Is this your pokemon? It seems awfully scared of you, it makes me wonder how it has been treated."
After seeing the insect hide frm Nathaniel Damian continues
"It doesn't seem like he wants to go back to you."

"Understandable. I just had a rather rough training session with him and he is no doubt afraid."


"Now what would you want with that?

Thing is scared mukless of you."

"Whatever his condition, it is vital that he come with me."


Aya tilts her head, looking between the old man and the frightened insect Pokemon. "It DOES seem scared- um, have you not had it long...?"

"I have not owned him at all, miss. He belongs to a close friend of mine who was unable to make it out here in pursuit of it." He says this with a short bow, and Aya can swear he winked at her.


"Okay, Charlie, back in the ball for now." The Charmander grumbles as it vanishes back into its Pokeball. "Is this your Volbeat, sir? If so, couldn't just call the Volbeat back to its Pokeball?"

"He is not mine to call back. He is my friend's, and it is vitally important that he come with me now." As he says the last word, he adds a little more harshness than is needed, and moves a hand to rest on his hip.

The Volbeat continues to cower.

[D_Man_7733]

"So you say this pokemon is owned? by your friend? and he sent you out here to find this pokemon, that is scared of you, without it's pokeball, and you had just been training with it? I don't know what kind of training uses restraints, those rashes don't occur naturally."

Damian Sighs looking at this man as though he can't just figure it out. and begins talking almost to himself, but everyone can hear it.

"you were sent out here, by your friend, to track down a pokemon, that he owns, and he didn't give you a pokeball to return his pokemon, so you caught it with a harsh restraint, and then trained it, so it is scared of you, and now you decide to take it back to it's trainer."
Damian returns his eyes to the man before continuing.
"I don't know what it is but your story doesn't add up, perhaps you could enlighten me."

If needed a CHA check to pull some more info out of him. [roll0]

[slurpz]

"Or what? Is that a gun you're reaching for on your hip?

Why don't you let the Pokemon decide who it wants to follow for now, and if your friend gets here, we can work it out later."

[roll0]

[GFawkes]

The man seems to pause for a second, as if this wasn't what he had planned for. He suddenly starts speaking loudly and over dramatically "Very well, you've caught me! I'm nothing more than a common thief!" he clasps his hands out in front of him and kneels on the ground. "Take me away if you must! Just don't let them hurt the poor Volbeat, who has suffered enough already at the hands of injustice!"

The CHA check helped, but not by much.

[D_Man_7733]

Damian bends down and quickly comforts the Volbeat.
"don't worry little fella, we will take good care of you until you get home"
Damian pauses and looks up at the self-proclaimed thief, before quickly returning to the volbeat in a haste.
"was he the only one chasing you?'

Damian looks up at everyone continueing the hasty speech.
"Guys I don't think this guy is alone, this volbeat is obviously faster than him, if by only a little. Worst case scenario, he had a group of people to help catch it, he didn't catch it by the time he hit the road either. Best case scenario, he is a very skilled trapper and ambusher, and is alone."

Damian keeps the volbeat close to him, trying to keep it calm, while casting an accusing look at the man, then looking around the tree line.

Looking around the treeline:
[roll0]

are we surrounded by trees? road up and down but to either side trees?


"What sort of injustice are you talking about, and who has he suffered to?"

[al'Lan Mandrag]

athaniel

Well this was confusing...

"So if you're a thief, who does this pokemon belong to?" He asked, worried about where this was heading. He turned to the group and said: "I think we should get out of here, with that little guy as well. I don't trust him, or whoever's with him."

Althea seemed to have caught his mood and was looking around tense.

[DiscipleofBob]

The man seems to pause for a second, as if this wasn't what he had planned for. He suddenly starts speaking loudly and over dramatically "Very well, you've caught me! I'm nothing more than a common thief!" he clasps his hands out in front of him and kneels on the ground. "Take me away if you must! Just don't let them hurt the poor Volbeat, who has suffered enough already at the hands of injustice!"

The CHA check helped, but not by much.

"Y-you're a thief?" Gene keeps one hand on Charlie's Pokeball, determined not to let his Pokemon get stolen. "W-wait. Who's 'them?'"

[Hefty Lefty]

Wes has been pretty quiet this whole time as the scene flashes around him. The man, the terrified pokemon, the rashes, the accusations of stealing... Wes looks down to the device at his wrist. So apparently I can wrangle a pokemon with this, even without a pokeball. "But this pokemon isn't wild, though..." he mutters to himself.

After recalculating the situation, the boy tips is cowboy hat up and steps into the middle of the group, staring down at the dramatic man. "Aight 'eres what we're gonna do." His authoritative voice comes out of nowhere. "You say this pokemon 'ere is your friend's. But 'e sure doesn't wanna go with ya, and we don' feel comfortable givin'im to ya. We ain' goin' give'im back to you, that's for sure. You're gonna lead us back to your friend." Wes shoots daggers through his eyes. "Now!"

[roll0]

[slurpz]

"Or better yet, why don't you have your friend come to Argen Town?

I'm sure the authorities there will be better experts on what should be done."

[DiscipleofBob]

Gene addresses the group rather than the suspicious man. "Actually, I think I'd rather not meet any friends of his right now. Maybe we should just give him a wide berth and take this little guy to the next Pokemon Center instead. I'm sure we can sort everything out there and alert the proper authorities instead," he says meekly, almost a whisper.

[GFawkes]

"I'd hoped it wouldn't come to this," the man says, pulling a Pokeball out of his pocket, "but I'm afraid I must insist." With that, he throws out the Pokeball, and an orange spherical Pokemon with two squinting eyes and eight protrusions in a circle around it emerges.

"I'll offer you one last courtesy. You have two options: let me have the Volbeat or send out a Pokemon."


Welcome to your first Trainer Battle! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jmty_NiaXc)

{table=head]|A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J
1|T|T|T| | | | | | | |
2|T|T| | | | | | | |T|
3| | | | |Wm| | |T|T|T|
4| | | | | | | | | |T|
5|T|T| | |S| | | | | |
6|T|T|T| | | | | | | |
7|T|T| | | | | | | | |
8| | | | | | | | | | |
9| | |N|A|D|K|G| | | |
10|T| | | |V| |W| | | |
11|T|T| | | | | | |T|T|
12|T|T| | | | | | |T|T|[/table]

T: Tree
Wm: Man in White
S: Solrock
V: Volbeat
A: Aya
D: Damian
K: Kris
W: Wesley
N: Nathaniel
G: Gene

Initiative Order:
Man in White (already went this round)
Wesley
Aya
Gene
Nathaniel
Damian
Kris
Pokemon

[Hefty Lefty]

"Takin' the hard way, huh?" A determined Wesley grins. "Tha's fine, Sapjaw'n'I'll puchin yer place!" He hurls a pokeball onto the ground in front of the man's pokemon. The difference between his two pokemon is night and day. This certainly is his. The pokemon is angry and ready to fight. A fiesty turtwig materializes in front of Wes. "TurTWIG!" But so is mine!

Wes to H9. I can't find in the handbook the range of a thrown pokeball. Until someone finds that, Turtwig appears at F7.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

They'd thought they were in control, but the man turned the tables on them pretty quick.
What kind of creature is that? Nathaniel wondered. It looked pretty tough, but he knew they had to fight it.

"You're up Althea!" He said, "See if you can make them back down, this could still end without a fight."

Trainer Action: None

Althea will move to C8 and use Leer (range 5, lower defence one combat stage.)

[slurpz]

((It's not your pokemon's turn yet, al'Lan, plus you have to roll to see if you hit with Leer anyway. 1d20, hit on 2 or more.))

"Is...is that a floating rock?"

[D_Man_7733]

"I'm sorry but you're not getting this volbeat! And my buddy Tooth here is going to show you why!"

Damian Sends out Tooth,
TOOTH:

HP MAX: 24
HP : 24

SPD: 7
+1 evasion from defenses.
Location: E8


Damian attempts to pick up the volbeat, then move back to E11
"Don't worry little guy we'll get you back to your trainer"

[DiscipleofBob]

Gene's eyes widen as he sees everyone else releasing their Pokemon. Not wanting to be caught off-guard, he calls out Charlie to F8. Then he retreats back to F11 next to Damian and the Volbeat.

EDIT: ((Waiting to see how other people's turns go before I make my move))

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Slurpz:
Yeah, I assumed it would be taken in order, rather than waiting for other people to post and then posting mine (when I might not be online). But yes, my mistake for not posting attack roll on Leer.

Attack roll for Leer:
[roll0]

[slurpz]

((Just waiting for Aya to move, but Spirit Armor did say that he/she was going to be busy.))

"That Pokemon looks pretty tough with its spiky outside, and hard skin.

Let's just focus on weakening its attack and defense first before making moves on it.

Let's go Lady."

The pokeball releases a burst of energy, and the Torchic materializes.

Lady to G8.

[Spirit Armor]

Aya waffles for a moment; not only is the situation spiraling well out of control (and out of her comprehension, at least on a few fronts), but she keeps thinking back to the talk they'd all received in the Pokemon Center. That stranger's Pokemon looks strong, and theirs are still so young...

She purses her lips and shakes her head to clear her doubts. "'Some days,'" she mutters, recalling one of her father's favorite quotes, "'You just can't solve an argument without breaking some skulls.' Skipper!" The Piplup waddles over to stand next to the others' Pokemon, keeping a watchful eye on the Solrock for now.

Aya's Piplup to D8

[GFawkes]

Pokemon Order:
Volbeat
Solrock
Althea
Charlie
Tooth
Lady
Skipper
Sapjaw

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j341/GFawkes1605/Hoshoku%20Region/R1F1-1.png

Man in White: Pryce
Nathaniel: Wallace
Aya: Jasmine
Kris: Blue
Wesley: Barry
Damian: Aaron
Gene: Will

~~~~~~~

The Volbeat moves back with Damian, though it stays cowering with him.


The man eyes all of your Pokemon carefully. "Hmm, I must give you a bit of credit, you do understand the basics of outnumbering your opponent. But I have experience with Lux, and that is something you lack." Giving a quick hand motion, the floating rock begins to spin in place, and Skipper does his best to clench his head.

As this happens, Althea gives a menacing look at the rock, unnerving it.

Volbeat was too afraid to move!

Skipper took 17 damage, after factoring in defense.

Althea used Leer! Enemy Solrock's defense lowered!

[slurpz]

((They're not called tiles. They're called tokens. They're in Pokemon Tiles.rar\Pokemon Tiles\Tokens\ labeled from 001.png all the way to 648.png))

[slurpz]

"Seems like that rock isn't really attacking...growl is going to be useless.

Wes, can your turtle take point? It's probably got the best chance of defending the rest of our Pokemon."

Turning to the rest of the party, Kris adds, "I know my Lady didn't learn any new moves on leveling up, but did any of the Grass or Water monsters? Might be the best bet against that telepathic thing!"

[DiscipleofBob]

"Charlie, don't let that thing attack again! Scratch it. Er, but let the others go first so you don't get in their way," Gene adds at the end. The Charmander looks back at his trainer at the odd request, but doesn't seem to mind waiting a bit longer.

((Charmander's going to delay until after the others have gone so he doesn't get in their way.))

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

Nathaniel wondered what Kris was talking about. I kno pokemon get stronger through battling and training, but how do I know when they've learnt a new move? Or do I teach it to them?

[D_Man_7733]

"Good idea Kris, lowering it's defenses is a must, but Tooth here has something he has been wanting to show off, show 'em what it is Tooth"

Tooth does a small hop, into the air, and releases a torrent of water at the solrock, knocking tooth backwards a little.


Water gun: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]
If crit: [roll2]

Tooth moves back to I5

[Spirit Armor]

"I-I don't think he knows any moves-" Aya bites her lip as Skipper stumbles, not quite sure as to the cause, but she rallies quickly. "Growl and step back, Skipper!!"

The Piplup, careful as he is, is all too eager to comply, letting out a low warble before shifting back a few paces.

Growl: [roll0]
Skipper to J4

[slurpz]

"Heh, let's do this Lady."

The Torchic chirps in reply before slashing through the Solrock and shifting back to H2.


[roll0]
[roll1]

[DiscipleofBob]

After he sees an opening, (the last of several actually, but he has to act sometime), Gene's Charmander runs forward and tries to claw at the Solrock before moving out of the way for anyone else's attack.

Charlie moves to E4, attacks (at least I think that's how Pass works), and then shifts to E3.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[Hefty Lefty]

"C'mon Sapjaw, go git'em!" The little turtle hears its command and dashes fearlessly at the opponent.

Sapjaw moves to F6 and uses Tackle.
[roll0]
[roll1]

[GFawkes]

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j341/GFawkes1605/Hoshoku%20Region/R2F1.png

The floating rock appears to take a little damage from Lady and Sapjaw, though not much. Tooth, however, causes much more damage. It has trouble floating, wobbling in midair.

"Impressive, you managed to harm Lux. I'm afraid all bets are off now, however," the man says, calmly and not faltering a bit, "Lux, the Totodile is the biggest threat, and has a soft underbelly."

[slurpz]

((Do ranged attacks need line of sight?))

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

Hmmm, so our advantage is our team work, and outnumbering him...

"Right, Althea, keep the pressure on, make sure he can't ignore you..."

Althea uses Leer on her go.

Attack roll: [roll0]

[D_Man_7733]

Damian attmempts to comfort the volbeat before turning back to the man.
"You have raised your pokemon well, but I am afraid I will not let you have this VOLBEAT!"
Tooth seemingly tried to repeat it's trainers sentence, before letting loose another jet of water.

Water gun:

Atk: [roll0]
Dmg:[roll1]


"Nice one tooth, that should really hurt him"

[GFawkes]

The rock spins much slower, and decelerates rapidly. It then drops to the ground, planting a tip firmly into the dirt.

The man calls back his Pokemon, then gives a slow clap. "I must commend you. Not many beginning trainers could defeat Lux as quickly as you did. I'll leave the Volbeat with you for now, but be assured that we are not finished." With that, he lets out a large brown bird with a long beak and hops on its back.

OK, experience time.
Pokemon get 900 experience
And because I'm feeling nice, all trainers get 1 level.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Did you intend to give the pokemon that much experience? Because with the Ace Trainer +20% Snivy would grow 4 levels.

Nathaniel

"Wait, er, should we stop him?" This wasn't what being a trainer was like on TV.

"Well done," he said turning to Althea, "you all did well working together. Great job."

[slurpz]

"Uh..."

Kris looks around.

"I don't think we even had anything that could catch that bird at this point.

Why don't we just continue onward and forget about this little interruption?"

[Hefty Lefty]

Wes stands with his hands at his hips and recalls Sapjaw. The group's cute little lunch quickly turned into a highway robbery. That man could've had a stronger pokemon. Or more than one. A sickening thought passes through Wes' mind. Or murderous intentions. He stares at the ball in his hand. "These things ain't just'er pals. They're deadly weapons. And if we don' see'm like that it doesn' mean other people won'. We've gotta get these lil ones stronger. Other people might not run away so easy."

[D_Man_7733]

Damian bends down and comforts the volbeat while looking at the rest of the group.
"Hey guys, we can't just leave the volbeat, whoever that guy was, an whoever he is working for said that they would come for it. We could find it's trainer, or family. I know we are on a schedule, and it probably isn't the best Idea, who knows what we will run into."

Damian returns to the volbeat before standing up.
"Don't worry buddy, he's gone. *stands up* Well whatever we do, we should decide quickly, the longer we are here the more daylight we burn for either task."

Tooth stands defiantly in the direction the thief went, before returning to Damian's side.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

"We should see if we can take him with us, he does seem to like you after all Damian, so you'd best do that. We can give him to the authorities in the next town as well, maybe the the nurses at the pokemon centre could have a look at those burns."

[slurpz]

"We'd have to get to the next town first, before thinking about what to do with the Volbeat. Why don't you pick him up and carry him in your bag for now?

There doesn't seem to be a pokeball around for him."

[DiscipleofBob]

"We should definitely get us and this little guy to a Pokemon Center in case that guy comes back." Gene recalls Charlie to its Pokeball and tries gently looking over the Volbeat for anything that could be treated with the first aid kit.

[GFawkes]

The Volbeat seems to be untensing, but it's still pretty nervous. Most of its injuries look like only time and painkillers will help.

[D_Man_7733]

Damian Turns to the volbeat
"How does that sound little guy? want to come along with me, until we get somewhere where you can get better"
Damian Turns to Tooth
"so how would you like to play a little bodygaurd for this volbeat here?"
Tooth replies with a happy "TOTODILE"

Damian picks up the volbeat, and nestles it in his pack, moving all of his stuff around so the volbeat can be comfortable.
"well guys we better get moving if we want to make it on time"

Damian and Tooth move up the road a little so they are furthest forward in the group.
"if that's okay with everyone else"

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

"Definitely, we've had a couple of odd experiences and already we've slowed down, I think we should try and pick up the pace."

Althea hearing this nods, and accompanies Nathaniel onwards as they go to catch up with Damian.

[GFawkes]

The Volbeat buzzes slightly, then settles in to Damian's pack, drifting to sleep.

The rest of the day passes without incident, and the sun is touching the horizon at 7 PM. There's still a good half-day of travel to Argen Town.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

Seeing the sun descend and thinking of the coming darkness Nathaniel glanced around. He'd become so used to the light of cities that true darkness seemed almost a shock when he recalled it.
He turned to the others and pointing at the setting sun, asked: "You guys want to stop? We should probably get our campsite ready, this being our first go and all." He phrased it jovially, equally willing to press on a bit more, though they were in no rush.

Edit:
For some reason I thought we had camping equipment, rather than just sleeping bags...

[Hefty Lefty]

The sun begins to set and the sky glows a bright orange. Wes, one of the tallest of the group, cranes his neck to try and see the path in the distance ahead of him, but to his disappointment no rooftops or smoke break through the leaves. The sun is going down fast. It's going to get cold soon. "Hey y'all, looks like we need ta stop walkin'." He rubs his shoulder with his opposite arm, knowing that he's going to upset some people with the following, "None'a y'all have a problem with sleepin' outside do ya?"

[D_Man_7733]

"Don't worry, I'm used to sleeping outside, for one reason or another
Damian stops with everyone else and helps get everything ready.

Tooth scouts out the edges of the campsite, taking his bodyguard position very seriously.

Damian looks around for a bit before deciding on a nice little soft patch of ground, where gently removes his sleeping bag without disturbing the volbeat. Once everthing is ready, Damian asks a question that had been bugging him for a long time now.

"So, do you think they have a pokemon league here? like gyms and stuff? Do any of you guys think you might want to take it?

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

He turned towards Damian's question and pondered it. "Well, I guess we should find out, I mean, that's what the best trainers do. Though I don't think we're quite there yet. But maybe we should plan towards that once this is done."

[Spirit Armor]

"Eh? I'm... fine with sleeping outside," Aya says hesitantly, not looking up from her Piplup. She finishes applying the Potion to his wounds before letting her Pokemon wander around, watching the penguin carefully root through the grass for anything interesting.

She leaves unspoken the fact that she's LESS used to sleeping in the company of total strangers, and she quietly retreats to the other side of a nearby tree, setting up her sleeping bag.


Using one Potion on Skipper, for [roll0] HP.

[DiscipleofBob]

Gene quietly helps set up camp the best he can, but it's pretty clear he's never done this before. "I'd guess that that sort of information would be publicly available at the next city, wouldn't it?"

[slurpz]

Kris walked up to the tree that Aya was behind, trying not to make a noise.

Leaning against it, he says, "You know, people usually say that hiding means you're up to no good."

He grins at the girl before sitting down on the side of the tree closer to the rest of the people.

"I'm sure there's a pokemon league here, Damian. I can't think of any place without its own league!"

[GFawkes]

The night passes without much incident. The Volbeat wakes up around 2 AM and gives a few light patterns, then heads back to sleep. Breakfast is similarly uneventful.

Setting out for the day, you see a few late-rising families of Pokemon. Small, black canines yawn and play with each other, a group of white felines groom themselves.

As you approach the town, around 12:30 PM, the Volbeat begins buzzing excitedly. Reaching one of the telephone poles outside the city, you see several posters on it. Among them are one drawn in crayon that says "Miss sing: Buzzy. pLees retearN to 17 oRe DRive, Apt 237". Another semi-near it looks much more official and reads "Warning: Organized thieves known to operate in area. Beware when travelling alone or at night."

[slurpz]

"Buzz....y. Hm."

Kris looks thoughtfully at the Volbeat for a moment.

"Buzzy? Come here for a sec."

[D_Man_7733]

Damian catches up to the volbeat, and looks at the sign.
"So that's who you are. Buzzy. I'm sure youre trainer misses those wonderful light patterns you made them."

He turns to the rest of the group once they catch up.
"What do you all think, take Buzzy here back to it's trainer first or to the Pokemon centre? 17 ore drive, well unless anyone knows where that is I think that the pokemon centre would have a street directory."

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

What Damian suggested sounded sensible, so Nathaniel nodded, muttering a short "Yeh, ok" to confirm.
The only niggling worry he had was due to the burns on 'Buzzy'. It seemed like it's owner was a child and probably a lot less likely to have been the perpetrator than a band of organised thieves, but still Nathaniel wanted to check.

[DiscipleofBob]

While people are getting ready to set out, Gene tries his best to cook a simple breakfast for the lot of them, even though campfire cooking like this is fairly new to him. "It would make sense to take Buzzy to a Pokemon Center first. We can either turn Buzzy over to the authorities who'll make sure he gets back to the right owner, or they might just have us return the Pokemon ourselves."

[Spirit Armor]

Aya's STILL a little nettled with herself for not having any proper response to Kris's tease last night, but she's focusing on the subject at hand.

"I... think we should take him to the Pokemon Center first, too. I mean, who knows what else that person did to him, maybe he has internal injuries we can't see, and... if people thought we did this to him..."

She trails off. "Um, I think I can take us to the Pokemon Center."

[Hefty Lefty]

"Organized crime..." Wes doesn't like the sound of that. I know the big city isn't as simple as the farming town of Cerulean City, but damn. We've barely arrived and we're already dealing with gangs. "Yeah, the Buzzy..." Wes mumbles agreement with the group. He's much more focused on doing what he can about these criminals. Or at least to protect the group he's with from their stings. "Let's get to the PokeCenter, they'll know more."

[D_Man_7733]

"Ok, so it seems we are in agreement. To the pokemon center to get Buzzy, and our pokemon looked at. Then we can take him to the authorities or to his owner"

Damian Glances at the organised crime poster quickly. Before waiting for Aya to take the lead.

"Thanks Aya, we'll be right behind you"

[GFawkes]

Heading to the Pokemon Center, you notice that Argen Town looks more like it was made for manufacturing things than for living in. Factories are everywhere, though it looks like some have been re-habilitated into apartment buildings. There is a large amount of trash on the streets, from crumpled up newspapers to crushed aluminum cans.

At the Pokemon Center, you can see a small amount of graffiti on the outside. Most of it looks like it was an attempt to "pretty up" the neighborhood, though one or two images appear to be gang-related.

Inside, however, is a different story. Everything is clean and organized, with bright lights contrasting the everpresent smog outside. Hardly anyone is here, though, only the Nurse Joy at the counter, a man wearing a fedora sitting in the corner, and the sounds of someone whistling are coming from the back.

"Hello, and welcome to the Argen Town Pokemon Center. How can we help you?" Joy says, looking at you all cheerfully.

[slurpz]

"Hey Nurse, that's a really sharp outfit you have on today. We recovered a stolen Volbeat, and we were wondering if you could direct us to an address."

Kris points at Buzzy, whose wounds were clearly visible.

[Hefty Lefty]

This guy. Can't see one female without trying to get her in the sack. Wes rolls his eyes. "Good evenin' ma'am. The six of us 're new in town. Wha can ya tell us abou' the thieves I read abou' outsi'? If ya don' mind my askin'."

[D_Man_7733]

Damian quickly rolls his eyes at Kris, but continues on his statement.

"17 ore Drive, and we would also like it looked over, the thief wasn't very gentle, and there seem to be burns along it. And if you would be so kind our pokemon as well, but this little guy is more important at the moment.

Damian, picks up the volbeat to show it to the nurse and Tooth attempts to jump up leaving only his head and arms above the counter top.

[GFawkes]

"Hey Nurse, that's a really sharp outfit you have on today. We recovered a stolen Volbeat, and we were wondering if you could direct us to an address."

Kris points at Buzzy, whose wounds were clearly visible.

The nurse blushes slightly. "You think so? I always thought these regulation outfits were a bit dreary. Stolen Volbeat isn't really my area, so I'll send a line to the police about it." As she finishes, she types up a quick email to the police station. A few seconds pass, then she reads the response. "The officer will be here in 10 minutes."


This guy. Can't see one female without trying to get her in the sack. Wes rolls his eyes. "Good evenin' ma'am. The six of us 're new in town. Wha can ya tell us abou' the thieves I read abou' outsi'? If ya don' mind my askin'."

"Well, if you're all travelling in a group, you should be alright. Most criminals only go after singles, maybe couples if there's a lot of them together, but there's only been one or two cases of a group of 3 or more being the victims of street crime."


Damian quickly rolls his eyes at Kris, but continues on his statement.

"17 ore Drive, and we would also like it looked over, the thief wasn't very gentle, and there seem to be burns along it. And if you would be so kind our pokemon as well, but this little guy is more important at the moment.

Damian, picks up the volbeat to show it to the nurse and Tooth attempts to jump up leaving only his head and arms above the counter top.

"Well, let's see what we've got here," she says looking Buzzy. She goes through a few simple tests, reflex hammers and looking at the eyes and mouth, then eyeballs the rest. "Well, he seems mostly alright. You mentioned that he had been stolen, so I'm not legally allowed to do anything other than prevent continued damage to him.

17 Ore Drive? I think that's one of the old converted factories. If you head 4 blocks east, then 7 blocks north, you should find it." The nurse says the final part with hand directions, pointing out which way east and north are.

"You mentioned that your Pokemon were injured? May I see them?"

[D_Man_7733]

"Some are more injured than others, but I would really like a check-up for Tooth here. Time for a checkup buddy"

Damian pushes tooth up onto the counter, where he waves hello to the nurse.

"sorry about your counter, we have been walking alot this morning, so his feet might be a little dirty. I'll gladly help clean up if he makes a mess."

[DiscipleofBob]

Gene shyly hands over the Pokeball with Charlie to the nurse. "I don't suppose there's anything I could do to help, or maybe watch? I'm trying to learn Pokemon medicine."

[slurpz]

Kris glances at Tooth before smiling innocently at the Nurse.

"How much would treatment cost for us? We don't exactly have that much cash on us...

Oh! Could you direct us to the PokeMart in town? We have a package that Professor Aspen wanted us to deliver."

[Hefty Lefty]

Wesley doesn't look pleased. They won't attack us. That's nice, I guess, but there shouldn't be any attacks at all. "Well, what'er the pohlice doin' about it. I di'int see any when we came into town." He catches himself before his voice grows too loud, and looks a bit shocked at his own outburst. "Oh, I'm awfully sorry, ma'am." He slinks down, then takes out Sapjaw's pokeball, and hands it to her. Wes is surprised hearing Kris offer to pay. He's not exactly sure Kris is headed this way, but he continues the offer. "Thank you, you're too kind. There must be something we can give to you in return." The trainer begins to reach back into his wallet.

[Spirit Armor]

"Yeah, the street crime, it- it really ain't ALL that bad. If you're careful," Aya adds, backing up the Nurse on this- before taking her up on the healing offer. "Ah.. y-yes, thank you."

Aya tilts her head, pausing for a moment. "Um, should we... put our Pokemon into Pokeballs first?"

[slurpz]

"If we've learned anything from our last fight, they're our protectors. Why not keep them out?"

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

Nathaniel nods at Kris' statement: they were much better with their pokemon as protection.

Althea hadn't taken any wounds since their battle with Tooth, and she was fine now, so whilst some of the others waited tensely, they sat apart from the group in the waiting area, Nathaniel watching Althea play with her new vines. He watched her extend them and then retract them, wondering at the little creature's hidden depths.

[GFawkes]

"Some are more injured than others, but I would really like a check-up for Tooth here. Time for a checkup buddy"

Damian pushes tooth up onto the counter, where he waves hello to the nurse.

"sorry about your counter, we have been walking alot this morning, so his feet might be a little dirty. I'll gladly help clean up if he makes a mess."

"It's alright about the counter. We've had all sorts of biological fluids fall on there over the years; dirt is nothing new."


Gene shyly hands over the Pokeball with Charlie to the nurse. "I don't suppose there's anything I could do to help, or maybe watch? I'm trying to learn Pokemon medicine."

"An aspiring medic! That's wonderful! Let me tell you right now, there's nothing more satisfying than helping people and Pokemon by giving them the proper treatment and healing," the nurse says this happily, even jumping up and down slightly.


Kris glances at Tooth before smiling innocently at the Nurse.

"How much would treatment cost for us? We don't exactly have that much cash on us...

Oh! Could you direct us to the PokeMart in town? We have a package that Professor Aspen wanted us to deliver."

The Nurse giggles slightly. "You must be new to this. Pokemon Center treatment is always free. Always has been.

The PokeMart is just down the street if you head left going out. I know they've been expecting that package for a few days now. A shame Aspen couldn't make it personally, but he's so dedicated to his work. Did he ask you to test any devices for him before you left?"


Wesley doesn't look pleased. They won't attack us. That's nice, I guess, but there shouldn't be any attacks at all. "Well, what'er the pohlice doin' about it. I di'int see any when we came into town." He catches himself before his voice grows too loud, and looks a bit shocked at his own outburst. "Oh, I'm awfully sorry, ma'am." He slinks down, then takes out Sapjaw's pokeball, and hands it to her. Wes is surprised hearing Kris offer to pay. He's not exactly sure Kris is headed this way, but he continues the offer. "Thank you, you're too kind. There must be something we can give to you in return." The trainer begins to reach back into his wallet.

"The police are doing what they can. While most crime that happens is relatively minor, the police have sort of taken a view that small crime is part of life here, especially since Chief Jameson went to supervise security for the construction of the monorail. While things haven't gotten worse since he left, they haven't exactly improved either.

Please, no payment is needed. I'm just doing my job."


"Yeah, the street crime, it- it really ain't ALL that bad. If you're careful," Aya adds, backing up the Nurse on this- before taking her up on the healing offer. "Ah.. y-yes, thank you."

Aya tilts her head, pausing for a moment. "Um, should we... put our Pokemon into Pokeballs first?"

"Normally, I'd say yes, but our machine is under maintenance right now, so we're stuck using Potions and Full Heals."



You all hear a voice call from the back in a thick city accent. "Roight, I've got dis ting pretty well fixed up dere, Noice. Should be done in 'bout a Goldenrahd Minute. Anytin' else ya need fixin'?"

The nurse calls back over her shoulder. "No thanks, Mr. Silverly. You've done more than enough already."

She then turns to Gene. "You asked to help with the check up, so here we go," she looks at Tooth, "So first, you want to do a look over, see if you can find any obvious things. Abrasions, lacerations, and so forth, not to mention if they look healthy or not. After that, take their pulse. While the rate varies from species to species, a good rule of thumb is that if it's a constant rate, not speeding up or slowing down, then it's within normal bounds." As she speaks, she does the checkup on Tooth, making sure Gene understands.

[DiscipleofBob]

"An aspiring medic! That's wonderful! Let me tell you right now, there's nothing more satisfying than helping people and Pokemon by giving them the proper treatment and healing," the nurse says this happily, even jumping up and down slightly.

"Th-thank you very much! I'll try not to be in the way too much." Gene says excitedly, though perhaps not as excited as the nurse.


She then turns to Gene. "You asked to help with the check up, so here we go," she looks at Tooth, "So first, you want to do a look over, see if you can find any obvious things. Abrasions, lacerations, and so forth, not to mention if they look healthy or not. After that, take their pulse. While the rate varies from species to species, a good rule of thumb is that if it's a constant rate, not speeding up or slowing down, then it's within normal bounds." As she speaks, she does the checkup on Tooth, making sure Gene understands.

Gene nods along enthusiastically, observing carefully. He was used to checking on Pokemon while he took care of them at home and at the Battle Frontier, but this was his first official hands-on medical experience. He let Charlie out of his Pokeball, since taking care of his own Pokemon was probably the first thing he should learn. Luckily except for type Totodile and Charmander had somewhat similar body structures, so it was fairly simple to follow along. The Charmander lazily and reluctantly follows along, preferring to curl up and sleep instead of being poked and prodded.

[Spirit Armor]

"O-Oh... okay, I see, thanks. Up ya go, Skipper." Aya hefts her Piplup up onto the counter, entrusting her to the nurse's care. "Free... no word ever sounds more amazing, huh?" she sighs to no one in particular.

A VERY familiar voice cuts into her thoughts, and Aya can't help herself- she leans forward over the counter, trying to peer into the back. "Dad!?" she says, half in disbelief.

[GFawkes]

"Aya?" the voice responds before a man emerges from the back.

He's about 5'6", though he has a stoop to his back and could probably stand up taller. You easily identify him as a mechanic for a few reasons: he's wearing a pouched apron with several varieties of wrench inside, he's wearing thick gloves, and he's covered in grease. It's a little hard to tell where the grease ends and he begins.

"Dere's my liddle Sawcket Wrench! 'ow've ya been? Ya mudda was woied sick when ya didn't coall last noight." He runs up and gives Aya a strong hug, covering her in grease as well. "Dese yer friends, Aya? Didn't know moi liddle girl woulda been so poapula. Name's Thomas Silverly, da only man ta know how ta rearrange a doigestive system wida 5" monkey wrench!" He still holds Aya close to him in one arm, smiling cheerfully at everyone.

The nurse looks at Thomas. "I assume you didn't know she was coming?" she smiles before going back to the checkups and tutoring.

[D_Man_7733]

"It's nice to meet you sir. I bet it's nice to have someone that handy with a wrench in the family."
Damian returns the smile wholeheartedly.

When Tooths checkup is done Damian helps him off the counter.

"Thank you miss for looking over Tooth."

Damian smiles as he looks at Gene looking over his charmander. Before sitting over by Nathaniel and letting Tooth and Althea get to now eachother.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

"So what's that all about?" He queries, indicating Aya and the stranger, not having listened to their conversation.

"He's looking lively isn't he!" He says, admiring Tooth and feeling buoyed up by his positivity.
Althea pretends to be above playing, but, impressed with her new skills, keeps extending her vines and prodding Tooth, trying to surprise him.

[slurpz]

"That's her dad."

Turning towards the older man, Kris reaches out a hand. "Kris."

[GFawkes]

"It's nice to meet you sir. I bet it's nice to have someone that handy with a wrench in the family."
Damian returns the smile wholeheartedly.

"Betta yet ta 'ave more dan one! Aya 'ere's got more'n a liddle talent wid machinery," he says, ruffling Aya's hair.


"That's her dad."

Turning towards the older man, Kris reaches out a hand. "Kris."

Thomas swings his hand in to the handshake, making it a highfive/handshake hybrid. "Pleased ta meet ya, Kris! Been treatin' my doughta' roight?" He this with just a vague hint of a threat behind it.

[DiscipleofBob]

As the others get acquainted with Aya's dad, Gene continues taking instruction from the nurse while looking over his Charmander. During a particularly quiet point in the examination, Gene decides to make conversation and get some much desired information as well. "So Miss," Gene starts, not having caught the nurse's name yet, "I was just wondering. There's a League in this region, right? What can you tell me about it."

[slurpz]

((Killed my keyboard. Just got a new one in.))

Kris grins and winks at Thomas, "That daughter of yours is a little shy, but nothing a little adventure out in the real world with me wouldn't solve."

Gesturing towards Damian, Kris continues, "We've actually got an interesting package to deliver for Professor Aspen. Something for the railroads or something. Would you like to accompany us to the Pokemart?"

[D_Man_7733]

"Well I personally think we should take Buzzy back to his trainer first. We still have about half the day remaining to get back on the road with the package."

Damian pulls out his empty potion case and turns to Nathaniel

"I just thought of an interesting training idea, that would be fun for the pokemon. Althea can practice her vine-whip by hitting the Potion Case at Tooth, and Tooth can send it back at Althea with water-gun. What do you think? We'll go outside of-course or wait until later, when we get back on the road."

Tooth looks up at the potion case wondering what is going on.

[GFawkes]

As the others get acquainted with Aya's dad, Gene continues taking instruction from the nurse while looking over his Charmander. During a particularly quiet point in the examination, Gene decides to make conversation and get some much desired information as well. "So Miss," Gene starts, not having caught the nurse's name yet, "I was just wondering. There's a League in this region, right? What can you tell me about it."

"We do have a league here, the Everlast League. There are gyms pretty much all over the place. I know we have one here in Argen Town, but the leader is helping with construction right now. Every other year, they have a large competition at Aeternum Stadium. I know that there's a few months to the next competition, so I could sign you up for it if you're interested," she says, turning to you and smiling.

In a few seconds, you hear the door open, and see an Officer Jenny enter. "I was told there was a recovered stolen Pokemon here?"

"Yes. It was this Volbeat here. They didn't give me any details about how they found it, but I did my best to keep him in the same condition."

The officer gives an examination of Buzzy, then turns to the group. "Can you tell me where you found this guy? He seems pretty banged up."


((Killed my keyboard. Just got a new one in.))

Kris grins and winks at Thomas, "That daughter of yours is a little shy, but nothing a little adventure out in the real world with me wouldn't solve."

Gesturing towards Damian, Kris continues, "We've actually got an interesting package to deliver for Professor Aspen. Something for the railroads or something. Would you like to accompany us to the Pokemart?"

"Ha! She nevah was much of a toalkah. Still, ya'd be 'ard pressed tah foind someone bettah wid machines!"

At this point, Skipper has finished his checkup, and is on the counter as close to Aya as he can get without leaning over the edge, though he is reaching for her as best he can.

"Ahf couase Oi'll go wid ya. Oi've gotta loaht tah tell Aya about dis town, an' she's clealy gotta loaht tah tell me. Like who her liddle blue friend is." He gives Aya a knowing wink after this, nodding towards Skipper

Slurpz
Thomas squeezes Kris's hand tightly when he mentions "adventure with me", then quickly eases off.

[DiscipleofBob]

"We do have a league here, the Everlast League. There are gyms pretty much all over the place. I know we have one here in Argen Town, but the leader is helping with construction right now. Every other year, they have a large competition at Aeternum Stadium. I know that there's a few months to the next competition, so I could sign you up for it if you're interested," she says, turning to you and smiling.

"Th-that would be great, thanks! Um, what do you know about the gym leader here? So I know what to prepare for. Obviously I've got to train and catch some new Pokemon first." There isn't much more Gene can do with Charlie, who just wants to go back to sleep in his Pokeball, so instead he just observes the nurses's methods in examining the different types of Pokemon, offering a second pair of hands if they're needed.


In a few seconds, you hear the door open, and see an Officer Jenny enter. "I was told there was a recovered stolen Pokemon here?"

"Yes. It was this Volbeat here. They didn't give me any details about how they found it, but I did my best to keep him in the same condition."

The officer gives an examination of Buzzy, then turns to the group. "Can you tell me where you found this guy? He seems pretty banged up."[/quote]

"It was running away from some older guy. He seemed like he was a professional Pokemon thief, but other than the fact he used some sun-shaped Pokemon and a large bird, I don't know much else."

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

"Yeah officer, he seemed amused that we could beat him, but we needed all of our pokemon to do it." Nathaniel also relates a physical description of the man.

[Spirit Armor]

"No- Dad, really, it's a'right, ya don't need to- Dad~..." Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Aya can't really get a word in sideways, at least until Skipper is mentioned. She perks up a little bit, picking up the Piplup and half-hiding behind her Pokemon, half-interposing him between Aya and her own father. "Ah... he's my new Pokemon, got him from th' Prof. You know, Dad, the one I was tellin' you about..."


She peeks around at the officer, her glasses still askew from the hair-ruffling. "We still don't really got a good idea of exactly what was done to him, though... th' Pokemon we found, I mean."

[GFawkes]

"Th-that would be great, thanks! Um, what do you know about the gym leader here? So I know what to prepare for. Obviously I've got to train and catch some new Pokemon first." There isn't much more Gene can do with Charlie, who just wants to go back to sleep in his Pokeball, so instead he just observes the nurses's methods in examining the different types of Pokemon, offering a second pair of hands if they're needed.

The nurse turns back to her computer and punches in some data.
"While I'm at it, anyone else want to register for the Everlast League? I just need your name and a form of ID. As for the local gym leader, he's a big man named John Enrique. He did a lot of blue collar work before becoming a leader here. I don't know his type specialty, so I can't help out there."


"It was running away from some older guy. He seemed like he was a professional Pokemon thief, but other than the fact he used some sun-shaped Pokemon and a large bird, I don't know much else."


Nathaniel

"Yeah officer, he seemed amused that we could beat him, but we needed all of our pokemon to do it." Nathaniel also relates a physical description of the man.


She peeks around at the officer, her glasses still askew from the hair-ruffling. "We still don't really got a good idea of exactly what was done to him, though... th' Pokemon we found, I mean."

The officer writes all this down in her notebook, and draws a sketch based on Nathaniel's description that's relatively accurate. "Hmm, I'll have to look into this further, but for now, you're all clear. The Volbeat can be returned to his owner. Have a nice day!" She waves as she leaves, and you hear the rumble of a motorcycle pass by shortly after she leaves the building.



"No- Dad, really, it's a'right, ya don't need to- Dad~..." Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Aya can't really get a word in sideways, at least until Skipper is mentioned.

"Wassa matta? Don' want ta spend some time wid ya ol' man?" He laughs heartily, giving Aya a slap on the back.


She perks up a little bit, picking up the Piplup and half-hiding behind her Pokemon, half-interposing him between Aya and her own father.
"Ah... he's my new Pokemon, got him from th' Prof. You know, Dad, the one I was tellin' you about..."

"Yeah, da one wid da grey hair an' clean coat. How was 'e? An' was yer liddle friend's name? Summin' loike Birdy?"

[D_Man_7733]

The nurse turns back to her computer and punches in some data.
"While I'm at it, anyone else want to register for the Everlast League? I just need your name and a form of ID. As for the local gym leader, he's a big man named John Enrique. He did a lot of blue collar work before becoming a leader here. I don't know his type specialty, so I can't help out there."

"Yeah sure! I'm Damian Moran, is there a particular form of ID you are looking for?"

Damian leafs through his wallet looking for a form of usable Identification. Before finally bringing out a passport that was required to get here on the boat.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel Heeth

A trainer league? Sounded tough, but that was the kind of challenge that pokemon trainers took up.

When the nurse finishes inputting Damian's details, Nathaniel steps up, proferring some kind of ID and says: "Can you sign me up as well? Nathaniel Heeth."

[slurpz]

Kris turns to the Nurse and says, "Kris Davis, but you can have this."

He takes out a stack of business cards, before taking one off the pile. He puts the rest of the cards back into a pocket before passing it across the desk along with his ID.

[GFawkes]

The nurse takes everyone's IDs and looks carefully at each one, attempting to determine legitimacy. Seeing that they all pass, she scans each into the computer. Reaching down and pulling up a box of PokeDexes, she plugs each into the computer and sends a few files into each. As she reaches for a separate box, the printer runs off several cards. Pulling six cases out of the new box, she hands you each your ID, a case, PokeDex, and card.

"There you go, all signed up! You'll each need to have your Trainer Card to declare official challenges to Gym Leaders, as proof that you're competing. If you win, you'll get a badge, which goes into the case. And the last item is a PokeDex, a high tech encyclopedia that catalogs data on any Pokemon it scans. Each one has instructions that will play when you first turn it on, so you're all set!"

[D_Man_7733]

"Wow... so this has all the information on pokemon... and all you have to do is scan them."

Damian turns around to Tooth. "Come on buddy, let's try this out" Tooth wanders up to Damian quizzically, as Damian points the pokedex at Tooth and proceeds to scan him. As the picture pops up on screen, Damian turns it around and shows Tooth. "Take a look, cool huh? Thanks Nuse Joy!" Tooth jumps up and down, at the image on the screen.

[DiscipleofBob]

"Th-thank you very much!" Gene bows his head, flustered in gratitude. He immediately tries out the Pokedex on Charlie and, if the others are willing, their Pokemon as well. He also sees if there are any other Pokemon in the center that he could scan.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

Nathaniel takes the pokedex with a look of surprise, having heard of them but never thought to own one, or not yet at least. He decides to see if it works and turns and scanc Althea, thanking Nurse Joy as he walks away.

Once that's done he stands up and is ready to head out.

[D_Man_7733]

"Well, unless you all wanna just stand here you can, but I might go and pick up the package before the professor thinks we got injured or worse on the way here"

Damian waits outside the door for the rest of the group withTooth, thanking Nurse Joy again on the way out.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

"Yeah, you're right, we should get on with this. He gave us all this stuff and these little guys so that we could do a job."

He bids farewell to those within (the Nurse and Aya's dad) then hastens outside to join Damian.

[GFawkes]

As the two of you head outside, you see a limousine with a stoic chauffeur holding the door open. You can hear a very heated conversation coming from within. One voice sounds young and annoyed, while the other is old and tired.

"Dad, I'll be fine, we're literally 27 feet from the door."

"I just want you to do better than anyone else. I even imported your Pokemon all the way from the Sevii Islands just so that-"

"Yeah, I know dad. You were so focused on ordering it you didn't even wish me a happy birthday. Thanks for that."

The older voice sighs. "I just want you to be the best you can out there. I'll be all alone at home while you're away."

At this point, a young man, appearing about as tall as Damian, maybe a little shorter, emerges from the open door. "You want company? Call Elisa. I'm sure she'll be pleased to have another 'business meeting' with you," he calls into the car. He mutters something to the chauffeur, who nods, then slams the door shut before heading back to the drivers seat.

As the limo drives off, the man notices you for the first time. "Sorry you had to see that. Old man didn't want to see his 'Little Sport' go out into the world so soon. My name's Allan, Allan Ronoa." He offers you a hand.

Nathaniel
You recognize the name Ronoa. Norman Ronoa is one of the wealthiest men alive. He made his fortune by working in science, though you can't recall the exacts. You do know that he had a falling out with his previous employer, Devon Corp, and that he founded RonoaTech shortly thereafter. While he never married, there are rumors that he adopted a son a few years back, though no one ever saw him.

[D_Man_7733]

Damian returns the offer of a handshake. "Hah, it's okay, nice to meet you by the way the names Damian, and this is Tooth." Damian gestures to the totodile at his feet. "Am I right in hearing that you're getting your first pokemon, or at least starting your journey today?

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel
Taking up the handshake and greeting once Damian was finished, Nathaniel inspected this Allan person. It did seem like he was from the Ronoa family, judging by his mode of transport, but Nathaniel felt they might have a deal in common, especially if this one two found his parents were too pushy.
Though at least he didn't have to run away. Nathaniel thought with a little resentment.

"Hi I'm Nathaniel, and this is Althea."

[DiscipleofBob]

"W-well, it was nice meeting you, nurse. But I think my frien... er, everyone else is leaving so I'd better too. Thanks for everything!" Gene gathers up Charlie and steps outside to see the newcomer and almost instantly goes quiet as he did with most strangers, hanging back like a wallflower unless he was introduced. In his mind, it was the polite thing to do.

[GFawkes]

"Charmed," he says, pulling out a Pokeball and activating it. A small, brown, fluffy creature with large ears emerges. "This is Bruce, and he apparently is a good match for me." Bruce sits down and just scratches his ear with a hind leg.

"Say, I could use a bit of practice in battle. Care to have a skirmish?"

[D_Man_7733]

"Sure thing, was there someone in particular you wanted to have a battle with?" Damien looks over the group, and when he comes across Gene turns back "Oh, and this is Gene, and his pokemon Charlie. If you don't mind could I scan your pokemon with my pokedex?" Damian pulls out the pokedex to show him what he meant by using Althea as an example.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

A battle, well.... It might be nice to see if this guy has learnt anything from his family.

Filled with a sense of competition Nathaniel spoke up. "I'll take up your challenge, unless Damian wants to have a try? But I'm itching to get my first victory!"

He also holds out his pokedex, asking if he has permission to scan the boy's companion.

[D_Man_7733]

"There we go, unless Gene would like to have a go instead? I'll act as a judge.Tooth you can help too."

Damien takes a step back, and provided Allan is okay with his pokemon being scanned, he does so.

[GFawkes]

"Alright then, Nathaniel. Let's see how Althea does against Bruce. You can scan him if you don't mind me doing the same to yours." Allan replies. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a strange, multipronged device. Slipping it over his hand, a light emerges from the palm and bathes both Tooth and Althea in a blue light. After scanning each, a small hologram of them emerges from the back. "Newest model, not even on the market yet."

Your Pokedexes show that Bruce is an Eevee, a mammalian Pokemon with a highly unstable genetic code that's sorta like a Jenga tower after playing for a while: one nudge in a certain direction and it will change dramatically.

Allan takes a few steps back, then talks to Bruce. "Alright Bruce, here's our testing grounds." Bruce looks at him, then steps into a ready position.

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j341/GFawkes1605/Hoshoku%20Region/AllanNathaniel1R0.png
Nathaniel is still Wallace
Allan is represented by Falkner
B3-B4, I7-I8, and I13 are blocked off by light posts, trashcans, or stop signs (The key is the stop sign)
The K row is open, just hard to see from the angle of the Pokemon center
Neither trainer has action that they can legitimately perform.

Turn Order:
(Allan)
(Nathaniel)
Bruce
Althea

Bruce already moved this turn.

[D_Man_7733]

Damian raises both hands into the air."Nathaniel vs Allan, 1 on 1 battle, BEGIN"Damian's hands are brought down quickly before the first move is made, Tooth imitating his actions.

Once the battle had begun, Damian begins looking at the Evee, in the pokedex, and on the field Don't get many of them in Hoenne, be nice to raise one. If possible he also has a look at (the pictures) of evee's possible evolutions.

If you want it, Damian would be standing in K4 to get a good view of the battle, but is paying most of his attention to the evee.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Nathaniel

He felt a certain amount of trepidation at first, which was only heightened by Allan's strange device. Money can't buy you skill though he thought Otherwise I'd probably have it as well...

Right Althea, use Wrap! Nathaniel says, throwing his arm forward in a gesture similar to punching the air, hoping she took it as an indication.

Twin vines extend from Althea's neck and instnatly seize the eevee, preventing it from moving, and trying to crush the enemy into submission.

No trainer action. Has improved attacks for +1 damage.

Althea. 34/34. Evasion 2/1. Attack +5. Defence: 11. Speed 8.

Wrap: Attack roll: [roll0]
Damage roll: [roll1]

Target is Trapped for [roll2] rounds and takes 1d12 at beginning of each of the target's turns.
Neither the user nor the target can move from the square they are in.

[DiscipleofBob]

Gene looks as if he's about to say something, but quickly redacts his statement so he doesn't interrupt. He has Charlie out for the time being, though the Charmander is resting again. He takes his Pokedex out and scans the active Pokemon, not seeing any reason why one would object.

[GFawkes]

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j341/GFawkes1605/AllanNathaniel1R1.png

"Bruce! Get out of there!" Allan calls. Bruce starts squirming, and manages to hit Althea with his head during his struggle.

Althea takes 15 Damage, after factoring in Defense.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Althea didn't need to move to attack, just so you know.

Nathaniel

He watched as Althea got caught... come on... you can do it....

[roll0] damage for wrap, unless you did it.

Tackle
[roll1] AC 3
Damage [roll2] Edit: +1 for improved attacks.

down to 19/34 HP