Sigurd laughed the moment when Amelia's eyes lit up like the sun. Who would've known that this child had such an enormous sweet tooth though it filled him with such relief to know that this child was finally smiling sincerely for the first time since he met her today. "You don't have to thank me you know. It's my pleasure." Wow, he never expected her to let out a squeal or anything that would actually be a sound loud enough to have human ears to hear her and her smile was ever growing wider and wider. "Okay, who are you and what have you done with Amelia?" Sig teased in simple jest.

It looked like their paths were going to cross paths again already. The blue haired boy tilted his head back and saw Joshua standing right behind him. "I'd say long time no see, but I saw you like twenty minutes ago. What's up?" His pokemon didn't seem all that thrilled at seeing that person who obliterated them for their first ever match. They just looked away from Joshua with dark shadows covering their faces. "Oi, you two lighten up. It was just a battle." Sigurd chastised his pokemon with a disapproving scowl,

Joshua glanced over at Sigurd's Pokémon and saw how they reacted to his presence. Smiling, he knelt down next to the Scraggy and Piplup.
"Cheer up you two. You put up a better fight then expected. But if you don't get over this lose you'll never get stronger and be able to beat me later down the road. So cheer up and learn from this." He said before getting back up and looking over at Sigurd and Amelia." I got bored of waiting at the Lab, so I came here. Was curious about you guys. Finding out about the new trainers in the region is kinda a job of mine. You know, scouting out potential rivals.

So... what're your stories?"

Amelia, was enjoying her parfait too much to pay attention but at Joshua's last question, she froze and looked a little scared.

Sigurd shrugged and leaned back in his seat, not particularly noticing that Amelia froze with a hint of fear on her face. "My story? Well I guess I can entertain you with it." He cleared his throat of anything to hinder him from speaking clearly. "You see, I'm from the Unova region, Castelia City to be specific. My dad is a mechanic and he taught me everything he knew about automobiles and anything related to that. Heck we even built a car together once. My mom is a teacher in a local high school who made sure that I always did my homework whether I liked it or not. We weren't rich, but we weren't poor either so it's fair to say my life was an average one." His eyes glanced over to Rusty and he rubbed the little guy's head.

"My life changed when me and my friends went to see a match before the Elite Four Champion of Unova and the Elite Four member Grimelsy, the dark type master." Thinking back on the event made him have the brightest smile that Amelia and Joshua ever laid eyes on. It couldn't be helped, remembering that battle just made his blood rush. "I've never seen anything like it. It was like watching two almost god like beings go at it, even when Grimesly lost it was still a sight. That's when I asked myself this; what does it to be strong? I had to know so after the battle I sneaked past security and made my way through to Grimesly's room. When I opened the door I found that he was surrounded by security." Suppressing his laughter was an impossible task for him. It's just when he remembered the looks on the guards' faces and how scared he himself was he couldn't keep his laughter in.

It was only brief and he continued on calmly. "Grimesly stopped them and asked me if I just wanted an autograph. Instead I asked him what it meant to be strong and the next thing I know he hands me a pokeball with my first ever pokemon in it. He told me it was an answer I would have to find myself. A year later and here we are. I'm here to find that answer by defeating the Elite Four and the champ. When I have my answer then I'll head back and conquer Unova."

Joshua listened to Sigurd talk patiently before nodding.
"For each person, the definition of strength is different from person to person. To some, strength is defined by brute force. To others, it's clarity of mind. And yet others think that it's the connection they form with other people. I got to admit, I'm curious with what you'll find as your definition." He said, before turning to Amelia." And you... let me guess. A run away who was tired of home, right?"

Amelia didn't reply other then to look at her lap and avoid looking at either Sigurd or Joshua, who was a kind of sad smile.
"I won't ask for details. I've seen many like you before, so it wasn't really hard to tell. You'll speak when you're ready. If I had to guess, you spent all you're money to get here so..." He reached into his pocket and pulled out some cash and some pokeballs. He handed the cash to Sigurd and the pokeballs to Amelia." Try and relax. Enjoy yourselves. To rush your journey is to miss half of it and to lessen your potential."

Having seen and heard all he wanted, Joshua waved good-bye to the two
"If you're going for the first gym, take Route 1 and head for Ambra Town. The first gym is there. That'll be your first real test Sigurd. Prepare wisely." He said before turning around and leaving.

@Joshua Tamashii

Sigurd took the money gratefully since he would have to cover expenses for more than one person and their team of pokemon. So Amelia was a run away huh? There was nothing to hold against her for; if a child wants to go on a journey then let them go! It's probably one of the best experiences that they could ever have. "Thanks for the info. I'll return the favor to you one day."

Getting up slowly, Sigurd gave Amelia's head a gently little pat. "Oh come on now, cheer up. The journey has just begun and the future can only get brighter. So for now, it is time to get up "He said as he lifted her up from her chair and back onto her feet" get moving, and enjoy because the world is our oyster." He raised his voice in excitement, but not enough to be shouting and scare little Amelia. "Onward!" He pointed forward and began to do a comical march towards the door of the Pokemon Center with his two pokemon marching right behind him.

Amelia was expecting Sigurd to just leave her and let her go about on her own. She was expecting him to tell her to go home. Instead, he patted her head and pretty much told her to come along, even lifting her up and onto her feet, which made her face go a very deep shade of red. She couldn't help but smile and let out a small laugh at Sigurd's antics as she followed after him. Before he got out the door, she moved to his side and took his hand.
"Thank you." she said, loud enough for him to hear as she looked up and gave him a small smile. She was happy to be traveling to someone. Maybe Sigurd could help her in the long run.

Back on Route 1

Nero's stride was quick, in mere moments, the boy was back at the Route 1. His Eevee on his shoulder as always, it's eyes taking note of everything around them while the trainer walked, with the intention of simply finding tough wild pokémon to train his Eevee or while very unlikely, find another pokémon to catch. Normally, Nero was pretty sure that he'd catch at most one pokémon per route, however, having that much luck on the very first encounter meant that he could likely catch another if one showed up. There were some bug-type here and there, but Nero couldn't use Cyndaquil just yet - and not only that, they wouldn't prove much of a challenge, anyway.

It was then that the Eevee seemed to snarl, raising it's ears as it called Nero's attention; "Vee, Eevee!"

"Hm?" Nero turned himself to look in the direction Eevee was looking, noticing a wild Doduo staring at them, the flying type seemed quite angered - like always. The trainer smirked as the Eevee leaped off his shoulder, ready to battle. Nero wouldn't catch this one, but the more experience he and his Eevee gained together, the better they'd do once they got to their first gym challenge.

"Vee, let's get this over with quickly! Double Team!" The Eevee swiftly began dashing around the Doduo, creating various illusionary copies of itself to raise it's own effectiveness in dodging/lower Doduo's accuracy in general. The double-headed pokémon kept trying to keep up with the normal-type, but it couldn't at all; Eevee was surprisingly fast. "Now, Vee! Attack!"

Enhancing it's already superior speed, the pokémon attacked with Quick Attack, dealing a swift, powerful blow with it's head against one of Doduo's neck, causing it to step back due to impact, both of the flying-type's heads moving around uncontrollably due to the sheer force. It didn't allow itself to be hurt without attacking back, though; in a fit of Rage, Doduo used.... Rage! Hard pecks came down onto Eevee's back. The Doduo didn't stop, though, it kept attacking, non-stop!

"Vee! Retreat, gather some distance!" The distance was needed, otherwise, the Eevee wouldn't be able to handle the pressure from the constant attack. Luckily, it had found an opening to dash forward and create some distance between the two pokémon, however, Doduo was sprinting towards Eevee, who waited patiently for orders... Nero, on the other hand, calculated his next moves. Wait... A little more... Now! "Vee, jump as high as you can!" "Ee-vee!"

Using it's four legs, the Eevee jumped high into the air, dodging the flurry of attacks from the Doduo, who stopped and tilted both of it's head up to look at the Eevee, who now was descending from the sky with rather high speed. Nero naturally commanded; "Attack, now!"

Instead of a simple attack, however, Eevee managed to skillfully catch one of the Doduo's necks between it's fangs, giving it a cruel bite and causing critical damage to the flying-type. In return, the Doduo swung it's heads around, turning it's body swiftly - throwing the smaller pokémon up before leaping and bringing down it's pecks at the creature, still in a fit of rage - and after taking more damage, it's attack was even stronger than before. "Vee, don't let that catch you! Double Team!" Quickly, new illusionary copies were created by the Eevee, as it swiftly changed it's position - the Doduo continued it's attack, but hit nothing but an illusion. "Now, Vee!"

From seemingly nowhere, the Eevee came sprinting towards Doduo, dealing a hard headbutt into it's body. The Doduo was sent back and nearly lost it's balance, somehow keeping itself up... for about three seconds, before it collapsed down. Nero readied a pokéball, ready to throw it... But didn't. Instead, he reached into his backpack, picking up an Oran Berry. He approached the Doduo and placed it in front of it's peck, before continuing his journey through Route 1. Eevee had already climbed at his shoulder, again.

"Great job, Vee. You're getting really tough, heh."

@Joshua Tamashii Sigurd grinned bright eyed and hopeful that their journey would be one to remember for future years. Today was a turning part of their lives and to remember their first days as trainers as a woeful one wouldn't have been pleasant. Well, at least he was able to get little Amelia to smile and not only that, she laughed. "Who would've thought that you would have such a sweet smile." He teased her like any older sibling would if they were actually siblings.

The two of them would soon arrive on route one, a small foresty area with a clear dirt pathway showing the way to the next town over. It was a serenity that he never felt before; the gentle wind dancing through his hair, the trickle of sunlight piercing the canopy above them, and the soft chirps of bird pokemon flying above them. "What a beautiful-" From the trees leaped a short yet stout body towards Sigurd.

"Laaaaaaaaax!"

"Huh, WAIT WHA-?!" A Munchlax had straight up tackled the blue haired body straight to the ground, making him eat dirt, figuratively thankfully. The Munchlax stood on Sigurd's head and it began to rummage though the boy's backpack in search of snacks for it to eat. Rusty and Brunhilda just stared in utter shock, not able to move from such a surprise. The glutton pokemon looked pleased that he found a good source of food. That is until a hand grabbed it. "Get the fuck off me!" He threw the Munchlax off him with surprising strength that betrayed his delicate looking body.

"Lax?" The little glutton did a flip and landed on the ground, its feet skidding across the dirt.

Sigurd stood back up and dusted his shirt and pants off, small puffs of dirt floated off him. "What the heck is that?" He asked while taking it his pokedex.

"Munchlax, the Big Eater Pokémon." The pokedex stated, It gobbles up its own body weight in food each day, and it swallows its food without almost any chewing."

Sigurd cracked his neck and glared at the Big Eater pokemon. "Yo Amelia, I'm gonna catch this bastard. Get back."

"Not bad but you could do better you know." A voice said from behind Nero. Joshua was leaning against a nearby tree, watching the trainer and his Eevee. Pushing himself off the tree, he walked over to the two and examined them. He seemed relatively unimpressed."Hhhhmmm, gotta wonder if you would be worth my time." He said to himself before turning around and walking away." Your battle there was impressive but told me all I need to know. Try not to get lost yeah. You got several days to reach the next city as it is without distractions."



Amelia looked away from Sigurd when he commented on her smile, as her face turned a bright shade of red, though she didn't let go of his hand. Her face wouldn't return to normal until they got out of town, at which point she visibly relaxed... right up until the Munchlax jumped out, causing Sigurd to yell and Amelia to let out a frightened scream due to both of them, as she quickly moved away. Litwick seemed less then happy about this but didn't attack, since it seemed Sigurd would be getting the Big Eater Pokémon for them.
"O-okay." She said when Sigurd told her to do exactly what she had planned on doing to begin with.

Collab: Nightmare Bunny / Noklu / Crimson Flame

Tossing her Pokeball up in the air in the rather flashy, practiced motion that she'd learned from imitating her brother, Minzy released her Tynamo, Frey. She'd initially debated trying out her new Squirtle, but, well. The poor thing was brand new! It would be a little unfair to force it to battle before she had even started training it, and besides, she felt more confident in her ability to use Frey effectively.

Still, she didn't bother returning Captain to his Pokeball, instead placing him down beside her. Maybe he'd learn something from watching them battle?

"Jolie, it is time. Let us begin, Sil vous plaît." The young movie star commanded as his Cleffa stepped out onto the battlefield. Striking a cute pose as she did.

Lucas nodded at the mudkip by his side, allowing him to begin the battle. Skip seemed excited as he took his place on the makeshift battleground. Vista seemed a bit disappointed, but it seemed like she understood why. After all, Skip was more familiar to Lucas's commands, down to the tiniest of nuances. So she settled for watching, and learning the style of double battles as Lucas and Skip prepared themselves.

Minzy had to stop herself from getting too distracted by Andre's Cleffa. Her eyes kept wandering to it, and she had to jerk herself away. She couldn't get distracted!
But it was just so hard to resist…

Barnabas sent out Roxy. The Charmeleon preened in the sunlight, clearly ready for a battle.

"Frey," Minzy yelled. "Show them what we've got! Use Thunder Wave!"
It would be nice to paralyze at least one of them right off the bat. Minzy was a little intimidated by Barnabas's Charmeleon, to be honest, but he did seem quite a bit older than her and Lucas, so it made sense that he'd have a more powerful Pokemon. It only meant that she'd have to up her game, and do her best to be tactical about things!
Frey span in the air, and started trying to electrocute Jolie and Roxy. Short, sharp bursts of electricity streamed from his body, shooting towards the Charmeleon and the Cleffa.

The Cleffa calmly stepped to the side to avoid the thunder wave, and laughed. "Cleffa clef!" Andre smiled confidently. That Tynamo wasn't the only one who could make use of status conditions. "Jolie, show them your beautiful singing voice. Use Sing!" Jolie nods, and starts singing. Slow moving music notes fly out of her mouth.

Barnabas had been standing a little too close to Jolie when she started singing, and ended up bearing the full brunt of the song. He swayed on his feet dizzily, suddenly incredibly drowsy. Roxy looked to be in the same state, unfortunately.

Lucas rubbed his eyes a bit as he heard the beautiful noise coming from Jolie. Skip seemed to be drowsy as well. A slap woke Lucas from his stupor, courtesy of Vista's vine whip. His senses back in place, with mental note to thank Vista later, he called out to Skip to gain some control of the battle.
"Skip!"
Hearing his name, Skip quickly shook his head, and realized what was going on. Skip threw a mud-slap attack towards Jolie's mouth to try and stop the status from taking hold.

Upon realising what move Cleffa was using, Minzy sighed. Aw, man-- so she wasn't the only one with status-affecting moves after all. She pinched her cheeks in an attempt to wake herself up a little: it was a good thing she'd been on the other side of their makeshift battlefield. Tynamo had been on the tail end of finishing up his Thunderwave: it looked like he hadn't caught much of the song either. Had it been drowned out by the sounds of the electricity?
"Frey," she yelled. "Distract the Cleffa with Charge Beams, a few in a row! Don't let her keep singing!"
Frey swam through the air and positioned itself behind the Cleffa, quick as a flash. He used Charge Beam on her a few times in succession, in the hopes of breaking her concentration.

Jolie is hit by the Mud Slap, and immediately stops singing. She starts throwing a fit, upset that she is covered in mud. "CLEFFA CLEFFA CLEF!" As she was throwing her temper tantrum, she got hit by a couple of beams of electricity, knocking her down. She had clearly gotten hurt, although she wasn't in any serious pain. Andre was shocked that she had gotten hit. "Quoi?!" In the battles he had done in movies the Pokemon never truly got hurt, so seeing his Pokemon actually get hit by an attack was a shock to him. He shook it off, and commanded his Pokemon. "Jolie quickly, use Magical Leaf!" While he didn't have much experience with battles, he did know about type advantages. Mudkip was weak to grass type attacks, and that Magical Leaf would hit both opponents in a double battle. Standing up, Jolie was still not happy that her face was covered with mud. " Cleffa!" She exclaimed as she fired a bunch of glowing leaves from her small hands.

Minzy's eyes widened. That wasn't good: Mudkip was a water type, it had a weakness to grass!
She definitely couldn't let Lucas's Mudkip get hit by that: Skip would probably take some serious damage, and that would leave Frey alone on the field. To make things worse, the Mudkip wouldn't even be able to dodge the move, because Magical Leaf was always accurate. That meant that the only option was--
"Take the hit for Skip!" she shouted. Frey was an electric-type: grass wouldn't hurt him too much anyway.
Frey darted in front of Skip, moving up and down in order to catch as many of the leaves as possible. It didn't look like he was too hurt, but Minzy winced nevertheless. Still, it had been necessary… hadn't it?
She bit her lip. She hadn't expected Jolie to have a grass-type move. Wow. Now she was especially glad that she hadn't ended up using her Squirtle.

Lucas hadn't expected a magical leaf attack of all things. If he remembered correctly, it never missed hitting the opponent. That, needless to say, was bad. Maybe he could counter it with another attack? It was worth a try. However, just as he was about to tell Skip his idea, Minzy had Frey take the hit, or at least, most of it. Yet another unexpected turn of events.
"T-thanks. Skip, change the field!"
Skip and Lucas had trained on using moves in creative ways, and after watching some league matches when he could, it seemed as though altering the field helped a ton. Combined, their brainpower had come up with a simple way to achieve this. Skip unleashed a flurry of water on the ground around their opponents. Now movement should be easier for the water type Skip and the levitating Frey, compared to their grounded opponents.

Andre tilted his head when he saw the Mudkip shoot water at the ground. What was that going to do? His opponents were in front of him. It hadn't occured to him what had happened until Jolie took a step, and fell on her back. "Hm... très impressionnant.." Andre was seriously impressed. He hadn't seen anyone do anything like that in a movie before.

Minzy blinked in surprise. Woah. Was Lucas trying to make the Charmeleon and Cleffa slip? Well, it was certainly working. Oh, and it would probably have the bonus effect of weakening Charmeleon's fire-type moves, because, y'know, water and fire, right? That was pretty smart: she'd have to remember that move! But… wait a second. Water conducted electricity pretty well, didn't it?
Oh, she knew exactly what to do with this turn of events! "Lucas, have Skip jump! Quickly! Frey! Use Thunderwave on the water on the ground!"
Hopefully that would be enough warning for Lucas. Frey did exactly that, releasing a wave of electricity at the soaking wet ground. The water combined with the electricity amplified the Thunder Wave's power, creating a much stronger Thunder Wave that would reach most of the field! Okay, so maybe her earlier Thunder Wave hadn't done much, but this one would definitely have some sort of effect!

Just as Jolie had gotten back up, the Tynamo fired a thunder wave into the wet ground. The water amplified the electricity. Jolie couldn't step to the side and avoid it this time. She got shocked by waves of electricity.

Andre's eyes widened with shock. "Jolie are you alright?!"

"Clef... fa... clef..." Jolie was mostly paralyzed from the thunder wave. She could move a little, but they were stiff.

Lucas's eyes widened as he heard Minzy call out to Frey for a thunder wave attack on the water Skip had set up. It was a brilliant idea that would get both of their opponents in one fell swoop. However, a small path of water trailed from Skip from the attack, and the attack would affect the mudkip as well. An idea popped into Lucas's head as he thought this, and he decided to act on it.
"Skip! Use your mud-slap!"
Skip realized what Lucas meant by this, and, after having used water to change the opponents' surroundings, did the similarly with mud to his. He jumped back from the water as Frey used the electric attack, leaving mud in his trail. However, as many science classes teach, electricity moves pretty dang fast. Skip had avoided most of the repercussions, but some tendrils of electricity jumped from the water to the water type. As soon as Skip had landed, Lucas checked to see the damage dealt. Skip seemed to be mostly okay, but his front legs seemed to be a bit stiffer than they had been.

Barnabas had already been drowsy, and was struggling to keep his eyes open. Surely... a little nap wouldn't hurt anyone? His energy completely drained by Jolie's song, he slumped to the floor in one graceful movement.

Minzy bit her lip. Damn, she'd messed up-- the Thunder Wave had affected Lucas's Pokemon as well. She'd meant to only hit the other two, but she'd forgotten that Mudkip only got its secondary ground-type after it evolved. Well, that was frustrating. It just went to show-- she definitely had a long way to go before she could even think of challenging her brother. "Sorry!" she said apologetically, looking over at Lucas.
But there was no time in a battle for extensive apologies, so she'd just finish apologising after they were done, and-- wait. Had she heard a thud?
She looked over to the other side of the field and was alarmed to see that Barnabas was on the ground, apparently unconscious. He'd just fallen asleep in the middle of their battle? She'd thought it had been a little odd that he hadn't given his Charmeleon any commands.
"Um," she said awkwardly, staring at him. "Is he... okay?" It looked kind of like the battle was over-- they couldn't very well keep going when one of the participating trainers was asleep, could they?

Andre was wondering why his partner had done nothing to help him in this battle. This was a double battle, his partner was supposed to help, not stand there and do nothing. Andre turned around, and was about to give the other trainer a piece of his mind, when he saw that the boy, and his Pokemon had fallen asleep. Apparently he had been standing to close to Jolie when she was singing. Andre rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Well... this is embarrassing... It seems he has been affected by Jolie's singing..."

Lucas was thinking of a follow-up course of action when a small thud caught his attention. His eyes followed the sound to its source. One knocked-out Barnabas. Well... this made things kinda awkward. And not just 'kinda' awkward, but really awkward. The battle seemed to grind to a halt as everyone else (besides Barnabas) noticed the same thing. Barnabas, for his part, seemed really peaceful on the ground, but everyone else... not so much.
"Er... Uh..." Not a single word escaped from Lucas's mouth. This situation was just so bizarre. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Tension gone, it felt as though the battle was over.

"Should we... go?" said Minzy tentatively. She felt bad, but at the same time, there was no way she could lug that guy's unconscious body around. Frey, too, had stopped darting around, and was looking about as baffled as it was possible for a Tynamo to look. "Or call the Pokemon center? Okay, I'm calling the Pokemon center. They'll take care of him... right?"
She pulled out her phone, and hurriedly dialed Pokemon center for help. A nurse picked up, and upon hearing the situation, rather helpfully offered to send some people to come get Barnabas. Well, that was convenient. When she was done, she pocketed her phone and looked at Lucas. "Maybe we should, uh... head off as well. This is kind of a weird situation, huh? And our Pokemon are pretty tired. We could go to the Pokemon center too?"

Lucas walked over to the sleeping Barnabas as the others wondered what to do. They couldn't just leave him there. He put his arms under Barnabas's, and was starting to drag his body with Vista's help when Minzy offered the idea of calling the Pokemon center. It seemed smart, much smarter than what he was doing, in all honesty. So he and the snivy let go of Barnabas, a bit haphazardly, as indicated by another small thud, and walked back over to Minzy. She had gotten off her phone, and offered the idea of going to the center themselves. Given Skip's paralysis and Frey having gotten hit, it was the best course of action.
"Um...S-Sure". Lucas walked over to Skip, and picked him up. He turned towards their conscious opponent. "W-want to, er... come with?" This situation must have been even more awkward for him, and it just felt right to invite him along.

Minzy nodded, Frey drifting over to hover in the air beside her. "Yeah!" she said. "Why don't you come with us? We can go get our Pokemon treated together."

With his partner unconscious, they couldn't continue the battle. Which was fine with Andre, as he was losing anyway. The girl called the Pokemon Center on her phone, and had a nurse would come to get him. Which meant they wouldn't have to carry his body all the way there. He figured he'd be fine once he woke up. After all, it's not like Sing actually did anything besides put opponents to sleep. After the other two invited Andre to come with them to the Pokemon Center, he recalled the paralyzed Jolie back to her Pokeball, got between the other them and put his arms around both their shoulders. "Of course I am going to come. I cannot leave my precious Jolie hurt." He said with a smile. "We can get to know each other better, hm?"

Somewhat disappointed by the fact that Jolie had been returned to her pokeball, Minzy nevertheless smiled. Well, he was certainly friendly. Even if he seemed rather oddly touchy-feely. Maybe it was a Kalos thing? Yeah, it was probably a Kalos thing, wasn't it? She'd definitely heard something or the other about people from Kalos being rather more fond of physical contact.
"Okay!" she said happily. "Shall we head off?"

The sudden pressure of an arm around his shoulder startled Lucas. He hadn't expected something quite like that. Maybe it was more common overseas? Either way, Lucas nodded his head in agreement with the group consensus. A short rest awaiting them sounded amazing.

The air almost seemed toxic with the tension between Sigurd and the Munchlax. Actually it was much more one sided; the Munchlax just stood there aloofly, staring off into space with its finger on its chin. Sigurd glanced down towards Rusty and the two nodded as the Scraggy walked in front of its trainer, glaring at the Big Eater pokemon with its large eyes. "Okay Rusty, ready? This is going to be our first capture." He clenched his fists just to stop his his hands from shaking from sheer nervousness.

"Scrag!" It stomped its feet to the ground and growled at the oblivious pokemon in front of them. It had to make up for that performance against Joshua, it needed to win to have confidence that it will become stronger and won't hold Sigurd back.

"Rusty, use Feint Attack!" At his trainer's orders the Scraggy dashed in a straight line towards the Munchlax and then it vanished, leaving a faint after image in its place. Rusty then reappeared by the Munchlax's side and then rammed its elbow against the side of its head, the pokemon's head jerked from the hit though it still kept a poker face even from the attack. Did the attack even land? He was sure that Rusty's attack connected. "Okay follow up with a Zen Headbutt!" Rusty's forehead began to glow a light, translucent blue and before the Munchlax could avoid the attack, it received a headbutt to its own forehead, but for some reason it still had that poker face. Why was the damage not effecting it? "Keep it up!" A flurry of headbutts flew at at the Big Eater pokemon and each blow landed but it remained calm, not showing an sort of pain.

Wait a minute...this pokemon was minimizing the damage! With every attack that was sent at the Munchlax, it would move in the direction of the attacks motion and that in turn would lessen the impact of the attacks. "Use Low Kick!" Quickly he ducked down and swiped it legs towards the Munchlax to make it lose its balance, but it hopped to avoid the attack.

"Lax!" It brought its large tongue out and it slowly licked Rusty up and down, in places that no one should ever be licked. Rusty just stood there twitching, feeling any sense of privacy vanished. While ghost type moves aren't effective against dark types, but in this case the grossness of this move was far more effective than any type advantage.

"Oh poor guy..." Sigurd mumbled to himself, but there was no time to feel bad for Rusty. Electricity crackled around the Munchlax's fist and it was about to send a hook towards Rusty. "Get out of there Rusty!" He couldn't move though; the attack had paralyzed him due to pure disgust. The Thunder Punch connected and it sent the Scraggy tumbling backwards before smacking against a tree face first. "Rusty!"

The Scraggy rolled into a sitting position and shook its head. It took a heavy blow, but thankfully it didn't knock it out. "Scrag!" It hopped back on its feet and was raring to go.

Good, he's still in high spirits. Sigurd thought to himself. Wait a minute, what is this purple aura around this Munchlax? Pulling out his pokedex he read this Munchlax's moves. Thunder Punch, Amnesia, Lick, and Curse. This must've been curse. For non-ghost types curse lowers the pokemon's speed, but in turn increases defense and attack. This pokemon had the upper hand so why would it want to use this move at the risk of losing a speed match? Looking closer, there were signs of pain and exhaustion from the previous blows. Even when the damage was minimized the accumulated damage still was a source of pain.

The Munchlax looked at the Scraggy with its dinner plate eyes and it tilted its head. "Lax?" The heck? The pain on its face faded away in an instant. That must've been Amnesia, it was used to forget pain for a temporary time though it was still there. It was the first to move and it dashed towards Rusty with electricity crackling around its fist and threw a straight punch, but its reflexes were much slower due to its decrease in speed so it was easy for Rusty to dodge. The Scraggy shifted its body to the right, letting the fist smashing against the tree behind Rusty. The fist left a hole and burn marks where the first landed and it still wasn't done. It swung its fist again and Rusty ducked under it.

"Use Low Kick!" While still in its crouching position, it swung its leg down in a sweep motion while the Munchlax's weight was still shifted forward due to the punch. The Munchlax's weight was imbalanced and it fell on its left side, but it grabbed Rusty's feet, licking its feet viciously. A shiver traveled down its spine, feeling violated once again. "Don't let that stop you! Sand Attack in its mouth!" It barely heard its owner, but Rusty followed through and kicked dirt in the Munchlax's mouth as it licked its feet.

"L-Lax!" The Big Eater pokemon gagged on the dirt and began to spit it out as began to stand back up, but this would prove to be its downfall.

"Zen Headbutt!"

The translucent light blue aura glowed on Rusty's head. "Scrag scrag scrag!" It smacked its head down against the Munchlax and the glutton was sent flying back into a tree just like Rusty did earlier. There were swirls where its eyes should've been, fainting from exhaustion.

Sigurd tossed the pokeball and it landed on top of the head and it was absorbed into the ball.

Shake....shake...shake...click

With a grin, Sigurd picked up the pokeball and shaking with excitement, he held it high in the air. "Hell yeah!"

The moment Nero heard the unrecognized voice behind him, he turned around swiftly, eyebrows furrowing into a rather dreadful glare mostly because of how harsh he had taken the words. Then, the young man simply began to walk away as if Nero didn't matter at all. "Hey now," The boy shouted, taking a step towards Joshua, grunting slightly. "Who the hell are you, and how are you so sure I'm not worth your time? I'd bet you're just trying to show off and then run off without taking the responsability to prove it." The Eevee in Nero's shoulder seemed to agree with him, given how it growled slightly towards the (unknown to Nero) gym leader.

Joshua turned towards Nero when the boy shouted and looked amused
"Oh my, you got a pissed off glare down pat. Did my words strike a nerve?" He said, his tone equally amused. Sigurd looked like he had a larger emotional range then this kid but it seemed like this one was reacting to a slight provocation about ten times worse. Really, it was rather amusing to see. Laughing to himself, he continued to address Nero." Alright then, how about a battle? How much should I hold back? A little bit, not at all, completely? How seriously do you want me to take this?"



Amelia moved out from behind the tree she had been hiding behind while Sigurd battled the Munchlax. She looked at the pokeball in Sigurd's hand and seemed a little put off. Sure, she had battled the wild Pokémon in the cemetery back in Lavender Town, but she only had done so to help Litwick. She would rather take her time and befriend a Pokémon rather then battle it and force it to be her partner.
"Will it be okay?" She asked, concern in her tone.